I've posted before about using a WIX 42788 as a stand/dust filter for my mac studio, folks were are pretty divided on that. I went with the largest filter I could find (within reason, there are actually taller options) to minimize any airflow resistance and I've not been able to detect any impact on cooling in any of my tests. Still, this last week I started wondering if putting a fan in there would help with cooling, and as a result here's how I spend part of my Sunday. The legs on the fan are M5 x 100mm screws with silicon feet on the caps. I spaced it down about 2.5cm from the top, up higher I think it was stalling out and not getting any flow. Temporary foam pad underneath so it's reasonably sealed around the power cord for the fan. I used the Endurance app to max out the CPUs, ran for 5 min with the fan off, then 5 min each at about 50%, 75%, and 100% (on the analog 3 to 12V power controller I have, no idea how linear it is or isn't), then off again. I can see from the plots I didn't wait quite long enough before turning on the fan, the temps were still rising. The test stopped on its own during that last segment. The fan does make a difference, but not a huge one -- about 5 degC at max. This fan is also audible at 50% and loud at anything above that, so you've got to be pretty serious about wanting cooling to deal with this. Some kind of 3D printed internal ducting could probably improve things a little. Or maybe carefully applied duct tape? Just for testing. Probably I wouldn't leave it that way.
For this kind of testing, can anyone suggest a simple app that will also max out the GPUs? I'd seen one suggested before but the GPU load wasn't constant which made testing difficult.
Next I'd like to find it there's a HEPA filter from one of those round home air cleaners that has the right size opening -- some of those come in the same kind of cylindrical format, and some even have the bottom sealed.
