Cooling design - Re: Steve Jobs -2011

Curt @ Atari Museum wrote: If you have fans, they eventually break, and to do things 'properly' they also have to be monitored and the OS/firmware written to safely handle a failure condition. Maybe he just didn't want the maintenance burden for users, or the extra component and development cost, or figured that not having fans and designing the system to stay cool without would improve reliability stats (obviously it didn't quite work out with the /// :-) I don't have a problem with fans, but the norm seems to be to put them at the intake or outlet, where they can be easily heard - and burying them deeper within a machine with suitable ducting (ISTR something doing this - NeXT slab maybe) would seem a better approach (at least for non-portable systems). I do have a problem with idiot design, though - e.g. my Dell laptop has the fan intake on the bottom of the machine; fine if used on a desk where feet raise it high enough off the surface, but it gets blocked easily if actually used (perish the thought!) on a lap. cheers Jules