PC designed to be air cooled at the center of a massive fan — centrifugal force says no

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Video shows a very hazardous-looking, albeit airflow-rich, PC build

苏打baka's Fan PC Build uploaded to the Bilibili video streaming service.
苏打baka's Fan PC Build uploaded to the Bilibili video streaming service. (Image credit: Sodabaka on Bilibili.com)

Over on Chinese videosharing platform Bilibili, user 苏打baka uploaded a lengthy video showcasing the building, iteration, and operation of a true fan PC build, by which we mean the entire PC has been built into the center of a giant box fan painted to look like a case fan. This video demo should not be mistaken for an actually-viable Mini PC project, and does not constitute any PC cooling advice.

苏打baka's name is a combination of the Chinese characters for "soda" and Japanese-Romanized "baka" meaning "fool", so their name can effectively be translated as "Sodabaka", "Sodafool", or "Soda-foolish", depending on how semantic you feel like being. We'll use Sodabaka. Besides this project, they also do lots of other PC hardware and gaming-centric content on their Bilibili channel.

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Shots of the Fan PC build from throughout the original video.
(Image credit: 苏打baka on Bilibili)

Now, let's talk a little more about the details of the PC build in question. Sodabaka essentially took an old Intel Sandybridge-era Mini ITX motherboard and tested its operation while attached to a spinning fan. 

The first attempt at this used a smaller CPU heatsink that didn't adequately cool the system, even while it was spinning, with tests showing the processor reaching 100 degrees Celsius. However, this did function as a general proof of concept that you could make a PC spin violently at the center of a fan and still have it operate without issue.

So, when moving onto the final testing of the fan PC build, Sodabaka instead used an even larger passive air cooler — which may have been a good idea, if the final testing of the PC build didn't also include steadily ramping up the speed of fan upon which the entire PC spins. While the beefier-cooler version of the fan PC does seemed to work, as far as its principle functionality went, its final testing run ended in disaster.

So, what happened? Did the static buildup short out the PC or something? Fortunately, nothing so mundane. Instead, the fan PC was tested at increasingly higher speeds until the weighty cooler was violently flung from the PC in the last moments of the original video. No wonder Sodabaka hid behind a riot shield for much of the video demo.

Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

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11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • pixelpusher220
    The next should be a server farm, but with the servers mounted at the *end* of the fan blades for really good airflow!
    Reply
  • Unolocogringo
    Like a lot of stuff on youtube.
    Just stupid for clicks sake.
    Reply
  • usertests
    Unolocogringo said:
    Like a lot of stuff on youtube.
    Just stupid for clicks sake.
    And yet this probably has more educational value than 99% of YouTube.
    Reply
  • brandonjclark
    Unolocogringo said:
    Like a lot of stuff on youtube.
    Just stupid for clicks sake.
    You aren't wrong.

    Anytime I think that I'd like to catch up on what some of the latest music is, I just go to YouTube and splashed across the screen is the trashiest, inner-city hags and bums I've ever seen.

    NONE of them even LOOK pretty NOR fit. They all look like the fat homeless guy or girl in my local inner city blocks.

    WHY is this type of music and culture being pushed on us, I wonder?
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    brandonjclark said:
    You aren't wrong.

    Anytime I think that I'd like to catch up on what some of the latest music is, I just go to YouTube and splashed across the screen is the trashiest, inner-city hags and bums I've ever seen.

    NONE of them even LOOK pretty NOR fit. They all look like the fat homeless guy or girl in my local inner city blocks.

    WHY is this type of music and culture being pushed on us, I wonder?
    You, my good man, have aged out of the target demographic.

    You are no longer cool.
    Reply
  • adamboy64
    pixelpusher220 said:
    The next should be a server farm, but with the servers mounted at the *end* of the fan blades for really good airflow!
    That's genius.
    Introducing Blades on Blades. The marketing writes itself.
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    So the guys name is Baking Soda?
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    What a ridiculous idea and video. However, it does remind me of those Tip Magnetic Drive (TMD) fans from 20+ years ago. I remember having an AMD cooler with one that worked well. I wonder what happened to them. They probably disappeared due to patent and manufacturing costs.
    Reply
  • Sluggotg
    USAFRet said:
    You, my good man, have aged out of the target demographic.

    You are no longer cool.
    Not bad for an Air Force guy!, (Navy here). Thanks for the Post. Made me laugh!
    Reply
  • fleurdelis
    brandonjclark said:
    WHY is this type of music and culture being pushed on us, I wonder?

    Because George Soros is paying them to put ugly people in your YouTube obviously.

    Or maybe the algorithm gave you a thumbnail that you clicked on & watched. Engagement achieved. You only have to do that once and algorithm gives you more of the same — you ultimately brought this on yourself.
    Reply