Thermally Advantaged Small Chassis (TASC) Design Guide

Section 2
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mechanism and its location should be placed to provide airflow over critical system
components per the manufacturers’ specifications.
Processor Active Fan Heat Sink:
Much the same as the rear system and power supply exhaust fans, the processor
cooling fan remains a critical piece of the overall system cooling solution. An active
CPU fan heat sink with airflow directed towards the main board is assumed in this
Design Guide and is needed to properly cool the processor and surrounding
components.
Because the processor fan heat sink draws cool air into the system, it is highly
recommended to not block the fan inlet at all with cabling or components such as
optical disk drive. Figure 2 illustrates placing components (in this case the optical disk
drive) clear of the fan inlets.
Figure 2. Chassis Exhaust Example (Chassis Top View)
Note: Side vent acts as inlet and remaining vents are air outlets
ODD
PSU
Exhaust
fan
IO components
N
S
W