JP4721822B2 - Information processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a component arrangement and housing structure suitable for cooling a CPU and a storage drive in an information processing apparatus such as a desktop personal computer.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, structural specifications are defined for small information processing apparatuses such as personal computers. This specification has the advantage that the size of the motherboard and the size of the power supply device are standardized and the parts can be shared, and many PC manufacturers and component manufacturers have designed to comply with these specifications.

  In recent years, with the performance enhancement of small information processing devices, processors tend to generate high heat. For this reason, it is difficult to efficiently cool with the conventional structural specification, and the cooling structure is reviewed, and a new specification called BTX (Balanced Technology Extended) standard has been proposed.

In this BTX, a cooling air flow path is defined. For example, as shown in Non-Patent Document 1, outside air is sucked from the front of the apparatus by a large fan of a CPU. After cooling the CPU using this outside air as cooling air, the chip set and other devices are cooled and exhausted from the back of the apparatus. The power supply unit has a configuration in which a fan is provided on the back surface as in the prior art, the cooling air is sucked from the inside of the apparatus, and the cooling air that has cooled the power supply unit is exhausted from the back surface of the apparatus.
Balanced Technology Extended (BTX) System Design Guide 1.0 (page.25 ~ page.55)

  In recent years, the usage forms of PCs have been diversified, and space-saving PCs have been increasingly demanded. When the above BTX standard is applied, (1) a large-diameter system fan is disposed on the front to cool the cooling fins stacked on the CPU. For this reason, the thickness of the apparatus is determined by the aperture of the system fan and cannot be thinned. (2) Further, since air is sucked by the system fan from the front and exhausted from the rear of the device, it is necessary to provide an exhaust port at the top of the interface connector provided on the back panel of the device. For this reason, the thickness of the device is the sum of the connector size and the exhaust port size, and there is a problem in the shape that the device cannot be thinned.

  In the BTX standard, in the case of a tower type in which a PC is used in a vertical position, a drive such as a CD-ROM or HDD is arranged at the front of the power supply unit, and the drive is arranged at the top of the PC for operability. Is defined. For this reason, since heat-generating components such as a CPU are arranged below the drive, there is a problem that sufficient cooling efficiency cannot be obtained. In particular, in recent years, the drive speed has been increased and the amount of heat generation has been increasing, so it has become necessary to improve the cooling efficiency.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a cooling structure optimal for a thin desktop PC.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention including a motherboard on which a CPU is mounted, a storage drive, and a power supply unit that supplies power to the motherboard and the storage drive is provided in a front portion of a housing of the information processing apparatus. An intake port provided on a side surface, an exhaust port provided on a side surface of a rear portion of the housing of the information processing device, and located behind the intake port and disposed on a front surface of the motherboard, A plurality of other heat radiating fans that generate cooling air that flows from the front to the rear, and heat radiating fins that are connected to the front CPU by the cooling air of the heat radiating fan to cool the CPU. The outside air was ventilated along the motherboard and exhausted from the exhaust port.

  Furthermore, in the information processing apparatus of the present invention, the drive and the power supply unit are installed below the motherboard and below the information processing apparatus.

  Further, the information processing apparatus of the present invention is provided with a partition plate at a position below the drive and the power supply unit and at a lower portion of the motherboard, and cooling air by the cooling fan provided on the front surface of the motherboard. The cooling air from the cooling fan of the power supply unit was separated.

  According to the present invention, sufficient cooling efficiency can be achieved even with a CPU with a high calorific value, and a cooling unit for cooling the drive is not required, so that the PC can be made thinner and effective in miniaturization. . In addition, since heavy objects such as a power supply unit and a drive can be arranged in the lower part of the PC device, the stability can be increased even if the device is thinned.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a desktop personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a PC. The PC system of this embodiment includes a PC 1 having a CPU, a memory, a drive storing a program such as an OS, a monitor 2 for displaying processing contents of the program, a keyboard 3 and a mouse 4 for inputting user operation information. Consists of a remote control 5

  The monitor 2 has a monitor video input such as a PC analog video signal, DVI (Digital Visual Interface), HDVI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), etc., and displays a video signal output from the PC 1 on a display unit such as an LCD. -An optical disk such as a ROM, a drive (not shown) for reading and writing a semiconductor memory card, and a speaker are incorporated. These drives are connected to the PC 1 by a cable and are configured to be readable and writable from the PC. Details will be described later with reference to FIG. Since media such as an optical disk and semiconductor memory are inserted and removed by the user, the operability of the PC user is improved by incorporating the medium in the monitor, and the PC 1 incorporating a cooling fan or the like serving as a noise source is monitored 2. Since it can be installed away from the center, it is also effective for calmness.

  The keyboard 3, mouse 4, and remote controller 5 communicate operation information through an infrared interface or a wireless interface built in the monitor 2. These pieces of operation information are notified to the PC 1 via a cable connecting the monitor 2 and the PC 1. In addition, since the keyboard 3, mouse 4 and remote controller 5 are connected to the monitor in a cordless manner such as infrared or wireless, it is possible to communicate operation information to the PC 1 even from a location away from the monitor. The degree of freedom of installation location is improved.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the internal configuration of the PC 1 to which the present invention is applied. The PC 1 is provided with a mother board 6 on which a CPU and a chip set are mounted on the bottom surface. The motherboard 6 is also equipped with an interface connector for connecting an external device such as the monitor 2 with a cable. The connector is arranged in a concentrated manner at one end of the mother board in consideration of cable connectivity, and is further stored in the PC 1 so that the end of the mother board 6 on which the connector is arranged is located on the back of the apparatus.

  A processor (not shown) is mounted on the mother board 6, and heat radiation fins 7 for cooling the processor are stacked on the processor. The details of the structure of the heat radiating fin 7 will be described with reference to FIG. 7. Yes. A heat radiating fan 8 such as a plurality of small diameter axial fans is disposed on the front surface of the heat radiating fin 7. The number of fans to be installed is appropriately determined from the heat generation amount of the processor to be cooled and the heat generation amount of the cooling target chip such as another chip set.

  An intake port is provided on the front surface (intake side) of the heat radiating fan 8. Although the details will be described later, the direction of the flow of the outside air sucked from the suction holes 9 provided on the side surface of the apparatus is changed from the front side to the rear side of the apparatus. In this way, by providing an intake port on the front surface of the cooling fan 8 and sucking outside air from the side of the device, it is not necessary to provide an intake port on the front bezel on the front surface of the device, and the inside of the device can be seen through. Disappears.

  The expansion board 10 is installed in parallel with the mother board 6 so as not to prevent the cooling air that has flowed through the radiating fins 7 from flowing to the back surface of the apparatus. Similarly, the memory 11 is arranged from the front side to the back side of the apparatus in accordance with the flow direction of the cooling air. Thus, by arranging the expansion board 10 and the memory 11, the cooling air that has passed through the radiation fins is exhausted from the back of the apparatus while cooling the devices of the expansion board 10 and the memory 11.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the exhaust port is provided on the side surface of the apparatus and the upper surface when the apparatus is installed vertically. This eliminates the need to provide an exhaust port on the back surface.

  A drive 12 such as an HDD for storing programs and data is installed on the front side of the PC 1, and a power supply unit 13 of the PC 1 is arranged behind the drive 12. Here, if the drive 12 is mounted so that the heat generated by the drive is conducted to the housing of the PC 1, the convection heat can be radiated from the surface of the housing, and there is no need to provide a unit such as a heat radiating fan for cooling the drive. .

  The power supply unit 13 incorporates a cooling fan (not shown) for exhausting cooling air from the back of the apparatus. Furthermore, a cooling fan 15 may be provided on the front side of the power supply unit 13. With this cooling fan 15, after the outside air sucked from the air inlet provided on the side surface on the front side of the PC 1 flows around the drive 12, it can be exhausted through the power supply unit 13. As a result, the drive 12 and the power supply unit can be forcibly cooled. At this time, if the partition plate 14 for blocking the ventilation of the mother board 6 and the drive 12 is provided, the flow of the cooling air is separated and the cooling efficiency is improved.

  The internal configuration of the PC 1 shown in FIG. 2 is a perspective view obliquely viewed from the top when the PC 1 is installed flat, but if the PC 1 is installed vertically so that the drive 12 and the power supply unit 13 are at the bottom, As a result, the cooling efficiency is improved. In a conventional PC, the drive 12 and the power supply unit 13 are installed at the top of the apparatus. The air inside the apparatus is warmed by a CPU or the like that generates high heat, and the upper part of the apparatus often becomes high temperature due to this air. Therefore, the temperature rise of the drive 12 and the power supply unit 13 is large. In this embodiment, when the PC 1 is placed vertically, the drive 12 and the power supply unit 13 are located at the lower part of the apparatus, so that they are not affected by heat generated by the CPU or the like.

  With reference to FIG. 3, the arrangement of the cooling air intake and exhaust ports of the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is an overview perspective view when the PC 1 is installed vertically.

  The cooling air suction port 9 of this embodiment is provided on both side surfaces on the front side of the PC 1 (corresponding to a bottom surface portion and a top surface portion at the time of installation) with a predetermined width from the upper part to the lower part of the apparatus. When the PC 1 is installed stationary or when the PC 1 is installed in a vertical arrangement with another device, the amount of outside air flowing from the inlet provided on one side is reduced. It is good to decide. It should be noted that feet should be provided so as not to block the suction port.

  The following exhaust port is provided on the back side of the PC 1. First, an exhaust port 16 is provided on the side surface opposite to the mother board 6 of the PC 1 (corresponding to the top surface portion when stationary). Second, an exhaust port 17 is provided at the top of the PC 1. Further, an exhaust port 18 (not shown) is provided on the back surface of the PC 1 corresponding to the exhaust of the power supply unit 13.

  Next, the flow of cooling air inside the PC 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the flow of cooling air when the vertically placed PC 1 is viewed from the side (the stationary PC 1 is viewed from above). The partition plate 14 separates the flow of cooling air on the mother board 6 side and the flow of cooling air on the drive 12 and power supply unit 13 side.

  First, the flow of cooling air on the mother board 6 side will be described with reference to FIGS. The outside air is sucked into the inside from the suction port 9 provided on the side surface of the apparatus by the cooling fan 8, and the direction of the flow is changed at the intake port formed by the cooling fan 8 and the housing. The cooling air discharged by the cooling fan 8 flows through the cooling fins 7 provided in the CPU of the motherboard 6. Since the cooling fins 7 are provided in the direction of the flow of the cooling air, the cooling air is smoothly passed, and the CPU generates heat from the cooling fins to cool the CPU. The cooling air flowing through the cooling fins 7 flows while cooling other devices (for example, a chip set) of the mother board 6 and the expansion board 10 such as a display board installed in parallel with the mother board 6. Then, the air is exhausted from the exhaust port 16 provided on the side surface of the PC 1 and the exhaust port 17 provided on the upper side of the PC 1 by changing the flow direction to the outside of the apparatus.

  Although the direction of the cooling air changes during intake and exhaust, the direction of flow is changed at the intake port formed by the cooling fan 8 and the housing during intake, and the flow is changed in the space formed by the mother board 6, the housing and the interface connector during exhaust. Changing direction. Thus, since the direction of flow is changed in a relatively large space, there is no loss of flow and the air volume of the cooling fan 8 can be reduced. As a result, the number of fan rotations can be reduced and calming can be achieved.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 6B and 6C, since the exhaust port 17 on the upper surface of the apparatus and the exhaust port 16 on the side surface of the apparatus are provided, the cooling air can be supplied even if the expansion board 10 is inserted. Exhaust can be performed without obstructing ventilation.

  Next, the flow of cooling air on the drive 12 and power supply unit 13 side will be described with reference to FIGS. The outside air is sucked into the inside by the cooling fan 15 from the air inlet 9 provided on the side surface of the apparatus, and cools the drive 12. The cooling air flowing through the drive 12 is exhausted from the cooling fan 15 through the power supply unit 13 to the outside of the apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 7, when two drives 12 are installed, the outside air sucked from the intake port 9 flows through the gap between the drive 12 and the housing to cool the drive 12. For this reason, the drive 12 is installed so that the casing of the drive 12 is on the outside in order to increase the cooling efficiency so that the cooling air flows through the gap between the casing of the drive 12 and the housing.

  The cooling air discharged by the cooling fan 15 flows through the inside of the power supply unit, cools the power supply unit, and is exhausted to the outside from the exhaust port 18 on the back of the apparatus. At this time, the cooling air may also be exhausted from the exhaust port 16.

  In FIG. 4, the cooling fan 15 is provided on the inflow side of the power supply unit 13, but the cooling fan 15 is provided at the exhaust port of the power supply unit 13, and outside air is sucked from the intake port 9 by this fan, and the drive The cooling air may be passed through 12 and the power supply unit 13. Even in this case, since it is separated from the mother board 6 side by the partition plate 14, the intake air and the drive 12 can be cooled to the outside air.

  An example in which the partition plate 14 is not provided will be described with reference to FIG. In this case, the flow of the cooling air on the mother board 6 side is the same as that in FIG. In FIG. 5, a cooling fan 15 for passing cooling air to the power supply unit 13 is provided on the side surface of the power supply unit 13 on the mother board 6 side. Thereby, a part of the cooling air on the mother board 6 side is sucked to cool the power supply unit 13 and exhausted to the outside of the apparatus. In FIG. 4, the cooling fan 15 is provided on the inflow side of the power supply unit 13 in FIG. 4, but the cooling fan 15 may be provided on the exhaust port of the power supply unit 13. With this configuration, a part of the cooling air on the mother board 6 side is forcibly exhausted by the cooling fan 15, so that the cooling efficiency on the mother board 6 side is improved.

  In the embodiment of FIG. 5, the heat generated by the drive 12 is conducted from the mounting portion of the drive 12 to the housing of the PC 1 and is convectively radiated from the housing. Although cooling air is not passed through the drive 12, there is no influence of cooling air that has cooled the heat generated by the CPU, and therefore, the temperature does not increase except for self-heating, so that the drive 12 can sufficiently dissipate heat.

  Next, the configuration of the radiation fins will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 8A, the heat dissipating fin of this embodiment transfers the heat generated by the CPU from the jacket 20 that receives the heat generated by the CPU to the heat dissipating fin by the heat pipe 19.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 8B, a plurality of fins and heat pipes are combined to form one heat radiating fin. By adopting such a configuration, the amount of heat transfer is increased and the price is reduced. Specifically, the same heat pipe was used, and the heat pipe brazing portions of the fins to be combined were made different. By dividing the fins, the workability of brazing is facilitated, the assemblability of the radiating fins 7 is improved, and a mass production effect can be obtained by using a single type of heat pipe.

  FIG. 8 (c) shows a structure for attaching the radiating fins 7 using the heat pipe of this embodiment. When the PC 1 is placed vertically, as shown in the figure, the heat pipe is attached so that the bent part is at the bottom. By installing the heat pipe in this way, it is possible to improve the reflux of the refrigerant inside the heat pipe, and the cooling efficiency of the radiating fins is improved.

  FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a system to which the PC of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is applied. The left side of FIG. 9 shows the system block of the PC 1 and the right side shows the system block of the monitor 2.

  The PC 1 includes a CPU 21, a graphic memory controller hub 22, and an I / O controller hub 23. The graphic memory controller hub 22 is connected to a memory 24 for storing programs and data and a digital display controller 25. . The graphic memory controller hub 22 incorporates an analog display controller 27. The output of each display controller is connected to the interface connector portion of the mother board 6 and can be connected to the monitor 2.

  The I / O controller hub 23 is connected to a TV tuner 27, the hard disk drive 12, and an audio controller 28. The I / O controller hub 23 includes four USB controllers 29. Input / output signals of the audio controller 28 and the USB controller 29 are connected to the interface connector portion of the mother board 6 and can be connected to the monitor 2.

  The monitor 2 includes an LCD panel 31, a CD / DVD drive 32, a wireless interface unit 33 that communicates operation signals with the keyboard 3 and mouse 4, an infrared interface unit 34 that communicates operation signals with the remote controller 5, and a speaker. 35, a microphone 36, and a USB hub 37 are incorporated.

  The LCD panel 31 receives video signals from the analog display controller 27 and the digital display controller 25 via the video signal selector 30, and displays the processing result of the CPU 21 and the video signal of the TV tuner 27. The control signal of the video signal selector 30 is connected to the USB hub 37 so that the video signal can be selected by the USB signal from the PC 1. With this configuration, since the video signal can be selected by a program executed on the PC 1, the LCD panel can be shared.

  The speaker 35 and the microphone 36 are connected to the audio controller 28 via a cable. Similarly, the CD / DVD drive 32 is connected to one USB controller 29 via a USB cable. The wireless interface unit 33 and the infrared interface unit 34 are also connected to the USB controller 29 via the USB cable. Similarly, the USB hub 37 is connected to the USB controller 29.

  In this way, by connecting the CD / DVD drive 32, the wireless interface unit 33, the infrared interface unit 34, and the USB hub 37 built in the monitor 2 to different USB controllers 29, media can be inserted and removed, and the keyboard 3 / mouse. 4 / Operation information of the remote controller 5 can be notified to the CPU 21 as different interrupt processing and executed, thereby improving operability.

  Further, if the above four USB signals are conjugated to one cable, the cable insertion / removability is improved, and the usability for the user is improved.

System Configuration Device configuration perspective view Device perspective view The figure which shows the ventilation path of the cooling air inside the device (1) Figure (2) showing the ventilation path of the cooling air inside the device Figure (3) showing the ventilation path of cooling air inside the device The figure which shows the ventilation path of the cooling air inside the device (4) Disk drive section System block diagram

Explanation of symbols

1 ... PC, 2 ... monitor, 3 ... keyboard, 4 ... mouse, 5 ... remote control,
6 ... Motherboard, 7 ... Radiation fins, 8 ... Radiation fan, 9 ... Intake port,
10 ... Expansion board, 11 ... Memory, 12 ... Drive, 13 ... Power supply unit, 14 ... Partition plate,
15 ... Heat dissipation fan, 16, 17, 18 ... Exhaust port, 19 ... Heat pipe, 20 ... Jacket.

Claims (3)

In an information processing apparatus having a motherboard on which a CPU is mounted, a storage drive, and a power supply unit that supplies power to the motherboard and the storage drive,
An air inlet provided on both side surfaces of the front portion of the housing of the information processing apparatus;
An exhaust port provided on a side surface of the rear portion of the housing of the information processing apparatus;
And it is disposed along the front surface multiple radiation fan from the front that occur the cooling air ventilation to the rear of the information processing apparatus of the motherboard with located behind than the suction port,
An intake port comprising a space surrounded by the intake port, the heat radiating fan, and the front bezel on the front surface of the housing;
And a radiating fin for cooling the CPU are connected to the CPU by the cooling air of the cooling fan,
The information processing apparatus is used with the motherboard installed in a vertical direction,
An information processing apparatus characterized in that outside air sucked from the intake port is changed in a flow direction at the intake port, is ventilated along the motherboard, and is exhausted from the exhaust port. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage drive and the power supply unit are installed below the motherboard and below the information processing apparatus. A partition plate is provided at the upper part of the storage drive and the power supply unit and at the lower part of the motherboard,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein cooling air generated by the heat dissipating fan provided on a front surface of the motherboard is separated from cooling air generated by the cooling fan of the power supply unit.

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