I'm surprised to see a fan inside the console. This is the only NVIDIA Tegra 3 device running Android I know of to use active cooling. Why did they choose to have it, is Ouya's CPU/GPU running at a higher clock rate than similar devices'?
A tiny fan like that reminds of the one inside my PS2 Slim, which is loud enough that when I have the inclination to game on it again I'll seriously consider doing a hardware mod to replace it (with a non-stock fan -- just to be safe). I have to wonder by how much this defect (which is apparently not very common with the model) has made me play my PS2 Slim less over the time I have owned it. If the Ouya itself is not sold at a profit this may be a problem. I'm not a hardware professional, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd be wary of including a small fan in a consumer product if it were at all possible to avoid it.
Maybe they are trying to avoid the fate of the first generation xbox360?
There is no official info on the technical cause (some people say wrong type of solder that would get too hot and develop hairline cracks, some say the graphics chip dissipated more heat than expected, etc) but it was definitely related to heat.
People often put these devices inside mildly enclosed spaces (media cabinets, etc) with poor natural airflow, etc.
This tends to work okay if you have active cooling (since it's not totally enclosed), but gets amazingly hot otherwise.
This is not normally how tablets are used, and maybe after testing it (or thinking about it) they realized the safest bet was active cooling?
For what it's worth, I haven't been able to get the fan to spin up at all, even when running a GPU benchmark for 10 minutes or so. It might just be there for some worst case scenario when something could reach dangerous temperatures.
Since they have a fan, they don't have to care about hot air rising. It's often enough to get the hot pockets out of the fins and average out the temperature within the case. The case itself can transfer heat to the outside via its larger surface.
Finally, there needs to be some profit made, so this is slapped together as cheaply as possible. Bleh.
networked|12 years ago
A tiny fan like that reminds of the one inside my PS2 Slim, which is loud enough that when I have the inclination to game on it again I'll seriously consider doing a hardware mod to replace it (with a non-stock fan -- just to be safe). I have to wonder by how much this defect (which is apparently not very common with the model) has made me play my PS2 Slim less over the time I have owned it. If the Ouya itself is not sold at a profit this may be a problem. I'm not a hardware professional, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd be wary of including a small fan in a consumer product if it were at all possible to avoid it.
DannyBee|12 years ago
There is no official info on the technical cause (some people say wrong type of solder that would get too hot and develop hairline cracks, some say the graphics chip dissipated more heat than expected, etc) but it was definitely related to heat.
People often put these devices inside mildly enclosed spaces (media cabinets, etc) with poor natural airflow, etc.
This tends to work okay if you have active cooling (since it's not totally enclosed), but gets amazingly hot otherwise.
This is not normally how tablets are used, and maybe after testing it (or thinking about it) they realized the safest bet was active cooling?
udp|12 years ago
mtgx|12 years ago
http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/13/ouya-nvidia-lovefest/
DanBC|12 years ago
Chimney effect means you mount the heatsink horizontally so that hot air flows up, drawing cooler air through the heatsink.
I have no idea how to use words to describe what I'm trying to say, so here's a really bad diagram.
(http://imgur.com/QQ2UByr)
EDIT: Not criticising, just curious!!
tobiasu|12 years ago
Finally, there needs to be some profit made, so this is slapped together as cheaply as possible. Bleh.
Ygg2|12 years ago