Linksys WRT310N Router
This mod came about after I purchased a Linksys WRT310N router for a customer. After using the router during testing I noticed that it became quite hot. This was measured by the mildly scientific method of touching the casing with the back of my hand and feeling the heat output.
These things get quite hot. As many other reviews on the net have pointed out. Google search here
These are available to buy in NZ from CBCNZ
I’ve been a fan of Linksys products for a long time, starting way back with the venerable WRT54G, and still wanted to use a Linksys product for the job I was doing. I probably could have gotten away with using 802.11g but I wanted to try the Draft-N 2.0 goodness.
I decided that I would attempt to cool this beast. Like most of my ideas I went into this one half-assed, without a real plan or any idea how I was going to achieve it.
My initial idea involved mounting a 40mm fan inside the top casing. This proved to be impractical.
It seems that I didn’t try hard enough, someone has managed to fit a 40mm fan on the top of the unit and retain it’s sexy curves. Well done airman
Luckily for me I was helped out immensely by my colleague, Richard. He proposed mounting a fan underneath the router and blowing air upwards through it. This new plan then created its own set of issues : how to mount the router above the fan and still provide airflow?
Enter a broken ATX power supply. Testing proved that the 120mm fan still worked, and the metal fan mount / psu casing we felt could be adapted as a mount for the router.
ATX PSU Cover (sans fan)
- Placing the router on the mount
This seemed to be the best idea but for it to work we would need to drill out the holes on the underside of the casing to provide better airflow. This part proved to be, quite literally, the most boring.
Making the holes bigger
We also decided to run the router for a day and measure the temperate using a probe. This was to establish a baseline for how hot the thing got, and so we could tell if our endeavours had actually worked.
With 3 wireless users hitting it reasonably hard we found that the temperature peaked at 52 degrees Celsius. Although most of the time it sat around 40 degrees.
I also decided to add some extra heat sinks to the board.
Board pre heat sinks
Board with Heatsinky Goodness
Spray painting the fan mount
As the fan mount lacked any kind of style we painted it. This improved things.
Now available in Black
We then mounted the fan and a dust filter.
120mm's of better airflow
"Luke, I am your father."
With its hat back on
All we needed to do now was put the case back together and test.
How cool? This cool
Now it is ready for primetime. The hottest that we have seen it now is 22 degrees Celsius. So it is a significant improvement. Sadly the customer will probably not appreciate all the effort that has gone into modding their router.
Ready for primetime
List of Ingredients :
Thanks to :
