Patent ID: 7843685

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a chassis including at least one chassis fan directed to move air in a first direction into the chassis through a front end and out of the chassis through a back end; a motherboard disposed within the chassis, the motherboard having an expansion slot adjacent the front end of the chassis; an expansion card having an edge connector in communication with the expansion slot, a mounting bracket secured to the front end of the chassis, and a card fan configured to move cooling air through a first air inlet, move the cooling air across a portion of the expansion card to remove heat from the expansion card, and direct the heated air to an exhaust outlet in the front end of the chassis; and an air duct having a first end secured in direct communication with the exhaust outlet, wherein the air duct redirects the heated air toward the back end of the chassis to a second end of the air duct that opens into communication with the at least one chassis fan, wherein the air duct substantially prevents recirculation of the heated air from the exhaust outlet to the first air inlet and causes the heated air to exit through the at least one chassis fan, wherein the air duct includes a lateral duct segment and a longitudinal duct segment, wherein the longitudinal duct segment is a channel formed inside the chassis, and wherein the lateral duct segment is selectively attachable to the front end of the chassis to direct the heated air from the exhaust outlet into the longitudinal duct segment.