Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (
More info?)
On Sun, 23 May 2004 16:33:47 +1000, We Live for the One we Die for the One
<Mr fred@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
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>
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>AOpen A600 Aluminum ATX Case anyone got one need some reviews.
>
>Yes i have googled, read alot of reviews but one thing i want from the
>case is the ability to add a 120mm fan at the bottom front of the
>case.
>
>It says you can pop out the usb,connector thing it has but if i do
>that can i cut the case to put a 120mm fan their and then plonk a
>grill their ??
>
>If thats the case ill get one, i love the 120mm fan at the back and
>the clear side widow is ok, rather not have that think its an option
>and not standard.
>
>Any help please do.
Frankly, there is no need for a 120mm fan in the front.
Don't be fooled by those that suggest a 120mm fan is best for cooling hard
drives, because it isn't. A 120mm fan is too wide, and so a large
majority of airflow must flow around the drives rather than through them.
It's a larger percentage then simply that extending beyond the borders of
the drive cage, because that cage is also blocked by drives and cables.
If you really want good intake and best HDD cooling, use 92mm fans that
exhaust entirely into a bay, no chance for the air to go anywhere except
between the drives. Unfortunately, and ironically, very few cases are
designed this way... so few that i usually just cut and fabricate the
(otherwise) preferred case as needed to achieve that end.
To more directly answer your question, the most significant thing you can
do to the A600 case is to cut out the rear fan grill and modify the front
bezel such that it has more air intake. You'd need do that anyway, large
fan in front or not. With the rear fan grill cut out you probably don't
need ANY fan in front providing the intake passages are large enough.
Supposing you still want to add a fan to the front of that case, here's
what you'd need to do:
Drill out the rivets on the HDD rack, remove it, and cut out a portion of
one or both sides so that wider 120mm fan fits. Then, looking at a
picture of the case,
http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-130-142-05.JPG ,
you can see that the front bezel is attached by friction tabs that
protrude through the front metal wall of the chassis... those are going to
get in the way of the fan mount (presuming you want it flush against the
metal wall, the traditional mounting method) unless you put the fan nearer
the center of the case front, instead of centering it in front of the HDD
bay which is offset towards the left side of the case. Offsetting the fan
will further reduce amount of air through the bay.
You could remove the front USB, audio and firewire ports, but those can be
pretty handy, my primary labor when converting old case to my standards is
to find a way to ADD those ports if/when i don't want to use up an
external 3.5 or 5.25" bay to mount them.
What might be most workable is to not mount a fan in front at all, but
instead cut a rectangular hole in the plastic bezel and mount only a fan
filter w/housing... either a 92 or 120mm size, depending on which will fit
between the front I/O ports and the external 3.5" bay.
I don't know if the AOpen case has plastic with dye in the plastic or if
it's only painted, so I'm not sure how it would look if cutting the
plastic, if it would still match the external color. Likely the plastic
is that charcoal color all the way through so if you can get it smooth
(filed or sanded after cutting) then you might mount an anodized aluminumf
filter panel like the following, except in a 92 or 120mm size as I
previously mentioned:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-213&depa=0
If the plastic won't look good cut then you might want a more finished
looking plastic border around a filter, like one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-208&depa=0
,
though for some odd reason Newegg's pictures only show the back, hidden
side of the filter up close, it looks somwhat better on the side that's
exposed to the outside, though it's semi-glossy which doesn't match the
matte finish of the aopen case.... but you see the direction I was going,
that with a large open area on the front there will be sufficient air
intake to the bays due to the large rear fan... though it may still be
necessary to cut or drill out a bit of metal directly in front of the HDD
bays to further reduce air intake restrictions.
So in summary, if you want the case there are ways to get it working in
different configurations, but it will take a bit of work, it's not really
set up "as shipped" to cool the number of drives it's bay can hold.
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