case mod.

[tennen]

I need some more cooling in my case and was thinking of getting me a side mod with a fan opening.

#1 How do I know wich mod that will fit my case? Is there any standard for cases and mods like ATX?

#2 And most important: Will a sidefan help me or just blow in too much air in the case so it will get warmer?

#3 Where on the side is the best place for a fan then?

I'm grateful for all help

 

[Mr5oh]

Most "case mod kits" that you will buy are just universal. There are just a handful of cases that you can buy specific mods for, and generally I haven't seen one to add side fans.

Chose your fan location very carefully. Keep in mind that ideally you want as much air coming in as going out (Maybe actually just a tad more going out). A fan in a good location will help, and fan in a bad location could even hurt cooling if it is disturbing proper airflow.

What kind of case do you actually have? Also what kind of powersupply do you have?

Fans are put in different locations for different things. Normally I like my cases to have a fan down near the video card, to supply it with fresh cool air. However depending on your setup, and fan in the top my help more, just becuase that is generally where hot air is, and it will help get it out of the case.

As far as adding a fan, its pretty straight forward. You will need a 3-inch hole saw. I found many hardware stores don't carry them this large, Lowe's does, I paid $16 for mine. If you have some friends who are into computers, one of them might have one. Then decide where you want your fan. Take a punch or a small pointed phillips screw driver and smack it with a hammer, to make a small indent on the case so the drill bit won't slide around while drilling. Use the hole saw and drill the 3-inch hole, you will have to file it a little bit to take down the sharp edges. Then I use a fan, or even a fan grill to mark the holes for the fan. Same method of punch and drill, except do it one hole at a time. Don't do them all at once or you better be extremely lucky for them to line up. Drill one hole for the fan screws, then place the grill back on there, and make sure the holes line up, start the process with the next screw (Don't go diagonally). Just work your way around, and it should go very smoothly. The key is to make a good indent in the metal to keep the drill bit from sliding.

Take your time, and it'll turn it out great. The key is to make it look like it was always there.

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[tennen]

I have no pci cards. One geforce 4200ti. 2x512Mb Ram. Zalman 7000 (not using fanmate cause the cpu get over 60C when at load).
I will get in the next week. Antec true power 480?? (upgrading my AGP card in the future). Samsung sp80 SATA 160 GB.

Right now my cpu is ideal at 42C-43C and if I take the sidepanel off it is down to 37C. At load it is allmost up to 60C. So I guess It would make a bit diff with an outtakefan at the top of the sidepanel maby??? What sise would you suggest? (quiet one)
My current psu does only have one outtakefan. Will the Antec with two fans make any diff? It is one down the case and one at the back.

 

[Mr5oh]

The antec may actually help some. I am not sure about their fan setup but I assume it has to be better than the generic PSU I bought last week. Assuming the Antec blows the hot air outside the case, it should help. Although, a new power supply may not be needed for the video card.

Check the 12 volt amps on your power supply, I power a GeForce 6800, 2800+ XP, 9 fans, two cd drives, equalizer, two hard drives, floppy drive, and all my PCI slots are filled, off of 17 amps. I mentioned this in another thread, and everyone thought I was nuts and my system should be doing all sorts of funny things, but it has no problems. It doesn't sound like you have much in your system, you could even probably power something like a GeForce 6800 off a 300-350 watt. However, the Antec is a great PSU, so you may want to invest in it anyways.

You may want to try the side fan as in intake actually, this the CPU fan and such can get fresh cool, outside air.

As for a fan, I would go with a standard 80 mm fan. This will give a huge selection of fans to choose from. Many people like the Panaflow fans, they are known for being high quality and quiet. If I am looking for a quiet fan I generally go pick up any 12v fan from the local electronic surplus store (gotta love that place), generally the are about the same as the fans used in most powersupplys so they are virtually silent.

You can generally find a good fan that will be quiet for a few dollars.

Here recently I have been buying from CoolerGuys.com, and can say many good things for them, and their prices seem to be lower than many, may want to check them out.

<A HREF="http://www.coolerguys.com/80.html" target="_new">http://www.coolerguys.com/80.html</A> - Link to the 80mm Fans

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[tennen]

I have to test my way to see wether to have the side fan as intake or outtake. Maybe I should do two fanholes? (one down near the front (intake) and one up in the back (outtake) would make a good airflow???).
According to my current psu I guess it is a bit weak. It is an old 300w but it says the combined output of 3.3v and 5v is only 160W. I have allready experiensed some trouble. Don't know thou if it is the psu or just weak power in the room I rent at the campus.
Thanks for the link. I can use it as an review for good coolers but I doubt I will buy anything from there. Guess it would be a bit expensive with shipping all the way to sweden =)
The Antec allso have two fan only conectors wich have there own temp.sens. and rpm regulator.

 

[Mr5oh]

Yeah 160 watts does seem a litte weak. I would wait to start cutting on your case until you try the new power supply, especially if you are concerned with noise.

The Antec power supply sounds like it has a great fan setup, and will proably help cool your PC a little better.

How's airflow from the fan on the front? Its not being blocked by wires or cables is it?

Yeah, who knows that site may not even ship outside the US, but it'll give you some ideal of fans and pricing.

So far your temps don't seem to far out of whack, they are a little warm, but every fan you add is going to create more noise, even if it is virtually silent, it all adds up.

Another idea to is to use sort of a duct for the CPU cooler. One of my cases here has a funnel screwed to the side of it with a grate on the outside of the case, this allows the CPU fan to pull in cold outside air, instead of the hot case air. This may make a bigger difference, and wouldn't add hardly any noise. (This duct screws to the case panel, and comes witin an 1 or so of the CPU fan.)

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[tennen]

I will wait until I got my psu and see what it does to the temp. But the duct. Do you think something like <A HREF="http://www.webhallen.com/prod.php?id=29431" target="_new"> this </A> can be fitted on my <A HREF="http://www.zalman.co.kr/" target="_new"> zalman </A> 7000al-cu?

My front intake is poor. It is kind of blocked by an extra front. Can't explain this any good. And there are some cables that might be in the way. I have tried to fixed them at the side of the case. But I will switch my old IDE drive to an SATA drive soon so I guess some cables will be removed then.
Just a little noob question then: Is an cpu fan blowing fresh air towards the cpu or hot air from the cpu? (I think it is fresh to the cpu)

 

[Mr5oh]

The CPU fan is blowing down onto the heatsink (Fresh to CPU). I haven't seen ducting like that its interesting, but I don't know if you could make that work or not, probably would come down to how creative you are, becuase it's just not going to fasten up the way it would on other heatsinks.

The one on the case I am talking about can be seen here:

<A HREF="http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1366001#" target="_new">http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1366001#</A>

Click "View Product Pictures" under the case picture, the fifth picture shows the duct/funnel I am talking about.

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