Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (
More info?)
On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 04:03:47 -0600, David Maynard
<dNOTmayn@ev1.net> wrote:
>Bryan Hoover wrote:
>
>> kony wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 00:21:37 -0500, Bryan Hoover
>>><bhoover@wecs.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hey, since you've got this case too, thought I'd ask you (and anyone else)...
>>>>
>>>>What do you think about moding this case so as to move the harddrive cages down so they
>>>>start where the front intake fan would otherwise go?
>>>
>>>Doable, I added one to mine but kept the original too, so I
>>>could put 2 drives per bay "module" and still have a lot of
>>>room inbetween for air.
>>>
>>>
>>>>This would make room for an intake
>>>>fan to blow air across closer to the chipset, cpu's, memory, and VRM's. I just finding
>>>>that I'm not getting a whole heck of a lot of benefit with the intake down there at the
>>>>bottom of the case.
>>>
>>>Do you have drives blocking all that area in the bay? I
>>>wouldn't thought you'd still have some flow there otherwise.
>>
>>
>> I've got one drive, and a floppy in the top bay, and three scsi drives in the bottom. The
>> scsi drives are disconnected though -- I have 6 others external, and I was a little squimish
>> about running the ones inside off the PSU which is a 460W Enermax. Just being conservative,
>> and they were noisier in this case than the 6 external -- don't really need all 9 right
>> now. On this I'm being a little hedgy -- don't really want to give up the option to keep
>> those 3 drives inside.
>>
>> And I should correct what said earlier a little bit -- when I wrote it, I'd just taken the
>> side panel off, noticed VRM1 (not vrm2 actually) temp drop, but hadn't tried running with
>> the front intake fan off. With front intake off, AGP, and DDR temps went up about 6 degrees
>> which is surprising because DDR at least, is so close to VRM1 I'd have expected VRM1 to be
>> effected if DDR was. But as I'd thought, this front intake fan on had no effect on VRM1
>> eventhough having taken the side panel off did lower VRM1 temp. It's like VRM1 is just
>> scrunched down hiding as best it can from any air flow.
>>
>> So, it's looking more like cutting a hole in the side panel, because I don't know if there's
>> a better way to get more air moving around VRM1 otherwise.
>>
>> But then, AGP, and DDR would probably still be getting air with the lowered bays approach.
>>
>>
>>>>OTH, my VRM's get rather hot, could definately use some cooling -- if
>>>>I open the case, I'm getting an average of 5 degrees lower temp (down from hovering
>>>>between 56-59, and high as 61) on VRM2 (this is Tyan s2462). AMD's documentation
>>>>recommends the bottom intake fan, but that's not what my experience is showing me.
>>>
>>>Their recommendation is a "generic" one, as they can't
>>>possibly test nor list every possible configuation. In your
>>
>>
>> One cool thing though, I found after I'd bought the case, this case is actually one of those
>> they used in testing, and gave results for. But yeah, I'd have to go back and look at it, I
>> dare say, they didn't have all the bays full -- may have only had one bay in the case.
>>
>>
>>>case/components you probably would have a slight benefit
>>>from moving the bay down. The bay locks in with a lever
>>>latching onto the bay above it though, right? Otherwise
>>
>>
>> The bay above it sits on it's own little shelf -- this shef is rivited to the metal framing
>> of the case. So top bay lever latches to stud in 5 inch bay cage above it, and bottom bay
>> lever latches to top bay shelf above it.
>>
>> Looks like would just remove the top bay, and leave the shelf for what's now the bottom bay
>> to latch to, and then rivit in (or whatever) another shelf below what's now the top bay.
>> Uhg! Would mean getting another little shelf.
>>
>>
>>>it's not the most secure mounting either unless the screws
>>>are put through that "shelf" it sits on, so while you might
>>>be able to move the shelf down and rerivet or bolt it on,
>>>there'd still be no bay above to latch it in. Might be best
>>>to find an alternate fixed bay instead.
>>
>>
>> May be.
>>
>>
>>>When I mounted mine at the bottom I hadn't build a system in
>>>the case yet, I used a step-drill to make 6 ~ 15 mm holes so
>>>I could put a magnetic screwdriver through to screw in
>>>drives from the right side.
>>
>>
>> And now that I've looked it, hate to say it because it makes moving the bays a moot point,
>> my full sized scsi card wouldn't have anywhere to go with the bays moved down.
>>
>> Ouch! Sorry. Nevertheless, moving the bays might be doable if there was no need for any
>> full sized cards. It's good to know what might be involved. As I'm looking closer at it
>> now, I see everything is rivits, which means I guess, would have to drill, which may mean
>> introducing rattles, etc. Thing's just not modular. Not really designed for moving the
>> bays.
>>
>> It's looking more like I'm gonna have to cut a hole. Yee-haw! Cut a hole in the side. Pop
>> in yet another fan. Barring another alternative -- maybe something involving attaching a
>> fan from the top -- somehow, somewhere between the psu, and 5 inch drive bay, assuming this
>> does not mess up the exhaust flow. This should be what the psu fan is for, but it's just
>> not moving enough air.
>>
>> Bryan
>>
>
>Just to let you know I didn't ignore the message but it looks like you and
>Kony have pretty much covered it.
>
>Only comment I have at this point is drilling out rivets would necessitate
>removing the guts to avoid the risk of metal shavings getting on things but
>cutting a fan hole in the side panel could be done by simply removing the
>panel to a safe location.
>
>On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd worry too much about VRMs hitting 61C.
>Their temp spec is a lot higher than 'ICs'.
>
>
Usually it's that their 'sunk to the copper, which in
addition to the heated air in the immediate vicinity and the
high ripple on the caps, will wear out the caps faster.
Whether the caps will provide a good service life is subject
to high variability, on a Tyan Server board the odds are
good, but then again I've even compared two similar Asus
boards and found one should do much better than the other
long-term.