Case modding

[Chegs]

This is my loverly case. As you can see there is an extra bit of platic moldered to give it the shape. THe steel (or whatever metal it is) is about 1mm. What I want to do it put 2 blow holes in. One on the side cooling the PCI cards and CPU area and the other at the top as an exhast pulling the hot air out.

1. What do you think of the idea.
2. What should I buy to cut the metal and plastic (in the UK)
3. Will the plastic cut or just go bad

Its going to be done in the summer once I have done my exams.

Thanks

 

[Todd a]

Man get some zip-ties and clean up those cables. Move some drives and cards areound and route those ribbon cables neater. Clean out all the dust. Clean the fans and oil them. Cut out the fan grill up front and in back and add a chome wire grill in back. Open up your power supply and clean that out. Clean the fans and cut out the grills there too (adding chome wire grills and a second fan if it will fit).

This should impove cooling quite a bit by itself and will only cost you a few dollars for some cheap grills.

If you can cut a blowhole right in the bottom of the case blowing strait up. These work pretty good. You need to add some larger rubber feet under the case, but you can get those cheap at most hardware stores. For cutting the sheet metal, you drill a hole and cut it out with a fine toothed metal cutting bit in a standard jig-saw. This can cut the plastic too, but it wil melt a bit (or crack if really brittle). To make it look good, you will need to insert a plastic sleave that goes between the plastic shell and the sheet metal. Most online cooling store carry them.

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AthlonXP 1600+ 1.65v 42'C
FOP32-1 Mod w/80mm 30db
Epox 8KHA+ KT266A
256MB Crucial DDR266 cas2
GeForce2 GTS (210/410)
Sound Blaster Audigy
Antec SX-630 Case (mod'd)
TTGI TT-350-SS 370w PS

 

[AMDnut]

Todda is right, you need to clean everything up inside. Keep the cables tucked neatly. Route the sound cables from the Optical drives behind the motherboard. Use some double faced tape or clips to keep the ribbon cables flat against the case walls.

Like Todda stated, trim out the grills of the existing fans and use wire grill covers. Maybe get some plastic wire loom cover to use for your wires.

I suggst you pull everything out of your case to do the clean up. Also, if your planning to modify anything on the case itself, you need to pull everything out anyways, including power supply. You do not want to get steel shavings and plastic shavings in anything. When you put evrything back together, try to plan for cables as the hardware goes in.

As for plastic, a dremel usually will melt more than cut. A hole saw works decent, but you need to make sure that your drill for the holesaw is a low rpm drill, around 600rpm so that the heat build up doesn't melt anything. While your at it. why not put in a window kit in?

Here is an idea for you that would make things a little easier. Why not put both blowholes in the side? One at the bottom for intake, and one right above the CPU area for exhaust. This usually works very well to aid in cooling the CPU and video area. You can fab a duct for the exhaust out of sheet aluminum or even cardboard. Then paint it. This is really nice if you add a case window and a cathode light. Paint the duct a nice brilliant color to go with the cathode!

With this method, you won't need to worry about breaking/melting plastic. Also, you won't need any fancy sleeves or anything.

Here is a side blowhole above the CPU and the PS wire grill mod done. Fans are Sunon 80mm High Outputs....

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[email protected]+
256MB Kingmax PC2700
SX1030B
Vantec 6035w/Delta
KR7A-RAID
60GB Maxtor 7200rpm (OS)
(2)Maxtor 7200rpm 30 gigs in RAID Level 0
Radeon 8500 290/290
Plextor 24/10/40
Creative 16x DVD

 

[AMDnut]

Take a look at www.virtual-hideout.net/ for ideaas and how to articles. Here is the inside of my main rig:

The round cables didn't work well for the RAID so they have been replaced with ribbon cables........

They looked sweet though!

------------------
[email protected]+
256MB Kingmax PC2700
SX1030B
Vantec 6035w/Delta
KR7A-RAID
60GB Maxtor 7200rpm (OS)
(2)Maxtor 7200rpm 30 gigs in RAID Level 0
Radeon 8500 290/290
Plextor 24/10/40
Creative 16x DVD

 

[AMDnut]

Also, I haven't tried these yet, but I want to get some soon! These little clips are adhesive backed and look/work better than double side tape for holding cables down. I found this picture/idea at Virtual Hideout:

Now ain't that slick!

------------------
[email protected]+
256MB Kingmax PC2700
SX1030B
Vantec 6035w/Delta
KR7A-RAID
60GB Maxtor 7200rpm (OS)
(2)Maxtor 7200rpm 30 gigs in RAID Level 0
Radeon 8500 290/290
Plextor 24/10/40
Creative 16x DVD

[This message has been edited by AMDnut (edited 04-21-2002).]

 

[Todd a]

Even rubber bands or paper clips work fine. Feed the extra cable behind the motherboard or under a drive. Anything to free up the airflow in the case. That card could be moved to the bottom and the cable routed behind the motherboard, then fold it for a clean 90' angle and have the cable exit out the side about 2/3 of the way up the board. I'd personnally get rid of that round cable and use all flat cables. Make sure they are all the right length. Tie them all together, stacked up neatly.

Zip tie the ATX cable to the power supply. Bundle all the wires together (cover them or zip-tie them together). It might make it easier to route the hard drive cable if it was moved up into a 5.25" bay below the CD-ROM.

Windows are nice. You can add blow holes right in the window. They are also cheap. You can get a nice one at Bestbyte.com for $14 shipped. They also have some VERY cheap (but usable) fans and grills. You might just get some new hard drive cables while you are at it. That yellow one is pretty ugly, as is the green one. These round cables are not flexable enough and generally can be a pain to use (for most). They do look nice if you can get them routed right. I've been thinking of trying the cheap ones I have again, but I will have to glue the boots on tight and heat the cables with a heat gun from work to see if I can "shape" them so they will work beter.

------------------
AthlonXP 1600+ 1.65v 42'C
FOP32-1 Mod w/80mm 30db
Epox 8KHA+ KT266A
256MB Crucial DDR266 cas2
GeForce2 GTS (210/410)
Sound Blaster Audigy
Antec SX-630 Case (mod'd)
TTGI TT-350-SS 370w PS

 

[MuFu]

A few ideas were being thrown around in this thread last week. Check it out.

MuFu.

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