View Single Post - What to do with my Time being temporarily laid off.

Barracas · Rated NC-17

I guess I'll post my latest chop job on my case.

I have been on unemployment for more than 4 weeks due to lack of work, resulting from the American Axle strike in the US.

So I have had more time than usual to do my web browsing here lately. I recently came across a website which was selling stock cases with modified cooling. One of their mods they were doing was to remove the metal mesh around the fans for better airflow. It looked pretty cool and I thought to my self, " I can do that. "

So Here Goes.....
A little over a year ago I built my PC.I purchased a gigabyte 3d aurora case @ 140.00 us.
It came with 3 dead silent 120mm fans 1 front 2 rear.
But the front 120mm fan was encased in an aluminum box pushed right next to the hard drive cage.

Check the picture Below.

As you can see the front fan is almost rendered useless.
So my plan was to figure out a way to make it work better.
I disassembled my case and removed all hardware.
Blew out all dust with my air compressor.
Removed all removable panels and pulled out a drill with a cupped hole drill bit I bought for another household project and cut out the metal grid in front of the fan.

I then noticed that the box in which the fan was attached to probably would fit in front of the case and still have clearance to hide behind the front panel.
But this box had been riveted to the inner structure of my case.
So I then pulled out a drill bit of the right size to drill out and remove the rivets to this box.
I then had to bend part of this box flat to allow it to slide out of the inside of this case to free it from the hard drive cage that was obstructing its path "Pain in the a$$".

So once removed and pounded back into position with a small hammer I proceeded to mock up its new location to the front of my case.
Here is were i found my initial estimate of clearance wasn't exactly accurate.
I couldn't simply mirror it's exact location with the front panel audio, usb, and firewire ports circuit board in the same area.
But I did figure out that if I turned the box 90 degrees it would fit. So i held it in position, marked my new placement holes with a sharpie, and drilled small holes to thread small machine screws with.
I then attached the box, reassembled the case, and reworked my cable management.
Here's the finished project, minus some cleaner edges on my cut out to be done later.

See picture's below
Side View:

Front View:

Side View with front on:

Front assembled View:

Results = 6 degree temp drop..
I'm no Thrasher2 but I thought I'd share anyhow.
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Gigabyte 3dAurora
AMD-939- X2 4400 @2.5gig 10x250fsb
DFI LanParty UltraD
Corsair HX620 PSU
OCZ400-2048 eldcpe-k 2x1g DDR @ 454mhz 2.5-3-2-5 9/10 divuder
3x Seagate 320 SATA 1 external Seagate 320 and external maxtor 160
EVGA 7600GT KO
Ultra ChillTEC CPU cooler
WinXP PRO
Acer 22in AL2223w