Well, my comp is spazzin, third time trying to start this thread. ...Anyway, rather than going the premod route, I am choosing to use this badass case for my new rig - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...82E16811180013
Its cheap, has awesome looks, is pretty damn big, and has a lot of modability. My question involves my modding of it - I am gonna add a 120 mm blooooooooooo led fan in the front, just above the little holes (look at the pic). I will cut thru both the acrylic and the steel, and am deliberating putting the grille over the acrylic. Where i need advice is making the hole look smooth, like the one in BA's rig. I can't figure out how he did that, so if anyone has any ideas, feel free
Will add window later, feel free to throw up some ideas for shapes of that.
Thanks

Before you mod such a nice case, ask yourself: do you really need to cut a hole in that pretty, perfect front? If you really need an extra hole because of overheating, have you thought about putting it somewhere else? Maybe a bottom-to-top airflow would do the trick; maybe a window with a fan in it would work too.

You're considering blue lights in a black case? *shakes head* That's just too bad.

Damn, Wixx, thanks for that advice; spent 5 seconds, and thought, damn good call on the side fan. The bottom-top would work for most other people, but my case will be on top of carpet, nothing I can do about that. But the thing is, there is NO airflow from the front - back, I have a feeling my hard-drives might get a tad bit toasty. Maybe I will just poke an assload of holes in the front, no huge hole or anything.

well it looks to me that there is already a 80m fan in the lower front and a spot to mount a 120...

so then what im asking is whether you WANT A/more holes in the front...
OR
whether you need it?

now,lookin at the case i would probably put feet on it to raise it off the floor a bit and move the pc speaker elsewhere and mount a fan that sucks from the bottom wjere the speaker was.

when the case is on carpet, just buy a little extra Plexi and make a rectangle the size of the footprint of the case and that will keep the carpet out of the intake if it is bottom mounted.

also, if you are gonna keep it at foot level, you may want to invet in fan filters for the intake, because the dusty'est place in my house is the floor under this desk, and I assume it holds true for several people

Quote: Originally posted by loodamaris Damn, Wixx, thanks for that advice; spent 5 seconds, and thought, damn good call on the side fan. The bottom-top would work for most other people, but my case will be on top of carpet, nothing I can do about that. But the thing is, there is NO airflow from the front - back, I have a feeling my hard-drives might get a tad bit toasty. Maybe I will just poke an assload of holes in the front, no huge hole or anything.

Well I don't know what kind of setup you have but here at work the units we build have five 180GB hard drives stacked on top of each other in a 4U rackmount case with no active cooling and the unit is always on. Most hard drive manufacturers rate their drives up to 55°C, which is really, really hot. That's almost too hot to touch. So if you have less than five drives and can put even a little bit of space in between them you should be fine.

Just remember, fans suck up electricity, put holes in your otherwise virgin case, and make noise. Don't use them unless you have to. I don't know what kind of processor you have, but my workstation is mATX with a 2.0GHz P4--the only fan I added was one on the window which sucks cool air directly onto the CPU. There's another fan on the CPU cooler and one more on the power supply, and you can't hear the unit running from three feet away.

Yeah, Wixx, I understand what you are saying, I just have an urge to cut this case, I've been messing around with a cheapass AT case thats almost as old as I am..well, maybe not, but its really old. I just think I need more airflow, cuz this case has basically now airflow from the front.

ACtually, if you want to cut the front, and make it look tight and add some character, then you could cut a complete area out removing the holes entirely and replace it with a wire mesh grill of some sort. Behind the mesh you can have your 120mm.

Check this Coolermaster for inspiration.



A quiet 120mm will move enough air that the PSU and two very quiet 80mm fans in the rear would be well fed. Just use very quiet, low volume fans.

I think a well shaped tightly woven wire mesh grill in the front would rock in that case and Red CC's would shine through the fan, (Clear maybe), and the mesh looking like hot cinders or something like that.

Maybe add a yellow as well and have them alternate, what ever.

Then, maybe opt for a well laid out top window, pimp that area up with a windowed CDROM or something so that you look down into it from the top, (easy when it's on the floor ).

And then you could make a cut in the side panel, (well shaped not boring rectangular or round), and repeat with the mesh backed by acrylic, (to keep it sealed and quiet), and again, your lights will shine through the mesh.

You could do the same to the often neglected mobo side as well.

It's the shape of the cuts that will make it or break it.

that case has two spots for fans one over the hard drive(s) one lower for the case.and they are off center.witch means the craddle for the hard drives will have to mod'd or pulled out.You would be better off getting your hands on one so you can see what your getting yourself into.I have the older version of that case and filters would be a great idea.Goodluck

Damn Lc, I owe you one . I think I'll put mesh on top of the acrylic and just between the acrylic and the case, but thinking of that, mounting the mesh in front of the acrylic will be a PITA.

ADD - Xoxide has the 120 MM red Led fans on sale. Hmm. Maybe I'll take those, or the green.

That depends on what the mesh is made out of, you'd want some kind of very fine metal mesh, probably black, almost like a speaker cover.

I'll see what I can find at McMaster Carr.

Try looking at these:
Hexagonal perforated Aluminum sheets

Round holed, small high density grill

These are Aluminum sheets, all you have to do is cut them a little bigger then the hole, paint them the color of your choice, epoxy them in place, or use a fastener, and back them with acrylic with holes for fans and fan screws

Once again, thanks uber lc. About the window, I waz thinking to myself last night (althought its probably been done) make an entire cover for the case, but make it permanent, out of plexi or acrylic. It would pass as a normal window, but be bent into an upside down U shape to go over the entire top of the case. I like that idea

Hm, UV cathodes don't sound that bad. Now only if I could find UV/purple fans.
EDIT - don't look, found some http://www.dealsonic.com/un80colcasfa.html