Planning Rad in drive bay area

[ferret141]

Story:
Two years ago I donated my old components to my little brother. I was keeping the my case for my next PC so my friend kindly lent/gave me his old Coolermaster Wavemaster to my little brother (which had several owners and managed to come back to him).
The Wavemaster was made around the P4 era so it didn't need that much cooling (80mm fans etc) but I was putting a C2D in it and knew it needed more airflow.
We put a 220mm intake fan on the side and cut a 140mm square hole in the roof for exhaust.
We then hit a snag. The case was too narrow for the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme I had so that got replaced with an Antec Kuhler. There was no space at the back for the rad so we stuck it to the roof. But wait the Kuhler is 120mm but the hole is 140mm. Thankfully Noctua had a fan that solved that problem.
The next problem was due to the blowhole's postion the rad blocked the PSU and in fact part of the PSU bracket had to be trimmed to fit the rad's head.

Now I'm looking for a solution so that I can mount the PSU properly. I've thought about mounting the rad inside the drive bay area and constructing a funnel to bring cool air to the rad and blow it out.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or ideas.

Current status & rough drawing of idea:

[siliconfanatic]

I personally think its genius. Ive thought of doing this, but with it getting air from the front of the case. Never from the side tho... just make sure you close the gap between the drive bay and case side with pvc or tape, and filter it. Other than that unless you need an absurd number of drives it should be fine. Mod it, log it, tag it, and make sure its made of double-distilled awesomness

[ferret141]

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

I personally think its genius. Ive thought of doing this, but with it getting air from the front of the case. Never from the side tho... just make sure you close the gap between the drive bay and case side with pvc or tape, and filter it. Other than that unless you need an absurd number of drives it should be fine. Mod it, log it, tag it, and make sure its made of double-distilled awesomness

Thank you for your encouragement Siliconfanatic. It is greatly appreciated.

I decided on side to side airflow because:

• The door will hinder intake airflow.
• If that was done the easiest thing would be to blow inside but that will raise the case temperature.
• To stick a bend to exhaust out the side after that in such small space will affect airflow and create extra noise.

So I went for side to side for cold air in and exhaust straight out.

As for optical drives I only need it for OS install and I'm looking at going USB for OS installs.

[siliconfanatic]

might i suggest, tho, that cince you prob have the room, that you actually keep the fan a distnance from the rad? ie, insted of side-duct-fan-rad-fan-side, that it be side-fan-duct-rad-fan-side. it would actually lead to a slight increase in performance. slight, but it wont hurt to try it. plus it'd be a tad easier to mount the fan.

[ferret141]

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

might i suggest, tho, that cince you prob have the room, that you actually keep the fan a distnance from the rad? ie, insted of side-duct-fan-rad-fan-side, that it be side-fan-duct-rad-fan-side. it would actually lead to a slight increase in performance. slight, but it wont hurt to try it. plus it'd be a tad easier to mount the fan.

The science behind it please.

[Vetalar]

such "shroud" made airflow a bit more laminar and decrease that dead spot under fan's hub. typically it's just a frame from dead 120mm fan.

[siliconfanatic]

yep pretty much. i just took another look at the pics, saw the duct and the lightbulb clicked.

[ferret141]

Makes sense. Maybe I'll mock up a model for fun when I start learning CFD in two weeks.

[The_Crapman]

while you're at it, you could also mod the kuhler to include the NB like I did on mine:


There's a link to the log in my sig specs.

[ferret141]

Originally Posted by The_Crapman

while you're at it, you could also mod the kuhler to include the NB like I did on mine:


There's a link to the log in my sig specs.

Reading your log right away.

[The_Crapman]

It wasn't too difficult, especially considering i'd never done watercooling before. It allowed me to get better overclocks with the nb running a lot cooler.