Guide 120x38mm fan+crappy mid tower case = BayFan

My first mod of my first rig! Ok its only a small one, but still...

The first component I bought for this, my first home-built rig, was the case. As I didnt know a whole lot about actually building a computer at the time, I ended up with this, the Tsunami ST64 (except mine is silver): (pic from review here)

Overall its an ok-ish case, but with 2 hard drives and a bundle of cables in front of the only intake fan, case airflow is bad to say the least. My case temp was only a few degrees above my CPU temp, so something had to be done.

I had the idea of putting a 120mm fan into the 3 spare 5.25" bays that I had. But what to fill the hole? While reading around the net, I saw a picture of some aluminium mesh used in model making; and thought it'd be perfect for the gaping hole in the front left by the fan. On with the mod...

(check out my ub3r1337 carpet)

Parts list:
Aluminium reinforcing car remodelling mesh: Found this at my local car spares shop for £1.49 for a 10"x12" sheet. Awesome stuff:can cut with scissors, bends easily and has one shiny side and one slightly duller side.
120mm fan: my choice was a 38mm thick Panaflo
StretchMagic 3mm(or other stringy stuff): Used to suspend the fan in the drive bay

Begin by measuring the drive bays and cutting the mesh to fit: side flaps should be long enough to reach to the drive screw holes. Bend the flaps over a table edge of something hard and square. Try and keep pressure on the middle to get a crisp bend.


Because of the weird positioning of the screw holes in the bays of the Tsunami, this bit didnt go exactly to plan. Thread the StretchMagic through the fan screw holes, then through drive bay holes and tie. The theory was that the fan would be suspended, thus eliminating vibration. But this obviously didnt work, so I broke out the bluetack to keep it in one place:


Carefully push the mesh 3/4 box into the drive bays, and use suitable self-tapping screws to screw into the mesh. This works really well, and the mesh is strong enough to withstand being screwed


So thats BayFan. Dropped my case temp to 25oC (22o ambient) and knocked 5 degrees of my CPU temp. Plus it looks pretty cool:


And at night:


If you've gotten this far; thanks for reading. Comments and suggestions greatly appreciated...

 

V. impressive and seems to do your system good

 

Nicely done!

It looks neat and tidy If you want to drop your temps even more, i would cut out the fan grills at the back of the case... they restrict airflow and make more noise.

Well done

 

i see you have 2 80mm mounts in the back.. well.. theyr crap.. do this.. its what ive done and its worked quite well

sizing up the cut
http://img26.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img26&image=120before.jpg

dremeling (there was alot of sparks, but those reinforced dremel discs are so much better)
http://img11.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img11&image=120during.jpg

and after.....
http://img130.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img130&image=120after.jpg

 

Cheers guys

I will eventually end up cutting out the fan grills. Might go with the 120 in the back idea as well; will have to measure up first. And of course get myself a (No I dont have one ....yet)

Temps just seem to keep dropping. Latest in sig. The extra airflow really does help in such a small-ish case

 

Ok just a quick update. I noticed the other day that I couldn't see through it as well I could before, and running my fingers over it produced a large amount of dust. Therefore: the mesh even acts as a bit of a filter. Bonus. Quick vacuum later and all is well again

 

You might try putting a filter behind that to catch the rest of the dust.

I'll likely be doing something along those lines in my Centurion 5 when it comes in (Yeah contests!)

 

Be cafeful with a vacuum - they produce static electricity like nothing else. Although as long as it's outside of the case and it's plugged in (so it's grounded) it should be OK but don't use a vacuum cleaner inside the case!

Nice idea though, I really like it. Simple yet effective, and looks nice too.

 

Like the other guys have said, consider getting a filter to catch all the dust thats being drawn into your system.
It was only yesterday that i pulled a firewire card from my 2nd eldest pc, having no filters on it there leaves a fine layer of dust throught the pc case.
How ever , with my lian li case and filter it is all caught and the inside looks like the day i put it together ( well almost ) and all that nasty dust is caught on a wire mesh that i can take off, take outside and give a good beating to relieve its 'deamons'.

 

lol cheers stickeh and everyone else. Ive been looking at fan filters for a while now, but I'd rather order one with something else, as spending 2-3x as much on postage than the actual product seems like a stupid idea.

Does anyone know if they have any effect on noise and/or airflow?