Hey guys. I am planning a very simple, but important mod to my case and I need your help. I have no experience in electronics or modding so bare with me. I can maybe wire a plug, but thats about it! I have an Antec Three-Hundred Case and it has two fans with speed controllers. The problem with them is that they are controlled from the inside and I have to remove the side of the case to access them. What I want to do is make a hole in the back of my case, thread the controllers through there and have them outside the case. My questions are: 1. How would I make a hole in my case? Would a normal drill and drill-bit do the job? 2. Would I have to remove everything in my case while I am making this hole, or is there a simple way of avoiding bits of metal flying all over my case! 3. How would I rewire a fan controller cable? Is there a special type of wire I have to get? Is it just a case of cutting the wire then winding it round another wire (so to speak)? Thanks in advance.
1-Use a drill and make a pilot hole, with a drill bit. Then use a Unibit to get the proper sized hole. 2-Yes, you must remove everything. Never ask this question again. 3-If you don't have any extra fans laying around to take wire from, you'd need to buy some ~16ga. wire, and lengthen the wires as needed... you'd perform a mechanical splice, there's a few different methods, some prefer different ways. Permanently join the wires by soldering and using heatshrink to insulate. Have you thought of purchasing a fan controller? Use www.google.com if you don't understand my 'lingo'.
the controller wire is signifigantly smaller than 16GA, probably 20 or 22. but whatever, prettymuch anything will work for something that needs to carry as little current as the controller does. and you can just wind and tape, but that's not exactly secure. if you don't already have one invest the $10 and get a soldering iron.
You might try using one of the PCI slot covers as the mounting holes. This way you can remove it from the case, clamp it FIRMLY down, and then drill a hole to the switch size. This prevents you from getting metal shavings inside the case (sand the hole before you put it back in!) and having to disassemble everything. Definitely look up how to splice/extend wires. It's fairly simple, but you do want to make sure you get a good connection and prevent bare exposed wires from touching anything. If you dont have a soldering iron or heatshrink you could possibly get away with bending and twisting the wires and using electrical tape... but that's not the best solution for reliability. Like supertoad said (forgot to quote him) you can get a soldering iron cheap, and heatshrink as well. It will be worth it in the long run.... just don't inhale the solder (that's not good in the long run!)
i noticed that your location is ireland...now am not sure what wiring sizes ireland uses but the 3 tht are quoted are in AWG not the brittish standard. you can look for a AWG converter on google..when i started i got mixed up with american and brittish standard wire gauge..as 16GA and above would be massive if u are using the brittish standard...Hope this helps any...
I didn't realise there was so much to putting my fan controllers outside my case! Removing everything in my case, unibits, special wires, soldering iron, heatshrink... I thought it was just a matter of drilling a hole, snipping a wire and then taping it back up again! Maybe I should try an alternative method cus I'm not sure if I'd be able to solder or do some of the other stuff. I presume thats the only way of getting your fan controllers outside of the case though?
I have that case and I know what your talking about, I can just leave it on low, i don't have heat issues, if you're having heat problems and absolutely need to be able to toggle it, you might try cutting a rectangular hole that the controller could fit through and just tread it through, it would dangle and you would have to patch up the hole a little, but if you can't solder it's easy. Or you could cut a small hole in the back panel and mount the switches so that just the slider sticks out and you could easily toggle it. either way you need to remove every thing electronic in the case. good luck
it's really not that hard. solder and heatshrink is the 'right' way to do it, but twist&tape would still work. and modminded's suggestion of routing them out a PCI slot is a really good one if you don't want to take everything out. or you could just buy a fan controller. then you don't have to do any drilling or extending, but where's the fun in that?
Thanks supertoad! I love the DIY solutions rather than buying a fan controller, but it's really up to you Mr. Gaunt. The important thing to realize about what everyone is saying about taking things out before any case cutting/drilling is that you don't want little metal shavings on your electronics... that can lead to short circuits, things blowing up, etc... (bad!) You don't need a whole lot of specialized tools like unibits (though soldering iron and heatshrink is highly recommended, especially if you plan on modding stuff down the road.) It's just that having the right tool for the job makes things easier. I think the easiest thing would be what I said earlier, assuming the pci slot cover is wide enough to have the switch on. Got a pic of the switch you're trying to move? I believe that you're being scared off by the idea of removing everything from the case, but if you can avoid doing that, it's pretty quick and easy. Then again, you can get a cheap fan controller that slides into a spare front bay for under $20 (US) which will be able to do what you need, if you REALLY don't want to get your hands dirty. is this what you're working on? Those little rectangular switches?
Yeah, they're the exact switches I'm talking about. The one dangling down the centre and the one at the side. So what exactly are you suggesting I should do?
Well, do you use those switches a lot? if not, you can permanently set the fans to one of the specific speeds that is offered. Check this thread. http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=161548
Well I used to use it a lot, but after an incident involving my PC nearly getting fried while trying to change the fan speed, I've left it on high ever since...
What I'm suggesting is to take a pci slot cover out (like in the picture above, you could take the one on top of the Graphics card) and mark and cut out 2 holes the size of the switches. It's just a little more dificult since they're slide switches, and not a circular rotating switch. Figure out a way to attach the switches halfway out of the holes on the back, and extend the wires as needed. Maybe you could use hotmelt glue to glue the rectangular switch box to the pci cover plate, but not sure if that will be strong enough. You might need to add something else to give you some structural support so you don't poke the switch out while trying to adjust the speed. PS- thanks for the rep!
I think I will look into your idea. Hopefully the wires will be long enough to reach that slot so that I don't have to extend them. Although, if one of those wires is passing in front of a fan will it block much airflow?
They're pretty thin wires, so I don't think it will have much impact if it does end up passing in front. However, you can rotate the fan a bit possibly, so the wires are routed a bit better. I see why you're worried about messing with the wire since it seems that the individual wires are not easily seen, but rather encased in one long sleeve.
Well I gave it a shot, drilled a hole into the pci slot cover. Nightmare. I found it very hard to make a neat hole and eventually just gave up on the idea of sticking the controllers onto the slot. Instead I just passed them through the very rough hole. Even now it's still a bit of a pain to change the fan speed. I might just go the easy way out and get a proper fan controller!
Way to go for it Ibram! I think the key to a neat hole is a rough cut smaller than you need, and some work with the file to shave it for clearance. PCI slot covers are cheap and easily replaceable, so don't feel you have to give up...
