How I made a Blowhole without drilling metal

[GoldBullet]

I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that, like me, don't want to drill a hole in their metal case or simply don't have the tools to do it properly.

I had one of those HD/Case fans in one of my 5.25" bays pulling cold air into my case. It's basically a plastic bay cover with slots cut into it and three small fans attached. It was ok, pulling a little air into the case and was definitely better than nothing.

I wasn't quite getting the intake that I wanted and of course considered drilling a hole into my side panel to blow air directly onto the CPU, but unfortunately I live in a city apartment and just don't have the kind of tools and workspace I need to pull off such a task. Then I noticed that if I pulled the 5.25" bay fan I'd have three free 5.25" bay slots. I remembered that I had a ton of plastic 5.25" bay covers laying around, looked at the 92mm fans I bought, and had an idea. Basically I wanted to stick three 5.25" bay covers together, cut a hole in the middle of them, and mount a 92mm fan on them to create an removable blowhole in the front of my case pulling a large amount of air into my case with low noise.

The only real tool I had was a soldering iron, no dremel or drills, so I took what I had and went to work. First I took three of the 5.25" bay covers, layed them down on a flat surface, and simply used the soldering iron to melt them together at the edges. This worked great and was very sturdy. If you're going to do this be sure to frequently clean the soldering iron with a damp sponge and try not to lean directly over the burning plastic. Good airflow in the room is a must as well.

Next I needed the hole in the middle, so I took the grill off the fan and used it as a guide to simply melt the hole in the plastic. This only took about 5 minutes and was much easier than I figured it would be. I cleaned the edges a little with a screwdriver, scraping away the melted plastic, and burned four holes for the mounting. To mount the fan I used all I did was take the plastic mounting screwed that held the grill on the fan. The grill is on the outside of the 3X 5.25" Bay Cover creation, the fan is on the inside, and the mounting screws keep it all together.

Plugged the fan into the PSU and kicked it on. Let me tell you, the airflow from this thing was at least 10X as much as I was getting from the other bay cooler and was MUCH quieter, I can't really hear this fan over my PSU and CPU fans. I then put the bay cover creation into the case and ran some load tests to see the change in temps from my old crappy one slot cooler. (Temps obtained using SpeedFan)

Before CPU@Load: 43-45C
Before Case@Load: 35-37C

After CPU@Load: 35-36C
After Case@Load: 29-31C

It's also worth noting that idle case temps are just a few degrees above ambient. Not a bad drop in temps for a 40 cent mod that took me in total about 15 minutes! What's really great about this is it's removable, and can be dropped into any new case I get that has at least 3 5.25" bays free.

This should work just the same with a 120mm fan, and I think that you could pull off the same thing with two bay covers and an 80mm fan.

For reference, my system:

MSI KT2-Combo-L Mobo
AMD AthlonXP 2400+
NVidia GeForce4 4200 with Thermaltake Geforce4 cooler
Soundblaster Live
TV WonderVE (this thing gets hotter than you might think)
3Com NIC
Trident PCI graphics card for 3rd monitor

Fans:
Thermaltake Volcano 9 with Smart Fan 2 run around 2500 RPM
80mm intake fan located at bottom of case
Slot Fan placed in PCI slot 2 under video card with PCI slot 1 free
80mm fan in PSU pumping hot air out
Now 92mm Bay Cover fan


All in all I'm quite pleased with how this idea turned out, it looks impressive, runs quieter than before, reduced temps quite a bit, and cost me next to nothing.

[kukyfrope]

ace job!
would be nice to see some pictures of the final product just for good measure :)

[GoldBullet]

Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera, but this mod is pretty easy to visualize. Just look at this and picture it on the front of your case with a fan behind it.

http://us.st7.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/directron_1747_69133162

[emericanchaos]

pretty good idea. might be better to have it blowing out since it's at the top of the case

[GoldBullet]

I thought about making it an exaust, but ruled it out due to the fact that it's so far in the front of the case I didn't think it would get much of the hot air. As it is now it's blowing cold air directly to the PSU/CPU area, and that air gets moved out of the back of the PSU.

[Roadkill]

Wouldn't that be a suckhole? ;)

[Jarhead7236]

i did the same thing to my case but put an led fan in to add some color to my "awesome" beige contraption. it blows across the ram and cpu...i may swap it out later for another SF2 to really push the air through.

http://pics.montypics.com/chile/2003-06-18/1055922968_P1010003b.jpg

[GoldBullet]

That's pretty much what mine looks like as well, except the hole I made is circular and the plastic is in between the fan and the grill. Looks a little better that way but that's my opinion. The LED looks great, I'll have to do the same soon.

Is that an 80mm fan? I used a 92mm and it took up most of three covers, as I said I assume a 120mm will take up almost the whole thing but still fit.

[arabarabian]

That looks very nice. You should have gotten a fan large enough to cover both bays.

Thank you,
Daniel

[Jarhead7236]

yeah, i did it on a whim (could've been neater)...had a higher cfm black fan but the led adds to the mod...i was gonna throw the 90mm fan i had on but decided on the 80...if i can find a 120mm led fan, i might see how that'll fit and run a combo drive...this mod definitely helps, tho...

[MassiveOverkill]

Like this? ;)

http://home.cfl.rr.com/a1b2c3d4/images/Computer/CaseFront.JPG

[madcow235]

the bottom of your case looks like an alien teddy bear

[7h3r4py]

^^^ lol

When I drillled my blowhole I almost burned my Dad's drill out by trying too hard. There was a burning smell and lots of smoke coming out of it. Luckily it didn't die or anything. I was using one of those like 80mm cylinder circle cutter things. All it did was scratch a small groove into the metal, it was quite weak really. In the end I got a normal drill bit and drilled lots of small holes all around the inside of the circle I had drawn out then I slowly cut all the metal away.

[MassiveOverkill]

LOL, I know, but it's functional at least. I also have one of those 80mm hole saws and the trick is to not use alot of pressure. If your rpms start to fall, then you'll burn up your drill. Light pressure is all you should apply.

[verbatim]

U two got the same dvd drive. I got the same one too and I'm in Australia. Must be a goodie.

V nice mods BTW.

[nodark]

Originally posted by madcow235
the bottom of your case looks like an alien teddy bear

:p after you said that, it's more noticeable

[Barnstormer]

Good idea for fan install. Been looking at the front of my case for along time and never occured to me.
Huh

[star882]

"TV WonderVE (this thing gets hotter than you might think)"
I have the plain TV Wonder in my P3, and it gets pretty hot.

[aznchaos]

i which i could do it but i dont got a soldering iron.

[L_P]

HA, HA, HA
I was seriously gonna do this same thing about a year ago, but never did, instead I just drilled out the stock finger gaurds in the case, which worked very well. I may do this mod to one of my extra systems, I like the use of the led fan :thumbup:
-L_P

[pablopelotas]

man thats a good idea.can 2 80mm fans fit side by side?

[mattspalace]

It is a good idea, especially since most people don't use but one or two of those bays anyway. I actually thought a major company would produce something similar for the masses - as I've thought of the idea myself, but it's a little tougher since my case is aluminum (and I paid some $$$ for it).

[Jarhead7236]

Originally posted by pablopelotas
man thats a good idea.can 2 80mm fans fit side by side?

not in mine, they don't...i was hoping for that....

EDIT: well, maybe if i wanted to cut into the outer plastic and inner aluminum frame....hmmmm...

[NBK19]

I just put a 80mm 40CFM fan in my drive bays, Temps weren't effected @ all.. I was hoping for a drop, Cpu Fan still runs at the same Temp and all.. I got one 40CFM Sunon in the front as you have done here.. One 24CFM at the top of my case pumping air out, Another 24CFM on the side pumping air in.. What can I do ?

[GoldBullet]

What's your ambient temp? If you have a fairly high ambient temp (it is summer after all), all the fans in the world aren't going to do much.

[NBK19]

It's fairly warm, But I don't have anything to measure the actual Ambient.

[zettler]

In talking with a friend in Silicon Valley (laid off but still works in the DP area but in the LA area - long commute) yesterday, he strongly urges that you use filters over ALL fans blowing into your case and that you strive for positive air pressure, so as to limit the dust in your case and on your components.

I cannot recal what he said he uses - Brillo Pad - but he seemed tickled by using an ordinary household item...

[tyshy]

i just cleaned out my case last night...it was beyond dusty...but then again...i have used computers with much more dust than i had....and you kno what?...it doesn't effect performace or temps at all...my temps were exactly the same before and after....as long as you keep the dust outa the hsf...you should be fine....and ive never had dust short anything....besides....fan filters just get in the way and limit airflow.....if you have a windtunnel case...dust won't be able to stick anyway...rofl

[macklin01]

A scotch brite pad works quite well to that end, although it does provide considerable resistence to the airflow. You can actually peel a single pad in half into 2 half-pads, which helps somewhat.

Your friend is certainly correct in being concerned for dust buildup, but certainly a regular cleaning with canned air will be fine if you don't have positive pressure, too.

BTW, this is a very nice mod. It could also be coupled with some of the ducting mods also being discussed currently to provide some very effective cooling improvements. ;) -- Paul

[CaptainValor]

This is an excellent idea for a mod! Since there is no fan mount in the front of my case, this would be an excellent way to pull in some air from the front. I am gonna look into doing this right away! And some LEDs in the fan or even a CC ring would make it look even sweeter. ;)

[David101]

nice man, im gonna try this tomorrow :)

edit: fan is 120mm and i can only use 2 cd drive bays so im gonna try to use a floppy+2 cd bays

[CrashOveride]

I just made one (er... did the "mod")... I'll post a pic when I get my OC fan grill:D

[NcBaller1985]

I wish I had room to put a fan in my drive bays but all 4 of them are taken up. Damn't Damn't