The Fan"holes" in your case

[Recnelis]

I received a case yesterday that I'm gonna prepare for a friend. A Chieftec BX. After taking off the front beasle and removing the 2 grids covering the front intakes today, I suddenly felt like doing something I had never done before, meassuring up the surface occupied by the metal of the grid and seeing how much of the "holes" were actualy covered. I made a square around both holes, distracted the surface in the middle took the grid surface away from that and the result was quite surprising.
45 to 50% of the openings were covered by metal from the fangrid ! So if you haven't removed your fangrids yes and are thinking of improving your airflow by louder and more powerfull fans I suggest you try removing the grids first as it will increase the size of the hole where air passes through by 45 to 50 %

[archilochus]

Yea, I have to do it to my new Xaser full tower.I figure same as you .I will gain at least 50% more air flow.Really sucks that they have those restrictor grills in place.Are you cutting the rear exhaust grills out also.I will cut ALL of these restrictors grills
from my case.Kinda hard to chop on my new case ,but is is a
nessecity.THE FANMAN:cool:

[Kino]

its good to always remember that these stock grills also make fans louder, since they work harder to push air trough them and airflow makes this annoying high pitched noise

[JDXNC]

I always cut them out and replace them will wire grills. I am an avid supporter of some form of grill though... USE THEM, if you don't, don't cry when you get your finger in one!

[Ritalin]

how do you recommend cutting them out?
what tools?
pics please...

[JDXNC]

Dremel or hole saw works best. Hole saw with a little oil makes a nice clean, perfectly round cut.

[Ageeb]

I went to home depot and got the cheapest dremel with a circle cutting jig (59.99 I think) and a carbide bit. Worked like charm! With all my fans as low as possible I have an idle of 22c.

[Ritalin]

guys, i bought a dremel today and had to bring it back cuz it didnt have anything to cut metal or anything. Please post pics!

[stan03]

Originally posted by Ritalin
guys, i bought a dremel today and had to bring it back cuz it didnt have anything to cut metal or anything. Please post pics!

what exactly do you want pics of? there are bits that you get with the dremel. they look like brown circular discs. those are the cutting bits. if you read the manual you can find the part number to the correct bit. then you go out and buy it, or if you got an expensive version of the dremel, you should have gotten some included.

Originally posted by LxOxSxI
I went to home depot and got the cheapest dremel with a circle cutting jig (59.99 I think) and a carbide bit. Worked like charm! With all my fans as low as possible I have an idle of 22c.

whats your ambient temp?:eek: my room itself is like 25C.... you must have a cold room:D

[Ageeb]

get the dremel again and pick up the carbide bit (additional 9 bucks or so). It is without saying the easiest tool to work with. Although, I was working with aluminum. Steel, on the other hand, may need something different.

LxOxSxI

[stan03]

i thought you were supposed to cut metal with the discs....

[Recnelis]

Dremel is the easiest way to do it but not the only way. I used to remove the grills the old fashioned way. With some cutting pliers and a (dont know the english word) Metal vile;rasp (you know a long thing you move back and forth over the ridges till they are gone) If you do get a dremel and you are new at it I suggest you get a hobby tool with a relatively low RPM they are easier to control then the serious hardcole 15000 RPm+ powertool

The advantage of the clipping the grill with a set of pliers is that there are no little metal parts releases so you can do it without emptying the case. Big disadvantages is ugly and VERY sharp edges.

*edit* maybe people should try to get the idea accross to case manufactureres to just make round holes at the fan positions. The could just leave the holes filled with plate that is attached at two sides much like they do with the square pieces of metal blocking the drive bays. This way people could just push the metal out when they want to make use of the fanhole.

[PachManP]

Originally posted by JDXNC
I always cut them out and replace them will wire grills. I am an avid supporter of some form of grill though... USE THEM, if you don't, don't cry when you get your finger in one!

I want to reiterate USE grills!!! Was playing around with one to get the wiring right and whacked my finger which left a nasty deep gash and my fan broke:( .

I don't know about Al cases but if you have a steel case and you dremel use the heavy duty cutting bits or the reinforced ones because the regular ones get eaten through really fast.

[dalilman52]

and another tidbit of advice, use the speed's power on the tool when cutting with the dremel, dont put too much pressure or it will eat thru the cutting disc faster, plus the motor will go out easier this way, but u can press down REALLY hard if u wanna go out and buy another dremel :)
________
Small-Block Engine (http://www.chevy-wiki.com/wiki/Chevrolet_Small-Block_engine)

[CoolRunnings]

Anyone ever done this with a rotozip? Those things kick butt against a dremel! The motor is way more powerful.