Cheiftec Case Breather...

Hey peoples,

I have a cheiftec case, the usual one that everyone has with the door and all. Well my question is if it would be greately benifical if I cut out a bit of the front of my case so that the air going through the radiator could get our smoothly(see image below). Right now my configureation pushed air from inside the case through the rad out the front gril of the case. I would pull air in but that would also bring in dust because my case is on the floor and our house is a very dusty place.

I have the proper tools to cut the front metal portion out but I don't have like any filter to put over the front so I believe sucking in through the rad isn practical at this time...

Currently I get like 32c idle and 36c under full load, and I want better temps than that. What do you think I could do?

TC-4 Poly Top
Chevette Heatercore w/ Tupperware Shroud
Maxijet 1000
Athlon XP 1700+ / Model(is this the Model known for its ability to overclock really well?)

36c load is not bad at all. However if you want to do that you can get some filter material and put it in a wood or plastic "frame" and mount that in front of the rad move the rad back an appropriate amount and remount it. I have found dust to be much less of a problem than i thought it was going to be. Clean the case every couple of months and there should not be much of a problem unless your doing 100+ cfm through this thing. YMMV

Rich

what does YMMV mean?

Umm... my fan is rated at 100 CFM....but no fan does as much as it the manufacturer tells you it will

Looking for more input from others too

Hmmm...I think you'd be better off switching to intake and using a dust filter. I've found that the air conditioning filters found at hardware stores do a really good job of that. Combined with a little hardware cloth (that square wire mesh stuff) and you have a pretty good intake filter. That's what I use on my similar case.

So that IS a Chevette core...I have one mounted in the same place. If I were you, I would try to cut a little more metal out all around - give it as much surface area to let air out (or to draw from) as possible.

You could always add another fan, making it a push/pull setup. That will probably drop your temps a couple degrees. Also if your not using some then put shrouds on the fans.

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

Since the air inside the case is hotter than outside. I agree with using the fan to pull air inside instead of pushing. You could always try the old pantyhose trick for a dust filter. The pantyhose would be great with a radiator because it wouldn't get cought in the fan blades.

wannaoc said:

You could always add another fan, making it a push/pull setup. That will probably drop your temps a couple degrees. Also if your not using some then put shrouds on the fans.

Click to expand...

I am already using a shroud.

Thanks for the input guys, keep it coming if you have something valuable to share.