where to put radiator.....

i own an Aspire XSuperAlien case seen here

I want to buy Dtek Pro Core with 120mm Fan, but i cannot place it in the bottom front of the case, as Aspire made the HDD cage unremoveble.....


problem is...i cant cut it away with dremel cuz it is the only place where i can mount my HDD (the 5.25 racks are too wide)


i like to ask if its ok for me to mount the radiator on the top 5.25" racks, like so:

would this setup interfere with the airflow in the rest of the case? i have 2 80mm front bottom drawing air into case, 2 80mm in rear exhaust fans, 1 side fan, and one fan on top of case blowing air out

Even if you could dremel... I wouldn't want to hack up that case. That said, I would not reccommend a vertical 5.25 bay HC rig. Even for a single 120 HC you will have NO drives left. In this case you could either hack the HD cage to pieces and use 3.5 to 5.25 converter shims to house your drives in the optical cage, or mount it in a blowhole config on the roof. If you managed to cleanly get the cage out, you could even do a dual 120 HC with shrouded fans puling in from the back side of the case and shrouded fans exhausting out the front side panel, completely isolating HC heat. Giblet Plus has an excellent rig employing this same sort of idea.

Alternatively you could make use of the new swiftech craze, those insane exterior mounted single HC brackets, but I personally hate exterior mountings.

There are many options, but if you just got the case you probably would rather not begin hacking it all to pieces just yet.

Good luck,

on top?

yes, he already has an 80mm blowhole, he could extend that diameter to 120 and mount his HC on the inside of the roof with the fan pulling air out and up through the blowhole. Additionally, for 1-2C better temps he could have another 120mm fan pushing air form bottom of HC, but he may run into motherboard interference with that, and its a waste of money IMO

Edit ^^^^^ That could work, all he would have to do is put anything in the 5.25bays in the bottom slots and extend the hole towards the front of the case, not enough room the other way with most PSUs


They sell mounts to put HDDs in 5.25 bays... I have the same case, I cut the hdd racks out and mounted a dual 120 heatercore with shroud in a pull setup there. That HDD rack has a ton of rivets in it though and is a royal pain to get out. So you might just want to take an easier route. Good luck with whatever you decide.

what about multiple rads...........just a thought

i have a raidmax scorpio and i too have no room, sooooooooooooooooooooooo

mount it outside

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/MCB-120.asp#

it should have more performance right? since its getting fresh air?

The downside to that solution is that travel with the case is a pain in the *** unless you not only want to bleed fully, but also dismantle basically all of your WC rig. For me, the major impetus against those swiftech rad boxes is that even with my silenX 120's, I want some case to be a buffer between me and the whisper whoosh of air.