[Capt Fiero]

Well with my new wheels on my case it is almost 3 inches off of the floor now. A compu tech friend was over today helping me with some security stuff and he noted that I could actully put Under Case intake holes on my machine now. They could go right under the hard drives blowing onto them. I had never thought to do that. I am going to buy some tile or hard plastic for the wheels to roll on and to keep it off of the carpet.


So has anyone else ever put a fan or more than one fan, UNDER there case with an intake sucking air in. This should be a great source of shaded cool air.

[Wangster]

Try it and let us know what your temp differences are!

I've often wondered about adding more intake fans from the bottom since the window looks better without fans attached to them.

[Obsidian]

I'm thinking og this right now, since i have no pci cards at all what i',m thinking of doing is putting a 120mm intake on the underside and then ducting the air from that intake directly to the gpu. I'm building a box out of plexi to set the entire case ontop off. I will have 2 120mm fans sucking in air and through filters in the plexi box giving me nice clean cool air for the intake on the case bottom

[Robin Hood]

I have two 80's in the base blowing up and it helps the case temps no end - though this partly due to the fact that the mobo thermister is right in their path. I have less ground clearance and no filters, which is not ideal - though my HSF is ducted elsewhere.

[macklin01]

I think it's a super idea! A bottom intake will have much less obstruction than a front panel intake in most cases. -- Paul

[OSUmaxx]

I would definitely use good filters so you don't suck up lots of dust off of the floor. A switch to turn them off might be a good feature to add if you plan on taking your case places where there might be deep carpet, etc.

[Capt Fiero]

Ok now the question is where should I put it. Would there be more benefit if it was right under the hard drives. (I have 3) or should I put it between the hard drives and the PCI cards so it blows up onto video card. If it is under the hard drives no one will see it, if I put it in between the HD and PCI cards it will be out in the open.

Hmm decisions decisions decisions.

I have the drill, the hole-saw and all my tools sitting here.

[macklin01]

Hmmm. I think that no matter where you put it, it's generally going to effect a bottom-to-top/back airflow pattern, which is desirable. Because airflow tends to diffuse with distance, I would think that even if the fan isn't directly under the hdd, it will still get some of that additional airflow, and since hard drives are relatively cool (compared to CPU, vid card, etc.), it will probably be enough.

Perhaps towards the center, slightly towards the front?

What size / CFM air you planning upon? -- Paul

[Capt Fiero]

I have lost the spec card for the fans I use, but I belive the specs were

80mm Fan (I know that for sure)

2500rpm
30cfm
Tri Colour LED Fan

I am really trying to work more towards component cooling right now. As my case temps almost never go above room temp and my CPU right now is 27C. I wish I had a way to moniter just the vid card temps.

Well that is the specs on the fan and I think I am leaning towards your recomendation of middle of the case, but slightly towards the front.

[macklin01]

Wow, you already have excellent case temps. That is quite impressive. What is your room temp?

You might consider using a larger fan -- higher CFM's for lower airflow.

You might also consider trying to duct from the size of the case directly to your vid card, if you're concerned about that.

As for vid card temps, you can actually create a temp probe that MBM can read and connect it via your gameport. See http://thermogamer.vortex.idz.net/ for details.

-- Paul

[Capt Fiero]

That is a pretty cool little setup using your game port to moniter card temps. I guess everybody just uses USB gamming devices now a day's.

As for my room temps. It is usually around 19C give or take a bit over the cource of the day. In the early morning I will find the MB to be at 18C and the CPU at 22C but as the day goes on the MB will climb to 23C and the cpu to 27-28C my case temps are helped alot by 2 things. 1st I have a total of 10 fans in my machine. 2nd it is sitting right next to a large glass slidding door. The glass door gets rather cool and all the intake fans love the cool air near the door.


I have noted that my HD's and my Video card are very warm to the touch when I have been working on the system "Live"

When I get this mod done I will post pics. I might just install 2 fans. Not sure yet. I am taking my time with this one.

[james.miller]

ive got an 80mm fan at the bottom-front of my case. cools the drive surprisingly well and the system as a whole

[macklin01]

Good call -- always take your time when decidign where to cut the case. Good luck, and have fun! -- Paul

PS: I take it noise is not an issue for you?

[Capt Fiero]

Originally posted by macklin01
Good call -- always take your time when decidign where to cut the case. Good luck, and have fun! -- Paul

PS: I take it noise is not an issue for you?

LOL, noise what noise I can't hear a thing over this darned computer.


Seriously though, it is suprisnly quite. All the fans are running 3000rpm or below. The 2 fans in the PSU are temp controlled and rarley ever go over 1600rpms. Unless I have everything in my room turned off I never really even notice the fan noise.

There is only one machine in my room than can make enough noise that you can hear it really loudly. That is the 120mm fan in one of my other machines. It is running on 13v external power. I had to put a switch on it to shut it off when not needed. Sounds like an air raid siren.

If you are interested, here are the pics of my fans

http://www.david.westcoastfieros.com/fanpics

Please let me know if the link does not work, we just did some serious upgrades to the server software.

[Capt Fiero]

Well I went ahead and did it, case temps dont seem to be too changed but the CPU seems to be running a bit cooler. I tried UT2003 and the normal max was 38-40c this time it maxed out at 35C. It will take me a few days of playing with machine to really see if it made a "hole" lot of diffrence. HeHe, well here are the small pics, there are more at the link below. I added a grill to the inside of case so that wires and stuff wont drop down and get caught in there, let alone my fingers.


I shrunk these down to 50k each.









Other Pics can be seen at

http://www.david.westcoastfieros.com/bottomhole

[john240sx]

please tell me you didn't drill that hole with everything still in the case.......

[Capt Fiero]

BUT

I did remove and hold back all wiring and cables that had any chance of getting caught up. Plus I had small hand towls inside the case to cover and or catch anything debree that might have had a chance to fall out. PLUS

The way this hole saw cuts, and this is the only reason I would ever try doing it with the machine still together is, the way the teeth cut they draw all the filings into the saw, when I removed the towls from the indside, there was almost ZERO on them. However the large towl on the outside was coverd in stuff.

Oh

I know that i said I was using a tri colour fan, but it turns out I am out of them at the moment, I just ordered 3 more of them plus 4 more grills. They will be here in a few days. I am slowly converting all the fans in my machine to the Tri Colour fans. Brings new meaning to "Light Up My World"

[NiTrO bOiE]

That will suck up all the dust thats on your floor...

[macklin01]

nice placement! (and nice hole-cutting drill! It took me forever to cut mine with a dremel ... LOL

I understand your temps -- you have probably the same ambient temps inside, but bring a little bit more fresh air towards the CPU HSF. Also, I believe you're taking more airflow directly over it, thereby better removing the exhaust air from the HSF.

Nice work! -- Paul

*edit* Makes me wonder how a blowhole topside would work for you -- instead of the traditional front-to-back airflow, you get bottom-to-top airflow. Interesting! -- Paul

*edit* a good point. As has been mentioned before, you'll want to make sure you get a very good filter on that. -- Paul

[Capt Fiero]

Ok it looks like my IP has been banned again. Crap Jesh, so the pics may not load correctly.

The links should work if you plug em into you browser.

Someone keeps doing some sort of port scanning and they must be using my IP addy some how.


David
Getting real iritated at whoever is screwing with me.