How to install side fan

[AnimalHungry]

First post here, but long time (years!) lurker. I've just upgraded and now have an 8 core CPU and a HD7970 video card that I'm using for some gaming and mining. I have a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream aluminum case which has one fan in front and one behind, as well as the PSU (1000W Corsair) which sucks some hot air out of the case and blows it out the top back of the case.

I'm about to install a Kuhler 620 water cooler to the 7970 GPU and will mount the radiator/fan in the existing rear fan slot below the PSU. What I want to do is get more cool air in there so I was thinking of cutting a hole in the side of my case and mounting a 120mm fan there. However, this side panel is the panel I remove all the time to get inside my case - it has quick release catches and just pops off - so if I mount a fan to it I'll have the fan attached to the side panel and the fan power cable tethering the side panel to the motherboard. This is obviously not ideal, so does anyone have any ideas or pictures (even better!) as to what I should do to avoid the new fan cable tethering my removable side panel to the motherboard? E.g. can you somehow make a bracket to mount the fan to the floor of the case v close to the side panel and then cut a hole in the side panel (covered with wire mesh) to line up with the new fan? Or is that a terrible idea? lol

Cheers
Simon

 

[Mandrake4565]

AnimalHungry Welcome!
First and foremost what board are you putting the I'm assuming FX 8xxx series chip on?

I had a look at the case you have, does it have a solid aluminum panel on the side? The one I looked at had a side panel window. From the looks of it, you do not have many options for adding fans other then the doors. You may be able to mod one into the floor of it. One of my cases has a fan on the door essentially tethered to the fan controller. While it's a little but of a pain when taking the door off which I do often it's not that big of a deal.

Another option a few of us have done due to the excessive amounts of heat the FX's generate, is cut a hole in the motherboard tray behind where the motherboard socket sits. Then also mod the right side door directly behind that and put a fan there also. It will help keep the socket temps down, mine dropped 12c doing this.

One more mod some have done, especially when using H20, is to mount 50mm fans on the VRM and NB heatsinks. When using h20 these heatsinks do not get as much air passing across them as they would when using an Air cooler. This will help keep them cooler, assuming that the board has them, I'm hoping and praying it does.

 

[Johan45]

First post here, but long time (years!) lurker. I've just upgraded and now have an 8 core CPU and a HD7970 video card that I'm using for some gaming and mining. I have a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream aluminum case which has one fan in front and one behind, as well as the PSU (1000W Corsair) which sucks some hot air out of the case and blows it out the top back of the case.

I'm about to install a Kuhler 620 water cooler to the 7970 GPU and will mount the radiator/fan in the existing rear fan slot below the PSU. What I want to do is get more cool air in there so I was thinking of cutting a hole in the side of my case and mounting a 120mm fan there. However, this side panel is the panel I remove all the time to get inside my case - it has quick release catches and just pops off - so if I mount a fan to it I'll have the fan attached to the side panel and the fan power cable tethering the side panel to the motherboard. This is obviously not ideal, so does anyone have any ideas or pictures (even better!) as to what I should do to avoid the new fan cable tethering my removable side panel to the motherboard? E.g. can you somehow make a bracket to mount the fan to the floor of the case v close to the side panel and then cut a hole in the side panel (covered with wire mesh) to line up with the new fan? Or is that a terrible idea? lol

Cheers
Simon

Why not make a vent in the bottom of the case with a dremmel and a drill. and mount the Khuler in the bottom. use a fan for a template. You'll need the air flow through the case at the top for the CPU.

 

[AnimalHungry]

AnimalHungry Welcome!
First and foremost what board are you putting the I'm assuming FX 8xxx series chip on?

I had a look at the case you have, does it have a solid aluminum panel on the side? The one I looked at had a side panel window. From the looks of it, you do not have many options for adding fans other then the doors. You may be able to mod one into the floor of it. One of my cases has a fan on the door essentially tethered to the fan controller. While it's a little but of a pain when taking the door off which I do often it's not that big of a deal.

Another option a few of us have done due to the excessive amounts of heat the FX's generate, is cut a hole in the motherboard tray behind where the motherboard socket sits. Then also mod the right side door directly behind that and put a fan there also. It will help keep the socket temps down, mine dropped 12c doing this.

One more mod some have done, especially when using H20, is to mount 50mm fans on the VRM and NB heatsinks. When using h20 these heatsinks do not get as much air passing across them as they would when using an Air cooler. This will help keep them cooler, assuming that the board has them, I'm hoping and praying it does.

Thanks Mandrake. I've actually already built the PC and I'm using a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 mobo with an FX-8350 AMD CPU. I have my old Tuniq Tower Extreme 120 cooler on the CPU which I LOVE - been using it for years and it's just a great cooler. The Kuhler 620 will go on the GPU.

I don't have a side vent or anything in the side panel - it's plain aluminum (see photo - forgive the cable mess, I haven't tidied them up cos I'm gonna be installing the water cooler which will change it all). However, the case sits on 20 mm feet and I have nothing on the floor of the case, so I could just cut out a hole in the floor and mount a fan there which will blow directly onto the video card. I'm getting a bracket from dwood to mount the 620's heatsink onto the GPU which also has a 92mm fan bracket to blow onto the video card's RAM. My card is a Sapphire which already has decent heatsinks on the RAM chips. I'm just looking for a way to get more cool air into the case because the front fan is pretty well restricted by the ridiculous front door (it's a double door arrangement where the first door locks and the second door is free to open to access the power/reset and optical drives, but it severely restricts air flow to the fan).

Anyhow, I really like the floor fan idea. Thanks!

Cheers
Simon

edit - just noticed you can see my dawg in the case reflection

 

[AnimalHungry]

Why not make a vent in the bottom of the case with a dremmel and a drill. and mount the Khuler in the bottom. use a fan for a template. You'll need the air flow through the case at the top for the CPU.

Thanks Johan. So I'm assuming the Kuhler would blow down thru the new case fan in the floor? Then I'd keep my top rear case fan (the one with the blue bezel on it in the photo) to pump hot air out of the case.

Cheers
Simon

 

[Mandrake4565]

What are your temps like with that heatsink? I think I'd have the Khuler drawing air in. Reason being from the looks of what the air flow may be front to back, I would think the Khuler fan would be disrupting the air flow. It may not be that big of a deal, only testing it would really determine it.

 

[Conumdrum]

Put the 620 at the bottom using outside air blowing in the case.

Get a high CFM fan, nothing really crazy.

Think about a top fan cut into the case top to pull hot air.

That case looks beat up. Buy a better case this time.

 

[AnimalHungry]

What are your temps like with that heatsink? I think I'd have the Khuler drawing air in. Reason being from the looks of what the air flow may be front to back, I would think the Khuler fan would be disrupting the air flow. It may not be that big of a deal, only testing it would really determine it.

CPU temp is 58C under max load. The hottest part of my case is currently just above the video card, but that will of course change when I get the Kuhler in there. As I understand it, you want a positive pressure in the case caused by the front fan (intake) sucking in more air than the exhaust fans are blowing. Currently, I'm pretty sure that the front fan isn't creating that positive pressure because the case isn't that well vented in the front, while it's very well vented in the rear with the rear exhaust fan and PSU both blowing out. So mounting the Kuhler fan/rad on the floor with it sucking more air into the case might create a positive pressure. Of course my only concern with this is that when it draws cool air over the rad it'll be heating up that cool air and blowing it into the case. Haven't seen a Kuhler in action so I don't know whether this is a legitimate concern.

Alternatively, I could mount the Kuhler in the front of the case sucking air in and then mount a new intake fan in the floor of the case to suck extra cool air in. This would put some distance between the Kuhler fan/rad, which is now blowing warm air into the case, and the video card and CPU which are the main heat sources. Does the Kuhler need unrestricted airflow in order to cool down the radiator? If so, then it can't go in front and will have to go on the floor.

Cheers,
Simon

 

[AnimalHungry]

Put the 620 at the bottom using outside air blowing in the case.

Get a high CFM fan, nothing really crazy.

Think about a top fan cut into the case top to pull hot air.

That case looks beat up. Buy a better case this time.

I could add a top fan, but the heat really doesn't get up there (heat rises?) - I think the hot air is really sucked out the back of the case by the rear fan and the PSU before it has a chance to get to the top of the case, so not sure a top fan would help much. If anything, it would just reduce the air pressure in the case as the intake fan at the front is fairly restricted.

The case is old, but those marks on the side are just dust and it still shines up good. Funnily enough, when I bought it (in 2002!) it was a top of the range case. For these days it's lacking a couple of fan holes and any concept of cable management, but I still like it and see no need to change it out any time soon.

Cheers,
Simon

 

[Mandrake4565]

58c under max load

is that at stock clocks and what load are we talking about?

Anyhoo, I hear you on the Old Case being top of the line at one time and it still looking good and all. Just an FYI, I have a really nice case from 06 that still looks good and functions well. It had dual 80mm's in the front one up top and a 120mm in the rear. When I took my overclocked 955be out of it and put it in a Rosewill Blackhawk midtower, which received really good reviews for it's ability to keep things cool, my temps dropped 10c.

 

[jcochran]

Reading this thread and just came up with an idea on how to power a side mounted fan. What would prevent having two or more plates insulted from the side cover and wired to a fan mounted in the side cover, and corresponding spring loaded pins inside the case that would press against each plate in the side cover? Something like this? http://www.coda-systems.co.uk/catalog/New catalogue.pdf From what I can see, those items are made with reasonable current ratings like 4 or more amperes, so should have no problems with handling a fan or two.

Doing something like that would allow for the side cover to be completely removal-able, yet allow the fan to have power when the case is closed.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I'm sure it could be done jcochran and Welcome btw. Post some pictures when you're done

 

[AnimalHungry]

is that at stock clocks and what load are we talking about?

Anyhoo, I hear you on the Old Case being top of the line at one time and it still looking good and all. Just an FYI, I have a really nice case from 06 that still looks good and functions well. It had dual 80mm's in the front one up top and a 120mm in the rear. When I took my overclocked 955be out of it and put it in a Rosewill Blackhawk midtower, which received really good reviews for it's ability to keep things cool, my temps dropped 10c.

Yeah that's stock clocks - I'll work on the OC when I get the GPU water cooled and have all my fans in place so I can monitor temps properly. I used the CPU stress test in Everest and left it running for 10 mins and checked the temps for an idea of max load temps.

I hear ya on the case. That Rosewill looks REALLY nice! And I can totally believe it drops temps by 10C. If I was a bigger OCer or gamer then I'd be all over that, but I'll put it on the upgrade list for later. Thanks!

 

[AnimalHungry]

Reading this thread and just came up with an idea on how to power a side mounted fan. What would prevent having two or more plates insulted from the side cover and wired to a fan mounted in the side cover, and corresponding spring loaded pins inside the case that would press against each plate in the side cover? Something like this? http://www.coda-systems.co.uk/catalog/New catalogue.pdf From what I can see, those items are made with reasonable current ratings like 4 or more amperes, so should have no problems with handling a fan or two.

Doing something like that would allow for the side cover to be completely removal-able, yet allow the fan to have power when the case is closed.

Nice idea. For this build I'm gonna start out with a new fan/the Kuhler in the floor then see how the temps are. Will definitely look into this if I still need a side fan.

Cheers
Simon

 

[OBLIVIONLORD]

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