- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Location
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Inspired by Automiketic's SG02 + H50 Project, I wondered if an H80 could fit the Silverstone SG02-F. What follows isn't exactly a professional build, but hopefully will inspire others to to further experiment with small form factor cases. The Silverstone SG02 is a few years old, but my only gripe about it is that it comes with USB2 and 1394 for the front ports. I plan on hacking those with USB 3 PCB sockets in the future. I planned on using an external DVD drive, as I don't use DVD for much of anything but installing programs.
The front drive bay insert is an EVERCOOL HD-AR-B Iron + Plastics Armor HDD Cooling Box, a 2x 5.25 bay insert HD adapter plus 80mm fan. I used that primarily for the mounting base for the H80. It came with vibrational dampener feet for the HDs, and I thought I would incorporate it to lessen any vibrations and maybe noise from the fans. It may or may not be a useless feature since fans don't vibrate much anyways. I replaced the stock fan with a led fan purely for visual effect, but it does make a 1-2 degree difference as it blows directly on the H80 reservoir. It also comes with a filter which besides filtering dust can moderate the led effect (I didn't use it).
A few tools I used. I used a 4.5 inch holesaw for the internal cuts, but on the fan hole I used a 4 5/8 holesaw because it fit the silverstone fan grill exactly. the 4 5/8 holesaw seems not to be in demand, but I found it at pexsupply.com. I found myself using the dremel alot, especially with a metal cutting bit for rounding out holes. . C-clamps and a back board for the hole drilling are important.
Drilled some into the bottom of the drive bay insert to make room for the rubber vibrational mounts. Cut a square steel plate and marked/center punched it where I needed fan mounting holes, and where I needed to place the hole saw arbor
Drilled my 4.5 inch holes in the adapter plate and on the SG02's HD enclosure
bronze braised the adapter plate to the HD adapter
Painted and fitted the adapter plate. 2/3 of the H80 exhaust will blow down through the SG02 HD enclosure, with the temp moderated by the HD fan blowing from the side. 1/3 will escape into the case where it will be vented also by a side fan. The SG02 has excellent venting on the sides to keep the case interior cool. I might check with a thermal gun to see if the ram temps are a problem but I don't think they will be. I used the dremel to cut out a little more of the HD enclosure perpendicular to the hole cut. Believe it or not, there remains a possibility to mount a 120mm fan + radiator if you wanted further cooling if you were to take out the HD enclosure completely and cut an exhaust hole between the feet of the SG02. Perhaps for the video card. A project for later perhaps..
Although it was probably completely unecessary, I included the HD adapter's rubber anti-vibrational mounts into this project and used some specialized post and screws I found at a local hardware store (Lowes). The posts are bolted to the fan, and are inserted into the rubber grommets. I had to drill and slightly enlarge the fan holes for the posts.
I had done some measuring and figuring on what I needed before I ordered the parts, but once I fitted everything together I realized I failed to take account of the extra width of the H80 reservoir, thinking the whole thing was 120mm wide. So now I have a problem where not only is the HD adapter's fan effective-less as a case fan, but I'm having to cram the H80 up against the power supply (silverstone 850w strider with short cable set). Luckily I was able to modify the silverstone connectors to be recessed inwards more with standoffs and longer screws against the PS case.
Now to line up the hole I'm going to make in the SG02 case. I used a cardboard template of the fan holes
- lined up the H80 assembly where it was going to be permanently screwed into place in the HD bay and placed the cardboard template on top the intake fan.
Had previously drilled some alignment holes in the case cover so that I could spraypaint/pencil mark the cardboard template when the case cover was screwed on in place.
I then took off the cardboard template, lined it up with the drilled holes in the case cover, and taped into place. Now I have a place where I can punch mark where I need the hole saw arbor to go.
The end result looks ok, but not perfect, because there was some wobbling of the hole saw. To do this better next time, I would suggest using a drill press to keep things steady. And because of the wobble and despite the masking tape, some paint came off, so I repainted the case. I used a black gloss spray paint.
This fan grill is the Silverstone FF81B 80mm Fan Filter with Grill. It has a screen which seems pretty restrictive, so I took mine off. I figured it would be more of a nightmare cleaning the tiny screen through the honeycomb grill than just using an aerosol air can and blow things out every once in a while. But I recommend leaving it on at first to see if it suites you and how it affects your temps. I ordered several to test, and got better temps with the screen off. It was kind of dull looking, so I sprayed a clear enamel coat on it. I sprayed black gloss, then several coats of clear enamel on the 5 1/4 hd adapter front screen to match it up with the glossy SG02 face. Let the enamel set for at least 3 days before touching it...
Some additional pics
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