Chenming Entry Level Mod - Advice Needed

[RetroGrade]

Hello, I have a Chenming Entry Level Sever case like this one witha a window and its blue rather than yellow... You may need Flash to view it.
http://www.chenming.com/601ae/601ael.htm

I plan to drill out a blowhole on the top for a fan and drill the acrylic for a fan as well. Currently I have two 80mm fans in the front near the bottom and HDD rack blowing in and two 80mm fans near back pushing out. Each fan pushes about 30 cfm of air. My PSU has a 92mm fan and 80mm fan blowing hot air out of the case. My CPU is cooled by Zalman AlCu. (Don't know any good free image uploading service, otherwise I would post some pics of current setup and thoughts.) Well, enough about cooling!

What kind of tools would I need to cut out the blow hole on the top and what would I need to cut the acrylic? I want to do a decent job but I have no clue of what cutting tools to use and tecniques to do so. Any advice and tecniques would be helpful! On a smaller note, what sized fans should I use?

 

[ClarkKent]

Bigger the fan the more air moved for less sound. So I'd go with bigger fans. 120's if they fit and look good. I used a holesaw to cut my fan holes in metal. Worked perfectly and it looks great. Don't know about acrylic though. Do you have a dremel?

 

[Nightingale]

or if you already have a dremel or jigsaw then just cover the area top with masking tape(protects the finish) and then mark out the hole and cut it freehand. Just leave a little bit of material in from your mark lines so you can file the hole smooth.

 

[Tekko]

Tip:
for a 120mm fan just use a CD as template for the hole, then file soomth, did it, got a perfect size hole.

 

[RetroGrade]

Alright, thanks for the pointers. I do have a dremel so I can use that to cut everything. I'm assuming for acrylic I just have to use a slow setting and be very careful not to mess up the window or is there something else to it?

 

[Nightingale]

for acrylic I use full speed and just sand down the edges when I am done. Anyhow good luck with your modding.

 

[Hookem]

Dremel also sells a circle cutter attachment...I have found them great for cutting holes in lexan, acrylic.

For blow holes I agree with ClarkKent...Buy a hole saw...You can get one at Lowes for under 20 bucks.

Another thing I like to do to the Antec/Chieftechs is installing 92m/m fans...I just use side cutter pliers, tin snips, a couple of files drill and a couple of drill bits...Talk about pumpin up the jam...Really the best option for increasing cooling...And hey not many people do it.

So not only will your case cool way better than using 80's...You be cool too !!!!

Scroll down on this link and you can see 2 92's installed in a 1080AMG

Linky

Gotta give props to Larva...Saw a picture of his case with the 92's.

 

[RetroGrade]

Nice fan mod but I have nice 80mm with LEDs and I don't wanna retire them as of yet. However, I may need to put in the 92mms to balance air flow in and out of the case but all I really want to do is top blow hole and side because case temps and CPU temps are pretty high with 7 80mm fans and 2 92 mm (including PSU, CPU cooler, and pci slot cooler)! Time to go get some tools...

 

[Hookem]

On those cases I really like to set them up with negative pressure...You can keep your two LED lighted fans in the back and put 2 92's up front...Really help keep the dust out of your system.

I can post some pics of how I go about mounting the 92's up front if you are intrested.

 

[RetroGrade]

Yeah, that could work too. I'll have to scrap the two included fans or put them in my ghetto P4 1.5 system. I would like to see how you mounted the fans if its not too much of a hassle.