Remove honey comb fangrills?

[Archer36]

Well guys I got a TT Armor this past weekend, removed the stock 120mm's put to SilverStone FN121 which are rated for 53ish CFM. I keep the hard drives in the back of the case by the PSU with the 92mm exhausing along with SS 120mm and the Fortron 120mm, and the top 92mm. For intake I have the front open with just one DVD burner and another FN121 blowing in the case.

My ambient temps down here is around 69.8F ATM and my case temp is sitting at 32C with my CPU at 28C idle, and my NB @ 44C. I have an opteron 146 running at stock volts and speed (Gasp! I know!) with a thermalright SI-120 sitting on top. On top of that I have a Delta WFB1212H rated for 86ish CFM. My IDE cables are all round and I tried my hardest to keep all the cables neat.

So on to the question do you guys feel it would be worthwhile to cut up my new Armor? Moddin.net has some 120mm and 92mm templates that I do believe I have seen floating around on this forum before. I could easily tape those templates on the case lining up the screw holes, pump up the air compressor and pull out the cutoff tool.

Then I would install the circular fan grills that came with the fans, as I seem to remember people believe provide better airflow. I suppose I could post a few pics if that would help too.

Thanks

 

[darkcow]

to remove the grills all you need is some wire cutters or something thats very sharp and very durable. maybe something that cuts into chain link would do the trick. and then get a file and file down the sharp edges.


but honestly on the newer case models the fan grills have gotten significantly better at allowing air to flow thru.

 

[Bios24]

From the pictures the grill doesn't look too restrictive. (I've seen much worse) If it were my case I'd cut it out and use one of these grills. But that's just me, I'm not sure it would be a big difference on a case with already good fan grills.

 

[Diggrr]

I'd leave the grills as they were, and begin distrusting the temp sensor/program that's telling you the case is warmer than the cpu.

 

[athlonhead]

I cut out all my fan grilles and put in a blowhole. The case flows alot of air. I see no reason not to do it if you dont mind taking the computer completly apart.

 

[downer]

I pretty much always cut out fan grills. I use a dremel tool to do it. Takes a little practice. Some grills are easier than others.

 

[maxfly]

I'd leave the grills as they were, and begin distrusting the temp sensor/program that's telling you the case is warmer than the cpu.

i agree with the latter as well.altho i am of the cut em out camp lol.i cut blowholes in all of my cases.if for nothing else than to be able to drop some dbas with bigger high flow fans.

 

[freakdiablo]

I cut out all my fan grilles and put in a blowhole. The case flows alot of air. I see no reason not to do it if you dont mind taking the computer completly apart.

CUSTOM BLOWHOLES 4 LIFE. did the same to my cm centurion. Put in a mad dog high performance fan, gonna replace it though.

 

[Archer36]

I'd leave the grills as they were, and begin distrusting the temp sensor/program that's telling you the case is warmer than the cpu.

I got a DFI lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D, and I am using speedfan.

Are there known issues with the DFI temp sensors?

 

[Diggrr]

Nah, my NF3 seams to be in the ballpark, and speedfan is picking up the correct sensors.
I also use a thermister temp probe which gets about 3C cooler reading than speedfan, but that can just be the placement or thermister calibration or ambient cooling.

It's just that since you're aircooling, there's no way on earth that your CPU can be 2C cooler than the air that's being used to cool it...one or both readings is wrong, if only by a few degrees.
But it's not anything to panic over. Stability is the big factor. If it's running well, your cooling's doing well.

Anyway, your temps don't seem all that bad (pretty darned good actually). And as was pointed out, if your fans are on the noisey side, you can snip the grills to get a little more quiet out of them, but I doubt the airflow would be increased by too aweful much. The honeycomb grills were a great advance over those round hole ones of old.