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Fan Holes, Case Cooling/Cutting |
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Written by Dan
Sunday, February 20, 2000
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Page 1 of 4 Introduction
With modern PCs, cooling isn't an option, it's a necessity. I'm not just talking about CPUs or video cards -- you should have additional cooling in your case. Fortunately there are several affordable cooling solutions available that really help solve the heat problems in your case. However, if you're just putting a big fan in your case without any sort of extra ventilation you're not going to get the most of your fan. This guide will help you decide on what size fan to purchase or use, where to place the fans, and it will show you how to cut holes in your case to maximize airflow.
Note - This guide was written with the assumption that your case is fully assembled with all the front/back/top/side pieces in place. Take caution when following this guide. We take no responsibility for damage it may cause!
Parts Checklist
Maybe you like your PC and you spent a lot of money on it, but in this guide you're going to cut it up and screw holes into it. Is that a problem? Here are the parts you'll need to get started with your cooling system:
-At least 1 fan:I recommend an 80mm fan or larger to help move a lot of air. Just remember that the bigger the fan is, the bigger the hole in your case needs to be. Also keep in mind that the more fans you add, the more power you're going to draw from your power supply. For this article, I used a Card Cooler, disassembled into its parts: two 80mm fans. The rails and screws were not used. You can find an 80mm fan at a computer store, radio shack, etc., or you can do what I did and just take The Card Cooler and rip it to pieces. -As many bolts and nuts as are required to mount the fan(s) completely:As I mentioned above, for this article we used two 80mm fans and the perfect bolt size was: 6-32 x 1 1/2". These can be purchased at a hardware store for very cheap (maybe a dollar or two for all the bolts and nuts you'll need). -Fan grills (optional):Not only do grills protect your fingers and other objects from getting chopped by your fans; they also make the case cutting job look damn snazzy and professional. We got grills from The Card Cooler Shop. The price is $3 for 80mm, $3.25 for 120mm. Wait till you see pictures of the finished product and you'll want some! :)
That's all for the required parts. Remember, all we're doing in this article is mounting fans and cutting holes for them.
Tools Checklist
The tools will be harder to come by than the parts, most likely. You'll need ONLY ONE of the following to cut the holes:
-Round, metal cutting blade for a drill (and a drill, of course):If you have a drill and want a perfect round hole and you have money to spare, you can head down to the hardware store and buy a circular blade made for cutting metal holes. These are quite expensive and when we went to the store to check prices, they ranged from about $15 for a 60mm or 80mm size to $25 for a 120mm size. -"Dremel" style tool with metal cutting blades and grinding wheel:This is what we used for this article. If you have a Dremel style tool, we recommend this method because it's pretty fast and gives a nice even circle if you're careful. Here's what our tool looked like:
Here are what the metal cutting blades look like:
See the size of the piece in the center compared to the others? That's how small these babies get after about 5 minutes of cutting. And they break sometimes too, so wear safety goggles! :) -Jigsaw with metal cutting blade:A jigsaw works pretty good for this task if none of the other cutting tools are available. Make sure it has a metal cutting blade. If you don't have one, they cost about $2.00 or so from a hardware store. Here's the metal cutting blade we purchased:
And here's the ol' jigsaw:
-Drill with metal bits (optional):If you're cutting in a place that doesn't already have holes for your bolts, you will need to drill holes. This is a very easy task if you have a drill and metal cutting drill bits. Find a drill bit that's approximately the same size as the bolts, then put the fan in place and hold it very secure. Drill through the fan's mounting holes and into the metal. It may take a little pressure to get it through. When you're done, smooth around both sides (inside and out) where the metal may have popped up a bit. In addition to having one of the cutting tools mentioned above (and possibly a drill), it would be a good idea to use something to smooth the edges when you're finished. We used a Makita drill with a large wire brush bit. This smoothed the edges so you could touch them without feeling any rough edges. A fine metal file will also do the trick. There are other tools that can be used, of course. Be creative...
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