Enlight 7237 Mods w/Pics

[vicwang]

Just thought I'd share my latest case mods with everyone. Altogether they only took a couple hours and made a pretty big improvement in cooling capability.

First I enlarged the airholes in the front panel to allow for more unrestricted airflow. As you can see in the pic, they were originally little more than pinpricks. By using a Dremel tool to drill out each hole, I increased the "area" of the holes by about 10X while still maintaining a factory built appearance.

Case Holes

Next I used wire cutters to cut away the front grille covering the intake. Although it's not in the pic, I also removed the grill covering the exhaust.

Before

I then used the nibbler tool to remove enough metal to accomodate a 120mm fan, and drilled one screwhole (the upper-left one in the next pic) to attach the fan. By sheer coincidence, the bottom-right hole lined up perfectly, so there was no need for additional holes. After putting a filter over the grill, I was set.

After

That mod worked pretty well, but a few things about it were a little annoying. First was the fact that the gold grill was somewhat elevated, and not flush with the hole. This allowed air to seep in around the edges of the filter and made it virtually impossible to filter all the incoming air. And then there was also the fact that it looked like crap.

To fix both problems, I removed the fan grill, found a nice sized piece of cardstock, and used the grill as a stencil to cut a perfectly sized hole. I then used sewing thread to form a makeshift "grill" to prevent the filter from getting sucked in (the suction would be the only thing actually holding the filter on). Unfortunately there was a little too much slack in the threads, so I used rolled-up bundles of electrical tape to tighten them up. I also replaced the 120mm Enermax with a 120mm high-speed Panaflo.

And finally, here's the results:

Without Filter
With Filter

 

[RyanM]

DIY work is always lovely, but wouldn't it look and perform better if you just plopped down 5 bucks on a made-to-fit 120mm filter with built-in grille? Everyone's got 'em, and if you can think of something else you need to buy, it's like you're not paying shipping on it.

Otherwise, admirable work. There's nothing like a 120mm fan to really make the air cry. Only one question - Are the exhaust fans you have capable of moving as much air OUT as your 120mm fan can take IN?

 

[lenjack]

I did the same years ago. I used a panaflo 120 and a filter from 2cooltek. Your filter looks like it may be somewhat obstructive. You may want to drill 5/8 in hloes along the side of the front cover and also add more holes in the front.

 

[vicwang]

"DIY work is always lovely, but wouldn't it look and perform better if you just plopped down 5 bucks on a made-to-fit 120mm filter with built-in grille?"

I assume you're referring to these?

Filters

I tried both types, but I wanted a filter that could be easily cleaned without having to unscrew everything. I like to keep the PC and filter very clean, so I usually wash the filter once every couple weeks. With the pre-made filters it just got to be too much of a hassle, and even still didn't provide as much filtration as I wanted (fine dust particles could still easily enter the case). This way it lets me use pretty much any type of filter I want, and I much prefer being able to clean without having to unscrew anything or even turn the computer off . So what before took at least 5 minutes to unscrew everything then reattach everything now takes something like 5 seconds.

"Only one question - Are the exhaust fans you have capable of moving as much air OUT as your 120mm fan can take IN?"

"Capable" yes, but I do my best to make sure they don't! I try to maintain positive internal pressure at all times to ensure that 100% of the incoming air is filtered and not sucked in through the cracks in the case. At their default speeds the pressure is probably close to neutral, but I have all my fans connected to a rheobus and usually keep the exhaust (80mm medium-speed Panalfo) running at 7 volts to keep the pressure positive.

"Your filter looks like it may be somewhat obstructive."

I actually lost that particular filter when it got accidentally thrown away (I'll miss it) and I am using something that's a little less obstructive now. It's a polyester blanket-like material that I got from Michaels that only cost $4 for a couple square yards worth. I think it's called "bedding material" or something like that.

Anyway my main concern is adequate filtration, moreso than cooling, since I can always turn up the rheostat for additional cooling anyway (I usually only run the 120mm turned up about halfway, at around 9-10 volts). Even still it provides more than enough airflow to maintain positive pressure.