Fitting a 120mm fan in the 5.25" drive bays

[suszterpatt]

Are there any other kits that let you do this beside the Scythe Kama?

http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?Item=N82E16835185020

I'd like some extra front intake, but this thing has several flaws (weak fan, undersized bracket, shoddy build quality), and I couldn't find any affordable alternatives. There are a few items out there that add HD bays behind the fan, but these cost a lot more than a simple fan, and I don't need more HD bays.

How hard would it be to mount a fan like this manually, and how does one go about it?

This will be for a Centurion 534 case btw.

 

[Zepper]

A lot of the Centurion cases have mesh bay filler plates, so just hot-glue 3 of them together and mount your fan up to the back of them. That's a workable solution with little cost besides the fan. If the flow is restricted by the bay filler plates, just cut a 4.5" hole thru them and put some kind of filter over the hole.

Beyond that, the new Cooler Master HDD rack looks nice, but come with a weak, but fairly quiet fan and isn't that expensive here (about the same as the KamaBay):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817993002

.bh.

 

[ChefJoe]

Once upon a time I took two bay covers, marked the spot for a 80mm fan in the center, then dremel-ed out a hole (only a small rib of the bay cover connected the two sides of each cover). I then put in holes for a fan grill and used the fan screws through the grill, the bay cover, and into the fan to hold it all together. It actually worked really well at keeping my hard drives cool (had them on 3.5-5.25" adapter rails right behind the fan).

A 120mm fan is pretty much the same size as 3 of those covers so my trick would work, except the middle cover would have to be glued to the top and bottom covers (or it could just be omitted in many cases).

 

[suszterpatt]

The CoolerMaster one looks nice apart from the fact that a third of the space is blocked off in favor of a logo . Unfortunately, it's not very available where I live.


However, I found this Thermaltake which is very similar to the CM one, and I could get it too:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...E16811999141&Tpk=icage

This is actually so cheap that I could buy one of those GlacialTech SilentBlade fans I love so much and replace the built-in TT fan with it, and not pay more than I wold for the Scythe Kama.


Now the only question is, if I have 5 5.25" bays, do I put this on the bottom 3 or top 3 slots? Which would be better for temps/airflow? Right now I'm leaning towards top so it will vent out hot air gathered in the top of the case.

 

[Zepper]

The iCage isn't finished on the front, so you'd want to mount it so it fit in behind the bay filler plates and the drive mounting in the 5" bays in the Centurion cases isn't all that flexible. IIRC they don't give you any option other than the standard, so the fan may be too far forward to fit behind the bay fillers.

.bh.

 

[suszterpatt]

I'll probably remove the bay plates anyway, mesh or not. I don't need anything other than a dust filter to inhibit airflow.