help, my WaveMaster case can't breath

[jasonja]

I just got the CoolerMaster Wavemaster and I don't think this case has ample intake ventilation. The two intake fans are fairly low speed and when putting your hand in the HD bays you can hardly feel any air coming in. They also seem to be placed a bit far into the case, not close to the intake grille. The rear exhaust fan in very nice and my PS exhaust fan is decent but on the slow and silent side. The problem comes when I close it all up the case seems to have trouble pulling fresh air in fast enough to satisfy the exhaust. This creates a vacuum effect and the whole thing gets kind of noisy and sometimes vibrates.

If I crack the side panel a bit it gets much better. I also took off some slot covers and this helps it out a lot, but neither of these is the elegant solution I wanted. Being that this is a very nice and expensive case, how can I get more air into the case without hacking it up and ruining it's sexy exterior?

 

[MichaelD]

Don't remove PCI slot covers; you mess up the airflow even more that way...you also let in more dust.

I've read reviews of this case and the poor airflow has been noted several times. You can either install faster fans in front or a better solution is to dremel out the metal grill that is integrated into the front of the case. You'll need to remove the front bezel and everything (EVERYTHING!) in the case. All of it.

Dremel/saw/cut the grills out, clean out the case really well with a shop vac and reinstall. Enjoy 50% better airflow for your efforts. Good luck.

 

[0roo0roo]

some cases are made for looks, genearlly the brushed aluminum ones don't have extreme airflow without modding. hole saw is your friend.

 

[cheapgoose]

it's faking it!

it wants to be water fed.

 

[jasonja]

dremeling out the front grill would be a huge task... the aluminum is very thick on the bezel. I'm not sure faster fans would do much since the fans don't really line up will with the holes in the bezel. I've considered cutting a 92mm on the side panel (over the CPU) for a fan. Cooling in the case is fine, it just seems to want to exhale more than it can inhale which seems to strain the fans. With that being said, I certainly bought this case for it's looks more than it's cooling (which is why I don't want to go crazy with the dremel), but I would like it to be quiet.

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: cheapgoose
it's faking it!

it wants to be water fed.

Well, duh! It's a Wavemaster, of course it wants water!