Modding 5.25 Bays

[RallyMaster]

I plan on replacing a few of those empty 5.25" bays with an intake fan (or two) and a steel mesh (durable, tough to bend) to provide some extra airflow into the case for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro. I have four open bays right now and I can fit just about any standard sized fan. Which type of fan should I use and how would I mount the mesh on the case? I would like quiet/almost silent fans (I have 3 spare 80 mm CMs from my last comp as well as a loud 120 mm from the Raidmax case I have right now but I am willing to acquire another).

Note: I do have an intake on the side window, but it's going straight to the PSU, not the CPU (bad case design). It's about 9 cm away horizontally (motherboard wise) from the Freezer64 Pro so it doesn't provide any air.

 

[cx32]

You could make a duct from the current intake fan to the cpu, or you could buy one of the numerous 5.25 in. bay coolers. They usually come with eithe r2 or 3 60mm fans.

 

[RallyMaster]

problem is that my case door won't allow me to fit much of a 5.25" cooler so I might as well make my own.

 

[Nirach]

With my Lian Li, I marked up the four mount holes on two blanking plates, the diameter of the hole in the fan (Not the side to side), drilled out the mounting holes and cut the blowhole with a dremel, filing down the lips where nesecary. Two blanking plates should take one 80mm or, possibly, two 60mm's.

The other method is to get something like Coolermasters Stacker drive caddy with the fan on the from, or the TT version and not fit drives, just use it to mount a 120mm fan, assuming you have the space. Make a mesh covering using three blanking plates and some thin steel mesh, similar to the mesh available from http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_Trim___Edgings_64.html#a1346 or even the appropriate sized premade from http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_Grills___Filters_78.html#a2702

Personally I'd cut the blanking plates to cover all but the mesh, if you used a premade thing, and araldite it in place piece by piece, rather than screw two blanking plates to the mesh and have a 'space' in a sense. Also, no screws to mess with your front panel them

Assuming I'm looking at the right case, I'd replace the left hadn piece of silvery plastic with a piece of mesh, cut and file the hole, araldite the mesh on the inside of the door, to allow airflow. I can't get a good idea of how that panel is attatched to the main door assembly from the pictures I found on google, if it's screwed in, then some nuts and bolts (The kind you find on PCI bracket USB/Firewire) things should secure it just as well, with any luck you could get the caps (If that's what they are) back on. Failing that, if you have some mechano lying around, the nuts and bolts from that would do equally well.


Hope that gives you some ideas

Edit: Forgot to mention the Akasa Ultra Quiet fans ar pretty damned quiet, and provide fair cooling, at least, the 120's do.

 

[Zap]

BITD I put a 120mm fan into the 5¼" drive bays spanning three of them. I just glued three of the face plates together and cut out a hole, then used some neoprene pads to hold the fan in. Worked well.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

rallymaster, do you really need one?

 

[RallyMaster]

of course i do.
/me slaps ankit

actually, it's just a fun project that i want to do. kinda sorry i'm wasting 4 bays so might as well put them to good use.