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question about older tower and case fans

N

nitro28

Senior member
I have a 3 year old full tower that I have a new SLI Asus, 3200+, 1 hard drive, 2 optical drives, zalman 7000.
and a Fortron blue 500 watt PSU. The case has a spot for a 80mm fan in the front bottom and two side-by-side spots on the back top. ANy reason I shouldn't put the front fan as the in and fill both spots in the back with fans blowing out? or should I use one in front and one in back?

Also I see little fan control units you can buy and mount in an open bay up front, they have one that also monitors your temps with a readout. Are these useful if I am planning to do a fair amount of OCing? There only $25-$30.
 
also, how do I tell on the leads for the power switch and reset etc.. which wire is positive and which is negative, the board is labled, but the wires aren't. They are orange and white twisted, green and white twisted, etc...??
 
First of all that may not be enough fans. Without seeing the case i really can't help huch in the way of suggestions accept try to keep your intakes and exhausts balanced. you are wanting to set it up with one 80mm intake, 2 80mm exhausts plus the 80mm exhaust on the psu. I would add atleast one sidefan, maybe one next to but a little under the graphics card(s) and one right over the cpu. that will get you closer to balanced.
 
Yours is the first post I've seen about using a "dated" full-tower case for a "new" rig.

My 1995 and 1998 full-towers, recycled from Gateway2000 P's and P-2's, are ro-o-o-mmmy! But they only had 80mm fan holes. Depending on the case, I've cut either one or two 120mm fan holes in front. Because of the case design, it seemed difficult to fit a 120mm to the rear for exhaust, and so I widened the single 80mm hole to 92mm and added a second 92mm hole alongside. Now that I've had more experience with the sheet-metal work and Dremel cutoff tools, I wish that I had attempted to make way for a 120mm fan in the rear. But the twin 92mm's do just fine.

Some people are unsettled about the space consumed by 120mm intake fans in a place where you could fit a drive cage with hard disks. I chose to mount my intake fans on the outside of the chassis and inside the bezel or plastic cover. In my case (pun), they just fit. Another case I modded did not have that advantage, so I cut a rectangle out of the plastic facie and fitted it with a shallow-box-shaped "modder's mesh" extrusion. The modder's mesh is perforated sheet-metal with a pattern of perforations that provides 60% unobstructed airflow. I'd throw business in the direction of a prominent marketer of the stuff, who also does custom case mods:

MNPC Tech

But it's only fair to say that if you look around your city or town for a local provider of sheet-metal and related items, they should have the stuff in 2' x 3' panels for approximately the same price that MNPC Tech charges per square foot. Actually, if you find it locally, it will cost a little bit less, and something less again because you won't have to pay for shipping . . .
 
ok, my suggestion would be, now having seen the case, kinda, use a hole saw and mount a 120mm in the front, mount a single 80mm on the side to blow on your video cards and put a pair of 80mm fans in the top rear areas. this will give you teh best bang with the least effort. I have modded quite a few older cases into GREAT cases for new system and i really like them a lot better than any of the new cases, granted they are heavier they are a lot sturdier and roomier and are easy to find for cheap. I recently got a whole p2 system in a FULL tower case similar to your for $20, sold off all the parts and not only go the case for free but pulled a profit off it.
 
absolutely. the 120mm's are not too mard to cut with a cutoff wheel so long as you have some forearm strength to prevent it from running away on you and creating a big line. the 80mm while more dificult is definatly possible. Also, while you cutting be sure to remove the built in fan guards on the case as they hugely mess with your airflow, the top ones i mean. with that you should be fine. Persoanlly i always replace the fan in my psu as well but that is more a thing of confidence. if you really dont feel comfortable doing it then don't. again, personally i rally thing it is a hug amount easier to use a hole saw on a drill that a rotozip to cut these holes and no matter how good you are you will always get a better hole with a hole saw then a rotary tool.
 
also, how do I tell on the leads for the power switch and reset etc.. which wire is positive and which is negative, the board is labled, but the wires aren't. They are orange and white twisted, green and white twisted, etc...??
Click to expand...

anyone know?? I'm thinking its the white, but i'm not sure.
 
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