DIY air cooling upgrade on old pc case. Looking for ideas.

[umboma]

hello all,

I’ve built a small gaming pc in an old HP 400 case, it only has a single small exhaust fan at the back, so im looking into / getting ideas on how to improve it, so far my ideas are:

1: cut most of the side panel old and just stick some moddeling mesh there to collect the dust. This way pretty much the whole side of the case is open for air.

Or

2: use a hole cutter drill to cut out 2 or more holes to fit actual fans, if I do this where is the best place to have them?

If you have any other ideas let me know.

Many thanks

 

[Pocah]

Hello!
If I remember rightly it does have a number of vent holes on the back though so I would go along the lines of ignoring the fan on the back, just remove it, and just try to mount the biggest fan you can to push air in to the case.
I have no idea whether a fan or two will fit behind the front panel but that's the ideal place. If you can get two fans behind that you are sitting pretty. If not then perhaps cut a hole in the side panel and pop one or two 120mm fans, a 140mm, or even a 200mm fan!!!
A hole cutter drill will make a mess. What you need is to buy something like a 20~25mm hole punch. They are not expensive and make neat holes in sheet metal. Do a pattern of large holes. You can even put a filter like this over the top...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/silverstone-120mm-fan-grill-and-filter-kit-fg-026-sv.html

Course if you go for a bigger fan you may have trouble finding a suitable filter, but does that really matter??

 

[umboma]

Hello!
If I remember rightly it does have a number of vent holes on the back though so I would go along the lines of ignoring the fan on the back, just remove it, and just try to mount the biggest fan you can to push air in to the case.
I have no idea whether a fan or two will fit behind the front panel but that's the ideal place. If you can get two fans behind that you are sitting pretty. If not then perhaps cut a hole in the side panel and pop one or two 120mm fans, a 140mm, or even a 200mm fan!!!
A hole cutter drill will make a mess. What you need is to buy something like a 20~25mm hole punch. They are not expensive and make neat holes in sheet metal. Do a pattern of large holes. You can even put a filter like this over the top...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/silverstone-120mm-fan-grill-and-filter-kit-fg-026-sv.html

Course if you go for a bigger fan you may have trouble finding a suitable filter, but does that really matter??

Thank you for replying, the hole punch is a fantastic idea along with the 120mm filter.

Unfortunately the case won’t take a fan on the front panel, no vents just solid plastic.

The biggest fan I can get if I put one on the side panel is 120mm at best. So looks like I’ll go down that route.

Ofc I could always just buy a cheap gaming case £20 - £30 but where’s the fun in that lol

 

[ExoMale]

Is it the SFF or the MT looking case?

If I have seen the correct one on google image, then you probably get away with a big 140mm fan on the side depending how the internals are setup?