Holes for rads

Frozennova

Frozennova

Frozennova

Man of Honour
Joined
13 Nov 2009
Posts
11,699
Location
Northampton
Due to wanting something new to play with I've decided I'm going down the W/C route, however due to outlay on the rig initially I skimped on the case as have the Asus ta-861

I've measured up etc and sure I can get a rad in the bottom no problems, will need to get some feet to stand it off the desk a bit though.

The question is whats the best way of cutting the holes. i'd rather it be using a hole saw as I already have an arbour and an assortment of sizes. Thge only issue im having is the fact that I've found a template from AC Ryan and they show a square cutout rather than just circular holes, would this affect performance at all?

and secondly what size hole saw would be best fit, but giving me a couple of mm to play with to file and get a nice edge
 
A 117mm diameter hole is the clear area through a standard 120mm fan.
No reason to cut it square at all if doing it yourself.
Just make sure the holes are alined - measure twice, cut once and all that.

Oh and post some pics

mATX boards on atx cases is always a good option when watercooling
 
Last edited:
I will indeed, will be a couple of weeks as its going to be an MM build and need to sort out a my CBT this week, however it will be interesting as its not the sort of case that springs to mind when someone mentions watercooling or a computer enthusiast.
 
I may be betraying my natural Heath Robinson tendancies but given you are putting the rad in the case bottom then would it not be easier to have the rad mounted direct to the case bottom such that you can go to town with a jigsaw? The edges will be hidden by the rad. Fans will be on top for a pull setup. You'd only really need to make proper fan holes if you were going to do a push setup with the fans drawing air into the case. Even then you could still just rely on a basic rad fan grill and cut a rectangular hole, its just the looks of the grill will be a bit wasted with it on the underside of the case.
 
the rad will be inside the case.

I'm assuming it makes do difference whether I used push or pull, so I'll be using the fans pushing air into the case.
 
There sometimes is a difference between push and pull but it depends on the type of rad and also if shrouds are used or not, I can't remember which way round it is though atm. Also, now I think about it, even if you did do a push with case bottom-fan-rad you could still make the holes with straight edges using a jigsaw, the edges will still be covered by the fans. You just have to measure the overlap properly. Basically just cut a hole which looks like a rectangular fan grill, only without the grill and with tabs for the fan holes, which is what your AC Ryan template is about probably.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom