How to improve my mod?

jamesgoss · 17 May 2009 at 12:49

So I removed the front slats covering the 5.25inch bays from the front of my case, put mesh over it and whacked a Yate Loon SM-120 fan in there to create a nice wind tunnel effect

But as you can see, there's a lot of unsightly bare metal showing, which must also help make the fan even noisier.

My mission for you, should you choose to accept it, is what do I do with the bare metal to make it black and help noise problems, without spraypainting it black? Also, a cheap DIY filter for the mesh would be a bonus too!

Merci beaucoup in advance

Ucof · 17 May 2009 at 13:13

Try using tights as a air filter.

I would have gone for smaller holed mesh, that way it wouldnt show as much metal as it does now.

jamesgoss · 17 May 2009 at 13:26

Ucof said:
I would have gone for smaller holed mesh, that way it wouldnt show as much metal as it does now.

The problem is I realise that, but now it's too late I'm doing a bit of damage control

On a positive note, the airflow is very good!

I thought of tights as a possibility, but I think something with a bit of rigidity would be better, because I think tights would be problematic to adhere to the mesh without gluing it, which would look even worse.

G-Dubs · 17 May 2009 at 13:31

Anything you put in the way to make it look better will invariably reduce airflow. Tights however are a good idea. You could also get hold of some old hifi speakers and use the baffle material from them (car boot sales are good). Not sure why you don't want to spray, if you can get the mesh out, and I assume you can as you put it in, then just hang it up somewhere (ceiling of the shed/garage, or outside on a calm day) and give it a spray. Lots of thin coats with a bit of a rub down inbetween.

The alternative is to make a feature of it, stick some white CCFLs in there or cannon LEDs that will reflect of all the bare metal. and while your at it, hide or braid them wires!!!! I always think its the little details that make a good mod look even better.

jamesgoss · 17 May 2009 at 15:00

G-Dubs said:
Anything you put in the way to make it look better will invariably reduce airflow. Tights however are a good idea. You could also get hold of some old hifi speakers and use the baffle material from them (car boot sales are good).

I see what you mean, stretch the tights/baffle over the front of the mesh. For some reason I hadn't thought of that, only of sticking it behind the mesh. I should def try that out, as it could occlude the fan and the metal behind it without having to do any spraying. I just wonder how much it would reduce the airflow by...a fair bit I imagine. Liking the idea a lot though.

G-Dubs said:
Not sure why you don't want to spray, if you can get the mesh out

I think you misunderstood me here: I didn't want to spray the mesh itself, but the bare silver metal of the inside of the case. I thought perhaps some black arts & crafts foam could be an idea to line the visbile silvery metal: it's cheap off a certain internet auction site.

And as for the CCFLs and LEDs, I'm more of an understated man myself, so the I'm afraid those are a bit of a no go!

Monkey Puzzle · 17 May 2009 at 15:40

jamesgoss said:
I see what you mean, stretch the tights/baffle over the front of the mesh. For some reason I hadn't thought of that, only of sticking it behind the mesh. I should def try that out, as it could occlude the fan and the metal behind it without having to do any spraying. I just wonder how much it would reduce the airflow by...a fair bit I imagine. Liking the idea a lot though

Get very low dernier tights- something like black 5 dernier is ideal as they're not too restrictive. Might want to get a lady to buy it for you to avoid funny looks.

I think you misunderstood me here: I didn't want to spray the mesh itself, but the bare silver metal of the inside of the case. I thought perhaps some black arts & crafts foam could be an idea to line the visbile silvery metal: it's cheap off a certain internet auction site.

And as for the CCFLs and LEDs, I'm more of an understated man myself, so the I'm afraid those are a bit of a no go!

Why not spray the insides at the front black? Could also black or braid the front 120mm fan wires...

jamesgoss · 17 May 2009 at 16:39

Monkey Puzzle said:
Get very low dernier tights- something like black 5 dernier is ideal as they're not too restrictive. Might want to get a lady to buy it for you to avoid funny looks.

Love that we're talking dernier numbers in a PC enthusiasts' forum!

Monkey Puzzle said:
Why not spray the insides at the front black? Could also black or braid the front 120mm fan wires...

Well the main reason is that it's quite a lot of effort (removing everything and putting it back) and it won't do anything to subdue the fan noise coming from that opening, which is what I was hoping foam might do. I could also hide the fan wires under the foam sheets. If you paste this into google you'll see it's the 3rd result down: Multicultural Skin Colour EVA Foam Sheets childminding . Think it'd do the job of abosrbing some sound?

G-Dubs · 17 May 2009 at 20:59

If it's sound deadening your after then try soft grommet mounts for the fan. Also depending on how far in to the case your fan is, the "wind tunnel" effect you're after may also be acting as a kinda "horn" and amplifying the sound.

Stockings and PC modding on the safe thread....there truly is a god.

jamesgoss · 24 May 2009 at 18:26

Well it's been a while but I finally got my sister to buy some tights for me, cut some off and stretched it ocer some of the ACRyan mesh that I'd bought. I got it to fit flush with the front of the case, and it looks loads better than the bare mesh, it covers everything up inside and will filter the prodigious amounts of dust that had been accumulating. Oh, and for your information, Dernier 15 worlds a treat

As for the fan noise, it was actually the fan in front of the HDD cage that was causing issues, but I forgot my 3-pin to molex fan adapter has a 5v setting too, so the fans are now uber quiet. Very happy with this mod now, as it doesn't look completely amateur any more!

Infernum · 24 May 2009 at 19:56

Nice! Apart from that green thing behind the mesh, wtf is that?

Blackhawk47 · 24 May 2009 at 23:11

Couldn't OP just of used a Kama Bay or something?

Anyway it turned out nicely. :cool:

jamesgoss · 25 May 2009 at 00:21

dmarcisz said:
Nice! Apart from that green thing behind the mesh, wtf is that?

haha, yeah, they're actually tabs for marking pages,wedged it under the fan to make the fan stay put...I'll get round to changing that eventually!

Blackhawk47 said:
Couldn't OP just of used a Kama Bay or something?

Anyway it turned out nicely.

I was advised about the Kama Bay actually, and gave it some serious thought, but I decided it'd be a lot more fun to try and do it all myself, and I'm glad I gave it a bash in the end, gave me a lot more confidence to try stuff with my pc. If I were to ever get a nicer case like a Lian Li I'd def go the higher quality route

Glad you both like the result