How to mod 200mm fan on my side panel?

Helen Barber

Helen Barber

Helen Barber

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Here is my case https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/D2MKXAcsdzzvS8a8wrLitWMKrBO2TGVdoCqXL45Z5e5

Long story short my front hard drive case is full with hard drives, I use my pc as a NAS.
Due to this the front fans are completely blocked.

I would like to make a hole on the plastic side panel and place a 200mm fan over my cpu and motherboard, especially as it's summer soon.

I own a Dremel, but never used it. Does the cutout need to be circular?

Just looking for tips please for installing fan, for a decent finish look

Should I buy the 200mm fan and stencil round it?

Thanks
 
I am no expert on the matter, but I had a work colleague (a DT technician) do this for me for an old case that had very poor airflow. The case already had a window, he just created some cut outs so that the fan could be almost slotted in. He also cut out a piece of plastic & made some vents on it to go over the fan. I guess you can do this or just get some kind of filter to place on top of the fan.
 
Now i am no rocket scientist, but if you buy a 200mm fan and stencil around it is it not going to fall through the hole?

it really makes no difference what shape the hole is that you cut as long as it is smaller than the fan, youtube has a videos showing this
 
Lay the panel down and place the fan where you want it to go then mark the inside circle of the fan and the screw holes then cut them out. I'd probably use masking tape on both sides and lay it down on a flat piece of wood.

You may want some rubber washers or on the screws or grommets between the panel and the fan to stop any vibrations etc.
 
assuming the side panel is perspex and not glass, then i would stencil out a 200mm hole together with 4 mounting holes, drill them out slowly as you don't want to melt the plastic, sand it down and cover the fan hole using blowhole trim... otherwise if the panel is glass, i'd just remove the glass and replace with mesh. Cutting glass is a major faff
 
Helen Barber said:
I could place a fan on top blowing downwards, but as heat rises, won't that create a eye of the storm type effect? - Tornado :)
Click to expand...

I assume you're trying to mock me. Although it's true in a 0 air flow neutral environment that warm air rises, it also goes anywhere a fan tells it to go, including down.

Even the lowest end fan installed, convection immediately goes out the window.
If it's a directional tower cooler you could even mount it with the fan blowing down if your mounting hardware will allow it.

I very much doubt you'll have thermal issues unless you have an insanely overkill NAS, plus you won't damage an expensive PC case in doing so.
 
Cooler running said:
I assume you're trying to mock me. Although it's true in a 0 air flow neutral environment that warm air rises, it also goes anywhere a fan tells it to go, including down.

Even the lowest end fan installed, convection immediately goes out the window.
If it's a directional tower cooler you could even mount it with the fan blowing down if your mounting hardware will allow it.

I very much doubt you'll have thermal issues unless you have an insanely overkill NAS, plus you won't damage an expensive PC case in doing so.
Click to expand...

I was being serious!... I have never heard of anyone using top fans as intake for the reason heat rises from the CPU :)
 
Helen Barber said:
I was being serious!... I have never heard of anyone using top fans as intake for the reason heat rises from the CPU :)
Click to expand...

Most builds that have AIO coolers will mount them in the top, and as intake so not to steal air from the GPU.

I personally ran top intake for years on air cooling as the mounting bracket on my case had the CPU cooler pointing sideways.
It works well, it also has the added benefit as top intake usually pulls in less dust than side intake.
 
No they don't, they mount at top and exhaust out though the rad (yes air is warmer) or mount at bottom and get cool intake air through it.

@ OP Same advise as your HDD thread, I would get rid of those internal HDD's and get a DAS/NAS.
 
Helen Barber said:
Here is my case https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/D2MKXAcsdzzvS8a8wrLitWMKrBO2TGVdoCqXL45Z5e5

Long story short my front hard drive case is full with hard drives, I use my pc as a NAS.
Due to this the front fans are completely blocked.

I would like to make a hole on the plastic side panel and place a 200mm fan over my cpu and motherboard, especially as it's summer soon.

I own a Dremel, but never used it. Does the cutout need to be circular?

Just looking for tips please for installing fan, for a decent finish look

Should I buy the 200mm fan and stencil round it?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The problem is that plastic is a real pain to cut. Either it's going to look a mess or even worse you could crack it. It would probably be better to just remove the plastic panel altogether and replace it with a metal mesh. There is no reason why you couldn't use a very coarse mesh like Diamond Mesh, that way you probably just need some little bolts and washers to attach stuff to it, and attach it to the case. Could always spray it black too and then it would look really neat.
 
is there actually a temperature problem ? You may be trying to solve a problem that isn't even there. If you do decide to mod it, first thing is to establish is will a 200mm fan fit in the side panel without falling foul of other components (CPU cooler, GFX if there is a card)etc.

Oh, and if it's a 780T could you not use bottom fan mounts for intakes ? (perhaps the HDD cages block this option too, I don't know).
 
I've done this kind of mod several times and found the simplest way to be the easiest.

Make a paper template of your fan by putting a piece of paper roughly the size of your fan but a bit bigger over the top. Use a blunt pencil on its side to trace the position of the 4 screw holes and the circle you'll need to cut out for the fan blades.
IMPORTANT - Make sure you measure the position of the fan holes on your template to make sure they match the fan (they should all be exactly the same distance from each other). This is important to check the paper didn't move whilst you were tracing.
Once happy, Tape the template to where you want on pc. You can punch holes in the template before you stick on so you can mark with a pencil where the holes go, or you can use something sharp like a needle to mark the position of screw holes. Then drill the holes and cut the circle out.

Maybe you want to file the edges down after if your cutting is rough.

However as others have said it doesn't sound like you're running into heating problems. Unless you've got a massive gpu in there I'd just have some intake fans up top and change the one by hdd to exhaust to pull some air over hdds. However they don't get too hot anyway usually
 
Also go careful which 200mm fan you buy. I've found there is little choice in these, and some despite their size produce quite a bit of noise.

For direct cooling you might be better off with 2 high pressure 14cm fans that actually throw the air directly at the cpu/mobo/gpu. P14s by arctic are good and cheap.
 
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