Which fan design for my Case

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

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I am painting an old PC and I want to add a hole for a fan on the top and side panel. I am not sure which design is best though both from an air flow point of view and easy-to-cut point of view, as I am not very handy with electronic saws and whatnot.

So on the right of each image is what it would look like as a fan and on the left is what it would look like as a bunch of holes in the top of my case. It is to scale.

KOkyY97.jpg.png


Which design is easiest to cut?
 
The first one.... lol Good luck with anything else. Good luck with a circle too.... Infact GOOD LUCK :P
 
almoststew1990 said:
I am painting an old PC and I want to add a hole for a fan on the top and side panel. I am not sure which design is best though both from an air flow point of view and easy-to-cut point of view, as I am not very handy with electronic saws and whatnot.

[diagrams]

Which design is easiest to cut?
Click to expand...

The circle, which as far as I know is also the best from an airflow point of view because it doesn't contain anything to block airflow.

With the right tool, cutting a circle in sheet metal is easy. Without the right tool, it isn't. For example, cutting a perfect circle with a saw would require a fair bit of skill.

I added a top fan to a case without one. It increased the perceived noise level significantly. That might or might not be a problem for you.
 
The plain circle. Any other would be a real pain to do, mind you so would the first one if you don't buy a hole saw, they get fairly expensive for a 114mm sized one. If you are making loads of holes then all well and good but I'd not want to drop £20-£30 on an old case, and likely never use the saw again.

To save myself the cost I'd mark out the hole with a compass and scribe it then use a drill to make a hole and then use my jigsaw to rough out the hole, file to bring it to the near enough circle. It won't be perfect so I'd bung some U channel around the hole.

I suppose it largely depends on what tools you have but you've already stated you aren't handy with them so...time to start learning maybe.
 
almoststew1990 said:
I am painting an old PC and I want to add a hole for a fan on the top and side panel. I am not sure which design is best though both from an air flow point of view and easy-to-cut point of view, as I am not very handy with electronic saws and whatnot.

So on the right of each image is what it would look like as a fan and on the left is what it would look like as a bunch of holes in the top of my case. It is to scale.

KOkyY97.jpg.png

Which design is easiest to cut?
Click to expand...

I was in the same situation ~ early 2015. Buying a hole saw was pointless for an aged case when taking cost into account. I used an octagon shaped hole for the fan. I made 2x 140mm for front intakes, 2x 92mm rear intakes and a mount for a 120mm rad in the 5.25" bays.
 
Cutting thin metal like a case is a nightmare. Stick to the circle with a holesaw. (Run it backwards for 10 seconds first to key it).
 
Just clamp a bit of plywood firmly under the metal to be cut, it will support the thin sheet and make the job of cutting a lot lot easier - as mentioned, use a fine toothed hole saw.
 
Thanks for the tips. I think I will probably go with an octagon as I only have a jigsaw and clamp piece of soft wood underneath the top of the case to give it a bit more solidarity. I only have a jigsaw!
 
I used a dremmel, with cutting wheel.

A jigsaw will work fine as well IMO. Mark square of fan frame, mark mount holes for fan frame, then I just went for as ample a sized octagon so only like triangles where left in corners. You can buy say fan covers with designs on, off etailers or just go for a standard fan grill, finish is quite nice IMO.
 
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