Okay. My custom made Plexi-glass case is prectically done. All I have to do is mount the harddrives and wire in the LED's and the Power/Reset switches. My questions are...

1. Which direction does the cpu fan blow? At the CPU, or away from the CPU because I will install a 80mm fan perpendicular to the cpu (700mhz vertical style, like a pci card kinda CPU, Slot 1 maybe?) and I need to know what it should do. Blow air in the case or out of the case. At the opposite side, I have a 120mm fan that will do the opposite.

2. I just need to know what the 80mm fan should do. Suck or Blow

IMO - I would have the front case fan blow in and all rear fans blowing out. This would include the power supply fan. Not all blow out some suck the outside air in and then exhaust the heated air into your case.
I would also increase the size of the front case fan if possible.

CPU fan should blow on the CPU.

Case fans:

Front: Blow in
Side: Blow in
Top: Blow out
Rear: Blow out

Best config for max airflow

I'm hoping u're going to post a picture of your case when its finished

Hey XTremeMaC u bet I will. I'm done for tonite and so tomorrow ill just have to clean up the plexiglass and put it all back together. About the fans... I guess when I post the image tomorrow it'll be easier for you guys to answer cause both fans will be at the sides.

I have a case cooling system that i think may surprise some people

I have no front or back fans, and the rear fan holes and vent are sealed, i have 2 80mm fans on the side panel both blowing in. one over the cpu fan and one on the lower part of the drive cage over the hd's.
This allows cool outside air to blow over the 2 hot parts of the system to keep them cool. this keeps ambient case temp very low.

theirs only 2 fans for case cooling on the side. these blow directly on the hardware and air is forced out the front instead so theres plenty of air movement, if the back holes are unsealed allot of air is simply vented out the back.. its a waste. the psu blows out with dual fans both vertically blowing through kinda like a wind tunnel, very effective.
about 70% of the air flow goes up to the psu and out the back the rest of the air blows out the front of the case through the front vents. Less fans and probably more cooling power than 4 fans = quiet as a 486

Well here it is...

I was sick of seeing that ugly beige 5-6 yr old case sitting on my floor so I made this custom Plex-glass (Pine Bottom) and threw it on a shelf. It's not completely finished because I still have to buy and install an 80mm fan and 2 fan grills. Now that you can see, what directions should the 120mm fan be and the soon-to-be 80mm fan on the opposite flow? The 80mm fan will be beside the powersupply.

This is my TV computer and the specs are:
P3 700
512 pc133 SDRAM
2 13.5 gig harddrives
ATI All in wonder 128 Pro 32meg AGP
2 X Dlink 538TX NIC's
Some old soundcard I found laying around.
52X CDROM

Any questions/comments are welcome.

that's one huge fan
are the hdd's feeling comfortable sitting like that
it might damage the hdd while spinning... either put it verical or horiz I suppose

best config for fans is a ratio of 1 IN / 3 OUT

120mm fan? Well I want things to be cool. As for the harddrives they are screwed into the top piece of plexi-glass and are in a vertical position. I don't think its really that much different then when its horizontal. Besides the head going back and forth. I can always mount them the same way as the cdrom should something go wrong. So for the 80mm, I should have it blowing out? It all depends on what the cpu fan does. Does it blow air at the cpu or away from it?

the cpu fan should blow air AT the cpu

the best system is to have air coming in at the lowest point and exiting at the top/back, that creates a flow of air

ahem excuse the quick/crappy pic

edit: oops its a desktop type case, tahts even easier, blow in through the front/sides and out the back!

At the cpu? okay then the 80mm fan will blow air in and the 120 out. Great. Thanks Gism0

the drawings great!!

lol thanks for the pic Gism0. will keep that in mind.

Once again:



CPU fan should blow on the CPU.

Case fans:

Front: Blow in
Side: Blow in
Top: Blow out
Rear: Blow out

Best config for max airflow


Anyone and everyone who has seen the systems I have built and the temps knows I know what I'm talking about

This is one of the wildest designs I have ever seen. I have a lot of questions and comments, but I am really interested in vibration. Does it vibrate much?

if you have such a small fan drawing air in and a huge fan blowing air out, you are going to have a negative pressure system. you should add another 80mm intake, or at least an array of neatly drilled holes or something. pref' at the other end of the board from where the large fan is extracting air from, no point being next to it or something.

Thanks XPerties appreciate the help

As for Vibration? nope. Although I may buy a single 80gig harddrive to replace the dual (extremly old) 13gig hardrives because they just add a lot of weight and noise. Plus with an 80gig ill pretty much have my own canadian version of a Tivo. lol

I don't think I will have enough room for aonther 80mm (maybe smaller ones) but I was thinking about doing a fancy design with 1/4" holes when I was around half-way finished with my case. Thanks for reminding me because this completely fell outta my mind.

hey MSNwar if u have questions, ask em. They don't bother me.

Actually a positive pressure is better.

in that case 3 in / 1 out is better - offcourse providing u have a good venting system

Is that a pine board or a fiber board? I noticed the PSU and motherboard are sitting on the board. The heat from the PSU is expanding through the board and under the motherboard. That will put a source of heat directly under the motherboard, CPU, etc. There are motherboard risers, so the mobo is up and off of the board. That is good. The fans are pushing air under the mobo and that is good. However, the flow of air must saturate 100% of the area underneath the mobo. Otherwise, hot pockets will form under the board and its components. That may not be a problem, but if it is you can replace the wood board with a sheet of phenolic (very expensive) or place a thin 1/8 inch sheet of phenolic (not expensive) on top of the wood board and driectly under the mobo.

The hard drives are mounted on the sides. Usually, they are mounted horizontal or verticle. Horizontal is best. Most OEM manufacturers stopped the practice of mounting verticle due to hard drive life span arguments. Has a lot to do with the sindle arm, plate spinning design, and bearings. But on the sides I do not know for sure.

I like the form factor. Placing the rear of the board in the front gives you handy access to the cables. Neat and slick!

I've to admit that this issue is the one issue I had definitely no idea on.
I used to look at ease of use ie Asus T5 case. I didn't really care about the internal heat back then, but I guess not much need back then:)

If I buy a tower box again I'll check here first :

@MSNwar... Its a pine board. I couldn't think of what to use for the base because with the cdrom and the 2 harddrives, a plexi-glass base was out of the question because I wouldn't trust the strength so I was looking around my old man's shop and saw a nice piece of pine to use.

I see what you mean with the heat underneath the mobo. I guess ill buy maybe 2 really small fans and mount them on 2 corners of the motherboard and then make vent holes on the opposite sides of the motherboard so the fans push the hot air out. Thanks I wouldn't have thought about this.

Harddrives, alright ill see how differently I can mount them. may just take an 80 out of my machine and put it in my new one.

Thanks for the input guys.

Moving air in to the PC over the drives and cpu to keep these cool keeps the case cool.

just 2 fans blowing over these with no blow out fans cept for the psu works best with a good venting system. Cool and Quiet is really possible.