I cut open my case for air flow.

[DevilsHand676]

Alright so i've got the  Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L TUF mATX and was getting higher temps than I was okay with (like high 70s). So I thought my aio was just bad but then my boys @Semper  and @Corsair Nick on my other post said it was just garbo airflow and linked a Gamer Nexus video on how to fix it. Steve decided to drill bigger holes but I wanted to go a bit of a cleaner way so I took a dremel to the face. 

 

The whole process was pretty painless. I took everything out of the case including the front io (good thing it super simple because of the option to move it around). If you're going to try and re create this you need to make sure everything is out, you don't want any metal shavings to get onto the components. To outline the hole I was going to cut I just put the two front fans and outline it with some yellow chalk. Then I just took a hand dremel with some sort of spiny bit and went at it. Sparks flew like to lovers sharing their first kiss at the county fair. After getting them out I put some stone sandy bit on it to smooth out the edges so I didn't cut myself on accident. Make sure you hit that baby with an air compressor to get out any metal shavings. 

 

So now there are two fan sized holes in the front of my case that are as smooth as a baby's butt. But now the big question. What are the temps? I have the same fan setup and fan curves and I'm proud to say... they have gotten cooler. CPU is now maxing at 60C instead of the normal 70ish. The GPU has also gotten better maxing at 64C instead of high 70s to low 80s. Overall I'm seeing about a 10 degree improvement. Surprisingly the case hasn't really lost any structural integrity its still pretty solid. I would say if you have this case go ahead and cut that baby up like a butcher. I did this in a couple hours and it was my first time using a dremel but I think it came out pretty well.  

 

Imgur gallery with before and after: https://imgur.com/a/dekBNqu

[TetraSky]

Oh you poor thing, what has this monster done to you!?

 

It's great that you've decided to mod it, but in this case... I need to shit on your parade, sorry.

Your temps were fine IMO, they were far from being anywhere near critical. You didn't have to cut your front panel just to gain a few degrees... You likely could've achieved this by either dusting the PC up(which you probably did right before/after removing the parts of the case?) or by investing in higher cfm fans.

Or maybe even making a custom fan hole in the side panel to add an extra fan of your choosing. Like a 200mm one. Quiet and tons of airflow, perfect to reduce temps.

 

Now you just have exposed fan blades without any sort of protection. That PC is dangerous, I really hope you don't have kids or pets.

[DevilsHand676]

1 minute ago, TetraSky said:

Oh you poor thing, what has this monster done to you!?

 

It's great that you've decided to mod it, but in this case... Your temps were fine IMO, they were far from being anywhere near critical. You didn't have to cut your front panel just to gain a few degrees... You likely could've achieved this by either dusting the PC up(which you probably did right before or after removing the parts of the case?) or by investing in higher cfm fans.

 

Now you just have exposed fan blades without any sort of protection. That PC is dangerous now, I hope you don't have kids or pets.

lol its all good. I know the temps weren't that bad to begin with but really I was bored and anything I can do to improve my pc i'll do. The good news is the fans aren't "exposed" so to say because of the mesh filter that goes on the front panel, and I have it sit on my desk and my dog isn't able to jump that high, well really jump at all. 

[MadAnt250]

30 minutes ago, DevilsHand676 said:

I took a dremel to the face. 

I did something like this to my cheap acer front panel which had no ventilation to begin with.

pic from newegg

https://www.newegg.com/acer-aspire-atc-780a-ur12-student-home-office/p/N82E16883101530

 

 

[thrasher_565]

23 hours ago, DevilsHand676 said:

Alright so i've got the  Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L TUF mATX and was getting higher temps than I was okay with (like high 70s). So I thought my aio was just bad but then my boys @Semper  and @Corsair Nick on my other post said it was just garbo airflow and linked a Gamer Nexus video on how to fix it. Steve decided to drill bigger holes but I wanted to go a bit of a cleaner way so I took a dremel to the face. 

 

The whole process was pretty painless. I took everything out of the case including the front io (good thing it super simple because of the option to move it around). If you're going to try and re create this you need to make sure everything is out, you don't want any metal shavings to get onto the components. To outline the hole I was going to cut I just put the two front fans and outline it with some yellow chalk. Then I just took a hand dremel with some sort of spiny bit and went at it. Sparks flew like to lovers sharing their first kiss at the county fair. After getting them out I put some stone sandy bit on it to smooth out the edges so I didn't cut myself on accident. Make sure you hit that baby with an air compressor to get out any metal shavings. 

 

So now there are two fan sized holes in the front of my case that are as smooth as a baby's butt. But now the big question. What are the temps? I have the same fan setup and fan curves and I'm proud to say... they have gotten cooler. CPU is now maxing at 60C instead of the normal 70ish. The GPU has also gotten better maxing at 64C instead of high 70s to low 80s. Overall I'm seeing about a 10 degree improvement. Surprisingly the case hasn't really lost any structural integrity its still pretty solid. I would say if you have this case go ahead and cut that baby up like a butcher. I did this in a couple hours and it was my first time using a dremel but I think it came out pretty well.  

 

Imgur gallery with before and after: https://imgur.com/a/dekBNqu

ya that case is noing to be crap...but your mod looks good!

[Corsair Nick]

Wow...wasn't expecting you to chop up your case, only pull the front panel off if it was removable to see what the difference in temps were.  Good to hear you figured it all out and saw some good improvements.