5.25 120mm fan mount with filter

[thall320578]

I've had my Antec 902 for a while now (since new actually, built an i7 920 system in it with they first released), and I just really like the case. I don't really fell the need to upgrade or change the case at this time, because frankly there's nothing wrong with it.

 

Well I just ordered some long overdue upgrade internals, and I'm looking to at least bring the lighting effects up to speed with some RGB strips for the inside, and I also order a 3 pack of Enermax SquaRGB fans. My intent was to replace all 3 of the 120mm fans in the Antec, as the rear one has started to make noise when it's first powered on and it's rather annoying...

 

While I'm not worried about the rear's install, I don't think the mounting the fans to the front will come out very well. Although they haven't came in yet (just ordered yesterday), after looking at them again, it looks like the RGB ring around the edge of the fan is going to be mostly blocked by the bracket that Antec uses to mount their adjustable speed fans in the 902 (and I'm sure it's the same in the 900 and 1200 series of cases, if any of you have ever tore into one of those). The hole for the airflow in the bracket is just a round hole spaced just for the fan opening. The Enermax SquaRGB fan's LED ring runs around the outside edge of this hole, so I think the majority of the LED ring will be completely blocked on installation.

 

Short of modeling and 3D printing some custom brackets to mount the fans and then allowing me to make some sort of filter to put over them, and still allow me to mount the original Antec honeycomb grills in the front, does anyone know of any ready-made fan mounts that exists that can serve this same purpose?

 

Basically the criteria are:

-5.25 drive bay mount (3 bays high)

-120mm x 26mm fan size

-filter on the intake side (towards the front of the drive bay)

-preferably the fan mounts to the bracket from the back side, leaving the front completely exposed to the filter

-does not NEED to have a grill, as I could easily reuse the original Antec grill inserts

 

 

I feel like these seemed to be a lot more popular some years ago lol, like I remember seeing them over over the place back then. But now with most popular cases have a solid or glass front panel and no 5.25 bays to speak of, they seem to have become obsolete and harder to find... I'm not using any optical drives, so I have a full 9 5.25 bays that I can populate with whatever I want!

 

 

 

 

 

For those that are interested

 

Current specs

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0

CPU: AMD FX 8350

RAM: 32gb HyperX Fury DDR3

GPU: 2x XFX RX 480 8gb

CPU Cooler: Coolermaster V8 CPU cooler (gen 1)

Storage: Crucial 1tb SSD

PSU: Corsair 750w

 

Upgrade specs

Motherboard: Asrock B450m Pro4 (smaller size for the case, but it will suffice)

CPU: Ryzen 3700x

RAM: 32gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200

GPU: carrying over a single RX 480 8gb (turns out that having two was useless... who knew...)

CPU Cooler: going to sticking with the stock Wraith Prism that comes with the 3700x for now

Storage: WD Black NVME 500gb M.2, also keeping the Crucial 1tb ssd

PSU: carrying over the Corsair 750w

[thall320578]

I decided to have a crack at modeling and printing a bracket that will allow me to mount the fans and the original Antec grill inserts, and this first version seems to have come out pretty good. The only downside is that I don't have a way to put a filter on them at the moment, but I may be able to come up with something. Or I may just leave it filterless and live with it, I don't know lol.

 

Now just awaiting the fans to come in so that I can mount them to the brackets and install them! This design took all of about 20 minutes and the print took about a 2 hours. If this one works out good, I'm going to just go ahead and put all 3 fans in the front and get one more to mount in the rear.

 

 

[thall320578]

Preliminary test fit with a random old 120 fan proves the design fits. Just waiting on my new fans to come in! Will likely use the full front face and mount 3 fans in it.

 

Seeing how much room I have, I may play with making a design to allow mounting a pair of 140 fans.

 

 

[thrasher_565]

8 minutes ago, thall320578 said:

Preliminary test fit with a random old 120 fan proves the design fits. Just waiting on my new fans to come in! Will likely use the full front face and mount 3 fans in it.

 

Seeing how much room I have, I may play with making a design to allow mounting a pair of 140 fans.

 

 

nice antech 1200 case. ya you can fit 4x 120 in the front. i was able to get a zalmen pot fan controller and take the casing off and i was able to stick it in the holder and stick the nob like the other fans had. so many mods done to this case...

mods i did to mine was put a hole behind the mb tray for power switch  resent so on cables

cut holes in the 5.25 bay to pass cables to the back with out going around the side hole (hidden cables)

holes on the mb tray (pass the cable to the back) and add a 120mm to the bottom

cut a hole for io cables to the back (for hidden cables)

ya can mount a rad to the front grill if you wanted.

added blue led feet

added on off for the cold cathode

 

to day i would cut out the 5.25 bay.

[thall320578]

This one is the 902, so not quite as many 5.25 slots as the 1200. Still 9 overall though, so I could fit 3 of these bracket assemblies in with 120mm fans, and that's probably what I'll end up doing. I've only ever had the original 2 adjustable speed fans installed in the front of it. Actually, all the fans in it are still original from when I bought the case new in 2009 if you can believe that!

 

Found some old pictures just for fun. First build in the case, with all of it's Vista goodness  Thing was a BEAST at the time. Built it just so I could play GTA IV lol. Here it is 11 years later about to be transplanted with an Ryzen 7 3700x

 

 

[thall320578]

Parts for the rebuild started arriving today, including the fans. Looks like these 3D printed brackets should work out great  still no new developments on integrating a filter, but that's no big deal for the time being.

 

Picture 1, the Enermax SquaRGB fans.

Picture 2, how they would mount in the original Antec brackets. Notice how much of the RGB ring would be covered up.

Picture 3, how I originally designed the mounting hole tabs to stay away from the edges and leave the RGB ring fully exposed.

Picture 4 and 5, fan mounted the other way leaves the entire front of the fan exposed.

Picture 6, original Antec grills installed onto the new bracket.

Picture 7, mock up of the assembly installed into the case.

Picture 8, happy coincidence, the RGB ring on the new fans is the same general shape as the top mounted 200mm fan on the 902 case, so it sort of fits the general design

 

 

 

[thall320578]

Rainbow vomit approved

 

No RGB control on my old AM3 motherboard, so they're just hooked up with the included controller for the time. Will have more control over them once the new hardware is installed. Motherboard should be in tomorrow!

 

 

 

[TVwazhere]

13 hours ago, thall320578 said:

Rainbow vomit approved

 

No RGB control on my old AM3 motherboard, so they're just hooked up with the included controller for the time. Will have more control over them once the new hardware is installed. Motherboard should be in tomorrow!

Spoiler

 

 

Personally not a Rainbow Vomit type of guy. but super cool to see you made a bracket that worked with your LED frames!

[thall320578]

4 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Personally not a Rainbow Vomit type of guy. but super cool to see you made a bracket that worked with your LED frames!

Lol yeah me either, but at the moment I don't have a whole lot of control with the included controller that's just powered from a SATA power plug. Once I get the new guts installed with the 3700x and it's B450 board (which the mobo should be in today), I'll be able to control the LED's directly from the motherboard's software side for more effects or just a solid color.

[thall320578]

I ended up getting everything together the other day. The brackets really made the case look more current.

 

I settled with a blue and red lighting scheme, for now anyhow