Old School Case Needs Some Modding Perhaps??

[HerbieSpot]

I'm wanting to build a system to mainly do emulation and a little gaming. I've decided to use my old HTPC case. It's a monster of a case for storage but a little lacking in space in certain areas

Anyway, I'm not so much after help in which components to get, I'm more after advice on improving cooling.

 

Take a look at the pictures I've posted and I'll explain my plan, parts and possible ideas... Any feedback would be most appreciated!

The case I'm using is the OrigenAE S21T

 

Below are the parts I have with the exception of the PCI fan

 

(1)  120mm rear exhaust fans - Noctua NF-A12x25
(2)  CPU Cooler              - Noctua NH-U12A (Cooling a Ryzen 5 5600G)
(3)  PCI Exhuast Fan         - YET TO PURCHASE
(4)  x2 92mm intake fans     - Noctua NF-A9

 

I will have my hard drives on the right hand side of the case and more than likely, have a long GPU which will run into the hard drive area on the right. So you'll have the fans from the GPU
blowing air towards the lefthand side of the case. The two 92mm intake fans are at the front of the case. I wouldn't be so concerned if I was using the intergrated graphics on the CPU but
with the GPU there is more heat to get rid of...

 

I wonder if the 120mm exhaust will deal with the excess heat, but my thought is that a big GPU will kind of divide the case and cooling will not be optimal. My first thought
was to buy one of those cheap PCI exhaust fans and some vented pci brackets pictured below and that would exhaust some of the heat created by the GPU. I've then toyed with the idea of cutting a fan hole
in either the right hand side of the case or in the lid (See A & B marked in yellow)

 

This is where my PC cooling knowledge is lacking...  With the current fans installed from my list and the GPU, where is it best to locate a fan, or will my cheap PCI exhaust idea be enough?

 

OrigenAE did have a GPU cooler accessory for this very issue but the case is old and try as I might, I can't find one

 

http://www.origenae.co.uk/en/accessory_xds21.htm

 

[OhioYJ]

I don't think you'll gain much from those PCI fans really. I do however think you could benefit from adding ventilation on the sides. Silverstone has several HTPC cases setup like this that flow air from one side to the other.  I would cut holes on the sides and add fans. Adding mesh on the opposite side to help allow air to intake or exhaust (which ever way you setup air to flow).

 

You can get a variety of fan grilles too, to cover things up. Take this 120mm fan cover (filtered) for example. It's fairly simple, drill large hole, then the snap cover will hide the screws. Run it with out the filter for less restriction. (Just a thought, not sure how comfortable you were with drilling / cutting into the case)

 

Nice case by the way.

[thrasher_565]

nice case looks like side fans for the gpu and a vent on top for the gpu should make the gpu cooling really good.

 

as for the cpu posably in the back and out the bottom or revers.

[fonzz1e]

less hassle = EXTERNAL 480 RAD + D5 combo

[HerbieSpot]

11 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

I don't think you'll gain much from those PCI fans really. I do however think you could benefit from adding ventilation on the sides. Silverstone has several HTPC cases setup like this that flow air from one side to the other.  I would cut holes on the sides and add fans. Adding mesh on the opposite side to help allow air to intake or exhaust (which ever way you setup air to flow).

 

You can get a variety of fan grilles too, to cover things up. Take this 120mm fan cover (filtered) for example. It's fairly simple, drill large hole, then the snap cover will hide the screws. Run it with out the filter for less restriction. (Just a thought, not sure how comfortable you were with drilling / cutting into the case)

 

Nice case by the way.

Thank you for the suggestions, I’ll put my thinking cap on and decide what to do

[HerbieSpot]

6 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

nice case looks like side fans for the gpu and a vent on top for the gpu should make the gpu cooling really good.

 

as for the cpu posably in the back and out the bottom or revers.

Water cooling is something I’ve never done and scares me a bit if I’m being honest.

 

Could you provide some links to what you suggest? Is this I assume a way to cool the GPU while using all my original nocturnal fans or are you suggesting that the external water cooling cools the CPU and GPU and I don’t use air cooling?

 

If this is simple to fit I may look into it, but it’s obviously quite a bit cheaper to drill a couple of holes and add a few fans.

 

Regardless, thank you for the suggestion! Hmmm What to do….

[HerbieSpot]

6 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

nice case looks like side fans for the gpu and a vent on top for the gpu should make the gpu cooling really good.

 

as for the cpu posably in the back and out the bottom or revers.

Cheers, thanks for the comments

[thrasher_565]

3 hours ago, HerbieSpot said:

Water cooling is something I’ve never done and scares me a bit if I’m being honest.

 

Could you provide some links to what you suggest? Is this I assume a way to cool the GPU while using all my original nocturnal fans or are you suggesting that the external water cooling cools the CPU and GPU and I don’t use air cooling?

 

If this is simple to fit I may look into it, but it’s obviously quite a bit cheaper to drill a couple of holes and add a few fans.

 

Regardless, thank you for the suggestion! Hmmm What to do….

didn't say anything about water cooling just said drilling a hole on the side were the gpu is for a fan or 2 and adding a mesh on top for the gpu exhaust

 

[HerbieSpot]

2 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

didn't say anything about water cooling just said drilling a hole on the side were the gpu is for a fan or 2 and adding a mesh on top for the gpu exhaust

 

My mistake Thought I was replying to the other person, oops

 

Thank you for the suggestions… I did have a few questions and if you have a moment I’d appreciate some feedback.

 

1) Concerning a mesh, would it be your suggestion to make a mesh area along the whole left hand side of the case  lid above the GPU?

 

2) If you add two exhaust fans on the left of the case in line with the GPU fans it would mean the second fan would be next to the 92mm intake. Would this decrease the effectiveness of that fan if it’s right next to an exhaust fan, or will this be ok?

 

Again, I appreciate the help

 

[Bitter]

Using a 120MM AIO for the CPU cooler and rear exhaust will dump all that heat outside the case which is very useful if the CPU is frequently a large contributor to internal temps. I set up my much much smaller HTPC this way and then used some paperboard to baffle and direct incoming fresh air to where I wanted it to go to for best cooling the other parts inside. Well eventually the tape I used fell off and honestly it wasn't much different so I just added a slim 80MM fan to blow air over the motherboard and VRM.

[thrasher_565]

9 hours ago, HerbieSpot said:

My mistake Thought I was replying to the other person, oops

 

Thank you for the suggestions… I did have a few questions and if you have a moment I’d appreciate some feedback.

 

1) Concerning a mesh, would it be your suggestion to make a mesh area along the whole left hand side of the case  lid above the GPU?

 

2) If you add two exhaust fans on the left of the case in line with the GPU fans it would mean the second fan would be next to the 92mm intake. Would this decrease the effectiveness of that fan if it’s right next to an exhaust fan, or will this be ok?

 

Again, I appreciate the help

 

up to you how you want to do the mesh on top. you can make it the with of the gpu or do half the panel. (but that's not needed imo and inch or inch half should be plenty

 

the fan on the bottom by the gpu just make that intake or i would make both intake and the back fan exhaust

 

if you dont want to add fans to the side for the gpu then posably might be able to add a fan to the pci slots as intake. something like this

 

 

 

[WinDreamer]

Steiger Dynamics uses a very similar case for their HTPC so you might want to look at that.

 

In a different direction, this is the ultimate upgraded version of your case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idwqahSCWjQ.