Node 304 Window Mod

bbqsauce · April 30, 2014

I have an idea to mod the side gpu vent with a sheet of acrylic.

I was wondering if there would be any temp issues since it would reduce amount of airflow.

To combat this i was thinking of lifting the acrylic from the case with some washers or something so there is a slight gap for air to go through.

To achieve this i would need to have positive pressure inside the case and let the air exhaust passively through the gaps to avoid dust buildup.

Would this setup help achieve what i look for?

rear 140 high cfm fan as intake(with a filtered mesh), front two 92mm fans as intake aswell.

should i go with a 140mm aio like the x40 and do push/pull as the intake? or would a tower air cooler like the phanteks ph-tc14pe be better?

bbqsauce · April 30, 2014

That's a great Idea, it'll look really impressive with your card.

Temperature issues, well I'm not sure it will make a huge difference. Putting a gap between the window edges and the case will not give enough access to air to make a large difference to temperature performance. You could cut round holes in the acrylic where the fans for the GPU are located thus allowing air intake. If you are concerned about open holes then cover them with the perforated aluminum plate that the Node 304 comes with.

Scroll down to the 2nd post and read his solution. Very clever and effective.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1266342/official-fractal-design-node-304-owners-club/1030

Regarding the CPU cooler, Id go the Kraken X40 in a push/pull, that would give you great performance. Make sure you get yourself decent fans from Noctua aswell. The two intake fans at the front will assist with cooler air inside. You'll need the AIO to exhaust out the back and not into the case.

well the idea is not to use the space at the side as an intake, its so that I can create enough positive pressure that it will exhaust passively. Thats why i'm asking if it would cause temps to go up enough that it'd throttle.

I won't be overclocking the cpu.

bbqsauce · April 30, 2014

It will never go up enough to throttle. The cooler on the DCII variants are pretty impressive, only flaw I could see is that they exhaust both out the back aswell as into the case, simply due to the duel fan design. Regarding positive pressure though, I think you will be fine yes, as long as the intake fans at the front provide adequate air intake to push air through the case.

the demci filters seem good, but i'd probably still try with a piece of acrylic and see the temps?