Worthwhile Ever Case 4252 Mods?

elasticdog · Post by **elasticdog** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:46 pm

You'll have to forgive me for some n00b questions, but I've searched and searched, to no avail. I have an Ever Case 4252 on the way and was looking for some suggestions on worthwhile mods to perform on it before everthing gets installed...

I've already ordered a Nexus 120mm fan for the exhaust, along with a Zalman Fan Mate to control the voltage. It looks like the back of the case has a fairly unrestrictive grill, but it also appears to be a little small so it can accomodate an 80, 92, or 120mm fan. Is it always worth it to cut the grill, install some uchannel rubber, and add a finger guard? (Great post on Modding & Cutting with Tin Snips BTW) While I'm at it, should I cut a hole for the intake and put rubber edging there as well, even though I don't plan on initially mounting an intake fan? Would that be a bad move structually? Would it improve airflow?

Also, I've noticed that many people talk about rubber grommets for the hard drive mounting, and also the additional hard drive rack that mounts on the bottom of this particular case. My question is where can you purchase those items? I imagine that the grommets could be found on at http://www.mcmaster.com/, but what size/part number do you need? I've read posts with references to another post with specific part numbers, but my searches haven't turned up the original post, as of yet.

If I were able to get the second hard drive rack, would it provide better cooling to mount my single hard drive directly in front of the intake versus the factory-installed upper HDD rack?

Thanks for helping this n00b out!

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:38 am

Hello & welcome to SPCR!

The rear fan grill works fairly well like it is, but it would be better to cut it out -- the corners in particular are partially blocked. You will end up with a square hole with chamfered corners, so a little filing or Dremel work can clean it up, so the U edging is probably not required.

You should either buy the extra HD cage & the rubber grommets (with the shoulder bolts) from Evercase directly, or you could get them from ARM Systems. BTW, with already quiet HD's, the "finger" mounts on the Evercase HD's "spring" the HD and they do run pretty quietly that way.

A trick I have used in the Evercase: mount the HD's with the two circuit boards facing each other. This allows for an air space between them for a little better cooling.

And yes, I have my single drive mounted in the upper position of the lower cage -- back when I bought my cases, they came with these stock.