SPCR

I was messing around with my Sonata II the other day (ongoing never ending project...) and I realized that I have an empty 5.25" bay. I immediately started thinking on how to best use this space to get more air into the case, without increasing the noise.

I was thinking of 3 solutions
- just put a type of metal mesh over it, and let the fans inside handle the airflow. Is there any such mesh for sale anywhere? I saw LianLi sells them as spares, but would they fit a Sonata?

- buy a fan system, like StarTechs 5.25" Drive bay cooler. Has anyone heard those? Are they noisy or quiet?

- make something on my own. Maybe buying a couple of 40mm fans and gluing them onto one of the spare covers, making some holes in the covers and maybe cover the whole thing in loud speaker fabric.

Or any other ideas?

The setup now is with a nexus fan as an intake fan at the bottom of the case, mounted directly towards the air filter, one nexus pulling air out in the back, and one panaflo sitting on a Thermalright xp-90 for the cpu. blowing down.

I'm not sure what it would do with the door closed. But if you keep your door open, or it's broken off, why not just remove the bay cover for a couple days and see if does does anything? Are your temps too high, or are you looking to find a general improvement?

I'd add a fan only as a last resort, and would avoid 40MMs at all cost.

I wonder how much of this new air would mingle and cool the case air vs how much of it would be passed straight out the back over the hot air in the case. I have no idea. It might be a wash. In that case, I wouldn't do anything.

I had the door open for a couple of hours yesterday and the case temp dropped a few degrees, and so did the cpu temp.

There is no big need for this, just an opportunity to do something more

Are 40mms very noisy or why would you avoid them?

40mm fans are inefficient or noisy(and still pretty poor). Avoid.

I'm in a similar situation, but my PC won't be stable without the bay cover off when playing BF2142. Splinter Cells, WoW et cetera are okay, but BF2142 bluescreens. Sonatas have terrible intake.

I suggest the mesh option, probably be enough. If you can get MeshX from A.C.Ryan then that's a good option. I was thinking hardware store, but Ryan is just as affordable and purpose-built.

Ok, thanks for the info. I will probably try cutting up one of these loud speaker meshes:

http://www.biltema.se/products/producti ... emId=78675

Picture to come later

Should work. I've used the home stereo speaker cover canvas as dust filters successfully, pretty good flow. The finest dust still gets through that, but at least it keeps the big stuff and cat hair out.

Let me know how the Biltema experiment goes, might resort to that myself as MeshX is not readily supplied via my usual sources.

I got to admit, your post got me curious. I tried removing the 5.25 bay cover from my unused bay. In my case, it's the topmost. The temp difference was negligible. Maybe a 1C, maybe not. My idle fluctuates a bit.
Then I decided to try it with my 2 unused 3.5 bays. Here I got a temp reduction of about 4C. This, I like! Then I looked at your idea for the speaker grille, and I thought, good idea.

Then I realized I had an unused 10" metal grill for a sub woofer! So I hacked and folded it up and used it as the face for the removable 3.5 tray.

Temps went back up a little, but less than a degree, I'd say.

I was concerned about doing this because I have a passively cooled x1950 Pro, and was concerned that a different airflow pattern might degrade it's performance. It's temp crept a little, but again, maybe a degree or so at idle.

I haven't stress tested anything - just keeping an eye on SpeedFan. So far, it's great.

Thanks for the inspiration. I can keep the door closed until I need a few degrees of headroom and then get get it just by opening the door.

Opening even one 5.25" bay cover reduces negative pressure, and as a result the cooling of your VGA. For me the difference was +2'C under stress with an actively cooled card. I've got a floppy drive and a card reader occupying the 3.5" slots, maybe I should finally get rid of the relics...

The higher the slot the less direct the airflow over your mobo, and less cooling effect on components. A push-pull PSU will benefit from a top opening though. I have the middle slot open myself, and it keeps things stable with BF2142, but I'll see if the Zalman 9500 with its flow-through design will improve things even with the slot covered. It's supposed to arrive today.

Main concern for me is not mesh-stoppable objects creeping in or noise escaping, but the possible increase in dust buildup.

I used Modder's Meshto create an opening in the upper 5.25" bay of my Sonata, and have removed the door entirely. (It was typically open anyway.) I cut out the center of a blank bay cover, then bent the mesh over a wood block so that it's a snug fit inside the resulting open frame. Sorry I don't have any pics.

My motherboard has rather hot voltage regulator components along the upper edge above the CPU, and I'd already added a 92mm fan at 5V to cool them, visible on edge here(ziptied to several cable bundles). This bay opening dropped the PWM temp 2-3C, and the CPU almost as much by giving cooler intake air for that fan, in a case that is known for being somewhat intake-starved.

Dust accumulation doesn't seem different then before the opening, but it wouldn't hurt to put open foam behind the mesh, or something like speaker cloth over it. Of course, the Sonata has plenty of other air leaks.

The mesh is done! Pictures are here.

sorry about the very ugly floppy and card reader...

the CPU temp drops about 3-4 degrees and so does the MB and case temps. The 6800-card does not seem to be affected, but that is cooled by a Zalman VF-700 already.

The mesh was done by bending a piece of loud speaker mesh and then adding a bit of black spray paint to make it look a bit less shiny.

Now I have even sold the idea to the wife about adding a blue cold cathode light behind the mesh!

A word about my setup:
- one nexus fan in the very front, pulling air (and dust) through the front intake, connected to the case fan control of the MB. this allows me to push more air into the case by using Speedfan.
- One Nexus 120mm in the back, running on 7V (yes, that is a converted Molex in the bottom).
- One Panaflo on top of a Thermalright XP-90, blowing air inwards, not outwards.
- One HDD suspended in elastic bands, another HDD (Barracude 7200.10) which is not (but will be tomorrow since the vibrations are felt (and heard) in the entire case!
- 6800 card where the fan side has been replaced with a Zalman vf-700CU. the big fake-copper heatsink on the top was slightly modified to still fit.

Good luck to anyone trying this!

Neat!

Exactly what I had in mind. What did you bend it with, hammer against a piece of wood? Apparently the small round holes do the job just fine.

Great work, I'll either go through with this or get a Solo. Solo has no door to cover up lights though, so worse for 24/7 HTPC!

I cut it out with a pair of metal scissors, then I put it into a workbench, tightening it with the top part sticking up, then just bent it with my hands. then I flipped it over and bent the bottom part.

I then cut the four angles in the corners, and then I put the mesh back in the bench (at the far end of the bench), and put a piece of metal where the corner would be and just bent it there as well. The sides can then be bent slightly upwards to make it fit better as well.

Took less than an hour to do, with the measuring taking most of the time.

Alrighty. I'll get to it, as I'm a bit bothered about the gaping hole right now... doubt the Solo would be that much better, although it does have two intake fans.