Intake Fan Preparation

PART 3
PREPPING FOR THE FRONT 120 MM
INTAKE FAN

Okay. I've already tossed the supplied intake fan cage. The chassis now needs to be opened up to allow lots of air into the front intake fan.

All images are set to a height of roughly 240 pixels. Click the image for the full-sized shot (about 1216 x 912, >200k, dialup users beware!)


Sorry it's blurry. Hold the fan in the desired position....	...and make marks around it. Rather than trying to cut a round hole, I took the lazy way out and simply marked a square hole with the corners left in for the mounting screws..

Cut along the lines with a Dremel tool. I find the Dremel (with the fiberglass reinforced cutting wheel) makes much quicker and cleaner work cutting these perforated panels than a jigsaw. Yes, those are sparks. Yes, you should wear safety glasses	Yes, the corner holes are WAY oversized, but I will be mounting this fan with grommets and washers on the outside, so the bigger holes will be needed. Don't forget to deburr! This fan is shown backwards, as it will be mounted blowing inward, so the wire at the top left will not be in danger of being cut, but your fingers WILL be. Sharp edges = BAD. Nearly every case review talks about sharp edges in the case. We need to remember when doing case mods that it is just as important to keep OUR case work clean and safe... we may not be the last owner of our modified cases!