Remove the flat fan grilles for lower noise and better airflow.

[Wherewolf?]

This is an old mod, but some of you guys may not have heard about it?
Those horrible flat, mesh case grills at the back of the case will make the hot air bounce back and forth between the fan blades and the grill for a while building up the heat. And add quite much noise too. The front fan grilles, will also reduce the airflow thru the case.

You can win 5 - 6 degrees lower temperatures by removing all such grills. And definite notice a lower fan noise in the process.

Just make sure to securely tape a bag of some kind over the fan hole on the inside of the case, before you start to snip or Dremel away. You for obvious reasons don't want any metal shards or such dust in there.

If you want the edges of the holes look better afterwards? Glue some rubber, door and window, "U" shaped insulation strip to them. Just make sure to stretch the rubber strip when glueing enough so it wont get in contact with the fan blades!

Have in mind that if you have any kind of dust filters that needs support from the grill to sit properly? Remember to leave enough of the grill for this. I had to do that in my Antec P180 B case btw.

If you feel that you must have some kind of grill anyway? Get the kind that are made out of rounded wire. They are better than the flat integrated ones anyway.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Todays grills are almost nothing but wire to keep fingers out... Not like the ones in the old days where it was a solid sheet of steel with small holes drilled in it. Yes airflow is restricted some, but not enough in todays age to be of concern if decent quality fans are purchased.

 

[Wherewolf?]

Yes, most modern cases do have better grills. But there are probably some members here having older cases still. And even some of the newer cases do still have those flat meshed ones. And even if as you say the air restriction is'nt much of a problem using high cfm fans. You still have to face the noise added by the grill.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

I never said higher CFM, I said decent quality. There are 60CFM fans that sound like a jet, then there are 60CFM fans that are quiet as day.

 

[Wherewolf?]

Sorry, my error.

I have 2 x 120 mm. 1200 rpm Noctua fans as exhaust only, installed even before I modded my Antec case. But still I could hear the difference afterwards. And the removal of those grilles also shaved of some degrees as said.

 

[PP Mguire]

Noctua fans are practically silent and the honeycomb mesh on the back of the 1200 isn't restrictive at all. Most newer high end cases don't even have fan grills anymore and instead mount on the sides with no restriction replacing the grill with a mesh filter.

Also depending on what model Noctua fan you are running the only difference you may have noticed is from the difference in pressure. Most all Noctua fans are made for static pressure. If you're still running the stock fans in the front and changed those up that would have been the difference you heard. Being a Noctua fan lover and the previous owner of a modded Antec 1200 myself I went through several setup changes until I was satisfied with that case.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

It's rather funny though, because filters are just as bad at slowing air-flow down, and creating noise. But if you are seeing a serious drop in temp just by removing a few grills on a modern case, then something is very wrong somewhere else.

 

[PP Mguire]

They sure are, but way more convenient to clean