Few Questions

[Rasker]

Howdy all,
I have just done some small mods to my case. I put two cold cathodes in it and I went today and bought another 80mm fan. And now since I have all this lovely stuff, I want to make a clear side panel. I have the fiberglass out in my shed at the moment. Anyone know what tools I would need to accomplish this? And what all supplies I need? If someone could supply a site with a how-to on it then it would be greatly appreciated. My next question is how can I take a fan that is in an old powersupply and rig it up so that I can use it as a cooling fan. Its an 80mm fan and it works fine, and all its doing is sitting there so I thought why not use it. I have another CPU fan that has one of its blades broke off and I thought I could take the wires out of the connector its connected in and just clip the wires in the power supply and strip them and put them in the other wires place on the pass through connector. So far I got the pins out and all the wires are crimped down pretty tight. If anyone has any ideas on getting that worked out let me know because I havnt found a way yet.
Also, I want to ask about fan direction. I have the 80mm fan at the bottom front of my case. Should I have the fan blowing in, or out?
Thanks in advance
-Rasker

 

[maddogsdhs]

if its at the bottom front you should have it blowing inward, so that the cool air hopefully rises through the case and eventually the hot air exits the back top.

Sorry, i have no idea about the other stuff, i just knew this little bit of info after doing a bunch of research for my own case, good luck with all the modding though.

 

[Rasker]

Alright, I turned the fan so that its blowing in now. Thanks
Now if I can just find a tutorial on how to install a window in my case and how to wire a fan to a pass through connector I'll be set.

 

[slinker56]

That's funny. Your idea to convert a PS fan into a regular case fan is something I did a while back. I had an old PS that was just sitting around, and I decided to make it into a case fan.

THe only problem you'll have is finding out if the fan is a 5v or a 12v fan. It should tell you on the side of the fan hopefully. the black leads are for grounds, the yellow is 12v, and the red is 5v. If the fan is 12v, it will still work with 5v, but will just go slower.

You just have to strip both sides, and then do a quick solder job. It's easy to solder them together, then you just have to put some electrical tape on them. Once you're done with that, you have a case fan ready to use.

http://slink3r.com/solder2_03.jpg <- a picture of the work after I had soldered 2 PS fans onto 1 lead. If this doesn't help, sorrry, and hopefully you get some help on creating a clear side panel.

 

[Rasker]

I was thinking of that last night. Your way of doing was different than my idea though. My idea was to snip the wires on the exsisting fan on the pass through connector and solder the wires on the new fan to the exsisting wires. Then take some wire caps and cap them so the wires dont touch. Either way I think it would work.
I figured there would be tutorials on the internet for doing a clear case. I used to have a link to a site that had one, but I lost it somewhere. I have a ball park figure on how to do it, but I would like to have something to go by.
Thanks slinker

 

[Bleep]

Here's a tutorial for modding a side panel;

http://www.jsihardware.com/reviews.php?ID=47&page=1

 

[Rasker]

Thank you Bleep, that helped me out a great deal.
Just for kicks and giggles Im going to try and describe what Im going to try to accomplish with my case.
First Im going to get the window cut and made, and then I will HAVE to get a new PSU. My connectors on the back are broken, the fan is just barely going, and its only 300watts. I would like a PSU with 2 fans and blue LEDs. Next, I want to get a new mobo and a better CPU fan. I also want to put a fan at the top of my case and one in the back sucking out air from the CPU. I would like to put a window in the back of my computer, reason being I could put the fans back there easily, plus it would look spiffy. Once I get the mobo, I want some new RAM for it. Hopefully a gig of RAM. Then I want to get a fan controller and put an LED in my power button so it will glow. If anyone knows where I could get LEDs it would be appreciated.
Oh....and round IDE cables to top it off.

Ill try to get some pics up when its done.