Case mods to me, mean doing something that will add to the longevity (life) of the PC.
For most case mods, you must first start with a full sized case, not one of those Minis.
In fact, I buy only mid-tower cases that are extra deep, front to back.
My favorite case is one called "The PacMan Case". (because the power button is the shape of PacMan.)

On my own case, the first mod I did was to put a cooling fan in the upper drive bays cover plates to pull in cool air and blow it past my main hard drive.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/FrontOpen.jpg

Then I cut out the two fan grills in the lower front panel.
Snip - Snip! The grills are gone.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/SnipSnip.jpg

Then I installed two new case fans in the front panel.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/Ready2Blow.jpg

Once the plastic front panel is re-installed, the two front panel cooling fans virtually disappear.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/Cyclops.jpg

Case mods should always be designed to improve either the performance or life expectancy of the PC.

Adding more cooling fans (I have 11 now) puts an extra load on the Power Supply, so make sure you have a PSU heavy duty enough to supply all your hardware.

Cheers Mates!
TechnoMage :cool:

You and Fred (from the Lounge) should compare notes. You both have heavily modified cases. In my case I just do not have the space where I use my PC for a Desktop PC. I have a 6 or 7 year old Dell XPS tower, but it does not get much use any more. Oh well. Nice Tutorial on cooling TM.

Fred's PC:

839

The first mod I did, is the same one I do or have done to all my PC's for the past umteen years.

I add a two-fan 'VIO' cooler to all my hard drives. It totally eliminates overheating and premature drive failure.
Here's the cooler by itself:
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/HardDriveCooler.gif

And here's the same type of cooler, installed on the hard drive, with 1/4" standoffs, to improve air flow and greatly increase cooling.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/CoolDrive1.jpg

I tried several different types of standoff, till I finally hit on the little brass standoffs used to mount motherboards to the case. The first picture, in my original post, shows my main hard drive, mounted on standoffs and with a cooler attached.
The drive stays at room temperature, even under the heaviest loads, like when it's doing a scan or defrag.

My computer room is not air conditioned and during the summer, before I started using drive coolers, I lost three hard drives to overheating.
Since I developed the cooling process I now use, I've not lost one drive.
I have people around the world, using my process.
I just got an email, from a friend in Arkansas, with a picture showing his new hard drive with attached cooler. It reminds me of a saying we had back in the 60's...."keep a cool tool, fool!"

Here's two pictures sent to me by friends, who have adopted my drive cooling technique.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/redblue.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/NEW.jpg

Keep a cool tool...............

TM :cool:

Hello all,
Just thought that some who plan on doing this type of upgrade might benefit from this ..A few pic's of a Corsair 650D that i have "moved" into

867

868

869

Thanks for the help !...Now working on a New motherboard and CPU to go along with it

I am not sure what the problem is Fred. When I go to edit the post the pics appear, and when I click on the place holder they appear properly. I even save your pics to my desktop, then removed your original pics, and uploaded from my desktop. Same results, Ted

Fred, when I first came here, we had to reach 50 posts before posting links, not sure if it's the same with pictures.

But the option, if available to you, should be in the "go advanced" box in the right corner.

Cat

TM, I didn't realize that those fans were so low priced ($3.50). They really push some air for the price.

Hard Drive Cooler w/2 Fans & 4-Pin Connector (Black) - VIO HC-350-BK HC-350 (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HC-350-BK)

My issue with this, is that I don't have any power connectors to plug them into, otherwise I'd have 6 (that's no typo) of them. That RE4 that I bought last week gave me 6 HDD's total for my desktop (3 are for storage).

Plus I have two extra 2.5" HDD's for my MSI, & one 2.5" for the ThinkPad (IDE type).

My solution for keeping my HDD's cool is primitive, but effective. I have a small personal fan that one uses at a desk, purchased for $5, blowing cool air about 4" away from my HDD's, that I run outside of the PC, plus it forces some additional air into the HDD opening to greatly reduce MB/RAM heat.

An average of 30C is fairly good for HDD temps, prior to doing this, it was running around 38C, minimum. I can place my hand on it, it's actually cool to the touch. CPU & MB Temps are lowered also, in the upper 40's. These used to run in the mid to upper 60's.

Needless to say, I feel that $5 was well spent, as each digit dropped adds to the life of components.

BTW, nice rigs that both of you have! Unfortunately, I only have a place for 1 HDD, being that I have an AIO type desktop. I do plan to add a HDD to my notebook though, there's a thread on it in the Hardware section.

http://www.forumswindows8.com/hardware-devices/considering-adding-2nd-hdd-my-notebook-7277.htm

I plan to run both Windows 7 & 8 Pro on it, possibly on separate HDD's.

Cat

WE're talking about REAL computers here.....not play toys or netbooks. Eh?
There's not much you can do to 'Mod' those little guys. Maybe add some stickers. :)

I keep those two-fan coolers on hand all the time and usually order them, from Computer Geeks, six at a time.

TM :cool:

I have never done case mods. Seems cool.

There are two distinct types of case mods.

One is the "fancy it up" type of mod, that serves no useful purpose, but to add glitz or Bling.

The other is the practical mod that improves the performance of the PC, usually by adding
more fans for cooler operation. That's what I've done with mine.

Sometimes, both can be done with the same mod.
For instance, the fan that I added to the front of my PC case, has built in (programmable) digital readout.
As the fan spins, the LED readout first says "Hal 9000" and then displays the temperature of the incoming air.
It's both 'Kinda neat' and serves a useful purpose at the same time.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/HAL9000.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/86F.jpg

It's neat, when you can combine 'Bling' and function at the same time.

Here's a great example of fun and function, in the same PC.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/BeerPC-1.jpg

A PC should be enjoyable and functional at the same time. Eh?

Cheers mates!
TM :cool:

Hey, where's mine at? That's a lot of booze to leave sitting.

Yes I agree, it should be enjoyable & functional.

Cat

I like the idea of the two new cut outs for case fans. The only problem I see, and this is just from the pictures posted, is that there are no intake vent on the from case cover to draw in clean cool fresh air. Other than that, those are some nice mods.

Does anyone know if you can get laptop case mods?

Aaaaaaa, you don't really GET case mods, you Make them!

Just about anything you could do to a Laptop, would have to be on the outside and Cosmetic in nature.
Like some Stick-On decals, labels, etc.

I have slightly modded the cases on some laptops, by putting stick-on FEET under the bottom corners of the laptop to raise it slightly, for better cooling.

That's as Crazy as I've ever gotten with a laptop.

TM :cool: