Modding case so there's space for fans.

Hi. My case is too hot, so I've decided to try and jam it with fans, and now I've ordered 3x80mm fans and 1x120mm fan (I know that bigger is better, but I can only fit one 120mm).

I'll show you how I imagine them being placed:


now two of the 80mm will fit with no problems, there are already holes for them, so My problem is the 120mm and one 80mm (the one in the bottom a the back)

My english terminologi for this is not so good, but I'll try to explain what I think needs to happen.
Now the one in the back bottom I have these metal plates that I can push down to make space. That doesn't give me a hole however, So I'm thinking that I need to maybe cut in them and drill a hole or something?? Maybe someone has a guide to this?



The same applies to the front, although I've bent the slots off, so without the front panel there would be a direct hole into the pc, but as you can see I have these slots (dn0 what they're called) that can be pushed out to make way for drives. I'm thinking I need to do something to them too.


some of you may tell me to simply get a new case, and I acknowledge that it is probably a better solution, but I want to get my hands dirty and not just buy my way out of the problem. This is me taking my first babysteps at making something for myself and testing and actually see how it works so I can develop a hands-on feeling of how airflow and PCs can be engineered. It's important for me to call it my own, so please respect that and thank you very much. Any guides, pointers, help or simply your paying attention to this thread is much appreciated.

Thank you. That sounds like some really useful tips. I probably will need to acquire a dremel tool, and I was wondering too if I needed to cut out the back mesh, so thank you for clearing that up for me. There isn't space for the 120mm anywhere else than in the drive bay, but I found some other threads that described the use of foam to place the 120mm fan in the 3 drive bay slots. Then I just need some mesh covers, which I'm wondering how I could make up. I read that some pedo inhere had just used pantyhose, and that sounds like a very nice budget solution for me.

The only fan I still consider to be a problem is the one in the bottom back. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do there, as I need to invent some holes to fit it in...

I'll just post another picture so you can see the problem I'm adressing:

According to description the 80mm fans are 17.5 db each, which is less than my cpu cooler, so I'm not too worried. I spent 10$ on all the fans, so I'm sceptic too, but I need to see how this turns out. If not for the performance then for the process of it.

Thanks for the input. Always appreciate opinions invested in my issues.
Edited by jdane - 6/17/12 at 6:55pm