Blowhole Guide (3)

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Blowhole Guide

The Big Bad Blowhole

Now one of the most popular mods you can find - the Blowhole. Originally pioneered by the likes of [H]ard|OCP and 2CoolTek, this exhaust fan can play a crucial role in case cooling. It moves the hot air up and OUT of the case, going back to heat rises et all. The top panels for most cases are relatively thicker than the front or back panels. Take your time measuring this one, if you mess it up, it isn't our fault.

A few things you'll want to keep in mind while making the blowhole. What is directly underneath the fan? What the fan will be blowing towards? Are there any constrictions allowing the hot air from the motherboard, CPU, and video card not being able to get to the top of the case. In some cases, you may have to cut out an area directly underneath the Blowhole so there is room for the fan to be placed. If you have a large Supermicro or Addtronics case and it is right underneath your desk, the air may not have much room to exhaust, so plan for that. Also, round your IDE cables, or clip everything back to gain the maximum amount of space for the air to flow.

The Skinny: Most people forget one thing before they cut their blowholes - making sure it is centered. I learned this the hard way on my first mods. As you can see, the 92mm hole that we are replacing is quite, well, crappy. I used an ancient jigsaw on it, and I screwed up more than once. This time I will make sure that does not happen again.

First, measure the locations for the screw holes. An easy way to do this is to clamp a fan grill onto the case, and use a center-punch to mark the center of each hole. Drill these holes. Then use the method in the 'Front Panel' section to use particle board (or whatever you use) as a base for the holesaw. The next step is to use a straight-edge of some sort to connect the holes adjacent to each other. The 'X' shape that you come out with is the guide in which to place your holesaw arbor. Place the arbor in the middle of the 'X', and start sawin'.

With a jigsaw or dremel the method is a bit different. In this case, you must draw an outline of the hole on the case. For 120mm holes, CD's are perfect. If you are doing a different-sized hole, or have no CD's, the best bet would be a chrome grill of that sized fan. If you are using a jigsaw, drill a pilot hole, if you are using a dremel, have at it.

Use a dremel or some kind of grinding/sanding device to clean up the edges.

Conclusions

I hope that you came out unscathed with all fingers and toes...this is a relatively simple procedure and a good end-result can often be achieved as long as proper time is taken, and you measure twice, cut once. Feel free to email me at: cole_NOSPAM@directron.us (remove _NOSPAM manually) with questions, or you can check out the forums.

To close this article up, here are some pictures of the completed cut-outs on my Supermicro SC-750A. Oh yes, time for some self-pimpage - go to caseetc.com to get the gear to hack up 'yer PC.

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