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I work in a computer store building PCs all day. With every new case there are one or two 8cm case fans included. Most of the systems we build do not need any more cooling than is supplied by the CPU fan as most of our customers generally don't go in for all this "overclocking malarky". Looking around the stock room I discovered two large boxes of unused 8cm case fans. Surfing through case mod sites, the most popular mod you see (besides Lexan windows) is some form of whizzy cooling device, be it fan or waterblock. People go to great lengths to keep their PCs cool. Now... putting these two things together... |
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What you are looking at is a case made of case fans, Dexian (there's probably a trademark in there somewhere) shelving, nylon cable ties, terminal blocks, nylon motherboard mounts, backplane blanks, screws and wire. Oh, and PC hardware. |
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This was as much an art project as it was a case mod -- I intended it to be indicative of the work I do, the things I see and work with every day, and also put an interesting spin on a common concern in the hardcore PC user community. Or you could say that is all a load of bollocks and I just thought it would be a cool thing to do. Perhaps a little from both columns... |
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There are 70 case fans in total, covering over 95% of the case AND THEY ALL WORK! Looking from the front of the case, air flows in through the left side and out the right side. The front an back blow air into the case and air flows from the top of the case down and out the bottom... theoretically anyway. |
| All of the fans are cable tied together, and each side is attached to the Dexian (there's sure to be a trademark there) frame with nylon motherboard mounts (or standoffs). This was meant to be an action shot but the digital camera's "shutter speed" was too quick to capture the movement. |
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Although I was actually going for the grungy industrial look, my construction and finishing methods do leave a lot to be desired. However, when you are building a computer case from scratch in your lunch hours and idle periods at work without the correct tools or the benefit of power tools other than a cordless drill, you've got to cut corners somewhere or you'll never finish. |
| Just to prove the thing actually works here is the casefancasefancase... running Slax Linux in KDE GUI mode. The hardware installed in the photo is an MS-6540 mobo, P4 3GHz Prescott CPU, 512MB DDR400 RAM, 40GB ATA HDD, and crappy 36xCDROM I found lying around. The hardware I used was for testing purposes. The company would never let me have it without me having to pay for it, and I had hoped to spend as little money on this venture as I could. I intend to redesign the case to suit some hardware I've got lying around at home. According to the owner of the store the case costs around NZ$140 in case fans alone. |
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Now I suppose you are wondering: "Does it actually make a difference to the running temperature?" Answer: Yes and no. The main difference between the casefancasefancase... and any normal case is the system or mainboard temperature. After prolonged use it remains pretty constant at about 23 - 24 degrees Centigrade. The CPU temp is not as greatly affected, basically because I am using the standard fan/heatsink supplied with the CPU. If I was to shell out for something with big copper fins on it I'd probably notice a difference. But just in case you were wondering, here's a BIOS screenshot. |
| Finally, here is the back of the beast. I thought it might be stupid, even for me, to cover the PSU fan with case fans as well. Don't knock my wiring either. This whole thing is not the finished product by any stretch of the imagination. You may have noticed it lacks a power switch other than the one at the end of the blue and red cable dangling from the front of the case. I intend to keep the exposed wiring and terminal blocks, but tidy up the molex plugs and keep them out of sight. I also need to find some way of hiding the CDROM, tidying up the I/O ports at the front, and throw in a couple of LEDs or Cold Cathodes for some interesting night shots. Oh and a handle or two would be nice. The thing weighs a ton and is as easily moved as a freshly-dead hippopotamus. |
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