Inspiring by this Russian's cable management and the way he cools the backside VRM

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocki...2&utm_medium=post_embed&utm_content=post_body

from those 150 comments, some said cooling VRM that way can bring your temperature down by 6 deg. C

So the above thread is from Reddit 7 yr. ago. Now around last Nov. 2025, I saw that build, and track down the original master builder. Turns out he's a builder in Russia. My question was, where do those orange metal bar come from? He told me he uses a 3d printer to print those metal bar. Now, it's clear that his build is:

a) water cooling
b) regular case w/ regular thickness metal aluminum at the back
c) the back side is a closed panel case

so I wonder if I can do the same thing w/ fan cooling only. After 1 yr. and 1 mth. of upgrading to a new PC, turns out it can be done.

1) My case is a thick 1 giant single sheet of aluminum bent into that S shape, so i don't want to drill any holes on such a fine case
2) my case is open frame, so while the photo in Reddit has a fancy Germany design fan, the VRM temperature still follows the 1st law of Thermodynamics, whereas w/ an open frame case, all the hot air does get out
3) the trick is to find a thin (15mm) and quiet (9 to 18 dB) fan w/ high 98 CFM 140mm fan, i..e, lots of blades, in this case, 17 blades

The biggest problem is to find 2 mending plate that the length is what I needed. I found some aluminum mending plate, but the length is too short. So by Xmas of 2025, the only mending plate that fits the length I needed are Stainless steel 304. I need to drill 2 holes, turns out 1 of them doesn't fit and end up drilling a 3rd hole. To do that, it took 4 drill bits, and a total of 15.5 hr. of drilling, separate into a no. of days, and Home Depot refunded all 4 drill bits, as they agree it shouldn't fail in 1 day.

By contrast, at the front of the PC, I built 2 aluminum mounting plates for a dual rear exhaust fan matrix, and to drill 8 holes, took just under 10 min. In the end, the fan is great, it covered all the VRM at the back side of the motherboard, and the mount is solid, the rear fan just doesn't move an inch.

I have a setup very similar to the one in the picture, and I've had it that way for a long time. I have an InWin 303 case, but I don't use any mounting brackets; instead, I attached the fan using ordinary plastic zip ties. A fan running at low RPMs doesn't require heavy-duty mounting. The fan blows on my asrock b550m s.l.
You just need a suitable case for it, and you can install a fan—not a special slim one, but any standard 120mm fan. The In Win 303 is perfect for this; just use some zip ties, and that's it.

weve been doing this for years and i swear we already had this conversation...
yeah, KISS, zip ties.

Strange bird said:

I have a setup very similar to the one in the picture, and I've had it that way for a long time. I have an InWin 303 case, but I don't use any mounting brackets; instead, I attached the fan using ordinary plastic zip ties. A fan running at low RPMs doesn't require heavy-duty mounting. The fan blows on my asrock b550m s.l.
You just need a suitable case for it, and you can install a fan—not a special slim one, but any standard 120mm fan. The In Win 303 is perfect for this; just use some zip ties, and that's it.

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the problem is, there is a piece of glass that cover the above. So the thickness of the fan has to be less, than those 4 red knots at each corner, 140 mm covers the entire VRM area, the 120 mm does not. So whether it's 120 or 140mm, I need a thin fan, otherwise, I can't close the glass panel.

I agree zip tie should work. The fan is light. But I really like that orange metal bar idea (see attach photo as the front view of that Russian guy's case), he could use ziptie too. But ziptie is too "causal" vs. his idea of cable clip and 3D printing on orange metal bar.

Very impressive cable management. I wish I could do a job even 1/4 as good as this Russian guy.

pr0

I try those fine mesh before, too small, they are useful for intake, if they are for exhaust, it's no good. So w/ the above upgrade build, I got rid of all small mesh filter, and switch to hexagon big hole filter.

Those 4 screws, how many are screw to the case? as 2 of them seems to be near the motherboard

there are 4 screws holding the filter on the fan, not even close to the mobo, and its zip tied into place.
"hex hole" = a grill, not a filter.
thought you did this for a living?!

Idk think it matters too much my machinst b450 doesn’t get that hot and good quality 100amper vrm. You have a cheap board I don’t want then if the vrm looks or gets hott..msi and Asrock can do some cheap things with vrms…but I doubt it with the juexishi id say a 4+2 phase has to be pretty tough still. It looks just fine and runs fine not sinked..

stop pimping that chinesium crap.

okay, I miss the zip ties, I see them now.

Jspinks231, your PSU hot air is blowing towards your CPU cooler, not a good case design, normally PSU should be at the bottom

he has it right. the fan is intake. it is sucking in hot cpu air though. its an old case design.

Happy Hopping said:

okay, I miss the zip ties, I see them now.

Jspinks231, your PSU hot air is blowing towards your CPU cooler, not a good case design, normally PSU should be at the bottom

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it is what it is and top mounted psu only..and don’t listen to pendragon he’s ignorant and what’s wrong with world lol. They’res nothing wrong with the chinaesium boards lol..this one actually doing good.

jspinks231 said:

it is what it is and top mounted psu only..and don’t listen to pendragon he’s ignorant and what’s wrong with world lol. They’res nothing wrong with the chinaesium boards lol..this one actually doing good.

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Overall I find @pendargon1 postings interesting and helpful.

I prefer motherboards designed in Taiwan.

jspinks231 said:

it is what it is and top mounted psu only..and don’t listen to pendragon he’s ignorant and what’s wrong with world lol. They’res nothing wrong with the chinaesium boards lol..this one actually doing good.

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I know, he has a male, daily version of PMS, vs. women's monthly ver.

pendragon1 said:

chinesium

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I like that one

Happy Hopping said:

I know, he has a male, daily version of PMS, vs. women's monthly ver.

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He’s mad at the quality of the China bios then that’s overly China then…there’s nothing wrong with a 70 dollar board on sale..and no I don’t care what the bios does..and if it don’t like the imc or the ballstix kit…the boards picky with dimms big deal I’ll still boot slot 0 and 1 closest to cpu..and like the service latency slots anyways..that’s still finding a kit later where slot 4 is deadened….logically still the better thing to do the profile works with slot 0/1..now yeah if it was a mainstream board ballstix kit probaly still works but it don’t..so it’s oh well.,..that’s of if I need 16gb and I mostly don’t so boot slot 2 half the time and single.