Impression IM-21 - air flow problem solved

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trajik78

Gawd
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Oct 11, 2004
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Ok, so I've been trying to figure out a way to get my temps lower in my case since my CPU has been around 48-50 degrees under load. I noticed that whenever I took the side off my temps would go down by as much as 6 degrees. Ok, so I had an airflow problem, I thought I had enough flow - 1x120mm intake, and 2x80mm exahust. matching each others CFM @ 80CFM in and out of the case. Just didn't seem to be enough air into the case...

Hm, one solution was to just cut a hole in the side and slap a 60mm intake fan over the CPU, or as I found out today while Iwas cleaning the front panel of my case, just take the front panel off. Seems this Impression IM-21 case doesn't give the front 120mm fan any breathing room at all. There are little holes beneth the fan but only about 2mm clearance between the front Acryllic and the fan. The little holes are right under the fan, where the cold air is supposed to be coming in from under the front bezel, this makes me believe that when I had the front bezel on, the 120mm fan was A) not getting enough breathing room, and B) because of the restrictive air flow it was pulling air from the inside of the case through those little holes.

Now there's a sh*t load more air coming into my case and my temps are great...my load is now @ 45 degrees. AND my PSU temps have dropped 5 degrees as well. I can feel the fan working so much less now, and it's pumping cold air into the case. So I guess untill I can get myself that nice Tt Tsunami case I'm going to drill some holes in the front bezel to let the fan breathe properly. I'd like to thatnk the brilliant engineers at Impression for that one.

Check out the case here to get an idea of the front panel problem I'm talking about. The 120mm fan is seated right above the group of holes where the HD is mounted. I'm sure those temps are way lower as well...hope this helps!
 
i just modded my case to put a 80mm Tt SCF II on the side right ontop of the NB and videocard. temps have dropped another 3 degrees.
 
Someone else modded an 80mm intake into his mpresion and had pics of it. I have the same problem with my Aspire X Dreamer. I'm thinking of taking off my temp display for better intake.
 
follow this link below to check out the mods. i used a 76mm hole saw to drill the hole in the side for the 80mm Tt SCF II, and used a small drill bit (forget what width) to do the holes. the screws holding it in the side are basic screws w/ nuts that I got from Lowes. Here's what it says on the little pack:

6-32x1-1/2 Round Slotted/Phillips with Nut Zinc.

they're the perfect width and length only leaving 1/8" on extra screw in the case. i recommend putting some heavy tape where your going to drill to reduce chipping and so you can get your guide lines in place. the final step for the Tt fan was to plug it into one of the 5v lines from the Zalman fan adapter that came with my VF700Cu. FOr those who aren't familiar with the adapter it goes from a 4-pin molex for the PSU lead and on the other side has 2x12v 3-pin leads and 2x5v 3-pin leads. It's perfect so I dont have to run it full boar which is very loud, and also I don't have to stretch it over to a motherboard header or to another 4-pin molex PSU header.

in total for the side mod it took my about 1hr.

http://www.geocities.com/trajik78/crunked_custom_pc.html
 
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