josephclemente's Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced + Mesh Intake

[josephclemente]

Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced
Fan: Noiseblocker NB-BlackSilentPro PLPS, used as front intake
PSU: Seasonic X-560
Motherboard: ASUS P8H77-I
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2
CPU cooler: Stock Intel
RAM: Samsung 8GB 30nm 1.35V DDR3 1600
GPU: None, operating as headless server
SSD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB (QTY: 3)
Trayless hotswap drive bay: Kingwin KF-1000-BK

The SSD looks as if it is stuck to the power supply. Actually, the SSD is held in place thanks to a 2.5" to 3.5" bracket, friction fit between the PSU and hanging from the case's support beam.

The star of this build. The majority of the front bezel was cut off and replaced with ModRight ModMesh HEX Aluminum Mesh Panel from FrozenCPU. The mesh holds itself in place thanks to four spots I cut and bent, which grab onto the side air slats.

This is my home server, running Windows 8 Professional.

 

[Volkswagen]

Wow great job- looks nice and clean and I am sure the case cools much better now

 

[RipperMac]

Brilliant!! Clean and simple. I've been waiting to build with one of these...love that mesh in front...

 

[[Ion]]

So what did you have to do in order to open up the front panel like that? What tools were required to give that clean finish? And does the mesh bend easily in to place?

 

[josephclemente]

Thanks for the comments!

The first thing I did was remove the large rectangle metal sheet which is stuck to the bezel. I used a heatgun to soften the adhesive (without melting the plastic!) and then carefully pull it off.

Then I used a cutting disc with a dremel-like tool. Remaining plastic pieces I just cut off with a side-cutting pliers. Then I sanded the areas I cut with sandpaper (I think 400 grit was the lowest I had available, so used that). The areas I sanded had a lighter color - I just sprayed some flat black Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric paint over the whole thing.

The aluminum mesh was pretty easy to work with. I cut it with a scissors. Bending and straightening was done with a non-marring nylon hammer over a block of steel (basically a 4" x 4" x 3/4" jewelers' bench block). Some of the existing paint flakes off at the bends, so I just gave those spots a spray with the same spray paint I mentioned earlier.

Finally, the mesh attaches to the plastic bezel simply by cutting a piece of the mesh and bending it to grab on. I did this in four corners which is all that is necessary. Here is a closeup of one of the spots - the white spot in the center is the unpainted end of the aluminum, bent inward over the plastic.

 

[Deleted member 80813]

Nice job! I really have to do this to my CM 120.

 

[Volkswagen]

Here is my solution to get some fresh air from the front 120mm fan

 

[andydviking]

did this mod lower temps for you guys? My temps are certainly in spec even with high ambient temps but I'd like to get them lower. I will most likely take off the silver plastic and then put on a basic fan grill.

Great mods BTW!

 

[xyexz]

A real simple test would be to just take your faceplate off while running your pc and doing a comparative test for temps.

If your temps go down then you'll know that a mod of the faceplate would net you some positive gains.