Which is better for Aiding Airflow - drilling Holes vs Cutting Slots

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Wizlah

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Jan 24, 2008
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I've been having problems with the hot air thrown off by my non-ref 4870 (see original thread here). So far I've done three tweaks

1) drilled holes in a starburst formation on the top of the case, and flipped over the PSU so it pulls its air in from outside.

2) installed some PCI slot ventilation brackets on the unused pci and pci-e slots.

3) put new fans on the graphics card. currently these are just plugged into the PSU and are going at 2000 rpm full pelt (I'll sort out that problem later - I need to get an adaptor for the particular 4 pin plug on the graphics card).

The fans are doing a good job keeping the card cool, but the hot air builds up pretty damn quick in there, and even with the ventilation slots, the side of the case and the underside of the PSU are heating up, so the hot air just isn't venting out of the case. I'm going to cut some holes in the side of the case, but is it better for me to cut some long horizontal slots with a dremel, or just to drill some holes in rows? or does it make any real difference?
 
just to clarify, here's a crude diagram of how that side of the case is looking. There's also an 80mm noctua intake fan on the case and a 120 mm noctua on the rear for expelling air.

ventingdiagram.jpg
 
Yeah. given that is was a general query about case modding tho', I thought better to ask here.
 
Oh no complaints just making sure my view on that drawing is correct.
WHat case is it? I have the Silverstone SUGO2, and had some issues with airflow.
The answer also depends on WHAT case and what components. See, I have an old E6300 cpu, so airflow needs to be basic at best to keep that little guy cool. If you are running a 4870, you probably have a beefier cpu. Which brings up the cpu cooler and what kind it is.

In my experience, I would get a pci-slot intake fan, have it blow towards the graphics card which exhausts air out the back. Having the PSU pointed outwards is a good call. I would also look into a front intake and rear exhaust.
Finally, I would drill holes. They will allow just as much air flow, but allow two things:
a- easier mounting of fans
b- easier mounting of air filters.
 
I'll get some proper pics later - been very busy this week, but the specs are as follows:

Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H mobo
4 gig ddr2 corsair ram
Athlon 5000 Black Edition CPU.
Samsung 250gb Spinpoint F1
Samusng DVD Drive
Silverstone SST-MFP51B remote control/LCD display.

The CPU cooler is a scythe shuriken, and as I mentioned before, the intake fan is a 80mm noctua with a 120mm noctua at the back. the airflow on that side of the board seems ok - the cpu temps vary, but usually are about 30 degrees or thereabouts, and the hard drive seems to sit at bout 20 degrees or so. But because of the snug fit of the card under the PSU, it seems like a lot of hot air collects up on that side of the case. fitting another 80mm fan on the case seems like a bit of a waste as well - with the fans attached to the cooler on the palit/xpertvision card, there's not that much space between them and the side of the case, so it seems like more sense to just give them some ventilation to blow the hot air straight out, rather than redirecting the airflow out the back fo the case - so I'm really just looking at the most efficient way to vent that hot air.
 
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