Custom Side Intake

[FX]

Well, since my clock faces were a slammin success I decided to take a crack at making what I feel is a nifty 3D side intake.

I originally designed this for a project case that I was working on with Crimson, but I figured since that project is probably a long way off, I'm going to see what making one of my own would entail.

Stage 1: The Sketch

» What you're looking at is a side and front 3/4 view of what I'm hoping the finished product will look like.

Stage 2: The Materials
• Styrene, Plastic and lots of modellers cement

Stage 3: Let's Begin

» I begun by taking the sketch of the side view, and printing it out, so I'd have an approximate template to work from. Then I took a piece of .02 inch thick piece of styrene, created an outline of the exterior edges, as well as where the 80mm fan would be placed.

Currently, I'm layout out where the interior support pieces, and cross pieces will lay. I figure that this is going to stand out from the case about 1.5", and have a channel focussing the air towards the fan. I laid an 80mm fan on top and traced the outer corner edges so I'd leave myself enough room around the screws to place the side rails up.

The thing I can't decide right now, is do I want the side rails that direct the air to end at the back of the fan area, or do I want them to go all the way back. There's going to be an interior piece that covers the air channel and will most likely also curve inwards at the back (left) edge of the fan so the wind doesn't form a dead pocket on the inside of the intake, and spoil the airflow.

I know it's not much, but this should give you an idea of where I want to go with it. Once I have more images, I'll update you and let you know how things are going. As I only have .02" thick styrene to work with, I'm going to have to get creative in making this thing durable enough to take a bump or two once it's installed. Time to visit the local hobby store and see what they have available.

[Aristo]

Holy crap man, that looks like it's going to be cool.

[Whisp]

Indeed. Definetly going to keep an eye on this thread.

[Frakk]

why only a side intake mod? half job done isnt really a job done so do the whole case would you?

[jonopaul01]

I like it with only the one side. Besides, I don't have much experience with fan cooling, wouldn't the motherboard obstruct the fan from circulating properly if you put it on the otherside?

As for the mod. Looks absolutely brilliant. Is that a window above the fan? And what is going to be put in the front of the intake thing? Mesh?
The mesh looks like an intake valve on a high performance sprotscar. The case looks fast in the drawing alone. Very Nice

And would you like giving us a hint of this mod that you and Crimson are working on?

[Whisp]

I think one side will be ok as long as the theme somehow seeps over t the other side panel. Not everything in the world is balanced and looks the same on both sides.

[jonopaul01]

Quite right, symmetry is an awful bore. Sometimes things need to be assemetrical. Just look at the Bonsai.

[FX]

Thanks guys, this is definately turning out to be a meticulous project.

Although it doesn't look like much, it's taken me a few hours to get to the point I'm at now.

Instead of playing trial and error with styrene and risk destroying it due to slightly off measurements, I decided to work with a paper mock up instead, this way once I have everything looking like it should, I can then turn around and start in on the styrene pieces.

» First thing I did here, was make a replica sketch of the base, including where the screw holes would be for the fan. If I'm going to fasten it to the side of the case, I need to think about how I'm going to get the screws in right? I also did a perspective view sketch so I could make sure the support ribs looked right as I started putting it together.

» Next step was to sketch out the profile for every rib going in to support this. As the profile changes as the supports go along, each one had to be sketched individually to make sure I got both the lines and the contour right. Now if you look at the above image, you'll see that the lines don't go all the way through the intake, that's because I need to put the air flow channel in there. Now that I have the fins, and the base all measured up, I can make my channel walls, and start in on fitting the ribs in properly. I'm not going to tack them in heavily, as I'm going to need them to make the styrene pieces after.

I'm getting kind of eager now to see if this is going to look right once put together, and hopefully very soon, I'll be able to show you what the channel with the support ribs looks like.

You're not going to actually see any of this stuff, but, if I don't do it right, the intake will collapse either while putting it on, or the first bump it gets.

For those of you who've guessed, the intake is part of a larger project I'm planning, but, I'm not going to show it all at once.

More updates soon.

[Seven]

Wow...

Looking pretty complicated I must say...although interesting.

I can't draw that well, but your plans seem well laid.
I'm sure you'll do fine if you have crimson telling you what to do , or even if you don't.

7

[Crunch]

Man this is gonna be awesome