HDPlex cases, adding vent holes to the bottom plane

[AKM76]

I'm waiting for the HDPlex H3 to be delivered. Meanwhile I'm thinking about modding it by adding some more, and I mean seriously more ventilation holes to the bottom plane. By more I mean I'd like to cut a big rectangular one under the motherboard, and some more, maybe round ones, maybe randomly, about 2-3 cm. in diameter elsewhere around.

I just recently found out why passive cases don't use the fine thin ribs like the tower heatsinks. It is because the technologies are different, and that fine layers on a modern heatsinks are not meant to be used passively, there is not enough convection this way, i.e. they are not effective (unless there is some airflow inside the case). Same goes backwards. And that's why Nofan looks different, being meant to be used really passively.

That's why I'm thinking that adding small holes/mesh is not really effective for passive cases. So I plan to make them rather huge, again, just so to not destroy the rigidity. I guess it is not what could be accepted for a commercial product but could work as a mod, I guess. I have a gut feeling that it will be quite hot inside the case otherwise.

I ordered the H3 case along with the external power brick and nano PSU, so I'll have quite some spare space inside.

So another thing I'm thinking is if there is enough space between the front panel and the motherboard edge, I may put a 80 mm. fan horizontally there on the bottom, along some vents underneath it. I'm quite opposite to the idea of using a passive cooling case in combination with a fans (and HDDs) but I hope it could be the way to activate the fan only at certain reasonably high threshold. Another option is to mount a fan above the motherboard using the hdd/ssd mounting bracket or just put it vertically somewhere.

I'm not going to do it all myself, but I have a friend with access to the needed equipment to whom I did not spoke yet, but he should give me the idea of what he could or could not do regarding this requests.

Please tell me if it is an overall stupid idea of mine or not so very?

[Vicotnik]

Interesting idea, but I wouldn't bother. Normally the inside of the case would have roughly the same temperature as the case itself. The case is quite massive so during normal load the temperature is fine. Small bursts of heavy CPU load will not heat up the case much.

It can get quite hot during sustained load though and then some extra holes might be useful. The RAM, the SSD, the PSU etc will all get heated up by the CPU load by design. But this is normally not a problem; if you want a system for heavy load you should not look at a passive system imho.

For the rare cases when I do want to do something heavy on my passive system I have a spare 120mm fan (Antec 3 speed!) powered by a small 12V power brick. I place it on the desk next to the case and let it create a light breeze across it Cools everything down very effectively.

[CA_Steve]

I wouldn't modify the case until you have done the build and proved that you need to take action. I seriously doubt that your 65W CPU will need it.

[AKM76]

@@Vicotnik, CA_Steve

Ok, agree. I should just stop worrying.

At worst there are 35W T processors to be used.