Inwin (SFF) IW-FT620...No PSU fan, no exhaust fan.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Tue May 06, 2003 3:03 am

I bought this case locally $45. It's really small, a flex ATX mini-tower. It comes with a 145w PSU, has room for a 3.5" hard drive, and a full-size cdrom.....that's it.

I had a few miniATX Biostar boards that fit this case pretty well. The boards work off an external 12v PSU (fanless) so I removed the internal PSU. This board is "legacy-free", so there are no serial, parallel, ps2, pci, or floppy ports....just 5 usb ports, modem and LAN port. There's actually quite a bit of open space in the case.

Here's the problem....I had to mount the board with the CPU on the bottom of the case. In its original setup, the cpu was at the top, next to an upper vent. I wonder what the optimum cooling setup would be? It's running a K6III-333 over-clocked to 400....moderate heat. I'm thinking to remove the front USB ports, and blow an 80mm fan in from the front directly on the CPU. But I also have those open rear spaces available for whatever. Ideas? There's also the quiet thing....

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/bluefront100 ... yahoo.com/

Here they are at Directron

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/ft620.html

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun May 11, 2003 2:57 pm

Well it's mostly finished. I uploaded more pictures that show the new case fan mount (de-coupled in a block of foam, about 1" further inside the case). This really quieted the fan, which is the only intake fan...there are no exhaust fans at all, only vent holes at the top rear and bottom front. It's a variable speed fan, but always stays at about minimum speed, around 1900rpms.

The Maxtor is attached to the outside of the original HD cage, with rubber grommets. This puts it further into the airflow and I added a small scoop by the case fan which directs some air directly over the top of the drive. This setup lowered the drive temp to about 34C max.

I also added a set of small internal speakers....loud enough for me. They are powered by the headphone port...no amplifiers. I relocated the front USB ports to the rear, and use the former access hole with the lid removed for the speaker output hole....works real well.

The CPU heatsink and 70mm fan are from CompUSA. It's an all-copper heatsink, with a zalman controller running at about 2200rpms.

This setup is almost inaudable to me. I have to get within 2 feet to hear it at all...I'm satisfied.

Temps...

CPU........idle 32c......100% 39c
Board......idle 32c......100% 36c

FWIW....this whole computer, complete with an Imation cdrw, is running off a fanless 60watt 12v external power supply, which never gets hot. Amazing......