SLK3700BQE air intake scoops mesh mod help needed!

[shredisn@tdead]

My SLK3700BQE makes a nasty whining noise when I put the front panel cover on it - it's the air intake scoops reducing the airflow making the 120mm intake fan whine.

I've Dremel'd out the lower part of the scoops slightly, nothing mad, and opened up the intake at the bottom on the underside but that hasn't really helped much.

Now I'm thinking of cutting out the scoops altogether and putting in some G5 style alu mesh from KustomPCs:

ie chop out the scoops on the lower part here:



and add some of this as fan grille type thingy:



I'm new to case mods, with this w/e being the first time I'd taken a Dremel to a case in anger.
So, if I manage to cut out a nice rectangular hole, how the hell do I make the mesh stay in place so it looks nice and not hacked up, ie without just glueing it to the front?! I'm sure I've seen this kinda thing on the BTO machine at the back of CustomPC mag....



Err, also, would it be better to drill 4 corner holes and use a hack saw instead of the Dremel?

[turkster]

That wouldnt be quite a rectangular hole?.
The difficulty of putting the mesh in depends a lot on whether the front has compound curves. Ie will you have to bend the mesh to make it fit. It is difficult to see in the photo but it looks fairly flat with only a slight curve in plan section?

As to cutting i'd possibly go with a hacksaw blade and finish off with a rasp/file as its quite a big area and could be fairly time consuming with a dremel. The actual fitting of the mesh will probably depend on the thickness of the plastic on the front. They way to do it would be to cut the hole slightly smaller and fit the mesh in from behind. To do it any other way could be quite tricky to get a good finish. I think the BTO PC had a metal side which would be a lot thinner and consequently allow the mesh to fit in without being too obvious.

[shredisn@tdead]

Yup, I think hack-saw blade and mount from behind are the answers I'm after. Found a guide at bit-tech which gave plenty of ideas but I think I'll keep it simple - will probably file an edge on the inside of the cut so the mesh is closer to the front edge and more flush.

Don't suppose anyone knows where to get this hex "modders mesh" in the UK??

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthrea...threadid=33970