I'm upgrading my factory Asus/P4 to an Opteron 165/Biostar and want to OC a little. The Compaq case I'm re-using has two fans on the rear of the case, one of which is for the PSU. I've notice some of the cases on Newegg have side ducts for the CPU, do they make a noticeable difference? There really isn't any room on the front or back (microATX mobo = tiny case).
they do make a difference, which can sometimes measure in several degrees Celsius. The duct is there so that the cpu can be cooled by fresh air from the outside, instead of recycled/prewarmed air from inside the case. If you can fit one in - go for it, coz opterons can get somewhat hot (thanks to large cache)
A better option would be modding a fan to the top of the case to pull air out. This will help cool more then just the CPU. In general a top exhaust fan can drop the temps by about 8c.
That sounds promising. What is the best method of cutting the steel and mounting the fan?
