My Silverstone OP1000 is so huge compared to a standard size P/S that I modded my case (Cheiftec Dragon Mid Tower), to mount it outside my case, opening up an airflow chimney literally to my dual 140mm blowholes, it wasn't an easy modd but the end cooling results are quite amazing!

#1 The P/S is intaking outside air not preheated air from inside the case.
#2 The chimney effect from the P/S removed from the inside of the case exhausts the CPU air in a solid airflow and pulls air over all the other components, thus supplying and effectively exhausting all the CPU airflow needs.

If anyones interested in pictures I've ordered 2 replacement (No Fan Holes), side panels for my machine since the old side panels had previous fan holes in them, and will be continuing the surgery remounting to the new right side panel, which is where the P/S is presently located, with pictures to follow that remodd if anyones interested.

Otherwise this is to put a bug in your ear that this kind of thing is possible, and very effective! Ryan

Pictures?

This sounds interesting, being that I also have a Cheiftec Dragon case which is starting to get a bit crowded.

Hi Sailer, How the heck have you been doing? Long time man!
I have seriously modified my dragon and intend more modifications, she now has 2 140mm Sharkoon fans on the top and 1 140mm Sharkoon side fan at the video card area, the reason I mentioned the fan name brand is because its not the first 140mms I had bought but is the best as far as air CFM, the 140mms aim toward the quiet side but I needed a might more airflow than most all marketed 140mms produced, an expensive lesson learned the hard way.

CrazyPC is the only distributor I could find that carried the Sharkoon fans, and even they didn't carry the fan grills for the 140mm fans, they might today I'm not sure, but the 140mm fans I'm using exhaust all the air I need them to and are quiet to boot, even at max RPMs.

Moving the P/S to the outside opened so many different possibilities, turning it into a chimney straight to the blowholes, there is literally no heat buildup in my case at all, the fan controllers allow either super quiet for internet surfing like right now, or maximum cooling for gaming giving me more OCing headroom, I should have done this a long time ago.

The Cheiftec Dragon is an excellent case well made and solid, I've kept it all this time because I've been able to do everything to it I wanted, I have more mod ideas but thats what the pictures to come will be covering, when I get it completed its going to blow your mind at what can actually be done with this case, since you have one yourself!

Take care man! Ryan

Pics?

Hi there Ryan. I got a Thermaltake 120mm fan for the top of my case to go along with the 80mm on the side and a fan venting out an expansion slot. I measured the case for the new 3870 X2 cards and it seems a bit close, but it should fit.

I had a little problem with my heart a while back and got to meet some nice nurses in an ICU ward. They got me patched up and I'm looking forward to spring. Way too much snow this winter. Been gathering parts for a new build and updating the OS to Vista 64. Not sure about that. But like the old Chieftech, I keep chugging on.

Good seeing you.

@Sailer, Glad your heart problems were fixable, and you're doing OK now!

I just had Laser eye surgery for a torn retina, the doc said it wouldn't hurt much, be still, they strapped my head in the restraints to start the laser surgery, first time that laser fired my rear end bit a chunk out of the chair, every fiber of my body was screaming out to get away from the thing, but I knew I had to endure it and get the tear repaired.

I had drops of sweat pouring off of me, the doc said it would take 5 to 10 minutes, thats the longest amount of time I'd ever experienced, I don't see how young children could ever get through that, they must have to put them under to do it, got to go back tomorrow for a follow up, I hope the tear is completely taken care of, I really don't want to have to go through that again.

Case wise, I did away with my bottom HDD carriage and moved the HDD to the Floppy carriage, since I had previously done away with a Floppy anyway, (I have a USB 2.0 Floppy Drive anyway just in case I need it.), there was plenty of HDD mounting area, which completely cleared my video card area I've got 2 7800GTX in SLI and they span the entire M/B and they seriously blocked the lower front intake fan, with the carriage in place.

Also modded the lower front intake fan and changed it from an 80mm to a 120mm, that made a big difference right there.

Pictures will come later after I replace the side panels and complete my final modds, (As I previously stated), I have more modd ideas and will show it all as a finished project, not a work in progress. Thanks for your patience, or as Windows says Please Wait while the Installation is in progress, but you really don't have a choice anyway.

Should get parts Friday, and this will be modd weekend!

Pics will follow, unless I die first, if that happens Goodbye.

Thread update,

Power Supply mounted Outside Case
HDD Carriage Relocated
Floppy Carriage Gone
Front intake fans changed to 120mm
Rear exhaust fan changed to 92mm
Power Supply hole plated over and others
GPU to CPU baffle plate added to separate the heat from the GPU area adding to CPU area
All fans controlled with fan controllers except M/B Chipset

Pics are 2 full days of case fabrication and modding, I'm after maximum air cooling efficiency, pretty can come later with possibly a good overall paint job, but I'm not finished modding yet.

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nice, very nice.

That setup is AWSOME. I'm always anal about cooling as well, and if I had the knowledge/tools to do so, I would go in a very similar fashion. I love the compartmentalized segments, having the graphics cards in their own section with a intake fan at front, and having them exhaust in the rear. Kinda hard to tell from that picture, but are the pci slot vents open to allow the excess air to escape? Doesn't seem like those cards are a dual slot venting solutions.

Love the aspect of the intake directing air to the zalman CPU cooler. Honestly, this is a damn great modification for temperature control. Love what you've done with it, keep the pics coming ^_^.

The graphics compartment is being fed with air from the front 120mm and exhausting air out the side panel 140mm, the open PCI slot covers are actually intaking air, the DFI M/B design of this particular M/B puts the graphics cards extremely close together for SLI setup, but as tight as they are the Zalman coolers keep the GPUs around 42c under gaming load, they would cool even better if there was more room between them, its really tight.

Thanks for the compliment!