Can something new fit in this old case?!?

[ADay2Long]

Hello,

I've been digging in my basement and found this old case! Perfect I said, I was looking for something to do this week. So I took everything out and started modding it to my heart's desire.

But today I just realized...will something new fit in there?

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9421/p1040488.jpg

The PSU is sitting sideways over the CPU socket. Will new HSF fit in there? Or will absolutely anything be blocked?

I was looking at building a decent gaming rig with a 4770. Help?

Thx!

[MacJunky]

I have a similar case from a comtex machine kicking around, don't count on it unless you go low profile and reverse air flow with your heatsink.
You could water cool if you have a block with right angle barbs on it or something though.
If you do attempt it, get a PSU that is fully modular so you can remove it completely to get at your CPU and mor hand room for RAM, etc.

That being said, you really should put a board and PSU in then measure how much space you have and take a look as some heatsinks.

[ADay2Long]

I was afraid of that answer ... was looking at lowering my cost, not making it rocket up ...

I'll try to find myself a new case to work with, too bad I was almost done too ...

[JD]

Depends what hardware your putting it in...

If it's just a AMD X2 or Pentium Dual-Core, you should be alright. Stock heatsink might even fit, if not there's a few low-profile ones out there.

Then either get a PSU with a single 80mm exhaust or have the 120mm fan facing the side panel (and cut a hole out) so that it doesn't directly interfere with the heatsink airflow.

Better yet, since this is a modding project, make some sort of duct from the top of the case down to the CPU heatsink so it can pull in cold air. Kind of like a chimney only intake rather than exhaust.

[ImmaPC]

I dunno about that. With the PSU sticking out like that (even if it's a smaller, say modular 550W), you won't be able to get any tall coolers, which typically perform the best. +1 for jdrom's input, but I definitely think you'll have to get a low-profile heatsink, or maybe a downdraft one?

If you're modding the case anyway, why don't you just add a little more room on the top?

[Soultribunal]

Zalman has some nice Downdraft Coolers that would probably work just fine for that case, so long as the case itself can get some good Airflow.
That would be what I would do in that situation.

Regards,
ST

[ImmaPC]

I say mod the case further and make more room for the PSU. Downdraft coolers do a good job and are lower than tower coolers, but they just don't match up in performance.

@ST:

Airflow in that old beige box case will be at a minimum, unless the OP does some major mods to it and adds way more fans. Heck, I would extend the length of it a bit too, it's short...

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by ImmaPC

I say mod the case further and make more room for the PSU. Downdraft coolers do a good job and are lower than tower coolers, but they just don't match up in performance.

@ST:

Airflow in that old beige box case will be at a minimum, unless the OP does some major mods to it and adds way more fans. Heck, I would extend the length of it a bit too, it's short...

Yeah, I would imagine so, I remember a few old Acer ones I had...god were they poor airflow.
Still, if he's going mod happy its not that hard to put fans in there.
And, the advantage of a Downdraft, although they don't cool as well as a tower, they cool everything around them as well (VRM's MOFSETs etc).

ST

[ImmaPC]

You have a point, but MOFSETs, RAM, etc. don't generally need it all the time, especially if it's a low-end build.