Cardboard: Yes/No?

[skooiker]

The motherboard tray in my old case was rattling, and I no longer trusted it, so I switched to this old hp pavilion case i had laying around. The case is quiet and stable and great for cooling, but sadly I was missing one of the sides.

Long story short: I zip-tied a peice of cardboard to the side of my case to replace the side. It is sealed off for airflow, minus the fan I zip-tied to it, is this terrible for cooling?

[HAL9000]

I can't see it being a big problem.

[fleeingpepper]

I bet it's better for rattling and keeping the fan sounds inside the case as well, while not very aesthetic.

[skooiker]

yeah it stays very quiet, and I can add as many fans to that side as i please, seeing as all that requires is blade and a few zipties. This case has become easily the coolest computer ive ever owned. I replaced my aux fan with a nice aftermarket cpu fan i had laying around that spins so fast you can feel cold air coming out of the back of the case from four feet away. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

[Alaron]

Interesting setup. Can you post a pic?

[skooiker]

Im at school right now, but il send a picture when I get home.

[skooiker]

http://saafas.com/Sean/Ghetto%20PC/DCFN0013.JPG
Yeah sorry. Heres a link instead.

[Disgrace]

That might need to be converted to a link.

[fleeingpepper]

Haha, and you put stickers on it! Great!

[skooiker]

haha yeah, i couldnt resist. The CPU sitting on the stereo is actually what that p4 sticker came with.

[mbiggs]

That is radical man. Nice case mod!

[skooiker]

Just wanted to follow up, the computer is still running strong at relatively low temps with overclocked video card and RAM. The hard disks were getting a little hot due to absolutely no airflow in the front half of the case, so i chopped another 90mm fan into the cardboard for that. Then not enough air was being pushed out because it was sealed up too well, so I untaped the back side of the cardboard to let more air out and it all runs beautifully.