Hardcore case cooling is often depicted as drilling extra holes throughout your case, in order to get better airflow. While often times this is the most effective way of cooling your case, and obtaining good airflow, its not easy and sometimes its not something your average user wants to do. Just because you don't want to drill holes in your case, doesn't mean that your case can't be cool. The cooling system built in this guide provides a cool 28 - 32c case temp, even during the longest quake playing sessions.

Creating an Airflow

The first big step in cooling your case is getting an intake fan. This fan will sit in the very front of your case, sucking in cool air from the outside of your case and dispersing it with-in. This is the first step in creating a steady airflow. The general rule of case cooling is this; bring air in the bottom front of your case, and blow it out at the rear top. Since heat rises, all the heat from your components should gather near the top, and hopefully sucked out. While the best way to suck the hot air out is creating a blowhole, most power-supply's does have a fan that sucks air out. This works well enough for the average user, and it does create steady airflow. For best cooling performance, using any fan smaller than 80mm is not recommended. Standard 80mm fans push 30 - 40cfm of air, while larger 120mm fans general push 75 - 140cfm.

(red arrow = air flow)

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