Mounting 120 RAD in Front Roof of Armor

[Evil-Fruits|R4z]

So, like the title says I was wanting to mount a PA120.1 RAD in the roof of the front of the drive bays - this would require relocating the power/reset switches and swapping the fascia for one of the blank ones but, I think its possible if I re-jig some stuff round (DVD-RW/Res/Hardcano 12 in there atm).

Just wondering if anyone has done this already or tried and it didn't/wouldn't work?

Just a pic for reference, the fan will be recessed into the top drive bay with an ACRyan fan filter on the outside.

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6590/arfx2.jpg

Ideas & Opinions welcome :)

Edit: Just to point out I already have a PA120.2 in the lower drive bays and I don't want to cover my single 120 exhaust with a RAD.

Thx

[serialk11r]

Okay, I'm just gonna tell you I think that will look extremely ugly.

[rbd89]

Why would that look ugly? If done right it could look really nice.

[serialk11r]

Because the top drive bay would have a cover, and a cover on the top isn't exactly asthetically pleasing.

[Nicksterr]

Because the top drive bay would have a cover, and a cover on the top isn't exactly asthetically pleasing.

wha? rad grills on the top of cases look awesome

[serialk11r]

The front side gets messed up. Thermaltake cases look really good with the power switch bay on the top.

[rbd89]

What do you mean the front side gets messed up?

[Zeus]

Don't do that! There's very limited space for a rad in the top of that case, it will look crammed and ugly.

Just put it in the lower front end, just like mine:

Just saw you already have a PA120.2 like mine, lol

[ziddey]

Hmm I have a setup similar to what you're wanting to do. I have a 2x120 up there. And yes, it has forced me to have to put the optical down at the bottom bay. I will admit that I kind of agree with serial in that it looks a little weird (I won't necessarily say ugly, hell since my optical drive cover isn't even the same color as the case), but it definitely is unusual since I've been used to top-down style since I built my first tower years ago (hah remember when desktops were the norm? it's a shame they're out of date now.. probably would be less strain on my neck to have the monitor higher).

I have around 2/3 inch between the ran and the drive cover I have there. I'm thinking of maybe making a few switches to control fan voltage, like say 0/7/12 for the top fans and another 0/7/12 for the bottom fans. Are you sure you can't keep the power switches up there? You said you were only mounting a single 120mm up there right? So no way of pushing it back a little?

Also, why are you adverse to running a single 120 in the rear? It'd probably hurt overall case airflow a little because of the restriction, but it shouldn't be too bad? And besides, you could probably sneak the rad in between the cpu block and gpu block if you did it that way (a loop is a loop so position shouldn't matter eh?). I'm actually thinking of adding another 120 as well since 2x120 didn't turn out to be as much as I'd have liked (heh the rate that I'm thinking of progressing, everyone here was definitely right. I probably should have gone thermalchill from the start and just have been done with that, but watercooling is a sport right? :))


edit: If the power switches won't be able to still fit in the top slot, instead of relocating them down, maybe you could find a way to modify it to somehow allow it to be mounted just with the cover stuck on. Might not be the stablest thing ever since it's not screwed in or anything, but unless you're an ape about hitting buttons, I can't see a problem with it

[Evil-Fruits|R4z]

Thx for comments guys.

Current setup looks like this

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/7121/dsc00071vi7.jpg



You can see what stuff I have in the drives already and just make out the top Power Switch drive cover - I think I can drop the Repack Res one slot if I move the PA120.2 back and down a little and then all the rest can move down freeing up one and bit drives of space for the RAD/Shroud combo in the top.

btw the fan guard I have is this one

http://www.acryan.com/img/products_images/ACR-FG0687_250.jpg

I don't think it will look ugly or out of place as its black to match the case and its quite unobtrusive.

Keep the comments coming...

R4z

[serialk11r]

I love meshes like that. My case window has a mesh like that that happens to be 90mm wide, but it wasn't designed for a fan. I took out the plastic pins and put a 92mm-120mm adapter and put a blue led yate loon there. The mesh will actually catch some dust too!