Techaddicts.net-ATC-220B-VX1 Case Modification Article

By: Jose Rubio

Date: 6/15/03

Provided By: Coolermaster Inc.

The ATC-220 case looks great, and the quality of the compartments is awesome. Something was missing though, cooling was less than sufficient for the quality and price of this case. There are two exhaust fans, 1 at the top, 1 at the back, carrying the method that heat rises. The problem is that there is no intake. Because of this, the heated air cannot be dissipated out of the case efficiently. No cooler air can enter the case yielding much higher case temperatures and even impacting more the CPU temperatures.

We could not allow such a great looking case to have poor cooling, so we decided to modify this case using power tools.

The top fan sits below a fan grille, which blocks most of the airflow. The fan is between the 5 1/4" bays and the PSU.

Inside of this case is what you would expect in a mid sized case, thumbscrews are used and no sharp edges are found. For a full review of this case, go here.

We decided to put three 80mm fans in this case. Because the front cannot be modified, there is a window, 2 fans will be placed in the bottom of the case. The case is lifted with feet, so air will come in. An 80mm hole will be made in the window carefully, with a LED fan, sitting right next to the cpu so it can be cooled fast. Another note that a 92mm fan sits on the Enermax Power Supply, taking out the hot air, at @ 1800-2000 rpms. Let's start to cut.

Two circles were made in order to cut the case, a dremel power tool will be used to cut the circles using heavy duty cutting blades.

After both holes were cut and sanded down, small 4mm holes were made using a 80mm fan template to put in the fan screws. Now let's move to the window cutting. Basically I grabbed a drill, with a special cutting drill bit to cut in any shape, and made a circle, which came out great. Then I took the 80mm fan template and made 4 holes, for the fan to be secured to the side window of the case.

The hole was already cut here, using a cutting drill bit, which cuts horizontally through wood, plastic and for this case, the acrylic side panel worked fine too. If using a high speed cutting bit, the acrylic would melt, it didn't happen here.

The finished product. It still has the great look, nothing was ruined, as everything was sanded down, and the fans really helped the performance.

I'm sorry I didn't have many photos of this modification, some were lost as a formatted a hard drive containing the photos. The 2 fans on the bottom are hard to notice, but they are there!.

All case fans, were run at 7v using a wire modification, producing each about 22-25 DBa, and about 20 CFM's. So now we have an extra 60 CFM's entering the case which evened out the misbalance that the case had, with no intake. Let's take a look at the performance difference:

-2x 80mm @ 20 CFM (bottom intake), 2x 80mm (side & top exhaust) @ ~18 CFM, side window fan @ 20 CFM's. Power Supply 92mm fan. The cooling specs underlined are the added modification.

This modification was worth while, as the cpu temperatures dropped 6 C. to 9 C. The case retains it's great look and the lower temperatures give you more peace of mind. If you are going to attempt this modification, on this or any case, caution should be taken cutting the case, safety first. Depending what system you are running you may see larger increments or lower, depending on room ambient temps, CPU used, and CFM & rpm rating of the fans used. I will be watercooling this case soon, so more modifications coming up!. This is a great modification, recommended.