Modding a Corsair 600t for better cooling and less noise?

[Colonel Sanders]

I've had this 600t for a while now and I love the case, I do have a couple issues I want to address though, and was wondering what your thoughts might be.

First, the H100 radiator mounts to the bottom of the top mesh area, and I have 2 fans on the top side (pretty much the only way you can mount a H100 in this case without modding.) The first problem here is the mesh between the rad and the fans. It's gotta be cutting down on airflow quite a lot. What would be a good way to cut it open along the mesh in a straight and "clean" manner? I was thinking about using some snips I have, wouldn't be as clean looking, but it has the advantage of not making me take everything out of the case so I can avoid the metal shavings flying everywhere from using a dremel and a cutting wheel.

Second, the removable mesh fan guard on top of the case has a plastic bracing underneath that hits the fans on top. (great idea there, Corsair) So, I'm thinking about trimming out most of the plastic bracing since it doesn't really do much anyway (not like I'm setting stuff on top of the case, which is probably why they put the bracing there in the first place.

Or, I could do what I saw someone here on [H] do which is cut the top of the case appropriately so the rad can fit on top and the fans can go on the bottom. This is really tempting. The fan noise really goes up when the mesh top is in place as the air rushes through, and the fans themselves seem to get louder too (under more load because of more air resistance?)

Anyone have any other thoughts or ideas?

 

[dragonstongue]

well the mesh would def interfere, but, most fans actually do a little better if they are not tight to the heatsink or rad, they are able to suck/push the air a little more efficently if they have a slight gap(less dead air) thats why alot of heatsinks that have the fan clip on usually have small pads to reduce vibration and help promote better airflow, alot of folks did this even with small cardboard pieces and it did help thier temps and reduce vibration from the fans as well.

So yeh, I wouldn`t worry much about the mesh area itself, but rather the mesh itself which obviously will prevent some air and make the fans work harder to pull that air out, I would just get rid of the mesh if you can, and if you can, cut out but have some way of putting the meshed area back if possible if you will sell the case at some point or whatever, the less constricted, the better, and like I said and have seen lots of folks do, try to keep the fans a little bit away from the rad, it usually helps reduce noise, vibration, and can help temps as there is less back pressure.

 

[Sinclair]

Second, the removable mesh fan guard on top of the case has a plastic bracing underneath that hits the fans on top. (great idea there, Corsair) So, I'm thinking about trimming out most of the plastic bracing since it doesn't really do much anyway (not like I'm setting stuff on top of the case, which is probably why they put the bracing there in the first place.

*snip*

The fan noise really goes up when the mesh top is in place as the air rushes through, and the fans themselves seem to get louder too (under more load because of more air resistance?)

I did exactly this with my 600T as well, it cut the air noise dramatically on my two intake fans for the H100.

As far as the metal grill between the top and radiator, if you can remove it, I'd say go for it. I'm in the same situation as you with that one, I'd like to remove it but I don't want to strip the case down to bare just to dremel it out.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

well the mesh would def interfere, but, most fans actually do a little better if they are not tight to the heatsink or rad, they are able to suck/push the air a little more efficently if they have a slight gap(less dead air) thats why alot of heatsinks that have the fan clip on usually have small pads to reduce vibration and help promote better airflow, alot of folks did this even with small cardboard pieces and it did help thier temps and reduce vibration from the fans as well.

So yeh, I wouldn`t worry much about the mesh area itself, but rather the mesh itself which obviously will prevent some air and make the fans work harder to pull that air out, I would just get rid of the mesh if you can, and if you can, cut out but have some way of putting the meshed area back if possible if you will sell the case at some point or whatever, the less constricted, the better, and like I said and have seen lots of folks do, try to keep the fans a little bit away from the rad, it usually helps reduce noise, vibration, and can help temps as there is less back pressure.

Thank you for your thoughts!

I did exactly this with my 600T as well, it cut the air noise dramatically on my two intake fans for the H100.

As far as the metal grill between the top and radiator, if you can remove it, I'd say go for it. I'm in the same situation as you with that one, I'd like to remove it but I don't want to strip the case down to bare just to dremel it out.

Well I was feeling productive tonight, so I did take a pair of aviation snips to the plastic bracing of the top mesh grill and after about 30 minutes of screwing around and using side cutters to trim the edges as much as possible, it looks quite good. Now it 100% clears the fans, as well as removing even more air restriction.

Then I took out the fans and the H100 (didn't have to remove the pump/block, just set the radiator in the case so it wasn't hanging off the hoses) and set to work using the side cutters to snip away the mesh between the 8 fan mounting holes. It works quite well! The side cutters were *just* small/narrow enough at the points to fit in the holes in the mesh and give plenty of leverage to snip. After about another 20 minutes I had all the area that was between the fans and the rad snipped cleanly away, and with no shavings (i.e. from a dremel) to worry about.

I am up and running again (obviously) and improvement in noise reduction is HUUGE. I highly, highly recommend this mod to anyone using an H100 on their 600t. I'm running P95 small FFTs testing right now and so far have also seen a 2 degree drop.. not scientifically tested but the max reached is 2 degrees lower.

 

[Sinclair]

You inspired me, I'll give this a try maybe tomorrow, once I get a pair of snips .

 

[Colonel Sanders]

I used side cutters for the mesh between the rad and fans:

 

[defy]

I used side cutters for the mesh between the rad and fans:

As a note for any latecomers for this thread, I highly recommend this mod. I used a pair of the cutters pictured above and it worked brilliantly. I'm still thinking of a way to clean up the remaining jagged edges, any ideas? (file, dremel?)

Anyway, with a combination of a white 600t and an H100i I did three things:

1. Cut away the mesh between the fan (top), and radiator (roof of case).
2. Swapped out the stock fans for Noctua NF-F12's (warning, not cheap).
3. Dusted out the case and radiator for good measure.

Plugged directly into Corsair Link (without the Noctua low-noise adapter) at the same settings I'm showing something like ~7 degrees cooler at idle with a much lower noise level.