CPU Cooler
The next problem encountered was the CPU cooling. It was realized that the Intel's stock cooler could not handle the CPU when playing Battlefield 1. Even at a low graphics setting, temperature rises to a whopping 103 degrees Celsius. In addition, the stock cooler contributed to a poor airflow, circulating the heat everywhere inside my build. As a result, gaming was temporarily halted and began looking for a replacement.
The Cooler Master Blizzard T2 was purchased in March 2020 thru online and was chosen for several reasons:
1. Low price tag for 92mm CPU coolers
2. Lightweight
3. Universal mounting solutions
4. Other 92mm tower cooler options were unavailable or too expensive during that time
The fan has a slight noise, but it doesn't bother me. Initially, I was worried that the cooler could not handle the temp due to its small size, but it was an opposite. It managed my CPU to operate at a maximum 75 degrees when playing Battlefield 1. The performance is satisfactory and the cooler deserves to be part of my build.
Intake Fans
In order to improve airflow inside the case, a case fan is needed. However, as my case has almost no air inlets at the front, I opted for pressure-optimized fans.
It took several weeks to find the best deal and this culminated in Arctic P12 PWM PST CO. Two were purchased in May 2020 and was installed after the case mod.
Case Restoration
The case mod and restoration was initiated on July 2020 to improve accessibility for maintenance and to eliminate corrosion around the case. I started drilling and cutting the portion of the hard drive bay to accommodate graphics cards with a minimum length of 240 mm. I also made a set of small mounts out of a scrap sheet metal for the top fan. The front fascia, particularly two 5.25 inch panels for the top fan was drilled to improve the source of airflow. In addition, an optical drive bay cover was added to one of the slot. For painting and finishing, I used a primer+paint spray can to every bare metals to reduce worktime. As the outside is black in color, I chose the glossy dark gray paint for the inside to produce a unique two-tone dark finish and to disguise as gray primer-only.
The Blizzard T2 is more than enough to cool my non-OC processor and keeps running at 75 degrees Celsius maximum, given the ambient temperature of 30 degrees Celsius. But if a high end thermal paste is applied and ambient temperature is lower, I expect that the processor would run cooler.
My build after the case modification. The fans were not yet installed as I'm looking for a better mounting for the fan below. Some stripped paints can be seen, and this was due to cracking and bubbles during spraying clear coat. Several weeks onwards, the stripped parts were repainted.
The 8GB memory was bought online in 2017 and was first installed to the Ivy Bridge PC when my brothers had been using it. Two sticks of the Hyper X Fury 2x2GB memory that was installed installed died due to overheating caused by the heat around stock cooler. A spare memory with the same size had been used until the 8GB came. It was reinstalled after my brothers' new gaming rig and when they opted to 16 GB with slightly increased frequency, the 8GB stick once again returned to my build.
The idea of opting to pressure-optimized (a.k.a static pressure) fans came after learning that the Airflow type case fans installed on my brothers' rig could not move sufficient air to the system. This is due to the limited air inlet at the front.
The Arctic P12 PWM PST CO has virtually zero noise and high efficiency, thanks to its newly-designed motor.
There was a plan to change the CPU cooler's fan into a PWM type. However, it was realized that the fan's high RPM mean that it blows more air to the heatsink, therefore dissipating the heat faster. The plan was cancelled and instead, the DeepCool exhaust fan (the green one on the left) was replaced by a more powerful one because sometimes the former requires manual cranking on PC start.
After changing the CPU Cooler, airflow is improved in such a way that the PSU sucks less heat from the CPU, partially preventing overheating.
The intake fans were mounted at the optical drive bay and below, adjacent to the graphics card. The upper fan is used to provide airflow between the PSU and CPU, in addition to cool the former. Meanwhile, the fan below helps the graphics card stay cool.
Two 5.25 inch panels were removed to modify and make holes for a new air intake. A front fascia of a dead optical drive bay was mounted due to the lack of panels to cover some drive bays. The same applied to a fascia from a dead internal card reader.