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The hidden clearance trap in budget case mods
I keep seeing people on here cram giant radiators into cases that barely have room for air. Look, I get it, you want a 360mm rad and you found a $50 case that sort of fits. But I spent two weeks last summer trying to mod a cheap Cooler Master box and ended up drilling holes right through a motherboard tray support. The problem is that budget cases use thinner steel, so adding custom mounts or cutting out drive cages kills the structural rigidity. I learned this the hard way when my GPU sagged after I removed the middle standoff. Now I always tap on panels and check the metal gauge before I buy a case for modding. What do you check for before you start cutting up a cheap case?
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hunt.rowan3d ago
Started drilling what I thought was a fan hole, ended up with a new side intake that's also a structural weak point where my GPU now hangs like a hammock. Honestly half the appeal of cheap cases is seeing how many corners you can cut before the whole thing folds in on itself.
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