Here is a mockup of the fan, an EBM W1G180-AA01-25 (24V 37W 375CFM max, ~150CFM min) diagonal fan on its (incomplete) reinforcing plate.
This is a powerful fan; the 95W version is downright frightening - a real finger-chopper.
And with the filter added. This filter is a 14"x6" AEM DryFlow; AEM quit making these before I was able to procure a second one (so I always have
at least one clean, dry filter handy), so the second filter is an Airaid, now also discontinued.
This filter offers a typical pressure drop of ~.25" H2O. The W1G180 has no problem pulling air through it, at any speed setting.
And with the lid on the filter. The fan is still in there, as you can just see its stud peeking out.
I lopped this giant hole in the S500's side panel to eliminate some stamped-in features that were in the way. The shape is an outline using as few
straight lines (cuts) as possible.
Cut a moderately-sized hole in a sheet metal panel like this and it flops around like a dead fish. Cut a giant hole like this one and it'll fold up if you look at it crosseyed.
The complete reinforcing plate, a piece of .090" 7075. I got a bit overenthusiastic with the number of screws, but then I only had to apply them
once.
Here is the side panel with the plate attached, in all its screwy glory.
Inside view. The potentiometer in the lower left is part of an adjustable voltage divider for the speed control. The other resistors are hiding
under the heat shrink tube under the wire ties. I tried to cut the current too low, so while it has a full range of adjustment, it occurs in about a
quarter turn of the knob. Anything greater than minimum speed is overkill.
These days I'd hook up the tach output at the least, just because I could. Probably the speed control as well (to a PWM output on the motherboard), even though this fan uses a 10V range rather than 5V, and, again, anything above minimum speed is not likely necessary.
Here it is fully assembled.
Yak! Single-insulated wiring! These days I'd shrink a tube or two over that.
There is an additional component missing from these photos - the Zahn 12V to 24V DC-DC step-up converter. Made in Wisconsin, by folks who know how
to make DC-DC converters.
This is the 2009 version of Ares5, that never entered service.
Motherboard: Supermicro H8-SMi-2
Processor: AMD Opteron 1354 4-core K10