Drilling an alluminum drive cover?

[sinkoman]

Allright all, I have a Lian Li pc-65b case, and i'm thinking of purchasing a vantech tornado for my xp-90.

But since that's a 50db addition to my room, i'll definetly be also getting a baybus to help it allong. I was planning on grabbing a 3.5" baybus from frozencpu.com, but their baybus "kit" requires you to drill up one of your 3.5" drive covers.

Now I was wondering if drilling a black aluminum drive cover would ruin the black look to it, and show silver around the edges. I cut up the internal intake fan grill on the case (actually, my bud did it) and it left unsightly silver edgings on the cuts. No problem, since you don't see it anyway (till the bezel is removed) but silver edged cuts on a 3.5" drive bay would be unsightly at least.

I was also wondering, perhaps I don't need a tornado? I was going to get one because at stock speeds, my cpu idles 35. My ambient room temp can be anwhere from 78F-82F at this time of year. With my air conditioner on at 76F though, I idle at around 30-31c. My gfx card idles around 56c (although, really strangely, it's idling 46 atm, with ac on) with the ac off, and usually with it on. I used to get around 70 idle on it, but I refitted it with as5 (that damn fancy Gigabyte heatsink took a while to figure out) and now I get the formentioned temps. I notice it going to around 66-70 (it can be really really varied) when i'm playing a game.

Thoughts?

EDIT: This is the fan currently on my cpu.

 

[Asus]

Can you link their Kit? I have a 4 switch bay for fans and I used one of my covers for it. I just put masking tape over the bay cover, marked my holes and drilled from the front side down so the shavings and stuff would come out the back. Looks good to me. Also, some have 'molding' around the switchs/buttons/LEDs etc that cover that stuff up.

 

[jonbob]

if you drill it carefully (and slowly, don't press too hard) and stick masking tape on both sides you shouldn't have any problems with swarf.

If the aluminium is painted you risk paint chipping, though the tape will help. If it's anodised then this isn't an issue.

Do it slowly, use a press if you can. You will be able to see the silver edges because the metal is only black on the surface but if you're putting something in the hole this area will be hidden.

 

[duffers20]

Yeh if you put a piece of wood under the metal and firmly clamp the wood and metal together, it will make your cut alot neater I think. Just goto take your time, and make a tiny starter hole with a dot punch to stop the drill bit sliding around. It will give it something to sit in, if you know what I mean.

 

[sinkoman]

http://www.frozencpu.com/bus-13.html

There's the kit. It looks like they have washers that fit over the hole to cover any silverage.

But do you guys think that I even NEED a tornado?