$168 Building Fan Heater PC

A Building Heater Fan Case turned out to be a decent 9.5 liter layout PC, using 10 year old gaming parts. Here is how you can build one for $168. Its quiet and cool. Maybe because it was built for airflow from the start.

Philips screwdriver, grinder, metal shears.

Since I recently became a dad for the second time, I have been playing around sometimes with old PC parts in the office room while the rest of my family is sleeping. Next to the pc case I was busy with was a building fan heater.

I started looking at the PC case, and then at the heater. The pc case was for larger ATX motherboards, while the heater looked like it could just about fit a smaller ITX motherboard, that measures 170 x 170 mm. I took out the fan inside only using a philips screwdriver, and found a second hand motherboard (MOBO), a processor (CPU), a CPU fan and RAM memory for $80 at an auction site, and a power unit (PSU) for $14. I made 4 holes in the side of the case and tried fitting the MOBO. The PSU I fitted in one of the old holes on the other side, just to see how everything fitted.

I used two nuts for each bolt to create a distance between the board and the side of the heater. This was because the board has a slot for an M2 hard drive on the back. I bought a used 512 GB M2 card for $30.

I started checking pc forums and read discussions about air flow. I thought, a fan heater is built to move air, so maybe it is not so bad? I took a piece of thin sheet metal that was left over from some car fixing, and cut a round 140 mm hole, to make an air intake for the front of the case.

I kept the grid from the fan heater, and bought a new 140 mm mesh filter for $4. I also found a second hand start button at an auction for $3. I made a hole and fit it and glued it tight with 2 component glue. I added the mesh filter with screws, and spray painted everything black to fit the original fan colours.

For the back plate I put white paper over the back of the case and shadowed softly with a pencil, to get the shapes that I had to cut out. I took the same thin garage sheet metal I used in the front.

I found a cheap 4 GB graphic card (GPU), that was missing the metal plate that holds it in place. I took another plate from a network adapter I had lying around and cut a bit with a metal shears and drilled holes to fit it. It didnt look so nice but it worked. The motherboard is also missing the I O plate or backplate. It would have looked better with one, but it being missing I think it was one of the reasons I got it so cheap.

The only thing I bought new for this project apart from the mesh filter for the front is the $20 Noctua 60mm fan I put in the back. Can you see how tight it is between the PSU and the MOBO? I started understanding how people building small computers feel.

I added a manual barbecue thermometer from the kitchen, by drilling a hole in the front. After using 3 different dimension drills It fit so well, that I didn´t even have to glue it.

Look how small it looks next to the other PC:s. The one to the left is 15 liter, the one in the middle is 26 liter and the Building Fan Heater only 9.5 Liter, with its handy cubic shape and a handle on top. I hope you get inspired and can find a Fan Heater close to you.

Specs:

MOBO: MSI H 270I Gaming PRO AC

CPU: Intel Core i3 6100

GPU: Nvidia GTX 745 4 GB OEM

RAM: DDR4 16 GB 2400 MHz

PSU: Corsair CX 430

Prices of components:

Motherboard, RAM, CPU, CPU cooler: $ 80

PSU: $ 14

M.2 512 GB Disk: $ 30

Mesh filter 140 mm: $ 4

Start button: $ 3

Exhaust fan: $ 20

4 GB Graphic card: 17

Total: $ 168