Quiet system. Zalman Heatsinks all over
Antec PSU modded with 2 panaflos wired to the front baybus (the internal wiring made them run fast and loud).
Some cosmetics added, cleaned up the wiring a bit. Blue lights are nice on black cases






P4 2.2 stock, idle 43, load 54
Zalman Northbridge, 8500, and 6500AlCu
MSI 845d Ultra-ARU
2x Baraccuda IV 40s (loudest things right now)
Modded Antec PSU
Front Fanbus

your pictures are red X's

http://www.geocities.com/rpc180/caseint1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/rpc180/caseint2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/rpc180/caseext.jpg

copy/paste em

Good job. You're doing something right if the loudest thing in your case is the two 40GB cuda IV's.

Suspend those Barracudas to drop their noise down to just about nothing. Looks like you have room to do what Russ did in his Desk Drawer PC.

It looks great but those white drives showing through would drive me crazy. I would have to put a piece of black paper between them and the door so you couldnt see them. Actually, I would probably dye them black.

I think the drive suspending may be next, though the issue isn't vibration but the whine at 7200, I might have to run a box trick on it. As for the drives, when the weather gets warmer I'll head outside to dye their faceplates, the picture showed them really well cause the flash was on, behind the door in ambient lighting, they're pretty much gone!

Thanks for everyone's help, this forum was really good at keeping this quiet and cool

You will be amazed at what noises drive suspension can reduce. Including whine. Also you may not think vibration is an issue -- but you've never heard a PC without vibration before It is a treat! Really.

Where did you get that foxcon case from? The one at newegg doesnt seem to have a side intake like yours does. Also how do you like the case? Is it sturdy ect. Its a nice looking case and I think it would be very mod friendly.

Actually, I did get it from Newegg, and it is Foxconn, how'd you figure that out? Its a Foxconn/ApexTech TU-150. The Apex website has the specs. I think Newegg's photos are pre-production, alot of the stuff is green; all my stuff is black.

I like the case, its a total underdog/unknown case like me, but COMPLETELY refreshing from the Antecs with doors you see everywhere. Its got some bad points, the door's held on with just plastic tabs, and it is subject to rattle cause it doesn't "lock" in place without locking the key, I put tape on the lock so it wouldn't rattle when shut. The motherboard panel doesn't have holes to sneak wiring behind, but you can fix that with some hole saws. Its also got lots of holes in the front chassis which means silence the noise sources and don't try to block them ... the thing's just as loud with the sides on as with off.

On the good side, its a white canvas, nothing done to it, ready for anything. The steel is kinda thick, but even the top panel is removable not rivited down. I really like the front mesh which is remicent of Addtronics cases that was competing for my next case alongside Antecs. Personally, I think the case is pretty spacious and actually, lying on its side its the same size as my stereo reciever (HTPC) in a rack =)

Its nicely crafted, the HD cage is dulled but not rounded, and the front mesh is subject to easy denting, finally, the door frame holding the mesh touches the drives (so stealthing using a bay plate was out of the question).

I'm thinking of some good mods for this case though, I'll post photos when they're done in a couple weeks.

Ive looked around for cases for a while so I can identify at least the manufacturer of most cases just by sight. Although I dont have the model numbers memorize, except on some of my favorite cases.

Didn't suspend the hard drives just yet, I'm still hammering out the details of the design. In the meantime, here they are decoupled from the case, would actually suspending them add any more silencing than this?




Its strips of foam (from the bottom of a motherboard box), cut so they cover the least amount of space on the HD surface. The alluminum on the sides are 3.5->5.25 bay converters, figured they can work as sufficient heatsinks (their temp is the same as when they were mounted).

It looks really good. I was going to sidesink my hardrive with 5.25" convertors too. If it were me I would cover the back fan hole, because you might be sucking in warm air exhausted from the power supply. Maybe you could just cover it with a piece of cardboard and test it before and after, it might help temps a little bit. Also did you drill the holes in the bottom yourself? I dont think the stock newegg case has those either. At least the pictures dont have them.

Actually, I used clear packing tape on the back fan hole and those holes near the PCI cards, didn't want to make it look too ghetto Temps went down 1 degree for the CPU and 1 for the Northbridge. The HD temps have dropped 2 degrees though cause I think covering the holes forced air to come in through the front over the drives. The holes in the hard drive cage were there before, used twist ties to tie the bottom foam strips to the case. I still have to figure out how to permantly hold the drives in place for transport, right now they're just sitting on top of the foam

Is it me or am I going crazy, all your pictures have just a red X, and the links to Geocities don't work.

I must be losing touch.

UPDATE: Strange all working today, I can see all your pics.

No its not just you ez2. Like right now I cant see his pictures, nor could I the first day he posted them, but a few hours ago I could see all his pictures fine.

Silly hosting site that I'm using, has a daily transfer limit of 5mb ... it hit it last night around 1:15am ... I think they're working again...

What are those small white things u used to keep the ATX 12v cable to the side of the case? I'm thinking of going through my case and reorganize my wires...I thot they were clean but man this forum showed me a thing or two. Some ppls cases are incredible! You'd wonder if everything is hooked up and working with the tidiness of their cables;). Nice comp!

-Ken

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like those adhesive squares with mountings holes for you to thread through zap straps. Very cool. I used to use those at a video production centre to keep the cables tidy. Lowes, HomeDepot, Rona, yer local hardware store should have plenty of those.

Actually, they're just regular twisty ties you find along with garbage bags. Sorry for the late reply, been a while since anyone posted comments to the thread