The Antec NSK3480 is lovely. So small and understated and just large enough to fit a big graphics card! Most micro atx cases are at least 1.5x the volume. I did make some mods
- Jigsaw a 120mm fan hole in the bottom
- Jigsaw / dremel some 'round the back' cable routing holes
- remove rear fan guard (more dremel)
- put it on two 20mm high feet for bottom air intake
- forget the 'to do list: buy nice feet' for 6 years
The CPU fan is missing in the picture, I only just found the right bracket to bolt it in place. So what's in this ancient pc?
* Asus P5E-VM HDMI (upon SPCR recommendation late 2007!)
* Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 4.02Ghz 1.45V, @9*447
* Upgraded from 2GB to 4GB 5/5/5/15 pc8500 ram (lol yes yes I know its not much)
* Ati Eyefinity 6 2GB 5870 with Accelero S1 and other VRM heatsink
* 60+240GB SSD's (the big one is new)
* Enermax Pro82+ 430W powersuppy
I soldered the original ATi 4 pin PWM connector to a Be Silent 120mm fan, so the bottom intake fan is temp controlled by the graphics card. At 500rpm idle it is only 37c! Full load ~65deg at 700rpm ish.
The Mugen 4 replaced a Ninja 1 but was not making great contact with the very 'bulged' cpu heat spreader. I sanded both down flatter which made a real, but very small difference. Vcore is set at 1.6, which turns into 1.54 idle and 1.45 load. Another Be Quiet PWM fan is adjusted with Speedfan to keep the CPU below 80c under full load at ~1000rpm, 500rpm during normal tasks
The rear casefan is a Gentle Typhoon 800RPM Scythe model, also mobo / speedfan controlled, running mostly at 500rpm.
The trusty Enermax Pro82+ has no problem with the ~300W max draw from the wall and mostly runs at 500rpm.
Its a pretty effective and with the mechanical HDD and original 5870 cooler now gone, by far the most silent thing here. The city traffic, house ventilation, monitor buzz, are all a lot louder than this pc is. And I had fun tweaking it for a few days!
Niels
