i am getting this case.
i am getting a 120mm for exhaust, 92mm to cool my slk-900, and im debating whether to get a 92mm fan for the front, or a 120 mm fan for the front. all fans will have fanmates and all fans will be L1A's.

thanx for your input )

my system specs will be,

2100+ tbred B oc'd, but not too much (im a wussy to raise vcore basically)
slk-900
8rda+
some ram i dunno
radeon 9700 non-pro with zalman heatpipe cooler.

thats basically all that produces heat in the case

EDIT: once we are at it, also looking for a good psu recomendation since i was gonna get a silenx but cant atm.

For almost everybody, I'd say front fans are not necessary. As long as:

1. the vents are unrestrictive,
2. they're comparable in size to the exhausts and
3. your cables are out of the air paths

then fresh air will come in naturally to replace the exhausted air.

The only exception is if you have something that requires active cooling in the front like my rubber boxed hard drives.

As for a PSU, any of the one's with a noise rating of 7 or better in MikeC's Recommended section should be fine. The higher the number the better of course.

alrighty then, i think ill copy ralf hutters setup and get 1x120mm for the back, and 2x92mm, one for the front, one for the slk-900. the one on the front wil be to cool the hdd. anyone else have an opinion maybe?

The only reason I have a front fan at all is to blow a little cool air over my HDD. It's a cuda IV and was running around 38-40°C with no fan. I added the 5 volted L1A and the temp dropped 6°C. Now the HDD temp is almost always the same as the case temp. I'm a little nervous about HDD longevity any more. Mu gut impression is that drives have started dying sooner in the last year or so since 7200rpm drives have become the default standard. I figure that keeping it as cool as possible can't possibly hurt.

BTW - Adding the 5 volted 92mm fan to the front of my case had absolutely no effect on my case temps. It just gives a little breath of fresh air to the HDD.

Another BTW - The reason I went with the 92mm L1A is because it gave me the best balance of very, very low noise + airflow. I tested an 80mm L1A, an 80mm NMB 18cfm, the 92mm L1A and a 120mm L1A at various voltages before I settled on the 92mm L1A. YMMV.

hmm, actually i think i might go for the front fan. seeing as u only have a 1 ghz in there, (which i have in my comp w/o any fans whatsoever) i guess the ammount of heat would be diff. ill just test out diff configurations with a friends L1A's (hopefully )

I can't phathom why anyone would use a 92mm when they have space for a 120mm. Unless they don't want to spend a few extra bucks on the 120mm. After building many cases, I've come to the conclusion that bigger is better (and quieter). That's my vote anyway.

If you actually read my post (two posts above yours) you'd have seen my reason for going with the 92mm fan. I'd agree with you for most applications the 120mm fan is the way to go but in this case I wanted just a tiny breath of air to blow onto the HDD so I was in uncharted (for me) territory.

To reiterate: 1)I needed very little airflow. 2) I actually tested a 120mm, 92mm and 80 mm L1A plus an 80mm NMB fan to see which gave me the best combination of very low noise and airflow. 3)The winner of my test was the 92mm L1A running at 5 volts. 4)That's why I used the 92mm fan.

Yep, I understood your post, but time and time again, I see pictures of people with an Antec SLK3700 for example, and they are using a 92mm in front. Just seems like a waste to me.

Yea katana you sound like me I dont want real silence I just want the most airflow with the least amount of noise. Dont get me wrong silence is good, but i dont want to comprimise airflow for complete silence.

Hi, just signed up for the boards here after reading SilentPC's review of the SLK3700

I'm probably going to be purchasing this case soon (pcconnection.com has it for $70 with free shipping ) and I am slightly worried about the fan I plan on purchasing to use as front intake. It is the Vantec Stealth 120MM but its 38mm thick, and in the NewEgg reviews section someone mentioned that 38mm thick fans would not fit in this case. A few of you have mentioned that you don't think an intake is necessary but I plan to overclock my CPU and GPU rather high, so I'll want the extra airflow. Even if the 38mm thick fans don't fit into the case while its still stock, would I be able to mod it a bit to make it fit?

Thanks!

I believe that someone (probably ralf) said that it would fit if you remove the fan holder thingy. Maybe he could clear that up for you. But as he mentioned, the air flow is really good, and the front intake will only being cooling your hardrive, so you could probably just put a 80mm fan at 5v or 7v just to keep the hardrive cool. You have to understand that when air is removed from a case, it is naturally going to be forced in at the point of least resistance, which is infront of the hardrives and maybe a little around the cdroms. Do some experiments for yourself, testing temps with different fans ect. and you will see.

Hm yes you are probably right GamingGod. When I first read this thread I sort of skimmed it quickly but now I've re-read Ralf's post and perhaps I'll do the same as he, purchase a 92mm L1A and lower the voltage a bit. I can't test like he did because this will be my first built computer and I have no spare fans, and I'm on a tight budget so I only plan to purchase one. I'll take Ralf's word for it. I do have two more questions though. Since this will be my first experience in putting together a computer I don't know how to lower the voltage on a fan? Is this something easily done? And secondly, I don't know exactly where to purchase a 92mm L1A because NewEgg (where I'm buying most of my parts) seems to only have a 80mm L1A. So what's the best place to purchase them?

Thanks again!

edit: How about this: http://www.newegg.com/app/Viewproduct.a ... or=SF9225L

Yea Im on a budget too so I understand your pain . You could use a zalman fanmate to lower the voltage, they have them at newegg for $5US, and are good to manually adjust one fan. The bad thing about 90mm panaflos is they are pretty rare, I only know of one place that has them http://www.directron.com/92l1a.html directron. I dont know about vantec stealths, some people love them, and others hate them. I would say since your lowering the voltage anyways, and the panaflo is cheaper then go for it. Oh by the way newegg rocks!

btb103 - The 38mm thick 120mm fans will fit on the front of the SLK3700 but you have to bolt them directly to the case wall. There is only about .070" clearance between the fan and the drive cage this way but, as they say, "a miss is as good as a mile"!

Here's a pic of a 120mm x 38mm L1A test-mounted in the front of my case:


BTW - those Vantec Stealths aren't very quiet but maybe it'd be OK if it was undervolted. I haven't played with them though, I use the Panaflos. You can also get the 92mm L1As from here and here, just price all three of them out to see who's got the cheapest price with shipping included.

Thanks Ralf! Actually it seems the best place to get this Panaflo 92mm is from Directron.com

One question though... in the ordering process you can select a 3 pin molex connector or a 4 pin pass through plug. Which one should I choose?

if ur buying fan mates for the fans, then get the 3 pin

hm i don't think i am going to purchase a fanmate to start out here... i'm not really looking for an ultra quiet computer, I wear headphones most of the time I'm at the computer and it will probably be in our spare bedroom. Plus I'm sure almost anything I put in will be quieter than this Gateway I have now... if everything else is quiet it can be heard from my room about 40 feet away.

If you're not going to use a Fanmate, get the 4-pin pass-thru type of connector. You can do the 7-volt (or 5 volt) trick on that type of connector.

*looks around and notices all the popularity over the SLK3700*

Why does everyone steal my ideas!?

*Boo-Hoo*

I have got the Antec case in question. I have punched and grommet mounetd the fans in the case. I used a Panaflo Ultra 120mm in the rear and a JMC 120mm fan in the front. I am telling you that all though you "can" wedge a panaflo low in front of the drive cage, it is not worth the effort. I tried for an hour. I was not willing to hard mount a 120mm fan. I like using rubber gromets. That miniscule amount of clearance was gone thanks to the .125" thickness of the rubber grommets. The JMC 1220L is a great quiet fan. It is pretty much the smae thing that Jim seels at Coolcases.com. I modded the Panaflo to run @ 7volts. It put out what I would say 50-60 cfm at about 1400rpm. Worked out awesome. I tried using the stock fans that come wiht the dase but they just suck. No pun intended :_). There was a very pronounced bearing moan that I could not stand. With the just the rear Panaflo running I was setting at about 35-36C case temp. I have an A7N8X Dekluxe, 2 256mb PC3500XMS, 1800Tbred "B" core running at (10x190,sync with mem) with an PAL8045 on it, Saphire Atlantis Pro (9700Pro with factory installed heat-pipe), and 2 SCSI Drives. The drives were getting very warm. The 10KII 73gb drive was flat hot to the touch. The IBM drive above it was warm. I put the JMC fan in front for cooling the heat-pipe and SCSI Drives. I plan on getting the c-strip molding to complete the finished look on the rear and add some paxmate to deaden some of the SCSI drive whine.

I will post some pics hopefully tomorrow night. I used a drem to do the work. Took me about 2 hours. I go slow and concentrate a lot

I have got the Antec case in question. I have punched and grommet mounetd the fans in the case. I used a Panaflo Ultra 120mm in the rear and a JMC 120mm fan in the front. I am telling you that all though you "can" wedge a panaflo low in front of the drive cage, it is not worth the effort. I tried for an hour. I was not willing to hard mount a 120mm fan. I like using rubber gromets. That miniscule amount of clearance was gone thanks to the .125" thickness of the rubber grommets. The JMC 1220L is a great quiet fan. It is pretty much the smae thing that Jim seels at Coolcases.com. I modded the Panaflo to run @ 7volts. It put out what I would say 50-60 cfm at about 1400rpm. Worked out awesome. I tried using the stock fans that come wiht the dase but they just suck. No pun intended :_). There was a very pronounced bearing moan that I could not stand. With the just the rear Panaflo running I was setting at about 35-36C case temp. I have an A7N8X Dekluxe, 2 256mb PC3500XMS, 1800Tbred "B" core running at (10x190,sync with mem) with an PAL8045 on it, Saphire Atlantis Pro (9700Pro with factory installed heat-pipe), and 2 SCSI Drives. The drives were getting very warm. The 10KII 73gb drive was flat hot to the touch. The IBM drive above it was warm. I put the JMC fan in front for cooling the heat-pipe and SCSI Drives. I plan on getting the c-strip molding to complete the finished look on the rear and add some paxmate to deaden some of the SCSI drive whine.

I will post some pics hopefully tomorrow night. I used a drem to do the work. Took me about 2 hours. I go slow and concentrate a lot

psyco, check out my rig (in the case gallery). i just cut away a bit of the front of the drive cage and the panaflo fits in front perferctly, with grommets

You mean ralph's ideas .

BTB103: If sound isn't a very critical issue, since you'll be using headphones, I'd rather recommend the 120mm Pana, as you'll have more airflow for future hard drives. Also, I think the 120mm is actually cheaper on some sites, it was for me!