Hello!

I recently acquired a used P4 3ghz machine with the subject case and the sound is making me nuts. The PC sits right next to me and is very loud. I have isolated the prime noisemaker as being the stock Intel heatsink and plan on replacing it with something like an SI-120 and a 120mm fan. I will then see where I am noise wise and move on from there as budget permits.

I have been looking at the case fans and wondering if the arrangement is OK or could be improved. There are three RaidMax 80mm case fans all blowing out of the case. Two are on the back and one is centered on the clear side window.

I'm curious if it would make sense to:

A) Change the side mounted fan to blow cool air in
B) Remove the side mounted fan and create a duct to the new cpu heatsink and fan
C) Change the side mounted fan to blow in (via a duct) over the heatsink set up passively (without the 120mm fan)

I am also noticing that my SATA drive is very warm. Should I be doing something to actively cool it? I haven't dug deep enough into SPCR to find out.

By the way, thanks for the reviews and articles. They have helped me a lot in focusing my efforts.

The first thing you should do is remove the black mesh from the fan on the window- that particular stuff is very restrictive, and produces a ridiculous amount of noise under any airflow. You probably also want to cut out the gratings in the way of the other fans, for much the same reason.
If your HDD is too warm, it's usually because the airflow in your case is screwed up. Ideally, you want the air to flow freely through the front intake, across the HDD, up through the cpu cooler and out the rear (and PSU) fans. With all fans blowing out, you've got a negative-pressure case, so air is rushing into the case from every available opening (and probably bringing dust with it).
You may want to try turning off the window fan altogether, to help smooth out the airflow through your case. If you could post some pictures of your system, that may also help- the cabling and the position of your HDD can make a difference as well (i.e. top, middle or bottom of the 3.5 bays).

Hope this helps

edit: Oh, and while I remember- Welcome to SPCR!

A good review with pictures can be found at http://www.whiningdog.net/Reviews/PCs/C ... /index.php. In fact, near the end they talk about cleaning up the cables and have a picture of the interior. This is exactly what my PC looks like -- a mess. The only difference is my SATA drive is one bay down. Notice there are passive air inlets on the front and the back.

Yup -- I'm going to clean up the wiring. And I do clean out the dust frequently.

I must confess to having a dumb moment. When I checked the drive, I had the case open for a bit. DOH! After operating for a while with the case window on, the drive is only slightly warm. Got all excited about nothing.

I've decided not to worry about ducting until I get new hardware installed. On the CPU I'm going to use an XP-120 and a low noise fan off the reommended list. The power supply went out so I'm putting in a PC Power 510-SLI I have already. I'll most likely replace the case fans with something off the list. I may even get some fan controllers so I can quiet them down. But.....

I'm concerned about dust. For some reason my house is loaded with dust and it seems to build up faster than I can remove it. Obviously this isn't good. I am thinking about trying to convert my case to a positve pressure configuration. But I haven't seen anything yet about a good way to get adequate filtration and still retain enough airflow. Maybe some numbers on how big an area of X filtration media vs airflow vs noise. And how to deal (ducting?) with the PSU blowing out.

Is this a good idea? Other suggestions?

For filters and +ve pressure cases Bluefront's your man; have a look through his posts, tons of info there.