It is indeed whisper quiet, and I just realized that I didn't post anything on CPU & GPU temps. I should dig up my notes, lol. I splurged on fans a little bit, but an Intel system would have cost double. I'm curious what made you think that I'm not on a budget?

The Samsung burners are about average for noise. When playing commercial movies with VLC media player, they rev up like mad for a while, not sure why. Samsung has a download utility for noise control, but I've never used it.

My bad, I imagined that case would've cost much more than it does. For the price you paid, you've built an excellent little system, nice one.

I am in the process of putting together a TJ08 build that is highly influenced by your great build. Quick couple of questions.

I really like how you used the gutted out fans. Why did you put them in the order that you did? That is, why did you put the gutted fan next to the ninja and not the noctua? Same questions applies to the front fan.

Also, can you completely remove the mb-tray with the ninja in place or just tilt it back like in the photos?

Thanks!
Ross

PS My build will be up on the gallery when completed

This got me thinking and I think you might be better off, from a cooling perspective, swapping both gutted out fans and Noctuas around in order to maximize airflow, is there any reason you decided to do it the other way around?

Damn nice. Good job with stuff that's not bleeding edge.

I blew out an asus mb once attaching multiple fans to one connector. I guess it's ok up to a limit.

I've been thinking about having the cpu fan connector control the rear fan on a gigabyte mb but haven't tried since it seems that the constant speed change might be annoying.

Very good question

Exhaust fan -- I didn't want a cantilevered fan because the rubber mounts have some play. Proximity of fan to HS doesn't give better airflow and perhaps more turbulence. Also I wanted the fan assembly to be easily serviceable without risk of damage to the fan or whacking the ninja (snapping the assy in/out of the case via rubber mounts requires some force in a tight space), and better access for cleaning with compressed air. Hope this makes sense, if not I have more photos.

Intake fan -- Here a cantilevered fan is the objective, it'd be pointless the other way around. I wanted to reduce the volume of compressible air inside the case, and move the fan away from the I/O panel on the front cover (per comments in Photo 13).

Last question -- Yes, mobo + ninja can be installed/removed as a complete assembly (per my comments in Photo 5).

Asus manual says "fan connectors support cooling fans of 350mA-740mA (8.88W max) or a total of 1A-2.22A (26.64W max) at +12V ..." which is more than enough. Dunno what would happen if the fan is faulty or shorted.

This machine has developed a whistling sound when the fans rev down. It's a high-pitched howl at 1000 rpm and again at 900 rpm. It was transient at first but now it's consistent, as if the air found a special crack in the case to pass through. It's a 125-watt CPU, so the fans are revving up/down constantly, even displaying large photos makes a 3-second whistle. But why? Nothing has changed except the fans are a year old and there's some dust in there.

nice rig dude

I changed the air system, to see if the whistling goes away. I took the Noctuas off high-speed duty, and put a new fan on the CPU. The first time with 3 fans, it seems quieter. Also swapped out one of the Noctuas, two identical fans in series... you never know. But the howling is still there, even with the covers off! Any ideas where the whistling is coming from?







While I was at it, I gave the hard disks their long-awaited thumbscrews.




They're happy now, look at that toothy smile.







. . . and installed them in the lower bay, sideways, as originally planned.






. . . with new cables for quick swapping.