This and previous GPU generations were noted for hot running. Mine was a sort of impulse purchase from the discount stack.

Until this one, my experience with fanned cards were they screamed banshees to wake up the neighborhood--the modern equal to chickens and peacocks. The silent alternatives were weaker than I wanted or expected to survive into future needs. As it is, the quietest hard drive and 120mm case fans of the time are more irritating than the gpu.

I typically over-build to extend the date of obsolescence. The NSK3480 is not a naturally quiet case design for 2010-to-2014 power desires for a general purpose computer. We are definitely pushing logistical requirements of current PSUs and optical drives. Cabling between the two deforms the rear walls of those units. This Antec case is a funny oxymoron to life expectancy.

not quite sure i get what you mean with the cabling sentence - although i can see how extra deep psu's would cause issues with ODD fit.. I was planning to follow druneau's lead and once i actually get a graphics card, upgrade to seasonic's X series, although in my case, a 660w platinum one.. i believe they're only 10mm deeper than the original EA380.. I wanted a superflower golden king but it definitely does not fit in the 3480. by the looks of what druneau managed to achieve, it looks possible that the X series and a shallow burner will fit - i'd actually been thinking i was going to fit a bracket that converts a 5.25" bay into a bay for 1x3.5" HDD and a slimline laptop ODD - should allow a tad more space in the top and wouldn't cost any more.. i've got a spare external slimline burner which has a twitchy connection between the computer and the caddy (the drive is fine) and the bracket costs about as much as a normal burner. I'd also planned for a 6 way SATA power switch to turn my storage drives and ODD off when not in use

You and i build the same way, overbuild it to stave off obsolescence. I've actually designed mine with an upgrade to intel's Haswell-E architecture in mind (if they still use DDR3, standard haswell i7 if not) for a 4 core i7-E rig later, by going for a D14 cooler, big graphics, lots of fast ram, big psu etc

The market currently seems to be making a move back towards lower power, more efficient stuff, especially AMD 7 series graphics cards. With the added efficiency of lucid's virtu MVP i-mode allowing dedicated GPU to turn off when not in gaming mode, i think the 3480 is coming back into being able to sensibly mount reasonably high end hardware.. certainly for people with enough modding skills to add cable management, convert the front fan to 120mm etc etc.. as we seem to have I consider the 3480 to be the modders dream case (in the small case bracket. lol)

Ahhh hhh ... You are taking spatula to clay and sculpting. Correction: file, hammer, and chisel to steel case. I am still licking scars from my efforts. The design for the modifications will tweak the layout in nearly every build. Druneau's board is no longer available. Some things I learned:

After nibbling the two ports in the back panel, I had no ambition for more self-abuse. The existing grills at front and back panel of the case "looked good enough." My front fan rests on the case floor so air is pushed into the huge void under the GPU. My gpu fans seem to only swirl hot air. There is about 1/4-inch gap separating GPU and front case fan.

One more re-sculpt I should have done was expand the existing interior cable port originally designed for a much smaller power box. I did manage to push two harnesses through the existing crack, which relieved the 1/2-inch (-) space between the PSU and ODD. Plus, the second route made the new ports functional for use down the road. Cable can be pulled through them. I also had problems with sufficient cable reach when attempting to use only the Druneau (side) panel layout.

Mother boards never get direct air circulation. After 2-3 years most of mine is still pristine factory clean. RAM sticks exacerbate poor air movement over the board, so mine are short (narrow) Kingstons. There is a tendency to pooh-pah the brand, but after all these years I have never had one die in use--even at work; nor have them DOA.

My design is history--obsolete. Nobody carries 1156 mATX chip mount anymore. Unless MOBOs are completely redesigned, my Intel layout is cleaner than the ASUS which flaked out. But, I lose some SATAs to the graphics card. The Intel slot moves the card up about 1.5-2-inches (good). And, over the first bank of SATAs (bad). ASUS has me jaded, after several board failures.

You do want to pack the case with foam, wherever you can, because it is not designed for silence. I think high density panels on the case walls will work better than just foam. The feet of my case sit on four layers of micro-mesh wash cloths. Any spinup disk should be attached to vibration deadening. This includes fans, hard drives, and ODD. The last is tough, unless you don't use it all that much. I can see problems with audio use, however.

I guess these are my major observations; at least the ones I remember. The NSK3480 is a wonderful desktop case. I hope to be able to use it in another reincarnation.

man the amount of people using jigsaws, files, nibblers.. have none of you heard of the mighty dremel? it does make chopping cases really easy although you have to be careful - the brown fibrous cutting wheels are quite fragile and the diamond coated carbide wheels are quite harsh.. really indispensable tools though i never did a nice case cut till i got one especially in steel

i want my front fan the same as yours, right at the bottom of the case. Doing this i believe will allow the fitting of more 3.5" HDDs. My boot drive, gaming drive are both SSD, the always on HDD will be on the vibration mounts.. i'm not so bothered about a little HDD noise when copying stuff from an archive drive to always on HDD, the storage drives will spend most of their time turned off anyway. I have several old HDD brackets salvaged from old cases, a 2 drive, 3 drive, and a 5 drive which i'm pretty certain doesn't fit but i think a 4 drive bracket might. I'm working on an idea i had to mount a few SSDs in the case in other areas. Need a 2.5" drive to test the concept. I'll be mounting fans with anti-vibration gaskets and mounts, and i really don't use ODD much , in fact, i had considered doing this build without one and just plugging in my external when i need one.. only running an internal ODD to have everything in one box.. to sum up how little i use ODD - the current pioneer ODD in my current pc is IDE and was new when IDE was the standard, SATA did not exist.. i've burned maybe 4 cds on it, never burned a dvd, and only ever used it as a reader to install a few progs.. i'm not even sure it works anymore, i haven't used it for at least two years

check out the noctua D14 heatsink - with its middle fan mounted low, that heatsink looks to create quite some airflow at the top of a m-atx board for ram and VRMs. I agree about kingston ram.. in my long experience, not usually anything special performance wise but i've never had a kingston stick fail or be DOA either and i really abused some of those kingston value ram pc133 sticks back in the day

lining the case with foam is a problem for me. I'm not averse to using some of the thin stuff they use in the car industry to stop car doors from booming and to cut road noise but foam silencing always struck me as too much of a compromise on temperatures. I'll keep the possibility in mind but inaudibility is really only important for me at low loads/idle so with PWM fans etc etc i don't think the foam is necessary.. never had to use it before, anyway.

do you have measurements for your graphics card length? i've read 10.5" which is a bit of a shame as it really rules out the rear exhaust cooled cards i've been looking at, they're a lot longer and if you only have 1/4 inch, no fit.. currently considering the possibility of a corsair h80 type AIO liquid cooler mounted in the rear fan mount to cool the GPU but will probably go for a lesser card (than a 7950)

ulp.. i'd planned to get an asus board.. just hoping their top line boards are not the ones which fail (rog boards)

I keep cases till they become obsolete. With 120mm fan front and rear i consider the antec ideal, so expect to keep it a long time.. the only reason i'd go for something else is if the ATX/mATX standards are replaced or i decide i want a normal ATX again (even less likely). I plan to add dust filtered pci brackets, thumbscrews on every screw, tool-less fan mountings etc to bring it up to the tech level of a modern high-ish end case

Don’t despair. ASUS is a very popular brand. For some reason. I even like them after all my tribulations.

Onward. ...

Planning and schematics are very important. [Emphasis!] Even to configuring the possible board schematically prior to purchase. Druneau had his power cable lengths measured. My PSU had me adding an unsightly extension to the same mATX board. To start, you have to commit to the case, however.

You have the case, right? All the following are inside dimensions: The front to back cage dimension is close to 12.25”. Front fan is 1” (25mm, typ.). I use industrial-strength two-sided mounting tape; Silicone mounts will add to the width. Card offset mount- approx. 0.5”. This leaves 10.75” for the graphics card to stop the front fan blade rotation. I have about 0.25” gap between fan and 5870. As previously mentioned, several SATA plugs are useless, due to the gpu card masking them. (I had little choice in 1156 replacement board.)

Your board’s cpu position, and cooling (tower) dimensions will effect potential for a multi-3.5-inch vertical rack at the front of the case. 3.5 HDDs won’t work for me, unless I remove the forward mounted tower fan—which is not needed, in my case. The space is "big", and tempting use. But I think you may only want three bays, maximum. There are a lot of cable jacks at this location, and pulling a rack for access requires tricky planning and adaptions. I use the existing single bay for a card reader. An on-board optical drive seems a luxury. They are almost obsolete.

My Intel board has the gpu mount at the 3-4 card bay positions, for 2.5” clearance from pipes to case floor. It would be a whole lot easier to park hard drives on the floor. It was hard to fit an SSD under the card when it was ASUS configured--and a b***h to plug and pull the various audio jacks.

The pleasure of working with the NSK 3840 case is in stuffing it with power and making it look like a sleeper. And, look simple to do. On this list, silent running is a virtue.

Yes, I have the case, but i haven't done any chopping or mods yet save swapping the case sides round and offering up the hard drive brackets i have - i'm waiting till i get the motherboard and heatsink because that will give me final positions for everything

if my numbers are right 10.75" is 273mm and the msi 7950 twinfrozr III is 261mm. the 7870 i'd decided to get is 241mm leaving about 0.5 and 1.5" respectively between the fan and the graphics card.. this is the first build i've done in a micro atx in a decade, my old case is a full tower the difference in space is shocking. I compared the D14 cooler and the NSK 3480 the other day and laughed till tears streamed down my face so tight it's funny

I agree on the ODD being obsolete.. i'd toyed with the idea of putting a slimline one in, sat in a bracket that allows a slimline ODD and a 3.5" hdd to fit, i've even thought of filling the ODD bays with 3.5" HDD.. i'll have to decide on that one.. had planned to fit an ODD cuz i might use it a few times and it does add to the store bought look.. also, keeps everything in the one box rather than having to plug a burner in

HDD is more important to me.