First, an outer view of the case to show what is looks like. You can also see where I've swapped the sides of the case over and removed the door handle to allow a 120mm fan to fit in at the back - more on this in the next section.
This shows the 120mm fan at the back of the case. Previously there was only room for an 80mm fan because the case handle on one side and the recessed IO shield area on the other got in the way. I had to remove the handle, swap the case sides over, remove a portion of the side with a Dremel to allow the fan to go right up to the edge of the case without being obscured, and finally cut a 120mm hole. Cutting the hole meant cutting a portion from the recessed section next to the IO shield, leaving a mounting space for the fan isolators and then bending the mounting area out to the same level as the other side of the mountings. I screwed the cutting up a bit by making it too big, but it doesn't look too bad.
Next, a side on shot with one side removed. You can see the hard drive mounted at the bottom right in front of another 120mm fan, this one at 5v. The graphics card is a passive GeForce 6200.
A close up of the Neo HE 380, CPU cooling, and rear fan. The cooler is a Thermalright SLK-800U, which I've had for while and am fairly disappointed with - the CPU temps under load are higher than I think they should be. The CPU fan is a Panaflo L1A 80mm at just under 9v. The exhaust fan is an NMB-MAT FB-120-L1A running at 7v. Ideally I'd run it at 5v but without the load on the 12v line it provides (it's connected using the 7v Molex trick using the +5v and +12v to give 7v) the Neo HE won't start. You can also see where I removed the heatsink and fan from the NF7 northbridge and replaced it with an old (Pentium 1?) CPU cooler with some fins removed and holes drilled in it to allow it to be mounted.
Next a close-up of the bottom of the front of the case. The 160Gb SpinPoint is in the drive cage that came with the case. The cage used to clamp in to a shelf, which I've since removed, but now sits on some old hard drive packaging and is held down by bungee cord. It's quiet enough (although not as good as suspension) but it allows the PC to be moved easily.
Finally the front of the case with the plastic removed. You can see the 120mm fan (another NMB-MAT FB-120-L1A mounted on isolators) and it's more accurately cut hole than the first one I cut in the back. I still need to block the hole below the optical drives with some packing foam.
So that's it! Overall it's quieter than it's previous incarnation, which had low voltage Panaflo L1As on the CPU, intake, and exhaust. The PSU was an Antec TruePower 330. The temps are lower and I can run the 2500+ at 3200+ speeds without overheating.
If I make more changes I'll duct the processor and exhaust fan and hopefully remove the CPU fan altogether. I'd consider seperating the PSU area into it's own thermal zone by blocking off the top area of the case. I should also block the hole left where the handle used to be on the side of the case. But for now, overall I'm happy with the noise level and performance of the updated system!
So that's it! Thanks for reading, and if you have any comments let me know.
[edit - spelling correction]
