Small Form Factor Ideas for my sn45g

hey all
well i finally got round to buying myself a dremel clone, and have finally got time to do something to my lovely little sn45g

i plan to replace the crappy sunon fan on the ICE system; i was gona go for a 120mm akaska fan with 80-120 fan adaptor on the back (rated at 18dba) but ive heard this isnt all that good for noise, as the adaptor creates noise and restricts airflow.
so should i go for a 80mm fan instead?? something rated around 20dba??

i did the drive stealth mod yesterday, was my first go at using a multitool




also have some blue acrylic coming soon for a window at the top of the shuttle


what else can i do thats relatively easy, and doesnt cost loads??? in particular id like to quiet my 9600 pro, which has a noisy 40mm fan on it!

 

Get some chicken wire and cut air vents into the side of the case (could make a fancy cut out).

If you make this big enough, you could bend the wire out so that you could fit one of those fanless coolers on the gfx card.

If you want a quick way though, just replace the 80mm fan on the back with an S3 Noiseblocker. Got one on mine and is very quiet.

Also cut out the fan guard on the case and either leave as a big round hole or use a finger guard to get better airflow.

 

forgot to add, ive already cut out the back grill.

as for the noiseblocker, ppl on another forum told me not to get one, because they produce unwanted noise after a while, so il probs end up getting a nmb from dorothybradbury

good idea for the grafix card cooler, a zalman heatpipe would be ideal but i dont tink this guy was too impressed with his.

stupid question probs, but where do i get chicken wire form???

 

Ive had a noiseblocker on mine now for about a year and havent noticed any unwanted noise. I do clean the fan every 4mths with compressed air though to remove any dust etc..

Not tried this in my shuttle but have in a previous desktop, which was to unplug the fan on the gfx card and instead fasten a slim 80mm onto the side of the case with a variable controller blowing onto the card instead. When I did it I got no increase in temps and I could control the speed of the fan, so it was even quieter when just surfing.

Another tip Ive read is to fasten a fan on top of the ICE block so it blows down onto it, this apparently reduces the temps too.

One last thing after rereading your post. Again not done it on by shuttle but worked on my htpc on the cpu cooler. I replaced the stock slim 40mm fan with a 60mm full size fan using a 40mm-60mm adaptor and it did create a reverberated noise which was annoying. Instead I fastened the fan on the edges using the sticky bit that came with some creative speakers to fasten the wired remote to your desk or pc.

I dont know what the stuff is called, but its like double sided tape but with a spongy/rubber middle (about 2-3mm thick).

Whatever its called it worked a charm. On my htpc Im now running cooler than the stock and the fan (silenx) is at about 5v and you cant even here it.

I reckon you could fit the fan adaptor to the case remembering to use rubber washers and then fasten the fan to the adaptor using this sticky rubber tape (for use of another name) which would reduce the vibrations maybe even remove them completely.

 

hmmm i dont think there will be enough room for the ideas youve mentioned, because having a fan right up against a case side will only create noise; maybe if i cut a hole on the side where the grafix card is, then il be able to install a quiet 80mm fan, or a noiseless vga cooler to replace the 40mm fan ????

anyways, i think il order some stuff today; the plan is to get the low noise nmb from dorothy and use this with a zalman fan mate on the ICE
replace normal northbridge cooler with zalman northbridge cooler

im hoping these minor adjustments will allow the case and cpu to run just as cool as they are now (around 36 degrees, with a small overclock) but with a reduction in noise
that way, the only "noisy" things left are the vga fan and the hdd. if the ICE fan is left where it is, outside the case, then the hdd can be suspended behind my dvd-rw and in front of the ICE at the back of the case, limiting any vibration noise

what you think?

 

light up the ice cooler with neon wire or leds (remember zap wizard did it)

cut a window for each side..

light the innards

light underneith it

mold a lcd into the front panel..

 

yep the window mod is probably gona be done over the weekend, providing the acrylic turns up, and the cathodes are here waiting
the ICE will be lit up by this on it although im not sure on the colour

at the moment the front panel actually lights up blue, it hasnt turned up in those pictures, but it glows; the cathodes il put in will also be blue and the acrylic is blue, so if the fan is also blue il have a very blue setup!

As for a window for each side, i may have to leave part of one side open, in order to fit a vga cooler to my 9600 pro, as i cant find any thing enough to fit inside normal case parameters (needs to protude less than 2.5mm from the board)

anyone know what i can do with the floppy drive (apart from throw it away)??? ive seen someone put a sn45g front panel on a hinge in front of the normal floppy fascia (making a stealth floppy drive), but im not too sure

 

is it essential you have the floppy disk drive there?
You could have something like this Here and you could cut the template out

 

ooo looks v nice but unfortunately yer i think i do need the floppy drive, depending on how much i use my pen drive when i get to uni in two weeks

does anyone know what i can do with the side panel? i would like to cut a hole and put some sort of mesh/chicken wire to replace those crappy holes, but as i said before, il be needing some extra room on the side for a vga cooler

 

QUICK ADVICE NEEDED
ive cut out my acrylic, and hole for window, jus need to know which option you lot think looks best





bearing in mind the end result wil probably look a bit neater, as in these pics i only fitted the acrylic and trim temporarily

 

def the second.. but would possibly look better with some of that chrome edging instead

Matt

 

yep i went for the second option

BUT....
i decided to use 4 screws, one in each corner to secure the acrylic, all was going well until i was tightening the last screw in place; the FEKIN HEAD SNAPS OFF THE SCREW!!!
so this mornin i had to do a bit of drilling and careful filin to get rid of the rest of the screw out of both the case and the acrylic

i just finished tightening the lasts crew again, having chosen a different set of screws, and THE SAME THING HAS JUST HAPPENED AGAIN!!!!!!!


you can see in that pic how, not only have i managed to scracth the case in my efforts to release the first broken screw, but how the second one is on the brink of snapping!

 

try drilling a slightly bigger hole.
as there is too much force excerted on the screw.

looks good though

 

lol yer thanx funkymunkey, i think il go for nuts n bolts this time round, had enough of screw breakage will post a pic when its finally done

 

Don't bother with screws. Use glue... looks neater in the end anyway

 

sorry mate, but i went with screws in the end, easier and imo its better all round

heres the end result, after having to remove 3 broken screws, which actually took longer than the rest of the mod put together.
you can also see another mod i did earlier on tonight, which was to suspend my maxtor hdd with elastic string; this, i think at least, has reduced noise levels of the drive quite a bit although it does mean the dvd-rw is now on external firewire