ok, so it's not really a mod, its just a case.. but its the new Antec p160 as far as i'm aware its the most expensive case that antec do.. atx wise.. anyway.. its barebone (no psu), it comes with: 1 Antec 120mm Case Fan tones of room inside very spacious.. 2 Temperature probes, which you can stick onto anything you like, then the temperature flicks between the 2 temperature readings every 4 or 5 seconds on the front of the case. the case is just incredibly quiet.. all the harddrives and cdroms e.t.c dont use screws they and come with sound proofing and anti-rattle like stuff.. In The Dark Dark With Panel Off CD Drive + Temperature Sound Proofing or mufflers or something lol Temperature display front 2 this is with a 600W Manga PSU / Gigabyte 7n400 PRO2 Nforce 2 - Raid 0 + 1 + Sata can hold upto 10 Drives / 1GB DUAL channel pc3200 / LG8X DVD-RW DUAL / LG16X DVD-ROM / ATI Radeon 9600XT / 2 x 60GB Hard Drives / 1.44 FLoppy i bench marked my pc, with new motherboad / power supply and ram my 3dmark2001 score went from: 9305 to 12,637 so a definate improvement!
Yes, drive rails are very nice to work with. You only need to pop off one panel to do the work in most scenario's.
that is expensive, I recently got one of those £35 Chieftec BX-02B for a system I built for a family member, I must say its an excellent case for such a low price. Nice case btw, I like the lighting, hehe I've taken all the lighting out of my case cuz it just made the room bright at night, as I have a white room!
hehe, well i'm taking the side panel to a metal fabriactor at the weekend, he's going to cut my name ProcalX into the side, then fit it with perspex. so you can see through into the inside of the case, and have a dark blue light (the same as that which is in the front of my case atm) behind my Alias on the side case so i'll get a kind of illuminous blue effect coming out from around the name "ProcalX" lol pr0!
also i need a new HSF i'm only running a 1.8ghz 2200+ and im currently using a Cooler Master DP5 3200+ but its simply not cooling my CPU, no load my processor is running at 40-45C full load about 50-52C, which i am not happy with. my case is running at around 15-30C depending on weather. at the moment its hot so im getting 27C. I am used to having my cpu around 3 or 4 C higher than my case temperature (max), as i like to overclock. also.. i can change my voltages on my new motherboard, i ran aida32 (system information tool) and it says my CPU is running at: 6.25V * 247 or something (i cant remember accurately what it is) also.. my CPU is a light brown colour (looks exactly like a barton).. i ordered my cpu via ebuyer, it just said it was a 2200+ XP and the picture of it was green cpu.. however mine is brown and the voltage is that of around a barton of "mobile", is it possible that mine is a barton? (p.s please recommend a quiet but good cooling HSF please)
Between 50C and 52C under load is very good. But if you want better, I suggest you grab something like an SLK-800 or higher (make sure it fits on your board) and put a Thermaltake SmartFan II on it, or a Vantec Tornado with a fan controlling device, as your system will fly away if you put it at full speed. Whatever you do, put a 80mm fan on that hsf. Smaller makes too much noise, and bigger creates a dead spot around the center of the fan, and since your cpu is close to the fan, it's not a good thing.
Just a suggestion, but you should get some cable ("zip") ties and group your power cabling. It'll make your chassis run even cooler, look cooler, and even easier to work on. You might also mod your 80-conductor ribbon cables so as to permit more airflow and look more custom. I personally slice between every 16 conductors, and bundle them with small cable ties. These guys have a similar approach, but use tape instead of cable ties. Also, the mod they show is for a 40-conductor cable. Same principles, slightly different application.
hmmm, thinking about that you could snatch up a few feet of surgical tubing from a local hardware store, cut along the wires in the cables and gently seperate each strand thats still in the rubber so it likes like a big string of grey spaghetti connected to a black thing. cut the surgical dtubing in a slow spiral (about i time around per every centimeter or two) then put the tubaing wrapping around the spaghetti (ide cable) and then cut off the excess tubing. voila! but be sure not to cut the actual ide strands or whatever theyre called my pc lingo is off.
i'm going to remove all the case fans from my pc, and by a mini-tower air conditioning unit what a great idea!!!
I was gonna link my guide to rounding your IDE cables, but it seems to have disappeared... Anyway, zip ties are great, along with some split-loom tubing. I'm sure using some wire management has helped keep my main rig fairly cool with all the heat coming from every whichway inside. That's one thing I'm ultra picky about...can't have any case w/o good cable management.
for some reason the section it was in, was disabled? hehe, anyway heres the link to rounding your IDE cables done by Big B http://www.zone365.com/content/8/29/1