Here we go with Slightly-Spammy Post #2, 'cause hey, the subforum has to continue somewhere, even if it's just pdf27 and myself carrying it along.
Here I've got some pics of my PC. I've been doing random work on it for a while, and I think it's current form is pretty much how it's going to stay for a while. Sorry if the pics take a while to load...
So we start with the front. Totally stock so far...
Then open the door...
Here's the workhorse that lets this whole thing not turn into a cloud of smoke: Black Ice Extreme II doing its thing. The 3.5" front bay has been removed entirely to make room for this monster.
Then we step over to the side panel to see my favorite Mod of all...
The side panel goes on straight, then when it's slid forward to lock onto the body, the duct edges slide right up against the outside edges of the radiator fans. That's right, the Radiator's taking in ambient air and NOT reintroducing it into the case. Whoohoo! The black duct tape doesn't look so good here, but when it's on the case it's too dark to see anything other than black. I could have painted it (it's just made of sheetmetal from the local hardware store) but I wanted the extra rubbery mass of the duct tape to cut down on any vibration and "tinny" noise.
With the side panel off you can see the (rather messy) interior. It used to be neat, but moving things out of the way of the humongo duct caused some noticeable re-routing issues. The return to the reservior coming from the GPU routes through a rubber grommet in a hole made in the hard-drive bay and makes a nice direct return route. All the tubing you can see here is 3/8"
Here's a shot from the other side; Reservior outlet (1/2", not 3/8") running through another hole and Huge rubber grommet, back into that mystical foam mystery box.
Peeling back some of the foam box pieces, we find a moddified MCP-350 pump, completely enclosed and suspended in Sonex acoustic foam, with the outlet running straight down through yet another hole.
Most specs are in the Sig. Additionally, the Raptors are enclosed in Cooldrive 6's, there's a seagate 200g backup drive hiding behind the pump, and an Audigy 2Z Platinum topping it all off.
Altogether, the thing is pretty darn quiet. The pump is nearly inaudible with an open case, and once those heavy steel sidepanels are put on it's completely inaudible. All three 120mm fans are running at only 660rpm (max2400), and the notoriously whiney IC7-G northbridge cooler has been replaced with a thermalright. Still, even with miserly fan speeds, the big radiator and ambient-air ducting keep the temps pretty darn good (cpu @29c and GPU @33c idle, 34c and 42c load, W/ambient @21c). The PSU fan has also been replaced with a quieter one. The Raptors are inaudible while idle, and the Cooldrive 6's and Acoustic foam reduce their seek noise very nicely. I use this puppy for a lot of audio recording and editing, so the silence is an important part of the whole setup.