[awesterink]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The cabinet that the computer sits in is part of a built-in desk unit. In the back of the cabinet there is no opening to the back (wall) or top (except for cables), but an opening of about 5 inches wide and 16 inches high to the left. It vents out to below the desk, where your feet go :-) Not a whole lot of air circulation.

I thought about mounting the fan externally, but since I only have about 5 inches of clearance from the back of the PC to the wall, I wasn't sure that would leave enough room for the air to find its way out to the left. Maybe I should mount a duct on the back exhaust.

Anyway, I think I will get the BIE2, and just try a few different options:
1. BIE in front, sucking in, no exhaust fan
2. BIE in front, sucking in, with exhaust fan
3. BIE in front, blowing out
4. BIE in back, blowing out (fan external), no intake
5. BIE in back, blowing out (fan external), with intake

Come to think of it, option 3 does indeed not seem that good. With or without intake fan on the back opening, it would only suck in warm air from the PSU.

I'd prefer to stick with just the fan on the BIE (Panaflo running at 7V) to keep noise to an absolute minimum. But that will probably drive up my case temp too much.

BTW, the NB on my 7VRXP has a passive HS. I'll just stick to that. I will also put a block on my GPU. After that I need to find a way to quiet down that whirl of the Western Digital 1000BB :-)

Thanks!

Arjen