My First Mod.. and a How to Tutorial...

http://www.scottsnyder.net/shuttle mod/
for the full write up.. or whatever.. there isn't much.. just a few more pics than i posted here

well.. it is a little preliminary, but.. my cpu and psu temps went down about 2 degrees, and my HD went down about 3.. the motherboard temp is the same..

i do run my computer with F@H so it does keep the cpu at 100% all of the time.. and i have been accessing the hard drives.. so those probably will be my temps..

Nice. I think you might want to file down some of those sharp edges there.

Yeah and add a grill for a better look or put a fan adapter with a 120mm or 92mm fan. that would look cool.

uhmm...please tell me you used super special paper and it caught ALL the metal bits that fell off the case as you were cutting it. I will feel better knowing that, since if you didn't....there is a risk of one toasting your stuff inside.

he had paper on the back that would deflect pieces out of the case. Nice job, when mine comes in on tuesday I'll be doing the same thing (though with a dremel )

nice. i would do that too, but i would be scared about stuff getting in there

Well if you can take out the drive tray you can prolly take out the mobo. there are 3 screws on the back around the PSU. Unscrew those and the psu will pop out. then unscrew the mobo screws and pull it out. as for the color coded panel for the connectors, undo the two screws above it and that will pop out. basically you can take apart the whole thing and just have a frame. makes me wanna paint it. I think i'll disassemble mine and take pics. but it sure makes the dremel work a lot easier as you can just wipe everything down and not have to worry about the mobo or anything else.

oh and btw, since you just modded it, i think any warranty it had was just voided. lol so i wouldn't worry about the serial numbers.

well.. say i want to rma just the motherboard.. then shuttle can't dig up my serial # off the internet.. something like that..

anyawys.. pieces of paper wasn't the perfect plan.. but i did turn it upside down and shake it to hopefully make sure no metal got inside..

but basically i kept thinking to myself.. i will get a dremel one day, or an 80mm holesaw.. and it never happened.. and also i was thinking.. well.. if i take my mobo out.. i will replace the NB heatsink.. but the fan on my NB is tottally silent to me.. i have stopped my other fans and can't hear it.. so.. i decided that spending 10 minutes and doing a quick and dirty job would be fine..

also.. i was going to od the 120mm fan on the back mod, but i got a carrying bag for it.. and the thing fits in there exactly.. so i didn't want to make my $25 shuttle bag useless..

so all that said.. i think i am going to put my maxtor drive in an external enclosure, becasue that thing still get's hot.. it somehow dropped about 4 degrees celcius from that "mod".. i am really surprised.. i might try to cram a 92mm on the inside of the case too..

judging from past experience though.. i have had this thing for 7 months or osmething, and that's all i have done so far... so i probably will just make my next computer out of a "real" case.. I like sff.. but i like full size cases too.. and i can use one for one thing, and one for another.. or omsething like that..

funny thing is i've had 7 comps in my lifetime...3 full size, 3 SFFs (including my mac cube) and a laptop. i'm nearing my 8th as its a laptop and should get here on thurs. in my experience, i've had a lot more success with the sffs than the big towers. so i'm gonna stick with those for awhile. i do like to build comps, but the last two towers i've built just haven't been able to hold a candle to the stability of these things. i love mine a lot. especially cuz i never lost the overclocking ability as you can see from the sig.

and as for cooling i guess i can say its in zones now. i added a system blower that pulls in air from the back of the vid card but the air is kinda cool. i might turn it around and pull the case air out. i guess that would make it more worth while.

update..

it made my computer louder.. the fan was going the same speed after as before..

then i took off the floppy drive cover.. to get more air over my hard drives.. that really helped.. but it made it louder yet..

so i went into the bios and set the smart fan to 48, it was at 40.. so now my fan is going 1800 instead of 2200.. i guess i will get a new fan someday..

i have heard of putting 92mm fans inside, how do you do this short of fabricating a new box to go around the "ICE" ??

You're the first person I've ever heard say that mod made an XPC louder. The drop in temps accross the board is pretty normal. Lower internal temps = lower HD temps. I think I saw about a 10 C drop on my CPU at full load.

Watch your fingers back there. It looks sharp.

It's generally recomended to take EVERYTHING out of the case when you cut on it.

-dB

Thats pretty crazy, that something so silly, and trivial like that back -grid-plating can cause your CPU/HD temps to rise that much. Just goes to show you how a little can go a long way in this world