FT-02 seller here for cheap

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1908848

so tried to narrow down the source, since there are no casing that are available for now in my view and in budget,

looked at the CPU cooler and got through many makes and budget wise choose this


http://www.silentpcreview.com/fenrir-hyper212
CM Hyper 212 + from modernopc

Time to clean the case and get it in.



Suspect no.1 , 3 years of use and the thermal paste on the stock cooler hardened and degraded. No wonder i was clocking 40-41 at idle



Looking good, but i thought i did this before selecting the 212, always measure the size of it all.. doh



Post installation its runs quietly amid a little hum, hovers around 26-27 C on a good cool day and slightly above the 30 odds. Just waiting for a new home for this fellow

till next time

---

Added on June 15, 2011, 8:50 pmgotta thanks all for the good poison and eventually i got a chassis for me dinosaur.



Thanks cent88, supernothing, hahariz, ulysses & super_noob for the help and input.

It going to be quite a task to make this tank work, guess it will be all worth the effort in.

This post has been edited by mabsandcals: Jun 15 2011, 08:56 PM

After much thought about bringing one new case and pros and cons of each i came up with this fellow as recommended,
How I did come out while reading about the features which I actually overlooked it in the first place, it came complete with what I really needed.
Fan filters which makes cleaning less a hassle, quiet case which was the main concern of the build and some sound deadening to further silent the case.

As most of the build was referred here at SilentPCReview, I took a look back at the review here

http://www.silentpcreview.com/silverstone-ft02



*note this fellow is like an m1 tank, so lugging it around to work is quite a task

The suggestion is to use a towel for the base so you could slide the case out from underneath the table to work with.



*completing the transfer from dinosaur to new home

With the exception of the PSU the only cables that were short enough, had to be routed from the front.
Prefer a modular psu to help with the length and eliminate the redundant unnecessary cabling on the left hand panel.
The cabling for the fans did not make sense even with the manual at first, eventually it all make sense with the molex splitting all the power to the three large 180mm, there is a revised version of this fan with a difference grill and blades that makes more cfm.
Bottom fans always set to low, indeed silent
Top fan you have a golf ball blade fan which they mention would be more aerodynamic, personally its a 3pin and I only could route the fan to a 3pin chassis on the mobo, thus running at max 1350rpm.

Completing the build the temps look stable and surprisingly quiet with an occasional intermittent noise.



Temp readings are natural 35~36oC while load never goes above 2~3oC extra
if on a good day with ambient cooling idle is at 26~27

New items addition to the build

*Deep Cool V400 GC cooler

to reduce HD6670 GC temp idle of min 35oC (cold)~41oC(normal)
4 heatpipe 3pin 120mm fan 1200rpm

*Artic Cooler F12 PWM from Clawhammer

to replace the golf ball top fan and piggyback with the pst system on CPU cooler. Pwm daisy chain for a more silent top fan, yea!
120mm pwm fan 300~1350rpm

*Artic cooler MX-4 themal paste, replace overall built paste on hyper212 and the new gc cooler and future builds

Note: there is still a intermittent hum, yet to find out and complete the mentioned items to make it work.

This post has been edited by mabsandcals: Jun 17 2011, 11:09 PM

The thermal paste was easy to apply and there was no curing time, the artic MX-4 applied to the CPU cooler and GC cooler in the build. Why go through all the trouble of using a off the counter thermal paste, rather than the stock.
It's actually a purchase you might want to incorporate with your build in any system for the price and performance you get by lowering and stabilizing the temp on your build. We will see the results later on.
To read more about the reviews proceed here.


back from the installation of the artic cooler F12 PWM fans, since there is two of them I could easily piggy back them with the PST system they have and use the only PWM connection on mobo. I replaced the blademaster 12cm and the silverstone 12cm exhaust fans and must admit they look stunning and runs quiet at 1350rpm max



Next replaced the stock artic cooler fan & heatsink that came with the sapphire 6670. The reason why this was choose, amongst all the other coolers was it a budget gc cooler for a card that makes TDP 80W. If you would be using a more powerful card you might want to choose AC's extereme gc range, for the value you pay and cooling you need.


4 pci slots and only one left...

Other notes
From the time I got the Fortress FT-02 I noted there was a humming sound intermittently and went on to get to the bottom what was the cause of it all. In every case no matter what makes or model I do believe you need some TLC and modifications to make it work the way you intended

Drive bay and 5 inch slot that caused the rattling and humming, apparently when all the rattle from the fans and HDD start, I'd notice the the rivet that holds the two pieces together does not hold it, some freeplay causing the hum.
Quick fix, cut inserted foam along the rail eliminating vibration

Next thing that really put me off is during the build, disassembling the top case would be a heartbreaking experience with the mount clips rather hard to open up. I hope not to break the plastic top one day

Quick fix, removed the screw in hinges that mount the top mount cover, thus eliminating the need of it. Figure you would not need to transport nor secure this point. If you think there is going to be a need for clips, you could mod it to magnet type. The other thing is you could line up some one sided foam for the top if you think there is going to be some vibration noise.
For now its going to be easy to work with the case on swapping connections

some temps

with the case, I note in open air config, side open the positive airflow will be not so directed and closing the case up will yield a 1C lower temp as noted from the review. A first positive airflow case for me and I guess if you haven't tried one you wont be disappointed.

In idle normal temp, we could see the replacement Deepcoolv400 GC making a lower temp at 38~39c, during load it rises to about 42~43c which is the normal idle temp that the arctic cooler stock does.
On the CPU cooling part the idle will hover 32~33C which is an average 3C improvement over the previous setup. I was amazed at this part for I was expecting it to be at the same as previous or more since we replaced the CoolerMaster Blademaster fan which runs at 2000rpm.
Instead the efficient temp transfer from the MX-4 allowed it to dissipate to the CPU cooler faster and while the AC fans only could go max 1350rpm kept my amazed For the moment the CPU temp does average out 35C on use and rarely hits 40C. I note the difference with the paste is that the heat rise range is more controlled and limited.

Idle temp in cool environment, able to reach 24~25C, 32c for GC lowest.

Completed


*looks like an akula silent sub to me rather than a tank lol

this session of the silent build worklog/review is complete with all the items and results from recommendations of fellow forumers.
Certainly there would be more additional items added along the way in the near future like a silent psu from seasonic-X, mods to the case drive bay and top cover if time permits.
All I am pretty happy the end results from the start of this build to the end and I hope you guys & gals enjoyed the journey with me

Regards
Cals