I was getting pretty tired of the stock ICE fans, you can either make them quiet and weak, or you can make your Shuttle sound like the NASA space shuttle on liftoff and get decent airflow. There really isn’t a happy medium with these, even with the fans reversed. During my last minute Christmas shopping I picked up a couple of fans at the local Fry’s with no particular research done, I just knew I wanted a 92mm and an 80mm (the stock fans are 92mm and 70mm). I looked at CFM and dBa ratings on the fans and found a nice SilenX 80mm with a good compromise of airflow and noise, and a generic 92mm than I took a chance on hoping it would be better than the Shuttle’s. It had impressive specifications so I went for it.
First thing I did was to remove the original ICE fans. In order to do this, I had to use a small flathead screwdriver to pry open the clip on the 70mm PWM fan header and an IC extractor tool to pull out the connector. I found it impossible to do with my bare hands in part due to how little room there is for your hands and fingers in the case and how much friction there is on those 4-pin PWM headers.
Next I unscrewed, removed and set aside the CPU heatsink. I added a little more AS5 to the CPU as it had some bare patches after pulling off the heatsink. It was all still pretty fresh since the system is only about 3 weeks old, so I didn’t feel a need to clean and reapply. For the AS5 purists out there, temps are looking good now so my method was sound, IMHO.
I removed and replaced the 92mm fan with a Link Depot 43.5CFM 2500RPM 28.8dBA 92x25mm I picked up at Fry’s for $7.99. Nothing special just something a little quieter and more powerful than the Shuttle 92mm. It’s a simple 3-pin fan so it always runs at the max 2500RPM unless you use a fan controller. I connected it to the 3-pin header.
I unscrewed and removed the 70mm fan from the CPU heatsink. It actually screws into a rather useless aluminum sheath. After a while of test fitting with the SilenX 80mm fan I decided there was no good way to mount it with that stupid sheath in the way, so I set on removing it.
To remove this sheath you have to remove 6 very tiny screws. I actually tried several tiny screwdrivers which were fairly worthless since they couldn’t get any leverage to break the initial friction. I ended up using a large screwdriver, the same one I use for every other screw in the Shuttle, and it worked great for getting it going, then I used a small one to finish the job. With the 6 tiny screws removed, the sheath slides outward a little and then comes loose. I put it aside.
Next I test fit the 80mm fan where the aluminum sheath previously resided, up against the vertical heatpipe/fin assembly adjacent to the 92mm fan. I put it in the “reversed” orientation, with the sticker side facing away from the 92mm fan (also in the same orientation). With the optical drive tray in place it fit pretty snugly and I figured with a little silicone cushioning material between the top of the fan and the bottom of the optical drive tray it would fit perfectly and eliminate any unwanted vibration effects. The SilenX fan came with four silicone mounting screws which I put in the top four holes (with the tips pointing toward the opposing screw hole). The radius of the head of the silicone screw extends beyond the fan plastic so they might provide a little cushioning, especially with one on each of the four corners on the top edge. But for the real trick I used a small square of silicone dampening material (about 2mm thick and about 25mm square) that came with a 120mm fan kit I had laying around. I just put it on the center of the top face of the fan housing and when the optical drive tray was in place the SilenX fan felt very snug and secure. Depending on whether it ever comes loose I will find a better way of mounting it. I will be traveling with the Shuttle for X-Mas and New Year’s so we will see how my ghetto mod holds up!
As for the results, so far I am very pleased. Airflow is much better, I can actually feel air coming out the far (right) side vent, CPU, GPU and NB idle temps are all down by 4-10 degrees, both of the new fans run at a constant 2500RPM, making for a nice uniform sound, and the noise level is MUCH lower than the stock fans running at Medium (3000RPM). Also the green LEDs on the SilenX fan look pretty nice 
I also have a 400GB HDD in the tray directly above the SilenX fan and it is running slightly cooler as well—31C, down from around 35C before.
As for load temps, at stock clocks, my E6750 levels off at 48-52C in Prime95 Torture Test #2 (max heat & power consumption), down from 55-60C before.
I haven’t tried overclocking with these fans yet, but it will be interesting to see whether they can hold up to the task at just 2500RPM. I know when I overclocked before I would always run the fans at 4000RPM and it was deafening, lol. But even at 4000RPM the airflow didn’t seem as good as these at just 2500RPM.
Sorry no in-progress pics for this one… I was pretty much just experimenting and didn’t think to take pics, but I think the results are quite good. I did take a few pics from the right hand grill looking in and some other after-the-fact pics though. Hopefully you can see how the 80mm fan fits just perfectly between the heatsink and the drive tray, with the silly aluminum sheath removed.
Anyways that about wraps it up, next on my list are those 60mm fans above the PSU. They do a good job but man are they annoying above Low. Anyone have any recommendations for 60mm fan replacements?
