In reference to Reply#9: If you plan to drill out larger holes I suggest to only drill the side fan grill along with the holes on the bottom. That's all you need. Does it make a difference? From my observation yes. I'd say you'll get 15-20% more air flowing out. What's unique about the Noiseblocker is that it chops up the air so it disperses more diagonally as opposed to straight. It's very ideal for optimizing air outflow, but I wouldn't use it as a CPU/PSU fan. That's where Noctua's focused flow fans might be better, or SilenX.
Here's an image showing how it was mounted on the side. I had to line up and drill the holes.
And here's a little trick if you need to pop the side panel off frequently. Add a small hose clap on the center clip and adjust the tightness so you can clip it off easily by hand from inside. The thing was driving me nuts while testing the acoustics of the panel.
The NB-eLoop B14-3 (140mm) is pushing more air than I expected. I'm testing out different resistors on the negative terminal to slow it down. Right now it seems 20 ohms is the optimal resistance and it's running at about 8.7v. I need some recommendations for the right resistor wattage and whether I should put a fuse in. Any recommendations?
With the resistor setting the 800mhz super quite now even with the panel off (the side panel isolates a lot of noise), yet when I feel the air flow with my hand compared side-by-side to the Sensflow in the 733mhz, it feels about 1.5-2 times greater. The key is the larger 140mm fan blades that push more air. By sizing up your fan you automatically get more air flow with less dBA.
I wouldn't suggest this size fan unless you plan to mod it with some resisters to slow it down to preference. If you want a plug and play fan try something else. If you want optimal air flow with the least noise, than consider it.
@DieHard I'm looking at the SilenX, but beforehand I want to figure out how to get the PSU dustproof while optimizing airflow. The excess airflow from NB-eLoop B14-3 might allow me to add dust filters in certain areas.
@IIO I'd like to go SATA but it's hard to find the PCI cards. I'd prefer an internal/external card. I might go IDE until I find something.