Guts.....
Qmicra V2 sff case.........14.00" L x 9.75" W x 11.25" H
Asus P5E-VM hdmi motherboard

QX9650 off ebay seller (100% rep. sells many QX9650)

Had concerns about Zerotherm Nirvana Cooler size vs. ram location but there is plenty of room even with the dominator fan module.

Cooling 'Box' on PaLiT 9600GT was blocking the 6 sata ports on the lower right corner of the box so I removed it.
It came off easily with a few screws. The two sata cables running across the motherboard go to a simple sata-to-esata bracket.

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I later decided to remove the stock heatsink and fan from the PaLiT 9600GT and installed a Thermaltake DuOrb.

The DuOrb has more room to the soundcard than the stock heatsink+fan did. It also runs quieter and cooler.

Added a Pci-slot type DC fan pointed at the recess behind the/bottom of ..the 150gb raptor hdd.
Also added a few USB ports to the motherboard headers, and put a MS ergo wireless 7000 transmitter/receiver on one of them (lower right).
Had planned on putting DLink wireless N usb device on other side on the second 'internal usb port', but it has no vista64 drivers yet.
I may buy a DLink PCI-e x1 wireless card eventually instead (model supports linux and vista64).

Can't make it out in this pic but there is also a 80mm 'silent' fan on the front of the case beneath the hdd, blowing twd the exp. cards.

I had to buy a 20mm thick (vs. standard 25mm thick) 120mm fan for the fan mount on the right since the 25mm was too close to the zerotherm nirvana fins.
The 20mm just fits and runs nicely. Both fans are blowing inward. There is a 120mm on the front of the case (left) blowing inward also.
The zerotherm nirvana's cooling fan is blowing through the fin-tower heatstink toward the bright rear 120mm fan which is blowing out of the case.

The case is very sturdy but a bit hollow sounding so I added some soundproofing material. It works well.
I also turned the fan speed down on a few fans. There is so much airflow its almost overkill.
The case sounds 'pleasant' now, and components are all cool.
Also note that the slots on the top chamfered edges of the case act as stealthed handles when assembled.

Here is a pic of the desk with the SFF pc case on a scrappy old end table I dug up for the time being. Note that the wall with the tapestry was torn down and is 'under construction' at the moment. In the future it will be walled off with an aquarium build into the wall/behind the wall, behind the left desk surface. I intend to get a removable wiring jacket of some sort for the wires but as I just re-channeled a lot of wiring it was easier to just leave it on the floor for now. I pull wires and move things around enough that I really can't have a permanent wire enclosure like pvc/conduit. Maybe I could get some kind of snap-off running board housing for the bottom of the wall after I rebuild the wall. I'd also like to mount those three large speakers flanking the 37" monitor to the ceiling someday, instead of using those white stools (my other four speakers are on speaker stands as least).

It was difficult to get the whole desk in the picture - I had to hold the camera up against the wall near the cieling, where I couldn't really see the viewfinder. There is a good 6' from where the chair is in this pic to the wall but this is how the perspective comes out. At a normal viewing level everything looks much larger than in this picture.

This pic shows the case but the bright flash shows dust already on the fan cover, as well as revealing the interior of the case. In normal room lighting you can't see past the mesh front into the case, and the case looks darker. The dust doesn't show up like that either in normal lighting. I'm going to have to vaccum that off regularly I can tell. It doesn't help having three cats. I have a small vaccuum I can use so I just have to keep up on it.

Although it doesn't look that that in reality, its still going to bother me so I'll replace these pics eventually after I vaccuum and wipe down the case and that speaker :-b
I'd also like to get a skirt/cover for that ugly wooden end table.
I'll try to take replacement pics in full room lighting so the flash doesn't have to be so harsh next time too(these were taken in the dark).

As far as portability the case is definitely very easy to move using those stealthed/recessed slot handles on either side. I've carried it up and down a flight of stairs several times no problem. I'm fairly strong though so this might not be true for everyone. There is still the bulk so I would only carry it on a short walk from truck to office or any 'gig' that doesnt have alot of footwork between parking and setup. If I need more portability I'd just use my 17" laptop in its nice laptop backpack. I'll test how the sff case feels in a dufflebag as soon as I find one whose dimensions are close enough to the case without being oversized. I'm also going to look for a good briefcase/guncase/etc to mod as a flip-up monitor case for my 20.1" viewsonic to pair with this rig 'on the road'.

Heres a shot of my new peripherals I'm getting used to in COD4 currently, for kicks. I'm still a bit clumsy on the left hand "n52te"controller. Its not quite second nature yet. I'm also getting used to how light the razor lachesis mouse is, and for many years I gamed with a thumb-ball mouse so I have to re-learn regular mouse aiming itself as well. I'm definitely still much more accurate with my thumb-trackball opticall mouse currently. That will change with practice, just like the accuracy curve I climbed with the thumb-trackball mice many years ago. I just have to force myself to keep using it even if my scores suffer for awhile. :)

Gave up on the n52te controller for the moment. I'll use it in single player but it gimps me too much in multiplayer for now. I do like the razor lachesis mouse for fps gaming however. I still use my ms (thumb) trackball optical for desktop usage.

I was chatting with someone on irc who bought a hanns-g / hannspree lcd so I looked up a few threads on them at hardforum.com. The newer model HF289H sounded pretty good and was $50 off at bestbuy so I decided to try it out. I figured if I didnt like it I could still return it. I didn't want it to be a step backward in quality from the 37" westinghouse, and I wasn't sure if it would be big enough after having used the westy for a few years. It turned out great though. The day after I bought it I got a 15% off bb coupon in the mail too, so I went back to the store and got it price adjusted for an even better deal. I paid about $445 + tax , now its back up to $579 + tax and out of stock locally (I got the last one on the shelf at the time too).

After I tweaked the hannspree alot it looks very good to me, even next to the super quality of the crt next to it. I had to turn the brightness pretty much off though - it was ridiculously bright out of the box, even for an lcd. I also had to turn up the digital vibrance in the nvidia drivers to make it more colorful, as well as adjusting the brightness/contrast etc. levels separately for video playback in the nvidia driver controls including turning the blue down slightly in the rgb controls. A big improvement over the westinghouse other than the size being better is that the hannspree is 2ms response time so it doesnt blur like the 12ms westinghouse does with certain games and fast screen elements.. Its also 1920x1200 rez vs the westy 1920x1080.

Its still very big considering how close I can keep it on the desk, and it pairs up much better with my 24" fw900 crt than the westinghouse ever did, in size, placement and resolution (both are at 1920x1200 vs. the westy 1080p). The westy was too big for the desk. I kept it 36 - 40" away on its own mini desk behind the real desk, and it really should have been kept about 4' for the proper perspective so you wouldn't have to 'reach' with your gaze so much to see HUD elements like mini maps. I really think that 24" - 30" monitors are perfect size for a good desk. I find myself using the 24" crt in conjuction with the new hannspree HF289H more than I ever did with the 37" lcd. The quality of this picture turned out bad, perhaps due to the difference in display types, room lighting, or just a bad pic, but it gives an idea of how it looks now. The quality of both displays in person is way better.