| Lian Li PC-C36 Muse HTPC Case
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Installation (continued):
The following images are of the included brushed aluminum optical drive bezel attached to my LG Blu-ray drive. This bezel is secured to the face of the drive's tray with double sided tape and resulted in one of the two issues I had with the case. Although I was eventually able to get things working correctly it took multiple attempts to get the aluminum bezel attached to the drive tray in a position that allowed the tray to cycle in and out properly. A bezel design that could replace the existing plastic one rather than being stuck to it would be preferred.
  
Heat and Noise:
Over the last two weeks of testing I never experienced a heat related issue with this case. Most of my testing was with a Q6600 quad at 1.8 GHz and 1.1V (9x200), which was more than enough for me to watch even the most demanding Blu-ray codecs (VC-1 and AVC), but I did run the quad core at stock speed and voltage for several days without any issues. All testing was performed with a stock Intel cooler. I believe Lian Li designed the ventilation of this case to work with the stock type coolers that blow air down onto the motherboard. I base this conclusion on the fact that they placed a large ventilation grill directly above the CPU location and also installed both 70mm fans to exhaust. This allows the heat sink to draw cool air from above and force it down through the cooling fins across the motherboard and out the exhaust fans and power supply.
Temperatures with a 100 percent load on the stock 2.4GHz quad core CPU averaged 62C and were about 10 degrees Celsius cooler when the CPU was underclocked to 1.8GHz. This is entirely consistent with the stock heat sink and is well within Intel's specifications for the Q6600. During testing the case was located in the picture below. Note that there is plenty of room above the case. I have no doubt that temperatures would be much higher if another component was installed on top of the PC-C36.
Fan noise was slightly higher than I would like, but not any louder than other components in my home entertainment center. It is noticeable with everything else turned off. I have no way to measure the noise level except to say that the cooling fan on my DLP and Receiver are comparable in sound level when they kick on. I can say it's not even an issue while watching a movie or listening to music.
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