The NIC matters a lot. Some onboard NICs are a bit flaky and once I replaced it with an Intel PCI NIC, I went from maxing out at about 300mbps to maxing out at around 800mbps.

If you're worried about the CPU power usage, I doubt you'll have issues. I would be sure to try undervolting since it is good for about 5 degrees C (and implicity, the power reflected by that extra heat). I got my i5 2400 down to 1.04v stable without downclocking while it originally ran at ~1.2v, so...

Have you tried changing all your fan vents to intake? I experimented with this, and it appears to force air out through some open expansion slots, and helped stabilize my system which has a passively cooled half-height Radeon 5750 in a half-height MATX case (not for the faint hearted). Before, I mus...

I use both the Shuriken and Big Shuriken. They do a good enough job, but are a pain to install (you only want to install them once. In fact on my H67 board, I had to install the RAM first, because the Big Shuriken covered them! I haven't looked at your case, but I run the Shuriken on a Q8200 without...

I have a pair of the Noctua S12B fans (here in Canada they are available as a pair for $25 which is quite reasonable). For me, Noctua fans appear to be the best mix of noise, airflow, and durability. I think if you pick and choose you might find quieter or more powerful fans, but I often end up repl...

To answer how I bent the heatsink, I slowly pressed down on it bit by bit on my floor, working my way from the top to the bottom. This seemed like the least risky way, rather than using my hands to bend it directly (and also made the bend more uniform). I had to mount it to the PCB first since after...

I don't think the lower end cards can be undervolted easily (my 5750 cannot), but double check. See my link here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=62194. As you can see, I managed to convert a noisy half-height dual-slot 5750 into a quad-slot passively cooled half-height 575...

Thanks for the suggestions. A few points: 1) I bent it bit by bit by pressing it on the floor/carpet. Kind of like rolling sushi. 2) I use the case in a vertical orientation. The only intake is the fan by the PSU; I removed the fan by the SSDs because I felt there was no need to cool them (vs the ha...

I'm new here but post a bit on anandtech. I experimented with passively cooling a low profile HD 5750 in an NSK1480. This required bending the heatsink significantly, but with a bit of effort, it fits, although it is now a quad-slot video card. Generally it works well. I'm having some issues with bl...