Advice on Corsair 650D - replacement for P182

[chiggah]

I'm thinking to upgrade to a Corsair 650D from my 3 year old Antec P182. The P182 have serve me quite well. Back in 2008, it was one of the quietest cases around thats why I went for it. I still like it to this day. I was thinking to go for the P183 but there won't be much differences.

But the temperature in the P182 have started to worsen over the years. I am idling at 44degrees with i7 930 overclocked to 4ghz with Megahalems. This is with the side door open. With the side door closed, the temperatures can rise up to 50 degrees or more during idle. I have 5x Nexus 120 fans in the case running at 720 RPM - 1 intake, 1 top, 1 exhaust, 2x on Megahalems push pull.

Hence, I am seriously considering the Corsair 650D due to its minimalistic design and 'square'-ish shape.

The only feature about the 650D I dislike about is the front 200mm fan. I would prefer to use my 2x 120mm Nexus fans as front intake. Is this possible as a mod ?

[Wibla]

Get a Scythe Kama bay, or something else to convert some of the 5.25" bays to fan intakes, that will fix you right up. P182 stock has very restrictive + not enough intakes in the upper chamber.

[quest_for_silence]

The only feature about the 650D I dislike about is the front 200mm fan. I would prefer to use my 2x 120mm Nexus fans as front intake. Is this possible as a mod ?

On my 600T it's not possible, unless you want to cut/punch the steel bezel.
You cannot swap the fan also, unless you get rid of the drive cages, as most (NZXT, Cooler Master, Antec, et c.) of 200mm fans are 30mm deep (AFAIK there's an Antec BB Led 25mm deep, but you could run into problem to get rid of the useless - for a real silencer - TriCool switch).

Perhaps you could mitigate the overall situation by soft mounting the fan (even if the 650D's one is less brittle than mine and the mounting system is different), and not using the Corsair controller.

But broadly speaking it's a not quiet intake, so unless you got a 300W GPU (or want to run a positive pressure scheme), you may do better not using it at all. IMHO.