Particularly enjoying the silence, I wanted to replace the rear fan housing by a silent model of the brand Noctua (NF-S12A for info). Only I've never been able to install it. For starters, the location of the fan is located too high in the case. The Noctua fan was delivered with a rubber fastening system to better absorb vibration than conventional screws, but their implementation was an ordeal because of the position of the fan, very difficult to access.
But the real problem is that a rivet housing structure protrudes into stack at the upper left corner of the fan and prevents installation. I encourage you to check my statements in the photos, this is the rivet forming the junction between the sheets from the top and back of the case (2nd from top to rivet from the left on a profile view). On the original fan that passes, the Noctua few millimeters thicker it does not pass. This may be a detail but it is especially a big design flaw.
Then I wanted to install a new sink for the processor, always brand Noctua (NH-U12S model). Once again things got complicated. The cut on the sheet receiving the motherboard, allowing the installation of the radiator, was too small. Thus the supposed holes receiving the radiator were located too close to the edge of the cut and I had to completely disassemble my motherboard (format micro-ATX) to install the radiator in question. Which should have taken 30 minutes I lost half a day. Once again, it is played to a few millimeters but it is infuriating.
Sorry for the very descriptive review but you will agree that I was forced to go into details.
In short, I recommend this Merc Alpha. Certainly, when you do not look too closely does the job, but it clearly suffers from a lack of attention to detail. If it again, I would invest in a more spacious and better designed housing.
