My first proper mod. Shuttle 120mm fan.

So I've began modding a 120mm fan into the top of my Shuttle XPC. The hole is a bit rough as it was trickier and louder than I expected with a Dremel, but with a metal file it shouldn't take too long to sort out. Trying to find some U-channel rubber for the edging in the UK is a pain also! I also have a minimal black circular grill to allow maximum air flow and hopefully avoid anything falling into the fan. 

The only down side to this mod is I lose a hard drive bay in the top of the shuttle. With three in there its not a massive loss, especially since I got a HP mini server for use as a NAS.

Next I have a 80mm side fan to do. That is going to make getting the case on and off a bit tricky though as its tight for space inside. I really need an in-take fan though as I have a lot of exhaust fans. 

Windows 8 and Avast won't play nice.

So so I really like Window 8. I started by trying an upgrade of my windows 7 install but was marred by blue screens of death. Not fun.... So I though it would be best to do a clean install (I wanted to anyway, I was just being lazy) but the BSODs continued....

ndis.sys and aswnet.sys were the culprits... This problem proved to be my Avast security suite... One uninstall and hey presto the system was fully functional again.

Avast say that program version 7.0.1473
 (announcement: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=107531.0 ) is fully compatible but it looks like a fair few people are seeing the same issue:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=107811.0

I think I'll wait for a few more updates before installing it again. Overall I'm really liking the UI of windows 8. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you realise you can just start typing from the start screen to search for what you want its dead quick to navigate!