I used to have an armour case, which the kandalf is based off of, (just has newer front and different materials). I believe theres a hard drive cage in which you must fit the fan in front of. I think it would work if you just unscrewed the hard drive cage (if your using one), and just pushed it back a little bit.
On the fans, well performance is in the 38mm fan divisions. But those fans are ok too. There are 3 things too look at when considering a fan.
1.
Static pressure- Yeah sure your fan can push 100cfm, BUT how much of the cfm will still exist if theres a blockade? Usually this is important when putting a fan on top of some kinda of heatsink. For case fans usually doesnt make a big difference. But its still a factor..
2.
Quality of fan and its bearing- There are two kinds of bearings for fans. Ball and Sleeve. For quiet I like sleeve bearing fans. They are the old tried and true mechanisms. Although they have a shorter lifetime vs. ball bearing fans. Also some low quality fans will make annoying noises and will seize up (stop working) after a while. Quality fans also tend to react better to undervolting (such as through a fan controller).
3.
Noise and truthful CFM Ratings-Alot of manufacturers really just plain lie on the dba or cfm of a fan. Industry testing varies. Thats when you go by the reputable name of a manufacturer. Manufacturers that always report a truthful sum are, Panaflo, Sunon, Sanyo Denki, NMB, Yate Loon, Papst. For starters.
-Keeping this in mind, between the two fans, I would prefer the silverstone. Although I have no experiance with it. The smart fan series from thermaltake have been proven really well! They are the only thermaltake fan I ever consider. All the rest tend to be shoddy.
That balance of fannage is FINE. Negative pressure is good, but to a limit. Also remember the front of your case is perforated.
*One last piece of advice. I highly suggest you dont pull your hair out for your northbridge. The temps you should worry about is your cpu and gpu. Northbridge chipsets can run hot without losing any stability.
