Custom made case for notebook+dock

Hi guys,
I wanna consult with you my idea if I may.

I am running T60+advanced dock for a few years and I want to upgrade to W520+series3plus dock when available. I was happy with the setup, except one thing - noise. I have my T60 on my table and I seriously hate the noise, during night it is pain and I can hardly sleep in the same room. I used to had my own modded desktop before which I could barely hear. My laptop is going 16 hours a day, it is a workstation but occasionally I have to take it with me.

Now the idea. I was thinking to built all custom made box (case) for the new setup. I want to use 1-2 mm aluminum plates and use sound damping material inside. It will be a simple box with the top lid like a door and I want to put the dock, notebook and external harddrive inside.

Only issue I am thinking of is cooling. In the rear side of the box I want to make some holes for cables but I think it will not be enough, so I am thinking of putting one 80 mm intake fan in the left corner of the box where the fan is on W520, and other 80 mm outtake fan to the right corner of the box. This should do some airflow inside.

Did anybody do something like this before? I was googling like a hell but I couldn't find anything. Do you have any experience or opinions on this? Any other ideas how to make that quiet?

I am not afraid of a construction, but I am not sure If I can eliminate the noise by a significant level and I also don't want to cook my laptop inside.

Thanks

 

to make it quiet, you just have to cool it enough so that the internal fan doesn't have to turn on.

i don't know how your dock looks, but if an ordinary notebook cooling plate (where you can put the laptop on) doesn't fit your needs, then maybe something custom is needed.

 

It looks like that:


So you cannot simply put the notebook on any plate. When LOAD you think that something like that can cool it down? I doubt we can eliminate the internal fan during load, but if we can then it is a good way to go.