Basicly I would Gut it save the fans and the leave the plugs on the back. putting a new filter in would mean taking out 8 screws in total,I take these apart all the time there pretty easy.All you have to do on the fans is hookem up in a series with the right V on your PSU off like a cell phone or mp3 player. I plan on doing this soon I'll post pics when i do, when I say soon i really mean sometime.