Nice, post thoes pic
And I fully agree with you on the Fortress it's lovely looking, the only thing that stops me getting one is the price tag.
I know it's probably worth every penny of that £158 but personally I cannot justify spending that much for a new case which in all honesty I don't need.
Even if I was sans case then I would spend half the amount on one of the antec or cm cases.
PS you say the side pannel fan is noisey? check to see if it's viberateing the window.
fan sound generally comes down to 3 factors in my experence
1- fan speed, the faster it is the more air it moves but the more sound it makes.
2- fan grill, some grills are better than others, sometimes they can add quite a bit of sound ie the fan is quiet but the air being sucked through the grill makes more noise than the fan does.
3- Frame vibration, this effects cheap fans more than expensive ones, flimsy frame and unbalanced fan blades can cause a lot of vibration in the frame which will be transfured into the case when screwed down.
When I first converted that old server case I'm using I got some very cheap fans from scan which while moveing an ok amount of air where very bad for vibration, just holding one in my hand while on made it very quiet but I could feel the vibration and if I stood it on the floor it would actually "walk" about.
I've since replaced all the fans in my case now, the differnce between a Scythe S-FLEX and thoes cheap ones is so noticeable by just the feel, the S-Flex is far heavier the frame is very solid and doesn't twist or flex, which the cheap ones did. It's a real noticeable differnce between a £12 fan and a £2.50 fan
That said you don't need to go to the high end many of the fans around the £6 mark are very good
but please check the vent sound before you go spending cash, if it's the vent makeing the added noise then an expensive fan will not help.
I've wandered a bit here but my basic message is check the fans fully before spending more cash, check for vibration, quality, speed and vents.
Finally you can quite often get away without a side fan, unplug it and check the temps (esp graphics card) if there's no real differnce then you might want to consider just removeing it.