Is there anything in this section, that was ever finished? 
So perhaps this will be also modified endless, but has reached the form now, what i originally planned.
I will put some pictures in randomly, but you can find all of them here. This is my own server, so hotlinking is allowed
The main idea was:
1. Get a case, thats small, and fits the IKEA furniture with 355x355.
2. Entirely new specs, with decent performance for BF3, since i didnt update my PC for 2-3 years now, and the whole system was outdated.
3. Make this work as silent, as possible, since its running 24/7, as a home media server (LAN), and internet/gaming/work rig.
The Case
The first and worst problem was the case itself. There are not much cases, that fit into this 355x355. Lian Li V354: fits, looks good, good ventilation with big fans (important to make it silent).. and waaay too expensive with 225$ (will always give you calculated actual hungarian prices). Some other cases, that are cubical only sport mini ITX, or only proprietary PSU-s. I want mATX MB, and ATX PSU. There is some Thermaltake LAN case, that has good dimensions, but cooling its useless, with too small fans. So there was the Aerocool M40/QX2000 Double-Decker case. Tought about it for a week, planned some scenarios in theory, but i just could not imagine enough, what will fit. So there came a used one for sale, for about 50$, and i just bought it.
Looks good. Until you try to build some new config in there.
CPU Cooler
The first problem was, the double decker case only has <120mm height for the CPU cooler. So either a top-down blower with limited efficiency, or something modded, or a compact water cooler. I held a top-down coolers airflow for too weird, since two 8cm fans will pull air behind it, so where does it get its fresh air? I decided for a scythe rasetsu. LARGE heatsink, with a top-down blower, but i planned to remove it, and just pull it with the two 8cm's behind it. After i tried to build this, i wasnt so sure anymore. And the reviews also pointed out, that the rasetsu is not an efficient cooler, despite of its size. So i quickly changed it to an Antec Kühler H2O 620. It was clear, that this needs a case mod, since the QX2000 only has 1 120mm fan place in front of the VGA. But i dont need a 3.5" drive bay, so i modded that part of the case, to hold another 120mm installation - the h2o 620 with pushpull fans.
Does its job very well. 30-33°C in idle, and 40-45°C under load. And this, with two ~1000 RPM fans. The pump runs at fixed 1450rpm, also without any noise.
Fans
I quickly decieded, that i want SOME case mod too. Green light, on the black case. Silent 120mm fans, with good CFM, and green leds = CM Sickleflows. 2 of these, and 3x AC F8 Pro PWM for the rear exhaust part (hooked all 3 of them with PST on one cable), and 1x Noiseblocker 60mm in the front. I have some SWIF2 120 fans from my old build left, so one of them goes to pull on the Antec inside.
Noise: The CM's are very silent, and push a lot of air (look for xbitlabs review). From 1000-1300 they are very silent, but tolerable until 1500 too. The SWIF2 only pulls, without any noise at 1000rpm, no wonder here. The AC exhaust fans did positively disappoint me. Did not except so much airflow even on low RPM's. They do generate a low hum on higher RPM, but they also move a LOT of air for 8cm coolers. And no vibrations! This was also important for the front fans, so i fixed them all with silicon heat resistant tubings, so that there is no metal-plastic direct contact anywhere. The NB 6cm runs at 5V fixed, without generating any noise .... or airflow. So the purpose of this in the overall case airflow is a bit questionable right now. It might be better, to use it as exhaust to the top, in front of the PSU? But more on this later.
Controlling these fans with a Lamptron FC6 (57$). Could do it via MB too, but i like to see the temps and rpms on the case, and its a nice addition with the green LCD to the case look also. The only negative is, that it cant display the PST hooked up AC's RPM. But it controls them also, all 3 on one poti. On the picutre from left to right AC F8 exhausts and MB VRM temp, CPU push Sickleflow and CPU radiator temp, GPU fins temp, and gpu push Sickleflow, and CPU radiator pull SWIF2 120 with case temp.
Also, there was no dust filtering with this case, so i needed to sew in some filter in the front faces.
Motherboard
No big deal here, the decision was pretty straightforward: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z. Best mATX MB right now, with lots of connections, and good overclockability. (put overclocking on hold right now, i dont feel the need for it yet) (240$)
CPU
Wanted an i7 2600k, but after reading reviews, that it brings nearly nothing for gaming on a 2500k, i decided to buy the i5. Its was only 225$, instead of 325$ for the i7, so money is left to buy a better GPU
RAM
8GB (2x4) Corsair Vengeance Red kit. Got a good price for them (65$), and they are also 1.5V. No questions.
Graphics Card
Four problems here. Noise, price, performance, SIZE. Price-wise, i was going for an 560TI, but after the i5 there was money left for 570. I wanted nvidia this time. Not that there was much problems with my 4870, but still. The main turning point with ATI cards was, that there are almost no standard HEIGHT 6950's. Because the double decker, i only have 10mm above the backplate, so the card cant be higher. Lenght is not a concern, up to 330mm is fine. The taken slots are also irrelevant, since i only want 1 card. But almost all Radeon cards are too high with the cooling, or too loud, or both... So i ended up searching for an 570, and got a very good price on a GTX 570 Phantom 1.25GB. (375$) Fits in size, and cools very quiet. At least until it nears 70°C, but thats rarely. The only problem is, that it exhausts air in to the case, where my PSU sucks neary all of it.
PSU
Decided to keep my old PSU (only 1 year old). Sapphire FirePSU 625W. This is an Enermax Modu82+ on the inside, so very good, and efficient. The fan runs in idle at just 550RPM, but since it got the GTX570 Phantom right under, the fan spins up on load up to 1450RPM, wich is the loudest ATM. Still not that loud, but this concerns me, so it may be an upgrade point for the near future. Dont know, if its just because of the heat of the GTX570 sucked in, or the load on the PSU while gaming is also that big. Maybe both. Anyways, the max is around 2000RPM, so there is still headroom, no need to rush this decision. Or going for a refcooler 570 instead? But thats also not this silent.
Sound
Another headache here. I had to retire my old Audigy4, because new MB has no PCI slot, and anyways, i dont want its driver miseries anymore. So what to do? They say that integrated realtek ones has also driver troubles under BFBC2 for example. So why not try the integrated GPU one? The GTX570 has nvidia hd audio, my U2410 has DisplayPort (or HDMI) wich can transfer sound too. Did it. And it disappointed me. The sound was very blank, and volume also low, and a lot of noise in BFBC2, or stopping sound in AOEO. No go, with my HD555. Maybe a problem with the U2410's DAC. Dunno. Enabled the onboard X-FI2 camouflaged realtek on the Gene-Z, and see there: Brilliant, loud and crisp sound. No problems in BFBC2 too. I will keep that. According to rightmark audio analyzer, its somewhere between an audigy2 and 4, wich is NOT bad at all. And additional money spent = 0.
Storage
Clear point: No DVD drive anymore. I dont use it. The laptop has it, if i need that for something. But i need an SSD for the OS and games, to speed things up. 128GB. Reliablity was more important for me, than performance. So Intel, Crucial M4, or... Samsung? Ended up with Samsung 470 128GB. No driver, or sata, ahci whatsoever problems, just very good speed, price, and capacity. (200$) And kept my old WD5000AAKS too. But since the stock 3.5" drive cage can only be used up to 2 slot VGA, and the Phantom is 2.5 slot card, i needed to find another place for it. At first i screwed it fix into the upper 5.25 bay, but it caused VERY BAD vibrations. So used a buch of the silicone tubes here also, to decouple it from the case too. Problem solved.
Cable Management
With a double decker? Lol
Forget it. I managed to put some cables under the MB, and here and there, but a lot of them are just stacked above the GPU, and in the 5.25 bay behind the FC6. Remember, i need to be able to open the upper deck But its not that bad, isnt it?
All in all, the rig is silent, powerful, and small enough There are some points, that still need investigation, or some upgrade, but nothing critical. Got a nice KB910 led keyboard too, and ready for BF3
To do:
- Replace blue power led, and PGS badge with green.
- Top exhaust above GPU?
- Other PSU?
- External exhaust 570? (not likely, maybe something from the 2012 generation)
- More green light?
Comments, toughts are welcome!
Edited by LocutusH - 9/26/11 at 7:00am
So perhaps this will be also modified endless, but has reached the form now, what i originally planned.I will put some pictures in randomly, but you can find all of them here. This is my own server, so hotlinking is allowed
The main idea was:
1. Get a case, thats small, and fits the IKEA furniture with 355x355.
2. Entirely new specs, with decent performance for BF3, since i didnt update my PC for 2-3 years now, and the whole system was outdated.
3. Make this work as silent, as possible, since its running 24/7, as a home media server (LAN), and internet/gaming/work rig.
The Case
The first and worst problem was the case itself. There are not much cases, that fit into this 355x355. Lian Li V354: fits, looks good, good ventilation with big fans (important to make it silent).. and waaay too expensive with 225$ (will always give you calculated actual hungarian prices). Some other cases, that are cubical only sport mini ITX, or only proprietary PSU-s. I want mATX MB, and ATX PSU. There is some Thermaltake LAN case, that has good dimensions, but cooling its useless, with too small fans. So there was the Aerocool M40/QX2000 Double-Decker case. Tought about it for a week, planned some scenarios in theory, but i just could not imagine enough, what will fit. So there came a used one for sale, for about 50$, and i just bought it.
Looks good. Until you try to build some new config in there.
CPU Cooler
The first problem was, the double decker case only has <120mm height for the CPU cooler. So either a top-down blower with limited efficiency, or something modded, or a compact water cooler. I held a top-down coolers airflow for too weird, since two 8cm fans will pull air behind it, so where does it get its fresh air? I decided for a scythe rasetsu. LARGE heatsink, with a top-down blower, but i planned to remove it, and just pull it with the two 8cm's behind it. After i tried to build this, i wasnt so sure anymore. And the reviews also pointed out, that the rasetsu is not an efficient cooler, despite of its size. So i quickly changed it to an Antec Kühler H2O 620. It was clear, that this needs a case mod, since the QX2000 only has 1 120mm fan place in front of the VGA. But i dont need a 3.5" drive bay, so i modded that part of the case, to hold another 120mm installation - the h2o 620 with pushpull fans.
Does its job very well. 30-33°C in idle, and 40-45°C under load. And this, with two ~1000 RPM fans. The pump runs at fixed 1450rpm, also without any noise.
Fans
I quickly decieded, that i want SOME case mod too. Green light, on the black case. Silent 120mm fans, with good CFM, and green leds = CM Sickleflows. 2 of these, and 3x AC F8 Pro PWM for the rear exhaust part (hooked all 3 of them with PST on one cable), and 1x Noiseblocker 60mm in the front. I have some SWIF2 120 fans from my old build left, so one of them goes to pull on the Antec inside.
Noise: The CM's are very silent, and push a lot of air (look for xbitlabs review). From 1000-1300 they are very silent, but tolerable until 1500 too. The SWIF2 only pulls, without any noise at 1000rpm, no wonder here. The AC exhaust fans did positively disappoint me. Did not except so much airflow even on low RPM's. They do generate a low hum on higher RPM, but they also move a LOT of air for 8cm coolers. And no vibrations! This was also important for the front fans, so i fixed them all with silicon heat resistant tubings, so that there is no metal-plastic direct contact anywhere. The NB 6cm runs at 5V fixed, without generating any noise .... or airflow. So the purpose of this in the overall case airflow is a bit questionable right now. It might be better, to use it as exhaust to the top, in front of the PSU? But more on this later.
Controlling these fans with a Lamptron FC6 (57$). Could do it via MB too, but i like to see the temps and rpms on the case, and its a nice addition with the green LCD to the case look also. The only negative is, that it cant display the PST hooked up AC's RPM. But it controls them also, all 3 on one poti. On the picutre from left to right AC F8 exhausts and MB VRM temp, CPU push Sickleflow and CPU radiator temp, GPU fins temp, and gpu push Sickleflow, and CPU radiator pull SWIF2 120 with case temp.
Also, there was no dust filtering with this case, so i needed to sew in some filter in the front faces.
Motherboard
No big deal here, the decision was pretty straightforward: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z. Best mATX MB right now, with lots of connections, and good overclockability. (put overclocking on hold right now, i dont feel the need for it yet) (240$)
CPU
Wanted an i7 2600k, but after reading reviews, that it brings nearly nothing for gaming on a 2500k, i decided to buy the i5. Its was only 225$, instead of 325$ for the i7, so money is left to buy a better GPU
RAM
8GB (2x4) Corsair Vengeance Red kit. Got a good price for them (65$), and they are also 1.5V. No questions.
Graphics Card
Four problems here. Noise, price, performance, SIZE. Price-wise, i was going for an 560TI, but after the i5 there was money left for 570. I wanted nvidia this time. Not that there was much problems with my 4870, but still. The main turning point with ATI cards was, that there are almost no standard HEIGHT 6950's. Because the double decker, i only have 10mm above the backplate, so the card cant be higher. Lenght is not a concern, up to 330mm is fine. The taken slots are also irrelevant, since i only want 1 card. But almost all Radeon cards are too high with the cooling, or too loud, or both... So i ended up searching for an 570, and got a very good price on a GTX 570 Phantom 1.25GB. (375$) Fits in size, and cools very quiet. At least until it nears 70°C, but thats rarely. The only problem is, that it exhausts air in to the case, where my PSU sucks neary all of it.
PSU
Decided to keep my old PSU (only 1 year old). Sapphire FirePSU 625W. This is an Enermax Modu82+ on the inside, so very good, and efficient. The fan runs in idle at just 550RPM, but since it got the GTX570 Phantom right under, the fan spins up on load up to 1450RPM, wich is the loudest ATM. Still not that loud, but this concerns me, so it may be an upgrade point for the near future. Dont know, if its just because of the heat of the GTX570 sucked in, or the load on the PSU while gaming is also that big. Maybe both. Anyways, the max is around 2000RPM, so there is still headroom, no need to rush this decision. Or going for a refcooler 570 instead? But thats also not this silent.
Sound
Another headache here. I had to retire my old Audigy4, because new MB has no PCI slot, and anyways, i dont want its driver miseries anymore. So what to do? They say that integrated realtek ones has also driver troubles under BFBC2 for example. So why not try the integrated GPU one? The GTX570 has nvidia hd audio, my U2410 has DisplayPort (or HDMI) wich can transfer sound too. Did it. And it disappointed me. The sound was very blank, and volume also low, and a lot of noise in BFBC2, or stopping sound in AOEO. No go, with my HD555. Maybe a problem with the U2410's DAC. Dunno. Enabled the onboard X-FI2 camouflaged realtek on the Gene-Z, and see there: Brilliant, loud and crisp sound. No problems in BFBC2 too. I will keep that. According to rightmark audio analyzer, its somewhere between an audigy2 and 4, wich is NOT bad at all. And additional money spent = 0.
Storage
Clear point: No DVD drive anymore. I dont use it. The laptop has it, if i need that for something. But i need an SSD for the OS and games, to speed things up. 128GB. Reliablity was more important for me, than performance. So Intel, Crucial M4, or... Samsung? Ended up with Samsung 470 128GB. No driver, or sata, ahci whatsoever problems, just very good speed, price, and capacity. (200$) And kept my old WD5000AAKS too. But since the stock 3.5" drive cage can only be used up to 2 slot VGA, and the Phantom is 2.5 slot card, i needed to find another place for it. At first i screwed it fix into the upper 5.25 bay, but it caused VERY BAD vibrations. So used a buch of the silicone tubes here also, to decouple it from the case too. Problem solved.
Cable Management
With a double decker? Lol
Forget it. I managed to put some cables under the MB, and here and there, but a lot of them are just stacked above the GPU, and in the 5.25 bay behind the FC6. Remember, i need to be able to open the upper deck But its not that bad, isnt it?All in all, the rig is silent, powerful, and small enough
There are some points, that still need investigation, or some upgrade, but nothing critical. Got a nice KB910 led keyboard too, and ready for BF3 To do:
- Replace blue power led, and PGS badge with green.
- Top exhaust above GPU?
- Other PSU?
- External exhaust 570? (not likely, maybe something from the 2012 generation)
- More green light?
Comments, toughts are welcome!
Edited by LocutusH - 9/26/11 at 7:00am
Borg Cube
(19 items) |
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Borg Cube
(19 items) |
