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Case Mod - In Progress Project: Shrink - Night photos added!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by mars-bar-man, 3 Jul 2010.

  1. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    Project Shrink:

    Right, well here goes!!

    After numerous ideas WAY above my skill level, I've decided to start small. Literally.

    This whole mod/build is designed to make my PC as small as possible whilst maintaining at least some half decent gaming performance. Also, I chose to do this because I have uni coming up in a few months, and I don't really want to be having a full tower case in my room, they're just too big for me now.

    So, what size did I go for? mATX? Nah, I went for ITX. And seeing as there's a few decent H55 ITX boards out now, I thought I may as well! As for the case? I chose the Lian Li PC-Q08B. It's luuurvly :)

    [​IMG]

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    Well then, what hardware has been chosen for this? Let me tell you;

    - Intel Core i7 860
    - Gigabyte H55N-USB3
    - 4Gb DDR3 Corsair Dominator 1,333Mhz
    - Inno3D GTX460
    - About 1.5Tb of storage (2 HDD's)
    - Silverstone 450w ST45SF SFX PSU

    Right, what cooling? Water :) Well, only the CPU will be, case will fit a 120mm rad in...just.

    Cooling gear;

    - XSPC Delta V3
    - Laing DDC w. EK pump top
    - Black Ice Stealth GT 120mm radiator
    - Alphacool Repack drive bay reserviour



    Right, without further delay, let's crack on:

    Well, I would, but my WiFi card has packed in and I'm using a rather flakey mobile phone connection to write this, let me switch the laptop and pictures shall follow!
     
    Last edited: 30 Jan 2011
  2. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    -reserved for final pictures-
     
  3. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    If you're only going to watercool the CPU, then I'd recommend using either the Corsair H50 or the CoolIT ECO ALC.

    The CoolIT received better reviews and is a little bit better to mount from what I've read about it.
     
  4. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    Yeah, but that costs more money, as you'll see in a bit, I already have all the W/C gear I need bar the res :)
     
  5. mrdbristol

    mrdbristol Voided my warranty years ago

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    If space it tight, which it looks like it will be :D

    You could use a T line instead of a res, doesn't effect the loop performance
     
  6. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    Right, well I got a nice delivery this morning at 8.45 :) One Lian Li PC-Q08B and a few other gubbins to help out the mod with :)

    Anyway, here's some pictures of the case:
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    And then next to Cosmos. Teeeeny!

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    Internals:

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    Motherboard tray:

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    HDD cages, will only be using the one that fits two HDDs:

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    Some kit fitted, GPU, PSU, placement for HDD cage (will not be stuck there with blutac, promise..)

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    The X-Top for the D5:

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    The case fitted with the original fans, not really a fan of LEDs etc anymore, so that'll be replaced:

    [​IMG]

    With a Yate Loon D14SL-12 140mm fan:

    [​IMG]

    Most likely position for the pump to go:

    [​IMG]

    And what's going to allow me to keep on gaming when I drain my W/C loop later today:

    [​IMG]

    That's all for a bit guys, will get some pics of my loop getting drained and I'm going to get dirty with a drill, get that HDD cage fitted proper good :)
     
  7. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    That what I was thinking of, but there's a little bit of space under the PSU, about 1 1/2" high and about a PSU height worth of depth.. I'll scour the web, but I recon it will be a t-line in the end.
     
  8. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    Right, potentially last update for 2 weeks unless I can sell most of my current kit.

    Drained my old W/C loop.. that was fun -.- Nice load of junk in the waterblock as well..

    [​IMG]

    But I've actually done some modding! :O

    Drilled some holes for the HDD cage to go in:

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    Brilliant, fits like a glove:

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    Also decided to fit the radiator and the fan to keep it cool:

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    There's less that 25mm worth of space between the PSU and rad!

    I also braided my fan cables, which was actually quite a bt of fun, and I'm bloody pround considering this was my first time!

    [​IMG]

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    :O And what is this? I'm taking a drill to a lovely Lian Li?!

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    But remember the fan on top of the case? I need somewhere to put that cable back into the PC. Tada!:

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    Well, that's it today. I feel I got quite a bit done. Plus I have a fair idea on where the W/C tubes are going to go as well. And, I just managed sell pretty much my entire PC for between £80-120, hoping the latter, means that's the mobo and RAM dealt with.

    Just a few questions;

    1 - White tubing or clear tubing?
    2 - What size cable braid would you recommend for SATA cables?

    Cheers Bit-Tech.
     
  9. DeadP1xels

    DeadP1xels Social distancing since 92

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    Ooooooo i like this

    im curious to see what kind of card fits in this i always love sff!
     
  10. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    My GTX260 will fit.. just, it's 10" long and there's 30cm space, minus the room for the fan, and hey pretso, compact uber pwning system. I believe it will also fit a 5970... But I don't have one :(
     
  11. Bloody_Pete

    Bloody_Pete Technophile

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    Are you going to use MDPC sleeving...? I like this, as it'd be a great LAN rig. This is probably what i'll do when I do a full upgrade, put all the old stuff in a small case as a LAN rig :)
     
  12. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    MDPC sleeving is a tad expensive. I'm trying not spend any more than I have to. New mobo, CPU and RAM are a given, but everything else I already had really.

    The sleeving's from specialtech, and from my EXTREMELY limited experience with sleeving, I don't think this stuff's too bad, it does the job of sorting the cables.
     
  13. Reiep

    Reiep What's a Dremel?

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    It's the first Q08 mod I see, I like ITX mods :thumb: And I'm interested in this case, now I see better what can be done, it gives mes some :idea:

    Keep up the good work.
     
  14. skullen

    skullen Minimodder

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    Looking good mars-bar-man :thumb:
     
  15. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    Yeah, I was searching the web for a few hours before I bought the case to see what other people had done. I barely found anything, maybe a few review builds, but that's it. So I'm kinda walking in blindly in regards as to where I can fit stuff, just needs some creativity!

    Ta, hopefully get my motherboard by the end of the week, so update then!
     
  16. DarkFear

    DarkFear What's a Dremel?

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    Very nice build!

    You know, if you move the rad a teensy bit, you should be able to fit a 120.2 rad internally :dremel: :rock:

    I've been planning a ITX build for a while now, but the plans/designs seem to be changing on a weekly basis now :grr:
     
  17. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    There's no chance of a 120.2 fitting, there's about an inch of spacebetween the rad and the DVD drive.. It's going to be tight!
     
  18. Reiep

    Reiep What's a Dremel?

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    Get rid of the DVD player :D

    Maybe a slim one can fit under the rad ?
     
  19. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    What do you need a DVD drive for anyway?
     
  20. mars-bar-man

    mars-bar-man Side bewb.

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    I use a DVD quite often. I'll have a think about the rad, as soon as i get upstairs and to my PC, i have a mini update, planned the w/cloop, and it looks good!
     

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