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Case Mod - In Progress Aplus Blockbuster Storm w/ H70 & intake fans

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by adjas, 20 Oct 2010.

  1. adjas

    adjas What's a Dremel?

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    Sssh!
    Small Silent Strong Hardware​

    Specs:
    Case Aplus Blockbuster Storm
    Processor i5 – 750
    CPU cooler Corsair H70 with 2 x 120mm Noctua 120mm NF-P12 fans (push & pull)
    Memory 8 GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3
    Hard Drive 1TB WD Black Caviar
    Case Fans 2 x 80mm Noctua NF-R8 fans
    1 x 220mm Yate Loon D22BL-12H case fan
    PSU Cooler Master Silent Pro M500
    Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
    GPU Sapphire Radeon 5850

    Planning Stage:

    I had a thermaltake lanbox lite, and although it was a great solid case, it had way too many fans. The case had 11 case fans, and it was still cooking inside, with cpu load temps of 66, GPU load temps of 60, and hard drive at 40. Plus the thing was noisy, not from the specific fans but the air turbulence of 11 fans ploughing air into each other.
    So the plan was to transplant my current hardware with some additions from the lanbox lite to a new home that would be much quieter, and crucially fit the shelf under my desk which had a height of 30cm and width of 29cm, depth was not a problem. Here’s a picture of my desk. I already have Sssh! assembled sitting there as a tease. (Actually too lazy to take a picture without it there.)
    [​IMG]
    Researching the net, I went through tons of cases until I managed to find the one that looked perfect.
    [​IMG]
    And here we have the Aplus Blockbuster Storm, if it looks familiar it’s a clone of the microfly ultra but with a truly blockbuster 22cm fan on the top.
    Now the planning of the build, since I was going for silent yet strong, I figured why not go all Noctua fans and an H70 to cool the cpu.
    [​IMG]
    So an H70 in the rear 12cm fan with 2 Noctua fans in a push and pull, with an 8cm in the front.
    After a bit of thought, I decided I needed another 8cm fan in the front to really get the case breathing, and finally came up with a solution.
    [​IMG]
    Fit an Evercool Armor HDD Cooling Box into the two 5.25” bays, since all my games come from steam, and if I ever needed an optical device I could use an external one.
    Looking at the front of the case, it is virtually impossible for the 8cm front bottom fan to breathe, it only breathed in fresh air from tiny vents hidden under the handle, that wouldn’t do for Sssh!, so the idea is to permanently remove the handle and cutting the plastic and adding a mesh grille to allow that 8cm fan to bring in fresh cool air.

    Building Stage:

    Having decided what I was going to put in the case, now came the part of actually installing it in the case.
    Removing the front fascia revealed that it’s composed of 2 panels, separating them allowed the handle to be removed very easily without any cutting. Now came the cutting part.
    [​IMG]
    So after measuring and scoring with a safety blade, out came the handy handsaw and away we go.
    [​IMG]
    Voila, that 8cm fan can breathe much easier now.
    [​IMG]
    Heavy duty mesh, “borrowed” from the office supplies, hehe. And here’s a pic after installing the mesh.
    [​IMG]
    And the last one with the outside of the case, you can see that adding the bezel to the front fascia makes it cleaner with the added logo “A+”
    [​IMG]
    Now to add the Noctua 8cm fans.
    [​IMG]
    And from the front the Evercool armor looks great.
    [​IMG]
    The case is starting to come together, and I’m loving the look. Next up is installing the H70.
    [​IMG]
    The first cuts are made to the case itself in order for the h70 coolant pipes to enter the case.
    [​IMG]
    And then the next the next cuts are made to the motherboard tray in order for the same pipes to clear.
    [​IMG]
    All the cuts were made using my trusty handsaw and tin snips when I got lazy (do not use tin snips if you want a clean look, I got lazy as time wore on, still happy with the results although could have been cleaner)
    [​IMG]
    Now with the motherboard tray and case ready to accept the H70, a new problem arises, how to slide in the top of the case with H70 installed.
    [​IMG]
    After much thought the solution is to cut the guides in the side panels so that the top panel is placed right on top without having to slide as shown here.
    [​IMG]
    With that done, the top panel is placed on top of the case and Shhh! Is born.
    [​IMG]
    GPU side of the case.
    [​IMG]
    Front with the 2 Noctua 8cm fans and the massive 22cm top fan blowing cold air quietly into the case cooling everything.
    [​IMG]
    CPU side with the H70 pipes visible and the 12cm Noctua fan on the radiator, surprisingly spacious in there. With plenty of space above the CPU, clear airflow from the front intakes fans to the exhaust fans.
    [​IMG]
    On my desk
    [​IMG]
    Here’s Sssh! On my desk with an overclocked 5850 and CPU running silently with a slightly sinister purr from the Noctua fans rather than the loud roar of my late lanbox lite.
     
  2. adjas

    adjas What's a Dremel?

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    A bit of fine tuning

    In the last couple of pics on the radiator side of the case you could notice a bit of a gap between the top panel and the side panel, because of the H70 being in the way of the top panel closing completely.

    Well I managed to sort that out, loosened the top of the radiotor screws to allow a bit of a gap for the top panel to slide into and fit snugly, and allow the rear of the top panel to be screwed in. You can judge how it looks in the pics below.

    [​IMG]

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    And these are pics of it humming along in my little PC shelf, fits just right.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  3. adjas

    adjas What's a Dremel?

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    Crossfire time!!

    After gaming for a while, and the new crop of games being released, I felt the build needed a bit more horsepower, plus it gave me an excuse to start modding again. So after a bit of a search I managed to secure another 5850 this time from MSI at a great price, plus it looks great. Crossfire time!!

    After getting the second GPU, I also had to get another motherboard since the last one didn’t have enough slots for 2 dual slot GPU’s in crossfire. With that in mind, a bit of research and found a Maximus III Gene at a great price too. What a great motherboard, a joy to overclock with this one, makes it soo easy.

    Plus with the second GPU I had to upgrade the PSU, went with a Coolermaster GX 750 (before reading the JonnyGuru review, oh well) the biggest reason for going with this PSU is that it’s the smallest 750w PSU out there with 4 PCI-E. It’s cheap too.

    [​IMG]

    Here we have the transplant in action.

    [​IMG]

    The new GPU in all its glory, it’s a stunner.

    [​IMG]

    Crossfire time, in an M-ATX!! Those cards are tightly packed together.

    [​IMG]

    There is hardly any space between the cards, this going to be interesting. I might be building a microwave.

    [​IMG]

    Here’s the case closed and ready to power it on.

    [​IMG]

    Oh yeah, forgot to mention, since I was going with a bit of revision to the build, I thought might as well add an SSD, especially after the latest price drops. 128 GB should be more than enough, plus I’ve got my 1 TB black caviar right behind the SSD. Well designed chassis that allows 2 HDD’s behind each other.

    [​IMG]

    And the power is on, and it sure looks the part. But what you’re not seeing is the temps flying off the chart. The case couldn’t handle 2 GPU’s running at full bore. The case ambient temps got to over 40 C and the GPU’s were suffocating, they got to around 90 C while testing a demanding game. I have built a microwave!!!!
    So after a bit of thought, the solution was to remove the side window on the GPU side and add some mesh and a fan to help those GPU’s breathe better.

    [​IMG]

    I added the corsair fan that came with the H70’s cause I really needed the power to push some serious air into the 1st and 2nd GPU.
    I added some double sided automotive hood liner tape as a gasket so that that my ghetto mesh wouldn’t touch the case and create vibrations and rattles. Liberal use of zip-ties is what I’m all about.

    [​IMG]

    And here’s my case after the “GPU breathe” mod.

    [​IMG]

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    With the power on and a bit of testing, it’s running much cooler, look at those ambient temps, 25.8 C, they only get to around 30 C when gaming. The GPU’s now run 28 C and 38 C on idle (the 38 C being the more restricted GPU) and only rise to mid 50 C to low 60 C when gaming.

    [​IMG]

    Uncovered high-rpm 120mm fans can be dangerous, sliced my thumb nicely with a bit of blood dripping on the floor. (forgot to take a pic of my thumb, too busy running to clean it up and get a band aid.)

    [​IMG]

    After covering up the side fan with a mesh grille, it’s much safer, and looks better too.

    [​IMG]

    With that done, I’m done with this round of modding the case, and can go back to playing my favourite games this time, this time with Crossfire and SSD turbo boost, the games are just ridiculous now, I turn up everything to the highest level without a hiccup.

    On the flipside the case has become noticeably louder because of the extra GPU and the 120mm side fan. I can easily live with the bit of extra noise, for the ridiculous performance increase. Plus it looks much better too.

    If you ever go crossfire, be sure to download “Radeonpro” it’s the single best program for Crossfire, allows you to switch between different Catalyst Crossfire drivers for your different games. You always have the driver that runs on any different game. Love it.
     
  4. nix253

    nix253 What's a Dremel?

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    hey there brother that's a great build... i mean u sure know how to make a computer really personal..:)......anyways i'm nikhil n i also sent u a friend request(from nix253) in order to contact you n ask u about the same PSU that i also have... but i guess i'll have to talk to u here only....

    the thing is that even i got the cooler master gx-750w before reading jonnyguru's n hardware secrets' reviews on this product... now the conclusions from both of 'em are indicating that the gx 750w works best only in a proper thermal environment n still more if only upto 600w are consumed....... but MY, MY u're using 2 5850's in crossfire that must be a drawing a lot of power from the psu... so i wanted to know HOW your build is running on this psu n have u had any problem with it so far?.... the thing is initially i was planning to crossfire 2 new 6870's myself but after the FACEPALMS from jonyguru which meant it works great n efficient upto 600w i changed my upgrade to 2 6850's crossfire which draws less comparitively..... so still i'm a bit worried whether i'm gonna be ok for atleast a considerable span of time like 1-1 n 1/2 years or should i just use 1 6850 in my system right now?.....
    mu build (excluding GPUs)- intel core i7-860 @ 2.8 ghz stock clock, asus p7p55d deluxe mobo, 2 sticks of 2gb kingston RAMS @ 1333 mhz, 1 seagate barracuda 7200rpm ide HDD, 1 lg dvd drive & cooler master elite 430 cabinet in which i've installed 3 120mm fans for intake(front, side n top towards front) n 2 120mm fans for exhaust (Cooler master's blade master 120mm at rear and 1 regular at top towards back)..... will this setup keep a good thermal environment in my cabinet?
     
  5. adjas

    adjas What's a Dremel?

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    Here you go..

    Hi there nix253,

    Thanks for the complements on the build, glad it's useful. On the build, its running smoothly without any hiccups (well I did have to hard reset once, but that was trying to push the CPU past 4 Ghz, nothing to do with the PSU)

    On the PSU, take some of the reviews with a grain of salt. It's not a really great 750w PSU by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it a totally horrible PSU either, BUT most importantly it can handle my system and your system with ease, I'll explain.

    First off, here's the PSU at different load levels, at a crazy high ambient temperature too.

    http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-GX-750-W-Power-Supply-Review/917/7

    In test 3, we see that the PSU is performing well, with all ripple & noise within ATX spec.

    So with crazy high ambient temps, and drawing 450w, the PSU is still within spec. Possibly all the way close to 500 or 550w too.

    Now lets figure out our systems power draw.

    My builds absolute peak power consumption would be under Furmark (which is never even close to real life gaming consumption, Furmark is much higher and people are not using it any more)

    [​IMG]

    from: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5850,2433-13.html

    and this is with an overclocked 125w CPU (ours are 95w), well mine's overclocked too, but I digress...

    Here's an even rosier picture.

    [​IMG]

    from: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2967/gigabyte_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_in_crossfire/index14.html

    so what I'm saying is my system would never get close to the levels where the ripple and noise would ever get out of spec (above 450w, possible even 500-550w), and nor would your system, so rest easy.

    Oh look here...

    [​IMG]

    From: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2967/gigabyte_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_in_crossfire/index14.html

    Yup, your system won't draw that much power either.
    So even go 6870's in crossfire if you can, just don't touch the first generation nvidia fermi GPU's they are power hogs, would lead to trouble.

    So if already have that PSU go ahead and use it and rest easy knowing that everything is within spec.
     
  6. nix253

    nix253 What's a Dremel?

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    just read ur reply ...thanks for the insight man.... that really calmed me down .... thank you very much.... happy new year n happy gaming too.........
     

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