I've gone and got myself an Asus M4A88T-I Deluxe http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=52078 What decent quiet cooler will go on there measuring no higher the 8cm? I've tried a Zalman CNPS8700 Led and it's faaaaaaar too big. Any suggestions welcome. Using an AM3 560 chip btw.
The Big Shuriken definitely fits, and you can replace the included fan with a 25m thick fan, and the whole thing will only stand around 70m tall. But I'm not sure about the original Shuriken. I know that on the MINIX 785G ITX board which has a similar layout to the Asus one, the Shuriken heatpipes stick out a bit too far and block one of the SO-DIMM slots, so you can only install one stick.
I'm picking one up when I finish today, we don't have the 'Big' version in stock. With any luck the standard one will go on. I'll report back when I've tinkered!! The full spec will be - Lian-Li Q07R Asus M4A88T-I Deluxe AMD AM3 560 X2 3.3GHz chip 380w Seasonic PSU S12II (next month, using my 350w Enermax in the meantime to get it up and running) 2gb Kingston 1066 DDR3 SODIMM (another 2gb next month) Microsoft Arc Mouse And matching keyboard next month.. I'll use the onboard graphics for now but will probably get a half decent VGA card after Christmas. What is the best HTPC drive to go for around 320 / 500gb?
**UPDATE** Right it's build and up and running. Little bit warm though :S When you first switch on machine, the cpu's temp is 30-35 degrees which is not bad. However, after a little bit of time, say 15-20 mins it goes to 60-65 degrees and the case feels fairly hot. I'm not massively concerned as my Xbox feels about the same in the same unit under the TV and that works after 5-6 hours of gaming with no issues *touch wood*. I'm thinking most of the heat is from the 6 year old Enermax psu's inability to get rid of the hot air - it's getting old, clogged and tired now bless it. Plus it has about 6 miles of cabling which is just in the way of any airflow... When I ge the 380w Seasonic psu later this month, its better cabling and cooling should sort the heat issue a bit with any luck. For storage I'm thinking of the Seagate Momentus XT 320gb or 500gb - read really good reviews. Anyone on here used one? Then finally, the VGA card I'm thinking of a 1gb 5670 card, should fit as it's pretty small and low powered and capablish of some low-mid range gaming. Anyone got a model of this card that they're particularly happy with?
Open up the PSU and blow out the dust? SFF cases tend to rely on the PSU as exhaust so that may help temps. Can't help you with the graphics chip or HDD though, does it have to be 2.5"? Share pics! I'd love to see how the cooler fits in a Q07.
The cooler fits fine, it was the psu with its octopus of cables that I battled with to squeeze it in - was tricky getting the side screwed back on haha! I'm not going to attempt to open it back up until I fit the new psu at the end of the month though!! I'll gladly take pics at that point though mate The 2.5 inch hdd was for space more than anything - any spare breathing room will help with that case as it's so tight (esp when I add in the VGA card).
Good decision to use a 2.5" HDD if you are also thinking of adding a vga card in the Q07, because some vga cards with a cooler larger than a single slot will actually touch the 3.5" HDD.
I was thinking that, Simonw. The card I'm thinking of has a fairly modest cooler but the more room I have to play with - the better. Even if we're talking in mm rather than cm The fairly entry level card I'm thinking of using is this Asus 5670 1gb card. http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=43233 The cooler on it doesn't look *too* beefy and it is capable of throwing a bit of 3d around. Hopefully it won't cook(!!) everything above it in the case although it'll probably raise the ambient temp by quite a bit. I stumbled upon the Bit-tech review of that card and it sounded really harsh to me. The FPS it can actually throw out on some half-decent games at 720p looked fairly respectable I thought (considering its price and that fact I'm going to be using it in a less than dedicated gaming pc). Should do the trick I think..
Ive got a very similar setup. However, im running a q8300 with the same cooler and similar specs PSU. what i realized that the northbridge on my mobo was adding to the heat generated and that the lack of airflow meant that the cpu struggled to decent temps. What i did was to make the cpu fan suck air thru the hsf instead of blowing against it as the psu fan was blowing all the heated air out but at the time the cpu fan was trying to blow it back to the cpu. so try and swap the fan direction as it may help Tho the temps of my chip are always in the 60's due to the nature of the case but ive had no issues!
Here is the finished set up. What do you reckon? The Seasonic 380w fits nicely, far better and slimmer cabling than the Enermax I temporarily used in there. Scythe cooler runs pretty cool, around 45-50 degrees at idle after 15 mins sat on the desktop. The 2.5" drives fits under the VGA really neatly. The previous 3.5" drive was literally too big to fit underneath. Tidied up the cables a bit with a cable tie. Here's the limited HDD space. Seasonic 380w sat externally whilst I was installing the HDD. The 2x 2GB sticks of Kingston sodimm fit, very snuggly! I used the Seagate app to clone the old drive to the new 500gb Momentus XT, it's miles faster and quieter.
Not too shabby, though think I'd have gone modular (definitely after checking those pics!), or the Silverstone STF 450W, since it's only a wee thingy. Any reason for choosing the Q07 over the Q08?
I chose the Seasonic 380w for noise levels and I knew the cables were on the shorter side, it was fairly cheap too being an older model. Q07 because I paid about £36 - bargain really, even though it skimps on some design features...
