Case Mod - In Progress MAX11L [Complete - 9 Oct 2010]

OK, I'm not an expert modder like my teammate TiTON, but I thought I'd try my hand at a pretty easy project to dive into this world of modding. So this will be the first project log that I'm taking pretty seriously: MAX11L

"MAX11L" stands for maximum performance in less than 11 liters of space. I started off with a basic air cooled project which you may have seen posted at overclockers.com.
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/08...aturing-gigabyte-silverstone-and-prolimatech/

Here is the full performance review of MAX11L
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09...art-2–-max11l-featuring-corsair-and-gigabyte/





At heart I'm an overclocker, not a modder. So performance takes #1 priority with all my systems, and this one will be no exception. I still have not decided whether or not I'm going to use Lynnfield or Clardale. But one of the first changes needed was better cooling, so I'm switching to water cooling thanks to Corsair and the new H70. Here is the rest of the parts list.

Getting ready for the next upgrade. Playing around with some modling to verify my measurements. Looks like everything is going to fit perfect

case - Silverstone SUGO SG05 (interior will be painted)
PSU - Silverstone 450W SFX (all cables will be custom sized and sleeved)
mobo - Gigabyte H55N-USB3 (Thank you Gigabyte Japan!)
CPU - Intel i5 750 @ 4.2GHz or i5 670 @ 4.8GHz (I'll test for performance)
CPU cooling - Corsair H70 with one 120x38mm 150CFM Delta (Thank you Corsair!)
memory - 2x2GB Corsair Dominator GTX3 (Thank you Corsair!)
graphics card - Gigabyte 5870 SOC (Thank you Gigabyte Japan!)
OS storage - 80GB Intel X25M SSD (for Windows 7 Home Premium x64)
games/media storage - 500GB Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive (for games & media)

Here is a 3D model I used to check for measurements (using Rhino 3D v1.0)













Almost all the parts have arrived, and I've done the cutting mods on the case today for a test fitting.......EVERYTHING FIT

teaser


As you can see I've had to rearrange things slightly compared with my renderings, but it looks like everything will work out OK like this.

I'll be updating shortly with my progress on the modding. But for the full performance review, you'll have to wait for the final article which will be posted at techreaction.net in a few weeks.

Any comments/criticizms are welcome and appreciated

 

More pics! I love these kinds of builds.

 

Gotta love these SFF builds Looking at the plans I was already going to say bending the H70 hoses like that is NOT going to happen, but it seems you already got it installed.

 

Cooooooooooooooool im suprised it all fits so well in such a small space :O

 

Sweet SFF mod mate.

 

Cheers for all the comments so far guys

If you haven't already seen the article I wrote about gaming in a small chassis, it'll give you a good idea of where I'm coming from...

OK, so build log #1....

So, first off knew based on my renderings that I would be loosing the stock optical/SSD/HDD mounting options due to the H70 location. The optical drive was not a problem for this build because I'm not using one....but that left the SSD and the 3.5" HDD I was using that needed a new home. I quickly realized that retaining the 3.5" drive in a build this small wouldn't be worth the effort, and I hadn't been happy with the performance of it anyhow. So I ordered one of the new 500GB Seagate Momentus XT drive to replace it. So with only 2 2.5" drives to mount, the task became much simpler. After surveying the build in 3D, I figured out that the PSU is the perfect dimensions for this Akasa SSD mounting kit


First I cut a piece of spare aluminum....


....and lined it up with the chassis cross-brace.


Then I rivited the two together.




You can see here how the Akasa mount will attach.


And here is the kit mounted (thumb-screws on the inside since it'll be difficult to access with a screwdriver after built.




The opposite side mounts directly to the chassis.




Seems like it was made to be like that


It also seems that if I wanted to expand there's plenty of height there for a second mounted under the first.


Looking at the front of the chassis....I knew the other mahor mod for this build would be getting the 5870 to fit. The interior length of the case is about 5mm shy...so......


I had to make room. So, the video card stick through the front of the chassis.










Prepping the mobo for the H70.


Motherboard and H70 mounted....I'm currently testing with my i5 670. I'll swap for the i5 750 later to compare performance.




Memory installed

 

Add the storage back into the mix.


The SSD/HDD mount was slightly interfering with the H70 hoses....but a little tweaking was all that was necessary.








OK, add in the PSU and graphics card and we're about finished......




Hummm....I don't like the way that looks with the SATA data cable lengths....anyone know where I can get REALLY short ones? These are only 20cm....but still WAY TOO long.










Tight fit for the H70 VS graphics card...it was making contact a littl....I'll have to do some simple insulation (tape or something).






It's hard to see from this angle, but the front panel is bulging


You can see it better from this bottom angle.


Three causes....#1 above, fixed with Dremel.


#2 & 3.........


.....fixed with Dremel


No more bulging



OK, so that's it for now. Waiting on a few things....this first peicing together was to get the mods in place and make sure everything fit. Now I'm testing the see what this 670 can do with the H70. Within the next two weeks or so I'll be painting (first time for me via spray paint...any good guide out there?), and sleeving my cables (first time as well).

I'm pretty excited and want this to be nice....I don't have the tools or experiance to make this thing look like a MDPC, but I am going for a little bling (also a first for me), so any suggestions are eagerly requested

 

With the case rebult does the GPU still stick out from the case?

Awesome idea though dude, small but powerful!!

Great mod!

 

The graphics card stick out through the front of the chassis, but the plastic bezel (front panel) covers it up.....does that answer your question

 

This is tight and very minimalistic. Awesome work

 

This should help you with the S-ATA cables http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/baby-sata/index_eng

 

Thats exactly what i meant, thanks, great work keep it up, I may be doing something similar soon!! How does it perform on a board like that though??

 

awesome really really like it

wolfie

 

have you considered cutting out a grill on the side so that the gfx card can suck in cold air from the case exterior?

 

This looks pretty awesome man! I like it!!

 

Shove in as much as possible into a tiny case?
AWESOME!

Looks great, would be awesome to take to LANS

 

Looks awesome, I'm designing a similar mini-ITX case to build, too - when I get money to upgrade my PC anyways.

 

Thanks!

Perfect....Thanks!

Check out the article I wrote about the 1st revision....that'll give you an idea of the performance....it'll only be getting better from there.

Thanks!

The side of the case is already vented

Thanks!

Hell yeah! THat's what it's for

Thanks! Keep us posted on your progress

 

OK, I've got a few updated today.

I've decided to do one more part change. The 5870 still wasn't quite powerful enough for my tastes, so I swapped that for something a little more potent. I also sleeved most of my PSU wires and added heatsinks to the mobo VRMs.

The stock PSU


Opened up


Step one was to create a secondary hole to pass the SATA power connectors through.


Since both HDD & SSD are located directly below the PSU, this line was cut intentionally very short.


Turned out pretty good.


All the extra wires which will not be used in this build were cut short and tucked in safely.


All remaining wires sleeved.


Although not all individually.


As you can see on the 24pin connection, only 1/2 of them are sleeved individually, I'll do the rest when I get more sleeve in


Cleaned up the inside quite a bit though. Also, notice the SSD/HDD have been rotated 180 degrees


I swapped the location of the rad & fan to attempt to improve cooling with a push setup











Here is the new addition








I also added an aluminum fan filter to assist with dust filteration





Doing a little testing right now, and as expected I cannot stress test the CPU and GPU at the same time and stay within a safe power envelope. But I can run the GPU full boar with FurMark and it's only drawing about 505W at the wall, which is easily in the safe range. I also played Crysis Warhead for a few minutes and never saw it draw more than about 380W at the wall....so I should be perfectly fine with this setup

 

How did I miss this? Gotta spread the SFF love. Looking good so far man!