HotBox

[Jonsta]

Hi all!

This is my first post on TBCS. Sorry if I missed any introduction threads but I decided to post a worklog of my latest PC build straight up.

I decided I needed a small, portable PC for my room and I needed it to perform three roles. I needed a home theatre box for when I eventually get myself an LCD television, I needed a small form factor pc (my main gaming rig sits outside in the garage, next to a tin door. When gaming on a day off, it can definitely get to over 40-45 degrees in there), and I needed a portable gaming rig for going to LAN parties and having some fun in real time.

I thought I could fill all three of those roles, so I present the idea of the 'HotBox'. It's probably been done before, but I thought of the idea, so I ran with it.

I call it the HotBox because I forsaw powerful gaming parts inside a small case, and naturally that means heat. I also wanted to recycle a few parts from my older gaming rig.

I've already customised the case, but unfortunately I lost all my photos due to Apple's train wreck of a software, iTunes. I'm not a very good painter, and I'm a first time modder, so I can't guarantee that this is going to be a super awesome worklog :P

I still have yet to build the case but I also need to repaint the interior panels, so I'll have a few photos to share.

Right now though, I'll show you what I'm using.

Note: These photos will originally be replaced with some of my own photos of the parts.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9671/silver5.jpg

I needed a small case and I wanted something with a relatively good power supply. Not knowing that Lian-Li created an awesome aluminium Mini-ITX case that could hold a normal ATX power supply, I chose the Silverstone Sugo SG05 case. Still a great case. I'm going to be painting the case red, for a start.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7774/8800gt.png

This is one of the leftovers of my old gaming rig. I admit it's not the most powerful card you can put in these things, but having two 8800GTs left over from my old gamer, I just had to use one. This is a Galaxy 8800GT 512MB GDDR3, and its one of the first batch to come into the country. Most of these batch failed but I lucked out with my two.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6881/992056a.jpg

Silverstone actually sells this Blu-Ray player, which makes sense because they assumed that by having the Sugo require a slimline drive, they'd also opt in for the drive that just so happens to fit. They were right :)

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1032/minix780gsp128mb.jpg

This is the mainboard I'm using. A J&W MINIX 780G that I thought was perfect for my little brute. It's a shame that there is only a PCI-E x4 instead of a full 16 lane slot. Lucky it's a 2.0.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/941/amdphenomiiblackedition.jpg

The motherboard has an AM2+ socket on it that will also support AM3 processors. The motherboard manufacturers recommend using a processor with a 65W maximum TDP on the board. Being the HotBox, I chose a 95W AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black edition for a little bit more power.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5116/corsairgm.jpg

Two sticks of 2GB Corsair 800MHz So-Dimm Gaming memory ensures that I have enough RAM to run notepad, internet explorer, MSpaint and iTunes at the SAME TIME. Also Crysis.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5161/zmf320led02b0.jpg

The Silverstone comes with a really good 120mm front fan on it, but this is a mod, so it has to go. In it's place is a stylish Zalman 120mm red LED fan for ultimate bling bling.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4750/hd501lj.jpg

Storage comes in the form of a Samsung HD501LJ 500GB hard drive. The story here is that I had two left over etc.... same as the 8800GT.

Tomorrow morning (it's 11PM here) I'll be posting the testing pics of the hardware and hopefully some painting.

Jonsta :D

EDIT: Could a mod please move this thread? I accidentally posted it here instead of in Works in Progress.

[x88x]

Sounds fun. One thing though; have you purchased the MBB yet? There are several mini-itx MBBs available that use full-size DIMMs and a full bandwidth PCIe x16 slot.

EDIT:
:facepalm:
Also, welcome to TBCS! :D

[blueonblack]

I'll also add a welcome, and commend you on your choice of case and processor. As you mentioned (and named the project for), this is a lot of heat going into this little box. It will be interesting to see how you handle it. Are you planning to air cool or water cool? (I would think water would have to use an external radiator and reservoir with that tiny case, but it could be done.)

[Jonsta]

x8: Unfortunately I'd already bought the motherboard. However I've tested Fallout 3, Farcry 2, and Need for Speed: Shift on full details, and all run perfectly. :glasses:

bob: I'm going to go for an advanced air cooler, but I'll need to find a specially sized one for this case, as the standard air cooler is really loud!

Sorry for the blurryness of the photos, it's an iPhone. :dead:

Picture Update:

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7225/img0015y.jpg

Here's the motherboard in all it's glory. I've added the two RAM sticks and installed the CPU here. I liked this motherboard because they crammed so much **** onto a Mini-ITX board, yet managed to keep the layout relatively clean. :up:

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1126/img0011uk.jpg

The case itself came with a slim-DVD to IDE adapter, and I was tempted to use it, until I saw that the drive itself came with a lighted slim-DVD to SATA adapter, seen here installed on the rear of the drive. :up:

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5065/img0012rc.jpg

Today I recieved this and a few other hard drives back from Samsung as replacements for some faulty ones I sent out. It isn't the best drive on the planet, but it has 500GB of storage, and it was pretty much free. :up:

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3078/img0014yf.jpg

This is the FSP 300W power supply that came with the Sugo case. I've heard stories of these powering GTS 250s when it came to crunch time, but they were also using energy efficient 65W processors. I can only hope that it can handle my 8800GT, PLUS that awesome Phenom.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9468/img0013ds.jpg

Speaking of my 8800GT, here's the dusty bastard. I got that sticker with the motherboard and didn't want to waste it. The 8800GT supports 1080p, right? :whistler:

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/4702/img0008t.jpg

My word, that is a lot of cables to manage. I'll have to chop some off so that I can maximise airflow inside the case. I threw a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium x64 edition on the setup and everything went fine. No exciting screwups here! :)

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2477/img0010gr.jpg

This was one of the first things I painted. As I said before, I dont have too many shots of the case modding process itself, but I'll do what I can.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6717/img0009ph.jpg

My spray painting setup. I know it looks a little silly, but if I use the back of my truck as the spray bench, worst case scenario is that I overspray and *gasp* make the inside of my tray look nicer. Here you can see the hard drive cage and the cage for the slimline DVD burner. I decided on a matt black color for the interior, as it looks better than the bare steel, and will go nicely with the shell's red exterior.

That's all the pics I have for now, but stay tuned, I'll have more.

Jonsta :D

[x88x]

Looks good. One thing I would caution you on when painting the case parts is to watch any contact areas. I forgot about that when I was painting my case and ended up with a lot of spots where the paint chipped off when I finally assembled it.

For the CPU cooler, I got this guy (http://www.xoxide.com/zalman-cnps8000-cooler.html) a while back for my s939 setup because it was specially designed for SFF cases; looks like it won't work for AM2/3, but this (http://www.zalman.com/eng/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=168) looks similar in size/purpose.

[Locum51]

Looks good! Can't wait to see more!

[Luke122]

Hmm.. is that 8800 going to fit in that small case? It looks like it's a good deal longer than the mobo!

Awesome so far! Lets see some sketches/mockups of the case!

[Jonsta]

I see we have a Zalman fan! (no pun intended) I'm a Zalman guy too. Which one of those fans would be quieter? I noticed that the Phenom fan is about as loud as Aretha Franklin at a screaming contest.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/7012/img0016b.jpg

Here you can see the I/O shield plate mounted in the back of the black painted case. I reckon that "Australian Export" matt black came up pretty good! :)

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/294/img0017pm.jpg

Also mase sure the ventilated PCI expansion slot cover was the same colour as the rest of the case. :D

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/2370/img0018nx.jpg

Even inside the SFF case, the motherboard still looks tiny. It was really easy to mount, however. I thought I was going to have big problems working inside this case with my sausage-like fingers, but it seems that Silverstone designed a good one, here. I also noticed I had a bunch more room than I expected for a CPU cooler as well. Maybe water cooling is an option.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9366/img0019pa.jpg

But for now, I'll stick with plain jane air-cooling. Here you can see the Zalman red LED fan fitted in the front, with the original fan grill that came with the case. It's on the back if you missed it :)

That's all the pictures I have for now, but I'll probably be posting more assembly pictures tonight. Till next time!

Jonsta :D

[x88x]

IDK about the 8700, but my 8000 was never loud enough for me to hear over the system fans (two ~20dBm 120mm).

Watercooling would definitely be interesting to see in that small a case (especially since it wasn't designed by the morons who designed the case I based my mod in). The biggest problem I see would be fitting the rads in. Extrapolating from my system, I would say that for those components, to get decent cooling you'll want at least 2x120mm rad area, which might be a problem in there....though it looks like you could fit a 140mm and a 2x80mm, which would actually give you more cooling...though I think the 80mm rads tend to be thicker (at least thats what the product pics look like)...anyways, it'll definitely be interesting if you decide to go that route :D

EDIT:
I forgot to ask before; how fast was the turn-around with Samsung? One of the drives in my fileserver died, and I'm gonna have to be sending it in soon...

[Jonsta]

my 8000 was never loud enough for me to hear over the system fans

it'll definitely be interesting if you decide to go that route :D

how fast was the turn-around with Samsung?

The 8800GT is retardedly loud for the first ~4 seconds of startup due to them not being recognised by the video drivers for 4 seconds before the first POST screen. It fits in the case great, with about 2mm of clearance from the fan, and just long enough to get the PCI-E 6-Pin in the back.

Water cooling seems like a good option until I realised that I'd have to mount the rad externally, and never having done that before, I'd like to get some normal watercooling experience in before i go that far.

And the Samsung drives? I used to do returns for a computer store so from sending the drive to recieving it: two days.

Unfortunately I dont have any pictures on hand but tomorrow will be the final assembly of the mod and then I can start searching for parts to drool over that I wanna add but I can't afford :(

Jonsta :D

[x88x]

It looks like you have plenty of space in there to mount rads internally (well, at least a 120mm and an 80mm (revised from my last statement))...ok, maybe not 'plenty', but enough :P It would be fairly expensive though...that's always the problem with watercooling... :(

BTW, in my previous post, I was referencing the CNPS8000, not a video card; good to know it fits though. Is the fan it almost hits the front fan?

[Jonsta]

I'd have to ditch the front fan if I wanted to mount any sort of rad in there. I think one of those purpose built all in one systems with the single 120mm rad and fan would be excellent for this case. (example: Corsair H50)

Time for more piccies!

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2883/img0020j.jpg

The slim optical drive mounts in a sort of cage that sits up the top of the case at the front. I felt that this cage could have been a little smaller to allow for more cable management, but it does seem like it was the easiest way to fit the drive to the case.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4101/img0021u.jpg

The hard drive has it's own little cage that mounts under the slim optical drive's cage. The only downside to this is that the optical drive's cage needs to be installed before you can securely fix the hard drive cage to the case (it actually clips onto the bottom of the optical cage).

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7342/img0022mg.jpg

I took out the black 120mm grille from the front, then after sanding and spraying on some plastic adhesion primer, I gave it a lick of Engine Enamel. I used this paint because that guy from MNPCTech used it, and achieved a really nice finish. Unfortunately, I didn't get the same result, but I'm still pretty happy with it, and I think it looks a lot better than the original black plastic.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8144/img0024scr.jpg

I mounted the little optical drive cage, but look what happened! The front of the optical drive doesn't line up with the front panel of the box. I was about to take the optical drive cage out again to see if I can line it up better, until I saw...

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6042/img0023sv.jpg

...that Silverstone actually drilled holes in the frame so that I could adjust the position of the optical drive while the cage was installed in the case. What a neat feature!

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8715/img0025ex.jpg

Fix'd.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/3190/img0026zi.jpg

Cable management is a ****ing joke inside this case, regardless of the cool features it has. This may not look very messy, but imagine how I'm going to fare with two SATA cables and a power supply full of relatively long cords. I'm definitely going to have to get my Sta-Kons and make a few 'modifications' myself.

That's all for now, but there's still more to come! Meanwhile, is there any other ideas that you guys have that could improve the mod any further? I'm still looking at the water cooling route, but I want to add something quirky. I'm definitely going to fit a chunky handle on top, so I can take it places easier.

Jonsta :D

[x88x]

Can we get a shot of the case with the GPU in there? I'm wondering about something for WC...

Also, for the SATA, get some shorter cables; I think 6" or 8" cables would work nicely for the distance you need to go..just..don't get 4"...they're a lot shorter than you think they are.. :dead:

[Jonsta]

I have a few more photos for you guys, I didn't get a very detailed picture of the GPU inside the case, but I want to do a few more things to this PC yet, so stay tuned.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3789/img0027ea.jpg

After mounting the power supply, I noticed that the grey PSU and the black/red theme go together like pizza and ice cream (read: CRAAAAAP) but I don't want to void the warranty by painting it. I'll find a way to make the power supply look a little better later on.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1310/img0028d.jpg

The 24-Pin plug was a bastard to manage but here I think I reached a good compromise. It keeps it out of the way, and you wont be the wiser when the cover is on anyway XD

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5458/img0029pd.jpg

Here's the inital test run without the cover on, and I must say that this little guy has quite a mouth on him. The 8800GT is really loud for the first couple of seconds, but quiets down shortly after POST. The main problem is defintely the CPU heatsink fan. I'll need to get myself a good Zalman fan sometime soon, now that I have a bit of money to spend.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6439/img0031rm.jpg

And here is what it looks like currently while sitting in my room. I bought the handle from Bunnings Warehouse, and it supports the weight of the pc just fine. I'm actually using it as a gaming machine to play Fallout 3 and NFS Shift. I still want to do a few more things to it, though. I'm still looking to cover that PSU with something, I'm still thinking about water cooling (or a good air cooler), and I was also thinking of putting a window in the GPU side of the case ;)

As for how it works, I decided to run a real-world test to make sure that it would do what I needed it to do. A few days ago I used the handle to take the box and some peripherals down to a friend's place, where we played games for 8 hours in a non-air conditioned carpeted room. We even had the pc in a corner sitting on carpeted floor, and it still remained stable enough to game all the way into the night. Regardless of how it looks, I think I succeeded in my original tasks ^^

Any ideas floating around that I could put into practice on this little box? Let me know!

Jonsta :D

[Loki]

Nice mod!! :up::up:



Any ideas floating around that I could put into practice on this little box? Let me know!
Jonsta :D

Maybe flexing the PSU cables will add a touch of esthetics to the interior of the case :D

[x88x]

Looks nice...though there's that big empty space in the front :P It needs to be filled up :D

[Jonsta]

Looks nice...though there's that big empty space in the front :P It needs to be filled up :D

Thanks for the kudos guys :)

I decided to get a smaller video card after all (but not less powerful!). It cost about 160 and I should be getting it tomorrow. Can you guess what it is?

As you would imagine the space in the front of the case will be inviting to a water cooling solution, as I have a special idea for a loop design that will make this thing look beastly.

I like the idea of water cooling as i dont have to be limited by low space around the cpu but i still get effective temperatures. I cant overclock on this power supply, even if my new video card has such a small die size ;)

Jon

[Airbozo]

Use some contact paper to cover the PSU bits that are noticeable...

[x88x]

I'm gonna guess a Radeon 5750? :D

If you weren't worrying about the warranty, you could flip the PSU over and re-route the cables through the 'top' (now bottom) of it, either looping the unused length inside the PSU or shortening them.

[Jonsta]

Hey guys, got a few more pics for you.

Airbozo: I've been thinking about that for a while now and it does seem like the way to go. Next time I'm at the Golden Casket I'll pick up a roll of whatever looks the best.

x88x: You've got it in one. I just wonder if me putting it in my system list had anything to do with that :P

On to the pics!

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6559/photo.jpg

The great thing about this card is that it's quite a bit shorter than the old 8800GT was, which gives me way more clearance near the front of the case for watercooling setups. The bad thing is that it's an Asus and being a mid-range Asus card, it comes with one of those ****house Glaciator heatsinks. I can't even count how many cards I've had to return because of the fan on these coolers failing and making the card overheat. Let's hope I'm not one of the unlucky ones.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2632/photo3oy.jpg

Here you can see just how much space there is inside this little box. Now that I have all this space, I may not need to mount an external radiator. Is there anywhere in Aus that I can pick up a simple 80x160mm rad with G1/4" fittings? In fact I'll need a few things like a pump, a waterblock, tubing and a fill kit. I don't think I have enough space to mount a rez in there.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/3873/photo2tj.jpg

Lots of room in there even for the most unweildy of LCS setups. I tried hard with the cable management but I think I'll need to work out a better solution than just having the 4-Pin P4 connector hanging there.

I'll be getting that contact soon and we'll see how the power supply comes up. That'll give me a chance to reroute the cables and make it look a little neater for next post's photo shoot ;)

Jonsta :D

[x88x]

Haha, I actually didn't even notice that :P I was looking at the mid-range cards a couple weeks ago for a friend, and remembered seeing the 5750 and thinking that it was strangely short, so when you said you were getting a shorter card... :D

Are you just planning on cooling the CPU with the 2x80 rad? Because if you want to WC the GPU as well I don't think that'll be enough...
...
...
I just had an awesome idea.

Going off what I can find on the size of standard mATX PSUs, this should work.

Ok, so first, ditch the front fan. With that gone, you should have enough space to put the PSU and pump in the front. Now, get rid of the rear top support (we'll fix that later) Depending on how deep the DVD drive is, you should be able to fit either a 120mm or 140mm rad in the rear of the top. Then you might even be able to fit in a 1x80mm or even maybe a 2x80mm rad on the side. That should cool that system nicely. :D

Ok, granted it would require quite a lot more modification of the case, but....it would be freaking awesome (imo).

[Jonsta]

I just had an awesome idea.

Going off what I can find on the size of standard mATX PSUs, this should work.

Ok, so first, ditch the front fan. With that gone, you should have enough space to put the PSU and pump in the front. Now, get rid of the rear top support (we'll fix that later) Depending on how deep the DVD drive is, you should be able to fit either a 120mm or 140mm rad in the rear of the top. Then you might even be able to fit in a 1x80mm or even maybe a 2x80mm rad on the side. That should cool that system nicely. :D

Ok, granted it would require quite a lot more modification of the case, but....it would be freaking awesome (imo).

I think I've seen that done before. My original idea was to mount a slimline 2x140mm rad just under the case and have the pipes go in through the bottom of the case. I'd then mount some large chunky case feet to raise the box off the table surface enough so the rad can breathe.

However I think I'm going to mount a 2x80mm rad behind the front intake fan, as the fan was only being effectively used to cool the cpu. It could still retain that role by cooling the rad the cpu is connected to. This way I can keep the extremely small form factor of the pc.

Jon

[Jonsta]

Hi guys

It's been a while (almost a year now) since the original HotBox came to fruition and to celebrate a whole year of problem-free hotboxin- I mean gaming...

I've decided to build a HotBox II!

Before starting on that, however, I forgot to post pictures of the 'custom' cooling system that I implemented in the original HotBox some 8-9 months ago. I didn't have very much money to spend, so I decided to buy a 'quiet' AM2 aircooler that was just the right height to fit in the case. In all honesty it's a bit of a peice of crap, and it's still loud, but it works better, looks better and is easier to clean.

Falling on hard times is well...hard, but I managed to keep myself entertained and at the least upgrade my pc a little.

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1521/iphone015.jpg
Not to mention what happened to my work/spray bench.

Anyway, here's the pics of the cooler upgrade, and what I had to do to get it to fit.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9531/iphone018n.jpg
The stock cooler on an AMD processor leaves a lot to be desired. I'm a fan of AMD's processors and all, but jesus guys, couldn't you have thrown the heatpipe-encrusted Phenom X4 cooler in there for a Black Edition processor?

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7779/iphone019d.jpg
So here it is, the yam-cha AM2 cooler that cost me all of some ~10 bucks on eBay. I have to say the color scheme goes with the case, even if the weirdy-beardy styling of the support struts doesn't go with anything ever made. Ever.

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/3320/iphone020d.jpg
Oh WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? That's right. The cooler doesn't fit because of the So-Dimm RAM I got on the mainboard. I mean.... I could:

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/707/iphone021.jpg
...just take out one of the RAM sticks, but then I'd only have 2GB instead of 4GB. I figure it's time to cut a few corners, literally.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7330/iphone022.jpg
I must admit, this thing was a real bastard to file. (Nyuk nyuk nyuk)

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6729/iphone023.jpg
The offending angle...

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2496/iphone024j.jpg
Now a nice, rounded recess for the RAM stick!

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4199/iphone025b.jpg
Now it fits pretty much perfectly! No more loud, whirring fans (or so i thought)

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8940/iphone026.jpg
There's not too much clearance for a CPU cooler in there, but with this I can at least say I did the best I could with what I had :)

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/91/iphone027.jpg
This is what the machine looks like at the moment. The stuff you see on top of the power switch and HDD act. LED is blu-tack. I put it on there because when the PC is on, the LEDs are ridiculously bright and the front of the PC points at the head of my bed, and I'm sure you get the rest. It's annoying.

Now that I'm back on my feet, have a new job that pays well and a bit more free time on the weekend, I hope to start on the new HotBox II sometime this month. The only thing I've done to the HotBox I since the CPU fan is upgrade the hard drive from a Samsung 500GB Spinpoint to a WD Caviar Black 1000GB for a little bit more speed and peice of mind.

With everything as planned, the new HotBox II will feature:

A slightly longer chassis with new 600W PSU (heres looking at you, SG07)
Hex-Core computing power
6000 series ATi graphics
4-8GB DDR3 RAM
The all-new MINIX™ 890GX-USB3 ITX motherboard
Solid State boot technology
A larger display (I'm going from a 22 to a 27 soon)

In the meantime, here's a picture of an item that I recieved in the mail yesterday...
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/6745/photocu.jpg
I can't wait to sink my claws into this thing!

Jonsta :D

[x88x]

I must admit, this thing was a real bastard to file. (Nyuk nyuk nyuk)
lol I see what you did there. :P

I look forward to seeing what you do with the new one.