Wordbiker
01-08-2012, 11:32 AM
Being out of the modding scene for half a decade, my aging AM2 system was really showing its years. With a new/old job (back to it after a stint of running bicycle shops) I again had the means to build a new system.
The thought was to build with top shelf hardware, yet keep it compact enough to haul back and forth from my shop which is wired for LAN parties. When I'm not gaming I like a quiet rig, so it needs to scale cooling according to demand. Simple, as automated as possible, compact and blue...it sounded like a badass Smurf to me. 8)
Research into cases and motherboards told me that I could get all I needed in the mATX format, so I chose the Lian-Li PC-V354A as my base.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/picA2950012.jpg
It's about as vanilla as it gets, but has room for 3X120mm and 1X140mm fan for decent airflow while still aircooled...
The height of the PC-V354 series is less than most mATX towers since the PSU sits over the mobo. This limits the usable CPU cooler heights, but since I plan to use liquid cooling, this became moot. The extra width did get me to thinking about just how large a fan/rad would fit in the front. Operating on the theory that large fans push more air with less noise, I went for it and purchased a Phobya Xtreme 200 rad and a Silverstone FM181 fan for sizing it up.
After stripping her down I found that it just fits, though it completely eliminated the use of the front HDD racks.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/DSCF0029.jpg
No sweat. This is a mostly dedicated gaming rig and Lian-Li supplied two 2.5" HDD mounts on the floor of the case. A Lian-Li 5.25" bay adapter kept a slim optical drive and added another two 2.5" HDD slots as well as a USB plug. Between the Corsair Force GT 90GB SSD and the Seagate Constellation Enterprise drive in 500GB I have plenty of storage and speed with the option to add more later.
At first I thought of cooling the entire CPU/GPU loop with just the 20mm rad, but putting it out to friends made me realize that the more cooling area the better, so a plan to place a second rad on top of the case came about.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/DSCF0176.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/DSCF0175.jpg
Yep, even the larger rad fits, but since then I've picked up a Magicool 180mm rad that is no wider than the fan so my rad box can be kept slimmer.
This approach changed my thoughts on pump and res placement. Since a res is most effective at the top of the case and the pump should be at the bottom to keep it under liquid, I picked up a Technofront Challenger X1 res with the cool mechanical flow indication to be mounted in the front of the case. With no more bays to place it in, my radbox (made of sheet aluminum) wil fold down the case front and create a fan grill and bezel.
More later, but for now here she is up and running.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/IMAG0104.jpg
The thought was to build with top shelf hardware, yet keep it compact enough to haul back and forth from my shop which is wired for LAN parties. When I'm not gaming I like a quiet rig, so it needs to scale cooling according to demand. Simple, as automated as possible, compact and blue...it sounded like a badass Smurf to me. 8)
Research into cases and motherboards told me that I could get all I needed in the mATX format, so I chose the Lian-Li PC-V354A as my base.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/picA2950012.jpg
It's about as vanilla as it gets, but has room for 3X120mm and 1X140mm fan for decent airflow while still aircooled...
The height of the PC-V354 series is less than most mATX towers since the PSU sits over the mobo. This limits the usable CPU cooler heights, but since I plan to use liquid cooling, this became moot. The extra width did get me to thinking about just how large a fan/rad would fit in the front. Operating on the theory that large fans push more air with less noise, I went for it and purchased a Phobya Xtreme 200 rad and a Silverstone FM181 fan for sizing it up.
After stripping her down I found that it just fits, though it completely eliminated the use of the front HDD racks.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/DSCF0029.jpg
No sweat. This is a mostly dedicated gaming rig and Lian-Li supplied two 2.5" HDD mounts on the floor of the case. A Lian-Li 5.25" bay adapter kept a slim optical drive and added another two 2.5" HDD slots as well as a USB plug. Between the Corsair Force GT 90GB SSD and the Seagate Constellation Enterprise drive in 500GB I have plenty of storage and speed with the option to add more later.
At first I thought of cooling the entire CPU/GPU loop with just the 20mm rad, but putting it out to friends made me realize that the more cooling area the better, so a plan to place a second rad on top of the case came about.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/DSCF0176.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/DSCF0175.jpg
Yep, even the larger rad fits, but since then I've picked up a Magicool 180mm rad that is no wider than the fan so my rad box can be kept slimmer.
This approach changed my thoughts on pump and res placement. Since a res is most effective at the top of the case and the pump should be at the bottom to keep it under liquid, I picked up a Technofront Challenger X1 res with the cool mechanical flow indication to be mounted in the front of the case. With no more bays to place it in, my radbox (made of sheet aluminum) wil fold down the case front and create a fan grill and bezel.
More later, but for now here she is up and running.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bad%20Smurf/IMAG0104.jpg