sheroo - M-ITX HTPC and Pink Cube build in progress

[sheroo]

I've been wanting to do a couple of projects for a while, and now Christmas is out of the way, I'm gonna finally get my finger out and get some stuff done. I spend too much time doing research and looking at other peoples' projects it’s about time I did something.

The first project is a mini project – I want to give my current rig a facelift. I’m happy with all of the hardware that I’ve got and how it performs, I just want to change the look of it, and see if I can make it slightly quieter and light it up nicely. For reference here is my current rig:-

Since that pic was taken, I’ve changed the reference Sapphire HD 6950 for an MSI TF3 HD 6950. The difference in noise levels is unbelievable and it dropped 10C at idle.

I bought this case ages ago when it first came out, and it’s been sitting under my desk – CM Storm Enforcer.

Two rigs have inspired my choice of fans, KiiYzOo_Skeleton rig and Xigmatek Elysium Workstation Build. They both use the Xigmatek XLF fans and imo look simply awesome. Although I was a little concerned that KiiYzOo recently said that these fans were too noisy in his R3 – hopefully my fan controller will help there.

“Whiskers” wants to help…

I decided that the front drive bays must go. With advice from Ruthless I used an 1/8 (3.2mm) drill bit for the rivets, and it came out in less than a minute. I also cut a hole in the top 5.25 bay to help cable management for the front I/O and fan controller.

We had a discussion in another thread as to whether the 200mm Xigmatek fans would mount in the front of the Enforcer, but luckily in the big bag of screws that come with it, it contained just the right screws to mount it.

I used the rubber mounts for the top and rear fans.

Here is what I’ve got so far. Hopefully I’ll be transplanting my rig in there sometime this week. However I’m not going to be using the NH-D14…

Thanks for looking.

 

[Azurite]

Cool. Nice cat, case and fans. Im using the same fans (140mm)only with blue wings. You gonna get a nice glow with those

 

[ThatBattlefieldGuy]

Looks very nice so far .Love the fans. Im building my friend a rig with the enforcer and it should look awesome. Have you tried xfiring the 6950s? My guess for the cooler is the havik 140.

Cant wait to see the finished product mate

 

[yassarikhan786]

Looking good. What cooler are you going to be using? NZXT Havik?

P.S. You're "old" rig looks pretty sweet, so I'll be looking forward to seeing how this one turns out

.

 

[sheroo]

Cool. Nice cat, case and fans. Im using the same fans (140mm)only with blue wings. You gonna get a nice glow with those

Hopefully they will make me feel warmer, its been cold here today. (not by your standards obviously

)

Looks very nice so far .Love the fans. Im building my friend a rig with the enforcer and it should look awesome. Have you tried xfiring the 6950s? My guess for the cooler is the havik 140.

Cant wait to see the finished product mate

No, I sold the other 6950, I don't game that much, but find one 6950 runs my eyefinity setup with ease. btw its not the havik.

 

[SieB]

Looking good Sheroo, those XLF fans do look rather smexy.

 

[sheroo]

Looking good Sheroo, those XLF fans do look rather smexy.

Just hope they're not too noisy.

 

[ThatBattlefieldGuy]

Not the havik hmmm. V6GT? Thats the heatsink im using for my friends build, it looks very nice in this case.

 

[Dandaman91]

Looks nice mate, love those fans

 

[sheroo]

Looks nice mate, love those fans

Cheers dude, looks like it'll be Monday before I get chance to swap my rig over. I just hate being without it even for a few hours - its like I've lost an integral part of me.

 

[S_I_N]

looking good mate are ya by chance going to wc it?? probably a bad question since you mounted front and top fans but I spotted a total of 5 120mm's and can only assume 4 are for push/pull on a rad as one is already used in the rear.

 

[Dandaman91]

Cheers dude, looks like it'll be Monday before I get chance to swap my rig over. I just hate being without it even for a few hours - its like I've lost an integral part of me.

Lol same here, I'd be lost without mine

 

[KiiYzOo]

glad I inspired you

I swapped the xlf fans out of my rig as I wanted almost total silence, they're not unbearably loud

 

[sheroo]

looking good mate are ya by chance going to wc it?? probably a bad question since you mounted front and top fans but I spotted a total of 5 120mm's and can only assume 4 are for push/pull on a rad as one is already used in the rear.

No unfortunately not this time around. There's just not enough space in the Enforcer, unless it has some major surgery. There's about 250mm height in the front with the drive cages removed. So the H100 is out which is 275mm - the same as most 240 rads. Although I did think about 2 x 120 rads on their sides fitted in the front or Phobya do a 200mm rad, but I don't have the funds for that atm. I bought enough 120mm fans for a push pull cooler, a rear & a couple of spares for the other projects I have in mind.

I haven't 100% decided on the cooler yet, but it'll have to be something I already have.

If it doesn't work out performance wise, as a last resort I'll put the Xigmatek fans on the D14.

 

[sheroo]

I had yesterday to build, and the fact that I'm typing this means that I've finished it and it all works.

(thank goodness, I hate tearing my main rig down and being without it).

Cooler:- (can you guess what it is yet?)

The bomb site:- (its OK - using my daughter's room while she's at school)

Cable management was somewhat challenging, using extension cables would have been impossible. Good job Corsair have those nice braided cables on the way.

Just about finished. One of the problems I had was with the SSD caddy, you have to use a straight sata cable for the bottom SSD or they just won't fit, that's why I've used the orange cables instead of the black ones - but I don't think they look too bad.

I know the cooler is a downgrade from the Noctua, but I got this cheap from Aria ages ago and thought I would just try it so see what its like. So far its pretty quiet, and at idle the temps are very similar. It may be a different story after a few hours of heavy useage - once the small amount of liquid heats up, but I'll suck it and see. Looks better than the Noctua though.

And I can now see my lovely motherboard heatsinks and that Ridgeback RAM

Using my old Scythe fan controller:-

One thing I did notice was that the front 200mm fan was resonating in the case because I'd hard mounted it with screws. So I used the old silencers zip tie trick... Its easier to post piccies rather than try to explain.

So just using 2 zip ties and a soft grommet for each corner - vibration has now completely gone.

Those fans do make a lovely warm glow:-

And here she is in all her glory:-

Now I'll be able to move on with my other projects...

Thanks for looking.

 

[SieB]

Looks good now it's all finished, gonna have to deduct 10 points from Grifindor for the use of a H series cooler though

 

[sheroo]

Looks good now it's all finished, gonna have to deduct 10 points from Grifindor for the use of a H series cooler though

It's a CoolIt ECO II that I picked up for £30 ish on an Aria sale - just couldn't leave it for that price.

 

[SieB]

I had one of those, they are pretty loud with stock fans but with the fan controller I suppose they aren't to loud £30 is a good price though that's what I paid for a used one on Ebay.

 

[dipzy]

That rig looks purrrrfect

Great job, that hardware looks awesome the CM Enforcer and with those Xigmatech fans

 

[sheroo]

That rig looks purrrrfect

Great job, that hardware looks awesome the CM Enforcer and with those Xigmatech fans

Cheers dude.

No rest for the wicked, need to start my next project.