PROJECT LOG "MAX11L"

[JonSimonzi]

Yeah the, SG07 is about twice as much as the SG05, but does come with a 600w PSU, so it would only come to ~$25 more because with the SG05 I'd have to buy the $75 Silverstone PSU.

Couple other questions though. To get the SG05 down to pretty much the frame only, do rivets need to be popped out, or are all the panels screwed on?

And second, as silly as it would look, can that GB mini ITX motherboard be put into a regular ATX case? Or would the screw holes not line up? For me to tackle the project, I'd need to buy the mobo, use it with my normal case, then buy the case and PSU with the funds from selling my MIIIF.


I don't mean to hijack your thread MIAH, but this build links the source of my inspiration, and there seems to be a pretty good mini ITX discussion already going on here

 

[MattNo5ss]

And second, as silly as it would look, can that GB mini ITX motherboard be put into a regular ATX case? Or would the screw holes not line up? For me to tackle the project, I'd need to buy the mobo, use it with my normal case, then buy the case and PSU with the funds from selling my MIIIF.

MiniITX boards will fit in ATX cases. See mounting hole locations below:

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Couple other questions though. To get the SG05 down to pretty much the frame only, do rivets need to be popped out, or are all the panels screwed on?

No rivits required removal for the build up to this point. However, the obvious requirement for popping rivets would be if you wanted to mount a large fan/rad in front and still use the optical drive bay.....in that case you'd have to un-rivet the SSD bay from the optical drive bay holder.

NP with the OT discussion

 

[JonSimonzi]

No rivits required removal for the build up to this point. However, the obvious requirement for popping rivets would be if you wanted to mount a large fan/rad in front and still use the optical drive bay.....in that case you'd have to un-rivet the SSD bay from the optical drive bay holder.

NP with the OT discussion

Good to know, I don't have a rivet gun to reapply them.

You're original build with the Prolimatech cooler looked rather cramped, but even so it didn't pass 72* on LinX. Is the airflow better than it looks? One of my concerns is keeping an overclocked 860 cool in cramped environment with what looks to be minimal airflow. And I'm not crazy, an 860 would put out more heat than a 670, correct?

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Yes, an 860 would put out more heat

And the original build used two 113CFM Delta fans, one on the front (temp controlled) and one of the Samuel 17 (100% all the time). So my airflow and cooling was good, but at the cost of a relatively noise box.

The revised build is much quiter with the San Ace fan (temp controlled), but is also pretty noisy with the newer Delta.

 

[MIAHALLEN]

My full performance review has been published:

http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09...art-2–-max11l-featuring-corsair-and-gigabyte/

 

[Ben333]

Awesome looking build dude!!

 

[the_cultie]

Excellent build. I'm liking all this mitx builds that are coming out from fellow members. Shows that mitx can be as powerful as a full desktop. Nice work.

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Thanks guys

 

[MIAHALLEN]

So, I finished sleeving the PSU tonight....it turned out pretty nice IMO


This being my first time sleeving anything....you can see it's obviously not perfect. If you look at the 24pin....you can see how I improved from left to right


My favorite part is probably the fact that I eliminated all the unused wires and tucked them iinside the PSU.....gives it a very clean look.



With everything installed again, it looks pretty nice. I'm also debating whether or not to take it apart and paint it now. I already have the paint. But I'm not sure I have the time. I might procrastinate on that for a while.....I supposed I'll get around to it eventually though


I swapped fans again....the Delta was noisy....but more than that, it was providing more cooling than I needed, this Lynnfield quad runs really cool


The only difficulty I could not get past today with the sleeving job was the PCIe connectors. Since the PSU only provides 8 lines, and the additional 6 has to split off the original, I was going to run it like it came from the factory, but just shorten the lines and sleeve them all. But I could not get 2 wires to properly fit in 1 molex connector securly, and they would always pull out when I tried. So I split the line a couple inces above and the last few inches were left unsleeved. Again this is something I may go back any correct later. But it's at the bottom of my to-do list for now.






Oh, you can also see below I swapped the COrsair memory for some more economical G.Skill. I backed the bclock down to 200MHz, and bumped the multi up to x21. But this stuff will still run CAS6 at DDR3-2000, so performance has not noticably changed.












It was getting to be a bit difficult to remove/replace the PSU due to the position of the H70 tubes.....so i worked with it a bit and came up with this....make getting to the PSU/SSD mount much easier









I forgot to take pictures of the mobo outside the case. But I did glue (Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive) some copper sinks to the VRMs on top and some slimmer aluminum ones to the VRMs on the bottom.


ULTIMATE SLEEPER


WAY TOO SMALL TO PACK THAT MUCH POWER


Shoebox??? Who are you kidding, my shoes wouldn't even come close to fitting in a box this small :lachen:


San Ace visible from the front





Thanks for checking out my build log. It's not complete. But I feel 95% there Progress from this point on will be slow. But I will be back to check on this thread regularly if you have any questions. And when I do have future updates I will post here

Miah

 

[Automata]

MUCH better with the sleeved cables, good job.

On the other hand, I feel sad because that little thing would beat the crap out of my desktop computer.

 

[MIAHALLEN]

I'm still jealous of your server

 

[MattNo5ss]

Those are some NICE G.Skills...

Seriously though, it looks great, and it's slowly getting better and better. The sleeved cables look amazing, and the heatsinks were prolly a good idea in a cramped space.

Reason for putting the San Ace back in? Noiseerformance ratio?

 

[Bobnova]

That is absolutely glorious. What g.skills are those that run 2000 cas6?

 

[MattNo5ss]

They are Pi Series 6-9-6-24: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=654501...lol

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Those are some NICE G.Skills...

Seriously though, it looks great, and it's slowly getting better and better. The sleeved cables look amazing, and the heatsinks were prolly a good idea in a cramped space.

Reason for putting the San Ace back in? Noiseerformance ratio?

I needed the Delta to keep the Clarkdale happy at 4800MHz....but I decided the performance is better overall with the quad core (see the latest article about the build for full performance assessment), and it runs nice an cool....so the San Ace is plenty and is much quieter

 

[ehume]

Amazing project. Excellent execution. Two questions:

Which San Ace?

With the unneeded wires tucked inside the psu, will they impair the psu's internal cooling?

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Amazing project. Excellent execution. Two questions:

Which San Ace?

With the unneeded wires tucked inside the psu, will they impair the psu's internal cooling?

One of these:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=625454&highlight=109r1212h1j031

And I don't think the wires tucked in are a problem. I cut them pretty short and secured them against a interior wall....see the pic below:

 

[Wafflefrys]

That build is sick, makes me want to go make one haha

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys

So, final update for the build. I'm not finished because I plan to change out the CPU next week. But I finished all the visial stuff today.

I got the VRM sinks all installed now, top and bottom:







Next, I stripped the interior down



Then primered it





Then painted it (matt black)



Here are the final pictures

"It's like a console...with the suck turned down and the awesome turned up" -tet5uo