Modding Xaser III

[Chunkylover763]

hey guys, I have read this thread from start to finish (started 3 weeks ago!)and I am very impressed with all the creativity I have seen here. I am going to be building my first PC in a few weeks and I have decided to put it in a Xaser III. Here is what I want first of all- a fairly quiet PC with at least 12 drive bays, an acrylic window, LOTS of BLUE, tons of airflow, and a clean looking inside, no cables strewn all over (I will water cool later but seeing how this is my first rig, it will have to wait). I have some machining experiance and access about every type of tool imaginible (ie welder, mill, band saw ect.). Here is what I want to do with my Xaser, let me know what you think-

1. Front intake- 2x120mm thermaltake thunderblades, mounted onto the rear of the drive cages will be 2 thermaltake duct mods to point the air upwards, these will each have an 80mm fan sucking air in.
2. Bottom Intake- 2x120mm thermatake thunderblades (The case will be mounted on acrylic feet so there shouldn't be too much of a vacuum underneath)
3. Side intake- Bore out grilles and mount Speeze 80mm blue LED fans directly to the side panel, then put low resistance steel cut outs over the fans
4. Top "Blowhole"- same mod as side panel just with one fan.
5. Rear Exhaust- 2x120mm thermaltake thunderblades, plus exhaust from thermaltake 560W psu

I think those are all the case mods here are my potential system specs
Athlon XP 2500 "Barton" M cpu
Volcano 12 HSF
Abit nf7 nforce 2
Geforce 6800 GT
512MB Geil PC 3200 Ram CAS 2.5-3-3-6
WD 250GB HDD, 4 160GB Hitachi HDD
Lite on 52x32x52x CDRW, Lite on 8xDVD+R, 4x+RW, 4x-R, 2x-RW
Thermaltake 560W psu (as good as an antec true 550?)
Dell 2001 fp 20 inch lcd moniter 16ms response time

I think thats all just about, I'd appreciate tips/advice from those of you who have modded your Xaser III's, just stuff like, "dude you can't fit 2x120s in the back!" so I don't order a ton of stuff that I will regret.

 

[drsomewhat]

so happy i got my watercooling up and running finally. i guess ill post pics up for you guys. The comps not completely done till i get my 74 gb raptor someday soon...

my temps are quite good, considering what they were under air cooling. Air was 45 idle, 50 load. Now its 33 idle 37 load. im damn happy (not to mention so much quieter having replaced 4 fans with 2 evercool 120mms)

 

[mtb856]

mounted onto the rear of the drive cages will be 2 thermaltake duct mods to point the air upwards, these will each have an 80mm fan sucking air in.

I'm not convinced that the TT duct mods would do much for you in that position, is the point to get airflow moving around in the top of the case without causing turbulence with the side panel intakes? If that is your plan, then I would wait until clocker2 gets here... he's the resident expert( along with arch) on airflow in the case.

I would just mod that blow hole into your case and have those two intakes remain in the drive cages, or not even use them. You don't have to have that many fans in your case, more fans don't mean lower temps necessarily. Save yourself 15 or 20 bucks, wait until you know if you need that many fans before you spend all the money on them.

Bottom Intake- 2x120mm thermatake thunderblades (The case will be mounted on acrylic feet so there shouldn't be too much of a vacuum underneath)

Have you measured your case to make sure the two 120's will fit and still have good airflow? I would think that one of them would end up cooling your lower PCI card... if you have any, if not, then you're probably good with two if you want to mod those in. I would recommend some good filters if it's going to be on the floor though.

If you want a overall blue look, I would recommend some blue UV spray paint from Xoxide. Looks great and would probably fit the overall theme of your case. Here's a link to a pic of my case w/ the blue LINK

Athlon XP 2500 "Barton" M cpu
Volcano 12 HSF
Abit nf7 nforce 2
Geforce 6800 GT
512MB Geil PC 3200 Ram CAS 2.5-3-3-6
WD 250GB HDD, 4 160GB Hitachi HDD
Lite on 52x32x52x CDRW, Lite on 8xDVD+R, 4x+RW, 4x-R, 2x-RW
Thermaltake 560W psu (as good as an antec true 550?)
Dell 2001 fp 20 inch lcd moniter 16ms response time

If you want to seriously get into oc'ing, you'll need to replace that TT Volcano 12 with a Thermalright HS and a good 92mm fan, you can't beat their performance. Here's a link to the how well a thermalright cools. LINK

Here's a link to a page that has both LINK I and archilochus both recommend the Delta HHE as an excellent fan for HS's. It puts out 73 cfm's at 42dB apprx. and when fan controlled it is almost silent, just a low hum. It's a high pressure fan, so it'll push air all the way down to the HS base.

I haven't heard much about the TT PSU, but I do have the 550 True control and it is an awesome PSU. Very stable rails, lots of power... it comes with a 5.25 drive bay controller that can fit a floppy drive, has a fan controller, and has adjustments for the 3.3, 5, and 12+ rails. Fairly loud when fans are cranked, inaudible when turned down.

Anyway, I hope you don't see this post as critical of what you're doing... I think you've picked a great setup for the most part, and that when you're done, your computer will look great. Good Luck on the build,

mtb856 Welcome to the Forums ( and the Madness!!!)


P.S You might consider putting your system into your sig when you get it put together, along with your temps and any crazy sayings you want us to see. ( Looking at this post... it almost seems like a rant against Thermaltake.... hmmmm.... yep, that's what it was )

 

[bluediamond]

mounted onto the rear of the drive cages will be 2 thermaltake duct mods to point the air upwards, these will each have an 80mm fan sucking air in.

I have tried this mod...it didn't really help temps a whole lot, but it did look pretty cool.

 

[Chunkylover763]

yes thats the one that inspired me! I thought it looked sweet too and to be honest thats mostly why I wanted it.

BTW, where can I buy that delta fan, the link wasn't working and my knowledge of retailers is limited- mostly newegg, TD, Xoxide and frozenCPU.

 

[clocker2]

Chunkylover,

Although the Lord knows that I am a fan of over the top cooling solutions, your proposal seems rather schitzophrenic to me.

You appear to be trying to establish both bottom-to-top AND front-to-back airflow in the same case.

The results might be very cool looking, but less than effective, I fear.

I have come to favor 120mm fans over any other size, so I would concentrate on the placement of those and let the 80mms go ( even though I am also a major fan of the TT ducts).

Will you still be using the lower drive bays or can they be jettisoned?
Removing the lower drive bay ( at a minimum) will allow for the effective placement of the two 120's on the floor panel.

As I no longer have my Xaser chassis ( although I saved the front bezel assy. and the windowed sidepanel if anyone needs them) I can't recall whether or not it's possible to fit twin 120's on the back casewall...I know Arch has 92mms back there, though.

The two floor fans and the two backwall fans ( all blowing IN), coupled with ( at least one and two if possible) roof blowhole fans (exhaust) should be a good start on a high-end aircooling configuration.

An alternative would be to mount two 120's on the sidepanel ( one for the vid card and one for the HSF) and forget the floorfans.

No matter which way you decide I would strongly recommend that you mock up your plan with cardboard panels and test before you begin to carve up the Xaser panels.
A hole in aluminum is forever.

 

[archilochus]

Welcome aboard, Chunkylover763. Is your Xaser III steel or aluminum? Which model and version do you have?

stuff like, "dude you can't fit 2x120s in the back!"

Well, at least on my Xaser there's no room in the rear to mount 120mm fans..92mm is the biggest my case would except..See sig of rig below..

DELTA FAN LINK

 

[Chunkylover763]

Chunkylover,

Although the Lord knows that I am a fan of over the top cooling solutions, your proposal seems rather schitzophrenic to me.

Prolly is, I'm learning here

So clocker2, are you saying that I should have a pair of 120s on the floor and ceiling and just use 80s for the front and back? If thats the best scenario than I'd be willing to let one of my drive bays go. I don't want to put 120s on the side though cuz I want to be able to see a lot of the inside of my case, it also looks gross to mod that side panel that much.

BTW, here are the 80mm fans I am using for my computer http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-120&depa=0 I'd like to use one of these for my cpu as well (its an LED thing) since they can move 72cfm.

 

[clocker2]

Chunky,
No, that is not what I'm saying.
With the 120's on the floor/roof, the front 80's would be superfluous.
One 92mm on the back wall ( up next to the HSF, blowing in) would be helpful (prolly, but you could test without it first).

The 80's in the front are really too far away from anything to make much difference, and hopefully the floor intakes will handle your needs.

 

[Chunkylover763]

Thanks for clarifying, I will order a 92mm for the rear and see what I can do, I may have it blowing out though as my side intakes will supply my cpu with cool air.

 

[psikoticsilver]

Hey Diamond, check out this:

Like my Aero7+?

 

[archilochus]

TWAN, Here's the pic of the rear 92mm exhaust fans..Not my greatest work..Left cut Aviation tin snips were needed in this area..Notice there's no metal between the lower and upper fans..The fans each have 2 screws holding them. I suspect a dremal might give better results in this area of the case..(shutter) But I don't have a dremel..


please don't quote my pic.

 

[[KX3]rAge]

Yes, I imagine those fans would have a lot less vibration if you had of used a dremel now with only two screws I bet they vibrate like crazy

 

[clocker2]

now with only two screws I bet they vibrate like crazy

Actually, I'll bet they don't.
I have two 120mm fans and two 92mm fans mounted in my case, each with only two screws apiece and they don't seem to vibrate at all.

 

[mtb856]

My 120mm intake on the front of my case is only attached by two screws as well... very similiar mistake to arch's, I cut the hole too big w/ the snips and now can only have two screws. Haven't had any vibration as of yet.

BTW, arch... where's the review of the Delta HHE? I'm dying to hear about it.

 

[archilochus]

now with only two screws I bet they vibrate like crazy

No vibrations detected ..If they did, I would of done something diff., like a fan plate..Vibrations, phuwee... Actually 4 screws can set a fan up to vibrate, if the 4 screws are over torqued causing the fans frame to warp slightly..

I've been to busy to install the Delta as of yet..Trying to catch up on some important things around the house... I plan to use the 92 Panaflo U1A inplace of that noisey Enermax 92mm on the mobo wall mod hole...It's going back in retirement.

 

[mtb856]

Cool... I finally got the Sunon fan for my mobo wall hole and I had the same problem, it was very noisy because it was so close to the mobo back plate. So what I did was take a 92 x 25mm gutted fan and screw it onto the Sunon... that got rid of most of the noise and it's working against less resistance. It actually lowered my temps by 2°C... not too bad for a shim.

It's kinda strange looking b/c it sticks out of my side panel like 3in. but cooling is more important than looks

 

[enduro]

Hey Arch, and other modders. Check this one out if you haven't all ready. I know that you used metal grill on the front of your case Arch. Here's a guy with another idea.
LINKER Post number 18

 

[archilochus]

It actually lowered my temps by 2°C... not too bad for a shim.

Did you cut the mobo wall hole larger yet? Nice results..Chilly

Hey Arch, and other modders. Check this one out if you haven't all ready.

Thanks for the heads up Enduro, Looks to restrictive for my liking ,but a nice alternative..

I installed the Delta HHE 92mm today..I like it. I put the Panaflo 92mm U1A on the right panel for the mobo wall hole..No more noisey Enermax fan.. Seems to be about the same as my U1A was, for the most part..Might be 1°C better than the Panny. I've not concluded the results or testing yet..But that bugger is installed and doing its thing...

 

[clocker2]

Restrictive?
Looks pretty wide open to me.