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PROJECT LOG SG02 + H80

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Sshadd

New Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Location
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
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Inspired by Automiketic's SG02 + H50 Project, I wondered if an H80 could fit the Silverstone SG02-F. What follows isn't exactly a professional build, but hopefully will inspire others to to further experiment with small form factor cases. The Silverstone SG02 is a few years old, but my only gripe about it is that it comes with USB2 and 1394 for the front ports. I plan on hacking those with USB 3 PCB sockets in the future. I planned on using an external DVD drive, as I don't use DVD for much of anything but installing programs.

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The front drive bay insert is an EVERCOOL HD-AR-B Iron + Plastics Armor HDD Cooling Box, a 2x 5.25 bay insert HD adapter plus 80mm fan. I used that primarily for the mounting base for the H80. It came with vibrational dampener feet for the HDs, and I thought I would incorporate it to lessen any vibrations and maybe noise from the fans. It may or may not be a useless feature since fans don't vibrate much anyways. I replaced the stock fan with a led fan purely for visual effect, but it does make a 1-2 degree difference as it blows directly on the H80 reservoir. It also comes with a filter which besides filtering dust can moderate the led effect (I didn't use it).

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A few tools I used. I used a 4.5 inch holesaw for the internal cuts, but on the fan hole I used a 4 5/8 holesaw because it fit the silverstone fan grill exactly. the 4 5/8 holesaw seems not to be in demand, but I found it at pexsupply.com. I found myself using the dremel alot, especially with a metal cutting bit for rounding out holes. . C-clamps and a back board for the hole drilling are important.

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Drilled some into the bottom of the drive bay insert to make room for the rubber vibrational mounts. Cut a square steel plate and marked/center punched it where I needed fan mounting holes, and where I needed to place the hole saw arbor

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Drilled my 4.5 inch holes in the adapter plate and on the SG02's HD enclosure
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bronze braised the adapter plate to the HD adapter

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Painted and fitted the adapter plate. 2/3 of the H80 exhaust will blow down through the SG02 HD enclosure, with the temp moderated by the HD fan blowing from the side. 1/3 will escape into the case where it will be vented also by a side fan. The SG02 has excellent venting on the sides to keep the case interior cool. I might check with a thermal gun to see if the ram temps are a problem but I don't think they will be. I used the dremel to cut out a little more of the HD enclosure perpendicular to the hole cut. Believe it or not, there remains a possibility to mount a 120mm fan + radiator if you wanted further cooling if you were to take out the HD enclosure completely and cut an exhaust hole between the feet of the SG02. Perhaps for the video card. A project for later perhaps..

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Although it was probably completely unecessary, I included the HD adapter's rubber anti-vibrational mounts into this project and used some specialized post and screws I found at a local hardware store (Lowes). The posts are bolted to the fan, and are inserted into the rubber grommets. I had to drill and slightly enlarge the fan holes for the posts.

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I had done some measuring and figuring on what I needed before I ordered the parts, but once I fitted everything together I realized I failed to take account of the extra width of the H80 reservoir, thinking the whole thing was 120mm wide. So now I have a problem where not only is the HD adapter's fan effective-less as a case fan, but I'm having to cram the H80 up against the power supply (silverstone 850w strider with short cable set). Luckily I was able to modify the silverstone connectors to be recessed inwards more with standoffs and longer screws against the PS case.

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Now to line up the hole I'm going to make in the SG02 case. I used a cardboard template of the fan holes

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- lined up the H80 assembly where it was going to be permanently screwed into place in the HD bay and placed the cardboard template on top the intake fan.

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Had previously drilled some alignment holes in the case cover so that I could spraypaint/pencil mark the cardboard template when the case cover was screwed on in place.

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I then took off the cardboard template, lined it up with the drilled holes in the case cover, and taped into place. Now I have a place where I can punch mark where I need the hole saw arbor to go.

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The end result looks ok, but not perfect, because there was some wobbling of the hole saw. To do this better next time, I would suggest using a drill press to keep things steady. And because of the wobble and despite the masking tape, some paint came off, so I repainted the case. I used a black gloss spray paint.
This fan grill is the Silverstone FF81B 80mm Fan Filter with Grill. It has a screen which seems pretty restrictive, so I took mine off. I figured it would be more of a nightmare cleaning the tiny screen through the honeycomb grill than just using an aerosol air can and blow things out every once in a while. But I recommend leaving it on at first to see if it suites you and how it affects your temps. I ordered several to test, and got better temps with the screen off. It was kind of dull looking, so I sprayed a clear enamel coat on it. I sprayed black gloss, then several coats of clear enamel on the 5 1/4 hd adapter front screen to match it up with the glossy SG02 face. Let the enamel set for at least 3 days before touching it...


Some additional pics
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Very cool! I was planning this very build. My goal was to put my gaming rig in one SG02-F and my server in another and stack the two.

My Gaming rig is a H70 cooling a 1090T with an unlocked 6950 Sapphire GPU. I was hoping my H70 would fit in the drive bays just like yours did.

The Gaming rig would sit atop my low power server I want to put a passively cooled Seasonic PSU in. The Seasonic is meant to be inverted (with the fan, if there was one, facing up) I figured I would mount the PSU as intended and cut a vent above it too.

So have you tried setting the H80 as exhaust? I was hoping I could, maybe cutting some sort of vent in the bottom of the case.

I was also hoping to make the blow hole(s) a series of holes using a drill press in order to match the vents on the side and above the PCI area.

/Long story short: Great case, I love it!
 
Very cool! I was planning this very build. My goal was to put my gaming rig in one SG02-F and my server in another and stack the two.

That would work, if you use intakes on top/bottom, as exhaust would flow out the sides - make sure the sides are not blocked, especially the left side as there is some extra flow from the hd fan and maybe your video card if it exhausts some out the back.

My Gaming rig is a H70 cooling a 1090T with an unlocked 6950 Sapphire GPU. I was hoping my H70 would fit in the drive bays just like yours did.
I haven't compared the H70/H80, but I think the H70 is a little thinner. You'll have to measure everything very carefully before cutting/drilling. As I have said, my H80 is barely squeezed in there after modifying the PS connector to be more recessed inward
The Gaming rig would sit atop my low power server I want to put a passively cooled Seasonic PSU in. The Seasonic is meant to be inverted (with the fan, if there was one, facing up) I figured I would mount the PSU as intended and cut a vent above it too.

So have you tried setting the H80 as exhaust? I was hoping I could, maybe cutting some sort of vent in the bottom of the case.
I first put it as an exhaust configuration thinking that I can intake fresh air on the sides. I worried about the MB being too warm. But I later switched it to intake, and got 5-7 cooler cpu temps vs the 1-2 degrees on the case temps going up.
I was also hoping to make the blow hole(s) a series of holes using a drill press in order to match the vents on the side and above the PCI area.
More power to ya. I never could get those small holes aligned perfect.
/Long story short: Great case, I love it!

Thanks! The H80 has been holding up and working well as tightly fit as it is. The video card, not so much. It's doing 80-90c during BF3. I think it's because I have a soundblaster card between it and the side holes of the case. I have both top fans as intake blowing down on top of the GTX590 hoping it would supply enough air, but it barely does the job keeping the card GPU's below 90c while it's stressing. I'm considering watercooling it with maybe a dual 80 rad on the side and maybe something on the bottom. If I want to lift the lid off without it being attached to anything, I'm going to have to fabricate some sort of bracket to hold the rad on the side.
 
Thanks! The H80 has been holding up and working well as tightly fit as it is. The video card, not so much. It's doing 80-90c during BF3. I think it's because I have a soundblaster card between it and the side holes of the case. I have both top fans as intake blowing down on top of the GTX590 hoping it would supply enough air, but it barely does the job keeping the card GPU's below 90c while it's stressing. I'm considering watercooling it with maybe a dual 80 rad on the side and maybe something on the bottom. If I want to lift the lid off without it being attached to anything, I'm going to have to fabricate some sort of bracket to hold the rad on the side.

That is the only remaining concern I have with this case. I'll have an empty slot between the side vent and my video card so if heat becomes a issue I could always slap on an aftermarket cooler.

Oh btw would there be room to slip a 9.5mm SSD between the 5.25 bay and the metal support running along the side of the case? I think it would look cool through that rectangular cut out on the side (silly I know!).
 
That is the only remaining concern I have with this case. I'll have an empty slot between the side vent and my video card so if heat becomes a issue I could always slap on an aftermarket cooler.

Oh btw would there be room to slip a 9.5mm SSD between the 5.25 bay and the metal support running along the side of the case? I think it would look cool through that rectangular cut out on the side (silly I know!).

Nah, it's a pretty tight fit. In one of the pictures there you can see I have a cable stuffed in there, but it won't go down past the support. You can put an SSD just about anywhere though. The HDD bay in this case is a waste of space, it was designed for larger spin drives
 
With this case, I was wondering if I could sneak in a http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-bigwater760plusliquid-coolingsystem.html, it is the Thermaltake BigWater 760 Plus Liquid Cooling System. Would this work, or just overkill. I know if I were to put it in it, I would have to make a fab slot on top of it to vent it out. I just got this case for 50$ a few days ago and am thinking of making a killer Lan gaming machine/HTPC out of it. I am going to wait and see on a AMD A10 5800k, and see if that chip will be the one to go in it.
 
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