Ulti's Final Build - Mini ITX (Hopefully)

Introduction (very long, feel free to skip to post 2)
I joined the build-your-own-pc world almost 2 years ago (beginning of 2009), rocking a E5200 and some cheap G31 board. Wanting to overclock, I got a P35 board and went a bit further.

Just before christmas 2009, I got myself a "real" mid-end graphics card, the 4770. It was a massive improvement over the low profile 8600GT I had and allowed me to play games on 1280*1024 on high settings! Getting bored with my case, I changed to a NZXT M59 and rocked up the case with LED fans during christmas 2009. Not long after the new year, I got a new DFI P45-T2RS motherboard as it was now EOL so it was on Scan for a bargain! (£50/60 IIRC).

Wanting to see what the AMD quad cores were like, I decided to move over to a Phenom II X4 955 system in Feb 2010, not even a month since I bought that P45 motherboard! During this month I got an Intel X25-V SSD too! It was sooooooo fast! Loved the performance that later down the line I got the X25-M and it was just as fast and I've kept it to the very day. That and my WD 640GB Black HDD is all that I've actually kept in my current build. 1 month down allowed me to get a a 24" LED monitor which I loved for watching 1080p stuff.

3 months down the line, I ditched the AMD quad core and moved to an i7 system to try to increase my e-peen over 9000. I never thought that as an A level student I would be spending so much of my own money on a pc! I ventured into the world of cable braiding and although it wasn't brilliant I loved it (although I hated how long it took and the pain that was left in my hands after). I even grabbed a 5850. Man was it nice to brag about my i7 pc with 6GB DDR3 RAM and a 5850 even though almost noone knew wtf I was talking about.



Another half a year down the line (Nov 2010), I decided I wanted to try out an mATX case and rebuilt my system in a Lian Li PC-V350 and only changed my ATX motherboard to an mATX motherboard. Also got rid of the 5850 for a 6850 before the price of the 5850 plummeted and pocketed a bit of cash.



Now not even 2 months down I've decided to build an mini ITX system. This was mainly down to two reasons:
-University made me release there is more to life than sitting at home with an i7 and doing nothing with it.
-Got a girlfriend and so pcs automatically receive less attention.

I then proceeded to sell off my i7 system before Sandybridge came out and have managed to sell everything except the case.

I decided the most strenuous task my pc would be doing would be playing League of Legends and even then, it's mostly cel shaded so it didn't require massive horsepower. I didn't require 4 cores so I decided the i3 was the right way to go for me. I didn't want to risk it with the graphics card though incase a game that I would love came out on the PC (highly unlikely as I'm not really an fps/rts fan, more jrpg but there aren't really any on the pc :S) so I decided to keep the 6850 as it's nice to have graphics power. I wanted the system to be small without paying over the top prices for it so an i3 mini ITX system was perfect for me. I really loved the look of ASRock Vision 3D 137B and it was ticking all the boxes for me as it was affordable and had an i3 chip but it only had a GT425M so I decided to put functionality over style.

Well the intro's finally ended, sorry about the long intro!

The Build

First of, let me just apologise for the picture quality, I'm only using a point and shoot digital camera so the photos aren't going to be the best.

Parts list: (note: these are the prices I roughly paid)
CPU: i3 540 (£70)
Motherboard: Gigabyte H55N-USB3 (£76)
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Kingston 1333Mhz CL9 DDR3 (£30)
Graphics: XFX 6850 Dual Fan Edition (£142)
Storage: Intel X25-M 80GB (£105) and WD Caviar Black 640GB (£50)
Case: Lian Li PC-Q11 (£85)
PSU: Seasonic S12II-330W (£30)

Total: £433 excluding storage as I already had them. Technically it was £291 before I bought the newer 6850. Including storage and graphics card it totals £588. A bit expensive I do have to say but the bang for buck isn't that bad.



Boxshot! The case hadn't arrived yet so it wasn't included in that photo. Damn the snow!





First up, the i3 540 with the stock cooler. I'm currently using the stock cooler and I HATE it, it's so loud and whines a hell load! I'd definitely advise anyone with the stock cooler to chuck it in the nearest bin because of how crap it is. It's amazingly thin though. That's probably why it performs so badly though.



Next up, the Gigabyte H55N-USB3. The box is absoltely tiny! It's as deep as a normal motherboard box but it's height and width isn't much bigger than the 140mm fan box as shown above!

Let's open it up!



No space wasted at all in the box.



Doesn't come with much, 2 SATA cables, backplate and some manuals. That's it. Really don't need more than that though.



You don't really appreciate the size until you see it in real life.



Sticker off. Not much cooling on the board, but it probably won't require much as there aren't that many crazy people who would run the i7 870 on a board like this. Those that would can probably afford to burn through 100 of these boards though.

Notice how the PCI-E slot is perpendicular to the RAM slot with the CPU socket right in between though. Rather bad placement IMO as the CPU cooler will most likely interfere with RAM with tall heatsinks as well as the graphics card and that's not something you want.







Just some size comparisons between mini ITX vs microATX vs ATX. Notice how microATX is pretty much the same as ATX with only a few PCI slots cut off and look how much smaller the mini ITX board is! Just over half the height of the ATX and just over two thirds in width.



CPU goes in pretty simply.



My super cheap Kingston RAM! Only cost £30 brand new for the 4GB! I thought it would be standard size though so I bought the heatsinks. They do fit fine though. Unfortunately one stick of RAM was faulty so I had to RMA it with Play which they handed finely.



Comparison of regular DDR3 RAM with the Kingston mini ones. I can't believe they were that low in height and perform exactly the same! They even run really cool to the touch with little to no airflow over them. Wasted a tenner on the RAM heatsinks. Might stick them on one day though if they fit, unsure if they do.



I doubt the RAM heatsinks will fit :S They are massively tall!







Just some more pictures of the various heights.

As the case had not arrived yet and I had sold my i7 system, I decided to get the system up and running with my CoolIT Eco ALC. However, I knew this wasn't going to be simply plug and play.





As you can see, the bracket is sitting on component and I didn't want to risk crushing it so I had to use a cooler with a different bracket. Luckily I still had my Noctua NH-U12P lying around.



However it also suffered from the same problem.



It was really easy to cut the rubber though so I proceeded to chip away until it fit nicely.





The motherboard is dwarfed by the NH-U12P! It's not even that big either, imagine something like the DH-14 or whatever the massive expensive Noctua heatsink is called.



I've always loved XFX's industrial urban sort of look, love the box design.





Love how the 6850 only requires 1 PCI-E cable and runs so cool whilst providing excellent performance. Although the actual cooler is poor I love the design.









I just find it a bit amusing to see how the cooler and graphics card dwarves the board. I'd love to see the 5970 and DH-14 paired up with this board, you probably wouldn't be able to see it haha.





My trusty storage! The only components that I've retained!







Lovely small Seasonic S12II 330W. Perfect for the components I've picked. Doesn't come with much, only the mains cable, case sticker, case screws and molex to floppy adapter as well as a manual. Would have been nice to see some cable ties but at £30 this is a steal! 80 Plus Bronze certification too!



Some may say it's better to get a modular PSU but I don't think it's worth paying double the price as the cable lengths aren't too long and I'm using all the connectors except all the molex. I'm thinking of cutting them off later when I cable braid the PSU (provided I have time and ain't too lazy).



Unfortunately the cable sleeving is stuck with glue though, it's going to make it slightly more difficult to sleeve.

The case arrived!











Just comes packaged as all cases do. It is very light though!









Very clean, simple understated look. Not as clean as the Fractal Design cases but it's as close as it gets. Constructed fully from aluminium though so it is a massive fingerprint magnet!

Two USB3 headers in the front with a the usual blue power button and the red reset button. Also allows for a full size optical drive. I reckon they could have gone with a slim optical bay to cut down the height by a few centimetres. If they cut the whole thing out and made the case cheaper by perhaps a tenner it would have been even greater! Would save about 2 inches in height!



Comes with the usual box of stuff, instructions, some weird brown piece of paper saying corrosion proof as well as a leaflet with other Lian Li products.



Inside the box of stuff we have the Lian Li case badge, screws, stand offs (they're not in this picture though, not sure where I put them ), speaker, as well as extra USB headers.







Just a size comparison with the Lian Li PC-V350. It's about 2 inches taller (I really wish they left out the optical drive now! It would have been shorter than the Lian Li PC-V350 without it!) It's quite a bit thinner and is no where near as deep as the Lian Li PC-V350.





Inside you can see it's quite small, quite clean though. But you can see the cables are far too long. I'm not sure what Lian Li were thinking when they made the front panel connectors so long.



Mounting the optical drive was as simple as it gets; unscrew the bracket, screw the optical drive in, pop the bracket back in and screw it back up. Done.





The provided Lian Li fan is actually quite nice. It simply slides out with a little pull and comes with a fan guard on the inside and mesh on the other (intake) side. However I'm replacing it with:

The Thermalright X-Silent 140. It actually is silent. It's much quieter than then 6850 above on 10% fan. I can't hear it at all unless my ear is right up to it. It also moves quite a bit of air. Brilliant fan I have to say, it didn't cost anything crazy either, think it was £8. IIRC the Noctuas were over £10, not sure though. Hate the colours of the Noctua fans though. The fan is already braided so that's a nice touch and comes with rubber mounts as well as the regular case screws and molex adapter. However these are all unneeded.



The mesh guard taken off.



Just a regular fan guard.



Thermaltake X-Silent 140 ready!



Next up is mounting the HDD and SSD.



Simply unscrew the bracket out of the case again.



SSD is mounted on the bottom.



The HDD is mounted using rubber rings on a screw that simply slides into the bracket.





Storage mounted.



Bracket goes back in pretty easily. To be fair I think it's quite unlikely that a person will use 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs, I reckon they could have got rid of the bracket and just allowed the mounting of the HDD or SSD to the case floor, would have again saved a bit of height. Even if it didn't save any height it would give the graphics card more room for the airflow.









I was hoping to get a cooler but unfortunately the cooler I want (The Arctic Cooler Freezer 11 LP) still hasn't arrived in UK yet so I've just had the motherboard wired up sitting on a notebook in the case.

As I could not screw the side panels up easily (well I'd have to find something for the motherboard to sit on and I was too lazy haha) I just left them lying in the case box and had the PC sitting like that for a few days and the 6850 fan really got to me as it was semi-open air. It wasn't exactly loud but I could just hear the motor whine and the PSU and intake fan was silent so it was quite obvious. This meant I had to either change the fan or change the graphics card or just live with it.









Luckily a dual fan edition of the 6850 came out just in time and it was on Scan's Today Only too! It was the 23rd and I was so lucky to receive it the day after on the 24th! Perfect I'd have to say.

The 2 fans are actually silent! It's hard to believe 2 fans are more silent than one but it's true. Even when the fan speed goes up it's very quiet still. In the last photo you can see that the dual fan edition has much more metal than the puny original cooler. It cools much better too. IIRC it just about hit 60 degrees whilst the original hits 70. Although it's only a 10c difference, the reduction in noise levels was worth it IMO.



I gave up waiting for the cooler for now and used the stock cooler. Little did I know, this was a bad idea! I didn't think it would be as loud as it is; if I knew it was this loud I would have just stuck with my motherboard-sitting-on-a-notepad-whilst-resting-in-case mount.







Doesn't look too messy so far. Notice how the USB 3.0 cables have to be routed to the back of the motherboard as there is no universal onboard motherboard connector yet.

Time to bring in the PSU!











The PSU just mounts onto a bracket and simply slides in and then you screw the bracket in with thumbscrews. I was a bit stupid to wire the connectors up without realising I wouldn't be able to slide the PSU in without pulling all the connectors up again so it was a bit annoying as I had to leave the PSU half hanging whilst doing the connectors up. Wasn't exactly hard though. I tucked in the unused molex cables in the bottom right of the case. As I said earlier I will probably cut these off though as they will never be used.







Decided to stick the Lian Li badge on the bottom mid as it looks pretty nice there. With the side panels back up it looks very tidy haha.

Well that's all for now!

To do:

1. Wait for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP to arrive in the UK.
2. Sleeve the PSU and cut the molex cables off and sort out cable management a bit more.

Not much more to do but uni will be starting again next week so I may not even sleeve the PSU if it gets busy. Taking a while for my sleeving to arrive from mdpc-x though

wow.. Thats one of the most detailed build logs I have ever seen.. I am not nearly as ambitious with my build logs.. Excellent build though. The one thing I would have changed is the PSU.. The short cable kit for the Silverstone strider PSU's make them about all I will use in a SFF..

Bastage, I about cant see a post where you dont tell us about that PSU (Admittedly, you're right) Ironically, I am using a SeaSonic in mine as well, just the 520W version. Cables being modded.

And it is a great build. Seems to have come together rather quickly. Either that or you did one hell of a lot of planning!

My log probably wont have as many pictures because I get something done, then say "wow, a picture would have been nice!" or more likely, "damn, I forgot to take a picture."

wwischerath said:

Bastage, I about cant see a post where you dont tell us about that PSU (Admittedly, you're right) Ironically, I am using a SeaSonic in mine as well, just the 520W version. Cables being modded.

And it is a great build. Seems to have come together rather quickly. Either that or you did one hell of a lot of planning!

My log probably wont have as many pictures because I get something done, then say "wow, a picture would have been nice!" or more likely, "damn, I forgot to take a picture."

Click to expand...

If seasonic made a short cable kit I wouldn't be using the silverstone.. But I am not willing to mod the PSU, & after my 1st mITX build with a corsair modular that had 36" cables trying to get crammed into a lian li pc-q07 I am a firm believer that the shorter cables are just flat out better for the mitx builds.. Right now though silverstone is the only manufacturer really catering to this.

bastage said:

The one thing I would have changed is the PSU.. The short cable kit for the Silverstone strider PSU's make them about all I will use in a SFF..

Click to expand...

The thing is the cheapest fully modular one here in the UK is the 500W one which provides too much power and costs double the Seasonic. It is also longer too which defeats the point of a modular PSU to me. I was thinking of getting a SFX PSU but decided I probably won't need the extra space in the case and that I didn't want to risk it with a 80mm fan as I've never liked the sound of them, far too whiny. The short cable kit costs another £20 here in the UK so it would have totalled £80 as opposed to the current £30 I've spent on the Seasonic. If anything does go wrong whilst I'm modding/sleeving the Seasonic (if I do get to that point) then I wouldn't mind folking out another £30 as it's so cheap.

I was quite tempted to get the red case though but the price of it put me off, it would also stand out far too much in my room.

wwischerath said:

And it is a great build. Seems to have come together rather quickly. Either that or you did one hell of a lot of planning!

My log probably wont have as many pictures because I get something done, then say "wow, a picture would have been nice!" or more likely, "damn, I forgot to take a picture."

Click to expand...

Thank you. I didn't really do much planning, just went with the flow really, there's obviously much more cable management that I can do but I'm lazy so I won't bother with it until I can get the right cooler for it.

I know what you mean about the pictures! That's why my log is really long, I pretty much took a picture at every moment I had. It's also probably why it took about 4 hours altogether to get from unboxing to what it is now. If I didn't take pictures and didn't have it setup in the "half way point" (where I just laid the motherboard on my notepad with the Noctua NH-U12P) it probably would have taken 2 hours at most, easily.

I hate how I can't find any stock on the Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP :S Seems like the perfect cooler for me, it will be a bit of a tight fit though but I think it should fit without modification. It's been on the AC site for about a month now, surely even with xmas it shouldn't take that long to get stock out to the rest of the world.

I'd love to see how it performs against the usual Shuriken models though as the Shuriken is quite a popular cooler for this board.

Does anyone else know of other coolers?

As I said, I also got a SeaSonic and price was a factor. Since my best utilized skill on the job is wiring, I already have my PSU apart and have removed the unneeded wires and as soon as I have the mobo I will be shortening the rest. The neat part is that when I removed the excess I now have black sleeving to use on the case wires! Since I am waiting for parts, I will get some pics and get them posted.
The Arctic HSF looks nice, but its a hair too tall for my Q07.

As for other coolers, Cooljag Falcon II is a good low profile cooler. Not sure on UK availability. AXP 140 is another highly recommended cooler, as is the Samuel 17. Both of those are a bit pricy and dont include fans.

I also have a PC-Q11 and thought it would my final case but I highly doubt it. Just like you, I wish that it didn't have the 5.25" bay, allowing it to be shorter.

I finally received my AXP-140 today but I won't be installing it, along with a Zalman Fanmate 2 (for front fan), and longer sata cables for better routing, until maybe Sunday. I won't be using a fan on the AXP-140; I doubt it'll be needed since the i3-540 doesn't emit that much heat and I prefer silence.

wwischerath said:

Since my best utilized skill on the job is wiring, I already have my PSU apart and have removed the unneeded wires and as soon as I have the mobo I will be shortening the rest.
The Arctic HSF looks nice, but its a hair too tall for my Q07.

As for other coolers, Cooljag Falcon II is a good low profile cooler. Not sure on UK availability. AXP 140 is another highly recommended cooler, as is the Samuel 17. Both of those are a bit pricy and dont include fans.

Click to expand...

Yup, the Seasonic is sold over here in the UK at a much cheaper price than the competitors (well the 330W one is anyway) Unfortunately I'm no pro at soldering so I'm not going to be making any custom wires nor am I going to shorten the wires as I don't trust myself to haha.

Unfortunately the Cooljag Falcon II is not sold here. The AXP 140 and Samuel 17 are also too expensive, especially the Samuel 17 with it's subpar performance. The AXP 140 is a good performer but I don't want to try fit that in my case as it looks rather massive.

wonSR4 said:

I also have a PC-Q11 and thought it would my final case but I highly doubt it. Just like you, I wish that it didn't have the 5.25" bay, allowing it to be shorter.

I finally received my AXP-140 today but I won't be installing it, along with a Zalman Fanmate 2 (for front fan), and longer sata cables for better routing, until maybe Sunday. I won't be using a fan on the AXP-140; I doubt it'll be needed since the i3-540 doesn't emit that much heat and I prefer silence.

Click to expand...

Well if Lian Li release a smaller mini ITX I'll probably end up getting it, provided it isn't too expensive. I do quite like the size of the Sugo-SG05 but I'm not fond of it's looks at all, just can't go back to steel cases after using Lian Li. I would say the layout in the SG05 is so much better though! But it's not as if the Q11 is a complete nightmare, just it's a bit far from perfect. I would never say it's a bad case though.

I'm looking foward to seeing you install the AXP-140! However you have the ST45SF which is a SFX PSU, allowing you a bit more height for the CPU cooler. Would be great if you could give me some temperatures too as I might be getting it instead of the Freezer 11 LP as I'm fed up of waiting for it.

My viewpoint on the q11 seems to be a bit higher then most.. If I had the ability to change anything on it there would be very little I would change. I like having the 5.25" drive bay for those times when I still need to burn a disk, & if it was missing & the case was shorter then it would look like a cube, & I rather like the tower look. I would like to hold a bigger video card, but at what point would that need to stop, It would be way to big to hold all. I would rather see the hardware manufacturers make shit smaller. But as it is I am happy with the 6850 in teh q11. I Still think its alot of power for the small case. & It sitting on my desk getting dwarfed by my Hanns 28" lcd is also kind of a neet sight too

I almost bought a Q11... I really like the setup. What stopped me was realizing it wouldnt fit in my backpack and the Q07 does. Yes, when travelling it will go with me, not checked luggage. I should get some funny looks when going thru security with a laptop and desktop in my backpack!
And I agree with keeping the ODD. Using a USB one would just be one more thing on my crowded desk. Or one more thing to lose. Besides, the internal one is MUCH cheaper.
I love reading about both Q11 and Q07 builds.

Ulti, if you are going to remove the molex connectors your options are to cut off outside the case, then I would heat shrink each individual wire. Or open it up and remove from there. Hardest part about that was lining up the fan for reassembly. If you do it internally, then I would just shrink wrap the wires in groups. Internally is a little more work, but when finished no one can tell you did it. ( I love stealth mods)

wwischerath said:

I almost bought a Q11... I really like the setup. What stopped me was realizing it wouldnt fit in my backpack and the Q07 does. Yes, when travelling it will go with me, not checked luggage. I should get some funny looks when going thru security with a laptop and desktop in my backpack!
And I agree with keeping the ODD. Using a USB one would just be one more thing on my crowded desk. Or one more thing to lose. Besides, the internal one is MUCH cheaper.
I love reading about both Q11 and Q07 builds.

Ulti, if you are going to remove the molex connectors your options are to cut off outside the case, then I would heat shrink each individual wire. Or open it up and remove from there. Hardest part about that was lining up the fan for reassembly. If you do it internally, then I would just shrink wrap the wires in groups. Internally is a little more work, but when finished no one can tell you did it. ( I love stealth mods)

Click to expand...

yeah, I have a habit of keeping my cases unassuming

Ulti said:

Well if Lian Li release a smaller mini ITX I'll probably end up getting it, provided it isn't too expensive. I do quite like the size of the Sugo-SG05 but I'm not fond of it's looks at all, just can't go back to steel cases after using Lian Li. I would say the layout in the SG05 is so much better though! But it's not as if the Q11 is a complete nightmare, just it's a bit far from perfect. I would never say it's a bad case though.

I'm looking foward to seeing you install the AXP-140! However you have the ST45SF which is a SFX PSU, allowing you a bit more height for the CPU cooler. Would be great if you could give me some temperatures too as I might be getting it instead of the Freezer 11 LP as I'm fed up of waiting for it.

Click to expand...

Yeah agreed. After using Lian Lis for the past 2-3 builds, I feel like I can't go back to steel or plastic. Having a SFX PSU certainly helps more than having a ATX PSU. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. I'll have to pry off my Big Shuriken first without breaking the push pins. I'll also give temperatures as soon as I can.

bastage said:

I like having the 5.25" drive bay for those times when I still need to burn a disk, & if it was missing & the case was shorter then it would look like a cube, & I rather like the tower look. I would like to hold a bigger video card...

Click to expand...

Well I'd rather just have an external DVD RW drive as I don't burn many discs at all and it reads discs fine. Obviously they do cost a little more but they're still cheap compared to other hardware anyway. I do like the tower look myself but the smaller the pc is the better, I just love the idea of power in such a small size. Personally I think the graphics card size is perfect, the 6850 is brilliant IMO.

wwischerath said:

I almost bought a Q11... I really like the setup. What stopped me was realizing it wouldnt fit in my backpack and the Q07 does. Yes, when travelling it will go with me, not checked luggage. I should get some funny looks when going thru security with a laptop and desktop in my backpack!
And I agree with keeping the ODD. Using a USB one would just be one more thing on my crowded desk. Or one more thing to lose. Besides, the internal one is MUCH cheaper.
I love reading about both Q11 and Q07 builds.

Ulti, if you are going to remove the molex connectors your options are to cut off outside the case, then I would heat shrink each individual wire. Or open it up and remove from there. Hardest part about that was lining up the fan for reassembly. If you do it internally, then I would just shrink wrap the wires in groups. Internally is a little more work, but when finished no one can tell you did it. ( I love stealth mods)

Click to expand...

Haha I wanted to build a super small pc with decent graphics power that I could take on the train but I don't think it's actually possible. Like I said in my earlier posts the closest thing to that was the Asrock Vision 3D nettop but it's only a GT425M IIRC, nowhere near the power of a 6850. Probs wouldn't even match a 3850. I don't want a laptop either as they cost a ton for decent specs compared to their desktop power equivalent.

I'm definitely going to be hiding it inside the PSU but I haven't even opened it up yet so not sure. I've got a lot of uni work that needs doing and uni is starting soon so I'm going to have to leave the build on standby for now! I just received my mdpc-x parcel today too Would suck if I screwed up the PSU and then I wouldn't even be able to use my pc to do my uni work so I'll leave it until I finish my uni work haha.

wonSR4 said:

Yeah agreed. After using Lian Lis for the past 2-3 builds, I feel like I can't go back to steel or plastic. Having a SFX PSU certainly helps more than having a ATX PSU. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. I'll have to pry off my Big Shuriken first without breaking the push pins. I'll also give temperatures as soon as I can.

Click to expand...

Yeah, gotta love the full aluminium look.

That would be great, I'm assuming the AXP-140 would fit with an ATX PSU right? Will you rely on the intake fan for airflow or are you going to have your PSU facing the AXP-140 and intaking air from it too? Thanks!

Ulti said:

That would be great, I'm assuming the AXP-140 would fit with an ATX PSU right? Will you rely on the intake fan for airflow or are you going to have your PSU facing the AXP-140 and intaking air from it too? Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it does fit with an ATX PSU. It's 70.2mm in height. As for the orientation of the PSU fan, it's going to be facing the AXP-140; yeah it'll help exhaust some air out, but mostly because the cables coming out of the PSU are closer towards the bottom of the case with the PSU fan facing inward.

wonSR4 said:

I'm not sure if it does fit with an ATX PSU. It's 70.2mm in height. As for the orientation of the PSU fan, it's going to be facing the AXP-140; yeah it'll help exhaust some air out, but mostly because the cables coming out of the PSU are closer towards the bottom of the case with the PSU fan facing inward.

Click to expand...

After going through the whole Q11 thread it seems the AXP-140 would fit. In the UK it costs £51 for the version with the brackets and fan or £40+£6 for the socket 775 version and the socket 1156 bracket. Rather expensive... Not sure if I want to go for this option. If I do though I'll be flipping the PSU around too I guess to create some airflow from the intake, through the heatsink, out the PSU. Really hope the Freezer 11 LP comes into stock though as it's perfect for my budget.

Ulti said:

After going through the whole Q11 thread it seems the AXP-140 would fit. In the UK it costs £51 for the version with the brackets and fan or £40+£6 for the socket 775 version and the socket 1156 bracket. Rather expensive... Not sure if I want to go for this option. If I do though I'll be flipping the PSU around too I guess to create some airflow from the intake, through the heatsink, out the PSU. Really hope the Freezer 11 LP comes into stock though as it's perfect for my budget.

Click to expand...

Yeah it is a little expensive but I felt it was the best option for me that allow use of the PCI-E slot for future use, potentially allow me to go fanless on the HSF without compromising too much when it comes to cooling. And if worse comes to worse cooling-wise, I could always try and attach a slipstream 12mm fan onto it.

Although I feel like I may have to do something about my 5400 rpm 2.5 HD that I use as secondary storage for documents, pictures, and what not because I feel like since there are no rubber gromments and it attaches directly to the HD cage, it's vibrating against the cage

Ah does the Big Shuriken block off the PCI-E slot? I remember seeing a big cooler that blocked off the PCI-E slot but can't remember which it was.

Just tried Gigabyte's EasyTune6 and SpeedFan to try and control that bastard of a fan on the stock cooler but no results... Guess I'm going to have to live with the annoying fan noise for a while. The noise doesn't help when I'm trying to do my uni maths work haha.

A piece of foam with some holes in it should be ok, or get some double sided tape and stick it onto a few pieces of foam if you don't mind the residue that it leaves. If you move your case a lot then you'll need something like zip ties I guess. This is more the poor man's solution haha, you could buy a 3.5" to 2.5" bay or something... Not sure if they'll have to right mounting holes though, plus it'll probs vibrate against the bay.

Ulti said:

Ah does the Big Shuriken block off the PCI-E slot? I remember seeing a big cooler that blocked off the PCI-E slot but can't remember which it was.

A piece of foam with some holes in it should be ok, or get some double sided tape and stick it onto a few pieces of foam if you don't mind the residue that it leaves. If you move your case a lot then you'll need something like zip ties I guess. This is more the poor man's solution haha, you could buy a 3.5" to 2.5" bay or something... Not sure if they'll have to right mounting holes though, plus it'll probs vibrate against the bay.

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Yes, unfortunately the Big Shuriken does block off the PCI-E slot. As for the latter suggestion, I'm guessing you're talking about a solution about my 2.5" hard driving sounding like its vibrating against the hard drive cage thing. I think I'd rather keep my hard drives all together if possible. I just gotta make sure I pick up a few fibre washers or something like Kazei used in his build using the same H55N-USB3 and AXP-140.

Ulti said:

Ah does the Big Shuriken block off the PCI-E slot? I remember seeing a big cooler that blocked off the PCI-E slot but can't remember which it was.

Click to expand...

The Big Shuriken will block the pcie slot on all of the h55/7 mITX boards due to the CPU socket being low.. If you were doing an AMD though the Big Shuriken looks like it was made for the Asus m4a88t-i deluxe. Basically covers everything that isn't important.

wonSR4 said:

Yes, unfortunately the Big Shuriken does block off the PCI-E slot. As for the latter suggestion, I'm guessing you're talking about a solution about my 2.5" hard driving sounding like its vibrating against the hard drive cage thing. I think I'd rather keep my hard drives all together if possible. I just gotta make sure I pick up a few fibre washers or something like Kazei used in his build using the same H55N-USB3 and AXP-140.

Click to expand...

bastage said:

The Big Shuriken will block the pcie slot on all of the h55/7 mITX boards due to the CPU socket being low.. If you were doing an AMD though the Big Shuriken looks like it was made for the Asus m4a88t-i deluxe. Basically covers everything that isn't important.

Click to expand...

Ah I was hoping that if the Freezer 11 LP takes too long to arrive in the UK I'd end up getting the Big Shuriken instead.. But seems that choice is gone now. Hopefully I don't have to folk out the money for the AXP-140, uni starting again tomorrow so bank balance is gonna drop haha.

Hm installed AXP-140, zalman fanmate 2 for front fan, and longer sata cables today. Almost had a heart attack when while installing the AXP-140 with the washers on the back when the motherboard accidentally toppled over and hit the floor; one of the corners of the motherboard is slightly bent but otherwise functions normally--thank goodness. As for temperatures, it's about 62 degrees F in my room and the idle temperatures are about 35-39 degrees C and around 60 degrees C while doing intel burn test.

I'm sorry for not replying but thank you so much for getting back to me! That's very unfortunate that your motherboard fell on the floor but luckily it still works and I guess that's the most important thing! The temperatures don't seem that decent but as it is fanless it's pretty good, it's at least better if not on par with the stock cooler without any noise at all!

I'm still waiting for my Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP... I should have just ordered it directly from AC but it should come out any day now...

Really wanna build another mITX system for my girlfriend, but it will need to be much more smaller though as she's living in uni halls and there ain't much room when I'm staying at hers, guess I'll make a new thread to get some recommendations.

you went from a i7 back to an i3... as we say in GenMay... YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. Nice build log though. Isn't hardware lust NICE!?