Another mATX gaming machine attempt

[Mousemagician]

Hi guys,
The life of we Hard Gamers in the small form factor never rests!

After moving from a mITX LianLi PC-Q08

to a mATX with the ThermalTake Armor A30

...I decided to change again.

Problems:

1. The Armor A30 wasn't quiet as wanted: the 6cm fans in the back were too loud even at idle
2. The 2x XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB in CrossfireX, with the Scythe Setsugen 2 coolers overheated when playing Batman Arkam City

Goals:

1. I needed a more efficient cooling
2. I wanted quietness

Thus, I found on eBay a beautiful LianLi PC-A4, silver, pre-owned, in pristine conditions, for a good price ($72.33 shipped)

Following, you will read the writing of this new adventure.

 

[Mousemagician]

Thus, I went vertical:

Some pics of the empty case

The 2X 12cm in the front are a pretty good start for cooling:

The 1X 12cm top fan will help cooling down CPU and the other components:

Finally, there is the option to add one 8cm fan in the back:

What's missing here?
The option of a side fan, or at least some vents there...
We'll see how it goes with the CrossfireX configuration...

 

[Mousemagician]

I had laying around 3 good Scythe 12cm Kaze-Juny PWM fans, 1,300 RPM, the perfect upgrade for the front intake and the top fan:

Who nowadays doesn't have 3 of these fans as a left over from former building projects?

These fans are pretty different compared to the original LianLi ones.
on the left, the LianLi, on the right, the Scythe:

The mounting screws for the front intake have rubber rings, to decrease vibration and for easy swap-in/out:

There is the new front intake:

...and the top exhaust:

Now, be ready... the first (unpleasant) surprise is on its way...

 

[D4rkn3ss]

Following, you will read the writing of this new adventure.

 

[Mousemagician]

The MoBo is in:
ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z, with a Intel i7 2600 oced @4.7GHz, the CPU cooler is a Thermaright APX-140 RT:

The Thermaright APX-140 RT got a Noise Blocker NB BlackSilent-PRO PK-2 14cm fan (I love it!):

There it is the problem:
The top fan hits the CPU cooler!
AAAAARGH!!!!!

I thought that flipping the APX-140 by 90 degrees would have fixed the issue, but with this orientation it hits the first VGA:

...but the solution was around the corner:
I installed a 12cm Scythe SY1212SL12L SLIM fan on the top:

...and it magically fits!

Who, nowadays, doesn't have a 12cm Scythe slim fan laying around from a former system building?
(...oh, did I already say that?)

 

[Mousemagician]

To compete the fan upgrade, I thought to add a 8cm fan to the back, as an intake:

It's a CoolerMaster 8cm, 3pin, that I purchased some day at my local MicroCenter, with 80% discount (I go there every week to find bargains like this); I believe I spent 2-3 USD for this one!
I don't remember the model or specs, but this fan is quiet and surprisingly moves significant air.

Here, how the assembling looks like:

At the end of the day, though, I had to change fan orientation:

• The top became INTAKE
• The back became EXHAUST

Doing so, it dropped 5C on the CPU and 10C on the MoBo!

 

[Mousemagician]

The main HD is a 128GB Crucial C300.
There is a nice spot just below the HDD cage:

I got a couple of 5.25" to 3.5" adapters to move the spinning HDs from the bottom cage to where the HHDs should be:

They fit perfectly behind the 5.25" silver covers:

These brackets had to be opened

...and adjusted to clip-in in the empty holes (the setting on the top is the right one):

Here, the 3 HDs:

Moving the HDs to the top bays, I hoped to have enough air form the intake to cool the 2 HD 6950 2GB.
As matter of fact, they are pretty sandwitched...

Instead, I had a freeze while playing Max Payne 3 when the top VGA card hit 100C!!!!

Guess what?
I needed more cooling...

 

[Mousemagician]

Whatever, I put back the smaller HD cage

...and prepared the top of it with some vibration dampening foam to host a fan:

I first went for a quiet queen: the 92mm Nexus DF1209SL-3

...then, I though: what the heck, I have some 14cm Noise Blocker BlackSilenPRO PK-3 in the closet!
Why not this one, instead?

 

[Mousemagician]

So, I have powerful breeze blowing to the CrossFireX configuration controlled by the ASUS AI Suite Fan Expert software.
It's efficient and quite, finally!

Here, some temp readings during Prime95:

CPU MAX temp: 81C
MoBo MAX temp: 35C
GPU MAX temps: 43C on the top and 40C the bottom

Here, the system idling:

CPU: 39C
MoBo: 45C

The GPU temps of the top card, the hottest one during gaming, under stress (UNIGINE DX11):

These the benchmarks, all maxed out:

Finally, the Max Payne 3 test:

...with the highest setting possible with these VGAs:

 

[Mousemagician]

I'm very happy with this case.

• It is "light-years" better than the Thermal Right Armor A30 as for airflow and cable management.
• It is elegant, the LianLi style is still unbeatable to me.
• The front 2X 12cm fan grille screams for a decent radiator and the case could afford a water cooling solution.

I already know that for something like the Corsair H100, or the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme, I have to cut out the HHD bays, but it is still feasible.
I'm also thinking to a custom solution, with some loops for the CrossFireX VGAs, but it can be an overkilling... I would rather do that for a newer VGA setting (GTX 680 or a next to be 700 SLI maybe?).


Anyways, this system is so far the most satisfying build that I made so far, I love it!


Thank you for reading.

 

[xyexz]

Nice looking build, lots of fans, I love the slim fans too, I use some in my Thermaltake Armor A30 build.

 

[D4rkn3ss]

Thank you for reading.

 

[Mousemagician]

Nice looking build, lots of fans, I love the slim fans too, I use some in my Thermaltake Armor A30 build.

Hi xyexz,
I read your build when you posted it, I liked how you fitted the rad inside the case.
The Armor A30 is quite a challenge for a gaming build.
I changed fans endless times until I got a good cooling, but at the expenses of the quietness.
Now, I have the Armor A30 in a corner of my bedroom and a lot of 6 cm fans everywhere.
These Scythe 12 cm slim fans move some air... they are also quite noisy when spinning at max.
I ended up with 2 slim PWM fans for the Setsugens, connected to the 4-pin header in the VGA through an adapter for videocard fans.
The PWM slim fans came directly from Scythe. I wrote to the customer service and Ramon Pasqua sent me 2X SY1212SL12M-P that are sold with their BIG SHURIKEN SCBSK-1000 CPU cooler.
These fans are sensibly more silent than the original 3-pin ones with rheostat that are sold with the Setsugen 2, but also less powerful.
Anyways, the 14 cm NB PK-3 fixed all the cooling issues with the CrossfireX setting, and it's perfectly silent until I push it with games.
Men this fans are an addition to me!

 

[xyexz]

Hi xyexz,
I read your build when you posted it, I liked how you fitted the rad inside the case.
The Armor A30 is quite a challenge for a gaming build.
I changed fans endless times until I got a good cooling, but at the expenses of the quietness.
Now, I have the Armor A30 in a corner of my bedroom and a lot of 6 cm fans everywhere.
These Scythe 12 cm slim fans move some air... they are also quite noisy when spinning at max.
I ended up with 2 slim PWM fans for the Setsugens, connected to the 4-pin header in the VGA through an adapter for videocard fans.
The PWM slim fans came directly from Scythe. I wrote to the customer service and Ramon Pasqua sent me 2X SY1212SL12M-P that are sold with their BIG SHURIKEN SCBSK-1000 CPU cooler.
These fans are sensibly more silent than the original 3-pin ones with rheostat that are sold with the Setsugen 2, but also less powerful.
Anyways, the 14 cm NB PK-3 fixed all the cooling issues with the CrossfireX setting, and it's perfectly silent until I push it with games.
Men this fans are an addition to me!

It's definitely a challenge in stock form, if you can deal with removing the optical drive and using 2 x 3.5inch drives plus 2 x 2.5inch drives you can turn the case into a beast doing something like what I did but it's pretty extreme mod and takes some work and lots of fans.