Antec Aluminum MicroATX Cube

Thanks for the info, I 've switched the CPU fan for a silent 80mm, sucking.. so it blows right into bottom of PSU.. my temps start at 34, and climb into mid 50's.. which is fine, but I notice that the temps never go back down...

The case definitely needs fresh air.. I'll start with a blowhole on the CPU side to draw in cool air, see how that does..

The machine is totally over-kill for a 4 year old to play Nemo and Dora the Explorer, but if I gave my daughter a wimpy machine, she'd know is wasn't [H] ard :))

EP
 
Ha, [H]ardness must be in her blood! Maybe she'll be building them by the time she's 7.

I take mine to work and I've taken it to LAN parties before. It's a lot easier to carry than a full-sized ATX case -- although a 19-inch monitor more than makes up for that. :D

Most heatsinks work better with the fans blowing down, into the heatsink. About the only ones that I remember that actually specified sucking rather than blowing are some old Alpha sinks.
 
Pecos said:
Ha, [H]ardness must be in her blood! Maybe she'll be building them by the time she's 7.
Click to expand...

LOL, now thats funny! I just bought this case for my 4 year old daughter because she felt left out that I gave my oldest an Shuttle SN45G, so I'm building her a new box using the Aria.

Thanks for the inputs on the AGP/PCI slot screws. I got the same bit of advice from the store I bought it at. Guess they've have a few returns due to the "soft" metal used on the case and poor placement (too close to the edge of the 90 degree bend) of the screw holes themselves. :rolleyes:

-E
 
Hey everyone, well I'm new to this forum but I gotta say, this forums pretty darn good...
well I'm planning on building a system based on:

Antec Aria Case
AMD 64 3200 - clawhammer - zalman alu/copper heatsink fan
corsair xms 1gb 3200
raptor 74gb 10000rpm - applications - antec hard drive cooler (2 fans)
wd 120gb SATA or IDE - storage
gigabyte sis 760 chipset
9800 pro 256mb - arctic cooling vga silencer
cdrw/dvd-rom optical drive


You guys think this system will run? Any suggestions, would appreciate some feedback and also was thinking of modding the case. I probably should huh because of all this stuff?
 
Welcome to the forums MAB!

What mobo are you planning on? I think with those two drives you are going to have some heat issues, the second drive would mount in there vertically and really plug things up air flow wise, but I'm sure with some creativity you can mod it to fit your needs. You might have some issues with clearance and that HD cooler also. You might get a better view of the guts of the Aria if you check out the pics in my Water Cooled Aria thread somewhere on this page, it bounces up and down.

Cheers!
 
Nice lookin work there Col_Hogan, I was thinking of doin something similar but trying to mount it at the very bottom of the case and keeping the media card reader. On the other hand I only use Memory Sticks so a USB card reader would work just as well... hmmm I wish I had more time to play around!
 
nice hogan...very nice....does the fan controller fit right into the media card reader? or did you have to modify it a little? Also, what did you use to cut the holes on the sides? Two fans on each side right or just one?
 
MAB said:
Hey everyone, well I'm new to this forum but I gotta say, this forums pretty darn good...
well I'm planning on building a system based on:

Antec Aria Case
AMD 64 3200 - clawhammer - zalman alu/copper heatsink fan
corsair xms 1gb 3200
raptor 74gb 10000rpm - applications - antec hard drive cooler (2 fans)
wd 120gb SATA or IDE - storage
gigabyte sis 760 chipset
9800 pro 256mb - arctic cooling vga silencer
cdrw/dvd-rom optical drive


You guys think this system will run? Any suggestions, would appreciate some feedback and also was thinking of modding the case. I probably should huh because of all this stuff?
Click to expand...

Its going to be warm. and loud with the hard drive coolers and more than one hdd. I am building a system with this case (2500+, not 64) and I went with the zalman 7000cu. the price difference wasnt that big, and I figured anything that might cool down the inside is going to be a bit help.
 
Hogan,

What size side fans? Brand? Did you need to mod the case for them to fit?

tks.
 
Left Side Fan is a 92mm Blowing out
Right Side Fan is 80mm Sucking IN

I used Hole Saws...They work the best...cause you have to cut through 2 layers of Aluminium and a Sheet of Plastic

Also..I had to modify the Optical Drive cage..I had to remove some Material from the sides to make them fit...Or If you can find them..Those really Skinny 80mm fans(commonly found in Hard Drive Coolers) will fit and no Modifcations to the Drive cage are Necessary.
 
are you talking one 1gb stick of ram or 2X512's??

Im sure it can..

Users Manual says it can handle both 512 sticks(duh) and 1gb sticks..
 
Got one, works just fine running a A64 3200+ (stock HSF), MSI K8MM mATX, w/ 1 GIg RAM, AIW 9600Pro, WD SATA HD, and Combo DVD/CDRW drive and I'm only using the 120cm fan on the back, still have the included slot cooler incase I want to add it, but so far so good.
 
You could pull apart the PSU and replace the 120mm with a better one. The one in there is a rather slow one which doesn't move much air. I did this myself and cut away the grill while I had it open and put in a Papst 120mm.

With the VGA Silencer for my 9800XT and a PCI slot blower in the farthest slot(had to place a firewire card in the middle slot) I haven't had any trouble with cooling. I've got a A64 3400+ with a MCX6400-V (I had to mod the fan a little to get it to fit under the PSU by shaving off some of the plastic from the edge) and a 76GB Raptor so I'm rather happy with my temps so far. You could use the supplied PSU mounting rail for the CPU fan if you don't want to do a little triming and it fits a 92mm fan fine.

I'm thinking of upgrading my Video card if it turns out that the 9800XT I pulled from my old case isn't upto the newer games but right now I'm mainly playing City of Heroes and Aces High II so its sufficent for now.
 
Based largely upon this thread, I purchased the following last week:

Antec Aria Case
Biostar M7NCG-400
AMD Mobile 2400+
Zalman 7000A-cu

I had NO idea that the Zalman 7000A-cu was almost as big as the case itself (ok, slight exaggeration). I see now that I should have been more leary of the Newegg specs of "21H mm" for the height of this beast. I think it's closer to the specs listed in the Alu/cu part of 62mm.

Anyway, unfortuantely the M7NCG-400 has the CPU Socket directly under the P/S overhang. Based upon my unscientific measuring, anything taller than 50mm will not work. After digging through all my assortment of unused Heatsink/Fans (which it seems I'll be throwing the Zalman into), I came up with a ThermalTake TR2 (the one with the TMD fan).

I'm not really happy with this solution, even though I wasn't planning to OC this thing to extreme levels, I was hoping to keep things much cooler than what the TR2 can accomplish.

I was thinking about getting either the ThermalTake Volcano 10+ Heatsink/Fan or a different MB.

Any suggestions?
 
I use a SLK-800 w/TMD fan on it...works fine for me...

But I have heavily Modded my Aria though.

Blow hole and Suck hole,Fan Controller...Any more Ideas...??

I think I have seen that Zalman fan installed before..But it was an Intel Board.. But it was in an Aria..

Have you even tried to Mount the HSF?? then put the Motherboard into the Aria...

I would think that it should work...Keep us updated...A buddy of mine has a Aria..with that exact same board M7NCG 400...and he also has a SLK-800 with a 80mm fan on his..
 
Greetings all,

I've been a [H]ardOCP reader for a while, but I'm a [H]ard|Forum n00b! :D

I bought an Aria almost three months ago. I documented my Arai saga on another forum. It's pretty long with several updates, but it is pretty thorough. Temps at load are @ 57C CPU and @ 43C chasis.

Anyhow, several days ago I had the rig running and it just shut off. When I hit the power button to power it back up, the blue power LEDs just blinked once and then nothing. Nada. Zip. Subsequent use of the power button would not even make the LEDs blink. If I unpluged the power cord from the wall outlet and then plugged it back in I could get the LEDs to blink once on the first power button push, but not after the first push. So, I checked all the connections from the PS to the motherboard; same results. I left everything in the case and tried a different power supply; bingo, everything ran fine. So now I get to see how customer friendly Antec's warranty service is for a dead PS.

Anyone think the high CPU temp led to the PS failure? I thought the chasis temp was okay hovering in the mid-forties, but that CPU sits right next to/under the PS, and I suspect some of the heat from that went straight into the PS vents.

TIA for the repies,

Mer
 
Wow, you're right, I should have just tried using the Zalman! I tried it and it fits just fine...

As long as I take the power supply out. :)

Just kidding. I appreciate your input Col Hogan. I'm thinking of going with the SLK-800 w/TMD fan like you mention. I think that will be good enough for my purposes.
 
Hey Hogan,

Nice rig, guess we need a LAN here to really test that out ;)

Anyways, what kind of fan ya got in that 120mm bay in the back. I got a bunch of cisco router 120mm fans that move air like no tomorrow and they are damn thin (half as thick as your normal 120mm)... If ya want you can have one to try out and keep if it works. I dont know if you remember my case but the top fan is one of those cisco ones and at 5-7v they shred paper :D With your rheobus it might work out well.
 
Meridian 57C for a 2800+ isn't that extreme.

AMD chips are rated up to 90C I think. Ideal operating temp would be between 40C and 60C. But even if you go a little above 60 it's not like you are going to kill your components (but for example some things might last 3 years instead of 5).

This case doesn't have the best of cooling and I'm sure 57C is very much within the range expected by Antec and it shouldn't kill the PSU.
 
you guys think a x800 pro will run cool with a vga silencer on the arias 300 watt ps?
 
Meridian said:
Greetings all,

I've been a [H]ardOCP reader for a while, but I'm a [H]ard|Forum n00b! :D

I bought an Aria almost three months ago. I documented my Arai saga on another forum. It's pretty long with several updates, but it is pretty thorough. Temps at load are @ 57C CPU and @ 43C chasis.

Anyhow, several days ago I had the rig running and it just shut off. When I hit the power button to power it back up, the blue power LEDs just blinked once and then nothing. Nada. Zip. Subsequent use of the power button would not even make the LEDs blink. If I unpluged the power cord from the wall outlet and then plugged it back in I could get the LEDs to blink once on the first power button push, but not after the first push. So, I checked all the connections from the PS to the motherboard; same results. I left everything in the case and tried a different power supply; bingo, everything ran fine. So now I get to see how customer friendly Antec's warranty service is for a dead PS.

Anyone think the high CPU temp led to the PS failure? I thought the chasis temp was okay hovering in the mid-forties, but that CPU sits right next to/under the PS, and I suspect some of the heat from that went straight into the PS vents.

TIA for the repies,

Mer
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums, great sumary of the Aria. I'm thinking of moving my AXP system with a new mATX board to an Aria case to use as a secondary gaming rig.
 
Meridian said:
Anyone think the high CPU temp led to the PS failure? I thought the chasis temp was okay hovering in the mid-forties, but that CPU sits right next to/under the PS, and I suspect some of the heat from that went straight into the PS vents.
Click to expand...


Well I can let you know in about another two months ;) I'm running mine with an A64 3200+, 1 gig of ram, SATA HD, and AIW 9600Pro under 100% load most of the time Folding and watching TV. :)
 
Update on my Aria,

Moved some cables around, redid HSF with a slightly faster fan.. swapped in a 8500LE.. damn P4S333 no like ATI card..

I'm swapping out this board for a P4P800-VM or better yet an Abit IS-12, which would allow me to use all the ports on the case..

2x80mm blowholes coming too.. and hopefully with new MB my AX-478 will fit.

EP
 
Hey MAB,

The Aria isn't the issue, the issue is what mobo do you plan to use? As long as the motherboard doesn't have any cables or caps a few inches in front of the AGP slot you are good to go. The 6800GT is a longer card than ATI's cards.

Regards,

-E
 
Good choices and you won't go wrong with either. The MSI is a good board, and the Gigabyte with the new SIS looks pretty good as well. The 6800GT should fit both of these without issue.

Regards,

-E
 
MrE said:
Good choices and you won't go wrong with either. The MSI is a good board, and the Gigabyte with the new SIS looks pretty good as well. The 6800GT should fit both of these without issue.

Regards,

-E
Click to expand...

Does anyone know how picky that particular MSI mobo is with RAM. Would it take 2 512MB sticks of Corsair Value Select without any issues? Or what about any value/'no name' memory?
Thanks
 
Anyone know how the MSI overclocks, if at all?

I read a review on the Gigabyte that said it was a pretty poor overclocker, but I can't find anything on the MSI.

I'm not looking for anything really hardcore, just a 100-200mhz or so.
 
Got my MSI board in today. Here comes the weekend project of converting from the SN85 to the Aria setup. I'll let you know what the BIOS overclock options are once it is up and running (aka stable).

-E
 
MrE said:
Got my MSI board in today. Here comes the weekend project of converting from the SN85 to the Aria setup. I'll let you know what the BIOS overclock options are once it is up and running (aka stable).

-E
Click to expand...

Sweet, I'm really looking forward to what you have to say. If you give a good review of the board I'll buy one withing the next few days.
 
Welp, ran into my first set of problems. First, the MSI board doesn't come with the K8 retention bracket for mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. No problem, right? Well it turns out that most of the "low profile" heatsinks don't include this as well. I bought an Artec Cooling unit when I placed my order with NewEgg and it doesn't fit under the PSU (misses by 1/16" for clearance). So, off to the store to pick up the Zalman Copper cooler. This sucker actually does include the bracket, but I might have to modify the bottom bracket (the one that runs on the bottom of the motherboard) as it's a bit oversized and looks to make contact along a couple of traces on the board. :(

The case is pretty much done. The back 120mm fan grill is cut out. Why Antec has both a guard on the fan and the Case fan grill as well ( a bit overkill) but that is fixed). Next, I sleaved all the power connectors and doing the same to the front of the case for the USB/1394/Cardreader connectors. Even with that, I don't see a good way of cable management in this case. I should be able to mount everything either Friday or Saturday. Will keep you posted.

-E
 
Cool..Keep us updated..I want to see some Pics..and as far as Cable Management in an Aria..Yeah..GL with that...I tried..and failed..
 
MrE said:
First, the MSI board doesn't come with the K8 retention bracket for mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. No problem, right? Well it turns out that most of the "low profile" heatsinks don't include this as well.
Click to expand...

If I used the stock HSF that comes with the A64 3200+ would that include the retention bracket?
 
Mine didnt. Bought the same MB and stock HSF thinking I would be covered. Nope. Called AMD tech support and they overnighted me a retention bracket free of charge.
 
Been following this thread and I have to say I am liking the box but I have to ask two questions
1) How cramped would it be I fi slapped my 3 HDD and a DVDRW along with a water cooling system in there ( would it all fit) ??
2) Can anyone recommend a board that will fit in the box and take a 2.4 Intel proc??

still a noob to the sff scene so I need a little help with da info stuff

Thanks
R
 
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