Hello,
Long time lurker; first time poster. After spending some time with the new Chieftec case, I thought I might as well share my experience with others. I actually built a sff case with the bt-02 2 years ago, and needed an upgrade of the graphic card. The combination of a new chieftec case, and nvidia maxwell chips convinced me, so I gave it a try.
Old Parts (from my 2 year old build):
- Asrock z77e-itx + i5 3570k + 8Gb PC 1600 CL 9 Corsair vengeance low power (1.35V)
- AXP-140 (yes it fits) + bequiet shadow wings 140mm pwm fan
- samsung 830 128Gb ssd (linux); adata pro 64Gb msata (windows), HGST Travelstar 5K1000 1TB (data)
New parts:
- Palit gtx 750 ti stormx dual (factory OCd, since gpu oc under linux sucks) + EKL Alpenföhn wing boost 2 120mm fan + vga pwm adapter (see below)
- chieftec bt-04b-350bs; scythe kama flow green 80mm 1400rpm
Here some infos about the case:http://www.chieftec.eu/en/chassis/itx-tower/bt-04bu3.html
contra:
- cheap fabric (had to fix some rivet, feet crappy, whole contruction no very stable)
pro:
- [EDIT ]9.2 L volume !
- dual slot 20mm long gfx card, with awesome ventilation options (4 Sides open)
- price: 65 € including 350W sfx psu
and probably the best part is actually the psu. Check this out:
That's right 27A on the +12V rail. And nearly completely silent - take my word, I'm an extremist when it comes to noise.
1. At first, all I wanted was to do a quick upgrade. I opened the new case, got the mobo+cooler from the old case, and... it didn't fit! Those optical drive rails where in the way. I got frustrated, and started by stripping everything from the new case, until it looked like this:
2. Now without the black rails, the whole thing turn out very shaky. Something had to be done to strenghen it. I used cheap 8mm wood, and a variety of screwery. Since the upper holes would not be aligned, I used large washers to create an offset; in addition, the 1.5mm strong steel turned out to be holding the entire case together! Some modding is also required.
3. The second thing to consider is a case foot upgrade. The Bt-04b is shipped with cheap platic feet, not only horrible in terms of vibrations but (I my case) not even at level! So I bought some cheap Rubberfeet on ebay, added some washers to get to the right height (front panel causes an offset of 18mm), et voila:
Note that M3 screws in 5mm holes are pain to align, but I couldn't find M3 Rubberfeet with a >15mm height.
4. Without the rails, there is only 1 free 2,5" slot at the bottom of the case available (without stacking the hard drive on top of another). Fortunately, there is plenty of space underneath the fron panel, if you don't make use of the optical drive. I drilled 2 M3 holes, added nuts+whasers as spacer, and have now a nicely cooled ssd there (see below).
5. Than the Palit gfx card turn out to bee too long. This one I had anticipated, so I removed the fan case, and swaped the 2pin header for a 4pin header, to enable pwm fan control via graphic card. All you need to do is carefully remove the platic header, solder two more pins, and (carefully) press the 4pin header onto the pins.
It works pretty well. Unfortunately, my 120mm fan has only 1500rmp and seems to start at around 5V, which means it wouldn't turn on below 50% pwm signal. This sort of things could easily be set thanks to a vga bios flash; but I couldn't find any bios editor supporting fan control on maxwell chips. Will have to wait this one out, and for the time beeing, use the case fan switch.
6. Ok time to put everything together.
Notes:
-if you have a long card like mine, put it in FIRST (before the mobo)
-check cabling BEFORE fasting the motherboard, as with other sff cases. Some headers might not be reachable anymore once it's in the case.
-since I wanted to keep the optical drive bay cover, I had to mod it (cut, duct tape)
-things a VERY cramped inside this; I used rubber gloves to avoid cuts.
-I put the alpenföhn fan in exhaust mode, instead of blowing onto the gfx card; not sure if this is the best option, seeing the there is some 1cm space between the fan and the vga heatsink.
Voila! Hope you found this interesting. Will try to update temp & oc stats. Here a teaser:
Long time lurker; first time poster. After spending some time with the new Chieftec case, I thought I might as well share my experience with others. I actually built a sff case with the bt-02 2 years ago, and needed an upgrade of the graphic card. The combination of a new chieftec case, and nvidia maxwell chips convinced me, so I gave it a try.
Old Parts (from my 2 year old build):
- Asrock z77e-itx + i5 3570k + 8Gb PC 1600 CL 9 Corsair vengeance low power (1.35V)
- AXP-140 (yes it fits) + bequiet shadow wings 140mm pwm fan
- samsung 830 128Gb ssd (linux); adata pro 64Gb msata (windows), HGST Travelstar 5K1000 1TB (data)
New parts:
- Palit gtx 750 ti stormx dual (factory OCd, since gpu oc under linux sucks) + EKL Alpenföhn wing boost 2 120mm fan + vga pwm adapter (see below)
- chieftec bt-04b-350bs; scythe kama flow green 80mm 1400rpm
Here some infos about the case:http://www.chieftec.eu/en/chassis/itx-tower/bt-04bu3.html
contra:
- cheap fabric (had to fix some rivet, feet crappy, whole contruction no very stable)
pro:
- [EDIT ]9.2 L volume !
- dual slot 20mm long gfx card, with awesome ventilation options (4 Sides open)
- price: 65 € including 350W sfx psu
and probably the best part is actually the psu. Check this out:
That's right 27A on the +12V rail. And nearly completely silent - take my word, I'm an extremist when it comes to noise.
1. At first, all I wanted was to do a quick upgrade. I opened the new case, got the mobo+cooler from the old case, and... it didn't fit! Those optical drive rails where in the way. I got frustrated, and started by stripping everything from the new case, until it looked like this:
2. Now without the black rails, the whole thing turn out very shaky. Something had to be done to strenghen it. I used cheap 8mm wood, and a variety of screwery. Since the upper holes would not be aligned, I used large washers to create an offset; in addition, the 1.5mm strong steel turned out to be holding the entire case together! Some modding is also required.
3. The second thing to consider is a case foot upgrade. The Bt-04b is shipped with cheap platic feet, not only horrible in terms of vibrations but (I my case) not even at level! So I bought some cheap Rubberfeet on ebay, added some washers to get to the right height (front panel causes an offset of 18mm), et voila:
Note that M3 screws in 5mm holes are pain to align, but I couldn't find M3 Rubberfeet with a >15mm height.
4. Without the rails, there is only 1 free 2,5" slot at the bottom of the case available (without stacking the hard drive on top of another). Fortunately, there is plenty of space underneath the fron panel, if you don't make use of the optical drive. I drilled 2 M3 holes, added nuts+whasers as spacer, and have now a nicely cooled ssd there (see below).
5. Than the Palit gfx card turn out to bee too long. This one I had anticipated, so I removed the fan case, and swaped the 2pin header for a 4pin header, to enable pwm fan control via graphic card. All you need to do is carefully remove the platic header, solder two more pins, and (carefully) press the 4pin header onto the pins.
It works pretty well. Unfortunately, my 120mm fan has only 1500rmp and seems to start at around 5V, which means it wouldn't turn on below 50% pwm signal. This sort of things could easily be set thanks to a vga bios flash; but I couldn't find any bios editor supporting fan control on maxwell chips. Will have to wait this one out, and for the time beeing, use the case fan switch.
6. Ok time to put everything together.
Notes:
-if you have a long card like mine, put it in FIRST (before the mobo)
-check cabling BEFORE fasting the motherboard, as with other sff cases. Some headers might not be reachable anymore once it's in the case.
-since I wanted to keep the optical drive bay cover, I had to mod it (cut, duct tape)
-things a VERY cramped inside this; I used rubber gloves to avoid cuts.
-I put the alpenföhn fan in exhaust mode, instead of blowing onto the gfx card; not sure if this is the best option, seeing the there is some 1cm space between the fan and the vga heatsink.
Voila! Hope you found this interesting. Will try to update temp & oc stats. Here a teaser:
Last edited: