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F-I90HD incompatible with NT06???

4

4cmd3

n00b
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
16
I am having the following problem mounting the Silverstone NT06 to the Abit F-I90HD mobo:

The Silverstone NT06 backplate is supposed to mount underneath the motherboard.
BUT where it presses against the motherboard, there are pins on the motherboard sticking through from capacitors (?) on the surface that get in the way. Thus the cooler backplate will not sit flush and I'm a little concerned about continuing my installation.

Here are some pictures.



No matter which way I orient the backplate, there are these damn pins in the way.


The only choices seem to be
- cut off/file down those pins sticking through (sounds like a BAD idea...)
- mount the backplate as tight as I can, and hope that the pins push into the rubber mounting surface enabling me to get it relatively flush.
- cut out some of the rubber to allow room for the pins to fit inside
(and hope that the metal of the back-plate doesn't come into contact with the pins shorting the whole #@#@$ thing out.)
- use another cooler like the stock Intel one

I'm currently trying to find evidence of anyone using the NT06 + F-I90HD combination successfully, and where I am going wrong if at all. Any advice GREATLY appreciated. :)
 
4cmd3 said:
I am having the following problem mounting the Silverstone NT06 to the Abit F-I90HD mobo:

The Silverstone NT06 backplate is supposed to mount underneath the motherboard.
BUT where it presses against the motherboard, there are pins on the motherboard sticking through from capacitors (?) on the surface that get in the way. Thus the cooler backplate will not sit flush and I'm a little concerned about continuing my installation.

Here are some pictures.

No matter which way I orient the backplate, there are these damn pins in the way.


The only choices seem to be
- cut off/file down those pins sticking through (sounds like a BAD idea...)
- mount the backplate as tight as I can, and hope that the pins push into the rubber mounting surface enabling me to get it relatively flush.
- cut out some of the rubber to allow room for the pins to fit inside
(and hope that the metal of the back-plate doesn't come into contact with the pins shorting the whole #@#@$ thing out.)
- use another cooler like the stock Intel one

I'm currently trying to find evidence of anyone using the NT06 + F-I90HD combination successfully, and where I am going wrong if at all. Any advice GREATLY appreciated. :)
Click to expand...



Good point! I forgot that had this problem also and ended up using my Zalman 9500 back plate with my NT06
 
Ok, reading some other reviews of the NT06 online which suggests that one should be able to just mount over "small" pins and not worry about it.

e.g.
http://www.sysopt.com/features/coolquiet/article.php/12031_3604246_1

"It's not the sturdiest bracket we've used, but the universal underside brace has a lot going for it: A 3-layer design uses thick foam, stiff plastic, and a steel plate, allowing it to mount over tiny resistors and capacitor stubs without shorting or crushing them."

"...Foam and Plastic insulating layers on the under-motherboard support bracket were also able to avoid any major conflicts with protrusions on our board."

But the pins on the F-I90HD mobo are easily the length of the uncompressed foam layer AND the hard plastic layer.
So I don't think this will work. On tiny pins, sure it would work. But these are longer fat pins. :(

I checked and the problem pins are not the silver capacitors but rather from the black cubes that contain heavy coils of copper wire. (sorry I'm no Electrical Engineer, I have no idea wtf they are :) )

Maybe I'll try to buy a Zalman bracket, or maybe I have something leftover from my Big Typhoons.
Crap.


Update:
Ok I tried the bracket from the Big Typhoons. It has a deeper layer of foam on it, so I thought it would be better. And with respect to dealing with the pins, it probably is. However, I noticed after putting it on, that it was warping my motherboard!! I figured perhaps I had screwed it down too tight, so I backed it off a bit, but I still wasn't thrilled with it. So I took that off...

I decided that it was probably next to impossible to get parts from another heatsink (short of buying another heatsink!) so ...
I ended up taking wire cutters to the larger pins and trimming off a small piece from the ones in the way. (I wasn't trying to get all the way down to board level! just a few millimetres for the bracket to fit more comfortably) Then I filed off the now sharpened ends of the pins lightly with my Leatherman - although you could probably skip this.

So far the board seems fine, I've got it booted up and staring at the BIOS/PC Health Status screen.

Anyway, I hope this information is of help (or warning!) to some people.
Cheers!
 
4cmd3 said:
- mount the backplate as tight as I can, and hope that the pins push into the rubber mounting surface enabling me to get it relatively flush.
Click to expand...

thats what the rubber is there for, adn thats what the pins are supposed to do. i had an nt06 and the same mobo for about 4 days until my mobo died. had a thread asking if a zalman 9700nt would fit in a microfly and ended up getting an nt06 instead. when i tightened mine, the board flexed a little, but if u have good judgement u should know when to stop tightening. there are pics of my nt06 installed on the mobo and inside my case if u look for my thread, its relatively new.
 
4cmd3 said:
Ok, reading some other reviews of the NT06 online which suggests that one should be able to just mount over "small" pins and not worry about it.

e.g.
http://www.sysopt.com/features/coolquiet/article.php/12031_3604246_1

"It's not the sturdiest bracket we've used, but the universal underside brace has a lot going for it: A 3-layer design uses thick foam, stiff plastic, and a steel plate, allowing it to mount over tiny resistors and capacitor stubs without shorting or crushing them."

"...Foam and Plastic insulating layers on the under-motherboard support bracket were also able to avoid any major conflicts with protrusions on our board."

But the pins on the F-I90HD mobo are easily the length of the uncompressed foam layer AND the hard plastic layer.
So I don't think this will work. On tiny pins, sure it would work. But these are longer fat pins. :(

I checked and the problem pins are not the silver capacitors but rather from the black cubes that contain heavy coils of copper wire. (sorry I'm no Electrical Engineer, I have no idea wtf they are :) )

Maybe I'll try to buy a Zalman bracket, or maybe I have something leftover from my Big Typhoons.
Crap.


Update:
Ok I tried the bracket from the Big Typhoons. It has a deeper layer of foam on it, so I thought it would be better. And with respect to dealing with the pins, it probably is. However, I noticed after putting it on, that it was warping my motherboard!! I figured perhaps I had screwed it down too tight, so I backed it off a bit, but I still wasn't thrilled with it. So I took that off...

I decided that it was probably next to impossible to get parts from another heatsink (short of buying another heatsink!) so ...
I ended up taking wire cutters to the larger pins and trimming off a small piece from the ones in the way. (I wasn't trying to get all the way down to board level! just a few millimetres for the bracket to fit more comfortably) Then I filed off the now sharpened ends of the pins lightly with my Leatherman - although you could probably skip this.

So far the board seems fine, I've got it booted up and staring at the BIOS/PC Health Status screen.

Anyway, I hope this information is of help (or warning!) to some people.
Cheers!
Click to expand...

Good to hear. Keep us updated. :)
 
Just to summarize my build specs:

Abit F-I90HD motherboard
Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo processor
Silverstone NT06 cooler (run w/o fan, like the "Lite" version)
Silverstone SG01 Evolution case
Silverstone ST50EF Plus SC (short cable) power supply
OCZ OCZ2P800R22GK 2GB DDR2-6400 memory kit
Samsung SH-183L SATA DVD writer
Seagate ST3300622AS 7200.9 300GB Barracuda SATA II hard drive
Scythe Anti-Vibration HDD Stabilizer
Antec Noise Killer Power Supply & 80mm fan gaskets
(not yet installed)
VistaView Saber 2020 PCIe 1x dual analog TV tuner card

Current BIOS: (as shipped)
Award 6.00PG
02/22/2007-RS600-W627DHG-6A667A1AC-11

I am not running either of the 80mm fans. The only fan is the 120mm inside the PSU.
I removed the HDD cage and mounted my HDD in the lower 5 1/4" bay.
RAM is installed in the black slots, not the red... in case anyone wondered.

So far, I have run two parallel instances of the "burnP6" utility from the "cpuburn" port on FreeBSD 6.2 REL on this board for over 4 hours. I can feel warm air if I put my hand right up against the back of my PSU. Next I hope to install Windows XP MCE 2005 and run some more conventional Windows benchmark/burn-in utilities.

After 4 hours running cpuburn under FreeBSD, I rebooted and immediately entered the BIOS PC Health Status. Here are the temperatures as reported by BIOS:

CPU: 58 / 135 (C/F)
SYS: 47 / 117
PWM: 65 / 147

Keep in mind that the system has only been installed very recently and I am using the cooling paste supplied with the NT06 - couldn't get any Arctic Silver 5 - and who knows this may be OEM labelled Arctic Silver 5 anyway... it's silver! ;) According to Arctic Silver, their thermal grease requires some 200 hours of burn-in time before achieving optimal conditions. So I assume this is true of most thermal grease also.

In case anyone is interested, Mac OS X 10.4.8 JaS DVD did not want to boot on this box. I don't think it could find the DVD drive from the Darwin bootloader? Maybe an IDE DVD would work. Anyway... Solaris 10 x86 also didn't seem to want to install. Those were quick attempts though, so extra effort might see them working if anyone cares.

Some thoughts:

The loudest thing in this box is the DVD drive...
The SH-183L seems louder than my Samsung SH-W162C (IDE) :(
both in read and in tray operations (open/close).
I am hoping in Windows to use some utility to make the drive quiet for DVD playback.
I did mount the DVD using some extra silicone gaskets from the Antec kit.

The HDD is mounted with the Scythe kit, though to use any such device like this, you need to remove the front bay cover, and clip the sides of that bracket/cover so that the length of the sides/wings/arms is only 1 screw-hole size longer then the screw-hole itself. Just clip with wirecutters and then flex to snap. Note that the Nexus anti-vibration HDD kit does NOT seem to fit unless you are prepared to drill holes in the correct position along the 5 1/4" bay. (I bought both Scythe and Nexus to try bc they were cheap...)

I don't think the ST50EF power supply is quite as quiet as my Seasonic S12 600W in my other box but the short cable kit was attractive. Too bad the ST50EF is not modular - I am only using like half the cables... the rest flow where the HDD cage would be and are sitting on some foam (in case they vibrate against the case) and also held to the underside of the 5 1/4" bay with a plastic cable clamp. Unused power connectors are electrical taped off, just due to paranoia. :)


Abit F-I90HD for Dummies (like me!) ;)

# Memory Selection
While you can probably get by with any respectable RAM that meets the right specs, if you want to be extra "safe" then something off this list is probably a good idea:
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonxpress1250dsk/memory.html

# NT06 heatsink installation:
- unless you remove some internal brackets in the SG01, you seem to have to install the heatsink BEFORE installing the motherboard in the case.
- heatsink should be oriented so that heatpipes are to the front of the motherboard (facing the RAM slots)
- be careful not to over-tighten any of the heatsink mounting bolts etc.
- note my concerns re: NT06 CPU support bracket and motherboard pins...

# Motherboard installation
- if you want to be slick, you might want to route some cables underneath the motherboard (such as the power/reset/HDD light cable) - do that BEFORE securing the motherboard.

# Thoughts on Lighting
The F-I90HD has two LED's on the motherboard itself. One is red and indicates the presence of 5V power iirc. The second is amber and indicates that power is on. I note this because the SG01 case is quite well ventilated and so you can easily see these lights from the top or from the sides. I quickly tested in a semi-dark room though and they did not seem to cause much in the way of light coming from the case.
The front blue LED's for power and HDD are typically (!!) bright. I have no idea why vendors do not put these behind an opaque bit of glass/plexi. It might subjectively be a little less bright than my Silverstone LC17. Maybe. Further, because these LED's shine just behind the aluminum front-panel, the light is picked up and reflected by the shiny 5 1/4" bay surround. It almost seems intentional... almost. To block this, you would have to slip something behind the front aluminum panel to shield this, like some foam or suitably placed duct/electrical tape.

# Thoughts on front USB/FW/Sound panel
The box looks WAY better (imho!) when this panel is not exposed. I cut a piece of black material to the perfect size (+/-) and slipped it into this panel. Granted this is because I have no intention of using these ports. It would be a brilliant mod to slip either a VFD into this area, or to craft up an IR window and mount the MCE IR receiver in behind here.

# Notes on the BIOS

First thing, obviously note your BIOS revision
(NB. may need to disable fullscreen Fatal1ty logo first to see this)
- if no CPU fan, disable the safety shutdown option or your box will just power-down.
- adjust RAM settings to match your RAM.
my OCZ was coming up like 5-5-5-15 iirc so I set manually to its rated 4-4-4-15.
- adjust DDR2 voltage (the default was 1.8, but my OCZ specs say 1.9 - 2.1 = so I set to 1.9. Note that some people seem to have their motherboards coincidentally die sometime after they were advised to bump DDR2 voltage to 2.1... I just note this from my various forum reading, it may or may not be an issue.

- I have observed that there are "black dots" on the Abit logo of the full-screen logo. 5 in all I think. I think it is some sort of video corruption, as once I booted and they were all over the screen. Further, I left the system sitting at a blue-screen at one point and the text went distorted or something and then sorted itself out. That has me slightly concerned, but perhaps the latter was interference from ...something. The black dots on the Abit logo... I dunno, but if that's all it is then I don't care. I am using a VGA connection to an otherwise fine LCD (no dead pixels).

Anyway, I hope this random information is of use to somebody.
PS. for anyone considering the NT06... forget the Lite version... you only save like $3 it seems. And you get a nice 120mm fan with variable controller PCI bracket. And probably better availability. That's worth $3 to me for some other project... someday... ;)

Here are 4 images of some of the things that I described.
(note that I had to use Paint to draw the black dots on the Abit logo... they were not apparent in my photograph)
(UPDATE: According to this long thread, the dots are perfectly normal...
 
Another oddity...

My USB keyboard seems to work when I press Del to enter BIOS and when I am IN the BIOS.
But it does NOT work in the time between POST and the OS launching.

For example, when Windows Vista boots up, it asks you if you want to boot off the CD/DVD.
Obviously you want to press something on the keyboard. I am not able to, so it then boots off the hard disk. My boot order is "1 = CD, 2 = HDD".

I have noticed this with FreeBSD boot screen (have to wait for 10s timeout before it boots)
then the keyboard works. And also with Mac OS X 10.4.8 JaS boot loader.

I had to plug in a PS2 keyboard to press Enter to boot off the Windows Vista DVD.

My keyboard is an older Apple Pro USB keyboard.
I tried every single USB port on the rear of the computer..
(*my front USB ports are not plugged into the motherboard.)

Maybe I'm just missing something in terms of USB or Plug n' Play support in the BIOS?

I should note that Overclock3D had a similar issue...
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?type=3&id=186&page=4&desc=abit_fatal1ty_f-i90hd_motherboard

Enter BIOS:
choose "Integrated Peripherals" (5th line down)
choose "OnChip PCI Device" (2nd line down)
change "USB Keyboard Support via" from =OS to = BIOS
change "USB MouseSupport via" from =OS to = BIOS
F10
y

This fixes my issues with being able to use the keyboard early on.
(However it does cause FreeBSD to panic just at/after "vga0" ... changing the settings back, lets it boot normally)

Update: the world's longest thread over here, notes that:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1157067&page=53

"BIOS recognition of USB Keyboards works correctly only with the additional USB ports on the board."
 
Fantastic write up of your experiences - This is really great, especially for people like me that'll be ordering a board soon!

Are there any issues with Vista? I would look through the other thread, but it's grown to such a huge size that it's impossible to find a lot of details inside of it. Cheers once again for the info. :)
 
Yes I know what you mean, I started reading that thread on page 1 and I'm only at page 60 now... :rolleyes:

I installed Vista to try it out. Chose to use "Home Premium" (32-bit iirc)

The Windows Experience Index = 3.9

this is using the E6600 + 2GB + onboard video.
(all CPU/RAM settings are stock except the DDR2 =1.9v, and manual 4-4-4-15 timings)

The Index breaks down as follows:
Processor: 5.3
Memory: 4.8
Graphics: 3.9
Gaming Graphics: 3.9
Primary Hard Disk: 5.4

This is the first time I've seen the Aero interface and it's pretty slick/smooth.
I have not installed a single driver yet except from what Vista loaded by default.

Playing the MCE video clips seems fairly smooth.
Play the MCE tv samples (Apollo) there is periodic video noise/artefacts, esp. when windowed? Again I have installed no drivers, or anything.

Hmmm... had a core dump/panic there... I was sort of messing with my Logitech G5 mouse while the video played in a window - wondering if clicking/motion/roller-wheel was causing the video artefacts - don't think it was, but down the system went with a blue screen. Windows Problem Solver thing says it was "Problem caused by ATI Graphics Driver". So probably due to the fact that I have not installed any drivers yet. :D

Similarly resizing a "Windows Photo Gallery" image, the resizing/motion is chunky.
I'll get some drivers on tomorrow at some point and see how it goes.

UPDATE: Installing all the available Vista drivers through Windows Update seems to have fixed the video corruption on playback.
 
Excellent post 4cmd3! I'm sure I can benefit from your experience because I'm gonna build the system probably next week (still waiting for NT06). Keep up the good work!
 
I played Supreme Commander today and it seemed fine, although I've never played it before today. I felt the graphics could have been smoother in the scrolling around, but then I've read this game is demanding and I really have no idea how it would perform with a better video card anyway (maybe the game is just built that way). Not sure what the game settings were, I just ran it with the settings it was using "out-of-the-box"...

I might try pulling my x1600 from my other rig and trying it in the SG01/F-I90HD and see how it compares. Perhaps I'll try playing Hitman Blood Money also. I also have Tomb Raider Legend and Sid Meier's Pirates that I could try. (Not a huge gamer...)

I watched a standard definition DVR-MS recording of The Unit that I had copied over from my other MCE 2005 box. No problems, playback worked like a champ, no glitches.

Then I ran SuperPi, because... everyone else seems to. :)
Results with CPU-Z screens also:



Also Prime95 benchmark, I'm just about to run the torture test...
 
Supreme Commander is a horribly demanding game.

Not only does it have a lot of detail on a lot of units that will spawn (The limit is 100,000 I think), the AI is also very demanding. During the beta when I was playing it with X2+ 4400 @ 2.6Ghz, 2GB DDR460, and a 7800GTX 512MB OC'd, it would start out fine, before slowly degenerating where a couple of seconds would pass before one ingame second would tick over! Very infuriating.

If you're looking for gaming, I'd definitely put in a proper graphics card for it.
 
Good to know about SC!
However I'm not actually looking to game on this box.
The intent was to give it to my family as an HTPC.
But while I've got here to mess about with... ;)


Prime95 ran for 7 hours 1 minutes - 0 errors, 100 warnings.
"ERROR: ILLEGAL SUMOUT
Possible hardware failure, consult readme.txt, restarting test"

I just ran the torture test without tweaking any options within the program.
I only ran one instance of the program using the default Blend approach.

The documentation suggests that this could indeed be a hardware problem.
(I've never used this software before...)

Will paste results from results.txt:

[Sun Apr 29 02:45:12 2007]
Self-test 1024K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 03:01:08 2007]
Self-test 8K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 03:16:28 2007]
Self-test 10K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 03:32:55 2007]
Self-test 896K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 03:49:04 2007]
Self-test 768K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 04:04:34 2007]
Self-test 12K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 04:19:52 2007]
Self-test 14K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 04:35:50 2007]
Self-test 640K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 04:51:57 2007]
Self-test 512K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 05:08:25 2007]
Self-test 16K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 05:23:45 2007]
Self-test 20K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 05:40:07 2007]
Self-test 448K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 05:56:38 2007]
Self-test 384K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 06:13:16 2007]
Self-test 24K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 06:28:39 2007]
Self-test 28K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 06:44:21 2007]
Self-test 320K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 07:00:11 2007]
Self-test 256K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 07:16:37 2007]
Self-test 32K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 07:32:07 2007]
Self-test 40K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 07:47:50 2007]
Self-test 224K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 08:03:09 2007]
Self-test 192K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 08:18:55 2007]
Self-test 48K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 08:34:59 2007]
Self-test 56K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 08:50:05 2007]
Self-test 160K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 09:05:25 2007]
Self-test 128K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 09:21:10 2007]
Self-test 64K passed!
[Sun Apr 29 09:30:03 2007]
ERROR: ILLEGAL SUMOUT
Possible hardware failure, consult readme.txt file, restarting test.

(...last lines repeat until program stops testing.)
 
Question about BIOS Option:
Advanced Chipset Features / UMA Frame Size:

- this is an option in the BIOS which apparently represents:
"size of memory preallocated for frame-buffer"

I believe the default is 64MB.
N00b question:
Is there a graphics benefit to increasing this value when using on-board video.
(I assume = yes? - given you have enough RAM)

# Hitman Bloody Money (with 1.2 patch)
- OS: default Vista graphics drivers,
- BIOS: 64MB UMA Frame size,
- Game: default Hitman render options
Shadows: all characters
self-shadow: yes
drop shadow quality: hard
post filters level of detail: high (depth blur enabled)
level of detail: medium
gamma: 1.0
anisotropic filtering: disabled
texture resolution: max
vertical sync: yes
antialiasing: disabled
resolution: 1024x768
= completely unplayable... it's laggy as hell just moving around on the dock.
It takes Agent 47 about 3 seconds to take each step forward!!

I tried bumping the UMA Frame Size to 512MB
(although I believe other forums/threads have posted that Vista is a problem with 512MB)

Sure enough, when you log in as a user in Vista, the screen gets all corrupted or something. Note that you can see the login screen just fine (i.e. where you choose your username), or if you log in, observe the corruption and then can remember the position of the Start Menu enough to log out again (maybe there's a shortcut!)

Here's a photo:


The 256MB setting works OK

Windows display control panel then reports:
Total Available Graphics Memory: 895 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 256 MB (whatever is in your BIOS setting)
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 639 MB

I'm not sure where the other values come from.
Obviously 895 - 256 = 639 though...

With the 256MB setting, Hitman now walks faster and you can look around a bit more smoothly.
But it is still quite chopppy... I would not enjoy playing it like this.
Thus as expected, the only real option seems to be turn down the settings below defaults.
Or add an additional PCIe graphics card .

Update: even updating the in-game render options to the "Low" settings is unplayable at 1024x768.
this setting selects...
render quality: low
enable shadows: none (also disables "Self-shadowing" and "Drop shadow quality" )
post filters...: disabled
level of detail: low
gamma: 1.0
aniso...: disabled
texture resolution: low
vert sync: yes
antialiasing: disabled


Tried: "Low" with 800x600 resolution:
it looks like absolute vomit and it is still sluggish as hell.
I'm starting to wonder if this particular game has issues (with Vista, with drivers?)
(maybe using System RAM is particularly bad... probably would have guessed that)
Although the sprite-like appearance of Agent 47 is giving me Doom flashbacks from 1995. ;)


So far, gaming-wise, this product is hardly worthy of "Fatal1ty" branding, but no surprise there.
 
I only read a little bit of this thread, but I'm running an NT-06 on an F-I90HD in an SG-01 Evo. The mobo has a tiny amount of warp to it after mounting the NT-06 from the cap wire ends, but it runs just fine.
 
I have an F-I90HD within a Sugo SG01-E, an eVGA 8800GTX and an NT06 cooler.

I had to use the Intel 'extra' bracket instead of the standard one, and the back cushion went fine ontop of the motherboard pins.

The NT06 sits nicely enough below the PSU (750W SIlvestone) but the temps are quite high with a 6600 which is irritating (running 2 x prime 95 one on each cpu im getting 58 per cpu and 64 from the die and thats without the GFX card)

Problem I had was that the GTX is too long, I had to remove the HD cage/fan completely - and the shroud sat ontop of the 4 sata connectors. So i had to find right angle connectors and have them squeezed under the card.

This does bend the motherboard 'slightly' but everything else is fine.

My system does run very hot, even with the room being fairly cool - but games don't seem to suffer that much which is the primary use for this.

The other problem with the setup is that the Creative X-Fi is sat right in front of the graphics card, which im not sure if its a good or bad thing for heat, as it probably helps create a bit more of a wind tunnel effect like the 8800GTX shroud, but its half covering the fan when viewed from the side.

Im going to re-seat the CPU at some point to make sure the contact is perfect (just in case) but im also looking at replacing the cooler at some point as I think in a hot SFF it just doesnt cut it without a fan.
 
demonevs said:
I have an F-I90HD within a Sugo SG01-E, an eVGA 8800GTX and an NT06 cooler.

I had to use the Intel 'extra' bracket instead of the standard one, and the back cushion went fine ontop of the motherboard pins.

The NT06 sits nicely enough below the PSU (750W SIlvestone) but the temps are quite high with a 6600 which is irritating (running 2 x prime 95 one on each cpu im getting 58 per cpu and 64 from the die and thats without the GFX card)

Problem I had was that the GTX is too long, I had to remove the HD cage/fan completely - and the shroud sat ontop of the 4 sata connectors. So i had to find right angle connectors and have them squeezed under the card.

This does bend the motherboard 'slightly' but everything else is fine.

My system does run very hot, even with the room being fairly cool - but games don't seem to suffer that much which is the primary use for this.

The other problem with the setup is that the Creative X-Fi is sat right in front of the graphics card, which im not sure if its a good or bad thing for heat, as it probably helps create a bit more of a wind tunnel effect like the 8800GTX shroud, but its half covering the fan when viewed from the side.

Im going to re-seat the CPU at some point to make sure the contact is perfect (just in case) but im also looking at replacing the cooler at some point as I think in a hot SFF it just doesnt cut it without a fan.
Click to expand...
Have you tried that Thermalright HR-03-PLUS? It could be better fot GTX...
I have GTS in sg01e and thinking about buyibng GTX and this cooler with some quiet fan on top...
What do you think?
 
Hi, ive not tried the thermalright - it looks good, but im unsure of the height or depth.
The fan bracket above could get in the way, plus on the depth issue - the PCI card maybe a no-go then, though it depends if the rigs any bigger than the current solution.

The main issue on the GTX for me was the length, there's no way the HD cage was going in unless i reverse modded the case front and then modded the drive cage, and not having enough time to do that at present is a problem for me.

Perhaps when i have time - i dunno. But for the mo its not too bad.

I just bought a 120mm Noctua fan (25mm depth) so im going to see if i can fit this between the HS of the NT06 and the CPU to see if it improved temps at all.

Probably wont, but its just £15 and a bit of my time, so no big deal.
 
I just build my computer with silverstone sg01 case few days ago. I have 1 cable from the front panel that bothers me. It's black cable that has flat ring on it. I guess it's ground cable but where should I stick it?? Is it really important cable to attach somewhere?
 
That ground seems to be for the Firewire connection only.
So if you don't use Firewire, then I guess you can probably skip it (?)
Otherwise I think you have to affix it to your case frame somewhere (?)
I thought they should have mentioned that in the manual as well...

I'm just trying to install a new Gigabyte Nvidia 8600GTS Silent Pipe card and I'll be darned if I can figure out how to get it in there physically (even with the overhead fan bracket removed completely)... SoB! I would have held out for the 8500GT since it is smaller/cheaper, but it wasn't available and the 8600gts was.

GV-NX86S256H:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2512

Right now I think I might have to unscrew the motherboard and then get the card in somewhat, then push it all to the back and screw it all back down. (Except that the card blocks one of the screw holes on the mobo...) Once this box is built it is NEVER coming apart again...


UPDATE: OK the card CAN be installed, just a pain in the...
I believe this is probably a good step by step:

1. remove the overhead fan bracket in SG01e. (there are 3 screws, 2 big, one small)
- you MAY be able to just remove the two big screws and rotate the fan bracket upwards, but would suggest removing.
(you may want to watch for any metal fragments from the screw holes landing on your motherboard.. just in case it short circuits later when you turn it on...)
2. disconnect any cables from motherboard & PCI/PCIe cards
3. remove any PCI/PCIe cards from your motherboard
4. unscrew your motherboard (8 screws?)
5. slide the motherboard forward in the chassis by 1-2 cm (say, the better part of an inch...)
6. remove the rubber cover from the video card's "s-video" port
7. jimmy the video card into position. If you have to flex a fin or two, no problem, you can always flex it back after.
8. with your thin long philips screwdriver, screw the motherboard back into place. (it is possible, all 8 screws)
9. screw the video card into position (make sure you push the card laterally so that the "s-video" port is exposed and not covered by the PCI chassis backplane). (*alternatively with this card, you could cut out the chassis' aluminum PCI divider between the two slots used by the video card ...)
10. add in PCI/PCIe cards, etc etc.

I'll try to post some pictures later, ..
the card & heatpipes JUST fit underneath the lowest edge of the default overhead fan grill.

with the card installed (but still using onboard video just now), my power usage has gone up approx 8-10 watts at idle.
(Err... make that 20 watts after installing the Gigabyte drivers)

(The system is plugged into a Seasonic "PowerAngel" for measuring power consumption...)

Hope this helps somebody.
cheers
 
I can imagine the agony to diassemble the MB out again.
I plan to upgrade my computer with videocard too in the near future. Trying to figure out the space problem with sata1 coz I've read from other posts that videocard will take over sata1 place so i guess i'll have to change to other sata ports or use low profile sata cable. I guess it will boot normally if I use other sata ports 2-4.
 
Which video card do you plan on using?
Depending on the card (length and width of heatsinks) then yeah some SATA ports could be blocked. But you'd have to be talking about a long long graphics card, maybe 8800* variety?

I don't think there is a problem booting off other SATA ports, as I boot off my SATA DVD drive with no trouble. I'll try my HDD on a port other than SATA1 to confirm for you in a sec... (Update: no trouble at all booting off HDD on SATA3 with my DVD on SATA2)

Speaking of hard drives... 100% recommendation for Western Digital WD5000KS (500GB). SilentPCReview gives this drive top marks and it really is SOOOO quiet. I swapped over to that from a 300GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA drive I was using temporarily - the system is crazy crazy quiet now. I can be recording two programs, and watching a third and I can hardly hear the HDD from say 3 feet away. No more "crunch crunch"... and it feels wicked fast in use (doing stuff in Windows). Sweet!

Here's some pictures of my Gigabyte 8600GTS (GV-NX86S256H) installation:



System uses 105 watts total
= recording on 2 SD channels, and watching DVD movie (on the 8600GTS)
 
There were some comments about the heat output of this card, so I did a little HTPC type test:

recording 2SD channels + watching DVD (Finding Nemo) for over half an hour:

# as reported by RivaTuner V2.0.1 utility
original GPU core temp = 64 (C)
final GPU core temp = 69 (C)

# as reported by Abit EQ utility
original CPU temp = 49-50 (C)
final CPU temp = 49 - 50 (C)

Notes:
- environment is a cool basement
- there are no fans enabled, other than that in the power supply.
- nothing is overclocked
- cpu stays below 20% pretty much the entire time
- specs: E6600/2x1GB RAM/1x500GB HDD/8600GTS/VistaView 2020 tuner

I later confirmed that RivaTuner temperature output matches that reported by Nvidia's "nTune" program.

Nvidia nTune Stress Test: 10 minutes - All System Components selected

before:
Watts = 97
CPU = 49C
SYS = 47C
PWM = 52C
GPU = 69C

peak values:
Watts = 142
CPU = 57C
SYS = 49C
PWM = 57C
GPU = 75C

This test seems to go in bursts... hitting the CPU/GPU/Memory/Bus/HDD.
It seemed like the CPU never got above 75% even during the burst tests.

The default alert threshold for GPU in nTune Monitor util is 127C... so I guess 75C is no big deal?
 
thanks for confirming. I plan to buy 8800gts 320. I dunno yet what brand I'll use but i guess they all are quite same. Is that the heatpipe coming out from back? man, there should be "danger, dont touch" sticker back there :D
BTW, when u installed the videocard did u somehow disabled onboard video in the bios? Did u also remove the drivers for ATI? I don't know if ATI and nvidia drivers have conflicts when both are installed.
 
Yes, those are fins from the massive heatsink complex sticking out the back.
The actual heatpipes themselves are fully within the chassis.
The entire length of the heatsinks gets hot, which suggests that the heatpipes are doing a good job.

When I installed the extra video card, I did this in the BIOS:
Advanced Chipset Features
changed "Init Display First" from "onboard" to "PCIe"
changed "UMA Frame Buffer Size" from "256MB" to "32MB"
(I had previously set to 256MB, that was the highest it worked at. 32MB is the lowest)

I left the ATI drivers installed (in the off-chance that I need to hook up to the onboard in a pinch ~ though I guess it should still work as plain ol' VGA even without them). But I did uninstall the ATI Catalyst Control Center software, primarily because it kept giving me alerts when booting up with the Nvidia card. I did not see any option to fully disable the onboard video in the BIOS, and I did not disable the device within Windows device manager.

I installed the latest Nvidia drivers from nvidia.com (instead of the Gigabyte drivers from CD or their website). I did test the Gigabyte drivers, and there was no problems, but just stuck with the stock Nvidia ones in the end... the revision is higher anyway. You may want to add the nVidia "nTune" utility to add the thermal monitoring etc.


A little unrelated tidbit for Acronis True Image Workstation 9 users...

if you try to boot off the Acronis Boot CD or other Safety Boot type options, it does not seem to want to find the SATA drive. Perhaps if you were using IDE, it would...
The solution seems to be go into the motherboard BIOS, choose Integrated Peripherals, OnChip IDE/SATA Device, then change OnChip SATA Mode from "Native IDE" to "Legacy IDE". Then it can find your hard disk. Don't forget to change it back when you are done restoring.

Further, the Acronis Boot CD would not work with my USB keyboard & mouse, so I used a PS2 set. However, the solution may be to change the BIOS settings under Integrated Peripherals/OnChip PCI Device/USB (Keyboard|Mouse) Support via" to BIOS, rather than OS. I was using the latter and forgot about this setting.
 
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