Help with a Flex ATX case mod...

[spotdog14]

Ok, so after seeing one of the guys here IBM NetVista case that they got off of ebay, i fell in love with it, and decided that it would make a good low end workstation for my work. Well anyways after pricing out the stuff and what not i got thinking about it, and thought wow this would be a sweet as case for a Pentium D setup. (yes that was one long run on sentance).

Anyways the internals of the case are really small! From what i can tell they are about 9.7ish x 8.3ish. As you will see in the pics below the reason the horizontal is so small is because of the HDD cage and the optical cage. I have been looking it over, and i could cut out enough of the HDD cage to fit the larger mobo in and then just get a notebook HDD to replace the full size HDD.

Anyways here is what i am proposing spec wise:

Asus P5RD2-VM 9.6" x 8.6" ** UPDATED MOBO **
Intel Pentium D 805
1 GH Coresair ValueSelect
Shuttle Silent X PC50 SFX 300watt PSU
Zalman CNPS7700-CU CPU Cooler


Alright, and now for the pictures of the case itself:

 

[tom61]

Looks neat. I'd put some LED lighting in that indent between the drive cover flap and the outer case for highlights.

You might consider removing the HD tray entirely and bolting on a new full size HD cage parallel to the CDRom bay, after removing the speaker.

 

[synaps3]

I agree with both those ideas. Also, are you going to have it mounted vertically like it is in the pictures? If so, you will have to get special drives, as the standard trays will not work. You probably should get a video card. You don't need anything special, so the low-profile 6200 seems like a good option.

 

[Legion©]

Actually the standard optical drive trays work fine vertical. At worst you have to keep a finger on the disc until it's halfway in. I've got a DVD burner vertical in my HTCP and once you put the disc in the tray it just stays there. Of course a slot loader is nice too

I agree with the idea to add a HDD tray below the optical drive. It should give you space for a couple of 3.5" drives there.

 

[spotdog14]

Looks neat. I'd put some LED lighting in that indent between the drive cover flap and the outer case for highlights.

You might consider removing the HD tray entirely and bolting on a new full size HD cage parallel to the CDRom bay, after removing the speaker.

I thought about that, but the way that the optial drive mounts you need the cage, so im goign to cut half of it off to clear the mobo and screw the other half into the case. Im still debating on what to do about the HDD, i might be able to mount it on the other side of the case....

I agree with both those ideas. Also, are you going to have it mounted vertically like it is in the pictures? If so, you will have to get special drives, as the standard trays will not work. You probably should get a video card. You don't need anything special, so the low-profile 6200 seems like a good option.

Yes i am going to mount it vertially, i think it will be better for airflow, since the only fans that are going to be in it are the CPU Zalman and hte PSU. I would love to be able to find a reduced size PCI cooling fan, but i dont think they make them.

On the video card, i was looking aroudn and found a passivly cooled Nvidia 6800 that would be awsome for this case, but im still concernd about heat inside the case. So i might do just the onboard for now, and see how the heat is.... But thanks for the link!

Actually the standard optical drive trays work fine vertical. At worst you have to keep a finger on the disc until it's halfway in. I've got a DVD burner vertical in my HTCP and once you put the disc in the tray it just stays there. Of course a slot loader is nice too

I agree with the idea to add a HDD tray below the optical drive. It should give you space for a couple of 3.5" drives there.

Yes, the regular optial drives work fine in horizontal or vertical, i too have one in my HTPC.

The actual original location of the HDD tray is right below the optical drive. But im going to have to cut into it becuase hte mobo is to big, and it will no longer be able to fit the standard size HDD. I might though, since i am getting the Shuttle PSU and it is smaller be able to take out the speaker as said above and mount a kick ass raptor drive in there! Ill have to see, i think i might order the PSU, CPU, and Cooler this week, wait a while for the RAM, Optical and HDD...

 

[spotdog14]

PS: How is that Zalman cooler for this application? Do you think it will do a good job cooling the HOT P-D with little airflow? Or should i look elsewhere for a cooler?

Thanks again!

 

[Mohonri]

Wow, that looks prime for a HTPC case. You might consider choosing a different motherboard that would fit better--you won't be doing much overclocking in that case! Narrower uATX boards are out there.

Man, this makes me want to pick one up...

 

[spotdog14]

Wow, that looks prime for a HTPC case. You might consider choosing a different motherboard that would fit better--you won't be doing much overclocking in that case! Narrower uATX boards are out there.

Man, this makes me want to pick one up...

lol exactly the same thing when i saw it! I picked mine up on Ebay for $9.99 plus $5 shipping. Not bad, but its only got a 90watt included PSU. But the Shuttle SFX PSU's work with it, they are in 250, and 300 watt configs....

On the motherboard side, i have been looking around at Flex ATX mobos and they just dont screem at me, they have a few that are Socket 478, and i have had some bad experiances with AMD but most of the Flex ATX for AMD are Socket A... WTF? lol I already own a SocketA 2000+ Athlon, i dont want another one!

I have been thinking about replacing my current HTPC with this one, because i found a few low profile TV tuners, and i can get an external HDTV tuner. This case would be great for that! And hook it up to some NAS i would be all set. That is the reason i upgraded the mobo to a PCI-E, so i have the option for a better video card, if i decide to go that route.