HTPC/Gaming Build (H55N-USB3 w/ AXP-140 Cooler) *pics*

Xfinity said:
BTW Kazei, are planning in using the PSU that came with the case?
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Yup, 300W is good enough for now. The 8800GT doesn't need that much power anyways.


HenkNL said:
Received a reply. It fits ! See below.
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Nice! Good to see other coolers fit too.


On another note, has anybody tried running Ubuntu 9.10 on this board? I can't seem to get Suspend working on it. They system doesn't go to sleep. The screen just blanks out and everything is still powered. If I move the mouse or press a key the login box pops up.
 
Why 9.10, why not 10.04? Not that 10.04 solves all the issues, but I'd think that this would be the version folks would be putting on if they do a fresh install. Most (again, this is just my guess) have upgraded from 9.10 ... and perhaps had to do a fresh install to take advantage of ext4 (default fs in 10.04).
 
Oops, sorry I meant 10.04. Suspend doesn't work in the latest version.
 
Oh well .. it could be Linux. I just tried it with my DFI P45 based setup, and it does all the right things like spinning HDDs down and turning the video off, but then wakes up RIGHT AWAY (w/o me moving mouse or touching the keyboard) ... perhaps I have wake-on-LAN or smth ..

Edit: I had a mysterious "wake on PCI card" in the BIOS (and not explicit "wake on LAN" setting) ... I disabled "wake on PCI card", but observe same behavior. Will be able to test w/ ZOTAC H55 board (and Ubuntu 10.04) as well as DFI P45 and Win Vista in a few days.
 
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@Kazei

do you think a normal 120mm fan will fit? the slipstream is great and evenrtyhing but it's pretty expensive (I sell PCs and for $12 I could get 4 cooler master 120mm fans)
 
120x25mm fan with an AXP-140 inside a SG05 will not fit.
120x20mm will fit but it will be pressing up against the power supply.

Here's a pic I found with a 20mm thick fan.
dsc_3770zsdx.jpg
 
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DVD, HD, and front panel installed. 2 more things to go: PSU and SATA cables.

The optical drive I bought is a Lite-On and there's a tiny gap all around the front bezel. Oh well, guess they're all like that.

IMG_3607.JPG


IMG_3609.JPG
 
Kazei -- don't know if you've thought about wire management yet, but the spaces on either side of the slim drive are great to house extra wires/length -- keeps the area between the front 120mm fan and the motherboard relatively clean. In my -06, all the cables that connect to the mobo go straight up into the "roof area". I also called the space between the slim drive tray and the psu the "conduit" as that's where I routed/tied most of the wires that needed to travel laterally (e.g. main mobo power to get to the plug on the h55itx-a-e). Oh, and there is enough space above the psu inside the cross-bar piece of metal to route one set of power wires (pcie or the 4-pin extra mobo power) if you want to keep more space available in the conduit. I have my 3.5" hard drives mounted vertically along the left side of the case (where the overhand from a double width vid card would go), so I routed the SATA cables with double-sided tape in that cross-bar).
 
joelC said:
Using the supplied dvd cover that came with the case,two springs and a screw.
http://img713.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1020890.jpg
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Nice job with that. Looks good.


Machupo said:
Kazei -- don't know if you've thought about wire management yet, but the spaces on either side of the slim drive are great to house extra wires/length -- keeps the area between the front 120mm fan and the motherboard relatively clean. In my -06, all the cables that connect to the mobo go straight up into the "roof area". I also called the space between the slim drive tray and the psu the "conduit" as that's where I routed/tied most of the wires that needed to travel laterally (e.g. main mobo power to get to the plug on the h55itx-a-e). Oh, and there is enough space above the psu inside the cross-bar piece of metal to route one set of power wires (pcie or the 4-pin extra mobo power) if you want to keep more space available in the conduit. I have my 3.5" hard drives mounted vertically along the left side of the case (where the overhand from a double width vid card would go), so I routed the SATA cables with double-sided tape in that cross-bar).
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Yup, I've pretty much planned out where all my cables are gonna go. I cut off one of the molex plugs as well as the floppy connector because I won't ever use these. It also makes things much cleaner inside.
 
Thanks. I'm almost done. I ordered a sleeving kit for my PSU which haven't arrived yet. I'm planning to do a white/light blue color scheme to match the colors of the board. I just noticed that the stock EVGA 8800GT cooler has the same colors lol.

I've also cut off some connectors from the PSU (4pin molex and the SATA power) so that there is only enough to power the HD and optical drive. This makes the case less crowded and easier to route the cables.
 
To give you an idea of the noise, the 1200rpm Scythe Slim is virtually silent. The 80mm fan inside the PSU is louder but can't be heard a few feet away. The 120mm front intake fan I replaced with a Coolermaster LED one becuase I wanted the blue lighting is by far the loudest thing in the case. It is NOT 19db as advertised. I had to connect it to a fan controller to make it bearable.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=42176&vpn=R4-L2R-20AC&manufacture=COOLERMASTER
 
Did you get an opportunity to listen to the stock 120mm front fan before replacing it? I'll be ordering the rest of the parts on Tuesday and throwing in another fan is fine.

Do you have the 1200rpm Scythe Slim running at that speed at all times?
 
Sorry, no I replaced the Silverstone fan before I installed the mobo. However, I plugged it in outside of the case and it seems pretty quiet. It may be louder when installed behind a grill though.

Yes, I have the Slim running at max speed all the time. I turned off Smart Fan in the BIOS. I'm actually going to replace it with a 1600rpm slim because it has more airflow.
 
Any updates on this build? I'm especially interested in whether the G.Skill Eco memory works well with this board. Thanks.
 
I finally dind't hear if the AXP-140 fits in a H55-ITX. I got mine one w/ intel's stock fan and it's a lil bit noisy, gonna try to get rid of it as soon as possible.
 
RavenZero said:
Any updates on this build? I'm especially interested in whether the G.Skill Eco memory works well with this board. Thanks.
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Hey, sorry I've been busy with Starcraft. I've also been trying to sleeve the cables on the PSU to match the color scheme of the Gigabyte board (white/blue) which is taking a lot longer than expected.

Anyways, the Eco works great with this board. I've had no problems with it. The ram is rated for 1.35v but the BIOS only has 1.3 or 1.4. I chose 1.3 which works fine.
 
Kazei said:
Hey, sorry I've been busy with Starcraft. I've also been trying to sleeve the cables on the PSU to match the color scheme of the Gigabyte board (white/blue) which is taking a lot longer than expected.

Anyways, the Eco works great with this board. I've had no problems with it. The ram is rated for 1.35v but the BIOS only has 1.3 or 1.4. I chose 1.3 which works fine.
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+1 for eco working well on these, i have the 1600 and it does very well. stayed solid with my 750 at 4.0ghz
 
Great to hear about the Eco series memory guys. Thanks for the update. I may very well be using these boards both in my HTPC/gaming rig and in my new all-purpose server/NAS system that I'll be building this fall.
 
KaizerDan, looks like you have almost the same exact build that I'm going to build soon. I'm going to use my old 8800gts 512mb g92 as my video card. What type of gaming are you doing? I just wanna see what the capabilities are for that vid card.

Kazei, that cabling looks freakin awesome!
 
Kazei.. Nice stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing the end results :cool:

My experiences sofar with the same case/MB. I will add them here incase they might benefit somebody.

REQUIREMENTS:
- Small Form Factor - Current i7 tower is just too big
- Quiet - Current i7 system sounds like a vacum cleaner
- Able to game - Not much of a computer if it can't :-D
- Greener - less power used equals a happier planet Earth

EQUIPMENT:
*Silverstone SUGO SG05B
*Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3
*Intel Corei5-760
*Prolimatech Samuel 17 Low Profile CPU Heatsink (PT-SAM17)
*Scythe Slitpstream (120mm x 25mm, 800rpm, 40.2cfm, 10.7dba) (SY1225SL12L)
*2x2GB Kingston RAM 1333, CL9 (KVR1333D3N9K2/4G)
*MSI Hawk 5770 (R5770 Hawk)
*Win7 Pro X64 OEM
*AC Ryan MORF PSU Modding Kit - Black (ACR-MF2209)
*Corsair Force F60 for windows and essential apps (CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT)
*WD Caviar Green 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB for everything else (WD10EARS)
*No optical drive

ASSEMBLY:
Turning this pile of parts into a functional computer is hard if like me you have big hands. A few frustrations popped up during the build...
- Front Audio cable not long enough to be concealed. It looks kinda ugly looping round/past the CPU fan.
- Installing the 3.5" HDD is really hard if you want tidy cabling.
- No mounting holes for a second 2.5" HDD.
- Front panel and top drive plate can get stuck on other bits when trying to remove.

NOTE:
Initially I spread some of the supplied thermal paste on the cpu and it seemedd quite watery. Wiped that off and applied Arctic Silver 5 instead.

INSTALLATION:
Powering on reveals that the system is really quiet! Enabled AHCI in BIOS and installed Windows from USB stick. Installed mainboard and graphics drivers, Real Temp, and Prime95.

COOLING:
This is where the fun really began. For all tests I used only Real Temp and ran Prime95 in Blend mode to tax the CPU. Not really scientific but close enough for me :)

TEST 1:
Scythe blowing air downwards onto fins, PSU facing down sucking air from inside case.
7 mins - 93ºC and still rising!!
EEK! Shutdown and googled. A lot of people are bagging AS5 so I begin to worry. Found this thread and tested again using reversed PSU as HenkNL did

TEST 2:
Scythe blowing air downwards onto fins, PSU facing up sucking air from outside case.
10 mins - 84ºC
20 mins - 87ºC
50 mins - 91ºC
Better than test 1 but looking at temps that other people get I think it can be better.
Shutdown, disassembled and replaced the AS5 with the suppliers thermal paste

TEST 3:
Scythe blowing air downwards onto fins, PSU facing up sucking air from outside case.
10 mins - 73ºC
20 mins - 81ºC
50 mins - 85ºC
Better again but there must be a better way.
Shutdown, and reversed both the PSU and the Scythe.

TEST 4:
Scythe sucking air upwards from fins, PSU facing down sucking air from inside case.
10 mins - 64ºC
20 mins - 69ºC
50 mins - 73ºC
1hr 15 mins - 75ºC
Better again and I'm pretty happy with this right now.

RESULTS:
I'm happy with how this system has turned out for now. I will do some game testing soon :)

If anybody else is going to try the Samuel17 cooler I would recommend going for the next higher Scythe (120mm x 25mm, 1200rpm, 68.5cfm, 24dba (SY1225SL12M)) if you can stand the extra noise :)

Oh, and hire an Oompa Loompa for the build :D
 
Interesting to see your CPU being cooler on a pull setup. Most of the time flan blowing down is way to go. Your airflow is basically take the cool air from the front fan and force it up thru the HS and out thru the PSU which makes sense for removing heat quickly.

Well I don't get over 60c ever but I can't use a 3.5" drive either with the H50. You fan isn't an slim one is it?
 
No my fan is a 25mm thick fan. I got it because it makes less noise and manages to suck more air than some thin ones too. With the Samuel17 HSF being only 45mm high, there is plenty of headroom for a thicker fan.

Does anybody know what the specs of the default SG05 front fan are? (RPM, CFM, Noise)
 
Wow great in-depth analysis robo_bee. Replacing the AS5 made a huge difference and who would've known that a pull setup would provide dramatically better temps then pushing. Great job.

Do you have your i5-760 overclocked? If so what voltage?
 
Thanks, ya I was going for the "cheap" murdermod look lol. Didn't want to spend the big bucks for the real thing.
 
Looks good, makes me wish I would've gone with the AXP-140 instead of the Cogage MST-140. The Cogage has too much over-hang and interferes with both my cases.
 
Impressive build Kazei! I'd complain about too much room gone unused in the case - need to throw 3 more SSDs and RAID10 them or go with a smaller case ;)
 
lol, I could add a few more SSD's near the front but I've already spent too much money on this system as it is. My initial budget was like $400 but I think I've spent 700 - 800 already haha.
 
As for robo_bee's findings, I noticed the same with my SG03. Having Samuel's fan push air out through the PSU seems to be the way to go for lowest temps. My idle temps are 10+ degrees higher with the the PSU fan facing the open side panel and CPU fan downblowing as compared to push-to-PSU-and-exhaust. As my current PSU's fan ramps up in that setup however, I'll probably just keep it in this "hotter" setup until I can get the Seasonic X-460. Then, the CPU fan can push the air through it, should work ok even without the PSU having its own fan.

Anyway, it does make sense if you think about, just simply downblowing doesn't really get rid of the heated air, thus it gets reused and temps don't go down. While forcing it out through the PSU certainly does get rid of it.
 
To Kazei or anyone else who has enough experience with the Gigabyte H55n-usb3 board and the Silverstone SG-05/06...

That pesky PCIe slot being right next to the CPU bothers me. Do you guys know if it would be possible to get this thing in there?
svc: Noctua NH-U9B SE2
The height is fine, it's moreso the girth, I've read that you can get the fans to go OVER the memory, but I'm not sure if even the "thin" side of the heat sink would be able to fit with a graphics card in there.

I was also looking at this thing: Newegg: CoolIT SYSTEMS ECO-R120 Advanced Liquid Cooling (ALC)


Thanks for your help, I'm hoping to get a nice lil dream PC made in the next couple months.
 
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There are only 2 air coolers I know of that will fit with a video card installed. The AXP-140 and Prolimatech Samuel 17 Low Profile. Any others will block the PCI-e slot from being used. The H50 will work. The H70 and ECO-R20 will probably work but the backplate will be the tricky part. If you look at my pics from the first page, there are components on the back of the mobo that prevent certain plates from being mounted flat.
 
Well it looks like I ran into my first major CON for this board. I hooked up the HTPC to my Denon 590 receiver via optical and realized I cannot get 5.1 surround when gaming. I can play back DVD's in DD and DTS no problem though.

Reason being is that the optical out only supports 2.0 uncompressed audio in addition to DTS and DD. Since games use uncompressed 5.1 audio I'm out of luck. The only way to get surround in games is to use the analog outputs instead of the optical but the problem is my receiver doesn't have 5.1 analog inputs. Either that or use the pro logic mode on my receiver but that isn't true surround.

After reading on this further, it seems sounds cards with DD Live encoding are able to output 5.1 PCM audio through optical but the onboard realtek sound does not support this feature. :(
 
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