My first poke at SFF too!!!

S

Smoove910

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2005
Messages
1,324
Yea, as it says, my first poke. Using the Biostar T-Force 6100 w/Zalman 7700 120mm heatsink, along with a Coolermaster Northbridge chipset cooler (yea, it fit with some cutting)

Of course specs are I am running a 1:1 ratio @ 256fsb for 512mhz fsb respectively. This is off of PC4000 Corsair with timings of 8-4-4-3 @ 2.7vdimm. Processor is running @ 1.8 via the BIOS, but registers @ 1.71. Very clean wiring inside the case, all ziptied and routed for best possible airflow.

I apologize if the images do not come through, I am new at posting on this site. Sorry:(

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that's beautiful, Smoove910. a load temperature of 40 degrees Celsius on a Qpack is exactly what I hoped I'd be able to accomplish.

How did you wire the back of your Qpack? I cant get my fingers into a space that small.
 
I can't get over how huge that Zalman 7700 looks on that board. Best pics I've seen yet. Nice job. :D
 
Lemme tell ya, the wiring on the back of the case wasn't too hard. The front panel sound is easily connected in front of the LAN port. The hardest thing is getting the 4pin power plugged in after the mobo tray is slid in about 80%. Getting the firewire port on the front plugged into my Audigy 2 is rather difficult too. What I do is feed the connector onto the header, then push it fully onto the header with a flatblade screwdriver until it is fully seated.


Unfortunately, I didn't know the Zalman 7700 had a downward airflow. With the heatsink blowing down really screws up the airflow in my case, so I had to take the 120mm exhaust and reverse it to be an intake. Now the vents up front act as exhaust vents. (Couldn't do much else.)

You can go here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15050632

This shows some pictures of my case BEFORE I had to swap out that p.o.s. powersupply. The mesh is called plastic canvas and can be purchased at Wal-mart or any crafts store. Great to hide wires behind, yet allows for good airflows.
 
Smoove910 said:
Unfortunately, I didn't know the Zalman 7700 had a downward airflow. With the heatsink blowing down really screws up the airflow in my case, so I had to take the 120mm exhaust and reverse it to be an intake. Now the vents up front act as exhaust vents. (Couldn't do much else.)
Click to expand...

That's honestly the best way to do it.

You can't put a filter on the side vents, but you can put a 120mm filter over the back with some light trimming of the case.

Maintaining positive pressure by intaking through a filtered fan keeps the system dust free! Which is a VERY important point with those Zalman HSFs, as dust can really build up between the fins close to the CPU/GPU and kill your temps.
 
Smoove...

can you play a photo with this position??

tzalman.jpg


(the red space.. is a virtual space occuped by the 7700 ;)

Kings Regards
 
Hey, I can do a picture from that angle, but it'll be the next time I pull my board before I can. It is too difficult to get the motherboard tray out because of all the wires I have to disconnect. There is PLENTY of room with the 7700 on there though. I can remove my ram from the 1st slot without any problems.
 
hey Smoove910, what do you mean you did some 'cutting' to get that cooler master NB HSF to fit? just curious.
 
Pretty tight, in that order. I'm hoping my X-OPack's wiring job will be better than my X-SuperAlien's, lol...
 
When I say I had to do a bit of cutting to get my Northbridge cooler on, I had to cut a little off of the fins of that cooler.

If you look at the pics showing the Zalman with the Northbridge cooler, look at the corner closet to the Zalman you can see it is a little more "rounded" than the other corners. I had to shave about a 1/4" notch off to match the thickness of the Zalman blade. Wasn't too hard with my dremel tool.

Also, I took the stock Northbridge cooler and stuck it to the other chipset on there. The Audigy 2 fits right between the fins.

I just threw in a 120mm Thermaltake Smart Case fan on the exhaust (which is my intake now). Airflow is much nicer with the possibility of 90cfm from this fan at full blast on my Nexus fan controller.

I'm thinking about gutting my case and doing a fleckstone gray or white on the chassis, will post more pics after she's done (if I decide to do it).

Right now running 1:1 ratio @ 250fsb and a 10x multi. This is at 1.65 vcore. I can hit 7000 mem benchmark in Sandra pretty easily and my temps are 34c idle and about 42c load. Would still like to get my hands on an Opty or Vennie.
 
ahh ic. so basically the only reason you had to cut was because of the zalman 7700, correct? but if you had the stock hsf or smaller zalmn 7000, you wouldn't have to?
 
I would guess the Zalman 7000 would fit, not sure though. Pretty confident the stock heatsink would pose no problem at all though.
 
How did you cut the fins on the Zalman to fit the Northbridge Cooler? Dremel? It looks really clean. Does the fan hit if you flex the motherboard? Not something that I would plan on doing but it happens sometimes with a portable computer.
 
Nope, the fins don't hit at all. I used a Dremel-like tool, mines a Black & Decker. Actually wasn't too hard (was first time using it). After cutting off the fins, I simply used a razor blade to slice off the residual shavings from each individual fin, then carefully bent each fin on the Zalman to allow for the clearance needed.
 
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