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My Thermaltake Lanbox Build... comments?

R

rontruong

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Messages
336
Hi,
My shuttle motherboard just died on me so... I'm making another SFF. I havn't researched much and I haven't been in touch with technology lately.. so I hope to have great suggestions.

So here it is:

Lanbox Lite VF6000BWS http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Chassis/miniCase/lanboxLite/vf6000bws.asp#
I'm using my old 7800GT
Core 2 Duo E6550 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030
GIGABYTE GA-G33M-DS2R http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128053
Corsair HX520 (this fits right?) http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203270716
No idea on ram... I'm still in the DDR1 phase. Not sure if I want 2 gb or 4 gb... is 4 gb worth it? (I'm not going to run vista anytime soon)
Suggestions
Crucial 2x1gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148144

I heard the clearance for the heatsink is 100 mm... any suggestions for a heatsink?

Alright! there it is... please let me know if this is a good build

meanwhile.. imma read up on ram

thanks
 
Ok first, are you stuck on the lanbox? or would you be willing to go too a different case? second are you going o be doing any overclocking? And the blue orb or mx orb are great or maybe a gemin 2 with some modded fans on it?
 
I think i'm pretty solid with the TT lanbox.. it looks pretty cool to me =)... i've considered the qpack 1 and 2, sugos, and microfly, but they don't really appeal to me.

I'd like to overclock, but i've never overclocked w/ an intel before... but I'm pretty sure I can figure it out and I just read good things about that motherboard.

heh, forgot to mention these things in the previous post, but I thnk thats pretty much it
 
Lol, so you would have suggested he get a different case just because you think the one he picked is ugly? That's not a good way to give advice.

In any case, go with any of the Crucial Ballistix, they all have Micron D9's in them and should overclock very well if you decide to overclock.

2GB is just fine, especially if you're just gaming. The performance difference is not yet worth the price difference between 2GB and 4GB.

The VX450 will fit, but I would go for a modular PSU. If you go with the VX450, you're going to have a bunch of wires lying in your case that you're not using. This will restrict your airflow, causing temperatures to increase. I'd try and step it up to a HX520, or an Antec NeoHE 500.

On the CPU cooler, I have a Pentium D 945 and a Zalman 7700cu in my Lanbox and it cools just fine. I idle in the mid 30's with all my fans on low (I have a Vantec Nexus fan controller) in a room air conditioned to 70°F. The 8700 might work also, but it touches the northbridge cooler on the Gigabyte board, and I'm not sure if it's much of an improvement over the 7700.
 
TWO515TY said:
Lol, so you would have suggested he get a different case just because you think the one he picked is ugly? That's not a good way to give advice.

In any case, go with any of the Crucial Ballistix, they all have Micron D9's in them and should overclock very well if you decide to overclock.

2GB is just fine, especially if you're just gaming. The performance difference is not yet worth the price difference between 2GB and 4GB.

The VX450 will fit, but I would go for a modular PSU. If you go with the VX450, you're going to have a bunch of wires lying in your case that you're not using. This will restrict your airflow, causing temperatures to increase. I'd try and step it up to a HX520, or an Antec NeoHE 500.

On the CPU cooler, I have a Pentium D 945 and a Zalman 7700cu in my Lanbox and it cools just fine. I idle in the mid 30's with all my fans on low (I have a Vantec Nexus fan controller) in a room air conditioned to 70°F. The 8700 might work also, but it touches the northbridge cooler on the Gigabyte board, and I'm not sure if it's much of an improvement over the 7700.
Click to expand...
Thats why i asked if he was solid on the case, i could have recommended him to some other m atx cases. Also i would go with a hx620 i think it is. Its just so that if you need the extra power its there. Dont go for the antec, its just older stuff thats not as reliable anymore.
 
By a lot of wires... is it really that much wires? hahaha... I'm really neat and I'm pretty sure I can handle the wires

the hx520 has more power than i need and its more expensive....

anyways, do the ballistix have faulty problems like the ddr1 modules? Or.. are the ddr2 ones safe to buy? I've gone through 3 rmas with ballistix ddr400 in the past 2 years.
 
rontruong said:
By a lot of wires... is it really that much wires? hahaha... I'm really neat and I'm pretty sure I can handle the wires

the hx520 has more power than i need and its more expensive....

anyways, do the ballistix have faulty problems like the ddr1 modules? Or.. are the ddr2 ones safe to buy? I've gone through 3 rmas with ballistix ddr400 in the past 2 years.
Click to expand...

They're pretty safe to buy. Haven't heard of any widespread problems with the current crop of Ballistix RAM. And, as already mentioned, the Ballistx RAM can OC pretty, around DDR2 1066 speeds IIRC. And it's not a bad price:
Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT12864AA804 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $89

As for cables, check out this review of 450VX and decide if that's a lotta cables to you and whether or not you can hide/place them out of the way:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=125

For your setup, the 450VX should be more than enough power for you. Though, personally, I'd get the 520HX to cut back on cable clutter:
Corsair HX520 520W PSU - $104

I also suggest, if you're planning on overclocking, to get the E6750 instead of the E6550 because it'll be easier to OC and won't need as high of an RAM overclock. Here's what I mean:

E6550:
Multi x FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
7 × 333Mhz = 2.3Ghz, DDR2-667 << Stock speeds
7 × 400Mhz = 2.8Ghz, DDR2-800 << Easy OC
7 × 465Mhz = 3.2Ghz, DDR2-930 << Good OC
7 × 500Mhz = 3.5Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Great OC

E6750:
Multi x FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
8 × 333Mhz = 2.6Ghz, DDR2-667 << Stock speeds
8 × 400Mhz = 3.2Ghz, DDR2-800 << Easy OC
8 × 450Mhz = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-900 << Good OC
8 × 500Mhz = 4.0Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Great OC
 
in regards to the 6550 and 6750 suggestion....
can't i just use a memory divider?? or is it really bad/not efficient to use that on intels?
 
rontruong said:
in regards to the 6550 and 6750 suggestion....
can't i just use a memory divider?? or is it really bad/not efficient to use that on intels?
Click to expand...

Well C2D systems run best at a 1:1 ratio. In fact, C2D systems don't benefit that much from running the RAM faster than the FSB.
 
even though it runs best... would a memory divider which makes the ram a bit slower affect performance by a lot? But even so, wouldn't the net gain from the overclock override the negatives of using a divider, thus you still get a faster system?

As long as using a divider doesn't cause any crashes, then i'll be fine... it doesn't right? on my AMD platform, if I used certain dividers, the computer won't load windows haha
 
rontruong said:
even though it runs best... would a memory divider which makes the ram a bit slower affect performance by a lot? But even so, wouldn't the net gain from the overclock override the negatives of using a divider, thus you still get a faster system?

As long as using a divider doesn't cause any crashes, then i'll be fine... it doesn't right? on my AMD platform, if I used certain dividers, the computer won't load windows haha
Click to expand...

Never thought of running the RAM slower than the FSB. But I'd think the RAM would bottleneck the FSB and thereby lower overall performance. However, I don't know if running the FSB higher than the RAM would hurt performance that by a large margin.
 
anyone have an idea on what kind of heatsink that fits the lanbox?

I've looked and most of the things I've ran into doesn't seem all that clear... so just asking around !

thanks
 
rontruong said:
anyone have an idea on what kind of heatsink that fits the lanbox?

I've looked and most of the things I've ran into doesn't seem all that clear... so just asking around !

thanks
Click to expand...

TWO515TY said:
On the CPU cooler, I have a Pentium D 945 and a Zalman 7700cu in my Lanbox and it cools just fine. I idle in the mid 30's with all my fans on low (I have a Vantec Nexus fan controller) in a room air conditioned to 70°F. The 8700 might work also, but it touches the northbridge cooler on the Gigabyte board, and I'm not sure if it's much of an improvement over the 7700.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, the Zalman CPU coolers are the best choices when it comes to active cooling (with a fan built in). There's also the NT06 and XP-120, but the NT06 relies more on the PSU fan, and from what I've heard, Corsair PSU's aren't great to use with the NT06. I haven't seen any recent info on the XP-120 so I'm not sure how well it fares, but I think you can also put a 120mm on top of the XP-120.
 
how is the heatsink depended on the psu? hmm is the psu like exhaust/intake on the bottom of the box?

I'm looking at the 8700 and it just doesn't look like its worth the price...

anyone else have inputs on xp 120 or 90? I've read that it fits but.. its really tight

maybe the xp 90 copper version?

let me know
 
PSU choice in relation to the NT06 is mainly a concern if you are using the SUG03 case. Its the way the psu sits in relation to the NT06 inside the case. You use the psu's fan to help supply air movement. I dont think (need to double check) its a problem with the Tt Lanbox. Not even sure the NT06 fits in a Lanbox to begin with. As far as the 7700, 8700, or the Blue Orb hsf goes the psu fan relation doesnt really matter. I would however reccomend the Corsair HX 520w due to its excellent quality. Silverstone has a 500w short cable psu that is very popular in SFF cases due to the cable lengths being shorter and easier to do wire management with. You may want to consider it.

6550 or 6750? I think the 6750 offers a better bang for your buck wether you are OCing or not. Its considered the sweet spot by many users for CPUs right now.
 
I have the 8700 on mine...I chose it cause it was on my short list of HSF's that fit. My old 6600 is at 3.2ghz and runs just under 50c on idle! And that's after I took out the hard drive cage with my 2 drives in raid and installed just 1 drive in the floppy cage.
All in all it was an expensive experiment that I'm not overly happy wih.
 
i've read somewhere that xp 90 and xp 120's fit... i'm interested in gettin a xp 120, any extra confirmations that it fits? thanks
 
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