New Lian Li PC- Q11 itx case : Specification & Feature

3 15\16ths to bottom of metal bracket the fan is on. I don't have the stock fan on there so I can't get you that measurement.
 
Here is a picture of my bottom.

pc-q11b_bottom.jpg


I positioned the 120mm fan in line with the center of the GPU. This made sense when I planned to use the original heatsink ducted without the stock fan. The stock heatsink isn't good enough for that. So the position probably doesn't matter much for this situation.

The fan speed is controlled by the video card thanks to a PWM splitter cable. I was considering 140mm but right now I like the choice of available 120mm PWM fans (especially from my own collection).

The case feet are 0.88" tall Philmore part # 10-647. I found them at Fry's Electronics. I am going to add a small bit of rubber to the bottom of them so the case won't fly off my glass desk.

The 120mm hole was was cut with a nibbler hand tool. I used a template from http://www.mnpctech.com/ printed on self-adhesive paper. The case was covered in blue painter's tape during all work to prevent scratches. Both sides of the hole should be masked, as the nibbler can scratch. After cutting the hole, I sanded the edge with sandpaper wrapped around a hole-saw drill attachment. I used double-sided carpet tape to hold the sandpaper to the attachment. 80 grit followed by 400 grit. It is important to hold the case secure and still during sanding to prevent slipping.

I am very pleased with the results. My ASRock H67M-ITX used to throttle my i7-2600K CPU if the temperature of some mystery motherboard sensor is unhappy. This mod prevents that from happening during a full Prime95 + FurMark load.

Noise is improved. Since the temperature is lower, the small GPU fan doesn't have to work as hard.

Temperatures depend on what your goal is. I prefer lower noise, so my temperature improvements are not huge. Also I haven't upgraded my GPU heatsink yet. I'm getting an 8 degree Celsius improvement during FurMark.

I have an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 arriving soon. Based on my video card measurements, it should fit the case. I'll see what I can do with one fan again.

UPDATE: GPU cooler arrived

I have installed the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 on my MSI R6850 Cyclone PE video card. There is only a few millimeters of space between it and the front of the case. Incredibly perfect fit. Figuring out how to angle the card to get it into the case took me a few minutes, LOL. I decided not to use the clear plastic spacers that came with the Accelero S1 - they seemed a little tall.

Now the only fan cooling the video card is the bottom-mounted 120mm fan. It is plugged into the video card's fan header, thanks to an adapter cable. I've got FurMark running and the fan doesn't even need to go beyond 1000 RPM (64%) with temperature in the low 70's Celsius.
 
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thinking about doing an sff build and was just wondering if the big shuriken on the ASUS P8H61-I would block the pci-e?
 
Rhoptowit said:
thinking about doing an sff build and was just wondering if the big shuriken on the ASUS P8H61-I would block the pci-e?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it will. The normal Shuriken (Shuriken Rev.B) won't however :D It's GPU clearance may be a little tight, so be prepared to either:

use an electrically insulating material, like electrical tape to prevent direct contact between the CPU cooler and the GPU PCB's backside.


or


bend the mounting arms of the Shuriken Rev.B a little bit to allow for more clearance between the GPU PCB and the CPU HSF.

Either way, good luck!!
 
I have installed the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 on my MSI R6850 Cyclone PE video card. There is only a few millimeters of space between it and the front of the case. Incredibly perfect fit. Figuring out how to angle the card to get it into the case took me a few minutes, LOL. I decided not to use the clear plastic spacers that came with the Accelero S1 - they seemed a little tall.

Now the only fan cooling the video card is the bottom-mounted 120mm fan. It is plugged into the video card's fan header, thanks to an adapter cable. I've got FurMark running and the fan doesn't even need to go beyond 1000 RPM (64%) with temperature in the low 70's Celsius.
 
I'm wondering if there is room for 4 3.5inch drives at the bottom of the case? wether it be in a 2 * 2 config or all of them standing on one side across the bottom?
 
The Q11 has a 3-pin power LED header. How do you reconcile that with motherboards like the Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 that only have 2 pins?
 
KenF said:
The Q11 has a 3-pin power LED header. How do you reconcile that with motherboards like the Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 that only have 2 pins?
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Is that so? That'd be mighty unusual. There are still only two wires though, right? Moving the pin might work.
 
cyberkost said:
Is that so? That'd be mighty unusual. There are still only two wires though, right? Moving the pin might work.
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Yeah, it should. Some mobos have the Power LED spaced with one in the middle. Just use a paper chip to unclip the clasp inside, and move the pin over to the appropriate hole :)
 
KenF said:
The Q11 has a 3-pin power LED header. How do you reconcile that with motherboards like the Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 that only have 2 pins?
Click to expand...

I used a gigabyte H67N mobo and actually cut off the middle power LED header myself. I used an OLFA blade to do the cutting. The end ones are the necessary plugs so I just cut out the middle and plugged them on the board - didn't tape or glue them together even.
 
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1. If you don't oveclock and don't have monster vid. card in there -- you should be fine cooling-wise.
2. PC-Q11A is silver (brushed aluminum), PC-Q11W is white
 
comp666 said:
Is this PC-Q11A white or silver? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112296 . The description says silver but it looks white in the pictures
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If you refer to post #96 (linked), you can get a better idea of what the PC-Q11A looks like.
The pictures don't capture the fact that the Q11A is brushed aluminum, while the Q11W is coated white and so does not have brush marks. If you are not familiar with brushed aluminum, in the final photo beneath the hard drive, you can see that the aluminum is textured.

Here is a stock photo of the PC-Q11W.
 
cyberkost said:
1. If you don't oveclock and don't have monster vid. card in there -- you should be fine cooling-wise.
2. PC-Q11A is silver (brushed aluminum), PC-Q11W is white
Click to expand...

I'll be using the hd2000 so I guess I'm fine.

jamaicanpi said:
If you refer to post #96 (linked), you can get a better idea of what the PC-Q11A looks like.
The pictures don't capture the fact that the Q11A is brushed aluminum, while the Q11W is coated white and so does not have brush marks. If you are not familiar with brushed aluminum, in the final photo beneath the hard drive, you can see that the aluminum is textured.

Here is a stock photo of the PC-Q11W.
Click to expand...

Nice, I was hoping for this one.

Thanks!
 
I need to build a gaming machine for my brother, on a budget, and have decided on this case for several reasons - mainly that it's one of the only ITX cases that hasn't got holes all over it - an important feature as this case will be sitting almost in direct sunlight (south facing room with large windows) for several hours in the day.

Just need to check over the specs here, whether it seems suitable.

Gigabyte H67N itx motherboard
i3 2100 with stock cooler
4GB corsair DDR3
1GB EVGA GTX460 SE SC (one of the cheapest ones I can find ~ £110)
WD 500GB scorpio black
Silverstone ST45SF

...and a samsung blu-ray drive in the top.


Whole lot comes in at <£600 including the case.

Will most likely stick in another scorpio black at a later stage, when I can find a cheap used one.

Would the ST45SF be good for that lot? Also would it conflict at all with the airflow direction of the stock cooler on the cpu?

Main usage of this will be gaming, and he mostly plays things like oblivion and total war. Is this spec suitable for that at 1920x1080?

I'm concerned with cpu choice - the i3 2100 is about £90, and the next step up - the i5 2300 is around £140! :eek: Quite a price difference.
Now I can't see him doing anything too cpu intensive, or much that would really benefit from a quad core, so is it better to save the £50 or so and stick with the i3 2100?
There is also the i3 2120 which is only £5 more than the 2100.
Added benefit will be it running cooler, which is good in this case.

I appreciate any input. :)
 
I would skip the ST45SF and use a normal ATX PSU. Mostly because the PSU is also the exhaust fan. The SFX PSU you listed only has an 80mm fan. Using an ATX PSU would get you a 120mm fan. I built a Q07 on that premise and it works great.

The rest of your build looks good to me.
 
^Which is good because I have a spare ocz modxstream 600W psu lying around - overkill for this machine, but will save money.

If I use an atx psu, is it best then to forget the stock heatsink for the cpu and instead use a thermalright axp 140, to avoid airflow conflict problems?
 
Actually, I placed a piece of paper over the quarter of the PSU fan right over the stock CPU cooler and that worked amazingly well. And dont forget, a Q11 has that nice fan blowing air right onto the CPU as well. I am using a i5 2500k that runs a lot hotter than the CPU you plan to use.

Try using stock cooler without mods and see how it goes. (mine cooled real well until adding a GPU, then it just got noisy-still cooled ok, my bigger problem is getting air to the GPU. Q07s are much tighter/smaller)

Personally, I think the stock cooler will keep you in good shape.
 
Hmm, might try that. So no need for SFX psu, or an aftermarket heatsink.

Now my confusion is with the cpu.
My concern is will the i3 2100 last? Or is it better to shell out ~£50 more now (to the i5 2300 or 2400), to save having to upgrade it in a years time anyway?
 
everything I have heard is that the i3 is just fine for gaming and most applications. I should of gotten that one, but I was determined to build overkill. Result? I dont use much of my processing capabilities. Oh, well.

Really though, it would depend if the games he is playing require the extra cores.Most dont need more than 2 cores and the i3 supports HyperThreading to simulate 4 cores.

A year is a long time and a lot of new stuff is going to be coming out (isnt there always?) Build now, I think the i3 will be fine, and enjoy!
 
Right, sounds like a plan.

The last thing is 2100 or 2120 - only £4 difference and 200MHz higher clock. Seems like a no-brainer.
 
^Thanks for the help.

Revised build is then:

i3 2120 with stock heatsink
Gigabyte H67N
4GB DDR3
500GB ssamsung F3 (considering the scorpio black is almost double the price, I'm tempted to just go for this 3.5" drive here)
blu-ray drive for the top (<£50)


Stuff I've already got - ocz modxstream 600w - will try covering the overlapping part of the fan with a bit of card to break it up from the i3's heatsink fan.
Will also look for a used GTX460 to save cost again.
 
If I get some of the stuff I ordered for some upgrades on mine before you get done, I will take a pic of what I did to PSU and post it. (I am adding taller case feet and cutting a hole in the bottom for the GPU to breathe a little easier)
 
In case anyone wants to know about the difference between the i3 to i7 when it comes to gaming, I found this quote:

The most impressive thing I found in my testing was the in-game performance from CPU to CPU. As a gamer I want the best hardware for my build to edge every ounce of performance out of every game. As it turns out almost every game we tested showed little or no reason to go with anything beyond the i3-2100. The next time I am looking at a budget build there is a good chance I may be recommending going with the cheaper i3-2100 and putting that extra $175(or $85 if you were coming from the i5) toward a better video card. That&#8217;s the most impressive thing: Intel managed to put together a nice selection of CPU&#8217;s ranging from just under $125 to almost $300 that ALL perform great.

Since this is from another review site I didnt link it. Test bed was a Fatal1ty board using sli GTX 580s. Less than 3fps diff for any game but one and in that case it was well over 100fps for any of the CPUs. Some games (Metro 2033) less than 1fps diff.
 
It is an offtop right but Q11 and Q07 both have ventilation holes across the GPU area. What I did in my Q07 is I added 3 60 mm fans on the bottom blowing on the GPU. With 12V splitter they are noisy and efficient. With 7V they are quiet like the CPU FAN and GPU FAN (EAH5750 FORMULA). During gaming without the fans the temps would be ~70 to 75 degrees. With fans they go down to ~60. That is all with auto cooling profile in CCC. There is also positive effect on the CPU temperature (I use stock cooler).
 
Has anyone considered squeezing two 80mm fans at roughly a 35 degree angle from the horizontal, behind the 5.25" bay, and above the motherboard, to help exhaust air out the top?

Seems like it might be possible, and use zip ties to fasten the fans through the holes in the top and back of the case.
 
Curunen said:
^Which is good because I have a spare ocz modxstream 600W psu lying around - overkill for this machine, but will save money.

If I use an atx psu, is it best then to forget the stock heatsink for the cpu and instead use a thermalright axp 140, to avoid airflow conflict problems?
Click to expand...

The reviews I've read of the PC-Q11 make me think that your OCZ PSU is going to be a bit long for this case. The guys at Bit-tech did their review with a 160 mm long Seasonic PSU and yours is also 160 mm long. Things were crammed in so tight that the modular cables were running into the front fan grill. You can see pictures here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/10/08/lian-li-pc-q11-mini-itx-case-review/2 So you may be able to cram it in there, but the position means that the PSU is blocking circulation of a significant amount of the contribution of the front fan.

What I've seen a number of people do is go with the SILVERSTONE Strider Plus ST50F-P 500W. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256065 It is only 140mm deep and is still modular. Those that want the PSU to be as short as possible, while still being ATX, and don't mind if the cables are non-modular might consider the Nexus NX-5000 Rev. 3 (530W) which is only 125 mm deep. http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=NX-5000_Rev_3.html
 
I didnt realize his PSU was that long. It is going to give you fits getting it all in there. Personally, I think in these shorter case that modular is not the way to go. The plug connectors make them longer than the dimensions show.
 
Anyone has a temp sensor that shows the actual temp within the case? The one-fan-thingy kinda bothers me.
 
Hmm, thanks for that. Yeah just measured the ocz psu - it is 160mm long. :/

Didn't realise that nexus PSU existed.

If I can fit two 70/80mm fans in the top to help with exhaust, then I don't need to worry about the size of the psu fan -> the st45sf is on the table again.
 
I added my completed build to the SFF Gallery:

josephclemente's Lian Li PC-Q11B + Suck hole-cooled HD 6850
Click to expand...

Very slick and clean. What are those plastic doodads you put over your various ports?
 
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