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SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project
- Thread starter SaperPL
- Start date
I'm using EVGA sc gaming 6GB myself although running a quite bizzare setup with 120mm water cooler weirdly mounted but whole setup works nice.
EVGA 1060 SC 6GB is rock solid choice and EVGa seems to be good guys in terms of warranty handling - they told me without delay that I can run the card without the shroud and original fan with no problems on future RMA if I'm able to put the card back together.
This card will fit without any problems with the quad drive package since it is quite standard itx sized 172mm long GPU.
EVGA 1060 SC 6GB is rock solid choice and EVGa seems to be good guys in terms of warranty handling - they told me without delay that I can run the card without the shroud and original fan with no problems on future RMA if I'm able to put the card back together.
This card will fit without any problems with the quad drive package since it is quite standard itx sized 172mm long GPU.
RafaelMasiero
n00b
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2014
- Messages
- 4
Reading Ej24's thread about the LP53 CPU cooler, I'm wondering if the ARTIC Freezer 11 LP wouldn't be a good proposition as a middle ground between the nh-l9i and the lp53 or maybe even a better overall proposition than the lp53.
It has the same overall height (~53mm) than the lp53 and therefore its fan would have to be swapped to a thin fan as well. And maybe its aluminum fins won't give the same performance as the lp53's copper ones.
BUT the Freezer 11LP gives me the impression that it will be a better performer than the nh-l9i (since its beefier and recommended for TDP up to 95 Watts) while being a more quality-assured product than the lp53, with a better engineered mounting system and fan retention system that seems to be a lot easier to work with to install other fans (since it uses standard screw holes in all-open spaces), as well as having a much broader availability (both Amazon and Newegg have the Freezer 11 LP in stock and readily available in the USA, for example) and being considerably cheaper (~$17 USD) than the lp53 (~$55 USD).
OverclockersClub have some nice photos of the Freezer 11 LP's heatsink and fan retention holes/screws
So, guys... any thoughts?
It has the same overall height (~53mm) than the lp53 and therefore its fan would have to be swapped to a thin fan as well. And maybe its aluminum fins won't give the same performance as the lp53's copper ones.
BUT the Freezer 11LP gives me the impression that it will be a better performer than the nh-l9i (since its beefier and recommended for TDP up to 95 Watts) while being a more quality-assured product than the lp53, with a better engineered mounting system and fan retention system that seems to be a lot easier to work with to install other fans (since it uses standard screw holes in all-open spaces), as well as having a much broader availability (both Amazon and Newegg have the Freezer 11 LP in stock and readily available in the USA, for example) and being considerably cheaper (~$17 USD) than the lp53 (~$55 USD).
OverclockersClub have some nice photos of the Freezer 11 LP's heatsink and fan retention holes/screws
So, guys... any thoughts?
Well, the mounting system mounts directly to the fan-shroud not to the heat-sink - so if you remove the shroud the heat-sink will slide around underneath the new fan until you tighten it down?
Edit:
Now when I think about it, having a heavy heat-sink not directly secured in the motherboard, adding that you even grease up the point of contact - the cpu, sounds like a bad idea in a vertical mounting position.
Last edited:
Ozymandias
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2004
- Messages
- 1,610
Frostytech has the Freezer 11 LP as having worse performance than the NH-L9i. Adding a thinner fan to the Freezer 11 won't help.
Shadyace25
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2017
- Messages
- 10
I don't think it will be 1000 cases sold because indiegogo includes things like shipping cost. So taking the total number and dividing it by 195 won't get you the correct number of cases actually sold. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
Yeah, we're actually getting close to 900 units with those 1000% but still it's quite nice milestone
octagoncow
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2014
- Messages
- 131
SUCCESS! 1000% funded! I'm so glad that funding has been so successful.
Campaign is finally over 1000% funded! I have to say this surpassed all my expectations. I thought sentry would have no trouble meeting the goal but I didn't think they'd shatter the goal so thoroughly.
Edit: apparently I'm about a day late. Still exciting nonetheless!
Edit: apparently I'm about a day late. Still exciting nonetheless!
Marvin Alan Tan
n00b
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2016
- Messages
- 10
18 cases more for a thousand cases sold!
Hmmm, There are currently 820 backers; I bought a WHITE 20 days ago and my order number is 853
You have to consider the refunds, there are quite a bit of them because some people wanted to change the colour from black to white for example, and we have no power over switching the perks and orders.
please tell me as soon as the company is complete, and if by that time will still be not sold 2-packs of white case (or white + black), how do you do with them? I can be able to buy a 1 piece white case immediately after the end of the company in some other way?
Alpha Daev
n00b
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2017
- Messages
- 1
Bought a Long Run Black Sentry over the weekend after much agonising. I’m a lapsed PC gamer who’s been on Xbox since the 360 came out.
This case has just drawn me in, aesthetically it will fit in perfectly with my other AV kit, too many PC cases these days are trying to be the star of the show, RGB everywhere, yuck.
Plan is to get the case then wait it out to see what comes of Ryzen & Vega (and see what Microsoft have to offer with the Scorpio) before starting the build. If Microsoft can push out a powerhouse console at a cheap price maybe (hopefully) it’ll force NVidia & AMD to drop prices on their enthusiast GPU's.
Either way I’m excited to be on-board & can’t wait to see what builds people do when they start getting their Sentry!
This case has just drawn me in, aesthetically it will fit in perfectly with my other AV kit, too many PC cases these days are trying to be the star of the show, RGB everywhere, yuck.
Plan is to get the case then wait it out to see what comes of Ryzen & Vega (and see what Microsoft have to offer with the Scorpio) before starting the build. If Microsoft can push out a powerhouse console at a cheap price maybe (hopefully) it’ll force NVidia & AMD to drop prices on their enthusiast GPU's.
Either way I’m excited to be on-board & can’t wait to see what builds people do when they start getting their Sentry!
As I explained before - we're cannot switch perks since we're bound by indiegogo terms to deliver on spec. We don't want to do exceptions since this would make a mess when everybody wanted to do this and at the same time we don't want to add more perks because it also would make a mess.
We are not going to be selling the "remaining" white cases either because we have to deliver to backers first and that means if you want to wait out and see if we will be selling those you'll be disappointed with the fact that you'd have to wait until we deliver all other perks being the last one to get this case.
TL;DR: we don't want to make exceptions nor add more perks because that would make logistic nightmare for us when we would open that gate. We don't want that.
The problem originates from how indiegogo handles limits - we cannot set a limit on item type but perk type and there are no limits on options.
Just created a account just to ask this one question. Are you planning to sell the white sentry cases after the indegogo campaign concludes? Really bummed that it sold out so fast.
We're not planing for that at the moment. We'll think about it after delivering the perks.
UPDATE: Sentry CPU cooler tests results
Read carefully as there are a lot peculiarities about how CPU coolers behave inside Sentry!
1) What CPU coolers were tested?
2) Test Bench:
3) Testing methodology:
Noise monitoring at 1 meter in front of the test bench
30-minute tests (10-minute tests are too short to stabilize the temperature ramp) for each configuration:
- horizontal position - Prime95 Maximum Heat (full CPU load test)
- horizontal position - Heaven Benchmark (gaming load test)
- vertical position - Prime95 Maximum Heat (full CPU load test)
- vertical position - Heaven Benchmark (gaming load test)
Tests were run in stable ambient temperature of ~25 °C that was measured at two locations: on the desk and
at 1 meter in front of the test bench.
Tests were run in room with ambient noise ~45,5 which corresponds to quiet urban area
4) Tests summary
5) Test data and notes for each cooler:
6) Final Verdict:
Read carefully as there are a lot peculiarities about how CPU coolers behave inside Sentry!
1) What CPU coolers were tested?
We have ordered the coolers we have talked about earlier in this thread:
- Noctua NH-L9i
- Scythe Kozuti
- Zalman CNPS2X
We have topped that with what we already had:
- intel Copper-Core Box
- Cryorig C7
Finally we also wanted to check out fitting and performance coming from 92x25mm fan mounted on top of NH-L9i. We did that with Arctic Cooling F9 which has pretty close parameters to Noctua 25mm fan and we could get that with our local distribution faster than the one from Noctua.
- Noctua NH-L9i
- Scythe Kozuti
- Zalman CNPS2X
We have topped that with what we already had:
- intel Copper-Core Box
- Cryorig C7
Finally we also wanted to check out fitting and performance coming from 92x25mm fan mounted on top of NH-L9i. We did that with Arctic Cooling F9 which has pretty close parameters to Noctua 25mm fan and we could get that with our local distribution faster than the one from Noctua.
CPU: 65W Skylake, the i7-6700
Motherboard: Gigabyte B150N Phoenix Wifi
Thermal compound: Arctic MX-2
Motherboard: Gigabyte B150N Phoenix Wifi
Thermal compound: Arctic MX-2
Noise monitoring at 1 meter in front of the test bench
30-minute tests (10-minute tests are too short to stabilize the temperature ramp) for each configuration:
- horizontal position - Prime95 Maximum Heat (full CPU load test)
- horizontal position - Heaven Benchmark (gaming load test)
- vertical position - Prime95 Maximum Heat (full CPU load test)
- vertical position - Heaven Benchmark (gaming load test)
Tests were run in stable ambient temperature of ~25 °C that was measured at two locations: on the desk and
at 1 meter in front of the test bench.
Tests were run in room with ambient noise ~45,5 which corresponds to quiet urban area
Not all coolers passed the tests - read further for more info
Thermal performance:
Not much to explain here except the 92x25mm Arctic Cooling F9 fan on top of Noctua NH-L9i- it should perform ~50% better (the fan itself) than 14mm NH-L9i fan but putting it directly against the case cover makes it harder to suck air and in effect it performs even worse.
Acoustic performance:
Not all coolers passed the tests - read further for more info
Result analysis:
Coolers in vertical position tend to be slightly louder under full load than in horizontal position perhaps due to the fact that they are trying to push the hot air downward which effects in running at max RPMs. Rotating the fan to push the air out instead of pulling it inside is worth a try here but results may vary depending on cooler construction.
Coolers in vertical position tend to be slightly quieter in idle than in horizontal position. This is likely effect of the case orientation in reference to the noise level monitor/the user position.
Noise level is significantly higher when putting the 25mm fan directly under the air inlet because the fan blades are slashing air against it. This result is consistent with what we've already knew about those configs from our tests with Cryorig C7. Note the fact that intel's flower fan doesn't behave this way because it has open frame and can pull air from all around and not for the airflow directly from above.
Finally what is commendable is the fact that in vertical position intel box cooler is inaudible in idle and we had consistent results in four prototypes running: Xeon E3-1230v2, Xeon E3-1231v3, Pentium AE and i7-6700 and combined with semi-passive cooled power supply it is incredible that the whole machine is completely silent when simply browsing the net.
Thermal performance:
Not much to explain here except the 92x25mm Arctic Cooling F9 fan on top of Noctua NH-L9i- it should perform ~50% better (the fan itself) than 14mm NH-L9i fan but putting it directly against the case cover makes it harder to suck air and in effect it performs even worse.
Acoustic performance:
Not all coolers passed the tests - read further for more info
Result analysis:
Coolers in vertical position tend to be slightly louder under full load than in horizontal position perhaps due to the fact that they are trying to push the hot air downward which effects in running at max RPMs. Rotating the fan to push the air out instead of pulling it inside is worth a try here but results may vary depending on cooler construction.
Coolers in vertical position tend to be slightly quieter in idle than in horizontal position. This is likely effect of the case orientation in reference to the noise level monitor/the user position.
Noise level is significantly higher when putting the 25mm fan directly under the air inlet because the fan blades are slashing air against it. This result is consistent with what we've already knew about those configs from our tests with Cryorig C7. Note the fact that intel's flower fan doesn't behave this way because it has open frame and can pull air from all around and not for the airflow directly from above.
Finally what is commendable is the fact that in vertical position intel box cooler is inaudible in idle and we had consistent results in four prototypes running: Xeon E3-1230v2, Xeon E3-1231v3, Pentium AE and i7-6700 and combined with semi-passive cooled power supply it is incredible that the whole machine is completely silent when simply browsing the net.
Intel copper core box cooler
Test Data:
Notes:
Not a stock cooler anymore - current generation K SKUs are sold without the cooler.
Can be bought in new condition from owner of previous generation K SKUs or owner of Xeon E3 processor and is dirt cheap in comparison to other solution since it can be bought as cheap as $3 because most of the owners are choosing bigger aftermarket coolers.
Its noise is slightly more audible/less pleasant in the middle of its RPM range so tweaking the temps to RPM ratio in bios settings might be a good thing to consider. Note the fact it has same noise levels while having different temps between full load and gaming load tests.
It is the easiest cooler to install and maintain.
Noctua NH-L9i and the 25mm fan possibility
Test Data:
Notes:
Fitting a 25mm fan on top is possible but it doesn't really help.
It will fit under the drive bracket if you have the worst case scenario of motherboard layout.
The noise is more pleasant in the middle of RPM range than intel's stock cooler. It might be better if you're not fully loading your CPU while gaming and don't use the headset while playing.
It also performs slightly better than intel box cooler, but until you have go with 95W CPU, you might want to save those few bucks here and buy a better GPU or SSD.
Scythe Kozuti
Test Data:
Notes:
It is significantly louder than NH-L9i because of the small slim fan that is pull air through the radiator. I'm not a fan of such constructions from now on...
It also is not properly designed because the heat pipe ends are outside the socket area and low enough to collide with quite standard now memory radiators even the ones like small HyperX radiators.
Cryorig C7
The mounting of this cooler is not properly designed as mentioned before. First we had to grind down the crews a bit so they wouldn't stand out ~8.5mm below the motherboard while mounted on Skylake CPU. Note the fact that we have 7mm stand-offs and ATX requires only 6.35mm down there.
Josh from NFC also had to shrink the screws somehow but for a different reason - they were too big in diameter for his motherboard holes.
After mounting it actually looked like the tension made the gap between the cooler base and CPU cover because the base was then sitting on the coils around the socket. We tried to put an aluminium shim between the CPU and cooler but in the end the gap between the fan and inlet was so small that it run at over 50 dB.
We may try to check out some thick termopad as a mounting solution for C7 when we get some time for more testing in the future, but so far it looks like it's not worth your money.
Zalman CNPS2X
It is REALLY small - the photographs make it feel slightly bigger.
We've caught bad luck with this one - the unit we've got has a faulty PWM control and its fan is running like in idle all the time. I'm going for RMA with this bad boy sometime this week.
It also looks like it may be going for End of Life now so it might not really matter for you.
Finally I still wonder if it's really that good to support 120W TDP CPUs since Valve went with it for their Steam Machine prototype. It slightly outperformed both intel box and NH-L9i when running idle, but it didn't have best results in reviews we could find online.
Test Data:
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Horizontal Prime95
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Horizontal Heaven
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Vertical Prime95
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Vertical Heaven
Notes:
Not a stock cooler anymore - current generation K SKUs are sold without the cooler.
Can be bought in new condition from owner of previous generation K SKUs or owner of Xeon E3 processor and is dirt cheap in comparison to other solution since it can be bought as cheap as $3 because most of the owners are choosing bigger aftermarket coolers.
Its noise is slightly more audible/less pleasant in the middle of its RPM range so tweaking the temps to RPM ratio in bios settings might be a good thing to consider. Note the fact it has same noise levels while having different temps between full load and gaming load tests.
It is the easiest cooler to install and maintain.
Noctua NH-L9i and the 25mm fan possibility
Test Data:
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Horizontal Prime95
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Horizontal Heaven
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Vertical Prime95
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Vertical Heaven
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Horizontal Prime95
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Horizontal Heaven
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Vertical Prime95
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Vertical Heaven
Notes:
Fitting a 25mm fan on top is possible but it doesn't really help.
It will fit under the drive bracket if you have the worst case scenario of motherboard layout.
The noise is more pleasant in the middle of RPM range than intel's stock cooler. It might be better if you're not fully loading your CPU while gaming and don't use the headset while playing.
It also performs slightly better than intel box cooler, but until you have go with 95W CPU, you might want to save those few bucks here and buy a better GPU or SSD.
Scythe Kozuti
Test Data:
Scythe Kozuti: Horizontal Prime95
Scythe Kozuti: Horizontal Heaven
Scythe Kozuti: Vertical Prime95
Scythe Kozuti: Vertical Heaven
Notes:
It is significantly louder than NH-L9i because of the small slim fan that is pull air through the radiator. I'm not a fan of such constructions from now on...
It also is not properly designed because the heat pipe ends are outside the socket area and low enough to collide with quite standard now memory radiators even the ones like small HyperX radiators.
Cryorig C7
The mounting of this cooler is not properly designed as mentioned before. First we had to grind down the crews a bit so they wouldn't stand out ~8.5mm below the motherboard while mounted on Skylake CPU. Note the fact that we have 7mm stand-offs and ATX requires only 6.35mm down there.
Josh from NFC also had to shrink the screws somehow but for a different reason - they were too big in diameter for his motherboard holes.
After mounting it actually looked like the tension made the gap between the cooler base and CPU cover because the base was then sitting on the coils around the socket. We tried to put an aluminium shim between the CPU and cooler but in the end the gap between the fan and inlet was so small that it run at over 50 dB.
We may try to check out some thick termopad as a mounting solution for C7 when we get some time for more testing in the future, but so far it looks like it's not worth your money.
Zalman CNPS2X
It is REALLY small - the photographs make it feel slightly bigger.
We've caught bad luck with this one - the unit we've got has a faulty PWM control and its fan is running like in idle all the time. I'm going for RMA with this bad boy sometime this week.
It also looks like it may be going for End of Life now so it might not really matter for you.
Finally I still wonder if it's really that good to support 120W TDP CPUs since Valve went with it for their Steam Machine prototype. It slightly outperformed both intel box and NH-L9i when running idle, but it didn't have best results in reviews we could find online.
Nothing really changed in terms of what we think you should do initially - If you're buying intel cpu then take it without BOX cooler and buy copper core cooler for few bucks online. That's for a start until you know if you really need to spend that additional money for better cooling.
For aftermarket coolers it looks like NH-L9i might be the best choice from what we've tested, but with all the data we think that you may want to check out other coolers in this format such as Silverstone Argon AR05 or Cooltek ITX30.
For aftermarket coolers it looks like NH-L9i might be the best choice from what we've tested, but with all the data we think that you may want to check out other coolers in this format such as Silverstone Argon AR05 or Cooltek ITX30.
UPDATE: Sentry CPU cooler tests results
Read carefully as there are a lot peculiarities about how CPU coolers behave inside Sentry!
1) What CPU coolers were tested?
2) Test Bench:We have ordered the coolers we have talked about earlier in this thread:
- Noctua NH-L9i
- Scythe Kozuti
- Zalman CNPS2X
We have topped that with what we already had:
- intel Copper-Core Box
- Cryorig C7
Finally we also wanted to check out fitting and performance coming from 92x25mm fan mounted on top of NH-L9i. We did that with Arctic Cooling F9 which has pretty close parameters to Noctua 25mm fan and we could get that with our local distribution faster than the one from Noctua.
3) Testing methodology:CPU: 65W Skylake, the i7-6700
Motherboard: Gigabyte B150N Phoenix Wifi
Thermal compound: Arctic MX-2
4) Tests summary
Noise monitoring at 1 meter in front of the test bench
30-minute tests (10-minute tests are too short to stabilize the temperature ramp) for each configuration:
- horizontal position - Prime95 Maximum Heat (full CPU load test)
- horizontal position - Heaven Benchmark (gaming load test)
- vertical position - Prime95 Maximum Heat (full CPU load test)
- vertical position - Heaven Benchmark (gaming load test)
Tests were run in stable ambient temperature of ~25 °C that was measured at two locations: on the desk and
at 1 meter in front of the test bench.
Tests were run in room with ambient noise ~45,5 which corresponds to quiet urban area
5) Test data and notes for each cooler:Not all coolers passed the tests - read further for more info
Thermal performance:
Not much to explain here except the 92x25mm Arctic Cooling F9 fan on top of Noctua NH-L9i- it should perform ~50% better (the fan itself) than 14mm NH-L9i fan but putting it directly against the case cover makes it harder to suck air and in effect it performs even worse.
Acoustic performance:
Not all coolers passed the tests - read further for more info
Result analysis:
Coolers in vertical position tend to be slightly louder under full load than in horizontal position perhaps due to the fact that they are trying to push the hot air downward which effects in running at max RPMs. Rotating the fan to push the air out instead of pulling it inside is worth a try here but results may vary depending on cooler construction.
Coolers in vertical position tend to be slightly quieter in idle than in horizontal position. This is likely effect of the case orientation in reference to the noise level monitor/the user position.
Noise level is significantly higher when putting the 25mm fan directly under the air inlet because the fan blades are slashing air against it. This result is consistent with what we've already knew about those configs from our tests with Cryorig C7. Note the fact that intel's flower fan doesn't behave this way because it has open frame and can pull air from all around and not for the airflow directly from above.
Finally what is commendable is the fact that in vertical position intel box cooler is inaudible in idle and we had consistent results in four prototypes running: Xeon E3-1230v2, Xeon E3-1231v3, Pentium AE and i7-6700 and combined with semi-passive cooled power supply it is incredible that the whole machine is completely silent when simply browsing the net.
6) Final Verdict:Intel copper core box cooler
Test Data:
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Horizontal Prime95
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Horizontal Heaven
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Vertical Prime95
Intel Copper-Core BOX: Vertical Heaven
Notes:
Not a stock cooler anymore - current generation K SKUs are sold without the cooler.
Can be bought in new condition from owner of previous generation K SKUs or owner of Xeon E3 processor and is dirt cheap in comparison to other solution since it can be bought as cheap as $3 because most of the owners are choosing bigger aftermarket coolers.
Its noise is slightly more audible/less pleasant in the middle of its RPM range so tweaking the temps to RPM ratio in bios settings might be a good thing to consider. Note the fact it has same noise levels while having different temps between full load and gaming load tests.
It is the easiest cooler to install and maintain.
Noctua NH-L9i and the 25mm fan possibility
Test Data:
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Horizontal Prime95
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Horizontal Heaven
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Vertical Prime95
NH-L9i with 14mm fan: Vertical Heaven
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Horizontal Prime95
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Horizontal Heaven
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Vertical Prime95
NH-L9i with 25mm fan: Vertical Heaven
Notes:
Fitting a 25mm fan on top is possible but it doesn't really help.
It will fit under the drive bracket if you have the worst case scenario of motherboard layout.
The noise is more pleasant in the middle of RPM range than intel's stock cooler. It might be better if you're not fully loading your CPU while gaming and don't use the headset while playing.
It also performs slightly better than intel box cooler, but until you have go with 95W CPU, you might want to save those few bucks here and buy a better GPU or SSD.
Scythe Kozuti
Test Data:
Scythe Kozuti: Horizontal Prime95
Scythe Kozuti: Horizontal Heaven
Scythe Kozuti: Vertical Prime95
Scythe Kozuti: Vertical Heaven
Notes:
It is significantly louder than NH-L9i because of the small slim fan that is pull air through the radiator. I'm not a fan of such constructions from now on...
It also is not properly designed because the heat pipe ends are outside the socket area and low enough to collide with quite standard now memory radiators even the ones like small HyperX radiators.
Cryorig C7
The mounting of this cooler is not properly designed as mentioned before. First we had to grind down the crews a bit so they wouldn't stand out ~8.5mm below the motherboard while mounted on Skylake CPU. Note the fact that we have 7mm stand-offs and ATX requires only 6.35mm down there.
Josh from NFC also had to shrink the screws somehow but for a different reason - they were too big in diameter for his motherboard holes.
After mounting it actually looked like the tension made the gap between the cooler base and CPU cover because the base was then sitting on the coils around the socket. We tried to put an aluminium shim between the CPU and cooler but in the end the gap between the fan and inlet was so small that it run at over 50 dB.
We may try to check out some thick termopad as a mounting solution for C7 when we get some time for more testing in the future, but so far it looks like it's not worth your money.
Zalman CNPS2X
It is REALLY small - the photographs make it feel slightly bigger.
We've caught bad luck with this one - the unit we've got has a faulty PWM control and its fan is running like in idle all the time. I'm going for RMA with this bad boy sometime this week.
It also looks like it may be going for End of Life now so it might not really matter for you.
Finally I still wonder if it's really that good to support 120W TDP CPUs since Valve went with it for their Steam Machine prototype. It slightly outperformed both intel box and NH-L9i when running idle, but it didn't have best results in reviews we could find online.
Nothing really changed in terms of what we think you should do initially - If you're buying intel cpu then take it without BOX cooler and buy copper core cooler for few bucks online. That's for a start until you know if you really need to spend that additional money for better cooling.
For aftermarket coolers it looks like NH-L9i might be the best choice from what we've tested, but with all the data we think that you may want to check out other coolers in this format such as Silverstone Argon AR05 or Cooltek ITX30.
Thanks for this consistent test! It's a pity you couldn't test C7, because I use it in open stand and it performs well, so I wonder to know how it will interfere with sentry vent holes.
Guys, try to use middle or high end mobos with C7. Cheap mobos go with tall aluminium capacitors about 8 mm hight, but it is needed about 6mm capacitors to mount C7 properly.
I have tested C7 on my Haswell Xeon on B85N Phoenix. It's loud as hell under load and I've talked about this. It's the same scenario as when putting 25mm on Noctua.
And no, Gigabyte Phoenix series are not 'cheap mobos' - those are mid range products and we have decided to go with them for testing because mid range should be more representative tests than picking out ultra-high-end board that not everyone will take.
Anyway C7 is poorly designed because in the whole point of fitting this cooler within the size of intel box cooler they didn't think to check how it would perform if the case inlet was directly in front of it. And they are promoting it for small form factor cases, so we can assume that something like STX cases will have the similar problem?
And no, Gigabyte Phoenix series are not 'cheap mobos' - those are mid range products and we have decided to go with them for testing because mid range should be more representative tests than picking out ultra-high-end board that not everyone will take.
Anyway C7 is poorly designed because in the whole point of fitting this cooler within the size of intel box cooler they didn't think to check how it would perform if the case inlet was directly in front of it. And they are promoting it for small form factor cases, so we can assume that something like STX cases will have the similar problem?
Hey Saper, Zaber. The Cooltek LP53 with the NF-A9x14 is an attractive combo. The LP53 is a bit tricky to get in the EU, but Alternate have them in stock at the moment for a reasonable price. I've got one on order at the moment, so if you don't want to splash out on yet another heatsink to test, I can loan it to you for a bit once it arrives. I know Ej24 has already tested it against the NH-L9i, but having everything tested on the same test bench makes direct comparison easier.
I am not sure what kind of people are you guys expecting to buy a 200€ case!?!?!
If they spend that money in this case, they will definitely go with high-end components for their PC... Not only the motherboard. It's true that not everybody will do that, but I am not afraid to say most of the people who is backing the case and willing to wait for it is no normal customer...
They won't care about 20€ if that gives better performance.
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The fact that Sentry had to make some compromises thermal wise makes it reasonable to check the performance not only in ultra high-end but as well in in mid range boards - There are people that want the case because it solves the problems for mobility, looks well in front of their TV etc, but at the same time it doesn't mean they will go and spend every money to make the whole PC ultra-high-end. It wouldn't be fair to them if we tested compatibility and performance on the most expensive boards without checking how it performs in mid-range boards.
There are also people that are not this much into the hardware and will pick the board that is just good enough by their spec to run non-K i7. They won't get into overclocking and they'll decide they don't need high-end board. And if we didn't test that out on those, we might have ended up with many people trying to use for example Cryorig C7 on such mid-range board and they would blame the case for the poor performance and not the fact that C7 is simply poorly designed and does not support whole platform properly.
It's not about the price mainly but more about the compatibility with most common products on the market.
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octagoncow
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2014
- Messages
- 131
So I received my Dynatron R30 yesterday and it does NOT fit on the Asus Z170i pro gaming. I thought the capacitors were short enough, but I was wrong. I'm tempted to try a copper shim to solve this problem but I don't know how much it would effect temperatures. I am moving towards cutting my losses and just going with the Lp53 which shouldn't have any problems. It was a fun project mounting a 2011 cooler on a 115x board, but I don't see it being as easy as I originally thought since my caps are too high.
You mean loud as hell under load in sentry case because of close vent holes? What's tdp of your Xeon?
This is my Xeon E3-1231v3 - 80W TDP
http://ark.intel.com/pl/products/80910/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1231-v3-8M-Cache-3_40-GHz
The problem with C7 in Sentry is that if you put such fan directly facing the inlet this close then the fan gets starved quite a bit (note the fact that perforation reduces the area of flow cross-section if you want the panel to remain rigid and we do want it) so it will go hotter and the RPM will rise to maximum and additionally with fan being this close to the mesh surface it slashes air against it.
In comparison the intel boxed cooler has quite a few mm from its top to the fan blades and is open at the sides so it can suck air from around using more inlet area than C7.
It is also why NH-L9i works better with default fan than with 25mm one because of that additional 10mm of space
This is my Xeon E3-1231v3 - 80W TDP
http://ark.intel.com/pl/products/80910/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1231-v3-8M-Cache-3_40-GHz
The problem with C7 in Sentry is that if you put such fan directly facing the inlet this close then the fan gets starved quite a bit (note the fact that perforation reduces the area of flow cross-section if you want the panel to remain rigid and we do want it) so it will go hotter and the RPM will rise to maximum and additionally with fan being this close to the mesh surface it slashes air against it.
In comparison the intel boxed cooler has quite a few mm from its top to the fan blades and is open at the sides so it can suck air from around using more inlet area than C7.
It is also why NH-L9i works better with default fan than with 25mm one because of that additional 10mm of space
I'm not sure if you read Edz post #2307 but I think it would very helpful for the community if you can test the lp53 with the 14mm noctua fan you already own inside the case. I'm sure I speak for a lot of Sentry owners in the community when I say that the lp53 will probably be in high demand for the Sentry case.
Also if you don't mind a little extra. If you have a 120mm fan lying around can you give us some insight into whether a 120mmX15mm slim fan will fit into the case on top of a 28mm heatsink (the lp53) with a regular motherboard? (Specially whether it will interfere with the SSD on top of the motherboard or the typical 34mm tall ram)
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Yes, I've noticed that but I've been multitasking quite a lot of today and forgot to respond
Considering the shipping costs both ways I'd rather buy the unit for testing. Good job EdZ for noticing it is available at Alternate.
I'm planning to go with CNPS2X for RMA/return tomorrow morning and I'll see if the shop can get me the LP53 also since they already have cooltek itx30.
With alternate i'd have to wait at least a week for shipping so I might as well check out other sources.
I'm not sure though if we need to really test this - We already know that LP53 has better radiator than NH-L9i thanks to EdZ tests and in form it's really close to noctua, so since those are similarly priced the only question is if the fan replacement cost is worth the performance boost on LP53.
Considering the shipping costs both ways I'd rather buy the unit for testing. Good job EdZ for noticing it is available at Alternate.
I'm planning to go with CNPS2X for RMA/return tomorrow morning and I'll see if the shop can get me the LP53 also since they already have cooltek itx30.
With alternate i'd have to wait at least a week for shipping so I might as well check out other sources.
I'm not sure though if we need to really test this - We already know that LP53 has better radiator than NH-L9i thanks to EdZ tests and in form it's really close to noctua, so since those are similarly priced the only question is if the fan replacement cost is worth the performance boost on LP53.
There should be enough space to mount the 120mm slim fan. There even may be enough space to fit 140mm slim fan if there are ones that are ~15mm or slimmer and if that will fit over the IO connectors and memory. The problem is how to mount those fans.
I've put 120mm slim fan in our assembly:
I'm assuming due to the height of the rear i/o the 120 fan will be that close to the grill it will make a racket.I've put
120mm slim fan in our assembly:
The problem is there's not another case out there that can offer the structural integrity that this steel case can. You'd have to be accident prone to break but otherwise it can take plenty of beatings, I'm sure, and still be here 10 years later and I doubt you can say the same with a plastic case.
Not ONLY the above, but this is meant to be a mobile case, as it's been pointed out. You drop steel, ok it will scratch but plastic?
edit: Also, my # is 1136. I took my time and wasn't worried about it being long run.. Frankly, I just built my system today with a temp corsair air 240.
Many people before you changed color of their Sentry cases, so they lost their place in the line (this is how Indiegogo works). It means, there is a big possibility your case will be made together with the first batch, but of course still according the your order number.
I wouldn't be that sure about this. With C7 you have no way of air escaping the route where on one side it has an inlet mesh and on the other it has radiator with regular surface.
When you put 120mm there, then with those IO connectors underneath there's still a lot of area around the socket that air can escape so you're not forcing the air against the IO connectors.
Also the difference is in RPMs of the fan - 120mm fan will be something like 1300RPM while 92mm fans may spike up to 2700 RPM for example. The 120mm fan with half the speed of 92's will not be starved and at the same time it will use it's bigger area to pull the same amount of air.
Considering the fact that most of you are preparing to do some shopping for your future builds in Sentry, I'll spread out some interesting rumours about the upcoming AMD Ryzen CPUs.
Those look kind of interesting considering the TDP of 65W.
These are of course rumours and not necessarily real leaks (may not be true), but the numbers kind of add up to some very early info abut ZEN from like two years ago when AMD talked about $450 8C/16T CPU that was supposed to be on par with intel extreme platform.
Anyway, even if that is true, wait for the reviews of the platform, especially the X300 chipset based mITX boards, before jumping on the bandwagon of ZEN.
And even if you're allergic to AMD, keep in mind that if that's really how this platform will look, we may see finally proper price drops from intel, however time will show how fast they could happen.
Those look kind of interesting considering the TDP of 65W.
These are of course rumours and not necessarily real leaks (may not be true), but the numbers kind of add up to some very early info abut ZEN from like two years ago when AMD talked about $450 8C/16T CPU that was supposed to be on par with intel extreme platform.
Anyway, even if that is true, wait for the reviews of the platform, especially the X300 chipset based mITX boards, before jumping on the bandwagon of ZEN.
And even if you're allergic to AMD, keep in mind that if that's really how this platform will look, we may see finally proper price drops from intel, however time will show how fast they could happen.