Silverstone SST-FT03-Mini (Mini-Itx)

HoseHead said:
That is going to put the pump at the top and the radiator at the bottom of the loop, where would you put the reservoir?


Bingo. Not only will a 140mm radiator prevent mounting the optical drive (along with the 2.5" and 3.5" sandwiched to it) it will also prevent you from mounting the other standalone 2.5" drive under the MB.

So a 140mm radiator will require the removal of ALL drive trays in the case, AND it will also end up under the GPU, preventing a long card from being installed.

I have the case under my desk with the side panels off as I type this, I'm not guessing. If you want a single loop for both CPU and GPU I think the only feasible option is a thick 120mm radiator, and I'm no expert water cooler but I don't like the idea of the pump being at the top of the loop. It's too bad you can't get the Asetek CPU/GPU combo outside of buying a PNY card. You could easily keep an i7 and a GTX680 cool in this case with such a cooler (if you keep the OC reasonable for both GPU and CPU).
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I had no plan to run a reservoir. Also not mounting the 2.5" drive in the standard place. There is room to put it right behind the optical drive.
Everything I plan on doing will require cutting and removing parts. I also have no plans on using the other drive trays. They were the first to come out and go right back into the box.
 
Just wondering how you guys liking the silverstone AP fan? Thinking about getting the 140mm version for my lian li q25
 
Get the 140mm Lepa Vortex instead. It's basically a PWM version of the SilverStone Air Penetrator that comes with the FT03-Mini.
 
only place I can get Lepa Vortex is from newegg.ca (shipping + tax) is like almost $30 for one FAN

how does the corsair 140mm compare =/
 
WiSK said:
FT03-mini is designed for H60 width radiators, and then you can use the 2.5" bay which hangs under the optical tray. That bay is 20mm I believe, plenty for the velociraptor.
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I know but I am specifically asking about a Velociraptor (being thick drives) sans Icepack fitting in the 2.5" bay under the motherboard without getting in the way of the H60 radiator. My plan is to not use the optical tray/drive bay.
 
_PixelNinja said:
I am specifically asking about a Velociraptor (being thick drives) sans Icepack fitting in the 2.5" bay under the motherboard without getting in the way of the H60 radiator.
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I can't answer for sure about that second 2.5" tray, because I currently only have the SG05 which doesn't have that. In the FT03-mini manual it specifically mentioned 15mm drives for the top bay, but doesn't say anything about the other bay. In the SG05 there is about 20-25mm under the H60 radiator, so even if you can't get the Velociraptor into the second tray, there is certainly enough space to velcro it to the back of the case :)
 
_PixelNinja said:
I know but I am specifically asking about a Velociraptor (being thick drives) sans Icepack fitting in the 2.5" bay under the motherboard without getting in the way of the H60 radiator. My plan is to not use the optical tray/drive bay.
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I'm using a Kuhler 620 and an SSD in the 2.5" bay below the motherboard, no problems. Well, except getting my hand in there to make the connections ... note to self, connect power and data to the drive BEFORE cooler install ;)
 
SSDs are like 9.5mm, PixelNinja is talking about Velociraptor which is 15mm high.
 
WiSK said:
SSDs are like 9.5mm, PixelNinja is talking about Velociraptor which is 15mm high.
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Thanks, now I know what to measure for. Was too lazy to go look this up :D

EDIT: Thinking about it an SSD when installed is recessed a bit into the 2.5" tray ... I have a hard time believing there's not an extra 5.5mm there. But I'll measure tonight.
 
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Got the fan today. It will fit no problem but it will take some mounting hole modifications.
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It doesn't look like it uses standard hole placement from the pictures.
 
It's indeed different from the SG05. The 140mm holes are such that the fan is centered, but the 120mm holes are moved right such that the hoses from a H60 won't conflict with a long GPU.
 
Sounds like a blast, good luck, I'm sure drilling some holes won't be a problem.
 
Are we talking internal or external mounting holes or the mounting holes on the fan. As far as I can see/know the mounting holes on the fan look like 120mm/140mm. And the internal 120 mm mounting holes are indeed offset. But that is offset compared to the external ones because their are no 140mm holes inside. Right?
 
Right. His Thermalright fan has 120mm holes but needs 140mm width. Case has 140mm holes for external fan. It also has 120mm holes for internal fan/rad but those are offset and recessed so can't be used to mount this new fan externally. So Exawatt needs to drill some new 120mm holes just within the 140mm hole positions :)
 
WiSK said:
Right. His Thermalright fan has 120mm holes but needs 140mm width. Case has 140mm holes for external fan. It also has 120mm holes for internal fan/rad but those are offset and recessed so can't be used to mount this new fan externally. So Exawatt needs to drill some new 120mm holes just within the 140mm hole positions :)
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What he said.
 
Forgot to check this yesterday: a Velociraptor (15mm height) will fit in the 2.5" bay below the motherboard with plenty of room to spare.
 
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I just wanted to say cudos to those of you that sleeve your power supply's. I'll never do it again.
Anyway I'm hoping to get some more pictures up today.
 
Hey guys.. newbie here.. well, new to the forums, built a couple of PC's in the past but I feel like I'm a bit over my head with the ITX form factor and water cooling..

Here's the parts list so far.. PSU calculator comes up with ~330W under load, though if I OC to ~4Ghz it jumps to ~420W, so I'm a little close there.

  • Motherboard - ASUS P8Z77-I
  • CPU - Intel Core i7-2600K
  • Memory - G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)
  • GPU - ASUS EN GTX560 TI DC2
  • SSD - OCZ Vertex 2 80GB (from an old laptop)
  • HD - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
  • PSU - Silverstone ST45SF 450W SFX12V 80
  • Cooling - Corsair H60

Questions..

1 - I saw people in the past using an H50, but that's discontinued apparently.. will an H60 work (radiators appear to be the same, 120mm) and fit OK? Would Kuhler 620 be a better choice for fit / performance?

2 - Suggestions for a better PSU? Silverstone is ~$80USD so I'd like to keep around that price point.

3 - I know nothing about water cooling.. I'm using the below photo as a guide. Do I need to change the way any of the fans work (case / radiator fan) or will the air flow be OK in their default positions?

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p1/DJonathansford/Room and PC/2011-09-18112550.jpg

Thanks!! :D
 
That's a regular FT03 in your picture, not the FT03-Mini. In the FT03-mini, the only place to mount a radiator is on the bottom and the fan(s) should be blowing upward towards the top of the case.
 
Synomenon said:
That's a regular FT03 in your picture, not the FT03-Mini. In the FT03-mini, the only place to mount a radiator is on the bottom and the fan(s) should be blowing upward towards the top of the case.
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Wow, good catch.. thanks! :)

So the bottom (stock silverstone) fan will blow up from the bottom, onto the radiator, and I just ditch the fan that came with the H60? Looks like that's what this guy did?

Kind of seems like any 120mm radiator system would work fine..?

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Yes, you'd mount the radiator on the bottom like in those pics.. You can still mount a 120mm fan on top of the radiator as well. That would be the best way to do it. You can use any liquid cooling kit with a standard width radiator (Corsair H40, H50, H60, Antec Kuhler 620, Thermaltake Water 2.0, Zalman CNPS20LQ).

You can use one with a double-width radiator, but you'd have to modify the optical drive bracket.
 
Synomenon said:
Yes, you'd mount the radiator on the bottom like in those pics.. You can still mount a 120mm fan on top of the radiator as well. That would be the best way to do it. You can use any liquid cooling kit with a standard width radiator (Corsair H40, H50, H60, Antec Kuhler 620, Thermaltake Water 2.0, Zalman CNPS20LQ).

You can use one with a double-width radiator, but you'd have to modify the optical drive bracket.
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Perfect, thanks!

I'm going to start searching Google for images, but where do the HD's sit in the case? I'm having a hard time getting a clear image of the drive locations.

I just want to make sure a 2.5" SSD + 3.5" SATA drive is going to fit in there with everything else.. I read something earlier in the thread about the optical drive tray and flange, that connected to drive trays.. the flange was going to be very close to the radiator, but I wasn't sure if I needed to use the optical drive tray.. I don't plan on using an optical drive at all, just straight USB.
 
WiSK said:
Although it's in Japanese, there's a review with great pictures here http://www.gdm.or.jp/review/case/silverstone/SST-FT03S-MINI/index_08.html
Fourth pic from bottom: you can see the H60 mounted and they've shown the position of the 3.5" tray.
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Thanks! I saw that review previously, but was so busy trying to see the radiator / fans, that I must've looked right through that drive.. :)

What makes the most sense as far as having space for radiator / fans (keep in mind I'm not using an internal optical drive)..

2 x 2.5" drives

or 1 x 3.5" + 1 2.5"?

It looks like that 3.5" tray photo shows the 3.5" drive preventing an additional 120mm fan going on top of the radiator..

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Ok got some more photos. Got the fan mounted but I still need to cut some and get a radiator picked.

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The last one is just to give you reference of size. Its sitting next to my Dell 30".
 
nameBrandon said:
It looks like that 3.5" tray photo shows the 3.5" drive preventing an additional 120mm fan going on top of the radiator..
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Are you sure you need an extra 120mm fan? If so then you can forget both the 3.5" tray and the upper 2.5" tray. You can still mount a 2.5" under the rad, and then use the optical tray to hold a second 2.5" drive.

exawatt said:
Ok got some more photos. Got the fan mounted but I still need to cut some and get a radiator picked.
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I'm surprised to see it fits. Good job!
 
Also this fan seem to be a good bit quieter than the silverstone fan. Im not sure about when it ramps up however.
 
WiSK said:
Are you sure you need an extra 120mm fan? If so then you can forget both the 3.5" tray and the upper 2.5" tray. You can still mount a 2.5" under the rad, and then use the optical tray to hold a second 2.5" drive.
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Nope, not sure I need the extra 120mm fan.. just planning for it, but if the 140mm silverstone under the radiator is enough (opinions?!) than I'll just skip extra 120mm.. I'm leaning more towards silence than super-cool temps.. good to know a 2.5" can mount in the optical drive, that's kind of what I was thinking.. though it's a trade-off.. 750GB 7200 2.5" rpm vs 1TB 7200rpm 3.5"..

anyway, thanks for the info! :)
 
Hmm.. Looks like original idea for GPU was too long..

ASUS EN GTX560 TI DC2
  • 10.16" x 5.12"

Looks like I'm going with MSI N 560 GTX-Ti 448.. power on the side, and 9.57".

unless.. someone knows of a GTX 570 < 10", and with side power connections?

Trying to stay under $325.. dare I consider a 7870? Looks like it out-performs the 560 Ti 448, but AMD just makes me feel dirty..
---

EDIT - Ok, I think I decided to drop from i7 3770k to i5 3570k since I was planning to OC to ~4.3/4.4 anyway (if H60 can handle it)... and then I'll take the $100 cpu savings and bump up to a GTX 670..

thanks for letting me ramble.. :p
 
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nameBrandon said:
Thanks! I saw that review previously, but was so busy trying to see the radiator / fans, that I must've looked right through that drive.. :)

What makes the most sense as far as having space for radiator / fans (keep in mind I'm not using an internal optical drive)..

2 x 2.5" drives

or 1 x 3.5" + 1 2.5"?

It looks like that 3.5" tray photo shows the 3.5" drive preventing an additional 120mm fan going on top of the radiator..
Click to expand...
Look through my posts in this thread, it isn't the 3.5" drive/bracket that prevents putting a fan on top of the radiator, it is a flange on the ODD bracket. (The ODD, one 2.5", and the 3.5" drives are all sandwiched together, with the attachement point to the case for the whole sandwich being the ODD tray.) If you want a fan on top of the radiator you have two options:

1. Leave out ALL of the drives, and trays/brackets attached to the ODD bracket.
2. Install an ODD with modified ODD bracket. You will still have to leave out the 2.5" and 3.5" drives attached to the ODD. Again look at my previous posts, you'll find pictures of the ODD bracket before and after I cut off the offending flange.

Using either option, the only place to attach a HDD left in the case is the 2.5" under the MB. If you have to have both a fan on top of the radiator and 2 HDDs you will have to figure out where to attach the 2nd drive. I suggest e-SATA.

Also, go to Silverstone's website and download the manual, spend some time reading and looking at it and most of your questions about placement of components will be answered.
 
HoseHead said:
Look through my posts in this thread, it isn't the 3.5" drive/bracket that prevents putting a fan on top of the radiator, it is a flange on the ODD bracket. (The ODD, one 2.5", and the 3.5" drives are all sandwiched together, with the attachement point to the case for the whole sandwich being the ODD tray.) If you want a fan on top of the radiator you have two options:

1. Leave out ALL of the drives, and trays/brackets attached to the ODD bracket.
2. Install an ODD with modified ODD bracket. You will still have to leave out the 2.5" and 3.5" drives attached to the ODD. Again look at my previous posts, you'll find pictures of the ODD bracket before and after I cut off the offending flange.

Using either option, the only place to attach a HDD left in the case is the 2.5" under the MB. If you have to have both a fan on top of the radiator and 2 HDDs you will have to figure out where to attach the 2nd drive. I suggest e-SATA.

Also, go to Silverstone's website and download the manual, spend some time reading and looking at it and most of your questions about placement of components will be answered.
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Thanks HH! After a few days of reading, and re-reading the thread and looking closely at the photos, I came to understand what you summarized.

I really do want the two drive setup, so I am going to go with an H60 (minus the 120mm fan) and just rely on the silverstone 140mm underneath it to push the air up through the case, and see how that performs.

I'll stick with my 2.5" SSD in the spot under the MB for the boot drive.. Then either a 3.5" 1TB or 2.5" 750GB (both about the same price) in the ODD tray.

I'm leaning towards the 2.5" 750GB right now just to allow for more airflow, but the 1TB 3.5" is tempting..
 
exawatt said:
Ok got some more photos. Got the fan mounted but I still need to cut some and get a radiator picked.
FYssr.jpg
Click to expand...

One thing I haven't mentioned about my build -- when you install the pump/heatsink on the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe MB, be prepared to modify the backplate for the pump. ASUS crammed a-lot of stuff on this board, and that extends to the back of the MB as well. There are all kinds of components in the way of the stock rectangular back plate for the Asutek (Antec, Thermaltake, Intel, etc) cooler. I tried to work around all the components, but ended up cutting the backplane completely to pieces; the only thing on the back of my MB are four individual pieces of plastic with threaded inserts in them. :D
 
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