Thermatake LANBox Lite - Overheating???

G

Griminal

n00b
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
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I was seriously considering this case for my next build until a few people in my LAN party group stated this case is crap and has overheating issues even with stock builds. I would normally disregard one person's statement, but I received two replies about overheating problems.

Are there problems with these cases? I was planning on the non-windowed unit.
 
Stock or overclocked, I have no problems of any kind.

Lanbox, Lanbox lite, its the same stuff. (Still has a front intake, doesn't it?)
 
Maybe they're packin' the g92 8800s, or something. Get a full spec check and maybe you'll find a reason, but mines runs cool, but its not OCed
 
first, of course overheating in any situation is only an issue if you use air to cool, which i do on my lanbox.

second as long as you replace the crappy stock fans then this box should be cool enough.

third, if you do face heating problems there are so many options to keep things cooler its not even funny, heck just by replacing the front intake fan with a zantec tornado was enough to keep things way low, if not way lourd (i replaced it with a quieter fan recently and did notice a raise in temps).

you can see my specs by checking my other posts (specifically my first i beleive) but i'm running an e6750 cpu and a gts8800 640mb and a raptor x (i'm thinking those are the hottest components i have) and i might have seen the gfx card reach as high as 72c when i had the stock fans in but it rarely breaks 65c with the fans replaced (quite a bit lower with the loud tornado)

that being said, someone put out a very similar case (almost the exact same design) but better with stock black interior, so while i'm stuck/happy with my lanbox, i might have been happier if i knew of the other rig

one final note, if thermaltake wants to be cool for life they had better wake up and stop throwing crappy fans on their rigs.
 
Its Thermaltake, it'll never happen.

Tips:
-Use the 60mm top slot. It won't move much air, but it'll get some air to the hard drive.
-The PCI side side window (well, side slot, for a Lanbox Lite) can have a fan there to exhaust/intake air. Use that as crossflow or exhaust. I use a D12SL myself.
-I replaced the front fan because I needed a clear fan that didn't have LEDs. Its an Antec Tricool. Does it lower temps? Uh. Kind of?
 
Thanks for your replies. I'll keep the case on my list!

soulfoot said:
that being said, someone put out a very similar case (almost the exact same design) but better with stock black interior....
Click to expand...

What is this case that you speak of? Link? I'm interested in checking it out.
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1254819

but apparently he had problems getting the black version, but the 2 have a few similarities and that one, if you get the correct one, is black on the inside which is kinda cool

and as far as sticking 120's on the side, i looked at going that route as well but couldnt see how much room there was for the top drive bay tray (optical of to slide out once you got them in there, or do they have to be taken out each time you want to move the drive tray. Pictures would be appreciated :)
 
I've had no issues with mine, even with the stock fans. I did add the additional 60mm fan above the slots. I moved my HD to the 3.5 bay to get it and the HD cage out from in front of the intake fan. I also have an 8800GTS 512MB, which exhausts externally due to the dual slot cooler.
I've got an E6750 @ 3.52GHz that idles in the low-mid 40s and reaches about 65 under Prime95.
I OC the 8800 to 750/1830?/1050 with 80% fan speed (I wear head phones) when gaming and last night the temp maxed out near 62 playing TF2.
 
I am running 3x evercool fans in the rear and my temps have been in the low 40s with 3.5" slot fan controller and my HD in the lower 5.25" bay.

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Did your friends not remove the drive cage ? That is the only way I can see having airflow problems.
 
---> Burnin8r.
I just purchased a lanbox myself and I gotta know what 3.5" fan controller you used and where you purchased it. I hate to give up that external 3.5", but I only have one fan header on my Mobo.
Oh, and does anyone think I could squeeze a gemini 2 in there?
 
I don t know the dimensions of the gemini II but I think that you have @ 85mm of vertical clearance under the psu.

The gemini II itself might fit but probably not with fans mounted. I think the scythe mini-ninja fits... let us know how it goes.
 
I wish we had some sort of FAQ sticky for common cases.

The Lanbox has approximately 100mm (within 1mm) of space for a heatsink. The Scythe Mini Ninja does not fit.
 
mine is the RH-35 SE by mitron interlink, sold under the name Noise Isolator. Its silver, but also comes with a black face plate and an acrylic panel on top of that. I really like the Vantec Nexus, very high quality... it was high on my list when I researched fan controllers. I was looking for one that didn t have any text on it being that it would be mounted sideways. I flipped the interchangable face plate over on mine, the side that is supposed to face out says Fan 1, Fan 2 etc. It also comes in solid black (RH-35BK) or solid silver (RH-35S), as well as a navy blue version with red LEDs (RH-35B) but they don t have the acrylic overlay so there is no glow around the whole panel, which some people may actually prefer.

http://www.mitron.com.tw/noiseisolator/rh-35.html
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

Im having a brain fart.... I looked at the dementions on the ACF7 and saw that theres a measurement over 100mm....I guess this wont fit?

Im thinking about moving to a Lanbox Lite also, and was just making sure... because that means I need to find something else (do more reading :p )

Also, to anyone that has a Lb Lite... would it be possible at all to move(e.i. mod) the harddrive cage to a spot where It wouldnt interfere with a larger 8800 card? (like, move it more to the cpu side of the case as opposed to the card side..)

edit: Also, how much room is there from the bottom of the case to the top of the 5.25 housing? would it be possible to mod a 120 in there? lol (i mean cut into the bottom of the lower 5.25 slot, since I dont plan on using it except for maybe a harddrive I cant get the harddrive cage to fit in with the card I decide on..)

anyway, any help would be appreciated... I really like the looks of this case, but at the same time I dont want to sacrifice cooling and performance for aesthetics...
 
PhReaK said:
Im having a brain fart.... I looked at the dementions on the ACF7 and saw that theres a measurement over 100mm....I guess this wont fit?
Click to expand...
Well... >100mm...

Also, to anyone that has a Lb Lite... would it be possible at all to move(e.i. mod) the harddrive cage to a spot where It wouldnt interfere with a larger 8800 card? (like, move it more to the cpu side of the case as opposed to the card side..)
Click to expand...
You could try moving it so that its vertical (running the length of the case). Won't be held down properly though.

edit: Also, how much room is there from the bottom of the case to the top of the 5.25 housing? would it be possible to mod a 120 in there? lol (i mean cut into the bottom of the lower 5.25 slot, since I dont plan on using it except for maybe a harddrive I cant get the harddrive cage to fit in with the card I decide on..)
Click to expand...
A 120 won't fit. And besides, you'd put the optical in the second tray to hide cables in the first.

The 120 isn't necessary either...
 
PhReaK said:
Also, to anyone that has a Lb Lite... would it be possible at all to move(e.i. mod) the harddrive cage to a spot where It wouldnt interfere with a larger 8800 card? (like, move it more to the cpu side of the case as opposed to the card side..)

edit: Also, how much room is there from the bottom of the case to the top of the 5.25 housing? would it be possible to mod a 120 in there? lol (i mean cut into the bottom of the lower 5.25 slot, since I dont plan on using it except for maybe a harddrive I cant get the harddrive cage to fit in with the card I decide on..)
.
Click to expand...

I think you are trying to reinvent the wheel here. Now I haven t seen your portfolio of previous case mods, but with all the cutting and fabrication you are talking about, maybe you should just look for a case that better suits your needs. I like my Lanbox, its pretty good for what it is... but its not the perfect mATX case by a long shot.

The LanboxLite does not have a 7" bay for the Tt folding monitor, yet it uses the same optical drive cage that the non lite Lanbox comes with, so you have about 2 inches of non functional bracket between the optical drives and the sideways 3.5" bay. Could you hack that and mount the HD cage in its place (sideways) ??? possibly...

IMHO, Tt should make a dedicated optical drive cage for the LanboxLite that does not have mounting brackets for the 7" folding screen, and this would leave space for a second HD next to the external 3.5" bay. With the HD cage intact, home theater enthusiasts could have a full RAID array to take advantage of the multi SATA ports on all the new mATX boards because they are not up against the space constraints of a HD3870 X2 or SLi 8800 Ultras. That being said, those of us gaming enthusiasts that do remove the cage to make room for full size video cards will still have 2x 3.5" bays and 2x 5.25" which would be close to ideal. Wishful thinking, I know.
 
Ya, I agree it would be a little difficult to do the things I was talking about, but thats half the fun of modding...
Also, I know my title is n00bie, but look in my join date... 2003... I've been here a while, I just dont like to post non-useful information...

I have a good deal of experience with a dremel tool, and what I was thinking I could do is either drill holes in the bottom of the case to remount the harddrive cage (which wouldnt require more than drilling and threading the holes) or, alternately, mount the harddrive cage to the underside of the cd drive cage

as for the 120 mount, what I was looking for was the ability to use a 120 which can push a good amount of air while being near silent when connected to 5volts instead of 12 ( i have a really old school panaflo thats perfect...)

anyway thanks for the info.. I'll keep looking for a mATX case that suits my needs :D
 
I wasn t implying you were a n00b, I don t even look at the post count titles. In my experience, some people talk a lot but have nothing relevant to add to the topic at hand. anyway, the 80mm fan up front is about 1mm from the bottom of the optical drive cage, so I really don t believe you would be able to get a 120mm fan to replace it. I have seen a thread here someone added an 80mm fan to the PSU bracket so it sat horizontally above the expansion slots... if you have the urge to cut up a lanbox, that would probably be worth the effort (instead of bolting on a third 60mm fan). Your last post inspired me to take another look inside and I think if you were to cut the lower optical drive bay, you could probably mount to hard drive cage sideways in its place. So, effectively you would be giving up one 5.25" bay but gaining two internal 3.5", allowing you to run three SATA HDs and a single SATA burner.
 
I appreciate the input man, I have yet to see anyone try and mod one of these (at least I haven't seen anything) and your the first person thats looked to see if some of my ideas were feasible, I appreciate that ;)

I think I'll look around and see if there are any cases that might better suit my needs though, it would be nice to pull it out of the box and install my hardware.. instead of hacking it up to do my bidding first :p

when looking for information on stuff it seems like I search and search google and never find anything relevant till I come here and read through months of posts about the subject... thanks for checking things out for me burnin8r :cool:
 
Is it possible to replace the 5 1/4" drives on the Lanbox? Replace the covered drives with a fan controller or other accessory? I don't need two Optical drives
 
Spare-Flair said:
Is it possible to replace the 5 1/4" drives on the Lanbox? Replace the covered drives with a fan controller or other accessory? I don't need two Optical drives
Click to expand...

Lanbox Lite at least, yes (I don't have experience with the other Lanbox models). One screw holds in each of the CD bay flip-down covers, so you can remove them and have a 5.25" bay device fully flush forward to the front of the case.
 
i just turned over my PSU to suck out air instead of giving my PSU cool air, its still good though, and my CPU runes 4*C Cooler
 
I'm using the LANBox Lite, and I am getting about 25 C idle CPU temps.

Removed drive cage, replaced all the stock fans with new Thermaltake fans (going all Thermaltake were possible, eventually doing a Tt mod or something), and using a Zalman CNPS8700 LED CPU cooler. Also have my temporary PSU sucking air out of the cage.
 
I'm using a lanbox lite and i'm getting 30-35c idle

I removed the back two 60mm fans as they were getting too loud.
Though i did leave the 80mm front fan.

running an e2160 OCed @ 2.7ghz with a nt06 + 120mm fan on top
as well as a passive x1950
:D
very quiet

I tried running it without the 120mm fan on top of the nt06, but temps instantly went up to 45 idle, who knows what it'll go up to when i run a game.
 
The rear 60mm fans aren't loud they just have like 10CFM airflow, useless.

I left them in there and put an antec cyclone slot fan next to the video card, it brings my 8800gt temps down to 51C at idle and around 70C after playing Crysis for a while. It does blow really hot air from the back.

The front Lanbox fan is useless too, like 13CFM. Even with all these crappy Thermaltake fans I still run my E8400 Wolfdale at 42C idle and max load of 57C while running Prime95 and Crysis.

Oh also removed the dual drive cage at the bottom which was blocking the intake fan. put a hard drive in the external 3.5" bay and put a second 3.5" hard drive being held by bungie cords tied to the 5.25" drive bays above, this allows for a second hard drive and best of all it won't block the intake fan.
 
I'm runing q6600 at stock in this case: 38 to 42c max...
Using thermalright xp120 though.
 
If you're worried about temps in the case go dremel out a 92mm fan hole :D

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well done. for the record, that top 92mm fan is pulling air out, not blowing down at your expansion slots, right ?
 
Yes the fan is pulling air out, It took me all of an hour to cut that hole mainly because it was my first time cutting a fan hole in the case and I wasn't sure how the dremel would do the job. Guess it worked out fine besides the rough edges so I put the vinyl trim on the side of it so I won't cut myself. Tried those fiberglass reinforced discs, they're worse than the normal brown ones. Used 2 brown discs to cut that hole, barely touched the 2nd one when the hole was done already.
 
no heat issues with the HDD if you put it in the external slot?

sorry to bring the thread up from the grave lol
 
My Lanbox running a 8800GTS(G80) and OCing my e6400 to 3.6ghz using ALL stock fans and even the stock HSF has had ZERO heat issues.
 
Is your HD in the HD cage, or the external slot thing. I was just wondering if anyone has any heat issues with HD being put in the corner.
 
I have the black lanbox (SECC steel) and the silver one (Aluminum). The drive is mounted in hard drive cage sideways. No issues with cooling since the vents are right next to it. Also aluminum lanbox helps with the heat dissipation.
 
Ang, you look like you're seeking useful information. Someone, please assist the young lad.
 
My brother has this case. Cable management is critical. He had overheating problems until he cleaned up the cables a bit. Shorter SATA, PSU cables, ect.
 
Ang said:
Is your HD in the HD cage, or the external slot thing. I was just wondering if anyone has any heat issues with HD being put in the corner.
Click to expand...

I have my WD2500KS on the side. No problems. I do have the optional 60mm at the back though, drawing in air (albeit very little). I hover in the 40s, which is pretty good.
 
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