Worklog: TBD's Computer Brain Transplant Thread :)

[The Boston Dangler]

***TBD's Computer Brain Transplant Thread***
Now with twice as many computers!
currently on part 2a

part 2: division and diversification
a - general use and multimedia htpc
silverstone gd02s
as-built parts list and software
assembly photos and comments

b - dedicated game box


part 1: original mutation
a brief tour of the lian li pc-a04a
unsuccessful ceton heatsink mod
as-built parts and software list
as-built photos and description
final config mock-up and nude ladies
temp and power measurements
custom power cables

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, my ceton is TOASTY. I've had it since last October, and thought about water cooling it, but would have to void warranty.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the plan is to duplicate this:
http://experts.windows.com/frms/win...onnected_home/f/115/t/101266.aspx?PageIndex=4

 

[The Boston Dangler]

ceton heatsink results:

http://cetoncorp.com/products/infinitv-4/
http://www.enzotechnology.com/bcc9.htm

i am displeased with the slightly cockeyed heatsink on the right, but it's better than pulling off the sink and trying to re-use the 3m tape.

temps - ambient 22c, 4 tuners recording hd, wmc, pci-e slot 1 (next to cpu)
no heatsinks
60.5/61.5/61.5/61.6

with heatsinks
61.0/61.5/61.3/61.5

disappointing to say the least. i doubt the metal can is even in contact with the chips. while i'm staying under the 65c max, this thing gets hot as a pistol if you aren't careful.

the card is getting residual airflow from the cpu cooler, draw from 2 80 mm exhaust fans and a slotted pci blank next to it gives a source of fresh air over the card. this setup knocked off over 10c (and plenty of overheat failures) as compared to vid>pci-e1, ceton>pci-e3. it does seem sensitive to cpu heat, though. a 95W chip can drive the ceton into overheat.

with heatsinks providing no effect, the only air-cooling option is to brute-force more air over the card.

 

[Athadeus]

That metal plate doesn't even look like aluminum. Take it off and put the copper heatsinks on the components themselves. I am not sure, but I think using a TIM that is slightly adhesive is significantly better than any TIM tape.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i didn't want to risk breaking the card and paying another $300. the adhesive on the heatsinks is 3M 8815, which is good stuff - good thermal conductivity and adhesion.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the pc-a04s has arrived. this is a rough build that will last a couple days as i work on the finer points. neccesity is the mother of invention, and this turkey fits a big cutting board.

mmmm sloppy style
some points i've already identified:

the stock fans are pretty quiet when at partial throttle. they are currently plugged into the case fan header on the motherboard through a 3-pin 2-way, which is set to auto control. they might be keepers, which is a nice surprise.

the tool-less 5 1/4" retainers are useless, and easily removed.

the massive number of thumbscrews are equally useless. real screws, please. even the pci cards get thumbscrews, which are up against the back of the box so that only your fingertips can get on the screw. if you use a screwdriver the screws are mostly obscured by the case's inner lip.

the front panel (top) i/o is ridiculous. the whole bundle is pretty unwieldy. the only usb 2 has a 10 pin internal connector with 5 wires, the only usb 3 is an external usb 3.0 to be passed out the case's built-in butthole. lian li also sells PW-IE5V550 with 2 usb 3.0 external connectors, and UC-01 to connect these internally to a new motherboard. i'd look at all possibilities before buying that pricey, clumsy option.

the rear panel has a cut-out for an 80 mm fan, but a 92 mm could have fit easily. 2 80 mm could have fit without the butthole.

the leads coming off the power and reset switches interfere with an optical drive mounted in the top bay. i bent them off to the side and crossed my fingers.

the power supply mounting plate serves no purpose as i can see. maybe so they could add more thumbscrews? i would have just cut the power supply holes into the back of the case. the power supply intake is a bunch of louvers and a 140 mm filter. it's quite an obstruction to the intake of your power supply. we'll see if the power supply draws too much air from the interior with it mounted upside-down.

look into all options with straight, 90 degree up and down, and left and right angle sata cables.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Nice choice of heatsink!!!

 

[The Boston Dangler]

re-wired:

the pics don't really show how messy the rough build was, or the current improvement. yes, that's a meat thermometer on the cutting board (ambient air temp). i can actually fit the panels on the frame now, but i'm digging the skeleton watch look.

flipping the psu got me a bit more slack on the power cables. the motherboard and dvd power cables are looped through the cut-out above the dvd (where the front panel cables are meant to go). we'll see how much more i can shove in there. the mobo cable is very tight, but i think it's ok for now. i moved the ssd down to the hard drive rack to minimize the cabling crossing the box.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

some questions being thrown out there:

does anyone know of a source for replacement 8, 10 and 16-pin connectors for a seasonic x-series? on the power supply end, the 24-pin motherboard cable is broken up into the 10 and 16, which none of my usual sources carry. they are still mini-fit jr pins.

where can i find info on usb 3.0? can i treat the wiring like i would 2.0?
edit:
no, i cannot.
http://pinoutsguide.com/Slots/usb_3_0_connector_pinout.shtml

are there any lian li experts that could tell me what, if any, replacement panels that would fit the pc-a04?
edit:
the panels are incompatible with other lian li boxes, and lian li is not offering replacement panels yet.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Happy Halloween!

omg teh progress:

temp measurements round 1 completed
wiring is extended WIP, but 100% ok
i take back my criticism about the psu mounting plate - it's a nifty feature

 

[The Boston Dangler]

 

[gevorg]

Nice, I see that mobo fits the fan.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

a brief tour of the lian li pc-a04a:

chassis, cleaned

reset and power switches - moderate interference with dvd drive installed. bracket is riveted in, not screwed

stock fan - 3 are suppied but i'm using only the 2 intake fans. if anyone knows what this fan actually is, speak up. in my high-ambient noise home, these are sufficiently quiet at low speeds. they are mounted using grommets that slide into notches, similarly to the hard drives. they are just ok - nexus soft screws are softer and i've never had one dry and harden.

top and front panels

underside of the top panel - in my opinion, the worst part of the box. i would have preferred a power button and a 3.5 or 5.25 blank, or just move everything to the front. the firewire i never used is now replaced with an e-sata i'll never use, the 1 usb 2.0 has a 10-pin internal and the 1 usb 3.0 has an external connector. i have no immediate plans to connect these or the audio jacks.

optional part used- c-02a drive bezel - looks good, smooth action, drive button is accessible with the tray open.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

as-built parts list:

case - lian li pc-a04a fitted with c-02a
heatsink - noctua nh-c12p se14 fitted with thermalright ty-140 pwm 140mm
tim - arctic cooling mx-5
cpu - intel i5-750
motherboard -gigabyte ga-p55m-ud4
ram - 8 gb (4x2 gb) crucial ballistix tracer blue ddr3 (EOL)
video - gigabyte gtx 275 oc
power supply - seasonic x-650
ssd - intel x-25m 80 gb
hdd - 2x wd 2.0 tb ears
dvd - samsung w/litescribe
other - ceton infinitv 4 pci-e card

windows 7 x64
latest updates, drivers and firmware
gigabyte dynamic energy saver 2.0
cpu-z 1.58
gpu-z 0.5.5
speedfan 4.44
wmc - live hdtv
p64v266
furmark 1.9.1

achi mode
stock cpu settings
factory oc video
memory profile - xmp 1 (7-7-7)
bios cpu fan - "silence" mode
bios system fan - "auto"


all parts purchased from:
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.frozencpu.com/
http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php
http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/
my local hardware store

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the guts:

looking good. notice how the 140mm fan overhangs the first pci-e slot? i didn't until later :$. noctua heatsink installation is first-class. this heatsink cannot be mounted so that the pipe bends are facing upward in a vertical case. lian li lists 140mm as the maximum cooler height for this box, but some reviews used 150mm towers (1 had about 155mm and rubbed/bent the side panel). the noctua weighs in at 114mm with fan.

when i tried to install the video card, i found a potential gamebreaker staring back at me. i neglected to take into account the additional width of the 140mm fan. i was able to offset the fan and rubber pads by about 1/2 inch, giving me just enough room for the video card. there is no contact between the card and the fan, and the fan is very secure. if the heatsink was taller, the wider fan might clear the video car without a problem.

another area of potential concern was the dvd drive, again. my dvd is 170mm deep. if yours is somehow longer there may be interference with the motherboard. also, with this particular combination, the mobo power connector is right on top of the dvd power and sata connectors.

my photography continues to suck

full frontal nudity


there's plenty to play with in this package. the screws and hardware supplied are more than enough to get you going (i didn't dip into the old bag o' screws once) and there's some setup options. i see a lot of potential if cutting metal were one's thing to do. note that every threaded hole in the case is metric, as well as the included motherboard standoffs. if you like thumbscrews, you're all set. if you don't, they're phillips head.

this box has a high build-quality, very efficient and powerful layout, some very nice features and compact dimensions. if it were $10 less, i'd say it was the best $100 case out there.

it's not perfect, though. when compared to the (earlier?) pc-v600, to get the price down they don't include the drive bezel or the dual usb 3.0 plugs and separate internal-external 3.0 adapter. that whole i/o setup is a bad idea done badly. the power supply intake looks restrictive, and possibly uses a less expensive manufacturing process (louvers versus many small holes) and fan filter (clip in versus slide-out). there's an ugly plastic bezel along the top of the front panel which should be the aluminium front panel folded over, or a separate metal panel at least. the feet are glued on, rather than screwed.

comparable cases are:
silverstone ps07
silverstone tj08-e
lian li pc-v600
fractal dsign arc mini
antec mini p180

 

[The Boston Dangler]

minor progress is still progress:
i've decided upon my final wiring config and will start making the harnesses soon. importantly, i've also added a pair of very classy fin grills.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

thermal testing results:

these 2 cooler/fans are not directly comparable - 1 is a low-profile, low-noise cooler, the other is a modified beast. but it is a real-world example of "before and after" and serves to explore the performance of the other new part in the equation - the pc-a04 case.

i'm really disliking libreoffice's charts, so here's a few spreadsheet snips for now. the ambient temperature was 18c for all tests, as measured with a digital meat thermometer at the case intake. the cpu fan was set to "silence" mode in bios for all tests, with the intake fans set to "auto" and then moved to the non-speed controlled fan header for 100% (1234 rpm). for hdtv tests, live hd cable content was played in wmc, in fullscreen.

the scythe big shuriken performs similarly to the stock intel heatsink, but quite a bit quieter. the highest temps here are actually higher than i've seen in the silverstone htpc case.

a massive reduction in cpu temps, as well as a minor reduction across the board. that's what i'm talking about! the noctua/tr is so effective, the temp reduction on "auto" comes with a lower intake fan speed (674-930 rpm with the noctua, 717-1015 rpm with scythe) due to the cooler motherboard sensor.

these are the highest numbers i spotted on the display. my seasonic power angel may be starting to drift. maybe i've left it plugged in too long?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I love the A04 case. It's being used as my HTPC/server case. I have 7 HD's in it and outside of cable management taking some effort, it's amazing.

Save for one issue, which you didn't run into on your build. That is with with edge based SATA connectors. If you use both HD racks, and have a ATX mobo that is full size (some are slightly smaller than 9.6 in wide) with the edge based SATA connectors you will run into problems. I am trying to figure out how to get around this issue, but haven't gotten time to play with it.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I love the A04 case. It's being used as my HTPC/server case. I have 7 HD's in it and outside of cable management taking some effort, it's amazing.

Save for one issue, which you didn't run into on your build. That is with with edge based SATA connectors. If you use both HD racks, and have a ATX mobo that is full size (some are slightly smaller than 9.6 in wide) with the edge based SATA connectors you will run into problems. I am trying to figure out how to get around this issue, but haven't gotten time to play with it.

post a pic, plz. i want to see all those hd's jammed into that box

 

[The Boston Dangler]

photos of the next stage will be up soon when i get a photobucket account. by the way, should i reduce the size of my mega-pictures? any questions or comments? somebody's reading this...

edit:
photos are resized and re-hosted

edit:
some photos are being linked rotated

 

[The Boston Dangler]

who blings out power cables before stealthing them? this guy.

i haven't seen this technique used elsewhere, nor have i seen seasonic x-series with custom cables, so i'm claiming 2 world's firsts

seasonic and custom sata power cables

cpu 8-pin goes up and over. the cutout i used would cause some interference if the top fan were installed.

the left (right? back?) side. it's a snug fit with the panels, and there's several sharp edges and screws to potentially damage the wiring, but i'm not super concerned.

we're getting there. the dvd got the same treatment, but i used only 4 circuits. dvd's don't use the 3.3V circuit, so i eliminated the pair.

these "crimp" or t-style sata power connectors are very fragile, and there's simply no easy way of connectorizing (yes, that's a word). by the way, i never did find a crimper for them. i broke a few housings at the outer circuits and along the blade, as well as pass-thru and terminating caps. they really are a ballbreaker.

next up are the pci-e and motherboard cables, as well as addressing the factory ribbon and i/o panel.

materials:
the wire is nte 18 awg stranded and tinned
the pins are molex mini-fit jr (aka ATX, PCI-E)
the connectors are a mix of aftermarket on the device side and seasonic donor parts on the ps side
4" zip ties
loctite ultra gel

tools used:
cordless drill
small flat screwdriver
the official molex mini-fit jr pin removal tool (it's the best, the most expensive , and it still sucks)
a good pair of wire cutters (xcellite)
a good pair of wire strippers (palladin)
a lousy, cheap crimper that worked great once i took off the plastic grips
fluke 85III dmm
coolmax (???) power supply tester - the thin one sold under 100 names

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the case is down to $90 on newegg :thumbsup:

 

[aigomorla]

nice project!

if u need posts removed which dont relate to your worklog, let me know.

 

[alfa147x]

Love the 2nd one. Love your attention to detail. MANY people lack that ability. Now if only if can find a good way to figure that out during an interview...