StarDestroyer.Net BBS

My old Antec TX 640b was getting a little cramped, so I ordered a Lian Li PC-A08B from newegg, along with a ventilated side panel, black faceplates, and a side fan kit from Performance-PC's.






The above pics were taken before I got serious about my CPU cooling issues (it's overclocked by over 1 Ghz) and installed a Zalman 9500.

Here's a pic with it running:


Among my other observations, let me note that whomever came up with the nylon push pin system for LGA 775 heatsinks needs to be taken out behind the building and shot in the ear.

Mounting that Thermalright was an absolute PITA because of clearances (I wound up just taking the board out to mount it), and a friend even had the stock Intel heatsink pop off of his new C2D build.
Though in fairness, his heatsink had been mounted/remounted a few times because he was switching motherboards around.

IMHO, it's just not nearly as secure as a backing plate mount setup is.
Plus I really didn't like seeing the motherboard actually bend from the force of the pushpins.

Looks good! So clean and dust-free... My tower's interior hasn't looked that shiny since the day it arrived. It's gotten to the point where I'm usinng my compressor and airbrush about once a month to blast the dust clots out of the nooks and crannies. Infernal dust...

Incidentally, your blue-fan-in-action shot looks like it'd fit in nicely on any number of sci-fi engine room sets. Very slick!

Dear lord, is that a CPU fan? I never knew there models that had the fan sideways!

Shinova wrote:Dear lord, is that a CPU fan? I never knew there models that had the fan sideways!

Er, what? The large fan perpendicular to all the others a case fan. The CPU fan is the one that says "Thermalright"

And yeah, I had a hell of a time trying to install the heatsink on my C2D too - one of the pins wouldn't "snap" on the socket. I eventually just left it alone since it seemed secure enough, and haven't had any problems yet...

Shinova wrote:Dear lord, is that a CPU fan? I never knew there models that had the fan sideways!

In most of the pictures, the heatsink is a Thermalright MST-9775.
It's a decent replacement for the stock Intel fan and is good enough for mild overclocking.
But it proved to be insufficient for my 1 Ghz overclock, so I put in the Zalman that you see in the last picture with the fan blowing sideways.

Shinova wrote:Dear lord, is that a CPU fan? I never knew there models that had the fan sideways!

Thats quite common nowdays, with the best example being the Scyth Ninja.

Good god Glocks, thats a pretty sweet rig, makes me itch to upgrade...

Ace Pace wrote:

Shinova wrote:Dear lord, is that a CPU fan? I never knew there models that had the fan sideways!

Thats quite common nowdays, with the best example being the Scyth Ninja.

Good god Glocks, thats a pretty sweet rig, makes me itch to upgrade...

Glad you like it.
Here's what's in that case:

Corsair HX520W PSU
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 revision 3.3 motherboard
Intel E6400 Core2Duo@3.2Ghz (400FSBx8@1.3875v)
2 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800
eVGA 8800GTS video card.
4 SATA hard drives
2 SATA DVD RW's
Firewire card and a modem for faxing.

The 8800GTS gets a little warm when overclocking, so the side fan *is* needed beyond just bringing in more fresh air.

As far as the Zalman goes, I made some temp screencaps before I switched out heatsinks.
When looking at these, keep in mind that the Thermalright itself is about 4-5°C more effective than the stock Intel cooler.

CPU at idle with the Thermalright:


CPU at idle with the Zalman 9500:


CPU running Orthos with the Thermalright:


CPU running Orthos with the Zalman 9500:

I approve of that case choice (currently using a Lian-Li PC61, which is somewhat cramped- motherboard tray won't slide out w/ heatsink installed). Also agree on shooting whoever came up w/ LGA775 push-pin.

Airflow in my case isn't that great (80mm fans are too small), so idle temps are at 42 w/ decent A/C w/ an E6400 @3.2GHz, 1.33V.

Using scythe infinity in push-pull configuration blowing up into the 120mm PSU fan.

I worry that my machine won't be stable if I upgrade to a geforce 8- failure to open my A/C vents results in failing mprime...