# Micro ATX gaming rig



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

i have started building my micro atx gaming rig i got the idea from pro-infinity when i seen the case he had i relised it was perfect for a small-ish gaming pc. it took a fullsize powersupply, 2 hard drives, 2 dvd drives, 2 graphics cards, with room left for watercooling!

since i was upgrading i alread had most of the parts like 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33Ghz 1333fsb
arctic cooling freezer 775 with 92mm + 80mm fans
4 x 1Gb ocz reaper 1150mhz DDR2
Audigy 2 sound card
500W Antec smart power
250gb sata2
500Gb sata 2
dvd-rw sata
cd-rw/dvd-rom ide

then i went and bought

matx cube case





DFI Lanparty MATX p45 crossfire motherboard




Gainward HD 4850 512MB Golden Sample





i had to trim some metal away above the cpu to get the heatsink to fit in the case. then i cut a rectangle out the plastic under the mesh to let some air get into the case because even tho there is a 120mm fan at the back the rest if the case is pretty much airtight so the fans cant draw in cool air and it overheats. with the vent my cpu is 10-15c colder

the wiring still needs tidied up and i was also looking at silver or black paint for my power supply andd dvd-rw to get rid of some of the grey. then some uv cathodes and leds i was thinking red night rider leds along the front and possibly a 2.5" lcd screen. i have seen them go for as little as £28 on ebay.



























































still to come: 

watercooling
crossfire
2.5" lcd screen
painting
cathodes
LEDs


----------



## a111087 (Mar 19, 2009)

yeah, that's pretty tight fit
question- why? why not regular case? are you going to lan parties or is space in Scotland pretty limited? lol


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

ive done the full sized pimped out watercooled lit up like a christmas tree pc thing before and then i built my itx server and thought why not do both? this is as small as i could make my pc and still fit 2 graphics cards and a full size powersupply


----------



## EnglishLion (Mar 19, 2009)

I've got the same case with a slightly different front you might like to read

my review of the case
my tips & tricks for the case
my temperature display mod

I certainly recommend venting the window on the graphics card side.  And I think a 3.5" fan controller looks great in the floppy drive bay next to the temperature LCD.

In my opinion it's a good little case especially for the money and you can fit a decent length graphics card in it too.


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 19, 2009)

Hi you got the case then  one word of warning watch the lcd temperature display the wires break off easy so you might want to do something about that and not end up like i did with no lcd haha


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

EnglishLion:
im looking at the Lian Li 3.5in LCD Thermometer and Fan Controller tr-3 for the floppy bay. and i like the temp mod that you done to get rid of those molex connectors wires really do look bad when you have windows on the case.


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 19, 2009)

yea that would look nice  that floppy bay lcd


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

i am going to cut more ventilation at the front of my case probibly the plastic up the sides if the dvd drives like i done with the bottom i want to try and get a wind tunnel type of effect where all the air is drawn through the case rather than circulated around it because my cpu is hitting 75c under prime 95 and a few degrees more once the graphics card is being used.

once i get the watercooling tho it should sort all that. im going to put a 120mm radiator on the back of the case on the outside of the 120mm vent and a 2x 80mm radiator at the front. i might even split the loops i.e one for cpu and one for the 4850's.


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 19, 2009)

have you thought about putting mesh at the top instead?? and getting rid of the plastic then that way seems heat rises you get rid of some i was thinking about doing that but wasnt sure if it would look messy or not


----------



## Disparia (Mar 19, 2009)

Yeah, mesh would be nice.

For my wife's machine (in a similar Apevia cube case) I reversed the 120mm fan so that it blows in for positive pressure. Keeps cool and there is so much less dust.


----------



## MoonPig (Mar 19, 2009)

I'm going to be buying that case, and i'll replace the top with meshx and have the 120mm blowing in. Folding Rig 

Actually, can you tell me how big the top window is?


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

you wont get a 120mm fan on the top window unless you move it right forward and leave the top 5.25 bay empty. 

i dont like mesh that much and i would like the extra security knowing that nothing metal falling onto it will go inside.


----------



## MoonPig (Mar 19, 2009)

i could put it on the outside


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 19, 2009)

170mm x 230mm is tghe perspex on the top cover


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

get a couple of 92mm 5700RPM vantec tornado fans at front with  some mesh over them to stop small animals getting sucked in

you could remove most of the front cover like pro-infinity done for his screen exept put a 120mm fan in. or did u just glue it on?


----------



## MoonPig (Mar 19, 2009)

I'll see when i get it. 

Thanks for the help guys. And good build by the way, i'm liking the high-end hardware in such a small space. Crossfire though? that's just crazy, lol. 

PS. The temp on the front, is that just one?


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 19, 2009)

lol you could get 2 120mm fans in the front side by side if you wanted lol i just checked haha


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

its got the space for a couple of 4870 x2's but i couldnt afford it lol


----------



## MoonPig (Mar 19, 2009)

lol, too far... haha.

What's the temps like? on everything.


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

cpu fans set to 2000 rpm 71 -75c with 4x rosetta running touching 78 when running cod4 at the same time. i can kkeep it under 74 if i put the fans to 3000rpm but its far too loud

the graphics card never goes over 60c or 1500rpm 

VRM's and chipset hitting about 65c

hdd's never go over 45c

it needs watercooling becaue i know my cpu/motherboard can do far more but i cant give it any more voltage without it overheating.


----------



## MoonPig (Mar 19, 2009)

hmmm... That's pretty high. Hopefully i can push alot of air through it.


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

because of its size the heat builds up much more than a normal pc. when i load up the cpu with prime the cpu hits about 70c in a few seconds then starts to climb slowly as the case heats up so you really need good ventalation


----------



## MKmods (Mar 19, 2009)

I did a lot of work on SFF deign a while ago. I first started with the Qpack Style case than ran into all the probs you had. Here is what I did to clean up the mess inside and bring temps down.
http://www.overclock3d.net/articles...=modding_log_-__markkleb_s__project_crossflo_



Geofrancis said:


> because of its size the heat builds up much more than a normal pc. when i load up the cpu with prime the cpu hits about 70c in a few seconds then starts to climb slowly as the case heats up so you really need good ventalation



Nope, small is better. Basicaly the main prob with the Qpack and just about every other SFF case is keeping the PS and optical drives above the mobo (wiring, clutter blocks good airflow)

For all you packed in there good job, bet it wasent easy.


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 19, 2009)

you need to sort them cables out geofrancis lol looking a mess


----------



## erocker (Mar 19, 2009)

I like the setup Geofrancis!  I'm planning on getting the same case as I currently have my mATX system in a full tower case and it looks a bit goofy!  Are you overall happy with that case?


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 19, 2009)

i have tried to tidy up the wires as much as i could without soldering anything so armed with only a black roll of tape i set to work on it and this is the results















there is still far too much wires im thinking of making my own custom wiring i have plenty of heavy duty silicone wire for battery packs from rc projects

erocker im surprised how well everything fits into the case and aslong as you cut some ventalation to stop it overheating.


----------



## EnglishLion (Mar 20, 2009)

Yeah wiring in these cases is the biggest challenge as there are very few unseen areas.  I have a cheap old coolermaster PSU in mine so I chopped off all the cabling I don't need.  Left myself 24pin, 4pin P4, 2 x SATA and a single molex for extending to whatever else.  Removed all the extra molex and the floppy connector.

I also minimised my drives to 1HDD and 1DVD, put the HDD into a 5.25" cooler/adapter and completely removed the HDD bracket (you might consider this for Water as it frees up loads of space.  Also my HDD heatpipe cooler looks better through the top window than the top of a DVD drive.  Also on my case you can remove the firewire cable from the front panel, it just plugs off, I have never used firewire so I removed that and put in away in a box.

My next plans are to finish off my side window vents (need lots of filing for a good finish), vent the front better and paint my PSU.  I've already fitted a red LED fan to the PSU to match the theme.  I think if you're sticking to the blue fan theme you should mode the PSU with a blue fan too.


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 20, 2009)

i was thinking of going green! .... atleast with the colour. blue has been done to death and i was thinging of a green/orange theame like have all the fans green with all the wires/hoses uv orange like some sort of nuclear reactor meltdown.

i have a modualar power supply so i have already removed all that i can remove most of the wires. but i was thinking of sleeving the wires or making custom wiring with some uv reactive 18 guage wire i found on ebay.

has any one seen any orange or green UV or LED PWM 80mm or 120mm 4 pin fans ? i can only find blue ones and dont want the hassle of resoldering the leds.

ENGLIGHLION 
is that a zalman 7700 or a 7000 you have in your case? i was going to get one but i wasnt sure it would fit.
have you thought of painting your psu to get rid of they grey you can get small tin of humbrol model paint for a coulpe of quid.


----------



## pro-infinity (Mar 20, 2009)

I have also removed the hdd bracket from mine its well worth doing if you can as it does free up alot of space


----------



## EnglishLion (Mar 20, 2009)

Geofrancis said:


> i was thinking of going green! .... atleast with the colour. blue has been done to death and i was thinging of a green/orange theame like have all the fans green with all the wires/hoses uv orange like some sort of nuclear reactor meltdown.
> 
> i have a modualar power supply so i have already removed all that i can remove most of the wires. but i was thinking of sleeving the wires or making custom wiring with some uv reactive 18 guage wire i found on ebay.
> 
> ...



Oh I've bought paint for my PSU.  I just haven't got round to doing it.  I bought some car body spray paint in black and some in red as I wasn't sure what to choose.  I think I'll go with the black.


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 22, 2009)

i have bought some metalic black paint for my psu and dvd-rw. 
im going to trim the front a little more because its still far too hot in there. not sure what to do next buy all the fans and shiny mods or start on the watercooling setup?


----------



## Geofrancis (Mar 30, 2009)

finaly have an update for ya all!! 

ordered blue led fans for the power supply 
got the metalic black humbrol model paint to get rid of the grey on the psu and dvd-rw
full watercooling setup :
zalman cpu block
zalman nb block
3/8" tubing
120mm radiator
XSPC 450 lph pump/res combi


still to come
another 4850 golden sample
2x80mm radiator
more fans 
more lights
lcd screen

more overclocking!!
more pictures tomorrow!


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 1, 2009)

finaly pics 

painted my psu and dvd-rw

put an led fan inside the powersupply 

removed the hard drive caddy and put the hard drives in the floppy and dvd bays

done the similer mod to englishlion for the temp sensor but connected it to both usb ports power and added a fan header.






















the led fan is not very bright because my powersupply controlls the fans so they dont get full power

i could only fit oneled fan becasue internal 80mm fan in it was only 15mm so the led one i had for it didnt fit.


----------



## EnglishLion (Apr 1, 2009)

Well modded. 

Have you tried running with the side panel off to estimate the difference in GPU temperature you'd get by venting the window.  I'll have to get round to finishing my vents and post some photos, I've vented but it just looks a bit too scrappy for photos at the moment 

Not enough time for these things


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 1, 2009)

my graphics card is only hitting 65c ish with the fan still inaudible so its good enough for now it might be a different story when a second card goes in

my watercooling is en route so hopefully it will be here tomorrow and il get some more pics up.


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 5, 2009)

my water cooling kit has arrived and i have fitted it to get all the hose measurements right before i fill it up and remove the water blocks to start leak testing 






i have cut out the rear fan grill. it still needs to be trimmed with the dremmel 






i really should take better care of my hardware :S


----------



## MKmods (Apr 5, 2009)

tin snips will do a much better job cleaning up/trimming the holes (much cheaper too)


----------



## _jM (Apr 5, 2009)

MKmods said:


> tin snips will do a much better job cleaning up/trimming the holes (much cheaper too)



like what kind, could you post a picture of a pair you can recommend?


----------



## MKmods (Apr 5, 2009)

I like "Wiss" brand. I get mine from homedepot, they are about $14. The red handle ones are for left hand circles (great for cutting circles but cut straight as well)

They also are sold at discount tool places like HarborFreight for as cheap as $5. (but the Wiss ones are way better)


----------



## pro-infinity (Apr 5, 2009)

http://i44.tinypic.com/de3dd.jpg[/QUOTE]


WARNING WARNING WARNING that lcd temp display wires come out easy trust me i broke mine and you cant fix it when they come out tape or glue or do something with it quick lol


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 6, 2009)

i have already got a cheap dremel copy off ebay that i can use to trim it along with a grinder bit to smooth it out.

the radiator i got for the case wont fit right without a lot of trimming of the case as the barb is right at the edge where the motherboard tray meets the case so i have had to mount 2 fans between the  radiator and the case to allow for enough clearance to get the tubes through the back of the case. 

i have been trying to overclock my cpu/ram more. these p45 chipsets are so frustrating to overclock there are about 10 different settings you have to change blind to get it stable and as soon as you put the fsb up you have to do it all over again. i spent 2 days trying to get this stable!! it would post as high as 3.6ghz and could get into windows and run wprime 32m run at 3.57ghz  but could never get it to prime95 for more than a few seconds any higher than 3.1ghz.

i have also ordered a new fan controller for the 3.5" drive bay it has 2 fan control knobs and an lcd with 2 thermometers, a second led fan for the psu because the first one i got for it was too big because i didn't relies my psu needed a slimline one and 2 12" blue cold cathodes. hopefully everything will have arrived for me finishing work on tuesday and i can get some pics up!


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

got the watercooling rig installed and my cpu is running much cooler its at 3.45ghz @ 1.4v and its only just going over 60c


----------



## EnglishLion (Apr 8, 2009)

Well it certainly needs a bit of tidying up but it's starting to take shape nicely - well done.

Any temps to report yet from the watercooling?  It's something I considered for my cubePC


----------



## lemonadesoda (Apr 8, 2009)

Having built an "on the desk" system some years ago, http://hothardware.com/Articles/Chyang-Fun-CFS868-Small-Form-Factor-PC/Default.aspx?page=2, I now build ultra-silent under the desk, hide it away things.

Reasons:

1./ On the desk takes up valueable deskspace. Somehow your desk becomes more disorganised at an exponential ratio to the amount of space (%) is uses.

2./ Oh man, those things are noisy unless you drown out the noise with loud music/sound. NOT for the office or homework.

However, it is a lot of fun building one, and seeing how much you can squeeze into a small box. Good luck!


----------



## BumbleBee (Apr 8, 2009)

whats the name of the fan controller? I don't think you should of went 1/2" tubing I would of chose 7/16". I love the DFI JR P45. I thought about having a full liquid cooling setup in my SFF but I rather drill 3 holes in the top panel 1x thick one for connections (all in one big sleeve) and 2x small ones for tubing, buy 4 mounting brackets at a hardware store and a couple sheets of aluminum you can get at any computer store and build a box that mounts on top that houses the radiator, pump and reservoir got the idea from koolance.


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

all those wires are just thrown in for now to do some testing. its going to get tidied up once i know for sure where all he cables and hoses are going.

the temp to noise ratio is excellent with the 2 120mm fans turned down it keeps it under 65c which aint easy to do overclocked to 3.45ghz on a quadcore with the old aircooling it was hitting over 75c at only 3.1ghz and .1v less power so if your overclocking a quad i highly recomend it! even more so if its a 65nm one that run much hotter.

the fan controller is one i found on an ebay auction from china so its gonna be a week before it arrives it didnt say what make it was or anything just that it was a 3.5" fancontroller with an lcd screen.

i was going to get a watercooling kit like the xspc one with the 10/8mm tubing instead of a full custom job but it is impossible to find a 120mm radiator watercooling kit for under £100 thats in stock and that isnt made by thermaltake. the last kit i bought from them was for my x1900xtx it was a all in one vga watercooling kit that was great right up untill the pump died and nearly boiled the water in it.

still another 80mm fan for the psu to arrive aswell as some blue cold cathodes. so more pics to night or tomorrow


----------



## EnglishLion (Apr 8, 2009)

lemonadesoda said:


> Having built an "on the desk" system some years ago, http://hothardware.com/Articles/Chyang-Fun-CFS868-Small-Form-Factor-PC/Default.aspx?page=2, I now build ultra-silent under the desk, hide it away things.
> 
> Reasons:
> 
> ...



Just because it's a SFF cube doesn't mean it's for 'on the desk' - mine sits under the desk mostly and it's really quiet (partly because it's generally turned off , although it is fairly quiet anyway).  It's my 'grab and go' PC for when I need to take a gaming quality PC with me somewhere.


----------



## lemonadesoda (Apr 8, 2009)

EnglishLion said:


> ...and it's really quiet; partly because it's generally turned off ...


ROFL

Agreed, there are occasions where a grab-and-go powerstation is what's needed. Nice job.


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

EnglishLion said:


> ..and it's really quiet (partly because it's generally turned off...



lol why didnt i think if that instead of spending a fortune on cooling lmao


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

shit i just relised that my thermomoter is fecked the sensor is only reading 18c i think its the little sensor that is away i forgot just how delicate they are 


looks like another temp sensor is needed like englishlions mod or the bluetooth mod one like pro-infinity


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

ah well heres some more pics
damn finger prints..










lol i just relised the amount of crap thats fell down the back of my desk


----------



## MoonPig (Apr 8, 2009)

tight fit, looks good though. I think you need something above it, or below it.


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

i have already got my itx dualcore atom server with a 500gb & 1tb external drive and a 320gb exteral drive


----------



## MoonPig (Apr 8, 2009)

oh right, it looks better from there.

My god your desk(s) are messy!


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 8, 2009)

its called organised chaos or thats what i tell my mother anyway..


----------



## MoonPig (Apr 8, 2009)

haha... nice.

My room looks really tidy on one side (desk) then on the other (bed and main floor space) it's riddled with computer parts and shipping boxes.


----------



## BumbleBee (Apr 9, 2009)

I just wanted to post this for the people that haven't seen it. 

Rogue Pictures
Rogue Worklog

I think this is the most amazing SFF case I have ever seen. all you can do is clap or cry, scrolling through his worklog is like a climax to a orgasm. look at his new SFF project


----------



## Flyordie (Apr 9, 2009)

*sobs*  ChannelWell Alert... ;-(
I would be very scared of that Antec PSU... ChannelWell was a horrible OEM back in the day.


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 9, 2009)

i have trimmed some more front of the case to try and get some air going through the case. you can see some of the metal when you look at it straight on but its not noticable from the sides.

im gonna put some blue leds or cold cathodes behind the mesh so it glows or mabe a red knight rider led strip?


----------



## morpha (Apr 12, 2009)

looking great so far. I LOVE lan pc's.


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 15, 2009)

got my fan controller and neons














needs some tidying up and i have still got a new fan grill and led fan for the psu


----------



## MoonPig (Apr 15, 2009)

lol, looking good matey.

Whens the second 4850 coming?


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 15, 2009)

one of my 500gb hard drives has just died and taken with it all my tv shows so i need to get a new hard drive before i get another 4850


----------



## MoonPig (Apr 16, 2009)

oh, unlucky man. I hope my HD doesn't die... alot of stuff on here that taken me a long time to collect... lol.

And the obvious Steam folder... haha


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 16, 2009)

im going to rebuild my server before i spend any more money on this pc im looking at building a itx 5tb raid 5 array i cant go though another drive failure and loose files


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 22, 2009)

i give you my new mini cube













i put my dualcore atom 330 itx board in a new case. its a modified morex 669 with the bottom 3.5" bay cut away and a 5x sata hotswap cage put in. at the moment its only running 2x2.5" hard drives bluetacked to the bottom of the case and one 3.5" drive in the cage due to lack of sata ports. im hopefully getting a 6 port sata raid card and more 1Tb drives for it soon so i can get a raid 5 array set up..


----------



## Th0rn0 (Apr 22, 2009)

Please post a instructionable! I definitively want one of those!


----------



## morpha (Apr 22, 2009)

My next mini pc will be itx... 

bit off topic but: How awesome would it be to have two itx computers in the one case?!!
server on one, development on the other...


----------



## Geofrancis (Apr 22, 2009)

i got the idea from this site i remember seeing it a while back http://www.mashie.org/casemods/udat3.html so i done a bit of googling with the image search and found it

i needed somthing that would be fast and reliable cos i was getting sick of usb2 and i already had a drive die on me so i needed raid.


----------



## smashed_99cbr (Dec 20, 2009)

are you running 2 fans on the radi? or is one of them a 'dummy' used for spacing?


----------

