HTPC Replacement

[ScubyUK]

Day 1
Silverstone Grandia GD08B case arrived today. Swapped out the 3 stock 120mm fans for 3 x BeQuiet Pure Wings 2 120mm PWMs and 5 x BeQuiet Pure Wings 2 80mm PWMs. 

Front and Sides are intake, Rear are exhaust.

Also swapped out he front I/O plate from the stock 2 x USB 3.0/mic/headphones to 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A/C/mic/headphones.

 

 

[Deuteronomy93]

What was the reason for going 80mm in the front/right over 120mm?

[ScubyUK]

Case manufacturer recommendation (their online/included manual is really excellent for stuff like this!)
When using an ASUS ROG ATX systemboard (actually any ATX system board where there SATA ports are at a right-angle) then use a 1 x 120mm 3 x 80mm configuration.

[ScubyUK]

Day 2 - Motherboard prep

 

 

[visc]

Looks like it'll be solid! Just finished a build last week with an Asus B550 F + 3600xt, guess that means we are build cousins!

[ScubyUK]

Day 3 - Disappointment

 

So, as it turns out, even though I managed to mount a AIO in the 5 1/4" Bay, there isn't enough clearance for the hoses to get over the memory modules. 
Have order an Be Quiet Shadow Rock TF2 to take it's place.

 

[Deuteronomy93]

Ok, I'm not really familiar with the case and the images online weren't that helpful for visualising due to panels in the way etc!

 

Would be good to see more pictures particularly around the sata ports.

 

It looks like your radiator approach is a little less conventional, 1 intake on the chassis with another fan directly on the rad, which is attached to a bracket only on one side.

 

Do you not have options to fix that rad to the chassis fan below it and possibly put the other fan above in push/pull?

 

If it was lower then you might be able to reverse the orentiation, having the pipes face up and clear the case panel+RAM.

 

Alternatively the fans above the mobo, would the rad be too thick to place there? It looks like you're already customising some things with the bracket for the rad etc, it might be worth tinkering a bit more and seeing if you can get it to work without forking our for another heatsink.

 

Honestly to me it looks like the case could do with slightly more optimisation for rads but looks like a decent option for modding.

 

I have a completely different setup but I was able to fit my quite chunky mobo under some extremely thick rads with less then a mm of room. It took some manouvering but was worth it.

 

Edit: I just had a look at the pictures again, there looks to be a decent amount of room above the rad, could you not drill more holes and move the bracket up?

[ScubyUK]

1 hour ago, Deuteronomy93 said:

Ok, I'm not really familiar with the case and the images online weren't that helpful for visualising due to panels in the way etc!

 

Would be good to see more pictures particularly around the sata ports.

 

It looks like your radiator approach is a little less conventional, 1 intake on the chassis with another fan directly on the rad, which is attached to a bracket only on one side.

 

Do you not have options to fix that rad to the chassis fan below it and possibly put the other fan above in push/pull?

 

If it was lower then you might be able to reverse the orentiation, having the pipes face up and clear the case panel+RAM.

 

Alternatively the fans above the mobo, would the rad be too thick to place there? It looks like you're already customising some things with the bracket for the rad etc, it might be worth tinkering a bit more and seeing if you can get it to work without forking our for another heatsink.

 

Honestly to me it looks like the case could do with slightly more optimisation for rads but looks like a decent option for modding.

 

I have a completely different setup but I was able to fit my quite chunky mobo under some extremely thick rads with less then a mm of room. It took some manouvering but was worth it.

 

Edit: I just had a look at the pictures again, there looks to be a decent amount of room above the rad, could you not drill more holes and move the bracket up?

Trust me, I've explored all options

To give you a better idea of what the drive enclosure looks like.

Going from right to left (the enclosure is rotated 180deg for the pic)

3 x 3.5" Drives (or 9 x 2.5" SSDs with a bay converter)

4 x 3.5" Drives depending on GPU length (or 12 x 2.5" SSDs)

2 x 5 1/4" Optical Drives with space for 2 x 2.5" SSDs mounted to the underside of the storage chassis roof

1 x 3.5" (or 3 x 2.5" SSD) vertically mounted at the end.
 

To be fair, the case is an 8 year old design and was never intended to house a water cooler, it was worth a try as I didn't need Optical Drives in my rig.

 

The AIO was configured with the Fan on top as exhaust, so fresh air from the intakes at the bottom push up and the idea was the AIO Fan would then pull air through in the Optical Bays.

 

There's no mounting holes on the inner partition which is why the L brackets were only attached on one side.
Having the hoses facing up doesn't allow the lid to close and puts too much tension on the correct position of the cooler block due to the small VRM fan that's part of the Arctic Liquid Freezer II.
There is not enough clearance at the side for a side-mount due to the rad thickness and drive enclosure, and no space above the I/O plate at the rear.
 

I had toyed with the idea of using a PCI slot mounting kit but couldn't find one suitable.

 

[ScubyUK]

Day 4 - Super Happy with the cool Air Cooler!

 

 

[ScubyUK]

Day 5 - Progress but a little disappointment!

 

So, the Be Quiet PSU I wanted is now not available until October, so have switched to a Corsair for the time being. Can always switch it out later.

 

Have installed the GPU though!

[DJ46]

Have you considered flipping the side fans to exhaust? With the air cooler I don't see any other way to let it breathe. With this setup it looks like all off that hot air will be pushed into the back of the GPU and then hopefully sucked out by those little rear fans.

[ScubyUK]

1 hour ago, DJ46 said:

Have you considered flipping the side fans to exhaust? With the air cooler I don't see any other way to let it breathe. With this setup it looks like all off that hot air will be pushed into the back of the GPU and then hopefully sucked out by those little rear fans.

Hmmm, hadn't considered that, there is also a decent vent centre-rear of the lid of the case and with all the air from the bottom front intakes as well...
Plus all of the fans are PWM. I'll keep an eye on the thermals though, thanks for the feedback, will definitely consider it if I need to!

[ScubyUK]

20 minutes ago, ScubyUK said:

Hmmm, hadn't considered that, there is also a decent vent centre-rear of the lid of the case and with all the air from the bottom front intakes as well...
Plus all of the fans are PWM. I'll keep an eye on the thermals though, thanks for the feedback, will definitely consider it if I need to!

Actually, the B550-E board has 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, so I could in theory move the GPU over one?

[DJ46]

11 minutes ago, ScubyUK said:

Actually, the B550-E board has 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, so I could in theory move the GPU over one?

I think the GPU will benefit from being in the first slot because it will have more room to breathe and what looks like 2 fans feeding it fresh air. If it was in the second slot that would go down to 1 fan and it would end up pretty close to the PSU.

 

I'd rather go with the side fans as exhaust configuration. It looks like it might cause negative air pressure inside the case, but that could be solved by running them at lower RPM or taking out the rear fans if that's not enough.

The vent on the lid is probably more beneficial to the GPU since it lets one of the fans on the card exhaust hot air directly outside.

 

My concerns weren't primarily with the heat hitting the GPU, but rather with the lack of an exhaust path from the CPU cooler. With a fan on top pushing air down, one side it could exhaust from obstructed by the GPU and a fan pushing more air in through the other side the airflow path didn't make much sense in my mind. I've had issues with airflow in a quiet gaming ITX rig and I ended up flipping fans and taking off covers one after another, chasing couple degree improvements.

[ScubyUK]

Day 6/7

 

It done and finished! It's so quiet!

It booted first time (which was a relief )

The white streaks in the last pic is just the Sun coming through the Windows.
Handy coincidence, the q-code LED is visible through the Top Vent. 

 

[ScubyUK]

 

[ScubyUK]