SilverStone Grandia 11 Build - HTPC/Media Center Case

[Keedon]

Long time listener, first time caller. 

 

TLDR , wanted to get the info on the case out there if others might be interested -- as it largely has gone unnoticed and I don't see anything on youtube about it. I also would take feedback on airflow/cooling and such.

 

Have not seen much on this case since it released this summer, but I am always a sucker for Media Center based PC builds. I game on my TV and have always been forced to cram a standard tower sideways into a tv stand or on a nearby table or go with an itx case . Seems like a huge miss that the market has never really had a proper media center case with a mesh front. The case is not exactly tiny - see xbox 360 below for scale - but it fits well in my setup.

 

Basics of build:

Aorus X570 Pro AX 

Ryzen 5900x

32gb Corsair Vengeance 3200 

Samsung 980 1TB NVME

Corsiar mp600 2TB NVME

EVGA (rip) 3080 

EVGA  1200 P3 PSU

4x 120 Noctua Fans

2x 80 Noctua Fans

NZXT 240 AIO

 

Few notes: PSU is overkill, but brought recently in prep for a 4080/90. Cable management in the case was actually relatively easy, though I am not great at it and care even less when there is not glass to see through. If you go full ATX, you need a board that puts your usb 3 header on the side of the board (i somewhat accidentally lucked into this on the board I bought) if you intend to put fans on the left side "bottom" of the case. AIO on its side maybe not the best ??? but works. 

 

It fits perfectly in my TV stand and looks very unassuming. It is not small, but it is also not overly large either - xbox 360 for scale. 

 

 

Using an NZXT 240 w/ nocuta fans. Super paint skills activate. 

 

 

If there was one thing I can't understand about the case is why they did not simply put another fan slot here. Frankly the front of the case has plenty of room where they could have allowed for an extra fan there and/or upping the aio sizing to either a 280 or even a 360 depending on the GPU used. If I was brave or stupid I might fiddle with modding the case and adding a 280 aio and/or extra fan. Very slight re-design of the case would have allowed for a lot more options for cooling regarding fan count, size, and/or aio options.

 

 

There is an option for another fan to the right side of the case, I have considered picking up a slim fan to toss up there but I question if it is worth it. Also if i did that, would I do additional intake there or exhaust? 

 

 

 

I toyed with an EVGA 3090 TI in there that a friend had just purchased. It also worked well and did not bake everything surprisingly.

 

With my current build, the case stays relatively cool. Under full load the CPU stays well below 80 degrees with about 60-70 fan speed on the aio fans and about 40-50% on the other case fans. (still fiddling with fan curves some). In some benchmarking, under extreme load the GPU does not boost as much as it did in my old case, so comes in a smidge lower (was using a meshlicious case so it got ALL the air). Partly sidegraded to this for the fun and also in prep of wanting to add a 4080 or possibly a 4090 - which would simply not fit into a meshlicious case. Also could not fit the meshlicious into my tv stand, so it was off to the side on a bookshelf of all things - did not want to lay it on its side.

 

Airflow/heat question.... I have thought about buying an AIO 4090/4080 and/or an nvida card itself to have the pass through air flow. Any suggestions on - in theory - what style of card would breath/cool the best in this case? Had thought about the nvidia card with the pass through fan pulling air up and adding that right (top) thin fan to help pull that air out the top? 

 

Would love to see someone more knowledgeable than I build in this case and really test out the thermals with different configs.

 

 

 

Temps:

I suspect some undervolting might help w/ thermals some and possibly maintaining boost clocks, but under gaming load I don't really see any need to. Just in synthetic tests does the cpu get into the 70s. Playing games the CPU tends to park itself in the high 68s and be happy. For a 5900x on a 240, will take it. If building over (already had the 5900x) i might just go with a 5600x to lower the temp a bit. Again, being brave/stupid and custom modding the case to fit a 280 could be a thing...but not brave nor stupid enough to try it and risk breaking it.

 

Idle                                                                                                    Cinebench

 

 

 

 

[Keedon]

Also realizing i may have posted this in the wrong place?

 

[Honeycutt]

There in another subforum that is for builds. I was confused at first too. 

[WhoseLinusItAnyway]

Thanks for sharing your build experience! I am about to put together my own build in the GD11. I wanted to downsize the size of my PC (going from 46 Liters to 31 Liters) without having to get a new motherboard etc. This case really does allow you to fit in a full-fledged ATX PC with minimal compromises! I also love the look.

[DeltaEternum]

Thanks for the detailed build experience. I’ve been eyeing this case however my main concern is having the AIO radiator in the front filtering in hot air into the system. I assume it’s fine but this just doesn’t feel optimal to me. Not to mention the rear exhaust fans being the smallest size in the case. 

[WhoseLinusItAnyway]

On 10/24/2022 at 5:43 PM, DeltaEternum said:

Thanks for the detailed build experience. I’ve been eyeing this case however my main concern is having the AIO radiator in the front filtering in hot air into the system. I assume it’s fine but this just doesn’t feel optimal to me. Not to mention the rear exhaust fans being the smallest size in the case. 

I ended up getting the case and I'm running 2x120mm fans as intake on the 240mm rad in the front, and 2x120mm as intake by the GPU. I have 2x80mm Noctua Redux fans as exhaust and temps are quite good actually. The case seems to rely on having positive pressure. Running a 5800x and MSI 6800XT Gaming X Trio and no problems with thermals.

[DeltaEternum]

On 10/26/2022 at 8:47 AM, WhoseLinusItAnyway said:

I ended up getting the case and I'm running 2x120mm fans as intake on the 240mm rad in the front, and 2x120mm as intake by the GPU. I have 2x80mm Noctua Redux fans as exhaust and temps are quite good actually. The case seems to rely on having positive pressure. Running a 5800x and MSI 6800XT Gaming X Trio and no problems with thermals.

Nice, nice to know. Wondering if there’s room to add an additional intake layer on the inside-side of the radiator (for a total of 4 intake fans at the front, sandwiching the rad)?