Log Goodisory A02 / HDPlex 160W / i5 11400 / RTX A2000 / Customized!

[princess_daphie]

So I've been tinkering with my main build so much this last year, it's gone from being in a ZZAW C2, then back into my good old Lian Li PC-Q21, then I bought the Goodisory A02 because it was at a good price on Amazon (since I'm in Canada, I gotta jump on things when they're not overpriced). This case is the ALMOST perfect layout for my dream build (plus small enough to scratch my SFF itch), so I was happy, but it needed some good customization to work efficiently.

Here are the most recent photos I took of my build!

This side panel was made of acrylic and I drilled out exactly the size of the 92mm CPU cooler fan, exactly at the same position, and applied a fine mesh inside the panel. It makes for a perfect intake!

Front panel is stock.

I made a custom acrylic panel to cover the flex atx cutout at the back and made holes for the DC jack.

Top panel was made of acrylic as well, but I also messed up at one point and it cracked, so I repaired it using super glue, and that made it super ugly, so I vinyl wrapped it for appearance's sake!

Internals! Did the cable management as well as I could, including shortening all the HDPlex's cables to avoid bunched up cables.

Specs:

• Goodisory A02 case
• 2x Arctic 80mm PWM fans
• HDPlex 160W DC-DC (w/ generic laptop 240w 19V power brick)
• Intel i5-11400 CPU (no time limit power limited to 80w)
• Scythe Shuriken 2 (w/ 92mm Noctua fan)
• 2x16gb Timetec DDR4-3000
• Nvidia RTX A2000 6gb (couldn't find a good deal on a 12gb)
• 1tb nvme Samsung 970 evo plus
• 500gb sata Samsung 860 evo

I have a couple photos of the mods I did:

Fans are supposed to go on the opposite panel in stock config, so I had to drill some slots in the bottom panel's metal lip for clearance.

Messed up a little with the file

Right after I finished cutting and drilling all the holes in this acrylic panel. It was pretty much too much to ask, which is why it cracked and I needed to repair it afterwards. I did make a jig to prevent my hand from slipping or any unwanted movement with a cheap 80mm fan which I ripped its fan out and only kept the frame. I was able to screw the empty frame and drill the holes!

I'm not very experienced at these things though, so I'm getting better. My second big cut on the side panel went much better, which is also why I didn't think of taking pictures I guess.

Airflow improved a lot when I added the fans with the proper cutouts at first, but when I added the custom side panel with the cutout right above the CPU, it improved DRASTICALLY. I have no issue pushing the CPU anymore, and it never gets toasty. I guess I could make some tests and post temps eventually.

 

[Snerual]

Amazing build! I used to have this case with a deshrouded GTX 1650 and 2 Noctua 80mm fans tied to it. It ran so cool and quiet. I was even experimenting with custom acrylic panels myself to improve ventilation for the CPU, but ultimately abandoned it because I couldn't get my Flex-ATX PSU under control at the time... (noise wise)

I am pleasantly surprised you manage to run all of this with "just" a 160W Pico PSU.

Have you thought about adding some (slim) 80mm fans at the bottom as well?

 

[princess_daphie]

Amazing build! I used to have this case with a deshrouded GTX 1650 and 2 Noctua 80mm fans tied to it. It ran so cool and quiet. I was even experimenting with custom acrylic panels myself to improve ventilation for the CPU, but ultimately abandoned it because I couldn't get my Flex-ATX PSU under control at the time... (noise wise)

Thank you!!! That's the main reason I never wanted to deal with a Flex-ATX PSU, they have such a weird form factor, and the tiny fan always ends up needing being replaced with an expensive Noctua fan, haha! PicoPSUs are so handy to reduce cable clutter and take less space in the case.

I am pleasantly surprised you manage to run all of this with "just" a 160W Pico PSU.

Yeah, it's one of the very few 19V plug-in pico units that are actually able to provide their rated power with a bit to spare. My build consumes about 150w (at the wall with a killawatt, so it includes power brick inefficiency as well) while gaming on average, topping at around 180w if I push it, but I try to keep things around 150w.

Have you thought about adding some (slim) 80mm fans at the bottom as well?

I have, yeah. But I've always felt like pushing air from the bottom of a case never yielded much benefits. I'd also have to reproduce the modded panel thing I did for the top one, otherwise the noise would be unbearable (I tested using fans directly on the stock panel and it's horrendous). If I do this mod though, with the added airflow access, it would certainly make the graphics card run cooler. Without modding the panel, it would barely make a dent, and sound like a wind turbine, haha! Since this card is designed to push its hot air out of the case directly though, it's the ideal scenario to just leave things as they are.

The one thing people often don't take into account when running a build that pushes air in from one side and doesn't have a clear exit for the air, like this case without modifying it, is all the hot air that kind of sticks around all over the parts. The cpu and video card will manage to somehow cool themselves off with their fans and heatsinks, but the nvme drive, the SSDs, the chipset, everything gets so toasty, and I can't stand that. It makes me go crazy, lol

 

[BaK]

Good job on the mods!

I'm not very experienced at these things though, so I'm getting better. My second big cut on the side panel went much better

Now that you practiced on the acrylic panels, do you plan on replicating the mods on the stock aluminium ones?
Should give the build a more uniform look.

HDPlex 160W DC-DC (w/ generic laptop 240w 19V power brick)

Isn't there enough free room at the bottom for a GaN 250W HDPlex PSU? Or even vertically in front of the GPU to not obstruct the air openings at the bottom?
My brickless OCD sorry...

 

[princess_daphie]

Good job on the mods!

Thank you!!!

Now that you practiced on the acrylic panels, do you plan on replicating the mods on the stock aluminium ones?
Should give the build a more uniform look.

I thought about and considered it a lot, but the problem is the original panels' ventilation holes pattern would make it look really bad, and some pieces of the panel would just fall apart, like between the 2 top fans, so I settled on the acrylic look, I find it still looks VERY handsome in person

Isn't there enough free room at the bottom for a GaN 250W HDPlex PSU? Or even vertically in front of the GPU to not obstruct the air openings at the bottom?
My brickless OCD sorry...

Don't apologize, I have my own OCD to deal with, haha!

I checked and the GaN is 2.5cm high, and the free space at the bottom of the case is exactly 2.5cm, which can accommodate standard fans, really tight against the gpu, so if i was to install a GaN there, it would sit flush against the GPU, choking it for air, and it would also mean I need to secure it against the panel directly, no mounting hardware, with double sided tape or maybe thermal pads (for heat transfer, while we're at it) and some screws.

Adventurous peeps *could*, however, modify the graphics card to make it single-slot (or use an rx 6400) and then it would be possible.

It could also be possible to fit it on the front panel (not 100% sure), but that would require sacrificing the front USB and audio ports.

There's also the more natural options that some would find acceptable, which is to use the top part where normally the flex-atx PSU would sit and use the GaN there instead, and use fans at the bottom, but that goes against my own OCD, which is two-fold: proper natural airflow and easy cable management, as much as possible.

The one thing I am still thinking of maybe doing is using a low-profile LED driver power supply that is thin enough and not too long, to fit at the bottom as an internal AC-DC power source, but MeanWell's solution would be VERY tight as far as case depth goes, and cheaper alternatives are a bit scary to use...

 

[BaK]

I checked and the GaN is 2.5cm high, and the free space at the bottom of the case is exactly 2.5cm, which can accommodate standard fans, really tight against the gpu, so if i was to install a GaN there, it would sit flush against the GPU, choking it for air, and it would also mean I need to secure it against the panel directly, no mounting hardware, with double sided tape or maybe thermal pads (for heat transfer, while we're at it) and some screws.

Indeed too tight without additional mods, power brick accepted!

The one thing I am still thinking of maybe doing is using a low-profile LED driver power supply that is thin enough and not too long, to fit at the bottom as an internal AC-DC power source, but MeanWell's solution would be VERY tight as far as case depth goes, and cheaper alternatives are a bit scary to use...

I would advise against LED PSUs, have a look here where one failed: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...h-i-nternal-psu-and-s-creen.16717/post-252668

Your best bet is the MeanWell LSP-160-12T (194 x 55 x 20mm), if 160W is enough for your components.
It is running fine on my B01T3 APU build (see sig), and handles fine an RTX A2000 in @robbee's Talos/Yocto build: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/talos-a-new-living-room-proof-computer.17255/post-261007
But that's only a 5mm improvement over the GaN PSU, the cooling of the GPU would probably be impacted as well.

 

[princess_daphie]

Soooooooooo........ This build is already back on my shelves, and I've switched to my new toy, the K29 that's even smaller and required me to do a bit more modding to fit my GPU, but I'm happy how this turned out. I'm waiting for an aviation connector to complete it. I'll post in its own thread when I have something complete!

 

[CariHere]

Hi there! I was wondering if you might still have the measurements for the side panel? I'd like to build my own custom side panel but I can't find any sources that seem to have the info about like what size screws are used, where they are located on the panel, etc.

If you had the file for your side panel that would be even better, I could just modify it for my particular build.

 

[princess_daphie]

Hi there! I was wondering if you might still have the measurements for the side panel? I'd like to build my own custom side panel but I can't find any sources that seem to have the info about like what size screws are used, where they are located on the panel, etc.

If you had the file for your side panel that would be even better, I could just modify it for my particular build.

When you say side panel, you mean the big one that has one round hole for the CPU intake?

In any case, I'll have to think of something, because I went at it in a very artisanal way, using a sheet of paper and a pencil with the actual panel and traced around and in the screw holes, and then i guessed the size of the screws, and made the hole bigger until the screws fit.

 

[ondert]

i'm considering this case with flex atx psu since it's darn cheap or go with full throttle on hdplex 250w GaN and J-Hack Stratos but i don't like external psu options. The only thing bothers me is flex atx psu part.

 

[princess_daphie]

i'm considering this case with flex atx psu since it's darn cheap or go with full throttle on hdplex 250w GaN and J-Hack Stratos but i don't like external psu options. The only thing bothers me is flex atx psu part.

The good thing about this case is that, even though it's pretty small, it's still roomy, there are a lot of possibilities to mount custom PSU parts, depending on where you want to put your fans, the size of your graphics card, etc. There's some room at the front for a slim longer part, the FlexATX spot can be used for whatever, and the room below the graphics card is also just a tad less than 30mm thick, so there's room there too. It requires a bit of modding, but it's easy to do as there are easy mounting spots for the panels.