Lone Industries L2

[ImperialAlex]

Not really a "build log" (no in-progess pictures), more of a "iterative refinement" log.

I originally assembled my L2-based system quite some time ago (it's been my main rig for quite some time now) but recent discussions about the 1050Ti LP here made me realize that I really needed to make the system a bit quieter so I thought I might throw up the images here instead of derailing that thread any further.

This was the old system:

I only kept the RAM, CPU and 2.5" SSD. The ATX motherboard went into the garbage, as did the ATX case (just way too large!!). The PSU, HDDs, optical drive, AIO and GPU went into storage (for now).

Iteration 1:

Iteration 1 had a 160W HDPlex which died on me fairly soon. Probably just too much power/not enough airflow to keep it cool. The GPU shroud is missing because I was experimenting with external fans for the GPU. I also tried an internal USB hub to hide away a few wireless dongles but the case is just too perfect a faraday cage so the signal wasn't that great.

Iteration 2

I swapped out the dead 160W HDPlex for a 250W unit which has been chugging along nicely ever since. I moutned it to the front of the case with some double sided sticky tape which meant that the SSD had to find a new home. Some sticky foam tape + some creativity found the SSD attached to the rear of the NIC/USB stacks. The 24pin cable that came with the 160W HDPlex was just too short and the one that came with the 250W unit was incredibly long. One day I might get around to making custom lenght cables but for now I can't be bothered.

Current Iteration:

After modding the BIOS of the 750Ti to make it semi-fanless in idle, I noticed that my "random brand the store had" 80mm fans and the intel stock cooler were just way too noisy (and neither actually switched of to 0rpm when the PWM signal was set to 0%). So I ordered a Noctua L9x65 and some 80mm noctua fans and added them.
The system is now sitting at 0rpm on everything during normal browsing/etc usage and some careful calibration allowed me to reduce the GPU fan profile considerably (I used speedfan to control the case/cpu fans based on GPU temperature, too)

Now I'm just stuck with the Austrians' unique colour scheme.
The colour scheme probably goes well with Lederhosen but I'm not a big fan so I'm thinking about painting them some day. Any tips on what paint to use on these? Alternatively, and ideas for black dust filters that are visually opaque enough to make the noctua's blend in?

 

[Stevo_]

Nice!. Surprised the 160W failed, been running one since my L2 build (now in S4, L2 wouldn't physically fit in the place I wanted) with essentially same (750 Ti) GPU and a 3770K processor 3 years or so now.

I found some Akasa 80x10 PWM black fans that were silent that I used in my L2 the Noctuas def a bit hard on the eyes. There's some youtube vids on using Ritz dye for coloring plastic bits that I've seen used on fans better results especially for black I think.

 

[ImperialAlex]

Nice!. Surprised the 160W failed, been running one since my L2 build (now in S4, L2 wouldn't physically fit in the place I wanted) with essentially same (750 Ti) GPU and a 3770K processor 3 years or so now.

Yeah, I was quite surprised too, nice to hear that it probably wasn't my fault but just a faulty unit (HDPlex sent me a free replacement after I contacted them about it so they seemed to think so,too). I had already ordered a 250W anyway so the 160W is in the spare parts bin for now (where it's keeping some of my other impulse buys, or rather the things they replaced, great company )

I'm actually running a 3770k as well, still very happy with it. It's amazing how little progress CPUs have made in the last three years. I occasionally miss features like AVX2 or support for PCIe passthrough but they're niche enough that I doesn't really justify an upgrade. The only thing I'm really missing is NVMe storage (especially with the way I needed to mount the SSD^^).

I found some Akasa 80x10 PWM black fans that were silent that I used in my L2 the Noctuas def a bit hard on the eyes. There's some youtube vids on using Ritz dye for coloring plastic bits that I've seen used on fans better results especially for black I think.

Thanks! I'll have a look at that. Currently I'm leaning more towards just adding a fairly dense black dust filter, since it's not that much of an issue. The case is sitting in the corner of the desk, half-hidden behind the monitor so it's not like I'm constantly starring at the fans The brown rubber mounts are so getting replaced, though. Just didn't have any black ones at hand that weren't totally chewed up from being re-used a million times.

 

[Phuncz]

Thou has beenth transformeth into sffeth.
+300% effiency !

 

[Ceros_X]

Black sharpie fix that right up!