S4 transplant - Redux

[Stevo_]

Going real slow, new card came in and 140 fan ready for re-use. Still have to re-apply TIM to heat sink, I think the pre-applied stuff got messed up when I was rotating it it to find a fit, one core is crazy cooler than the others. Mobo could use a real dust blast also.

Edit: Was bummed when I remembered I had trimmed the original HD Plex SATA power cable to fit tight SSD spacing on the L2, luckily the cable from the 250W HD Plex I had worked on PSU tester though it'll need some trimming and Molex power connector removed. Just need to wire up the power button and I can at least ghetto assemble it. Re-oriented the cooler, turned out it did fit either up/down direction, like this one better, applied some new TIM but same core is almost 10C cooler as in other orientation, might be on-chip sensor is about to fail, open the pod bay doors Hal.

Edit2: Remembered I had this SATA power cable from a Silverstone shot cable kit, I think these flat style connectors will work better with the S4 side-by-side SSD mounting bracket, just need to swap PSU connectors and remove orange wire pins.

 

[Stevo_]

Had read that a mountain bike disk brake pad spring made a good molex pin remover, broke into a spare and sharpened the tips up, very strong spring steel, worked pretty good. Got the system back up and running using the Silverstone SATA power cable with Plex keyed connector. Next will be a test install, maybe tonight.

Got home from work and gym late, only had time to mount the SSDs to the S4 bracket

 

[Stevo_]

Rainy day here, perfect for finishing up.

Very tight.

Edit: up and running, repositioned the HD Plex, much better for wiring

Edit2: Had a buzzing from fan when I went to button everything up, Prolimatech fan is right on the ITX30 fan, turned out bottom label was getting sucked into ITX30 fan when pressed, removed and now super quiet. Prolimatech is on Noctua ULNA, running split from ITX30 PWM header, probably a couple hundred RPM at most. Now for a massive desk cleanup.

 

[Stevo_]

The final setup under my monitor, fit is just what I was looking for. May experiment with fans a bit as 120mm that close to vents creates a little bit of noise, may pull ITX30 fan and drop the 120 down with spacers and just run that. Excuse the morning sun glare.

Also allowed me to cleanup wiring quite a bit, still need to bundle the cables maybe. The 1ft Displayport cable worked out perfectly.

 

[Phuncz]

Two fans stacked often create more noise than intended, I'd indeed start by removing the CPU cooler's fan.

 

[Josh | NFC]

It looks like I designed the S4 for that monitor...the back shot is nuts...

Does it have pretty decent speakers (for built-ins?) I looks like it might.

 

[iFreilicht]

Ah, another corner desk computing fellow Love the little amount of cabling there. The hub on the desk does not fit that theme, though.

 

[Stevo_]

Two fans stacked often create more noise than intended, I'd indeed start by removing the CPU cooler's fan.

Still surprisingly quiet, I think the top fan blades whooshing with vents still the dominant noise as setup was nearly silent with top off

It looks like I designed the S4 for that monitor...the back shot is nuts...

Does it have pretty decent speakers (for built-ins?) I looks like it might.

When I measured things up and compared to the S4 measurements it seemed like it would be perfect, really happy the way it turned out. Finding the automotive bumpers for feet really helped as well. HP has a Beats version and this Bang and Olufsen version, figured I'd spend a bit more for a better speaker name considering what crap Beats puts out. At first wasn't sure about them but I think like most speakers they have broken in and sound much better now. Just wish they had some bass and treble control still. Biggest plus was getting speakers off the desk.

Ah, another corner desk computing fellow Love the little amount of cabling there. The hub on the desk does not fit that theme, though.

The hub is a bit of a concession to a workplace reality, I can only VPN in from my workplace laptop and the hub allows me to easily switch KM control while both computers are on.

 

[Stevo_]

Just realized I didn't give an updated hardware breakdown.
CPU Motherboard
Intel Core i7 3770K P8Z77-I DELUXE
CPU Cooler/Case Fan
Noctua L9i
Graphics
EVGA GTX 750 Ti SC
RAM
G Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz 2x8GB
Hard Drive/OS
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB Linux Mint 18
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB Multimedia storage
Monitor
HP Envy 32 Bang & Olufsen
Keyboard/Mouse
SIIG Mech/Logitech M310
Power
Dell 330W brick plus HD Plex 160/200W
Case
NFC S4(#008)

 

[Stevo_]

Thought I'd throw a bit of feedback out there on the ITX30 heatsink. These are rated for 100W but I don't believe the one I've got could ever get there despite some credible reviews I have seen(this is the second app of TIM no difference). With both fans operating, which cools the best, I ran 3 Prime 95 torture tests using the blend option. Running stock clocks and turbo disabled(3.5 GHz) it managed ~ high-70s C to low 80s C, with turbo enabled(3.9GHZ) core were tickling low 90s C(highest CPU package power reported by openhardware was mid-60W, with the 4.1GHz OC I had when I switched over it looked like things would quickly hit 100C so I terminated the test. By contrast the AXP100 with the 140mm fan handled those situations fine in my L2 box with less noise, no room for the 140mm in the S4..

I've got the fans pretty quiet, almost silent in both Windows and Linux using Fanxpert and Fancontrol respectively. I may give the Noctua L9I a go though pretty satisfied for normal loads right now and it would be a PITA to change at this point.Temps really good for just web surfing etc, gkrellm shot below fan1 is ITX30 fan that's about the lowest RPM it'll run, fan2 is Prolimatech 120mm running on a ULNA .

 

[Stevo_]

Post mortem on the ITX30 cooler which I swapped for a Noctua L9I, quiet once again even at max fan speeds. ITX30 contact area with CPU is actually a bit smaller than the CPU area available, may have contributed to heat transfer issues. Didn't notice when I installed, only when sitting next to L9i which had ample area that it really became apparent. Other thoughts, even a small fan running at nearly 3000 RPM makes a fair bit of noise. Probably keep it around for a low TDP build.

Sounds of silence, can actually run the L9i semi-passively though ended up something close to 300RPM just skating along. L9i gives a bit of space to the top ~3/8" eyeballing it. ITX30 fan alone was too far away and not powerful enough to suck in fresh air and 120m fan on top was too close to vents causing turbulence noise. Just a tiny bit of fan sound from the EVGA card now, but no more really noisy startups.

 

[Josh | NFC]

At least reverting to the L9i makes the list short and easy

Thank you for the updates and information!

 

[Stevo_]

At least reverting to the L9i makes the list short and easy

Thank you for the updates and information!

No problem, here's a shot next to my AXP100 similar to the L9i really highlights the difference.

Edit: Now have GPU fan control under Linux using coolbits option in nvidia-xconfig and nvidia-settings, pretty much silent setup again in both Linux and Windows.

 

[michaelmitchell]

How far off was the AXP100 + 140mm from fitting was it because of height or because of other components like ram? Must have been pretty close if you can fit a 30mm ITX30 + 120x15mm fan for a total of 45mm, would the AXP100 have fit if it had the stock fan? Would love some more details on this as I am currently deciding on a few different cooling setups to try when I get my S4.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Nice rig, what linux distribution are you using ?

 

[Stevo_]

How far off was the AXP100 + 140mm from fitting was it because of height or because of other components like ram? Must have been pretty close if you can fit a 30mm ITX30 + 120x15mm fan for a total of 45mm, would the AXP100 have fit if it had the stock fan? Would love some more details on this as I am currently deciding on a few different cooling setups to try when I get my S4.

The 140 was just too large side to side due to both the VRM daughter-card and the RAM height, with a different motherboard and VLP RAM it would have fit. With the 120mm fan on top of the ITX30 it was pretty much a compression fit. The AXP100 was a no go from the start, ~57mm in height even with stock fan, the L9i leaves about 9mm to bottom of the top cover.

Nice rig, what linux distribution are you using ?

Thanks, using LinuxMint 17.3 only hassle was starting up with Nvidia cards requires grub editing the first time because the stock Nouveau video driver doesn't play well with them you usually just get a black screen, need to go into recovery mode. An Nvidia driver shows up in the driver manager after you get in which blacklists the Nouveau driver after install, all good now.

 

[C4B12]

Awesome job! I have to get one of those S4's.

 

[michaelmitchell]

Ahh right I was only reading the height specs for the heatsink on the AXP100 not the combined height with the fan, good to know the 140mm would fit otherwise I will keep it in mind when selecting a motherboard.

Did you manage to fit the 140mm over the GPU fine?

 

[Stevo_]

Ahh right I was only reading the height specs for the heatsink on the AXP100 not the combined height with the fan, good to know the 140mm would fit otherwise I will keep it in mind when selecting a motherboard.

Did you manage to fit the 140mm over the GPU fine?

I briefly thought about it but decided to just try out the EVGA stock fan first, it's been pretty good so far especially once I was able to tune the fan curve. Precision X under Windows and just the driver in Linux, both run at 10% of max, 750Ti runs cool.

 

[Stevo_]

Ahh right I was only reading the height specs for the heatsink on the AXP100 not the combined height with the fan, good to know the 140mm would fit otherwise I will keep it in mind when selecting a motherboard.

Did you manage to fit the 140mm over the GPU fine?

I may have to backtrack on the 140mm fit, I think there may have been some interference with the IO also. In any case the IO height will important as the 140mm fan sits further back in the bracket