SG05 Modification. Poorman's Vertical Case

[myfirstpcyay]

I was thinking up there as well, but that's right up against the natural heat exit not to mention the cooler heat pipes.

 

[myfirstpcyay]

Side view showing RAM clearance if anyone's curious...

Scale picture!

That moment you realize the power button cable shows through VERY clearly :smh:

Beside the InWin301 it will be replacing...

Helloooooo future desk space!

 

[myfirstpcyay]

One of the main things I learned doing all this... I REALLY got to appreciate what the real fabricators on this forum do. I know that the BREATH is way more robust than mine which I still carry like a baby and also to appreciate the price points these guys are selling the cases at. Good stuff all around. Glad I found this place. I just wish I found it a year earlier...before I built the 301 . Oh well!

 

[Max78]

In an activity cooled pc the hot air goes where the fans push it, and from the orientation of the fins of your heatsink thats going to be mostly left and right.

Blocking the top shouldnt hurt the systems cooling, especially with the mesh cover you have on there.

 

[myfirstpcyay]

Oooh. You may have just saved me $50. Thanks!

 

[myfirstpcyay]

In an activity cooled pc the hot air goes where the fans push it, and from the orientation of the fins of your heatsink thats going to be mostly left and right.

Blocking the top shouldnt hurt the systems cooling, especially with the mesh cover you have on there.

You were right the bracket is in the way and I'm too lazy to take everything apart and redrill and rivet, etc. I ended up going the temporary path and mounted it to the back if the case.

Highly motivated since after installing hwinfo and Crystal drive thing...my 500GB 2.5"HDD was announced to be "questionable."

 

[myfirstpcyay]

So that space above the IO/cooler - should be able to fit a 92~100mm fan. As far as it's current configuration - should it be set to exhaust or intake? I know I could just try both and then measure thermals - but again, lazt

 

[ilord]

How are your psu temps? i have same layout but my gpu cooks my psu(SF600) and forces the psu fan to run at near full speed..

 

[myfirstpcyay]

I actually haven't checked my PSU temps as the PSU intakes from under the case, and the exhaust is the back of the case. My adding a fan up top would probably not effect PSU temps (or so I'd assume).

 

[myfirstpcyay]

Another question for all of you. I put those support brackets for adding some additional rigidity to the case. In addition to that, I was planning to mount a piece of plastic or something to isolate the heat from the GPU from the rest of the motherboard. I plan to extend this upward such that it is nearly flush with the perforated cover. Do you guys foresee any issues with this? Would aluminum be ok, or is there a fear of potential shorting, etc?

In addition to that I ordered a 92mm fan to put in that opening up top. Still deciding whether I'm going intake or exhaust with it. It'd be great to give the VRMs fresh air.

 

[myfirstpcyay]

I decided to return the Kabuto Cooler and go back to the stock cooler since I wasn't OC'ing. I also took this opportunity to do some cable management.

Someone (forgot who, damnit) recommended that I strip away the ribbon cable so that they're individual wires - and then they would be easier to "manage."

They were right! I only really needed to do it to the mobo cable - but my OCD wouldn't let me only do one cable. So they all changed. Nice and tucked away.

Stock cooler is in and that became MORE complicated than it should have been. When I took the black brackets out from the motherboard - I watched a video to make sure I had all the components I needed to install the cooler. Easy right? Wrong. Once I took out the last screw, the support bracket sunk. Long story short (impossible), I installed the wraith cooler with the case upside down. Lots of cursing ensued.

I put my old AF120 on top for "extra intake" for the rest of the components. I need a better way of mounting it though as it is currently "shoved" into the upper right support brace. Nice and snug resistance fit though!

There seems to be room to install the HDD again INSIDE the case! That'll be another day.

 

[confusis]

Very nice cable management! Ribbon cable PSUs work great in larger cases, but us SFF folks sometimes need to split wiring looms amongst various paths, or with very tight bends, making individual cables a necessary thing.

 

[myfirstpcyay]

Thanks! Next steps are to separate the GPU from the rest of the components by adding a "wall" of sorts. The next is deciding whether or not I'll be upgrading the cooler. If so, I'd like to open up the area above the I/O and even contemplate removing the shield altogether.

 

[zovc]

This is a really cool project, I wanted to do something like this since a lot of the Silverstone cases are so cheap. That mesh you chose looks great! Probably if you wrapped the power cable with black electrical tape, it'd be a lot less visible.

You could try to heat-shrink wire sleeves onto the power cable, too, for an overall prettier look. I don't know that matters, how much close scrutiny your case will be under.

 

[myfirstpcyay]

Thank you! Indeed, it's currently covered with some unshrunk heat shrink. I'm actually going to need to replace it with a longer cable. The current requires a bit of dexterity when removing the cover.

If I had to do it again - I MIGHT move the power button to the top of the PC to make the cover removal easier. But I already made a hole so...

 

[zovc]

Yeah, when I saw the position of the button it made a lot of sense for the day-to-day function. But I definitely was wondering if it "should" be somewhere else.