Log SMALLEST ATX CASE : CERBERUS-X (Complete build log)

[BiRaitBec]

I can only speak for myself, but I use 120mm fans in the bottom because I had two NF-A12x25 Noctuas and they are better than any other fan, 140mm models included.

In terms of CPU cooling, NH-C14S is still your best bet. BeQuiet offering is almost as good, but I think the reason behind his low use in Cerberus builds is the crappy mounting system.

So you are saying that dual 140x27 mm fans by arctic can actually be mounted on bottom, even if you prefer noctuas?

And the 140mm fan that can be mounted on the front panel, has to be max 15 mm, or can also be 25-27?

And same for 27 mm fans, on the bottom of your c14s, instead of noctuas 140x25 can it allow a 140x27mm or 25 is already too tight?

 

[MarcParis]

@BiRaitBec thanks for your message

Cerberus-X is a great choice as it is proposing top notch cooling & power capabilities..

For fans selection, Artic are best fans in ratio performance/silence/price.

For bottom fans, I still recommend 120 fans as 140 are too large for me as they could block I/O of motherboard. My current with dual 120mm at bottom is simply providing same GPU/CPU temperature as if you were in opened case.

Also please make sure you have slim 120mm top fan and 92mm rear fans placed as exhaust.

For PSU, you can go either SFX or SFX-L. Corsair SF series are easy to tweak on fan if it's becoming noisy (like my modded SF600).

 

[Uruk]

So you are saying that dual 140x27 mm fans by arctic can actually be mounted on bottom, even if you prefer noctuas?

And the 140mm fan that can be mounted on the front panel, has to be max 15 mm, or can also be 25-27?

And same for 27 mm fans, on the bottom of your c14s, instead of noctuas 140x25 can it allow a 140x27mm or 25 is already too tight?

- Yep, you can mount 2 140x27mm fans on the bottom, no problem at all. You only have to make sure that your motherboard is standard ATX and doesnt have any big connector in the bottom end that can be blocked, like 90º USB 3.0.
- The front fan can be as wide as you want, as long as your GPU allow it.
- Depends on your RAM height. With my TridentZ theres no room for 27mm fans, but with something smaller, like Corsair LPX, you will be able to use 27mm fans.

 

[BiRaitBec]

@BiRaitBec thanks for your message

Cerberus-X is a great choice as it is proposing top notch cooling & power capabilities..

For fans selection, Artic are best fans in ratio performance/silence/price.

For bottom fans, I still recommend 120 fans as 140 are too large for me as they could block I/O of motherboard. My current with dual 120mm at bottom is simply providing same GPU/CPU temperature as if you were in opened case.

Also please make sure you have slim 120mm top fan and 92mm rear fans placed as exhaust.

For PSU, you can go either SFX or SFX-L. Corsair SF series are easy to tweak on fan if it's becoming noisy (like my modded SF600).

- Yep, you can mount 2 140x27mm fans on the bottom, no problem at all. You only have to make sure that your motherboard is standard ATX and doesnt have any big connector in the bottom end that can be blocked, like 90º USB 3.0.
- The front fan can be as wide as you want, as long as your GPU allow it.
- Depends on your RAM height. With my TridentZ theres no room for 27mm fans, but with something smaller, like Corsair LPX, you will be able to use 27mm fans.

Thanks guys i ll think about it and i surely will let you know the result. Still am waiting for the case to arrive and then finding a way to translate all properly.

Consider that my old case is also with blu ray, many things and the cables behind the mdb are almost infinite.

Lets see how it goes.

 

[MarcParis]

Thanks guys i ll think about it and i surely will let you know the result. Still am waiting for the case to arrive and then finding a way to translate all properly.

Consider that my old case is also with blu ray, many things and the cables behind the mdb are almost infinite.

Lets see how it goes.

For blu ray disc, I've switch to external case personnally..

Let's keep us posted!

 

[BiRaitBec]

For blu ray disc, I've switch to external case personnally..

Let's keep us posted!

On the side bracket, if i put the fan on the bottom from c14s, i should have space for a 25-27 mm fan right? And does a 140mm can be mounted on the side bracket? I see that when you mounted your 120mm one still you got some diameter space left on it.

 

[MarcParis]

On the side bracket, if i put the fan on the bottom from c14s, i should have space for a 25-27 mm fan right? And does a 140mm can be mounted on the side bracket? I see that when you mounted your 120mm one still you got some diameter space left on it.

You are perfectly, while using c14s you can mount directly 25mm fan (either 120 or 140) on side bracket. I’m doing this since I have my Cerberus-X...
However I’m not sure what space is available. I’ll say 25-26 mm max

 

[MarcParis]

A new contender arrived to fight versus Swiftech : Barrow combo cpu waterblock/reservoir/DDC pump... I was following it since last July..

Now question is : buy it or not?..
I was thinking to update my 92mm customed WC...

 

[MarcParis]

A new contender arrived to fight versus Swiftech : Barrow combo cpu waterblock/reservoir/DDC pump... I was following it since last July..

Now question is : buy it or not?..
I was thinking to update my 92mm customed WC...

Finally I didn't click on buy button because it not well suited for AM4 socket (for Intel it's pretty good...I still love this Square frame of Intel sockets.).
Right now with AM4 socket I think the block will bump into RAM or VRM heatsink.

 

[MarcParis]

Well I guess I misplaced my message on future upgrade for my sweet Cerberus-X and SM550..

https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/sliger-sm550-compact-quiet-gaming-htpc.11928/post-219941

Basically I'm keeping Cerberus-X as main gaming rig and I'll upgrade it to either RTX3080 or big navi, depending on performances/features, price and available stock..
Let's see..

 

[MarcParis]

Since last friday I experienced stability issues with my Cerberus-X : monitor becoming black, fans spinning to max...and it was random (while gaming, on desktop)

I tried OC parameters (cpu, ram), but stability was not there...very weird.

At the end I guess I found the root cause : my modded PSU SF600

I did mod this PSU 9 months ago, using it with more power angry GPU (GTX 1080 ti overclock sucking up to 330w) without any troubles.

I checked fan speed and it was around 650rpm...I decided to push to 1050 rpm (48% pwm) all time and since that, no crash at all!

I'll continue my experiment.

Whatever outcome of this trial, I won't transfer this SF600 to Sliger SM550 as it proved unreliable at the end.
Thus even before thinking of upgrading GPU I'll need to replace my PSU. I'm thinking to buy a second SX800-LTI as 600w seems too low especially with current peaks that new RTX Ampere are sending to PSU...definitely they are not harmless at mid-term.

 

[Arie]

Thus even before thinking of upgrading GPU I'll need to replace my PSU. I'm thinking to buy a second SX800-LTI as 600w seems too low especially with current peaks that new RTX Ampere are sending to PSU...definitely they are not harmless at mid-term.

I tried two SX800-LTI units before giving up (and the SF750 was released anyway). The fan was very noisy, made a ticking sound when idle and the fan profile was all over the place. It was seemingly directly tied to PSU load with no ramp-up/down time, making the fan speed and noise very erratic.

Sounded like this: http://ariekanarie.nl/dump/sx800.mp3
First 20 seconds is what the fan sounds under load, after that you can hear the idle ticking sound of the fan. At the 40 second mark you can hear the erratic fan speed and noise when doing some light browsing.

 

[MarcParis]

I tried two SX800-LTI units before giving up (and the SF750 was released anyway). The fan was very noisy, made a ticking sound when idle and the fan profile was all over the place. It was seemingly directly tied to PSU load with no ramp-up/down time, making the fan speed and noise very erratic.

Sounded like this: http://ariekanarie.nl/dump/sx800.mp3
First 20 seconds is what the fan sounds under load, after that you can hear the idle ticking sound of the fan. At the 40 second mark you can hear the erratic fan speed and noise when doing some light browsing.

maybe it was faulty unit. I didn't experience those erratic noise with my unit.

You are right fan speed is related to psu load, not its temperature. Fan is spinning from 160w around.

 

[MarcParis]

Finally I managed to confirm that faultfy Corsair SF600 was the root cause of my random crashes.

I order SFX SX700-PT as finally SFX PSU is providing best GPU compatibility in Cerberus-X.
As my personal experience was, at best, mediocre with my 3 Corsair Gold (2016) 2xSF600 and 1xSF450, I decided to keep silverstone. At the end, fanless mode is not critical for me as long as it's quiet..

 

[rfarmer]

Finally I managed to confirm that faultfy Corsair SF600 was the root cause of my random crashes.

I order SFX SX700-PT as finally SFX PSU is providing best GPU compatibility in Cerberus-X.
As my personal experience was, at best, mediocre with my 3 Corsair Gold (2016) 2xSF600 and 1xSF450, I decided to keep silverstone. At the end, fanless mode is not critical for me as long as it's quiet..

Glad to see you found the problem but sad that it was the SF600. I have been using my SF600 since May 2016 24/7 and still works great and very quiet. I have also had 3xSF450 and all 3 were good.

 

[MarcParis]

Glad to see you found the problem but sad that it was the SF600. I have been using my SF600 since May 2016 24/7 and still works great and very quiet. I have also had 3xSF450 and all 3 were good.

Well I complained quite quickly about sf series fan noise, especially inside case. I didn’t notice anything while using sf600 as external psu for my s4 mini.
I’m sure Corsair updated their sf600 in 2016 as some were complaining about noise, like hardware.com review, some were not. I noticed similar comments from users also.

Anyway let’s hope sx700-pt will be suiting my needs..

 

[MarcParis]

SX700-pt received and installed inside Cerberus-X.

CPU 8 pins cable is a tight fit. Cables are pretty stiff.

However biggest issue for me remains noise at idle as fan minimal rpm of 1500 is clearly noticeable. No major issue while gaming, but I didn’t recommend at all for htpc.
It’s a pity as it will be perfect if fan was only spinning at 1000rpm while at idle.

I don’t know if I will keep this sx700-pt or not.

ps : by the way Silverstone is releasing a 750w sfx psu, with 0rpm mode...sx700-pt was just a draft version.
https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=946&area=en

 

[thefireofwisdom]

Finally I'll try those dust filters. I've already samples of 92mm, and they are far less restrictive and more rigid than demciflex ones.

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/182227979725?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I've tried an home made filters, simply based on Bitfenix Prodigy/Phenom, and it was working well.

I'll keep you informed.

Unfortunately, the Ebay link is out of commission. What are the brand of these filters (which you claim are more rigid and perform better than the demcifilters)?

 

[thefireofwisdom]

Unfortunately, the Ebay link is out of commission. What are the brand of these filters (which you claim are more rigid and perform better than the demcifilters)?

I found them on Amazon with a simple search. Anyhow, this all begs the question: What is the most effective filter that catches fine dust yet also allows enough airflow? Some people use carbon cut-to-fit air conditioner filters. There are always a plethora of components and add-ons to test.

 

[MarcParis]

I found them on Amazon with a simple search. Anyhow, this all begs the question: What is the most effective filter that catches fine dust yet also allows enough airflow? Some people use carbon cut-to-fit air conditioner filters. There are always a plethora of components and add-ons to test.

Ahah that's a very good question.. Part of the answer is linked to fan you are using with.
I'm using those at bottom mainly for GPU and SSD cooling (2xNoctua NF-A12x25). Globally cooling is very good (almost as if it was an opened air bench table) and dust is minimum.
Basically you need to have good fan for air pressure behind filters (even more true with demciflex filter that are even more restrictive).

Overall my Cerberus-X is not really dusty inside. Only side bracket is not filtered. I just need to clean every quarter my C14S heatsink (really quick).