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

[yosvos]

Marc, do you think that a Noctua NH-D15S would fit inside on a x299?

I just ordered my Cerberus X.

Thinking about doing the following:

ASUS Tuf Mark i x299 (cooled by air preferably)
Intel i7 7820x
Nvidia Titan X
Corsair Vengeance 8gb x 4 (32gb) 2400mhz
Silverstone SFX L 800W (mounted in the front of the case on the internal plate)
Samsung 960 M.2 1TB

 

[MarcParis]

Marc, do you think that a Noctua NH-D15S would fit inside on a x299?

I just ordered my Cerberus X.

Thinking about doing the following:

ASUS Tuf Mark i x299 (cooled by air preferably)
Intel i7 7820x
Nvidia Titan X
Corsair Vengeance 8gb x 4 (32gb) 2400mhz
Silverstone SFX L 800W (mounted in the front of the case on the internal plate)
Samsung 960 M.2 1TB

First, welcome to cerberus-x club..
Well there is absolutely no chance that noctua d15s fit inside cerberus-x. Indeed noctua d15s is 160mm where cerberus-x maximum cpu cooler height is about 143mm.

My advice is simple :

• On air : noctua c14s with dual 140mm fan that can spins at 2000rpm (like vardar evo, be quiet high speed, noctua ppc, etc...)
• On water : 240mm aio, with radiator on bottom (fractal celsius, etc..). Best would be achieved with custom aio (like my swiftech combo) to have best performance with minimum pump noise..

If your aim is not to overclock much (or at all), go on air. Otherwise, watercooling is the way to go.

 

[yosvos]

Thank you for the warm welcome! I stumbled across your build when researching the case online. Very impressive!

I will take your advice on the Noctua c14s and will most likely replace the fans with this for a bit better performance:
https://noctua.at/en/products/produ...trialppc-24v-3000-q100-ip67-pwm/specification

This A14 spins at up to 3000prm and should give me better performance. Two of these should do.

If not that then maybe I will mount a 120mm AIO cooler on the hinge like I have seen in some pictures. Both seem to occupy the same space and area. Just a matter of preference I guess...

Still deciding!

Is it possible to mount an ssd or hard drive on the panel underneath the SFX L power supply (in the front)? I bought a couple of mounts just in case...

 

[MarcParis]

Well, well, get away from 3000rpm ncotua...as they are never quiet...and they are just untolerable at max speed.

Vardar are the quiestest at higher rpm with the best air pressure.

I guess you need to experiment..

 

[MarcParis]

I had to report that my RAM overclocking parameters (3200 with lower settings than xmp) were unstable under a surprising software...ie World of tanks.

Simply, WoT was returning to desktop while gaming, with no warning or error message. This type of crash is usually associated with RAM failures.

I tried the following :

• 3200 XMP settings but with aggresive voltage parameters : crashes
• Default 2400 : no crashes
• 3200 XMP with default voltage : no crashes
• TO DO : 3200 with low timings with standard voltage paramter

However I still don't know what went wrong, either too agressive ram settings or voltage.

I will let you know quickly..

 

[VegetableStu]

Ha! That happened to my X99 PC back when I had an overclock too! (Slime Rancher, of all games)

 

[MarcParis]

Ha! That happened to my X99 PC back when I had an overclock too! (Slime Rancher, of all games)

ahah...

Surprise for me was on the game that made my RAM OC crashed...World of Tanks is famous to be a low load game..

 

[TheHig]

Marc and any others following this treasure trove of info

I managed to get my Team Dark Pro 16gb 3200 Kit (S-dies per Thaiphoon sadly) to post windows and pass early stress tests at 3466! With Stock CPU so far right now. The Mem runs at XMP c14 3200 passing memtest etc but cold boot resets EVERY.SINGLE.TIME... Latest bios has taken a step back me thinks.

This latest bios for the Taichi has the cold boot fail a lot and previosly only when I pushed the memory kit beyond its ratings. Before I could do 3200 cas 16 all day every day on a Hynix based GSkill kit. No cold boot issues at all. BUT I could never get even windows boot with anything over 3200 or any timings under c16@ 3200 mem.

Mixed bag for sure so far but yay for more Hurtz!? LOL.
Here is a shot.

 

[MarcParis]

Not bad at all for hynix ram.

For cold boot issue, just leave your computer in sleep mode...it’s measurable power from wall, but ram is still powered on. That’s how i was doing before asus provided cold boot, at least on my b dies ram...
After you could have an option in bios to allow multiple trials to boot if ram is failing. Asus provides this option since a couple of bios and it’s very useful.

 

[TheHig]

I have since switched the Hynix out and have that in my mod mini with an R5 1600.

The GSkill Hynix kit maxed out at 3200 C16 (xmp profile) and thats it. It was stable though on the Taichi/ R7 1700 box at XMP.

The Taichi in CerbX now has the Team Group Dark Pro which is C14 3200 rated. It shows as Samsung S-die in Thaiphoon. I can get much better results with it so very happy so far.

The cold boot came with the latest bios with either ram kit so hopefully another update irons that out. I only had that issue prviously when pushing OC too much with cpu or ram or both.

I have it set to 3 attempts in bios for ram also.

Cheers!

 

[MarcParis]

I have since switched the Hynix out and have that in my mod mini with an R5 1600.

The GSkill Hynix kit maxed out at 3200 C16 (xmp profile) and thats it. It was stable though on the Taichi/ R7 1700 box at XMP.

The Taichi in CerbX now has the Team Group Dark Pro which is C14 3200 rated. It shows as Samsung S-die in Thaiphoon. I can get much better results with it so very happy so far.

The cold boot came with the latest bios with either ram kit so hopefully another update irons that out. I only had that issue prviously when pushing OC too much with cpu or ram or both.

I have it set to 3 attempts in bios for ram also.

Cheers!

So asrock will probably fix this cold boot issue on next bios release..

 

[MarcParis]

I had to report that my RAM overclocking parameters (3200 with lower settings than xmp) were unstable under a surprising software...ie World of tanks.

Simply, WoT was returning to desktop while gaming, with no warning or error message. This type of crash is usually associated with RAM failures.

I tried the following :

• 3200 XMP settings but with aggresive voltage parameters : crashes
• Default 2400 : no crashes
• 3200 XMP with default voltage : no crashes
• TO DO : 3200 with low timings with standard voltage paramter

However I still don't know what went wrong, either too agressive ram settings or voltage.

I will let you know quickly..

After further inquiries, it seems that my mistake was on my ram voltage parameters (especially load line calibration).
I could have possibly improved my RAM OC without too much voltage...to be confirmed..

I will let you know..

 

[MarcParis]

Bingo : better RAM OC reached...definitely I screwed up myself by putting too aggressive ram voltage parameters..
Flare-x at 3200Mhz 14-14-14-14-28 and lower sub timings..

 

[MarcParis]

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Update 26th January 2018 : Top panel dust filter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beginning of 2018 I nearly thought I had nothing to add on my sweet Cerberus-X.
I was looking to extra storage (still under study), but finally I went to simple home made dust filter for Cerberus Top Panel.

Reason is pretty simple : my cats love to lay on Cerberus top...but they brought with them some liter particles...that are falling inside Cerberus...not really acceptable.

From this status, I had 2 choices :

• Keep my cats away from Cerberus...mission impossible..
• Adjust a dust filter somehow...that the way I went

I used that 140mm dust filter as base (in fact 3 of them) :

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/140mm-Dustp...979725?hash=item2a6da24dcd:g:EXEAAOSwqfNXn~Uz

Thus I joined 3 of these dust filters (aligning holes on overlap area) and here is the result :

Sorry for average quality of photos, but i wanted to highlight alignment on overlap areas.

Final result on Cerberus-X is pretty cool...

Of course, no real impact of temperatures as my main exhaust fan remains the one on side bracket.

I hope this will help you!

 

[rfarmer]

Looks good but you forgot the required "cat on computer" photo.

 

[MarcParis]

Looks good but you forgot the required "cat on computer" photo.

Will try to take a snapshot...

 

[Kooki]

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Update 26th January 2018 : Top panel dust filter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beginning of 2018 I nearly thought I had nothing to add on my sweet Cerberus-X.
I was looking to extra storage (still under study), but finally I went to simple home made dust filter for Cerberus Top Panel.

Reason is pretty simple : my cats love to lay on Cerberus top...but they brought with them some liter particles...that are falling inside Cerberus...not really acceptable.

From this status, I had 2 choices :

• Keep my cats away from Cerberus...mission impossible..
• Adjust a dust filter somehow...that the way I went

I used that 140mm dust filter as base (in fact 3 of them) :

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/140mm-Dustp...979725?hash=item2a6da24dcd:g:EXEAAOSwqfNXn~Uz

Thus I joined 3 of these dust filters (aligning holes on overlap area) and here is the result :

Sorry for average quality of photos, but i wanted to highlight alignment on overlap areas.

Final result on Cerberus-X is pretty cool...

Of course, no real impact of temperatures as my main exhaust fan remains the one on side bracket.

I hope this will help you!

If I ever get a Cerberus for myself, I'll probably do the same, just to avoid dust from the enviroment from entering the case whenever the computer is off.

 

[MarcParis]

Now all faces of my cerberus are filtered..

 

[Kwirek]

I'm always surprised about how much dust get caught in the filters, and I don't even have cats using it as a warming pad. ^^

 

[MarcParis]

I'm always surprised about how much dust get caught in the filters, and I don't even have cats using it as a warming pad. ^^

Unfortunately you are right, even without pets, dust is everywhere.
Dust filters are definitely imperative for me.