modding a 900

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martini161
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modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

well, since newegg just dropped thier price on the antec 900 to 99.99, i decided to get on instead of a 180, do you guys have any idea where i can mount my swiftech 120mm*2 radiator? i was thinking on top like dan did to his p180, but the power button and ports are there, so i cant really do that. id prefer not to mount it to the front of the case (where the 2 120mms are) because i still have some stuff running on air cooling for now, and i dont want to be putting hot air into the case. any help would be appreciated. thanks!
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

i forgot to say this but i could also just go with my original choice and get a p180 instead, if that would be substantialy easier, or if the 180 is a much better case its only a 30 dollar difference
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Re: modding a 900

Post by kenc51 »

The P180 is a nicer looking case IMO
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Re: modding a 900

Post by DaIceMan »

The Nine Hundred really isn't designed for the addition of water cooling (but, isn't that what modding is?)... I would wait for the Twelve Hundred to come out or just run everything on air.

Behemoth... see sig... is running 24/7 100% on both cores folding for Legit, and it rarely goes over 40 deg C, and if so only by 1-2 deg. Water cooling would indeed reduce the temps, but at 40-42 deg C, I am well below a damage level for heat on my chip.
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martini161
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

i think im just going to sitck with my original choice and get a 180, because after looking at pics and reasearching, i realized all a 900 is is a perforated 180 with side window and bigger fans, wich doesnt matter because most every thing (except ram and hard drives) in my rig will be liquid cooled (or will be in the future, once i grow some balls and through my gts into the loop :) ), and the 180 has a dedicated heat chamber for hard drives, so i wont really have to put them in the loop. not to mention i agree with kenc, the 900 does seem a little too, uhh, i guess guady for me.
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Re: modding a 900

Post by DMB2000uk »

I'm looking at the 900, and I'm not seeing many options for rad placement. You could always go with an external one hanging off of the back, but I think (and i'm sure you'll agree) that it looks a lot nicer with it all internal.

The top fan is a 200mm, so I don't see how you'd be able to mount the rad up there without some fancy frame holding it in place, and clearance might not be enough anyway.

So that leaves us with the only place to put the dual rad being the front of the case. But watching this video review, it seems that the front fans are attached to the drive cages, so again, a fancy setup will be needed to accommodate the rad there. And even if you do manage that, you need somewhere else to put the hard drives, as as far as I can see fixing the rad to the front of the case requires the cages to be hacked somehow. Provided you can do that though, you would probably have ample air circulation with the top and back fan on vent. You could even add a 120mm VGA intake card to add extra airflow.

But realistically, its not looking promising. The 900 was meant for beefy air cooling only I'm afraid.


So that leaves me echoing everyone else's comments; go with the P180.
Even if cable management is a complete PITA.

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Re: modding a 900

Post by batch71 »

Hi,

I joined this forum specifically to tell you about my watercooled 900 mod. I ripped out all of the harddrive cages and such in the front of the case and I have successfully mounted a 2x120 Swiftech rad, I used all the stock hardware that came with the case and I have mounted a single sata dvd and 2x74gb raptors in the front, the drives are mounted together with 2 of the long screws from the stock hardware, I needed to add just a little more to make it work so I installed a few motherboard standoffs in the side of the harddrives. Course thread ones. The case looks absolutely stock and it has the 2 blue fans up front mounted to the radiator itself and then the radiator is pinned via 3 sets of the stock long screws in the front and rear of the fans that are mounted to the radiator. The top and bottom sets are in the back and the middle sets are in the rear. Basically it is a push/pull wedging of the fans that are mounted to the rad. I am currently cooling an E6850,GTX8800 and the 680i Chipset. My current temps are all under full orthos and ATI tool heat up with both cores at 100%.....CPU=52, GPU=52, 680I Northy=42. BTW, the CPU is OC'd to 3.6 and the GPU is 630/960mem

So....... IT can be done, It does fit and it looks superb. I have it 100% inside the case and it kicks ass.

Good Luck Modding, take your time, think it through!! :)

Dave
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Re: modding a 900

Post by DMB2000uk »

Seriously, where are the pics?

How long did it take you to figure out how to mount the things/actually mod the case?

I like that you have done pretty much what I said would have to be done to mount it :P

Dan
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

dan, you have a 180, so could you possibly give me the measurments from that bottom fan to to the back of the case? i have a psu that has some serious junk in teh trunk (toughpower 1000) and its nearly 8 inches long. i know im gonna have to do some cutting, but i wanted to know if i can keep that hdd fan in, cause i think its a good idea to have it there :)
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Re: modding a 900

Post by DMB2000uk »

The distance between the fan housing and the back of the case is 7.5"

If you install the fan without the housing, i.e. directly to the metal (find some rubber grommets to dampen vibration if you do), there is 8".

The fan in the bottom is a 38mm thick one, so swapping to a 25mm one and mounting it directly to the case will give you just about 8.5".

So you might just be able to squeeze it in. There have been some cases I've seen with the fan thrown on the front of the partition thing, though in my case, I couldn't do that as the SATA and power cables to the drives would hit where the fan would be, so I'm not sure how the people with that setup got around that.

If you have more than one drive in the bottom cage the fan is a must.

I've also seen mods where people have removed the front grill and installed a fan in front of the hard drive cages instead/as well. So you do have a couple of options there.

Dan
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

thanks, will probably swap out the fan and that should be enough room. btw when you say that the cable management sux do you think that will hold true even if you use a modular psu? cause mines modular, and i bought it solely for the purpose of easier cable management, and getting a non modular will save me some cash
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Re: modding a 900

Post by DMB2000uk »

Mine is modular too, and while it might save on having to hide one or two more cables, getting the cables hidden anywhere is a mammoth task.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... sc&start=0

Is what you will have to do if you want to have super tidy cable management. If you dont fancy modding that much, then about the best you will be able to get is like my case:

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The cables aren't really restricting any air flow, but it doesn't look that good. Then again you might think that does look OK (I think I'm a perfectionist at heart :P)


Word of advice for replacing the fan, look for static pressure rather than CFM. It will be a little harder to find that spec, but somewhere like SPCR should have those specs. The fan was 38mm thick in the first place to have better static pressure, meaning that the air is better dragged/pushed through the whole of the lower chamber. Some of the 25mm thick ones have fancy fins and dont generate as much as the regular type.

Dan
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Re: modding a 900

Post by stev »

DMB2000uk wrote:Word of advice for replacing the fan, look for static pressure rather than CFM. It will be a little harder to find that spec, but somewhere like SPCR should have those specs. The fan was 38mm thick in the first place to have better static pressure, meaning that the air is better dragged/pushed through the whole of the lower chamber. Some of the 25mm thick ones have fancy fins and dont generate as much as the regular type.


Many of the 120x38mm deep fans push a fair amount of air. Look for fans with RPM speeds up to 3,000, then you should be in fine shape. Next, you will want a fan speed controler to optimize the flow and the noise level you desire.

You can find some fans in the 120x25mm depth that push a good amount of air. The Vantec TF12025 tends to be a good performer.
I've used my hand held lab anemometer that shows the Vantec to be very good to it's claimed ratings. NewEgg has them, at a good price of $15. This fan has thermal control ability too.
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

do you think just taking one of the fans that come with the case and switching it with the 38 cm one would work? cause im already a little over budget here :cry:
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Re: modding a 900

Post by batch71 »

Sorry for the HUGE Pics........ but this is what I could do on short notice, I hope you can benefit from them.
It was my first WC project but surely not my first mod. I can honestly say that I am ELATED with the results in cooling and esthetics.
I paid $69.99 shipped from outpost for the case and it is an outstanding case overall for that price.

Dave ;)


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Re: modding a 900

Post by DaIceMan »

every time I see one of these threads, I want to tear mine down and finish the wire management and powdercoating... but I hate to have it not folding for a week or 2. ;)
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

dave, what kind of lcs is that? is it the swiftech apex+ kit that comes with the gpu and the nb as well as the cpu? preaty nice setup you got going; ever consider puting your hdd or ram into that loop :) after that all you have to do is save up for a liquid cooled psu! if you ever get that far, i will worship you
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Re: modding a 900

Post by martini161 »

o and i almost for got, liquid cooled mosfets, southbridge, voltregs, and a liquid cooler for your liquid cooling system!
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Re: modding a 900

Post by DMB2000uk »

heh, while that may sound cool, it is more than overkill.

Every time you send the water through a cooling block (or a sharp bend, like 90 degrees) you are creating restrictions in the water flow. These restrictions make your pump have to work harder and slow your water flow down. With the water slowed down it isn't as effective as carrying the heat away as it could be. So watercooling everything isn't a very good idea.

Anything more than nothbridge cooling is unnessacary. In fact, most people consider watercooling the northbridge to be one restriction too much anyway.

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Re: modding a 900

Post by batch71 »

Thanks for the kudos :)

The kit is from swiftech and I actually purchased it used from a trader on Anandtech FS/FT. I also scored the DangerDen 8800GTX cooler from the forums also.

While I agree that the northbridge cooler is a "bit" overkill, the 680i is notorious for getting very hot and causing issues in highly overclocked systems. I needent worry about that anymore and the cooler came with the used setup so I put it to good use.

I have actually had my E6850 running at 4GHz but it is not Orthos stable without "ridiculous" voltage that I am not comfortable with.

Dave
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