Asus M3A AM2+ System "Swamp Thing" (56k Warning)

[Methious]

Well Fedex hit the door today, unfortunately the big box setting on the porch wasn't my new case. Turned out to be a feather mattress topper that from the street looked a lot like a new case. Had my heart pumping for a few minutes, then I realized wait a minute I get to test the feather topper later. Turns out there are a couple of things that will get me away from the keyboard.

[Methious]

Well the new case came in, I got every thing into it, and leak testing now. Got some cabling to do, put the juice to it and see if I got any thing crossed. Should have pics up tomorrow

[Methious]

Well it took a while (10 hours plus leak testing) but here's some pictures after recasing into the new ThermalTake Armor Tower. It's not the easiest tower to run wiring in but let me say I LOVE that tower. The air flow is phenomenal, rear 120mm and 90mm, top 90mm, front 120mm, and a whopping 250mm side fan. Just from interior air flow I saw a 3C drop in idle temps. I still have cabling issues, but there's no point in cabling much until you know the transplant went well.

I ran the panel connectors, usb connectors, and floppy cable under the board. There is no way to run the 24 pin connector on the Ultra 700w under with out dremeling the mobo tray, which isn't happening.

Here's the side of the Old Ultra Grid case in front of the box for scale, that's one honkin big box.


Front before starting to case it


Side open Before


Back before starting


Top where the Usb, FireWire and audio connectors and top 90mm fan are located


Then it looked like an ominous undertaking so I stopped to play with

One of my grandkids Amaya

Then this is about 3 hours in and I'm thinking maybe just once I can get good clean cabling from the get go


Then I'm thinking maybe not


Then some leak testing after the safe leak testing


This is the same exact loop, I just removed the hoses from the Radiator, drained it, pulled the blocks, dropped one screw and the whole setup comes out of the case intact.


Heres the rear mounted rad conveniently located right in front of the 120mm and 90mm rear exhaust fans


The front with the wings closed after first power up


Wings open after first power up, notice the movable stash tray in the center now, below it is the Sony/TSST sata DVD Burner, Asus Quiet Track CD Burner, 2 hard drives in a 3 hard drive tray behind the 120mm front intake fan, and a floppy on the very bottom. The Switches on the top are also movable.


Here's a couple of side shots




The fans on this thing are whisper quiet, unless I'm listening for them I don't even notice them. Some of the surprises I should have known about, the side has a lockable handle, sweet, chassis intrusion detection, sweet, top mounted usb, firewire, and HD audio jacks under a flip up cap, sweet, room to rear mount a triple Radiator and still have access to the power supply, and mobo connector panel priceless.

To get the rear mount I picked up 4 3 inch screws, 8 washers, and 4 wing nuts, total under 2 bucks. Removed the rear fan mount, bolted through the fan using a washer so as not to create a pressure point on the plastic of the fan, put a washer on the out side to prevent pressure on the case, then loosely wing nutted it on, screwed onto the Radiator and ran the hoses. On after thought I would have flipped the radiator over and ran through the bottom expansion slot to reduce the amount of hose. The cut outs for hoses on the back and my trying to use them gave me brain farts I guess. First time I drain I'll flip it.

The knockouts would be fine with a dual 120mm radiator but a triple was a little much for it. Other than that I removed the plastic expansion card holder because the 8800gt was just a little tall for it, and I don't trust a $270 video card to a plastic hold down.

After I recover a bit (messing with this stuff to long at a shot makes my arms go numb from a broken neck and some internal jewelry I got a while back) I'll cable it, get it up on the desk and play with it some.

[stev]

That's one strong sturdy case! A co-worker has an Armor Tower and I'm impressed over all. The finish is durable too. That's a nice setup too! Good work

[Methious]

Well thanks, I still have some work to do with the cables. A lot of it comes down to what you told me Stev, think about where the components go and visualize where the loops go. I visualized about an hour

I really like the case, especially the ability to move things around. Yea their durable, 32 Lbs of steel aluminum and plastic, it's much quieter than the Ultra Grid I migrated from. Much better air flow. That was the big selling point, machines running hotter and hotter I thought it'd be a good idea to get some thing big and well ventilated to run me a few years. Besides how can you not see that monster and be impressed at first glance.

[ibleet]

Nice job, and congrats on the case, its impressive indeed!

[Methious]

Thanks, I got it back up on the desk and will see if I can't find the old case pic and put it up beside the new.

I was going to hold off for a while, but they put a rebate on it, hope I get it and not get stiffed.

[Methious]

So far with the new case the M3A setup is running much cooler, quieter, and OC attempts are easier and more stable. I get some time this weekend and I'll post up some results.

[Methious]

Stuck with the grand kid for a day or so, will be back on it shortly.

[Methious]

I got the new Hose coils installed today, and will get the 3 new fans on the radiator monday. Working in between baby attention requests.

[ibleet]

Enjoy your grandkids while you can, they are a precious gift.

[Methious]

This one lives with me so I get plenty of face time.

She's in the pics above. She likes seeing her face on the computer.

[martini161]

i hate to love my armor to man. one of the biggest things i wish they had done was give you brackets to mount fans to the front panel with out hackin at 5.25 drive shields like i did. and not to brag, but i think my front bezel looks nicer than yours

as you can see i have an all black and blue desktop area. and yes, i payed 20 dollars more for that moniter over a gateway just because the power led was blue i love having waaaay to much money to spend on this crap unfourtunatly the wife wasnt happy about that

[Methious]

You mean you didn't get the brackets? Just pullin your leg. Actually I use left over fan controller brackets for mounting front fans, air flow was just so good unless some thing changes I just don't need more air flow. I am thinking about putting in the lighted Sata Cables, pulsating to music Led light, some laser leds, and hanging a plasma light kit. Maybe a little Mirrored Disco ball. Well maybe the Disco ball would be a little much, but I haven't had time yet. Tax time sales and repairs kickin my butt.

[Methious]

Got some new modifications for the rig coming. Will post up when I get the new toys.

[Methious]

I got the coils for the tubing installed and switched over from an Ultra 700w PSU to a Tagan BZ700w PSU, here's the pics.

Tubing Coils



Power Supply Close Up



The Light Show



With Out The Pyrotechnics





Through The Plexi

[Resnik]

How are you liking that PSU, Meth?

[DMB2000uk]

Definately is a new way of doing modular connections on PSUs. Looks good.

Dan

[Methious]

SilverStone is the only other company using the screw on modular that I know of and they share a common manufacturer, same as Seasonic, and Etasis. I ran some voltage testing on it at idle and load (as loaded as I could get it on my rig) and the voltages are stable all the way up.

I'm liking the Tagan really well, well constructed, nice heavy construction, hi quality solid Capacitors. Good bling factor. Same manufacturer as Seasonic. The price was right too free.

[kenc51]

What's the UL number on that PSU?

AFAIK that PSU is made by Top Power

BTW Seasonic make PSU's themselves, so do Etasis.
They don't outsource the fab to other companies and they are two competing companies.
Etasis are a good manufacturer for the server market, but sometimes make poor desktop PSU's.
Seasonic are mainly in the desktop market and always make good PSU's (When sold under the Seasonic name, Corsair or other brandnames)

Sweet looking PSU BTW

What are the RAIL specs?