Plague's LAN Box aka "Pandemic"

So I am building a LAN box so I am leave my Green Machine "Phoenix" at home. Wes' lunchbox showed me just how small things could get, but then he showed me the LIAN LI PC-TU100 and I was like that is what I am looking for.

Specs:
AMD A10 6800K Black Edition 4.1GHz Quad-Core
MSI A75IA-E53 Socket FM2 mITX AMD Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800
KINGSTON HyperX 120GB SSD
WD BLACK SERIES WD5000BPKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
LG Super-Multi Notebook 8x DVD Rewriter SATA Model GT80N
ASUS GTX670-DCMOC-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0
LIAN LI PC-TU100B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Case
SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G 450W SFX12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular

SO here are the pictures:

I picked up this hardware a few weeks ago, and was using it as an upgrade to my cube mod "Ice-Phoenix" but decided I want to go full mATX in the cube.

This is the rest of the hardware that I needed to make this mini case work. Laptop 500Gb WD Black data drive, Asus DirectCU Mini 670 graphics card. And because I am going to be taking this with me to work during the week, I needed DVD ROM to rip DVDs with while I am there.

I was going to pull the SSD out of my laptop, but decided against that and got this Kingston HyperX 120Gb drive.

These 3 pictures are the LIAN LI PC-TU100 Black case opened up.




Well that is the first post, I have a second to do in just a moment with build pics.

Ok, so I started pulling things in the case First was the DVD-ROM.

Pictures shows it installed.


Second I mounted the 2 hard drives in the bottom of the case.


I pulled the motherboard from the cube, pictures show it with waterblock from the cube, but I don't think I can custom water cool in this small of case. I am trying to figure out a way, but I can't figure out how to put a normal pump in the case LOL and have it still get air flow of some kind.


I mounted the PSU just to figure out spacing


Then I mounted the graphics card, now this was out of order, and made it more difficult to get in with the PSU already in.


And just to show everything in without cables, here you go.


When I got this far I started trying to figure out water cooling, but the space between the front of the case and the board isn't big enough for standard sized radiator and fan. I figured I could get a slim profile radiator and fan, but then I started thinking about pump. There is no open place to put it. Beside on the GPU Unless I get a flat pump and mount is upside down on the top inside of the case above the PSU. WOW this is going to be a interesting fit.

This build is so amazingly close to mine :-P

To answer your PM this is the direction I'm going

www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=50&lng=en

They have an AMD model as well.


I should be posting pictures of mine this weekend if I get time

garfi3ld wrote: This build is so amazingly close to mine :-P

To answer your PM this is the direction I'm going

www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=50&lng=en

They have an AMD model as well.


I should be posting pictures of mine this weekend if I get time

ya, that is the problem there is only really one video card and PSU that are really fit ready for this case. But I went AMD for the CPU, so motherboard and RAM are different at least. hehe


ahh, low profile cooler. ya, I was thinking about a H90 or H60, but since I don't have one and there is't height listed for the pump heatsink, I don't know if it will fit in the 2.5 inches I have available. LOL

Ok, so this is the first time that I have not done a customer water cooling set. 1. because I want this computer running today, and 2. my solution was cheaper then the parts. LOL

I went with a Corsair H60. Very slim profile on the fan and radiator was the only thing that was going to fit on the front wall of this small case.


I got the fan and radiator mounted to the front wall, you can see I have just a little bit of room between the ram and the radiator.


Ok, so after figuring out/ fighting with the block/pump unit I got it mount and was able to get the PSU and wires all in.
FRONT:


BACK:


sad the back looks cleaner then the front. LOL But it is working, and I am installing windows now.

Hey Wes, think you can print me out one of these in green for the back cover of the case?


About half size of the cover so it fits in the middle nicely.


Still want to figure out a window mod for the other side before NexusLAN

Box is really looking sweet Jared.

So I ran benchmarks tonight on this rig. I don't have believe I have the GPU over clocked, but I do have the CPU overclocked to 4.1 Ghz.

So update/question for all you modders out there. I am trying to figure out if I can recreate the tool-less pins that are the side panel so I can get a window mounted, but I don't want to destroy the current panel and take its pins.

This is what the pins look like.


My thoughts were a small screw was some kind of rounded nut on the end. I could drill hole in the window and glue the screen in place to make it like clean. But not sure they make anything that small.

What are your guys thoughts.

hit me up at Nexus about it and I can tell you what I know.

Also pictures of mine will be up next week

The fan that came with the corsair H60, at 100% was really loud. I decided to switch it out with this:

Bitfenix Spectre Pro Blue LED 120mm



Noise wise this fan is much better, but I am worried about temp now. It is idling about 3 to 5 degrees hotter then before. I guess we will see. I am going to use it at NexusLAN this weekend and see if it holds up... I will be bring the corsair fan just in case I need to switch it out again, if something goes wrong. LOL

umm guys I think I need to change that fan back

garfi3ld wrote: umm guys I think I need to change that fan back

ROFLMAO

I that is one thing I have been trying to figure, how to override the fan control on the video cards, because it goes to well about 70 degrees before I even here the fan speed up.

With Wes benchmarking his box, I realized I didn't have any of the programs he was using, downloaded and ran those. I don't think my GPU is overclocked, because I was only hitting 90 degree c when running the tests and my scores were lower.









Kingston HyperX 3k 120Gb


Western Digital Black 2.5 500Gb


I also realized that my choice of AMD processor is a limiting factor because I could only get a 4 core processor with a wasted graphic card attached to it. Do know might upgrade in the future to Intel and use this APU for a media box, who knows.

you actually have a higher GPU score on 3DMark, its the CPU that is considerably lower 4438 vs 10379

I doubt that you will run into a big difference in in game performance though. Most will be like the difference in our Heaven 4.0 benchmarks (42.4 vs 40.7)

PS the difference in the wPrime scores is crazy

garfi3ld wrote: you actually have a higher GPU score on 3DMark, its the CPU that is considerably lower 4438 vs 10379

I doubt that you will run into a big difference in in game performance though. Most will be like the difference in our Heaven 4.0 benchmarks (42.4 vs 40.7)

PS the difference in the wPrime scores is crazy

I hadn't noticed the GPU score, so it really is just a difference in CPU and that is mostly 4 core vs 8 core. Overall I am still really happy with my system... It makes me feel bad for my Green Phoenix, so big but not as powerful as it once was.

Mine is just 4 cores as well, but it has hyper threading that splits them up into two each. The 4770 is just a crazy fast CPU lol.

Yeah Phoenix has to be showing its age now!

ps I have that same card sitting here :-P

WOOT Wes got me the first of my vinyl stickers for my case. They look sweet.