Project: AirRAID

Project: AirRAID

I've been wondering what to do with my Rig recently, wanting to upgrade it to either the i7 platform or perhaps even the AMD X6 CPU platform coming out later this month.

However, after disastrously trying to sell off my rig parts to provide funds for new parts (and getting nowhere!) I've taken a good hard look at my finances and also the actual available power of my Rig and decided that a few additions and MODs may go a long way to extending the life, the looks and the overall functionality of the Rig.

The two key areas I use my Rig for are for gaming and for Virtualisation – this rig does this, and theres no real point selling the complete lot at the moment.

So, I'm sticking with what I have ............ but adding a few interesting bits along the way!

New Possibilities for an Old Rig

My Rig is getting long in tooth (especially in terms of 'enthusiast' class hardware) but to be honest it still is a good performer. Here's the current hardware setup:

Lian Li A70B Case
Corsair TX 750Watt PSU
Xigmatek SDT-1283 CPU HSF

Intel Q6600 G0 Skt 775 CPU
Asus Maximus Formula Motherboard
Corsair 2x2GB DDR2 1066Mhz Dominator RAM

ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB Video Card
Asus Xonar DX PCI-Ex Sound Card

Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB Hard drive
Sony 18x DVD Writer

Current Overclocks
CPU @ 3.61Ghz
GPU not overclocked


So, overall not a bad system, especially with the recent 5850 video card upgrade!

What I want to Improve!

1) Cooling/Overclocking

One of the principal areas I wanted to look at was the possibility of Overclocking even further. A Q6600 at 3.6Ghz is pretty decent, especially on Air, but I do feel the chip can go further.

I was being limited at around 3.3/3.4Ghz, but the reason for this was an overheating Northbridge. Temps are excellent for my chip, despite the 1.5V I’m currently chucking through it – it barely touches 60c under full 4 core 100% Prime95 Small FFT load.

The motherboard itself has been excellent for Overclocking, but these lumps of copper just are not doing enough.

So, I want to look at some full on serious 3rd party cooling onto the motherboard, but I’m not talking water cooling. No sir thank you! I’ve been down the custom loop route before, and don’t want to repeat the whole she-bang.

Instead, I’ll be looking at some dedicated heatsinks to do the job from a 3rd Party, as well as some attached fans to really bring the temperatures on the mosfets and Northbridge down to low levels for further Overclocking.

2) Storage Sub-System

One of the key areas my system does massively lack in is the storage. A single Caviar Blue is not my idea of fast, despite its 8MB buffer and a Vista rating of 5.9. Things get sluggish at OS load up, loading game levels, running multiple virtual machines and generally

…. I miss my old Western Digital RE-2 RAID 0 setup L

Yeah, that was nice till both hard drives went pop! And I’ve not had the real funds to do anything about that until now.

I was thinking of an SSD, but decided against it – an affordable 64GB SSD has no where near the storage I require, and I think for my tasks (think very large continuous virtual Hard Drive style files) building a new RAID array would benefit me better.

3) Case Looks & Mods

Although I don’t have the heart to do a complete custom paint jobs or extensive/heavy mods to my case there are something that I want to do to update it slightly both functionally and for the looks.

My case gets to sit on my desk and head height, off the floor and this despite the huge size of the case as well.

So, I’m going to look at cutting a side window and also cutting a CPU HSF hole into the motherboard tray of my case to make fitting 3rd party heatsinks a lot easier.

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There's a lot more to come, including a bunch of photos as I go along (hopefully!) so please feel free to pipe up with comments or suggestions!

Cant see anything wrong with that set-up Arthalen (cracking chip, great RAM), would honestly recomend an SSD over anything else as a future upgrade. Will give an instant upgrade feel and will keep your tower running fine till next year.

Nico_Joey said:

Cant see anything wrong with that set-up Arthalen (cracking chip, great RAM), would honestly recomend an SSD over anything else as a future upgrade. Will give an instant upgrade feel and will keep your tower running fine till next year.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I have thought about SSD a lot, but I just can't justify the price of a 128GB one, especially with the need for buying Win7 as well. If I also chucked on a new half decent 1TB HD as well, I'd be talking well over £300?

I appreciate the 'new system' feeling that people have reported on SSDs, but I have secret weapon on the RAID front, so stay tuned...

Motherboard Cooling

The Problems

The first area I've done some research on is improving the motherboard cooling performance over the stock



As you can see from the above photo, the Maximus Formula is a fully copper cooled motherboard, with copper blocks on the Mosfets, Northbridge and Southbridge. There is also a heatpipe running from the Southbridge, through the Northbridge and into the Mosfet area as well.

And I think thats the downfall really. All the heat generated by the NB and SB are transmitted along this single heat pipe, and relying on the top right of the case for heat extraction from those Alu fins next to the I/O area.

Additionally, the whole system is passive, with no directing airflow over the blocks to assist in removing the heat from the blocks.

Lastly, although its difficult to see, the blocks of the mosefts dont meet with the blocks/heatpipe of the NB and SB! and we all know how good motherboard manufacturers are are applying paste and mounting there cooling systems effectively!

The Solutions!

I've done a fair amount of research, looking up different solutions to Northbridge cooling in particular, but one name kept coming up again and again - Thermalright. Now if ever there was a reason to call me Fanboy over anything, you can call me a fanboy for Thermalright heatsinks as I've owned the legendary TRUE in the past and to be honest if I hadnt of picked up the current Xigmatek on the cheap second hand (and be very impressed with its performance, to be honest) I would have bought another TRUE or the new Venomous X cooler.

It must be all the nickel plating they use.... Its impressively nice.
I had to give some thought to Mosfet cooling alongside the NB and SB cooling, and the products Thermalright has complement there NB and SB solutions perfectly. So in one fell swoop I've got the board heatsinks sorted out.

One consideration I did give was for future Crossfire and therefore video cards getting in the way of the Southbridge. And decided against Crossfire. I looked at doing something like thisbefore when I had a pair of 4870 video cards, and there just wasnt space. Since I now have a single 5850 (and being massively impressed with the performance), I can get a tower style heatsink on the Southbridge.

Its highly unlikely you can fit a straight Thermalright HR-05 as a southbridge cooler, so a SLI one (as shown below) and I had plans for my second PCI-EX 16x slot as you'll see later...

TechReaction review Here of the HR-05 IFX
Extreme Overclock review Here of the HR-05 IFX SLI
OCIA review Here of the HR-09 Mosfet Heatsink

Measuring up the Fit

Well, I've done some test measuring and so forther, to ensure that the Heatsink can fit with the new heatsinks...


Northbridge Fitting: Looks ok!


As you can see, with my current HSF arranged into horizontal orientation there is more than enough room to fit the Northbridge cooler straight over the top of the Northbridge.


Southbridge Fitting: Video Card obscures a direct fitting heatsink.

The southbridge definitly needs some kind of 'SLI' style cooler, or even a low profile cooler (but wouldnt do the 'extreme' amount of cooling I'm after).

Review: Of what goes where...

All in all, I think I can fit the heatsinks I want and also get a large sized HSF for the CPU by fitting it Horizontally.

Fans and the Choice

To really, really beef up the cooling (yes, even some might say over-the-top) I'm going to strap some 80mm fans to these sinks as well, to ensure they have adequate airflow and dissipate the heat generated in a more direct way than running them passively would give.

I've looked a great deal of fan round ups, and looked through some Case Central threads for looks, and since I'm going all out on the thermalright kit I thought decent looking fans would be kind of a good choice.
So what better than an Enermax Cluster? White Frame, White Leds, variable fan speed control built in...

Product Choices

So, for cooling the motherboard I've gone for the following:

Fans: 2x Enermax Cluster 80mm White LED Fans
Northbridge: Thermalright HR-05 IFX Heatsink
Southbridge: Thermalright HR-05 IFX SLI Heatsink
Mosfet Top: Thermalright HR-09U Type 2 Heatsink
Mosfet Side: Thermalright HR-09S Type 2 Heatsink

Manu Linkys:
Thermalright NB: HR-05 IFX
Thermalright SB: HR-05 IFX SLI
Thermalright Mosfets: HR-09 S/U
Enermax Cluster Fans: 80mm

Within the website I found a full motherboard compatibility guide, telling me the exact HS I could use: Here

Should go for some cooper fin heatsinks for those bridges, that have some length on them.
There was a previous thread that used them and they looked really good.

Tiamat21 said:

Should go for some cooper fin heatsinks for those bridges, that have some length on them.
There was a previous thread that used them and they looked really good.

Click to expand...

Ai, if your talking about the Enzotech cooling items they do look ok, but I personally think the Nickel plate finish of the Thermalright looks simply superb.

Thanks for the input though

Did someone say RAID array in a Lian-Li PC-A7x?



6x 320GB Disk RAID5 array, certainly fast enough

paradigm said:

Did someone say RAID array in a Lian-Li PC-A7x?

<Image snip>

6x 320GB Disk RAID5 array, certainly fast enough

Click to expand...

<Drool>

V.nice! I'm thinking of removing the bottom Hard Drive racks to improve airflow in my case - I already have a EX-33 hard drive rack to accomodate three hard drives in the 5.25" bays (there's a bit of a story in this, I'll relate later) and I also have some brackets to fit a fourth hard drive.

I have a secret weapon for my RAID array though.... and if you thought my motherboard cooling is a little over top......

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Keep your eyes on this space

Asus likes to sabotage motherboard's cooling with those BS stickers on heatsinks. That sticker on southbridge is entirely useless and just dumps more heat into that heatpipe system.

If you're keeping that vertical pillar in case you could attach fan to it for imitating this:
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/V2010/v2010t9.jpg
That would make airflow around CPU socket.


Case should have screw holes and airflow slots for this:
http://www.lian-li.com.tw/v2/en/pro...ex=232&cl_index=2&sc_index=34&ss_index=83&g=f
That would draw air from between expansion cards.

Also at least revised HDD cage isn't that much airflow restricting especially with push-pull fan config. Just cut most away most of horizontal bars on that frame of internal fans for decreasing impedance.

EsaT said:

Asus likes to sabotage motherboard's cooling with those BS stickers on heatsinks. That sticker on southbridge is entirely useless and just dumps more heat into that heatpipe system.

If you're keeping that vertical pillar in case you could attach fan to it for imitating this:
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/V2010/v2010t9.jpg
That would make airflow around CPU socket.

Click to expand...

Agreed on Asus stickers problem. Plus as I mentioned earlier, there usual compound for mounting heatsinks is garbage, and there mounting is garbage.

Unfortunately I will be getting rid of the central pillar - it makes working with the case when its in a pain in backside - although I'll keep it in mind if I need more airflow around the CPU socket.

EsaT said:

Case should have screw holes and airflow slots for this:
http://www.lian-li.com.tw/v2/en/pro...ex=232&cl_index=2&sc_index=34&ss_index=83&g=f
That would draw air from between expansion cards.

Also at least revised HDD cage isn't that much airflow restricting especially with push-pull fan config. Just cut most away most of horizontal bars on that frame of internal fans for decreasing impedance.

Click to expand...

I like that second Lian Li option, that could work for extracting some more hot air from the case.

As for the HDD cage, its gonna get removed for now, although in the future it could return if I go above 4 hard drives (as you'll see later, this will be a distinct possibility!).

Edit: Oh and thanks for the tips!

Narrow gaps between cards are places where heat easily concentrates so drawing some air out from between them is never bad thing if cards have more functionality than holding extra connectors in their slot cover. (like some audio riser cards)
And any heat produced by cards and motherboard which is drawn out directly is less heat to warm up components above them because otherwise that heat has tendency to rise upwards.
Shouldn't even cost much, I paid same from BS-03 cooling kit as what Noctua fans cost.

I checked that part of construction and even without HDD cage you could still keep those mid case fans for keeping airflow focused... graphics cards won't need that space so why not to test using it for something which might help in cooling.


And if you haven't done it yet remove that internal airflow obstructing mesh of rear exhaust fan shown in paradigm's post. No one sticking fingers into fan from inside the case and no cable spaghetti in that area so it's just useless turbulence maker... but at least easier to correct than stamped mesh in fan hole. (used by even uber expensive for steel Corsair)

EsaT said:

Narrow gaps between cards are places where heat easily concentrates so drawing some air out from between them is never bad thing if cards have more functionality than holding extra connectors in their slot cover. (like some audio riser cards)
And any heat produced by cards and motherboard which is drawn out directly is less heat to warm up components above them because otherwise that heat has tendency to rise upwards.
Shouldn't even cost much, I paid same from BS-03 cooling kit as what Noctua fans cost.

Click to expand...

I know I'm going to be modding a side window into my case, so may mount a fan here, or do as suggested and get the Lian Li cooling kit to extract air.

EsaT said:

I checked that part of construction and even without HDD cage you could still keep those mid case fans for keeping airflow focused... graphics cards won't need that space so why not to test using it for something which might help in cooling.

Click to expand...

Agreed, will test it out.

EsaT said:

And if you haven't done it yet remove that internal airflow obstructing mesh of rear exhaust fan shown in paradigm's post. No one sticking fingers into fan from inside the case and no cable spaghetti in that area so it's just useless turbulence maker... but at least easier to correct than stamped mesh in fan hole. (used by even uber expensive for steel Corsair)

Click to expand...

Oh thats already done! Although I do have an Akasa Fan Guard (One of the very un-restricted guard types) in its place, as I do have a younger one that might just somehow work out how to poke her fingers into the fan .....

Ok, quick update:

Ordered the HR-05, HR-05 SLI, HR-09 S Type 2 and the HR-09 U Type .... 3 ... yeah noobie mistake, so its off back to where I bought it from and another one is on its way to me now.

Done some test fits of the NB/SB, looks like I'm actually going to need another SLI version HR-05 for the NB, so will be ordering another one of them on Monday.

So, all in all the motherboard cooling is going to have to wait now for at least a week.....

Good News: Missus sorted me out with a new Workbench today so I have something to do the mortherboard mod on, so will post about the ideas and pics of the work tomorrow.

On a side note, I also bought some Enermax Cluster 80mm fans ... and wow, I cant believe how good they are!

The LEDS are bright, strong, they give out very very little noise but the static pressure air flow is excellant. Seems like the perfect fan for using on the NB/SB thermalright cooling

Side intake fans are overhyped, only guaranteed thing with them is laminar airflow getting messed up and it can result higher temps because of that.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14713412&postcount=5

Unique feature in BS-03 is that it doesn't mess laminar airflow but reinforces it.

EsaT said:

Side intake fans are overhyped...

Click to expand...

I think you might have misunderstood my post, I wasn't adding any side fans

Case Mods

As well as the motherboard cooling, I've decided to make a few small mods to my case to improve the usability and wow factor a little more.
So a Side Window is definitly in, nice fancy thermalright hardware and LED fans would be a bit pointless if I cant show it all off with a nice Side Window.

I'll be doing a CPU Socket cutout on the motherboard tray, as well as some cable routing holes as well. Although the motherboard tray is removable in the case, its very difficult to check the installation of push-pin style HSF is correctly applied. It would also be of benefit to be able to fit rear-side brackets to the motherboard without removing the board from the tray as well.

I was going to look at cutting some roof blow holes for additional fans as well, however after some test fitting of various components I'm going to have to settle for the PSU being at the top of the case so this is out for the time being.

So, lets see what I've done so far....

Case Mods - Work done!

Ok, some actual work done, no faffing about with bits an peices and waiting for stuff to get ordered, I took the jigsaw to my motherboard tray this weekend...

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, theres plenty here for you to follow along with the work:


There she is, ready to be cut to shreds


Masking Tape used to cover the surface, gives me something to draw on for where I want the cuts to be made.


Marked the posts, to make sure I dont cut out any motherboard post holes I need for a full size ATX motherboard


Remounted the motherboard temporarily, so I can measure out where the cable management holes needed to go...


Used the motherboard CPU HSF mounting holes as a guide to draw the cutout for the CPU socket.


Motherboard tray now on the workbench, a couple of pilot holes cut with a drill to get the jigsaw blade in...


First two holes cut fully, not the straightest in the world but do the job. I had to bend/stress out these cutout peices as there was no way the Jigsaw blade is going to get me into the narrow edges.


Main CPU cutout done. Its a lot easier to do larger holes with a Jigsaw, much more room for manouvre.


Basic filing done....


View from the rear...


Motherboard remounted....


Backshot of the CPU Socket area, now with rear accessible mounting holes!


Ha-ha! Now I can check those pesky pushpins, and install CPU Socket backplates with ease



.... and I forgot to take a photo of it in the case with some test cabling done! Arrgh! Will get this posted up later when I'm home, but you can see the basics of what I aimed to achieve here.

Lessons Learnt:
1) Big Holes = Easier cuts (Straighter!)
2) Cheap Jigsaws are awful
3) Manual Filing is boring ....... I had a Dremel last time i was doing this
4) Cost = Zero! = Happy Days!

Hole should be bigger than that.
There's quite a lot of variation in precise positioning of socket so you'll probably end up with need to make hole bigger when you change components.