My journey from a p4 2.8 to a I7 930.

My journey from a p4 2.8 to a I7 930. (Airflow Q's)

Old "big rig" that had been running 24/7 for years. No probs, acted as a media server amongst other stuff. Trusted 100%

Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHz
ECS P4M800PRO-M478 Motherboard
2GB Ram
(Drive 1) Maxtor 6L080L0 ATA Device, 80GB
(Drive 2) Maxtor 6L160M0 ATA Device, 160GB
(Drive 3) SAMSUNG HD103SI ATA Device, 1TB
(Drive 4) ST3250820A ATA Device, 250GB
(Drive 5) ST380215A ATA Device, 80GB size
(Drive 6) ST325082 SCSI Disk Device, 250GB

Old mobo, cpu, cooler + ram



No pics of the innards, only a couple of pics from when i 1st bought the case back in 2007.




Wanted to run Kerbal and get something better than 3fps.

1st load of purchases were:-
Antec Kuhler Shelf
Gigabyte SKT-1366 GA-X58A-UD3R Rev2.0
i7-930 D0<< Free from a mate in the USA
Geil 12GB DDR3 1333 CL9 T/C RAM - Black Dragon.

The best looking RAM EVAR!!!



New mobo+cpu, ram, cooler. The other set of ram arrived a few days after this pic.



Crappy pics of 1st boot, don't bitch about the IDE, the drives are for low priority data + backups.

I was using some passive cooled random MSI gfx card that i had sitting about in a box for something like a year.




That all went well.
a few hours after windows had installed, Kerbal was still running like ****.
And i had lost the blanking plates for the 5.25" bays.
I bought a couple of sata dvd drives to fill them in.
A better PSU, and highly recommended gfx card was ordered.

2x S222AL 22x DVD+/-RW Lightscribe SATA Black
Ocz 750W ZT Series Fully-Modular Power Supply

GeForce GTX 560 Ti 880MHz 1GB PCI-E HDMI Twin Frozr II/OC

And the other batch of RAM turned up too, seriously i love this ram.


At this point the specs were:-
Intel® Core™ i7-930 2.8Ghz running at 3.57Ghz (cheers for the help wazza300)
Antec Kuhler Shelf
Gigabyte SKT-1366 GA-X58A-UD3R Rev2.0
Geil 12GB DDR3 1333 CL9 T/C RAM - Black Dragon (6x2GB sticks)
GeForce GTX 560 Ti 880MHz 1GB PCI-E HDMI Twin Frozr II/OC
Ocz 750W ZT Series Fully-Modular Power Supply
S222AL 22x DVD+/-RW Lightscribe SATA Black x2
(Drive 1) Maxtor 6L160M0 ATA Device, 160GB
(Drive 2) SAMSUNG HD103SI ATA Device, 1TB
(Drive 3) ST3250820A ATA Device, 250GB
(Drive 4) ST380215A ATA Device, 80GB size
(Drive 5) ST325082 SCSI Disk Device, 250GB
(Drive 6) I had to drop a 80GB drive to fit the GFX card.

Loosing a hdd just re-enforced the fact that i needed a new case.
There was no more room for anything.
Old case, New psu.
A bit tidier than before, but still no room and very hot.


After a thread on OCUK got some info on the Fractal Design Define XL (cheers Fanatic)
I ordered it.
Arrived 2days LATE!!! dammit, but never the less it was here.


It dwarfs the Trendsonics Shinobi case....


Same as above, old case with good gear, but no space.


Only took a couple of pics while moving the parts into the new case to highlight the location of the cable management hole for the psu, an inch to the right would have been spot on.



Completed, i did get a 8pin ext cable. That cable is now hidden and the psu chamber is sealed off from the rest of the case.


Ignore the ***** paper on the window, Fixing the blind is a WIP


Last night I ordered an Antec 920 and 3 Akasa AK-FN059 Viper 120mm Ultra quiet fans. 2 of which will replace the stock fans on the rad, the other is to go in the front of the case.

Next on the list is a monitor and SSD.

Cheers for taking the time to read my drivel.
If you haven't read my drivel then shame on you for skipping to the end

Nice looking system. Bet it's a big step up from your previous rig. Love the fractal xl case, very nice.

Nice build!

The 8 pin CPU power cable can't be re-routed? Suppose it wont matter once you get the 920.

It is a bit gob-smacking how much faster everything happens. I can work a lot faster now, which is nice

It was a bit nostalgic fitting the mobo on a non-removable mobo mounting plate just like "back in the day".
I dont miss those sharp edges though........

olivier renault said:

Nice build!

The 8 pin CPU power cable can't be re-routed? Suppose it wont matter once you get the 920.

Click to expand...

CaNsA said:

i did get a 8pin ext cable. That cable is now hidden and the psu chamber is sealed off from the rest of the case.

Click to expand...

Shame on you for skipping to the end

o i didn't know the top fan on that case went at a angle like that, pretty sweet, must help to drag the air in

i need low profile cooler, can the fan be mounted on the underside of that?

Ha Busted lol, I thought that too when I read that comment.

Good work, although it makes your Sony look like a portable TV now

The angled fan is an extractor out of the box.

I've ditched the Antec Kuhler Shelf and replaced it with an Antec H20 920 + 2 Antec Vipers 120mm fans.

I've flipped the top fan so now its an intake.

I'll grab a pic of the airflow setup soon.

so this is my airflow setup.

My only concern is, should the top angled fan be flipped.....? hmmmmm

Ive moved the hdds into the lower section which has its own dedicated cold air intake.
Staggered them for better airflow.



I am considering keeping the airflow direction for the bottom section as it is and reversing the top section so the airflows from back > front

Opinions?

How many fans are in the front of the case? 3?

If so I woul be tempted to have the top as an exhaust.

How is the case? Is it pretty quiet?

Yeppers, 3 intakes on the front.
2 feeding the main section and one feeding the bottom.

My thinking for having the top angled fan as an intake is to provide cold air for the rad fans.

Oh and yeah it is uber quiet.
I started a shutdown, didnt even realised it had turned off.

I would have the top as an exhaust. 4 intakes and one exhaust doesn't make sense to me.

It will also be messing up your airflow.

tru dat!

Ive got a couple of days off, Ill have a go and the back > front airflow and see how it works out.

Have the fronts all as intakes and the rear as exhausts.

How noisy is your card when playing games etc in that case? Mine is quite noticeable in my case.

I have the same card, but running two in SLI.

So I reversed the airflow direction and it turned to be made of teh ****.
The fans at the front couldnt push enough hot air out the case (door and side vents) and the internal temp started rising.

Changed it all back, and it all went well.

@monkeyspunk,

Not that noisy, but my case is soundproofed.

CaNsA said:

Old "big rig" that had been running 24/7 for years. No probs, acted as a media server amongst other stuff. Trusted 100%

Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHz
ECS P4M800PRO-M478 Motherboard
2GB Ram
(Drive 1) Maxtor 6L080L0 ATA Device, 80GB
(Drive 2) Maxtor 6L160M0 ATA Device, 160GB
(Drive 3) SAMSUNG HD103SI ATA Device, 1TB
(Drive 4) ST3250820A ATA Device, 250GB
(Drive 5) ST380215A ATA Device, 80GB size
(Drive 6) ST325082 SCSI Disk Device, 250GB

Old mobo, cpu, cooler + ram

No pics of the innards, only a couple of pics from when i 1st bought the case back in 2007.

Wanted to run Kerbal and get something better than 3fps.

1st load of purchases were:-
Antec Kuhler Shelf
Gigabyte SKT-1366 GA-X58A-UD3R Rev2.0
i7-930 D0<< Free from a mate in the USA
Geil 12GB DDR3 1333 CL9 T/C RAM - Black Dragon.

The best looking RAM EVAR!!!

New mobo+cpu, ram, cooler. The other set of ram arrived a few days after this pic.

Crappy pics of 1st boot, don't bitch about the IDE, the drives are for low priority data + backups.

I was using some passive cooled random MSI gfx card that i had sitting about in a box for something like a year.

That all went well.
a few hours after windows had installed, Kerbal was still running like ****.
And i had lost the blanking plates for the 5.25" bays.
I bought a couple of sata dvd drives to fill them in.
A better PSU, and highly recommended gfx card was ordered.

2x S222AL 22x DVD+/-RW Lightscribe SATA Black
Ocz 750W ZT Series Fully-Modular Power Supply

GeForce GTX 560 Ti 880MHz 1GB PCI-E HDMI Twin Frozr II/OC

And the other batch of RAM turned up too, seriously i love this ram.

At this point the specs were:-
Intel® Core™ i7-930 2.8Ghz running at 3.57Ghz (cheers for the help wazza300)
Antec Kuhler Shelf
Gigabyte SKT-1366 GA-X58A-UD3R Rev2.0
Geil 12GB DDR3 1333 CL9 T/C RAM - Black Dragon (6x2GB sticks)
GeForce GTX 560 Ti 880MHz 1GB PCI-E HDMI Twin Frozr II/OC
Ocz 750W ZT Series Fully-Modular Power Supply
S222AL 22x DVD+/-RW Lightscribe SATA Black x2
(Drive 1) Maxtor 6L160M0 ATA Device, 160GB
(Drive 2) SAMSUNG HD103SI ATA Device, 1TB
(Drive 3) ST3250820A ATA Device, 250GB
(Drive 4) ST380215A ATA Device, 80GB size
(Drive 5) ST325082 SCSI Disk Device, 250GB
(Drive 6) I had to drop a 80GB drive to fit the GFX card.

Loosing a hdd just re-enforced the fact that i needed a new case.
There was no more room for anything.
Old case, New psu.
A bit tidier than before, but still no room and very hot.

After a thread on OCUK got some info on the Fractal Design Define XL (cheers Fanatic)
I ordered it.
Arrived 2days LATE!!! dammit, but never the less it was here.

It dwarfs the Trendsonics Shinobi case....

Same as above, old case with good gear, but no space.

Only took a couple of pics while moving the parts into the new case to highlight the location of the cable management hole for the psu, an inch to the right would have been spot on.

Completed, i did get a 8pin ext cable. That cable is now hidden and the psu chamber is sealed off from the rest of the case.

Ignore the ***** paper on the window, Fixing the blind is a WIP

Last night I ordered an Antec 920 and 3 Akasa AK-FN059 Viper 120mm Ultra quiet fans. 2 of which will replace the stock fans on the rad, the other is to go in the front of the case.

Next on the list is a monitor and SSD.

Cheers for taking the time to read my drivel.
If you haven't read my drivel then shame on you for skipping to the end

Click to expand...

what are you going to do with that pentium 4 motherboard? i could use one with more than 2 ram slots for my 'Ultra Budget' server xD
shame about the wire for the CPU... extension cable methinks

I'm Loving it. I understand why you would use the roof as an intake with this case. But with any other case the roof fan would make more sense as an exhaust.

Also, is there a filter on the roof of the define xl? if not id definitely be modding myself one in.

Monkeyspaz5000 said:

How noisy is your card when playing games etc in that case? Mine is quite noticeable in my case.

I have the same card, but running two in SLI.

Click to expand...

ive heard one, and i would say that it is extremely quiet. but consider the fact that i have only heard a GTX480 and a GTX560TI... i would probably consider a jet engine 'moderately loud' haha

So close to buying this case.... Simply due to the act that realistically I can't see myself going down the watercooling route soon.

My concern would be with SLI the 2nd card will be sitting flush against the plastic pawl tat separates the top and bottom sections.

acme15 said:

what are you going to do with that pentium 4 motherboard? i could use one with more than 2 ram slots for my 'Ultra Budget' server xD
shame about the wire for the CPU... extension cable methinks

Click to expand...

P4 is getting bumped to a mate.

Shame on you for not reading the entire thread!
I bought a 8pin ext cable the next day.

Monkeyspaz5000 said:

My concern would be with SLI the 2nd card will be sitting flush against the plastic pawl tat separates the top and bottom sections.

Click to expand...

Take it off then, with a front lower intake feeding the bottom section you will have ample cooling for the gfx

Ohlawll said:

I'm Loving it. I understand why you would use the roof as an intake with this case. But with any other case the roof fan would make more sense as an exhaust.
Also, is there a filter on the roof of the define xl? if not id definitely be modding myself one in.

Click to expand...

There is no filter on the top rear fan yet, ill find one from somewhere one day.....
The Fan isnt actually in the roof it is an angled fan.


Front fans.
FYI, Cats = Dust on filters!!!!!