Air Flo Mini - Complete

23RO_UK

23RO_UK

23RO_UK

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Joined
31 May 2012
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237
Air Flo Mini Concept

What started out as a notion of a concept energy efficient gaming rig build centered around the ASRock Z77 E-ITX motherboard has evolved into this...



Case choice

With the Bitfenix Prodigy not yet available in the UK and on a chance visit to *Can't mention the retailer in question* I spied the Silverstone TJ08-E...


Decisions decisions should I wait on the Prodigy...???


Nah lol to impatient to put theory and concept into practice


Any regrets?


NONE WHATSOEVER!!! The silverstone TJ08-E is a great bit of kit and it's build quality is flawless :D



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The Motherboard


My deciscion to remain ATX at the time of upgrading to the Z77 chipset was heavilly inflenced by the lack of information and reviews pertaining to the new Z77 ITX boards available; these being the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe, the ASRock Z77 E-ITX and the Zotac Z77ITX-A-E respectively.

The past 8 weeks however has seen the ITX concept nagging away at me, that and the fact my own requirements for a motherboard are simply as follows -


  • It have 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors
  • A PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot
  • It should be Z77 ideally ITX
  • It should both be quiet and energy efficient
  • And lastly it should be able to overclock like the Devils own


With my recent hands on experience of the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 and the impression it left apon me I elected to go for the ASRock E-ITX.



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Of the three ITX boards currently available the ASRock Z77 E-ITX is the cheapest offering if you shop about, in terms of layout I believe it also offers the best layout of the three and it's certainly aesthetically pleasing to the eye.



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Build quality is absolutely superb, certainly no bargain basement el cheapo quality tag can now be applied to ASRock; this comes from an individual who previously would never even entertain the idea of a motherboard not manufactured by Asus or Gigabyte.



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Performance


The overclock I applied out of the box was the 4.5GHz, I used the very same voltages that I utilised on it's big Brother the ASRock Z77 Extreme4; now for a board that only has a 6 phases for the CPU main voltage, one for the CPU VSA voltage and one for the CPU VTT voltage (6+1+1 config) the performance beggars belief!!!



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Could it go further...


I set about applying a 4.8Ghz overclock



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Ok how far can it go...???



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Try 5.1GHz!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:



Even more impressive is that during the testing not once did I have any sort of instabillity or BSD occurence.



Lastly the specs

Case - Silverstone TJ08-E

Mobo - ASRock Z77 E-ITX

CPU - Intel i7 2600K clocked @ 4.5GHz @ 1.285V

RAM - 8 GB (2x4GB) Samsung Green DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel running @ 2133MHz (10-10-10-24 2N) @ 1.45v

GPU - KFA2 - GeForce GTX 560 Ti LTD OC 1024MB PCIe 2.0

Sound Card (external) - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro

PSU - Silver Power S460SL 460W 80Plus Gold Fanless Silent Modular

SSD – Kingston Hyper X SH100S3/120G 128GB

HDD - Seagate Momentus XT 500GB

Cooling - 1 x 180mm Silverstone Air Penetrator SST-AP181 (front intake)
Antec KÜHLER H2O 620 with 2 x 120mm 1850 RPM Scythe Gentle Typhoon's (CPU cooler/extract)


Thank you for looking, any comments and feedback are more than welcome :)
 
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RJC said:
I must say thats avery Nice build :)
Click to expand...

quickshot89 said:
Thats one superb looking case and the build itself looks great!

5.1GHz on an ITX mobo, thats insane!
Click to expand...


Thank you both :)


When Silverstone get it right, oh do they get it right; great case and highly recommended!

Insane I believe adequately describes the overclocking potential of the Z77 E-ITX yes lol

I ran that benchmark six times to satisfy myself it wasn't a fluke :D
 
welshdragon said:
Fantastic build mate. I love that case and hope it's still available for my next build.

What temperatures you getting on the cpu?
Is teh HD up in the drive bay?
Click to expand...

Thank you much appreciated :)


Silverstone also retail the PS07 MATX case which shares the same internal layout but mounts 2 x 120mm fans in the front of the case as opposed to a single 180mm Air Penetrator, with minimal modding you could mount a H100.

Here is the Manufacturers link -

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...id=314&area=en


To answer your first question -


*Pic to be posted*


On a day to day basis The Air Penetrator 180mm front intake is throttled back to run @ just 500RPM and the 2 GT 1850's are throttled back to run @ 1100RPM, this basically allows for nigh on silent rig.

Below is an example of quite how effective the cooling of the case is even with the fans throttled back; half an hour 100% load Prime95, 2600K @ 4.5GHz 1.285V.


*pic to be posted*



In answer to the 2nd question the HD's sit in the lower drive bay yes


I modded a Lian Li 5.25" Internal HDD Mounting Kit


*pic to be posted*


*pic to be posted*


I simply removed the standard mesh faceplate and substituted it for one of the brushed aluminium drive bay covers that came with the TJ08-E :D


It turned out quite well as you can see.
 
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Very nicely done mate.

Just having a look at that watercooler your using and I've got to say I'm pretty impressed with how simple it looks to setup.

As a side, have you considered house the external soundcard inside the case?
 
MeAnBoY said:
Very nicely done mate.

Just having a look at that watercooler your using and I've got to say I'm pretty impressed with how simple it looks to setup.

As a side, have you considered house the external soundcard inside the case?
Click to expand...

The 620 is an absolute doddle to install and with the right fans it's efficiency is absolutely superb.

No I purposely went external on this occasion, Creative drivers for internal sound cards are adequate at best and p*ss poor at worse; Asus soundcards are great but require power connections.

welshdragon said:
I love it. Makes me want to get a matx/mitx board right now!
Click to expand...

Well don't let me stop you lol

Seriously though some of the new matx/itx cases and boards are absolute quality these days :)

To give you an idea of what I've down scaled from in the past 12 months see below-


From this...


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To this...


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Then I rediscovered ASRock :D


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Which finally led to what you see now :D


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Any regrets on my part???

Absolutely none!!!
 
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It's the only board I have seen it on. The first sabertooth's suffered with a few heat issues I think, but don't quote me. The new ones have mini fans built into a reduced partial 'armour' to increase air flow.
 
PiKe said:
That 'thing' over the motherboard makes it look seriously tidy.

What is it?
Click to expand...

welshdragon said:
You talking about the 'heatshield' on the sabertooth board?

@23RO UK - I have a kuhler 920 but as it happens I was looking at the bequiet air coolers. Which do you prefer?
Click to expand...

PiKe said:
Yes. I guess that's particular to that board?
Click to expand...

welshdragon said:
It's the only board I have seen it on. The first sabertooth's suffered with a few heat issues I think, but don't quote me. The new ones have mini fans built into a reduced partial 'armour' to increase air flow.
Click to expand...


@ PiKe as welshdragon has stated the Thermal Armour is unique to the P67 and Z77 Sabertooth motherboards, the P67 doesn't come with a fan but one can be fitted as I did but the Z77 comes with 2 included.

Does it work?

My experience with using the P67 Sabertooth with and without the fan fitted I would say yes it does as I had a significant drop in temps with the fan fitted.

I hope that answers your question :)


@ welshdragon it would all depend on -

What case your rig is housed in first of all and the type of fans your using with your 920 and at what speed you run them; further is your current config intake (pulling air into the case) or extract (using the air inside the case and expelling it out of the case)?

The reason my temps are so good whilst running the fans at such a low RPM are firstly the 180 Air penetrator and secondly the inverted motherboard layout of the TJ08-E; cold air is drawn in and extracted through the 620 before it heats up (heat rises in a normal case so in effect your cooling pre heated air to pass through your CPU cooler).

With reference to the BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced, it's a great air cooler yes and very very quiet; it's also very very effective but in all honesty I'd stick with the 920 and possibly change the fans your currently running.
 
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looks really good to me, great choice of parts
i also strangely like how u went fanless psu even tho theres a vent on the top?
i wouldnt want air being pulled into the psu from the top even with a fan filter

i was thinking when i was going to get this case i would turn the fan around inside the psu so it would blow out the top, voiding the warrenty tho im sure ><

maybe they could start making more psus where you can clip the fan out, makes sense even if just for cleaning

anyway great build thankyou for sharing it, did u put the hdd in the top bay? i cant see it
 
Mei said:
looks really good to me, great choice of parts
i also strangely like how u went fanless psu even tho theres a vent on the top?
i wouldnt want air being pulled into the psu from the top even with a fan filter

i was thinking when i was going to get this case i would turn the fan around inside the psu so it would blow out the top, voiding the warrenty tho im sure ><

maybe they could start making more psus where you can clip the fan out, makes sense even if just for cleaning

anyway great build thankyou for sharing it, did u put the hdd in the top bay? i cant see it
Click to expand...

Thank you :)


The fanless PSU expels it's heat directly through the roof grill as you've mentioned so zero heat is ejected into the main chamber of the case, the decision to go with fanless was also to minimise on noise.


I agree with what your saying about PSU fans entirely, you have some great PSU's available but sometimes the choice of fan included is shall we say p*ss poor and to be able to substitute a stock fan or for it to be removable for cleaning purposes works for me.


In answer to your question the fan controller is in the top bay and the modded Lian Li 5.25" Internal HDD Mount is in the lower bay.
 
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