Air Flo Mini - Complete

[23RO_UK]

Air Flow Mini Concept

Recently having obtained a Silverstone PS07 Black for the grand sum of 40 quid (to good a price to pass up) and with a view to possibly watercooling once again at a later date...



I present to you -



Air flo Mini Concept



The build criteria remains the same namely

• It have 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors
• A PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot
• It should be Z77 ITX
• It should both be quiet and energy efficient
• it should be able to overclock like the Devils own
• It should outwardly and inwardly appear modest, minimalistic and purposely understated

Where does the PS07 differ from the TJ08???


Outwardly the PS07 presents a smooth front with the front panel connectivity vertically mounted on the left side of the facia whereas the the TJ08 has it mounted just above the mesh

They both share the same chassis and internal layout with but one all important difference, the TJ08 uses a single 180mm Air Penetrator front mounted intake whereas the PS07 uses 2 x 120mm front intake fans

So why change?


Simple, the PS07 allows me to front mount a 240 radiator at a later date with minimal fuss (versatility and future upgrade potential)

Thank you for looking

 

[23RO_UK]

Been inspired by this and a couple of other TJ08-e builds and currently speccing parts while waiting for my PPI claim to be paid into my bank.

I'm keen on the Kuhler H2o's and wondered if you had tried the 620 with the ivy bridge or if you had stepped straight up to a 920?

I tried the 620 with a 3570K and it worked out just fine

I wasn't impressed with it's performance or thermal characteristics however so sold it and kept my 2600K lol

Also how have you got yours set up? pump into the cpu fan controller and the fans on the fan controller?

The current set up is the 3 front fans plus the H620 running off the fan controller and a PWM fan running off the CPU fan header on the motherboard

Do you think a the heat generated by a card like a 7950 would have much of adverse affect on the CPU temp with the extra hot air it's pushing into the case or will the air penetrator handle that ok?

Both the TJ08 and the PS07 will handle that no problem

and last question (promise) whats the fan controller you've got? looks pretty nifty

It's a Lamptron FC6 and it's a great bit of kit

sorry for 20 questions, wavering on the H2o cooler as most people seem to favor air coolers so just looking for some justification in getting one really
thanks

No problem, just ask away

 

[Cane316]

thanks for all the answers

does the 620 run much cooler when its positioned in the front of the case like that?

Think I prefer the looks on the TJ08, can see the advantages of the PS07 if you want to water cool though.

Was is just the extra heat that made you sell off the 3570?

 

[23RO_UK]

thanks for all the answers

Your welcome

does the 620 run much cooler when its positioned in the front of the case like that?

Try a HUGE 5-6°C drop under full load

Much much better than I had anticipated

Think I prefer the looks on the TJ08, can see the advantages of the PS07 if you want to water cool though.

Aesthetically I would agree the TJ08-E has the better facia yes

Was is just the extra heat that made you sell off the 3570?

No not just the heat though that was an issue, my 2600K is good for 5.3GHz and the 3570K was found to be sorely lacking in comparison

 

[23RO_UK]

Phase 1 upgrade

Now I have the basis of the build and the concept has successfully proven to work beyond expectation I figured it was time to make some hardware changes prior to implementing the revised cooling.

• Phase 1 is to upgrade the GPU
• Phase 2 will see a revision of the internal data storage
• Phase 3 is the revision of the cooling arrangement

What to replace my existing 560Ti with...


The 660Ti some would say is the natural progression but with it’s current pricing??? Nah

The 660??? To much of a step down from the performance of the 660Ti and again overly inflated pricing for what you get in terms of performance per pound.

I have had my eye on this particular 7870 for a few months now, however it’s release price back in April was around the £280 mark (sorry but I refuse to pay above £225 for a GPU these days); by chance a couple of weeks back I stumbled apon it and with a price tag of only £150 it was a no brainer!!!


Review Link





I present to you the PowerColor HD7870 PCS+

Not only is the custom cooler aesthetically pleasing to the eye it’s also very efficient and whisper quiet.

Oh the PCS+ also overclocks like the devils own on stock voltages

(I’ve yet to have a proper play about with it).

 

[23RO_UK]

Phase 1 upgrade - PowerColor HD7870 PCS+ Installation

One installed PowerColor HD7870 PCS+

Phase 1 Complete

 

[pingwing]

Lovely little build! Makes my tj08-e look distinctly scruffy...

 

[23RO_UK]

Lovely little build! Makes my tj08-e look distinctly scruffy...

Thank you

Not quite done with it yet...

 

[23RO_UK]

Phase 2 upgrade

Pre upgrade the internal storage for the build consisted of -


1 x 128Gb Kingston HyperX SSD (Blue) not to be confused with the Kingston HyperX 3K (Black), the difference being the performance of the HyperX series is more in line with that of the OCZ Vertex 3; this was my Windows 7 drive.


1 x 500Gb Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid, this was used for mass storage.


My original plan was to supplement the above with another SSD, this time a 240Gb; however things do change as you’ll see...




Purchase number 1


A 240Gb Kingston HyperX 3K SSD purchased from a mate of mine.

It’s in pristine as new condition as you can see, he's a top bloke




Purchase's 2 and 3


Now purchases 2 and 3 can be directly attributed to another mate, he had posted a link to a competitors website on his blog; they were retailing 120Gb OCZ Vertex Plus Series SSD’s for only 40 quid (these you will note are SATA 2 SSD’s).



Hmmm I have 2 free SATA 2 connections, yup I’ll have 2 of those thank you lol





Behold!!!

You Have Twins!!!






Waheyyyyyy!!! I now can put together the SSD only rig I've always wanted

 

[23RO_UK]

Phase 2 upgrade - Installation Pics

Well now you’ve seen what’s going in to the build it’s time to show you how it’s been installed...


First of all the 120Gb Kingston HyperX and the 240 Kingston HyperX 3K have been relocated to the rear of the motherboard tray (pics to be posted at a later time) following the removal of the Silverstone SST-FP58B (5.25" Slim ODD Bay with Internal 2.5" Bay); I wanted to free up a 5.25" bay for possible future use.


So where to install The Twins???


Simple solution


Remove the adjustable holder which resides in the base (it’s a handy feature that supports the weight of large air coolers), it’s surplus to requirements in this build.

Sometimes the simple solutions are the best

 

[Cane316]

looking pretty awesome

Got mine built and running then the onboard sound went so had to RMA my motherboard.....replacement arrived today though so re-build tonight

Really happy with the case/cooler/fan controller, thanks for the advice. Great being able to dial down all the fans, pretty much silent when not gaming

 

[Mei]

ooo you changed to a Precision since i last looked, good choice!, i like them more too, gives you a lot more options

you could maybe mount the ssds behind the mobo tray?
tho they look quite nice on display too

 

[flame696]

that fan controller looks familiar

 

[23RO_UK]

looking pretty awesome

Got mine built and running then the onboard sound went so had to RMA my motherboard.....replacement arrived today though so re-build tonight

Really happy with the case/cooler/fan controller, thanks for the advice. Great being able to dial down all the fans, pretty much silent when not gaming

Your very welcome

The FC6 is a great bit of kit

ooo you changed to a Precision since i last looked, good choice!, i like them more too, gives you a lot more options

you could maybe mount the ssds behind the mobo tray?
tho they look quite nice on display too

Thank you, it's a great case just like the TJ08; agreed certainly more versatile though

I can't fit any more SSD's behind the motherboard tray sadly (there are 2 already mounted there), I like the naked on display look of The Twins though

that fan controller looks familiar

Hey Flame

lol I thought it might

 

[23RO_UK]

Phase 1 and 2 completed pics

Here are some better pics of the completed work so far

It's getting there...

 

[Cane316]

Your very welcome

The FC6 is a great bit of kit

One thing I did notice is that is takes away a bit of the fan power though. I got the 1850 GTs but the top fan speed that shows on the FC6 is around 1650.

Is this the case for you too or am I missing something?

 

[flame696]

do you ever use this rig or just take pics of it???

 

[23RO_UK]

One thing I did notice is that is takes away a bit of the fan power though. I got the 1850 GTs but the top fan speed that shows on the FC6 is around 1650.

Is this the case for you too or am I missing something?

I'd like to be able to give you a definitive answer but can't...


My own experience when using a pair of AP-15's with the FC6 was that one would run at 1650 and the other at 1750, I'm now running them off a Bitfenix Recon and the same pair of fans will run at 1700 and 1800 respectively.


It doesn't really bug me to much as they are set to run at 1500 regardless but it's still shall we say strange

do you ever use this rig or just take pics of it???

lmao I'm using it now


And besides it's photogenic

 

[23RO_UK]

Now the hardware...

...upgrade is complete I decided to benchmark it at it's current overclock of 4.6GHz

I will have to say I'm very very happy with that



The updated specs for Air Flow Mini Concept are now as follows -


Case - Silverstone PS07

Motherboard - ASRock Z77 E-ITX

CPU - Intel i7 2600K clocked @ 4.6GHz

RAM - 8 GB (2x4GB) Samsung Green DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel running @ 2133MHz (9-10-10-21 2N) @ 1.50v

GPU - PowerColor PCS+ HD7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0

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


Internal Storage -

1 x 120GB Kingston Hyper X SH100S3/120G SSD
1 x 240GB Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/240G SSD
2 x 120GB OCZ Vertex Plus Series OCZSSD2-1VTXPL120G SSD's


Cooling -

Antec KÜHLER H2O 620 with 2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15 120mm 1850 RPM Cooling Fan’s (D1225C12B4AP-15) (front mounted push pull configuration)
1 x BeQuiet Shadow Wings SW1 120 mm BQT-T12025-MR-2 (front intake)
1 x BeQuiet Shadow Wings SW1 120mm PWM BQT T12025-MR-PWM (rear extract)

 

[23RO_UK]

Phase 3 is the revamp of the existing CPU cooling components which consisted of -

• 1x Antec KÜHLER H2O 620 Liquid cooling system with a push pull fan configuration
• 2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15 120mm 1850 RPM Cooling Fan’s (D1225C12B4AP-15)
• 1 x Lamptron FC6 4 Channel Fan Controller

The replacement of FC6 was the initial priority, the FC6 only has 4 channels; for what I have in mind Ideally an additional channel also.



Meet it’s replacement...




The Bitfenix Recon




The Recon is a five channel controller, perfect!!!

Flawless in operation and with a touch screen you can switch off the Recon is almost perfection, almost...




It does have 3 flaws however -

• The quality of the 4 pin pass through molex connector is p*ss poor at best
• The USB connecter is glued in place so you will have the additional spaghetti to tidy away if you elect not to connect it
• The temperature probe connection complete with all the temperature probes is glued in place also

Gotta up your game on the small things Bitfenix...