Rebuild in shinobi xl

setter

setter

setter

Caporegime
Joined
14 Dec 2005
Posts
28,067
Location
armoy, n. ireland
Finally received my bitfenix shinobi xl yesterday evening. Spent the night transferring my system from my Lian Li A70F in sig.

System spec.

I7 920 DO
Asus p6t deluxe v2
12gb kinston hyperx
2x Gigabyte gtx 470 oc
Asus xonar DX audio card
Corsair hx 850w psu
LG blu ray/hd-dvd drive
Alpenfohn k2 cpu cooler.

Shinobi xl exterior shots.

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Quite an attractive front, and the soft touch material on both top and front gives it a very nice feel and look. Side panels are very rigid, flexing or panel vibration shouldnt be an issue. The panels are also very well finished too, with a slight textured feel to the surface coating.

Side by side comparison with A70F.

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The xl isnt as tall or deep as the A70F, however its a bit wider.

Finished build pics.

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Building in the case was pretty straightforward, in no doubt due to the good amount of room. Though it did feel a bit strange having to use a screwdriver again with this system, (previous case used thumbscrews and tool less clips/clamps). Cooling wise, ive removed the stock rear 120mm fan, this has been replaced with a 120mm alpenfohn wingboost. This fan is ran in conjunction with the cpu cooler fans via a PWM splitter cable. The stock rear fan ive mounted on the floor of the case for extra air intake.

Very impressed with the cable management options, im using a few bitfenix alchemy extensions . Even with theese fitted to the rather nasty flat corsair psu cables, tucking things away was pretty easy. Still, theres a few little things id like to sort, ie shorter sata cables and extensions for the usb2.0 connectors.

Temps and airflow.

Ive noticed a slight temp rise on cpu and gpu's, but its also got quite hot over here the past few days. Gpu 1 is sitting anything from 4-10c higher than the bottom card in my sli setup. This is perfectly normal for the top card in an sli/xfire setup to run hotter, so ill sort that with an antec spotcool. To also aid with air intake, ill probably replace the front 230mm fan with a pair of 120mm fans.

Current idle temps.

cpu, 45-41-45-41

Gpu's.

Gpu 1, 44c
Gpu 2, 39c

Ill report back later with load temps.

All in all, im pretty pleased with the case, a few tiny little niggles but nothing major.

Pros.
Very nice looking case
Well finished internally/externally.
Very well priced for a full tower.
Good solid panels.
Excellent cable management.

Cons.
Stock cooling, (but i reckon this could be sorted easily).
Hdd cages a bit flimsy.

The cons above are very slight, so id have no hesitation in reccomending this case to anyone in the market for a well priced, well finished and feature packed full tower.
 
Cheers,:) hopefully a passing mod can move it to case central. Posted in here by mistake, eyesights getting worse lol.:D
 
I actually thought about using the P6 X58 DE from my other system, it's blue and black colour scheme would have suited the build theme a lot better.

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Decided against it in the end, as it's a terrible board for sli'd gpu's.
 
Bit of a shame the Blue of the Alchemy cables doesn't quite match the Vengeance LP Blue....

Apart from that looks like a very nice build :)

Get it under water though :p

kd
 
@setter: thanks for the review and your build looks very decent!

Another Shinobi XL users... I will start thinking/braimstorming about a Shinobi XL Owners Lounge here on OCUK.

Thanks for your continious support guys.
 
Id like to put the cpu under water cooling, but the cost is a bit prohibitive. Ive recently had to take a cut in wages due to the current economic situation, so i dont have as much disposable income.

Done a bit of stress testing last night to check cpu/gpu temps under load.

Cpu temps
LinX, 80c on highest core, 4c higher than my last case.

Bf3, 65c, pretty much the same as the A70.

Gpu temps

BF3, 67-62c, 65-65c previously

77-72, frame limiter off.

When funds permit, im gonna order a pair of 120mm silverstone air penetrators for front intake. It's a shame that the front doesnt accept 140mm fans. As i already have a pair of 140mm air penetrators. Ive found theese to be excellent fans for forcing air through restrictive areas such as hdd cages. While playing bf3, i have a frame rate limit of 59fps set in msi afterburner. This leads to less gpu usage and less heat, but ill try the game with the frame limiter turned off.

Bf3
 
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Thanks for the feedback setter on your temps. Those GPU temps aren't bad at all for a pair of 470's, very impressive actually and certainly by getting a couple of 120mm Silverstone AP's they'll be even better!
 
I hope so mate, in the A70F i was seeing a max of 70c on both cards, albeit i had an antec spotcool behind them. The big 230mm fan on the xl doesnt push enough air so the cards are a wee bit hotter. Noise wont be a problem as ill be using a fan controller. Regarding noise, the xl is better than the A70F for dampening the noise of stock coled dual 470's. Probably due to the heavier steel panels as opposed to aluminium. Still not sure what to do with the A70F yet, aint got the heart to sell it, and cant afford to put another rig in it.
 
setter said:
Still not sure what to do with the A70F yet, aint got the heart to sell it, and cant afford to put another rig in it.
Click to expand...

I have a similar dilemma. I love my A71F, but I need to get rid of something, so it's either that (inc full i7 920 build), or my 2006 Mac Pro. :(
 
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