SFF Rebuild Project: Just another W/C'd SG05

[randal]

Following on from the Wizard's Sleeve build back in May last year, the Noah got a little upgrade from the single core Atom board to something that would play HD content and be able to do a little light "World of Goo" type gaming.

Until Sunday it was running with:

Celeron e3300 @ stock on Intel cooler
Zotac GF9300
2gb OCZ PC2-6400

Snug...

After changing out the Atom board and the onboard flash module which was home to the FreeNAS installation, I still wanted to run FreeNAS in order to get to my data on the 1TB Sammy drive so opted for a USB based installation. Good in the way that the drive and the USB stick could be plugged into any PC for a quick setup but bad in that the embedded version of FreeNAS crashes on boot up when the keyboard was plugged in.

So driven partly out of Apple's inability to release a timely update for the stuff OpenGL stuff they broke in 10.6.4, and Valve's inability to release L4D2 on the Mac until that's fixed I've been leaning towards getting back into PC gaming. Now the Mrs was most vocal about me building a desktop PC again, so logically it was time to upgrade the HTPC.

Whilst in the States last week I swung past a BestBuy and picked up one of these:

Then after much deliberation on which route to go, I thought I'd give ATI a chance to make a well overdue return to a build with a 5770:

Main reasons being the lower power consumption,noise and heat output that the midrange ATI cards are offering these days which is perfect for slotting into an SG05. Well, that and thefish was conveniently selling one on the MM (cheers mate!).

Being impatient I had to get it all setup ahead of the case and PSU arriving. In for a test fit:

(Excuse the loose fit on the graphics card, board wasn't bolted down either!)

So I started the build in the Antec Fusion to see what I could get out of the CPU now I had some proper cooling and was pleasantly surprised with how well the e3300 overclocks with little effort:

Currently idling around 35-43 degrees, unable to tie down more accurately due to the temp diode problem on the Wolfdales. Load temps supposedly at 55 degrees after 2 hours of Orthos small FFTs.

So things left to do:

• Wait for SG05 and Silverstone 450w SFF PSU to arrive (c'mon already)
• Fix no onboard sound after ATI card installation, tried loads and the damn thing still won't work.
• Cram everything into it's new home.
• Finally get around to playing some L4D2.

Updates to come Wednesday all being well and good.

Cheers for reading.

 

[randal]

Ah sorry mate, completely sieveheaded this thread. I've got the pics of the build, I'll get something written up shortly.

 

[randal]

I've had a bit of a ball ache with the update, I bent a pin on my camera's CF slot so it corrupted the memory card. I've managed to salvage about 3 pics from the build, but nothing particularly amazing.

I've got some PC8500 on the way this weekend hopefully so when I install that I'll get some more pics and do a decent write up. Sorry about this folks...

 

[randal]

RAM arrived, and picked up some bits and pieces for a wee mod I want to do last night. All being well should have an update in the not-too-distant.

 

[randal]

Managed to get a day to myself today to finish of my SG05 build! Actually finished the build last week, but as mentioned about I had camera troubles so lost all of the pics I took mid build, so these were from today and the couple I managed to salvage from the memory card. Lesson learned with CF cards and pins!

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

--

I had heard of people running 5770s on the bundled SG05 PSU, but it was a bit close to the mark for overall system wattage so decided to go for Silverstone's upgraded 450w PSU.

Case all stripped out ready for a crammin':

Originally built the machine in the Noah using this RAM:

2gb is great for HTPC usage, but started to feel the pinch again gaming on Windows 7 so fortunately Roll was selling 4gb of Corsair PC8500 in the MM...

The RAM is somewhat over spec'd for the board, the board will run DDR2-800 tops as I found out during the build. Despite bumping voltages and trying all sorts I couldn't get the machine to post with the RAM speed set to anything higher than DDR2-850. I've left it at DDR2-800 for now and I'm in the process of tightening up the timings. Currently at 5-5-5-18, but I think there's a lot more potential to be had from this Corsair stuff...

Being space limited have opted for a laptop HDD to save on space, had this left over from my MBP when it got upgraded to an SSD. Perfect.

Probably worth talking a little about the board used in this build, whilst it sports a really good feature set it's a complete pig to work with. It's not very overclocking-friendly, a bad OC will result in a complete lock up that won't recover on a power cycle meaning you have to clear the CMOS or in some of the cases I had (installing the graphics card for one) you have to pull the battery. Not cool. Both options are in totally unreasonable places to get to!

Determined to get the most out of this little setup, I happened on an idea to make clearing the CMOS a little easier. So turned this:

Into this:

Which fits here:

Works very well. Now instead of having to pop the case, take the graphics card out then pull the jumper with a pair of tweezers, change the DVI to the onboard connector as the BIOS changes from "Enable if no external GPU" to "Always enabled" then set everything back up again it's just a case of power off, flip switch, power on, swap cables, then start again... ok, just slightly better.

Also, the NBs on the GF9300 get ridiculously hot. Before taking a look at solutions, the MCP idle temp was 62 degrees. Great. On closer inspect it was apparent why. Too much thermal goo, crappy plastic pins and spring retention. Go Zotac. Some AS5, 2 nuts and bolts later and we're idling at 45 degrees:

Couple of mid-build pics:

(HDD supported by cables, and trusty velcro!)

Time for a cuppa.

All finished!

Been a fun little build and a nice foray into the world of SFF gaming, whilst totally doable it's certainly not without it's hiccups. You learn to appreciate every square inch of free space, and certainly do have to think on your toes. Ended up stripping out all of the internal metalwork from the case to give me more airflow and usable space inside the case, hence the velcro action on the HDD!

There's still a bit to do yet, so will be a few more updates to come. Still looking at:

*Locking the RAM down to the tightest settings possible
*GPU overclocking
*Maybe revisiting the CPU overclock. Had it posting at 4.5ghz for a laugh earlier, easily stable at 4.16ghz but will need a bit more effort to get it stable at higher clocks...

Full spec:
Celeron e3300 @ 4ghz
Corsair H50 using stock fan in pull config
4gb Corsair XMS2 PC8500 (currently 5-5-5-18)
Zotac GF9300 I-E with bolt mod on NB
Sapphire 5770 1gb DDR5 @ stock for now
Silverstone SG05, stripped inside.
WD Scorpio Black 320GB

Anyway, cheers for reading.

 

[randal]

It's a Silverstone again, think it's called a "Strider". Google is your friend.

It's been Orthos-ing for about 4 hours now and CPU temps are 57/58 at load, pretty reasonable. Just about to beat some L4D2 down, see if I can get it any hotter.

 

[randal]

Sweet thats all i needed to know

Sounds like its pretty cool in there too (well comparability) think i might be doing my self one soon...

Good stuff, yeah there's not too many to choose from in the SFF space. 450w is pretty much the highest you're going to get and only one vendor comes up when you search!

It's not too bad though temperature wise, especially for this time of year.

Did the H50 go in without any messing??

Absolutely fine, however... The rad lines up with the stock 120mm mounting holes, but you're not going to get a lot else in around that area unless you start cutting up the internals. The CPU block will only go on one way, which is with the pipes closest to the front of the case. This is so it clears the PSU.

The rest of the install is really about using zip ties to keep the piping together as it's quite rigid and needs taming else it makes getting the lid on a bit of a pain.

Seen quite a few people modding the H50s to use custom pipe work and fitting reservoirs etc.. They use a funny ID tube though, which is a bit of a mare to get hold of in the UK.

 

[randal]

That My friend, is Nice, BUT, messy

Function over form. (he says posting from a Macbook). Couldn't bring myself to slice cables and pipes on a brand new PSU and cooler!

 

[randal]

What the hell am i going to use it for?

HTPC, that was my excuse anyway! It used to be an HTPC at any rate, it's now upstairs plugged into monitor dishing out TF2/L4D2. The Mrs was a bit miffed when she couldn't watch her girly soaps tonight, cries of "I thought that was the PC for downstairs!" could be heard.

We're now using the 360 for DivX.

 

[randal]

Thanks, thinking of putting one together with a i3 530..

With a Gigabyte H55N perchance?

 

[randal]

That board looks awesome, I was flirting with the idea of selling all the C2D stuff and going down a similar route to you.

If you're using onboard graphics then I think you'll be happy with the noise levels from the SG05, i.e just the 120mm intake drawing through the rad, front grille and dust guard.

Worth mentioning the SG05 is pretty thin skinned and the majority of the case is open meshed/grilled. Fine if you're running just the H50, but add a graphics card and you really can hear the difference.

 

[randal]

Well after some obscene MCP temps and CTDs during gaming it's time to revisit cooling options... That H/S Zotac supply is nothing short of useless, looking at a copper HS with a 60mm fan as its replacement. For now I've ghett-ro-fitted an 80mm Sharkoon fan on top of it so I can keep gaming in this warmth.

Then again, I might start plotting a mod on the H50 to incorporate an NB block...

 

[randal]

Slight change for this dreary and wet Saturday morning, but at least it's worth an update. Apologies for the mobile pics, camera is over at a mate's.

Despite the Celeron's good clock speed, have started to notice it lagging in a few things which obviously is down to it's puny cache. So courtesy of jessjess, there's an e8400 now living where the Celeron once called home. Currently working on OCing it, I doubt I'll see 4ghz again but the FSB has made it a darn sight higher on this chip than the last which is good as the e8400 has 3.5x less multiplier to play with. 3.4ghz at the moment on stock volts...

As the e8400 will undoubtedly run hotter, I've decided to up the cooling a little on the H50:

Couple of weeks ago I changed the stock Corsair fan out for a Fractal Designs 120mm, however whilst quiet it really isn't suited for pulling air through a radiator. So now have 2x 120mm Noctuas in push pull, one off the mobo header and the other on a 5v step down to keep the noise levels down.

Load temps at 52 after 35 mins of Orthos with the new setup on the e8400, case on (@ 3.4ghz). So not too bad.

One bummer with the extra fan is that it pushes the rad further towards the graphics card end. It all fits, just! However the card is slightly pushed out, but nothing too extreme.

Pretty snug!

The best thing to come out of all of this is the extra fan really ups the amount of air flow in the case, which is a real bonus all round. The MCP temps have dropped as well (more so than just adding the 40mm Fractal Designs fan), so I'm considering losing the 40mm if things continue to go well.