Thermaltake Lanbox- no hard disk, 120mm fan?

[carmatic]

can it be done?

specifically, I am planning to install an Intel X-18m SSD , it will be stuck to the side of the case so all the drive mounting bays can go right out the window
in addition to that, a Corsair H50 is also going in

here's a picture for reference

sorry about the messy image, i forgot that i copied and pasted in mspaint already
okay about the colours...

blue: this picture was taken in 2007, so the card they were using was a geforce gtx8800... i am putting a radeon 5870 into it, and the blue section is meant to represent the provisions of the extra length that i presume the card will have in comparison
red: pretty obvious, not going to have a hard disk... so no need to worry about the length of the video card, or the radiator
green: proposed location of 120mm fan and radiator
cyan: Corsair H50 tubing

i am going to also remove the optical drive covers at the front to let the air through, and somehow attach the 120mm fan onto the chassis

anyone see any problem with this?

 

[carmatic]

the bigger concern is if the tubes are gonna be long enough to reach all the way to the front... looking at the proportions of the picture, then at the H50 in my room now, im worried that its not long enough
isnt it going to be ironic if the small case is too big for one of the components...

and the box picture of the H50 seems to suggest that the tubes are flexible enough to just run along the ground, but in reality they are far too stiff to do that... im worried that a significant stretch might put too much strain on the motherboard or something

as for the video card, with the hard disks caddies gone it has at least another 102mm of space available to it, so i dont think i have to worry about fitting it in the case assuming that there are no obstructions in the way, and by looking at the pics it seems to be the case

 

[carmatic]

does anyone who already owns one of these cases also have a corsair h50?

 

[carmatic]

i've got the case and the h50 with me now.... i can say that the tubes will definitely reach all the way to the front

the next step is to actually mount the fan in the location....

i've gone to b&q and bought myself a rotary tool and a pair of fasteners... the red dots mean where the holes will be drilled for the screws, and the green squares mean the fasteners
honestly i wish that thermaltake made this an option with the case, like they've already got the removable tab at the rear for small diameter tubes to pass through, even tho most watercooling is done with 1/2" tubing... having an option to mount a 120mm fan and radiator in the place of the optical disk caddies , not to mention getting better airflow as well as space for the reservoir and pump, would have served the watercooling people better... after all who needs dvd and bluray drives when you are overclocking...

 

[carmatic]

lookie what we have here...

my case is now officially watercooled, baby

so yeah the tubes are definitely long enough

a closer look at the metalwork


still gonna need to find something to cover the exposed areas around the fan so that i can have linear airflow through the case...

 

[carmatic]

It would be nice for people like yourself, but you are few and far between. Most people aren't worried about watercooling and would want an internal optical drive.
How are you going to modify the front to allow air in without just having empty bays?

as you can see, all it took was some extra holes and some strips of metal to enable this option... the case already comes with an adapter plate to mount an optical disk drive on the upper drive bay, and there are a couple of superfluous holes which never get used....
so i dont see how 2 strips of metal like the ones i used are going to increase the material cost of the case beyond some spare change (which is what they cost me at B&Q) , or how drilling the holes, which takes just seconds for my Performance Power rotary tool, would drive up tooling costs...
the only expensive thing would be a few pieces of sticky paper to block the empty drive bay openings with

actually getting the fan mounted on took me an hour or two, since i spent a long time lining up and marking the holes, i really didnt want any of my holes to miss...

i am in fact going to be sealing up the front to prevent any spills etc from getting in... there is no more 'headphone' and 'mic' and 'firewire' and 'usb' ports on the front, just the power and reset buttons and the LED's....
there is a gap between the 'face' and the chassis proper, and it opens to the bottom behind the grille, so air can flow under the 'face' ,up behind it and into the radiator
this makes the stock arrangement of having the 80mm fan and the grille (with its air filter) on opposite sides of the gap quite strange, air is just going to flow around the filter...

think about it in terms of this isnt just benefiting overclockers, but its also an option for those people who use a watercooling setup to have a silent system, who also happen to have no use for internal optical drives... like the added airflow would allow their fans to spin slower while mantaining the same temperatures...

If you're moving the hdd i'd personally remove the lower fan and mount the 120 in its place. You'd then have space for an optical drive.

Other than that it all looks good.

I've always liked the lanbox - shouldn't have sold mine really!

gt

there is too much stuff in the way where the 80mm fan is, and i dont have an internal optical drive... one of the goals of this build was to save weight so that means the minimum it needs to function (external sata all the way), the weight of the PSU alone is straining my arm already but luckily that handle is pretty comfy...

also the 80mm fan is illuminated, i would like it to stay where it is so it can shine through the grille ... plus some non-heated air in the case cant hurt

 

[carmatic]

im coming to the part where im installing the cpu and the cooler... normally you do this with the motherboard out of the case...

but because of the h50, i have to either install the cpu with the motherboard inside the case, or i have to hold the radiator with one hand and the motherboard with the other...

plus the stiffness of the h50 pipes arent helping....

 

[carmatic]

GT's comment on putting the heatsink in the lower position is a good idea as you could then mount a hard drive (or 2) in the optical drive bay at the top.

My only concern would be the looks from the front. By putting the fan and heatsink at the bottom it would mean you would only have to mod the lower 5.25" bay and cut out the metal around the old 80mm fan mount. Which could leave the front of the case looking pretty normal.

i do not have any internal drives except for my intel x-18m, and that's the size of a mobile phone at most

the thing about the looks is that the 'face' of the case is unmodified... the pictures you see here are the front of the chassis proper, and the 'face' screws over that, with a gap between it and the chassis proper so that air could flow around and behind the 'face'... if you look at pictures of the fully assembled Lanboxes taken from the front, you see the 'face' of the case

putting the 120mm fan at the bottom would mean cutting out a significant part of the chassis and half of the optical drive caddy as opposed to simply drilling 6 3mm holes, not to mention sacrificing the 80mm fan position , as well as having no effect on the looks whatsoever
plus you would also lose your hard disk caddies since the space there would be taken up by the radiator... the 120mm fan precisely takes up the space for the optical drives, so by mounting it at that location you will still be able to keep your hard disk caddies (assuming your radiator is also small enough)
the reason my hard disk caddies are removed was not because of the radiator, but because of my 5870 being too long


perhaps a better term for what i am describing would be a 'mask' rather than a 'face', since it can be taken off and it is there for cosmetic (and in my case, protective) purposes...

but i guess the bottom line is that Thermaltake could have designed this case to take a 120mm fan and leave space for an optical drive and the 7 inch screen ... the front wouldnt look so symmetrical anymore, but then that's less unused space , the look would have more excitement and functionality at the same time

 

[carmatic]

temps while idling in bios... cpu 35 degrees, northbridge 50 degrees, southbridge 47 degrees, mobo 32 degrees

i think i ought to put a fan down at the cpu corner to make up for not having any airflow down there... thats where the pwm and northbridge is

 

[carmatic]

okay, so i've put a fan each for the northbridge heatsink, PWM heatsink and the RAM area... even with a fan directly blowing onto it, the northbridge doesnt seem to idle below 50 degrees... is this normal?

 

[carmatic]

im using an Asus Rampage 2 Gene

not into extreme cooling anymore, so using the stock heatpipe setup

 

[carmatic]

OKAY GUYS

just a little update
i've put new fans on my radiator... a Akasa Viper as the pusher to replace the stock Corsair black fan, and a Scythe Ultra Kaze as the puller... much better airflow, and importantly air pressure, that comes from two 2000rpm fans as opposed to a single 1600rpm fan
the reason for the fans is because of the environment i am expecting to use the computer in... i have replaced the stock semicricle black foam with carbon air filter material from Ace Filtration (http://www.acefiltration.co.uk/carbon-kitchen-filters.asp), and sealed up every every other opening and gap with duck tape... this should keep the odours of alcohol and cigarette smoke from entering my case, also hopefully it should stop airborne water droplets like mist and fog... the front, top and sides of the case are practically spill-proof now, even the air filters are water-repellent, the only cause for concern are the reset and power switches, and the back of the case

now there is abit of a noise problem, since the Ultra Kaze is right next to the top lid, the gentle hum it produces is being amplified like some kind of wind instrument... i'll need a layer of acoustically absorbent material lining the insides of the lid, the thinner and lighter the better...
a certain hardware store close to where i live sells PC acoustic dampeners but they are kits pre-cut for full-size server cases and stuff, and all i need is a single sheet...