Lian Li V300 mod to accept tall heatsinks (pics)

rosco1011

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Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
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I love the lian li v300 case, but thought i could improve upon its layout, airflow and noise. in particular, i wanted space to fit one of the taller cpu heatsinks.

parts:
lian li v300 (obviously)
E6300
foxconn G9657MA-8EKRS2H
2gb Geil ultra pc6400
geforce 8800gts
500gb WD se16
samsung sata dvd-rw
corsair 520W psu
akasa all-in-1 card reader/fan bus
hard drive cooler
1x noctua 12cm fan
2x yang loon 12cm fan
zalman cnps9500 heatsink


my modifications summarized:
1/ replaced front fans with 12cm ones.
2/ hard disk cage mostly removed and single hard drive in 5.25 bay with cross-flow cooling.
3/ psu fitted where hard drive cage was, with psu's downward facing 12cm fan extracting excess heat from graphics card.
4/ geforce 8800gts fitted, with slot cut from 3.5 inch bay - not so hard really with just a hack saw blade and makeshift cloth handle. some pre cut holes here mean there is not much additional cutting required.
5/ the free space above cpu now allows taller more efficient heatsink - zalman cnps9500 in my case. there would just be room for an even larger 12cm fan version (like a ninja), but the proximity of the psu would limit this depending on exactly where the cpu socket is on your motherboard. for me the rounded zalman is perfect (90m fan).
6/ space also for a 12cm fan at the back, directly exhausting the heatsink air. this is a snug fit up against the repositioned psu.

a pic from each side:
PICT1568.JPG

PICT1565.JPG

PICT1564.JPG

PICT1563.JPG


idle temps / fans at low settings: 40 C cpu and 32 C internal (reported by speedfan - foxconn software report cpu at 32 C and bios 32 C also, so who knows ?))
max temps / fans at medium settings: 48 C cpu and 32 C internal

all in all the changes were not that difficult - bit of dremel, hacksaw and file - and i'm really happy with the improved efficiency. unlike some other v300 modders, i did not find it neccesary to dismantle the whole case. i would have liked that there were cases available "off the shelf" with this kind of arrangement, but i will admit that it means there is only space for a single hard drive.

i might have gone with the SG01 once upon a time, but certainly not now i have found the way to "fix" the v300.

thanks for looking
comments welcome
rosco
 
You should email Lian Li with those pics to make them get their act together and make a decent cube case with some actual airflow. What hard drive temperatures are you getting? Looks like it would be possible to somehow rig a hard drive cage above the HSF and put one or two extra drives there.
 
Nice mod! :eek:

One question though, what/how did you do to secure the front 120mm fans?
 
thanks shaman.

The v300 is quite a bit bigger than some of the other SFF cases, so yes, it's a shame for Lian not to take advantage of this with some large fans - particularly 2 120mm fans at the front would be easy to implement with only a new aluminium insert.

For the HD temp, i can't tell you. For some reason speedfan does not recognise it.
Independent internal case sensors report 30C and 32C even under load, so i'm thinking the HD should be ok.

I think there is space for at least one more hard drive above the cpu heatsink. Not nomally the place i would choose, but would probably be ok since there is a lot of airflow here. Thinking about it, there is probably just room for another in the 3.5 bay even though the graphics card cuts though here, as long as you used 90 degree angle plugs.
 
thanks c0ol

lazy man's guide to case modding recommends liberal use of double-sided tape !
- at each corner
- pre-coloured with a black marker pen.
there is also some black cardboard stuck between the fascia and 5.25" bays to hide the non-black aluminium.
 
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