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:
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
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:
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