Project Overhaul: A SFF Hot-Rod

F

Farseer

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
Messages
314
I've had my SFF for almost 2 months now and have been working on a few mods to it. Many are still work-in-progress and have taken a bit longer then I originally anticipated. Anyway, I finally have some time to where I can go ahead and start a log on this project.

The SFF in question is the Soltek QBIC EQ3901A-300P. Here is a link to Soltek's website. Below is a pic of my case as it originally looked.


System specifications:
Soltek QBIC EQ3901A-300P
AMD Ahtlon64 3200+ (Winchester)
1GB (2x512MB) Corsair XMS Platinum PC3200
BFG GeForce 6800OC
Western Digital Raptor 74GB/10,000RPM/8MB/SATA
Plextor PX-716SA DVD+/-RW 8MB/SATA
Logitech MX Duo Cordless keyboard and MX 700 mouse
 
I know that some have asked if a Zalman 7000 would fit in a SFF case, and many have done it. But, I don't know of anyone that has tried a 7700...so here it is! :p

First, the stock HSF for reference:


Now, the Zalman 7000:


Sitting the 7700 in the case shows that it hits the drive cage:


That's an easy fix:


Finally, the installed 7700:


I know someone is going to say that it is touching the video card (a BFG 6800 OC, btw), but it is not.

I know it is hard to see, but there is a 1mm gap between the two. :cool:
Also, even if they did touch, the back plate on the vide card is plastic.

The 7700 averages about 2-3*C cooler then the 7000 from what I can tell.
 
The 7700 pushes a lot of air! With the cover off I can feel the air blowing out the front of the case accross my hands on the keyboard and mouse! I was going to put a fan next to the video card blowing in, but that would now seem to be counterproductive. So, I'm going let the 7700 do what it wills - if it wants to blow out the sides then I'll just let it.

However, than means that it is pulling air from the top, and that is a problem. The fan in the power supply sits directly over the HSF and pulls air up - against the 7700. Ok, easy fix! I just flipped the power supply fan around (to the original ATX spec) so now the fan pulls air in from the back of the case and blows down on the HSF. Althought the air coming in via the power supply may be a little warmer, at least it is air, as before the two fans were fighting against each other.

Next problem - I would still like to get some fresh air to the HSF. Well, the top of the case is the prime canidate, but the DVD-ROM is in the way. The NEC 2500A is 190mm long leaving only a 25mm gab between it and the power supply. On top of that the power cable all must run through that gap. Solution - get a shorter drive!

I found the Plextor 716SA to be quite short - only 173mm! Wow! I'm getting another 17mm of space and it's SATA to boot so I can get rid of that big PATA cable! Man, this drive is great!
 
The best stable overclock I could get was 2350. I was able to get to 2500, but anything above 2350 would fail Prime95 after about 1-5 minutes. I'm thinking that some other components may be overheating. If that is the case, some heatsinks on the MOSFETs, the DRAM voltage regulator, and timing chip should take care of that.


I haven't had time to try any more overclocking, as I'm busy on other mods atm, but so far it looks good. :cool:
 
ballistic said:
This is going to be cool, I'm going to keep an eye on this thread.
Click to expand...

This is just the basics. I've been working one unique mod that I've never seen done before. I hope to post some pics of it in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I'll post some of the other simple mods I've been working on.
 
Pretty cool stuff so far! I like the concept of a big huge copper chunk being squeezed into a SFF. Is there a hole over the top of the HSF? I was thinking that you could cut a slot above the gap between the PSU and DVD, then fill it w/ modders mesh. Then fresh air could be pulled in from the top, right into the heat sink. Oh, and what chipset does that have?

Keep us updated on OC results, w/ temps, will be watching this one.
 
definitely the first time i've seen a zalman 7700 in a SFF:cool:

looks like an interesting mod. can't wait to see what this ends up looking like. remember to remove the motherboard BEFORE cutting the main chassis!

:D
 
pilotman2004 said:
Pretty cool stuff so far! I like the concept of a big huge copper chunk being squeezed into a SFF. Is there a hole over the top of the HSF? I was thinking that you could cut a slot above the gap between the PSU and DVD, then fill it w/ modders mesh. Then fresh air could be pulled in from the top, right into the heat sink. Oh, and what chipset does that have?
Click to expand...

There will be a hole in the top filled with Modder's Mesh to allow in cool air. It won't be directly over the HSF, more towards the font, but the air should still be able to flow with no problem. Also, do note that the fan in the power supply is blowing down onto the HSF as well.

Here is a quick update. I've made the cuts for the side windows. These will eventually be filled with Modder's Mesh. There will be a bigger update tomorrow.

 
Awesome, looks like its coming along nicely. I was worried that you weren't going to do anything to the outside of the case.
 
Are you going to do anything to the front of the case? It looks kind of plain with everything else you have done. It is coming along great though. I can't believe you fit that 7700 in that case. I will definitely be watching this thread.
 
5inistry said:
Are you going to do anything to the front of the case? It looks kind of plain with everything else you have done.
Click to expand...

Yes, there will be some changes to the font. Some of them are even unintentional as you will see below. :(

Here is the guilty party:

I hate carrying this thing to LANs, so I'm going to try and fix that. The goal will be to mount the base station (RF receiver and charger) inside the case so there is nothing to carry along. To do this I will need to find out if there is a way to plug the external USB connection internally, and I will need to find a way to recharge the mouse.


This is what we have after removing the internals of the base station. The good thing is that the RF receiver and charging unit are separate PCBs. So, I should be able to separate the two and mount them wherever I need.

The next step is to see if I can separate the USB and PS/2 wires for the internal USB connection. After removing all of the wires from the cable and much time breaking open the molded parts, I found that the USB and PS/2 wires are indeed separate! :) So, I removed all of the wires except the four USB wires and tested...and it worked perfectly! :D

Here is what the RF receiver looks like now:

Notice that there are only four wires - Black, Red, White and Green. I just used an old 4 socket speaker plug and wired it for the internal USB. Note that for the USB end it will be Red, White, Green then Black.

You can also see that I have already removed all of the LEDs and replaced then with leads that will go to the front of the case. I attached some LEDs temporarily just to make sure that the keyboard would still activate them and it worked fine.

Now here is where I had a little mistake. I had drilled some of the holes in the front panel from the LEDs. I was deburring the holes when my Dremel slipped.

I have plans for the front anyway, but it is still a mistake that should not have happened. I should have just used a hole file, but the Dremel as in my hand at the time. Oh, well, it will never be seen anyway. ;)
 
How do you plan on handling the difference in voltage between the recharger and any of your internal leads? If memory serves me correctly the recharger operates on 6v and the only lead that will remain powered in standby is 5v. Just wondering how you are going to make the jump?
 
don't forget to paint the guilty party while it is apart...i love my new paint job on it
 
5inistry said:
How do you plan on handling the difference in voltage between the recharger and any of your internal leads? If memory serves me correctly the recharger operates on 6v and the only lead that will remain powered in standby is 5v. Just wondering how you are going to make the jump?
Click to expand...
Well, that's a good question. The power brick says 5.8v/1a, but I actually measured 6.02v/1.1a. My multimeater may be a little off though. Anyway, I would like to use the power supply to power the charger. I can easily do this when the power supply is on by using the 12v out and reduce it to 6v. However I'm usually using the mouse when the PC is on. :( I thought about using the 5vsb and just boosting the voltage to 6v, but that has proved harder then I first imagined. It can be done by either boosting from 5v to 6v, or by boosting to say 12v then dropping it back down to 6v, but in either case I have found the cost of the circuit needed to be outside my budget (around $30 or so).
My supervisor at work had an idea about just taping the 120v AC from inside the power supply and just mounting the power brick somewhere inside the case. This looks like the easiest and least costly solution, so that is what I am going to pursue.

***Also, for those that are wondering, part of the plan is to get rid of the extra cord, so just plugging the Base Station's charger into the wall or using a second power cord is not an option.


Sesheron said:
don't forget to paint the guilty party while it is apart...i love my new paint job on it
Click to expand...
That guilty party will be seeing the business end of hammer when I'm done. :D Don't worry I'm going to make my own charging station.
 
I mounted the MX700 RF receiver inside the front cover. It partially covers the front 3.5" drive bay, but I don't plan on using that bay anyway.


I then started wiring the LEDs and hit a bit of a snag - they were waaaay too bright! I mean looking at the Sun too bright! :eek: I had measured the voltage to be 2.76v on one of the leads and the LEDs are rated to 3v so I thought they would be a little dimmer. Ok, no problem I say, I'll just add a resistor. The smallest resistor I had was 100ohm so I used one on the Num Lock and it worked great. Wonderful, so I added a resistor to all the other LEDs. Now the kicker - The Caps Lock and F Lock both remained bright! I measured the voltage on the caps lock - 2.76v with the resistor. I measured the voltage on the F Lock - 4.6v! WTF? :mad:

I then tried a 470ohm resistor on the Caps Lock and wouldn't light up. Ok, so that was too much. I then tried 200ohm and was still dark. This is getting strange. I go back to 100ohm and it's bright again.

I gave up and moved to the F Lock with 470ohm - bright. 1Kohm - bright. 2Kohm - bright. 3Kohm - bright. WFT? The only other resistor I had was a 22Kohm so what the **** I'll give it a shot - and I have a very very dim LED. Yes, dim not dark! :eek:

My conclusion - the RF receiver has a voltage regulator for the LEDs that trys to maintain a constant voltage regardless of the resistance. I went and bought an assortment of resistors and started some experimentation. I finally settled on this setup so make note:
F Lock - 5.6Kohm
Caps Lock - 1470ohm (1K and 470)
Num Lock - 200ohm (2x 100)

Note these are all the same type of 3mm blue LEDs from FrozenCPU. I even tried switching out the LEDs thinking that some may be inherently brighter then others, but that was not the case. The RF receiver is just doing some funky stuff with the voltages (changing the voltage on one LED seemed to affect the others as well).

Ok, with the LEDs out of the way I could move onto the connection switch. The lever switch the was mounted in the Base Station won't work as it will be too hard to mount (plus I would need a button), so I purchased a small switch from Radio Shack. I then made a mounting plate from plexi and painted the button Chrome (well, what I was hoping would be Chrome). I guess all Chrome paints are actually silver. I tried a spray paint and a brush on and neither is what I wanted.



If any on knows where I can get a button (or a N.O. pushbutton switch) that is chrome let me know. The button needs to be 1/4" across approximately. All I really need is the button, but a button and switch would be fine also.

Here are the LEDs and switch mounted inside the front cover. The switch is mounted temporarily with mounting tape.


I'll finish the front details tomorrow.
 
Thats some weird crap with the LEDs, glad you got them working. How are you going to rig up the charger? Is it going to be integrated into the case, or seperate but attached?
 
pilotman2004 said:
How are you going to rig up the charger? Is it going to be integrated into the case, or seperate but attached?
Click to expand...

I'm not going to use the charger, i.e. the Base Station. As you saw earlier the charger PCB is seperate from the receiver. So, I hope to make a custom charger base in the top of the case and mount the charger PCB there.
 
Cool, thats what I thought. That will be awesome having it integrated into the comp. Definitely going to be a hot LAN party computer!
 
Yeah, but where are you going to put the kitchen sink :D

Looks great so far...but do you really think hot pink is the way to go with the color scheme.. ;) How are things coming with the charger-inside-the-PS? I have seen quite a few mods pulling large voltages from there but nothing along the lines of 6v. You know if you get into it enough, you should post a walkthrough as I am sure there are other people trying to figure out where to get juice from, and finding ways into the PS would be nice.
 
hardwarephreak said:
How are things coming with the charger-inside-the-PS? I have seen quite a few mods pulling large voltages from there but nothing along the lines of 6v. You know if you get into it enough, you should post a walkthrough as I am sure there are other people trying to figure out where to get juice from, and finding ways into the PS would be nice.
Click to expand...

I've decided that it's not worth the trouble to try to boost/buck/convert anything from the power supply to 6v. The easiest way is going to be to just tap the 120v AC inside the power supply, run that line out of the power supply to the MX700's power brick, which then does that voltage conversion for me. ;) I guess I'll find out how well that works when I get to it.

hardwarephreak said:
Looks great so far...but do you really think hot pink is the way to go with the color scheme..
Click to expand...

I don't think pink is my color...see below. :D
 
Here are the mounted LEDs in chrome holders.

As you can see they are still bright even with the massive resistors I put on them. Anyway, you can also see that the connect button is more a silver then chrome. It is mounted temporarily and will be replaced later.

Oh, and I don’t see any scratches! :D

Here are some more shots of the front.

Notice that I also replaced the HDD LED so it matches the others. I think the carbon fiber turned out very nice. It's actually carbon fiber vinyl file and you can get it at MNPCTech, they same place where you get Modder's Mesh.
 
With the RF receiver and front done I can now concentrate on the charging station. I’ve decided that a small depression in the top of the case will work best for the mouse. This way I can be sure the mouse is sitting perfectly on the contacts. Also, the bottom of the depression will be made of mesh so it will also act as an air intake for the HSF when the mouse is in use.

First, I need a template of the mouse. You can’t just trace around this mouse because the bottom of it is beveled. So, I scanned the mouse and then used PhotoShop to make the template.

If you use this, just make sure your imaging software sets the pixels/inch to 200.

After cutting out the template I just traced it out on a two pieces of red acrylic that will be used for the walls of the depression.


I then flipped the template over and traced it onto the inside top of the case.
 
Thanks to everyone for their comments!

Everything was cut out with a scroll saw. I then glued the two acrylic cutouts together with acrylic glue to form the walls.


These will be glued (epoxy) to the inside-top of the case, aligned with the other cutout.


After everything was glued together it was time for sanding. I used the Dremel drum sander to get the acrylic to metal ridge smooth. I then wet-sanded the rest to 10,000 grit. It is so smooth that you can’t feel the transition from metal to acrylic! :D However, it didn’t matter how much I sanded I could not get out some scratches. So, I finally sprayed the finished acrylic with Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Enamel and that filled any scratches I missed.
 
Having a charging station isn't going to do me any good if it doesn’t have power. I’ve decided that the easiest way to get power to the charger was to just make use of the AC power brick that comes with it. So, how do we get 120v AC to the charger with out using a second power cord – tap the AC coming into the power supply of course. ;)

Here are before and after shots showing where I taped the incoming AC. Normally I would just tap the prongs on the back of the AC socket, but this Soltek power supply has the socket mounted to a PCB that has what looks like a conditioning circuit. Well, the next best thing is to tap the AC lines that leave the PCB for the power supply PCB (at least I know that power brick will have clean power :) ). This is actually a better idea as I can make use of the switch to turn the AC power off to everything whereas before there would still be AC going to the charger. I used a regular power cord as my tap line.


I drilled a hole in the side of the power supply, fitted a grommet, and ran the cord through.


I decided to mount the AC adapter in the back right corer of the case and this puts it out of the way so it doesn’t interfere with any components or working in the case. The only problem is that the cord and strain relief will be in front of the exhaust fan. So, I just opened the brick, removed the strain relief, drilled a hole in the side, and rerouted the cord out the side. I then filled the two holes with epoxy. You can also see that I cut the prongs down as I will be using spade connectors for the connection.


Now all there is to mount the power brick and make the connection. I used 3M Double-sided foam mounting tape to mount the power prick to the exhaust fan’s housing.
 
Very nice. I guess that is one way to solve the power issue. How did you come up with the idea to just use the brick? Makes things much easier if you ever decide to change mice.
 
5inistry said:
I think we have waited long enough for an update. Bring it on.
Click to expand...
[Obi-Wan Kenobi]Patience young padawan...[\Obi-Wan Kenobi], the update will come... :D

I like how you used spade connections and left the power block intact. That way if you get another mouse with a different charger, you can swap the blocks. I guess you'd hope that the new mouse would fit the indent on the top of the computer though...
 
5inistry said:
I think we have waited long enough for an update. Bring it on.
Click to expand...

Looks someone is impatient for me to get this done. ;) Anyway, I’ve been sick for the past week so that is the reason for the lack of updates.


pilotman2004 said:
I like how you used spade connections and left the power block intact. That way if you get another mouse with a different charger, you can swap the blocks. I guess you'd hope that the new mouse would fit the indent on the top of the computer though...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can swap the power block easily, but since the new base station is the in the shape of the mouse that would be a problem. However, I don’t plan on getting a new mouse for this computer, so I don’t see that being a problem.


Modder’s Mesh is being used for all of the windows. The mesh was cut to size and then cleaned with Lacquer Thinner. Next I sanded the mesh with 200 grit sandpaper and then primed with two coats Etching Primer. Finally the mesh was painted with two coats of Rust-Oleum Metallic Black and two coats of Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Enamel (or in the case of the mouse base, five coats). Here’s a pic of the products used:


I only have one picture of the side, but you can see the other side and how it was mounted using 3M Foam Mounting Tape.


Here is the mouse’s new home (charging station):

You can also see the two gold contacts poking through the mesh. I actually angled the mesh slightly to the right so the contacts would fit through the hexagons instead of having the cut an opening.

Here is the ugly view from the bottom:

Again, the mesh is held with mounting tape. The contacts were first de-soldered from the charger PCB. Next the back ends of the contacts leads were bent into a “U” shape so they would form a sort of spring and then glued to the acrylic.
 
i would put something that maybe works like a mouse trap to keep the mouse in place so you can just put it there and move arround.. : D
 
this is one awesome mod. keep up the awesome work. :D
ill be keeping an eye on this one every day.
 
Today I wired up the charger unit to the AC adapter and everything worked perfectly! :D

Here is a pic of the wiring if anyone wants to repeat:

The charger is mounted on a piece of double-sided foam mounting tape.

Pics showing the top and a profile shot:


Green Light!


But, I'm not done yet! Now I'm off to add some lighting… :cool:
 
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