I think im slowly goin to CM frenzy over here without realising it...

CM Centurion 5
CM GeminII
CM CoolViva Z1



Perfect blowing direction to my crossfire on the 2 blowholes i made XD



Naked



This post has been edited by AoiNatsume: Sep 18 2007, 12:01 AM

yup.. on the side panel.

gonna DIY my own filter soon with pantyhose
no time to do it now, i dont like meshed filters, disrupt the airflow and pretty annoying at times.

C5... its one of the best build quality in the market u can find now, with not a bad design, and above all, its cheap. I doubt there is any other case within the RM17x range that gives this sort of quality.

i just remembered reading abit it long ago and forgotten who written it...
so it was uncle's idea eh.

who... i got one of those, you can take the noise?
it really makes you feel like your rig's gonna fly out the window

flashing off !!!
my new cm690

The build is pretty solid overall EXCEPT for the side panel which feels quite filmsy though... cable management was a breeze as well, theres lots of holes here n there for you to hide your cables. My only problem is that my 4pin plug isnt long enough.. and it has to jump straight to the connector instead off following the 24pin line. To summarize everything, for RM240 its a great case to buy. Quality build is good and air flow is very good as well considering the ample space for MANY 120mm.

Pros
- Cheap
- Solid quality (Not very solid for the sidepanel though)
- Great airflow
- Easy cable management
- HDD Cage makes life easier
- The "7" shaped sidepanel is actually pretty usefull, it covers up the area which are usually infested with "cacings"

Cons
- Sidepanel is extremely hard to close/open (most likely due to the bad sidepanel quality)
- Its pretty heavy
- ahh.. cant think of anything else.. the only problem i had with this case is the sidepanel and my fuggly 4pin connector that is too short

Pics













This post has been edited by AoiNatsume: Oct 12 2007, 02:31 AM

The HDD cage cannot be removed.. though i dont really see that as a problem... And yea, i got my ram cooler from AllnGap, the best performing ram coolers and the cheapest among em all Not to mention you can barely hear the noise at all.

As for the temps, only minor improvement overall from my previous C5(with 2 80mm modded blowhole). But heck, its all 120mm fan and its SILENT. But if compared to a standard non-modded C5, this ought to perform way better.

Dust wont be an issue for the top 2 120mm fans. Normally, the dust only builds up from the intake, not the exhaust. You can easily remove the mesh and wash/dust it.

For airflow in my case i choose exhaust more than intake, simply because the whole front panel is mesh designed which means air can be pulled in easily from anywhere on the front. Currently, only 1 fan on the HDD, and 3 exhaust (1 back, 2 top). I personally think that the 2 120mm fan on top as exhaust is pretty ideal as air will travel up in the case.

This post has been edited by AoiNatsume: Oct 12 2007, 11:05 PM

if you actually look properly.. you'll notice its the evercooll alu fan on my exhaust =)

sidepanel definately has to be an intake, my 8800GTS produces quite a significant amount of heat. However, theres an Evercool Fox-2 blower right under my card to blow it off the case. Its a pretty good idea to use a blower in between your GFX/PCI slots, as the heat tends to get stuck there often causing unnescessary heat.

Planning to get something better for my sidepanel fan.. the cm fan is...
maybe another evercool alu fan its by far the best cfm/noise ratio of the fans that i owned.

This post has been edited by AoiNatsume: Oct 13 2007, 01:23 AM

nice fans, but that amount of fans isnt gonna help your cooling. Intake : Exhaust ratio must be balanced, and exhaust should be slightly more than intake as well for perfect air circulation and it also helps in reducing noise due to unbalanced circulation.

AFAIK, the HD2600XT is way cooler than its counterpart (8600GT). Of course, on the high end side, 2900XT is a real burner. Though i think its just the matter of time before they implement a more power efficient chip in their later GFX.

ngbh has them as well =)

yea, not only that, its pretty hard to screw. But as for performance : noise. Its pretty good =)

yea its really tight. Fits the CM690 though.

Just like to share a little thing i did on my CM690 with a tight budget WC kit.

Initial plan is to fit a 120mmx2 rad on the top, unfortunately it is not possible along with the fans. So i thought of installing the fans outside of the case, a little modding is required, i currently dont have any proper tools so this is the temporary result.

Did some rewiring while im at it.. and got myself a fan controller to minimise the noise =)

Whats new here is the whitewater CPU block, self modded nirox P3800 pump, gas tubes !!! (it was the cheapest solution and the only 1/2" tube that i manage to find around hardware shops...) then again, it looks pretty cool though the current rad was bought from BST dude for only RM60 , it is a thermaltake dual120mm rad (using this while waiting for my cool-trek from moderno XD)

So.. basically this is what it looks like.





And the naked view (without side/front/top panels)




The Thermaltake 120x2 radiator





This would be the cacing escape hole



And this would be their home
Most of the cables are wired through the holes at the 5.25" bays by removing the molex so that they cant be seen passing through the side.



The 2 120mm fan on top



UV-fied a little



This post has been edited by AoiNatsume: Nov 30 2007, 02:42 AM

now with covers on ( there are still work to do for the meshed grills, as said i dont have any tools for now so im using the anti-slip pads to cover the ugly part that was sawn off to give more space for the 2 fans to fit )



I noticed the sidepanel fan is causing 2 of the tubes to kink pretty badly when sidepanel closed.



so.. a simple solution install it outside !!!



and to minimize cacings.. this is what i did with the thermaltake fan and the fan controller



the reservoir is tied via zipties (was initially thinking to DIY a reservoir.. but was poisoned by moderno and his demo rig )



This is where the pump power cord exits



Well.. thats about all for now, will update once my new rad arrives.. and im thinking to change the tubes, it looks pretty awkward

Honestly, these tubes are quite soft and nice to bend, does not kink easily, worth every penny. Only cost me about RM2 per feet. But they aren't exactly the looker

its a 2nd hand whitewater block bought from a friendly forumer here, there are 2 outlet from the water block and 1 inlet. GPU block would be the next thing in my list after the rad

As temps, not very good at the moment, i think most likely because of a lousy rad which is bottlenecking the water flow since it was originally a 3/8". Still a good buy though since its only RM60 , ill post up some temps on WC thread when my cooltrek DP 1202 arrives

oh... thanks for the tips, will try it when i get home

Yea, the tubes are slightly blue actually, initially, i pictured the green liquid and the white mesh inside the tubes to glow.. but it turns out the light blue is glowing instead, though it actually look pretty good heck it cost me only about RM2 per feet

lol lol ahaha, actually there was another tube i bought before this one im currently using. Im very sure it would look much nicer than this blue ones, problem is, that tube is too hard.... and might give lots of pressure to the component attached to it. Its clear acrylic and with white threadings. I might go search for more cheaper pipe solutions from other hardware shops, will share with u guys if i find any good ones