Asus P5N7A-VM is kinda hot at the chipset. Make sure you got some good airflow going through that location.

It runs 42c~50c, without onboard VGA.

The second cause of the heat on the Asus P5N7A-VM is because of the lousy chipset HS, the heat pipe is placed on top of the HS instead of going through the core contact, but you could add a 30mm fan to cool it down. I had to add two 120mm fans into my crowded SG03 to push more hot air out of the case, the noise is a pain in the ears.

Well aside from the new Nvidia chipsets, other chipsets like the intel G4x series or the other platform, like the AMD platforms is a good go.
However, im not sure how cool the new AMD platform runs, but i do know the Intel integrated and older AMD platform perform much more cooler than the GF9300.

Basically, its not recommended to run the P5N7A on SG02, Ive tried it on my other SG02 and the heat was accumulated badly in the case with or without extra exhaust fan.

how much did u pay for ur sg02 bro?

NT06 ar, if all the sellers here out of stock then i think you have to stick to stock hsf for now, lol. I guess you'll have to wait for stocks then.

Btw, from my opinion, its best try not to use quad-cores or the current C2D 3.0ghz procs with such combination, the NT06 have to be fanless when inside the SG02, the quads or the duals with anything near 3ghz can heat up real fast in that case and hsf combination and by using only the PSU to pull the hot air from the cpu would do some damage in the long run.

Unless you are trying to do build a low profile spec system with a proc like :
Amd x2/x3
C2D 7xxx 

Anyway, you can test out if you want, its just my two cents. 

e8300/e8400 is kinda hot even in ATX cases as far as i know, the long term damage done could be around the area where the heat is stucked, especially the PSU, chipset and MOSFET .
There is not enough air pressure to push the hot air out of the back of SG02 unless you have the PSU fan modded to a 1.6k~2k rpm 12cm fan(overkill,lol), fitting in an NT06 would means there are no room for the FX121 fan.



Expect to see your CPU temps higher than normal, it is because the dissipated heat must pass through the NT06 before it is being sucked out of the case. The holes or mesh beside the case not only pulling cool air in but also pushing some part of the hot air out.

The air pressure of the SG02 is somewhat a flawed design for high-end stuffs, mostly because the main reason for this case is to enable a 10" card to be fitted into it, it is never designed with high end CPU , high power PSU , hot MOSFET , or the CHIPSET cooling in mind. Anyway, results may vary with different hardware, you should test it out with your current planned setup.

More over reviews results done by some site will show some 5c~10c heat difference as Malaysia's weather is kinda warm.

No lah, just sharing what I've experienced so far. I don't own a SG01 , but the design is very much the same to SG02F unless it is the first generation SG01 where the HDD cage is facing the other way round. 

I own only SG02F and SG03, tested both cases and the SG03 is the best although there is a price difference.
In order to have such a compact setup, you have to sacrifice your money/time to setup a nice SFF setup, unless its a low end spec setup.

Btw, your current spec list is fine but the AMD X3 7xx can also be your alternative, you just have to know how much power need for your usage.

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Added on June 25, 2009, 5:25 pm

Well my friend, that is the sacrifice of noise, speed, heat and money. There is no perfect balance on the configuration that suits our usage.

I have a E8200 with the P5N7A-VM motherboard in the SG-01 casing. My CPU heatsink is the NT-06. Normally this setup is a fanless setup, using the PSU's fan to suck air out from the NT-06 and out the back - the location of the PSU fan is right above the NT-06, almost touching.

Under full-load conditions (folding 24/7) the CPU will step down to 6x (I enabled this feature as I was worried about overheating), and at speed (2.0GHz) the core temps are around 60-65C. My concerns over this relatively high-temps led me to jury-rig a low-profile 80mm high-speed delta fan undernearth the heatsink blowing up through the fins and into the PSU. Having it blowing full-blast I can lower the CPU temps by about 3-6C, but the Delta fan has a relatively high-pitched whine which is very annoying, so I usually leave it off.

I have since decided to switch to another motherboard (ATX) in a larger casing (desktop) to allow me to run my CPU full speed (or even OC it a bit) without running extremely high temps.

The AMD PII X3 7xx is the competitor for the C2D 7xxx very much on par in performance. It may be abit warmer but you'll get an extra core for future use. 

Well just keep in mind the graphic cards required 2x6pin or 1x6pin + 1x8pin might not be able to fit into Sugo cases, and it also depends on where the power connector is located and how thick is your graphic card power cables(especially with sleeving).

I've had experience with XQBOX as well, its a good case with Lan party capability like build in steel handle to bring it around. I first bought the XQBOX then changed to the SG02, then switched to SG03 and the old SG02 is filled up with the old setups left around my room serving as a "Guaranteed Old-game compatibility player" 

Reason of switching :



I'm currently planning to remove all the fans in the sg03, insert two 1.6~2k rpm 12cm fans, it might be strong enough to push the hot air out and at the same time drawing cool air in with less spaghetti curling around the inside.

Btw, anyone knows any good recommendation on any good 12cm fans below RM50 a piece ? I'm thinking of getting Enermax Volcano.

wait... the asus P5Q-EM can get already in this country ah??? dammit.

last time i was all over LYP n none of the shops had it. had to settle with my Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H.

haiz...at least the gigabyte board is working well with no hiccups. but still wish i had the asus though

EDIT: just realized....the asus only has 1 PCI slot...i need 2 for my PCI Wifi and Audigy 4 soundcard....heh...good oso i bought the gigabyte...

but then again...if i bought the asus i might not have problems with the onboard soundcard like i did with my gigabyte which forced me to install the audigy4.