This is the second Shuttle small form factor (SFF) system I have built. The first was an SS51G.
Parts used:
 The 80mm Nexus Real Silent Fan mounted on the side exhausts PSU air.
A cute little case with an ugly 80mm fan mounted on the side! Why?! The original Shuttle case had a terribly noisy 40mm PSU exhaust fan, a Yate Loon D40SM-12C. I had to decide what to do: buy an external fanless power supply, or do something drastic and much less expensive. I decided to cut an 80mm hole through the existing PSU and then another 80mm hole through the case panel. Finally, an 80mm fan is mounted.
 Custom E-SATA port below PSU. Fan grill cut out & replaced with wire grill.
The metal grill behind the rear 92mm fan was cut out and replaced with a less-restrictive wire mesh grill.
An E-SATA port was added below the power connector. This allows me to connect an optical drive or other SATA device whenever needed. I got the E-SATA port from a Gigabyte PCI-slot bracket that came with a motherboard. I wanted to be able to use my PCI slot in the future, so I mounted the port directly to the case.  PSU with 80mm circle cut out.
The 80mm circle cut out is close to the center. Air enters through the existing grill cutouts and the rear of the PSU where the 40mm fan used to be.
I gutted the old 40mm fan (removed the fan but kept the fan's frame installed.) A fan power connector was soldered to the existing fan power cable so I could connect the new fan to the PSU. An RPM sensor wire connects to the motherboard in order to monitor the new fan's speed.
 The CPU duct. Picture shows top of duct flipped over.
In order to exhaust CPU air with only one fan, I created a duct which pulls air through the CPU cooler and exhausts through the rear case fan. This allowed me to use an inexpensive Cooler Master Hyper TX2 heatpipe cooler instead of Shuttle's "ICE Genie".
The duct was created using plastic from a few DVD cases. It is strong and easy to cut. The material can be bent 90 degrees: I just mark a straight razor cut and then bend the plastic where I cut.
The top of the duct has a bend which provides clearance above the CPU cooler heatpipes without letting air flow above the heatsink. It also has some Acousti-Pack applied.
 Interior PCI side exposed. CPU duct reaches down to motherboard.
In the photo above, an additional northbridge heatsink can be seen mounted on top of the original northbridge heatsink. I used Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive. I think it helps a little based on touch-testing.
The PCI slot is still usable.
 Bottom CPU duct ensures all air passes through CPU cooler.
The 2.5" hard drive is suspended using 1.8mm Stretch Magic. Unlike 3.5" drives, the bottom mounting holes of 2.5" drives are located closer to the ends of the drive. This allows you to add screws to the bottom of the drive which prevent it from slipping out of the suspension. If I tumbled the case down stairs, the drive would probably remain in place - not that I'd expect anything to survive.
 Top case panel has self-stick vinyl tile and Acousti-Pack.
Self-adhesive vinyl tile provided a "massive" improvement to case vibrations. I lined the edges of the top tile with some aluminum tape, probably unnecessary.
Acousti-Pack was applied to the case panel. It surrounds the 80mm fan hole in order to work as a gasket between the fan and PSU.
Expandable sleeving was added to the fan's power wire to prevent it from getting caught between the metal panels while closing the case.
 The CPU duct is nothing more than four pieces of plastic from DVD cases.
TEMPERATURES
Ambient temperature was around 24C according to a sensor just outside the room. It is a little warmer in the room, however.
Real Temp during Idle (1 hour)
 SpeedFan during Idle (1 hour)
 Real Temp during Load (two instances of Prime95, 4 hours)
 SpeedFan during Load (two instances of Prime95, 4 hours)
The Temp1 and Temp2 sensors in SpeedFan are very high during load. This might be normal - one of the first test configurations I had with this system had more extreme cooling: a 120mm fan blowing down over a stock Intel CPU cooler and hanging over the rest of the motherboard, and these two sensors were reading about the same.
POWER CONSUMPTION
Watts Idle: 40
Watts Load: 82
When the ethernet cable is disconnected, power consumption decreases by 2 watts, both load and idle. Measurements taken with Kill A Watt. |
