original title: 'Making old, new again. Stuffing an 8800GTS into an Antec 3000B'

I recently decided to build another primary computer in anticipation of a couple upcoming PC games and a desire to decode H264 videos greater than 720p. My current system has served me well since it creation, but it’s never handled encodes higher than 720p without sync loss and more 1080p encodes are appearing surfacing thanks to the HDDVD/Bluray formats.

I’ve considered upgrading a couple times, but the noise vs performance gain was not worth it. But with Core2Duo based processors I’ve finally taken the jump. I was going to wait for ATI to counter Nvidia and see which graphics card would product the best performance vs. heat dissipation, but ATI continues to delay their ‘nextgen’ card and early previews have shown that it consumes more heat than Nvidia’s latest product line.

Which brings me to what I’ve built this time and how to stuff it in a case too short… Intel’s juggernaut Core2 QX6700 mixxed with Nvidia’s 2nd tear (now 3rd) 8800GTS 640MB graphics card. It’s a lot of system for any case and I really wanted an Antec P180B or similar, but prices are high again so I decided to recycle my Antec 3000B.

I knew the hard drive cage would be an issue, and the simplest thing would have been to run only one hard drive, with the drive cage in it’s original position. Something I was not going to do, as I know how much case vibration as carried over when I originally suspended my drive cage and later switched to foam softening.

Right away a came up with a practical and simple idea, move the front fan to the ‘other side’. But I wasn’t sure it it would rub against the poll off cover or rub against anything. So I laid a couple 120mm fans I had against it and noticed that there was enough space inside the cover to accommodate a standard 120x25mm fan but I still was not sure if anything would rub against it, causing the blades to not spin or carry additional vibration. So I held the fan in it’s new mounting location and installed the front cover, success. Hand spun the blades from the inside (front fan grill was already cut out) and did not notice any rubbing, so I knew I was set.

Fast forward to finally having the final part for my build, a PNY 8800GTS. Turns out that the power header is located on the back of the card and not it’s side as many pictures show. It was a crushing blow, but I refused to hold off any longer. So I compared the ‘recessed’ hard drive cage against the length of this massive card and it’s power header. I knew it would be a tight fit, but everything appeared fit it place with a little cable management and a couple curse words.

So I set to work on a massive rebuild, and when it was all finished, my old case fit a pair of hard drives mounted vertically around the power header with no contact. But it was a bitch to position everything and the drive cage almost sits flush with the case metal. Almost being the keyword, wouldn’t want any unnecessary case vibrations, would we?

How's that for long winded?

The guts of my rebuilt system:

CPU: Intel Core2 Quad-core Extreme Edition 6700 (266fsbx10) (paid less than 500USD)
Motherboard: Intel D975XBX2 (paid around 155USD)
Videocard: PNY 8800GTS 640mb (paid 350USD)
RAM: 2GB Kingston Hyper-X DDR2-800 'SLI Certified' 4.4.4.12@2.00volt
PSU: Seasonic 120mm 600watt (too loud, not pleased with)
Case: Antec 3000B (reused, reworked, trickedout)
Heatsink: Scythe Ninja (reused,great investment)
FANS: 2x Yate-Loon D12SL-12 @ 900rpm
HDD 1: Seagate SATAII 7200.10 250GIG (free, wanted SATAII drive for OS)
HDD 2: Seagate SATAI 7200.8 300GIG (reused, needed space and it's still too little)
Optical: Pioneer DVDRW A08 (reused, probably upgrade to an A12 soon)
FLP: Sony (reused)
OS: WinXP SP2 OEM (reused...heh)
Sound/NIC: onboard, might buy a SoundBlaster FX it onboard does not cut it.

New MISC: custom lexan air tunnel for heatsink (to replace old cardboard air tunnel)
Old MISC: see original configuration for details.

So far it’s been an affordable, effective 'rebuild' and I'm pleased all around. Not as silent, the bd meter verified that it's about 2db louder than my old configuration. The biggest offender is the power supply. Probably caused by too much heatsoak, so if it does not go away when finally upgrading to a chambered case [Antec P-whatever] I'll probably opt for an Antec Phantom 500 or a Silverstone ST50NF with a YaleLoon fan in the chamber. Thermalright HR-03 Plus with a 92mm Nexus fan would be nice too, but most likely unnecessary.

Picture Time:






HDD Cage:









Videocard:






CPU Heatsink:








Front, Rear, Misc

UPDATE: Just did some 3dmark06 testing. Videocard OC'd 660/950, CPU stock. Tried the card OC@660/1000 and it passed, but the score was less.

3dmark score 11655
sm 2.0 score 4838
sm 3.0 score 4760
cpu score 4201

rank # 40753
against similar #4

Your hdd suspension is very creatively done and how place intake 120mm shows you have thought out of the box. It looks very nice. Gabling is very neat.

Maybe rearrange your ducting--I see the piece of plexiglass or whatever basically assisting in the funneling of hot air to the psu--maybe try to duct/direct so the ninja funnels only to the rear fan, while the psu sucks up any extraneous hot air near the top (but not "hot off the grill, err cpu" air).

Looks nice though.

I just thought you should know (not that I'm trying to rain on your parade), but the 8500/8600 do H264 in hardware, the 8800 does not.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2977

With that being said, your rig is still strong enough to do it in software...

Awww look our cases are twins!

I may have to borrow your ducting strategy. Just switched to a bottom-intake PSU so I haven't had time to rework the airflow yet. That looks like it would work best. Since my 6800GT + ND-1 + sketchy custom duct does direct exhaust out the back of the case (and takes the south bridge heat with it), there isn't a lot of extra heat to be had in the case.

I may just take the Scythe fan off the Ninja and mount it in the rear case position. It runs silent at like 400RPM at 40% fan speed control in SpeedFan, so I wouldn't need to do any voltage mods.

Sorry for responding sooner, work + holiday weekend = busy, busy

Thejamppa Thanks, with the front grill still in tact I doubt the fan would have fit, But since I had it chopped off from last time everything went smoothly.

psiu Actually the duct is dead-on, my intentions were to have two heat extractors for cooling the fanless Ninja. Did it with my last rig and had positive results. But it is most likely contributing to PSU fan noise more than I would like because of the additional heat I’m forcing down it’s neck.

joelmusicman In Media Player Classic with VMR renders set to ‘use 3dcard’, CPU usage does drop. Hardware decoding was addedto the 7xxx series Nvidia cards IIRC and yes, I’m aware that native H264 decoding was only recently introduces with the 8600 series cards. Damn Nvidia for rushing their flagship card to market…

Jumper At one time I used to use a piece of cardboard which came with a 92mm Nexus fan as a duct for the rear fan. Makes a quick and simple duct, just use a rubber band to hold it in place or wire tie it, like I did.

Anything specific, or will standard ones suffice?

I believe they were "you MF CS, god damn u!" as I cut myself against an edge or something among those lines.

Nice, just upgraded to a 2GB Kingston Hyper-X DDR2-800 'SLI Certified' memory kit. I wasn't too pleased; I had to OC the memory to work at Kingston’s advertised timing speeds. Originally set at 5.5.5.16, now 4.4.4.12@2.00volt

EDIT: ordered an Antec P180 for 50bux after rebate, should have it today. NICE