My aging LGA 775 board's pci express port died on me recently so I decided to make a whole new system. The p182 was starting to feel a little cramped although I have it modified to be whisper quiet I decided to go with the FT02B

case: Fortress FT02B
mobo: P8P67 Deluxe
cpu: 2600k
heatsink: Thermalright HR-02
gpu: msi 460 768mb
ssd: vertex 3 240gb + WD black 1TB
psu: corsair ax850w



I've changed the configuration slightly since building this a couple days ago. I've fully removed the stock fan and put a noctua @500rpm on the top of the HR-02 and put a fan controller in the front bay to keep the noctua and 3 stock fans under control.
They 180mm fans are far from silent on low and need undervolting. @ 500rpm they sound great and still move lots of air though.
Even with all my fans @ 500rpm under p95 I don't exceed mid 60s in temperature @4.4ghz.
The WD black I only hear if it's seeking a lot which is rarely and seek noise doesn't bother me as much as some.
I love the corsair ax850 so far it's whisper quiet.


Update! 5-20-11
+Sparkle Calibre x580

Hey, nice build!

That looks pretty good... First time I've seen that case - looks very interesting! How quiet is the system as a whole?

bravo!
can u post other images?

Very Quiet. I have no complaints about noise now that i installed a fan controller for the bottom 3 fans.
Noise isn't measurably louder than my p182 that only had 3 fans @ 500rpm and a passive psu. On load it does get a tiny bit louder once the ax850 revs up. But even my 460 under full load doesn't really spin up much past 40% with my settings.
It's a good case a bit quirky though. My least favorite aspect would be the useless 5.25" top bay (for an optical drive at least my fan controller is there).
I'm going to experiment with creating a duct for my HR-02 next and adding some foam around the case.

Pretty! Nice cable management!

Two questions:
1) Is that the stock GPU cooler? Any thoughts about it?
2) Are you using the built-in HDD connector board? Any thoughts?

Yes that is the stock heatsink on the MSI gtx 460 'cyclone' edition.

Once i modded the bios which was relatively easy fan noise @ heat @ 30% is acceptable (I don't have the fan ramp up beyond that until the card hits 65 degrees video cards can take a lot of heat).
Yeah using the built in there's only the one slot but it seems to work fine the trays are nice.

I like that black-on-black for the cabling, it makes them harder to see.

up!

Yes sorry bear didn't notice that message. I'll take more pictures tomorrow. I added in and changed a couple things.
Tried a fan duct but it actually increased temps a couple degrees not decreased. Added a noctua @ 700rpm and tuned the other 3 180mm fans down to 500rpm.
I really think that to make this case 'silent' one needs to undervolt the 180mm fans. It's 'managable' on low @ stock but not good enough for me.

On load my after several hours of prime 95 my 2600k @ 4.4ghz 1.288 vcore these are my temps:




Yeah for sure I could actually have done much more with my cables but didn't feel a reason to. Have since cleaned up behind the case a bit since there's not a ton of leeway cable wise back there. More than the back of the p182 though.

Okay. Reworked the build a bit and added calibre x580 in.
It's an amazing cooler with some modification
Stock the fans on the sparkle are set to 40% minimum and 85% load. 40% is OK but not really silent, 85% is pretty good actually for load. But this isn't good enough for me.
I modded the bios via NiBiTor and Nvflash to 15% min 85% load. This made it just barely audible over my 3 180mm fans @ 480rpm in my silverstone FT02B + the 500rpm gentle typhoon on my HR-02.
But i wanted to see how low i could go.
Modded it to 0% minimum and 85% load.
Anything under 6% turns the fans off. I'm guessing 7-15% is around 800rpm as afterburner reports rpm as like 15000 rpm or something wild.
On idle clocks the fans turn off and it keeps the card around 50c.
And on load i cant get the damn thing to break 65c on furmark! Fans never go above 15% (around 900rpm).

That's right so I have a passive 580 on idle (well a couple 500rpm fans still run).

Only downside I can find is it kicks off the heat into the case and brings up the temps on my 2600k a little bit. But the FT02B is such a great case it still moves a lot of air @500rpm.

I removed the other hard drive trays and directed the first 180mm fans airflow towards the 1tb black. This keeps it always around 33c instead of the 38c it was at. I added a 500rpm Gentle Typhoon on top of the HR-02 (basically inaudible except up close). For now I have a Noctua S12 that runs @ 900rpm. I turn the noctua on only @ idle. I had another fan at the top running @ 500rpm but I found a duct worked just as good without sacrificing temperatures.

Please see top post for the update!

Very nice, and thank you for all the details, i also modded my graphic card, i cant go below 30% but its ok.
You should be carefull with your 580, use CPUID to be sure of the fan speed and temperature.
The gpu cooler is simply the best, you can buy it for 70dollars and install it on a graphic card.

I am planning to change both stock fan of my Fractal R3 with 2 SleepStream (SY1225SL12LM-P , same as my Mugen2, runs at 90RPM at idle) but there is the GentleTyphoon : 500,800,1150,1450, and 1850 models, what can you advice me?

System Layers, why exactly did you mount the Noctua fan to the HR-02 with plastic ties? Was there something deficient with the standard HR-02 fan mounts?

Even @ 15% it never goes above 65c load under synthetic benchmark. At idle I do leave it at 7% for now because the 1 fan above the memory keeps running (@ around 800rpm) and the other 2 shut off. This keeps some airflow above the memory.
In the future I might leave it at fully passive and put some on some memory heatsinks. I'm pretty sure the memory would still be fine without a fan running over it @ idle but *shrug*.


Yeah I couldn't fit the memory in the first slot with the fan clips. Just barely fits the fan with plastic tie along with the memory in first slot. I can live with it.

Just wanted to say, that your system looks great.
Now I know which direction I should take my system.
I already have GTX580, 2500k and AX750 also in FT02, so my next steps would be HR-02 and Accelero Xtreme Plus II (your Sparkle has one as default?).

I keep reading on various Forums that the Accelero XTREME Plus won't work with the FT02 & that you must use standard blower type coolers . I've never quite believed it or was at least was hoping it wasn't true. I then find this link & it seems it worked a dream in your set up.
Iv'e been wanting this case for a while but the thought of howling GPU fans was putting me off. Iv'e read so many reviews of the FT02 where they tell you the case is near silent till the GPU fans kick in .

Reading this thread has been really reassuring. I was thinking about using the Accelero Hybrid but then there is the problem of where to put the Radiator , an even bigger problem with 2 of them !

An upgraded Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 would be near perfect in this case but it seems it doesn't have the grunt for a top end graphic card.

Of the available solutions my preference would be for the Accelero Xtreme 7970 & after reading this thread I'm ready to give it a try Regard Beebee

PS: I have a HR-01 plus & always thought it would be a great fit with this case, but finding an 1155 adaptor for it,seems to have suddenly become very difficult, at least in Australia. I'm still searching thou Regards

The argument against an Accelero Xtreme would just be that it's fins run across the card rather than along it, this doesn't fit in with the bottom to top cooling of the FT02 theoretically. It will still cool very well I'm sure but you might make a bit more noice along the way what with the fans having to spin a little faster to compensate.

The Accelero S1 Plus would fit in with the bottom to top cooling plan for the FT02 as it's fins do run along the card. You would however have to fit a pair of 120mm fans to it to get the equivalent level of cooling for a high end card. No reason why this can't be done though and it might end up a little quieter given the bigger fan size.

That argument has always struck me as a bit odd, as the fins would be across the fan flow in a normal case as well .
The heat pipe argument" that the heat pipes would be fighting gravity in all of the vertical orientation cases" is a bit trickier & it's beginning to look like I will have to do my own experimenting with that .

The S1 Plus is a little to small for 2 120MM fans but a pair the Scythe 100mm Kaze will fit nicely with no overlap, but all the information online seem's to suggest that even with the 2 fans it will still be inadequate to cool either a 680 or 7970. Anyway it's time to stop reading & start building. Thanks for the input Regards Beebee

Iv'e been looking at the Twin Turbo, Arctic says it is incompatible with the 7970 but I suspect it won't be that hard to adapt it. Has anyone on here modded it to fit? as it seems a much better match for the FT02 or Raven cases if it can be made to fit Regards