I stumbled across a cheap-ish YY cube (0221B) this week and being less than satisifed with my antec 3700 BQE i've grabed one (its quiet, just not silent). The antec is moded with a nice Thermochill 120.1 on the front fan behind a Papst 4412FGL & a couple inches of ducting, the problems is that it still makes too much damm noise. As best as i can figure the problem is the air turbulance passing through the rad soooo....
The cube has far more room to operate in and that should make things easier, plus i can use that space to run some ducting around. The plan is for only the pump to live on the mobo side and the rest to be crammed into the drive area. I've got no 3 1/2 bays used (HDDs will be in no vibes style 5 1/4 bays) so i can get rid of those bays and upgrade at least 1 of the rear fan ports to 120mm.
Now comes the important bit, i want to duct the air coming in to the rad then back out again and cover the duct lining with sound proofing foam. I expect it will reduce the airflow somewhat but not too greatly and it should reduce the turbulance noise a lot, especially if it involves right angles.
Anyway, tips would be appreciated.
Yeong Yang cube tips
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
bastard! would love either of the YY cube cases but they're hard to find here, at least without paying like $200 for shipping.
if you're reasonably handy, there are a ton of ways you could do it...
you could divide the drive area into a top and bottom with a sheet of plexi or aluminum or anything, open up the bottom part entirely, and put a heatercore in the bottom front... then you could forego a shroud and just put the fans in the rear of the case, and put sound absorber on the case walls if you still wanted to.
you could put the casters on it (if they come standard, sounds like they do), cut a hole in the bottom rear of the case and put a heatercore there, then duct it out the rear, either using a shroud + fans or again with fans on the rear of the case... this would be a bit weird to duct though, you'd most likely have to build it out from the third-highest 3.5" bracket or something.
what i would probably be most inclined to do is cut out a space in the bottom of the case for the heatercore, near the front, seal off that half of the case entirely, and then exhaust with like 3 120mm fans.
first way would probably be the easiest way to ensure good air flow and also duct it, but wastes a lot of space, second way wastes the least space while still keeping the core's air isolated from the rest of the system, and the third way would actually gain something from using sound absorber (for the drives), is easy, keeps the fans far away, takes up almost no space aside from the heatercore, and maintains airflow over your drives if done well too. only downside with the third way is you'd need fairly decent air pressure, might need to use 38mm thick fans to be able to not run at 12v... and it sort of ignores the "must be ducted" thing, but it makes a duct out of that half of the case.
course that's all assuming you're using at least a 2x120mm rad, gets way less kludgy if you use single 120mm... considering if you make a duct for a heatercore, it's more like making a smaller duct for the rest of the stuff in the case to sit in.
one other way, if you aren't worried at all about drive ventilation and don't need any of those rear cages, would be to simply take all the rear cages out and go from the bottom out the top of the case. you could put a hc in the bottom of the case at the back, seal off that part of the case, use a regular shroud + fans on the heatercore, and exhaust out the top. convection would help a bit here and sound absorber might actually make a difference to fan noise this way, but it'd look horrible if you messed up or couldn't find/make a matching wire grill to go over the top of the hole or something.
with this case it's more like one of those old "how many triangles can you make from this drawing" puzzles, you can use any two sides but not the middle, just measure stuff and figure out what takes the least cutting without having big noisy openings facing you afterwards.
since this is so long already (been daydreaming about cube cases for a while as you can see), one last thing: you word it as ducting the air both to and from the rad, but in almost any setup you should only have to duct it on one side of the rad. probably making way way too much work for yourself otherwise, unless you have an 80mm rad or something silly hanging in the middle of the case.
edit: durr, missed you saying you had a thermochill 120.1. all the stuff i said still works, just move the rad a few inches farther inside since you now have way more options, or put it against the back of the case if you go from the bottom rear intake to rear exhaust for example.
also, when you said right angles, did you mean you should be able to eliminate the noise made by air going around right angles, or that using right angles would be able to eliminate a lot of the noise? if you just used a slightly larger duct than necessary it would be trivially easy to baffle without affecting flow too much...
if you're reasonably handy, there are a ton of ways you could do it...
you could divide the drive area into a top and bottom with a sheet of plexi or aluminum or anything, open up the bottom part entirely, and put a heatercore in the bottom front... then you could forego a shroud and just put the fans in the rear of the case, and put sound absorber on the case walls if you still wanted to.
you could put the casters on it (if they come standard, sounds like they do), cut a hole in the bottom rear of the case and put a heatercore there, then duct it out the rear, either using a shroud + fans or again with fans on the rear of the case... this would be a bit weird to duct though, you'd most likely have to build it out from the third-highest 3.5" bracket or something.
what i would probably be most inclined to do is cut out a space in the bottom of the case for the heatercore, near the front, seal off that half of the case entirely, and then exhaust with like 3 120mm fans.
first way would probably be the easiest way to ensure good air flow and also duct it, but wastes a lot of space, second way wastes the least space while still keeping the core's air isolated from the rest of the system, and the third way would actually gain something from using sound absorber (for the drives), is easy, keeps the fans far away, takes up almost no space aside from the heatercore, and maintains airflow over your drives if done well too. only downside with the third way is you'd need fairly decent air pressure, might need to use 38mm thick fans to be able to not run at 12v... and it sort of ignores the "must be ducted" thing, but it makes a duct out of that half of the case.
course that's all assuming you're using at least a 2x120mm rad, gets way less kludgy if you use single 120mm... considering if you make a duct for a heatercore, it's more like making a smaller duct for the rest of the stuff in the case to sit in.
one other way, if you aren't worried at all about drive ventilation and don't need any of those rear cages, would be to simply take all the rear cages out and go from the bottom out the top of the case. you could put a hc in the bottom of the case at the back, seal off that part of the case, use a regular shroud + fans on the heatercore, and exhaust out the top. convection would help a bit here and sound absorber might actually make a difference to fan noise this way, but it'd look horrible if you messed up or couldn't find/make a matching wire grill to go over the top of the hole or something.
with this case it's more like one of those old "how many triangles can you make from this drawing" puzzles, you can use any two sides but not the middle, just measure stuff and figure out what takes the least cutting without having big noisy openings facing you afterwards.
since this is so long already (been daydreaming about cube cases for a while as you can see), one last thing: you word it as ducting the air both to and from the rad, but in almost any setup you should only have to duct it on one side of the rad. probably making way way too much work for yourself otherwise, unless you have an 80mm rad or something silly hanging in the middle of the case.
edit: durr, missed you saying you had a thermochill 120.1. all the stuff i said still works, just move the rad a few inches farther inside since you now have way more options, or put it against the back of the case if you go from the bottom rear intake to rear exhaust for example.
also, when you said right angles, did you mean you should be able to eliminate the noise made by air going around right angles, or that using right angles would be able to eliminate a lot of the noise? if you just used a slightly larger duct than necessary it would be trivially easy to baffle without affecting flow too much...
woah! kudos for the huge post 
I like the whole in the bottom of the case idea, its something i hadn't even thought about but it makes perfect sense. The castors do come with the case and it saves hacking holes in the front, which i believe is already ventilated (i'l be blocking that up).
The reason for ducting both sides of the rad is to eliminate the noise, i'll do some testing but since thats where its coming from i assume it'll flow both ways. At the moment it seems best to draw in under the 5 1/4's from the floor, through some ducting (1 right angle for noise killing) to a horizontally mounted rad, then the same again out to the lower fan exhaust (if theres room).
I'll get my hands on the case tonight and start mocking things up with cardboard, the only real decision now will be to make it out of aluminium or figure out how clear perspex could look cool while its coated with insulation foam. That and where to put the fans, i'm thinking mid way along the ducting but that'll all depend on angles etc.
I'll have to get piccies while its underway, should look mad when its complete and be very very quite too.
I like the whole in the bottom of the case idea, its something i hadn't even thought about but it makes perfect sense. The castors do come with the case and it saves hacking holes in the front, which i believe is already ventilated (i'l be blocking that up).
The reason for ducting both sides of the rad is to eliminate the noise, i'll do some testing but since thats where its coming from i assume it'll flow both ways. At the moment it seems best to draw in under the 5 1/4's from the floor, through some ducting (1 right angle for noise killing) to a horizontally mounted rad, then the same again out to the lower fan exhaust (if theres room).
I'll get my hands on the case tonight and start mocking things up with cardboard, the only real decision now will be to make it out of aluminium or figure out how clear perspex could look cool while its coated with insulation foam. That and where to put the fans, i'm thinking mid way along the ducting but that'll all depend on angles etc.
I'll have to get piccies while its underway, should look mad when its complete and be very very quite too.
actually i think a better way of wording my entire first post with a 1x120mm rad in mind would just be to say "pick two adjacent sides" instead of "pick two opposite sides".
except front, top front and possibly the side are probably ruled out due to noise in most setups, along with using the back or top as an intake.
only thing to be careful of with a bottom intake is carpets (tons of dust), might want to put the cube on one of those clear plastic entry mat type things if it's on a carpet and you go with a hole in the bottom.
not sure about the actual duct though... easiest and most efficient way would probably still be to just make it the entire width of that half of the case, unless it's wide enough that you'd be able to use the leftover space for something else otherwise.
exactly how big is the 0221 anyways? i've seen at least 3 nearly completely different sets of measurements for it...
except front, top front and possibly the side are probably ruled out due to noise in most setups, along with using the back or top as an intake.
only thing to be careful of with a bottom intake is carpets (tons of dust), might want to put the cube on one of those clear plastic entry mat type things if it's on a carpet and you go with a hole in the bottom.
not sure about the actual duct though... easiest and most efficient way would probably still be to just make it the entire width of that half of the case, unless it's wide enough that you'd be able to use the leftover space for something else otherwise.
exactly how big is the 0221 anyways? i've seen at least 3 nearly completely different sets of measurements for it...
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Gooserider
- Posts: 587
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Don't know if it's still there or not, but ProCooling had a feature article once on doing a mega cooling setup in a YY cube, it might be worth seeing if you can find it to see if there are any ideas you can borrow...
I personally didn't care for the YY cube because I thought it was rather cramped on the mobo side, essentially it is just wide enough to hold the mobo and cards, with no extra space. My AMS CK1100 case is wider, and has more room on the mobo side. (the PSU side is about the same width)
Gooserider
I personally didn't care for the YY cube because I thought it was rather cramped on the mobo side, essentially it is just wide enough to hold the mobo and cards, with no extra space. My AMS CK1100 case is wider, and has more room on the mobo side. (the PSU side is about the same width)
Gooserider
heh, i was kind of expecting that. Beofre posting i looked at pretty much every thread about the yy cube and in nearly every one you pop up singing the praises of that other case Anyway, the main reason i went that way was the price, i saved about £30 / $50. Everything is self contained in the Antec case so it will fit in the yy, all i've got to do is find space for the ducting.
I'm having a fair few problems considering the space in the case, most of it is dead in the mobo side and i don't think theres an easy way to use it. I'm trying to keep as many of the 5 1/4 bays as possible and not block the PSU vents which isn't easy.
I do know that i'll be mounting the rad horizontally but across the width of the drive bay, that'll help a lot and after i cut up some paper markers i'll be able to check if my current idea is valid. If it is i'll have 2*90 degree turns on the intake (from the floor) and 1*90 + 1*180 bends on the out duct. I'll be interested to see how that kills the airflow, might be quite drastic.
Anyway, the main reason i went that way was the price, i saved about £30 / $50. Everything is self contained in the Antec case so it will fit in the yy, all i've got to do is find space for the ducting.I'm having a fair few problems considering the space in the case, most of it is dead in the mobo side and i don't think theres an easy way to use it. I'm trying to keep as many of the 5 1/4 bays as possible and not block the PSU vents which isn't easy.
I do know that i'll be mounting the rad horizontally but across the width of the drive bay, that'll help a lot and after i cut up some paper markers i'll be able to check if my current idea is valid. If it is i'll have 2*90 degree turns on the intake (from the floor) and 1*90 + 1*180 bends on the out duct. I'll be interested to see how that kills the airflow, might be quite drastic.
heh with that much ducting i'd bet the reduced noise would be more due to less flow through the rad openings.
if your 5.25" bays are intended mostly for hard drives, a different way of mounting them might be easier overall? just put them on rubber both sides of the case floor, or hang them all from the roof of the case or something...
if your 5.25" bays are intended mostly for hard drives, a different way of mounting them might be easier overall? just put them on rubber both sides of the case floor, or hang them all from the roof of the case or something...
Well the ducting has turned into a nightmare, but its getting there. While its always 120m deep the width / height drops to only 60mm at some points. So yeah, reduced airflow is a factor, especially when the sound insulation mat is taken into account.
For anyone thats interested i'm covering up the rear 92mm fans with aluminium sheet and putting in a single 120mm instead. Through some nice routing i've kept all but one 5 1/4 bays. Theres still some tweaking to do, i've got the final top (exhaust) carboard mock-up in place but i won't get more sheet aluminium till mid-week
Looking at it, i think i could elastic mount HDDs in the drive slots because of the slide rails. Might try it out at some point but for the moment my only HDD has a SilentMaxx bay (no-vibes thingy). I don't really need 5 bays, just thought it'd be a shame to wast them.
For anyone thats interested i'm covering up the rear 92mm fans with aluminium sheet and putting in a single 120mm instead. Through some nice routing i've kept all but one 5 1/4 bays. Theres still some tweaking to do, i've got the final top (exhaust) carboard mock-up in place but i won't get more sheet aluminium till mid-week
Looking at it, i think i could elastic mount HDDs in the drive slots because of the slide rails. Might try it out at some point but for the moment my only HDD has a SilentMaxx bay (no-vibes thingy). I don't really need 5 bays, just thought it'd be a shame to wast them.
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Gooserider
- Posts: 587
- Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2003 10:45 pm
- Location: North Billerica, MA, USA
- Contact:
[quote]dis:
heh, i was kind of expecting that. Beofre posting i looked at pretty much every thread about the yy cube and in nearly every one you pop up singing the praises of that other case Anyway, the main reason i went that way was the price, i saved about £30 / $50. Everything is self contained in the Antec case so it will fit in the yy, all i've got to do is find space for the ducting.[\quote]
Yes, I do tend to be a bit of a broken record on that case, but I appreciate that you already have the YY, and saved a bunch on it, no problem there. I was just pointing out the ProCooling article in case you hadn't seen it. I figured they might have some ideas you could use, or possibly something inspiring otherwise.
Good luck with your setup, hope it works well for you.
Gooserider
heh, i was kind of expecting that. Beofre posting i looked at pretty much every thread about the yy cube and in nearly every one you pop up singing the praises of that other case Anyway, the main reason i went that way was the price, i saved about £30 / $50. Everything is self contained in the Antec case so it will fit in the yy, all i've got to do is find space for the ducting.[\quote]
Yes, I do tend to be a bit of a broken record on that case, but I appreciate that you already have the YY, and saved a bunch on it, no problem there. I was just pointing out the ProCooling article in case you hadn't seen it. I figured they might have some ideas you could use, or possibly something inspiring otherwise.
Good luck with your setup, hope it works well for you.
Gooserider
Yep, no problem with offering up other options and the ProCooling articles were a good read.
At the moment i'm waiting on some aluminium sheeting to arrive before i can build the ducts, the bad news is that some rough testing shows that the sound insulation probably won't make much difference. It seems to filter out some high end noise but the overall level remains about the same.
I can't be sure since it was a rough test but i'm working on a backup plan, basically instead of ducting the exhaust i'll empty it into the case (also sound proofed) where in theory it will still find it way out and the noise should be reduced even further, albeit with increased case temps.
At the moment i'm waiting on some aluminium sheeting to arrive before i can build the ducts, the bad news is that some rough testing shows that the sound insulation probably won't make much difference. It seems to filter out some high end noise but the overall level remains about the same.
I can't be sure since it was a rough test but i'm working on a backup plan, basically instead of ducting the exhaust i'll empty it into the case (also sound proofed) where in theory it will still find it way out and the noise should be reduced even further, albeit with increased case temps.
Hmmm, yeah its been a while sitting on the drawing board.
The main problem is fabricating all the bits for the ducting. Initially i'd wanted to keep it in as few pieces as possible but that proved difficult without the proper tools and at the end of the day i want it to look good, for the few times the side of the case is actually off. So at the moment i'm creating some diagrams and templates for the pieces, once thats done i'll batter them out one weekend and get it finished.
As things stand the back panel has been changed, having the 2 existing fans holes blocked up and replaced with a 120mm gap and an extra socket that can power up my water pump. For the moment the rad is mounted onto the new 120mm hole, patrly to test its weight bearing properties and partly as i had to get the case moveable a while ago.
I've just got my mitts on a digital camera, i'll get some pics up early into the new year. More than likely they'll have the ducting in there too.
The main problem is fabricating all the bits for the ducting. Initially i'd wanted to keep it in as few pieces as possible but that proved difficult without the proper tools and at the end of the day i want it to look good, for the few times the side of the case is actually off. So at the moment i'm creating some diagrams and templates for the pieces, once thats done i'll batter them out one weekend and get it finished.
As things stand the back panel has been changed, having the 2 existing fans holes blocked up and replaced with a 120mm gap and an extra socket that can power up my water pump. For the moment the rad is mounted onto the new 120mm hole, patrly to test its weight bearing properties and partly as i had to get the case moveable a while ago.
I've just got my mitts on a digital camera, i'll get some pics up early into the new year. More than likely they'll have the ducting in there too.