Lian-li v1100 vs 2100

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Simonbun
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Lian-li v1100 vs 2100

Post by Simonbun » Mon Nov 15, 2004 3:35 pm

Hi everyone,

Just a little comparison between the 1100 and the 2100. I've had both, only recently upgraded. The internal components are the same: a zalman all copper 7000b and 2x papst4412fgl @ just over 5V with zalman fanmates.
Only 'mod' is on the exhaust fan thats been turned around so it sucks air into the case.

ASUS K8N-E DELUXE
AMD64 3200+
2x 512 corsair value
msi gf 5600fx 256
1 74GB raptor, 1 200GB wd, 1 120GB maxtor
+ soundcard, dvdburner etc etc etc

The good:
Temps have gone down quite nicely (no surprises there):
CPU (idle/load): 1100: 43°/55° | 2100: 38°/48°
Hard drives have all gone down by approx. 5° ... they do have alot more free space around them than with the 1100.

Its a tad more silent than the 1100 when harddrives are idle, it produces a little less 'hum'. Probably because the 2100's sidepanels and case in general are considerably heavier.

Its alot neater in the cable-gami departement. I have a Tagan480Watt PSU, and in the 1100, space would be very tight for the cables, seeing as the 1100's PSU compartiment isnt that spacious.
The 2100 has a noticeably larger PSU compartiment, alowing for the cables to be neatly put on top of the PSU.

The bad:
Now this is weird. The seek noise from my raptor as become quite a bit more audible. No clue as to what is causing it. I'm planning on decoupling all of the drives sometime next week though.

Cable length. My asus motherboard has a couple of sata connectors at the bottom of the board. But with lian-li's inverted design, these connectors end up at the very top of the board. I actually needed to get a longer sata cable at the store. The cables that came with the asus motherboard fell short about 20cm.
Same story with the front panel audio, usb and firewire connectors. Asus has put these on the bottom (thus top) too. They fall short about 5cm. Not too big a disaster though, i don't use these connectors much.

All in all these cases are deadsilent IF you replace the standard fans with nice ones (@ 5v ofcourse) and IF you decouple the harddrives.

Only have to decouple my harddrives and ... then ... probably get a new lcd panel for crying out loud. My 19" CRT produces a slight hum that i had never noticed before, until i stumbled upon these forums.
Costly things those 19" lcd's :/

Hope all this is of use to anyone.
gnight

lemmerdeur
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Post by lemmerdeur » Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:55 am

This was very useful for me.

I just ordered most of the parts for my new PC, including a Lian Li V1100B.

Since I will be using my 2 new Raptor HDD's in Smart Drive 2002 Copper Cool enclosures in 5.25" bays, the whole area for the 3.5" drives will be empty. Also, I will have no PCI cards, only the two PCI-Express Nvidia cards in SLI, so that shoudl leave plenty of space free.

What fans have you used to replace those provided by Lian Li? I ordered two Nexus 120mm Real Silents for the case, and an AcoustiFan AF120CT for my XP-120 CPU cooler.

davidstone28
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Post by davidstone28 » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:06 am

It's also worth cutting the fan grill(s) which are very restrictive.

Simonbun
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Post by Simonbun » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:06 pm

Currently i have 2 Papst4412fgl 120mm fans, but i'm thinking of switching to 3 nexus real silents with the 3rd nexus going on a xp-120 (with some modding).

The papsts are fine actually, but i want to see what the fuss is about with the nexuses :p
And im going for the xp-120 because my current zalman cu7000B @ 5v is by far the loudest component. Not counting my CRT ofcourse :(

Cutting out the fan grill is probably a good idea, but my case temps are well withing safe limits so i don't bother.

lemmerdeur
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Post by lemmerdeur » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:27 pm

Isn't the Nexus a bit underpowered for the XP-120? I figured a massive heatsink like that should have more power available from a variable-speed fan.

Where did you get the Papst fans? Was it a U.S. vendor? I'd like to give those a try as case fans as well.

silencery
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Post by silencery » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:55 pm

you can get the papsts from directron.com

Derek Baker
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Post by Derek Baker » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:26 pm

lemmerdeur wrote:Isn't the Nexus a bit underpowered for the XP-120? I figured a massive heatsink like that should have more power available from a variable-speed fan.
I hope not: I'm expecting a Nexus/ XP-120 combo today (Tuesday). :)

Pics of philmoune's use of these in this thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=16965

mcb
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Post by mcb » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:42 pm

lemmerdeur wrote:I just ordered most of the parts for my new PC, including a Lian Li V1100B.

Since I will be using my 2 new Raptor HDD's in Smart Drive 2002 Copper Cool enclosures in 5.25" bays, the whole area for the 3.5" drives will be empty.
I, too, am considering the Lian Li V1100B. My impression from reviews and other comments seem to indicate the 5.25" bays receive little, if any, cooling. Unlike the V1000 which has perforations in the front panel, the V1100 has a sealed door.

I expect to cut a vent beneath the 5.25"bays and possibly move the front fan there. This would effectively convert Lian Li's three zone cooling to two.

Comments?

Also, I note that the Japanese Lian Li site http://www.lian-li.jp/case/mid_pc-v1100ab.html shows an updated version of the chassis - with an expanded space for the PSU.
Last edited by mcb on Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Simonbun
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Post by Simonbun » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:19 am

lemmerdeur wrote:Isn't the Nexus a bit underpowered for the XP-120? I figured a massive heatsink like that should have more power available from a variable-speed fan.

Where did you get the Papst fans? Was it a U.S. vendor? I'd like to give those a try as case fans as well.
As I understand it the papsts produce more airflow but are noisier than the nexuses. I believe that when both fans are set to move the same amount of air, that the nexuses are quieter, although be it at a higher voltage.
I havent owned a nexus yet, so i don't know first hand, but according to people on these forums, this holds true.
The only small problem is that you have to mod the nexus a bit for it to fit the xp-120. Theres a thread on that somewhere...

Myself i purchased the papsts at a local vendor here in belgium, i wouldn't have a clue where to get it in the US ;)

I'd go for nexuses straight away if i were you though.

teejay
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Post by teejay » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:35 am

simonbun wrote:As I understand it the papsts produce more airflow but are noisier than the nexuses. I believe that when both fans are set to move the same amount of air, that the nexuses are quieter, although be it at a higher voltage.
This is exactly my experience with the two brands, but with the addition that with Papst YMMV when it comes to quality (especially with the 80mm ones) and their higher price. Somewhere this week my server PC is going to get the Nexus treatment, swapping out the 4 Papst fans (2x 80, 2x 120).

I have yet to encounter a situation where I needed the higher airflow of the Papst fans over the Nexus' airflow; in my V1000 both 120mm's run ~600rpm and cool more than adequately; I could set their speeds lower but I cannot (yet) hear the difference over my harddisks. If you ever need higher airflow, I'd try Globes (no experience), Evercool/Titan aluminium (but not with PWM) or IBL fans (for Europe anyway).
mcb wrote:I expect to cut a vent beneath the 5.25"bays and possibly move the front fan there. This would effectively convert Lian Li's three zone cooling to two.
Have you considered drilling out the existing 3.5" drive cages? Quite simple, they are attached with rivets so that would even be a reversible mod. Then you can put the Smart Drives in the available space in front of the fans and even put them on foam blocks or something.
simonbun wrote:Cutting out the fan grill is probably a good idea, but my case temps are well withing safe limits so i don't bother.
Cutting out the grill will also lower the noise. The Lian Li grille is pretty bad so you will get an audible improvement probably. Oh, and get rid of the fan shroud in the back, it raises case temperatures without reducing noise.

Trip
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Post by Trip » Tue Nov 23, 2004 9:24 am

You'll need to cut out the corners of the Nexus fan. See SPCR review of XP-120 for details. It should be fast enough though. The Nexus fan is noticeably quieter than the low speed 12cm Papst I had, though Nexus 12cm did push less air.

On the Raptors, you may want to decouple them with foam or a suspension. Vibrations will be transferred to the case otherwise.

Simonbun, are the HDD cages of the PC-V1100 removeable?

Simonbun
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Post by Simonbun » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:09 pm

No they're not, they're rivited to the case floor and top of the drive bay compartement. Theres a thread about decoupling drives in a lian li v1100 where someone has had the idea of just drilling out these rivets.

Personally, not being so handy with power tools ;), I have chosen to decouple the drives with a piece of cord and some foam on it. This has completely taken care of the dreaded case hum. I have posted in detail what i have done in the other thread.

For comparison: my Zalman 7000B cu @ 5v is the loudest component in my system. And i have 3 drives among wich a raptor, wich were by *far* the loudest before they were decoupled.

Derek Baker
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Post by Derek Baker » Tue Nov 23, 2004 8:41 pm

Derek Baker wrote:
lemmerdeur wrote:Isn't the Nexus a bit underpowered for the XP-120? I figured a massive heatsink like that should have more power available from a variable-speed fan.
I hope not: I'm expecting a Nexus/ XP-120 combo today (Tuesday). :)

Pics of philmoune's use of these in this thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=16965
See here for my results with the Nexus/XP-120: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... ht=#138104

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