CM 690 - AM3 955 Build

[Surfer_2099]

Hey all.

I put this together this week, usually around 11pm at night when everyone else was asleep. It's my Win7 new build that I hope to keep for a few years (more or less). The system is up and running with Ubuntu 9 so I know it boots and runs ok. I am just waiting for Windows7 so I can start really benching it and re-install my games!

I was going to do something much more hardcore with lights and acrylic, but we just bought a new house and my wife's informed me that the system is no longer going to be in my basement, but rather in the front room of the house, so she prefered that it be a bit more understated.

Happy mariages are all about compromise so the Mods are essentially "under the hood" and focused mainly on increasing airflo therby reducing temps and system noise.

So without further ado, here are a series of posts with specs and mods.

Cheers!
Happy_So_Far_Canuck :)

[Surfer_2099]

This is an image of the CM 690 stock.

I was planning on doing the paint, a window and then white cold cathode, but as I said in the first post, the PC is going in the front room and a glowing white box would have been somewhat out of place.

I do like the red paint effect however.

[Surfer_2099]

Turbulence creates noise, so I cut out all of the stamped grills on my case.

Furthermore, if you notice the PSU hole I cut out, it's not off center. That's because the PSU (OCZ 600W Stealth Extreme) has it's fan off center so I wanted the whole fan exposed.

I also pulled apart my PSU and mounted some small rubber spacers to reduce fan vibration noise inside the PSU. (I don't have pics of that though).

I also cut out the grills with a jigsaw on the side panel to increase airflow and cut down on noise. The moulding is just some Canadian Tire car door moulding I had in my basement. But it was self adhesive and once it was warmed up a bit with a hair dryer, it was quite workable.

[Surfer_2099]

I am recycling my CM 690 from my other build and some time ago, two of my stock fan's LEDs had burnt out so I had replaced it in the front. I decided to place a fan under the two optical drives (they are older and I painted them black but they are in great condition).

What I did was I used the 5.25 - 3.5 adapter tray that came with the CM 690 and attached the fan using 2 sided tape and zip ties. The result is a fan that I can slide in or out for cleaning and that locks into place using the toolless sytem in the CM 690.

I thought it was pretty clever actually!

I also used Black Fan Grill over my fans, but for some of them, I cut out each second circle to create a bit less drag where I did not need them for safety so much.

The last pick also shows that I cut out the plastic grills behind the mesh covers on the CM 690.

[Surfer_2099]

Here's what's in the new rig.

I saved some money on the Corsair H50 by ordering an Intel only version and then having Corsair ship me the AM3 bracket for 5$ postage. It installed flawlessly and without any difficulty whatsoever. Way easier to put this cooler on than my previous AC 64.

Unfortunately, I discovered that one of the Corsair XMS3 kits was borked, so I RMA it back to Direct Canada and am waiting for them to ship me back my new kit. Direct Canada is my fave btw.

[Surfer_2099]

And here is the assembled system as it stands right now. I've been running Ubuntu 9 on it for a few days to test a few things and all seems in good order. I look forward to getting Win 7 on Friday and installing that to complete the whole build.

The wiring took me a few hours actually because I wanted to pass as much as possible behind the mobo tray, but considering there is not really enough width for that (between the side panel and the frame), I had to be creative with zip ties.

Only thing I need now is another Radeon 5850 to go with my Gigabyte 5850.

[Surfer_2099]

The system is very very quiet considering I have 8 fans in there (not including the PSU fan). This is the fan configuration and it seems to work very well considering the H50 draws air into the case.

Also, the MX-2 was for my Radeon 5850. Waranties are for the weak! I pulled that puppy appart and saw that the stock install of the heatsink and fan was a bit... well... crappy. Two screws were loose and the thremal paste they applied in the factory had overflowed quite a bit.

I cleaned it up, applied some nice MX-2 paste and temps are improved by 3 C from what I can tell.

Cheers!
Done_For_Now_Canuck :)

[bojangles]

Haha I was gonna say, WTF is your airflow doing, so thanks for the fan diagram. I see you like red. Pretty good job mate! I see you didn't have to mod the PSU cable slit. I had to get the dremel out for my PSU.

[enaberif]

Oh man that pooooooooor 690 had no idea or chance.

And your airflow is all wrong.

[Silvgearx]

got to give the man credit for been creative ;)

you harddrive might run a little warm with that air flow.