Antec 900 mod and bolt through kit installation for OCZ Vendetta 2

[Dwayne]

Hello there. I posted a picture of my Antec case back in another thread where I was transplanting my wife's computer into a nice, shiny Coolermaster CM 690. I was very impressed with the ease of cable management in the case, and inspired by examples of excellent cable management, so I fixed her case up and then looked at my Antec again. I decided that I would bolt the Vendetta 2 on and while I had the Motherboard out I should take advantage of that and drill a couple holes to clean up the inside of my case.

So, my parts arrived on Thursday, and I had to wait to get to work.



Saturday morning, and I have a cup of the modders favourite coffee to help me with the mod!



I take apart the whole machine, that spahgetti at the bottom of the case is the enemy of neatness!



I took a pic of the HS and the CPU to show the coverage that I got using the "2 line" method that is recommended for this type of heat pipe heat sink.





I thought my application was pretty sparing, but I see some build up around the sides... wasted paste. I decided that the area of coverage looked very good though so I used the same method when I installed the HS.

Here is something everyone who wants to use the bolt though kit has to take into consideration, with the fan still installed you are not getting a screwdriver in there to torque down the screws:



I removed the fan with some help from my wife, we just gently pulled the rubber out of the heatsink, and that gave me the room needed:



The installation went pretty well, though there is no real good way to tell if it is tight enough... you just have to go by gut feel. I did the torquing in a the star pattern as recommended on various forums:

1 4

3 2

I did 2 turns each time and stopped when it seemed solid all round. I was afraid to over do it, I hope it is on there well.



Of course, like a dummy, I got a picture of the HS installed with the memory in the way! Doh. Trust me, it is bolted on, not pinned.

Next step was to work on the case. I have a nice drill with some hole saws, so I made a couple marks where I wanted the extra holes and went at her, one at the bottom and a smaller one at the top.



I put some rubber screen material around the holes to form a sort of grommet to protect the wires. This is the stuff you use to push into the channel to hold a screen in place, there is a solid one and one that is hollow. I trimmed it down and then split it and used super glue to hold it in place.





With the holes complete it was time to put it all back together! The fun of routing the cables with an eye to neatness and good airflow. Cables all fit out the hole nice:



Here it is with all the necessary cables hooked up:



One of the top. I repositioned the fans in the case... I put one fan up top to direct fresh air to the CPU:



And I kept a fan at the bottom with the hard drives... here is the largest build up of cables now:



And of course, you have to see where all the cables went!




If you look at my old picture here:



you will see I had an IDE Hard disk and DVD Burner... I decided for the sake of neatness to rid myself of them. I did replace the HD with a new Seagate to match the other one though.

My new temps with the bolted on OCZ using MX-2 are close to my old temps for idle... but after 30 min of Prime95 my temps were only 48/42 compared to previous temps of about 52/46 or so. I guess the push pins were doing ok, but my bolt through and maybe the new fan config have combined to lower the temps a bit.

New bolt through kit and MX-2: about $12.00
New Drill to make the holes in my case: $100.00
5 hours on a Saturday to mod my case: Priceless

Thanks for reading!

[enaberif]

Nice but you've shown me again why I don't like that power supply. The way the molex plugs are on it make things ackward and messy.

I'm using the bolt down kit that came with my Ultra 120 on my Vendetta 2 and I found that I actually had to rotate the Vendetta to get two of the bolts in.

Which bolt through kit did you get cause it looks like its mounted differently than me.

[BrainEater]

Nice work on the cable management.

I'll give you the same advice I tell everyone.
Reverse your harddrives so the connectors face forward (if you can) , it will allow you to completely hide those lines.

[encorp]

Actually that PSU isn't bad. I have the same one in the same case. The problem with non-modular power supplies are actually the terribly designed cases such as the 900, if you're going to locate the PSU on the bottom your case should have a grill at the bottom so you can actually put the PSU in properly. I modded the antec 900 with a hole through the bottom and some raised feet and then the cables fit neatly against the right panel and the spares tuck underneath the fans+hdd's in a nice circle at the bottom.

[Dwayne]

enaberif: It is this one "Thermalright LGA775 BOLT-THRU Kit for for Ultra 90/120 & HR-01 Retail Box" from DirectCanada . I positioned the plastic on the base and just lined up the holes. The screws that are to the rear of the HS were harder to get at due to the fins being in the way, but I have a set of tools that work in tight spots, Chapman kit, and I had no trouble tightening them down.

encorp: I am not sure that the PSU is installed wrong. If it was at the top of the case the fan would point down into the case and still be sucking air out of the case and exhausting to the rear. The installations that have the fan at the bottom sucking air into the PSU and exhausting out are keeping the PSU cool but not contributing to the case cooling. Whether that is a good thing or not, I am not sure though. But the case temps is not high, so I am sure it is doing ok the way I have it installed.

Braineater: I thought about turning the drives around, but with more holes to cut and possibly making my own power cables, I opted for the simpler method. It doesn't look as tidy, but I think the airflow is about the same.

[enaberif]

Does the cross brace on that bolt through kit have a screw in the center of it?

The one I have allows the cross brace to open or close.

Or is it like this one?

[Dwayne]

Actually there was no cross base at all. There was the back plate and the 4 screws. I removed the push pins from my Vendetta 2 and then left the mounts and screwed through those holes.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Dwayne

Actually there was no cross base at all. There was the back plate and the 4 screws. I removed the push pins from my Vendetta 2 and then left the mounts and screwed through those holes.

OOOOHHHHH I see what you did!

Interesting.

I used the cross brace from my U120 on my Vendetta 2. The screw that allows it to pivot ends up sitting in one of the grooves of the Vendetta 2 and works fine.

[Dwayne]

The push pins came out pretty easy. I held onto the white portion with some needle nose pliers and I twisted the black portion clockwise (while it was upside down) and they came apart. Just pull the white portion out of the hole and there you have it!

[encorp]

Originally Posted by Dwayne

encorp: I am not sure that the PSU is installed wrong. If it was at the top of the case the fan would point down into the case and still be sucking air out of the case and exhausting to the rear. The installations that have the fan at the bottom sucking air into the PSU and exhausting out are keeping the PSU cool but not contributing to the case cooling. Whether that is a good thing or not, I am not sure though. But the case temps is not high, so I am sure it is doing ok the way I have it installed.

I've always preferred to not have my PSU contribute to case cooling at all, and in most modern cases I don't think it's necessary. Especially in a case like the Antec 900 with the fans it has. A PSU electromagnetically sucks huge amounts of dust and having it ventring through the inside of the case causes it to circulate the dust through the entire case and not just the PSU. One of the things I did with my 900 was seal it from dust very well; cutting the hole in the bottom for the PSU eliminates A LOT of dust from the case enclosure; I actually used foam door strips to line the square cutout for the PSU to keep it dust tight around that opening and same with all other case openings.

Then I covered the left panel vent screen with black nylon stocking and screwed it back on. I also cut out carbon fiber filters from a furnace filter and used them in the front fants and top + rear exhaust fan to catch more dust. The antec 900 is great because if done correctly you can vacuum clean the outside of the case and remove all dust. I actually have near zero visable dust, none on my heatsink, just a tad on the top of the PSU (where it gets sucked magnetically more so than the rest of the comp)

Even with the filters my air flow is well balanced and my case and cpu temps are VERY well below what they should be. The only place air passes through my case without filters is on my two video cards.

Anyways long blab, esp when we're supposed to be talking about cable management haha - cutting a hole and setting the psu right side up really can help with it as the cables then come out of the psu near the right panel/mobo side of the system.

Maybe I should just post some pics of my case lol.