choosing a new gut for my computer :)

[Johannes33]

Hi all,
Im looking to update my system on a budget and was hoping for some suggestions.
What I currently have:

lian li case pc-V350 with 2*120mm pushing and one 80mm sucking fan. (noisy)
https://hardforum.com/threads/lian-li-p ... 45/page-16
cosair vx450W power supply
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cor ... 50W/5.html

graphics card: 4096MB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 Windforce 2X OC Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16

Scyte ninja mini heat sink. http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cp ... -mini.html
perhaps I have to buy a new heat sink but if I could reuse it it would be good.

What I need:
1)motherboard:
mATX form factor
A number of connectors for usb3 or 3.1 would be nice.
onboard soundcard that sounds ok would also be good.

I would like the PC express to be as close to the cpu as possilbe to make a distanse to the wall of the case making enough airflow over the gpu possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZrWqCT7R0 told me that I should use premium components since I wont have a lot of airflow over the passively cooled board.

2)Memmory
low profile 8GB so it does not interfere with the cpu heatsink

3)good fans 120mm and 80mm

4)a new 5,25" bluray drive

5)a CPU bang for buck, less noise is good so bear in mind tdp. I was thinking under 230 usd. or 210 eur.

6) possibly a heatsink

What I use my pc for:
surfing with many tabs, watching movies, writing, rendering movies, sometimes doing calculations in matlab.

Edited and inserted the relevant information to answer the questions in the thread.

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

What Lian-Li model is it?

What's the PSU make/model?

Ninja Mini- would need to get the adapter to make it socket 1151 compatible. To be honest, I really dislike these push pin style solutions.

[quest_for_silence]

Scyte ninja mini heat sink. http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cp ... -mini.html
perhaps I have to buy a new heat sink but if I could reuse it it would be good.

On contemporary Intel platforms your Ninja Mini should be slightly inferior to the Noctua NH-L12 with just the 120mm fan: given the scarcity of good mounting mechanisms, maybe it's time for an update.

What I need:
1)motherboard:
mATX form factor

Personally I'd pick anything with the right options from either ASRock or ASUS.

2)Memmory
low profile 8GB so it does not interfere with the cpu heatsink

AFAIK there are no low profile DDR4 kit ATM, just standard height (or heathsinked, taller ones), sometimes called "low profile" by the manufacturer, though they're not low profile, as the Corsair Vengeance LPX.
In case, pick anything suitable from the memory QVL of the motherboard of choice.

If you opt for "hybrid" 100-series DDR3 motherboards (like the ASUS H170M-E D3), then the Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP.

3)good fans 120mm and 80mm

Scythe Slipstream PWM & Noctua R8 PWM come to mind.

4)a new 5,25" bluray drive

Can't help.

5)a CPU bang for buck, less noice is good. I was thinking under 230 usd. or 210 eur.

Intel Core i5 6500 or (maybe after Christmas) the upcoming Core i5 7500 (Kaby Lake).

6) possibly a heatsink

If it fits your case, the Noctua NH-L12 looks like a viable option, maybe with a different fan (even another Slipstream PWM, but that's not mandatory). Alternatively, within the Ninja Mini height even the latest NH-D9L/NH-U9S look good (check the relevant SPCR review).

[Johannes33]

Ninja Mini- would need to get the adapter to make it socket 1151 compatible. To be honest, I really dislike these push pin style solutions.

Why are push pins a bad choice?
The ninja mini conformes to the general airflow of the box which I like since I think it could be good for the general coldness of the interior of the case to support a in to out stream.
A down blower just dissipates streams of air two or more directions.
What I don't like about the mini is the noisy fan. but perhaps you guys have a suggestion on a good 92mm fan with the sweet spot of the air resistance of the mini.

About the fans 120 and 80 mm, Im looking for case fans so airflow is necessary but the 120mm has a little restriction to overcome.

[CA_Steve]

Push pin mounting is hit or miss for decent contact pressure. Pretty much all the top aftermarket cooler vendors have moved away from them and gone to screw mounts. What's the max height cooler you can fit in this case (Lian-Li didn't bother to state) without hitting the PSU?

Some more background questions to help with build...

Air flow in this case looks pretty constricted...which may have been part of the Minja's high speed noise issues....since you already had a build in this case, I'm wondering what kind of temps you had with the CPU and GTX 960?..and what was the CPU?

[quest_for_silence]

Why are push pins a bad choice?

A CPU cooler is basically a series (or a sum) of thermal interfaces, so of thermal resistances.

One of the most important interfaces is the one between the heatsink base and the CPU heatspreader: the relevant thermal resistance is of the thermal contact resistance kind and it's a function of the applied pressure (the higher the pressure, the lower the thermal resistance, to a degree).

The contact pressure by those pushpins is low, uneven and not stable in time, so that the relevant thermal resistance is always way worse than the one of a typical screwed mounting mechanism.

[Johannes33]

Push pin mounting is hit or miss for decent contact pressure. Pretty much all the top aftermarket cooler vendors have moved away from them and gone to screw mounts. What's the max height cooler you can fit in this case (Lian-Li didn't bother to state) without hitting the PSU?

would it be a big problem to cut the push pins with a wire cutter and use bolt nut instead. perhaps there is spare parts that could be bought or I could just buy from my local hard ware store...

I tried to measure but it was not so easy. I would say about 1-1.5 cm from the nut heads on top of the heat pipes so it is not a lot bigger I can go.

but I dont realy see the point in changeing other things than the fan of the heatsink.

Some more background questions to help with build...

Air flow in this case looks pretty constricted...which may have been part of the Minja's high speed noise issues....since you already had a build in this case, I'm wondering what kind of temps you had with the CPU and GTX 960?..and what was the CPU?

I just tried it, my ambient temp about 18C. at 100% load cpu was 27C and gpu at 40% load was about 40C. The highest temp in system is 45C but I don't know where the sensor is.

I have modded the case so the exhaust from the drivers bay is totaly open for the fan to blow out of instead of through a grill. I have sawed up a hole in the side of the case so I could feed the 2x120mm case fans with not so restricted intake. I run the 2x120mm fans on 5V.
I have taped the sidevents so the air has to run from front to back. I have opened the slot beside my gpu heat sink for the air to be able to exhaust there.
I have opened up a hole in the back under the psu for the air that is not faned up in the psu to get out from.

mods I want to do:
I wonder if I could change the psu fan, it is noisy.
the fan is a adda ad1212mb-a71gl standard 120mm size. specs: speed 2050rpm, airflow 80.5, pressure 0.117 inches. it runs a little a bow 4Volt on lowest stress of the psu.
change the:
2x 120mm intake fans
a 92mm fan for the ninja mini.
a 80mm fan sucking over the hdd and ssd or an 92mm fan pushing over the drives. there is a lot of room so I assume that I don't need so much pressure, more of an air flow fan is better, correct me if I'm wrong.
btw I don't really like the sucking fan for the drive bay as a sucking fan is NOT directional so it has perhaps just 25% or less convection over the drives compared to a blowing fan. So I'm thinking of modding the case even more with a 92mm pushing fan over the hdd bay.
Suggestions?

A mother board:
that has an layout with little more room between the first pci express and end of motherboard so I can have more room for venting the gpu.
today i have a GA-MA69GM-S2H http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=2579#ov
the blue slot is the pci express so it would be good with greater distance than I have today.
Good on board sound. Thinking about a good implementation of an alc1150, or cheaper mobo and discrete sound card (internal or external) type asus xonar. I'm open for suggestions.
I manly use headphones. to watch a movie or listen to music.
perhaps a built in wifi card.
perhaps a uefi so I could change the BC to overclock the i3 if it is a good idea.
perhaps an hackingtosh friendly mobo.
OR I can find the mobo myself. the big questions are the fans (and psu fan) since I know to little about them.

processor & ram today:
A AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, TDP 89 Watt.
and 2GB ram.

processor that I want:
Intel Core i3 6100 3,7GHz Socket 1151, TDP 51W
8GB ram

[CA_Steve]

Thanks for the detailed information, maybe I can stop asking questions, now. Sounds like you spent a lot of time improving airflow and to be honest, your temps look fine...ok, one last question: what are the case fan rpms at these temps?

In no particular order...

PSU fan: I did a fan swap on a Corsair (Seasonic) HX520 a looong time ago. Your VX 450 has the same ADDA fan, albeit a slightly lower max rpm at 2050. You'll want a 120mm x 25mm 3-pin voltage controlled fan with min starting voltage under 4V and maybe max rpm in the 1200rpm range. The be quiet! Silent Wings 3 might be a decent choice except for the 4V start up might be too close to the PSU's controller voltage (~4.06V until 200W (DC)). Maybe someone else will pop up with a decent alternative. Or, searcxh thru the SPCR archives.

Hackintosh: A bit of a spoke in the mobo wheel....if you weren't doing a Hackintosh, I'd say look at Asus mobo's for the great UEFI and Windows level fan control supporting both PWM and DC fans. You really ought to visit Hackintosh sites to see with mobo brands are compatible with the current OS. In the past, Gigabyte has been the preferred mobo, but they really really suck at UEFI level fan control and there isn't a MacOS comparable control that I know of.

Mobo in general: I think Intel locked down overclocking non-K CPUs. Also, uATX + ALC1150 codec is a Rare beast. If your case works with mITX there are some interesting Asus mobos. If you decide to go with all PWM fans, there's also Asrock for great UEFI control. If you opt for non-mobo sound, it may open up the options a bit...then again, the wifi enabled boards tend to be further up the stack and have the better codec.

Audio: If you opt for non-mobo sound, there's a couple of ways to go. Internal sound card or external DAC/AMP. The Xonar solutions are fine and will sound better than the mobo sound with decent headphones. The best sound will always be the external DAC/AMP. How much do you want to spend here? When you don't use headphones, what's the audio path?

Minja: Back in the day, you could buy a Thermalright Bolt-thru kit to replace the (removable) Scythe push pins with screws and backplate for some Scythe coolers. Don't know if your push pins are the removable type or if there's a compatible Thermalright kit for 775 to 1151. Might want to research this. As for a fan replacement, look at the be quiet! Silent Wings 2 92mm PWM.