Lian-Li PC-A01b : many huge pictures, beware!

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Fri May 01, 2009 2:44 am

Hi all. Been away for a little while but I was here quite a lot for a little while 1 year back when I was planning my new computer which was supposed to become a smaller and more silent system than my old really loud one, and it would have enough punch to handle most stuff I thought.

Well I felt like I should post the results off how the computer is these days whit a gallery and info. It's ok silent but not really nicely silent. Doesn't bother me when watching movies or listening to music but when I have no such thing going and it's a silent room it is a bit too loud for my taste but can't do much sadly as computer gets a bit hot as it's quite crammed together in space inside.

So lets give the specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom 9750 [email protected]>[email protected] (Love K10STAT!)
MEMORY: Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4DHX DDR2 4096MB @1066Mhz 5.5.5.15.(22) 2.18v.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H
GPU: IGP HD3200 @ 900Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX620W
DVD-Drive: Pioneer DVDÂ±R/RW DL 20X DVR-215BK SATA
HDD: 1x Maxtor 10 200Gb sata, 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320Gb sata2
CHASSIS: Lian-Li PC-A01b
CPU COOLER: AMD stock heatpipe cooler
FANS: 1x Nexus 80mm, 1x CoolerMaster 80mm, 1x Papst 120mm
DAMPENING: be quite! pc noise absorber KIT, universal big tower
MONITOR: LG L245WP 24" LCD 1920x1200.

So lets show some photos of the thing, starting whit the exterior:

And then lets take a look inside the case:

Lets start to remove the dvd-cage to take a look under:
First I need to unplug the dvd-drive then push the drive inwards as much as I can and then I can lift the cage upwards first lifting the backside then pulling it all out, here I have put it back tilting on the front side for a photo

Then I need to pull the dvd-drive forward in order to be able to remove the cables underneath.

Now that the cage is removed lets take a look underneath:

And lastly a picture in it's rightfull place:

So there it is. My Lian-Li PC-A01b m-ATX whit a full tower silencing kit used and it isn't fully silent then either.

About the temperatures, well it goes quite nicely hot all the time. It did run hotter before but I've managed to squeeze some extra cooling power into the thing all in all whit better fan layout/airflow.

HDD temps are now between 43-49C going from idle to full load. They did run at 49-51C constantly before idle & load. But now idle is 43-45C and max load is 47-49C. The 120mm fan has been placed above the hdd cage now and the heatsinks removed, contrary to pictures.

The cpu temperature I've improved quite effectively now. The idle temperature is now 35-37C and max load is 53-55C. It was running before at 43-44 and 58-61C. So quite a improvement. Noise has been lowered whit fan no longer needing as high rpm's as before. idle shows 2000-2200rpm and load goes to give 3000rpm.

The HD3200/780G no longer has any fan cooling it. Is no need for it as whole computer has better airflow now and manages to cool it all good enough. Still possible to OC to 950Mhz but I keep it at stock 500Mhz because DXVA isn't stable whit OC. OC is stable for everything else but DXVA.
The temperature off this thing is at 39-40C in idle and 69-70C in full load. Been lowered 5C from before.

The System temperature has been improved as well having max 45C in max load now compared to the 50C before. Idle stays at 38-40C.

What I did whit the fans was to first have the front fan push out air instead off inside the case. then I moved the 120mm fan on top the hdd's as I removed the heatsinks as they came loose all way to often for my taste. Then I put the 80mm cooler master fan that was on top the hdd's back against the PCI slots to push our more hot air, I removed each faceplate and used a rubber band to affix the fan onto them. I also installed dust filters I cut in appropriate sizes for the top and back air exhaust that now became air intakes whit the negative pressure created thanks to the 2 80mm exhaust fans front and back. This improved temperatures in the computer a lot.

It was toasty before but now it's only Hot. And still all stable

But it wasn't stable always. That is thanks to crappy motherboards. I managed to burn and toast 2 GA-MA78GM-S2H, a rev 1.0 & rev 1.1 whit this computer. The mosfett on the motherboard could not handle the Phenom 9750 cpu and burned up. GA-MA78GPM-DS2H is a much better motherboard I will say. Won't ever touch that GA-MA78GM-S2H anymore.
It's nice enough that I actually got the GA-MA78GPM-DS2H as a upgrade RMA for free at least after the two burned GA-MA78GM-S2H I suffered.

The silencing kit took me a full day to install inside the case. I might have gone and used way to much off that stuff but I like to cower every corner not leaving anything open unless it was fully necessary. Noise level went down loads whit this case I can say. Could probably not bear whit it unless I had installed the silencing kit. Was a good thing I decided to get this stuff, wasn't all that expensive either, real nice quality stuff also.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Fri May 01, 2009 3:52 am

Hi,

that`s quircky but very good looking case.
Cooling a quad core in such small space can be tricky but I think you have some room from improvement. A bigger cpu cooler with a 12cm fan could replace both the stock cooler and the papst, drawing cool air from the side intake. The disk drives seem more problematic, the best thing I can think of is vertically suspending them in front of the intake after removing their cage. It would also help if the psu was upside down but from what I see this won`t be possible without some further modification.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Fri May 01, 2009 4:21 am

Pretty nice. Every computer you build is just more lessons to be learned for the next one. Options get limited pretty quick in smaller cases.

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:11 am

From what you have suggested ntavlas I myself would only about think off doing is the cpu cooler swap, and get a bigger fan to pull air inside from the side air intake. a 70mm fan is kinda small for the huge potential of a fan to be placed there. Problem is I need to cut into the dvd-cage holder to get a big enough hole to fit anything trough, I had to cut it larger to fit my stock AMD cooler & fan through it, the motherboard didn't have optimal cpu socket placement for this chassis.

Here is a picture on the dvd-cage from below. You can see the cutting I had to do. And the a little awkward position my cpu would have.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v400/ ... 040048.jpg

But as you can see I could actually just keep the orginal AMD cooler and remove the 70mm fan and place a 120mm over it. though it would be positioned off-center. hmm. Could actually be quite a simple solution and get a lot better air intake for less noise.

the papst fan, right now I have constructed some few cardboard sections to make is so that it pulls in cool air from the PCI slot air holes. there is as well a cardboard placed outside the case to direct airflow so it doesn't pull in hot air from the PSU or the other air holes in the back. The result was I got cooler hdd temps out of all things

And as well the idle temp on the 780G/HD3200 got down some more, full load temp stayed the same though.

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:56 am

Please don't get me wrong, but this case is absolutely horrible and you shouldn't spend any more time and money to get rid of its shortcomings. You can't polish a turd, as the old saying goes.

I neved understood the obsession with Lian Li cases. They might look pretty on the outside, but construction, interior and price are amongst the worst on the market.

Sell this stupidity of a case and buy a decent one before you lose more hardware (your HDDs are most vulnerable and you WILL lose data sooner or later - most likely rather quickly, as warm weather is coming).

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:35 am

Matija wrote:Please don't get me wrong, but this case is absolutely horrible and you shouldn't spend any more time and money to get rid of its shortcomings. You can't polish a turd, as the old saying goes.

I neved understood the obsession with Lian Li cases. They might look pretty on the outside, but construction, interior and price are amongst the worst on the market.

Sell this stupidity of a case and buy a decent one before you lose more hardware (your HDDs are most vulnerable and you WILL lose data sooner or later - most likely rather quickly, as warm weather is coming).

HAHA! I would say I had my moments I would have thrown it all through the window, but that was before I learned how to handle the thing correctly. It's a big hassle compared to my old case but I don't mind having a challenge.

The hardware that got burnt wasn't because of the case. It was just bad hardware. the moment I got the better motherboard, I could say goodbye to that particular problem. I'm not worried about my hdd's either any more. I was worried when they were 56-58C but I fixed that issue though. Right now I have better temperatures than I had in winter.

I've already had the "damn" thing for over 1 year now. Never actually considered to sell it off or just giving up. I would actually say this computer was a lot more fun to have than my old one all in all to the end.

Then the price? Damn I could not believe how cheap I got this case new in retail. 700kr or such, US$ to swedish kronor was about at it's lowest back then. That is today about 70$ and less. At newegg it's 30$ off from orginal 119.99 so 89.99 today. So I got my case at quite a bargain.
My old Cooler Master Centurion almost cost about the same 4+ years back.
I had plans to actually buy the Lian-Li V350, but I waited and waited but they never got it in so I just went whit the PC-A01, my cash had also started to get low so the cheaper A01 got chosen.

I would say this isn't near any of the decent cases in user-friendliness but if your prepared to work whit it it's quite a satisfying feeling you get when everything is good in the end, more or less though.

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:12 am

YOU HAVE RAMSINKS ON YOUR HDD CAGE.

While you technically might be handling the thing correctly... You have ramsinks on your HDD cage.

That is far from normal

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:26 am

Matija wrote:YOU HAVE RAMSINKS ON YOUR HDD CAGE.

While you technically might be handling the thing correctly... You have ramsinks on your HDD cage.

That is far from normal

LOL. that got me laughing for real when you really pointed that out.

I would agree that's quite rare, or unique when I really think about it.
Don't think I've ever heard of such a thing.

Well I just had those things lying around so just had this brilliant idea to place them on top of the hdd cage to help the ever little they might.
I even was thinking of using a old chipset heatsink whit fan that I had lying around but it took to much space and I decided not to.
But mainly that was because I could not figure out how to fasten it correctly. Didn't have any such glue stuff. (ram sinks had a coat already applied to them)

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Fri May 01, 2009 5:54 pm

I would definitely go with a top down cooler with a 12cm fan as a replacement CPU heatsink. Something like the Noctua NH-C12P. You might have to hack at the DVD tray holder a bit though.

Something you might like to try would be to reverse the normal airflow of this cooler so instead of blowing down, it sucks air up through the heatsink. You could then duct this to the side vent on your case, effectively converting this to an exhaust area for CPU heat. This may help in getting rid of the heat from what is one of the main heat sources in your case.

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Sat May 02, 2009 7:23 am

I experimented whit my cpu cooler and the papst fan I had by switching their positions whit the papst over the small hole to the cpu cooler and the amd fan on the 780/HD3200. Gave about same temps. well it seemed it was better but full load temp climbed higher than whit the amd fan, though it climbed slower.

Then I tested making the hole bigger to accommodate the 120mm fan better but temps where a disaster. as most air just went the way with least resistance, meaning not going trough the tight small spaces between the fins in the cooler and just going to the empty spaces around instead.

As last resort I placed back the amd fan onto the cooler and also placed my 120mm papst over it. This was golden.

Temps went down overall in the computer a lot. noise level stayed the same as before I would say though but I managed to squeeze some extra better airflow pattern into the whole thing with this setup now. Was worth the time in the end to test this.
Computer doesn't reach 60C anmore and stays at 59C under Prime 4thread maximum heat.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat May 02, 2009 12:05 pm

Hi,

When ever you have fans jammed up aginst things, you get a lot of extra noise and very little air flow -- you need to do some mods to get free-flowing air through the case and moving past the hard drives; rather than churning the air around inside the case.

Fayd · Post by **Fayd** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:06 pm

i actually like the look of that case... but i cant see using it for any system that uses more than 1 hard drive...

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:11 am

Yeah this case is practically only designed for 1 hdd and 2 other 3.5 things like a floppy drive and maybe a smart card reader not 3 hdd's as I have in it.

Those two 3.5 bays whit openings outside are a pain in the ass to get hard drives in if you want to keep the front plates there. Took me ages to figure the best way to mount them and still it takes long time and much fiddling to get them there. I tend not to want to touch and mess whit the hdd's much because off the hassle.

Been many times I've figured at some point I'm gonna remove the hdd's from this computer and place them in a server and access them through the network instead. Maybe place a ssd locally in the computer by then. But I will probably wait 1-2years before I get one though, more probable is in about 2 years or such.

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:52 am

Just a little update.

After much messing and trying back and forth diffrent ideas and whatnot to try and get the computer to run cooler I found a suggestion on having the front fan pushing air out off the case rather than inside would lower temps quite effectively.

I tried this and it works wonders. I took the initiative to try a new fan layout in same run as well. I removed the memory heatsinks off the hdd cage as I started to have problems whit them coming loose and dropping down and whatnot the whole time as dust had started to collect and manage to get to the sticky stuff keeping em in place. Whit that I got enough room there to stick the 120mm fan in there nicely pushing air down onto the hdd's and it's cage. Works just about as good as whit the 80mm whit the heat sinks, better actually. Well the 80mm whit a air-duct gave best temps but that was a paint to have as I always needed to fish out the loose heat sinks that had dropped down.

Then I put a 80mm fan in the PCI slots and removed all 4 backplates to give less restrictive airflow to push out hot air.

There is now a negative pressure in the chassi and gives better temps overall in the whole chassi than when there was a positive pressure inside. The problem is now I might get more dust inside the case from the back and top air intakes rather than being hot air exhausts. Need to put some filters onto them, I have stuff that I can use but just haven't felt like to bother right now.

The temperatures themselves are now 38C cpu temp and 38C system temp at idle, IGP is 43C and hdd's are 43-45C. Computer has been on for 7 hours. Outside temperature is about 20C cloudy and window open.

Yesterday it was sunny and probably 26-28C or such whit no wind and hot as damn inside(hotter than outside). hdd temps where then 48-51C whit cpu at 43C idle whit system at 45C. So today was a lot cooler day more to the normal. First I thought there was no diffrence as temps were the usual but today I see and remember it was a damn hot day.

EDIT:
Did some extra tweaking today again.

I installed the dust filters and while I was at it I decided to remove the cpu cooler... Damn was I surprised... there had been like a HUGE air pocket in the AS5 paste in the middle off the cpu!

I removed old paste and applied new stuff on it whit about a rice grains worth on the middle then smudging it around whit heatsink applied over before fastening.

Full load temp is now 53-55C on cpu! Damn nice as it usually always was 58-61C before! Damn... It had been like that for ages.

Was quite a while since I last did remove the cooler. The cpu fan goes to about 3000rpm max now and stays 2000-2200rpm at idle. = more silent computer and even more cooler.

FULL load temps are as follows now:
CPU: 53-55C
CORE: 52-54C
NB/IGP: 68-70C
SYSTEM: 45C

cloneman · Post by **cloneman** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 3:40 pm

haven't read the whole thread,

but don't those 3 hard disks get hot all stuck together like that?

Nighthog · Post by **Nighthog** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:36 am

cloneman wrote:haven't read the whole thread,

but don't those 3 hard disks get hot all stuck together like that?

They run hot, yes. But acceptable whit the fans moving air around. They usually stay nowadays always below 50C. Though this last week and more the temperature whit full sun and no clouds. keeping a constant 30C ambient temperature did make the hdd's reach a bit above 50C lately.