Unusual Antec Aria Modification.
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Unusual Antec Aria Modification.
I changed the title of this thread to reflect it's real purpose.....showing some unusual modifications to my new (cheap) Antec Aria. The heart of this mod was the removal of the std PSU, replacing it with a dc/dc converter, and an external 12V PSU (Radio Shack 15Amp). This PSU does have a small fan....but it's thermally controlled, and I've never heard it start up.
The converter is 200W and runs this P4 celeron board, maxtor HD, Lite-On optical drive, 120mm Yate Loon exhaust fan, small slot fan, AIW 8500 DV, modem, PCI wireless card.....without any problems I've found. I could not get this converter to work on a MSI board, but it works fine with the Asus board. As I complete this project I'll add to the photos. The Aria case needs some help/mods to run quietly with a P4 board and a relatively hot video card.....
Heh....it's in testing right now, so I'm still arranging stuff. There is one fan only, a 120mm Yate Loon. The hard drive (upper right corner of the picture) is running hot, but when finished I'll probably use a laptop drive. Haven't been able to fit an optical drive in there (yet).
For the time being the fan is running at 12V.....idles at 34C, maxes out at 42C (22C ambient, celeron 2.4). No prizes here.....You might be surprised.
The converter is 200W and runs this P4 celeron board, maxtor HD, Lite-On optical drive, 120mm Yate Loon exhaust fan, small slot fan, AIW 8500 DV, modem, PCI wireless card.....without any problems I've found. I could not get this converter to work on a MSI board, but it works fine with the Asus board. As I complete this project I'll add to the photos. The Aria case needs some help/mods to run quietly with a P4 board and a relatively hot video card.....
Heh....it's in testing right now, so I'm still arranging stuff. There is one fan only, a 120mm Yate Loon. The hard drive (upper right corner of the picture) is running hot, but when finished I'll probably use a laptop drive. Haven't been able to fit an optical drive in there (yet).
For the time being the fan is running at 12V.....idles at 34C, maxes out at 42C (22C ambient, celeron 2.4). No prizes here.....You might be surprised.
Last edited by Bluefront on Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hmmm. lets see
VIA chipset, micro atx. the picture is labeled "top view" so its either a desktop style computer case or an HTPC computer case.
you have the 200w 12v DC/DC atx power converter plugged into it. which means your powering the system off an external brick PSU.
the PCB color of the motherboard sorta reminds me of ASUS boards.
the blue circuit board at the front appears to have a CF socket on it, like a memory reader. if i had to guess either desktop or HTPC, id guess it was an HTPC case.
copper cooler with heatpipes, so a fairly modern cpu cooler. looks like a tower design like the scyth heatsinks. also the way its ducted makes me think its a tower design with the exhaust fan on the left side of it blowing out the back.
the fact that your powering this off the DC/DC converter makes me think its not a P4. probably an AMD cpu.
VIA chipset, micro atx. the picture is labeled "top view" so its either a desktop style computer case or an HTPC computer case.
you have the 200w 12v DC/DC atx power converter plugged into it. which means your powering the system off an external brick PSU.
the PCB color of the motherboard sorta reminds me of ASUS boards.
the blue circuit board at the front appears to have a CF socket on it, like a memory reader. if i had to guess either desktop or HTPC, id guess it was an HTPC case.
copper cooler with heatpipes, so a fairly modern cpu cooler. looks like a tower design like the scyth heatsinks. also the way its ducted makes me think its a tower design with the exhaust fan on the left side of it blowing out the back.
the fact that your powering this off the DC/DC converter makes me think its not a P4. probably an AMD cpu.
ive been looking around at motherboards, but havnt found it yet. im fairly certain its a socket 754 AMD mobo, he probably has one of the new Turion's in it, thats how he can get away with the external brick psu.
note the battery on the motherboard, its under the front of the AGP slot. ive been lookin through some mATX boards on newegg and still havnt seen a motherboard with the battery in this location.
note the battery on the motherboard, its under the front of the AGP slot. ive been lookin through some mATX boards on newegg and still havnt seen a motherboard with the battery in this location.
Re: Identify this computer......
Bluefront wrote:idles at 34C, maxes out at 42C (22C ambient, celeron 2.4).
yup thats the mobo. just checked newegg. its actually the stock northbridge heatsink. the one on asus' website shows a different heatsink
id say a celeron on it since its running so cool
Asus P4V8X-MX
Antec Aria
Celeron CPU
PW200M DC/DC ATX PSU
id say a celeron on it since its running so cool
Asus P4V8X-MX
Antec Aria
Celeron CPU
PW200M DC/DC ATX PSU
Last edited by Aris on Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Baaa....can't fool you guys. Now guess that heatsink.......all-copper, three "U" shaped heat-pipes. Fairly heavy, it mounts with screws through the board and a back-plate.
If you get this I'll eat my hat..... Here it is in another case...
If you get this I'll eat my hat..... Here it is in another case...
Last edited by Bluefront on Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
it sorta looks like a thermaltake tower
this one: http://www.thermaltake.com/product/cool ... -p0024.asp
this one: http://www.thermaltake.com/product/cool ... -p0024.asp
well i googled ALOT, i checked every manufactuerer i could think of, every major heatsink retailer etc.
then i decided to think outside the box. i checked bluefronts photobucket site for clue's. then i started searching the forum and posts made by bluefront and found this posting
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=252870
if you scroll down to the second post he makes, he referes to it as "that mystery CPU heatsink"
so either even he doesnt know what it is either, or its a preview heatsink that he is reviewing from some company that hasnt released it yet, and as such is bound to keep the secret until it is revealed by that company.
then i decided to think outside the box. i checked bluefronts photobucket site for clue's. then i started searching the forum and posts made by bluefront and found this posting
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=252870
if you scroll down to the second post he makes, he referes to it as "that mystery CPU heatsink"
so either even he doesnt know what it is either, or its a preview heatsink that he is reviewing from some company that hasnt released it yet, and as such is bound to keep the secret until it is revealed by that company.
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Actually it does look quite a bit like that Thermaltake heatsink Aris linked to...the base and the mounting look the same. The fins on this one are squared off, and I didn't mod the copper parts. Probably nobody ever saw this thing without it's built-on duct and fan.
I was going to try it stock, but it was so damn big, it would not clear the memory on this board. So I had to remove some plastic parts. Made by a major manufacturer, not of fans and heatsinks however......Aris should get this one, since the answer is right there.
I was going to try it stock, but it was so damn big, it would not clear the memory on this board. So I had to remove some plastic parts. Made by a major manufacturer, not of fans and heatsinks however......Aris should get this one, since the answer is right there.
well it took me a while, but i finally found the article your refering to.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_pr ... 50702.html
although the only picture i see is of a guy named isaak kuo
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_pr ... 50702.html
although the only picture i see is of a guy named isaak kuo
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You mean that signiture thing.....I'm the first person mentioned in the article. Through a slight mix-up they printed Issac Kuo's picture. The WSJ interviewed me almost an hour....they got it almost right, but the filters I use don't quiet anything.
Actually that heatsink is an Asus Star Ice, with the fan and shroud removed. The one article about it by Frostytech bad-mouths the thing quite a bit. Had I read it before I bought the thing, I may not have acquired it.....but it was only $15 on clearance. Actually with a Yate Loon and a custom duct, it does pretty well....so far.
Frostytech says modifying the thing wouldn't make it work better....bunch of crap. The fan it comes with is bad, and that plastic duct is a POS. Modifying it made it acceptable. Goes to show you not to believe everything you read.....
Actually that heatsink is an Asus Star Ice, with the fan and shroud removed. The one article about it by Frostytech bad-mouths the thing quite a bit. Had I read it before I bought the thing, I may not have acquired it.....but it was only $15 on clearance. Actually with a Yate Loon and a custom duct, it does pretty well....so far.
Frostytech says modifying the thing wouldn't make it work better....bunch of crap. The fan it comes with is bad, and that plastic duct is a POS. Modifying it made it acceptable. Goes to show you not to believe everything you read.....
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Here are a few more mods to this Aria..... With the std PSU removed, you can fit a really big heatsink in there, even a Ninja. The problem then becomes the std drive bracket assy won't fit. And worse, you'll have a clearance problem even with the shortest optical drive (Sony/Lite-On chassis). I actually had to notch out the Asus copper heatsink to fit this Lite-on drive. Not too difficult and made no difference in the temps.
Then there's the VGA slot problem.....this area runs hot for lack of airflow. A hot video card like this AIW 8500 DV really gets warm. Can't touch the heatsink. Well the case comes with a PCI slot fan which would help out, at the expense of a slot. Not acceptable to me.....but there's a way around that. You mod the slot fan slightly by removing the std mount bracket. Then it can be mounted over the cards......and it works great like this. Amazing......I've got it running off the case fan speed controller (M-cubed fan amp), and it's very quiet at about 6V or so.
This project is coming along pretty well.....but there'e a way to go before it gets really quiet. More to come.
Then there's the VGA slot problem.....this area runs hot for lack of airflow. A hot video card like this AIW 8500 DV really gets warm. Can't touch the heatsink. Well the case comes with a PCI slot fan which would help out, at the expense of a slot. Not acceptable to me.....but there's a way around that. You mod the slot fan slightly by removing the std mount bracket. Then it can be mounted over the cards......and it works great like this. Amazing......I've got it running off the case fan speed controller (M-cubed fan amp), and it's very quiet at about 6V or so.
This project is coming along pretty well.....but there'e a way to go before it gets really quiet. More to come.
I was interviewed for over an hour also, and I know we weren't the only two.Bluefront wrote:You mean that signiture thing.....I'm the first person mentioned in the article. Through a slight mix-up they printed Issac Kuo's picture. The WSJ interviewed me almost an hour....they got it almost right, but the filters I use don't quiet anything.
AFAIK, there was no mix-up about the picture, it's just that the article got moved up suddenly without significant advance notice. I assume I was merely the quickest to reply on short notice with a suitable picture.