Any Lian Li V300 owners here?

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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malfunction
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:11 am

Any Lian Li V300 owners here?

Post by malfunction » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:31 pm

My 'HTPC' is now living in a V300 and I've just started working towards making it a lot quieter (it's never going to be silent but it can be made better)

(pics will be added in short order)

So I have an E2140, 2GB RAM, an X800XL, 2 WD 500GB HDDs and 2 DVDRWs all plugged into an Asus P5B-VM.

'Work' done so far:

1) The side fan that comes with the case has been taken out all together (far too loud even @ 5V). Unfortunately this leaves an 80mm hole in the panel and I've resorted to double sided tape to keep the mesh in place for now (it's held on by hot glue + the fan screws by default but the mesh fell off when I removed the fan...)

2) I've ditched the *useless* all aluminium HSF that came with the E2140 and replaced it with a Thermalright SI-128 which has dropped load temps by around 25c. Before buying the SI-128 I tried reversing the 120mm fan in the PSU to act as an intake to aid the Intel HSF but temps didn't change at all (you can't reverse the fan on the Intel HSF). I'd originally suspected the heatsink and PSU fans were fighting each other but I now suspect that the heatsink was making poor / low pressure contact with the CPU. For anyone planning the same you cannot mount the SI-128 with the motherboard tray out of the case - you have to remove the PSU to mount the SI-128 then replace the PSU... I also considered a SilverStone NT06 (also 'fanless') but what I could find on the net (not a lot!) indicated that the SI-128 would perform better.

3) I've replaced the stock HSF on my old X800XL with a Zalman VF900... It's not silent but at the lowest "Asus Q Fan" setting it can't be heard over the rest of the system. Also tried a VF700 but load temps were not that good on the lowest fan setting

Work to do:

Swap the fan in the PSU / buy a new one. The PSU is an FSP 400W with a pot / rheostat on the rear to control fan speed. Unfortunately the fan motor clicks. The fan is also supposed to be temp controlled but I've never heard it spin up even after a couple of *days* of XviD encoding.

Replace / restrict the front intake fans

I'm also considering soft mounting the front intakes and the PSU fan - however I can't soft mount the HDDs anywhere in the case (possibly underneath the external drive cage). I'm guessing that reducing the vibration from the fans won't make any noticable difference whilst the HDDs are hard mounted. I've already used the HGST feature tool to set the AAM to max (quietest).

So... Anyone else here with a V300 and if so what have you done to make it cooler / quieter?

kentc
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Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Post by kentc » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:00 pm

I have some grand plans for my PC-V300:

Remove ugly black strip on front panel
Remove all the innards
Mount slimline slot in CD vertically in the front panel
Fill the frontpanel with 4 120mm fans
Make custom mounting plate for Seasonic SS-300SFD PSU
Make some sort of soft mounted sound isolated HDD-mounting
New side panels without drivebays or fan mounts

Just two more exams the next couple of weeks and then I'm on it!

Regards,
Kent.

malfunction
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:11 am

Post by malfunction » Sun Aug 19, 2007 2:48 pm

That's a lot of changes. Did you think about buying a different case to start out with if you don't like it that much? Why use 4 x 120mm fans? ("Why not?" ???). I'm guessing noise is not your first priority.

Oh and after writing my first post I bit the bullet and decided to swap the PSU fan. I've lost speed control over it now (constant ~1000 RPM) but it's both quieter and smoother sounding that the original PSU fan. Another plus point is that I no longer have an LED fan in the PSU as well (I'm not a big fan of 'bling'). On the downside I can now hear the 80mm intake fans much more clearly.

malfunction
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:11 am

Post by malfunction » Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:29 pm

So, as promised, some pics.

First off an internal view from the right side with the SI-128 in place. It's somewhat cramped but I've managed to keep the cables out of the airflow at least:

Image

Here's why you can't mount the HSF with the mobo tray out of the case:

Image

Closer view of the heatsink from the right side of the case - around 10mm between the heatsink and the PSU:

Image

And finally the case from the front:

Image

...showing that I've used the space there to hide further cables. If you only have 1 optical drive in the case a lot of this could be hidden there (I already have a lot in the external 3.5" bay so this was easier for me. Looks ugly though (but not as bad as in the picture - the flash picks it out)

kentc
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Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Post by kentc » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:00 pm

malfunction wrote:That's a lot of changes. Did you think about buying a different case to start out with if you don't like it that much? Why use 4 x 120mm fans? ("Why not?" ???). I'm guessing noise is not your first priority.
I thought of buying every case, but this is the best looking case on the market (in the dimensions we're looking for), I like it a lot! If you think about it, I will make almost no alterations to the outside, apart from the more clean looking side panels.

4 fans because it will be nice and symmetrical. The fans will be running at 4-5v and the computer will be completely inaudible. More than can be said for the original 80mm fans. I put two of those in our new server and I thought it was gonna take of.

Kent.

wumpus
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Post by wumpus » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:49 am

Very impressive layout! I didn't even know that case existed, but it's an excellent choice for the SFF form factor. I found a review of the V300 here with more pics.

Question: why do you need two DVD-RWs?

malfunction
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Post by malfunction » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:16 am

kentc wrote:
malfunction wrote:That's a lot of changes. Did you think about buying a different case to start out with if you don't like it that much? Why use 4 x 120mm fans? ("Why not?" ???). I'm guessing noise is not your first priority.
I thought of buying every case, but this is the best looking case on the market (in the dimensions we're looking for), I like it a lot! If you think about it, I will make almost no alterations to the outside, apart from the more clean looking side panels.

4 fans because it will be nice and symmetrical. The fans will be running at 4-5v and the computer will be completely inaudible. More than can be said for the original 80mm fans. I put two of those in our new server and I thought it was gonna take of.

Kent.
Have you seen that a newer version will be released soon - the V350?

http://www.lian-li.com/product/product0 ... =35&type=a

As per the link the front intake fans have been changed to 120mm, the stripe down the front is a lot nicer and the external 3.5" bay has been removed. No idea how good air flow will be without a 'mesh' front. It's slightly bigger (longer / deeper mostly). Until I changed my PSU fan I didn't think the intake fans were too bad (always the way - make one thing quieter and everything else suddenly seems louder). I haven't tried running without any intake fan as yet but I assume my VGA and hence HDD temps would be a lot worse without them.

malfunction
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:11 am

Post by malfunction » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:19 am

wumpus wrote:Very impressive layout! I didn't even know that case existed, but it's an excellent choice for the SFF form factor. I found a review of the V300 here with more pics.

Question: why do you need two DVD-RWs?
As above a newer version is coming soon. I assume you've also seen the the Silverstone SG01, etc which have a similar layout bar the optical drives (which face forward)? Other cases I considered were the Silverstone SG03 and TJ05 (both mini towers as oppsed to box / 'cube' cases). My main constraint is depth rather than height or width but I do like the layout of the V300 (well I do when I'm not working on it!).

As for 2 DVD-RWs I just wanted the freedom to be able to rip + burn at the same time or just rip faster (haven't as yet tried the former but have tried the latter). There's also a certain symmetry to it - though I wish there was no external 3.5" bay to spoil things and I also wish you could buy plain / no hole sides for the case too but you can't always get what you want.

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:30 am

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Last edited by nightmorph on Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

malfunction
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:11 am

Post by malfunction » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:44 am

nightmorph wrote:Aren't you worried about how much your motherboard sags under the enormous weight of your heatsink?

I'd be concerned. Cracks happen. You may want to find some stiff foam or other nonconductive material, double it up a few times and stuff it in underneath your CPU socket. Because dang your cooler is way too huge and heavy.
I was very concerned when I first installed the heatsink but I figured that everyone using the Ultra 120s and Ninjas, etc must have the same bending (?)... Note that @ 510g it's some 150 to 200g lighter than either of those tower heatsinks.

I haven't heard of many issues but I would prefer it if the heatsink had a back plate - I figure anything soft will eventually give in to the pressure but I may try placing something under there to help out.

jon67
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Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:46 pm

Post by jon67 » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:58 am

We've got a V300 in the kitchen for allround use (surfing, gaming, burning, photo/video, home office work ++) with the following components:

[email protected] w/stock cooler
ASRock 945G-DVI MB
2x1 Crucial Ballistix 6400
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320MB
Radeon X850XT-PE w/ Zalman VF-900 cooler
Seasonic S12-II 380W

I've done the following to reduce noise/temps:

1. Replaced front intake fans with Nexus Real Silent 80mm's running at 9-10V.
2. Added Nexus Real Silent 80mm rear intake fan behind the vacant PCI slot openings. This reduced the GPU and HDD temps by 5-7C when running at 9-10V.
3. Disconnected side panel fan, but didn't remove it.
4. Modified VF-900 power connector to fit the connector on the X850XT-PE board, allowing fan speed to be controlled via ATiTool. At idle the fan runs very silent at 13% speed.
5. Used Speedfan to fix Intel stock cooler fan at 40% PWM speed, ca 1500 rpm.

Considering that our kitchen is a relatively noisy place to be the PC is now well below the acceptable noise limit.
Last edited by jon67 on Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

hot22shot
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2007 5:05 am

Post by hot22shot » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:59 am

Hi,

here's my rig :
Case : Lian-li V300 (obviously).
Mobo : GA-G33M-DS2R.
CPU : Intel Q6600 stock hsf.
GPU : MSI 8800GTS 320 OC.
RAM : G.Skill Kit Extreme2 2 x 2 G PC6400 MQ.
PSU : Enermax Liberty 400.
HD : 2*160G sata raid0

For now I changed the 3 supplied fans with 3 80*80 noctua and of course i made some place with a dremel for the 8800 GTS to fit in.
I plan to change the intel hsf for a Scythe Ninja Mini as soon as I know this can be done, and I'll also put a HR-03 Plus on the 8800 GTS.

malfunction
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:11 am

Post by malfunction » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:57 am

I've done a bit of work since my last post - mostly minor but the system is almost down to a 100% acceptable level:

1) I've plugged the (swapped) PSU fan into the motherboard so I can bring it's speed down 20% using asus qfan - at the default 1000 RPM the sharkoon (non golfball) 120mm is pretty quiet but dropped down to ~800RPM it's a lot better. The exhaust from the PSU is hotter but my gut feeling is that it's still acceptable. Replacing the side fan would help but there's no room even for the original 15mm deep fan with the SI-128 installed so I'd have to mount it on the outside of the case

2) I've also placed silicon washers either side of the screws on the front fans which helped noise but wasn't enough so they are now hard wired to 5V - not sure what RPM they are running but would guess ~800RPM. Unfortunately this has also increased temps a lot - system and CPU temps are up by 3 or 4c and HDD temps are up by 10c or so (now in the 50s) which I'm not really happy about - will have to do something about it... Perhaps I'll try ducting the front fan(s) over the VGA card and up into the HDDs or change the VGA cooler for a blower style one that exhausts heat straight out of the case.

Right now the loudest thing in the case are the HDDs and I'm wondering if I could soft mount them if I removed the drive rails / quick mount system. I really don't want to do anything that will increase drive temperature as they are already too hot for my liking.

@jon67 - I've had a fan mounted on the rear of the HDD bay before which really helped with HDD temps but I couldn't find any elegant way to mount it permanently - for now I've simply left the perforated bay cover off the case which helps temps a little (1 or 2c at most).

@hot22shot - I think you'll need to get your dremel out again to mount the HR03. I was looking at the HR03 and the V2 but I think the heatpipes will foul the HDD cage hence I went with the VF900.

hot22shot
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Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2007 5:05 am

Post by hot22shot » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:02 am

@hot22shot - I think you'll need to get your dremel out again to mount the HR03. I was looking at the HR03 and the V2 but I think the heatpipes will foul the HDD cage hence I went with the VF900.
Yes I know, i'll just put the lower HD in a 5 1/4 bay.
I'm also wondering if the thin 80*80 provided with the case could not be used to cool the hd case :?: At 5v it could help with minimal noise.

jon67
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:46 pm

Post by jon67 » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:24 am

hot22shot wrote: I'm also wondering if the thin 80*80 provided with the case could not be used to cool the hd case :?: At 5v it could help with minimal noise.
It's got a ticking sound even at 5V. Useless imo.

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