SP35P2 ATX PSU and Corsair H50 Mod

[moiroo]

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[moiroo]

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[moiroo]

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[jackstar7]

What have you cooked up?

[CorneliousXT]

I have seen one or two systems with a standard ATX PSU installed. I'm working towards this myself, once I get a new mobo for my SP35P2 I'm gonna work out the mods to the back of the case to allow the installation of a standard ATX PSU. From there I'll be modding the lengths of ALL of the PSU cables to fit the Shuttle's layout perfectly and cut down on clutter. It's gonna be a challenge but freaking amazing once it's done.

Can't wait for pics/details.

[jrturbo]

Hi there guys

The idea of adapting a Corsair H50 to fit into a p2 chasis is something I also considered, but I gave up on the idea for a couple of reasons after.

a) the corsair is a sealed system from the factory, and as a result I dont think you can dismantle the tubes from the rad, which would make life a lot easier when trying to figure out where you are going to place the rad

The only place where I think you can fit the rad and not require major mods to the chasis is above the PSU, but due to the fixed length of the H50 tubes, these may no be long enough, there is also the distinct posibility that the h50 rad may not allow enough space for the optical drive.

b) The cooling capacity of the H50 is no better than the average decent cooler which uses a 120mm fan.

So I am looking forward to see what solutions are going to be used to overcome the instalation problems.

Regards

Joe Rubido

[hugh]

b) The cooling capacity of the H50 is no better than the average decent cooler which uses a 120mm fan.

yeah, but try fitting one of those heatsinks in the shuttle instead they are rather on the large side.

as to a) well that's a non issue really tbh. if you're going to mod the thing into the shuttle, chances are you'll take the time to replace and lenghten any tubes needed. factory sealed and filled with coolant, well sod it, you drain the coolant out, add new tube where needed and fill it up with new coolant.

it's also a slim radiator so with a standard size 120mm fan, it'll fit above the psu with about 1cm to spare and you should still be able to fit in a dvd drive and havedrive, although if i recall, i had to buy a new shorter dvd drive to fit in there.

[jrturbo]

Hi there Hugh

I understand perfectly where you are coming from, regarding installing an alternative cpu cooler to a P2 Shuttle chassis, space is indeed a problem. I have spent countless hours looking a cooler dimensions and specifications

Let me explain, to install a the Corsair H50 into a P2 shuttle the way I see it, you have 3 choices

a) Above the PSU, the only place where the rad will fit without modifying the chasis, but will require removing the rear case fans and the HD tray, but beware its also very likely that adding a fan to the rad will interfere with the optical drive and its wiring connections, its also quite probable that the tubing wont have sufficient length to reach the CPU socket, although its going to be close, the H50 system is fitted with 2 tubes 30 cm long, a case of suck and see if fits.

b) Modifiy the front end of the chasis and casing , to place the rad a the front of case, you will loose the front drive cage that holds the 5.25" optical drive, the 3.5" cage, and the hard drive cage below to make room for the rad and fan, and will also require fabricating a mesh window of some sort for the radiator and fan to breathe.

c) Modify the chasis on the left side of the case to place the rad in roughly the same area as the original ice cooler was installed, this will require cutting the left chassis rail and again you will loose all the front drive cages, the case cover would need a mesh window to allow the radiator and fan to breathe.


However its doable, the question is wether its worth the effort, since you can achieve decent cooling performance and low noise with air cooling. furthermore If I remove my 5.25" optical drive I can install a bigger cooler than the Noctua NH9UB I have at present, and this is something I am considering myself, as my current cooler cant cope with more than 3.8 ghz at full load on my QX9650, at 4 ghz it runs too hot under full load for my liking, although to be honest the problem here could also be my cpu chip which may be lousy at overclocking.

Never the less, maybe this person has come with a solution for the installation that I had not conceived and making it a lot easier than I had anticipated. I am keeping my options open as I would like to achieve 4 ghz, but I need better cooling, at present I am considering installing the new Noctua NH D14 cooler, which by the way is massive, and to make room I will use a Slim optical drive placed above where the standard optical drive is, I believe this location was intended to for an optional memory card reader, but is ideal to install a slot loading slim optical drive.

The result I hope to achieve is better cooling to run at 4 ghz and even lower noise than I have at present, but havent decided yet.

Regards

Joe Rubido

[hugh]

i'd go with A as i have done on countless occasions in the past. as said, the tubing is a non-issue, if you're gonna be cutting holes in your case with a dremel, chances are you'll take that extra 2 steps to make sure it all fits by replacing any tube you need to.

from my expereiences, watercooling a shuttle is rarely ever anything but a cool-factor. the shuttle once watercooled, becomes very impractical, you can't swap things out easily, you really don't get very good performance, it's expensive, work, and yeah, unless i NEEDED the 4ghz clock speed, then i wouldn't, and if i did need that 4ghz, i'd be on a tower or matx machine, as shuttles are not really the powerhouses of the IT trade, they are jsut convenient small pc's that can offer a good degree of power, but at a sacrifice of cooling and such.

[adadk]

moiroo, we're still waiting. What's the holdup?

Very much looking forward to reading about your ATX PSU mod. I'm trying to do the same thing for my SN27P2 but have run into a problem I cannot diagnose.

[bothfeetin]

i have my h50 mounted in my sn26p. i currently only have the radiator pictures on my phone (computer is at work)...but will take more pics tomorrow. I had to make a custom mount out of plexiglass to mount the radiator. I then swapped out the stock corsair fan with a scythe ultra 120mm fan. overall the cpu temps are low and I have the opty 165 clocked at 2.7ghz all day.

[bothfeetin]

here are some pics.

[Ouisri]

Today, all of what you guys talk about are past tense. New technology going in the direction of safe energy, green and lower cost..

[yoopertemp]

Bothfeetin:

I ordered a h50 (And a 128gb SSD) for my sp35p2 a couple of days ago.  I was wondering if there was any advice you could pass on....any lessons learned.  I plan on using a piece of plexiglass also for the mount.  I am going to cut a hole in the case cover and put in some spray painted black mesh on the top over the radiator.  Question is.....do I push air out of the case, or suck the cool air in?  Did you try both meathods? which one worked better? The SSD should speed things up nicely too...and the drives I am getting rid of, I am putting in an external enclosure.  It will be nice getting rid of those noisy rear fans also.  I will post any gains after I get the stuff on Monday and get a chance to install and play with it.

Yooper

[yoopertemp]

Well I got it up and working.   Unfortunately I did not order a new fan for it, thus it was just a little too thick, and would hit my Blue Ray drive.  So as a temperary measure until my low profile fan comes in, I mounted the fan on top of the radiator (which is flush with the hard drive)  I do have to say the cooling is phenominal.  I was 42-44 idle and could easily hit 61-62 with all four cores maxed in about five minutes with my Q6600 OCs tp 3.2GHz.  Now it idles at 35 and I cant get it to go above 52.  With the new SSD for a main drive it is really really quick and quiet.  After I get my low profile fan, and get the hole cut in the top of the case for airflow, I will take some pictures.
Thanks again Bothfeetin for the idea!

yooper