tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37537737205881554462024-03-14T08:17:05.562+02:00mfilos Computers & Consoles blogMarios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-33482761699869421172023-05-11T22:20:00.006+03:002023-05-12T06:59:43.188+03:00Long time no see :P<p> Hey my friends...</p><p>Took me quite a few years to return to what I loved most, but the past weird years, the community dragged me back and since October of 2022 I'm back on track!</p><p>During these months I bought AmigaOS 3.2, and updated up to 3.2.2.1 replacing ALL my previous OSes to one new build from scratch. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghTh-fhW079LiR3GFqoAKiFR3NLprqzhaRvKBfqmPvvN4q9OkZmaFXTiBug4SUMbzhr2cdbxOkMFWDJkTCEFpIYkC5Ek44zZxJ1t-K1KkJlqYeFPM7V4uBKdokWtac1hVU_FC89eqhjRf7mfApY4puU4z3YxQDt6L82OrR84Yh7jLmg8g4FJzi0_W9g/s1280/screenshot1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghTh-fhW079LiR3GFqoAKiFR3NLprqzhaRvKBfqmPvvN4q9OkZmaFXTiBug4SUMbzhr2cdbxOkMFWDJkTCEFpIYkC5Ek44zZxJ1t-K1KkJlqYeFPM7V4uBKdokWtac1hVU_FC89eqhjRf7mfApY4puU4z3YxQDt6L82OrR84Yh7jLmg8g4FJzi0_W9g/w400-h225/screenshot1.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNUs_O9tDjhbL-BjatRz2QWdeFzQ2q0VA-9uBxlFle9-FW1-5rJihpmyCL2Cbbc0gjay9twu4jd8pJlTZ_Vclko5GIPTCwdqNxv5VTdCskH-ObaU52DFUigg9G_379QCOsHRXi3EK_OOmQ5rpK46OV76XipaWNo56XNKQRehGsR9G-gc3Yjy8Z5sxEQ/s1280/screenshot2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNUs_O9tDjhbL-BjatRz2QWdeFzQ2q0VA-9uBxlFle9-FW1-5rJihpmyCL2Cbbc0gjay9twu4jd8pJlTZ_Vclko5GIPTCwdqNxv5VTdCskH-ObaU52DFUigg9G_379QCOsHRXi3EK_OOmQ5rpK46OV76XipaWNo56XNKQRehGsR9G-gc3Yjy8Z5sxEQ/w400-h225/screenshot2.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYd9chKWFDggC_pJOsLInncgi8i5lOFszx7-AbMPg1rpwt_x1NheIUWTRr5GgwKmY64AMhsLjg4bkiyEIU9XYJKVM1_DT7M2OxmjH_q9x8Aotea3f1d8fWHBr9o-HfwnBNzdBxolYlm6zVGdkNuIzR_JW0EB_aCYe_9FC7pkMw5qx1efovaB-s8OFUbQ/s1280/screenshot3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYd9chKWFDggC_pJOsLInncgi8i5lOFszx7-AbMPg1rpwt_x1NheIUWTRr5GgwKmY64AMhsLjg4bkiyEIU9XYJKVM1_DT7M2OxmjH_q9x8Aotea3f1d8fWHBr9o-HfwnBNzdBxolYlm6zVGdkNuIzR_JW0EB_aCYe_9FC7pkMw5qx1efovaB-s8OFUbQ/w400-h225/screenshot3.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><p>We also got a lot of new cores for my Vampire V4SA with added features so timing was great :)</p><p>I have many things I wanna share from the last 6+ months but I hope in the next days/weeks to start writing and tinkering again with my blog.</p><p>So thanks all for sticking all this time, and stay tuned for more...</p><p><br /></p></div>Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-41861310813131592532016-11-04T21:28:00.000+02:002016-11-04T21:52:33.929+02:00A600: Paula NMI Piggyback adapterHi my friends.<br />
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Recently I got a message from my friend <a href="http://www.amibay.com/member.php?6749-highpuff" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">highpuff</a> that he created an NMI adapter for A1200 that piggybacks to Paula!<br />
I was amazed since I didn't knew that the IPL0, IPL1 and IPL2 signals that were needed for NMI header were also available on Paula as well!<br />
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Yesterday I got a package on my mailbox out of the blue sky...<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1WdVf9Xb9kQ/WBzdvnQ-JBI/AAAAAAAABsE/Z02kmmLfTYUTNrSp0F-m9F2-c2SuiIfzgCLcB/s1600/Photo%2B02-11-2016%252C%2B19%2B04%2B12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1WdVf9Xb9kQ/WBzdvnQ-JBI/AAAAAAAABsE/Z02kmmLfTYUTNrSp0F-m9F2-c2SuiIfzgCLcB/s400/Photo%2B02-11-2016%252C%2B19%2B04%2B12.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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OMG, I was really happy that Highpuff sent me one kit for testing it on my beefy A600!<br />
After all... Paula on A1200 and A600 are the same so why wouldn't it work?<br />
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Here's the adapter on it's full glory...<br />
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Really simple design but elegant and effective!<br />
Time to remove my floppy dual drive combo, and plug the adapter to Paula.<br />
Once it was ready, and switch was put in the adapter header it was time to give it a spin!<br />
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Hohohoho! After some custom kickstart fun, just pushing the button gives us HRTMon 2.36 (even from Early Startup Menu! Awesomeness!<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1iHF67_KNs8/WBzg-ZxYBhI/AAAAAAAABsc/LOlOUDWNzu4ARFRrZY5Hj1T2OgXTGPCTgCLcB/s1600/WBtoHRTMON.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1iHF67_KNs8/WBzg-ZxYBhI/AAAAAAAABsc/LOlOUDWNzu4ARFRrZY5Hj1T2OgXTGPCTgCLcB/s400/WBtoHRTMON.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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For some people who will simple say... WTF is that, it's an Action Replay clone that can give some info and alter some address in RAM for hacking some stuff.<br />
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ACA630 had an NMI adapter by default that I showed in the past as well, but since Vampire doesn't have an NMI header the only solution to get the signals so far, was to get the signals from Vampire's Piggyback 68k socket (not something for the fainthearted doing).<br />
Getting the header from another IC is a really awesome solution without affecting at all the rest of the setup. Good thing also is that the adapter is really low profile and doesn't mess with the height of the floppy drive (even my dual drive combo sat really well) and case closed just fine :)<br />
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Thanks a lot highpuff my friend... You rock!<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-35054984711874539052016-08-04T22:08:00.002+03:002016-08-04T22:08:48.460+03:00A600: Some RTG love and recent ClassicWB 3.9 enchancementsHi my friends.<br />
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So many things, so little time but hopefully I'll try and post more stuff from now on.</div>
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All this time I'm tinkering my lovely Vampire and my beloved ClassicWB 3.9 system.</div>
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I made many changes so I might not remember all but here are some highlights:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Updated a lot of libs, utilities and programs to latest versions</li>
<li>Changed whole iconset from MagicWB to Ken's Icons (OMG only that alone is TONZ of work)</li>
<li>Added "Theme Support". This includes the following options:</li>
<ul>
<li><None></li>
<li>VisualPrefs (with a new OS4.0 theme edited by myself)</li>
<li>AfA OS (it still doesn't work since it requires FPU but if you mount the system to WinUAE and add FPU then it works just fine). Also it's ready for when FPU implementation is done on the Vampire.</li>
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<li>Updated a lot my Startup-Sequence cleverly so I can mount my CF card both on Amiga and my PC (via WinUAE) using the same system without any changes. IT ROX so much having the same environment without having to change monitor, screenmode, settings etc, and what's best... either in real A600 or WinUAE every change is saved in each environment!</li>
<li>Changed many options on ToolPrefs menu adding stuff like:</li>
<ul>
<li>Converting images to icons (thumbnails)</li>
<li>Replacing backdrops on the fly either on windows or workbench screen</li>
</ul>
<li>Replaced ToolsManager Dock with WBDock by Thomas Rapp</li>
<li>Added many utilities and tools. Some I remember are:</li>
<ul>
<li>SwazInfo that replaced RawWBInfo (I like it more)</li>
<li>PowerWindows (for moving windows wherever I want on the screen)</li>
<li>ReqAttack for changing all requesters</li>
</ul>
<li>Changed all my assigns from all places to be managed by MCP</li>
<li>Installed Clould Handlers (after also registering them just for the support)</li>
<li>Made a lot of new backdrops with Vampire theme (lol) which I will put at the end of the post for anyone that wants to grab any :)</li>
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You can check the video bellow that shows some of these features live. I suggest to open it on YouTube where you can also view it up to HD (1080p) quality.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uzygLcJsmxI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uzygLcJsmxI?feature=player_embedded" width="480"></iframe></div>
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Here are the backdrops that you can grab :)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HUWZeVNFmwQ/V6OPyLHYRMI/AAAAAAAABqs/LCOkE_27JXYfjODJwCy8mwzMccqFG6c5wCEw/s1600/Joker%2BV600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="67" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HUWZeVNFmwQ/V6OPyLHYRMI/AAAAAAAABqs/LCOkE_27JXYfjODJwCy8mwzMccqFG6c5wCEw/s200/Joker%2BV600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" width="90" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ1PcT0wwEA/V6OO_f8k5sI/AAAAAAAABqE/kFkMl30MNE8OnX1EXOZdDPds7HP0w8u4ACEw/s1600/Michelangelo%2BV600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="67" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ1PcT0wwEA/V6OO_f8k5sI/AAAAAAAABqE/kFkMl30MNE8OnX1EXOZdDPds7HP0w8u4ACEw/s200/Michelangelo%2BV600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" width="90" /></a> <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6X0q_xdjq7Q/V6OO_OuDB6I/AAAAAAAABqA/YpLhQNVVgPwMJARiwDfurrFt7rIwBRTRACEw/s1600/IceAgeV600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="67" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6X0q_xdjq7Q/V6OO_OuDB6I/AAAAAAAABqA/YpLhQNVVgPwMJARiwDfurrFt7rIwBRTRACEw/s200/IceAgeV600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="90" /></a> <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CXU14FZPyrg/V6OPAJ3SarI/AAAAAAAABqk/WJoiA-mOK10hpRUp9X-aWbLtoeuJHjTpACEw/s1600/Spiderman_V600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="67" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CXU14FZPyrg/V6OPAJ3SarI/AAAAAAAABqk/WJoiA-mOK10hpRUp9X-aWbLtoeuJHjTpACEw/s200/Spiderman_V600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" width="90" /></a> <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pG7oE4dmfqQ/V6OO-3xKyNI/AAAAAAAABqk/lClq0OVqf5c9L4gnQyJRKqSK3bwDO2eHQCEw/s1600/Kirk_V600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="67" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pG7oE4dmfqQ/V6OO-3xKyNI/AAAAAAAABqk/lClq0OVqf5c9L4gnQyJRKqSK3bwDO2eHQCEw/s200/Kirk_V600%2528800x600%2529.jpg" width="90" /></a></div>
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-54747826750982489472016-06-12T17:05:00.000+03:002016-06-12T17:05:07.115+03:00A600: Spare A600 mobo recapped, serviced and replacing currentSince many years I had a spare A600 mobo from my really old A600 that had some cap issues (sound etc) plus some old hacks I did when I couldn't hold a soldering iron correctly :)<br />
Since I didn't have much time my really good friend Leo (keropi) offered to help a bit.<br />
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After getting a cap kit from AmigaKit, he changed the caps but there were channels missing in audio... He checked and changed the audio amp chip (from a spare dead A600 mobo) but still no fix.<br />
Then he decided to salvage Paula from the dead mobo and finally that was the problem!<br />
Now my mobo is working flawlessly so I received it and tested it with great joy.<br />
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Since it was working perfect with my Vampire I decided to replace my current mobo (that has some audio issues as well, along with some RGB to scart issues (caps desperately needing change).<br />
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So new mobo got the following hacks<br />
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Adding 2 signals for the dual floppy header. I decided to add the wires under the motherboard for cleaner mod. You can check the previous mod <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gnqad2Cef20/UYlb9pX3VxI/AAAAAAAAAZc/QMFaPDDoGpY/s1600/Photo+4-5-13+11+14+13.jpg" target="_blank">here</a> where I added the wires on the top of the motherboard.<br />
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Next it was the 2nd floppy LED wires that would attach next to the LED header. Previous mod can be seen <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ygjSYtPQgzU/UY6KMlq5zxI/AAAAAAAAAgw/7hE2dt_zxyE/s1600/Photo+11-5-13+18+05+43.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>. A lot cleaner in this go :)<br />
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Here you can see Ratte's switch in RF modulator space, the ribbons for Native/RTG fold carefully and hot-glued on top of kipper2k's angled adapter and then going under Vampire.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yjnuWMaDDBk/V11iuH05lxI/AAAAAAAABoQ/7W49T8-56dQ3xf7YE2bqDrJYlznT1HpfwCLcB/s1600/Photo%2B05-06-16%2B11%2B13%2B04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yjnuWMaDDBk/V11iuH05lxI/AAAAAAAABoQ/7W49T8-56dQ3xf7YE2bqDrJYlznT1HpfwCLcB/s400/Photo%2B05-06-16%2B11%2B13%2B04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And here you can see the whole unit ready to rock with everything on.<br />
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You'll notice in the previous pic that the old switch that I used for switching between Kickstart 1.3 and Kickstart 3.1 was removed as nowadays the kick resides inside the Vampire. Instead, I thought of putting a bigger switch I had (ON/OFF/ON) for switching between Ratte's switch modes (Auto/Native/RTG). It took me a LOT of time trimming and filling the switch in order to be able to fit in my A600 but it fitted like a glove once I was ready.<br />
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<u>Some things that are missing (if someone knows my setup) are the following:</u><br />
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<ol>
<li><b>MAS-Player plus the internal MAS/Paula mixer:</b> Yep it was removed for 2 reasons. 1st because MAS-Player is definitely obsolete now since it can only play up to 192kbit MP3 files while Vampire can play up to 320kbit without a sweat and with only consuming 20-30% of the CPU power (impressive shiz I tell ya). Another reason was that mixer lowered considerably the volume of both MAS-Player and Paula so there was no reason to keep it.</li>
<li><b>NMI header:</b> Yep, Vampire doesn't have an NMI header, although we managed with kipper2k to trigger the INT7 so I might add such a feature in the future</li>
<li><b>Ugly HDMI to VGA adapter handing in the air:</b> I sympathize I tell ya, but most that know me, know that there was not a single way I would leave that hanging like that :) Tbh, I'm waiting an HDMI amplifier plus a short 10cm HDMI cable to try putting all these inside as comfortable as I can to have the best possible VGA signal coming through the HDMI plug.</li>
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Stay tuned :)</div>
Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-18129901702892424392016-06-06T23:16:00.000+03:002016-06-06T23:17:54.710+03:00A600: Ratte's auto switch working on my A600 beast :O<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hi peepz.<br />
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After finishing my Gotek inside my A600, something that troubled me a long time came in front.<br />
I love my Vampire and RTG modes, but I also want native modes which atm I can get either from Indivision SD/FF or from RGB to Scart. Ofc both of these solutions require either a dual input monitor (HDMI/VGA or HDMI/Scart, which I already have) or having 2 monitors.<br />
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Since I was always fond of auto switch between RTG and Native I though... what the heck, I have to try Ratte's switch like I had in the past.<br />
Worst thing, is that I would use the parallel port signal if I couldn't find one inside...<br />
After talking with <a href="http://www.amibay.com/member.php?6749-highpuff" target="_blank">highpuff</a> (<a href="https://www.ikod.se/">ikod.se</a>) who was making a batch on Amibay, I decided to gief it a go after he told me that U8 that I knew on A1200 was also present on A600! Dafuq I never thought they were alike sharing the same signals :)<br />
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This is the new switch that I received along with plenty of cabling in PRO quality! (Thanks a lot Claes mate, you rock \m/)<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t3INhvICCg8/V1XXS9mx1NI/AAAAAAAABno/oX9OmvDrzh4doa1P5fColoSOKTxPivEfQCLcB/s1600/RatteSwitch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="357" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t3INhvICCg8/V1XXS9mx1NI/AAAAAAAABno/oX9OmvDrzh4doa1P5fColoSOKTxPivEfQCLcB/s400/RatteSwitch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Ok Natives were ok as I knew that Indivision would run ok with Ratte's switch as I tried in the past Indivision AGA, 4000, mk2 without issues.<br />
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What about RTG coming through HDMI though :S<br />
First of all HDMI is only digital while Ratte's switch works only with Analog signals.<br />
Only choice I had was to get an cheapo HDMI to VGA adapter from eBay like this...<br />
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After making all the necessary connections to a spare recapped A600 mobo of mine... this was the result (btw, I asked highpuff to make me a custom male RTG cable in order to feed it directly to the HDMI adapter).<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Or41glf_tP0/V1WmpPHVlUI/AAAAAAAABnQ/4685G4f36t4IpuQP0moTH57PqaMzZ7OngCKgB/s1600/Photo%2B30-05-16%2B20%2B21%2B06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Or41glf_tP0/V1WmpPHVlUI/AAAAAAAABnQ/4685G4f36t4IpuQP0moTH57PqaMzZ7OngCKgB/s400/Photo%2B30-05-16%2B20%2B21%2B06.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Result was SUCCESSFUL! OMG I couldn't believe it! Even putting SwitchControl in Startup-Sequence right before IPrefs gave me AUTO switching like it should!!!<br />
After that I thought about dismantling the adapter to see how big it would be inside... Turns out it's rather slim<br />
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I couldn't leave the thick HDMI connector as it was would I?<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KO9e2yLorDw/V1Wmqj7rnQI/AAAAAAAABnQ/4dKXM3HKMgscOri_5c4lHB1_fPBGKZgmQCKgB/s1600/Photo%2B31-05-16%2B08%2B24%2B28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KO9e2yLorDw/V1Wmqj7rnQI/AAAAAAAABnQ/4dKXM3HKMgscOri_5c4lHB1_fPBGKZgmQCKgB/s400/Photo%2B31-05-16%2B08%2B24%2B28.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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One more test again and it was indeed successful as well! You can see in the following picture the U8 CIA adapter (what a PRO PCB man)<br />
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Here's a quick video about the booting and switching phases of RTG/Native using Ratte's switch on my A600.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abe4USQ04pA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/abe4USQ04pA?feature=player_embedded" width="480"></iframe></div>
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Stay tuned :)Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-84925562060337923072016-05-15T10:40:00.000+03:002016-05-15T10:40:53.333+03:00A600: Replacing internal HxC SD with Gotek HxC on my beastHey my friends.<br />
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Some months ago (and haven't found the reason yet) my internal HxC SD stopped working (LCD screen wasn't working and no sound was coming from buzzer.<br />
After removing everything, I made a continuity test on whole board (comparing it with another HxC SD that I have) but still couldn't find anything wrong. HxC SD gets voltage but something is shortcircuiting and gives issues but I didn't have enough appetite atm to troubleshoot it more.<br />
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After seeing about Gotek and HxC's firmware adaptation by Jeff, I decided to give it a go :)<br />
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I ordered 2x Goteks (one in black and one in grey) and after getting the HxC licence from Jeff, I flashed both replacing the Cortex firmware.<br />
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Now it was time to give a spin on attaching a test 16x2 LCD screen (normal size) and an extra button to see if firmware was working as intended and Presto! The extra cheap I2C controller I got from eBay works lovely :)<br />
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In order to give a try on a test mini LCD screen I had once more to wire carefully from the ribbon connector to the I2C module (irritating job but someone's gotta do it).<br />
After some time of soldering carefully, experiment was successful!<br />
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Now it was time for some case and Gotek modding. First of all my dear friend Dremel was used to remove the front fascia from the Gotek case...<br />
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Then everything was removed and the mod of slimming down the Gotek in order to be slim enough for the slim floppy drive to attach above it... started :)<br />
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After some time, the 2x caps were placed on the side, the board headers were removed, and also the USB connector and buttons were removed as well.<br />
Good thing is that it still was working so yey! You can see it's more slim now :)<br />
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I also made the buzzer mod and glued it in place along with all the other components.<br />
Drive was also attached above the unit carefully after many tried of measuring and testing on the real Amiga. I also attached the extra dual drive adapter in the best position I could.<br />
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On this detail view you can see in the lower left corner of the Gotek case, a cut I made with the Dremel in order to put the buzzer as far back as I could (including the needed transistor lol). Buzzer was also Dremeled a little in order for the upper motor of slim floppy to be as back as it should.<br />
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Here's the front side with the USB plug re-positioned in order to match the cut on A600 upper shell (where the original eject button was).<br />
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Just for means of WTF you can see the lower side of the whole mod (the cable coming underneath is the HxC buttons (Next, Previous, Enter) that are position on the lower A600 shell so I wanted a connector in order to remove the drive whenever I wanted.<br />
The back dual drive adapter is attached via strong glue and some solid plastics<br />
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This is a classic overall mod on the internal of the case showing everything.<br />
You can also see now the replacing of my Subway with a RapidRoad USB. Yes, you saw correctly that I'm not using the default mini connector of A604n's clockport as it wasn't easy to fit with the drive combo and also was really close to the HDMI connector of Vampire V2.<br />
custom clockport cable was stripped and made rounded, in order to position RapidRoad a bit more right to the case and everything's now works as it should leaving space to HDMI connector as well!!!<br />
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Case closed for now. Everything's is now working as plan once again!!! Phew \o/<br />
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Last but not least, a screenshot of my loved A600 running latest SILVER5 core on Vampire V2 using a resolution of 1360x768 on P96. Awesome stuff indeed!<br />
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Stay tuned for more tests in the following days/weeks :)Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-42250116344209110882016-03-24T12:31:00.000+02:002016-03-24T12:31:42.476+02:00Α600: Vampire V2 arrived and it's hawt!Hey my friends.<br />
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Long time no see but I had a really good reason I was not much online or in the works.<br />
I had my second child (a son this time) born on 18th of August so as you can imagine my personal time plus sleep have decreased drastically since then :(<br />
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Everything's turning out better as the time goes by and I have more time to tinker my lovely hardware.<br />
Lovely things happened in my "absence" like new core with RTG support, cache, etc on FPGA Arcade and Vampire V2 with Apollo core and SAGA support... oh damn!<br />
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Well I hope from now on to write more frequently about my findings and tests on these lovely machines.<br />
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Yesterday I received my Vampire V2 board which took some time but was SOOO much worth it :)<br />
Board is indeed small and has a JTAG connector, an HDMI output connector and a MicroSD connector. Lets put that baby on, shall we?<br />
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Yeah it's a bit messy as I had to dismantle the floppy drive combo, Subway and some wires that went on the former ACA630 in order to test the Vampire V2.<br />
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Workbench started just fine and INSANELY fast. My titlebar that is changed via MCP showed 040/ECS. Wow what a thrill!<br />
I was amazed that Indyvision ECS worked just fine, cause I was under the impression by some posts that I read somewhere that they were incompatible. Turns out that atm they work just fine together even in SuperPlus 800x600 resolution.<br />
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Time for the classic SysInfo benchmarking and WTF!<br />
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Insane numbers for an A600 so it was time to make a module in SysSpeed to give a side-to-side comparison with my other accelerators (ACA630-OC, Furia, Furia2)<br />
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OK, I knew that Vampire V2 has the genuine kickstart that I provided inside. Time to give a test if it will work if I remove my former kickstart completely...<br />
...OMG it works... :D<br />
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Last but not least, I thought about giving SAGA (P96 RTG) support a glimpse.<br />
After I installed P96 and the SAGA driver... voila!<br />
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So far only 320x240 and 640x480 till 16bit are supported but we're still on early stages of awesomeness.<br />
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Today or tomorrow I'm gonna make a new post with some video of the responsiveness of the Amiga with the Vampire V2 along with the SysSpeed modules in order for anyone to compare it with his/her own benches.<br />
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Stay tuned :)<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-81963164695850327622015-08-08T16:45:00.001+03:002015-08-08T17:13:26.859+03:00FPGA Arcade: New LED signals on the core equals more LEDS to play withYesterday MikeJ released a new Amiga core for the FPGA Arcade which apart from scrollwheel support, OSD options for Mouse/Joysticks and some 2nd joystick button also added 3 headers on the AUX_IO spot for Power, Floppy and Hard Drive LEDS.<br />
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That was awesome cause I had no appetite to get these signals by soldering wires to the SD access SMD LED.<br />
After I opened the case, I tried firstly with a spare LED to see if the signals were working ok. First I tried the power LED (although I wasn't going to use it as I have the signal from my custom circuit (before the core is running which I prefer it).<br />
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Second it was the floppy LED that I used by opening an "Workbench 3.1" image...<br />
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Last but not least was the hard drive access LED that I tested while system was booting (what a nice LOL picture of the ghost loading icons).<br />
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So after seeing everything was working as intended... I dismantled the board from the case once more, and attached 3 rows of pins to the AUX_IO spot to have for future use (you can see it in the top middle area of the board right from the RS232 connector) :)<br />
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Because the case has one bright Blue led for Power and one Orange one for the Hard disk access, I thought about changing the Blue cause I didn't like it, and replaced the Orange one with a dual LED (Orange for hard drive access, and Green for floppy access).<br />
As you can see from the pictures bellow, I had to get the extra signal along with the other cables so I put an extra wire for it :)<br />
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As always, and because I want to keep always a tidy up space inside the case, instead of stretching the cables for my need, I made an extra custom extension cable for connecting all the necessary LEDS to the FPGA Arcade board.<br />
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Everything was ready and testing was successful :)<br />
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Also, because the power LED (now in red) was still VERY bright, I decided to put an extra 4.7KΩ resistor just to keep it dimmer. Ofc the resistor was placed inside an insulated extension for better looks (lol).<br />
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And a last panoramic view from the mods before closing the case.<br />
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Here you can see the Power red LED...<br />
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The Floppy green LED...<br />
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And the orange HD LED.<br />
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Last because a friend asked for it..., I present some photos of SysInfo, AIBB and WhichAmiga for fun.<br />
Not bad for a system not using Cache :)<br />
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Anyone noticed the extra board attached? Minimig RTG Card... exciting times coming :)Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-61490777078755933942015-08-05T11:55:00.000+03:002015-08-05T11:59:50.100+03:00FPGA Arcade: Casing and some Workbench testingI had many ideas in the past of what case to use for my FPGA Arcade.<br />
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One of which was an old A590 casing (which I already have) which I might use in the future, or a small mini-itx case.</div>
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My good friend Leo (keropi) kindly offered me a spare mini-itx case that he had which was rather nice for my taste as it had a small size.</div>
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The case is a "Morex Cubid 3833" which is the following (stock pictures)<br />
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<b>Thanks bro! U rox once more :)</b></div>
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I really liked the fact that it had options for DB9/DB15 plug that would be handy to wire the RS232 console port which would be mounted inside.</div>
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My only concern was that the case (as ALL modern cases don't have a simple ON/OFF switch but a momentary push on switch that isn't suitable for the FPGA Arcade (without the power board which you need to buy extra and that I didn't know).</div>
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That is the moment when I realized that I already had that problem in the past, on my former A4000 when I wanted a push on button to act like an ON/OFF/ON switch for using it with Ratte's Monitor Switch.</div>
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This is what I done back then: <a href="http://www.mfilos.com/2011/09/a4000-custom-circuit-for-auto-agartg.html" target="_blank">"A4000: Custom circuit for Auto AGA/RTG switch"</a></div>
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I had this circuit already in my hands so I though, why not!</div>
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After some slight work into cabling this was the result! I also put a small copper heatsink on the FPGA as I realized it gets hot at times and also a spare Noctua fan that I had on my stash :)</div>
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As you can see I wired the console port using an ethernet cable (lol) and also used my A4000's homebrew circuit for ON/OFF/ON switch. Good thing I also had a LED header that I wired to the front case power LED!</div>
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This is the backplate side when you can see the extra DB9 port for debug purposes :)<br />
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And more internal shots.<br />
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What I would have loved is being able to wire the onboard SD access LED as the HD activity LED of the case and also the OSD button that sits on the back, as the Reset button on the case.</div>
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After emailing MikeJ about these, he answered that the OSD button header is already there (P19) although he haven't putted a header for an SD card access LED. He can do some alterations in the future in order to transfer this signal to some spare IO headers that exist but for now it's not a problem.</div>
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With that in mind, I also made a extension to the case's Reset button and now pushing reset on the front of the case... brings forth the OSD menu!</div>
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Since the circuit for the switch is ON/OFF/ON (while I only wanted an ON/OFF) I have one position that I don't use so I have to press the button twice in order to open it again.</div>
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To avoid that I will build a new circuit in the following days just to get rid of the extra push (yeah I know I'm kinda OCD LOL)</div>
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The circuit is the same as before, but without the extra output logic and you can see it here in case you need it in the future.<br />
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Last but not least, I present some better looking photos (rather crap but better than last time) from the system starting, selecting the hard images (you can put it auto ofc), and booting into workbench and some usage.</div>
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That's all for now... more in the following days so stay tuned :)</div>
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-18715173765114361622015-08-04T10:25:00.001+03:002015-08-05T11:21:49.532+03:00FPGA Arcade is in da house!Hi guys, it's certainly been a long time no see :(<br />
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Sadly except my heavy work and family obligations that kept me long time from my retr0sport and custom modding we (Greece as a country) had some crappy financial situation with capital control, banks closed etc (which most will know already) so we still can't buy many products overseas using PayPal or Credit cards. Not gonna spend more lines on that matter though...<br />
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In the meantime, and long before this crisis, I've also upgraded my main PC@Home using for the first time watercooling in a mini-itx case which was rather challenging for a first timer but I'll tell more about it in a different article :)<br />
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This article is about the LONG waited FPGA Arcade which has finally arrived my premises some days ago.<br />
Just for a bit of history, I was on the preorder list as of April-2011! A lot of things happened since that day and a couple of batches went out to people, many beta cores have been made and AGA support is finally done.<br />
After exchanging many emails with MikeJ (the FPGA Arcade developer) telling him about the crappy situation in Greece and being unable to pay for now for the long waited unit of mine, he decided to send it to me anyway!!! (I'm still amazed about his so kind gesture and trust).<br />
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Unit was received as I already said, some days ago and I was a really happy man!<br />
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Looking good doesn't it?<br />
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I couldn't help it so I had to try it @ work, so after some reading on the forums about how to prepare an SD card, I was up and running :D (and with my custom ROM that I use on my A600).<br />
Don't get fooled though... I couldn't make it work at first (blank screens ftw).<br />
Solution was given after putting a NULL MODEM cable to the serial interface and in my PC to check out the boot sequence that told me that HRTMON.rom couldn't be found!<br />
Damn, after commenting out the line in the replay.ini, system was up and running :)<br />
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Booting into Workbench 3.1 from a floppy was working just fine so I was rather pleased and happy about it! I now wanted to make some hardfile to boot!<br />
I tried copying a basic setup from my WinUAE environment but sadly it didn't boot...<br />
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I then remembered I had exactly the same problem with my former Chameleon some years back when I was from the first that setup the hard drive for using a ClassicWB installation.<br />
I found out <a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/chameleon_64/conversations/topics/624" target="_blank">my post from June-2011 on Chameleon's Yahoo Group</a> and remembered I have to create the .HDF image on WinUAE, then transfer it on FPGA Arcade, then boot an Install3.1 disk and initialize and format it under FPGA Arcade. After that, the image can be used either on FPGA Arcade and WinUAE! Awesome time to work :)<br />
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After some time, I managed to get a working setup of Workbench 3.1, then a basic setup of ClassicWB then it was time to get my UBER custom setup of ClassicWB 3.9 that I host on my A600.<br />
Ok, it didn't work at first... Can't find DOS device etc? Why's that?<br />
Firstly I disabled my custom ROM, putting a normal 3.1 one, and system booted but with many errors, but mostly artifacts in the screen! Aha. Time to start disabling ClassicWB components via the ClassicWB menus...<br />
...After some time, I discovered that Fblit was causing the issues!!! After disabling it, system booted just fine.<br />
Time to create a second partition (Work), and copy some stuff from my A600 partition including games, emus etc.<br />
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Oh yeah, system was up and running :D<br />
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More updates on the way so stay tuned :)<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-17555801224850931722014-12-21T18:46:00.000+02:002016-11-19T10:54:27.778+02:00PC: Custom watercooling on gaming rig (Part 6)Ok time for some recent final pictures shall we?<br />
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First of all the left side of the case where you can see the Reservoir, the PSU along with the custom cables. I also thought about installing the default 80mm case fan with it's base, just because why not? Some more airflow hitting the extra mobo pcb with the power caps certainly can't hurt. I saw it also gets hot so a bit help is always nice imho.<br />
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Here you can see some more details of the cable management, PC speaker mount, and how tight did the PSU fit on the Apogee Drive II 90 degrees fitting :)<br />
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Here's some upper to right side of the case. You can clearly see the GPU rails tied on the chassis skeleton, plus some upper overall view.<br />
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This is the right side of the case where you can see the GPU, the huge radiator, and the spiral cable wrapping for SATA slim cables and some USB3.0 cables on the bottom.<br />
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Here are some supplemental images of the left side in angles in order to see the cable management of USB2.0 header, and front panel leds, fan cables+extensions etc.<br />
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This is the front side of the case with the slim Bluray & Dual 2.5" SSD/HDD combo along with the back side of the case checking out the mobo and GPU.<br />
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Last but not least, this is the case with the lid closed like a glove! It doesn't touch or interferes with anything inside the case and you can still see some of the innards from the tiny airflow holes.<br />
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I'm certainly thinking about future acrylic window on the sides or the upper part in order to be able to check out and admire easily my rig but for now I'm all set.<br />
I'll update with more pics when I'll have more mods done :)<br />
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I really hope you liked my build and despite I wasn't very thorough in every process of this making-of, I did my best into taking pics as much as possible.<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-25059841882525015412014-12-20T14:00:00.000+02:002016-11-19T10:54:20.853+02:00PC: Custom watercooling on gaming rig (Part 5)One more update for this build.<br />
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I was happy I got some new (minor but important) stuff from the mailman yesterday!<br />
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So, it was time to cover some cables in order for everything to be better organized.<br />
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Not bad at all!<br />
Now I knew it was time for the irritating part... Da PSU mod. That meant... custom cable length that I was rather sure it would be a time consuming experience... and I wasn't far from it!<br />
First of all I dismantled the PSU... so bye bye 5 years warranty :(<br />
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As you'll saw, the cable length is REALLY big which would have been really ugly and would definitely be bad for the airflow of the case. So here we are...<br />
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Yeah! It's done :D And I really love it!!!<br />
You can see I even used the original sleeve in every pair lol. No I'm not El'Cheapo, I just felt like it wasn't bad for my taste so why not?<br />
I also thought that no matter what, I'd do in the future with this case I'd never use 2x GPUs with that PSU, so I removed the extra dual extension from both GPU rails, and decided to use both rails for my 2x 6-pin connectors smile.gif As you can see I also kept (for future usage) the extra 2-pin for making the 6-pin to 8-pin cable in case I change my GPU in the future...<br />
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I really love it and it certainly nice and tidy once putted inside.<br />
Some might ask me why I haven't sleeved every wire since I made a custom length and would look really cool! First of all I was thinking about it a lot, but I decided to proceed with better airflow and less cable mess, instead of great looks :) I might change that in the future who knows, but for now I'm all good.<br />
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I guess the next post will be one of (if not) the final. Stay tuned :)<br />
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-47460989296378615682014-12-18T17:37:00.000+02:002016-11-19T10:54:13.167+02:00PC: Custom watercooling on gaming rig (Part 4)Hey my friends once more.<br />
<br />
Continuing my rig update I though for once to also install the system speaker (lol I know) just because why not?... so after putting some heatshrink tube, here's the old chap :)<br />
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Also I thought of a way to mount the Swiftech Reservoir by drilling a hole on the upper chassis skeleton. Ofc I made the hole both on the top and bottom part in order to help me screw it easily.<br />
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Ok, it's tiime for Prime:)<br />
I cut a bit of the internals of a small tube that I cut in order to fit a funnel we have for kitchen use (lol).<br />
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And here's the preparation and filling the loop.<br />
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Good thing is that only one fitting needed a bit more screwing alas I didn't have leaking issues! Felt rather awesome to have such success upon my first watercooling experience xD<br />
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OK one thing that it felt rather weird is the loud noise from the Apogee Drive II pump (since it operates at full speed).<br />
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<u>I'm attaching for reference the following:</u><br />
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A small video of the pump operating from zero to max rpm<br />
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A small video of the pump operating from zero to max and then low rpm settings (via PWM) due to Asus settings on BIOS<br />
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More info on that later on...<br />
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OK after finishing the loop, I just had to try it as fast as I could lol, so, I just putted the PSU inside, tie wrapping the cables not to create a mess and here we are...<br />
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Wow temperature after running Prime95 for about 10mins was 35 degrees!!! And that with both Noctuas performing under 700rpm and Apogee Drive II under 1374rpm at silent use!<br />
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Time for some Furmark stress test on FullHD.<br />
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<br />
Ok 55 degrees ain't bad for 15minute stress test I thought, so I guess test was a success.<br />
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Since I completed the loop and since I wasn't aware if it's normal to have such noise in full RPM from the pump, I thought about contacting Swiftech's support just for advice.<br />
Ofc I provided all the neccesarry info like pictures, videos etc in order for them to be able to hear the pump and they kindly responded in every email.<br />
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I quote a part from one of their emails (from Bryan) as it troubled me a bit:<br />
Quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Hi again Marios,<br />OK, there is an issue with your loop design and it’s likely why you’re now having issues with this pump. These pumps, like most water cooling pumps, need to be fed directly by the reservoir so that they won’t encounter issues later on with sucking on air once evaporation starts to set in. I do think that the way you installed this pump is the reason you’re having issues with it. That really isn’t advisable to have a pump like this that isn’t being directly fed by the reservoir.</i></blockquote>
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Ok, so after a lot of thinking (despite being bored to redo anything from scratch) I decided to proceed with the suggested way....<br />
Oh well... I had to remove apart from the coolant, the bracket, the radiator, I had to reposition the fans, put new rubber feet, blah blah blah... assemble everything back... and start the new way that the tubes were meant to be used.<br />
Ofc I tried my best to utilize all my fitings without having to buy different angles, etc.<br />
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After some time and re-tubbing everything, I was rather happy with the result, and I think it looks also better than the previous one smile.gif<br />
So now the loop goes like this:<br />
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Reservoir OUT --> Pump+CPU Waterblock IN --> Radiator IN --> Ratiator OUT --> GPU Waterblock IN --> GPU Waterblock OUT --> Reservoir IN<br />
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<br />
Not bad at all.<br />
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Sadly despite working just fine, I haven't saw any major difference in pump noise so after emailing Swiftech (Bryan) back he responded the following:<br />
Quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>My suggestion would be to add a drop or two of dish soap to the coolant. It will act as a surfactant and a lubricant to help quiet the pump and push the remaining air to the surface. You should then run your pump at full speed for a couple of hours to circulate it. Let me know if this resolves your issue or not.</i></blockquote>
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I putted 2 drops of dish soap (after reading some other articles as well) and it definitely helped a little but I'm working on it in case it even gets better in future. Good thing is that sound is just audible above 2200rpm and even then it's not annoying. It gets annoying above 3000 rpm where it doesn't actually need to go or helps more imho.<br />
Also, temps got better with the new loop for some reason. Maybe Bryan was right in the first place!<br />
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As you can see I got from 56 degrees to 47 running a full Furmark stress test (for 15minutes) on FullHD!<br />
It's fantastic and I didn't expect such difference tbh.<br />
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Last but not least some FireStrike demo benchmark<br />
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Certainly not anything super impressive (as I'm running without OC on both CPU and GPU) but not bad at all.<br />
The moment that test was off I checked the temps monitor and largest temp I saw was 51C degrees on GPU and 47C degrees on CPU under FireStrike Demo.<br />
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Anywayz, stay tuned :)Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-14776110453520275232014-12-17T14:27:00.000+02:002016-11-19T10:54:05.604+02:00PC: Custom watercooling on gaming rig (Part 3)Hey guys.<br />
<br />
One more photo update of my build, where I made some initial case cable management before anything else, in order not to have a cable mess inside the case while tubing...<br />
The cables are meant to be covered with thin spiral cable wrap bindings at some point but for now... some tie wraps are just fine :)<br />
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And here is my first tubing experience on the Radiator, Waterblock+Pump and GPU. It took me some time to actually understand how everything works but it was fun experience.<br />
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The Reservoir needed a bit of attention as the manufacturer says that it's not meant for putting vertically or any other way, as it's intended for that usage.<br />
Despite not having experience, I thought that the best way to mount it was on the side of the GPU next to the 5.25" bracket. It turned out rather well and good for my taste. Again some tie wrap to keep it in place were used until a more permament way.<br />
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Not bad at all aye?<br />
Some might have seen that I also inserted the 5.25" IcyDock ToughArmor bracket in one of the photos. Lets see more about it.<br />
First of all, and because the SATA cables are a bit thick for my taste I thought about getting the slim SilverStone ones that really rock!<br />
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Sadly I thought by mistake that the IcyDock needed 2x SATA cables and 1x MicroSATA (like I had on SG06) so I only ordered 2 of them :S<br />
Once I realized it it was too late, so I ordered another one (for the slim optical drive) so I have to wait 1 more week to get it (Grrrrr)<br />
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I really like that bracket though :)<br />
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Soon more to come...Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-40924230832372878512014-12-16T00:26:00.000+02:002016-11-19T10:53:27.653+02:00PC: Custom watercooling on gaming rig (Part 2)OK...<br />
Before starting out I thought of making a comparison between the CM 130 and my former SG06 :)<br />
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Not such huge difference but on the inside... it's a lot more spacey and nice.<br />
Also I made a quick fit test with da massive rad! What a beast!<br />
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First of all, in order to put the Monsta radiator, you need to remove the 5.25" bracket in order to cut some areas where an SSD/HDD is meant to be mounted (on the lower side) that certainly gets in the way of the radiator.</div>
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In order to remove the bracket you need to remove 4x rivets that hold the 5.25 on the front. Some patience and a little drill and bracket is off :)</div>
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...and radiator fits like a glove :D</div>
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As it's a bit heavy I thought of giving a little bit of support, not to have both fans, the radiator filled with the coolant just holding by 4 thin screws.</div>
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So, I got some rubber feet from a local store which with a little sanding were a perfect fit underneath the rad. You can barely see it after trying a lot.</div>
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Perfect :) Now it was time to dremel the 5.25 bracket. With some caution the annoying bumps removed and bracket was ready to be mounted in it's place.</div>
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Going well so far \o/<br />
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Next step, was to void that GTX 970 warranty... damn that always feels like crap, but what can you do? lol</div>
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And voila... Waterblock fitted like a glove xD</div>
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Time to check it inside the case in it's full glory.</div>
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Last but not least, I thought about giving a test on how everything fits along with the PSU in place... I must say, using the right angle fitting is so ESSENTIAL!</div>
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(Also it gives a slight glimpse on the horror of cable management lol... I can't even think about it but I will certainly deal with it when time comes)</div>
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Next step... tubin' n' fittin'... stay tuned :)</div>
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-85925564394290308522014-12-14T22:56:00.000+02:002016-11-19T10:53:08.467+02:00PC: Custom watercooling on gaming rig (Part 1)Hi my friends.<br />
<br />
The time has come to upgrade my main gaming rig.<br />
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Just for a bit of information, this was till now my gaming rig consisted from the following parts:<br />
[✓] Case: SilverStone SG06-USB3.0<br />
[✓] PSU: Silverstone ST45SF 450W SFX<br />
[✓] Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus VI Impact<br />
[✓] CPU: Intel i7 4771 @ 3.5GHz<br />
[✓] Ram: Kingston HyperX 16GB @ 1600MHz<br />
[✓] GPU: Palit JetStream GTX 970<br />
[✓] SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB<br />
[✓] HDD: Western Digital Green 2TB 3.5"<br />
[✓] Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 (without the top 120mm fan)<br />
[✓] Fan1: Noctua NF-F12 PWM (on the front),<br />
[✓] Fan2: Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM (on top of the heatsink for Push/Pull setup)<br />
[✓] Fan3: Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX (on the top of the chassis for exhaust)<br />
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Some pics are the following:<br />
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Don't get me wrong, the system worked awesomely well, and since I never overclocked at all, I was just fine althought I always seeked for beter lower temperature solutions.<br />
So far I never messed with watercooling but I really wanted to gief a try after checking awesome SFF watercooling builds like the ones from hyp36rmax (thanks for the endless inpsiration my friend).<br />
SG06 is an awesome case which I love but when it comes to watercooling imho you can only put:<br />
- Either an AIO watercooling solution like Like Corsair H60/75 in push/pull setup, H80i in push setup, or Cooler Master Nepton 120XL in push setup<br />
- Or a custom watercooling solution with a radiator up to 30mm in push/pull setup or up to 45mm in push setup.<br />
Sadly both solutions can be used only for CPU cooling or custom GPU cooling. Both CPU and GPU can't be cooled efficiently with such thin radiators (although I hope to see someone prove me wrong. Da pr0n would be a nice view for me)<br />
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After a lot of thinking I decided to move a slightly larger case in order to fulfill my needs smile.gif<br />
Cooler Master's Elite 130 case was affordable, I could find it locally and most important, other people used that case successfully with custom watercooling loops on both CPU and GPU.<br />
Good part is that CM 130 has a 5.25" bracket, so because I wanted to keep my Bluray/DVD-RW drive I thought of getting a neat metal case which could hold both the slim drive plus 2x SSD/HDD's.<br />
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Ok I kept a lot of my previous setup but I had to get a lot of stuff more. This was the new part list:<br />
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[✓] Case: Cooler Master Elite 130<br />
[✓] PSU: Cooler Master V750 (Semi Modular)<br />
[✓] 5.25" bracket: IcyDock ToughArmor MB994IPO-3SB<br />
[✓] HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 2.5" (since I had one spare, temporarily replaced the 2TB 3.5" Green)<br />
[✓] Pump & CPU Waterblock: Swiftech Apogee Drive II (really awesome kit to conserve important space)<br />
[✓] GPU Waterblock: EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal+Nickel<br />
[✓] Radiator: Alphacool NexXxoS Monsta 120<br />
[✓] Reservoir: Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev2 Reservoir<br />
[✓] Fans: 1x Noctua NF-F12 PWM (Good thing I had one from the previous setup)<br />
[✓] Fittings: 8x EK-CSQ Fitting, 6x EK-AF Angled 90°, 2x EK-AF Angled 45°<br />
[✓] Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT - Crystal Clear<br />
[✓] Cooling Liquid: EK-Ekoolant Pastel RED<br />
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...and here are some pics of the received stuff :) (exciting times ahead)<br />
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<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-9019244046082360522014-10-12T11:30:00.000+03:002014-10-13T11:18:33.987+03:00PC: New GPU in da house :)Hi peepz. I thought about sharing an update to my main gaming rig.<br />
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Some weeks ago I sold my Asus GTX760 DC2OC to a friend so I was without a GPU for this time. Thankfully the NVidia Maxwell series arrived, so I knew that it was time to update my mini rig :)<br />
Sadly the GTX980 is out of my budget so the GTX970 was picked (it's best value for money anywayz).<br />
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Now to the tricky part... WHAT GTX970 is appropriate for my SilverStone SG06 case?<br />
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First of all, there are plenty of stock versions of GTX970 (non overclocked) from different hardware vendors that would work just fine out-of-the-box. These are the following:<br />
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I decided not to buy the entry level from any hardware vendor (not because I have any problem with entry level, but mainly because I don't like overclocking, so a little boost by default would have been better).<br />
With that decision I had 5 things to consider:<br />
<ol>
<li>Length (max length that can be used ~10" as it is, and 10.75" if you cut the front frame)</li>
<li>Height (Well normally you don't have to worry but if you use the combo DVD/drive bracket) height is an issue especially with power cables needed for GPU</li>
<li>Depth (I certainly don't need more than 2x card depth. For example some huge 2.5x or 3x coolers don't let the case close!</li>
<li>Temperature control</li>
<li>Fan noise</li>
</ol>
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After a long of research and reviews through the forums... I had the following info and choices:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Asus Strix:</b> This was my first choice mainly because I love Asus, but also because it has the best cooling imho. Sadly though... it's TOO big for my SilverStone SG06 case. Even cutting the front frame (a classic mod for people putting larger GPUs)... at 11" you can't do anything more. Also the height with the heatpipes might get in the way of the bracket of 3.5"HD/Slim CD combo.</li>
<li><b>EVGA ACX series:</b> FTW model seemed sexy enough and certainly fits based on height and length. After checking some reviews saying about higher noise for my taste, and some issues based on the ACX cooling solution, I didn't fell for it</li>
<li><b>Gigabyte G1</b>: Awesome card but nothing more to say except that it's length is a massive 12"... so a certainly no no!</li>
<li><b>Zotac Amp Omega:</b> It seemed legit, but for some reason I don't like it much and it's cooler seem like it has more height than the SG06 might support with the HD/DVD combo bracket. It's depth is certainly bigger than the case can support so I don't see it coming anyway.</li>
<li><b>MSI Gaming</b>: Lovely card and logically it could fit (ofc with cutting the metal frame on the front) as it's 10.6" but it's huge on height making it a tight (or no fit at all) if using the combo bracket as well</li>
<li><b>Gainward Phantom:</b> What a lovely and beasty card! It's silent, good looking, and height and length is awesome (even without cutting the frame). Only thing I worry is that it will be tight or no fit on depth as the cooler makes a depth of 2.5 cards. SG06 has some more space but still I can't know for sure it fits (without modding).</li>
<li><b>Palit JetStream:</b> Ok this card met ALL the requirements as it'is rather nice and fits just fine (without mods). Height and Length (9.72") are just fine and Depth is something more than 2x but checking from review pics is 99% ok. Some reviews said that it has awesome silent behavior although increased temps based on that favoritism. Thankfully I can change that from the utility. I just wish it was red to mach my ROG mobo but you can't have it all :)</li>
</ul>
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Ok Palit was the safest and wisest choice... so after some days.... IT ARRIVED!<br />
Damn that box felt huge (although it doesn't feel so big in the pictures).<br />
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Some close-ups from the GPU for means of reference<br />
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I had to dismantle a lot of stuff from my previous setup, as the card gets tight but can't be powered (2x 6pin connectors) or be installed in the PCI-E bus without removing the HD/DVD combo bracket. After putting things back together and some cable management... here it was in it's full glory :)<br />
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With that cable management, the airflow from the front 92mm Noctua fan is enough. LOL you can't see anything from the other side as the GPU+Fan is blocking whole side.<br />
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One view from the top, where you can see some minor cable management stuck on the empty sides near the slim Bluray drive. It actually look better than the photos although there aren't much things you can do without a modular PSU. I'm rather happy with the 450W-80 plus SFF PSU though.<br />
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Last but not least, some photos with the case closed and ready to rock!<br />
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After seeing how tight everything fitted, I can say almost with certainty that Gainward wouldn't fit based on depth since my Palit is so tight that it barely touches the external chassis (thankfully not having any issue).<br />
Also I find it rather difficult, for MSI or Zotac to fit based on height as well (although I can't prove it).<br />
EVGA would fit rather nice (being 9.5") though.<br />
OFC if there was a reference GTX970 would have been awesome (like for example the GTX980 OC of EVGA) but despite many users asking for the reference design, no vendor approved or thought about releasing it yet.<br />
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Anywayz... after 2 hours of testing... the GPU just rocks!!! Totally silent and every game set on Ultra at ease. Fun times ahead \o/<br />
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I hope you like it despite not being retr0 :)<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-16380365888563423372014-09-13T20:50:00.000+03:002014-09-13T20:50:26.829+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 8)Hello guys.<br />
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After a really long time, those damn silicon fan mounts finally arrived!<br />
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After removing all the old black ones, I putted the new ones which despite not being white, but semi-transparent, they were really nice :)<br />
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Here you can see the right side's chipset fan<br />
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And here the back side's case fan<br />
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I really like that the silicone mounts look nice with the semi-transparent LEDs :)<br />
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Here's the side part with the changed USB3.0 Card Reader<br />
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...and the back side<br />
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The right side...<br />
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And last but not least, the lower side as I haven't took a picture ever :)<br />
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This article concludes my journey into beefing this wonderful X500 Evo case.<br />
It wasn't anything difficult, as Loriano made quite an effort into giving us clever ideas for mounting stuff :)<br />
Some custom ideas which were used in my build, really helped me with the cabling and in general I'm rather satisfied with this mini beast :) I'm quite impressed that my noble PicoPSU is able to power at ease the i3 CPU, the GT730 GPU and the other components like USB keyboard, USB WiFi/Bluetooth combo, USB Card Reader at only 40W idling and 90W on stress test.<br />
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I will certainly keep an eye on future CPU or GPU upgrades if my budget allows me, but for now, I'm rather happy with this beast.<br />
In the future, I'll probably write article about how I use the X500 softwarewise, but for now this series is now done :)<br />
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Thanks for sticking as always, and I'm grateful for the warm comments I get from many of you guys.<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-71837381209751925302014-09-08T23:16:00.005+03:002014-09-08T23:45:20.223+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 7)Hey peepz,<br />
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Despite thinking that this project was finished, I always come up with something else (lol).<br />
Following my previous article and checking why my upper shell wasn't closing as well as I expected, I decided to make a little butchering by giving a tiny bit of carving on the spot where the PicoPSU is touching the shell...<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V_Dz__6S8UA/VA4H6a1ibWI/AAAAAAAABN0/R4UXar7-Vq0/s1600/Photo%2B8-9-14%2B-%2B19%2B43%2B47_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V_Dz__6S8UA/VA4H6a1ibWI/AAAAAAAABN0/R4UXar7-Vq0/s1600/Photo%2B8-9-14%2B-%2B19%2B43%2B47_1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Well, it might look kinda big, but actually is okey and it's a LOT better now. Case closed without a single issue :D<br />
I also cut the rubber fan mounters that exceeded the fan.<br />
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OK, time for more important mods hehe.<br />
After running the X500 for quite some time now, I realized that the upper shell 50mm fans are kinda noisy for my taste, so I had to do something about it.<br />
One solution was to replace them with more expensive ones or try and make a PWM controller.<br />
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I remembered that in the past I have seen the EPIC A1200D PPC mod of Phipscube where he also <a href="http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?8107-My-A1200D-Project&p=149720&viewfull=1#post149720" target="_blank">putted a custom PWM controller on his BVision</a>.<br />
In this post, Phipscube shared his source of inspiration which was <a href="http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/438125-FANS-FANS-AND-MORE-FANS!-Some-Nifty-Fan-Mods-Including-a-PMW-fan-controller?s=accffc8613c847b8ecf04de3e0717fcd&p=4253267#post4253267" target="_blank">this article</a> on Overclockers forum.<br />
I bought all the necessary part from my local electronics store and started building it on the veroboard.<br />
Since I bought enough components, I thought of making 2x PWM controllers just in case it was needed :)<br />
After some time, the circuit was ready to test...<br />
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After some troubleshooting (because I made 2 errors that I easily tracked and fixed) the units were a success :D</div>
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I tried a rather noisy fan from a Commodore A590 hard drive and then I changed the pot lower and then higher again with quite a difference.</div>
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You can listen to it as well as recorded it using my iPhone <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/939939/PWM.m4a" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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After tests were successful I cut both controllers to it's final size.</div>
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Ofc you can never have a custom mod, without custom wires with connectors. Damn I hate all this stripping, soldering and tubing, but it's an essential step for clean mods.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErOn0BkneUA/VA4IDnyIgQI/AAAAAAAABOc/JC2IWd5Hu8c/s1600/Photo%2B8-9-14%2B-%2B19%2B23%2B55_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErOn0BkneUA/VA4IDnyIgQI/AAAAAAAABOc/JC2IWd5Hu8c/s1600/Photo%2B8-9-14%2B-%2B19%2B23%2B55_1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Finally, I thought about putting some layers of a silicone dual sticky tape that I had, in order to give it more height (here you can see 3 layers of this tape).<br />
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PCB was mounted next to the other custom PCB that I made to power the fans.<br />
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Last but not least, it was time to fine tune the pot to it's final position after checking the fans every once and a while to the desired level<br />
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Mission accomplished. Now fan noise is a LOT better without sacrificing previous CFMs :)<br />
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<u>Btw don't forget to take a look at other people's X500's :)</u><br />
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<ul>
<li>Kyle made an awesome job putting a SAM inside an X500 Evo! - Link <a href="http://amiga.ikirsector.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=18409" target="_blank">here</a></li>
<li>Peter is starting making his own PC inside an X500 Evo as well. Good luck mate and thanks for mentioning my blog on your Blog. \o/ - Link <a href="http://geekpeter.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/1st-blog-o/" target="_blank">here</a> </li>
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Stay tuned.<br />
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<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-12285488619826976372014-09-06T10:33:00.001+03:002014-09-06T10:33:15.570+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 6)Hello peepz!<br />
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Not many things to update these days, as the only thing I'm waiting atm are some white anti-vibration fan mounts.</div>
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Important things although needed my attention.</div>
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First of these (although not so important) was to change the storage Hard drive with a bigger one. Previous was a Seagate 500GB one, and now I decided to put a Western Digital 1TB just to be safe. Sadly there was not enough budget for the 2TB 2.5" one but I think that 1TB will be just fine for this middle-tier machine :)</div>
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Second but most important issue was that I discovered that the case doesn't close as firm as I would like. After examining further I realized that the problem was the PicoPSU's molex connector on the one side that was touching the upper shell upon closing. You can check the length of the lower connector on the picture bellow.<br />
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Instead of just desoldering the connector and soldering the cables directly on the PicoPSU, I decided to just cut the plastics of the connector and bending the pins down at about 20 degrees.<br />
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After putting the connector back on, you can clearly see that now it's a lot better :)<br />
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One more issue (lol), was that the case had one hole that was designed for PicoPSU's default power connector but as you know from a <a href="http://www.mfilos.com/2014/08/x500-evo-stuffing-da-beast-part-3.html" target="_blank">previous article</a> wasn't used alas it was open.</div>
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As I didn't anything else I could use this hole for, I decided to put a Push-On switch in order to have it as Reset switch (I know it's not used at all most of times but ...oh well...).</div>
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OK. Now that I was set hardwarewise, I thought about checking 00some power consumption readings on my Watt-o-meter.<br />
This is a standard reading when system is idle under Windows7 desktop.<br />
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After running a stress test on Furmark (stressing the GPU) though...<br />
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Yep. It skyrocketed (LOL) to ~85W. I thought about leaving it about 10 minutes and these was the results...<br />
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Not bad at all! :)<br />
Next step was to check the power consumption of my CPU using a stress test of Prime95 for about 10 minutes as well...<br />
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Really nice temperatures (thanks to Noctua) but also nice consumptions, making PicoPSU show it's power and coolness :)</div>
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I'm really excited that the power consumption is under 100W even in stressful tests, and since I have an 160W tolerance I'm rather certain I'll be ok for a while :)</div>
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Stay tuned.</div>
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-3721210672400110502014-08-30T19:11:00.001+03:002014-08-30T19:11:48.765+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 5)Hello peepz :)<br />
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Today's article will be among the last (X500's hardwarewise) but certainly the most important as it's about cable management in order for the upper shell's cables not interfering with the innards of the case.<br />
Yeah I know I'm a bit OCD with the cables :)<br />
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As you might have seen already in my initial X500 Evo presentation article, the upper shell case has 2x 50mm Fans with it's cables, a cable for the Power switch, and 2x quite lengthy thick insulated LED cables for Power/HDD activity.<br />
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Someone that has an Evo will realize that upon closing the case these cables tend to be all over the place. Sorry I don't like that as you can imagine :)<br />
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So, first thing is to gather all cables in one side, in order to have all in one place. </div>
The most distant cable is the power switch cable which was hotglued in place as you can see...<br />
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Then the Fan cables and Led cables where hold together via straps and the 2x adhesive mounters that Loriano has supplied.<br />
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Also, since I had one more spare internal USB header (motheboard has a dual USB2.0 header which one is occupied by the Cherry MX keyboard) I thought of taking advantage and putting inside a cheap USB WiFi/Blutooth combo adapter which was hotglued in place as well. Ofc I wouldn't solder directly to it (if I wanted to remove it at a later time), so I attached a female USB adapters that I had in my stash.<br />
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Ok so far so good. Every cable is in one place, and nothing interferes with the internal space. What I wanted now was a 14-wire cable in order to use everything on the upper shell (2 wires for power switch, 4 wires for the LEDS, 4 wires for the Fans and 4 wires for the USB header).<br />
An old VGA extension cable was used for my needs :)<br />
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Once I measured correctly the length I needed, I removed the extra 2 wires (that weren't needed) and started to make the pairs by twisting the wires together.<br />
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Then the irritating part of putting the headers for each pair on the mobo side after insulating them wire-by-wire with heatshrink tube. Yep, you see correctly the USB header being A LOT longer than the rest. You'll understand later on.<br />
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Here you can see the headers for each pair on the upper shell side soldered and insulated by heatshrink tube as well. As you can realize, I have different connectors for every pair. Other for the fans, other for the LEDS and power switch and other for the USB header.<br />
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This is the finished product (lol).<br />
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Time to put it on shall we?<br />
I started with the small headers and continued with the USB header.<br />
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And after everything was in place, I secured them with 2 more straps. Cool it's rock solid and unmovable now but if anytime I need to change the fans or LEDS, I can easily remove the straps, replace and remount them :) That's the good thing with having headers on everything.<br />
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Here I temporarily mounted the upper shell on the lower shell in order for everyone to see how the cabling is done and how it fits once closing the case without interfering :)<br />
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For the first test I haven't put anything in place leaving the wires (especially on the motherboard) loose.<br />
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Here you can understand WHY the USB cable was a lot longer than the rest of the wires :)<br />
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Initial test and Windows7 booting was a HUGE SUCCESS as everything worked out of the box! I haven't even done any error in Positive-Negative mounts of the LEDS which is typical for me :)<br />
After everything was ok, I permanently put the USB wire in it's mobo header.<br />
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As all the other wires in the designated positions on the motherboard.<br />
The round cable was secured with a strap, using 2 holes on the chassis (nice one Loriano)<br />
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...and here you can see how it looks with the upper shell in my hands and everything connected. I deliberately left some length in the round cable, in order to be able to put the upper shell on the left side anytime I wanted to check out or mod my case :) No need to dismantle everything when you mod.<br />
After all, the round cable goes UNDER the keyboard on the left side (on the empty compartment left from the Hard disk area) and doesn't interfere with anything :)<br />
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One tiny detail that prevented the upper shell to close firmly was the damn huge USB3.0 connector that was thick and tall as fok touching the upper part of the shell :)<br />
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I decided to be aggressive so I removed the extra height it had by it's base (after I attached a stripe to keep both cables secure). A LOT BETTER now :)<br />
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Case closed successfully and at last I was excited and happy about it :)</div>
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Not much left to do tbh from now on (hardwarewise) but some minor details that I will put in a next (and probable last article about X500 Evo).</div>
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Stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed it as well :)</div>
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-24441212520608584622014-08-30T00:00:00.000+03:002014-09-08T22:41:12.255+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 4)Hey guys.<br />
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I thought of posting one little update but with much importance :P<br />
First of all 2 days ago I received my original Cherry MX Brown keyboard from Loriano as by little mistake my X500 Evo had the Cherry MX Blue ones when I received it.<br />
Not some biggie as everything's just fine now.<br />
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I thought to share some keyboard pr0n for entertainment purposes.<br />
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And after some careful time putting all the keycaps in place the keyboard was ready!<br />
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The most important thing that I lacked but wanted in my setup was the GPU!<br />
So far I was running my system with the embedded Intel HD Graphics GPU of the Intel i3 3240 CPU which wasn't enough for my taste. Not to mention that I had enough extra wattage to spare alas I had to get one.<br />
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After searching for days, about what GPU cards was possible to be powered from the PicoPSU without issue, and also being able to be low profile and most important... being SINGLE slot including the heatsink's thickness... I was among the following:<br />
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<li>ATI Radeon HD 7750 (Sapphire)</li>
<li>ATI Radeon HD 6750</li>
<li>NVidia GT640 (Asus - 1GB GDDR5)</li>
<li>NVidia GT730 (PNY - 1GB GDDR5)</li>
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The Sapphire 7750 is a truly nice GPU but sadly it's so rare to find (especially under the Sapphire name) that I stopped thinking about it.</div>
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The 6750 was easy to find and more affordable but was lower than my expectations</div>
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I already tried the ASUS GT640 (1GB GDDR5) in the past before giving it to my dad for his mini-itx PC, and the only thing I didn't like, was the noise which was kinda loud.</div>
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The GT730 not only was the latest of the series that could run in low profile, but it also had a really thin heatsink/fan combo. What drove me insane was the ULTRA LOW TDP it had at only 38W TDP!!! What a definite winner! After I managed to grab one from eBay, I waited patiently till it arrived today! These are some photos of the card itself.</div>
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Here's where I removed the normal backplate, putting the low profile one (and after removing the obsolete VGA ribbon - as I was using the space for the PicoPSU connector.<br />
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Just before I fire up the X500, I thought about testing how much wattage my system draws without the GPU. After some test I saw it was between 30W and 42W idle @ Windows7 desktop.<br />
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Here's the beauty inserted via the included PCI-e flexible ribbon riser making her first boot :)<br />
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After installing the latest NVidia drivers etc and after a reboot, I thought about checking out the watt-meter to see what's going on.<br />
I was rather surpised seeing that the watt-meter idling @ Windows7 desktop showed lower consumption! lol<br />
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Ofc, that isn't such a great deal, as running some YouTube videos etc, raised the watts somewhere between 38W and 50W but still I was rather happy that I was within the required consumption.<br />
Maybe I'll try a Prime benchmark at some point but for now I'm ok to go :)<br />
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Just before the end of the article, I thought of posting two screenshots of the Windows 7 benchmark:<br />
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<b>Before (using the iGPU)</b><br />
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<b>And after (using the GT730)</b><br />
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That's all for now.<br />
Next article will be really nice as I'm preparing some custom mod and cabling for the upper shell.<br />
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Stay tuned :)<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-13660746286486540582014-08-23T16:46:00.002+03:002014-08-23T16:47:07.373+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 3)Hey guys.<br />
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Not many updates these days as I'm still waiting stuff to arrive from overseas :(<br />
One of the things that troubled me was were to put the 4-pin power connector.<br />
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As you might saw already, the X500 Evo has a small hole on the back side in order for a normal PicoPSU female power plug connector to be mounted.<br />
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Since I use the big PicoPSU 160W with a huge 192W power brick that has a 4-pin power connector I had to find a place to mount it properly without adding extra holes to the case.</div>
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After some thinking, I decided to use the little rectangle area above the PCI-E slot which normally was meant for the VGA connector (as most low profile cards have HDMI-DVI connector and a VGA connector to a second backplate via a mini ribbon).</div>
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After a lot of research I managed to find some schematics of the power plug so the only thing I wanted was a metal backplate of about 35mm x 15mm with a central hole of 11mm. The extra mounting holes of the power plug, would be drilled after the power plug was glued to the metal surface for stability.</div>
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As always, my good friend Leo (Keropi) made me some metal backplates for testing purposes. Some were from galvanized sheet and others were from inox sheet. You can check the difference on the first 3 backplates (galvanized) comparing to the last one (inox). I chose to use an inox backplate due to it's hardness and better looks (lol).<br />
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So I covered all plastic area with instant glue and after it was in place, I inserted the power plug which has a tight fit by default in order to keep it in place tight :)<br />
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After some time... PERFECTION!<br />
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I realized that the power connector was glued so tight and firm that the extra 2 holes for the screws were obsolete. I of course tried inserting and removing the power plug numerous times without issue.<br />
After I was 100% certain that it holds, I used instant glue to keep the whole inox backplate+powe plug combo in place...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YWLolcgnD3g/U_iTb-ZB-zI/AAAAAAAABEE/ep1-vCWAI78/s1600/Photo%2B23-8-14%2B-%2B15%2B36%2B47_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YWLolcgnD3g/U_iTb-ZB-zI/AAAAAAAABEE/ep1-vCWAI78/s1600/Photo%2B23-8-14%2B-%2B15%2B36%2B47_1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Success!!!<br />
After some time the plug was ready so I wired the power cable accordingly and voila!<br />
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<span id="goog_152706078"></span><span id="goog_152706079"></span><br />
Lets see now when the other components will show up :P<br />
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Stay tuned.<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-63819690819170319602014-08-20T12:49:00.000+03:002014-08-20T12:49:33.412+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 2)Ok this time it didn't take long to progress (lol).<br />
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First of all, I realized that my Asus P8H77-I motherboard had an internal dual USB2.0 header and an internal dual USB3.0 header. Lets see... X500 case requires 3x USB 1.0/2.0 internal headers:<br />
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<ul>
<li>2x USB 2.0 for the Card Reader (1x for the USB connector, and 1x for the rest card slots)</li>
<li>1x USB 1.0/2.0 for the Cherry MX keyboard</li>
</ul>
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So I was lacking 1x USB 2.0 header and not taking advantage over the internal USB 3.0. That meant that either:</div>
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<ul>
<li>I had to put an internal USB 2.0 hub - <b><span style="color: red;">Not OK</span></b></li>
<li>I had to convert the internal dual USB 3.0 header to a dual USB 2.0 header - <b><span style="color: orange;">Semi OK</span></b></li>
<li>I had to find a new USB 3.0 card reader, and use 1x header for Cherry MX keyboard, having one more spare for the future :D - <b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Mucho OK</span></b></li>
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The default card reader is this one</div>
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...which once removed is that</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j4iIORgvHrc/U_RoYksLoWI/AAAAAAAABBY/fWWIbyV1VfU/s1600/Photo%2B20-8-14%2B-%2B8%2B22%2B34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j4iIORgvHrc/U_RoYksLoWI/AAAAAAAABBY/fWWIbyV1VfU/s1600/Photo%2B20-8-14%2B-%2B8%2B22%2B34.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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After a bit of searching, I found out 2 legit USB 3.0 card readers that also come in white:</div>
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<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=product/product.detail.tpl&no=181&type=CardReader/Hub&type_sub=Card%20Reader&model=AK-ICR-14#" target="_blank">Akasa AK-ICR-14</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=128" target="_blank">Xigmatek Accessor Pro</a></li>
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Luckily the Akasa one was also delivered to a local Greek shop and it was also on stock so I took the opportunity and grabbed one. This is the one...</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JSkWs3rppVU/U_RrNAwalfI/AAAAAAAABBk/juqh3VCcQ1g/s1600/Photo%2B20-8-14%2B-%2B8%2B29%2B49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JSkWs3rppVU/U_RrNAwalfI/AAAAAAAABBk/juqh3VCcQ1g/s1600/Photo%2B20-8-14%2B-%2B8%2B29%2B49.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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...and this is how it looks when it replaced the default. Surprisingly, it's white color matches a lot more the white DVD/RW fascia!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-36BDZ3GLXdM/U_RrPR1DC-I/AAAAAAAABBs/O9l7dStl7t8/s1600/Photo%2B20-8-14%2B-%2B8%2B26%2B23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-36BDZ3GLXdM/U_RrPR1DC-I/AAAAAAAABBs/O9l7dStl7t8/s1600/Photo%2B20-8-14%2B-%2B8%2B26%2B23.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here it's the new reader in place with it's thick and lengthy USB 3.0 cables tight in place (they were tight and hot-glued on the back side where they don't look ugly). Only the required length was left in place in order to just plug and not interfere with anything else.<br />
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Apart from the card reader, the Notcua heatsink+fan combo arrived as well! How thrilling :D</div>
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I already had experience with the top quality of Noctua products (after owning an Noctua NH-L12 for my i7 gaming cube) and the NH-L9i was no different! You don't believe me? Then see for yourselves...</div>
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Aye, awesomeness!<br />
Time to install to the mobo and OMG! It fits like a glove and it's height is just EPIC!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5NDbTwS2Dcg/U_RtY6Hh0JI/AAAAAAAABCY/OvlUGgoq5Ks/s1600/Photo%2B18-8-14%2B-%2B17%2B23%2B34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5NDbTwS2Dcg/U_RtY6Hh0JI/AAAAAAAABCY/OvlUGgoq5Ks/s1600/Photo%2B18-8-14%2B-%2B17%2B23%2B34.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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I can't believe how firm this heatsink+fan combo fits in the X500 Evo. Like it was designed for it :)</div>
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Phew, it would be such a huge fail if it was even 0.2-0.3mm taller as the upper shell wouldn't close!</div>
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Ok time to wait for some more parts till the next article can take place...</div>
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Stay tuned.</div>
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Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753773720588155446.post-61193598322500788462014-08-19T16:00:00.000+03:002014-08-20T00:03:30.790+03:00X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Hey peepz.</div>
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As you seen on my previous article, I received the X500 Evo, but now the fun will begin for stuffing it with hardware and modding if required :)</div>
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First of all, I decided that this case due to it's awesomeness should get something beasty taking advantage as much as I could from the features it provides.</div>
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As I'm having a spare mini-itx mobo plus SSD and Hard Drive, I decided to use those in order to fulfill my needs.</div>
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A list of the hardware I have as we speak are:</div>
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<ul>
<li><b>Motherboard:</b> Asus P8H77-I</li>
<li><b>CPU:</b> Intel i3 3240 (3.4GHz @ 55W TDP)</li>
<li><b>RAM:</b> Kingston 2x 4GB (1600MHz)</li>
<li><b>SSD:</b> OCZ Vertex 3 120GB</li>
<li><b>HDD:</b> Seagate 500GB 5400rpm</li>
<li><b>PSU:</b> PicoPSU 160W (powered by an beefy 192W brick using 4pin adapter</li>
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So... I mounted the motherboard on X500 including PicoPSU and the drives in order to check it out.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7A04wXb8XoU/U_M7-3HNy1I/AAAAAAAAA_c/HN2PagjzNA8/s1600/Photo%2B10-8-14%2B-%2B10%2B42%2B03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7A04wXb8XoU/U_M7-3HNy1I/AAAAAAAAA_c/HN2PagjzNA8/s1600/Photo%2B10-8-14%2B-%2B10%2B42%2B03.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sadly the PicoPSU power extension cable has only 1x SATA connector and a molex which I didn't want.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HKXHPkFWXns/U_NBlNXaRgI/AAAAAAAABAo/ZtbFlsFZgS0/s1600/PicoPSU_Extension.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HKXHPkFWXns/U_NBlNXaRgI/AAAAAAAABAo/ZtbFlsFZgS0/s1600/PicoPSU_Extension.jpg" height="156" width="320" /></a></div>
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No reason to keep it as-is :)<br />
Molex connector was removed, and an extra SATA connector was attached to the wire. Ofc shrinking tubing was used to insulate the cables. After that both drives were mounted in place to check them out!<br />
Awesome tight fit :)<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZye0bb_kqA/U_M7-6acHNI/AAAAAAAAA_k/ljqeKyt2bCE/s1600/Photo%2B10-8-14%2B-%2B10%2B42%2B08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZye0bb_kqA/U_M7-6acHNI/AAAAAAAAA_k/ljqeKyt2bCE/s1600/Photo%2B10-8-14%2B-%2B10%2B42%2B08.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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As some might know I'm a bit OCD with the cabling so I used some straps to hold the SATA cables in place not to have a mess which I dislike.<br />
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OK. Data cables were ready. What about powering the extra bits of the case? Those parts are:<br />
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<ul>
<li>DVD/RW's Molex connector (5V)</li>
<li>1x back side's 40mm fan (12V)</li>
<li>2x upper shell's 50mm fans (12V)</li>
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As you might saw, PicoPSU has two output connectors as you can see from the picture bellow...</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aFNd2BNKooc/U_NEJjmhTOI/AAAAAAAABA0/IYcve5RRby4/s1600/PicoPSU_PowerConnectors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aFNd2BNKooc/U_NEJjmhTOI/AAAAAAAABA0/IYcve5RRby4/s1600/PicoPSU_PowerConnectors.png" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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...so the extra spare extension I bought in the past would come handy! After I removed the connectors it had (keeping only the one that attaches to PicoPSU) I thought about using a veroboard, to mount it along with 4x headers having 5V-GND / GND-12V.</div>
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As you can see from the lower part of the veroboard, it's really hand having each line shorted, giving me the ability to add as many headers I want in the future (not that it will be needed from what I can tell). I also putted some silicon base in 3 parts in order to be able to mount it properly :)<br />
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And here it is mounted and taking power from PicoPSU.<br />
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Here you can see it placed next to the motherboard and giving juice to the backside 40mm fan.<br />
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And here it's giving juice to the pin header of the DVD/RW (after I tossed the big and ugly Molex connector).<br />
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It's getting rather nice imho isn't it?<br />
What I observed so far are the following:<br />
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<li>My i3's stock cooler has more height than the case can take, alas the upper shell doesn't close. The only valid coolers for that setup after searching a lot on Google were 2.</li>
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<li>Either the stock cooler of the lower consumption i3 3220T<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yAec8fU9_nM/U_NH8ytzksI/AAAAAAAABBA/alZjZM-yjQc/s1600/I3_Stock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yAec8fU9_nM/U_NH8ytzksI/AAAAAAAABBA/alZjZM-yjQc/s1600/I3_Stock.jpg" /></a></li>
<li>Or the awesome "Noctua NH-L9i" ultra low profile 37mm combo<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iNAAcphOTlI/U_NIVg7KTfI/AAAAAAAABBI/_kgkMSfg8qc/s1600/noctua_nhl9i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iNAAcphOTlI/U_NIVg7KTfI/AAAAAAAABBI/_kgkMSfg8qc/s1600/noctua_nhl9i.jpg" /></a></li>
<li>As you can imagine... I ordered the Noctua without a hesitation after contacting Loriano to get measuring of the innards of the case and the stock 3220T cooler height.</li>
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<li>All fans are mounted using silicon rubber mounts for better noise cancelation and ease of fitting. As these mounts are black, they don't look so nice with the rest of the white case. In order to make it look even better, I ordered a set of white silicone mounts to give them a spin.</li>
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So that's it for now...<br />
More articles will come in the following days as I'm waiting some things to arrive :)<br />
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Stay tuned.<br />
<br />Marios Filoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13103360174609181699noreply@blogger.com0