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neilhart - What is this? Old Guard EX58-UD3R into a Prodigy (mini-ITX) case?

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neilhart

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Joined
May 25, 2010
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2,686
Motherboard
ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming - ITX/ac
CPU
i7-7700T
Graphics
GTX960
Mac
  1. MacBook
  2. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
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w3690-1.jpg


I have just started a new project to breath new interest into this old hack.

The old system is an GA-EX58-UD3R that started life several years ago with an i7-920 and has been gathering dust.

Follow along as I stuff this ATX motherboard into a left over white Prodigy case... similar to my Black One project.

Good modding,
neil
 
In the first post, you can see that I have removed the complete rear of the white Prodigy case (took my jig saw to it followed by some hand filing to clean up the cuts).

Concurrent with the case mod, I am upgrading the CPU to this Xeon W3690 which is OC'd a little getting the system into some interesting GB numbers.

And to resolve the MB only having SATA II, I am going to attempt to run the Rocket 640L with one or two SATA III SSDs.

USB3.0 is still an open issue. I'll see if it can be added without too many $.

Good modding,
neil
 
I am using 1/8 inch ABS sheet stock for this mod as it is easy to cut, drill and tap. I can shape it with files and sandpaper and it glues up with common plumbing ABS cement (a solvent weld).

P3.jpg


Here I have cut out and shaped the rear panel, a PSU pad/spacer and a Mid-Plane panel which will accept the motherboard.

P2.jpg


P1.jpg


And here are the ABS panels in place. I am using black stainless steel 6-32 x 3/8 screws as I had these on hand.

Next up is PSU mounting followed by mounting the motherboard. This is were the work begins; locating and mounting the motherboard is a key step in the project.

Good modding,
neil
 
Okay working the PSU mounting. This is the old PSU as I did not want to spend on new tech (funds are tight). I decided to have the PSU intake air from within the case and expel out the back (this rather then turning the PSU and intaking the air from a hole in the right side panel which would need to be cut).

P4.jpg


The PSU sits on the ABS pad, blocked from the back and top.

P6.jpg


And held by one screw through the rear side vertical support. This screw hole existed in the original case but not in the PSU… so I took the PSU apart, drilled and tapped a hole where it was needed.

P5.jpg


The rats nest of wires will be reduced to just those needed and cut to length via solder splicing.

P7.jpg


Then on to the motherboard mounting. This is a repeat of the “shoe horn” fit that I saw with the “Black One” project. I elected to “re-purpose” the IO and PCI slot frame from the old case as seen in this test fit.

The MB mounting is still a work in process, so more later.

There is reduced clearance so I am toying with the idea of going to a CPU AIO water cooler to avoid a trying to find a short air CPU cooler. Again more on this later.



Good modding,
neil
 
More - Motherboard mounting WIP

This is the nearly complete mid-plane mounting plate.

P8.jpg


I cut openings to facilitate CPU cooler installation (access to the back side of the MB) and reduce the restriction of air into the PSU.

Another test fit of the MB with at IO and PCI slot bracket in place.

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Then a check with the adapter cards installed.

P11.jpg


Next up is cutting the openings in the rear panel for access to the MB and add a ventilation opening.

Good modding,
neil
 
Back with more photos.

The motherboard mounting mid plane plate is complete.

Q1.jpg


The rear panel is complete.

Q2.jpg


I decided to use an AIO water cooler that has a tall radiator. So I thought that the top panel would work better as a front panel to hold the rad.

So I cut that part out as shown and finished the top with an open mesh.

Q3.jpg


Q4.jpg


I made up two mesh panels for the rear panel while I was doing the mesh for the top panel.
Here are the parts today ready for another test assembly pass. I think that I am to the point that I can start working on the cables.

Q5.jpg


I have a couple of parts on order (a CPU cooler and a PCIe USB3.0 adapter) which will be here is a few days.

I am toying with the idea of junking the BitFenix Prodigy top and bottom curve plastic handles in favor of some simple feet and plain filler pieces where the handles attached.

I am also considering painting this thing or may just go with the industrial look... TBD.

Good modding,
neil
 
Just a note to my current wheel spin. I was pulling my hair out (so to speak, however I don't have any hair left to pull on) trying to learn what was happening. I was getting round off errors in Prime95 and it was saying unreliable results. I swapped CPUs (3 three) and two sets of memory.

A long story short, it turned out that I had a corrupted copy of Prime95.

The system is restored and running solid with good Prime95 logs and the temps are well behaved. This is my first time running a 6 core system (12 threads) and pushing on the over clocking. I am currently at 3.72GHz and would like to get to 4.1GHz. Too soon to tell about that.

GB1.jpg


A lot more photos coming now that I am back on track.

Good modding,
neil
 
PSU cables needed to be shortened and thinned to just the ones needed.

R1.jpg


Seen here is the after cut to length and solder splicing work. The 24 pin MB cable, the PCIe cable, the CPU power cable and the drive power cable.

I fabled up a small three sided box to form a pedestal/cover as seen in this photo.

R2.jpg


And then made up a multi-function part: Cable routing shroud and drive mounting bracket, again from ABS using glue/weld on the parts that never need to come apart and drill and tap for maintenance.

R3.jpg


R4.jpg


I spent a little extra time to provide space between the drives and air flow paths.

As a side note: Painting

I have purchased some white paint and done up some paint test samples and experimented with baking out the finish in the kitchen oven. This appears to work well with all of the samples (ABS, mesh, and BitFenix painted steel). At some point in the future, I intend to completely disassemble the system and repaint most of the parts.




More to follow.

Good modding,
neil
 
More details:

Here is the hard drive and cable shroud assembly installed.

A7.jpg


And a closer look at the same thing.

A6.jpg


I decided on the SilverStone Tundra Series, TD02-E all in one liquid CPU cooler seen here installed. Note the fans are blowing into the case where the exhaust is out the rear and top. This cooler was short enough to fit in the space available where some of the more popular AIO coolers are just too tall for this case. This one has simple mounting of the pump and the fans are running PWM from the CPU Fan header and the pump is connected to the PCI fan header.

A8.jpg


A9.jpg


A11.jpg


And here is the GPU (ASUS Passive GT 9600, an old favorite) in the second PCIe X16 v2.0 slot, with the High Point Rocket 640L in the PCIe X4 slot with both drives attached (this supplies SATA III capability), and near the top of the photo is the two port ORICO PFU3-2P USB3.0 card with ATX power.

More work needed on the cable dress with the next re-assembly pass.

A10.jpg


I decided to go with a stock form factor options BitFenix Silver/Black Mesh front panel from Amazon as this panel was zero work and provides fairly un-restricted air flow for the cooler.

A1.jpg


I moved the power and reset switches along with the LEDs to the top front as seen here. I may come back and put a overlay label on this panel to dress it up.
The front panel audio out is also connected to the HD AUDIO port. I need to sort out the driver support as it did not work when tested yesterday.

A12.jpg


The left side panel is made up from the original right side panel, with a window cut out and an acrylic window installed to it.

A2.jpg


And another view of the system.

A3.jpg


The right side panel is made from the original left side panel with little mods to the inner lower rail to clear the PSU mounting.

A4.jpg


A5.jpg


The system is currently running buttoned up and slightly over clocked where it is reporting 3.72GHz with a 17442 GB 3 score. Running the Prime95 Torture test concurrently with the GeekBench Stress Test, I can get all 12 threads running 100% and with this load, the system peaks at 70C to 73C.

I would also like to point out that the system runs with three fans (two on the AIO CPU cooler and one in the PSU) where most systems of this size and compute power have several more fans.

Note the black ABS strips top and bottom are in place of the BitFenix loop handles. Also the feet are ABS 3/8 inch tall by 2 inch squares. This reduces the overall height of the system enough to please me.

I think that this it for a while. I may pull the whole thing a part this next week and start the paint process. I am thinking of painting all of the case parts white with the front panel being the on exception.

Good modding,
neil
 
I am using a 256GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD with two Yosemite 10.10.4 partitions (one with VoodooHDA v2.8.7 and the other with Realtek ALC888 (2.5.2-toledaALC888)). More on sound in at another time.

However the "High Point Rocket 640L in the PCIe X4 slot with both drives attached (this supplies SATA III capability)" performance is very good. This is a screen capture on BlackMagic:

BM.jpg


Good modding,
neil
 
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