Yosemite - Ivy Bridge (first mod)

[rehpotsirhc]

So I ended up ordering the Dynatron K666. It probably wont make much difference but blowing straight into the PSU seemed silly. We'll see how it works out.

Keep us posted on how that thing fits; I have an empty micro ATX modded G4 case that I'll fill back up eventually and would like to use a cooler like that or a slim dynatron server cooler.

 

[duncanroller]

It's designed for 2U so I'm expecting there wont be an issue. It's a 60mm fan so that gives you some reference. I'm getting notices that everything is shipping, so it wont be long now!

 

[duncanroller]

The K666 and the Basiq 430W showed up today from Amazon. The build quality on the Dynatron cooler seems very good. The MLB, CPU, & GPU should be showing up tomorrow. We're having our annual LAN party this weekend so I may not get to much assembly but I'll definitely keep y'all posted.

I did notice when mounting the PSU that the threading on the Antec supply is different than the screws that shipped standard from Apple. I assume this is an issue everyone is running into. How have you all handled that?

 

[rehpotsirhc]

The K666 and the Basiq 430W showed up today from Amazon. The build quality on the Dynatron cooler seems very good. The MLB, CPU, & GPU should be showing up tomorrow. We're having our annual LAN party this weekend so I may not get to much assembly but I'll definitely keep y'all posted.

I did notice when mounting the PSU that the threading on the Antec supply is different than the screws that shipped standard from Apple. I assume this is an issue everyone is running into. How have you all handled that?

My Quicksilver's screws I believe were 6-32 and threaded into an ATX just fine… Maybe pull one out of a G4 case and compare it with one from the G3?

 

[duncanroller]

I got the proc and heatsink on the MLB. I thought I'd get some pics up so you could see the K666 on the board. It looks like it's going to have nice clearance out the back and it shouldn't be too tall by any means. I'm headed to a LAN party this weekend so probably not much modding going on. I'm looking ahead at what I need for standoffs. I think minihack mentioned somewhere you need a 22mm lift to get your MLB up to appropriate height. Anyone have any additional input on that?

B&D RTX showed up today too! Seems good.

 

[duncanroller]

Well the K666 has about 1/4" clearance against the PSU when closed, so we're in good shape there! I picked up an oscillating multi-tool and bimetal attachment to clip off the original standoffs flush. We're going to attempt to reuse them and move them into position for mATX form factor. It's taking 15-20 minutes per standoff to get those suckers off.

 

[minihack]

I got the proc and heatsink on the MLB. I thought I'd get some pics up so you could see the K666 on the board. It looks like it's going to have nice clearance out the back and it shouldn't be too tall by any means. I'm headed to a LAN party this weekend so probably not much modding going on. I'm looking ahead at what I need for standoffs. I think minihack mentioned somewhere you need a 22mm lift to get your MLB up to appropriate height. Anyone have any additional input on that?

B&D RTX showed up today too! Seems good.

Looking good.

No, pretty sure I didn't say 22mm. Basically it needs to sit at around the original height of the standoffs (as the PCI cards are standard height between Mac and PC) so you are looking about 10mm. These at any rate are the ones I put in my kits and they work out fine.

Some mobos at that height have an issue with limited clearance on the 4 screws holding the plastic latch so I also now recommend switching out the metal screws for nylon ones.

 

[duncanroller]

Ah, sounds good. I'm still toying with the different ideas for standoffs, trying to make it as polished as possible.

If JB Welding the original standoffs back on doesn't go over well my next thought is to adhere thin (4mm) aluminum squares where they need to go and tap them for 6-32 and apply standard PC standoffs. Although, this may interfere with the latching mechanism.

My blade chipped on the standoffs last night so I need to return to the HW store before I can continue with that project.

 

[duncanroller]

So the replacement blade I got for my oscillating tool was 3/4" rather than 3/8" and it was a thousand times easier to remove the old standoffs! We zipped the rest of them off in less than 5 minutes. It's amazing what the right tool for the job can do!

So newegg has a deal on 128GB OCZ Vector drives ($79)... so I bought 5 of them.
I'll use one for this mod, keep at least one for a future project, and probably sell off the rest in my freelance tech support work.

It's the first week of classes at the University I do tech support for and I'm also doing part time classes so I don't have a lot of free time for modding but these standoffs are going to get sanded down level and then we'll determine how much height I need to add back to them.

PS: I'm loving your new MDD conversion minihack! I'll definitely be looking your way when I get to my wind tunnel mod on.