Maxwell Spanker vs. Silver Hammer vs. Annihilatrix, pt. 2

[Fire$torm]

This weekend I hope to have The Annihilatrix up and running.

While not being able to get to sleep yesterday, I pulled my other Dell GX-280 out and threw in a spare 600w PSU along with my Nvidia card that was gathering dust and got that up and running for a while.

I installed Linux on it (Fedora 14) and started having '90's flash-backs of a time that I belonged to a small group of "believers" that use to run OS/2 WARP 3.0 thinking that it was the true messiah and that Microsoft was going to burst into flames.

After I managed to stop shaking and drooling, I reinstalled Windows XP... Sorry guys, I'm one with Landru.

So you have been absorbed by Landru? Not to worry, Spock and Kirk will save you!

[STMahlberg]

Here is an update on my progress. First, ignore the pink walls; I just rent the place.

I am going to have to take back some of the good stuff I said about the HAF X case; I ran into some rather disappointing issues. One that was just an annoyance was trying to take the 200mm fan out that came with it... Note to Cooler Master: try putting the fans in with something other than a frikkin impact wrench will ya!

A bigger issue was installing the casters on the case. I wasn't going to use them but because of the way the PSU mounts I wanted to make sure there was enough space under the case to get air into the intake.

The screws that are suppose to mount the casters are the wrong size or rather it appears that the holes were drilled and tapped prior to applying the finish on the case. Using pressure to try to get through the hole only produces metal fragments. I'll be re-tapping these later.



The next disappointment in the case was after installing the (2) new 200mm fans on the top of the case and snapping the cover back into place... you can't.

You are unable to mount dual 200mm fans on top AND use the USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case. The 3.0 ports are not hard wired but rather use a double-ended male USB 3.0 cable shown in the photo. The cable plugs into a port under the cover, when in place there isn't enough room between the fan housing and the cable connector which prevents the cover from snapping back into place.

I might be able to find a different cable with smaller plugs but come to think of it, I'm not even sure where the other end of these are suppose to plug into.

[Maxwell]

My holes for the wheels were just fine. Maybe you just got unlucky. And since I didn't have any reason to remove fans, they work just great for me. Try not to out-think the case... it appears you can't.

[John P. Myers]

So time to make an addition to the Maxwell Spanker!
Looking at a GPU.
Does this primegrid GPU app work with Fermi or no?

I might be able to find a different cable with smaller plugs but come to think of it, I'm not even sure where the other end of these are suppose to plug into

The 3rd hole in the top rear of the case where'd you'd run hoses is where the USB 3.0 wires go. You're expected to connect them to the USB 3.0 plugs on the rear panel of your mobo. You don't need them and it looks silly as hell. I removed mine as well. No reason to plug something into the front of your comp and have wires hanging everywhere anyway.

[Maxwell]

So time to make an addition to the Maxwell Spanker!
Looking at a GPU.
Does this primegrid GPU app work with Fermi or no?

Yay for new additions! After a quick perusal of the PG boards, it seems that quite a few people have Fermi cards working there. So I'd say yes...

[STMahlberg]

The 3rd hole in the top rear of the case where'd you'd run hoses is where the USB 3.0 wires go. You're expected to connect them to the USB 3.0 plugs on the rear panel of your mobo. You don't need them and it looks silly as hell. I removed mine as well. No reason to plug something into the front of your comp and have wires hanging everywhere anyway.

Okay, that's lame.

[STMahlberg]

My holes for the wheels were just fine. Maybe you just got unlucky. And since I didn't have any reason to remove fans, they work just great for me. Try not to out-think the case... it appears you can't.

I guess so... I'll be buying a tap & die set today; Harbor Freight has a 40 piece set for $12.

I had to put another fan in because one is not as good as two and of course, they had to match as well... and anything worth doing is worth over doing.

[John P. Myers]

What i did with my HAF X was, i installed the 2 top fans, both for exhaust. underneath them, i mounted the radiator which cools the CPU. the 2 fans pull air through the rad, so i didn't have to use the crummy 120mm fans that were meant for it. The rad i have is a 2x120mm. You CAN put a 3x120mm rad in there, but just have to leave the top drive bay empty, which is no big deal. One of my future upgrades will have me doing just that.

[STMahlberg]

What i did with my HAF X was, i installed the 2 top fans, both for exhaust. underneath them, i mounted the radiator which cools the CPU. the 2 fans pull air through the rad, so i didn't have to use the crummy 120mm fans that were meant for it. The rad i have is a 2x120mm. You CAN put a 3x120mm rad in there, but just have to leave the top drive bay empty, which is no big deal. One of my future upgrades will have me doing just that.

That's nice. I was looking at radiators and GPU coolers for awhile, maybe down the road. I have the Corsair H70 CPU cooler for mine.

Even with the little quirks that I ran into this is one of the best cases I have ever had; in fact, I am suppose to be getting a $30 gift card from Newegg from one of my purchases and I plan on applying that towards another HAF X case for my next build.

[STMahlberg]

New Update... Sunday 0300 hours and blurry eyed.

The hole in the back panel doesn't quite line up with this motherboard so I had to loosen all of the screws in order to get the old cooler mounting bracket out and the new one installed. The rest of the installation of the Corsair H70 was very straight forward.



At this point, I am extremely pleased with my new build; now I just have to move it into the command center and install Windows 7.



Currently, I have only 1 of the 5870's installed; my other one is still running in another rig which I will remove and change over to this machine once I make sure everything is operating properly.