Moving from one case to another

[archemack]

Hello. As you may know from other threads I have made, I'm looking to water cool my PC. I'll be buying the Corsair h100i. This doesn't fit in my case with some modding and I'm not too confident modding either. Instead, I decided to go looking for a new case. I've found one I like, the NZXT Phantom 410 (white) which is compatible with the cooler and is the right size for me. (I don't want a full tower because it won't fit under my desk) If I bought this case, I would have to shift everything from my PC into my new case. I would like some advice/help on how to do this and what is involved. I'm confident with my PSU, HDD, SSD, and optical drive but I'm not so sure about the motherboard, GPU, and CPU cooler. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.
(Open to other case/cooler recommendations too)

 

[Rookie_MIB]

What I would certainly suggest is:

Take pictures before you take it apart. Take pictures of EVERYTHING. That way you know where everything goes when putting it back together.

Swapping stuff is fairly straightforward honestly. If you've built your own system, then moving to a new case is very easy.

 

[Eximo]

More or less the reverse of assembly.

If you want to use the exact same cords for everything, pictures are helpful. But you may find that positions and distances have changed.

Disconnect power supply cables from everything, remove power supply (if possible, very occasionally the motherboard or cpu heatsink will prevent removal, in which case you remove the interfering part first.)

Take out all the expansion cards. You can usually leave the memory and CPU cooler attached to the motherboard, in your situation of changing the cooler at the same time, simply remove it.

Fairly optional when to take out drives, and it really depends on their interaction with the motherboard. In some cases they overhang and make the motherboard difficult to deal with, but generally not.

Usually start with power supply or motherboard for installation. In very tight traditional cases, install drives first.

Closed loop coolers more or less have to be last since you don't want to work around them the rest of the time.

Expansion cards can be done before or after the CPU cooler really.

 

[archemack]

Thank you for your responses. Pictures is a great idea! I was worried about where each plug goes. I've never actually assembled my own PC before, I have put RAM in but that's all. I've heard people talking about anti static gloves, are they needed?

 

[Eximo]

Not personally heard of anti-static gloves, an interesting concept. Most commonly people reference anti-static wrist straps. A fancy term for wrapping a wire around your wrist and clipping it to the chassis. A long time ago they made sense, and for certain environments and situations they are still useful. However, contemporary devices are more or less quite safe to handle. Just be sure to not touch a lot of electrical contacts and always make sure you are touching the chassis before installing a part, once touched, it will take a while to build up a static charge, so you don't have to be neurotic about it.

Also avoid things like sweaters, and wool socks. Working on carpet in bare feet is okay, the moisture in your feet will carry charges to ground usually. It is having an insulating layer that is bad.

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Thank you for your responses. Pictures is a great idea! I was worried about where each plug goes. I've never actually assembled my own PC before, I have put RAM in but that's all. I've heard people talking about anti static gloves, are they needed?

Well, if you're making a pretty simple build it should be simple enough. I've never had an issue with static, but as mentioned avoid wool socks and sweaters, and always touch the metal chassis before touching things like motherboads etc.

Usually the wires are unique and won't fit into different connectors, so it all goes together pretty logically.

1) remove the sides.
2) take your pictures!
3) remove any PCI/PCIe cards
4) remove any sata cables.
5) remove the drives/ssd/optical drives.
6) remove the 24pin and 4/8 pin aux power from the mobo.
7) disconnect any chassis fan headers from the mobo
8) disconnect the front panel connectors and any front usb connectors
9) unscrew the screws holding mobo to chassis.
10) lift the motherboard up gently from the side furthest away from the rear io panel, tip it up and carefully pull out the mobo. Use the heatsink if needed.
11) pop the rear io panel from the old case.

Installing the mobo in the new chassis.

1) make sure the proper standoffs are installed in the floor of the new chassis in the right positions.
2) remove the heatsink from the mobo (in your particular case)
3) using alcohol wipes, clean off the thermal compound from the lid of the CPU completely.
4) pop the io panel into new chassis.
Continue with reverse order of removal from steps 10-1

After you get there, you'll need to install the watercooler. From the looks of the case, it has room in the top for the radiator?

 

[archemack]

Thanks for that detailed guide, that's just what I need. Yes the phantom 410 has room for a 240mm radiator. The plan is to shift the current fan which is on the top to the side panel as an intake fan and have the radiator fans as the top exhaust fans

 

[archemack]

Just another question. Do you think it is even worth getting a new cooler? I want a new case for sure but I'm not sure about a cooler. My current Arctic Xtreme CPU cooler keeps my i7 930 OC'ed to 3.8Ghz at 80 Max while gaming. Idle is 55. Do you know I need the corsair h100i?

 

[Rookie_MIB]

I think watercooling might be a bit of overkill. A good air cooler is much simpler and usually effective. As a frame of reference I have a similar setup that I just put together, and I'm using a moderately small Arctic low profile cooler.

The build I just assembled:

Asus P7F7-E WS motherboard (quad SLI certified), Xeon X3470, 8GB ram, assorted drives.

Stock CPU speed is 2.9Ghz, stock temps were 32C/55C (idle/load). OC'd to 3.8Ghz, stock temps are now 44C/75C (idle/load) using that rather small cooler, and those temps are perfectly fine. I happen to have a Hyper 212 EVO though that I might slap on there to test, and I would really expect to see a big drop in temps.

Point is, many modern air coolers are extremely effective and quiet, and overall are much simpler and cheaper than watercooling. Watercooling IMHO is for high wattage parts (ie - HIGHLY overclocked cpus or AMD 8 core setups), a good air cooler is just as effective for a 'moderate' build/OC setup which is what you have.

 

[archemack]

Is my air cooler a good one? Or is ther better ones which would give me a little bit better temperature? It is a fairly old build so I will take the fan out tonight and give it a clean. Not having to change the cooler is a bit of a relief because I actually have no idea how to remove my current one

EDIT: I gave the CPU cooler a thorough clean and my CPU now runs about 5-10 degrees cooler. I'm happy with the temperatures now

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Lol. Amazing how the dust can build up in there huh? Usually a good cleaning every few months is a good idea on an OC'd build. If you're in the 65-75 degree range, that's about spot on for max temps. Another thing which may help (I'm assuming I found pics of the right cooler) is to add another fan if you have space. Put one on each side of the cooler, both blowing air the same way (preferably aimed towards the rear exhaust fan).

Increased airflow usually means lower temps unless the cooler is a bad design or low quality (which yours certainly is not). And an extra fan is about $10.00 or so, along with a few zip ties to attach it.

I have a few squirrel cage type server blowers sitting around, and while they're loud (really! freaking! loud!), I'm tempted to see what aiming one at my CPU heatsink would do for the temps.

 

[archemack]

Yeah I've cleaned it a lot since I got it. I was rather disappointed that the previous owner made no attempt to clean the PC before shipping it to me. Now that summer is over (down here anyway) I should get lower temps as the room temperature drops.