Which Lian Li case fits my needs?

[Sczee]

I'm looking to buy either the Lian Li V1000B Plus II or the V2000B Plus II. I need the case I buy to fit the Tuniq Tower (on a E6600), a 8800GTX sized card and the modular Corsair HX620 PSU. I have heard that you have to remove a sheet of metal in front of the PSU in order to use a modular PSU in the V1000. That's ok by me if that means it fits.

I would prefer to get the V1000 if everything would fit nicely, otherwise I'll get the V2000. I don't like the shape of the V1200 (too long/stretched) so that's not an option for me.

I was also wondering (this applies to either of the cases) whether mounting a fan on the back of the 5.25" bays to pull air into the case would work. I would rather not use one of these - http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Accessories/HDD_Kits.htm - as I don't think they would look that great on this case, but I thought the mesh around the 5.25" bays might allow enough air to pass for a fan by itself to work.

 

[reaper87]

Well. The V1000b is a mid-tower case, so the 8800GTX will be a bit of a sqeeze, but you should be ok. If you do get the V2000b (server case) youll have enough room to stretch out and take a nap in there, and you dont hafta worry about airflow, cause you have a 120mm over the CPU, anotherone over the video card slots, and one pointing at the Hdd rails. Only downside, is the Ben Franklin that seperates the two of them, and its HUGE!
u hafta decide whats most important; space on your desk, or in your PC case.

 

[Sczee]

Well. The V1000b is a mid-tower case, so the 8800GTX will be a bit of a sqeeze, but you should be ok. If you do get the V2000b (server case) youll have enough room to stretch out and take a nap in there, and you dont hafta worry about airflow, cause you have a 120mm over the CPU, anotherone over the video card slots, and one pointing at the Hdd rails. Only downside, is the Ben Franklin that seperates the two of them, and its HUGE!
u hafta decide whats most important; space on your desk, or in your PC case.

It'll be on the floor either way since I don't have room on my desk, so I think I'll go with the V2000B if it'll be easier to work with.

 

[reaper87]

A good call in my opinion. And, its great future proofing. Youll be able to use that case for along time.

 

[Sczee]

A good call in my opinion. And, its great future proofing. Youll be able to use that case for along time.

Yeah well I hope so, I am spending 1/6th of the total cost of this system on the case. Oh well it is the bit I see and it doesn't get out of date as fast as everything else so that kinda makes sense.

 

[Preecher]

What motherboard are you using? If the motherboard is using heatpipes then, depending on the motherboard, you may want to aviod any case that has the mobo installed "inverted" (note that the PSU is installed on the bottom in these cases).

I have contacted ASUS directly and they state that if you mount the motherboard upsidedown (in my case the striker extreme) then the heat pipes will not cool propertly and you will likely overheat your chipset.

Cheers

 

[Sczee]

What motherboard are you using? If the motherboard is using heatpipes then, depending on the motherboard, you may want to aviod any case that has the mobo installed "inverted" (note that the PSU is installed on the bottom in these cases).

I have contacted ASUS directly and they state that if you mount the motherboard upsidedown (in my case the striker extreme) then the heat pipes will not cool propertly and you will likely overheat your chipset.

Cheers

Well I was planning on using the Asus P5B Deluxe. Don't the majority of motherboards use heatpipes? And a heat pipe is just a pipe which conducts heat (as far as I know) so I see no reason why it could not conduct heat in both directions. Did they give you a reason as to why it would not cool properly?

Do you know of any motherboards which would not suffer from this problem?

Cheers

 

[Preecher]

There are many mobo's which dont use heatpipes such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012 .

I am not saying that ALL motherboards that have heatpipes will not cool properly but its something you should check out before mouting inverted if your motherboard has them.

As I understand it, there are two types of technologies in heatpipes. Those that have "wicks" and those that do not. The heatpipes rely on gravity to ensure proper transfer of heat (I'm not an expert on heatpipes and cant remember all the details of my research, but I am sure a little googling on your part will find similar results as I found). Some heatpipes have wicks inside them to help transfer the cooling liquid inside and some do not. The wick helps to ensure cooling regardless of the boards orientation, but my research also showed that even if there is a wick, the cooling performance will be crippled when inverted.

It looks like your Asus P5B Deluxe has a small heatpipe and the heatpipe oriented at an angle which may not be that big of a deal when inverted.

Its probably fine with your choice of hardware but I would check with asus tech support and find out if they recommend it or not... just to be sure.

Hope you find this information valuable. I believe it to be somewhat accurate .

 

[Sczee]

There are many mobo's which dont use heatpipes such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012 .

I am not saying that ALL motherboards that have heatpipes will not cool properly but its something you should check out before mouting inverted if your motherboard has them.

As I understand it, there are two types of technologies in heatpipes. Those that have "wicks" and those that do not. The heatpipes rely on gravity to ensure proper transfer of heat (I'm not an expert on heatpipes and cant remember all the details of my research, but I am sure a little googling on your part will find similar results as I found). Some heatpipes have wicks inside them to help transfer the cooling liquid inside and some do not. The wick helps to ensure cooling regardless of the boards orientation, but my research also showed that even if there is a wick, the cooling performance will be crippled when inverted.

It looks like your Asus P5B Deluxe has a small heatpipe and the heatpipe oriented at an angle which may not be that big of a deal when inverted.

Its probably fine with your choice of hardware but I would check with asus tech support and find out if they recommend it or not... just to be sure.

Hope you find this information valuable. I believe it to be somewhat accurate .

Thanks a lot, I hadn't thought about this issue at all . As the northbridge (at least I think its the northbridge) has a heatsink on it as well as having the heat pipe to the other heatsink on the voltage regulators or whatever, hopefully it will be kept cool even if the heatpipe loses its usefulness from the inverted ATX orientation.

As for contacting Asus's technical support, after reading a bit on their forums it seems like if they actually do bother to answer you they pretty much just say don't do it (just to cover themselves I assume). I think (hope) that I'll be alright (wtf Firefox dictionary doesn't have the word "alright" lol) with the inverted design of the case, but if the temperatures do seem a bit high (its only the northbridge that will be the problem here correct?) I could get a northbridge cooler like one of these to keep the temperatures down - http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/view.asp?idx=180&code=014

This thread - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1093010 - kinda of confirms my theory/guess on how heatpipes work although I didn't know they contained liquid. It seems to suggest that I don't have a lot to worry about but I'll just be sure to keep a close eye on the temperatures for a few days after I've built my computer.

And just so I know, what are acceptable temperatures for the northbridge to be?

 

[reaper87]

What Motherboard will you be running?

 

[Sczee]

What Motherboard will you be running?

Asus P5B Deluxe (non Wifi not that it matters)