by J_Th4ng » Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:29 pm
Okay, time for the much delayed build report.
As previously mentioned, I forgot to get the camera out when I was transferring my kit from the one case to the other, so I’ll have to make do with some post installation pictures. At least I can show what the new rig looks like.
Building into the HAF-932 is an absolute pleasure. It’s a full tower case, so has plenty of room. It also has space both below and above the motherboard tray (first picture) for the mounting of your PSU either in the top or the bottom of the case. I’ve never had a bottom mounted PSU before, so I was keen to see how the cable management would work with a bottom mounted PSU. I was also limited in this regard; due to the fact that I was installing an Aquagate Max into the case, the PSU had to go on the bottom, as the 2x120mm radiator is mounted on the top (the second picture shows the radiator quite well, the fans have green LED’s that give the case a nice colour).
The case is pre-cut for cable management purposes. Most of the cables from the PSU can thus run behind the motherboard tray, which (a) keeps the interior of the case looking neat, and (b) aids in airflow around the case as there isn’t the usual mess of cabling tangled over the motherboard. The cabling behind the motherboard tray can be seen in the third picture. As can be seen, there is a fair amount of cable that would normally be running above the motherboard, blocking access to the components, and restricting airflow. Another interesting detail that can be seen in this picture is the cut-out in the tray which is positioned directly behind where the CPU is mounted on most motherboards. Anyone who’s fitted a Watercooling system into an existing case setup will understand the reason for this and appreciate the design feature. Why? Because most CPU water blocks are mounted by positioning a bracket underneath the motherboard (see the X shaped bracket in the picture) and then screwing the water block into the bracket. This normally requires the removal of the motherboard from the case in order to mount the CPU block. However, with the hole in the motherboard tray, it is easy to attach the bracket while the motherboard is mounted.
Another cool design feature can be seen in the fourth picture. In the HAF-932, the HDD’s (up to five of them), are mounted sideways, with the connectors facing the right side of the case (i.e. behind the motherboard tray). This once again aids with cable management, as all of the SATA power cables and connectors can be run behind the motherboard tray.
Airflow in the case is handled by three (yes three) 23cm fans, mounted on the front of the case (this fan has a red LED and is mounted in front of the HDD’s, keeping them nice and cool), on the side above the motherboard tray (can be seen in the fifth picture), and on the top of the case. The front and side fans pump air into the case, while the fan on the top vents hot air out. In my setup, I had to remove the 23cm fan on the top of the case in order to mount the Aquagate Max’s radiator (the sixth picture). However, the 2x12cm fans on the radiator will take on air extracting duties from the case.
Anyway, that pretty much covers the features of the case. I must say that it’s one of the easiest cases that I’ve ever built into, and I’ve built a lot of PC’s. The extra space is good, and pre cut holes in the motherboard tray mean that you don’t have to do much planning before putting the system together. In fact, you could say that building the system was an absolute breeze. Except for one thing; the Aquagate Max.
Initially, putting the Water-cooling system together was easy. I cut pipes to the recommended length in the manual, and joined them up to the pump/reservoir, radiator, and CPU block. I even included the two temperature sensors pieces into the pipes, although as I don’t have an ESA compliant motherboard at this point, the sensors can’t be monitored. However, putting it all together in the case without getting kinks in the pipes proved to be very difficult. So difficult, in fact that I had to disconnect components and shorten pipes (and at one point swap a pipe out for a longer one). And this was still not enough. The seventh picture clearly shows a couple of ‘splints’ that I made out of long screws to stop the worst kinks from blocking the water flow. Hopefully I’ll be able to remove these splints sometime in the future, once the pipes have ‘settled’ into their positions.
The second issue that I had with getting the Aquagate Max running was in filling up the system. Once I had the whole system mounted, I filled the reservoir up with water (the big round green thing in the eighth picture). I then fired up the PC to pump the water through the system, and… nothing happened. So, after a little swearing, I tried filling up the reservoir some more, and ended up overfilling, and having water running down the front of my case!! So I swore some more, and dried everything off. Crossing fingers in hope that none of the electrical components had got wet, I fired up the PC again. It started booting, so I was relieved from that perspective, but the Water cooler still didn’t start pumping. Eventually, after trying a number of things to fix the problem, I found out that the molex connector that I had connected to the pump to power it was faulty. I connected another one, and the system pumped water through itself in no time.
That’s about it really. The build took about five hours, from when I started stripping down my old Thermaltake Armour case until I got the HAF-932 running. I must say, despite the fact that the HAF is heavier that the Thermaltake, I really like it. I think it looks very cool from the outside, particularly with the green lighting from the Aquagate Maxe. Ideally, I’d like to replace the red LED case fan with a green one at some point, but until then the red doesn’t look bad at all. The only other thing that mars the finish of the case is the one beige bezelled DVD drive that I have on the front which doesn’t look great with all of the other bays being black. However, I intend buying an i7 system fairly soon, and when I do I’ll most likely replace my old IDE optical drives with SATA ones (being sure to get drives with a black bezel this time).
A couple of views of the finished article can be seen in the last two pictures.
Oh, and what about performance? Well, unfortunately I forgot to do benchmarks with my old setup to compare against, but I’m still very happy with the results I’m getting with the new system. CPU temperatures are solid, even with the hot Cape Town weather we’ve been having. I’ve overclocked my E6600 from 2.4GHz to 3Hz (a 25% overclock), and my CPU still idles at about 23 degrees (which must be as near as damnit to ambient temperature in my study). Better yet, running a torture test on prime95, and the CPU temperature never goes above 33 degrees. I am sure that I could overclock the CPU quite a bit further (as the voltage is still fairly low), but my motherboard is holding it back. I can’t get it to run with a FSB setting of higher than 334. And at that setting, my north bridge runs hotter than the CPU, idling at 35 degrees. Ideally, when I get my new motherboard, I’ll find one with water-cooling connectors, and run a loop from the Aquagate to cool it.
All in all, I love the new build. The HAF-932 is a great case, with good design features and a lot of aesthetic appeal. It’s also considerably better priced than a lot of cases. I got mine for a little under R1800, where a Coolermaster Cosmos 1010 would’ve set me back at least double that. In fact, my Thermaltake Armour cost me about R3000, and I still prefer the HAF.
As for the Aquagate MAX, it’s a great cooling solution. It’s relatively reasonably priced compared with other high end kits, and fits quite nicely inside the HAF. It performs very well. I previously used the original Aquagate in my Thermaltake case, and found performance to the adequate, but not as mind blowing as I had expected water cooling to be. The addition of the 2x120mm radiator in the MAX makes all of the difference. The system has the ability to cool the water a lot more efficiently, and I’m sure that I could easily add a Northbridge loop and even a GPU loop without overtaxing the system.
In summary, an excellent combination purchase. The two components (the case and the Water-cooling system) are both great on their own. However, they really come into their own when used together.
[attachment deleted by admin]
Okay, time for the much delayed build report.
As previously mentioned, I forgot to get the camera out when I was transferring my kit from the one case to the other, so I’ll have to make do with some post installation pictures. At least I can show what the new rig looks like.
Building into the HAF-932 is an absolute pleasure. It’s a full tower case, so has plenty of room. It also has space both below and above the motherboard tray (first picture) for the mounting of your PSU either in the top or the bottom of the case. I’ve never had a bottom mounted PSU before, so I was keen to see how the cable management would work with a bottom mounted PSU. I was also limited in this regard; due to the fact that I was installing an Aquagate Max into the case, the PSU had to go on the bottom, as the 2x120mm radiator is mounted on the top (the second picture shows the radiator quite well, the fans have green LED’s that give the case a nice colour).
The case is pre-cut for cable management purposes. Most of the cables from the PSU can thus run behind the motherboard tray, which (a) keeps the interior of the case looking neat, and (b) aids in airflow around the case as there isn’t the usual mess of cabling tangled over the motherboard. The cabling behind the motherboard tray can be seen in the third picture. As can be seen, there is a fair amount of cable that would normally be running above the motherboard, blocking access to the components, and restricting airflow. Another interesting detail that can be seen in this picture is the cut-out in the tray which is positioned directly behind where the CPU is mounted on most motherboards. Anyone who’s fitted a Watercooling system into an existing case setup will understand the reason for this and appreciate the design feature. Why? Because most CPU water blocks are mounted by positioning a bracket underneath the motherboard (see the X shaped bracket in the picture) and then screwing the water block into the bracket. This normally requires the removal of the motherboard from the case in order to mount the CPU block. However, with the hole in the motherboard tray, it is easy to attach the bracket while the motherboard is mounted.
Another cool design feature can be seen in the fourth picture. In the HAF-932, the HDD’s (up to five of them), are mounted sideways, with the connectors facing the right side of the case (i.e. behind the motherboard tray). This once again aids with cable management, as all of the SATA power cables and connectors can be run behind the motherboard tray.
Airflow in the case is handled by three (yes three) 23cm fans, mounted on the front of the case (this fan has a red LED and is mounted in front of the HDD’s, keeping them nice and cool), on the side above the motherboard tray (can be seen in the fifth picture), and on the top of the case. The front and side fans pump air into the case, while the fan on the top vents hot air out. In my setup, I had to remove the 23cm fan on the top of the case in order to mount the Aquagate Max’s radiator (the sixth picture). However, the 2x12cm fans on the radiator will take on air extracting duties from the case.
Anyway, that pretty much covers the features of the case. I must say that it’s one of the easiest cases that I’ve ever built into, and I’ve built a lot of PC’s. The extra space is good, and pre cut holes in the motherboard tray mean that you don’t have to do much planning before putting the system together. In fact, you could say that building the system was an absolute breeze. Except for one thing; the Aquagate Max.
Initially, putting the Water-cooling system together was easy. I cut pipes to the recommended length in the manual, and joined them up to the pump/reservoir, radiator, and CPU block. I even included the two temperature sensors pieces into the pipes, although as I don’t have an ESA compliant motherboard at this point, the sensors can’t be monitored. However, putting it all together in the case without getting kinks in the pipes proved to be very difficult. So difficult, in fact that I had to disconnect components and shorten pipes (and at one point swap a pipe out for a longer one). And this was still not enough. The seventh picture clearly shows a couple of ‘splints’ that I made out of long screws to stop the worst kinks from blocking the water flow. Hopefully I’ll be able to remove these splints sometime in the future, once the pipes have ‘settled’ into their positions.
The second issue that I had with getting the Aquagate Max running was in filling up the system. Once I had the whole system mounted, I filled the reservoir up with water (the big round green thing in the eighth picture). I then fired up the PC to pump the water through the system, and… nothing happened. So, after a little swearing, I tried filling up the reservoir some more, and ended up overfilling, and having water running down the front of my case!! So I swore some more, and dried everything off. Crossing fingers in hope that none of the electrical components had got wet, I fired up the PC again. It started booting, so I was relieved from that perspective, but the Water cooler still didn’t start pumping. Eventually, after trying a number of things to fix the problem, I found out that the molex connector that I had connected to the pump to power it was faulty. I connected another one, and the system pumped water through itself in no time.
That’s about it really. The build took about five hours, from when I started stripping down my old Thermaltake Armour case until I got the HAF-932 running. I must say, despite the fact that the HAF is heavier that the Thermaltake, I really like it. I think it looks very cool from the outside, particularly with the green lighting from the Aquagate Maxe. Ideally, I’d like to replace the red LED case fan with a green one at some point, but until then the red doesn’t look bad at all. The only other thing that mars the finish of the case is the one beige bezelled DVD drive that I have on the front which doesn’t look great with all of the other bays being black. However, I intend buying an i7 system fairly soon, and when I do I’ll most likely replace my old IDE optical drives with SATA ones (being sure to get drives with a black bezel this time).
A couple of views of the finished article can be seen in the last two pictures.
Oh, and what about performance? Well, unfortunately I forgot to do benchmarks with my old setup to compare against, but I’m still very happy with the results I’m getting with the new system. CPU temperatures are solid, even with the hot Cape Town weather we’ve been having. I’ve overclocked my E6600 from 2.4GHz to 3Hz (a 25% overclock), and my CPU still idles at about 23 degrees (which must be as near as damnit to ambient temperature in my study). Better yet, running a torture test on prime95, and the CPU temperature never goes above 33 degrees. I am sure that I could overclock the CPU quite a bit further (as the voltage is still fairly low), but my motherboard is holding it back. I can’t get it to run with a FSB setting of higher than 334. And at that setting, my north bridge runs hotter than the CPU, idling at 35 degrees. Ideally, when I get my new motherboard, I’ll find one with water-cooling connectors, and run a loop from the Aquagate to cool it.
All in all, I love the new build. The HAF-932 is a great case, with good design features and a lot of aesthetic appeal. It’s also considerably better priced than a lot of cases. I got mine for a little under R1800, where a Coolermaster Cosmos 1010 would’ve set me back at least double that. In fact, my Thermaltake Armour cost me about R3000, and I still prefer the HAF.
As for the Aquagate MAX, it’s a great cooling solution. It’s relatively reasonably priced compared with other high end kits, and fits quite nicely inside the HAF. It performs very well. I previously used the original Aquagate in my Thermaltake case, and found performance to the adequate, but not as mind blowing as I had expected water cooling to be. The addition of the 2x120mm radiator in the MAX makes all of the difference. The system has the ability to cool the water a lot more efficiently, and I’m sure that I could easily add a Northbridge loop and even a GPU loop without overtaxing the system.
In summary, an excellent combination purchase. The two components (the case and the Water-cooling system) are both great on their own. However, they really come into their own when used together.
[attachment deleted by admin]