"Jack" said:
Paul could you recommend a CPU cooling fan that will fit in this case with
an Athlon Clawhammer 3700+ chip? I was going to buy an OEM chip, but will
purchase a retail chip that will have the CPU fan included, if that is the
recommendation of this group. I want to keep this puppy as cool as possible,
but know that space is an issue here.
The customer reviews of the Aria mention that the stock retail HSF
fits, a Zalman 7000A-CU fits, and a Swiftech MCX775-V.
This review shows a picture of the clearance.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q2/antec-aria/index.x?pg=4
http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q2/antec-aria/bracket2.jpg
Techreport lists 2.75" height, as the clearance for a heatsink
assembly. That is your Z-axis limit. You also have to consider,
when using "oversize" heatsinks, issues with x-y axis limits
as well. The Zalman 7000 series, needs a 55mm clearance radius
about the center of the socket pin area. It looks like the Aria
PSU more or less intrudes as much as the depth of the I/O connectors
do, so I don't expect a conflict with the lower recessed section
of the PSU.
What this means, is you will need to get a good quality picture
of your prospective motherboard, then do a scale drawing with
a drawing tool, inscribing a 55mm radius on the drawing. I've done
several of these in the past (I have two 7000A heatsinks here, so
I've used them) and you need a good quality motherboard picture
in order to do it. I would assume in this case, that overhang of
the heatsink, past the edge of the microATX form factor is not
allowed, but once I find a picture of the Aria with a microATX
motherboard in place, that may become clearer.
There is another picture here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article146-page4.html
I downloaded the manual for an Asus K8V-MX, which is an microATX
S754 board. Using the layout diagram in the manual, I took that
into a drawing tool. The outside edge of the motherboard is 9.6"
by 9.6", establishing the scale of the drawing. By placing a 110mm
diameter circle on the picture, and making sure the center of the
circle lines up with the center of the pins on the socket (this is
not obvious, without looking at a real picture of a S754 socket
first - the tiny square in the Asus socket outline is incorrectly
positioned, and cannot be used as the center), it looks like a
Zalman 7000 hangs over the edge of the motherboard profile by 2mm.
Which means the Zalman 7000 might just fit on that board, but with
little room to the side panel. (As a double check, I repeated the
exercise with an off-axis picture from the Newegg site, and that
time, the radius of the Zalman perfectly fit right to the edge
of the motherboard.)
The height of the CNPS-7000B-Cu is listed as 62mm. But that does
not include the height of the S754 socket plus the CPU itself. I
measured with my caliper (feeler gauge mode) from the top of the
7000A on my Northwood S478 board, and the top of the heatsink
is 2.695" (a hair under 69mm"). The Techreport article says
2.75", leaving not a lot of room for any differences between
my stackup and whatever yours ends up being.
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=141&code=005009
As the size of the case shrinks, there are more mechanical issues
to contend with. It means, just farming out the installation of
the motherboard, to a shop, is a very small part of the project.
I could forsee having to remove and reinstall that motherboard
multiple times, until all mechanical issues are resolved.
For example, you could do a test fitting of the motherboard, using
the AMD retail heatsink. Get a caliper and measure from top of
processor die to underside of PSU, to see whether the Tech
Report article was accurate or not. See whether the clearance from
top of silicon die to PSU leaves room for the 62mm figure listed
on the Zalman site. If there is room, order a Zalman 7000B. Be
prepared to remove the motherboard one more time (depending on
how the Zalman is fitted to S754). I see in the Zalman installation
Flash presentation, that the S754 uses a stiffener plate underneath
the motherboard, to prevent flexure. And that means the motherboard
has to be removed to fit the plate.
I wasn't kidding when I suggested using a larger form factor case.
That takes the pressure off the mechanical issues. When you get
down to the size of a large DVD player, you'd have to keep a
Dremel in each hand, being willing to grind stuff to get it to
fit. It's all a question of "pain vs gain". What is a small case
worth to you ?
Paul
