Silverstone LC-11 updated

[jayrock]

Hi all,

the power supply of my Silverstone LC-11 was always way to loud. Tried the picoPSU first but that failed, maybe to little power when peaks in consumption, so I had to go back to the stock PSU.

Anyway, I read in some other forums that the large fan of the stock PSU can replaced with an outside fan, and the small PSU fan can be replaced with other models to reduce the noise.

So I got today:

- 80 mm fan Papst 8412 NGMLE
- 40 mm fan Papst 0142 FM

Replacing the 80 mm fan was pretty straight forward. Removed it, soldered the connector to the Papst fan, mounted it outside, done.

For the 40 mm fan it was more tricky, since the connector is not really accessible without disassembling the whole PSU. When I played around with it I noticed that the stock fan is actually rather silent. More, most of the noise is apparently created by the small "X" shaped grill mounted between the 40 mm fan and the PSU case. In addition, the 0142 FM doesn't start reliably on 5V (which is the internal voltage that the PSU provides to the fans). So, removed the "X" and put the stock fan back in. Test run with open PSU case, everything fine.

Then, I put on the PSU cover and noticed the most of the whining noise had come back. OK, must be some resonance: The whining noise disappeared as soon as I loosened just one of the PSU case screws. It amazing how simple it can be to get rid of this annoying whine. So, I just left the PSU with that one screw not tightened up.

Put the PSU back into the LC-11, wired everything up, no issues.

I'm extremely happy with the result. The high pitch whining noise has gone, and I have the impression that the whole system got a bit quieter. The loudest fan now is the one on the Zalmann CNPS7000B-AlCu (which also is on 5V).

The new 80 mm fan seems to have no impact on temperatures. After 1 hour of Prime95 I get 35°C to 36°C on all measurement points reported by SpeedFan - just as before.

I can recommend to every owner of a LC-11 to do this fairly simple mod: replace the 80mm fan and play with the PSU case screws to get rid of the resonances. BUT PLEASE be extremely careful when working on the PSU, please make sure that you know how to work with AC parts, or ask someone who knows to help you. I'm not responsible for anything that goes wrong when you fiddle with mains voltage. It can kill you.

For completeness, here's my full spec:

- Silverstone LC-11M (case fans removed/replaced and put on 5V, PSU fan replaced, LEDs dimmed)
- AMD Sempron 3000+
- Asus K8V-MX
- MSI Radeon 9550 128MB
- Samsung Spinpoint, 160GB
- 512 MB DDR2
- Samsung SH-D162C
- Sanyo PLV-Z5



Cheers

jayrock

[CHli]

I'll post some pictures of my modded LC11-SM in the next few days I've replaced the VFD with a graphical 160x80 LCD

I love this case Thanks for sharing your work.

[jayrock]

Wow, this sounds really cool! Can't wait to see what display you used and how you mounted it! Did you build your own circuitry?

For my curiousity, what PSU are you using?

Cheers

jayrock

[jayrock]

More modding work: I didn't really like the blue LEDs in the Silverstone, they didn't fit the green LEDs on my amplifier and also were a bit to bright. I replaced them with standard 5 mm green LEDs. You need to either use 5V types or put a resistor in series to the LED. Actually I put some extra resistance in front of it, ie. 1 kOhm because I wanted the LEDs to be extra dim.

The case features some plastic "sockets" for the LEDs, just put them in. I added a small board to put the resistors on it.

The thing is that one has to completely remove the front plate of the LC-11 to get access to the LEDs. There is a couple of screws which want to be removed. They go into the brass colored bolts which can be seen if you look from the inside of the case to the front plate. Removing them is a bit tricky since you have to dismount the HDD bracket at least. The DVD drive doesnt't have to be removed but it makes it much easier to turn the screw which sits just below it.

When I had the front plate off I took the opportunity to put most of the iMON/button/etc cabling behind the mesh so it's out of my sight. Don't use the front fan so I'm not concerned about obstructing airflow.

After all, it's about 1.5 hours of total work due to all the disassembly.

Have a look at the pictures, it shows most details.

/jayrock

[CHli]

Sorry I didn't had much time these weeks to post my full report. I will post this week-end.

I totally disabled mine because they where way too bright. I know if my HTPC is running because of the LCD beeing backlighted

[CHli]

Okay here we go :

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/si...li-t19541.html