After having tested 5 different cases over the last few weeks, I have finally decided on the Silverstone Grandia GD08 which arrived today from Newegg. This is my build log for any of those interested in HTPC style cases. The biggest challenge with this case was getting the H60 cooler to fit.
Here are some pics of the build with the Silverstone Grandia GD08.
- I took out the drive/optical cage and started to strategize how I was going to add the H60 cooler first due to my motherboard.
- I then moved the fan in the upper left hand corner to the right side.
- One thing I do not understand here is that why weren't the optical drives placed to the right side of the case.
- I had to first insert the H60 Cooler and Corsair SP120 fan into the second fan slot pulling in air.
- Then had to slide in the motherboard, but couldn't place the two motherboard screws under the H60.
- I placed two Cooler Master 80mm fans as rear exhausts. I used a Y splitter for these fans to the motherboard.
- I placed the 660 Ti FTW 2gb Sig 2 card in since you can't install the card with the drive cage having been installed first.
- I wired the front two fans, which are setup as intake fans to pull air into the case from the front. I also used a Y splitter for these two fans to the front of the motherboard.
- I installed the Corsair CX600M PSU and started to route some of the cables to where they are not as messy using ties.
- I installed my two hard drives into the right drive cage, a few inches to the right of the 660 Ti. One drive is a 500gb and the second is a 1TB HDD.
- I want to eventually replace that 500gb with a SSD either 128gb or 240gb when prices come down a little bit more, especially for this case.
- I installed the USB 3.0 to 2.0 adapter to the USB 3.0 cable for the front header.
The modded drive cage
A look inside the rig.
The front of the case.
Side/Top view
On the AV Stand
Overall this case has been a real pleasure to work with, except some of the minute little issues that I ran into because I was trying to fit a water cooler in here that wasn't part of the design spec. I am considering adding a fan possibly on the outside of the case in the open fan slot to the left pull air out.
I did spend a good 30-40 minutes trying to figure out how and where I was going to add that water cooler. I didn't want to go back to air cooling so I had to find a way to make it work, even though I would prefer a push/pull style of setup like I did in my previous case. I had to cut the optical drive cage to get the entire drives cage to fit in. Silverstone should of placed screws on each cage to make them removable by the user based on their needs. Picture to come of my cage having been cut to fit.
I also want to get some black sleeves to stay with the black color theme that I have going to cover up some of the cables.
I also have a Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W PSU laying around, been debating about putting that in here but seems like its too much for my rig.
