The Asetek-supplied installation kit included with PNY’s XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPU graphics card sandwiches the motherboard between a base plate and top plate. The base plate is drilled for LGA 775 in addition to 1155/1156 and 1366, but the top plate is only compatible with the later standards.

Four threaded inserts fit marked holes on the base plate, while the top plate uses snap-in plastic spacers to align mounting screws.

Four fine-thread screws hold the base plate to the top plate. The CPU water block twists into place (so leave these screws loose until the water block is positioned correctly). A thermal interface material is factory-applied to the water block, negating the need for thermal paste.

Fractal Design’s six drive trays support both 2.5” and 3.5” form factors, though smaller drives mount without noise-dampening grommets. We used three of these trays for our build and removed the center drive cage entirely for increased airflow.
Another option to increase airflow would have been to mount the center drive cage parallel to the motherboard, but doing so would have forced us to remove its trays for added graphics card clearance. The idea of mounting a cage without its trays seemed pointless to us.

PNY’s XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPU cooling system uses a matched pair of fans in a push-pull configuration. We removed the unmatched Fractal Design rear fan before installing PNY’s dual fans and radiator in its place.
The thinner XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC radiator was then installed in the front half of the dual-120 mm radiator top mount. Had the thicker radiator been mounted on top, it would have blocked access to DIMM slots.

We may have removed the case's original rear fan, but we were still able to put it to good use. A gentle pull on the front panel snapped it away for easy access to its empty bottom fan mount, and the left-over rear fan just as easily snapped into that mount.
Removed from the top panel during XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC installation, the Arc Mini’s 140 mm top fan also fits the empty vent on its side panel. Putting it there prevents the side panel from closing, however, since the rear-mounted VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPU cooling system overlaps its mounting space.

Asus provided two USB 2.0-based Wireless N adapters to complete our build. We chose the model USB-N10 for its lower profile, even though network performance is not among today’s benchmark set.
- Maximum Performance From MicroATX
- The Impetus: PNY’s Liquid-Cooled GeForce GTX 580 Graphics In SLI
- The Smaller Footprint: Fractal Design’s Arc Mini
- Overcoming Overclocking Ordeals: Asus’ Maximus IV Gene-Z
- Lightening The Load With Crucial And Seagate
- Busting The Remaining Barriers
- Hardware Installation
- Overclocking
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Benchmark Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Benchmark Results: Crysis And F1 2010
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2 And Metro 2033
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Getting More Performance From A Smaller PC
I didn't find any mention about it.
At least, at what speed fans are running while the gaming test is being done?
I was a huge proponent of uATX cases until I needed space for an Asus Essence STX and a Killer Networks 2100 NIC. I found a compromise with the Lian Li PC A05NB -- it's one of the smallest ATX cases around, not much larger than the uATX enclosure I was using prevously. The diminutive Gene-Z is perfection for uATX boards, and wouldn't be out of place in larger cases -- but it's nice that you were able to cram so much into such a modest enclosure.
I was a huge proponent of uATX cases until I needed space for an Asus Essence STX and a Killer Networks 2100 NIC. I found a compromise with the Lian Li PC A05NB -- it's one of the smallest ATX cases around, not much larger than the uATX enclosure I was using prevously. The diminutive Gene-Z is perfection for uATX boards, and wouldn't be out of place in larger cases -- but it's nice that you were able to cram so much into such a modest enclosure.
Anyways. Love these kind of articles. Helps other users get more of what they assume. Keep it up Tom's.
it doesnt have a BAD voltage regulator, it just doesn't deliver enough stable power for overclocking much, nor do the VRM's have good cooling on them in that gigabtyte board. This was the assumption for the poor overclcking perfromance in the SBM.
How does one avoid this?
Eight threads Prime95 small FFTs for max CPU.
On the Gigabyte board you could probably see that half of the voltage regulator had no heat sink, but some crap boards have sinks so it's only a little helpful. Otherwise you have to pick a board you like, then use your search engine to find out what other people are getting from their overclocks.
In the case of that board, it was stable at 1.35V, fluctuated quite a bit at 1.36V, and dropped all the way down to 1.36V when it was set to 1.38V.
sry, i retract what i was saying
loved the whole build despite the micro atx form factor
really love the heatsinks being built and used from the board to the memory to the water coolers.
if some one could come up with a sli/crossfire dual card set up that flipped one cards gpu's so both cards could share 1 gpu pump and sink mount sandwiched between them i do not think there could be any improvement in this build at all.
(it could be argued that a dual burner drive could add some small benefit depending on how many back up movie discs you make every week.)
BTW, I was eyeing the exact same Fractal Design case for my home server, because it was small, cheap and well-ventilated. Besides, I really dig its sober design; I had enough with frills, bells & whistles. If it copes with this setup, then I guess it must be safe with my required ~35 W server power footprint XD
I didn't find any mention about it.
At least, at what speed fans are running while the gaming test is being done?
Btw, I'm with gti88, I would really like to know about noise.