Type X2 quiet fan mod?

[alamone]

Has anyone modded a Type X2 for quieter fans? There's three sources of noise here:
1. PSU, very loud 40mm fans
2. CPU cooler
3. Case fan

Was wondering if anyone successfully modded theirs for quieter operation.
I'm thinking of replacing the PSU entirely with a Seasonic, getting a low profile
CPU cooler, replacing the case fan with a quieter model, and putting quiet fans
on the motherboard NB/SB chipsets.

[ArcadeSTG]

I plan to buy a Type X2 in the midterm when the prices go down because of game center moving from SSF4+TX2 to USF4+TX3 and this topic is also interesting to me.

I can share my experience about upgrading a Lindbergh to a Silent Lindbergh. The first time you switch on a Lindbergh at home you might become shocked because of the loud fans. Even inside of the candy cab you can clearly hear the noise.

The bad news in the case of Lindbergh is that the motherboard lack any regulation of the fans. They are full power (12v) always. The good news is that brands like arctic cooling and notcua have everything you need to achieve a quien Lindbergh.

This is my Linfbergh Yellow Silent for in-home use:


Therefore, the first step is to check if your mother board features fan regulation or you need to go for fan with external heat probe.

[alamone]

The fan headers on the motherboard are 4-pin, however the fans themselves are 3 pin.
I am not sure if the BIOS is setup to take advantage of PWM, my gut feeling is that it is set to +12V full regardless.
I forgot to mention also that the stock cooler on the 7900 GS is also really loud and obnoxious, being a single slot cooler.
However the Fast I/O card is right next to it, occupying 1x PCI-E, so I am going to try relocating it using a ribbon cable
so I can install aftermarket cooling on the VGA.

I've ordered a Seasonic PSU, a Noctua HSF, a Corsair quiet 120mm fan, empty PCI brackets, and a PCIe 1x ribbon,
and I will be doing surgery on my TypeX2 once everything arrives.

[alamone]

Forgot to mention, I decided to go with the Zalman VF900 for the aftermarket VGA cooler,
I needed something that was not too big because the vertical clearance in the case is not very high,
the top cover basically goes almost on top of the PCI cards. I might even need to bend or cut some
of the top fins off.

[alamone]

Surgery part 1 is done - CPU HSF replacement. This is the Noctua NH-L12.
The top fan will not fit so I only have the bottom fan in.



The Seasonic 1U PSU is in but it does not match the screw holes or dimensions of the original Acbel PSU.
I will have to break out the drill and dremel, but it's late at night so will do some other time...

[ArcadeSTG]

Keep up the good work

[alamone]

Surgery is complete!


Fitting the Seasonic 1U PSU. Screw holes don't align but nothing a dremel and some washers can't fix haha.


This is the Fast I/O card. I have created a custom bracket that raises it up and adds a PCIe ribbon riser so that
I can relocate the Fast I/O card away from the 2nd PCIe slot to make room for the VGA cooler. The molex
is to provide +12V to the riser PCB for extra stability.


Completed setup, with the Zalman heatsink attached to the 7900GS. It barely fits and you have to
mash down on the top cover a bit to screw it in, but I didn't have to cut any fins.


Fruits of my labor!

[kazuo]

Looks amazing. Great work!

Any information you can provide on the setup (part numbers, good places to purchase, etc.) would be appreciated.

Also, any info you can provide on getting DBAC working would also be helpful for prospective future owners.

Cheers!

[alamone]

Parts list (parts ordered from amazon, newegg, mouser):

1. Seasonic SS-500L 1U PSU
Mounting screws do not align, you will need to mcguyver it.

2. Noctua NH-L12 HSF for Pentium 4
Top fan does not fit, you can use it to replace the case fan but it's a bit loud on full 12V, you may need to resistor it.
Also you will probably want to use some thermal interface remover to clean off the gunk from the stock HSF.

3. Zalman VF-900 CU LED for Geforce 7900GS
This is a bit loud on full 12V so I used a resistor from the Noctua kit to tone it down a little.

4. PCI-e Express 1X Riser Extender with High Speed FFC Flexible Cables http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GXHOMFS to relocate Fast IO card
It comes with short and long flex cables, use the short one. I also soldered a molex connector for 12V and GND on the riser PCB.

5. Any quiet 120mm fan for case fan
You can reuse the top fan from the Noctua kit, or use any other fan of your choosing. I'm using the Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition.

6. PCIe bracket for Fast IO card
I used this one http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.asp ... d=534-9203.
You'll probably have to mcguyver it to get the Fast IO PCB to mount properly on the bracket.
For the top hole I used the existing hole. For the bottom hole I used a steel L bracket with a screw and nut through the bracket.
To make holes for the RJ45 jacks I used a steel nibbler tool, although dremeling is probably faster it was late at night.

[kazuo]

Thanks Alamone.

Post videos of the setup if you can!

[ArcadeSTG]

I was asked by pm about the fans for a silence lindbergh, here you have:

Front 12cm fan: ARCTIC COOLING F12 PWM BUT- I like this one much more: NOCTUA NF-S12A-PWM
CPU Fan: AC Super Silent 4 Ultra TC Sockel 478
6800 GT, NV Silencer 5

[alamone]

I actually posted a short clip of the setup working on vine, it's posted on my twitter account @alamone.

For anyone who is interested in getting a DBAC, here are the things you need to be aware of:

1. You need the Fast I/O board, and you need two of them. It will give you I/O error if *both* are not installed.
They connect to the Type X side Fast I/O board by standard RJ45 cables. The Fast I/O boards need 24V DC power.
Coin-up only works on 1P side. Wiring diagram is available in the instruction manual - just follow this diagram.
The power connector seems to be a very weird hard to find part so I just soldered some molexes to the solder side.

2. The right screen is hardcoded to mirror-flip top to bottom. You will need some way to re-flip the screen again,
or to use a half-mirror as in the real cab. I am using an Image Anyplace IA-100, but if I use the DVI input the
wrong resolution is detected so I am converting it to VGA before feeding it into the IA-100. I'm looking into
other options for screen flipping.

3. The two LCD screens must report 1360x768 (not 1366x768) as their native EDID resolution. Otherwise, the bootup sequence
will fail once it reaches "Test of the Day". You can use something like the Gefen HDMI detective and Powerstrip to provide custom EDID overrides.

4. It seems the audio is encoded somehow and it needs to be fed into the Taito amps to be decoded properly.
While it sounds OK for the most part, it sounds very weird e.g. on the Zone A boss and I think there's some matrix encoding going on
that the Taito amps decode. Maybe this is extra information for the bodysonic seat?
I will wire these later, these also require 24V DC input.

There are two separate amps: a 6 channel amp for the speakers (only 4 channels are used, front speaker L/R and woofer L/R),
this uses the green and red (pink?) audio jacks on the Type X2.

There is also a headphone amp which takes the black audio jack from the Type X2 and outputs to two headphones with digital volume control
(the actual cab has triangle pushbuttons you press to control the headphone jack volumes).

5. Online doesn't work obviously. This means Chronicle Mode and Event mode does not work. You can play Original and Original EX,
assuming your PCB has been upgraded to EX.