HTPC Antec Fusion Remote Max

[Cody_Irwin]

First of all I would like to thank Cougar Germany, as well as Asetek for proving me the following.

Asetek... custom Asetek LC (aluminum cold plate, 120mm radiator, low profile pump, rubber tubes.)
asetek.com

Cougar... 3x 120mm Cougar Vortex HDB fans as well as 1x 140mm Cougar Vortex HDB Fan.
Cougar-world.com

Heres a sneek peek of what it can do via OC'ing.

THIS IS ASUS AUTO TUNER! Till I get the chance to actually go at it myself.




Antec Fusion Remote Max Chassis
I5 2500k
Asetek Liquid cooler
Cougar 120mm and 140mm Vortex HDB Fans
Cougar CMX 700watt PSU
8gb (2x4gb) Kingston Memory, Limited edition 1600mhz
Zotac GTX 460amp! 1gb factory OC'ed
Asus p8p67 pro, May be using a diff asus board no clue yet, Wish I had a ROG One but sadly I dont.
a nice wireless card from asus
And some Antec formula 7 TIM



Will post building pics ASAP or very slowly... Not sure max limit to the Text so going to post a few Reserve spots incase.


Here we have all the the components to make this build. =)



Following up to the pic, heres the inside of the Antec fusion remote max. Quite a nice little case for a Monster HTPC for full sized components. Personally would have liked a better Cable management system such as on the side of the Removable HDD Cage, a Hole on the bottom for all the front panel connectors (ALOT) to go through the side of it.



Here, We have all the accessories for the case such as the Remote, 20/20+4 pin connector to allow the use of the Remote, to actually power ON/Off the PC in a FULL shutdown and power on as well from the remote. Oh how I love Laziness =). Also the spare FRONT 120mm Fan Holder to use if you remove the HDD Cage.




Got the Front panel connectors, and the fans. Fans are being removed to allow New fans.




Fans Be GONE!!!!!!!!!!!


Oops, forgot to remove the Black thingy for w/e it was for since I was not using it did not bother to read about it hahaha.



Here comes some Color! Cougars 140mm Vortex HDB Fans which have a Nice look personally to me. I cant believe how quiet they are and how much they push.

[Cody_Irwin]

Installing the 140mm Cougar fan, Using the Rubber grommets till I know that I will not have to remove it.



Starting to remove the HDD Cage, and getting a look inside of it.



Removed half of the cage, here you see the mounting for the HDD's and a Filter thats removable from the Front of the case, Talk about Ease of access!. Personally, that hole where the 5.25in bay should have gone ENTIRELY through instead of just being there TBH, That should have been a Optional Cable mangement route for the front panel connectors, which I was quite sad about.



Next getting the 120mm Vortex Cougar fan ready for the Front panel to blow some air onto the GPU, which is a GREAT Optional fan to have. Especially when doing this build.


Easy as Snap it in!



Just screw the Optional mount for the fan into the HDD Removable bay and done! Kinda glad as well I was able to use one of the holes to route the fan cable.



So far heres my progression with the fans installation! Personally loving how the color scheme is working out.




Time to get the PSU In BABY! Need some Power to this beast.




The 5.25in Bay pops right out from a Sliding mechanism they use so to say, and getting the DVD Drive ready to go in. (Sorry folks I am not a person who truely cares for blueray, I never had a use yet and dont intend to for a good amount of time still.)

[Cody_Irwin]

DVD Drive screwed in??? Check!




Heres where things start to get interesting too bad its the climax!. Aseteks Cooler, Intels Processor, and Asus Motherboard, Here we go! The HTPC Is starting to become alive.




First I setup the Asetek cooler, which was SOOO Painless on me, it was simply... Put the screwholes into correct socket holes for backplate, Put sticky pads on backplate, put backplate on back of motherboard lining all the holes into the motherboard.

Then the Coolers part was simply... Grab correct mounting plate so to say for the socket, and use the screw holders pretty much with the correct parts and snap them on so the screws can be held together with the mounting plate.

Simply use correct mounting screws for the socket, and screw it on, The screws stopped exactly when they needed to and I could not twist no more, like its a Failsafe from people tightening it too much which is quite a nice feature.



Here we have the HTPC Cming to life in this world with the PSU starting to be Attached to everything it needs to be as well as the Fans, and Connectors to the motherboard.
What glorious fun that was... (psst Hated it.)



So here... We have a Re-threading kit because turns out, I forgot screws for the Radiator, and was too late to goto the Hardware store. Well turns out I had no screws that were able to withstand being Re-Threaded and was a complete waste of time. Darn people making weak screws now these days.

Luckily The morning after I picked some up and just had to snip some threads off instead so I wouldnt screw it into the Radiator.




Everythings starting to get in place here... Notice I still dont have the radiator attached due to no screws still till the following morning. Also Looks like a tight squeeze for a push pull doesnt it? Well.. Find out reading more.

And yes, this was optimally the best without cutting up the case (which I hate doing so I dont) to cable manage. Hence why i wish I had more flexibility with some holes that should of been there but were not, only half of a hole was made haha.


Got my Zotac GTX 460 Amp! 1gb GPU Installed as well as my Asus Wireless card.

Look at all that room for future upgrades for more possibilities!



Oh hey, Morning arrives, and Look at that... Tight squeeze but not too tight at all! Notice how I removed the rubber grommets now? I had to take the Cougar 140mm fan off to get the Asetek Radiator+Cougars 2nd 120mm fan on inside, Push pull Accomplished guys! And still room for a great intake 140mm Cougar fan while the Asetek Cooler exausts.

Oh man am I having a hard time moving around now!




And here we have it. Even though its a bit Ugly Cable Managing, its literally almost the best with using EVERYTHING the case has to offer.

The airflow may look Restricted from the cables blocking, but in no ways is that happening, they are above the Cougar 120mm fan that is placed there, and is giving actually GREAT Airflow for being in that spot with no vent behind it, but only under it.

Overall I am Extremely pleased at how Cool, and silent this HTPC is running. The only concern with me is the HDD Mounting is not all that great for a HTPC Case for one reason.. My case vibrates from my 1tb HDD, which may cause problems for people these days making a Home theater setup with others stacked on top and below it.

Was shockingly sad with that only from the case after putting it together besides needing more cable management.

With the Liquid cooler from Asetek being Superb as usual for me and Cougars Vortex fans being sought out from everyone lately, and the Cougar CMX 700watt PSU This is one HELL of a quiet build using FULL Sized Components. Literally only hear the Hard Drive, Wish I had a SSD To use .

I wanted a Cooled and quite HTPC that will be in a enclosed space and I am Positive now that it will have 0 problems with this setup.



And here's the mess, besides UPS Boxes and all because I didn't have room to do that, I literally slept with all of them in my room on the bed. Oh how that was comfortable...haha.



So once again Thanks Asetek as well as Cougar World (germany) for sponsoring this build

I will have A pic or so up showing it in a few days or so in my Living room above my TV on the Shelf and how nice it looks there too =).

Let me know if you guys want any results I can perform to my best of ability if you have any to ask.

Or if you have any questions in general Please feel free to ask.


Thanks Everyone For Reading!

[Mason@ASUS]

Nice job on the push pull setup in that case! and nice board too!

[Cody_Irwin]

yea it was pushing it close, a little more strain then I would have liked on the hoses but it works!

[Giannis996]

good job but doesnt have a back side to pass the cables so you can have better air flow?

[frisianbear2002]

Yeah i'm running here with couger fans in my case and om my H100 (4 of those fans for push and pull) and i am very satisfyed with them.

But you have to do something on your cable management LOL

[Cody_Irwin]

There literitally is no where to do cable management, its a small HTPC Case for full sized parts, what you expect? haha =P Notice all the cables during setup that the front panel has? Thats ALOT, then on top of the Remote Control enable for the 24 pin connector plus a cord connected to it, so I pretty much have a 24pin adapter on top of my 24pin from the PSU, so that also makes it look a bit ugly even though its a neccessity due to remote control functions which I will be using.


I have no airflow restrictions with the cables there because the cables are so to say ABOVE the airflow because the cougar fans blow pretty much straight in a line, then goes outwards, trust me I have too much airflow imo now haha.

As for my Motherboards 8 pin conenctor going across it, Ive managed that to go behind the north bridge heat syncs so its now sorta going around the motherboard so that looks a bit better.

Also since the PSU Came with a 6pin connector sorta Melted so to say but more like the plastic mold was not thick enough on one of the pins it cracked or something so Im using 2 seperate modular adapters for the psu to it so atm I got a bit too many PSU Cords as well.

And nope no back side the case lays Flat down it does not stand like a tower so on the other side of the open side is the rubber feet to lift it off the ground.

All I know is while the build is complete, I still am tweaking it a bit to make it look a bit better. The cables seriously wont look any better then that though because thats where most of the cables connect to the motherboard and cant do nothing about it.

Sadly but this is the only case on the market that has the features I wanted that did not limit too much, Just like we all said, that cable spot where the HDD Bay was for the 120mm fan I put there is Poop ugly haha. But the case will be closed so no reason to care since the Airflow is not restricted at all.

[Cody_Irwin]

So I did a little more Cable Management I think I got it just right for how much is in here after finding some zipties to tighten some of the cables from the 24 pin adapter as well as getting like the sata and front connector cords put together, looks quite a bit better, but PSU area gonna be clustered still just because of the length and all that other nonsense XD.

Also took some pics of the case as well.


Here is the top of the case, and those vents have quite a bit of airflow coming out of it from my fan setup, so i could not be any happier with the airflow in this case as I know its working how I wanted it to.



Heres the Power supply vent side.



Heres the Front of the chasis looks soooo purdy.



Front of Chasis as well, with Cover down exposing all the front panel options, as well as fan filters pulled out.



Opposite side of the chasis for intake 140mm Fan, Such nice airflow from it. =)



Finally the back of the chasis exposing the Graphics card connectors, Push Pull out with asetek cooler, and cougar 120mm fans, and the cougar Power supply, showing Asus Motherboard and Wifi card.

[Cody_Irwin]

Can anyone confirm they are having problems view the pictures because they are being blown up too much? I am working on resizing them for forums but I see them just fine like their 640x480 Please let me know so you can get a better viewing experience.

Thanks!