MSI SEKIRA 500x mods idea

[keig42eb0614]

Hi all,

I was about to build a new system, have purchase the Sekira 500x case, as I can see there is a lot of air restriction from the front panel and top panel, the air pressure for the intake will be greatly reduce from the small metal grill of the side on the front panel and some air will must likely to be recirculated from other opening from the chassis front and same for the top, I am thinking about cutting some small perplex sheet to cover though opening and force the intake fan in the front to only grab air from the front panel grill, that should increase the static pressure inside there case, will do the same for the top panel(will change to exhaust fan instead of intake as I going to install a 360 AIO) . As for the back exhaust fan, I will cut out the grill and replace it with a chrome finger grill.
Still haven't receive the case yet, I am in Melbourne Australia and is stage 4 lock down, I will be two more week before I receive the case, will post photo of it once done
Anyone will idea, I will give them a try also

 

[plutomate]

make sure you test everything before cutting the case, once u do it, the warranty is gone

 

[keig42eb0614]

is fine with the warranty, did this all the time with case I bought, be building system for 25 year, never have problem with case mod, normally i don't cut the chassis except for the fan grill at the back and replace with a chrome metal guards, air flow improve about 20-30% alone, for front I probably going to use perplex sheet or thin sheet of Aluminium to cover all the un-needed opening and mount the fan into that. the only issue is I still haven't receive my case

 

[keig42eb0614]

Just receive the case today, but the MAG Coreliquid 360R cooler and the X570 Tomahawk MB is still in shipping,
The case look good, but very badly designed, is seem MSI have a lot and lot of idea, so they try to put all of them in it. got this case because is can take 4xHDD but a little disappointed on how much Brain is use when designing this, Saw the 100x that just release, I can say well done MSI, that case is a lot more particle to use

Those are my finding:
1) all fan on top and front are intake fan, but only have about 1cm from the glass, the grill on the side of the from and top panel is also quiet restrictive
2) the case have 4 intake (all 200cm) fan but only 1 x 120cm fan as exhaust and is covered by a grill
3) HDD storage area is badly design with hardly any air flow (I will be running 4 x 4TB raid 0), and is design initially with a intake fan at the bottom but is covered b y the HDD tray design
4) All Glass panel is clean and have protest plastic on it but the front and top panel is dirty with finger print all over the inside
5) Chassis have too much un-need opening, at least should have design with and kind of removable cover, so remove it only when is need
6) Too much space inside the case and poorly designed all airflow also have a lot of un-need opening causing air to go everywhere in the case when air flow is not require, make it hard to create any kind of air pressure inside the case, or created a flow direction, which is shown in it cooling performance from some of it review
7) a lot of cleaning will required to this case due to to proper filter is using, it come with two filter at the bottom of the case when is not even the main intake of the case

Thing confirm will do:
1) Cut the Grill Mesh area for the Fan at the back of the case, also replace the Rear fan with 140mm ARGB fan (probably Cooler master one), and add a 140mm finger grill to cover it
2) Cut the Grill Area cover the front Chassis that is covering the fan (not much), also cover any opening that is un-need so there is no Air re-circulated back from the inside
3) Cut the Grill mesh that mount the top intake fan, remove the extractable radiator tray and mount and directly install the radiator to the Chassis, so it will be a proper push and pull for the cooler, also cover any un-need opening to stop and air from re-circulating back into the case
4) At the back of the top panel, Cut a opening and glue in a wire mesh to improve airflow from the top
5) removing un-need plastic reinforcement on the top and front panel, replacing them with smaller metal bar as reinforcement
6) Re-design HDD storage area, so i can the bottom intake is accessible and insert a than 15mm fan in the area
7) Integrate a addition exhaust fan at the expansion card area below the Graphic Card
8) using 1mm form tape in between all fan mount on the chassis and fan, (increase sound proofing and won't lose air pressure though any of the gap between the chassis and fan)
9) Adding a wire mesh in the bottom of the front panel at the back, there is a big opening with insert and other thing can easily enter the area

Thing still deciding:
1) Should I change the top from intake to exhaust
2) Size and brand of the fan in the expansion card area
3) How to redesign the HDD storage area,

It will be good to get some idea, but haven't seem much people replying at all

 

[keig42eb0614]

damn up on close inspection, i have a very small chipped corner on my top glass panel, will have to report it to warranty first

 

[keig42eb0614]

attached three photo explain the poor design in the Sekira 500 series, all 200mm Fan included is Sleeve bearing which don't work well installing on horizontally (that why some people have ticking noise from it) there are 2 ARGB 200mm install this way on the 500x.

the fans is install as intake both from the top and front , the distance between fan and the panel is only 10mm. the airflow become so restrictive that the static pressure on the outer blade is a lot greater than the inner part where is ended up sucking air from that area, creating a vacuum in the dead zone of the fan. on the three attached photo the first is 1cm of the table the second is 0cm, and the third is 3cm, with a strip of paper taped on the edge you can see the paper have only little pressure pushing it out but the deadzone suck the paper back in. and no distance the paper is flat, the fan at least need a 3cm space to give a good kind of airflow (still quite restrictive and noisy).

I run into issue with the case un-mods, and run the CPU and GPU at full load on stress test, with in 5 minute the cpu and gpu throttled from overheat, the air pressure from the 2x 200mm stop the air from going in or out of the case by keep on recirculated is own air in that area. then switched the fan on up to exhaust, it did a little better, as the top fan work hard to put the air out from a very restrictive grill, and some hot air pushed back into the case due to all the unneed hole on the top. GPU still overheated and throttle due to no fresh air movement with the system run in a few hours.

 

[keig42eb0614]

here come the first round of mods and some material I need haven't arrived yet

The top chassis have the mesh cut out and un-need opening filled creating a one way airflow to no hot air can re-circulate but into the chassis

The front no longer the use 2x 200mm intake fan, the ARBG is kept for the look, the area on the front chassis is cut out go the fan sit inside edge of the case creating a 34mm space between the front glass and fan, top front replaced by a 12cm and 14cm fan which now install inside the chassis with all un need opening and hop covered with tape, cause the only air to be taken from the side grill only

the two hdd rack is remove due to the front 200mm now taking some space blocking the HDD, a new custom made hdd rack is install, taking less space but more area for the air to move and created 1cm more space for longer PSU. the bottom of the case actually have 12cm fan mount as the case probably a OEM case which is modded as per MSI request without be tested for practicality and just for look or other case manufacture design, so a 15mm slim ARGB Silverstone fan is now installed in the to bottom of the case.

the LED switch is actual a reset switch, no the system from have one, so I created a little one inside the case.

four audio equipment leg have being install into the base further increase the space of the ground or table since now there is intake from the psu and the 12cm fan

 

[keig42eb0614]

with the system reinstall into the case, is no longer throttle due to over heat , case is not dead quite, but ok(only a small ticking noise on the top 200mm fans), temp now is about delta-T 9C (before mods is 21C) while the CPU and GPU at full load, with delta-t only 45C for CPU and 48C for GPU (before both heat up 90C in temp and start throttling)

I few further mods is on it way,
The plastic front and top panel support the side grill to be cut out and replace by 2mm carbon fibre beam reducing the restrictive airflow
All 200mm fan to be replace by Coolermaster one (better bearing, low noise and last longer) once the MSI die (shouldn't be long from result from other fourm)
All120mm and 140mm fan also change to Coolermaster so all ARBG look more unify in color, currently they are all sightly different
Removing the Radiator trap on the top and mount directly onto the 200mm fan as the mount for the trap is designed badly and will vebrate and get nosiey, also will remove a few dead zone of air on the top of the case

Please let me know any idea to further improve this piece of sh!t, as their tech team for case is useless

 

[bencotter19914e302cf]

with the system reinstall into the case, is no longer throttle due to over heat , case is not dead quite, but ok(only a small ticking noise on the top 200mm fans), temp now is about delta-T 9C (before mods is 21C) while the CPU and GPU at full load, with delta-t only 45C for CPU and 48C for GPU (before both heat up 90C in temp and start throttling)

I few further mods is on it way,
The plastic front and top panel support the side grill to be cut out and replace by 2mm carbon fibre beam reducing the restrictive airflow
All 200mm fan to be replace by Coolermaster one (better bearing, low noise and last longer) once the MSI die (shouldn't be long from result from other fourm)
All120mm and 140mm fan also change to Coolermaster so all ARBG look more unify in color, currently they are all sightly different
Removing the Radiator trap on the top and mount directly onto the 200mm fan as the mount for the trap is designed badly and will vebrate and get nosiey, also will remove a few dead zone of air on the top of the case

Please let me know any idea to further improve this piece of sh!t, as their tech team for case is useless

Do you have the top fans set to Exhaust now? How did you remove the top part of the case to access these fans? thanks

 

[keig42eb0614]

Do you have the top fans set to Exhaust now? How did you remove the top part of the case to access these fans? thanks

Yes the top fan are exhaust. Remove the front panel then you can remove the top panel

 

[bencotter19914e302cf]

Yes the top fan are exhaust. Remove the front panel then you can remove the top panel

Is it difficult to access the top fans?

 

[keig42eb0614]

Is it difficult to access the top fans?

is easy, but you must change it as the fan set as intake, all it doing it recirculate it own air, creative it own pressure in the top area, hot air raise to the top and get stuck there causing the CPU the overheat and throttling

 

[bencotter19914e302cf]

is easy, but you must change it as the fan set as intake, all it doing it recirculate it own air, creative it own pressure in the top area, hot air raise to the top and get stuck there causing the CPU the overheat and throttling

Yeah the case has been a disappointment so far I only built the pc yesterday and one of the top fans is making a ticking noise already.€250 case and issues straight out of the box!! Do you have to remove the top glass to access fans?

 

[keig42eb0614]

Yeah the case has been a disappointment so far I only built the pc yesterday and one of the top fans is making a ticking noise already.€250 case and issues straight out of the box!! Do you have to remove the top glass is together as one unit with the panel, just remove the panel will do

Just pull out the front, then the top, the glass is together with the panel at one unit