GTR Tech,
I got the GT3 case on Thursday but didn't start putting her together till yesterday and I have to say it was pretty self explanatory. I was able to put in the follow configuration:
Motherboard:
EVGA nForce 680i SLI A1 Socket 775 1333MHz DD2-800 Extreme Motherboard Mfg P/N 122-CK-NF68-A1
Memory:
2GB kit (1GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module Mfg P/N CT2KIT12864AA80E
2GB kit (1GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module Mfg P/N CT2KIT12864AA80E
CPU:
Intel Core2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz LGA775 1333MHz w/ 4MB Mfg P/N BX80557E6850
Hard Drive One:
WD Raptor 74GB 10K RPM 16MB Buffer SATA HDD Mfg P/N WD740ADFD
Hard Drive Two:
WD Raptor 74GB 10K RPM 16MB Buffer SATA HDD Mfg P/N WD740ADFD
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM: Slimline Drive
Video Card:
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2TM 640MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Dual DVI/TVO Mfg P/N BFGR88640GTSOC2E
After installing everything, which i could not believe would actually fit, i powered her on and have been happy with they way she has turned out. It's very quiet especially when i'm gaming, and the system itself keeps pretty cool. I've run a couple of benchmark test on how hot the system would get and I've turned up the following.
CPU:
165 F
GPU:
175 F
System:
92 F
All in all I am very happy with the case and love the fact that i can take it anywhere and just plug her in. I've even been able to fit the case in my messenger bag and will be taking a trip back home with my new computer in hand. Thanks again for all your help and I have been referring people to your site as they love the way the case looks and love the idea of how small it truly is. Great work on what you have done and thanks for making gaming truly mobile.
George S
George S.
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Dear GTR Tech,
Let me tell you, When I got my GT3... First impressions....WOW!
My GT3 is now almost complete and that it is running fine. So far I have only had 1 case related problem (My fault entirely). I wasn't careful with running the sata and ide cables and they stopped the fan on my video card. I have a different video card in it at the moment while I wait for a new GTS 8800. I will also be getting a long round cable and fan cover for the video card when I reinstall it.
The other issues were all Software/Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit related issues:
The bleeding edge hardware I have mounted in your wonderful case needed updates to work with the OS. Just as a reference, Terabyte hard drives must be recognized by the bios before Vista Ultimate 64 bit will recognize them and load. The Gigabyte GA-P35C- DS3R motherboard will initially only recognize 6 gig of RAM and you must flash the bios to version F6 to make it see all 8gb. Actually it sees all 8, but functions like a 286-16 trying to run Vista until you flash the bios. And finally, the netgear 10X usb wireless receiver has to have a driver not available on the included disk. After that it was only 873 mb of download and 6 hours on the phone with Microsoft to make it all work. And as I type this my Zero Halliburton carrying case has just arrived to transport your case across the country. Thanks again.
Ken H.
Ken H.
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The concept of this board is deceivingly simple: take a full sized ATX board, add normal sized cooling fans to two corners of the longer edge of the board with the fans standing on their "edges". This way you are cooling the card are and the CPU area with at least one fan. Now, let's decide to fit everything a PC needs into the space defined above. After some engineering black magic, one can fit a hard disk, an optical drive and three full sized PCI cards (meanwhile allowing a hard disk to be traded for a PCI card) into this space. We will tackle the PSU later.
It's also important to note that once the computer is assembled in the case, all tricks inside matter squat -- and the computer spends most of its life in this state. So, let's not forget to add glitz to the outside.
The first problem to tackle: PCI cards -- normal (so called full height) PCI cards are a bit too tall for the case we want to create. Once you put the cards in their slots the typical way, well, you got a typical case. Bummer. Solution is well known, utilized with server and mini ITX cases: rotate the PCI so it lies in parallel with the board. We want three slots because nowadays a two slot VGA cooler is common and a sound card or a TV tuner is often used. Also, if you want to use both, well, you can, just use a single slot cooled VGA card. Three slots will take approximately six centimeters. The board itself will add another 2-3. It seems that we need an approximately ten centimeter thick case. Do you still have the fans standing on their "edges"? Now you can see that they can be 80 or 92mm fans instead of the of the 40 and 60 mm obnoxiously loud “howlers” typically used in small cases. We are arriving somewhere :)
So far we managed to squeeze in three PCI cards into a space defined by the board and the fans. We do not need to spend too much time thinking about the hard disk, that can go somewhere also parallel to the motherboard, we have plenty of space, the hard disk is less than three centimeters thick. But, the optical drive will cause a problem. It's way too thick and also it's wider than absolutely necessary. Above, we borrowed from servers and mini ITX cases, we now add laptops to the donor list -- and borrow their optical drive. It's not that you can not see a so-called slim drive in a rack server or especially in a mini ITX case -- just it's the laptops that are so widespread and often used instead of a desktop. Economy of scale and user demand tells us that these slim optical drives will be just as capable and a tad pricier and they indeed are.
When you put all this together, you will soon arrive to the GT3-BH.
Nice work in overall, GTR.
KN
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This is one unique chassis. I guarantee you won't see anything like it on the market anytime soon. Its like driving an exotic car down the road (and yes I know what that feels like), You have this sense of exclusivity, but not screaming POSER. The carbon fiber, the wing, the fan intakes, they all reek of coolness.
As soon as I got my hands on my GT3 case I spent some time admiring the sleek design, but not too much. I dove right in and proceeded to assemble the system which consists of an Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 CPU, an ASUS P5B motherboard, 4GB of OCZ DDR2-800 RAM, Western Digital 500G hard drive, an nVidia 7600 based PCIe video card and an NEC slim tray loading DVD RW drive (a slot loading drive would be better).
The case take apart was uneventful, watch out for the "wing" though. It may come apart if you try to take the case cover off with the wing in its retracted position. Motherboard install was pretty straight forward as was the cable routing. If you've assembled a PC in your recent past, all this is standard stuff. Progress came to a crawl once I moved on to the 'feature module'. Word of advice here, read the manual and check out the pictures. Trust me, its time well spent. After three unsuccessful attempts I hit the books and following the instructions was able to install the graphics card. This is probably the only downside.
The system powered up with the cool blue GT3 logo as a greeting. With Q-fan enabled, the system is very comfortable in a quiet room. As a reference, my mouse clicks are louder than the fans. Speedfan reports case fans at ~1500RPM and CPU fan at 950RPM while idle or web surfing. CPU temps are ~35C and case temp is ~36C. At load (while running PCMark), CPU does not go over 51C while the case stays below 45C, fans kick up to ~1800-2000 RPM with little noise increase.
Overall, the case is definitely at attention grabber. The 'cool computer' comment is at hand every time someone new sees the system sitting on my desk. I am tempted to put some stickers on it to make it go faster :)
ND
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