NZXT Cryo LX: Modified

I bought a Cryo last year when I got my Sager NP7280. It worked great for me until just recently, when the power supply went out. After looking into buying a new one, I came across some topics on here about how the fans were underpowered and that other people were even replacing them. I decided I would give it a try myself. I bought 3 T.B.VEGAS DUO fans, and a 4 pin PSU. The fans come with 3 to 4 pin adapter harness, so I was able to use them to make a 4pin to a triple 3pin harness. The fans have their own speed controllers and buttons to switch between light modes. I could have tied all the fans into one Speed control dial and one button, but decided not to. Anyhow, I mounted everything up, and shortened all the wires to fit nicely in the case. I'm using a 12v PSU to power the fans, and have the 5v USB ports powered by my laptop. Works great, and dropped my benchmark temps another 10*F. I was looking into buying another Cryo for my other rig, but they seem to be unavailable right now. Anyone know why? Here are some pics btw:










The NP7280 Sits in my File cabinet, which I have modified to ventilate it with four 120mm fans. Sitting on a NZXT-Cryo cooler.

 

very nice mod! i actually like the individual fan speed controls and how clean u did the add ons.

 

Nice job, always wanted to see some interesting notebook cooler mods. +rep

Where did you get the 12v PSU?

 

here, maybe?

 

Exactly! That's the one I bought. On my next Cryo, I want to do some even higher cfm Scythe fans all tied into one VR Dial. Im also going to buy a small 12v to 5v converter box to install in the casing, so I only need one PSU. Ill tie it into the USB ports. I also found a 4pin PSU that has a 5A rating instead of 2A like the one I just bought. I added pics of my set-up BTW.

 

Cryo LX's are like unicorns now, brother. i've had numerous people asking me where to get it, in the past 6 months alone.

 

Well that sucks. It's probably the only one capable of cooling the NP9270 I plan on getting in a few months.

 

Btw, where ya located in Houston? I'm in spring.

 

just moved out to Richmond/Sugar Land area.

 

This is a sweet mod, but the NZXT Cryo LX is like $80! To spend $80 and then take it apart and put even more money into it is crazy haha
Is it possible to buy the shell (Or whatever it's called) by itself?

 

Baka has a Cryo LX but Baka thinks the it has a wire lose and won't turn on ._. Now Baka just uses it for elevation.

Baka likes the mod though pwetty ♥

 

I, we, may be able to help Baka if Baka could take a few shots of Baka's cooler.

What Baka can do is disassemble it as it is pretty simple and see if Baka can find the cause of the issue.

 

Baka, If it's the Black Cryo LX, Ill buy it from you if its not scratched up or anything.

Edit: You live in England? Hmmm, shipping probably wouldnt be worth it.

 

If anyone has a Black Cryo LX they want to sell, shoot me a message and name your price.

 

This is going to be a longer reply, and I hope you guys are patient enough to read through and help me sort this out!

My fans recently stopped spinning, but the green light behind the usb hub was turning on with AC power, and I have a month left on the warranty. I fired an email to NZXT with a Paypal receipt (I bought it off Ebay) this was their reply:

Dear NZXT Customer,

We will be sending you 3x fans, USB/ Power port and the fan controller for the defective parts on your unit. Please allow us to ship out your replacement request out of our facility within 1-7 business days. You will be notified with a tracking number once your item has been shipped. Thank you for your patience.

I'm quite blown away by this, I mean these guys have no reason to offer such excellent service! But at the same time I figured since I'll be pulling this whole thing open to replace the faulty part, maybe I ought to get into modding this thing.

I did a google search for a thread like this (there was another one previously) and I pulled open my current cooler and (after wading through a load of dust) discovered the little connector cable between the usb hub part and the fan controller part had shorted out, and the little plug on the fan controller was also a little charred.

Question 1: I was curious if that cable is part of what their above email says they're sending me.

Question 2: I live in India and so would need a AC adapter that does 220v. Any clue if the company of the one you used makes a 220? If not do you know of any plug I ought to use? I've never done any modding and so don't quite understand how a 12v plug will spin these fans the same as a 5v plug, but I do know that I need the AC end to be 220v.

Question 3: I would love to mod mine like you did yours, maybe not with colorful fans, but at least individual speed control would be a nice feature, as I use a Sager NP5793 (oldie but goodie). Are there any websites I can read to learn how to mod mine even remotely like you did yours?

If I lived in the States I would just ask to send you all my parts with a nice cheque for the effort put into it, but considering how much of a pain shipping would be, I'll have to do it myself.

Overall its a good thing that my cooler failed, I didn't know that it was time to change the thermal paste. My laptop overheating and shutting down playing Risen 2 let me know that part

Edit: Sorry, Question 4: If I do something similar to what you did, can I still use the old usb hub part of it with a plain jane ac to dc cable? I have a 5v DC to 110-240v AC cable this thing has been running on up until now.

I apologize for the overlong post, and appreciate any help!

 

Nice mod!! looks beautiful to say the least.

 

buying a whole new cooler just because of a faulty power supply? omg... you must be really rich. you known you could just buy another power supply for less then 5$ right?

anyway that mod worked good.
I've modified mine with similar fans, but I've also added thermal sensors.
if you want you can use a 3.5' fan controller with lcd to control the fans instead of using those. it will look great.

Don't be. the product was defective. there's many quality issues regarding this cooler.

About your questions,
220V is possible, there's EU versions that work. you just need a correct psu. go to ebay you have thousands for models that will work. Even sometimes some cell phones or eletronics chargers will work to power it. It's really easy.
about replacing the fans, dude, it's so easy. It's just plug and play. unscrew everything, replace fans, disconnect cables, connect, done.
if you want some individual fan control you will have to buy a fan controler or fans with built in speed controlers. that's what the op did. these fans even have a on off switch for the leds. you have thousands of fan models.
but anyway the built in controler will work just fine. And yes the hub will also work.

imo you never oppened the cooler. make yourself a favor and go see it's guts. you will see how easy it is and how it works. you don't need more parts or need special cables or have to do some soldering. all you need to do is to disconnect and connect cables.

 

i haven't had many interactions with them, but NZXT's customer service is top notch.

i bought my Cryo LX off of ebay, so it was kind of hard to locate the proper purchase history. no receipt? no problem. they took care of me without a hiccup.

 

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

As I said in my reply, I did actually open the thing up, and discovered that the little cable between the hub and the fan speed controller was what had burnt up (the end connected to the speed controller was black and refusing to come out). What I'm not sure of is whether NZXT is sending me that particular cable or if I should invest in another, better quality one.

I'm curious as to how to connect a 220v DC/AC adapter to my cooler. As I have actually managed to get a look inside, this is what I (assume) is how it works.

USB Hub + Little round black power port --> Fan speed controller --> Fans

That much is pretty obvious. What this guy has done, is connect the fans directly to an external power source.

Using this thing:


and also routed them through individual fan controllers:


That's the part that baffles me. How do I do something like that? I know I have plenty of space in the grate enclosure portion, and I figure I'd also be able to make use of the USB hub separately with direct power + usb connection to my laptop.

Sorry, One more question. For my laptop (Sager NP 5793) Should it be set to blow or suck?

Thanks!

 

I didn't connected to an external power source. I just replaced the fans. nothing more.
the op coneected to an external power source because the psu wasn't working. but he could get a new psu for a couple bucks on ebay.

the fans had built in temp sensors, on off led switch and voltage controls, but they were still powered the exactly same way as the stock fans. no change whatsoever. just unplug and plug.
that is great because I had individual control as well as the hability to controll all 3 at once.
Just later I've added an lcd fan control.

you seam very confused. just buy a simple fan with controls and unplug and plug just as a stock fan. it will work.
it's as easy as to plug a psu into a wall socket.

 

No, I got that part. My confusion is in how you split the connection first to one end of the cooler (speed control) and then the other end (power) which is where the little circuit board which has speed control on a stock Cryo.

Or is that speed controller part of the fans you purchased?

 

yes the controller of my and the op fans are part of the ones we purchased. the on/off switch for the fan leds are also part as well as there are some with temperature sensors. it's the easiest way.

But anyway you can control the fans with the built in nzxt cryo fan controller.
What you get with these fans is individual fan control.

There are thousands of models.
you just have to be carefull with the fan sizes. there several 120mm sizes, you need to get the most common type, 120x25mm otherwise it won't fit the nzxt cryo. don't get less common ones like 120x38mm ones.

I got these Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Y720DCD-25T1-GP 120mm Blue LED Case Fan

Like I said, plug and play. It's not that hard.

 

I'll definitely look into those.

Two last questions:

Is it possible to connect 3 fans to that fan controller in the Cooler Master fan you recommended?

I didn't get an answer for this one earlier - Should the fans be aligned to blow or suck?

 

blow or suck air depends on your notebook. I would say blow but that's arguable.

yes it's possible to connect.

those are espensive but they are or were great. it really depends on what you want. you don't really need a fan controller. sure it's cool but... it's not like really functional... you could always use the internal nzxt cryo one and regulate all the 3 fans at once.
you can use regular fans. the stock fans are worthless. imo if it was today I would change my fans with someting more quite and powerfull.
it's a personal choice. almost any fans will do.

 

My laptop has two intake vents at the bottom, the exhausts are at the back. That used to present a problem when I used a Notepal Infinite as the same hot air used to get sucked back in and circulated into my laptop.

I thought that by default the Cryo was set to blow, but recently I've had a lot of work happening on my building which meant a lot of extra dust. I lifted the cooler after a week of using it continuously and found three large 12cm circles of dust directly under the fans, which led me to believe it was actually sucking.

I'm looking at Cooler Master at the moment, they seem easily available in India. The reason I'm looking at outside options for fan control is that I read on other posts about this cooler that the standard board is limited to 5v which won't allow me to get full speed with all three fans. Would I require some other connection between the fan controller and an outside 220v power adapter to bypass the USB hub part of the cooler completely?

 

yes that is true. the standard board is very limited. for me it's enough. I don't like noise and anyway those fans work ok and give a nice cfm for the noise and power.
for you to use the fans in full power you would require an external power source. just like the op did. there's many ways to do it.

 

the Cryo's fans should be set up to blow INTO the bottom of your laptop. most, if not all, coolers that try to suck air out are complete garbage and ineffective.

 

not all.
Evercool Fit Notebook Cooler Review - Overclockers Club

 

honestly, that looks like a stupid design.

i still stand by my statement about coolers that try to "suck" heat out of the laptop. there's a reason why they are so unpopular and ineffective.

 

dropped my temps by 8-9ºC.

 

Realistically, while the cooler was alive, my CPU/GPU that needed a reseating and pasting wasn't overheating. So whether it was blowing or sucking, it was working.

Would you have any suggestions for a 12v you could give me? I honestly can't tell what's a quality piece from next door (China) and what's a cheap knock off from somewhere else (possibly also in China ). I'd probably also have to look into some adapter to plug my 3 fans into a 12v adapter.

If I was to use one of those 3.5" external Fan speed controllers, I suppose that would be the thing that gets the power from the 12v?

 

what you want is something like this:

 

i need to do this to my cryo lx, too. i haven't been using it because of the underpowered fans...how would you rate the new upgraded fans/power supply?

 

I have one of these but I never thought about modding the fans for it, but my laptop never ran any cooler with the fans on or off... oh well.

I actually ended up using the fans in my desktop and just use the cooler as a stand now, only think I can fit my HDX on top of... but the USB hub still works... even though I don't use it.

 

YES I DO! Thank you! was going to put so much un-needed effort in getting an NZXT Sentry Mesh, then finding an external case, then sleeving wires and all that. This solves all that!

Thank you Google reverse image search

 

the "problem" here is that usually most fan controllers use psu connectors, so you need a desktop psu to power it. unless you mod it. it's very simple, easy and cheap if you known basic electronics.

but there are lot's of other solutions depending on what you want to do. this is, if you want individual fan control with seperate controls for each fan, or if you just want to power the fans without controls or if you want an external fan controler for all fans etc etc

this stuff might help you:

Coolerguys 110-240v AC to 12 / 5v DC 4pin Molex 2A Power Adapter
Coolerguys 110-240v AC to 12 / 5v DC 4pin Molex 2A Power Adapter


Coolerguys 4pin 12v Molex to 6port 3pin Power Hub CG14-63HUB
Coolerguys 4pin 12v Molex to 6port 3pin Power Hub CG14-63HUB


sunbeam multifan port
MULTI FAN POWER PORT -Sunbeam provide the best acrylic case pc for gaming and modding



3-to-4 pin connector


these are just examples, there are other brands or even chinese stuff that works too. I would search ebay or something. but it gives you the idea.

on my setup I modded a cell phone charger to power a fan controller and the usb hub of the nzxt cryo. I use side fans that are powered by usb so I use those usb connectors for it.
I cutted the aluminium to make room for the fan controller. 3.5" with lcd I used an Aerocool EasyWatch (5.25 controllers are way too big). I still continued to use the individual fan controllers and led switch because I liked those buttons.

previously I used the nzxt board to directly power the fan controller but it didn't had enough power to make them work in full power. But anyway I never put them in max otherwise they'll make too much noise. It was enough for me. There was no need for adding an external psu to power it rather then curiosity. of course if you have more powerfull fans and want to make them work at full speed you really need more juice. but will you want a 3x 60db fan next to you?


EDIT:
I needed to buy one psu for another project so I got this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-PIN-IDE-3...-/350240383261?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item518bf4211d
just 1.79$ ! no need for branded overpriced stuff.

 

Quick question. Which board can't handle the 12v? Is it the speed controller or the USB hub?

 

that's a good question because I never tried to connect the fan board to an external psu. but I guess both can't handle. imo it wasn't design to higher voltage. actually the usb board is very crapy, I wasn't hable to connect for example 2 x 2.5" HDD at a time.
It might work for sure but imo with time you'll fry the board. you better get another fan controller / power hub.

NZXT cryo LX might be the best design and best notebook cooler in the world but the boards are very crappy and imo for the price that's unforgivable. Anyway it's easly modded.

 

I guess it would be too much to ask if it was possible to find another hub that could fit in the space of current one on the back of the Cryo.

I'll definitely look into one of the fan controller options you've found and see what works outside of the cooler itself.

 

you don't need to fit outside the cooler. with some imagination and some dremel work you can fit it inside the cooler. that's why I said to only use 3.5" controllers, because 5.25" are too big for that.
sure you can use something externaly, you can even make or find an enclusore for a 5.25 controller.
or just leave it as it is. it will work it's just about the aestetics.

If you are going to power the fans using an external psu, why you need another usb hub? do you need even more power on the usb ports? for what?
anyway, if you are going to replace the hub you need something to power it since if you replace the board you can't power it using the nzxt psu.
you need a powered usb hub.

about fitting in the same ports, you won't find any. you have to costume built one. it's easy, just use 4 usb cables and glue them and hide the hub inside.

be creative.

it's hard to find cheap small 4 port powered usb hubs with 5 usb A ports.
NEW BLUE MINI 4 PORT USB 2.0 HIGH SPEED HUB +AC Power Adapter Black FR LAPTOP PC | eBay

seams big but remove all the plastic and you'll see the pcb and connectors are much smaller.

buy you can get adapters:


and cables:


but if you are doing it, why don't just upgrade to usb3.0? I was going to do it but I already had a 7port usb3.0 hub. and because I have always 3 occupied ports for usb powered usb side fans extracting air.

 

That sounds great, but USB 3.0 is a no go. The NP5793's still 2.0 only. Unless I was to get into an Expresscard adapter and all that. I think I'll just stick to the original plan of modding fans, and getting one of these guys, which the general consensus is that they are excellent, as a powered hub:

 

expresscard adapters are less then 10$. Get one. really. also you could make it more future proof.
but you are good with just a fan controller mod. that's what I have.

 

Is there really much else I can do to make it futureproof? I'm already in the process of taking the matching screen from a 2nd M570RU body I have and making that a freestanding second monitor, as well as looking into investing in an SSD. Upgrading to 8gb of ram is prohibitively expensive. DDR2's a hell of a lot more expensive than DDR3!

 

there is. depending on your needs.
in the future hopefully you can buy a cheap notebook with thunderbolt that can be connected to an external gpu.
that will make things more affordable and future proof since you can upgrade the cpu and the gpu.
if everything goes as planed a lenovo thunderbolt notebook can be bought for 749$ + 150$ or less for a thunderbolt enclosure + 150$ for a desktop graphic card that performs as well as high end mobile gpus.
that's 1050$.
sounds good to me.
imo your notebook is outdated and I wouldn't spend a penny upgrading it. I would rather wait for a thunderbolt solution. it's a game changer.

 

An upgrade isn't really on the cards at the moment.

I injured my back over the last year and carrying around this monster machine is becoming a bit of a pain. My next laptop purchase is going to have to be something small and light for work. That's why I'm looking to get the most use out of this machine.

 

Since you are on the Clveo/Sager train.. I would suggest the W110ER ... it's small and powerful that is if you use the customized BIOS by Prema

 

What does the customized BIOS do for the laptop?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...8-clevo-w110er-prema-bios-mod-rc1-review.html

fix the TCP as one would like, overcock ones RAM speeds (1600 into 1866) and more it's a working progress thanks to Prema (rep him )

surely does make the machine do a whole lot!!

 

I've never honestly used an 11". Wonder how it'll feel going from a 17" WUXGA!

 

forget about those. get a thunderbolt ultrabook 13-15" and some hunder 1kg.
get a thunderbolt egpu and have even better performance then the best notebook in the world. for less then a half of the price!