Case Mod - In Progress Project "Frostbite" - Primochill Wetbench - Loop pics - 9/1/2014

Build-log Chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction (This post) (07 November 2013)
Chapter 2: Primochill and Mod/Smart Awesomeness (07 November 2013)
Chapter 3: Installing the system components (07 November 2013)




Hello guys and gals!

I assume some of you already know me, for the rest - My name is Desislav, I'm a 23 year old kid from Bulgaria with tons of love for custom built computers and 3D modeling! This is my first high-end PC for the past 7-8 years so you can imagine how overwhelming it all is!

This is my first post in any big forum so please be patient with me as I go along with everything and learn in the process!

I just want to take a moment and say that this will not be a case mod, rather a build. Sadly there was no other section where I could post this (at least I didn't see one) and the prefixes didn't offer an option for "Build" so... I hope it's okay! If not, feel free to move this thread to the appropriate section!

The build will be made around a PrimoChill WetBench, which in my humble opinion is one of the sexiest benches to hit the market!
I mean come on.... Look at it!:



I dubbed the project "Frostbite" since I plan to do a little "sanding" on the tubing to achieve a an effect as if the liquid was freezing the tubing. All of the blocks will be repainted in white to match. The sleeving and fittings will be white as well. I hope I can find the perfect match and do ruin it. Over-using white can lead to a disaster imo. Everything needs to be in balance!

So, let's go over a couple of things!


What's the idea behind the build?

• Create a build based on a test bench which looks as amazing as it performs.
• Learn proper overclocking of high-end components.
• Get comfortable with water cooling.
• Create a machine that gives amazing performance for 3D modeling, rendering and gaming at the same time.

Why I'm doing this?

• Back in the day I saw Daniel Cannon's (Singularity Computers) Bitfenix Prodigy mod (Client Build 6) and it really got me interested why would anyone want to waste their money making their computer all fancy when you can invest only in performance... I fell in love that build and started doing my research, found a few groups and saw some pretty awesome projects unfold... and I really wanted to make one myself!
  
• I do a lot of 3D designs (will post my latest work in a section here, on the forums, later. People who know me, know how much effort I put into everything I do. The thing is, my current notebook (and main "rig") is not powerful enough anymore... It's a Dell XPS15z with a dual-core i5-2400m... You can imagine the horror I live each day trying to render huge projects! This setup will allow me to take my work to the next level!
• Because it's just freaking awesome! End. Of. Discussion.
  
  Hardware list:
  • Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme - x79
    
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3930K Processor
    (12M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz)
    
  • Graphics card(s): KFA2 GTX770 LTD OC "White Edition" I don't care what people say, this is the sexiest GPU in production + It's an absolute beast!
    
  • Memory: GeIL PC3-19200 2400MHz 32GB C11 EVO Leggera QUAD CHANNEL kit (Currently using my Corsair Vengeance 1866 CL9 8GB kit due to financial reasons )
    
  • Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W
    
  • SSD: Samsung 250GB 2.5-inch 840 EVO SSD
    
  • Storage drives: Currently using my old Hitachi drive. Will be upgrading to WD but haven't figured which the best ones are right now!
    
  • Sound card: ASUS ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo
  Cooling:
  • 
    For a while this rig will be running under Air. I want to get comfortable with overclocking under Air before I get into liquid cooling!
    
  • Heatsink: Noctua NH-D14
    
  • Fans: Noiseblocker NB-eLoop® Series 120mm
    
  • CPU Block: EK Supreme-HF
    
  • Ram Blocks: EK-RAM Monarch x4 - I'm hoping on a clean, non CSQ version!
    
  • Motherboard blocks (still thinking about it): EK-F KIT R4E - Hoping these come in clean as well!
    
  • GPU Water Blocks: Now, here's where it gets a little tricky! Since the GPU's are non reference GTX770s, there are no blocks currently available for them! Here is where the awesome guys at ModWithMe (from here on written as mWm)! The one and only Phame is going to be helping make a really unique block for my GPUs (and my friend Hukkel's GTX680 as well!). We are still thinking about the overall design of the block but it will be extremely clean and subtle. We don't want things to be over the top now, do we?
    
  • Fittings: PrimoChill Revolver Rigid Compression fittings
    
  • Tubing: PrimoChilll 1/2in. Rigid Acrylic Tube 24in. - Clear - 4 Pack x2
    
  • Flow indicator: PrimoChill Vortex Clear PMMA Flow Indicator with Smoked back plate
    
  • Reservoir: PrimoChill 240mm CTR™ (Compression Tube Reservoir) Advanced System
    
  • Pump: Swiftech MCP655 1200 L/ph Pump with Variable Speed Control
    
  • Pumptop: PrimoChill D5 CTR Cap
  
  
  I know this was quite the long read guys, so I hope you don't hate me for it!
  
  Now I want to take a moment and give a huge huge
  
  THANK YOU!
  
  to the AWESOME guys over at PrimoChill and Mod/Smart for agreeing to sponsor my project!
  They sent me a huge package of cool stuff recently and can't wait to show you guys what's inside!
  
  
  
  Those are two boxes full of goodies! Photos of those in the second post!
  
  Now. Let's talk design! I do a lot of 3D modeling and always try to visualize the stuff I want. Over the last few months I got good enough to make the models I want/need so I decided to go for it and render a model of what the bench will look like. So, without any further delays, I present to you Frostbite in it's almost finished form! (I still need to decide how tubing will be routed.)
  
  
  
  I might not be going 4-Way SLI since there is a little incompatibility issue with the sound card, but you can get a good idea of what it will look like.
  
  Moving on! I got a nice photo of all the hardware together (even though the boxes were already opened lol)
  
  
  
  Now, we can move on the unboxed photos!
  
  I couldn't help myself and just had to mount the CPU and cooler on the Rampage IV Extreme... I gotta say it looks damn sexy!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Got to say... That heatsink is just MASSIVE!
  
  I actually had to remove my Vengeance's heatspreaders so I can fit them under it (with the fans mounted)!
  
  Anyone who's ever seen NB E-Loops knows how sexy they are...
  
  
  
  They are even sexier in real life and I got to say the sleeving on those is just... amazing. They come with two different sized extensions to fit all your length needs!
  
  The CM Silent Pro M2 is ... just a huge huge BEAST of a PSU! It's semi modular and those cables will be shrunk to like ~10cm to allow for extensions to be added.
  
  
  
  
  
  120Amps on the 12v rail? Why not...
  
  
  
  You get a lot of options on what to connect here! 4pins, SATA power, 8+(6+2) pins... Amazing!
  
  The ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo is also a sexy looking card! I was mind blown by the sound difference I got from the second I first played something on it! For all you audiophiles out there, this is the way to go!
  
  Sorry about the quality on this one, seems like my hand moved and focused on the wrong part of the card...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  What do you guys think, paint it white?
  
  Well... Now. I guess it's time for the most important part of my build. The one that tickles my white fetish. The crown jewel in my collection. The KFA2 GTX770 LTD OC "White edition"
  
  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  That PCB though... Makes me drool by just looking at it!
  
  So this will be it for the first post. I haven't taken photos of the SSD since... well it's featured in my photos of building the bench! Stay tuned for that in the next post!
  
  Again, huge thanks to PrimoChill and Mod/Smart!
  
  
  
  Other sponsors:
  
  
  
  I hope you guys enjoyed thread. I tried to make it as simple as possible and do keep in mind this is my first build log so I hope I did well. I encourage people to tell me if I've done something wrong so I can better myself for future updates/buildlogs!
  
  
  Cheers,
  d*

 

Second post reserved for pics of Sponsored items and build progression!

 

Absolutely Love that bench and that is my favorite choice in colors, Cant wait to see what you do with it, love the White PCB on the Cards as well. Will def be watching this one keep up the great work.

MybadOmen

 

Welcome to Bittech Desislav!

I look forward to seeing this being built.

We are a good bunch here,you will get a lot of helpful advice...not from me tho....

 

Thanks MyBad! The main reason I got the GPU was the White PCB I read reviews after making the purchase and it turns out it was one of the best 770's you can buy!

Thanks BNeg! I'm looking forward to being part of the community!

 

Welcome Desi, my name is Phame.
You are very s3x! <3

+Rep for the name drop! xD

 

looking good! now get this beast running man!

 

Good luck on the build Des! Subbed for sure!

 

I'm not any good at 3d modeling. But isn't dual CPU system with 'pro' graphix gives one more power under the hood in modeling?

send from Deathstar via HAL9000

 

It is but that costs well over 1.5k euro per CPU alone

 

heey nice to see the noctua in use subbed mate

 

It does. I have 24 cores of awesome

£800 for 1366 tho......

 

Yeah that was way out of my price range sadly :/ But I do have a plan for a dual Xeon rig one day...

 

So It's time to show off the Sponsored products by PrimoChill and Mod/Smart!




First of is the MARVELOUS PrimoChill WetBench, all white!

I'm going to show you guys the entire assembly (in pics) so you can see how easy it gets assembled.

Step One - Unbox the beauty and peel the paper from it (This step took a lot of time)



Step Two - Look at it for 5-6 minutes and do NOT do anything else!



Step Three - Attach the feet to the midplate and secure via provided pins (everything installs tooles!)



Step Four - Attach the motherboard tray and secure via provided pins



Step Five - Install all motherboard standoffs and put the GPU bracket over the three top left standoffs



Step Six - Install the radiator mount. This model comes with a 360/420 mount. Secure via provided pins



Step Seven. Stand back and enjoy this beauty for another 5 minutes.




That's the bench. Easy assembly. Overall it takes 30 seconds to put together and disassemble. Incredibly solid design! You can mount a ton of hard drives on it and you have a lot of cable routing options, tubing passthroughs and it comes with two vandal switches! YAY!

Now. PrimoChill recently released an awesome product called the "Revolver Rigid Compression Fittings". These fittings are amazing. They fit on their Rigid tubing line which is 1/2'' OD! I got these in white as well... Sue me, I love white!









Next up is the PrimoChill Vortex Flow Indicator (VFI for short):






And the ModSmart MaxCord sleeving. I cannot stress how amazing this looks in real life! It feels like silk and I cannot wait to get the cables done. My friend Hukkel from Dutch Lions Customizing is going to be helping me with that! He's been eager to test the new Mod/Smart sleeving so this is an awesome opportunity for him to do so



Let's not forget the PrimoChill CTR Advanced res I got! Lovely Frosted 240mm reservoir!



Here we have the D5 CTR Cap that fits the above reservoir on one side and the D5 Pump on the other!



Here's the top of the CTR with a Ghost LED fitting and the PrimoChill G1/4 funnel for easy, spill-free filling!



An assortment of cable clips to help manage the cables when they are done. Lovely addition to every neat-freak with an OCD for clean cables! Well done Mod/Smart!



Again, HUGE thank you to PrimoChill and Mod/Smart. Love you guys!

Next up, pictures of assembling the rig. Stay tuned!

 

So here's a little update on the installation of the build as to how it's currently running!

First off I installed the SSD's and the 500GB storage drive (The SSD's are not in a Raid config)



After that we install the Rampage IV Extreme and the Noctua DH-14



Add the amazing looking KFA2 GTX 770 LTD OC "White Edition"



It fits the bench just perfect....

Shot from the other side:



You can see my old memory just sitting there... waiting to be upgraded... I hope I'll be able to get the GeIL EVO Legerra soon.



Had to ghetto mount the E-Loops since the normal brackets of the Noctua don't work with them.



3 of these running PWM on 800-2000RPM keep my 3930k @79C on 4.7GHz @1.427 volts! Beast fans for a beast system!



Thought I'd share this now. I got an EK Supreme HF that a friend was kind enough to send to me for my B-Day as long as the Noctua heatsink and some ICD! Thank you Dave. You're awesome!

It was originally clear but I decided to give it a paint... aaand here we go:



Rocking the PrimoChill Revolve fittings!

Sadly I might have to replace that block... Turns out neither the Monarch X4's or the R4E Mobo blocks come in clean... only CSQ. So seems like I have to buy a CSQ Supremacy as well to have a matching set.

More updates soon guys! Stay awesome!

 

Looking good Bro!!! happy to see you're finally here and for the blocks, you could always sand them down, just ask L3p for tips, or visit his site for his videos

 

I love test benches! My current rig is on handmade one, cardboard though
How does psu fixed to bench? How riser cards fixed, gfx etc?

send from Deathstar via HAL9000

 

Awesome build so far mate, love the attention to details and the work on creating a matching/flowing colour scheme!

 

Lookin awesome!

 

Looks like a fun build.

I did notice that you have mounted in and outlets on the flow meter wrong. For the best performance it should be mounted in one of these ways, otherwise you are fighting the "wheel" that has to spin to much I think.

http://i.imgur.com/9Pbogqx.jpg