Case Mod Project Thief - Monster Water Cooled Build - March 9th

[stren]

First off - thanks to my sponsors - CaseLabs, Monsoon Cooling, DT Waterblocks, Primochill, Corsair, EK Waterblocks, Lutro0 Customs and Alphacool










The full build log will be posted on here and on my website - however it may get fractured into multiple posts here, so if you want an easy read go to here, you can also subscribe to my youtube channel if you so wish.

Current status:

Case:





Workstation Hardware:





Gaming Hardware:



Random cool photo of the week:



Index

TBD!

[stren]

The project name is not finalized so suggestions are welcome - I thought of thief because it dual wields and it steals all my money!

I am working on a huge monster build that will showcase CaseLabs newest case - the monster TX10. This monster case can fit two SR-2 (HPTX) systems with full water cooling. As shown it could fit multiple Mo-Ra 140x9 raditors, or 6 140.4 radiators. It can even fit front mounted 140.5 radiators.

The main feature will be two giant custom waterfall reservoirs that will occupy the front bays.

Here is the current hardware that I have to go in:



Unboxing Videos and Pics

I picked up the case directly from Jim - so the packing was reduced in order to fit in my car. If you buy one of these it will come in two boxes as it's packed a lot more securely.






Lots of Parts



Building the case

As Jim knew the case was going to be powder coated by FTWPC he saved cheesecake the hassle of sandblasting it by skipping the CaseLabs normal black/white powder coat. Because of this the case is not only in it's raw bare aluminum state, but it also is less assembled than normal in order to save on time taking everything apart.


The Pedestal frame consist of top, bottom, front and back that are screwed together with countersunk screws


Screwing the casters in


These are the spring clips that hold the panels on - they hold the panels tight, while still be pretty easy to remove for changing your loop up


Pedestal frame with one of the clipped side panel and the back plate screwed on


Pedestal with all panels attached except the top/bottom cover


Main case frame coming together, this is the view from the back showing the holes for the dual vertical motherboard trays


Case + Pedestal with XXL window fitted on one side

Here's a video of the case partially assembled:



Choosing colors for the powder coat

To make sure I was making the right choice on the color I decided to get some card and tape it to the frame. I removed the acrylic window and used a grey piece of card to model the motherboard:


Metallic Charcoal Grey and Metallic Crimson Red




Metallic Charcoal Grey, Pearl White and Crimson Red


Metallic Charcoal Grey with Metallic Pearl White



That's it for now - let me know what colors you like!

[stren]

Paint samples came in today - it looks like "Galaxy Grey II" will be the exterior and "Silver/White" will be the interior. It's hard to show the texture, but those two are both similarly smooth, with a bit of shine but not much.

[stren]

Some parts came in today -

[n1c3tr1]

OMG!!! Love it. Keep it coming.

[kicklOp]

This is bigger than my apartment!!

[Pranja]

This look like a server with that huge case.

I love it.

[stren]

Thanks everyone!

Thought you guys might want to see some pics of the existing hardware that will be *partly* reused as well as some of the new pieces. Apologies that the photos aren't that great, my wife took the camera with her tonight so I had to use my phone.

Here's my modded Antec 300 that contains my gaming rig (i7-920, Rampage III Extreme, 3xGTX480, Xonar STX, AX1200). When the workstation gets SB-E this will get the 990x. Note that one gentle typhoon is stopped - I unsoldered the power wire because it's out of balance so the noise is annoying.



Here's the front of the case with the space efficient but bubbly Koolance dual D5 reservoir as well as the dual 24V controller. I'll be using this reservoir until the 18 bay cheesecake reservoirs come in. No dvd drive, I removed it after installing windows and a couple of games. Most other games I have are on origin/steam.



Here's the interior - cable routing isn't perfect because I knew I was moving to the TX10 soon. I'll also be replacing all the blue LEDs with reds to match the ROG theme a bit better:





Here's the workstation in it's current temporary incarnation in a DD torture rack. i7-990x on an asus p6t. LSI raid card, 3 ssds and 3 hard drives and a 8800gt to drive the monitors. It has the H100 cooler temporarily and as you can see it needs some sleeving work:



Here's a front shot showing the push/pull AP15's on the H100, they perform about as well as the stock 2600rpm corsair fans at max, but with a *lot* less noise



Trident + turbulence memory - back in the day this was sweet stuff 3x4gb @ 2000-8-9-8, now of course you can get better for a lot less money haha such is progress!



And now for some parts waiting to be installed - vintage EK gpu block:



My old rasa block - I'm hoping to not use this and instead get a second raystorm soon - note the o-rings on the barbs seem to be dying:



EK 250 res and DDC-1 for the worksation gpu and motherboard loop that will be self contained on the motherboard tray.



That's about all the fun stuff I can show for now!

[Pranja]

Can't wait for more fun stuff.

[stren]

Hehe thanks nor me - very impatient to get the modding started - but I still have to wait for the case to come back and some more $$$!

[timmyzg]

nice job, waiting for new pictures

[Fuganater]

nice work +sub

[Nexxo]

OMG IT'S HIOOOJ!!! KILL IT!!! KILL IT BEFORE IT EATS US ALL!!!

Worried about expansion? As in having more kids and room for a conservatory?

[Black_Mummy_DK]

will be VERY interesting to see what you will do with this sub'd

[stren]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

OMG IT'S HIOOOJ!!! KILL IT!!! KILL IT BEFORE IT EATS US ALL!!!

Worried about expansion? As in having more kids and room for a conservatory?

Haha you know I was already thinking of getting a 2nd pedestal next year to put a 4 cpu dedicated folding rig in. Partly because that's awesome and partly because it would also raise the windows up so that they line up the bottom of the window with the end of a desk. We'll see though I have to finish this one first. Thanks for all the support everyone, I'm doing it somewhat backwards (paint before modding) - partly because it's so hard to visualize mods with such a large case and partly because it's going to take a while to finish and there'll be other parts to paint or repaint no matter what I do.

Let me know if you have any suggestions

[Angel OD]

As Eddie Murphy said about Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills cop: "Damn, that's a big bi**h"

I can't help but loving that case! And I have a sneaky suspition that I'm gonna love it even more when it's been modded!

[Bladesingerz]

damn thats a big reservoir!

[Kiliv]

nice cant wait to see more

[stren]

Originally Posted by Angel OD

As Eddie Murphy said about Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills cop: "Damn, that's a big bi**h"

I can't help but loving that case! And I have a sneaky suspition that I'm gonna love it even more when it's been modded!

Ah I just hope I can live up to the opportunity I have here!

[HobbieZones.com]

TWO SR-2 Systems. DID HE SAY 2 FULL SR-2 SYSTEMS. WOW