Well, il try this again! (the last time i meant to hit preview post, and it got lost into the depths of me not having 10 posts, so i couldnt edit it with all my pics etc, DOH!!!) so firstly, this build is around 18 months old now, and some of you will have seen it else where! Im still still not finished as im waiting for 1 or 2 more bits, and quite a lot has changed since my final picture on here to what it looks like now, but i didnt want to do 1 massive build log towards the end. now, MY IDEA: i go to a lot of LAN events and i always see the same colours/types of computers, i wanted something different, so i wanted something large, but affordable and something that stood out a little bit, the first thing i thought of was WHITE AND ORANGE!!!! WOOOHOOO!! so here it is: my build log. The componants i bought at the time.... Please do remember how old this build log is, so dont expect to be blown away by the performance, if it was today, id obviously have a lot better stuff. Bitfenix shinobi XL in White, windowed Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 <---- i reckon i was one of the first in the UK to get this, i had it on pre order, then when it arived in the uk got a phone call from the supplier, picked it up as soon as they opened <3 i was so excited as id been waiting since the first picture was shown!! gtx 680 i7 3770k NZXT Hale 850w Gold power supply 16gb tracer ram (im a sucker for flashing lights) XSPC 360 crossflow rad XSPC bay/rez combo Raystorm cpu and gpu block and a few other bits and bobs. The buildlog: What ive done so far... When looking at how (and where) i wanted to fit the radiator i came across a problem, if i fit the fans and rad inside the case, at the top, i was going to lose at least 1 drive bay and cut the second in half, effectively making it useful only for something like a fan controller or card reader or something. Its not like i need all 5 bays, but id prefer to use the top ones and leave the bottom ones blank. With tubing on the rad, i might even lose more space (i didnt test this, but it would be tight i reckon) . This is how i solved the problem, freeing up all 5 bays again (top one useful only for the fan controller) After popping the top panel off the case, i noticed there is a gap between the lid and the panel, i measured it and it looked like i had about 26mm space between the mesh and the case. Its long enough to house 3 fans and JUST has enough space for then to fit under. However there are reinforcement bars in place. The mesh on the case btw is really easy to remove, just a few little 'tabs' that you can just bend over and then pull. Using my fake dremel (hey, some people aint made of money) i cut out the middle of supports and checked to make sure everything fit. One thing i didnt really think off were the 30mm screws that come with the XSPC radiator have rather large heads on them, so when i replaced the mesh these DO touch, and also lift the mesh slightly. (im not too fussed as it gives it the support that the case had originally. I also have changed all the LEDs that XSPC give you with their stuff, you get 2 leads with 3mm LED with the GFX card block, 2 with the CPU block and 1 with a 5mm LED with the reservoir. I swapped the 3mm ones with orange, and the 5mm one with white. My home made 'helping hands' - really dont work properly =( [ I really like the orange LEDs once they are in place! ive sent my black xspc rez cover off to be powdercoated so put the silver one on for a bit... hmmmm just doesnt look right....
Well, i thought id cut the holes in the top of the case today for the fans, thinking more airflows gotta be good airflow right? drew a circle using one of the fans as a template cut it out, and tested it against the fan, its good enough for me! copied the circle on to the case... Did a little bit of this (ooooou sparks fireworks!) Ended up with this! on the third fan i did (the one closest to the front of the case) i left the thicker piece of metal in, there wouldnt be much holding the top from bowing else (was my thinking anyway) it only looses a few mm either way.
I got the mobo so now i could start and throw it all together, see what it looked like!?! Urgh, cant wait to change those LEDS on the ram to orange/red wtf are all those horrible cables!!! Oh, and wtf is going on with the fluid!?!! unfortunatly i got a bad batch, but Mike at Mayhem sent me out a load of dyes to sort it out (thanks man!!) Lets sort that out those cables though first?!!
I wanted to sleeve all the USB 3 cables, that lead to the top of the case, but came across these..... first thing i did was cut off the secondary usb 2plugs, as i dont need them. These were soldered to a PCB at the other end. i didn't really want to cut the cables and then resolder, so i thought id desolder the USB ports from the PCB, , i ended up with this: the sleeve went on alright, however even after stretching the shrinkwrap was very tight, so i got a craft knife out, and cut some of the horrible corners from the usb port. 1 down 5 more to go!! after some time i ended up with this
who needs a warranty (as it happened me nearly, as i did mess up at one point with a dodgy bit of cable crimping!!!) then i just cut all the wires i didnt want coming from the PSU, i knew if i was going to sleeve them, it adds alot of width to the wire, so they wouldnt all fit in the casing of the PSU without some dremel work. then, crimp the cables, bang the connectors back on, and put them in the empty spaces inside the PSU (this way, if i do actually need them in the future i can just make a few extensions and im all set to go!) I also shortened the 24pin cable right down so it only just creeps up the back of the mobo. Then sleeve all the cables that were left (just the 24 pin and the mobo power cables). I did want to sleeve all the cables from the PSU to the mobo BUT when i started doing this, i just couldnt get the psu to look "tidy" so i used some sata cable, and did the wires in bundles of 4. i really like the look of the chunky sleeving. On the 24 pin i had to use an extension to get the look of the cables i wanted going into my mobo header (i know i know, boo hiss at using an extension, but i just didnt want single cables from the psu, so its serving a purpose!! )
Oh my.... what do we have here????! hmmmmm i love back plates, i think they make the builds <3 woooohoooooo the frontplate for my rez came!!!
I did this mod a day, well 18 hours before i was due to leave for a LAN ( multiplay i48, thats how long ago it was!) so i got the (fake) dremal out and cut some holes into the top of the mesh, then sprayed 3 fan guards orange ( i did one of them a while back to see what the paint was like... its awesome, its the same paint as the Focus RS or ST or what ever it is!) i was looking at how i could tidy the holes up a little, i was thinking of using that edging, but it adds too much thickness to the mesh, so it sits funny on the fans =( In the end i just settled with being extra careful with the dremal and trying not to make a mess of it thought id try out 3 different paints, 2 different whites and an orange... the whites, although one tin is around 3 quid, the other around 12 quid, seem pretty much the same, no difference to my eye, the orange is awesome (although always looks gold in a photo) i actually might keep them like this, rather than respraying the colour that looked best, i could have it so it goes white orange white, see what it looks like! Whilst i was at the LAN, my computer got A LOT of attention, it was crazy, it made me feel amazing that others enjoyed what id done, but also really annoyed that id finished it. here are a couple of photos that were taken by someone with a nice camera at the LAN, i believe these ones were done from the press guy.... oh, and yes, i did get a nice drawing done on the side of my case from the resident artist man who walks around in an awe of awesomeness drawing what ever you want! And this is pretty much how it stayed for aaaaages, but i got annoyed with not having anything to do on it, so i decided to change it up a bit..... so this is why ive started a build log here.... It will take me a long time to get any changes up, as i am waitng for some stuff to be done but once it gets here, il be updating with new stuff. oh, just thought this was a nice pic first though, unfortunatly i did get rid of all 3 680's as just after i bought the other two, i realised im never actually on my PC, im usualy building stuff for others, or working, so i sold all 3 of them, kept 2 of the water blocks though, ive banged them on dual 670's which im using instead now
Aaah I remember you haha! Loved that build, made me want a case labs case so much! I just noticed this is up for mod of the month! No idea why as I think the others are way better! (as the poll results shoe hehe) i'm loving that it's even on the list though ! I think it's given me the kick up the backside needed to finish it off, gonna try get it finished Wednesday/thursday/Friday!
GREAT MOTHER OF MERCY!!!! ITS HAPPENED!!! AN UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, after over a year, and silly amounts of money spent, on what is essentially a mid range rig now, ive (nearly) finished! (ive said this before though, and this is what ive done since that)!!! So, i bought a nice rad: and one that needed a spray! some orange tubing i bought a nice tube rez (notice how dirty it is, its been in my system since xspc released these, its just taken me this long to actually rebuild it!!) and i bought another GPU!
now this im particuarly proud of, it took me so many hours, and i only bought 1 sheet, so it was either win or lose. i used, a heat gun. some sand paper, some little mini hand files, a slightly bigger one, and a little mini hacksaw. I wont tell you how many hours it took... as it really is rather sad lol I started with rough cuts, and bending using a heat gun, and some brute strength (grrrr)
soooooo, i best put all these new bits and bobs together really!!! Oh, and please do excuse the mess, in the first and last pic, i had a few issues with my leak testing, so had to improvise by tipping a bag of towels out of the airing cupboard out and trying to find old towels whilst holding my finger over a hole and a length of tube.... it wasnt an easy loop to do! can you see where my acryilic is now!? heres a hint... hmm, water just doesnt look as good as the gigabyte orange! some pics of the tight angles on the loop: as i say, this took me hours too, it just didnt want to work!!!
