Whilst MOD05 is waiting to get underway I agreed to do a build for a buddy of mine. £1500.00 budget with a couple requests, he wanted a full custom loop with orange coolant in a Parvum S2.0 case. Warranties need to be kept intact so mods to the hardware are out the window. It'll be a pretty quick turn around as summer LAN is but weeks away. The boys at Parvum have cooked up some additions for the stock S2.0 (orange/black) picked up from OCUK which will be with me soon, so I've held off the case shots for now. ... SPECS: Intel Core i7-4790K Corsair RM Series RM 750 Parvum Systems F1.0 Fan - White MSI Z97M Gaming Intel Z97 Micro ATX GeIL EVO Potenza 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2400MHz - White Zotac GeForce GTX 970 "Reference Design" 4096MB All bought from OCUK having grabbed a couple items on sale, considering the budget this machine should deliver plenty of performance. SSD and HDD are the only items being brought forward from his current rig. .... WC: EK Water Blocks EK-DDC 3.2 PWM X-RES 140 EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - White x10 EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel EK Water Blocks EK-FC980 GTX - Nickel EK Water Blocks EK-FC980 GTX Backplate - Nickel EK Water Blocks EK-AF Angled 90 Degrees G1 / 4 inch - Black x2 Except the GPU block, these we're bought directly from EKWB, shipping was effortless with everything turning up in just a couple days. .... DarkSide - Dual LP240 Extra Slim Radiator x2 DarkSide - CONNECT Dimmable Rigid LED Strip White - 12" (30cm) x2 Mayhems - Pastel Orange 250ml I'd considered sticking with the EKWB PE series of RADs but feared with the chosen pump/res I'd not quite enough room. I've wanted to try out the DarkSide LP range for a while having seen them in a few great builds. Having used DazMode with MOD04 I'd seen the RADs and LEDs, it was great to see Mayhems carrying these items (saved me on import duties). Pexon PCs are cooking up some sharp Teleios extensions which will look great no doubt and then I'll get cracking on putting it all together. I've plenty of 10/12mm E22 tubing left from MOD04 which I intend to bend (first time bending tube) so that'll no doubt drive me nuts. Looking forward to getting my teeth into this one. Cheers J.
UPDATE 1: THE CASE This is the stock Parvum Systems S2.0 - Black with Orange. Having seen the third layer panels Parvum had used on the Nvidia UK builds and again on Snefs (awesome) Green Karnage II case I mocked up a crude SketchUp adding an extra two panels to the S2.0 and sent them over the Parvum boys. Swapped out the black window frame panel for white one and added the white PCI bracket. I'm happy with the result, the case looks great! the black interior panels will help balance the black PCBs and Rads whilst the white should make the fittings and fans pop. Should have another update shortly with the PexonPCs extensions. So, what do you think? J.
UPDATE 2: PEXON PCS EXTENSIONS Quick update folks, Pexon PCs here in the UK offer a great range of cable braiding services and having used them on my WCFT03 and MOD04 builds, they really do great work. This time I went with the extensions option, opting for a Teleios white braid. Pexon got in touch and asked the color scheme for the build and came up with these. ... ... You can check PexonPCs out here or on FB here I've started putting some of the hardware in the case, should have another update soon. Thanks for checking it out. J.
UPDATE 3: MSI Z97M Gaming & Zotac GeForce GTX 970 The build is moving along nicely, I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend. But whilst I finish working on the loop I thought I'd share these images I took of the MOBO and GPU. I went with this board for it's mainly black design, as modding it was out the question I'm glad the red accents are just that.. accents. If I were building myself an MATX Z97 rig, I'd go with this board. The build quality is great and the extra details in the heatsink designs are pretty cool. I was happy to find no stupidly placed fan headers, liked how black the PCB is and thought how the debug screen shows the CPU temp a great little touch. Overall really happy with the MSI Z97M GAMING, seems a great little board. Went with the Zotac GeForce GTX 970 for it's reference design. I'm not a fan of the short PCBs found on most the partner designed boards. The extra length gives me clearance off the width of the motherboard to tuck the cables nicely. Plus... who doesn't like the Nvidia reference cooler! It was almost a shame to take it off, spot the single rogue dog hair.. Not the greatest shot of the EK FC980 block but it'll do. I use the same block on an actual GTX980 in MOD04. When lit by the 2x5mm LED holes you really need to look down on the block to get that great visual of the coolant. With MOD04 the card is in a SFF case which meant all the LEDs did was show off the CNC toolpaths. With this project I'm gonna stick to the Darkside LED strips. Shortly before I took these I had the hardware running on a test bench to ensure no surprises once the loop is in. The MSI BIOS appears well thought out and I had no issues getting the 16GB 2400mhz DDR3 RAM to run at the correct speeds. KIMKO (the name of the fella this build belongs too) is coming this weekend to collect, so the heat is on to get the hardware fitted and the loop complete. I'd not bent tubing before and found the process best executed by timing your sweet ass time. I bought some bending mandrels but found the bend radius to be too large for a MATX build and ended up using a piece of copper I picked up from a local store to get those tighter bends. I'll be back with another update tomorrow once I've shot a couple of the loop complete. Thanks for checking it out. J.
UPDATE 4: THE LOOP The loop is in! I ended up making use of some Bitspower fittings I had laying around to minimise the number of bends each length required. You can't really see it in these shots but the output from the pump to the front RAD was a journey of burnt fingers and frustration. It called for a 180' and three 90' turns in a single length of tube. I'll be leak testing the loop with deionised water this evening, then drain and mix up the Mayhems Pastel Orange. RES/PUMP > RAD > CPU > GPU > RAD > RES/PUMP Still need to add the rear two 80mm fans, the two Darkside LED strips and hookup the PSU. It's getting there. Thanks for checking out the update. J.
UPDATE 5: FINAL SHOTS Kimko has been and gone with his new PC. Had alot of fun with this build, it was nice to have a project to work on whilst MOD05 suffers more delays. This was a £1500.00 budget build, Not cheap certainly, but far from the monster magic we see a lot of. I wanted the challenge of taking a healthy PC budget, a figure I think many would consider expensive but not outrageous and deliver much more than you'd find from a vendor (which was the route he was headed). ... That extra front panel adds some great flare to the fan grills. ... I can't fault the Parvum F1.0 fans. I used the F1.0's daisy chain cables to connect all four fans to the CPU2 header. Being PWM this offered me the simplest control via the EFI. The EK DDC PWM pump is hooked up the CPU1 header and MSI's great fan monitor tool in the EFI (which I much prefer to that of Asus offering) allowed me to set some RPM/'c rules. ... ... ... Three sides white, three black and a touch of Orange. These extras were a cheap addition direct from Parvum. I'd say to any S2.0 owner, get in touch HERE and add a little something to your own S2.0. It really gave the design a unique look. ... First time bending tube, first time using EK hardline fittings and first use of Darkside rads. Can't fault any of the hardware, I have been impressed by the rads (both needed a good flush!) and whilst bending was a steep learning curve, it was a lot of fun. The coolant is 'Mayhems Pastel Orange' with about 50 drops of 'Mayhems Orange Dye' (I bought the pastel as a concentrate and whilst I mixed it correctly there must have been just enough water still in the rads (left over from the leak test) to make the coolant look like cheap peach soft drink. The Mayhems thread on OCN offered swift advice and half a bottle of dye later I got the shade I was looking for. ... ... ... Whilst the build did come in under budget, I admit I donated a few items... The BitsPower fittings and the two 80mm NoiseBlocker fans came from WCFT03 and the E22 tubing I had left over from MOD04. ... ... I ended up pulling the two Darkside LED strips out, I bought them with molex pass through rather than 3pin fan connectors (dimmable). so once they were hooked up they could have lit the burj khalifa!!! I added two 3mm LEDs to the CPU block and that alone gave the case a nice level of illumination. Decided to add two 6mm LEDs to the GPU block then fit a GPU width mirror to the floor panel. Those Nickel Plexi EKFC GTX980 blocks are too pretty not to be seen. I'll make the LEDs and obtain the mirror and get them fitted at the next LAN. So there we have it. I'd say thanks for all the support and great input but it appears the project past by in the night, here at least... haha.. not to worry. I'll be back with another project a little later in the year. J.
Check it out, MODZERO KIMKO got a mention over on Forbes.com 'The 30 Most Amazing Builds of 2015'. A most unexpected honor. J.
