Case Mod - In Progress [Project]: Big Bro' Prodigy (E-ATX mod) FINAL PICTURES: 12th March - 2014

I think thats the most hand-some Prodigy front I have ever seen. Keep it up Nikola!

 

Ah, nice! Yeah the original screws are beautiful, I like them too.

Thanks a bunch! Looking forward to work with it next week.


Here I've made some prototypes showing off how I would place the radiators on top if I would do so (ie not having them placed inside the case). I haven't decided anything yet since I don't have the case to try it out at the moment (I left the case at my fathers house where I'm going next week).
It may end up like these prototypes or it may end up completely different with everything stuck inside the case. It all depends on what I figure out to do and how it all fits when I try it out ^^
So in case I don't place the radiators inside (which depends if I am able to) they may end up looking like this!

However, here they are. Let me know what you think! (Even though I know a lot won't like the idea of having the rads placed outside the case ^_^)

Seen from the side:
Reservoir placed inside.
Radiators placed on top with chrome pipes going from the bottom up across the back.

With the side panel:


Seen from behind:
Here we see the pipes going from the bottom up across the back and connect with the radiators on top.


Seen from the top:
Here we see the two radiators being serial connected to each other.
(the fans are only to illustrate the size and placement of the radiators. I probably won't have the fans like this).


Oh and yeah, the pump will be behind the motherboard, therefore the pipe is going on the other side of the case

So if I would place the rads on the outside, what do you think of this idea?
I know some (or mostly all) won't like the idea of placing them outside the case but I think it adds some industrial feeling to it! ^_^
However I haven't decided yet, these are just prototypes where I'm trying things out.

Let me hear what you think!
Thanks!

Best regards
nikkop

 

If you could fit them in it would be pretty epic, because it shouldn't be possible to fit that much 'stuff' into such a small case.

But the industrial look could really suit the mod, remember it is you that needs to sit with this on your desk! Don't put to much stock in other peoples opinions.

Loving the work so far!

 

What you say is absolutely true. Fitting them inside will both be a challenge but also quite unique if I manage to!

And you are even more right about that's it's my desk the case will be upon, no one elses
But yeah, I will have to try out different options to see and feel what suits me and the project the best. Netherless I will use the radiators, let's just find out how and where!

Thanks a bunch for your input

/nikkop

 

I have some news regarding the placement of the radiators.

I have found a way to place the radiators + fans inside of the case Not bad! Since I guess no one liked them being on top I hope you look forward to see them inside the case!

Also when I tried the above prototypes out, having them placed on top, it looked like crap. Not good at all as I thoght it would haha

I should be able to come out with an update tonight regarding something cool that will make this build a little special!

Thanks!
/nikkop

 

UPDATE 02/08 - Unboxing & Overview of GIGABYTE GTX 780 OC



UPDATE!

Unboxing & Overview of the GIGABYTE GTX 780 OC - 02/08 -2013

UPDATE 02/08 - 2013

Hi there!

As you may have found out from the topic of this update is that GIGABYTE have supplied me with another great product.



This product will really give this project that big extra touch, namely nothing less than a - GTX 780 OC (GV-N780OC-3GD) graphics card!



I'm very thankful and happy to have gotten the opportunity to feature this amazing GPU in my project and build and I think it will raise the awesome-factor even more!

So this update will be about the unboxing and an overview of the GPU that will take place in Big Bro' Prodigy. So for the moment what I'm pushing inside my poor (but lucky) Prodigy is an E-ATX motherboard (Z77X-UP7), a GTX 780, custom water loop with 2x 240rads + 25cm reservoir and more! Talk about compact

I have made an unboxing and overview video that I would ask you to check out (thank you in advance! ).
I'm trying to create my own and new style in this video so please let me know what you think! Example the texts sliding in and such stuff.
I will however also put up pictures and additional text to support the pictures.

So let's go!
______________________________________________________________

Here's the unboxing and overview video uploaded on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0INkyhlWRxw

______________________________________________________________

Pictures and additional text:

Here's the box of the GIGABYTE GTX 780.



The content of the box:

• GIGABYTE GTX 780
• 2x Molex to PCI adapters (6- and 8-pin) - in case you lack the cables from your power supply.
• DVD with softwares (Drivers, OC GURU II etc.etc.)
• Quick Quide - Useful if you are unsure how to install a graphics card.

Here's the beauty, the GTX 780 with the Windforce 3X 450W cooler. It performs as good as a GTX Titan but comes much cheaper, being a lot more "bang of the buck".
Example: In Sweden the GIGABYTE GTX 780 is 25% cheaper than the chepeast GTX Titan.



Dimensions of the card:

• L = 292mm
• W = 129mm
• H = 43mm

The height of only 2x PCI-E slots enables SLI-configs



Since this is a factory overclocked graphics card the clock frequencies are higher than the regular GTX 780. It performs more or less like a GTX Titan thanks to the OC.

• Core: 954Mhz - 11%~ higher than stock core.
• Boost: 1006Mhz - 12% higher than stock boost.

The brand new Windforce 3X 450W cooling solution consists of:

• "Triangle Cool" Technology (please check the video where I explain it @06:03)
• 3x Ultra quiet fans - Quiet even under heavy load (yes I've tried it out myself! )
• Two massive heatsinks
• 6 copper heatpipes - 2x 8mm & 4x 6mm
• Able to dissipate 450W of heat.

Two nice things on the back of the graphics card.

1. "Anti-bend" mounting, a metal piece preventing the PCB from bending due to a heavy cooler. Not bad! (makes me feel safe )
2. Black PCB! Finally black PCB on GIGABYTE cards, awesome for the color scheme - black goes with everything.

Video outputs:

• Displayport
• HDMI
• Dual-link DVI-D
• Dual-link DVI-I

Four screens can be run on the same time on a single GPU! Also of course 120Hz screens and such.



Driven by two connectors. 6- & 8-pin.



Additional photos:






And finally up and running!


______________________________________________________________

Please do take a look at the video I've posted as I would appreciate that a lot! Also I explain it all better and in more detail than with the pictures and text - the photos and texts are complementary for the video in case you don't have the possibility to watch it.

So this graphics card beast will be in this project, how awesome isn't that?! I look forward to try it out and do some benchmarks, try the cooling solution out, overclock the card and stuff a like!

Anything specific you're wondering about let me know and I'll try to answer it!

I’d love to hear what you think about the video and what you think of the GTX 780 inside of the Big Bro' Prodigy!

Thanks in advance,
Best Regards
Nikkop

 

Forum does support youtube, just put the 0INkyhlWRxw but inside the [ YOUTUBE ][ /YOUTUBE ] tags.

Also, nice card. I have the GTX460 version, cooler keeps the temps down nicely.

 

Thanks a lot saviour, it worked!

Nice! A friend of mine has the GTX460 as well and he's satisfied with it.

I've tried the GPU out and I was surprised how low the fans were running.
At idle they are running at 17% (minimum manual in Afterburner seems to be 25%) and while running games they are still very quiet.
I compared it to my friends KFA2 GTX 680 LTD OC and the Windforce 3X 450W was a lot more quiet and cooler too. I also love the fact that the frame of the cooler is in aluminum and not plastic, makes it feel more premium

 

Watercooling placement

Hiya all!

As I revealed that I will place the radiators inside the case and not outside I thought I could show off what I have planned!
Everything is just placed inside the case without being mounted as the case isn't done - so this will be some sort of prototype of what I'm thinking about doing.

If you happen to have any other examples or thought that may turn out better, please let me know!

So this is what I've beeing trying out and hopefully what it will look like in case it works good.

Here's the reservoir placed to the left and will be visible with the side-panel mounted. The reason I chose a reservoir that big (25cm) was because I think it will look nice when it takes upp all that vertical place
The first radiator is placed all the way to the right. I will be able to use the radiator + fans without blocking the connectors for fans, frontpanel and all those. However, it may happen that the last PCI-E port will be blocked (not that it matters, I won't run 4x SLI anyways). I don't know about this yet, it depends on how I manage to mount it
I know the radiator will blow "hot" air on the GPU, but as I have 2x 240 rads on only the CPU the air won't be particulary hot so I don't think the GPU will suffer, or am I wrong?



Here's the back, behind the motherboard. This side won't be visible and that's why I will place all components here that doesn't need to be shown in the window
To the far left we do see the second radiator. I will of course make hole for the intake in the side panel and then mount a radiator grill so it will look nice. Also, I've managed to put a mechanical HDD (3.5") underneath the radiator. Nice as I had trouble finding a spot for it.
Next we see the pump (Laing DDC). I'd like to mount it like this as it would be best for the space in the case. However I'm unsure if the pump works good being rotated like this. Do anyone happen to know anything about this? I will be using another top as well.
If it's not good for the health of the pump to place it like this I know another place where it will lay down as it should.


So all in all I've managed to find place to mount both 240 radiators, the 25cm reservoir and the pump. The question is if it will work out practically.
Can the pump be rotated like that and still work as it should? Looks like Laing says it can!

I'm planning on using 2 fans per radiator as PnP won't give any benefits as the radiators are only 30mm thick.

Soo, what do you guys think?
I'm completely new to water cooling so if I've missed something critical or done some terribly wrong please let me know! Also if you happen to have suggestions, shout!

Thanks in advance
Best Regards
nikkop

 

Looks like you're going to pull this off very nicely! Well done!

As you may also have seen, I've ended up taking inspiration for my latest mod from your Prodigy front panel. Sorry about that!

 

Doubt the rad will give off enough heat to cause any problems for the GPU, maybe if you had it buried under a desk with no cool air getting in then it would be a problem, but as is it should be fine. Also the Laing will work like that fine!

Are you going to be putting a block on the GPU at any point? As a single 240 rad will cool the CPU on its own fine if you can get airflow through it. If you wanted to in the future get a GPU block and hook it into the dual 240 system and it will run with pretty decent temps.

Looking good so far

 

Hah, thanks! Yeah hopefully I'll get the watercooling like this.
The only thing I'm thinking about is the height difference of the pump and reservoir. I've heard the reservoir should be placed higher than the pump. Is that only when filling the loop or always when running the system as well?

Yeah I just saw your panel Looks identical to mine! I was thinking how it would look on a white Prodigy and you've shown me, looks nice
I wouldn't post project logs if I was afraid of people taking inspiration or copying my work
However, if someone would copy my builds right off, I wouldn't say no to a little credit

Thanks for your reply. The case will be on my desk and hence get a lot of fresh air!
I don't know about GPU block, I'll have to find out if it's worth it. So far I'm satisfied with the temperatures and noise level of the GPU, but I guess nothing beats a watercooled one, right? ^_^
Also, 2x 240 should be enough for CPU + GPU, am I right? Even tho the rads are 30mm thin there's plenty of area on the radiators, right?

Thanks
nikkop

 

WOW! How many big and powerfull things in such a little box - that's going more interesting every new update

 

Thanks a lot mate!
Yeah, the components are pretty powerful and I look forward to finish it all up and get the system and project up and running for real!

I'm actually going to do some modding today! I'll see what I can do and thereafter post an update perhaps. It all depends on how much and what I'm going to do today

Thanks
/nikkop

 

Sneak peak of what the next update will be about! :3



I should be able to get it out soon enough.
/nikkop

 

UPDATE 28/08 2013 - Cut holes for I/O and assembly

UPDAAAAAAATE! ​

Cut holes for I/O and assembly - 28/08 -2013

UPDATE 28/08 - 2013

Hiya all!

Here I am with an update that shows that this project is starting to come along!
I have recently test-assembled a lot around this build to see what and where everything will fit the best and I think I have found those spots!
When that was done I decided to get the parts in place and I also thought that it was time for the motherboard tray to be attached to the case so I can reach all required I/O.
So I thought I'd show you what I've done. Let's go!
__________________________________________________________

I started by putting the motherboard tray in spot of where I want it. Since I wanted to have as much place as possible in front of the tray I put the tray as close as possible to the other side where the PSU is.

Since the mesh in the bottom of the case doesn't have any holes it would be pretty hard to connect to all the I/O ports so I decided to make some cut


Whe the motherboard tray was in place I started to mark where I wanted to do the cuts.

After the markings were done with some masking tape I brought the dremel. I bought a pair of new discs that manages to do the job nicely


Aaaand it's done! Took a while to get it done and the tool had to swet a little bit. Here we can see how much I've cut and we see it does look like the shape of regular rear/back case


I turn the case upside down to put the I/O-piece to see if it fits, and it does.


The question is; Does it fit and look good once the components are in pace? Let's find out!





I found this CD in a box at my mom's house (where I don't live any longer). This is a CD with 10 homemade tracks I made when I was about 10 years old. I even sold a couple of copies to teachers at my school very cheap, haha. One of the track's are named "Titanic", I wonder if it has a good "drop", lol!


It did look quite good with the motherboard tray and the components in place - I could reach all the ports from uder the case. However, it's not everything that I need to be able to reach. The power supply cord is also going to be at the bottom, of course.


Masked I cut the piece off. I only cut a piece larg enough to be able to reach the required things. Cutting more than this would affect the stability of the mesh.




I also realized I had to make the mesh a bit smaller. The reason is that it buckled due to being slightly wider than the inside of the case. I solved this by cutting a little on each side of the mesh and it now fit's perfect!






Motherboard tray with components and the PSU in place! - nothing is mounted with any screws tho, it's only temporary in place.




I can't be satisfied with just letting it sit there without being mounted so I must mount it somehow with a screw or rivet. I took a pen and started to mark where the holes of the tray was and where to put the screws. I also take the drill to make the holes big enough for a screw.



I then screw the mesh and the motherboard tray togheter to see what it looks like. I haven't put all the screws but it does look promising.
Also looks good inside the case






Now the motherboard tray is attached to the mesh but the mesh isn't attached to the csae! I of course have to fix that.
I drill holes in the case and then mount the mesh with the case with a screw, as you can see in the right corner (will be replaced with a rivet later on).

_________________________________________________________________

That was everything about this update! I was satisfied and I think it will be good in the end. I still have grinding and stuff a like to do which I will do when I'm done with all cuts.
With this update I also realized that the project is really beginning to take shape. As I've mentioned before about 80% of the time spent on this project is about planning and test-mounting it all. Since I have now decided where everything will fit I do not have very much left to do!
Another thing I realized was that I need to do a couple but small cuts here and there, for example cutting 5mm to be able to fit the radiator and stuff a like. I thought that I will collect all these small fixes in a larger update so they'll be easy to track.
After all the modification is done (so everything is assembled and in place) it will be time for the watercooling and the estethical part of the build.

As mentioned; It's starting to take shape and I look forward to be working with the water cooling soon which I think will be great in this build.
My goal is to be finished before the month of November. Let's see if I can make that deadline!

Thank you for reading and following
Best regards
nikkop

 

Looking good so far nikkop! Keep up the great progress. love how its coming along.

 

Sorry for my late reply but thanks a lot, I appreciate it!

Some news!!

I won a white Prodigy in a small competition and I wondered what to do with it.


I then realised that the color white is a little sexier that black so I thought that I'd perhaps use the white case instead for "Big Bro' Prodigy"? At least I had to try it out!

Everything is just threwn in at the moment. Of course, there will be some work to do with all the cutting and such but as I know what and where to do it all it shouldn't take too long - the planning of the cuts is what has taken most of the time. As I will do the exact same steps as on the black case I won't take photos and such as those steps can be found in this log.

But yeah, I'm leaning towards using the white one instead. What do you think? Imagine this with mesh (perhaps colored in black?) and white watercooling tubing!


Let me hear what you think!

Thanks
Best regards
Nikkop

 

I just bought myself a White Prodigy; i definitely think its Sexier compared to the Black.

The idea of BLACK mesh with a white case would look Great, that said. Why not paint the mesh WHITE. What makes the white look so good is the subtle blacks. I feel if the mesh was all black, it would take away from the white feel of the case. If that makes sense?

Seeing as you have Orange on your board, why not do a White, Black Orange build. So Possibly Orange tubing/fluid. Otherwise the orange on the MB will stand out like balls on a cat with the white case.

Just my two cents. Whatever you do i'll love it anyways. Amazing build already Nikkop!

 

Someone that agrees with me, nice!

I understand what you mean but I think that painting the mesh white it wouldn't bring the same feeling as there's no contrast between the mesh and the rest of the case. I'll either leave it as it is or paint it black, white is no option for me I'm afraid

I'm thinking about how I can use more orange colors, you're right on that. If I were to use white tubing I would use some other elements of orange, perhaps the fans or something like that. I agree with you that I do need something more orange.
How would orange mesh look like? Maybe not too good, haha.

Thanks a lot for your words and your input. I love talking about different options to do on my build so I appreciate it a lot!

_____________________________________

Benchmarking the GIGABYTE GTX 780 Windforce 3X OC

I'm also now done with a video I've been working on the past weeks.
I'm doing some benchmarking on my GPU (GIGABYTE GTX 780) where I show the tests/games, the results and such stuff.



Please leave a comment if you have any question or would like to say something

Thanks in advance
Best Regards
Nikkop