Case Mod - In Progress 1st ... KONTAKT by SpikeV

... it's coming

 

... showcase gaming pc - sponsored by me

... ... ... raising the bar

 

[spoiler alert] ... the concept

 

1st pre-lim assembly . . . starting to get a sense of the geographics

 

I love the way you tickling my interest with those amazing videos that must be some work to edit this, I am impressed

 

Cheers and many thanks ... it's more a result of creativeness than know-how !, every day is an opportunity to get a little more clever !!!

 

Initial component overview ...

 

Hey Jeff, you are correct ... I had ordered some 3600 as well, but this ADATA stuff is suppose to have a lot of headroom - so decided to just overclock the 3000 with some confidence that I will be able to get it to 3600 ... so, let's see !

Related is that the plan is to load up all four slots, so a total of 32 GB, and that will be an interesting OC challenge. I'm interested to see what kind of results might be possible with the T-topology configuration on this motherboard.

 

That ram should be Samsung B-Die. Which is still the best ram you can buy. It handles voltage very well. It should easily do 3600MHz. I have my 2x16GB set of B-Die @ 3600MHz 15-16-15-30-44T w/ Gear Down Mode disabled. And mine isn't high binned ram either. There is no other ram that can handle such tight timings. And unfortunately B-Die is no longer being manufactured.

Although a lot of manufacturers switched to other DRAM now but kept the same model numbers. They just changed the timings. So there is no guarantee they are actually B-Die.

 

Thanks lf . . . I hope my luck is similar to yours. I bought this RAM back in July last year, when prices were low and B-Die was still pretty much around ... in any case, will be fun seeing what we get to !

 

Let's get started . . . but, before we get all caught-up in the details - have a look at the initial inspiration for the project ... the Love it or Leave it - Case





. . . out of the box



. . . out of the paint shop



. . . out of my mind
[Special thanks to Søren Kirkegaard at Nordic 3D & Motion Design for coming to my rescue ]



. . . and, into the studio

 

So, the project has been in mind for some time, and seems the typical inspiration is discovering some unusual Case with a characteristic that just triggers ...

Oh yes, it will be mine !

And so it was when I first saw the Cougar Conquer . . . and it was early December 2018 when I was able to get my hands on one, and the vision was in full swing!

It hasn't been an easy journey so far. I immediately reached out to some good people at Parvum Systems about collaborating on the Distribution panels ... I was a big Parvum fan and worked with those guys on a previous project - 'Parvum ICE Dragon'. They were all-in on the new project and we started to look at a few early drawings.

Meanwhile ... all the hype about 7nm was all the thing, and I was ready to hang out in order to jump on that train as soon as it was ready to leave the station - World Wide Release, 7th July (yeah - that worked well !!! ). That was an 'interesting' experience. I captured most of that lead-up on the Facebook Group site I am hosting - Build Your Own Awesome Gaming PC https://www.facebook.com/groups/534267440421363/ . In any case, I didn't see the 3900X until sometime in the end of August (just like a '7 July World Wide Release' ... only a bit different!).

Meanwhile, in the other Meanwhile ... Parvum continued to tell me - "hey great you messaged, we are almost done, will have something for you at the end of the week" . . . unfortunately, that week never came and that group seems to have fallen off the face of the earth ... I hope they are all OK (I also hope they see fit to refund my full up-front payment).

 

so . . . let's jump back and talk a little bit about memory ...

Don't get me wrong - Trident Z is just Good Stuff, no doubt ... it's just ... I chase this stuff constantly and have for a number of years now, and there are tons of great builds and most typically they are using Trident Z (for good reason) ... [yawn] ... or the new Crystal stuff [cha-ching $$$] - so . . . cool !
But, I am always on the lookout for something a bit different ... and, ya gotta admit, this ADATA Spectrix is - a bit different

Do I buy into the Liquid Cooling spin ??? . . . well, yeah the theory is kinda there - vapor chamber physics and all that ... maybe (?) . . . but, come-on ... it just flat Looks Cool - and an added bonus is that it is pro-ported to work pretty darn good too - so let's have some fun with that !

And keep in mind - no matter how friggin' AWESOME your system is ... there is ALWAYS someone, somewhere, doing you one better (that's just life) . . . So, the goal here is MAXIMUM FUN . . . and, that's the Mission !

 

Drama with the GPU water block . . .

Originally decided to go XSPC for water cooling loop components and the Razor Neo - RTX 2080 Ti / 2080 (Black Chrome + Tempered Glass) was selected and ordered prior to the Graphics card being acquired. The Razor Neo in black chrome and tempered glass is a solid unit, beautifully built ... and weighs a ton! The single version available is configured for the reference PCB - so no problem finding a Graphics Card for a proper fit - Right ??? . . . well - NOT SO MUCH

It seems (other than fastener size for radiators [XSPC a rare exception]) determining board models with reference PCBs is one of the more well kept industry secrets (this is proven out by all of the disclaimers you'll find in the small print) . . . so I set off to do my on-line due-diligence and soon became quite baffled. At one point I said, "just screw it - I'll just go direct to the source and ask Tech support". Not mentioning any names ... the reply I got was - "We don't give out that information ..." WHAT!!! I must have bought a dozen Gigabyte GPUs last year and this is the 'Customer Service' I get ???

Anyway, after checking through the better technical reviews, compatibility charts, and finding photos of the PCB, I purchased an ASUS Dual GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPER™ EVO V2 OC edition 8GB GDDR6 (mostly based on the binned chip and a killer price) with the complete confidence of a fit with the block. Well, until I received the card and removed the cooler ... and, guess what - NOT EVEN CLOSE

Fortunately, later last year, EK introduced their new EK-Quantum Vector Dual Evo RTX 2080S D-RGB - Nickel + Plexi and EK Chrome backplate. I contacted EK with photos of my PCB and it appeared that we had a match.

 

. . . time to fill up the motherboard storage
Taichi has 3 X M.2 slots and a massive heatsink ... once in place the heatsink is not coming off without removing the graphics card (and that one is being waterblocked) - so, better do it right from the git-go !!!
MP510 into slot #1 for boot drive ... talking directly to the CPU
MP510 into slot #2 -and- Rocket into slot #3 ... talking to the X570 chip each - then, on to the CPU

Yeah ... considered a RAID setup, but sensing no real usage advantage to be had on this config (let's see). Sticks are all running pretty quick for PCIe-3.0 anyway - around 3000/3000 - and all acquired for about €120 each (can't touch that in the 4.0 neighborhood !)



. . . the
Corsair Force MP510
960GB PCB - 3D TLC NAND, E12 controller, with hynix cache ... double sided
[note: plastic brand sticker removed when installed under heat spreader]



. . . the
Sabrent Rocket
1TB PCB - 3D TLC NAND, E12 controller, with Kingston cache ... single sided
[note: brand sticker contains thin copper strip - remains in place under heat spreader]

 

I love custom fan hub stickers for my projects ... but, sometimes they don't turn out exactly as planned - that's just part of the game!

The online mock-up looked pretty good when the configuration was completed. But, when I received the stickers, I was pretty disappointed. The issue was I had used a 3D filtered image of the logo and was printing on rainbow chrome vinyl. While the image looked good in the render, the actual sticker logo looked blurred and of poor quality. It wasn't the printer's fault, it was just an unfortunate result.

I have used Stickers International in the past with great results, so decided to give it another try. The lesson was to use a clean and clear image, so this time that was the plan . . . But they had to be special - so ... going with ($$$) 3D stickers !

The new stickers arrived earlier this week ...

 

. . . more project swag arrived this week

some of the water cooling system, as well as, a reload of my preferred TIM ... 'Griz'

included the first batch of EK fittings, and CF coolants, along with a backup fill bottle (since will be using 2 different color liquids)