The past few months have been amazing for Mod 83, first, our Ghostbusters build featured at EGX on the ASUS stand, we placed third in the Bit-tech Mod of the Month with Pure Pastel and also won the EVGA Gear Up Program late in 2019. Originally we had decided upon an RTX and Nvidia based build for a project called Team Green. This was to be based around the hardware we won from EVGA but given the current climate, we have been forced to go in a different direction and build something with what we had to hand. It’s not what we wanted to do but its been so long since we won the EVGA Gear Up that we wanted to get something out, plus, since we are stuck indoors it gives us something to work on. Deliveries for parts from our partners have been delayed but we think that with what we have in stock, we can put together a great looking system for EVGA. This one will be called Mistral, taking the EVGA DG-77 chassis and transforming it into a brighter, more enticing choice of case. We will be adding in a EVGA 1000W G+ power supply, EVGA X299 Mirco motherboard and EVGA RTX 2070 XC Ultra GPU. Our CPU comes kindly from Intel and we have a 9960X, 16 cores and 32 threads of power to be paired with 16 GB of DDR4 3000 from TeamGroup thrown in the mix. While there will be no over the top modifications to this one, we want to put the DG-77 out there as an alternative chassis for those currently in the market for a new case. It’s no secret that reviewers didn’t take too kindly to this chassis and being honest, it does have some gripes that I will get to later down the line. That’s our parts list for now, we will be using an Alphacool XPX Pro 1U CPU cooler and a NexXos ST30 360mm radiator. For our pump and reservoir, we have decided on the Alphacool Ice Cream Cup D5. Storage comes from Seagate, an IronWolf Pro 10 TB with our OS going on a Samsung 860 Evo. We have been working on this over the past few days so there are plenty of updates to come, hopefully you lot will tag along and see how this one goes!
Time to tear down the EVGA DG-77 then, we had already started on this as part of the Team Green build but now we have a new plan. There's plenty for us to strip down here including a top, front and rear plastic fascia panels. We will be using a MATX board in the X299 Micro and a vertical GPU mount. Since we can't get hold of a block from Alphacool at the moment we will stick with the stock cooler. Our 360 radiator will sit in the front, while the case does support top-mounted, it won't work with our parts due to clearance on the fans. I have removed the front dust filter and will be fitting the fans more to the outside of the front panel. With everything removed, including the PSU shroud RGB EVGA logo, we can move onto some paint. We partnered with Rust-Oleum for a previous project and we have some Aluminium RAL 2114 that we think will be perfect for this. I think by brightening up the case will make it more appealing and give it some sparkle too.
Time to take a closer look at some more parts that we have for this build plus bring you some more on the painting of the DG-77. For the CPU, Intel was kind enough to send over an i9 9960X boasting 16 cores and 32 threads. The max turbo is 4.4 GHz and it will complement the EVGA X299 Micro really well. This is a solid chip, its not new to the market but will provide more than enough horsepower on this build. We also have 2x 10 TB Seagate Ironwolf Pro drives giving us plenty of storage for our growing backups and media files from Mod 83. These drives will probably run RAID 1 for now until we can put a better solution in place. When you purchase a Seagate IronWolf Pro drive, a Rescue Recovery Data Plan is included for 2 years. This is a great bonus from Seagate should you happen to lose your data. On to the paint then, today we got a few coats on the bare chassis and panels. The warm weather has really been a bonus so we could get on with this project. It never ceases to amaze me what a coat of paint can do, the DG-77 is really transformed and looks much brighter. Given the case is supplied with tinted glass panels, hopefully, the extra light will bounce around and help make features stand out a little more. We will let this dry, give it a rub down then some more paint tomorrow. After that’s all done then we can move onto the motherboard and other main components.
More unboxings today and fitting of the main components that will run this system. TeamGroup is working with us once again and we will be using 4 x 4 GB of their Delta RGB 3000 MHz RAM. The colour scheme fits in nicely and will provide a good base for this system. Our motherboard is the EVGA X299 Micro ATX. This board supports up to 18 Core – 18 Thread CPUs and up to 128 GB DDR4 4000 MHz. We also have M.2 storage with both M and E keys, Optane is also supported. Another handy feature of this board is the onboard power, reset and CMOS reset buttons. To round out, we have 2-Way SLI. 6x SATA 6G ports and 1x U.2 port. Now its time to drop in the i9 9960X and our RAM, then fit our cooler for the loop. I always find it weird with Intel and Ryzen CPUs that they don’t have the text facing the right way, I am sure this has caught a few people out trying to fit CPUs over the years Now we are all finished up with the CPU and RAM, next stop is the Alphacool XPX Pro 1U CPU block. This block is really versatile for desktop and server requirements. The block has multiple G1/4 in and out ports giving ultimate flexibility to your system, a total of 3 in and 5 out. As will all Alphacool parts it feels really well made and comes with all the hardware needed to fit either a 2011 / 2011-3 / 2066 / 3647 / TR4 / TRX40 sockets. Our board is now ready top be dropped in to the system. We have moved on quite a bit this morning and have some other alphacool goodies already installed. I will be dropping another update tomorrow so stick around for that.
Time for a smaller update on this project. Our EVGA X299 Micro is now in place and the DG-77 is really now starting to take shape. We have our hard-line runs in mind for the CPU loop given that we are sticking with an air-cooled, vertical GPU. We know a vertical air-cooled GPU is not ideal and we would have gone with an Alphacool block if we could have got one here for a comprehensive loop. However, this is an EVGA project and although, given what is going on is preventing us from going all out on this, its kind of nice to show off the 2070 as stock so people can see what they are getting with this GPU. As far as progress goes, we have mounted an Alphacool XT30, 360mm radiator to the front of the case along with 6 BitFenix Spectre 120mm RGB fans. We have used these fans on a few other projects and we love them, they will be run with their controller and RGB strips to give the case some more lighting. For our pump res combo, we have the Alphacool Ice Cream Cup D5, another recycled part, this time coming from our Ghostbusters build. It's a standout piece of kit and as always top-notch build quality from Alphacool. Our original idea incorporated twin-tube reservoirs run along the top and front of the case with coolant to match the original theme. Given the change and what we have to hand, it's not going to be quite what we imagined but it will still be a damn good build. Fittings are again, all Alphacool and we were still playing with types and how to run the loop when we took these pictures so some aspects are still going to change. One of the Seagate IronWolf Pro 10 TB drives is now also in place, we are using the other for something else at the moment but I am sure that 10 TB will be more than enough It's starting to take shape then, still a bit to do but we are more than happy so far given what we had to work with.
Over the last few days, we have made some great progress on this build. We now have our hard lines fitted and once filled, gave the system a solid 24 hours to ensure we had no leaks. Coming from the pump into the bottom of the Alphacool block did throw up a small snag. The fitting wouldn’t tighten all the way into the block as the block mounting plate got in the way and so we have had to use an extension to get around this. We would have come into the front of the block but we wanted to do something a little different given that we have so many posts on the block and if we had, the final bend would be really tight. Our coolant comes from Mayhems and is the same as we used on Pure Pastel, we think here though it has a totally different effect and works well with the silver too. For wiring up the system, we cant get parts in to make our own cables and so we are using the standard outfit that comes with the EVGA 1000 G+. Given the amount of cabling that is visible, and the circumstances, its not a big deal and we don't think it detracts from the build too much. Back to cooling and fans, our front 120mm BitFenix Spectres are actually placed slightly different to the case specs, we have done away with the front fan filter to fit the fans externally. We can still mount the glass front to the case for some nice RGB from the fans and front EVGA logo. We are quite happy with how the silver turned out and adds a lot of light to the DG-77. All our case panels, except the rear shroud, are now back on. We just have to get the RTX 2020 XC Ultra fitted now and it will really start coming together. Our last detail will be the backlit logo panel to the front, we are making our own Mistral panel for here and then we can get everything back together ready for final pictures.
Thanks! Pleased you like it. We are gutted we couldn't put together what we initially planned, as Team Green, but we cannot complain about how it's turning out. Given we have been working with limited parts it's been a fun build and I can't wait to get it finished. That said, we have had another project come up that needs to be done so it has taken priority at the moment
