T.E.D

Do you actually have a native 4k monitor?
 
If so, get 2 290xs, a 295x2, 2 390xs, 2 980s, a 980ti or a Fury X.
 
If not, settle down and get something a bit less meaty.

390x is an 8GB 290x

145 degrees? In C, you would be dead. In F, you would still be dead.

It isn't really showing its age, it was designed to be (and still is) a great 1080p card.

You should buy a new monitor IMO. Then buy a 980ti for, say, 1440p with a little money saved up.

Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 280X

Few thoughts:
1. The most simple way to fix the audio issue: just listen.
2. 10 000$+++ watch is not a rational purchase. I'm not particularly worried that some millionaire can't live with outdated technology and has to spend another 10000$++ every year.
3. I was baffled in elementary school when I heard my classmates had GTA: Vice City. Seems crazy to me but I don't wanna start policing how you raise your kids when it comes to video games.

Nice Podcast. Oh well. Both the sync and Luke's mike. I think that Luke needs to go over to Linus' seat. When he stood up or leaned forward the sound drastically improved. Austin was great. He's a great sub for Linus. Well prepared and brings the energy. Hopefully you'll do something with him soon again.

Well it's pretty much done, except a few touch up things. The OS loaded and drivers updated. Still doing some benchmarking. The 4k panel looks amazing.?b
 
After looking at the window side as it is now, I realized I need some case lighting to brighten up the inside a little more. Not sure if I will go RGB or just straight white. I will be needing four 1ft strips which I will be ordering soon.
 
Also I purchased a thin 80mm fan at Fryes that I might install in the back of the Icy Dock storage unit.  This would add a little more space and hopefully be quieter. The other option is getting a 80mm noctua fan. 
 
In order to finish the storage side of things I will ordering two more 4gb Western Digital Reds for a raid set up. This should provide all the storage I could want and provide the redundancy I need. I am really temped to get a 512gb Samsung XP941 as a boot drive. The X99 deluxe comes with a M.2 slot on the motherboard or I could stick it in one of the PCI slots. It would be awesome getting 1000MB/s read/write speeds.
 
I will be ordering a new keyboard soon as well. I've widdled the choices down to a RGB K70 or K95, or a WASD "Code" with white backlighting.
 
My desk has enough room for another monitor too. I'm looking for a 24" 144hz panels that have the ability to go portrait. Oh and as for the desk I'm planning on building one. This desk will need to be a "L" shape and made either out of wood or get it cut from marble/quartz. This will allow me to do some really cool things with the desk!
 
BIOS

 
Close up of the PSU side and the cable management.

 
This is the fill port

 
Possible replacement fan. This fan is only 10mm thick!

 
The boring side.

 
The ass end

 
Here is the drain port. I utilized the open areas in the bottom of the case so this is the lowest point in the loop. This will make refilling the loop a breeze!

 
Power Off

 
I love the look of the fans, this picture taken in a well lit room.

 
This is with one active HDD in the Icy Dock. That blue led is reaally bright.

 
Power On!


 
Angle Shots



 
So dark in there, needs some case lighting


 
Lights Out!



 
Samsung 28" D590D with the Apples desktop background

My new build is finally on the way!! I just received my first Newegg order with the majority of hardware. I will likely be placing my order for the watercooling parts tonight. If everything goes as planned this build should be up and running in a week.
 

 

 
Hardware
 
Intel i7 5960x
 
Corsair Vengence 32gb 2400mhz
 
EVGA GTX 980 AX 2.0 (SLI)
 
Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
 
Asus X99 Deluxe
 
Corsair AX1200i
 
Western Digital Red 4TB
 
Corsair Carbide 540 (White)
 
 
Watercooling
 
2x AlphaCool XT45 280mm Radiators
 
(Ordered)  Alphacool ST30 360mm
 
(Ordered)  Alphacook ST30 240mm
 
Alphacool Xp3 CPU Block (Black Chrome Edition)
 
AlphaCool VPP655 Variable Speed D5 Pump
 
AlphaCool Coolplex Pro 100mm Reservoir
 
Primochill Hard Acrylic Tubing (White)
 
Primochill Ridged Revolver Compression Fittings (Black)
 
GTX 980 Waterblocks are undecided as of now...
 
 
 
Other
 
3x 5x Cooler Master Jet Flo 120mm (White)
 
GC Extreme
 
Thoughts/Decisions
 
Radiator Fitment?
My orignal plan was to have one 360mm st30 rad up front and 280mm st30 up top but upon further research it seems that they will not fit. Please let me know if I am wrong. This means I wasted $60 on the three 120mm Jet Flo fans I bought unless I opt for a 240mm rad up top.
 
I did the math on the surface area of my radiator options...
 
360mm rad + 240mm rad = 72,000
280mm rad + 280mm rad = 78,400
 
So in terms of performance going with the two 280mm radiators is going to be about 10% better. Not to mention that 140mm fans move more air anyway and will operate quieter as well. This option would also allow for more room to work in the case. ( I would like to have a dedicated drain w/ valve out the bottom of the case)
 
What do you guys think of my watercooling options?  (The downside of going with the two 280's is that I already bought the three Cooler Master Jet Flo fans ($60) and I really thought they would look great in the case with the white leds.)
 
 
     Decided- I decided for the best fitment and guaranteed compatibility to go with an AlphaCool ST30
                     360mm rad and ST30 240mm rad.
 
GTX 980 8gb ?
 
I have about ten days before I lose the ability to return the two GTX 980s. The reason I would do this is because the 8gb versions will be coming out this month or early December. Since I'm set on going 4k I need the extra VRAM. My other reason for possible returning the cards I have is  getting back the $130 of sales tax by buying them on Newegg instead of Fryes. This money can either go towards some Hydro Coppers or if available the 8gb cards.
 
     Decided- I will be returning the GTX 980's and wait until the 980ti's come out. It was just announced this will likely be in February. That's a little to long of a wait so I might have to get a GTX 970 to hold me over.

Hey guys. I've been getting quite a few things done to the case in the past few days.

Firstly here's the case with the top and front panels finished. Pretty happy with the way they turned out.



































I ended up fully stripping both side panels, including the windowed one as I was not happy with the finish. I will be painting them in the next couple of days



I also did some work on the acrylic panels that will be covering up the inside of the case in some places. It is a nice glossy white acrylic so hopefully it will show some cool reflections once the build is complete.

Here's the front bit





This will be the shroud for the bottom of the case. Hiding the PSU and also I will mount the Aquaero to the inside of it.



Cut and ready for bending, though it was getting quite late that night so I haven't bent it yet. Finger crossed it will turn out good. It will be the first time I'm bending an acrylic panel.



This is the panel for the back




Here it is cut and in place inside the case. The top right corner bit will be covered by the radiator and fans.



I decided to make two small windows to show off the SSDs on the back of the motherboard tray.



Haven't filled the cuts as again, it was getting quite late that night



Here it is on the case though




That's all for now guys.

Stay tuned for the next update.


Cheers,

Alex


 

Banner: Rumikarimu
 
 

 
 
FINAL PICS
 
SPECS:
Case - Modded Fractal Design ARC Mini R2
Motherboard - ASUS ROG Maximus V Gene
CPU - Intel i7 3770K (delidded, 4.7GHz @ 1.29v)
GPUs - 2 x EVGA GTX 970 with Nvidia GeForce SLI Bridge
Memory - 4 x 4GB Corsair Dominator GTs 2133Mhz
SSDs - Crucial MX100 256GB and 512GB
PSU - Corsair AX860 80Plus Platinum
Cables - Icemodz custom sleeved white and green cables
Radiators - Alphacool NexXxoS Full Copper Monsta 240mm, Alphacool NexXxoS Full Copper ST30 360mm
Fans - 7 x 120mm Gelid Wing UV Green
Fan Controller - Aquaero 5LT USB fan controller
Pump - Swiftech MCP35X with Koolance heatsink and Bitspower Pump Top
Reservoirs - Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 150 Full Acrylic, Clockwerk Case Mods custom made reservoir
Fittings - Primochill Rigid Ghost Green fittings, various Bitspower matte black extension and angle fittings
Tubing - Primochill Rigid Clear Acrylic
CPU Block - EK-Supremacy EVO CSQ Polished Nickel Plexi
GPU Block - 2 x EK-FC670 CSQ Nickel Acetal
RAM Block - EK-RAM Monarch X4 CSQ Polished Nickel Plexi
Motherboard Block - EK-MOSFET ASUS M5G Acetal
SLI Bridge - EK-FC Bridge CSQ Polished Dual Parallel
Coolant - Mayhems UV Emerald Green
Lighting - DarkSide UV LED strips
 
SPONSOR
 

 
Hello guys and welcome to my new build log and what will be my second mod project.

Some of you may know me from my previous build the Vault Boy which had the honor of being featured on the WAN show just this month, December 2014

This build is more of an upgrade of my other system in a Fractal Design ARC Mini R2 in which I will be keeping most of the components as well as adding new ones and a lot of modding work to the case and other bits

Here is the build in it's current state or how it was a few days ago before a pretty major event happened and I had to take it apart sooner than I thought ...







This will be another colourful build in the same style as Vault Boy however no game theme this time. The colours will be white, green and bits of black as well as going with a molecule design in some places, hence the name Green Molecule

I still have a small update for Vault Boy in mind which would have nonetheless taken my a couple of days to do as it involved draining the loop and taking a few things out. The plan was to tackle it this past weekend though I did not expect something to happen to this system in the meantime ...

Saturday morning while I was still enjoying my sleep my partner wakes me up telling me there is a burning smell coming from the system, me thinking she's just making fun of me as she sometimes does, I choose to ignore her  :lol:. However as she kept insisting and telling me that it's no joke I got up and went to the other room where the system was just to be greeted by this awful smell of burnt plastic and a couple of seconds later realising that the DDC pump had burned out.

The CPU was rocking 105C according to Real Temp but was still running fine. Not sure how long it's been like that, it was running the whole night as we stream movies to our bedroom from it and before I went to sleep it was fine. I immediately turned it off by just a normal shut down and there went my day as I decided to just dismantle the thing there and then.

The aftermath is shown in the following pics as I went ahead and took everything apart, cleaned it and installed the system on my desk to test everything. Fortunately everything was fine minus a burned out DDC pump . The little guy has been pumping my liquid pretty much 24 hours straight for the past two years and a bit and it decided it's had enough of the Queensland heat. Just when I was about to mount a heat sink on it along with the upgrade of the system

And let's start straight with the dirty stuff







As you can see the little guys burned out pretty good, I doubt I can salvage it with a new PCB from that DIYINHK site that still sell them







If I'm guessing right the fluid must have been boiling around the CPU area that caused the tube to fog up as well as deform a little bit to the touch. My partner may have woken me up just in time to save it. Not sure if the system would have shut itself off after a while or if the acrylic tube would of just melted but I think I'm lucky nothing further happened.







Here's the empty case and by the looks of things something funny happened to the label on that Corsair Force GT SSD.









And everything out on the table to be cleaned and inspected
You may also spot the new side panel that I have been working on the few days prior, finished it the night before.

Here's a better look at the side panel



The plan was to have more molecules but I managed to mess up the left side of it so decided to just make the window bigger. Still think it came out pretty good in the end, minus a few painting mess ups due to an unexpected storm that occurred as the paint was drying.



These are the molecule shapes I used as I am not good at drawing things 







A better look at the finished side panel as well as the very last pic of the system running 

The side panel was fully crafted by me using a Dremel rotary tool, a jig saw and lots of filing

I was also playing around with this new Aquaero 5LT controller the night before. Installed the optional heatsink but didn't get to test it out.









Today I managed to get some work done on the planned case mods as well as painting

First I cut a small hole in the floor which I will use as a drain from the bottom outlet of the Alphacool Monsta 240mm rad that will be going in the front of the case.



Did a cut on the MB tray as well. I will be making a shroud for the bottom so I cut the bottom right corner of the MB tray as to better help with cable management at the back.





I made a small mistake here and started cutting higher that I wanted to. However it doesn't make a difference as I will be putting some white acrylic around the MB that will cover everything.









I then got the case ready for painting

































In this last pic you can see how the brushed aluminum aspect of the front panel looks after painting.

Some parts will be going green tomorrow while other will stay white.

The plan is to have the inside of the case white and the outside shell green like the side panel. Hopefully it will look good like I'm imagining it.

That's it for now guys. Let me know what you think so far. Feedback will be much appreciated


 

Yep. Loving my 0.20mbit connection for $100/mo!

Yeah the case is like, stanced so the front leans down.
 
Well, after another whole day nearly I have it finished. Word to the wise - if you buy this case you better know what you are doing. I would consider myself to be an expert when it comes to cable management but this thing is the hardest case I have ever built into in 30 years.
 
I guess with a fully modular PSU it would be a lot easier but this thing is incredibly difficult and required two packs of cable ties and a lot of patience.. 
 
So here we are then, all fitted. I've now got a 1tb 3.5" drive in there which is why I changed cases.
 

 
Was scratching my head thinking about a PSU cover, then I had a brain wave and simply used the Intel panel with some double sided foam. It's really incredibly neat in there thanks to how the case was designed. Things just disappear.
 
So here is a shot with the window fitted. I will be fitting some white LEDs inside for sure, there's no way I'm hiding that Quadro !
 

 
And all put together.
 

 
Pretty tidy, and very small and compact ! So, my thoughts on the case..
 
Pros. 
 
For an ATX case it's incredibly compact. It literally wraps itself around your components.
 
It's nicely made and the internals are super solid.
 
The cooling is pretty much about as good as it gets. There are two 180mm Air Penetrators fitted in the floor which push the air upwards and out. So basically it's a wind tunnel.
If you can get it together it's incredibly neat.
 
You can fit a 120mm water cooler if you wish.
 
The white LED light on the front looks absolutely lovely.
 
Every fan has a removable filter and you don't need to take the case apart to remove and wash them.
 
Fan controller works very well.
 
Cons.
 
God, where do I start? DO NOT try building this case with a non modular PSU. I have had to cut off a SATA and MOLEX run just to get the cables squashed in to get the side on, and how the side ever fitted on is a mystery.
 
It's very, very small. Probably about the smallest full ATX case I've ever seen. This can be good and bad, but the bad is you're constantly smashing your knuckles trying to work in it.
 
The rear air filter for the PSU is magnetic and IMO a bit of an afterthought. I have seen reviews where it wasn't included so I guess Silverstone forgot.
 
No air filter for the top, meaning when you shut it down dust can fall in. I will have to make one with some netting.
 
The plastic finish looks OK, but, would have been incredible had Silverstone used that soft touch stuff (though admittedly that stuff does smear with dust and looks a bit nasty.
 
Cable management is for experts only. If you take this case on with little experience it will bite you on the ass. You need lots of cable ties and lots of patience, and, don't be surprised when you are cutting them all loose again to revamp the layout. It seriously is an absolute nightmare.
 
The fans are connected up in a very strange fashion. Basically they run to the front for the fan controller. It's incredibly easy to accidentally disconnect one, then, a crapshoot to get it back in the right way and get all of the fans running.
 
I had a fan wire snap off and had to break out the solder iron, so an amateur would be setting up an RMA right about now...

Update !
 
So basically when I built X8 I did it on the cheap for two reasons.
 
1. I didn't know if I would use it enough to justify high priced hardware and -
2. I did not know how well OSX would work with my hardware.
 
As such I did not want to take any risks, only to end up with another Windows PC that couldn't even beg at the feet of the purple monster.
 
So. Today I decided to change things up a little. First up I wanted a new case that had 3.5 bays. I cut them all out of the cheap case to make room for cooling. So, after a lot of deliberation I chose this, the RV05.
 

 
Note - I'm going for absolute silence. The RV05 has a fan controller which switches the fans through high, low, and medium. This is good... It also has a rotated layout, so cooling is bottom to top.
 

 
There are two 180mm Air Penetrators in the bottom. This is fantastic, as I can run them virtually silent.
 
OK, next up, the cooler on X8. Again, this was a bit of a womble job because I did not want to spend out on a cooler if the rig wasn't going to get used. Now? hah ! the MAC is on for around 17 hours a day and I rely on it for pretty much everything other than heavy gaming. The Quadro has been an absolute pleasure to own, so I wanted to show off how gorgeous it is. So for a cooler? I wanted silence. Ed. The cooler on X8 is fine at idle, but once the cores start warming up it becomes annoyingly whirry. It's literally the only sound the rig makes but it's highly irritating.
 

 
H55, £29 refurb from Scan. Can't really ask for more. I could probably run this thing with no fan, but, now that I know the MAC is sound I have ordered two of these.
 

 
One for the rad which is going in the top, and the other for the back to get more of the heat out. They weren't cheap, but, will look stunning in the rebuild.
 
So that's about it will update as and when I rebuild.

Most games ultra 60+FPS 1080P. LoL should be able run just fine at ultra 4K, but not every game will without turning some settings down.

Took the case to the body shop yesterday to get painted. 
Chose the lime green from the Dodge Dart, and Plum Crazy Purple from the Challenger. 
 
 

This is how it will stay for the next couple weeks. 
after Christmas, the case will be fully painted purple with green accents. Still need to work out the exact pattern we're doing. 
 
Once the case is fully painted we will go through the effort of installing the full loop. Hopefully by then EK will have released the waterblock for her card (the only reason I'm disapointed about switching out the cards last month. had we kept the reference design card we could have the block already. 
 
 

Sorry for the delay everyone, the friend I was doing this build with went away and took all the photos with him. And as a result I could not even get into his house to take more pics. 
Without further rambling, here are the photos:
 

This was a package going from China to Canada, and somehow in Alaska, it decided to go to Kentucky, where it got my name on the box...somehow. lol There are 101 boxes with 6 iPod Nano 7th generations inside, for 606 iPods, at $150 each is... a lot of money. I first called Amazon to tell them they screwed up, but turns out, it was UPS.
 
For those wondering, I am contacting people to get it straightened out and no, I'm not "keeping" any of them, I'm giving it back to them as it was given to me, with the box slightly opened, because I thought it was for me.
 
Edit: I'm aware my address is visible in one of the pictures. I'm moving to a different part of the same town, so it's not a concern.
 
Edit again: Went ahead and removed the address.

Todays update..Seriously love the dremel!!
 
Cut the crack in time..Wasnt as hard as I expected...will clean it up tomorrow
 

 

just a couple more. 
We'll be putting it back together properly this weekend. 
 
Still need a few more parts before we can do the loop. Not going to bother switching cases until we have all the parts. 
Hopefully EK will release the block we need soon. 
 
 

^Paint on the GPU heatsink^

 



^Masking it off for another layer^

 



^2nd layer^

 



^Masking off for another layer^

 



^3rd layer^

 



^Finished without masking!^

 



^seeing what it looks like w/o the fans^

^CPU cooler in primer^

 



^CPU cooler with paint^

 



^CPU and board heatsinks on the board^

 



^Same shot as the last, but without flash^

 

I have some carbon fiber wrap coming, going to try and hide that red on the board.

Morning all. So I was away on holiday for a week. Obs I don't make a point of telling the internet I'm going away..
 
Any way. So when I was doing the Lightning I noticed there were four ICs with no sinks on.
 

 
They're not uniform either which is very odd. Any way, I wanted them cooled. Why MSI cut a hole in the back plate for them yet didn't cool them is a mystery.
 

 
All the way from, you guessed it, Hong Kong.
 

 
Now for the bad bit. I probably won't be working on this again until the spring. I have a lot of commitments coming up between now and March and if I concentrate on this then I probably won't concentrate on the important stuff (you know? like getting married and shit) so I'm going to have to box this lot up and start again when its safe to indulge myself..
 
I'll be around the forums though