as far as they are not on different pcb designs it should be fine. For example, you can's sli with the G1 version from gigabyte, but you can with this.
I think that the cool guys at LTT should make a video about gaming on a Dvorak keyboard with the standard WASD setting.
Now i think that would be a cool video, right?
Hello there everyone. This here, is going to be a bit of a different build log. An extremely small for factor case. High end components. A long story and a parts list that changes a thousand times. Watercooling, and more. So, let's begin.
Background
I've always loved PC's, and PC gaming. I built my first PC many years ago, and gradually throughout the years started making faster and more powerful builds. My previous build was relatively new, and pretty powerful. I had also been going smaller and smaller as time went on, too. My previous build to this one, was quite nice. And relatively high end. It was the first time I actually had the money to make a premium looking, and performing PC. Growing up in a family with limited income, it was hard for me to pursue my passion. My last build performed pretty well. It had an i5-4590S, a GTX 670 4GB, and 8GB of RAM. It was made of good, quality parts, but it came to an end. A faulty power supply caused in a smoldering SSD, a dead HDD, a questionable CPU, and a very friend PSU. Funnily enough, I do believe the "faulty" PSU may have been my fault. It was a Corsair AX760, and, when plugging in my modular cables in the dark, I was actually able to plug a connector in between two others, with half on one connector and the other half on the other. Strange, it sounds, but it fit and I was able to actually even boot and run the PC. While it was a good PC, this, over time, started damaging components. The first time something went wrong, I noticed when I tore-down that build. I replaced the motherboard, and when the new one came, I rebuilt the PC. Things ran okay, for a little while, and every other component seemed okay.
That wasn't exactly the case though. Even though I now had the connection on the power supply as they were meant to be, eventually a month or two later I had an SSD fail on me. It was an Intel 730 480GB SSD. I knew these drives were incredibly reliable, but assumed it was just bad luck. After I got my replacement solid state drive in, things ran fine again for another few months. But one night I was casually browsing the internet, with my girlfriend in the room with me. She asked me to turn around to see something on her phone, and I did. When I turned back to my PC, I grabbed the mouse and went to move it. I noticed the system was hanging/frozen, however you'd like to call it. A few moments later, I got a blue screen of death. Not just any BSOD, but one that was in such a low and scattered resolution, it was incapable of being read. After that, the PC wouldn't boot. Within the next few days, I tore down the system again, and testing individual components and testing them outside of the case, I ruled out what was bad and what was good.
So, once all the sadness and aggravation from that subside (after all, I did spend well over eight hours doing custom cable sleeving and everything, too!) I decided it was time to rebuild. The previous build was in an In Win 901, and despite all of it's power, I decided I wanted more. And this time, I had all the money I want to work with, after finally starting my career and getting "ahead of the game." The In Win 901 was a beautiful and surprisingly well performing case, but I had my eyes on the NCase M1 for a long time, and liked the idea of a truly small, powerful build. I also liked the idea of a challenging build, due to size constraints and compatibility.
The Planning
All my life before this, my parts were relatively out of date. Even with the fabled 901 mentioned above, my components were often a generation or two behind. In example, still having a GTX 670 as my graphics card when the 900 line was out. I decided I wanted to go with something that had a lot of power. Now, most of it I should be able to actually utilize, but, I've also always wanted an extremely top-notch, up-to-date, over-kill PC. But even in the original planning of this build, it wasn't as just described. It was actually a pretty strong build, but relatively mainstream for "high end." The original parts list, after doing some research in to some other user's builds on the NCase M1, and seeing various pictures and builds online went as followed:
- NCase M1 -
- ASUS Maximus VIII Impact Z170-
- Intel i5-6600K -
- 2x 8GB DDR4 2,400 MHz -
- Intel 730 480GB (A replacement, brand new and good drive) -
- 2x Western Digital Black 3TB HDD's (one new, one replacing previous dead one) -
- LG GA31N slot loading CD/DVD drive -
- ASUS GTX 970 Mini -
- SilverStone SX-500-LG -
Well, I had ordered the case, and received it. I was then planning to start ordering other parts, as well. My layout plan was something I saw from ChipHell. It was to basically have a cage for two 3.5" HDD's towards the front of the case on the bottom. I'd then have a 120mm, or 92mm fan, intake on the bottom directly for the GPU. I was also planning two intake 120mm fans for the CPU area. Well, after receiving the case, I realized that layout doesn't work without modding the case. If it were a regular case, I'd have modded it without a care. But this case is a bit of a hassle to get a hold of, due to it's limited production run. Speaking of, I also mistakenly ordered the black version, and need to try and get a hold of silver panels for the case. So, after realizing that wouldn't work, I was in a predicament. Where I'd either sacrifice on some CPU cooling, or, need to sacrifice one of my HDD's, and GPU cooling. I waited a week or two, trying to decide what I wanted to do. During that time, I caught wind of a single 6TB HDD, made by Western Digital in the Black color. Which was excellent, as it helped me have the capacity I wanted with only one drive. Running it now, I like it. It's fast, but just a bit loud and sometimes warm. Regardless of that, I then decided to go with a full-size GPU. The place I originally intended to mount my HDD's then became the mounting location of a 92mm fan for intake on the GPU. I also decided since I was going with a full size GPU, to go with something slightly more powerful. In this case, I opted for a GTX 980. I did the power calculations and saw that the 500w power supply was sufficient for this kind of load, as well. I also opted specifically for the 500w SilverStone, because I heard rumors of the other smaller, non "SFX-L" power supply's fans having an annoying pitch. Which I didn't want.
So I ordered the drive, and ordered the GTX 980 (a reference version, as it was cheap, the blower style is effective for cooling in my scenario, and I may upgrade to a NVidia Pasqual GPU upon release). I was getting ready to order my board and CPU, when a friend told me to get the i7-5820K. I always wanted a HEDT CPU, but had been sticking with ITX for the past few years. And I had already ordered my case, so, it was a bit late to change a case to something else at this point. But he also informed me of the lovely ASRock X99e-ITX/ac. I looked into the board, and the reviews, and liked what I saw. I did some more research, as I was originally planning on ordering the i7-5960X for it's 8-cores, 16-threads... And found out that Broadwell-E should be support on LGA 2011-V3/X99 boards. So, I decided on ordering the i7-5820K as a place-holder until the i7-6950X released. The i7-6950X is rumored to be a 10-core, 20-thread monster. I'm aware of the Xeon CPU's, but, decided an i7 is what I wanted. This decision also affected my RAM choice. I'd heard rumors of only certain kits of 2x 16GB working with the i7-5820K. And I saw a special sale price for my current memory (2x 8GB) for only about $35. So, I ordered that just as a place holder as well, and will upgrade my memory with the CPU. My next task, was trying to find a new CPU cooler compatible with the LGA 2011-V3 Narrow ILM socket. Which was a lot tougher than it seems. It seems to be extremely limited, even with air coolers. I found out most AIO coolers do work with it, but wasn't sure if I wanted to water cool at the time. And if I did water cool, my thoughts were to do something more like a custom loop.
I eventually settled on the Noctua NH-D9DX i4 CPU cooler. At only 110mm tall, this would allow me to place the cooler where it belongs on the motherboard, and still fit a 120mm fan for intake directly over the CPU and board for intake. So, I had placed an order for two Noctua NF-S12 120mm fans for intakes, and a Noctua NF-A9 92mm fan for the GPU intake. Upon receiving, I went to place everything into the case. I had an issue here though, as you'll see in the pictures further down. The cooler physically fit, but the NF-A9 92mm fan on the CPU cooler needed to be offset due to RAM clearance issues. This disallowed the use of the NF-S12A 120mm directly over the CPU/Motherboard area. I also then decided to use a Noctua NF-A9x14 92mm x 14mm fan from a Noctua NH-L9i cooler I had, as the rear exhaust fan for my case.
The Build
The build process was relatively painless. The motherboard installed went easy. The CPU cooler installation was also very easy. Managing the cables and placing headers on the motherboard was easier than most other ITX cases I've built in before, surprisingly. Cable management was the most time consuming part of the build process. I opted for SilverStone's sleeved PSU cables for the aesthetic and ease-of-work. I also had to use SilverStone's CP-B11 super-thin SATA data cables to fit them between the power supply (due to it's extra length) and the header on the motherboard for SATA. When trying to install the graphics card, I needed to remove it and turn the power supply around, due to the offset of the cable ports on the power supply. An issue users with regular SFX form factors PSU's need not worry about. Placing down the HDD caused some pull-back on the insulation of my PSU's SATA power cables, but I carefully used some electrical tape to fix the issue. So, like an idiot I installed everything inside the case before actually testing the build. Here's were we get to the next part.
The Heartattack
So, I had the build assembled. It was time to turn it on. And that's what I did. It booted, all fans, HDD's, and Disc Drive spun up. But there was no display. I, trying to remain calm, tried different display cables, different display ports on the graphics card, as well as different displays. Still nothing. So, I went to the next idea. I removed the GTX 980 from the build, and placed in my old GTX 670. I closed the case back up, and upon boot, there was display output. So I was wondering: Is my GPU bad, or is my PSU insufficient to power this card? I took the card to my roomates room, and we tested it in his PC. He had a 750W PSU, so it should definitely have been enough power. When we booted his build with the 980, it displayed like it should. So, then I was wondering if my calculations were wrong as for the power requirements. I did them about three more times over, to double check myself, and every time I had the same results. At least 100W of head room, under the 500W limit of my power supply, as well as within the amperage for each individual rail on my PSU. So, I went on to my next test. I took the GTX 670 out of my system, put the GTX 980 in it, and disconnected my SX-500-LG PSU. I then connected my old Corsair TX 750 V2 PSU to my system, and tried to then boot. To my surprise though, I still had no display once again. I then decided for the heck of it, to check my motherboard BIOS. I updated them to the latest version, and still had no display when trying to boot using the GTX 980. Very confused, and very aggravated, I removed everything in the system and connected it all externally. Using the components chosen for the system, outside of the case, it booted properly and had display. I then re-assembled the system inside the case, and found myself even more amazed when it worked now! My only issue now was the CD/DVD drive wasn't operating properly, but it seemed to be one of the screws holding it into it's caddy space was preventing it. After removing the one screw, it's been working fine. I still never found the exact cause of what was preventing my system from booting. I don't believe it was a short, as the card has a full-cover back plate. The only thing I can think of is the fan header, or audio header, were preventing the 980 from sitting in the motherboard properly and after re-doing my cable management when re-installing the build into the case, it allowed the card to sit properly.
The Current Status
So now, we have the build running. I set up windows, got all my settings the way I wanted, and was pretty content, just waiting for the release of the i7-6950X as well as possibly waiting for Pasqual GPU's. During an AIDA64 CPU test, it never peaked 50C which I found incredibly surprising. In my actual usage, the CPU never gets over 45C on stock clocks. The GPU, though still a health range, idles around 30C and can heat up to ~81C during gaming. This started giving me the itch for water cooling. I looked into getting a 120mm AIO for the CPU, but found LGA 2011-V3 Narrow ILM compatibility to be a tedious thing to sort through, and didn't want to spend another $500 on a temporary GPU to be bundled with a cooler, "waste" the money to make an AIO GPU cooler. A friend tipped me off to the EK-XLC Predator 240 AIO system. I loved the idea of it, a full true water cooling loop, but sold as an AIO. As well as being able to, most importantly, expand the GPU into the system using quick disconnects and a pre-filled block. Well, after seeing another user's fitment issue, and doing all the measurements my self, I saw I'd need to modify the case to make that system fit. Which again, something I don't want to do given the limited availability of this case. So I decided, what the hell, I've made it this far, let's design a custom water cooling loop.
The Future For "Saiyra"
With all that now behind us, we have the future of Saiyra to look forward to. As we know, the CPU, RAM, and GPU will probably be upgraded. But I've decided I'd like to get a more powerful GPU, than the 980, or next equivalent whatever the naming scheme may be. And to do this, I may need to upgrade the power supply. Luckily, Corsair's SF600 600W SFX power supply is right around the corner. I'll likely order one, soon, and if Cablemod makes sleeved cables, I'll probably order some of those, too! I've been interested in some NVMe drive, to use as a caching drive, or a reliable back up drive. Specifically the Samsung 950 Pro 512GB drive. I may also use this drive to record game play videos, as, running a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 and saving content to a physical HDD causes my frame rates to drop tremendously on the current system. This is also part of the reason I'm thinking of a stronger GPU. I'm considering for Pasqual's GPU line, to order something more comparable to a 980 Ti, or even the fabled "Titan X," whatever they're new name will be. Those class GPU's are what I'll be looking for. Now onto the cooling. I've always been a huge fan of EKWB's design, and products from what I've seen. So the future of my build for the watercooling, is basically 100% EKWB products, aside from the reservoir. I'm unsure of the reservoir manufacturer, but it takes place on the rear panel, and doesn't require much space. It shouldn't hinder it, because the power cable makes the extra space unusable anyways. Lastly, all I'm trying to decide upon now, is what fans to get for the radiator. I'd like something relatively quiet, but I'm also looking for either white or red LED's on the fans. It's been a white since I've had some LED's in my PC to give it some bling, and I'd like to. I've also done a little "mod," or cheat, to make my power button LED shine red instead of the default blue. Part of why I'm leaning towards red. And then I came across Thermaltake's Riing 12 fans. 120mm "high static pressure" fans, but with 256-color "RGB" changeability. I've also ordered some sound dampening foam for the build, to line the panels with, and will be ordering the DEMCIflex filters for the case, soon, too. I'm also considering painting the heatsinks to a very dark red, and the RAM slots. But that's if I get very adventurous, considering it's a bit dangerous to do, and my style has always been favoring of black, red, and silver. But once all that is done, she'll be complete. Here's some photos of the build progress so far, and I hope you guys are almost as excited to see the future of this build as me. Below also has the photo of the loop plan, which has been slightly re-worked currently to include 90-fittings for fitment, lack of ability to bend of the 10mm ID -- 16mm OD tubing, and also a T-Fitting instead of a quick disconnect, for ease of draining the system if needed. This is also my first time doing custom water cooling, so tips would be appreciated. More to come, and I hope you enjoyed this lengthy read.
yes, i've heard that it's hard to fit. but performance is what really matters. yes this chip is great! for around 30 euro it's one of the best cpus one can buy!
thanks for your reply! yes, you can oc the xeon with the mod i've done. i think i will go with the dark rock pro 3. thanks for your opinion @LoGiCalDrm
I recently sold my old build, and am planning out a new one. Because of the two twenty seven inch monitors on my desk, I have very limited space, and would like to do a mini ITX build in a CaseLabs Mercury s3 (with a pedestal) unless they make a pedestal for the Nova XM2. As of now (with bold indicating parts that have already been purchased), my part list is:
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k (picked it up from a friend for $150)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Impact (Newegg had an open box for $120, so I jumped on it)
RAM: 8gb G.Skill Sniper 2400 mHz DDR3 (was on sale for $52)
Case: CaseLabs Mercury S3 with Pedestal
PSU: OCZ 1000w Fully Modular PSU (will find sleeved cables later, purchased from the same friend for $70)
Drives: (2x) Samsung 840 Pro 128gb
GPU: Undecided- not sure if I want to keep my 3gb 780 or sell it and get a 6gb edition or titan
I plan on doing a loop with PETG tubing and two reservoirs, as well as two radiators in the pedestal. Everything, including the motherboard, RAM, CPU, and GPU will be water-cooled with nickel EK waterblocks. As far as colors go, I am thinking a black (don't feel like paying $20 for gunmetal) case with either red or blue coolant.
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