Obi-wan

[_The_Petes]

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

 

Episode II: Obi-Wan

 

 

 

The Starwars Saga is arguably the best sci-fi action drama to ever be seen on the big screen. To pay tribute to this epic story of adventure, discovery, love, darkness and triumph, i have chosen to make my first of many gaming builds with the Starwars theme titled "Obi-Wan". Obi-Wan is my first Intel and SFF build ever. The idea came from my first gaming rig tited "Vader" which utilized an AMD FX4100 on a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 motherboard with an XFX 6870DD inside an all black modded HAF 912 with red 200mm CM fans. Vader was meant to grow into a power hungry monster only to fall short in the end. With Obi-Wan, i threw out the budget and pretty much bought what was needed within reason.

 

Specs are as follows:

 

CPU: Intel 3570K @4.2 Ghz

Motherboard: MSI Z77IA-E53 Mini ITX

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 2x4 GB White Low Profile 1600Mhz 1.3v

PSU: Silverstone ST55F-G 550W, Silverstone PP05 short cable kit

GPU: MSI GTX680 PE OC "Lightning"

CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 2013 edition AIO w/ Corsair SP120 High Performance fans x2

Storage: Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid Drive

Case: Fractal Design Node 304

Misc: Black, Yellow and Blue paracord for sleeving, Lamptron PSU connector tools, various splitters and connectors for fans

 

I remembered in one of Linus' videos talking about the "big 3" hardware manufacturers and decided to go with MSI because of the color sceme and the fact that no one really uses the MSI mini ITX board. Im one of those people who will buy something that isnt exactly popular, prove it works just as well as the rest and hope others will take a chance on it too. Now ill be honest, the Bitfenix Prodigy is a nice looking case and maybe the next revision will make its way to my door step with a later build, but its just too big. Seeing as how this isnt a major water cooled PC, I couldnt see myself wasting all that space. The Node 304 is perfect with its simplistic design. The deletion of the front optical bay was pretty much the main reason why i ended up buying it. The CM Elite 120 was another option but the PSU mounting was just in the wrong place! Dont get me wrong, its a slick looking case and you cant go wrong with CM especially at its price point. The front mounted PSU in the Node was a huge plus and the Silverstone Strider 140mm PSU was a perfect choice for it. I mean, its fully modular, 80+ Gold and the perfect size for this case or any case for that matter.

 

So, on to the build portion:

 

 

I only needed the one HDD mount seeing as how im only using one HDD. If i felt like it, i could instal another HDD or SSD with no problem

 

Board with Memory, CPU and H60 back plate installed

 

 

 

Board installed, plenty of room

 

PSU installed

 

 

GREAT thermal paste

 

H60 Installed, only a single fan at the moment. I wanted to test a single and then both fans

 

This is to show the clearance between the bottom of the H60 and top of the I/O

 

Maybe a little tight but doesnt look like it will be a problem

 

Stock cables just to show how long they are

 

Getting ready for sleeving (PP05 kit)

 

Super strong and very easy to use. Great investment

 

 

Used these colors before I made the GTX680 purchase. I was debating the 670 vs 680 and decided with the 680. Dont worry, the colors will change ;)

 

That would be the 6870 that will be featured in the Vader build log that i will be doing after this one

 

So this is the MSI GTX 680

 

 

 

 

 

 

GPU Reactor PCB

 

 

 

 

This is why i changed the colors. Blue and yellow match perfectly and the subtle, single wire contrast from the black makes them stand out perfectly

 

 

Isnt complete without shots of the Blue LEDs right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

So thats it for the Obi-Wan build. I know that there are a TON of pics and i hope everyones internet connection can handle it.

 

I have to give a big shout out to the Linus Tech Tips crew for creating this forum and allowing us members to display our pride and joy. I have an earlier build log of this very build on a different site but was met with ridiculously rude behavior not only from forum members but also from the mods and admins. I was so excited for this forum and am very thankful for it. So thanks again for making this happen and thanks to all the forum members who are viewing this build as im sure you will have lots of wonderful things to say!

 

 

Oh and one more thing.........

 

Episode I: Vader

 

 

....To be continued

[_The_Petes]

As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask away! I can take more detailed pictures upon request and im sorry for the bad quality.

[CouchSloth]

Awesome. I wonder if all that work on the inside is lost as you can't see inside with the case cover on though. Really neat work and great photos.

[_The_Petes]

Well, you cant really see everything inside of a Prodigy either but that doesnt stop people from water cooling them :P . I run it with the case often because i like staring at it haha. I could mod a window but that would defeat the purpose of having a side vent and the top cant be done without taking out the HDD bay support. ive already thought of those options and i would mod the top if i can ever afford a 480 GB SSD for the mSATA slot. In any event, the work was more than worth it even when the cover is on.

[CouchSloth]

Yeah not saying its not worthwhile doing, just with all that wonderful work I'd wanna show it off lol. Maybe occasionally it should go "naked" for a night. :)

[Nicktrance]

That's one compact beast  :lol:. How are the temps?

[London Bridges]

I really love the cables and the memory. Did you paint those or do they have white dimms? Also love the collaboration of blue yellow and white, everything just fits so good together and it just looks so clean and nice in such a small beast. Love it and keep it up.

[nerdglider]

impressive build, I like the design  

[Winther]

really like the color scheme on the cables! ;)

[trentonjeffro]

The sleeving you did is amazingly done

[_The_Petes]

Heres a real world scenerio for temps. F@H running in the back ground for only a few minutes. Temps are pretty much the same even after hours of use. I dont know what the ambient is but as you can see, 60's isnt that big of a deal.

 

 

PS, anyone know how to repair broken fan blades? Glue recomendations?

[_The_Petes]

As for the sleeving, some people say its really hard but i was able to sleeve all the wires in a couple hours. Twice!! Paracord isnt as intimidating as some youtube videos make it out to be and it looks great! Dont be discouraged. Its cheap, its easy and if you dont like it, go with the MDPC type. I may try it next year along with cutting new equal length wires since they will be much straighter than the PP05 kit.

[RankUpGamers]

Haha... awesome build, but I found this for you

[_The_Petes]

Haha thats freakin awesome!!!!

[_The_Petes]

Soooooo one of the fan blades on my Lightning broke off..............any ideas on how to fix it? Will MSI warranty the card and install a new fan? Any thoghts? The card is only a couple months old and this pretty much sucks. Ive had a number of GPUs in my time and have NEVER had this happen or anything happen to a card physically. SO dissappointed.

[andrevautour]

nice

[_The_Petes]

So after 6 months of playing with this little machine, ive come to the conclusion that the Fractal Design Node 304 is NOT a case meant for housing high end gaming components. The cooling in this thing absolutely sucks. It sucks so much that i have permanently left the cover off of it just so it can breath. So yes, im looking to upgrade.

 

My first option is the Cooler Master Elite 130 ITX case

 

 

 

The front mounted AIO cooling solution is what makes this case so much more attractive than the Node 304. Plus it has the little fan to cool off your VRM heatsink which is what is overheating when i overclock passed 4.2.

 

The next option is something that might look a little bit funky but it will have the best cooling option.

 

 

The Cooler Master N200 has LOADS of options that mini ITX cases dont but youre sacrificing a small footprint. With the N200, i could mount any 240mm radiator in the front in push pull, thus enabling a higher overclock and adding a 120/140mm fan at the top to blow air over the VRM heatsink keeping to nice and cool. Since i am using a mini ITX board, another idea is to cover the unused motherboard tray with black painted acrylic. I only use one drive and with its 2.5" form factor, it will fit on the front motherboard tray along with an SSD upgrade. Note that the HDD "cage" will be removed to make for a more cleaner look. Anyway, let me know what you think guys!!

[BenD]

well, you have to think about you're loads,

if you're a pusher like i like to say, you need to acces a good air flow.
you can't really achieve that in a mini build (unless you don't mind your fans blowing at max most of the time)

would go at least a midi tower

[_The_Petes]

well, you have to think about you're loads,

if you're a pusher like i like to say, you need to acces a good air flow.

you can't really achieve that in a mini build (unless you don't mind your fans blowing at max most of the time)

would go at least a midi tower

My thoughts exactly. Bigger case = better airflow. And with the plexy on the mobo tray, its gonna look insanely clean. I might even put a panel on the bottom to cover the holes and what not from the HDD cage.

 

EDIT: And im not too sure why my pictures have gone the way of invisibility. Must be a glitch or something.

[BenD]

i would like to add something on minibuilds,
if you do your sleeving yourself instead of buying kids;

to get more airflow without getting better fans or maxing your fans all the time,
you could run your wires as short as possible, so you don't have all that cables in your way, but your cables will be useless in bigger builds, so don't do it on regular psu's, you have to get a full modular one, because that 24pin cable will need max length in bigger builds.

anyway that's what i think about minibuilds