Rise of the Triad.

[ALXAndy]

Hi guys. So Tom Logan @ OC3D has decided to send me one of these.

 

 

This is good for a few reasons.. Firstly my PSU (the 850w Dell job) whines. Secondly I will be adding a second Fury of sorts (either an X or a regular or Nano, not decided yet) so I will need the extra juice. All quite exciting right? well firstly here is what I am aiming to combat.

 

 

But secondly, and the most exciting part is that Tom was sent a full set of braided cables for the AX1200 in blue. But they're not just regular old Corsair cables they were a prototype set of Bitfenix Alchemy. Amazing eh? so the main theme will be blue cables to match the blue motherboard.

 

It doesn't end there either. As you guys know we (my wife and I) also own a 2009 Area 51 ALX? well I am currently in talks over a 2010 Aurora ALX complete with roof vents and all.

 

So more to come soon, but the PSU switch out will be the star of the show tbh.

[ALXAndy]

OK so I decided to make this shit real. Every fan in the PC will be replaced by these.

 

 

 

I will also be using these on every fan.

 

 

And some teaser shots of the cables.

 

 

 

 

Now because of the way the PC is inside there is hardly any cable management. The cables tend to just free flow which is fine, because those blue cables will look lovely. However, I will need these.

 

 

I will be placing the order next Friday, so expect the action to begin shortly after

[ALXAndy]

Update. 

 

So today I was in a bit of a predicament tbh. There's a 8 pin EPS connector at the bottom of the motherboard for the PCIE lanes and let's face it, EPS cables are the longest cables on the PSU. So this meant I would end up with around 40cm at least of spare wire that I could not hide.

 

So I ordered these.

 

 

Then realised they were the wrong type. They're female one end and male the other, FFS. I need double ended females so in the end I cracked and got out my gear and went to work. Look on the keyboard.

 

 

In the end it took me about 40 minutes to take some wires out of an old cable (for a PSU I had cables made for) and shorten them. However, the best part about doing it myself is that I now have them the exact length I need (24 cm).

 

So all I need to do now is whip out the long cables in the EPS run and replace with my blue cables. Sweet !

 

OK, so inside the PC will be three fans. The rads will all have two fans on but you will see the front end of three fans. So, I am going to order MNPCTECH grills for them so they look nice and clean. It's a toss up at the moment between these.

 

 

Or these.

 

 

I am leaning toward flames, but please feel free to comment and give me your opinion because I'm quite open

 

Cheers.

[ALXAndy]

Update. So whilst looking at the bionic fans I noticed this.

 

 

Hmm.. That looks kinda familiar ! I then realised that it was a rebranded one of these, that I used in restoring Mrs Alien's Alienware.

 

 

Here it is in action missing the rubber shroud (I used that elsewhere).

 

 

Want to know what's funny? Powercool charge £12 each for their fans. I just got five of them (pics).

 

 

 

For £5 each. So basically I was going to pay £12 each for the bionics plus £5 each for the gaskets so £17 each. I paid £5.

 

That, my friends, is what you call a massive branding price hike.

[ALXAndy]

I did some more today. OK, so if I follow the PSU I get a molex connector here for "ODD" whatever that means. Now this molex then splits and goes off to the other side of the case for what I assume to be the IO board. However, split molex are fugly so I decided to rewire the PSU when it arrives so there are two correctly sized molex runs. One for "ODD" and one for the IO board. Here is the first one here.

 

 

Note - I have already ordered a couple of male MOLEX connectors so that I can replace the white ones. So I took an old loom from a PSU and cut some wires with the connectors on. Removing them isn't possible.

 

 

Busted out the tools.

 

 

And solder.

 

 

And then.

 

 

Braid.

 

 

And fit the MOLEX connector.

 

 

OK so now when the PSU arrives I will simply take a SATA run and remove the wires and connect mine. That will give me a perfectly sized MOLEX run for the ODD.

 

So basically now I have to measure the existing split MOLEX and make a single MOLEX like this only much longer.

[k1llampt]

Like the progress so far, a unique case and it will look good once you finish modding. I will follow this for sure

[ALXAndy]

Thanks chap. Yeah she's gorgeous but whoever designed the inside should be slapped. It's really messy in there...

[k1llampt]

Yea I agree, are you thinking about creating a window for the case at all?

[ALXAndy]

Not possible. It'll either be side on or side off.. There's no way I am cutting into the case I made that mistake before. I guess it would be possible to get a piece of acrylic and cut that and make a window but yeah, certainly not going to touch the side panels. The big issue is how the lights are laid out. There's pretty much nowhere to cut a window.

[k1llampt]

Ah, I see. Yea I was just wondering. Would be nice to be able to see all that hard work. 

[ALXAndy]

I'm sure I will come up with something

[ALXAndy]

Update ! the postman has been, now I have a few parts.

 

[Lays]

LOL I've been buying computer parts for thirty years and it's always the same. They're built like poop because they want you to replace it all a year later. Most companies don't even have a UK base to help their customers from.

-snip-

Not entirely sure where you're buying your parts, or what tier of parts you've been buying but I've never had a single issue with any of the parts I've bought over the years.. And I absolutely smash my parts with voltage. Albeit I upgrade quite frequently and sell my old parts to friends or on other sites. Although I haven't had any complaints on anything dying/having issues.

My last two ddr3 kits have been well beyond 1.9v for benching sessions that lasted many hours and I've never had a single problem with them. The ram in my system right now has been pushed to 2.15v for about 30 3 hour long benchmark sessions at 2800+ mhz cl9 and is still working exactly like the day I got it. It's even been to 2.35volts for a 2900+ mhz validation for hwbot. My last 3 cpus have been well beyond 1.5v for long benching sessions and my motherboards have been put through the ringer as well.

The only reason I still don't have those parts was that I sold them to pay for other parts I wanted, and I haven't heard any complaints from the buyers about those products having issues either.

I'm ridiculously hard on my parts with the crazy amount of voltage I run through things and the clocks they get pushed to, not sure why you seem to have so many bad experiences.

[ALXAndy]

It's just luck, dude. I don't have any. Even this PC (the Triad Alienware) has terrible coil whine from the PSU. When I had the two Titan Black in there it literally used to buzz so loud the desk vibrated.

[ELSknutson]

a little pice of me just die form reading this...

part manufactures not living up to to there products is a problem but Going out an getting a fancy cased Dell makes me cringe after having working for dell and HP ding repairs on there products which included Alienware. So I have to say I'm sorry but I'm not with you on this one.

[ALXAndy]

a little pice of me just die form reading this...

part manufactures not living up to to there products is a problem but Going out an getting a fancy cased Dell makes me cringe after having working for dell and HP ding repairs on there products which included Alienware. So I have to say I'm sorry but I'm not with you on this one.

 

Yawn. I've heard it all before, mate.

[ALXAndy]

OK going back to your post. This isn't a Dell. If you take a look closely at the case you see this.

 

 

Ring any bells? MSI. Then you go into the overclocking software.

 

 

And.

 

 

And my daily overclock, with a little Realbench 2.41.

 

 

4.4ghz 24/7 stable out of a 5820k. I'm really not sure what more you could ask for.

 

Any way, I got all of the new cooling fitted.

 

 

It's a little noisier than before but nothing bad. It doesn't have that horrible whirr when the PC starts any more either which is nice. Apologies for using flash, it's a dark day here on the South Coast. The PSU has arrived and will likely be fitted tomorrow. I am going to make up the two custom cables tonight, then probably do the last one in the morning

[hearthofsin]

MSI made it?? what? the case or mobo??

[ALXAndy]

The whole thing it would seem.

[ALXAndy]

Power supply now fitted.

 

 

Next up - paint the PCI back plates and get another Fury...

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

That doll is creepy as hell m8

[ALXAndy]

haha I've got a few dude. They're Living Dead dolls. It usually sits on top of the rig but I moved it

[ALXAndy]

Update ! things have gone quiet due to personal issues but that doesn't mean I'm not planning things

 

I wanted a largish PCIE SSD but they are expensive. The Intel 750 400gb is around £320 and I didn't really want to be paying that just to store my games on. So it's time to think out of the box a little.

 

I've ordered this and have it ghetto fitted to the PC ATM.

 

 

It's a 480gb. I have also ordered this (don't laugh !)

 

 

And plan to remove the end PCIE plate. This will give me the opportunity to drill holes through it and mount an acrylic board that will hold that lovely blue SSD. I will spray it all black (the whole board and PCI holder plate) then mount it in view in the PC. For that I will cut off a SATA run so there's only one connector on it, paint the cut wires black (you'll see I will get some photos) and then mount the SSD like that, into the computer.

 

I will then fit one of these (AKASA blue rounded)

 

 

So that should look rather nice. I am also going to tidy up the PCIE power cables and main 24 pin cable using these that I have ordered.

 

 

So more should start happening once the parts start to arrive

[hearthofsin]

that pci bracket fan thing.. why?????? if you had open air coolers it would maybe help a bit to remove some of the heat but that thing will just be sucking air out there shouldn't be any heat soak around your gpu's.. D: and isn't it loud? it looks loud even tho that is a silly thing to say ^^

[ALXAndy]

You've missed the point dude. See the silver part on the end? I will be removing that and bolting a piece of 5mm acrylic to it and making a holder for an SSD. There will be no fan.

 

I just got done digging and found an old SATA card so I used the back plate off of that. Just keep an eye on the thread and you'll see it come alive