in-progress Project: Evolv RGB

[MadG4mer]

This is my first custom PC build and my first build log here in the forums. May I present you, the Evolv RGB (still working on the name, not 100% pleased).

 

I was running my old prebuilt Lenovo that was already pretty old model when I bought it so i thought that I might want to think about custom build one to fill my needs. The main use of the PC was to be capable of decent/fast 3D modeling (when I need to start use it for that purpose in the near future) and gaming (of course). Unlike normal +2000€ builds this is not going to be used for 4K/1440p gaming. I will use it to get high framerate (over 150hz) to get everything out from the gaming experience with my 144hz monitor.

 

The build's theme was decided when I couldn't decide the theme. I choose to use neutral colours and get the colour from RGB leds (I know that some of you dont like these leds and this whole build is MINE and designed by personal decisions)

 

Current part list: (Press this to redirect to PPP) (To be ordered/not sure, ordered/shipping, arrived/bought and owned)

 

CPU: Intel I7-6800K from the Broadwell-E lineup. My choice of CPU was between 5820K and the brand new 6800K. As the price difference was not as great as I expected it to be I decided to order the newer I7-6800K. 

CPU cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 all-in-one liquid cooler. Cooling performance of the 280x140 coolers are pretty similiar so I just bought the one looked best to my eyes. Corsair ones were ruled out when I found out that the RGB led to work in those would have needed other Corsair product with the digital port to work with.

Case: Phanteks Evolv ATX Silver. One of the only good looking midtower-case that could fit EATX and 360mm+240mm rads in the future if my upgrading ever goes that far. And I just love the looks of the case itself.

Motherboard: MSI Gaming Pro Carbon. Well now we start the RGB parts. This mobo is one of the best looking boards that the X99 refresh has given us. It has very nice RGB lighting and the carbon black finish is stunningly good looking.

GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. What can I say? I just loved the silver/metal finish of the card combined to the white parts with the leds. The clockspeeds of the cards are factory clocked to almost the max like almost every other card in the 1080 family. (in air cooling of the side)

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V 32GB (8x4GB) DDR4-3200. Got good deal when buying these ones so I thought that I might aswell buy two times the 4 stick sets. Black metal heatspreader which nicely fits in the neutral theme.

PSU: EVGA SuperNova G2 650W. One of the best PSU in the market at the moment, modular and gold certification.

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB. Excellent reviews and one of the top sellers in the market at the moment.

More storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 SSD. I´m only going to store Windows + few my main games in the M.2 drive. NVMe is now supported by all MSI and Asus boards so it shouldnt make any hazzle.

RGB lighting: NZXT Hue+ and max amount of lightstrips possible. Every self respecting RGB build should have one of the addressable led solutions. (Hue+ being only one that doesnt recuire Arduino/other microcontroller)

Fans: 3x Thermaltake Riing 14 Red. Leds in the fans will be switched to RGB ones that are controlled with Arduino.

 

Peripherals:

 

Keyboard: Corsair K70 Rapidfire RGB Nordic. Only keyboard with the MX Speed switches at the moment and I was going to buy K70 even without knowing they were publishing the Rapidfire version.

Mousepad and wristpad: PCMR Extended white mousepad 92cm by 46cm and grey normal-sized wristpad. I was going to buy the pad anyway and I just saw the awesome looking wristpad and after watching few seconds to my wrist I really noticed that i need one.

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Chroma. Best mouse I have ever tested, feels really good in my hands and responds as fast as I want it to do.

Headset: Kingston HyperX Cloud Revolver. Metallic frame and feels good even with my glasses on. (fricking SS Siberia V2, dont buy then if you have normal sized glasses, my ears still hurt)

Monitor1: BenQ XL2411z 144hz gaming monitor. I consider replacing my second monitor with another one of these if they ever drop back to the price I got this one for.

Monitor2: Acer somerandommonitor1 24". Bought 8 years ago when I get my first PC (didnt even run at 60fps because the pc was crap)

Monitor3: Acer somerandommonitor2 18". 4:3 very old and bad, used as infoscreen and I will propably dump it.

 

DIY parts:

 

Arduino + chunk of electric stuff. I will use these to the synchronize my motherboards RGB with the ones under my desk/behind my monitors. And to add remote controlled PC start with my mobile using the basic MIT App inventor.

Different kinds of vinyl. Will be used to modify the colour scheme of the build. (Lighten the inside of the case and add some black accent to outside of it.

Full set of sleeved cables. I dont know if I want to order this set yet as it costs around 110€.

Some acrylic sheets. I want to make RGB effect under the mousepad.

Signum cable holder. I just want to hide my cables under the table.

 

To-do-list:

 

-Drill another hole to my desk for the cables.

-Finish the wooden cable hider.

-Come up with design for the carbon vinyls. (Black and white carbon)

-Wait for everything to arrive.

 

I will start posting pictures when I start to receive parts/go and buy them.

 

 

[MadG4mer]

I have to thank everyone who has helped me to choose my parts and helped me to overcome every single problem I have faced during this spring.

 

EDIT: I cant write

[19_blackie_73]

looooking forward to see it done

and i can't wirte too^^

[MadG4mer]

UPDATE #1

 

Really small update. Added To-do-list to the main post and Signum cable rack to the DIY part.

[MadG4mer]

I will add some pictures from current setup later tonight and Im going to go to local car modding shop and buy the vinyls I need.

[rynomuncher]

Built my rig at the end of last year in the Evolv M-ATX and absolutely love it! I can't get enough of Evolv builds so looking forward to seeing this one!

[MadG4mer]

2 minutes ago, rynomuncher said:

Built my rig at the end of last year in the Evolv M-ATX and absolutely love it! I can't get enough of Evolv builds so looking forward to seeing this one!

I had excatly the same feeling, couldnt get enough Evolv builds and decided to build one by myself.

[MadG4mer]

I got message from Mindfactory (PC component shop) that my parts will be shipped 29th day and will be here around week after the parts were shipped.

[MadG4mer]

UPDATE #2

 

I bought white and black carbon vinyls (Both are 100cm by 150cm) and have started to think about the design.

I ordered the K70 keyboard and Hue+ with extension cables.

I also ordered keyboard wristpad and extended mouse mat from PCMR.

 

Everything has been updated to the original post and I also added pcpartpicker link to it.

 

Sorry for no pictures yet, didnt have time yesterday! 

[MadG4mer]

I will have total of 8 Hue+ strips (30cm each) and this is the design I came up with them. (Red wires are LEDs and blue ones are extensions)

[MadG4mer]

And I know that I need to drill couple of holes but that isnt really a problem.

Also I have yet to decide do I want to put my Kraken on the top or to the front, thought I think it looks better in the front.

[MadG4mer]

Well this is something I need opinion on. IF and just IF I decide to buy the sleeved set which one of these 3 (suggestions are fine and will be considered) would you buy?

[ManOfGold93]

I would buy the last set because the set seems a little lighter which might turn out better in your case.

[MadG4mer]

UPDATE #2.5 (Just minor things)

 

I have ordered 3x Red Thermaltake Riing 14 fans that will be modified to Arduino controlled RGB fans. Also sone minor typo-fixes and minor detail switches in the original post. Fans will be added to the list when I get acces to some kind of computer.

[MadG4mer]

Seems like Mindfactory likes to change times around. Parts will (hopefully) be shipped 13th day of july and not the earlier date that they gave me.

[MadG4mer]

I have ordered the cablemod set and I will be picking up Hue+ and the strips, fans and K70 tomorrow!

[mhamrin]

On 6/20/2016 at 6:17 AM, MadG4mer said:

This is my first custom PC build and my first build log here in the forums. May I present you, the Evolv RGB (still working on the name, not 100% pleased).

 

I was running my old prebuilt Lenovo that was already pretty old model when I bought it so i thought that I might want to think about custom build one to fill my needs. The main use of the PC was to be capable of decent/fast 3D modeling (when I need to start use it for that purpose in the near future) and gaming (of course). Unlike normal +2000€ builds this is not going to be used for 4K/1440p gaming. I will use it to get high framerate (over 150hz) to get everything out from the gaming experience with my 144hz monitor.

 

The build's theme was decided when I couldn't decide the theme. I choose to use neutral colours and get the colour from RGB leds (I know that some of you dont like these leds and this whole build is MINE and designed by personal decisions)

 

Current part list: (Press this to redirect to PPP) (To be ordered/not sure, ordered/shipping, arrived/bought and owned)

 

CPU: Intel I7-6800K from the Broadwell-E lineup. My choice of CPU was between 5820K and the brand new 6800K. As the price difference was not as great as I expected it to be I decided to order the newer I7-6800K. 

CPU cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 all-in-one liquid cooler. Cooling performance of the 280x140 coolers are pretty similiar so I just bought the one looked best to my eyes. Corsair ones were ruled out when I found out that the RGB led to work in those would have needed other Corsair product with the digital port to work with.

Case: Phanteks Evolv ATX Silver. One of the only good looking case that could fit EATX and 360mm+240mm rads in the future if my upgrading ever goes that far. And I just love the looks of the case itself.

Motherboard: MSI Gaming Pro Carbon. Well now we start the RGB parts. This mobo is one of the best looking boards that the X99 refresh has given us. It has very nice RGB lighting and the carbon black finish is stunningly good looking.

GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. What can I say? I just loved the silver/metal finish of the card combined to the white parts with the leds. The clockspeeds of the cards are factory clocked to almost the max like almost every other card in the 1080 family. (in air cooling of the side)

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V 32GB (8x4GB) DDR4-3200. Got good deal when buying these ones so I thought that I might aswell buy two times the 4 stick sets. Black metal heatspreader which nicely fits in the neutral theme.

PSU: EVGA SuperNova G2 650W. One of the best PSU in the market at the moment, modular and gold certification.

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB. Excellent reviews and one of the top sellers in the market at the moment.

More storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 SSD. I´m only going to store Windows + few my main games in the M.2 drive. NVMe is now supported by all MSI and Asus boards so it shouldnt make any hazzle.

RGB lighting: NZXT Hue+ and max amount of lightstrips possible. Every self respecting RGB build should have one of the addressable led solutions. (Hue+ being only one that doesnt recuire Arduino/other microcontroller)

 

Peripherals:

 

Keyboard: Corsair K70 Rapidfire RGB Nordic. Only keyboard with the MX Speed switches at the moment and I was going to buy K70 even without knowing they were publishing the Rapidfire version.

Mousepad and wristpad: PCMR Extended white mousepad 92cm by 46cm and grey normal-sized wristpad. I was going to buy the pad anyway and I just saw the awesome looking wristpad and after watching few seconds to my wrist I really noticed that i need one.

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Chroma. Best mouse I have ever tested, feels really good in my hands and responds as fast as I want it to do.

Headset: Kingston HyperX Cloud Revolver. Metallic frame and feels good even with my glasses on. (fricking SS Siberia V2, dont buy then if you have normal sized glasses, my ears still hurt)

Monitor1: BenQ XL2411z 144hz gaming monitor. I consider replacing my second monitor with another one of these if they ever drop back to the price I got this one for.

Monitor2: Acer somerandommonitor1 24". Bought 8 years ago when I get my first PC (didnt even run at 60fps because the pc was crap)

Monitor3: Acer somerandommonitor2 18". 4:3 very old and bad, used as infoscreen and I will propably dump it.

 

DIY parts:

 

Arduino + chunk of electric stuff. I will use these to the synchronize my motherboards RGB with the ones under my desk/behind my monitors. And to add remote controlled PC start with my mobile using the basic MIT App inventor.

Different kinds of vinyl. Will be used to modify the colour scheme of the build. (Lighten the inside of the case and add some black accent to outside of it.

Full set of sleeved cables. I dont know if I want to order this set yet as it costs around 110€.

Some acrylic sheets. I want to make RGB effect under the mousepad.

Signum cable holder. I just want to hide my cables under the table.

 

To-do-list:

 

-Drill another hole to my desk for the cables.

-Finish the wooden cable hider.

-Come up with design for the carbon vinyls. (Black and white carbon)

 

I will start posting pictures when I start to receive parts/go and buy them.

 

 

Did you buy this yet? Consider a bit more research on your mobo and cooler. Asus mobos are the best built. Check with the mobo gurus here. 

 

The 61 cooler has the highest cooling specs but the pump is loud and i've heard some leak stories. Consider the corsair h110 or h115. The cooling is 2nd place but pumps are quiet and solid.

[MadG4mer]

5 hours ago, mhamrin said:

Did you buy this yet? Consider a bit more research on your mobo and cooler. Asus mobos are the best built. Check with the mobo gurus here. 

 

The 61 cooler has the highest cooling specs but the pump is loud and i've heard some leak stories. Consider the corsair h110 or h115. The cooling is 2nd place but pumps are quiet and solid.

Everything with the yellow-ish font has been ordered. Asus support is one of the worst I have ever had to deal with and they didnt have any mobos fitting my price point at the time when I ordered the parts. (Deluxe/Deluxe are over 400€ here)

 

Only reasons to buy the Kraken over Corsair ones was that RGB led in the cooler and the overall look of the thing. Corsair's coolers leds to be RGB needs another Corsair product to work (Digital PSU (i-line), Corsair Link, etc.). The voice wont be problem as I am pretty used to my 2010 nuclear reactor right next to me. Leaking would be biggest problem but NZXT seems to have same policy with the component replaces if it was their fault that.

 

Thank you for the opinion!

[mhamrin]

Didn't know that about asus support. 

 

Yeah the deluxe is expensive! I'm going with the plain x99-a II. It's a newly released mobo. It's got rgb on it.

 

Take care~

[MadG4mer]

I didnt realise how large the 140mm fans truly are...

 

[MadG4mer]

First pictures are here!

 

Seems like modding the fans will be easiest part of the electronic things I have to do.

[MadG4mer]

All pictures are taken with iPad as that has best camera I own right now.

[MadG4mer]

Sneak peak!

[MadG4mer]

Only thing I can now do is to wait for everything to arrive. Also updated the mainpost.

[MadG4mer]

UPS have sent me message staying that the PC parts should arrive Wednesday evening (20th day) and every other part should arrive within 5 weeks. I will be building the PC before modding because I will be needing it in LAN event (4th day to 7th of August).