[WIP] Project Greyscale | i7 3930K | R9 290 | NZXT Phantom 410 | 240mm + 360mm Rads

[paulsterio]

Hi Everyone, 

 

This is, 

 

Project Greyscale

 

This is a build that I've been meaning to do for a while, it's not a new build, in that most of the parts are sourced from my current rig, but it'll all come together to something quite nice. I think I'll split up my posts, but I think I should be able to finish it in 5 posts:

• Intro
• Case modding to fit 360mm Radiator
• Parts installation
• Cable Sleeving
• Final build and wrap up

 

Introduction

 

Components:

 

• CPU - Intel Core i7 3930K w/ Waterblock
• GPU - AMD Radeon R9 290 w/ Waterblock
• RAM - 16GB (4 x 4GB) Patriot Signature Series
• Motherboard - Gigabyte X79-UP4
• Case - NZXT Phantom 410 - Black
• Storage - 2 x Intel 520 Series 120GB SSDs in RAID 0
• PSU - Undecided 
• Phobya G-Changer 240mm Radiator w/ Noctua NF-P12 x 2
• XSPC EX360 CrossFlow w/ XSPC Xirrulian Fans x 3

Some light justifications, 

 

I went went with the 3930K because I wanted some raw CPU power, also, it's not actually that much more than a 4770K, around $200 or so more, so it's not exactly expensive for something that will last me a long time. The R9 290 is just excellent value, much better than the R9 280X for not much more and not that much worse than the R9 290X for quite a bit less. Also considered a GTX780, but I want this to be a litecoin miner during its idling time. 

 

Originally, I had intended to go with the MSI X79MA-GD45 inside a BitFenix Phenom M for an mATX build, but I found that mATX is quite restrictive in terms of expansion slots. I have a large table, but I don't want a dwarfing full tower there, so I decided to go with a mid-tower and make my use of space more efficient. I will be removing the rivets that hold the 5.25" bays in this case, so I can fit a 360mm radiator on the front. It will be a tight fit, but if I can't fit it, then I'm happy with changing to a 240mm radiator on the front instead. But going this route instead of mATX allows me to keep my X79-UP4 and make use of an abundance of expansion slots. 

 

The highlight of this build, 

 

I want this build to be a greyscale build, meaning that there will be no colour. The inspiration for this is the X79-UP4, which is a greyscale board:

 

 

The interior and exterior of the black NZXT Phantom 410 is also all black, with a white fan.

 

I'm intending to sleeve cables in "carbon fibre" which is sort of greyish, so that will fit in well. Now, there are two problems I have to deal with - i.e. two components that are NOT greyscale - the RAM and the Noctua Fans. The Noctua fans I can fit on TOP of the case (under the mesh), so it can't be seen. The RAM, I've decided to cover the heatsinks with automotive carbon fibre vinyl wrap, so this stuff:

 

 

 

Hopefully that turns out okay. Anyway, without further ado, here are SOME of the parts I'll be using, some aren't in this pic and some (i.e. that Phantom 410) hasn't been bought yet, so I'll get round to that. 

 

Pics will be here tomorrow, having a few camera/PC troubles.

 

Case Modding 

 

Okay, so first thing first, I don't think it's possible to fit a 360mm radiator in this case without having to do some serious modding which will probably reduce the structural integrity of the case, so I've changed plans. Instead of going 360mm + 240mm, I'm just going to go 240mm + 240mm, realistically, temps will probably be like one degree higher. 

 

Now, I also have some other options, so maybe someone could give me some advice. I could go for a 280mm radiator up the top, but I would have to buy new fans, as I have 120mm fans (heaps), but no pressure-optimised 140mm ones. Alternatively, I could just add a 120mm radiator on the back, so I'll have 240 + 240 + 120mm, i.e. same as what I originally had planned, but I don't think that would be worth the money and it would make the tubing runs more difficult. 

 

Anyway, without further ado, this is a bare NZXT Phantom 410:

 

 

So, there are a few things that I have to drill out rivets to remove, so that HDD cage at the bottom and the 5.25" bays:

 

 

So, the end result, we have this:

 

Looks like quite a spacious case after removing all the unnecessary things, now time to fit a 240mm radiator in the front with two Noctua NF-P12 fans. There are quite a few reasons as to why I decided to go with the NF-P12s rather than the NF-F12, mostly to do with the F12s only being available in PWM.

 

The Phantom has an inbuilt fan controller which is good enough for my needs. Also, the P12s are quiter than the F12s. I'm not aiming for the lowest temperatures by any stretch of the imagination, as long as I can run a 4.5 GHz overclock without breaching 75 degrees, that's good enough. There's no difference between 70 and 75 degrees, but quietness does matter to me. 

 

 

Now, this was the part I was discussing before, it can fit in a 240mm or a 280mm radiator, and I'm honestly still tossing up between the two, but I can't see ANY benefit in going with the 280mm at this stage. 

 

 

So yeah, looks like I have to go and order a radiator for the top now, it's pretty much impossible where I live (in Melbourne, Australia) to find a shop which I can just walk into and buy watercooling components. 

 

Time to get the tools, cables and stuff out and get ready for motherboard installation. (I've actually already finished, but pics are uploading, so I'll post an update as in a few hours time). My table looks like such a mess now!

 

 

Thanks for tuning in everyone!

 

A Little More Modding and HARDWARE TEST FIT!

 

Sorry about the lack of updates everyone. Anyway, I've made a few changes. 

 

Installed a bit of the hardware here, just to see how it all looks 

 

 

Routed the 24-pin!

 

 

Now, I want some hard drives in my build, so I have to ghetto mount a hard drive bay in order to accommodate my two 2TB drives in RAID 1 for "off-network" data storage. This is me just holding the bay in place. 

 

 

Did some drilling and bolting. 

 

 

I'm afraid that the vibrations might make it noisy, so I added some glue at the bottom to dampen, looks ugly, but nobody will ever see it. 

 

 

So now we have the two HDDs installed!

 

 

So this is a shot of what the system looks like now, took out the hard drives (back in my current system cause I need the data), the pump has also been installed!

 

 

And an overall shot of how it looks now. 

 

 

Thanks again for looking, next time, I'll be installing the 240mm radiator in the top, fitting in all remaining hardware, adding waterblock to the GPU, installing addon cards and finishing off my loop. Then it's just to fill and test!

 

Next update, will be a small interim one, as one major change has been made since. 

 

I'm still awaiting one final fitting, that's why that one tube is still not hooked up, but anyway, I've coloured the annoying purple capacitors on the motherboard black. I think this makes them look better. 

 

 

Some more shots of the build, the resevoir is on the table, I'll screw it on when I get round to filling it. 

 

 

The white fans look pretty good, thankfully they were included with the case, so I didn't have to do too much purchasing. 

 

 

The same two white fans up the top, the capacitors here have also been coloured black, I think it's a much better look, especially once I clean up the RAM, maybe paint them black. 

 

 

Pump connected to the base of the res with a 90 degree M-M fitting.

 

 

Black capacitors, I did try to make the RAM look black from the top, but don't think that went too well, so I'll be trying to improve that over the next week. 

 

 

Just another shot. 

 

 

With the window closed. Where I'll be putting it, the Noctua fan can't really be seen, so I guess it can stay there, it's quiet, it moves a lot of air, it's a good, high quality fan that I paid quite a bit for, so it'll have to do. Don't have the heart to be replacing it right now. 

 

 

Also replaced the PSU with a TX650 this morning, so more shots coming in soon, it looks much, much cleaner and I'm starting to really like how this build is coming together. 

 

I'll be starting on a mining rig soon, featuring the Coolermaster HAF X along with my HX1000 PSU, which was way overkill in this build anyway. There are a few things I really like about non-modular PSUs though, given that I can just hide the cables I don't need out the back, but realistically, there is only one molex harness and one PCI-e harness I don't need, so not like that is a whole lot anyway. 

 

But they do look more "low-profile" or stealthy compared to modular PSUs because they just have all the cables coming out the corner directly out to the cut-out hole for the PSU cables, so there isn't so much mess as a modular PSU. Also, I can't take lighted shots any more because I've finalised all the cabling behind the back so I can't just plug the lights and fans into an external PSU to just turn them on. When the time comes to fill the loop, I'll just unplug the 24pin ATX from the motherboard and short the pins. 

 

Anyway, that is my little rant about modular PSUs, I'm sure they have their place. But pictures coming soon. I'll have to get an external light source for the time being. 

[Arkatek]

Can't wait to see the progress!

[Hikaru12]

Great theme choice. Look forward to this build. Subbed.

[bob345]

This build looks like it will be great. Not enough builds with this kind of color scheme honestly. Good luck with the build!

[paulsterio]

Hey guys, just posted up an update to the opening post, enjoy the pics!

[paulsterio]

Hey everyone, update added!

[AlwaysFSX]

Liking how clean it's looking.

[paulsterio]

I just got my hands on my GPU waterblock, the EK Supremacy Universal block, to be honest, these actually can look quite nice, it's a different look to the common full cover blocks, so I quite like it. 

 

Also managed to get a Xonar Essence STX, a TV tuner card and an NZXT White LED lighting strip. Just waiting on a single fitting now. 

 

I'll get another update up soon, been spending a lot of time on it recently. 

[tristan1035]

I just got my hands on my GPU waterblock, the EK Supremacy Universal block, to be honest, these actually can look quite nice, it's a different look to the common full cover blocks, so I quite like it. 

 

Also managed to get a Xonar Essence STX, a TV tuner card and an NZXT White LED lighting strip. Just waiting on a single fitting now. 

 

I'll get another update up soon, been spending a lot of time on it recently. 

When it comes to universal blocks you have to make sure you have enough cooling around the card, the VRM's and RAM is going to be pretty toasty.

[paulsterio]

When it comes to universal blocks you have to make sure you have enough cooling around the card, the VRM's and RAM is going to be pretty toasty.

 

Yep, got a 140mm fan in the side window blowing air onto it, I have heatsinks I can put on them, but I'll see if I need them after testing. 

[paulsterio]

 

Little preview of update coming shortly

[AlwaysFSX]

I'd have painted that side noctua fan black and grey but still awesome!

[paulsterio]

Minor change this morning, graphics card has been changed to a GTX660. (This is a workstation). PSU has also been changed to a TX650. 

 

The HX1000 will be going in my next project which will be a Litecoin mining rig. 

[ilikemacandpc]

love greyscale builds

[paulsterio]

Update up guys

[TheMissxu]

That's perfect! Honestly, I think that's probably a build I'd switch to

[paulsterio]

 

I wonder how some people live with ITX or mATX, that's my back panel, top to bottom:

• GTX660 (1 + 2)
• WiFi (3)
• USB 3.0 (4) - need two extra ports
• ASUS Xonar Essence STX (5)
• Leadtek DTV2000S TV Tuner (6)
• NZXT LED switches (7)

Should I ever need to go SLI/Crossfire, I'll probably take out the USB 3.0 card and the WiFi card (use an external bridge instead). 

[AlwaysFSX]

 

 

I wonder how some people live with ITX or mATX, that's my back panel, top to bottom:

• GTX660 (1 + 2)
• WiFi (3)
• USB 3.0 (4) - need two extra ports
• ASUS Xonar Essence STX (5)
• Leadtek DTV2000S TV Tuner (6)
• NZXT LED switches (7)

Should I ever need to go SLI/Crossfire, I'll probably take out the USB 3.0 card and the WiFi card (use an external bridge instead). 

I wonder how some people live with tv tuners

[paulsterio]

I wonder how some people live with tv tuners

 

What's wrong with TV tuners?

[paulsterio]

NEW PROJECT

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/94414-wip-project-litecoin-miner-i5-2310-asus-p8p67-pro-cm-haf-x-2-x-r9-280x/

[paulsterio]

Hi everyone, just a little teaser, cleaned up the cabling mess quite a bit at the back!

 

[BreadTang]

I'd really like to see pictures of this rig however the photos aren't showing. I have a Phantom 410 too and i'd like some help with mods.

[BreadTang]

Hey man,

The photos aren't showing up. It would be awesome if you could email me the photos of your completed rig because I'm attempting to mod the same case and your mods are the best phantom 410 mods I've seen that don't cost a fortune. brendan-tang@ hotmail.com

It would be awesome if you could help by emailing me the photos.

Thanks a ton!

Brendan