Project Sunrise (In progress)

[That Norwegian Guy]

It's about time I got to work on this. I certainly have been talking about it for quite some time! From numerous posts in the motherboard/cpu section here on LTT that have helped me decide on the course of action for this build, as well as a helpless panic thread when I went to buy a BitFenix Survivor and couldn't find one on sale in all of Europe. Thanks for helping me guys and girls, you know who you are.

 

 

I eventually did manage to secure this case, after looking deep, deep on the internet. Hopefully BitFenix will fix their European supply soon.

 

The mission statement:

To create a versatile second rig to act as both mass storage and as a game/file server for my beloved guild/ clan that I've been running for almost 9 years. Thus, I will need a powerful processor with lots of threads. However, one day I would like to retire it from server duty and use it as a personal gaming computer. Thus, Xeons are out of the question and I will also need to make it future-ready in terms of graphics options on the motherboard. So without further ado, my planned spec list is as follows:

 

Intel 3930K. Cooled with Thermaltake Water 2.0 in the front if it will fit.(Exhaust) (If it doesn't fit, I'll probably do a Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 air cooling system and reconfigure top and back fans to exhaust.)

BitFenix Survivor Case

Cougar GX 1050 Power supply. (Exhaust)

ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard. Because it has the most optimal configuration of SATA ports and amount of RAM slots and SLI / Xfire-friendly layout for my needs.

32 GB Crucial Ballistix 8 gig modules @ 1600mhz. Some of the things I will be running on the server will have very large databases.

Nvidia GTX 470. This server will inherit my Prodigy's GTX 470. I am buying a GTX 780 for my Prodigy. When I sell my Prodigy, Survivor inherits the 780 and I buy another for SLI.

2x Crucial M500 960GB drives for boot and pagefile in raid 0 (onboard)

RaidSonic Icy Box IB-545SSK Hard Drive backplane. For five hotswap 3.5" 4TB HDDs in the ODD bays.

HighPoint Rocket 8-port Raid Card.

Silverstone Air Penetrator 180mm bottom-mounted fan pointed at GPU fans. This will require modding, the Survivor does not come with such an option.

Be Quiet! 120mm intake fan in the back. 200mm fan included with Survivor in the top will also be an intake.

 

The colour coordination will be orange and black, with some silver and gold.

 

Modding done so far:

Drilled out the HDD cages to allow mounting of the radiator.

 

Modding to be done yet:

Drilling bottom fan holes and grill, large window with guild logo etch-effect decal. Various case lighting (Phobya warm white in the bottom pointing up, BitFenix orange in the top facing down.)

 

 

See full gallery here

(when the build is completed I will populate this thread with most of the pictures)

 

Additional commentary in the gallery. Also, for an idea of what the side window decal will look like, the logo is the one in the website banner.

 

And if anyone is wondering, my red-lit Prodigy is called the Sunset :P

[Theblasphemouscoffee]

nice one, have always liked the look of the survivor

looking forward to the pictures :)

[unidentical]

Can't wait to see how this turns out, I've always liked the look of that case.

[KaareKanin]

Looking forwards to seeing the results

[That Norwegian Guy]

nice one, have always liked the look of the survivor

looking forward to the pictures :)

 

 

Can't wait to see how this turns out, I've always liked the look of that case.

 

Yeah I know right? I'm so in love with it's looks. Many people are turned off by the curved brackets in the back as they require you to fiddle for a bit with a screwdriver to get the side panel off. In my case, it's a feature, as when I bring this to a LAN it won't always be in my line of sight and thus any potential thief will have a pretty annoying time to get to the inside :P

 

Also, the hotswap bays have locks ^_^

 

Maybe I'll go super paranoid android and chain the case itself to something when I'm at LANs.

[unidentical]

Yeah I know right? I'm so in love with it's looks. Many people are turned off by the curved brackets in the back as they require you to fiddle for a bit with a screwdriver to get the side panel off. In my case, it's a feature, as when I bring this to a LAN it won't always be in my line of sight and thus any potential thief will have a pretty annoying time to get to the inside :P

 

Also, the hotswap bays have locks ^_^

 

Maybe I'll go super paranoid android and chain the case itself to something when I'm at LANs.

You'll have to change the theme of the build a bit....

[That Norwegian Guy]

You'll have to change the theme of the build a bit....

 

I'm not sure I get the reference  :unsure:

[Anagog]

Where did you buy the case in the end? I want one :(

[Akula]

Looking forward to this build.

Have to say the backdrop of that initial photo is amazing :o

 

So jealous of your location :(

[That Norwegian Guy]

Where did you buy the case in the end? I want one :(

 

Originally I had ordered it at a sale on a Norwegian etailer. However after paying and such they still hadn't sent it after almost three weeks. I contacted them and they had no idea what was going on. So I started looking for alternatives, and that's when I panicked as no other stores had them except a bunch of far away foreign ones. Just as the three week mark was around the corner and I thought they would auto-cancel it for sure, magically I got shipment info in my inbox and it was on it's merry way.

 

The etailer was cdon.no

 

 

Looking forward to this build.

Have to say the backdrop of that initial photo is amazing :o

 

So jealous of your location :(

 

Really? Australia isn't bad! Just really different :P

 

But yeah, love the nature around here.

 

By the way, Australia/ New Zealand is just about Norway's antipode. (Opposite point of earth)

[Blade of Grass]

I see a good looking computer in your future. XD Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[unidentical]

I'm not sure I get the reference  :unsure:

It's Mr.T, I guess it's a north american thing.

 

Anyhow, I just figured if you wanted to put a chain on it, might as well go all the way, right?

[TicTac]

OMG this is awesome man loving the pictures 

[That Norwegian Guy]

I see a good looking computer in your future. XD Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

I sure hope so! I'm no pro modder by any stretch of the imagination, but I think I can do a really shiny job this time :D

 

It's Mr.T, I guess it's a north american thing.

 

Anyhow, I just figured if you wanted to put a chain on it, might as well go all the way, right?

 

Yeah I know it's Mr. T I just missed the point about the chains :P mostly because I was thinking of heavy duty industrial chains and not jewelry  :lol:

 

OMG this is awesome man loving the pictures 

 

Thank you! I'll try to vary the backdrops too, maybe when the build is finished I'll take it up in the mountains or into the forest or something for a photo shoot  :D

 

And an update:

 

 

Raidsonic Icy Box is here! Wondering if I should spray the grills dark red primer and highlight the edges in fluo orange... What do you think? Though, it's not looking to be easy/ danger-free to remove the grill from the tray door  :o

 

Maybe I'll just paint them black very carefully with a detail brush... Decisions, decisions.

[jscho]

This looks REALLY nice Can't wait to see more!