4u Quiet Rack Gaming Comptuer. With No Lightning ;)

[Ottetal]

 Quiet 4u Rackmountable gaming computer

Sponsored by Arctic Cooling

 

 

 

Introduction: 

 

Hello!

 

I have been thinking of building in a rack case for quite some time now, and I have finally decided to begin work. I am currently using a core 3000 on its side, with a few mods, as a “rack” case, since it by change is 43cm tall with no feet on the buttom. While it has kept me at bay for some time, its not the solution that I want, and I have therefor aquired me a new 4u case to begin work in.

 

Who am I ?:

 

If you have been on reddits /r/gamingPC or /r/Battlestations, chances are you have seen me.  have been incredibly active on Reddit over the last few years, and have gone through a few highend rigs in the mean time. As expected, my goal for a rig keeps changing. All my prior goals on my bucket list have been completed, and I found myself in the ever so familiar “what to do next” phase. Before,  I would look at the next big thing from my list and move on, but not anymore. Solutions that worked before because they were only “tempoary” are not starting to bother me, and as a result I feel a need to build yet a new rig

 

Before we get into the goal and hardware, you can watch my evolution at my imgur here 

 

https://imgur.com/a/HCVKs

 

Goal:

 

I have had my spaceship case. I have had my ”small but powerful” case, and I have had a few other experiemnts. My ideal build -right now- is a strictly aircooled, silent and powerful (enough) build, in a sleek case, thats easy to hide away.

 

I am going to go with rackcases, because they are easier to blend in with audio gear, than standalone cases. The ability to throw the rig in a rack will make a ton of stuff easier for me. 

 

 

Todo

 

• Disassemble, wash and prepare case for paint [DONE]
• Make mounting holes for Harddrive silencer [DONE]

• Paint case parts [DONE]

• Find replacement motherboard [DONE]

• Fix internal cables [DONE]

• Build [DONE]

• Measure

 

 

So far a very short to-do list – especially for what my projects normally include :-) I bet its going to evolve just as much as the rig will!

 

Hardware comments: 

 

To be quite frank, I am satisfied with my current rigs performance. But as we all know, the upgrade itch  can easily show itself, once I get going. The main part to upgrade will be the new cooling parts, which all have been generaoulsy sponsored by Arctic Cooling. This is my first sponsored build, and I am looking so much forward to putting it to good use! I am also looking into getting a new motherboard, since my current Gigabyte board has given me nothing but issues. At that point, a full blown upgrade might be more worth while! ;-)

 

Parts list:

 

Main components:

 

• i7 4820k

• Gigabyte x79s-up5-wifi

• Sapphire r9 290 Tri-X

• 16Gb Crucial 2133 Mhz RAM

• 1x 120Gb Corsair force GS 

• 2x 240Gb Sandisk SSD plus
• 1x 240Gb Samsung 840 seires

• Noname 4u rackase (That looks an awefully lot like the Codegen 500mm 4u case)

 

 

Cooling:

 

• Arctic Accelero Xtreme iv

• 2x Arctic f8 fans

• 1x Arctic f12 fan

• Arctic Freezer-13 CPU cooler

• Arctic HDD hc01 enclosure

• Arctic RC RAM blocks

 

 

Will be updated .. when I have something to update! :-)\

 

 

Here are the final pictures!

[Ottetal]

First update!

I have completely disassembled the the case ready for paint, which was a breeze since there are no rivets - everything is screwed together. These parts will be receiving a matte black paintjob 

I have decided to keep most of the internal parts in their "stock" metal finish. This includes the PCIe crossbar, 3.5" Drivecage (that I might not use) and 5.25" bays

[Ottetal]

Right as I was about to head out the door, The package from Arctic arrived at my doorstep!

 

 

Gotta love some new footwarmers

 

 

[Ottetal]

Opened the HDD silencer up to see whats its like. Can be obtained from the following places;

https://www.arctic.ac/de_en/arctic-hc01-tc.html
http://www.performance-pcs.com/arctic-hc01-tc-cooler-for-3-5-hard-drive.html
http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-HC01-Cooler-Hard-Drive/dp/B00473YM8C/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

Interesting piece of technology - I certainly think its unique :-)

Here is opening it up

 

Comes in a plastic bag, with the clamshell plastic enclosure. Very easy to open up

 

Inside you see the foampads, 40x40x20mm fan with its molex passthrough plus temperature probe.

 

Acessories include additional foampads and mounting screws



IO lines up this way - may possibly cause Issues.




Here is a short demonstration of the HC01

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd_7FigHUMM

[alpenwasser]

I see you're up and running again.

19"... yeah, I'm in.

[Ottetal]

I see you're up and running again.

19"... yeah, I'm in.

Heeeeey, Alpenwasser!   

Thank you for the help, the other day!

Yessir - up and running. Currently in toxic fumes, hopefully this will be the worst part of the build 

 

More updates to come shortly!

[Ottetal]

Small update:

Mounted the HC01 in the 5.25" caddie.

 

 

 

 

Only one small problem - it does not align up with any of the existing mounting holes. No current holes, no current problem. I'll make some new!

 

 

 

 

Mounted, and ready for deployment ... if only it had a drive to use. Oh well, one less issue in the future!

 

 

 

 

[Ottetal]

I wanted to make some serious progress today, so I embarked on painting. I decided to do this inside, which I thought was a good idea. I thought my main issue would be protecting everything else from paint, so I built a "paint booth", like so:

 

However I must admit that I simply don't have enough ventilation inside to be able to paint. The primer I used reeks toxic fumes, and I don't wish to be exposed to them for prolonged periods of time. And my place stinks of paint now. 

 

The outside is currently rainy and far to windy to paint, so that will have to wait for another day

 

On the plus side, I got half of the parts painted, on one side, so I got that going for me

 

[Ottetal]

Short update; 

I am plauged by bad weather, which inhibits me from doing any work on painting the case. Everything on my todo list seems to rely on having a case to build in

I am currently trying to get a new motherboard/cpu combo, to replace the x79 platform.


No update without any pictures - here is the two f8 fans mounted to the primed-but-not-yet-painted backplate

[Ottetal]

YESSIR! New stuff arrived!

 

I was browsing my local craigslist-lookalike, and found a deal I simply could not pass on. I wanted to loose x79 and get on a consumer platform, so this was amazing for me! 

 

 

Whats that? A fan connector. Exiting. 

 

 

OOOHHHH. x99! Lets get going!

 

But first; what is in the bag shipping bag?

 

An Arctic fan/cooler combo. Don't remember picking this up from the guy I purchased it from. I am genuinely in doubt what happened here.

 

Well, guess its one more for the collection Contemplating using the larger one if the case allows it, but then again, I feel like that would be a not-so-cool to do to Arctic 

 

 

Under that we find the Gigabyte x99 Gaming 5 motherboard. Looking forward to using some of the boards features! \

 

 

OOoohhhhh, vengance RAM in the package. Good value. Is that a preattatched chip? Bring it!

 

Standard accessories.

but wait.

 

What is that? There is rarely green bags in red motherboard boxes. Lets investigate. 

 

Ziplock back, IKEA branding. Toilet paper inside. What is going on?

 

 

Maximum value!!

[SpaceNugget]

FYI to hide a barcode strike thick Vertical lines not horizontal. 

 

P.S. Cool project, Cant wait to see how it looks when its done.

[Heesleemer]

did the guy throw in an ssd and a cooler?

[Ottetal]

10 hours ago, WaxyMaxy said:

FYI to hide a barcode strike thick Vertical lines not horizontal. 

 

P.S. Cool project, Cant wait to see how it looks when its done.

Cool, thank you

 

5 hours ago, Heesleemer said:

did the guy throw in an ssd and a cooler?

 

 

We many or many not have agreed on it. We could not decide a price, and I asked him if he could create some extra value for me to accept his price. He said he would throw in an "old ssd" and a cooler he had laying around. Did not expect this. I am very satisfied

[Ottetal]

Another update! 

 

Here we have the board, that will now be going into the build. Gigabyte x99 G1 Gaming. 

 

 

The bundle I bought came with a CPU. Not a great CPU - its the Xeon E5 2603 V3, meaning its a 6 core 1.6 Ghz x99 chip, with a tdp of 85 Watts. Benching this against my currently un-overclocked 4820k (3.7Ghz, Quad core x79) will be interesting. 

Will it be slower? Sure, but selling it will net me a third of a 5820k, and the bundle still came at a great price. 

 

 

I am worried. Removing the chip, I found this damage on some of the pins. Can anyone of you confirm that it is indeed damage? I don't have an extra card laying around as of right now, so I cannot see if the board posts. 

 

 

Mocked up the RAM placement with the small cooler. Fits in all slots. Damn the RC modules look baller!

 

With the larger cooler, I cannot run 8 sticks with the fanshroud on. 

 

[Ottetal]

Have been sick for a week, have not done much.

Friend of mine offered to finish the painting - I said yes. Complete disaster ensured. Here is what I got back. 

 

[potoooooooo]

Don't know if it's too late but that definitely looks like some pin damage, and you should definitely try and get a replacement if you can

[Tmt97]

"Friend of mine offered to finish the painting"

 

You sir, may want to reconsider what you call a friend. Nice idea though. Good luck.

[Ottetal]

On 2/14/2016 at 7:28 PM, Tmt97 said:

"Friend of mine offered to finish the painting"

 

You sir, may want to reconsider what you call a friend. Nice idea though. Good luck.

I am reconsidering In any case (heheh) I won't be working with him anymore

[Ottetal]

Took the case to an automotive paintshop today. The price he quoted for redoing the paint was fair IMO, but far higher then what I want to pay. Now the negotiations begin

On another note, I might sell the x99 gear I posted about. I simply don't think that the 2603s 2.1GHz maximum core clock will cut it. Besides, my 4820k serves me well for now. I will be giving up the Ability for all of my drives to be on SATA III, the possibility of m.2 SSDs without a PCIe card, and of course the immediate upgrade path to say a 5820k. 
 

I got the combo for a great price, and if my calculations are right, I can resell it for a price that essentially have given me a free 240gig Samsung 830. 

 

Thoughts?

[Ottetal]

Applied the Arctic RC RAM modules today. They look nice  

Do I care about their cooling performance? No, because I'm not pushing 1.8 volts through my chips. Do I care about their looks? Yes - I think they look amazing. Besides, noone else seems to be using them these days, so they got a bit of that Hipster value going on, which I like 

 

I made an installation video of them here:|

 

 

 

 

 

[Ottetal]

This buildlog is not just about the computer. Its about using my computer setup in a better way. Bt eliminating noise and making the rig rackmountable, I can have a much cleaner work environment. But I don't interact directly with the computer. I interact with my peripherals and monitors, Ill therefore talk a little about those.

Here is what I recently setup, to test out staggered screens 

 

 

Since I have already tried eyefinty 5, as seen below, I am contemplating trying out eyefinity 6

 

 

I have a local connection, which might be able to hook me up with some old monitors; I have decided to try out 3x2 - Possibly with 4:3 or 5:4 monitors for fun

[HdFkK]

That second monitor setup is just nuts. And yet you want more?

[Ottetal]

55 minutes ago, HdFkK said:

That second monitor setup is just nuts. And yet you want more?

Why stop?

I don't game as much as I did when I made the eyefinity 5 setup - which was made entirely for gaming, of course, but I can point my fingers to many siturations where I daily could benefit from six monitors. I just don't know if its my thing. 

 

I think I am productive when I have physical borders in between my monitors, instead of software ones, if I used a 40" 4k TV as an example. Besides, old monitors are cheap, if I don't keep the setup, no biggie. I want it off the bucket list!

[ObeseWalrus]

Flot setup! Hvilket keyboard bruger du nu? Og hvor har du købt det?

[AlienALX]

That motherboard looks totally fucked.