Skylake Evolv ITX Classified

[Steve N. Mavronis]

Specs on PCPartPicker - https://pcpartpicker.com/b/96JV3C

 

 

I decided I'd build inside the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX windowed chassis. It's a very sexy looking case, especially for its form factor - not too small and not too big with plenty of headroom for tall graphics cards and CPU coolers. It also has some very nice features found in more expensive cases. It's very well made and looks fantastic. To improve case airflow out of the box, I added a rear 140mm fan and replaced the stock front 200mm fan with dual 140mm fans.

 

I also settled on having an air-cooled system using a large 140mm fan-based CPU heatsink cooler that doesn't block RAM slots. Thermalright's Silver Arrow ITX was a perfect fit. Its universal mounting system allows for 3-5mm of horizontal wiggle room next to installed RAM per the manufacturer. By request they graciously sent me their new LGA1151 CPU Support Spacer and 4 Special Mounting Nut Washers free of charge direct from Taiwan. They're being proactive after some reports of shipped systems coming with damaged CPU/Sockets due to the thinner Skylake processor PCB bending at the corners. Although Thermalright coolers have not been involved so far, they are recommending this for coolers over 500g and will be including the spacer and washers on all future products.

 

Case badges are cool but I didn't want to stick them onto my case like you normally would. So instead I came up with the idea to make movable magnetic case badges! A roll of 1" wide magnetic tape did the trick. Right now they occupy the rather empty back wall next to the rubber cable grommets. I even removed the Phanteks unused mid-plate logo (gently peeling up the edges using a plastic bread bag clip) and made a magnetic case badge out of it.

 

I hate seeing 'GPU sag' so I made a DIY standoff by cutting down a stiff power connector strain relief from my miscellaneous electronics parts collection. I inserted it through one of the PSU shroud holes where acts as a support column between the PSU and GPU. My massive EVGA GeForce 980 Ti Classified graphics card sits perfectly level and will never sag.

 

I'm using my new PC for gaming, multimedia, and productivity purposes. I successfully manually overclocked my system to 4.5Ghz and enabled core voltage adaptive mode. I have my G.Skill DDR4 TridentZ memory clocked to its rated 3200Mhz speed using the XMP profile via ASUS Z170i BIOS.

 

Just added some PC lighting bling with a BitFenix Alchemy 2.0 Red Magnetic LED-Strip to top it off!

[suchamoneypit]

Nice build, fantastic looking case.

[QFA350]

looks great!

[DieHörnær]

Nice!

 

Couple of interior shots wouldn't hurt?

[Steve N. Mavronis]

3 hours ago, DieHörnær said:

Nice!

 

Couple of interior shots wouldn't hurt?

[DieHörnær]

Ha ha, the stickers - nice!

 

[Steve N. Mavronis]

If any of you are also on PCPartPicker please go to my page there and give me some likes (up arrow) and comments if you want. I added more photos here check it out -> https://pcpartpicker.com/b/96JV3C