1.5 Year Progress Budget Build to Custom Painted Water Cooled 5 different cases!

[Ten K Ohms]

Please bear with me guys; there are a ton of pics and it doesnt get really good until the very end! From budget build to custom painted, I'll try to post all the pics I have lol, see the progress through my first time watercooling.

So here's where it all started when I build it for the very first time 1.5 years ago:

and the inside:

i5 2500K + Zotac 560 Ti Amp! Edition + 4GB RAM

Temps on the 560 Ti were getting really high and I was getting pretty nervous about it compared to other 560 Ti owners so I ended up diving into the watercooling foray. Picked up an Azza Toledo, unfortunately no pics of the before watercooling but here's after I pretty much stripped down the entire case to fit 2 X 240mm Rads:

pic with the light off PC on:

Of course I couldnt keep the pc like that forever lol so I ended up getting a Thermaltake Level 10:

hated the case, returned it within the week. the top "handle" was cheap plastic secured to more cheap plastic and lifting it by that handle would pop one end of it slightly out which made me very nervous. I didn't lift it up often so that wasnt the returning point. The hot swap bay was cool, but the connector hub was very cheap and I ended up breaking 2 SATA ports just plugging in cables, this was the last straw, so I brough it back and ended up getting an 800D! Finally, a case that fits both of my rads comfortably!

Shortly after I ended up swapping out the 560 Ti for an EVGA 670 FTW edition with an ek waterblock:

full pic:

at one point had a sign:

and then finally came the time when I changed the tubing to UV reactive yellow and painted the case myself, first time painting ever!

dissassembling:

painting:

finished painting:

pic of rig with the lights off and PC on:

then I had a brief stint with the Bitfenix Prodigy where I wanted to carry my rig around in a more portable form factor so I got the case and an mini-ITX mobo. side by side comparison with my lunchbox:

unfortunately the mini-itx mobo I was using was having issues and the PCI slot stopped working. Plugged in a different GPU, still didtn work, tried a different power supply, RAM, processor, etc. Figured out it was the mobo, so ended up exchanging it for a new one, same mobo. Worked for a few days then PCI slot died again. Fed up with driving back and forth from MicroCenter so I ended up returning the case and the mobo and getting a new mobo (previous one was asrock current one is MSI)

ditched the ITX and went back to the beast

and a current window pic:

also heres a pic of my current keyboard (cherry mx black by ducky with clear keycaps) next to my old one (razer black widow ultimate)

Final system specs:

MSI Z77A GD65

16GB RAM

i5 2500K

670 FTW

2 X 120GB SSD

1TB HD

[Guest]

My god the yellow is awesome :D

[Bupalooga]

My god the yellow is awesome :D

I second that!

[TicTac]

wow the yellow really looks awesome :o Love it!

[Lolipop]

Y U NO GET MSI MPOWER

[Ten K Ohms]

My god the yellow is awesome :D

wow the yellow really looks awesome :o Love it!

thanks! painting the case was very nerve racking, was really hoping I wouldnt mess it up or make it look sloppy

Y U NO GET MSI MPOWER

ahhh wasnt out at the time although every now and then i think about picking it up

[Nit3Rid3R]

You make yellow look good.

[theJBcomputers]

looks amazing

[s0nrise]

Love the looks of it. That yellow in the 800D looks pretty sweet

[crocski]

first time i think ive seen a painted 800D... looks great.

[Ten K Ohms]

You make yellow look good.

looks amazing

Love the looks of it. That yellow in the 800D looks pretty sweet

first time i think ive seen a painted 800D... looks great.

thanks!

[Ten K Ohms]

bump :)

[josh_05]

Looks awesome mate. Love the color scheme! And i totally agree with you about the Level 10, I got mine cause i liked the look of it and i got a good deal second hand off a mate.. They are so plasticky for a premium priced case and the build quality is very average. -.-