Project Sunset

[Memphaestus]

This project first began back in August.  Basically I started making a decent amount of money at work, and I relocated out of California so that money ends up going a lot farther.  I've been a gamer and a PC builder since 2008, but have only really just upgraded specific parts gradually as things got out of date.  I always ran 2nd-3rd tier equipment in my pc's, and never really ran the best in anything ever.  I am finally in a position to change that.  Apologies in advance for the phone camera pics.

 

When it is done, this is what will comprise the build.

Components:

Case - Fractal Design Define R4

Motherboard - ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z

CPU - AMD 8350

CPU Cooler - Swiftech H220

GPU - R9 290x (well it looks like the 290x is within my price range)

RAM - Mushkin Redline 1866 7-7-7-24

PSU - Corsair 860

PSU Cables - Corsair Red individually sleeved cables

Hard Drives -

1x Adata SX900 256GB SSD

1x WD Green 5400rpm 1GB

1x WD Blue 7200rpm 320GB

Fans -

4x Noctua NF-A14

4x Noctua NF-F12 (radiator fans, I may eventually go push pull if I move the radiator to the front of the case)

 

I will be water cooling the GPU, CPU, and the Motherboard Northbridge and VRM.  I've been looking at the EK parts for this, and it will be my first custom loop watercooling adventure.  Mind you, the watercooling won't be for a while, as I'm still waiting to purchase a 290x since they aren't in stock anywhere yet.  Also, because I will be cooling all those parts, I will probably end up getting a new, larger case to fit a couple 360 Rads.  I'm kind of looking at the 900D, but I'm not settled on anything yet.

 

Most current picture:

 

I've been moving in stages with this build.  This was the starting place for this pc.

 

 

I upgraded from my old Rosewill Wind Knight case and got myself a Fractal Design Define R4.  Also, there was a sweet deal on Mushkin Redline 16GB 1866 7-7-7-24 RAM, at the same time, so I picked some up.  I've been using Mushkin Ram since my first build where I bought 4GB Silverline 1333 to go with my Phenom II x2 550BE. I think I did alright on the cable management for a non-modular PSU.  Oh, and don't forget the Adata SX900 256GB SSD.

 

I started filtering in the new parts for the build whenever I noticed a good deal.  I knew I wanted to go with a Black and Red themed PC no matter the cost.  First step towards that was getting myself a red LED strip.  I may get another one down the line.

 

Next came the new monitor to replace my aging 17" HP.  24 inches of ASUS IPS glory.

 

And finally, I replaced the old Phenom II x2 550BE with the Vishera 8350.

I don't know if that TX-2 thermal paste does too well.  Maybe it was a bad application job, or maybe it just got too hot for too long.  I was running the Phenom II at a 3.81Ghz overclock which, from what I've been told, is pretty nutz on just air cooling.  Either way, I went ahead and purchased some Noctua Thermal paste since it has some of the best reviews and wasn't too expensive.

 

Replacing it with POWER!

 

That was pretty much the end of phase 1 of the build.  Now that I had the foundation to my new gaming pc, I could start ordering the go fast parts.  In comes the ultimate of all AMD motherboards!

 

Time to take out the old faithful GA970-UD3 rev1.1 for the new hotness.

As you can see, Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans are starting to fill every available space.

 

In order to run my new 8350 at my desired overclocks, I'd need a good cooling solution.

And of course I'd need to run a leak test. 

I forgot to take pics of the H220 with the NF-F12's on there, but you'll be able to see them in some other pics later.

 

It passed with zero leaks and a silent (non-rattling) pump, so now it was time to start the assembly.  I have to start by saying that the build quality of the Swiftech H220 is pretty impeccable.  Sadly though, it wasn't built with the Formula Z in mind.  I honestly wasn't sure if it would fit in the top of my Fractal R4, so I was prepared to try to fit it in the front of the case.  Until I ran into this problem.

That picture is after I took a large chunk of metal off of the H220 bracket with a pair of cutters.  I figured it would be better to cut up the bracket than the Crosshair's heatsink.

If you compare the following 2 pictures, you can see how much metal I actually cut off.  An arc around the edge of the bracket measuring about a half inch.  I rounded it enough so that it is just barely clearing the heatsink, but I may pull it back off and file it down some more.  Someone that doesn't look too hard probably won't even notice the alteration, but I do want to get that cut a bit smoother and I'll see if I can add a black paint to cover the raw metal.

Also notice that the RAM slot 1 can't be used with this board. Also, rotating the brackets on the H220 so that fittings are on the top and bottom was impossible unless I wanted to cut even more metal from the brackets.

 

After some tweaking of the CPU 8pin cable management, this is how close the 8 pin ended up.  The radiator is actually putting a little bit of pressure on the cables, but thankfully doesn't seem to be putting enough pressure to strain the motherboard connector.

 

And that brings me to where I am right now at the End of Phase 2.

The obligatory box shot.

 

Next to come will be the Corsair AX-860 PSU with some special cables.  They are already in the mail.  I will also be modifying a few items on the Fractal R4 case.  I'm wanting to swap out the blue LED on the front panel with a red one, and I'm considering painting all the Hard drive cages and pci expansion slots red.  Something must also be done about that abysmal grey and tan DVD drive.

 

After that, I'll just be waiting for the first opportune moment to order myself the new gen AMD R9-290.  Stay tuned.

 

EDIT: Current Overclock.

[Memphaestus]

Reserved for Phase 3 of the build.

[naca1227]

I thought that blue led fan looked awesome! 

[M-ursu]

Ghat looks great!

[Memphaestus]

Wow, quick replies!

I thought that blue led fan looked awesome! 

Haha I thought I would be the only one! I've been trying to persuade myself into getting a Blue LED strip for the top just to see if it looks cool.  It would give it the whole sunset color scheme, hence part of the build's title.

 

 

Ghat looks great!

 

Thank you very much! It still has a little ways to go yet.

[TicTac]

Awesome upgrade man looks awesome !

[Memphaestus]

Awesome upgrade man looks awesome !

Thank you very much. This build has got me excited to go back and play games that I have already beaten, just so I can play them on ultra settings.

[J4M35]

I just helped a friend out today with an upgrade, he git the same mobo and an 8350! yours is looking a lot tidyer than his, he wouldn't let me do any cable management Yours is looking really good!

[Analog]

Extremely nice system! I love it!

[hiyayhi]

Love dem noctuas!

[Giancarlo124]

That looks pretty sweet.

[Memphaestus]

I just helped a friend out today with an upgrade, he git the same mobo and an 8350! yours is looking a lot tidyer than his, he wouldn't let me do any cable management Yours is looking really good!

Thank you.  I'm trying to keep it neat.  I'm sure your friend will love the upgrade since the 8350 is a champ.  I just followed the basic ASUS ROG 4.8ghz overclock settings and achieved them stable without a hitch.  When I get the AX860, then I'll start really trying to push the overclock above 5Ghz because it will be more stable power (extra 4 pin cpu connector).  Also, I'm planning to pull pretty much everything apart so I can make some fairly major layout changes.  In particular, I'm going to try to remove the remaining lower hard drive cage.

 

Extremely nice system! I love it!

Thank you very much.

 

Love dem noctuas!

So do I! Silence and high airflow. The system is so much quieter now with those Noctuas.  All I have to do now, is get rid of the slightly too loud TX650 and super noisy HD 6850 to really have a quiet build.

 

That looks pretty sweet.

Thank you.  I'm glad you like it.

[Memphaestus]

Small update: I ordered some more bitfenix lights and the 3.5" to 5.25" bay adapter for the hard drives. They should be here in a couple days. PSU sleeping should be here tomorrow, and the PSU will be here Wednesday. And then I just have to decide on which model of R9 290 to get.

[QcDExtreme]

Awesome build man keep up the good work

[notenoughtv]

Looking good. I would sleeve those cables or get some extensions though

[Memphaestus]

Looking good. I would sleeve those cables or get some extensions though

You mean something like this?

The cables just showed up today.  The PSU should be here tomorrow, and the brackets for moving the hard drives will be here on Friday. 

 

So I should probably write out the actual game plan.  I'll edit the first post to explain a bit more about what parts are all going to be in this. 

[Memphaestus]

A decent update today.  So I got my Corsair AX860 and installed it along with the red sleeved cables.  I have to say that they look pretty sweet in the case.  There was a problem, and I kind of expected it.  The heatshrink on the cables makes them significantly stiffer around the plugs.  This means that bending them to make room for the top mounted H220 radiator was no longer possible without putting serious strain on the motherboard 8pin and 4pin sockets.  So I decided to go to a front mounted radiator, which I think looks pretty sweet as well and has inspired me to make another adjustment to the build.  Removing the cages definitely gives a much cleaner look to the case, and I moved my mech drives to the optical with the help of a couple brackets.  I also added some more lighting to the case since I don't think just the single strip on the bottom did quite enough.  

 

On with some pictures!

 

This shows the 8pin and 4 pin, and how they simply won't fit if the radiator was up there.

 

The front looks okay I think, except for a red sleeved molex connector in the back right of the case that keeps coming out to say hi.  I was considering swapping it out with one of the original black sleeved molex cables to camouflage it with the back, but that would mean having different colored cables coming out of the psu.  Maybe if I make it the farthest back cable, and cover it with the red ones.  Hmmm.

 

Also, there's just too much space on the right side of the case.  I've decided to go push/pull with the radiator.  Not only will it fill up a bit more of the black space to tie everything together more, it should help hide the red molex cable, and it should also get me a couple more degrees lower on the cpu temps.  I did notice at the 4.8+Ghz overclock, I was having to crank the voltage to 1.5-1.52, and it was sending my temps up to 70-71C at full load in OCCT.  Definitely not okay for daily use.  So maybe doing this will drop the temps enough for me to run that 5.0Ghz OC with a comfortable temperature at load.

 

This is the back cable management so far.  Be easy on me, it isn't done.  A lot of this is just held in place with twist ties right now, until I am more certain of the layout.  I wish the CPU cables were about 2 inches longer so I'd be able to route them along the far side of the case all the way around the bottom, so there would be a better balance to the back. Here you can see the red sleeved molex cable that jumps out form behind the radiator every once in a while. Also that Sata cable is WAAAAY too long.

 

So I'm going to ask for some opinions on lighting.  I was trying out a few different positions with the blue strip, and was having trouble deciding where it should go, if it should be in the case at all. 

 

Here is the light behind the motherboard tray, but I think it may need to be a bigger strip if I go this route.

 

Here is the light on the right side at the front, near the radiator.  I think this looks pretty good.

 

And here is the light top and center.  This is where I have the light currently.  Seems to look pretty good there, and gives off a kind of Arizona sunset color scheme to the build.

 

I was considering another route, and getting an orange strip and mounting that in the case as well to give a broader range of the sunset colors, but that may be too much.  So finally a pic without the blue.

 

What are everyone's thoughts on the lighting?

 

Oh, and another picture to show off my horrible hack job on the bracket.  Hopefully you can see how much I cut off in this angle.

 

So aside from needing a couple more NF-F12's, I'm waiting on the R9 290's to become available for purchase. I'll just buy it all at once when they become available.  I'm gonna swap out the blue power LED in the front of the case with a red one sometime this next week probably.  Shouldn't be too big of a deal, as its just a little bit of soldering and sleeving it up again.  And finally, I've also been looking at possibly expanding my loop to water cool the R9 290 once I finally get it.  I'm thinking of a Swiftech 140mm single rad w/ NF-A14's in push pull on the back of the case. That would also mean new hoses, fittings, coolant, maybe adding a color to the loop, or probably I'd leave it clear.  I've never done a custom loop before, so I'm thinking I'd need to ask a lot of questions.

 

I probably won't make too many updates in the next week though, as I'm moving into a new apartment, and most likely not going to have a lot of time to mess with the pc.

 

A couple more for the road.

[Nicktrance]

I'm personally a fan of subtle white lighting. I think the blue doesn't match anything and the red washes everything out but if I had to choose one I guess I'd rather choose the red. As for the rest of the build, good job on the colour scheme and nice choice of parts .

[Memphaestus]

I'm personally a fan of subtle white lighting. I think the blue doesn't match anything and the red washes everything out but if I had to choose one I guess I'd rather choose the red. As for the rest of the build, good job on the colour scheme and nice choice of parts .

Yeah, I'm starting to understand why so many people end up going with just a couple white lights.  The red absolutely washes everything out like you said, and makes everything look red.  The blue is almost too intense on its own, and of course, doesn't match at all.  I'm kind of liking the blend of blue and red right now (note that's only a 5 LED blue strip creating that much light), but I think I'll eventually pick up a white strip or two and see how they look as well.  It sucks that I keep buying stuff that is purely for aesthetic value, and not actually performance of any kind right now.   Waiting for the R9 290's is hard.

 

Thanks for the advice.