built Glass and Glow VR Machine

[spiritofcat]

Building a new rig to replace my Metabox (Clevo) gaming laptop from 2011.

 

I started off working on specs to run the HTC Vive nicely and keep me gaming at max settings on regular games for a good number of years to come.

Then I got attracted to all the glowy lighting options and glass sided cases and ended up throwing an extra AUD$500 into making it look pretty.

 

Parts were delivered yesterday, but I wasn't home to receive them, so I'm picking them up from the post office today.

Won't have time to start building it until Sunday anyway though.

 

Until then, I'm still trying to decide on fan and radiator configuration and placement within that case, so if anyone has advice on that aspect, feel free to jump in.

Case comes with two 140mm fans (1 in front and 1 in back).

Cooler comes with two 140mm fans for the radiator. Thinking of installing them on top of the radiator to pull air up through it and out the top of the case, but I'm open to having the radiator in the front instead if I need to for space or aesthetic reasons.

Mobo and GPU both have ASUS Aura RGB lighting, so I was thinking I'd put the three 120mm Corsair RGB fans in the front of the case to give an even spread of lighting, or alternatively, put one of them at the back and only one or two of them at the front. I wonder if I can fit two 120mm and one 140mm fan into the front?

 

[Guest]

I wish I had that kind of money too

[dizmo]

Looks like it'll be a sweet build, that case should be a beauty!

$125 for fans though...ouch.

[Guest lilbman]

Damn

 

Why the tiny SSD?

[spiritofcat]

23 hours ago, lilbman said:

Damn

 

Why the tiny SSD?

I already have another SSD in my current computer, and some high capacity HDDs for storage (6GB total as network drives hosted on a Linux based machine), so I didn't need a big one for the build. This m.2 should be faster that my other SATA one though, so it'll serve for super fast OS boot and whichever few games in currently playing and want the best load times on. 

 

When considering the price, remember that this is all in Australian dollars.

We're used to paying almost double the number that things cost in USD. 

 

The Vive I ordered to go with it clocked in at AUD$1400 for example. 

[Guest lilbman]

20 hours ago, spiritofcat said:

I already have another SSD in my current computer, and some high capacity HDDs for storage (6GB total as network drives hosted on a Linux based machine), so I didn't need a big one for the build. This m.2 should be faster that my other SATA one though, so it'll serve for super fast OS boot and whichever few games in currently playing and want the best load times on. 

Oh, that makes more sense.

[spiritofcat]

Picked up the parts from the post office yesterday, and did the unboxing today.

Uploaded all the photos to my google drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwn-F1yXFEVHdmNqMExFMm9GNDQ

But I'll post the most interesting ones here for convenience of viewing.

 

I was a little worried when I saw the image on the side of the box showing just a regular panel with a window in it, but my fears were relieved when I got the case out of the box and found it was a full panel of tempered glass after all. I guess they just re-used the same box image for the different versions.

[spiritofcat]

Started getting things organised with the fans and radiator today before work. 

When I first installed the radiator I had it mounted as far back as it could go, which meant it couldn't fit past the rear case fan when I tried to put the tray back into the case. 
After adjusting it forward a bit it just cleared the case fan at the back and the ODD tray at the front. 
It was so close though that a drive wouldn't be able to fit in the tray anyway, so I took the OOD tray out entirely and moved the radiator forward a bit more to give it better clearance from the rear case fan. 
Now I just have to hope there will be enough clearance between the RAM and the radiator when I get the motherboard in there tomorrow. 
If not, I can mount the radiator vertically in the front of the case instead. 

With that organised for now, I went on and started sorting out the front fan situation. 
Took out the 140mm fan that came with the case and mounted the three 120mm rgd led fans there instead. 
Had a bit of trouble with the screws that came with the fans, they seemed a bit too long and thick so they wouldn't screw all the way in without excessive force. 
Luckily the were some more appropriate screws included in accessory pack that came with the case, so I was able to get them secured firmly in the end. 
Spent some time getting fan cables and control boxes routed and mounted neatly. 
I'm thinking I'll feed the lighting control box out through one of the rear pci card slots and Mount it on the back or top of the case so I can control the lighting without having to open the case.

[spiritofcat]

Got it all built and working today.

The full set of photos and videos I took along the way is on my google drive:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwn-F1yXFEVHdmNqMExFMm9GNDQ

 

Didn't run into any major snags along the way.

 

Had a little concern when installing the backplate for the H115i. After screwing in the standoffs it wasn't held tight against the motherboard, but instead had a mm or two of wiggle room.

Did a quick search and found that other people had encountered the same issue, and Corsair had told them that it was fine and installing the block would pull everything tight.

So I went ahead and installed the block and sure enough, everything was tight.

 

As I'd hoped, there was enough clearance for the radiator over the RAM sticks, so that was another potential problem avoided.

 

Plugging in all the fans was a little bit of a challenge.

I've got the three RGB ones in the front, the two on the radiator, and the one on the back for a total of six, but the motherboard only has five normal fan headers.

I was getting ready to decide which fan to sacrifice, when I realised that the H115i has a little adaptor cable to plug both the radiator fans into and then the block itself plugs into a single fan header to run both the fans.

So in the end I had exactly enough fan headers for the number of fans I had. I didn't pay careful attention to the names of the headers though, so once I got everything up and running I wasn't sure which fan was which when looking at them in the bios or in the ASUS software in windows.

Ended up opening the case up again and unplugging all the fans then plugging them back in again in a more sensible order.

Now I've got the H115i plugged into CPU_FAN, the back fan plugged into CPU_OPT, and the three front fans plugged into the three CHA_FAN headers.

Interestingly though, I haven't found a way of controlling the speed of CPU_OPT within Windows just yet.

I can control CPU_FAN through Corsair Link, and I can control the three CHA_FAN ones though ASUS Fan Xpert 3, but neither of those lets me mess with CPU_OPT.

 

Got the video card installed without any problems.

 

Used the two velcro cable ties that came with the video card to do some cable bundling on the back side. It's not the prettiest thing, but I figure it's good enough since that side is hidden by the solid side panel anyway.

I feel like I did a pretty neat job with the cables on the visible side.

 

I ended up mounting the lighting control box for the front fans onto the PCIe slot cover at the bottom there. That way it doesn't stick out past the edge of the case so there's less chance of it getting bumped and pulled off when moving the case around.

 

Only thing left to do now is get all the software installed and then do some benchmarking.

 

[spiritofcat]

Did some benchmarking.

 

Time Spy: 7 126

http://www.3dmark.com/spy/783703

 

Sky Diver: 39 037

http://www.3dmark.com/sd/4409723

 

Fire Strike Ultra: 5 326

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/10901397

 

Fire Strike: 18 024

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/10902256

 

3D Mark 11 Performance: 22 668

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11775666

[Guest]

Nice build! These specs are almost exactly like what I plan on doing for my own rig, down to the same GPU and RAM. Only difference I can see Is the fact I'm thinking of a different storage configuration. Does that motherboard have one of the Asus RGB headers?

[Thinkfreely]

On 11/27/2016 at 7:59 AM, spiritofcat said:

Did some benchmarking.

 

Time Spy: 7 126

http://www.3dmark.com/spy/783703

 

Sky Diver: 39 037

http://www.3dmark.com/sd/4409723

 

Fire Strike Ultra: 5 326

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/10901397

 

Fire Strike: 18 024

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/10902256

 

3D Mark 11 Performance: 22 668

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11775666

Looks good. Once you go tempered glass you can never go back.