Kaby Lake, Kraken X62, S340 Elite Build (SLI Update)

[Dak Jones]

 

Yo fellow builders, 

 

Built a new PC this past week and since my wife could care less I cant really show it off to her so of course im turning to the internet for self validation and sense of accomplishment lol. 

 

My Sandy Bridge build (my first custom build) was beginning to show it's age. I decided I would upgrade my GPU to the GTX 1080 and in doing so I began to itch and twitch to rebuild entirely after learning of the upcoming Kaby Lake chips. The release of these chips may be lackluster upgrades when compared to Sky Lake but for me the timing was perfect. I was stoked to build something new and do it right. My last build was functional and reliable but was lacking aesthetics and character. I used a cheap antec case and struggled with cable management. It wasnt pretty but it worked and served me well. At the time those things didn't matter as much to me. I just wanted a beast gaming rig that could run Crysis 

 

This time around I'm a little older, a little wiser (not much) and I'm armed with hella nerdy ambition to build a rig that can break the barrier of 4k gaming (kinda) on my 65 inch Samsung TV.

 

Parts List:

 

NZXT S340 Elite Matte Black

Intel Kaby Lake i7 7700k (I joined the 5 ghz club after OC)

Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero motherboard (Z270)

EVGA GTX 1080 FTW

NZXT Kraken X62 AIO CPU Cooler

Corsair Vengeance lpx 16gb 2 x 8gb ddr4-3000 memory

EVGA SuperNova G3 80+ Gold Fully Modular 850W PSU (for future SLI)

Corsair 120 GB SSD Boot drive, Kingston 240 GB SSD Slave drive + two 1TB 7200 RPM HDDs (all carried over from old build)

Deepcool RGB 350 lighting kit (for those RGB LED headers on the mobo and a bit of bling)

 

See attached pics and here is a vid link to show unleashing the Kraken RGB LED goodness https://goo.gl/photos/FUMGNeh4vbA3LRyk9

 

I was unhappy with my mis matched SSDs on display so I did some modding with a bit of carbon fiber vinyl wrap that I picked up from a local Auto Zone. Ive also got an extra RGB extension on the way for cleaner cable management at the top of the case.

 

Future upgrades include (if my wife doesn't kill me that is)

 

M.2 Boot Drive (went with evo 850 500gb samsung ssd due to higher capacity)

a 2nd GTX 1080 for SLI (Done)

 

What ya'll think...its a damn turd bucket right!?

 

Thanks for checking it out.

 

Kraken X62 fresh after peel

 

 

Didn't like the mismatch SSD so picked up some carbon fiber vinyl from my local auto zone.  

 

 

Shit is about to get real!!

 

[Bilal Malek]

Looks brilliant!

 

[Dak Jones]

7 minutes ago, Bilal Malek said:

Looks brilliant!

 

Thank you!! It's in my living room right beside my entertainment system and ive already been caught staring into it rather than paying attention to some show im suppose to be watching with my wife lol.

[Bilal Malek]

is that mainly because of that awesome looking NZXT AIO! 

[Dak Jones]

hehe yeah it has a hypnotizing effect..

 

[Dak Jones]

Another 1080 on the way for SLI!! Was on amazon with it in the cart, blacked out for a sec and the next thing i knew....

[Dak Jones]

Shit just got real.....

[alexcheetah]

very nice!

[Nubaca]

i'm going to cry this is so beautiful!

[Zangashtu]

Ooft

[Dak Jones]

11 hours ago, Nubaca said:

i'm going to cry this is so beautiful!

I'm still crying...

[deeledee]

nice build there, how is the temp with that elite case ? if temps is good i might consider switching from my H440.

[Dak Jones]

18 hours ago, deeledee said:

nice build there, how is the temp with that elite case ? if temps is good i might consider switching from my H440.

Thank you!! Seems pretty good so far. 5 ghz OC on the processor and idles around 32 degrees c and levels out in the mid 70s under load. As for GPUs, when I had just one card and with a mild OC it hung out in the low 70s under load. After adding the 2nd gpu the top card is spiking into the low 80s. Still using the stock exhaust  case fans though. Have some high AF PWM fans coming which should help a lot. Both cards are oc'd. 

[TomR]

Very nice man. I have a very similar build but with a white theme, and one 1070 instead of two 1080s haha

[Phentos]

Very nice build.

 

That Kraken X62 is one sexy cooler. It's at the top of my list for my upcoming Ryzen/X299 build. 

[Dak Jones]

22 hours ago, Phentos said:

Very nice build.

 

That Kraken X62 is one sexy cooler. It's at the top of my list for my upcoming Ryzen/X299 build. 

hell Yeah! I probably should have waited on Ryzen but the time was right.  No regrets here. 

[Dak Jones]

22 hours ago, TomR said:

Very nice man. I have a very similar build but with a white theme, and one 1070 instead of two 1080s haha

That's awesome! The white is so sexy. My last build was with a single 570 which I later upgraded to the 970. This time around I knew my wife wasn't gonna be happy about the money I was spending so I figured I may as well make it worth it ?

[Phentos]

4 hours ago, Dak Jones said:

hell Yeah! I probably should have waited on Ryzen but the time was right.  No regrets here. 

Yea I've considered a 7700K build, but I need the threads. My upcoming build won't just be for gaming  

[BadKitten]

damn this is pretty nice rig.. you did great - not to flashy but still nice rgb :-D

[H3LLSMAN]

I like the carbon on the drives nice touch. 

[Gdbryant91]

How well do you think G.skill Trident Z black ram modules would look with that motherboard? I'm looking at doing a build with the same motherboard.

[Dak Jones]

2 hours ago, Gdbryant91 said:

How well do you think G.skill Trident Z black ram modules would look with that motherboard? I'm looking at doing a build with the same motherboard.

Would definitely look nice. Good looking ram. 

[Dak Jones]

A look at the whole 4k couch gaming setup. Also been playing with different colors for the rgbs. The pics don't show it very well but I'm digging the white and purple. 

[Dak Jones]

Just an FYI for any that don't know. NZXT's CAM software is pretty damn wretched right now. A list of troubling issues from full on crashes to detecting the kraken between reboots, losing lighting profiles you name it. It's incredibly discouraging because the hardware is nothing short of stunning. It feels like I've landed a beautiful woman only to discover that she's dumber than a bag of dicks without handle. Nearly decided to send it back and go with corsair's offering or the upcoming EVGA AIO but being vexed by its beauty I decided to seek control of the AIO outside of the CAM application. I had been hearing that CAM doesn't need to be running for your fan profiles to work but after testing I discovered that this simply is not true. The fans will run at the exact RPM last used by CAM. They will not ramp up and down with temps if CAM isn't running.

 

SOLVED!! No CAM=No worries!! (As long as you have fan control in your BIOS) 

 

For anyone in a similar situation here is what I did.

 

1: Wired pump to cpu header and USB 2.0 to header on mobo.

2: Set CPU Fan to DC power /  manual mode / %100 speed (so the pump runs at 100%)

3: Wired radiator fans to PWM mobo headers (luckily the ROG Maximus Hero IX has plenty)

4: Configured radiator fan profiles in Q-Fan (Asus bios based fan control)

 

BOOM!! works great and I dont sacrifice RGB control either due to the fact that lighting changes are stored on the pumps on-board memory. When i want to make a change I use CAM for only RGB control and then close it once im done. 

 

 

[Dak Jones]