High End Custom Hard Line...Stick with me, I'll get there

[Corrupt_Liberty]

So my old rig crapped out, PCIe slot on the motherboard died.  I took the opportunity to take an emergency trip to Micro Center and purchased a new motherboard, 7700k CPU, 32 Gb of DDR4 and a 1080 ti.  I was waffling on whether to keep it or switch to Threadripper/Vega on release but today they had another 1080 ti open box on clearance.  That sealed the deal for me.  I'm starting the build log but it may be a few months to completion.  I will get there but I have just made quite the dent in my finances.  So here's the current list.

 

On Hand...

Gigabyte GA-Z270MX-Gaming 5 Motherboard MSI X299 Xpower Gaming AC

Intel Core i7-7700K   -  Intel Core i9-7900X

Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Gray 4x8 Gb DDR4-2400  G.Skill TridentZ 8x8GB DDR4 3200

MSI Geforce GTX 1080 ti Founder's Edition X2

Corsair AX860i PSU  EVGA Supernova 1200 P2

EK Supremacy EVO Acetal+Nickle CPU Block

EK XRES 100 Revo  D5 PWM Pump/Res Combo

EK Coolstream PE 240 Radiator

EK Coolstream SE 240 Radiator

Corsair Commander Mini (Pump/Fan Control)

 

What I still need...

New Case/Chasis - I'm looking for something with an inverted motherboard.  Leaning towards the Corsair Carbide Clear 600C Be Quiet Darkbase Pro 900

GPU Water Blocks - Probably going to stick with EK on this one unless you can convince me otherwise.

360 Radiator - Not 100% on this.  Depends on the case but I definitely need more rad space for both those 1080 ti's

Fittings - I have Bitspower fittings but they are all red from a previous build.  Probably going to go black this time around.

Power Cables - Most likely CableMod.  I have Red/Black cables for most things but I haven't decided on a color scheme yet.

COLOR SCHEME - Help me choose?  Suggestions or images of other builds will be much appreciated!

Motherboard - X299 high end ATX or EATX

 

I'm sure I'll need other misc. crap and nothing is in stone yet except the hardware.  I may need to change things for aesthetics or placement issues along the way.  

 

 

[Damascus]

2 minutes ago, Corrupt_Liberty said:

Fittings - I have Bitspower fittings but they are all red from a previous build.  Probably going to go black this time around.

You could de plate them and then re-plate black

 

Or give then to me

[Corrupt_Liberty]

8 minutes ago, Damascus said:

You could de plate them and then re-plate black

 

Or give then to me

I don't think my skillset extends to electroplating.  And seeing as how I have almost $500 just in those fittings I think I'll hold on to them for another build down the road.  If I change my mind you'll be the first to know.  

[EnergyEclipse]

1 hour ago, Corrupt_Liberty said:

I don't think my skillset extends to electroplating.  And seeing as how I have almost $500 just in those fittings I think I'll hold on to them for another build down the road.  If I change my mind you'll be the first to know.  

Would it be possible to get a high quality metal primer and some good spray paint and just go over the fittings?

 

It might be a tad more expensive over just buying new fittings but that way you could have any shade of black you want :3   

[Corrupt_Liberty]

1 hour ago, EnergyEclipse said:

Would it be possible to get a high quality metal primer and some good spray paint and just go over the fittings?

 

It might be a tad more expensive over just buying new fittings but that way you could have any shade of black you want :3   

Lol,  that might not be a bad idea.  My only concern would be getting paint on the sealing surfaces and causing issues.  With all the money I have in hardware already I'd rather not risk it. 

[Guest]

That green aura tough, really cool hehehe.

[Corrupt_Liberty]

1 hour ago, Goku-sama said:

That green aura tough, really cool hehehe.

I may stay with the green.  The GTX logos are going though.  Not much I can do about that.  

[Corrupt_Liberty]

UPDATE:

I just acquired this beauty.  So I'll be needing a new motherboard now.  Leaning towards MSI X299 XPower Gaming AC.  This board and CPU will be going into a Christmas present for my sister. She's still running a first gen i7 I built for her 7 years ago.

 

 

[Corrupt_Liberty]

MOAR MAIL!!

Things are moving along.  I just received the MSI X299 Xpower Gaming AC motherboard, G.Skill TridentZ DDR4 3200 RAM, and an EVGA Supernova 1200 P2 (also a Rosewill Magnetar case?).  

 

The motherboard comes in quite an unassuming box if a little on the large side.  I was torn between this board and an Asus Extreme.  I chose this board mainly because it's already available and I already have MSI 1080 ti's so I can keep the theme going a bit.  I actually like this aesthetic a bit more as well.

 

The RAM is beautiful and does a fairly decent job of matching the motherboard.  I know, I know, 64 GB is completely overkill.  My OCD makes me fill all of the slots.  Besides, what about this build isn't overkill?

 

I was very much less than impressed with the packaging for the RAM.  I mean really, $630 and this is the best they could do?  It's better than wrapping them in old newspaper but not by much.  Not sure what I expected but this isn't it.

 

And finally the power supply.  An EVGA Supernova 1200 P2.

 

Definitely much more impressive than the RAM packaging.  They really make you feel like you've purchased a premium product.  A lot cheaper than the RAM too!

 

The cables aren't quite as nice as Corsair's (at least their AX series), but still fairly decent.  Not that it matters much, I'll be replacing these with CableMod cables.

 

I also received a FREE! Rosewill Magnetar case... No pictures as I have no intention of taking it out of the box.  Why Newegg?  Why do I need an ATX case with my shiny new E-ATX motherboard?  I guess we'll call this Newegg's new Craig's List Rebate??  I'll be listing that shortly.  Maybe I'll get fifty bucks back.  Who knows?  

 

Well that's all I have for the moment.  I hope to get this all bench tested before the week is out but I have to work a lot of hours to pay for all of this crap.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.  I do appreciate any feedback.

[Corrupt_Liberty]

I'm going to be on a first name basis with the Fedex guy before this is all over.  

 

My case came in today, a Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900.  I've started taking the case apart to reverse the motherboard tray.  It was very nice of them to put rubber feet on the back of the tray.  It can be removed and used as a bench station.

 

That's a lot of RAM.  I have a Thermaltake AIO cooler on the way for my sister's Christmas PC build.  I plan on using that to bench test this stuff as soon as it gets here.  I could pull the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Pro off the PC I'm using currently but I'm not in that big of a hurry and it would be a huge PITA.  So this is where I'm at for now.  

 

[Corrupt_Liberty]

Unfortunately, the Thermaltake AIO won't be here until the middle of next week (I'm ruined by Prime shipping).  My impatience won out and I made a trip to Best Buy and picked up a Corsair H110i so I could get started on my testing.  Good News!  Everything works and has passed stress tests.  I did run into a couple of issues, some graphical glitches that a re-seat of the GPU fixed and some terrible BSOD issues that were fixed with a driver update to the Wi-Fi card (a BIOS option to disable Wi-Fi would have been nice).  Other than that it's been a fairly smooth test.  The only problem I see now is BIOS incorrectly reporting RAM size when the XMP profile is enabled.  It does show up properly in CPUz though and all modules were tested and passed in Memtest86+.  I guess I'll just wait on BIOS updates in the future to sort out these issues.  

 

Wires, wires everywhere.

 

All 8 RAM modules are listed but only 49152MB for total size?  

 

All the RAM shows up here so meh?

 

I guess that's it for now.  It may be awhile before there are more updates.  Still planning on a custom loop on this thing but I need mo' money for mo' parts.  

[BreakwaterDigital]

I created an account just to ask for this build. Corrupt_Liberty

 

Do you have any pictures of the  x299 xpower gaming ac motherboard in your be quite! dark base 900 case? I'm curious if there is enough room to fit SATA/cables through the rubber grommets with the EATX size board. From your bench top test picture, it looks close, maybe the ATX power cable won't fit.

 

I'm currently installing in the Dark Base 700 case and it is too small. The JPWR1 power connection at the bottom hits the PSU shroud frame at a funny angle. I'm going to try an inverted setup soon because of how tight it is.

 

I want to put in at least 6 3.5" HDD and all my cables have to go through the drive slide openings because the grommets are covered by the motherboard.

 

Thanks.

[Corrupt_Liberty]

11 hours ago, BreakwaterDigital said:

I created an account just to ask for this build. Corrupt_Liberty

 

Do you have any pictures of the  x299 xpower gaming ac motherboard in your be quite! dark base 900 case? I'm curious if there is enough room to fit SATA/cables through the rubber grommets with the EATX size board. From your bench top test picture, it looks close, maybe the ATX power cable won't fit.

 

There is just enough room for SATA cables.  A standard ATX power cable isn't going to fit.  I think I can get a custom sleeved ATX cable through the grommet next to board if I put the connector through before I install the board.  That's the plan at this stage anyway.  Currently waiting on funds to free up.  Christmas has been expensive this year.

 

 

[Corrupt_Liberty]

On 8/27/2017 at 12:58 PM, Corrupt_Liberty said:

...This board and CPU will be going into a Christmas present for my sister. She's still running a first gen i7 I built for her 7 years ago.

 

Thought I'd do a quick update on the Christmas build seeing as how she'll be getting it tomorrow.  I'm super excited.

I did take the pictures before I cleaned all the dust off the glass.  That shit is a dust magnet.