Phanteks Elite + Rampage 6 Extreme + I9-7900x

[brighttail]

Greetings,
I did it. I went out and got one of these wonderful computer cases. It was like I couldn't help myself after I saw the concept version over a year ago.

For once I have decided to take my full time with this case. I do have some components in my main computer that I need to bring over, like PSU, GPU, Reservoir, Radiator, ect, so I wanted to make sure I plan this build out as much as I can before I start.

It took two of us to get it off the truck and into the house.

 

My first thought was this is going to be huge and it was.. maybe a little too huge. In fact...my previous computer stand is a bit old and I'm not sure can handle 100LBS of weight, so I found a nice little walnut bookcase that should work well. I tested the weight limit by sitting on it for 30 minutes while watching TV. It didn't move.

In the mean time I had gotten my x299 Asus Rampage 6 Extreme motherboard but I had been waiting a while for the monoblock from EK to be released. So I decided to do a little minor OC with an 280mm AIO to get an idea of what it can do. For a 7900x, I was able to get it to boot up at 4.9 and was able to run Cinebench and Aida 64 CPU stress test on 4.8Ghz and 1.20v. Temps never throttled but they were high 90's and a couple ticked to 100C.

 

 

So I did what one should do when waiting for the monoblock...I sent it off to Silicon Lottery to get delidded. It came back being able to run all cores at 4.8Ghz, no throttling under full stress tests of CPU and FPU, and whatever testing limitations they do. It went from idling in the low 30'sC to 22C. I was still using my 280mm AIO and was able to get it to boot into Windows at 5.0, but it failed the CPU stress test, but did pass the Cinnebench test at 1.25v. It seems after many years I finally have won the 'Silicon Lottery!'

I got my Monoblock from EK and while everything went together very easy, I spent about 30 minutes dealing with the RGB cable. It was not long enough to go up and to the upper-right RGB header, so I had to figure out a way to feed it through the armour and come out the bottom of the motherboard. It managed to get to the lower RGB header with nary a milometer to spare.

 

 

Next up I had to deal with the Reservoir/pump dilemma. Prior to this I had two reservoirs, an EK and a Monsoon MMRS, both with a d5 pump included. Personally I like the design of the MMRS better but wasn't sure if it would fit in either two of the back brackets. The EK is a bit more standard but as I quickly found out, only the original back bracket has predrilled holes for the reservoir/pump.

So I took out the case and pulled both back panels. After a lot of measuring I found that the EK does have some mounts that will allow me to fit on the right side using their 120/140mm mountng options, while the Monsoon MMRS could fit on the left side using their 27mm mounts.

 

 

Basically I could fit one of each in... Thankfully I got an email from Monsoon saying they too had a 120/140mm mounting system that I didn't know about. 72 hours later I got the mounting system and boom it worked! So I now know what reservoir/pumps I'm going to go with. The problem is Performance-PC is missing a couple of the parts and I have to wait for them to be restocked, but as I said i'm in no hurry.

Overall my plan is to run the left reservoir/pump and lower RAD will cover my single 1080ti GPU. The Radiator is 280mmX140mmX60mm so all should be fine. The pump/reservoir on the right, I'll be using two new XFLOW radiators from Alphacool. Both are 45mm thick, one is 280mm long and the other is 420mm. I think this will be more than enough cooling for the CPU. I have one other 420mmX140mmX30mm that I could add if I wanted.

Being that I have NEVER done hard line tubing, I think my first build will be using soft tubing so I can get my runs right, figure out where the best area for the drain ports are and generally will it work with no air pockets. Ideally my lowest points of both loops will be from the radiator in the bottom chamber and the 280mm radiator and from the 280mm radiator on the front. Both will have drain ports that can have a piece of soft tubing coming through the front to drain when the door is taken off. If all goes well, I'll be looking at hard tubing in the future.

Well that is it for now. More pictures when I start putting it together.

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[Guest]

The pictures on their site (I assume that might be renders or on a green screen) didn't really appeal much to me however your personal pictures made me reconsider. Looks good so far, do you plan to do any other customizations to the build?

[dizmo]

Sexy.

I'm not one to comment on the extreme costs of things but....damn that case is expensive!

I definitely wouldn't have spent that much. How is it better than say a $350 case?

[brighttail]

 I've tried case mods in the past and I'm not very good at them.  I got this case hoping I would not have to do any, have it look amazing and could have for many years.

[rockon5622]

Where did you get a rampage vi extreme

[brighttail]

Amazon.com