Ghost...

Shayper · 23 Mar 2011 at 06:07

Hi guys, this is my first project log so be patient

Just to warn you, progress may be slow at first cos I'm skint, but hopefully will speed up soon.

Now, for the important part:

This build is centred around a watercooled NZXT Phantom, my awesome case.

Hardware ATM is as per sig, i7 860, Xfire 6950's, P55-gd65 etc... Will be replaced as I go, hopefully with sandybridge and some if possible less hassle GFX cards

Now this is how the case looks so far:

And the side panel (into which I should be cutting a window in tomorrow

)

.

The sum total of this mod is a roof mounted triple rad, floor mounted dual rad, lot less hard drive bays, custom mounted SSD, custom cut window and some fancy Side panel work

So stay tuned, will update in a few hours...

(Oh and sorry for crappy pics, being a skint student my iPhone camera is the only one I can use

)

Shayper · 23 Mar 2011 at 23:00

Sorry for lack of updates, found out I was missing 2 crucial things: Masking tape and a marker pen. Will be rectified tomorrow

Shayper · 24 Mar 2011 at 23:49

LePhuronn said:
skint student and iPhone in the same sentence

Look forward to how you're gonna approach this one. I've been toying with cutting out half the hard drive cage and mounting a pair of 240 rads where the dual 120mm intakes are, and turning the 200mm side intake into a big triangular window.

Oh, and a little suggestion because it REALLY annoys me. You know how the black mesh areas look grey because they show the white case underneath? Paint the area behind it black! I know I am

Yeah I bought the phone at the start of the year when i actually had money

And I'm gonna do something interesting with that mesh area, just waiting on the acrylic to show, then will get cracking... Mind you I won't be watercooling for a little while

Shayper · 19 Apr 2011 at 13:44

Right! Finally, after almost a month, I HAZ UPDATEZZ!!!

Stripped down the gfx cards to reapply the TIM after the Asus magically started working again

(no idea how :confused:

)

Finished dremeling the window in to the side panel

Another quick shot

(Ignore the scratch, I shall be spray painting that.. err.. ledge back as soon as I have the acrylic cut to shape

Hard drive bays removed, and the taller one cut in half to allow a rad with PP fans in the bottom of the case

Another shot

And the mesh replaced, side window reattached to see the progress so far, can't wait to have the acrylic cut to shape, it's rather special

Another shot, showing more of the case:

And one final close up of the window so far

Still to do: Spray the ledge bits black, cut the acrylic to shape, install watercooling, after which I shall cut the side fan mounts out, doing the same as with the main window, possibly putting a res there

Thanks for the patience guys

PS: I honestly can't think why the Phantom doesn't ship like this from the start, the window looks a lot better, and there is no room to install a side panel fan if you have a decent sized CPU cooler...

Shayper · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:01

Thanks

Yeah, I thought it looked pretty good as well, It's just a lot harder to see through in the daylight. The acrylic I have is lightly frosted, so should diffuse the light very nicely, and I was also going to etch Shayper into it

Shayper · 20 Apr 2011 at 13:02

ReU_VOoDOo said:
Looks nice and stormtrooper esque! I like it.

Thanks

Aargh.. due to the extreme level of student skintness I now have to wait till friday for the next update... Why you ask? I can't afford masking tape

Shayper · 20 Apr 2011 at 15:30

joxang said:
LOL! Tell me about it...periods of extreme affluence (*cough* student loans *cough*) alternating with periods of extreme overdraft debt and living off pesto + selling all the useless rubbish that you've bought in the past month.

Yes! Thisx1000000000

I bought a netbook and sold it within a month because of this

Shayper · 22 Apr 2011 at 15:17

Well, just ordered the XSPC RS240 kit and a 2tb drive, should be with me wednesday... I love my loan coming through early

Now to get some masking tape

Shayper · 23 Apr 2011 at 15:39

Right, thanks to oldphart I should also have the 360mm rad through this week as well, cannot wait! But was just wondering, was going to use both the rads as intakes, with the front 140mm fan as intake and the rear 120 as the only exhaust, as I read the radiators like cold air

would the positive air pressure that this creates be a problem, or would the benefits outweight the negatives? Thanks guys

Shayper · 24 Apr 2011 at 00:18

Thanks guys

Shayper · 26 Apr 2011 at 16:00

Quick update:

Wc gear is all sorted for arrival tomorrow, thanks to Oldphart, his missus is on a mission

. Decided not to get gpu blocks, gonna wait till the next gen for that

So sum total of gear that's meant to arrive tomorrow:

XSPC Rasa 240 kit, 360mm radiator with three Xilence fans (Cheers Chris

)

And not sure when this is gonna arive but thanks to Ace Modder I have a 1.2kw PSU on the way for a cracking price (Cheers Lee

)

Roll on tomorrow!

Shayper · 1 May 2011 at 17:03

Cheers mate, check out G Dubs' project as well, he has used the kit and it looks awesome

Shayper · 3 May 2011 at 10:02

Just had some deliveries through

Now to spend a lot of time with a screwdriver

Shayper · 4 May 2011 at 12:05

Well, it's all installed and leak testing ATM, had a couple of minor ones when I first turned the pump on but all sorted now, as soon as the new psu arrives I shall chuck that in and will be sorted. Quickly gonna check if I can upload pictures with the iPhone, if not you will have to wait till later for the pics, but let me tell you it looks awesomesauce

Shayper · 4 May 2011 at 12:06

Ben Harrison said:
Not usually a fan of NZXT cases, but this is looking pretty amazing so far. Love the look of the side panel.

Thanks mate

I thought most of the other cases were pretty fugly myself, then I saw this and was like yes!

Shayper · 4 May 2011 at 12:53

Quick teaser till it's all up and running

Shayper · 5 May 2011 at 16:06

Well, just plugged it all in, turned it on and disaster! The whole thing keeps switching on and off after about 5 seconds. Good thing I ordered a 1.2kw Antec HCP off of Ace Modder, hopefully it will arrive today, seems like my measly 750w is not enough for the pump, extra fans and extra hdd

Shayper · 6 May 2011 at 03:04

joxang said:
Strange - you should easily have enough power to boot. Have you tried taking out one of your gpus and seeing if you still have the same problem?

Will do that tomorrow

Hopefully the PSU will arrive tomorrow too! I might be getting a tattoo as well! ROCK ON!

Shayper · 6 May 2011 at 10:15

Well you have all of the extra fans, the pump and in my case an LED, plus I also put a new HDD in there as well. Hopefully it will work with the new psu, the old one was pretty loud and terrible anway

Shayper · 7 May 2011 at 12:24

Tried taking out a gpu today, got halfway through loading windows, then cut out and went into the same loop.

Thinking about it, I had to unplug a fair few cables including the front panel connectors on both the motherboard end and the actual button end.

Not sure if I put the motherboard ones back on correctly, does the little arrow on the connectors mean positive or negative? I usually just guess and it turns out right but want to make sure if I have done it correctly