R1.0 INDUSTRIAL

[JR23]

Firstly thank you to those mentioned in the above image for supporting my endeavors once again!


I'm very excited to start my next personal project R1.0 INDUSTRIAL, after several months of collaborations it's great to be back in full control deciding my own specification. Not only that but setting the pace myself and taking the time to photograph everything and get it all out on the forums!

So a little writing about the project first to get things going, much like LIGHTNING this is centered around a very special piece of hardware and providing it with all of the power and cooling required is the main focus. The build won't be adorned with anything unnecessary however no compromises will be made along the way either. As the name implies aesthetically it will remain subtle and raw with nothing for show but nothing to hide. I intend to apply this way of thinking to each individual element and hopefully the end result will remain sympathetic to it's origin.


As of this moment I don't have every part but I definitely won't be straying far from what I have decided as so many will be integral to the design of the case. I will elaborate on the reasoning as I unbox things but already it's clear that I have opted for completely colour neutral products with extremely reserved branding.

XFX Radeon Pro Duo x2
ASUS X99-M WS
Intel Broadwell-E i7-5960X
Corsair Dominator Platinum 4x4GB 3200C16
Corsair Force MP500 M.2 480GB
Western Digital Black 1TB x2
EVGA Supernova 1600T2
Parvum R1.0 INDUSTRIAL

Aqua Computer Aquaero 6 LT
Aqua Computer Aquaero 6 Passive Heatsink - Black
EK-Supremacy EVO X99 - Nickel Plexi
EK-FC Radeon Pro Duo - Nickel Plexi x2
EK-FC Radeon Pro Duo Backplate - Black x2
EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM - Plexi (incl. pump) x2
EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) x2
EK-CoolStream CE 280 (Dual)
EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink - Black
EK-HD Adapter 10/12mm - Black x30
EK HD Tube 10/12mm 2-Slot (2 pcs) x2
EK-AF Angled 90° G1/4 - Black x4
EK-AF Extender Rotary M-M G1/4 - Black x2
EK-CSQ Plug G1/4 - Black x2
Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC 2000RPM IP67 PWM x6
Noctua NF-A14 IndustrialPPC 2000RPM IP67 PWM x2
Noctua NA-SAVP1 Chromax - Black x4


Straight in with the aforementioned centerpiece and for once i'm not even going to attempt to conceal one for later!

Because there is just something about being instantly hit with 6 fully formed PCIe power connectors that it would be rude to hold back.

It comes as quite a shock when 6 screws later a magnificently elegant Cooler Master solution is unveiled, clearly far more attention was put into this than just doubling up their single card efforts.

But lets take an even closer look and not pretend a standard cooling solution was ever going to last long in my hands.

Very rapidly all kinds of beautiful secrets were exposed, two massive cores, PLX chips and endless power circuitry neatly tessellated inbetween. Considering the PCB size is no bigger than what would be found on a single GPU GDDR5 card the density is insane.

A good cleaning was in order to reveal the mirror perfect Fiji cores and all the little High Bandwidth Memes!

Already from the little bit of performance testing I managed to do (yeah these two cards instantly smashed my overclocked quad 780Ti's) and my time spent taking them apart I am completely in love with these cards. The brutal insolence of power, crossfire, PLX chips and the effort taken to package everything so elegantly together is astounding.

I'll be back very soon with a preview of the case!

JR

 

[JR23]

Sick sick sick. Gonna love this one.

Are you 100% sticking with the Dom Plats? Without advocating bandwagonism, there's been a build or 2 knocking around pair that Asus board with KLEVV Cras and they are literally a match made in heaven. Very, very tall RAM though.

No i'm not 100% on Dominator Platinums, but I definitely won't be using CRAS, since seeing it in context from above i've really grown a disliking to it. Normally i'd go for HyperX but it's somewhat too aggressive looking for this build so Platinum's seem logical. I have an early set of DDR3 from back when they had diamond cut polished light bars so using them seems like the most likely option.

JR

 

[JR23]

Today I finalized the 3d design of the case ready to cut hopefully before this week is out. Lots of changes have been made to absolutely maximize the cooling potential without making it too much bigger than the retail R1.0, at 500x400x285mm it remains a similar scale but the extra length allows for an additional 280mm radiator in the front as well as the original pair of 360mm radiators in the base.

Above the front radiator an integrated reservoir is neatly tucked away revealed from above only by a Radeon Pro Duo logo inlaid into the top layer. This will be a mix of polished and frosted acrylic to show movement in the coolant.

With the front radiator and fans eating into the available space in the main chamber of the case rather than awkwardly position pumps blocking the view of the motherboard I decided they needed to go somewhere else. A sizable space was available in the back but it would have been difficult to get the loop around the PSU hence it has been moved to the top.

Just like LIGHTNING the holes have been precisely toleranced to hold the cables parallel, this does mean all the cables will need to be assembled in position but on the two occasions i've tried this it has been well worth it.

I'm sure i've not mentioned or shown half of the tweaks i've made but some surprises must be left for along the way.

JR

 

[JR23]

It's been an extremely busy end to the week at Parvum staying late until past midnight on Friday before heading straight back into a full days cutting on Saturday, but, thankfully, monumental progress was made! The R1.0 was completed alongside three of it's equally custom but less industrial brothers.

Mixed amongst the other beautifully tesselated R1.0 panels are all of the 5mm black parts which make up nearly of the case.

Plenty of intricate inlays were also cut and assembled.

It would also seem that some big tools were selected to come out and play on thicker acrylic!

Not sure what that would be about , well I have an indecent amount of plastic backing to be removing so i'll catch you all in a few days!

Also pictures should now be visible for everyone not using chrome

JR

 

[JR23]

I managed to squeeze in a little time on the project between work and the GTA bikers update, just enough to get the first custom watercooling piece prepared.

As always lots of tapping but this time with blind holes and a counter bored hole for the fill port.

The o-ring sizes on this build are slightly different to what we would normally use, partly because it needed to be smaller in some tight areas of the midplate and also because the lids are much thicker than usual.

Each o-ring is made from a continuous extrusion of 2mm nitrile cord, cut to length. bonded together and the seated in 1.35 x 2.15mm groove.

Lastly lots of screws to tighten down.

And of course remove the backing from the polished acrylic!

Onto testing and a little coolant experimation, Mayhems aurora silver with X1 black concentrate really is something, perhaps slightly too much black this time around but I am in love with this combination.

Hopefully I will find time for the next piece this week too!

JR

 

[JR23]

It's been a long day on the project today as i'm sure you will see in just a moment!

Things started off with some second ops on panels which required countersinks from both sides, most importantly the midwall so I could install female threaded standoff's rather than tapping the acrylic as usual. But also the base panels just so there would be no screw heads visible from very very low angles, just because.

All of my blocks arrived from various corners of Europe!

Certainly as 'full cover' as it gets, glad I opted for plexi.

Lots and lots of pads and paste later...

<3

280 for a Parvum, how strange this seems.

No doubt a healthy amount of rads to deal with all of the mighty cores.

Not just the case itself but everything i've changed to be 90° countersunk, it's definitely an addiction, such stress concentration reduction.

Now time to get all of my lovely Noctua's out, they've been waiting on this project for some time.

Naturally black Chromax for extra dankness.

I noticed through the spinning blades just a little of the wire insulation was visible and really detracting from the dankness. So added just a little heatshrink to blend them in. Normally I would have sleeved the whole fan cable but in this instance to keep things clean I will be joining them all together.

Both fans trimmed to length.

Stripped and twisted together followed up with a little solder to keep them securely together.

Then ATX crimps o.O strange I know but hopefully this will make more sense when it comes to the next set of fans.

Again at this point I realized the lower part of the cable would be visible at an obscure angle through the intake on the PSU side...

So I sleeved back up past the midplate in Shade 19, I know this way seems complicated and still only half sleeved but they have a really fine gap to squeeze through.

Onto the next set. this time a pair of PE 360's packaged precisely at the back of the case flanking an extra cube in the centre.

And the rest of the Noctua's...

...love the F12 frame.

So this time I think what I did with the cables makes much more sense with a 6-way split, impossible with normal fan crimps but hopefully very neat with 4-pin EPS connectors, which i've checked should just tuck inbetween the rads.

Yet another novel idea to incorporate more countersunk screws was to use female standoff's.

It was an obvious idea which came to me when thinking about how to attach the Aquaero without having the back side of a brass standoff visible in the front of the case, hence I decided to use it for the board too.

The nickel plating looks perfect against the cubes and i'm sure the blocks too when I get to that part!

So here is the finished front accent panel and radiator assembly.

Just got to decide on my own pinout convention and add the block.

Same goes for the floor assembly, the gap at the front is precisely big enough for the 280 + A14's to nest into.

I just so happened to find the exact length of tubing needed to join the rads together, 54mm, in my offcuts.

And for no particular reason, the underside.

Even I rarely look at the bottom of my system, but still great to know it is perfectly consistent.

So that's just about everything for now, well except this little piece...

JR

 

[JR23]

Just a little prequel to the previous update and the unveiling of the midplate here are some shots from it's assembly.

Much the same as with the custom reservoir each channel is sealed with a 2mm o-ring. The channels are 6mm deep and 12.5mm wide, consistent in cross sectional area with a 10mm ID tube.

As I mentioned previously the o-rings and grooves used were slightly smaller than usual on this part to allow the channels to pass closely together. Particularly where the channel between the CPU and GPU passes the horizontal channels at 45°.

Achieving the parallel runs for the pumps while maintaining perfect symmetry was even tighter with the o-ring beneath the first outlet and second inlet being flattened off.

Once all the o-rings were bonded and in place it was time to screw the block together with it's lid, for that a huge amount of 6-32 UNC countersunk screws.

The lid has all of negative space surrounding the channels milled down 3.5mm to allow for a third opaque frosted black acrylic piece. Each port is surrounded by a small boss allowing the fitting to seal effectively against the lid. The OD was intentionally kept smaller than the fittings so this is not visible.

And here again is everything assembled together, at 475x275x20mm this is a very satisfying slab of a midplate.

As you might just be able to tell from the droplets I couldn't help myself from taking a look at this with coolant, can't wait to see it equipped with pumps...

JR

 

[JR23]

Cheers JR23 that's really helped. I was struggling with how to layer things but it looks like I should be aiming for:
10mm base layer
10mm mid layer with top milled down by 3.5mm everywhere except the channel-tops
4mm? black frosted (opaque, non-shiny) top layer leaving a half mm recess or does this line up flush in real life?

Before, I was getting towards a 15mm block cut top and bottom with inlays to cover the channels...but I'm guessing this is either a bad idea or harder to do since otherwise you'd have done this, right?

There are endless different ways to approach it, the right way just depends on the machinery, tooling and materials which are available. Clear polished perspex is easy to find in any thickness (make sure it's not extruded if your milling it!), frosted clear 3, 5 and 10mm are feasible but frosted black is very difficult to find in anything other than 3 or 5mm. There is always acetal too, amazing to machine and expensive although it's natural surface finish is very poor and it would take some massive tools to finish it to a standard you would expect. Parvum just about always have 5, 10 and 15mm polished as well as the widely available frosted colors in 5mm. The maximum cutting depth for the single flute 3mm end mill used for cases is ~11mm, so drilling a #6 UNC or M4 tappping diameter hole all the way through a 15mm part isn't possible, although a blind hole isn't always a problem it is a bit more time consuming to tap the threads. A 10mm layer gives easily enough depth for channels and enough thread depth to apply way more pressure than is needed.

The third black layer isn't something we do very often, only three one off parts have used it so far, two of which are mine . It adds significant complexity and machining time but actually does have some advantages. Because essentially none of the bottom layer is visible the entire part can be faced quickly negating any deviation in the o-ring groove caused by the acrylic tolerance. But it does mean the are removed from the lid is depth critical hence why this was made 3.5mm. Although the black was '3mm' in reality it measured 3.3-3.4mm hence the extra taken off knowing that packing it back up to be flush anywhere that was needed wouldn't be an issue. As it turned out both the 10mm and 3mm were pretty consistent. The tolerance on even the best cast acrylic sheet is significant enough to cause issues so really that is one of the main considerations especially on big big parts like this which are 500mm+ long.

Machining from both sides brings it's own challenges, mainly accurately re-positioning the piece ready for the second cut. Sometimes it just has to be done like in our Parvum build MATE but generally avoided on stuff with critical dimensions. Inlaying lots of small lids for each channel sounds fun though, like a 15mm thick block with 10 mm channels and 5mm deep areas surrounding them for a small piece to fit inside. Especially if it was somewhere with the edge of the whole part on show.

JR

 

[JR23]

Although i've been really busy with FTW I hadn't forgotten my R1.0, just needed some more parts!

One major thing that was holding me up were these two little M-M rotaries, i'm sure I had 2 or 3 spares but when it came to fit the pumps I could only find one. Locating more proved to be a bit of a challenge with none in stock throughout the UK or the international retaillers i'd use I had to wait for EK to get more, but they are here now.

First step was to fit the pump and fittings to measure the length of pipe needed.

Then with the pipes in place simultaneously push them in and screw down the pump. Luckily it all fitted really nice as EK resisted the urge to change any of the 3 components since I measured them

With the pumps solidly in place on the midplate the midwall could be added and screwed to the pump mountings.

Another easy task completed, hopefullly I will be buying the rest of the hardware this week X99M-WS, 2x WD Black 6TB, Aquaero 6 and a 960GB HyperX Predator make up the bulk of the shopping list. It's going to be an expensive week!

JR

 

[JR23]

Got some more shiny things from today's shopping spree and there are some more goodies in the post to enjoy tomorrow!

I still don't know why Aquaero's are supplied with some obsolete prehistoric mounting thing, and a... screen. But anyway disregarding that stuff what's left behind is rather awesome.

For an unknown reason I also decided to purchase these old fashioned gigantic mechanical things.

I will admit however they do have some strangely satisfying qualities to them. At the price however they should, even now i'm confused as to why I needed 12TB or why this system has 26 times more storage than my last one, overkill, maybe?

So time to start loading everything onto the backbone of the case, the Aquaero + Heatsink was simply 4 black M3x10mm screws, not the originals but far more in keeping.

Then the hard drives, I wasn't about to add some giant rubber monstrosity but just to give them a more secure and tactile home I did use some little vibration dampening washers.

Everything fitted neatly just as planned with the 3 devices evenly spaced over the height of the case.

This was good, I can't wait for the post...

JR

 

[JR23]

Looking good JR, everything absolutely millimetre perfect as usual! Oh yes, and top work on the pump mounts, never realised EK D5's could look good

Nothing wrong with a bit of overkill, but 12TB?! Hope you've got a decent internet connection if you're planning on filling those beasts

Quick question: Can you just easily remove the screen from the Aquaero 6 to mount it like that, without it giving any issues? Am planning on using 2 in my current build and wanted PWM for all fans, so forced to use the 6 rather than the 5 LT like in the current build. Removing the screens might be a great plan B if plan A goes all to ****e...

I have really really bad internet but it's ok I can just use my camera to fill it up, get them in RAID1 it will take half as long.

Yeah, the screen just unplugs and then that's it, software immediately shows it as a mystical 6 LT and it works exactly like always. 6 LT's do actually exist but nobody seems to retail them.

JR

 

[JR23]

On the subject of overkill storage, got this HyperX Predator 960GB in the post today. Mental that just about the most expensive component i've ever bought is 22x80mm. But oooh it's beautiful and dat HyperX packaging smell!

JR

 

[JR23]

On Thursday I got the motherboard so i'm now very very close to having everything, late last night I started piecing it slowly together, taking lots of photographs of course. I'll be using an X99M-WS, it was a difficult decision between this and the Micro2 but as i've already used that in a project for a friend I felt that it was time to give ASUS' WS board a chance.

First thing to mount was the HyperX Predator M.2, I could have waited for the faster Polaris drives but at ~£100 less and with a significantly higher TBW rating I thought it was worth sacrificing the speed for what I consider the much prettier Predator. Can't say I find the 480GB version I have running at PCIe2.0 x2 slow!

Separated from it's PCI slot adapter the density is astounding, each individual chip is the same capacity as my first 2.5" SSD!

The huge socket was readied for a CPU!

After a lot of contemplation I decided to go with a Haswell-E chip for this build as the current mATX WS BIOS seems to have stronger memory support for the earlier generation.

With 4 dimm's in two banks the memory would be a real center point of this build but nothing was quite right, HyperX Predator too agressive, Klevv i'm just bored of seeing in WS boards already, G.Skill again just too complex to completely harmonize with the theme. So Dominator Platinum was the strongest candidate for it's symmetry and subtlety.

I'd fallen out of love with them when they changed to a sandblasted finish after the initial DDR3 production run, but, I still had an original quad channel kit! And as this will become my daily system it meant I could mix them up and continue to stare at the ornately machined heatsinks for another few years.

Very quickly I created a graveyard of Dominator Platinum parts, both old and new. I split the heatsinks off two of the DDR4 modules as well so I could swap the white sticker to the inside.

After a considerable amount of time gently prying off thermal pads and fiddling with tiny screws I had a very crisp looking DDR4 kit!

To match the Nickel/Plexi GPU blocks I also picked up a Supremacy EVO in the same finish.

Now the board is filling up the hybrid of original DDR3 and DDR4 Dominator Platinum looks just right with it's beautifully polished faces and machined tops.

Just enough time to try the board in the case for some strategically teasery lit shots.

Tomorrow I will be making two fan extensions from the Aquaero through the mid-plate to the rads so I can permanently assemble the pedestal. After that i'll be needing the PSU to gradually add cables and tubing until it's complete.

JR

 

[JR23]

Baby update today but a milestone nonetheless, i've finished the bottom chamber linking the radiators and fans through the midplate. It seemed like a simple job at first but ended up taking quite a while. The loop was easy, just two 30mm pipes to push in at the same time as everything else.

The fans were a bit more complicated because neither connector would fit through the hole and they needed to be exactly the right length.

But eventually I got there and when all 8 fans spun up simultaneously much success! Hyped to start some big cables and tubes now.

JR

 

[JR23]

Even before the weekend has started I have lots to update you guys with, each day i've done a little before going to work so not too many pics have been taken but lots of progress. The first orders of business were the 8-pin EPS connectors as they would be right behind the CPU tubes.

After making each individual wire just the right length, threading them all through the midwall and assembling them into cables the next day I planned out what to do with all of the pump cables as it made sense to deal with the fiddly things first.

CPU tubes were simple 90° bends, measured, cut and fitted straight off.

The next cables I wanted to move onto were the PCIe 8 pins, hence I needed to fit the cards and everything that went before them.

It was pleasing to see when I looked down between the cards that the M.2 was still visible.

Still rocking the nut technique for Parvum alu PCI brackets using screws from the inside to locate the cards and then tightening them from above makes it so much easier to locate two cards and all the tubing simultaneously.

Very quickly the build is starting to look complete! The reservoir is the only big piece which is absent for now.

What can I say, MDPC-X, such consistency, much parallel.

Things are moving along equally as rapidly in the back too with the pumps completed as planned, and the SATA's too, all shade 19.

Yes, a PSU has appeared from nowhere, I was so impatient to open it and try it in the case on the day it released that I may have completely forgotten to take pics of it. But it's amazing!

Now i'm ready to start GPU cables! That may take some time for there are many.

JR

 

[JR23]

Looking great. Is it just the perspective of the picture or are the 90 bends of the pipework to the CPU lower profile than normal? If so, did you freehand bend them or are there a set of mandrels that it would be useful to know about for 90 bends close together?

They are just the 'standard' 25mm radius you get from a monsoon mandrel, I really want to try the Bitspower 12mm OD kit to see if that little reduction in diameter helps with 12mm tube.

JR

 

[JR23]

Luckily I was so productive last week as a spontaneous 400 mile road trip stole most of my time this weekend! Still I had all of Sunday to make 6x PCIe cables, 2x SATA power, one molex and a 24-pin, which wasn't too impossible but it did mean I didn't really take any photographs of the process. (I will on PARVUM FTW next week, promise)

The PSU which spawned in last week without introduction is Silverstone's new 1200W Strider Platinum, they have added lots of much appreciated features over the Strider Gold, a semi-passive 140mm air penetrator, a lot lot more 8-pin connectors on the PSU itself and a power switch!

Combine all that new stuff with the amazing finish, unrivaled 1:1 pinout, Enhance OEM for the 1000/1200 Platinum and it's hard to imagine what else could possibly be done. But somehow Silverstone managed to go that tiny bit further and move all the annoying little white stickers which have to be there onto the side rather than the fan face, gg.

Surprisingly I had already built and partly sleeved an R1.0 with two Pro Duo's, that time I made each set of cables into a 24-pin it was very impressive but the way they all twisted over to get through the midwall just didn't seem natural.

So with mine I decided to treat them as individual 8-pins and keep them stacked horizontally through the midwall rather than end to end, they don't appear quite as disciplined but still a great flow and it did make the back side considerably easier which weirdly I find more important.

The 24-pin on the other hand I kept really tight to the board, just like the EPS and it's great too.

Well that is every cable finished, only one piece is left, the reservoir! Here it is fitted into the top 'accent' of the case.

Wats dis then?

JR

 

[JR23]

It has been forever and as such I bring extremely mixed news, R1.0 INDUSTRIAL was for a few days up and running, the loop was excellent, all of the hardware lived and it even managed a pretty extraordinary initial benchmark.

Firestrike Score 30266 with AMD Radeon Pro Duo(4x) and Intel Core i7-5960X

But... as the lack of final photographs suggests all was not perfect. The 1200 Platinum failed to provide stable power, so I had it replaced and the second unit was exactly the same. After a lot of testing exactly why it didn't work out is still a bit of a mystery, the peak load was only ~1050W but I think ultimately the instant spike from 300 to 1000W when all 4 cores came onto load was just too much and the extremely sensitive WS board shut it down when the +12v drooped. I used the PSU in my Tri-780 X79 rig for a few days and that had no issues at a similar peak load.

I then tried a 1500 Gold Silverstone in the R1.0 and everything ran beautifully for hours so I had to take several steps back with the build and swap out the PSU

Knowing I needed to go bigger than 1200 didn't leave too many options, either the 1500 Gold Silverstone or 1600 Superflower/EVGA, as the 1500 only has 4x PCIe power connectors across two rails splitting 24 GPU cables seemed a greater evil than dealing with Superflower's awkward 24-pin.

So the unit not adorned with butterflies and an octagonal fan grill won!

At 40mm longer than the Silvertone's accommodating this beast would be a challenge and also it's immense weight required a cunning plan.

Didn't need that sticker anyway.

Right, all the gubbins, no idea what this stuff does, just that getting fine bits of metal all over it is less than ideal.

The top and inside end came away easily leaving the PCB screwed to the base, I didn't want to unsolder the plug hence wrapped the internals up in a bag while drilling the base.

With a 3.1mm hole drilled a Parvum cube was attached using a button head M3x6 screw ensuring it didn't intrude onto the PCB..

After marking the same hole location onto the top casing that was drilled to clear the head of the screw and slotted out with a dremel allowing it to neatly slot back into place.

It might now look like an odd cube resting on a PSU, however I already have a location for this drilled into the case.

So my elaborate and cunning plan is complete, and yes, I could have just put a cube under the power supply for it to rest on, but I want it to levitate!

Well, i've got a hell of a lot of sleeving to do, again, let's hope it's done in time for the snowy 4k ultra grass on Christmas day.

JR

 

[JR23]

Thanks guys, more sleeving supplies incoming from Germany and Shropshire!

Nice work on the mod - not being sarcy, it's a really neat job with not even the slightest damage to the powder-coat.

Never understood why modular PSUs don't just have the same connector as on the board and one-to-one wiring. Really sucks that you have to re-do all the wiring you've so nicely sleeved. If I could donate some sanity (patience, if you prefer...but it doesn't quite sum it up) I would....if I had any spare, that is

That powder coat is intense, so is the whole construction in fairness, because the cube is only screwed to the outside layer I thought it may just slightly pry away from the top clamshell that tucks inside it but it's really solid.

If everyone could just do as Silverstone/Enhance/Gigabyte does that would be great! I guess they want to make it hard for SI's to switch brands or even manufacturers to switch OEM's and just do the generally not logical thing while 99% of consumers and reviewists and people with opinions sit back not caring at all. Being in the 1% of the remaining 1% however it's a bit irrelevant as the different length PSU with all the connectors in different places means I need to do everything again anyway.

Silverstone finally failed us

They need to get to work on a 1500 Platinum single rail, or maybe Strider Gold is just life. Either way got a lot of lovely short Shade 19 wires for your ITX and the 1200 Platinum is doing perfect in FTW.

JR

 

[JR23]

Well, it's been nearly a year now and I still haven't just quite done those cables, there were a few things I wasn't quite happy with, other more pressing projects came along (like that Ultimate GeForce PC thing) and no progress was made. I stole the HyperX Predator for ALUMIA and left R1.0 INDUSTRIAL in a bad way. But Corsair stepped in, graciously combining my Bit-Tech prizes and gave me reason enough to resume action! So maybe, just maybe it will be complete for this Christmas, now the disheartening feels of sleeving every cable for the second time have been forgotten.

I had some serious studio upgrades, new 3x8m vinyl backdrop all hung on brackets and rollers ready for more colours to be added. Covered my table with a sheet of acrylic so the vinyl stays super flat instead of being pressed into particle board texture. New lights too with a boom arm instead of a ghetto stack of boxes. Pretty legit all in all which is saving me a huge amount of time on the editing front, the background hasn't been artificially smoothed like before just dialed in and individual dusts spot healed out.

Here he comes, a 480GB MP500 rated at 3000mb/s read and 2400mb/s write!

Shortly after the NVMe arrives in his new habitat a wild EK M.2 Heatsink appears...

Because the MP500 is kinda fat with a chip on the reverse side thermal pads didn't fit exactly as anticipated by EK, with a 1mm pad to fill out the the exposed PCB area it clipped over with just the right amount of tension, any more would be broken NAND territory.

But still looking super tidy and helping out thermals, not that a life of benching Firestrike and occasionally running GTA V was going to upset the M.2 that much.

So plans for R1.0 INDUSTRIAL now are to strip everything down, clean all wet components, fit the M.2, swap the 6TB WD Blacks for 1TB WD Blacks and then build everything up completing the cables along the way!

JR​