MODZERO SHOCK* - SLIGER S610/S620

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MODZERO SHOCK

Hey folks, I'm back with another b(uild)log... I'm not sure where to start with this one... I was finishing up with MODZERO DYNO (here) feeling unimpressed with the final build thinking 'ughhhhh ATX sucks, I wanna get back in another SFF case'. Parvum has always been my 'goto' chassis of choice but as I'm still actively developing MODZERO SEVEN (here) I started thinking of all the other epic chassis on the market.

I've always liked the NCASE M1, the LOUQE GHOST S1, Dan Case S4, and the Formd T1! I'd no concepts in mind, no real drive to do anything new or extreme with any of the above... at that point, I wanted to build a clean, air-cooled rig I'd be happy to have on my desk and take along to LAN events.

But then Covid put a stop to LAN events and the shortages killed supply and most of my sponsors had their marketing budgets slashed and thus weren't able to support (at that time). Can't believe it's June 2021 and much of that is still valid. I wasn't in a rush, so it just occupied that space at the back of my head for a while.

I think, at this point, the PS5 and XBOX SX were about to be released and RTX 3000 & and RX6000 series were doing the press rounds. Intel was rumored to have the 11th gen just around the corner and thus the motherboard players would have new chipset boards to push. It started to feel like an opportune time to reach out and see how I'd fair. But first I'd need a concept.

Then I won dec MOTM over on builds.gg! $500 + a bunch of credit with EK and PPCs. Now I had a budget! I'd seen a bunch of builds on Instagram in SLIGER cases, I'd not heard of Sliger but for the most part, they had that shoebox design that I was looking for. Then they posted teasers of the S610/S620, it had a cleaner design on the front than the 500 series and I loved the chunky handle! it also looked amazing in white with a black top/handle.

I wanted them both... the concept became clear... build a console-killing mini beast running the latest from Intel/Nvidia (seeing as the consoles were all AMD/AMD) and cool it with the best air cooling on the market. I'd no real mods in mind, just 100% handmade custom MDPCX cables, panel to panel Noctua cooling, and great midrange hardware! So I sent out the emails and starting spending my winnings on bits.

SLIGER S610 (here)

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The case was the first to turn up, I bought the S610. It was the only thing I wanted and Performance PCs sold Sliger products. I got in touch and they placed the order with Sliger. In the time it took to come, a few things happened. Well, one thing happened (here).

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I didn't even have a RTX3080! This build was intended to be a console killer, not a PCMR wet dream! In my mind, I was aiming at a 3070 maybe a 3060 and most like an 11th gen i5 as again, I was thinking I'd be buying it! But this block blew me away! There was no way I was getting a couple of rads in the S610 and I was still in love with the idea of class-leading air cooling!

So one build became two!

I reached out to Sliger and explained I was building in the S610 on-air aiming at the console market with a super clean build. Then I said, I'd like to squeeze two 240mm rads and a full custom loop in the S620 and asked if they would be up for coming along for the ride. They were! shortly after the S620 arrived on my doorstep. Thanks Sliger!

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The guys over at Sliger have been great too! they sent me an extra front panel for the S620 (as I may attempt a distro.) and for anyone that follows them on Instagram (here) you'll know they are a small company in the US, that design and manufacture their products in the US. I was getting a CaseLabs vibe and I'm all for it! More about the S620 later.

My last three builds have been proudly sponsored by AMD, I started out back in the 90s with AMD and it's been an absolute honor to have their support. Before it, I bought the chips that went in my builds and until ZEN landed. Like everyone else.. those were Intel products. With a good body of work to my name now, I thought I'd try my luck and reached out to Intel.

Now, I was asking for a product that wasn't out yet and I'm a nobody! I've never been sent anything pre-release, never signed an NDA. I was having this conversation (asking for sponsorship) on two fronts. With Intel I'd sent them a pitch asking for an i5/i7 and with the Gigabyte I knew they'd release an ITX Z590 board, just because they hadn't announced it yet, didn't mean it didn't exist.

Sure enough, Intel released the 11th gen of CPUs, and along came Aorus with the Z590i (here)

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I've been posting stories and images over on my Instagram for months check em out (here). I figure this build log will be image-heavy as it is. I run the X580 ITX board from Aorus in my MODZERO SHEILD build and love the similarities. Intel got back in touch and offered to support the build, they kindly sent me over an i7 11700k! I was super stoked! Does anyone else recall those awesome press kits Intel sent out? with the cool product boxes (you'd have seen them in all the youtube coverage)? Yeah?

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LOL!

Made me chuckle, doesn't matter in the slightest! I'm super proud to have Intel support this build and to be able to add Intel to the list of awesome brands I've worked with. Pre ZEN only the very few used to get anything from the big blue (sponsored), yeah markets have changed, but for an old player like me, feels good to have them on board.

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So I'm rocking the Intel Core i7 - 11700K which suits me just fine, as I'm running the AMD 5800X in my other build (SEVEN). Nice to have that matching core count. Looking forward to benching them off against each other.


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Noctua sent me over all the Chromax! I'd posted unboxing and product shots on my Instagram (here) so check em out if you're into it. I'll talk about them more when we get into the build I ended up NOT using the cooler they sent me and went with my trusty NH-D9L and did buy another 4 fans. I've some thoughts on Noctuas Chromax, remind me if I forget later on.

Remember I mentioned I'd won BOTB over on Builds.gg (here) well that opened some doors! I run an 860 EVO drive in the back of that which caught Samsung Memories eye over on Instagram. They sent me a message which turned into a zoom meeting with their creative team. They only wanted to use the project in an ad they were shooting!!!! HOW COOL is that! Long story short, I wasn't down with shipping my pride and joy halfway around the planet so I pointed them at BenQ and moved on. I went back to them weeks later and pitched this project. WOW! Did they hook me up!

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2x Samsung 980 PRO 1TB
1x Samsung 870 EVO 2TB

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I posted a bunch on Instagram if you wanna see it.

As mentioned, I'd adjusted the scope of the build after EK blew my ginger ******** off with the 3080 FE block.. so now I needed a 3080FE.. Which, is no easy thing. I've no relationship with Nvidia, and those guys in the community that do weren't getting GPUs sent their way either. It was a case of FINDING STOCK. Who am I kidding, it was a case of sitting on a PartsAlerts discord server for 11 hours a day with a Telegram app pushing notifications when/if Nvidia pushed the stock to the UK. Orders were (still are) being fulfilled by ********** and unless you were hitting that product page within seconds of it going live, you were ******.

so I was ******.

over and over.... and over again.

Sure, 8-5 whilst working from home It's easy enough to have the discord open on another screen.... and yeah, telegram does an OK job at covering those other points in the day. But I quickly found that even this wasn't enough. You needed to be logged into your scan account as the capture security stuff would cause you to lose out... you needed to use cash (not a credit card) as any transaction approval would cause you to lose your basket. But most of all, you had to be ready......

At most, there would be 1 drop every couple of weeks, 14k ppl would hit the discord link, and maybe! maybe! Scan would have 30+ GPUs. It took weeks just to get to the product page and there actually be an option to 'add to basket'. I lost out twice due to using a credit card and at least twice to server errors. When I finally landed one, I can tell you it was the most stressful nerdy tech purchase experience of my life!

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It's a thing of beauty! minus that abomination of a 12pin power connector! *puke*. It arrived and I left it in the box (half-open) enjoying its splendor whilst I waited for the time I could start this build... well I got bored of waiting, drained MODZERO SEVEN, and swapped out my EK cooled 5700XT anniversary edition with the RTX3080 FE running on air. I made new cables (only as far as the adapter) and for a couple of weeks, when I could, I enjoyed the power and performance this GPU delivers. Two things, however. Mounted inverted, the FE cooler is horrid! it would spin up SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO loud even with a headset on you'd be thinking someone was parking a truck outside. Secondly, that 12pin is like taking a **** on the bonnet of a supercar.

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But something else was happening, MODZERO SEVEN runs a 700watt gold SFX PSU from Silverstone, up until very recently it was the very best they offer in that form factor. I fitted the 3080FE with the primary intention of finally finishing Half-Life ALYX! using Oculus Connect and the Quest 2 the 5800X paired with the 3080FE offered a MAXED out VR gaming experience which is, put frankly, INCREDIBLE! The world is full of only two types of people. Those who have experienced ALYX and everyone else.

Problem was.....

The PC would just turn off! not driver crash, not crash ALYX, it would die. Now I knew Nvidia claimed 750watts is needed for the 3080 but in all the years I've been a PC gamer I've never known a GPU to actually push those requirements. Nothing I could do would give me a stable experience so after at most, a couple of hours progress in-game and hours of troubleshooting. The 3080FE came out and went back in the box.

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So I did the sensible thing and sourced the solution! I've got some good shots coming up.


So why call it SHOCK, it's not going to be one. I've no intention of pushing the boundaries... instead firmly taking aim at clean aesthetics and whats with the *? well let's get this started.

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I ordered the case with white panels, a black top, feet, and handle. I knew I'd use Noctua Chromax black fans and most everything else internally would be predominantly black. The XBOX is black and the PS5 Black and White. The S610, the one I ordered at least is black and white. I wanted a console experience but needed a distinction. I thought about the XBOX game pass on the PC as a platform then remembered this.

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This would be the color scheme for my console killer, and thus its controller and namesake. The Microsoft Xbox Shock Blue controller. I took a good look at all the blues MDPCX offered and went with Blue Carbon. The blue Noctua offer as bumpers on their Chromax products wasn't too far off the SHOCK shade of blue and I'd hoped to vinyl wrap the front panel on the S610. Really simple, no modding, just clean.

So let's get to it.

J.
 
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UPDATE 1.0


Progress! yay! I think I'll probs get this near done (first stage at least) in this post. So I'll probs SPAM the life out of it on FB (sorry folks). The most time-consuming part of this project is the cables, it's the same with every build. Buying custom-made extensions are great! and I recommend Pexon (here) if that's what you want to do. However, making all the cables yourself so you have that truly custom fit and finish is what I feel (at least partially) separates modders/builders today. Anyone can build a PC and hide all the mess. Take a tight space and make it look otherwise takes something else.


and that, more so than anything else, was the goal with this, as it was with MODZERO JUICE (here). Now I'm average at best! when it comes to making cables, I'm **** at soldering, and even after over a dozen MODZERO builds I still make a mess of crimps more often than not.. So I tend to order A LOT more than I need and take my time.


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I ended up using my trusty NH-D9L again. I'd used the same cooler on the first stage MODZERO ASHEN (here). I'd wanted a black chromax cooler and sure enough, Noctua sent me the NH-U12S CHROMAX.BLACK and it'll fit, in the S620 with no side-mounted fans. But alas, plans changed and I found myself looking at all Noctuas coolers with clearance in mind.


The NH-L12S or the NH-L12S Ghost Edition made a lot of sense but would require regular height RAM and neither of which are part of the .BLACK range (yet?). So the only Noctua SFF cooler in black would be the tiny NH-L9i chromax.black. A brilliant cooler, I used one on MODZERO JUICE (here) and its performance blew me away. Though, I doubted it'll cool an i7 11700k with a 125watt TDP shown to pull a sustained 180watt!!!!!!!!


So I needed something with chops, that was low-profile that wouldn't hide the RAM, ahhhhh the RAM.....


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Teamgroup T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB 16GB 3600MHZ (here)


So I decided to pull out the NH-D9L again, I bought a new Chromax 92mm fan for it and got test fitting...


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That's a good 3mm! when paired with CHROMAX NF-A12x15s on the side bracket.


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That'll serve me nicely! The D9L has that great double tower aesthetic built around a 92mm (can fit two) fan. Pair that with the Z590i, the i7 11700K, two Samsung 980 Pro 1TB drives, and the 16gb XTREEM kit and that should deliver great performance.



But first I had loads of cables to make.



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With the S610 all the panels pop off, they do so with a reassuring click. removing all the sides reveals a black powder-coated frame with some truly very thought-out design features. You can fit two slim 120s up in the top or, when you opt for the handle you fit that center bracket dropping you down to one top 120mm (slim) fan but you get that great SOLID aluminum handle.


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All the Noctua Chromax fans use removable cables, which is a delight! I have six Chromax fans going in here and an ITX board with only two headers.. So I wanted to daisy chain the bottom pair and the side bracket pair and make custom length cables for the top slim fan and the CPU fan. Then, route them all into an OCTO controller mounted to the PSU housing..


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Board and PSU in I hoped the OCTO would just line up nicely on the PSU cage.. It didn't.. haha, so a quick job with the file...


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Nice, now to get the cables run.


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I couldn't source female PWM connectors so I stripped the ones that came with the fans, cut them to length, sleeved, and put new male connectors on.


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NOT great! but a little length of heat shrink and it'll serve.


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I love this controller! With MODZERO SEVEN I finally bought an Aquaero put the heatsink on it, had a custom mount, and ran everything through it, it's awesome! But I use about 3% of its capabilities! and they ain't cheap!! So when I was speccing MODZERO DYNO (here) I bought the OCTO, the cut back little brother of the Aquaero. This thing is amazing! it runs the same software as its bigger sibling and offers 8 channels (30w per channel) + expansion. It's the perfect controller.


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The internal USB header was a pain in the ass, unlike the Aquaero the OCTO uses a tiny connector on the controller so I couldn't make a new cable. Instead, I had to cut to length, sleeve, and re-crimp the Internal USB end.


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The PSU cable routes nicely around the top fan. I had to train it (left it held in place with small clamps) but now it's not visible from any meaningful angle.


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All six fans fitted and connected to the OCTO controller. Looking good!


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It sat like this for a week on my desk. The next task was bound to be harder... The clearance between the GPU and the PSU was tight and I knew I'd have to route the cables along with the GPU and up for the EPS and had to keep in mind that these cables would need to transplant into the S620 and thus I must consider the Pump/Res placement when routing my 24pin.


Plus.....


I had to do something about the 3080FE 12pin!!


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Thanks for reading, if you have, I'd love a comment. I enjoy writing the build logs any questions or thoughts, have at it below.. I mean.. look at it.. the top 120 is the intake and the side are an outlet! That can't be right, can it? :D


I'll be back soon.


J.
 
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UPDATE 2.0


Let's see if I can bring this up to date with this post then maybe look at what's next (for this build). At the end of the last post, I'd just about completed making all the fan cables and routing those to the OCTO controller. So really, with no great mods planned... Once I've made all the power cables, it's done... pretty much.


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I went with MDPC-X Blue Carbon and Liquid Carbon sleeve (here). I'd asked Nils about the Microsoft Shock blue and he'd recommended the carbon combo. It contrasts well with the Noctua blue bumpers and I'm hopefully If I do find a wrap for the front panel, it'll all pull together.


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I find sleeving to be the love/hate task of all builds. The end result is always worth it and the only way is through, you just gotta get it done. It's the most time-consuming part of any of my builds and at 37 with young kids, getting it finished takes an age. At most I'll get a few hours a week to plug away at it. Downtime, when you have kids, is normally spent on the sofa contemplating the merits of prophylactics... and if I do find the energy to put some hours in, sleeving is one of those things you don't really wanna do when you're knackered.


So I (perhaps stupidly) always start with the 24pin, it's the largest and I like to think you're halfway done once the 24pin is in.


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I picked white combs, in super tight spaces I think combs make a lot of sense, the best builds out there don't use them. Look at pretty much everything JR23 has made.... wow! but with this... I wanted white, and I wanted LOTS of them. Planning it out I knew the 12pin EPS would have you travel across the GPU and up so I needed a good bend, the 24pin would have to come outward, bend 180' and then pitch another 90' into the socket... and the 12pin GPU with its stupid side placement would have to hug the GPU and bend around and up...


I needed combs...


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Love how the panels just pop off! During this sleeving stage, I had all the sides off, stacked on my desk. The S610 really is a well-thought-out bit of kit.


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That space below the PSU is great, you're able to get at all the PSU cables, and when fully assembled it's a great spot for ventilation. 750watts! Silverstone PSUs are a pleasure to sleeve, they have 1:1 pinouts... no more needed.


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24pin in and Molex being made for the OCTO. I've better shots of the 24pin for later...


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Octo is all wired in and looking pretty.


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So you can see the 24pin shape clearer there... it had to do this, as when I transplant this build into its chubby brother the S620 I'll be mounting an EK 120 FLT on that surface the OCTO is on.. so the PSU cables couldn't foul that space. The OCTO will be rotated 90' and mounted on the underside of the top panel.


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It sat like this for a week or so... and then I started the final push... the nasty Nvidia 12pin. Now I'd had a plan. MDPCX had no intentions of stocking the connector and the tight wire placement meant that any heat-shrinkless sleeving wasn't gonna happen. I couldn't chop up the adapter the GPU comes with as I'd no terminals that would fit...


But not to worry as Sliverstone answered my calls!


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Check out the pinout too!!


So the approach would be simple enough. I hung up the cable with weights to straighten the wire then fitted the GPU and cut the cable to length. Then I sleeved the GPU end the old-fashioned way with heat-shrink and touch of CA.


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The old issue with this is, getting a clean finish from the sleeve. if they don't sit pretty side by side it can look messy. so I did it six at a time.. lol. Precut all the sleeve, remember the other end isn't crimped yet so the length wasn't an issue. Then I put a dot of CA onto the sleeve/wire with the heat-shrink in place. this was so I could pull the sleeve tight for when I got to the other end of the cable. otherwise, they'd slide up the wire and I'd make a reet **** job of it.


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All the combs! lol.. That was a quarter of the job done and I was happy with the progress. I then got into it and stopped taking photos.... oops.


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In a case this size you've nowhere to hide, and little room to cable manage. The individual wires have to be spot on. When using combs it's easier to get a clean run but you end up dealing with the pinout between that last comb and the connector. With a larger build that space can be 10+ cm and so the position/route of each wire around the wire next to it, isn't as key. With ITX it's near impossible to get a perfect finish.


But I was proud of these and proud of the 12PIN too.


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I'm out of time so I'll post again on Thursday with some full shots and a plan for the S620. Thanks for reading!!! Please leave a comment.


What do you think?


J.
 
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UPDATE 3.0



I ran out of time on Tuesday, so I'll keep this short.... This first phase is complete, the build is hooked up on my desk and I'm happy to say the 750watt PSU is working a charm with the RTX3080FE suffering zero power issues under HEAVY load.



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Really I wanted to buy the Shock Blue controller and shoot it with one in the shot, but they ain't cheap... so it'll have to wait. It's an awkward angle but there it is, MODZERO SHOCK.

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Always gotta share those backside shots.. lol.. So proud to have Samsung on this one, 4TB of total solid-state storage NICE!

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With the side fan bracket removed you get a better view of that lovely Noctua NH - D9L cooler.

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The cables turned out well, not the best out there, but I'm proud of that. the rear fan on the 3080FE cooler sits damn close to the PSU. that 24pin arcs pretty well to still provide that fan with plenty of exhaust space out to the rear side of the chassis.

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So that's phase 1. Taking the Sliger S610, putting great hardware and the best in air cooling to produce something that'll smoke anything the PS5/XBSX can produce. Job done...

So now it's time to take it to PCMR tier god mode. Under full gaming loads with the PC about 2-3 feet from me on the desk, it remaining reasonably quiet. You'd certainly be pleased with it. But any fan curve is too much fan curve in my eyes. So next opportunity I'll begin its migration to the S620. Where I intend to run two 240mm rads (internally) with EK 120FLT combo + CPU/GPU blocks. EK sent me a box stuffed full of love!

First up I'll shoot the S620 empty then go about fitting the fans, primarily as I'll have to route and sleeve them.. only this time I've got all those bloody RGB cables to deal with... Not too sure how best to make a clean job of those. I might convert them into 4-pin PWM headers and daisy chain the lot into a single 4pin ARGB connector...

It'll be a slow burn and I intend to leave the S610 running intact until all the loop prep in the S620 is in place. I'll get some benches done and post those.. will be good to see how it fairs against is future WC variant.



Until then... Thanks for taking the time to read this.. it's a dying form. You'll miss it when TicTok becomes the PCMR channel of choice. ha



J.
 
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Really nice mate, want to build a rig for my dad next and my brother when he comes back to the UK in an ITX form factor having already built one for myself.
 
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very nice build so far.. also love the cable management, very clean. I'm in the middle of researching the 12pin power connectors as i heard they are a right PITA to custom sleeve. You can buy the connectors from Aliexpress.. (i intended to only purchase x2 12pin connectors but didn't realise each pack contained 20, so i have x40 12pin nvidia power connectors *facepalm*... oh well if i mess it up i got plenty of connectors to redo it) and the pins are not the Micro-Fit 3.0 but are actually Astron which can also be found on Aliexpress and wire used is 1mm² 17awg. I love MDPCX sleeving as they have a vast amount of funky colours to choose from but i don't believe they offer any under 4mm. For the 12pin i think you need 2mm so Teleios sleeving is the only option
 
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