[Project Dragonfly] - White Enthoo Luxe w/liquid cooling

hughythomas

hughythomas

hughythomas

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Hi guys,

As promised here begineth my custom loop water cooled Enthoo Luxe build.

I'm extremely excited to be working on this as the aim is to construct a whisper quiet professional DAW/gaming rig to be used in my recording studios (also called Dragonfly).

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Specs:

Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition
Intel Core i7 4790K Devils Canyon
XSPC Raystorm CPU Block
16GB 1600Mhz Geil Black Dragon memory
NVIDIA GTX 780Ti 3GB
EK full cover Nickel waterblock
XSPC Photon 170 Resevoir
Laing DDC Ultra pump
1TB WD Raptor
240GB Samsung 830 Pro SSD
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe
Corsair HW850 powersupply

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Current setup:

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Project log:

Today all of the bits arrived...



Thought I'd show you guys a size comparison as best as I can between my current Silverstone TJ07 (heavily modified - more pics to follow soon!) and the new Phanteks Enthoo Luxe in white...



Another shot...



The TJ07 may be a bit long in the tooth but dayum she still has style and oozes quality.

If anything, I would say the build quality of the Enthoo Luxe is not as good as Silverstone's offering but cases have moved on a lot since 2004...



Tasty rubber grommets <nom>

Phanteks does a mighty fine job of precable tidying...



Shame its all getting ripped out now...





Time to install the 420mm UT60 in the roof with barbs at the front of the case...



Now that the roof rad is in I'll need the PSU from the TJ07...





Aaaaand in it goes...



Time to extract all the storage devices...



Oh and lets not forget the SSD & 780 Ti from my 2nd rig...



SSD Brackets are really good on the Luxe...



For the front 240mm radiator I will need 2x 120mm fans. Think I know where I can get some of them from...



Mmmmmmm tasty...



240mm front radiator with 2x Scythe GT 1850rpms installed. One trick Phanteks missed is the pump mount - how on earth are you meant to install the bracket when the front/bottom 240mm radiator takes up all the space? Silly billys...





In goes the mobo...



MORE TO FOLLOW TOMORROW AFTER SOME SLEEEEEEP
 
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Subbed !

Looking forward to some Luxe builds. I'm surprised by the size comparison I thought TJ07 was bigger.

Anyway will be following this avidily, have fun.

EDIT: Quick question, does the side panel (without windows) have drillings in it for fan vent, like the Primo has? It doesn't look like it from one of your images. Also what does DAW stand for?
 
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Hey man

I don't think so but will check for you after dinner...

As for DAW - it stands for Digital Audio Workstation :)

This bad boy is going to dual boot Windows and Mac for some Logic X/Pro Tools lovin!
 
'Bout time too!! :D

Been waiting to see some LUXE builds. Wow, bigger chassis that I thought... Looking forward to seeing this finished.
 
paulstung said:
Looking good mate, its nice to see another white Luxe build. Have you noticed that the chassis has different paint finishes ?
Click to expand...

Actually, one of the things that has impressed me the most is the finish.

The photos/reviews/videos I've seen prior to actually seeing it in the flesh do not do it justice.

Hard to explain but its kinda polished, smooth, consistent and print-proof.

There have only been two negatives for me so far:

1. The packaging is crap - cheap polystyrene ensuring that when I hit the box on a post in the garden whilst transporting up to my studio, upon later inspection the case was cracked at the back. Furthermore, the polystyerene completely perished as I was removing the case from the box.

2. On my particular one it is missing one of the rubber feet meaning that it doesnt sit flat with constant wobbling.

3. Just like most cases these days, the dust filters are plastic and feel flimsy. Better be careful when cleaning them.

I will do an overall appraisal of the case once the build is completed but these are the initial impressions so far.
 
Is it all smooth, or has it got a few finishes ? The only metal parts that are smooth on mine are the, top, and bottom, the back and the side of the drive bays, is rough, and the front is kind of in between. With your missing foot, check the plastic bag that the case came in, I thought I was missing one, but it was just stuck to the bag.
 
Honesty, mine seems perfect in this regard. I checked out your project log and saw the difference but not seen this on the one I received.

The spare rubber foot is definitely not in the bag, nor anywhere for that matter!

Progress was quite slow yesterday, I had to remove all the radiators as I realised I hadn't flushed them before fitting them and also the XSPC Raystorm block from my TJ07 had corrosion inside.

Moreover, the backplate for said block is physically stuck to my old motherboard so it wasn't a particularly good night for the new build.

Back on track hopefully tonight so more pics will go up then.
 
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Flushed all dem rads.

What a mission!

Re-mounted rads, mobo and attached the XSPC Raystorm...



Front view...



OK...so I need help here - is this gonna seriously inhibit flow?





Can't help but think this case could have been laid out better. For example, I've had to remove the rear 140mm fan to fit the XSPC Photon 170 as its too big for the supplied res mount (that attaches onto the HDD cage).

Look how close this thing is to my 780Ti...



Question:

Am I inhibiting flow massively or can I get away with this 180 degree U-bend that I'm having to bodge because of needing to mount the res at the back?

Cheers!
 
OK, finally got the loop going:





Was waaaay harder than it should have been IMHO. Considering the fact that this case is marketed as a watercooler's wet dream it actually leaves a lot to be desired in some respects.

For example, the res mount doesn't have holes for an XSPC Photon res, not that it matters as you can't mount a reservoir. Wtf? Additionally, the pump mount doesn't line up with a Laing DDC? Again...wtf?

Having said this, it also has some cool touches so swings and roundabouts really.
 
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It's reading your log that's cast doubt in my mind about the luxe, it looks fab but like you say it's not as straight forward as you'd have thought it should be. What you've done so far is looking good though. But I've been researching a caselabs case and think my white build will maybe go that direction. Mind you if I could justify it a white primo would work to!
 
I guess with a case this size you're always going to run into issues, trying to accomadate the custom watercoolers (like ourselves).

My main gripes:

Pump bracket
Reservoir space
Reservoir bracket

I've been bloody lucky that this rig has worked frankly. Because I am dual booting 2x operating systems each with 2x storage devices, the choice of case was extremely difficult to make.

In hindsight I think the Primo would have been a better bet, or a Fractal Node 804. Hell, even the Air 540.

Having said this, if you're clever the Luxe can work but there are sacrifices that have to be made.
 
I don't like sacrifices.
I am an end client of a case that is supposed to suit my needs, anyone is, right?
Having said that, I probably will not ever buy any other case than from CaseLabs - or make one myself, which I am doing right now.
Still this Enthoo is very nice case, if you don't want to spend 300-400£ for a case :)
 
Yer, don't get me wrong - now that I'm using the system today its bloody awesome!

However, there were far too many setbacks with the build that I hadn't expected considering how Phanteks had marketed the enclosure.

I will definitely get some photos up of the rig when it is on very shortly. (I already have the photos but not uploaded them to photobucket yet).

My 4790K is idling at 28c (4.4Ghz manual overclock) and my 780Ti has not gone above 45c under load!!!!!

Thats the proof in the pudding tbh. Despite all the hardships of the build (that took me 4 days when it should have taken 2) the cooling is actually spot on so go figure.

Thanks all for checking out this thread and I will aim to get the new photos up by tomorrow latest.
 
Massively cheers for the build log - have been thinking about building something near identical. How's the noise - whisper quiet as hoped?

Can you elaborate on the reservoir mounting? What did you have to do to mount the Photon 170? by the 'reservoir mount' - do you mean the one towards the front of the case?

Also what did you do with the pump? (maybe a picture of the back would explain all?)

Cheers.
 
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Hey man,

Thanks for the message, I will upload all the new photos tonight but here are my answers to your questions in the interim:

1. Noise is average I would say. I have 2x Scythe GT 1850rpms in the front and 3x Phanteks PH-F140XP in the top. They are all connected to the PWM fan hub which is in turn connected to the CPU fan header on my Gigabyte motherboard. Unfortunately, there seems to be no discernable difference between the loudest and quietest fan profile in the BIOS so I'm wondering if something is not working correctly here?

2. The Photon was mounted by screwing the attached screws into the thing through the back of the chassis. There are already these honeycomb like holes where the rear 140mm fan/rear reservoir mounting point reside and I used a combination of the two. No drilling was required but I had to remove the 140mm fan at the back. I will upload photos so you can see.

3. The DDC Ultra had to be mounted on a pump plate that I had lying around and then I velcroed it to the bottom of the case, take extra care here as if you want to use the PSU cover shroud you need to be aware of your tubing! Again, I'll post some photos tonight mate.

Cheers!
 
Interesting mate - cheers. Hmm - have heard various issues on forums a bout the PWM hub - various accusations all over the place about various motherboards claiming to have PWM headers which are actually something else (like voltage controlled). Have you tried any form of software control like speedfan - wasn't thinking of any sort of long term solution but just to see what's going on in terms of noise (i.e. are they just running at 100%?)

Looking forward to the pictures tonight. Yeah - seems a little irritating you had to lose the rear 140mm fan to mount the rad - though i guess 5 fans should really be enough!
 
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