Chocolate Box

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Hey OCUK

After the attention my recent build JR2.0 received around the internet Parvum Systems made me an offer I couldn't refuse, arranging for sponsors HyperX and XSPC to help out with the project too. I've done three consecutive red and black builds with lots of Corsair and Asus parts, this will be very different while retaining my extremely clean style. Most notably it will be small, no it will be tiny, while still packing a considerable amount of power and not compromising on aesthetics. Quite early on I realized water cooling the CPU and GPU wasn't going to be an option given the packaging constraints, so I made an interesting decision which informed several component choices and the unusual colour scheme.

Central to that theme are these Noctua IndustrialPPC NF-F12's of the 2000RPM PWM IP52 variant. I will only use two somewhat mitigating the massive cost although it is immediately justified by the attention to detail and build quality.













As the GPU consumes far more power than a CPU typically I decided it would benefit the most from Liquid cooling and opted to air cool the CPU. Additionally finding an air cooled graphics card in-keeping with the aesthetic would be very difficult so this is the logical solution. I wanted a heatsink that would neatly fit a 120mm fan so this low profile NF-L12 from Noctua was perfectly suited to the task.







Of course the standard Noctua color fans wouldn't do and as there is no IndustrialPPC 92mm fan I will be using a single 120mm which should provide adequate cooling for a baby i5 while looking absolutely lush. This assembly really encapsulates the theme and the dull black against bright nickel plating will be continued through the build.







I will actually be using an EVGA motherboard partly for its excessive blackness but mostly down to it's unique location for the CPU socket. Unlike many other ITX boards the power delivery is packaged to the side of the socket meaning it sits nearly on the 'top' edge of the motherboard. Although it seems insignificant that makes for the best looking orientation to mount the L12 as Noctua advise against pointing the heatpipes down and it just doesn't look right sideways. Considering EVGA are better known for graphics cards the board looks to be magnificent quality and the packaging and details are leagues ahead of their GPU's. Even the internal USB ports come fitted with little black rubber blanks which is a lovely touch.







The last component I will be unveiling today is the mighty Powercolor R9-290X, perhaps not quite as pretty as the other toys but by contrast it is enormous! Chosen for the far more logical reason of it being very reasonably priced (thanks OCUK) this is actually my first AMD GPU after a long line of 7 nVidia cards.







Nothing else to see here :eek:



You just can't turn down doing a test fit of a huge heatsink onto a tiny motherboard even if you don't have a CPU yet! It nestled in beautifully under the PCIe slot without extending from any side of the board. The rear secure firm mount was extremely close to fouling the VRM heatsink but it would seem they were designed around each other, quite a tense moment all the same.

















Thanks for looking and I would love to hear your opinions.

JR
 
Nice!

How loud are those noctuas?

It depends how fast you run them, no doubt they are pretty loud at 2000RPM but they are lovely in the 8-1400RPM range. In my main rig I have 12 SP120's all variably controlled right down to 400RPM using a pair of Aquaero's. With the Corsair fans set to 650RPM you genuinely can't hear the Noctua over them until it reaches 900RPM which is really impressive. As you increase the speed the air flow noise takes over and they sound quite similar. You can feel they shift a substantial amount of air and i'm sure they will perform well but it just depends on how fast I have to run them.

JR
 
Thanks guys, you would probably be surprised at my camera and lighting setup :D, I made a few little changes for these pics and I think they came out better. Anyway the big reason for the reference 290X was so I could use this block <3





That's right EK Clean CSQ Nickel/Acetal block with an EK backplate.





Even though I looked at the parts all day, shot the photo and did a little processing on it every time I see this pic it's dangerously close to a trouser accident.









Bye bye leaf blower...











Hello Nickely Acetaly EK goodness...















That's easily enough for one day ;)

JR
 
Great idea for a colour scheme man.

Not seen any one actually embrace brown before. Well, apart from the rotten apple which was reddish brown.

Subbed, looking forward to this.
 
looking good! would it not be possible to put the 120mm fan in place of the 92mm? would look amazing if you could in my opinion
 
looking good! would it not be possible to put the 120mm fan in place of the 92mm? would look amazing if you could in my opinion

Well if you look at how big a 120mm fan is compared with the motherboard i'd say no ;). It would foul the memory, the vrm heatsink and nearly all of the IO and you wouldn't really be able to see it. I won't be using an unlocked chip either so it wouldn't have a performance benefit, things are tight enough already without going to a bigger or taller heatsink.



JR
 
Loving the components and the look of everything so far but... I think it needs more chocolate. :D

Don't worry there will be more chocolate. Finding brown components is surprisingly difficult and as most of them will be covered underneath the epic heatsink I won't try. I will incorperate brown into the colour scheme of the cables and I think Parvum have some Chocolate for me ;)

Here's a little unboxing of the EK DDC X-RES 100...









Although the little baby res came with a very fancy EK anticyclone and is adorned with a nicy shiny EK logo I will probably use it with the plain side facing out and the funky foam. I find it much cleaner and with any luck the tubing will work out better that way too.





The next thing to be unboxed is the hugely cute and hugely impressive Silverstone SX600-G semi passive, 80+ gold rated, fully modular, 600 watt SFX form factor PSU! Just to recap that's all of the things at 1/3rd of the size of a normal PSU.











These lighting test shots with the L12 were just too pretty to leave out of the project log.





Just to give a bit of scale to all of the little and large components that have been unboxed so far here's a nice group shot of the little family.



I think all of my build logs have now caught up to where i'm at in terms of progress, sorry if OCUK was briefly behind. Since this update I got a small selection of fittings and tubing which I have been trying out.



So after much consideration I have decided to use Alphacool HT 10/13mm tube and fittings but with EK PSC rotaries all in bright nickel chrome. I'm not that fond of the Alphacool rotaries as they just have unnecessarily complex design by making both the male and female rotatable. I've now ordered one million of each.

JR
 
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