2015 Tt Invitational Season 2 mod for the UK!

[davido_labido]

So a few people here already know, I have been chosen to represent the UK in the Thermaltake Invitational. Basically I have to go head to head with some of the worlds best modders. Then, at the end voting happens and I find out that im last I'll be perfectly honest and say im doing my build for the fun of it and NOT for the money, so I certainly wont be begging for votes on my home forum (here!!!) It would be great to have you guys behind me though!


Well, I had a parcel arrive today so I can finally start my build log! YAY!

I will edit this post later with sponsor logos and such, but i just wanted to get the ball rolling!

So, without further to do!!

This is my box, there are many like it but this one is mine. My box is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. Without me it is useless, without my box I am useless.

Inside the box was lots of stuff... I mean... Crazy amounts!! so much it wouldn't all fit on my table and it will take me a few days to go through it all!!

First of all, let's have a look at the CPU block. I found 2 old friends up the attic. I will call them Jay and Em (they might resemble 2 EU Tt colleagues, but I assure you they are toys

So i chose the Thermaltake Pacific W2 CPU block.

With help from Jay and Em I was able to get inside

Inside the box there are all fittings for all the common socket types as well as some plastic inserts to allow us to change the colour of the glowing name

Come on Tt dudes, you need to lift that block up for me so I can get a better picture -.-

Cheers lads! As you can see, G1/4 fittings and some mounting gear pre-fitted for our convenience.

Next up we have these....*

20 x 120mm Tt Riing fans with orange LEDs

I have used the white versions of these before and they have been great. As you can see from the spec, they are excellent for radiators.

Inside the box you get everything you need, screws, a cable to reduce the fan speed and noise and also a molex to fan adapter for if you have 20 fans and run out of fan headers

sigh, Jay and Em decided to hide. They are not very clever though.

Oh excellent. Now they have climbed on top!!! They are probably looking for a bar.

I knew it!!! After a long day at work looking at some awesome Tt goodies, they wanted a nice cold beer!

As per usual, Em couldn't handle his beer. Jay is going strong though!!!

Oooops, maybe not, I best go and put these two to bed for the night! I will be back soon!

 

[davido_labido]

Cheers folks!!!

So I got an awesome parcel through from AVEXIR. Now a little bit of a back-story here, just to show how awesome AVEXIR were when I asked for their DDR4. Currently, they only have red and black on their website, yet they let me have some special black and white memory that isn't for sale yet it looks gorgeous!


So, the box is rather nice and sleek, simplistic and protects the product well.

Oh Great, Jay is here, riding in on the back of a lizard. I thought id locked these 2 away for the evening. It seems Em is in the toilet so won't be with us for a while. At least he is the sensible one so we shouldn't have any more pets.

I retract my status Em is an idiot -.- ffs dude. As per usual, toilet paper defeats him.

Cheers for helping him out Jay. Its a good job your here to sort him out else Em would really struggle.

Thats it, open the box then run away and let me take some product pics please!

Ok, OK. one last pic with you both in, then you have to leave. Avexir might want to use my pics so you cant be in all of them

So, this is what the white and black ram looks like from the top. I can't wait to get it into a build and see it glow.

This colour combo should be released soon hopefully as I am a big fan of white in RAM.

Im also actually a big fan of the squared edges and matt black. It reminds me of some kind of RAM waterblock.

OK, so 4 sticks are nice. 8 are better. MWHAHAHA

look how artsy this pic is!? i know right! looks almost like I know what im doing with the camera haha.

I do have an idea with this RAM, but im not sure if i dare to do it or not. With this RAM not being easy to get hold of it really does scare me to do too much.

ooops, dropped it.... only kidding haha

Well, that's the AVEXIR products I also have had an awesome gift from another company, so i'll be taking pics of that today Hopefully Jay and Em will be out of my way for them though.

 

[davido_labido]

My hand is still in a cast so I still can't do any serious modding (boooooo) so I'm afraid it's more product pictures for now! Oh, and a Tt dude story.


So another sponsor that Tt got for all members of the invitational (which cant be named here as they are an American competitor) let us have a very handsome budget and we got to choose some really nice hardware. As ASUS sponsor me I already had a Mobo, so I was able to splash out on a nice bit of Hardware.

I took 2 1TB Samsung SSDs a 250gb SSD a 5820k and 2 ASUS 970 Strix!

The SSDs! I usually use HyperX drives in all my builds, but they were a little more expensive and I was on a tight budget. Samsung drives perform very well, and 3 of them im sure will be fun

OOOOOOOU

This is my 4th 5820k! I think they have been one of my most favorite processor! nice bit of overclocking potential and works well.

I'm not sure on the batches of 5820k TBH. Anybody got the same batch?

Again, 970s have been great for me this year and I have used more ASUS Strix than anything! When Tt said they had new blocks for these i was rather happy

I'm not sure why, but I always like the side on view of the GPU boxes more than the frontal view!

They are watching you!

I like this pic <3

They also sent me a T-shirt. I was wearing it whilst I was taking those pics (I know, I'm silly!) but no doubt it will show up during a few pics later on in the build

Well, I know I said there would be a Tt Dude story but it looks like we have gotten away with.....

I Spoke too soon. They are here.

hmmmm, they seem to be in a very serious conversation, this is unusual for Jay and Em!

Oh lord... is that... is that a girl bear?!

Oh no. I think Em has got a crush.

Wow!! Em smartened up!! a Tie and some flowers for the lady!!!

Oh dear =( that didnt go well.

Em doesn't seem to phased though and it looks like Em is coming up with a plan with Jays help! This can only go wrong.

Oh gawd. What is that???

The little thieving monkeys! I was saving the watercooling products to show you all later, it seems they have taken one of my reservoirs though!!

Jay just ran off saying "prepare to be amazed" after throwing a cloth over Em and the reservoir. I have a bad feeling about this.

What the ####!??!?! get out of there!!!! All this to please a lady!? It's never going to work. You have wasted all our time!

Ok.....

I stand corrected. Well, get out of there and give me a hand showing off the reservoirs now considering you have already shown everyone.

As you have seen, I will be using the Thermaltake T33 reservoirs! Not one, but two! These are 330ml reservoir with multi-port options, so I shouldn't have any problem using these!

These come with a load of accessories, fittings, some tubing, nuts and bolts, a little spanner, alan key, cable ties and of course, mounting brackets!

 

[davido_labido]

Sorry its been a while (yet again) but I am apparently "fit for work" now so I've been back at work a lot. Booooo! It does mean that my thumb is getting better though so I can actually start some modding. Unfortunately Jay and Em are a little busy at the moment (I've put them in a box somewhere and I can't bloody find them!!)

First though, a huge thanks to

for sponsoring me yet again! You guys are awesome <3

So for this build I decided to go X99 and take the Sabertooth. I do love the armor on these bad boys!

Hiding the IO panel is always nice too and as you can see, there are a plenty of options directly from the mobo.

Those who are not familiar with TUF boards, basically they have an armor front and back to protect the board, help with heat dissipation and most importantly, look god damn awesome.

TUF stands for The Ultimate Force by the looks of it niiice.

Some nice discreet branding by ASUS.

Sabertooth X99. Nom Nom Nom.

No bent pins <3

oooou, the 5820k found a new home!

This is the TUF Fortifier, basically its a metal plate that attaches to the back of the board and stops it from bending anything like that. It makes the board feel A LOT more sturdy tbh.

more Sabertooth X99 branding on the back.

I will just leave you with these last two pics... what a damn sexy board.

Thanks again ASUS, your all babes! Much love <3

 

[davido_labido]

Awesome!!

Great pics and can we get signed pics of Jay and Em?

Of course, for a small fee

Great pics! Any news on what case you will be using? One of those displayed at Computex 2015?

Yeah, we have to use the Core X9. Not my first choice of case tbh, but I guess working with a case that wouldn't be my choice makes it a little different.

Excellent update, lovely components going in, hope the hand is better soon so we can see it all coming together

Cheers man, still in a lot of pain with it, but hey, doctor says I am allowed back to work now, so that means i'm allowed to mod in my eyes

lol am i the only one who cant wait for the next episode of jay and em? hehe love it made my day.

They will be back just as soon as I can find the little buggers!

loving this pics nice to see some humour injected in

Thanks dude I thought id do something a little different.

 

[davido_labido]

Am I the only one thinking where's the build????

ive not been able to do anything as i've had my hand in cast, usually I would do the product pics as I go, but havn't been able to. Now my cast is off though, I will be able to open the boxes with the cases in and start to build

Painting will be happening today

 

[davido_labido]

So, lets finally do a little bit of modding ay?

First up its the GPU's!!! I am going back to my roots, White and Orange, YAY!!!

The new Tt waterblocks for the ASUS 970 Strix are white acrylic with a black plate. I would have loved to have shown you them, but like an idiot, i didn't realise my camera was set up completely wrong until after i'd started to spray things. OOOOPs

This is the only picture that is even worth looking at for now =(

These are the black metal plates that are attached to the acrylic. I unscrewed them and put them in a professional spray booth (totally not a cardboard box. honest.)

The plates got a bit of a rubbing down with some fine sand paper, then a few coats of primer, then a few coats of this very dull colour.

Whilst I did this i took the backplates off the GPUs. The blocks are NOT compatable with the backplates, but I wanted to keep them. I gave them a quick coating of paint first though.

A few hours later, the backplates were dry enough to work with. I needed to make sure that I could get them to fit the GPU with the waterblocks on also. This was actually quite easy

First i drilled out some of the original holes, so that I could fit some longer screws.

after rummaging though my box of spare screws i found these bad boys! Perfect.

Normally the backplate is held on from inside the card, this still happens, but now the 2 added screws hold the backplate on from the outside, they are multi-purpose now. They hold the waterblock as well as keeping the backplate on firm.

This is what the backplates looked like when id finished with them.

By the time id sorted these out, I could assemble the Tt waterblock again.

White and Orange <3

As I had litterally covered all of the branding from both the GPU blocks and the backplate, I decided to add one brand on either side of the card. Happy companies mean happy davido.

The ASUS branding:

The Thermaltake branding:

I do love a white and orange colour scheme, it always seems to be like marmite I hope at least a few of you like it haha

 

[davido_labido]

I always knew your purple box was a smokescreen until you could get your orange paint out again

Looks really nice davido

Haha, yeah, i wanted the Pandora white and orange tbh, BitFenix didn't do white and orange though and I knew I wouldn't have time to sleeve them myself for for that build =(

Ah man nice board, I think it's an incredible looking board, reason I chose it for mine just got that nice industrial look. So jealous! Looking good with the gfx mods, it's great to see your signature orange in use again.

Cheers man, yeah I really the look of of these boards tbh. Giving it a good coating tomorrow I think .

I am just waiting for my ram to dry, il post pics either tonight or tomorrow =D.

 

[davido_labido]

Love a good build log. Thought about going a bit Star Wars-ish? The colour scheme would work. Would need a bit of patina and decals, but the ultra clean orange-white look should spank too.

For this one, I just want it clean white and orange tbh, but it is a possiblity for my next one haha

So today's job was getting the mobo and RAM ready. Again, massive thanks to AVEXIR and ASUS for these goodies!

So First the RAM.

First I took the RAM apart, obviously I wouldn't recommend this as it's not the easiest thing to do and it does void the warranty (I imagine)

I also managed to peel all of the metal plates from the side of the RAM. This took a lot of patience, these plates are made out of thin metal, so too much pressure and they bend easily.

Next up its a coating of primer for all of the removed parts.

Then a lot of niiiiiice orange.

and then, even more orange!!

After its all dry, I stuck it back together.

as you can see, the metal plates haven't stuck correctly on one or two of the sticks, so I will be redoing them, I want to give them a good 24 hours or more so I know the paint is 100% before I mess with them again.

I think these have come out pretty well! (other than the plates not sticking properly, but that's an easy fix)

So next up it was the motherboard. The great thing about these ASUS Sabertooth boards is you can spray the armor changing the look of them entirely.

Same as before, I took it apart

I also removed the southbridge and VRM heatsinks, these will get a light coating, nothing too crazy, I don't want to affect their performance too much.

Again, i put a coating of primer onto all the parts

you can see how light of a coat i used on the heatsinks, you can almost see through it!

Next up it's the real paint!

again, just a light coat on the heatsinks.

I then waited for it all to dry, put it all back together and added the ram. With a little bit of extra orange detailing I think it looks great!!

ASUS represent!

you can see the orange of the VRM heatsink popping through from beneath the Armor in places

The RAM looks great in the board, just still need to sort out the plates are peeling off. I think I need some better glue.

I did want to paint the miniature fan that you get with these boards, but unfortunately, I broke it =(... Not doing anything crazy, I just pulled it out of the box, put it on the side ready to work on, and it must have fallen on the floor. I heard a crunch and that was that. Gutted.

That pink sticker has gone now too, I started to remove it before these pics, then must have got distracted. ooops!

The orange in the detailing is a slightly different colour, but from a distance you can not tell.

I tried not to use too much and just highilght certain parts

A little test fit of the now orange and white davido_labido style GPU's

and one final picture because why not?!

what do you guys think about this little ASUS/AVEXIR mod?

I know white and orange isn't for everyone, but I think we are starting to see some progress!?

 

[davido_labido]

thanks for the comments folks!!! well, deadline is fast approaching and I have been putting off as much physical work as long as i can on this build to try and rest my hand, but I need to pull my finger out and get it sorted.

So, for the case we were given Thermaltake Core X9s' a choice of either one or two! Naturally I took two!!

For the first case I just wanted it to hold all the things I want to keep hidden, a full X9 is far too big for this, so let's see what we can do!

So these cases are huge! They can fit multiple fans and set ups in them this is the outer packaging. It took a bit of a knock in transit =(

Luckily everything is fine inside, I obviously went with white for my colour choice.

The two side panels are switchable, so you can have the window on either side. I prefer to have my windows on this side

This IO panel can be moved to either side also!!

The case has plenty of options for your drive bays, they are quick release, but you can screw optical drives in also.

There are plenty of slots for you to add as many PCI-e components as you want.

you can also choose which side you want the PSU (or in theory run two PSUs i guess!)

There are multiple options for radiators, for example, you can put 2 480 radiators in the top as well as many other options.

The motherboard tray goes flat in this case, you can also see plenty of space for HDDs and even more radiator mounts.

So, lets start to strip the case down!

First to go are those drive bays and the mobo tray.

And then all this was removed too As you can see, it's starting to dark, so it was time to work fast!

Oh dear, what does the blue tape mean :/

We will have to see later! First its time to drill out all these rivets.

Lots and lots of rivets.

EEEEEK it's going dark and im half way through dismantling the case! Just 10 more mins of light please!!

More bits removed!

And finally, this is how the case looked when it was too dark to work =( It's certainly a lot smaller!! Anyone guess the plan?

Well that's all for now, this update was meant to be up a little while back, but i've been a busy little bee. It just means il have another one for you very soon!!

 

[davido_labido]

I can't wait for the next update, I always like seeing case mods as the skills involved just amaze me.
As always, excellent work

il probably put the update up around this time tomorrow

 

[davido_labido]

I really like the case, not sure what the difference is between core and full x9?? Are they both stackable? Looking awesome though the colour is stunning just suits so well.

Thanks Colin! The Core X9 is the full X9, its just the range of cases is called "Core" so a lot of people drop the word (well, thats what I believe anyways!)

Fantastic job on that mobo, David.

Thanks Petey, its been my favorite bit so far

Now I wish I paid additional money and got mobo with shield that can be painted. Excellent job. Looks outstandinag!

Thanks Samyboy! I did similar with my Pandora build, so I had it already planned when choosing what components to use Now you will know for next time

Was going to get this case but held off so I'm excited to see what this will look like when done.

Awesome work as usual. As above, wish I got a sheilded board too

Thankys savagesam! let's see what I do with them, maybe it will make your mind up

really like this good job

Cheers Andy more to come soon

top stuff. a lot of good work with neat finishing.

Thanks faheemrazzaq I appreciate the nice comment

Paint it all orange!!!

Well that's a pretty thorough strip down, look fwd to seeing the rebuild

Not this time im afraid im trying to use the orange as a detail colour, although I do have an idea for an orange build, i'm going to pitch it to my sponsors soon

Jesus this build is sick, almost making me want to not get the x99 pro/deluxe and go sabertooth

Do it! you wont be disappointed!

Looks good. I love that case. Really like the fact that you can mount the motherboard flat and have a window either side.

What type of paint did you use on your heatsinks?

Cheers Bossman! It is just a medium heat paint, hopefully it will be enough, I couldn't find any high heat paint in my local shops in orange and I don't really have the time to order in as I need the colours to be right first time! I don't know the brand off hand i'm afraid

So, let's start where we left off. More blue tape. blue tape scares me. it means work.

Wait, what!?!?! Yup, blue tape means cutting time ! My thumb has been stopping me using power tools (It really hurts from the vibration) but i popped a few tramadol and got on with it!

Boom! after the second cut we get this! I did the same for the back of the case too.

and started to put it all back together just using a couple of pins to hold the two bits together for now, I will be filing down both cuts a little better and fixing them together better in the near future.

Riveting the case back together was a breeze, and because I didn't just cut the case in half, and did two cuts, i could use all the original bars

The cuts are not perfectly straight, but I only have basic tools (dremel, cheap jig saw etc) I wish I could afford some kind of chop saw, band saw or something similar so I can do them in one long gut =(

Even though, the spirit level says im not too far out.

Now I can start a test fit to make sure my measurements were correct.

Its going to be a tight squeeze, especially with cables and tubing all being hidden under here, but I think it will be doable.

I will be doing a few tests on fan orientation, at the moment they are both bringing air from outside the case, then i am going to put a fan pushing the air through the front, so that the air has a release, it will be nice if this works, I am sceptical though!

I am happy with how this part of the build has turned out, it was a big step for me cutting it as much as I did with the lack of tools I have!

This is just a quick shot to show how much space I have actually lost, quite a lot!!

Whilst I was doing this I also sprayed up a waterblock, and made this: its not perfect, but a little rub down with some sand paper will sort it out

Next is the other case, I pretty much only have 2 days to finish this build now so I will be very strapped for time. I have a lot of work to do, some which will be hard for me to figure out how to get it working, but I am confident!

Wish me luck guys !

 

[davido_labido]

Thanks all, just a very quick pick to show you what I have done today! you can start seeing what I am going to be doing with the second case!

Apologies for the lack of quality, It was taken on my mobile, my camera is packed away ready for a trip to NL to see Peter Brands, Hukkel, Keir DBR and a few others! It's going to be a modders party it seems! (If everyone can make it!!)

 

[davido_labido]

im currently in NL with In Win. When i'm back i will post some

 

[davido_labido]

Well, I am still alive and this build is something I am still working on, I am just struggling with time and the amount of work I have left to do as well as other things (I am in Madrid tomorrow for instance!!)

Today I spent a lot of time on the build, mainly doing cables! Here are the cables I made.

A massive thanks to E22.biz for sending me the supplies for this, you are awesome! The orange sleeve is brand new stock for them and obviously will be my favorite!

So, First I grabbed all my sleeving supplies, a lot of stuff is currently on loan to people, so i'm using my spare gear!

This is the brand new orange sleeving from e22.biz. It is actually a really nice orange!

I always cut all my cables first to lengths. For this build I needed to make extensions as the original cables for the PSU are probably a little short for a double sized case!

Next, its crimping each cable. All 104 crimps.. urgh.

Then sleeving time and putting them into the connectors.

Once I finished they looked like this!

24 Pin cable:

8 Pin GPU cables:

4 + 8 pin EPS cable:

I love the finish and contrast of the white and orange in these cables, they work really well and the natural curve that I have given them should make them look clean and tidy!

Once again a huge thank you to E22.

Now something different from me. This build was meant to be finished over a week ago. As I have mentioned numerous times though, I had a bit of an accident with my hand that set me back and it means I will most probably still be working on this build when the winner of the competition is announced. It is a shame as I was really excited to show what the UK modding scene could do. I am going to finish this build though regardless of the competition. I would like to apologise to Thermaltake for not completing the build before the deadline.

To my followers, if you want to vote for me please click Here strangely I am not last, which does lift my spirits a little! If I finish the comp second from bottom il be happy haha!

Thanks guys!