BackDraft Evo (a Nanoxia DS1 Build)

[23RO_UK]

This looks absolutely incredible. I'm loving the color scheme.

That said, I am a little confused why you're putting a 660 Ti in such a nice build.

Thank you

And in answer to your question -

• I'm only gaming at 1920 x 1080 just now, anything above the 660Ti is pretty much pointless at that resolution (were I to upgrade my monitor I'd likely go with a 680)
• Lower power consumption
• The price I obtained it for (170 quid new )

yes absolutely
your fan grills and the red fan looks like pokeballs....

Your soooo right lol

First time I've ever seen a motherboard with a side-on atx connector. Neat!

To my knowledge EVGA are the only board manufacturer to do this

 

[23RO_UK]

Side on ATX connectors looks more handy tho

Agreed


I wish the other manufacturers would add it as a feature to their boards.

Ooh, £170 for a new 660 Ti is a steal. I suppose the generic waterblock for the GPU makes upgrading easier too.

This is seriously beautiful anyway, I'm feeling pretty jealous. IMO you should get a window on that case though. Internals that good should be able to be seen.

Yeah I struck lucky with the 660Ti The card I have retails in the region of 270 quid And yes I bought the generic block with a possible upgrade at a later date in mind


Thank you I'm very pleased with the way the build is shaping up, I'm looking into incorporating a window panel also

 

[23RO_UK]

Love that color scheme, never seen side on atx connectors either like many others but its a great idea.

Thank you MTD

 

[23RO_UK]

A couple of pics I forgot to upload

 

[23RO_UK]

Looking gorgeous not helping my case to not spend my spare student loan money on watercooling!

Cheers Rooster

Hmmmmm whilst not actively encouraging you to do so I will say watercooling is a very worthwhile long term investment, especially if you overclock your kit.

 

[23RO_UK]

I will be building in a white Nanoxia DS2 case with CPU only watercooling shortly.

Single 240 x 60mm thick rad, DDC and acrylic res. Heatkiller block.

Yours looks inspiring.

Thanks, andy.

Sounds great mate, another great case

And thank you Andy, I don't think a modder can be given any greater compliment

Again, not helping I do overclock... got myself a cheap 2600K a couple of weeks back and it is the first time my Corsair H70 has held me back, got 91 degrees at 1.4v which is too high for me, so stable 1.38v/4.5ghz.

Sorry

2600K, over two years since release and still one of the best money can buy

 

[23RO_UK]

Back in post #28 I commented that that was the first phase of the GPU transformation; rewind back to my post on the 21st March when I said I was waiting on some custom fabricated parts to arrive...


Nate aka Editor22 of E22 has been working on some pieces for me, this wee bundle arrived yesterday -


Well now it's time to reveal all (well not quite all)








I'll let the pictures do the talking but lets just say this is when thoughts and concepts become a reality...

 

[23RO_UK]

More boards should come like that. and not just the 24pin either.

Nice job on the backplates, I love how the sound card is almost as long as the graphics card.

Agreed with the board, certainly one of EVGA's better boards


Yeah the 660Ti/670 PCB is a little on the compact side once you shed all the bloat lol

STOP IT! YOU ARE MAKING ME WANT TO SELL MY ENTIRE RIG AND START AGAIN!

But on a serious note, it looks absolutely fantastic so far! Red and black wouldn't typically be my first choice of colour scheme, but your build is seriously making me change my mind!

Great stuff, keep it up, and good luck!

erm, NO lol


And thank you, red and black is more commonly associated with the ROG boards I agree and normally I wouldn't favour red and black either; but there's just something about the aesthetics of this motherboard...

 

[23RO_UK]

Looks great

Thank you much appreciated

 

[23RO_UK]

Apologies for the lack of updates guys, that thing called life and work has been rather manic lately

Service will resume very shortly so to speak, possibly with a twist

 

[23RO_UK]

Is this case the silver or the Anthracite?

I'm struggling to decide between the two at the moment, the Anthracite looks quite silver in some pictures.

/edit also is the front of the doors actually metal or painted plastic?

Any further questions just email me mate

 

[23RO_UK]

Hey Guys,

Apologies for the lack of updates but owing to an unforeseen factor and my recent decision to up the spec of the build, things will now sadly proceed at a crawl.

The good news is that the spec itself is above and beyond what I had initially considered (thank you Intel for proving Haswell to be a shower of sh*te lol) and I will also implement some extra aesthetic enhancements to the case itself; having now had plenty of time to think (when a project stalls this happens lol).

 

[23RO_UK]

Thanks mate

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this build.

Cheers mate and your welcome

Loving the build, especially that crazy rad hope everything goes to plan. What was your budget ?

Yeah that Alphacool Monsta is my Baby

Things should start going to plan over the next few weeks, the setback was kinda annoying in one respect but in another it's allowed me to step back, re-evaluate and make a firm decision as to what I want; building pc's to client specs (even the most awkward client lol ) is easy but when it's your own personal rig you tend to be your very own harshest critic and not accept second best.

What was the build budget overall did you mean?

 

[23RO_UK]

Right lets try again shall we lol


Major change to the build specs first of all...


Motherboard -

Out with the EVGA Z68 FTW

In with the Gigabyte GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H

Whilst the FTW might be one of the most aseptically striking boards I’ve ever seen and whilst it has a feature set to die for; it also has one of the most p*ss poor BIOS’s ever which sadly lets such down the potential of an otherwise phenomenal piece of hardware.

It’s replacement the Z77X-UD3H, loses out on aseptics yes, lacks some of the features admittedly (has a few others of it’s own which carry it through) and by strict definition is a mainstream board (not with mainstream performance however I assure you); furthermore it’s BIOS is both rock solid, intuitive, easy to use and recovers well from failed overclocks.


GPU -

Out with the EVGA 660Ti SC+ (with GPU only watercooling)

In with the EVGA 680 SC Signature (with full cover watercooling)

Not really a lot to say here, I picked up the 680 at a snip price and it ties in with my planned monitor upgrade; furthermore it’s as quick if not quicker than the new 770, uses less power and with the new Maxwell GPU’s not due out until some point in 2014...


Memory -

Out with the Patriot Viper “Black Mamba” Gen 3 8Gb (2x4Gb) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz kit

In with the Avexir Core Blue Series 8Gb (2x4Gb) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz kit

Sandy Bridge CPU’s have a speed cap of 2133MHz owing to the memory controller and latency is everything with Sandy Bridge; the Vipers ran at 11 11 11 30 2T @ 2133Mhz, the Avexir Core’s run at 9 11 10 28 2T @ 2133MHz.

It’s as simple as that.


I had some new bits delivered today so will post some pics up tomorrow, I still have a few bits due in from The States and some other stuff to order.

 

[23RO_UK]

Here we have the new arrivals -


First up the new fans, 1 x Alpenföhn 140mm Wing Boost Plus PWM (rear extract), 2 x Alpenföhn 120mm Wing Boost Plus PWM's (roof extracts) and last but by no means least 4 x Akasa 120mm Piranha high performance PWM air ripper blade's.





Next up, 1 x E22 FG01 240mm stainless steel fan grill; this replaces the two existing 120mm FG01 grills (this will be mounted on the Monsta).





And lastly 1 x 22mm Lamptron illuminated vandal resistant switch (momentary); black switch with white illuminated ring to replace the existing power on switch.






Loads more bits still to arrive, lots of stuff still to order

 

[23RO_UK]

I forgot to post up a pic of the board I'll now be using...


Well here it is in the flesh


I'm biased obviously but personally I think it just has a certain something to it, it's certainly not an ugly/confused looking board by any means.

 

[23RO_UK]

Shame about the other board. you should spray the chipset heatsinks the same colour as the fans.

Unfortunately you can put the demise of the other board down to the inability of EVGA to produce a decent working BIOS


Spray what heatsinks to match what fans???


The red have now been replaced with blue fans

 

[23RO_UK]

Oops hhahah sorry, my mistake, I am just in love with those red fans and the finish on the blades.

They won't be going to waste I assure you

They are now put aside for a future build

 

[23RO_UK]

Unboxing the new fans...


First up the Alpenföhn 120mm Wing Boost Plus PWM





They use a composite rubberised "V" frame design to further illuminate fan vibration.





Next up the Alpenföhn 140mm Wing Boost Plus PWM





A nice feature of both the 120 and 140 is the dual connection which facilitates running multiple fans daisy chained off a single fan header.





And last but not least...


The Akasa 120mm Piranha high performance PWM air ripper blade

 

[23RO_UK]

And I ended today by doing some test fitting...


Here are a few tease pics


To further enhance the cooling efficiency of the Monsta I've decided to incorporate a 30mm shroud.





This has also allowed me to line up the pump outlet via what will be a gentle tubing curve to feed into the Monsta.





Pretty much as I wanted it