BitFenix Prodigy M - MicroBeast

ash_hart

ash_hart

ash_hart

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Joined
1 Feb 2011
Posts
45
Location
Stoke on Trent
Hello all,

Just received a new case 'BitFenix Phenom MATX Cube Case - Midnight Black' for my birthday and started right away on striping the hardware out of my old Fractal Design.

Spec;

i7 2700k @ 4.8GHZ
Ballistix Elite 8GB Kit @ 1800Mhz
MAXIMUS IV GENE-Z/GEN3 Z68
680TI EVGA SC
750W OCZ PSU
Crucial M4 128GB SSD
1TB WD Green Edition
2x Venom 120mm Fans in the top of the case
Stock Intel Water cooler - Free from a friend


**Sorry for the poor quality images, will use my SLR to take better quality ones soon.

Purchased the ram, board and cpu back in 2012 and they have served my well so far so I do not plan to upgrade them just yet.

I purchased the GTX EVGA SC Titan back in October and then sold it, bought the 780TI for £600 as the performance, from what I saw, was better for cheaper. I realized that I would have to take a hit on the Memory size but I do plan to SLI the TI's and run surround.

First off I got the old gear out of the the Fractal and got it all nice and clean with new thermal compound and removed any dust from the board and fans/rad - Please excuse the towel, did not want to scratch the case while maneuvering it about.

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Once I had it all laid out I proceeded to strip the Prodigy case to see what I had to work with, not much room.

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I removed the useless CD/DVD holder and the bracket for the HDD/SSD's and put the motherboard standoffs into place to get an idea of cable routing.

Fitted the PSU, I love how this sits but could do with a modular one as there little room for decent cable management.

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After routing the CPU Power cable under the chassis and screwing it all down I found it did not look too bad.

I then mounted the Intel Water Cooler but have since switched it around so the pipes are protruding from the bottom of the radiator not the top - will take a picture of this in due course.

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Did a little cable management but was keen to get it turned on to make sure I had not broken anything with my dustbin lid hands.

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Did not look too bad but was very excited to get some decent cable management done to make it look tidy.

Case Mods;

Swapped the side's around so the power button is on the left hand side of the case instead of the right.
Mounted the SSD behind the motherboard back plate to hide wires.


At this time I got it running and played a few rounds of BF3 - Ziba Tower and the CPU hit 58C which I think is pretty decent and the 680 hit 78c on 20% fan speed as there is two venom fans directly above it.

All in all I am pretty happy with this build but plan to add a second Ti and maybe a custom water loop. Thoughts, ideas and criticism welcome
 
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Came into this thread thinking yaaay, another prodigy m owner. Then I was like, no it's a phenom. But I then I realised they are technically the same internally? Yaaay again!
Starting to wish I had got this case instead since it doesn't have the rubbery top and bottom parts.
Looking forward to seeing how the build goes!
 
stulid said:
The side panels are a different size, I asked technical after seeing your question in post#3.
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Thats a shame, thought I was going to get away with a cheap £10 window.

Lunastraza said:
nice build, it look's weird having the psu fan on the inside, was you not able to have the fan pulling in cold air from outside?
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That is a very good thought, I will switch it around tonight to pull the cold air in from the front. :)

Spenj said:
Your phenom build looks so much neater than mine! How have you hid your PSU cables so well? behind the PSU?
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Spenj - I used to work at OCUK so I practiced the art of cable management. I cable tied them all which you can see in the pic and flattened them all out at the back of the machine under the motherboard. Also the SSD is there too.

I have hid most of the other wires under the mainboard and in the shadows of the case :P

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bluntslide said:
I tried this with my prodigy but the temps were high from the heat out the psu casing, switched it the same with the fan inside amd it was loads better.
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I think I might leave it how you said Blunt as there will be more wires on show if I switch it around.

I am planning on doing a custom water loop so I will get a few pics up tonight of what I have planned.
 
bluntslide said:
That is true, the cables are nearer to the side panel. I have an Intel cooler the same as yours and looking at your build, I am tempted to throw it in there. Especially if I go sli!
Click to expand...

IMO they do look good in this case but the Intel logo is upside down and I could not find a way to swap it around without cutting n' gluing.

Its pretty quiet in there too, got it set on around 60% at 60c+ and it never goes above 70 on Prime95.

I do want to do full custom loop though with SLI 780's and my CPU/Board but I am thinking of going Z78 but not sure if the performance would be such a big increase.
 
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