Black and Green Water Cooled Shinobi XL!!!

[davido_labido]

Ello folks! as you might have seen, i did a white and orange shinobi xl (build log in my siggy.) I took this along to a LAN (i48) and it got a lot of attention! One guy that saw it (Sean), asked if id build him a computer, i of course obliged, i mean, why wouldn't i? im spending someone ealses money on doing something i love haha

He wanted it similar to my computer, but not white and orange, so he chose black.... i chose green as id seen some awesome sleeving i wanted to use, he was more than happy with the choice!

This build log is as much to show sean what im spending his money on, as it is to show you what im doing at the moment!


Heres what i have bought for him.


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Tech Lab H2O Custom GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 £416.98
1 x XSPC Razor GTX680 GPU Waterblock (Raystorm Style) £92.99
1 x Gigabyte X79 G1 Assassin 2 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x OcUK Tech Lab - V12 Watercooling Kit 360 £210.79
1 x XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel) £51.98
1 x Mayhems X1 UV Green Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L £7.99
1 x XFX 1000W Black Edition Pro '80+ Platinum' Certified Modular Power Supply £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £119.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £114.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x BitFenix Recon Internet-Connected Fan Controller (Black) £29.99
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSBS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
1 x BitFenix Spectre PRO 230mm Green LED - Black £16.99
1 x BitFenix Mesh Stripes for Shinobi XL Tower Case - Green £8.99
1 x BitFenix Logo for Shinobi Tower Case - Green £1.98
Total : £1,917.55 (includes shipping : FREE).

 

[davido_labido]

whats arrived so far....

im waiting on all the stuff for water cooling, loads of stuff out of stock at the moment =(



the mobo, i think it looks rather nice, will fit the build nicely, only thing im not sure about is the "gun" but thats one of those personal preferences.











A Samsung SSD 840 pro series! Looks beauuuutiful!




the sleeve... i wanted some of the green for aaages, but never had any reason to buy it... now i do and im not disappointed !!!!



this is what il be sleeving, these cables are horrible... cant wait to make them look better!!!

 

[davido_labido]

thanks folks! the gun is something i might get to like, il have to see, its certainly different!

 

[davido_labido]

started to sleeve today, the XFX PSU is the worst one ive ever sleeved, its so hard to get the pins out of the connectors, ive got blisters and cuts all over my hands!!!!





see!!! they are painful, like paper cuts but worse! these are the most painful two =( (apologies about how dirty my hands are! seems im getting filthy from some of the tools )

managed to get the pattern i like though, with the green being so bright, i didnt want to over do it, so did it like this:





ran into 2 little problems with the PSU ive not had before. the psu has the usual 24 pin connector on one end, the other end has a 10 pin and a 18 pin connector!!! it means i have 4 double wires, that split, and go into the modular psu separately. I didnt want to deal with this at the 24 pin end, or the psu end as i thought it would look untidy, so about half way down the wire, i did this:




it should be hidden behind the motherboard tray, so wont be seen, but everything visible should look right!

Also when i sorted out the patern i wanted, it landed that the empty slot on the 24 pin was a green wire... if it was a black, it wouldnt have mattered, but i really needed the green one, so i made a fake wire, and sleeved it. the problem is i dont have a spare slot on the other end, so i just made it a good length to hide behind the mobo tray and all should look good!



il tidy them up properly, and re do some of the heat shrink but at least it coming along.... slowly!

 

[davido_labido]

got some more bits again this week, and started to put it all together!

Im still waiting on the GPU block to come into stock so i can start on that!

the case im using is going to be as mentioned, the shinobi xl windowed

i took all the outer panels off first!
its all naked!




i ripped out all the guff, like the stock fans and the HDD cage etc, and added the radiator and new fans!



then fit the CPU block, so shiney!





added the ram, and popped it into the case!



did a little bit of soldering, the blue leds that come with the raystorm blocks just wouldnt work....




Much better!



Started to get the cables into place a bit see what they look like!

 

[davido_labido]

I did think about putting a draining port in for him but Il be showing him how to maintain it, how to get rid of any bubbles etc etc, as he says we frequent lans quite often, so if needs be I could help him with it there, it's not really a concern imo, if he has problems with temps/bubbles etc, I'm only a text away, or he could look at the hundreds of posts here about how to do it =)

The sleeving for the 24 pin took around 7 hours tbh, most of that time was spent trying to get the wires from the plugs, there was some residue inside stopping the pin extraction tool from pushing down the 2 'wings' that hold the pins in. Not sure if it was a coating they put on, or something else, but it wasn't fun gettin them out ! Luckily I have spare pins and a crimping tool, so the ones that were really stuck I could getout by bbreaking the 'wings' and re doing the pin

 

[davido_labido]

I do enjoy your work, David

May I ask what brand of sleeving you use and what you make of it's flexibility?
Got an urge to give it a go as extensions are taking a lot of space at the back and my psu is fully modular, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to get it done (he says).

thanks again petey!

its mdpc-x sleeving, the flexibility is good, not as good as non sleeved cables obviously as it adds some dentistry to the cable, the best thing about it is the quality, if you do it correctly you wont have ANY of the cable colour showing through!

i personally wouldnt use any other sleeve =)

 

[davido_labido]

Aye, looking forward to getting a graphics card in it so I can sort the loop out!!

 

[davido_labido]

Looking like another very nice shinobi xl build.

cheers setter, the next build i want to do is a smaller build or btx or something!

 

[davido_labido]

i did think about doing a prodigy, or maybe a parvum systems one, but i need a "customer" before i build it..... might take some time =(

 

[davido_labido]

Ive not forgotten about this build, ive been waiting on a gpu block for over a month, it seems there has been a few issues getting them in!!!!

however, i have found a nice green spray paint that matches the sleeving ive used

from:

to



done some other bits and bobs with the spray too, but il show you that when i get it all back together

 

[davido_labido]

take the sticker off the back, then there is a little "c" clip, get 2 needles, or toothpicks or something if you dont have a tool for it, and open up the c clip.

BE CAREFUL THEY CAN FLY ANYWHERE!!! THEY ARE RIGHT SPRINGY GITS!!!!

once its off, just pull on the fan and it will come away from the body, it will have 2 sets of bearings in and a spring, so dont loose them.

the spring goes back in so the biggest end is touching the fan.

hope this helps

 

[davido_labido]

aah, thanks dude, this one will be a bit more tidy! I had to rush mine to get it finished in time for i-series!!!

gonna make some changes to mine again i think after ive built this one and got it how i want it

 

[davido_labido]

black and green is awesome

your sleeving is very good

i hope your getting a mobo block to replace that gun

Cheers man!!!
I don't think they do a water block to cover where the gun is tbh, in fact, I've not seen the assassin water cooled, except for custom blocks!

 

[davido_labido]

Very nice, like your theme and braiding, very similar to the route i've gone down:

What braiding is that? Seems like you have some wire showing through? Might just be the photos though!

You done much sleeving before? (guessing you have as it's shrinkless?)

Btw, is that the edge of a titan I spy?

 

[davido_labido]

That black and green combo is awesome.

Cheers man, can't wait get it finished see what it looks like when it's all done

mmm, ive just checked - they dont make a waterblock for the mobo

your stuck with the gun it seems

Yeah, didn't think there was, luckily the guy that I'm building it for doesn't mid the gun, if it was me, I'd have to mod it some how, I'm not much for it haha

 

[davido_labido]

Very nice, like your theme and braiding, very similar to the route i've gone down:

Braiding is "cablemodder" stuff from a popular internet auction site. Really impressed with it, you can't see through it, I think its just the camera flash.

First time ever braiding but the heatshrinkless method is really easy and looks neat if you can suffer the burnt fingers lol, I just used a guide off youtube it was pretty simple.

Yeah its plugged into a tasty titan

Aye, I was going to go shrinkless with this build, but I quite like the shrink, I think with one or two of your wires, you need to pull the shrink a bit tighter, it will stop it looking like it goes different thicknesses

Also take a look at the mdpc-x sleeve, I'm guessing it's a lot more than what you paid, but Imo worth it for the looks/quality!

This build was going to have a titan in, but I managed to talk the guy who I'm building it for out of it as he really wouldn't get the use out of it.... I wish I hadn't now though, I'd really like to get hands on one and have a play around.... The look BEAST!

 

[davido_labido]

Braiding is "cablemodder" stuff from a popular internet auction site. Really impressed with it, you can't see through it, I think its just the camera flash.

First time ever braiding but the heatshrinkless method is really easy and looks neat if you can suffer the burnt fingers lol, I just used a guide off youtube it was pretty simple.

Yeah its plugged into a tasty titan

Aye, I was going to go shrinkless with this build, but I quite like the shrink, I think with one or two of your wires, you need to pull the shrink a bit tighter, it will stop it looking like it goes different thicknesses

Also take a look at the mdpc-x sleeve, I'm guessing it's a lot more than what you paid, but Imo worth it for the looks/quality! What you use seems alright though, certainly does the job!

This build was going to have a titan in, but I managed to talk the guy who I'm building it for out of it as he really wouldn't get the use out of it.... I wish I hadn't now though, I'd really like to get hands on one and have a play around.... The look BEAST!

 

[davido_labido]

Il order a bit of what you had I think, I've had samples of quite a few different sleeves lately as I've got a few ideas!
Yeah its a shame mdpc isn't open all the time, but I don't mind, I just set a reminder for when he's next open, or check around dinner time, nils opens up then sometimes.

I checked my order history the other week, I've spent nearly 500 quid on sleeve and I have another order to go in soon for a set of cables for someone... =D

 

[davido_labido]

If Razer made PC's
The deathadder 2013 would go perfectly with this

funnily enough, the guy who wants the build has razer peripherals, he has the blackwidow and i think the mamba!

Very nice build

thanks! appreciated, hopefully the GPU blocks will come into stock soon and i can get it finished off! been waiting aaaaages on them =(