Build It : Black Friday ( finally ).

[mingey]

So this is finally complete from purchasing all the gear around Black Friday/Cyber Monday, which then trickled into December as you realise you want something else, and something else, and so on ....

Was built up over Xmas originally, but had loads of issues with BSOD's and all matter of random crap, anyway, it appeared to be a faulty motherboard as 8pack tested the bundle and sent me a new shiny motherboard ( with CPU and RAM ).

Parts List :

Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P : 5820k : 16GB DDR4 3000mhz
Asus Posiedon 980ti x2 SLI
Samsung m.2 951 512gb : Samsung EVO 256gb : 2TB Storage Seagate ?
Phanteks Enthoo Primo Black/Green ( fugly heaven )
XSPC RX480 & RX240 : Red EK EVO Supremacy ( Changed the top to Clear Plexi )
Ye Old Faithful Vario D5 ( this might need replacing soonish )
Corsair HX1200i ( Wasn't sure the old HX850W would be upto it and this has headroom, and its silent )
Phanteks Fan Controller ( was going to push/pull on both rads )
Corsair SP120 x12 ( white LED )
EK XRES X3 250mm, originally black, but wanted to use top as inlet, so picked up white Multiport top, and matching bottom ( yeah I know ).

Tubing, Monsoon fittings, XSPC fittings etc etc, Started with White Pastel, dyed it red, then after the new mobo went to Hulk **** Green, LED lights, UV LED's etc

Along with a X34 Predator, G700s Mouse, CM Mouse Pad, T300RS Wheel, and lots of other things I've probably forgotten.

New Mobo ready to go .



Before and After with the EK EVO Supremacy.
( The replacemet top came with all the Jet Plates etc )



Decided to Vinyl Wrap the Tube Res Mounting Plate to remove a little of the green, worked out ok against the white res top/bottom and green coolant.




Had to dremel away a section of the case beside the res mount as the length on the Asus cards left me with 0 room to fit the Tube Res, so cut and rubber sealed it, worked out fine.



And now we start to throw it together ( gently ) !

One drain line attached for when something else breaks and I get the pleasure of draining it all and doing it again /wrists, although the extra ports on the RX series rads come in handy for this.




! INTERMISSION ! I knew you would be bored about now so thought I would break up the fugly green PC pics, with a picture of my pups on a cold day.



The show must go on !
I will admit those Mosoon fittings are scary I expected every single one of the to leak, you just dont think they will hold, but I've not had a single leak with any of them, so fairplay, I did pick up a pack of Bitspower G1/4 O rings incase.



and i thought I was organised .....



For some reason I didn't take many pictures while tubing, which to be fair, you didn't miss anything.

Spaghetti Central.



And a few pictures with it fully tubed and filled, I did have a bar steward of it this time around getting air out the top rad, my own version of strictly come dancing trying to free them all.






And a few more artsy ( for me ) photo's while fiddling with camera, and the obligatory night shot.



That should wrap up the cheesey photo's,but it was fun, and as you know the Enthoo Primo is a monster case, and it weighs a tonne, would have like to have got rid of the red, but think it compliments the green/white, and I dont fancy voiding any warrantys just yer especially after having a dodgy motherboard for starters, but its something to do down the line.


And the Night Shots :




Hopefully the resizing of the pictures was ok, and those of you still awake, Game On, as I now intend to make up for a couple of months down time and hammer the steering wheel to death.

 

[mingey]

So .... had motherboard problems again, was stuck in a boot loop, so while it was RMA, I decided to do what I should have done with the case in the first place ... and get rid of the green

The goal is to paint out the case White Gloss and Matt Black, I plan to paint the accent grill pieces White too, I never got on with the Gigabytes fan control of the Phanteks hub, So plumped for a Grid V2 to sort that and while I was at it went with a Hue+ to sort out the lighting, which again the tubes and led strips in the green machine just wasn't cutting it.

Also replacing the front LED fans with Corsair AF140's White LED, and a 3rd for the rear out take.

And, why stop at that, the Poseidon 980 Ti's I find to be very restrictive so have decided to put them on a separate loop using a EK-XRES 140 D5, will be putting Red Clear in the CPU loop and White Pastel in the GPU's loop.

The power switch LED and front and top panel LED strip are going to need changing to from that lovely green, so Have White LED's to replace the Power/HDD light and managed to find some narrow 4mm LED strip lighting to replace to the top and front strip.

Have asked Coldzero if they can make a couple of backplates for the 980 Ti's which they say is possible so will need to get that sorted, and have also had 2 Fan Grills made for the 240mm Rad and 140mm Rear Fan

Undecided if I should paint the comp fittings as I have them all in Black Chrome which should match up nicely.


So after stripping the case down, I ended up with this ....



Needed a few more bits and bobs to achieve what I was hoping to do



and I have a new love in my life , I can't express how much I adore this, had an El Cheapo version before that wasn't cutting the mustard so to speak, but this thing = amazeballs



Part sanded and ready to cut out to make room for 2x XSPC LCD Temp Sensors



And on with priming



Popped the painted mesh back into the door to see what it looks like, I like it stands out a lot, have all the mesh/grids painted up now, need to crack on with finishing the painting this weekend, been a little damp.



and a sneak peek of the fan grill ..... hard to see from potato pictures, buts its actually black base with red overlay.



More to come, hope to finishing painting this weekend, then can start getting the case re-assembled, and must start the LED wiring while I can't do nothing else.

 

[mingey]

Up bright and early, lovely day for it, so I managed to get all the panels painted as I wanted, just need to some clear lacquer on it

and assembled the front door, much better with the white accents.



Paint covered great from priming to top coat, Hycote stuff, would definitely use it again.

Will be fun reassembling case rivetting etc as the panels warp like crazy.

 

[mingey]

Having 2 loops, GPU loop is going to be White Pastel, and the CPU loop will be Red EC6, going to crack on this afternoon and get the case assembled.

 

[mingey]

Need to wait on backplates for GPU's should be here this week, if not no big deal will get on with what I can.

Small Update : Case is back together and wahey we have lights, It's been 30 years since I think I soldered something, and to make it worse, I was trying to mount the cables to a 4mm wide led strip, the contacts was small to say the least, and here is what I used ...... Thank the wife for that, I had never opened the kit, 5 years its been in the loft it was her father in laws after he passed away, I should have checked sooner .....




Any, new and improved RED version, the Power switch will be White ( hopefully ) and the HDD led red, case is back together so will play about building into it over the next few days and get the lcd temp sensors fitted.

 

[mingey]

Smallish update, backplates arrived, case is assembled and the parts are starting to get fitted, hopefully will get it built this weekend, couple of shots with the backplate and the M.2 Cover.



Only one of the GPU's installed at present just to get a look at it, looking better as it comes together.

 

[mingey]

Sensors should match the loop they are attached to, Red Sensor for the CPU, White Sensor for the GPU's , and the weight is amazing once its all filled etc, I have ordered a piece of MDF and have some castors to make a base for it as per what doyll has done for a few others with the case.

I seem to be going through a phase of sat looking at it for 30 mins before deciding to tighten a screw ..

 

[mingey]

Seems like I was sat looking at it again for hours on end struggling to get this done, something seemed to go wrong every 5 minutes lol, but a little progress is better than nothing.

Will be for the CPU loop.



Nothing says classy like upside down LCD ....



Primed and leak testing.



Seemed ok after a couple of hours, will give it the night then plumb in the second loop, hardest part done, then get the Grid V2 and Hue+ installed, and turn the LCD's upside down.

 

[mingey]

I like the GPU back plates. Where did you get them done?

Also, class move with the oc'd

In my build I had planned to spray my enthoo luxe case front intake grill white also. Never got round to it, but seeing how your result came out I may give it a go. Did you sand and prime the grill before spraying white?

Backplates are from Coldzero, If they don't have what your after drop them a line and they will make it for you, and the grills took a primer and topcoat without and sanding, I did pop a clear coat on top after too.

 

[mingey]

Well, to say it was brief, it wouldn't boot again, so after all that its been stripped and packaged ready for DPD tomorrow ......

 

[mingey]

Couple of pics of it finished prior to being taken apart again.

 

[mingey]

So after the CPU being replaced, all seems rosey, have got it all re-assembled and seems to bne working like a charm ( I know I'll suffer for making that statement ).

Some Final Pics of the Build, and out of Interest Coldzero who did the backplates and SLI Bridge Cover/M.2. Cover now has a Enthoo Primo, So I expect him to have some mods regarding fan grills, light boxes, front and top grills etc in the near future, better late than never.

Its [email protected] VCore at present, perfectly fine, will play more in the future.



A rather shy SLI Bridge hiding in the back.



Another ROG Fan Grill for the 140 Rear Exhaust.



The new LED strip, and power switch lighting, much better that Hulk green.



The white accents in full awesome, and the dolly trolley it sits on ( thanks to doyll for the idea )



I thought it would be nice to put these the correct way around this time.



I must admit a liking to the HUE+, does look the part, although not best captured in these shots



And that brings the transformation from the green machine, to a much more eye friendly scheme, now I fancy building into one of the glass evolv's, ahh the joys of PC's.