Iceshock's Ongoing long project log. (Move to 750D, New room transformation, New motherboard + ram,

[IceShock]

Hey guys (this is my first project log kinda thingy so go easy on me and my bad photography skills etc etc )

I recently moved my system into a 750d if you remember, or if you haven't seen here are the pictures of the system move to my new case, It will make life easier, as you will see from the pictures how bad this room and my Old case etc was before what you are about to see! Click spoiler:

Spoiler

Out with the old white and silver version of the akasa eclipse 64, and in with the new 750D (very happy with this case).
I still need some new cables though to match the blue/black theme aswell as some new fans to match my cpu fan so this isn't the final finished build, but I just transferred my parts over today.
Also, my new black fan controller hasn't arrived yet, so if you are wondering what the silver box is next to my hard drive cage, its two akasa jr fan controllers just as temporary. its not as clean cable wise as you pro's but im happy with what I have so far, it this case puts my old one to shame!! I used to run the side panel off my old eclipse 64 as the air cooling was shocking, so
it was a absolute dust magnet. and now in this 750d, the temperatures are lower than they was before, even with a side panel on. very impressed.

Also, this case makes my new 24" Asus monitor look tiny!!!


(Re-uploaded images, last one didn't work for some reason)

750D time!

I just got my new fan controller installed turns out it was delivered to my neighbour, so here she is! looking neater now, I can't wait to get some new cables, one of them corsair generation cable kits, and some new black sata cables, and mainly new af140 quite edition fans, and two fans for on the roof of the case. then when funds are climbing again, going to grab a corsair H110 water cooler for the cpu equipped with the two 140's im getting for the roof of the case. Cant actually remember the last time I was this excited about my computer, went through the phase of put as many neons and led fans that's possible in a case in 2003, then in 2007 went for the not bothered what it looks like as long as it has power. now iv taken up this trend of make it look stylish and neat! though it costs a lot of money to do so haha.

Also if you wonder why only one graphics card is lit up, I have ulps enabled, I think its a great feature for desktop use

Right.. Thanks to my own stupidity of bricking my motherboard bios, I had nothing to do for a few days, no computer. and I sat and looked at this room I spend most of my time in when im home and indoors, after going through all my teenage life (seems so long ago) starting to paint it, then giving up after one wall, it ended up, 7 different colours, brown, white, blue, cream, alsorts. you name it, it was probably in here!

So I decided, (the missis decided) Its time to sort this room out once and for all, So now, I am going to show you two pictures of how TERRIBLE my room had gotten, Hence its covered with posters iv picked up over the years from world motocross events just to hide everything. (yeah im a biker btw )

Here is my old room with my new 750d

And a panoramic of my old room

Soo... You can see how terrible it all is, step 1. take them posters down, and see just how worse it can get.

Yeah it does get worse haha. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of 2 days, 9 hours per day absolute grafting, knocking out built in wardrobes that was installed in the 60s, and stripping wallpaper off, and off the roof that I think had been glued on by the hulk, it took 9 hours just stripping it off even with a steamer....

Okay, so, as mentioned I bricked my old motherboard, so now that my room is almost done (pictures soon to follow in a moment keep reading). lets get that old motherboard out:

old and new. (old p67a-gd55, new z77a-gd65)

in with the new

And in with the new 16gb ram, fed up of running out of memory when I was using 4gb for the past 4 years

right now my system is up and running, computer and desk is installed, im now sat a few feet more to the right of where I was before, infact my computer is now inside where there was a built in wardrobe, which had a Christmas tree inside from the 80s lol up where the printer is in this picture, I left the bottom of that part of the cupboard in as a nice shelf:

Now to finish off a few bits and bobs. !

Baileys bottles Installed:

Still got the videos of my self at school from 20 years ago, shame I don't own a video player, im sure there would be a clip on there that would earn me 250 quid on you've been framed!

Now to paint them shelves !

Now all is looking good, lets get some panoramic pictures of my room, or well, just photos, btw I never apologised for my bad indoor photography! haha. also its dark outside now so just did the best I could with the lighting with my iphone.... here goes! all painted and done....... 18-20hrs.. (2 days work)...... (with help from the missis )

No idea what the.. is on tv, but yeah bad panoramic moment.

Also, bad panoramic picture as you can tell with the lighting on this one.

Looks so much better, my photography skills don't help in the slightest, but the room looks ten times bigger in person, From where I sit now at my computer, there is 10 feet of nothing till I reach my bed, where as previously there was only around 5 feet. btw the tv I just angle towards me when im on my pc, (42" Panasonic plasma)

Whats left to do, is new black curtains, and some blackout blinds instead of using two pair of curtains (cream curtains on one side then black on the other side). need to move that chest of tall draws) and need to move my clothes back in here, haven't dared yet incase theres even one drop of paint not dry. and as for my pc, need to install my new black sata cables that have arrived instead of the old ugly yellow and red ones that's in there now. and all is good.

also moving my desk to the right 3 foot, my pc is closer to the wall, and this corner of the house NEVER gets sun light at any time of the day, coldest part of the house, temperatures have dropped by 5c load!

Now, time for a new cig with my updated specs:

And now, will leave you with some shots of my computer hope you enjoyed reading!

(and yes that's a 2005 razer diamondback plasma blue Limited edition, still going strong!)

Btw the cost of this room transformation £30 and two spare days. (big thanks to my better half for helping painting, I know your going to read this! ) (price not including new motherboard nor feeding my missis nor topping up the wine glass)

 

[IceShock]

Thanks you guys im still dead chuffed with it, when I walk in the room im still like woah, whats going on this room looks good! haha.

There is one built in cupboard that I didn't knock out, that is behind where im sat at my computer chair, it has all my pc bits and boxes in, and in the top half of the cupboard, well iv just cleared it all out was full of alsorts of junk.

I even found a daily mail newspaper from 1967 in there!. im going to paint it all tomorrow, and then in the top half store all my pc parts. then the bottom half im going to attach a rail across the width of the cupboard and then hang all my clothes in there out of the way of the room. also im going to install some draws in there underneath were my clothes will hang, so I wont need that tall set of draws in my room any more then

 

[IceShock]

A little update, over the weekend, I emptied everything out of the remaining cupboard, and then painted inside and let it dry for a few days, threw half the junk away and i also hang my clothes in there now out of the way

Here is the cupboard in question, i forgot to take pictures of the before but heres in progress of painting:

And finished painted

Now this junk has to somehow fit in there

Spare tv and more junk!

also found some old pokemon cards!

Almost got all the stuff back in there.

Now time to get my clothes in

All done!

 

[IceShock]

thanks, them crappy England flags are going, the one on the window is just so that light can shine in and people cant see in, iv ordered in some blinds for there which will sit behind the curtains, and making it more black out. and iv ordered some new black curtains, and the one on the cupboard doors is just to hide the crappy job I did of covering up the holes in them from stumbling in drunk and falling into it which I used cardboard and tape and painted over them haha.

 

[IceShock]

Nice work. I couldn't sleep in a room with all that electronic equipment in it but it sure looks nice...

How come?

One thing that really Bugs me big time, is electrical Buzzing noises, literally, everything in my room is ran off two plug sockets, one of them has a 4 plug extension to my tv and other devices, and I have a long extension to the other side of the room, and from that I have 8 sockets, all for my computer equipment. all are really high quality cables that can stand the power requirement.

and at night, both switches are off. I cant stand any lights, or any noises or anything when I sleep, too used to being up here on the moors in Yorkshire lol

 

[IceShock]

Haha it's amazing what a lick of paint can do. Good job, does look a lot better.

ty


Just a little update, iv got rid of the England flag that was covering my window, which was there to let light in but not let people see inside my room etc.

My new blinds arrived today from argos, 20 quid I think they was, pretty cheap and they are pretty good quality they look good heres the results:

I used really Heavy duty Velcro from B&Q which is really really sticky, it is so tough that I actually struggle to remove the blinds it is that strong, it is so strong as you can see on the pictures of the blinds, that on the very far and left side, they are drooping down a bit, so going to get some more Velcro so that it sits level.

Also, I added another hard drive for backups only, for the power, I have connected another modular connector, and when ever I am not backing up data, it is disconnected from the power supply just in case of a power surge that frys my computer.

I hung it right at the very top of my case using elastic wrapped around the mesh vents at the top of the case, its pretty sturdy it wont be moving anywhere in a hurry. and with the dust filter in place you cant see it either.

Also I changed them old orange Sata cables to black super slim cables, though I need to order some more for my dvd drive and now my backup drive.

 

[IceShock]

Renamed this project log "Iceshock's ongoing project log" because its got bits of alsorts in it as I go along getting my self there to the final product so to speak!
(Edit, can a forum mod change the title of the thread to that please, it wont change when I change it, it still shows the old title name)

Got my self a H110 today click to see thread and benchmark results

Howdy!

Just got my new H110 today and heres my log going from air to AIO water for the first time, Heres my build log and the results are at the bottom!

Okay, im useless at explaining stuff in build logs but here goes lets start with picture number one.. New stuff!!

Okay, you guys will probably slate me for getting AF140's but there aren't no SP140's that have the colour rings yet, but when they are released, I will simply use these two AF140's in the front of my case where I have two stock 750D AF140s without the colour rings on them.

Next up to fit the fans

Now, lets look at the current setup:

Looks like I didn't apply my old thermal paste properly!

Lets get that old paste cleaned off. This is the first time iv ever used this cleaning stuff, and I was very impressed with the results, I used to just wipe it off and give it a buff up with kitchen roll and a bit of spit but I thought this time, if the jobs worth doing, its worth doing properly.

Next I was installing the radiator, when I noticed. I had used all 8 fan screws included with the H110, the way they want you to install the H110, is either using the fans as a intake, or a Pull setup pushing the air outside the case.
Or should I say, the way they want you to install it is to have the fans sandwiched between the radiator and the case, but I want to mount it as a push with the radiator mounted against the roof of the case rather than the fans sandwiched between them, so I had to find some more screws, and I stumbled across these, Pci-e bracket screws, same ones used to hold power supplys in place and they fit perfectly!

All mounted up and fitted, I opted to use the stock thermal paste that's applied already after seeing the state of my paste when I took my A50 cooler off

She lives!

Here are pictures of it up and running and doing its job. Pictures in random order some with and without flash:

Next thing to do at pay day is to buy some Corsair braided cables and get rid of them ugly black stock cables!

As I mentioned before this is my first water cooler though its a AIO....
When I first turned my pc on, It totally didn't register in my mind that it has water in it, and I heard the pump dragging the water through etc and I could hear running water, I pretty much **** my self haha. but then after around 20 seconds the water noise stopped and all is well, can't hear the pump at all its silent etc.

Okay for the results using prime95 small FTT for 10 mins and idle temps.

Ambient temperature for both tests 20c

Both using 2500k at 5ghz @ 1.415v

Fans @ full rpm (AF140 quiet editions & SP120 on A50)

Corsair A50 Idle: 42-44c
Corsair A50 Load: 71-74c

Fans @ Full rpm (AF140 quiet editions, Pretty quiet even at full rpm)

Corsair H110 Idle: 28-30c
Corsair H110 Load: 48c-51c

Fans @ Silent (not sure what rpm, but via the knobs on my fan controllers, Half of there maximum running speed, 100% silent)

Corsair H110 Idle - 33-34c
Corsair H110 Load - 54-56c

Also I have tested at stock cpu speed 3.3ghz stock volts with the fans @ full rpm to see how cool it will keep a stock cpu

Corsair H110 Idle: - 24c
Corsair H110 Load - 37c-39c

I got to say this cooler is pretty amazing, does what it says on the tin really, easy to install, only thing that's missing is extra screws to mount the radiator which ever way you want as I have showed with the pictures. apart from that all is spot on. Temperatures are so much better, and when the SP140's are out I bet they will drop even more.

Id give this a product 10/10 if it wasn't for the lack of screws, 9.9/10 because of that, it really is a superb bit of kit!

Thank you for reading, Hope you enjoyed!

Edit: Just been asked a question about how I have my HDD's mounted.
If you notice on my pictures, below my DVD drive is where I have my data drive mounted and its hung in place by elastic (the bunjee mod, See this post here of my old case and hdds)
And if you notice at the very top of my case from the picture showing the exterior roof of my case, you notice a HDD above my dvd drive, That is simply hung there by elastic, that's my backup drive mounted sideway with the connectors coming in from the back of the case from the rear of the motherboard tray, its never plugged in to power though its ran off a separate power cable, and it is unplugged from the psu completely when im not backing up my data so that's the reason why there is a power lead unplugged from my psu

 

[IceShock]

that's lovely! I ahd a 750D up until last week and it's great case. and black brushed aluminium and blue go together very well

Thanks iv pained my crossfire cable black so that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. and im planning on painting the yellow writing on the PSU where it says RM to blue, I just don't know what would be the best way of doing so, im absolutely useless when it comes to masking stuff, or painting etc.

I just cant wait to get some blue braided cables, then it will look so much better!

 

[IceShock]

you could always replace your psu with one of the new HXi. writting is already blue haha.
If not, why not make your own stickers? at least it's not a permanent mod and if you need to send it for an RMA there won't be any problem

I know, my RM1000 is new though, I got it about hmm, 4-5 months ago, I wouldn't of got it if I knew about the HXi series that's just been released!

Yeah iv thought about making my own sticker for it, not very good at that sort of thing though

 

[IceShock]

Been a busy bee, some more updates to my ongoing project of my rig for ya
Here are some quotes from two things iv done recently:

Hello there,

Just been playing around with a idea I had for a while to get better spacing between my graphics cards.
Basically, my motherboard has 3 pci-e slots, but only the top two work due to only having a sandy bridge processor and I run 8x 8x, and if I did get a ivy bridge processor and used slot 1 and 3 id be running 16x4x and loosing around 3-5% performance, though I would get better cooling to my top gpu...

So a idea was to use a pci-e riser because iv read a article that shows there is NO performance loss through using one at all.
So, the problem with using one is I cant just move my card down a few slots because my motherboard is in the way, so I could mount the 2nd cpu vertically so the two cards make a right angle shape, but there wasn't enough space I tried it.

So heres what iv come up with, I just mounted the second gpu diagonally, it doesn't look too bad though some of you might think it looks stupid, but the idea works for cooling the pictures make it look worse than it does in person, plus im getting rid of them Horrible horrible standard black power cables in a few days for my birthday (present from the missis )

for mounting, I just used two tie wraps on the pci-e bracket, and I used a xbox 360 controller stick that I had spare to prop up the graphics card to give it stability and extra strength as you can see in the pictures.

So here goes, the before and after pictures and results (results below all pictures)
(oh also, iv painted the crossfire bridge black with a permanent marker pen):

spacing before:

And after

Okay the results.
Benchmarking firestrike before @ 1125/1450 (Auto default fan curve's used)
(Ambient temp 20c)

Gpu1 Fan 58% - 73c
Gpu2 Fan 34% - 58c

After

Gpu1 Fan 34% - 61c
Gpu2 Fan 30% - 57c

As you can see the difference is quite massive, before I did this I could hear the top gpu fan as it was a hotter of the two cards, but now they are running as if they would if it was just a single card temperature wise which is what I was trying to achieve so job well done as far as im concerned

and my rgb mod

Hey there,

My cold cathode tubes was looking a bit tired, and the power box the two plugged into started making strange whistling sounds and noises which started to annoy me and iv always wanted some led lighting in my case.

So I purchased some cheap RGB led's off of ebay see here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1M-2M-3M-...ng_Lamps_Lighting_SM&var=&hash=item2c76eca983


I opted to go for the £12 kit (2m length), because my idea was to route the power cable from the wall socket into my case, but then I realised theres no holes big enough to fit the wire through... So I could have just gone for the cheap £6 kit, because I braved up and decided though I know nothing about electrics to hook it up to my PSU! so heres how it went:

Here is what the kit includes

This is what I cut in half to find the black and red wires

And I cut the black and red wires off of my old cold cathodes cabling,
But you do not need to do this, just cut the old Molex plug off of anything and connect the black and red's together and your good.

Here it is wired up, I just used insulation electrical tape because I don't have a solder or anything like that, but after all its electrical tape so I figured it will either work or go with a bang!

It worked!! my face lit up like a Christmas tree, I literally stood back from my pc and pressed the power button with a shoe incase it went bang because like I said, Im not very good with electrics! but if I can do this, then anyone can do it, it was a absolute piece of cake!!

The led strip comes with sticky back, so time to stick it around the case

As you can see 2m length is Perfect for the 750D.

Now I will leave you with a bunch of pictures of the colours, there is a lot more colours than pictures I took here, though sorry about my bad camera work, a phone

Overall im very pleased with it! I love how I can change the colour, brightness and everything, can even have it to change colour really slowly or fast or flashing or anything, but for now I just leave it on a static colour, I think it looks much better, never again will I buy expensive lighting!

Hope you enjoyed reading

 

[IceShock]

another little update the positions of the drives

Just bunjee modded two drives in my 750D, something a bit different!
The whole motherboard tray including them two drives are going to be covered though soon when I get round to doing it

 

[IceShock]

Awesome work Ice! I've just moved out (well into my Aunties as parents moving mileage away and will be terrible commute for me to work!) and I've progressed a good bit with my own room here! Just need to design a desk get it made and install everything ready for my soon-to-be first build in the new year I don't have as much room as you but you've certainly inspired me to crack on with everything! Don't think it'll be worth posting a log but if people don't mind a rubbishly done log I may just do so

Cracking work again Ice, love it!

haha get it done buddy! and make a log why not eh

 

[IceShock]

Looking good, I have pretty much the exact same RGB LED mod and it's insanely good and cheap!

What's that white plate thing on the bottom of the case?
Also, did you get my trust a few weeks ago?

Ahh sorry! I totally forgot to reply, I remember getting that yep, I was busy when you sent it so I totally forgot to reply.

I can't remember where or what the name of them bottom case dust filters was called, it looked like the single bottom piece of the DemciFlex dust kit though, and im sure they was only about 5-10 pounds just for that bottom filter, but since I saw it, Iv looked for it again but can't find it my self, if I do spot one though ill let you know

The white plate, well, that's a piece of a4 paper I put it there just to stop dust coming in, but now iv replaced it with a black a4 piece of card. it stops all the dust from being sucked up in the bottom vents of the case, and since I did this, iv had a idea, going to get a A2 sized piece of black card and cover the whole of the back of the motherboard tray and my hard drives etc so everything has a smooth finish, just double sided tape it into place. it will either work or it wont, but ill post pictures up when I do it, it will be this time next week when I give it a shot.

here are some rushed pictures of the card at the bottom of the case. excuse the dust on the window needs a clean, set the led's to bright white so you can see better

 

[IceShock]

Most people will advise you to use water and a soft cloth, because the water lubricates the dust away and doesn't scratch it, but then I have a problem with streaks etc, so you gotta rub it harder to get rid of them, so that way didn't work for me.

Now I just use compressed air to blow off the dust, then really really gently wipe over it to pick up any of the left over dust with a blue cleaning cloth thing I got with my plasma tv, figured because its thin glass and my window is Perspex, it will do the same job haha! it works though.

I used to have to clean the window once per week, but since I blocked the grills on the bottom, not had to clean it once yet, could do with doing now tho after about a month of them blocked over

 

[IceShock]

It's my birthday, and my missus told me to open the small present first

 

[IceShock]

Hey guys a new update for you!

Today iv worked on putting my new Braided cables in my case and also making a nice smooth motherboard tray with a clean look, and the material I used was.... Cardboard

So lets begin with the pictures!

Here is my rig as it is at the moment with no power cables in.

Using paper as a template for my idea

Then I had to measure up where the cables will be to cut holes in the card

Holes cut!

The missus playing on the sims whilst im messing with my pc

Next few images are just some of me messing around with different colours on my LED's

All done, im pleased with how it looks

Once again hope you enjoyed reading!

 

[IceShock]

Awesome!

Where did you get the braided cables from? I use the RM750 and didn't think you could buy cables for it

From ocuk ofc!

You need the AXi mobo cable for it to work with a RM series and any of the corsair generation cables you fancy! well colours that is

as Josh linked above ^^

Bloody wish I had a AXi series psu tho it has blue writing on the sticker! they didn't release them till I already had my RM tho but my rm does the job infact, best psu iv ever owned so I better not complain about the colour of her sticker whilst she is doing the job nicely for me

 

[IceShock]

Brilliant. Really liking the Blue and Black theme. How long did it take to get the acrylic backplate fitted?

You mean the motherboard tray? its made out of black paper card I used paper as a template then bought some a2 card and cut it out the shape, reinforced it a bit on the back with double sided tape and some more card about three layers in some parts. and double sided taped it to the back of the case

 

[IceShock]

Awesome rig

Twilight DVD's not so awesome

The dvd's are mine and my missus's But gotta admit I quite like the Twilight Saga

 

[IceShock]

Lovely build, I've a question about your exterior cables?

What type of cables are you using for your system to be so close to the wall? are they all standard or like a 90 degree angled connection

Just standard cables pushed right up as close as it will go, my exterior cable management is horric if only you can see under my desk lol

Really silly question, what is the tilted cooler beneath the graphics card?

That's my second graphics card, Iv just tilted it to maximise cooling, there is more of a gap between the two graphics cards so that the top card doesn't over heat from being restricted by the graphics card below it, and also at the angle it is at the air flow inside my case seems to exhaust the hot air directly around the top gpu. It works really well, both gpus are always the exact temperature give or take 1c