My rigs.

Update.

So I decided on the pump cover graphic.



Sorted out the old purple GPU mid plate.



And then cut out the front panel to make room for the fan controller. Basically this panel fitted the front perfectly and houses a 120mm fan.



Cut.



Then cover, fit the new fan and put it in..



Noice !
 
Been working hard today. Will get some better pics tomorrow, but all of the braiding is done bar one cable with two purple wires on.



And the front.. Will get better pics tomorrow am knackered now :S

 
Hi guys, couple of updates today.

First up I just fitted a 600gb Velociraptor and another Intel SSD to the shocking orange. I needed more storage. More exciting though - I just reserved a third Titan Black. Hoping I can get a nice speed boost in games, but can always remove it any way and use it in another rig.

So the main update today is X8. I know, it's not the most exciting thing ever but I do love it so :)

So, the original GTX 480 Lightning which is a very rare beast has been sitting doing nothing in DFI which is not going to be finished now. So, having used the Quadro in X8 for a long time and wanting gaming back on the rig I decided to put the Lightning back in, only with a twist. Queue Kraken G10 and H55...

Here is the painted back plate and modified Kraken.



And the two all married.



I decided to remove one of the bionic fans from the CPU AIO and fit it to the GPU. These fans are Noiseblocker bionics and spin at a mere 600 RPM.



OK, so simple science here. The bottom left 180mm penetrator feeds the GPU AIO then the heat rises. The 480 Lightning then acts as a plate to stop that GPU air bleeding over to the CPU cooler which receives air from the left side penetrator. Due to that the temps are excellent ! 29c on the hottest core idle of the CPU and 27c on the GPU :eek:

Here it is in situ.



And the temps.



To finish up I decided to fit three white LED strips. I know you can buy these from NZXT and Phobya but they are the same as these only massively expensive. To give you a rough idea, I paid about £3 for five white LED strips OEM from Hong Kong.





Ignore the Skulltrail Intel logo, that's coming off and was not designed for this case. It's a panel out of the old one so I need to get modding :)

I will update again when the third Titan Black is fitted (about three weeks) so until then be good !
 
Thanks guys !

Next step is full water. I've ordered a third Titan Black and have been donated some WC gear so the next logical step is full WC. I can't see three Titans behaving any other way tbh.
 
OK one thing I had forgotten was the EVGA SLI bridge. I coloured the transparent plate purple so there was no going back really. Bring on the acrylic !



And...



Much better :)

 
I know. It's been a very long time since I've updated this thread..

About six weeks back the MSI Big Bang Xpower II decided to die. I've had nightmares sending it back to MSI (£23) and they now tell me after a month that they have no stock. Am in negotiations with them but poor.. Very poor..

I decided to buy a RIVE so that went in. I also bought an Asus RAIDR PCIE SSD too and a Soundblaster Z.

Then in a twist of fate I got my old Area 51 ALX back. I originally gave it to my step son last summer but the power supply in it died and I decided to just give him the Dark Carnival AMD rig (letting him keep his GTX 670s in SLI).

So I decided to restore the Alienware. I broke down the hackintosh as I wasn't using it any more and built the following..

Intel Xeon E5 8 core 16 thread @ 2ghz cooled with a H55
Gigabyte X79 UD3
Team Elite 2333mhz ram, 8gb cooled with Arctic coolers
OCZ Revodrive 120gb
5x500gb storage
Nvidia Titan Black cooled with a H55 and NZXT Kraken
Asus 7.1 DX sound card
Corsair RM 750 with modified 24 pin extension to power the proprietary Dell connector for the daughter board


Mods.
CPU H55 fan is a Noiseblocker Bionic. Noiseblocked bionic in roof both set to exhaust.
Alienware PCI fan duct modded flat, fitted a H55 to that to cool the Titan Black, used a Aerocool white LED fan.
Custom floor pan to hide all of the wiring. 120mm fan cut into floor pan to force air down to the PSU, as the PSU fan is about 10mm off the floor of the case.
Full braid in black and red.
Motherboard custom painted in white
92mm NZXT white fan in rear
Front panel made from 3mm white acrylic with a MNPCtech grill in it and a 120mm Powercool fan fitted. I did this because the top heatsinks on X79 boards tend to run hot.

Any way, here is a couple of pics.



And inside.



And the "Data Hive" area as Alienware called it.



Originally I cut the left side panel to allow me to fit some side fans for the 670s in SLI. It looked pretty bad. So, I ordered a new panel from the states for $20 and my mate is shipping it over. It was costly, at around £80, but this case is worth around £500 empty so I feel it was the right way to go, given I only paid £200 for it when I got it.

I do have the right panel but it needs a good clean so I'm not going to fit that until the left panel is done..

This is my lady's rig and she absolutely loves it. It's beast quick and barely makes a sound.
 
Thanks guys !

Time to explain properly.. The left side panel arrived with me totally bone stock and intact. However, I made the very regrettable choice of fitting GTX 670 SLI without blower coolers. This soon had my top card shutting down the PC @ 97c. Not good for Kepler. So at the time I basically butchered the side panel. It really did look awful..

So I bought a new one from the USA, hopefully shipping out today so I will have that in a couple of weeks. In the mean time I decided I wanted to play with my toys, so I cracked out three rotary tools. First I marked up the bad panel, with absolutely nothing to lose.



I know hexagons are en vogue right now but the Alienware was using them years ago. I dedided to use an old Bitfenix Colossus side panel as a template to come up with some hex wavy grooves.

Then I set about cutting. Three hours and one melted rotary tool later and huzzah.



And the scrap..



Quick test fit.





And I just have a couple of hours filing, sanding and prepping before I can paint it. I have a few off the wall surprises lined up for this panel as I have a ton of old scrap computer parts so expect something pretty wild ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom