[OcUK Staff Builds] rjkoneill's FT01

[rjk]

In the next few weeks i plan on starting my new case/project off

the case i will be working with is a silverstone FT01bw

the aim of this build is for silence
the case
cpu loop
and VGA cooler have all been carefully chosen to cool my hardware down whilst keeping the performance i am used to

i chose the case for its black interior, solid build quality and because it would provide a challenge to watercool

after working on a large watercooling project at work i decided that i would implement a similar theme with my new case

i was originally going for a lian li v1000z and my final choice was between lian li and silverstone
this caused split decisions at work where we have all been weighing up the pros and cons of both brands

the silverstone won in the end after i built a few lian li's and decided that they werent as 'solid' as i expected a £150+ case to be

i have also ordered some parts in - after doing a very special build at work i decided that some of the parts we chose for the front panel were going to fit well into my new build.
we had trouble sourcing these parts at work so i had to do a lot of hunting around the net for alternative sources as the parts were hard to find

lian li 120mm fan grille [this had a built in dust filter]
lian li drive bay radiator mounts

as well as picking up some readily available bits from work
sharkoon 120mm silent eagle fans
black 7/16" tubing
zalman fan controller


now the rad will be bolted in place using the lian li rad mounting brackets i have ordered

the problem being is that i have a bay res/pump at the moment

i am wondering if i may be best going for an alternative due to the lack of free drive bays

perhaps using one of these...
would be an alternative
and mount it on some other point in the case

-------------------------------------------------------------------
what are your thoughts?
will update as the new parts come in / get installed

cheers for looking

 

[rjk]

Build Summary

the Final, Full spec is as follows:

Hardware
Silverstone FT01 B-W Case
Asus P6T Deluxe Motherboard
Intel Core i7 920 Processor
3X 2GB Corsair Dominator PC3-12800 1600MHz
2X Asus Geforce GTX 280 SLI
Corsair TX750W PSU
2X Seagate Barracuda GT 500GB RAID 0
NEC DVDRW

Watercooling
TFC Xchanger 120 Radiator + Sharkoon 120mm Fan
EK Supreme Black Acetal CPU Waterblock
Laing DDC 10w Pump + XSPC Reservoir Top
Laing DDC 4 Point Anti-Vibration Damping Kit
Laing Damper Kit
XSPC Black Tubing 7/16"
DTek 1/2" Barbs
PrimoChill Pearl White Coils
Feser One Cooling Fluid
Rotating Elbow Fitting

Case Mods and Misc
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus Fan Controller
EVGA Black SATA Cables
Lian Li Fan Grille Module
Lian Li Radiator Brackets

--------------------

REV:1 first build attempt

here is how i mounted the pump as i have had a lot of email about that...

--------------------

REV:2 new pump arrangement using elbow fittings and black coolant

--------------------

REV:3 new graphics card installed

--------------------

REV:4 i7 Upgrade
i7 920
Asus P6T Deluxe
6GB Corsair Dominator PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit

--------------------

REV:5 SLI

SLI GTX 280
modded hard drive bay so that the drives can be mounted higher up allowing the pump to be placed near the front of the case
and also making room for the second 280
added a 4" white cathode to give it some subtle lighting

--------------------

REV:6 New Hardware
my P6t deluxe died and took my chip and memory out with it
new specs are:
Biostar TPower X58
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping
OCZ Reaper HPC 1866MHz

also the single radiator was removed to make way for a thermochill pa120.3 [currently hung out of the back, but will be internal soon]

--------------------

REV:7 Watercooling Upgrades

Thermochill PA 120.3 + Noctua NF-P12 Vortex fans

--------------------

thoughts on using the case

the case is really silent when running off a fan controller
i cant hear the pc when its all on low
i think the soundproofing in the side panels helps too - its pretty good quality
to be honest the only loud fan is the rear sharkoon that i put on and thats only loud on 1/2 way or more

there are dust filters on everything which helps a lot

my northbridge used to get very hot to touch
now its nice and cool thanks to the airflow through the case
it seems the vga cooler and watercooling are getting more than enough cold air to do their jobs properly
looks like i designed the layout of my mods well as my temps are a lot better than my last case

this is the easiest mid tower case to build in by far - the quality beats lian li cases by miles - the panels are thicker and there are no vibrations

Check out the rest of the thread for all the details...

 

[rjk]

vga is a thermalright Trad2 until some new cards come out then im going to go water

cpu block is the ocz hydroflow - which although cheap, is very good imho

 

[rjk]

How long you been at ocuk mate if you don't mind me askin?

bout a month now - they have let me do some epic builds recently - which has given me a lot of inspiration for this case - considering how small it is im quite pleased at how much i have been able to fit into it

the gf still holding this case at hostage then

ha ha - yes - unfortunatly mate! only ten more days now!!!

OcUk should def stock those radiator mounts. I can imagine that there would be a fair few users on here who would love to get their hands on those (me being one of them).

E.D.I.T.: Apparently they have been in stock once upon a time: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-100-LL

we did use some on a very large £10k + custom Media pc for someone and i knew that they would be very useful

they are really for the lian li cube - but should fit the bill nicely!

 

[rjk]

went ahead and got a DDC 10w Pump/Reservoir

also got a rotating elbow - plan now is to mount the pump on top of the bottom hard drive cage

and use the elbow at the top of the res

 

[rjk]

i dont think wading in with a dremel on boxing day would be a wise choice
the missus would not be happy

im going for white coils and black tubing
with white highlights throughout the case
[mainly using sharkoon silent eagle fans]
just want a nice simple mod for the time being - i think the real challenge with this case is fitting a water loop in it that doesnt look untidy as there are no obvious rad positions

the pump should arrive tomorrow

 

[rjk]

this little lot arrived today

as described above

but as i am going for a black/white theme
i decided that red sata cables were a massive NO GO

im going to get some black sleeving for the case wires etc

but the black evga sata cables will fit in just nicely

 

[rjk]

That's the geekiest thing i've ever heard!




.....they are cool, I only have bright red/yellow/blue....

You should totally whip the dremel out on boxing day, who doesn't want to play with shiny things this time of year?! It's all looking good so far, the colours remind me of a lian li watercooling project that was in the forums recently, which looked very nice indeed.

yeah that is pretty geeky - but its exactly what i was thinking when i got them

"these black cables will look loads better than red ones - haw haw haw!!!!"

just want it to be less noticable and with the emphasis on my hardware rather than watercooling and cables etc

Have you tried fitting that Lian fan mount yet?

Lian Li stuff is a strange width, so I hope it fits

If you look towards the front of it, the width increases slightly, so the very front of it is not 5 1/4 inch width

i know what you mean i will be really annoyed if it doesnt fit
did a test fit on a spare silverstone drive bay blank at work and it is the same size - but it is quite deep - so i may have to do some adjustments

will see how it goes

 

[rjk]

pump arrived today as well as a mounting plate for it to stop vibrations etc

will get some pics of the build up by the weekend

 

[rjk]

its been a nightmare to find - we had to special order them in for a build i did at work

so then i ordered my own for this build

cant wait to get cracking!

 

[rjk]

right so the build is underway

got a few new parts to go in the system that are highlighted in yellow

the Final, Full spec is as follows:

Hardware
Silverstone FT01 B-W Case
Asus P5Q-E Motherboard
Intel Q9450 Processor
2X2GB Corsair Dominator PC2 8500 Memory
BFG 9800GTX with Thermalright TRad2 VGA Cooler + 2X92mm Sharkoon Fans
Corsair TX750W PSU
Western Digital 500Gb Hard Drive
Western Digital 80Gb Hard Drive
NEC DVDRW

Watercooling
TFC Xchanger 120 Radiator + Sharkoon 120mm Fan
EK Supreme Black Acetal CPU Waterblock
Laing DDC 10w Pump + XSPC Reservoir Top
Laing DDC 4 Point Anti-Vibration Damping Kit
Laing Damper Kit
XSPC Black Tubing 7/16"
DTek 1/2" Barbs
PrimoChill Pearl White Coils
Feser One Cooling Fluid

Case Mods and Misc
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus Fan Controller
EVGA Black SATA Cables
Lian Li Fan Grille Module
Lian Li Radiator Brackets

 

[rjk]

its finished...

 

[rjk]

heres the pics - left my camera at work taking pics of other builds - so im using an old digicam

will do some proper pics when i get it back
need to mount the pump using some different feet
will take pics once sorted

here it is - enjoy

 

[rjk]

ummm - yep



installed the rig xmas eve
did the water loop xmas night

cable management in this case is easy as can be

 

[rjk]

seeing as i build systems as a job - i would get some grief at work if it was untidy!!!

im very happy with the outcome tbh

only thing that didnt fit as expected was the lian li rad grille [as mentioned by a member in this thread]

nothing a couple of taps with a rubber mallet couldnt have sorted

only changes i plan on making at the moment:

perhaps get some black feser from work for the inside of the case
and maybe a small white cathode for the roof of the case to light it up a bit

the blue leds on the fan controller were originally going to get swapped out for white ones but the power button on the case has a blue led so they match and dont look too 'GAMER CASE' so im leaving it as is

the leds light up the fan behind the grille too which is cool - even beter when you ramp the fans up and the leds go red
changes the colour of the fans

got the fan controller set up as so
fan 1 VGA cooler fan
fan 2 VGA cooler fan
fan 3 Radiator Fan
fan 4 front 180mm fan
fan 5 top 180mm fan
fan 6 rear 120mm fan

its working great - with the sondproofing preinstalled and the anti vibration mounts on the pump - this really is as quiet as i hoped for!

would reccomend this case to anybody
as i build in a wide variety of cases at work - i have to say that this is the most versatile and best quality mid tower chassis i have used

much better than the paper thin aluminium of most current lian li cases [i know thats going to cause some arguments]

 

[rjk]

its quiet as a mouse - we use them in a lot of the builds at work so i know they are good - got a 650 in for rma but needed one to get this done so i got the 750 as it was cheap this week

 

[rjk]

very nice idd, looks very clean.

more pics!

thanks dude

more pics on the way today [got my camera back]

someone asked how i mounted the pump via email so im gonna show that and also the cable management around the back

are the temps ok? one small rad for a quad? and an intake that will be warm/hot as its running over the rad

the feser rad is great - twice as thick as an xspc model

in my old case it cooled my q6600 down to 30'c idle / 65 under load

in the new case, with the fans all on low, my q9450 is running at 36'c idle / 60'c under full load [clocked at 3.4]

with the fans on high the q9450 idles at 32'C and sits at 55'C under 8 hours of prime

i was concerned that it wouldnt be enough too, but its holding its own

i think a lesser rad would have struggled - but the 120 model was the only one that would have fit in the case


will upload a few more pics today and a few of my opinions from using the case to go with it

 

[rjk]

right then - more pics as requested - heres the case with the side panel on

the 120.1 tfc xchanger rad mounted in the optical drive bays using the lian li radiator mounting brackets

this is the mounting plate i used to stick the pump to the floor of the case

i used the mounting hardware that came with the pump as well as some rubber feet that come with the rampage extreme

cuts noise from the pump right out


heres the cables

thoughts on using the case

the case is really silent when running off a fan controller
i cant hear the pc when its all on low
i think the soundproofing in the side panels helps too - its pretty good quality
to be honest the only loud fan is the rear sharkoon that i put on and thats only loud on 1/2 way or more

there are dust filters on everything which helps a lot

my northbridge used to get very hot to touch
now its nice and cool thanks to the airflow through the case
it seems the vga cooler and watercooling are getting more than enough cold air to do their jobs properly
looks like i designed the layout of my mods well as my temps are a lot better than my last case

this is the easiest mid tower case to build in by far - the quality beats lian li cases by miles - the panels are thicker and there are no vibrations

planned changes
i plan on using my rotating elbow fitting on the top of the reservoir
that way the bend from the rad to the top of the res isnt going to be all over the place

i am changing the coolant to some black feser so will put the elbow in the loop whilst its empty

i also plan on getting a small white cathode/leds for the top of the case so that there is a bit of light in there

nothing too 'GAMER CASE', just something subtle

 

[rjk]

looks brilliant! - thx for the pics

few questions

does the side pannel go on easy with all those cables behind it?

also (sorry to be a pain in the ..) have you got a shot directly from the side looking into the case?

thx

cheers - it really didnt take that long to do
much easier to build in and make tidy than the other popular cases i build in at work - i might speak with Yewen and see if he fancies adding this case as an option to the custom builder

yeah the panel does go on easy - there is a bit of room behind here
no need for a modular psu with this case at all

will get a shot of that in a bit

 

[rjk]

here is my system no after tonights alterations...

elbow fitting on the top of the pump [bubbles all gone now - will fill it right up once its bled properly]

black feser - looks LOADS better imo

also just popped my E8600 E0 in there

getting a GTX 280 tomorrow