Project Bloodfang - Case Labs Black and Red Build

[kindai]

Finished pics here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=27185895&postcount=155

Anyway, now its time for a new build, so, as you WoW players will recall, rogue tier 2 armor, black and dark red, sexy! I know the whole, red black thing is a bit cliche nowdays with ROG, but its something I wanted to do for a looong time... so that is the basis of this build, dark red and black.

Unfortunately, helper rabbit is no longer with us, so this will be the first extreme build without her i've done, since i'm now going to have to collect screwdrivers on my own, decided to give her a mention .

Without further adue, onto the build!


Case Assembly

An extreme build needs an extreme case. Unfortunately, theres only one company who produce such cases, Case Labs. A few weeks back I took delivery of a rather... huge box...

So lets put it together!

Central divide with top and bottom chamber seperators

Add the back plate on

The top and bottom frames

Time to add the front...

Lets add some drive cages, and an IO panel

Slot the motherboard tray and adjust the runners to make it nice and firm...

Add the back panel.

Time for some sides

Sexy....

Add some top and bottom chamber covers

And finally the front cover...

All done! For now...

 

[kindai]

That thing is massive, love it!

What sort of hardware/wc is going into it?

Dual loops, for 2x 290x and a 4770k potentially. Either that or a 4930k... im still struggling to chose.

Is that the Magnum Kindai?

Magnum STH10

 

[kindai]

Go big, go 4930k

That case must have cost a fair bit.

Probably will be a 4930k build I was realy tempted by the 4770k seriously hard, but turns out theres only 3 top of boards in atx-e format, and they're all the wrong color

 

[kindai]

So Clive, the local DPD driver came this morning with 3 boxes from OcUK!

Oh, shiney

Mayhems coolants to mix up about 2 litres of blood red pastel

CPU and EK Supremacy waterblock

All laid out

Closeups of the block, excellent craftmanship.

CPU closeup, looks like a good overclocker don't you think!

One, sexy, sexy motherboard, with EK blocks installed.

 

[kindai]

So, heres some graphics cards. They are all flashed to the full 290x spec...

As fun as the idea of quadfire was, sometimes you have to draw a line somewhere, and I think 2 of them is plenty enough... for now?

 

[kindai]

nice! how much did the case cost if you dont mind me asking?

All in all, about £600-£700 to my door.

 

[kindai]

I know caselabs do amazing cases, but being used it. would you say its well worth the £700 you paid as this could nearly buy you 4 Enthoo Primo's . And how does the size compare because i know that they are both huge ?

The CL is still quite a bit bigger.

 

[kindai]

So, was bored so decided to get the CPU and Mobo sorted.

All laid out ready to go... it wont stay this tidy

CPU in, even after doing this many many times, the horrible crushing sound when you tighten those clamps still makes me cringe!!

Waterblock on, unfortunately I had to lift it off about halfway down, fortunately the spreading of the TIM was still relatively in the middle (it was waterblock weight only, no pressure had been applied) and mostly still globbed up, so hopefully there wont be any issues there, I may take it off and completely re-apply just to be sure.

Nice and snug

Lets get it settled onto the tray.

So I also decided to mix up the coolant ready, sure it may be a few weeks away before it's needed, but no harm and it means I can get the color absolutely perfect This time around, not so right, I forgot to order some blue so just ended up with this pinky color! Bah!!!

 

[kindai]

So a boring update today. I wasn't realy happy with the looks of the current GPU blocks, so ordered the full length frosted CSQ ones, this way, they will match the blocks on the mobo.
Heres how they looked before

Ready to go...

First remove the old block, and reapply thermal interface materials, this is what a naked 290x looks like.

I couldnt realy take any photos of the next part, because it pretty much involved me having to grow a 3rd arm to hold the card and waterblocks in place, whilst screwing it in place.

Anyway, the end results...

 

[kindai]

I like these blocks.
To be honest other blocks aren't full cover for me, only those which cover everything.

I feel the same, they just, they're nice enough much still "meh". Need to find somewhere to lump em now, having £200 of useless blocks knocking around isn't fun

 

[kindai]

So today had the PSU turn up. Many of you know what bitcoin mining is, and unfortunately it means theres currently a very short supply of high power PSU's. So getting hold of this particular monster PSU was difficult.

So lets open it up? Eh... very tidy.

A very nice package provided by corsair there.

It very rare when grabbing something that you feel the quality instantly, but this PSU, wow, it just oozes quality all over.

So lets take a close up of the rails. Yes thats right, the +12v has 100.4 Amps... pretty scary stuff! Personally I prefer divided rails, but they are rarely come by nowdays, and the safety measures inside these PSU's are top notch.

32 giggidybytes of C10 2400Mhz RAM. As sexy as those heatspreaders are, they'll be disapearing in the future...

The 2 radiators for the graphics cards. I could use a single higher density radiator, but that requires higher pressure fans, and more noise. So opted to run 2 radiators for the 2 cards and use low RPM fans instead.

Finally, a shot of all the hardware so far!

 

[kindai]

So today finally got around to building the mount for the 2 pumps.

Unfortunately the pictures taken in constructions wern't great, so only pictures of the end result. Forgot how much fun it was doing metalwork/engineering.

Pumps in place.

And all in the case, I intentionally put some overhang of the mounting plate near the motherboard partly to hide the pump cables (even though i'll be sleeving them) and as an additional place to attach stuff if needed.

Sorry for the dust!

 

[kindai]

Very nice m8

Thanks It was definately the better option than drilling into a very expensive case

 

[kindai]

So today had a box of bits turn up from the US. I have heard amazing things about these cougar fans, however, finding somewhere in the UK that has them at a good price was near impossible. So had to get them from the US.

Also grabbed some of these splitters to make cabling and fan control easier. 1 in 5 out.

140mm and 120mm next to each other

Now the screws black ice provide are CRAP. Look at this. No room to actually attach them to the radiator in any way, let alone with a easy mount from CaseLabs.

So a trip down the builders merchant for some longer screws and some black matte spray.

As for the orange in the fans? Well, a little model builders acrylic paint takes care of that.

So mounted up the 3 radiators, the unpainted one needs to be re-done, but another trip down the builders merchant to pick up some washers needs to be done first.

Stacky....

 

[kindai]

So small progress today.

The Blu-ray drive was the wrong color... so, got that masked off and... corrected.

Time to put the first radiator in possition.

Snug!

And the front fans, just lining them up to see how it looks and and space they take internally. Strangely, Case Labs put some anti-vibration rubbers on these fan mounts, the problem is, when you slot them into possition, they are then offset from the front panel, which looks naff. Bit of poor design by them there.

At this point, with so much black im wondering if I should forget the red, and just go for an entirely black build?!

 

[kindai]

So today was a bit of a heartstopper. Removing the white heatspreaders on the RAM ready for the watercooling blocks.

I opted for the credit card method opposed to the normal screwdriver method.

Normally, removing heatspreaders held on by adheasive require, 2, maybe 3 cards in my experience, but these teamgroup sticks.... needed 10, the adheasive they used was absolutely brutal, even after heating with a hairdryer...

One side off, now the other....

Invalid warrenty anyone?

8 memory sticks later

Finally in the system and checked for immediate post errors, fortunately, passed.

 

[kindai]

Liking this build very much, love the ram, is that so you can watercool or for aesthetics?

Yup, watercooling.

 

[kindai]

is there any advantages of watercooling the RAM other than for aesthetics ? Love the EK modules by the way.

Not realy no, just looks cool

 

[kindai]

This is probably due to thier heatspreaders randomly falling off, happened to me and tonester. Glad to see they've sorted it anyhow

Build looks stunning so far, one day I'll get the bottle to order a caselabs case

Wish they hadn't, but, anyway its off now!

Is it ST10?
I am going for a CL case myself and just waiting until they release S8 so I can choose, this or SMA8.
Cypto, yeah true, really looks like monolith

Btw, kindai, a question for you.
Did you have to pay any tax/vat/whatever for buying this from USA and how much was it?
I read some import rules on HM site but not sure if they apply to stuff like computer cases ( basically metal plates ).

Ta in advance

Yes, you'll have a nice 20% added to the case+shipping price when it gets here.

I. Have. Never. Been. So. Jealous.

Wonder if this will run minesweeper on ultra...

Insane build - that case is huge!

Thanks

 

[kindai]

Love the mem stick covers, its coming along very nice.

Yea! They looked sick lined up.

Moar updates dude
I am ordering my S8 on Saturday, Case Labs is giving some cool discount as well.
And thanks a lot btw, I would never have thought of getting CL case until I saw this log

Yea, lack of updates due to some... shortages at ocuk for bitspower parts. I had to order a whole lot from the USA. Update coming shortly