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Hi Everyone
I started this build in back in May 2013 and always meant to write up a build log but have only just got round to it now so this thread is going to pretty picture heavy I'm afraid
I decided to go with the name G-Fenix as it started to become more Bitfenix themed as I went along (love that logo lol). the G unoriginally stands for Green in this case. Its my personal rig I use for pretty much everything, I'm hoping to eventually be gaming at 4K with it.
This was my first water-cooled build so I was learning as I went along, any thoughts and feedback would be much appreciated
Specs (Some parts changed as I went along so I will explain the old parts as I go along)
Case: NZXT Phantom 630 with Full Window Side Panel
Motherboard: Asus Limited Edition Sabertooth 990FX / Gen3 R2.0 (Had to hunt around to find one of these in the UK)
CPU: AMD FX 8350
GPU: Nvidea Asus GTX780 Poseidon 3GB (Upgraded from XFX 7870 2GB)
Sound: Asus Xonar Phoebus with Custom Coldzero ROG Backplate / 5.1 Speaker setup
Main OS Drive: Kingston Hyper 120GB SSD x2 in RAID 0 (2x120GB)
Other Drives: 2TB SSHD, 2TB HD, 1 TB HD and 300GB HD
ROMs: Pioneer BDXL ROM and Pioneer DVD Burner
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Black 16GB DDR3 1866 (4x4GB)
PSU: Corsair AX860 Platinum, green pre braided cables with carbon wrapped top and an acrylic UV Green Bitfenix Logo.
Other bits: x6 UV CCFL's, x2 SATA Hotswap Bays, E22 Custom UV Green Cable Combs, NZXT 2M Green LED Sleeve and Custom Decals by Vivid Grafix.
Air Cooling
Bitfenix Spectre Pro Green LED Fans with Bitfenix Hydra LED controller (230mm x1, 200mm x2, 140mm x3 120mm x1).
NZXT 630 Built in 3 speed fan controller
Custom 140mm UV Green Bitfenix Fan Grill laser cut by Frozen Q Mods.
Water Cooling
EK Supremacy Nickel CPU Block
EK-D5 Vario X-Top Pump (Carbon wrapped pump and cables braided)
Hardware Labs 240mm Radiator (front intake)
Alphacool XT45 140mm Radiator (rear exhaust)
Frozen Q Liquid Fusion Green 400mm Reservoir (Compression type with frosted caps and UV green mounts)
Primochill Vortex Flow Indicator (UV Green)
XSPC Temperature Display x2 (Reservoir and Ambient Temperatures)
Monsoon Compression Fittings (Matt Black)
Primochill Primoflex Advanced LRT - Clear Tubing
Mayhems Pastel Mint Green Coolant.
First Build (Simple CPU loop with 240 RAD, Masterkleer Dark UV Tubing and EK DCP 4.0 Pump)
So I started off by picking up a second hand NZXT 630 case on eBay for £75, no fans included but I kinda wanted to fit aftermarket ones anyway so though it would be a good bet...
(Non of my parts, just the pic from the listing)
...I was originally going to go for Green NZXT Green LED Fans but at the time they were not available in the UK so rather than import them I decided to go with the Bitfenix Specre Pro series from OCUK instead. (I think this was my first ever OCUK purchase as I always used to use [REDACTED] for parts, since then the free Haribos have won me over).
The larger 200MM Bitfenix fans do not fit into the grooves the NZXT 630 so I ended up getting the hacksaw out and cutting down the top 2 200MM fans to fit, in hindsight I should have just used 5mm motherboard stand off screws like I figured out for the front 200MM.
Rear top 200MM
Front top 200MM
All 200MM Fans installed, I later upgraded the front 200MM to a 230MM which fit fine using 5MM stand offs too.
The Hardware Labs GT Stealth 240mm Radiator was another bit I picked up cheap on eBay but it worked out quite well as it left me room to keep one of the modular drive bays behind it. Bit unorthadox using a 200mm fan on a 240mm rad I know but it seemed to work ok.
Front 200MM Fan and 240MM Radiator
I wanted to put a 140MM on the inside in pull configuration but did not have the clearance with the modular drive bay so eventually went with a 120MM fan in pull instead.
So this is how things looked after Build 1 with EK UV Green coolant, not that it stayed that colour for long because I was still a bit of a water cooling noob and had not flush the rad properly lol. So it discoloured a bit and and I had to do it all again, I went with EK UV Blue coolant the second time around.
This is a brief attempt I had at crossfiring 2 7870's, unfortunately XFX has changed the GPU chip from Pitcairn to Tahiti so I ended up returning the second card and going back to the drawing board.
Build 2 (Addition of a 140 Rad in prep for GPU cooling, switched to Mayhems X1 UV Purple Coolant)
The plan was to have CPU and GPU loop so thought I would add another rad while I saved for the extra parts.
I went for the Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Copper 140mm Radiator as it had lots of tube routing options.
All done, apologies for the wonky res mounting, it annoyed me for weeks lol.
Build 3
Asus Poseidon GTX 780 3GB
Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus with imported Coldzero ROG Backplate
Frozen Q Res Frosted Caps and UV mounts (IMPORTED)
Primochill Vortex Clear PMMA Visual Flow Indicator : UV Green
EK-D5 Vario X-TOP - Plexi including Water Cooling Pump
PrimoChill PrimoFlex™ Advanced LRT™
Mayhems X1 - UV Emerald Green Coolant
More Monsoon Compression Fittings
Full window side panel for NZXT 630
Custom Bitfenix Logo 140mm RAD Grill by Frozen Q
Custom E22 UV Cable Combs
Custom Vinyl Decals by Vivid Grafix
I was originally gonna go for a reference AMD R9 290X and an EK water-block for this build but after my third RMA (Black screening) I decided to go for an Asus Poseidon GTX 780 3GB instead, I didn't want to risk voiding warrant on something that wasn't working quite right (shame as they are great cards otherwise). It saved me fitting an after market cooler too.
After testing the Poseidon for a week air cooled I got to work.
The UV Mounts were a bit thin so I doubled them up with my original ones.
I decided to add an ambient temperature display so I ran the sensor underneath the case.
Added some decals to the full window side panel.
A look round the back
Pre Coolant, I moved the reservoir mounts further down later on.
Finished + Decals
Front badge and decal
Sneaky silver decal
ROMs and SATA hotswap bays
The back end of the EK Vario Pump was looking a bit shabby so I decided to carbon wrap it and braid the cables. Also added an extra EK badge to the side.
The Bitfenix fan grill turned out a perfect fit, and the cut out fit the PSU quite nicely.
Coolant Change - Mayhems Pastel Mint Green
I've just changed for a Pastel coolant so thought I'd share some pics of that too. Its not UV reactive but its generally bright enough not to need to be. Only downside for me is that as its non transparent it kind of blocks out my flow meter and reservoir helix.
Pastel does however render my flow meter pretty obsolete, its still handy as a drain port though. I may consider going back to transparent fluid at some point if people have suggestions.
I also added an extra 140MM fan next to the 120MM intake using the fan mount from the NZXT 630 modular triple bay I wasn't using. (mainly because it was going spare)
Love these UV green cable combs, big thanks to Nate from E22 for making them up for me. I bought quite a few so decided to double them up.
Low Light Pics without LED's
Without flash
3D Mark - Firestrike Results
Here are my Fire Strike results if anyone is interested, CPU @ 4.8 and GPU at the stock gaming preset.
Conclusion (for now)
So that is my build log so far, thanks for reading. Future plans involve gaming at 4K so I'm not sure yet whether I am going to pick up an extra Poseidon 780 or wait for a better card as tech gets better/cheaper. Feedback welcome
If anyone is running an SLI Poseidon setup at 4K I'd be interested to hear what kind of performance you are getting and what PSU you are using.
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