Project: Otus

[davido_labido]

Well its time for another build!! This time I will be using the Phobya WaCoolT White OWL Case. This is a new case from Phobya so it will be interesting to see what I can do with it!

As per usual, I don't have much time with this build, it needs to be done before the end of August for I55!! Before we get cracking though, I do need to say a massive thank you to Pascal and Antony! A shout out to JR23 and Jamie too for help with the graphics side of things

So, without further to do, the case!!

This case was actually designed and made with help from the community, Phobya took the ideas and created this!

Now, it is a rather strange looking case i admit, and when i only saw the black version i wasnt too taken by it. Once i actually recieved the white one though, i much prefer it. Pictures dont do it justice tbh.

drive bays are far less common in cases lately as a lot of people have stopped using disk drives and the only real use for them are fan controllers. This case can hold up to 8 fans straight out of the box, so i will be using a decent fan controller (or two) to ensure they are all quiet, so im glad we have some bays!

The back of the case has 4 grommits for if you want to add any external water cooling, im not sure why you would need to as there is plenty of space in the case!!

speaking of inside the case:

As you can see, there is loads of room!!

there is space for HDDs just above the drive bays, this little hdd case is actually on rubber grommets to stop the drives from vibrating which is a nice little touch.

for watercooling i have a lot of options, down the bottom we have native support for a 360 or 420 rad

and in the top of the case we have support for 480 or lower rads, including 200mm rads!

and at the back, you could bang another 120mm if needed!

another nice addition is this nice little pump mount, again with rubber grommets to stop the vibration

So, thats the case! what do you guys think of it? A lot of people i have spoken to either love it or hate it, there is no real in between.

Im just waiting on some more hardware, and then we can get stuck into the build properly, i want to do quite a subtle build, lots of whites, greys and blacks, but I think I might add some orange, because.... davido_labido.

 

[davido_labido]

I quite like the case.

strange shape and all but its different and not your normal case.

Yeah it's certainly different! Lots of potential!

as a white case lover! This Reminds me of a white xbox 360, but i like it! could be very interesting Now want to find out the price of the case

I havnt actually checked what they cost, I think it was between 350 and 400 though.

Subbed, looks like it's going to be a fantastic build. The case reminds me of the old G5 Mac Pro

It does a little bit!!! Except this will be far usable

Love white cases, my last couple ive gone white myself, i like them with bigger windows myself though,strange shape,but that's what makes it different and unique,looking forward to seeing how it turns out

Yeah, i prefer a bigger window too, I will wait until I've started to add the hardware until I decide on wether I'm cutting a new one though.

great case this is going to be a good build

Thanks buddy, let's hope so!

Have to say it's not grabbing me, guess it's a real marmite design... But if anyone can sell me on a finished build ��

Let's hope I can do it justice and change your mind!

 

[davido_labido]

Looks like the case has all the features you would need, love it.

Cheers buddy!

phobya.

gross.

Haha, its not for everyone dude, I know that, but I like it, it does everything that I want and it has plenty of potential. Il see what it's like properly when I build into it I guess!

also, you have a competitor mentioned in your first image. please remove it.

Ooops, that's my bad, sowwie!

I said this elsewhere and David got a little upset and decided to make it personal.

I've nothing against the guy, but this case is a monstrosity. A honking monstrosity. It looks a tiny, weeny bit better in white but there's still no hiding it.

There was a competition on another forum to mod this case.. Nobody stepped up. In the thread leading up to the launch it never received one good comment.

Personally I think David's better than this, and this will just tarnish his portfolio.

It's also a rancid insult to owls, which are beautiful creatures.

Dude, what do you smoke.... I said the following on linus

' Good job you didn't get asked to do it then isn't it? That's the good thing about tastes, everyone's is different, I don't like sticking a load of vinyl on everything, you do, tis all good though, if we all liked the same things it would be boring. '

I wasnt getting upset at all and I didn't get personal at all, which I explained ina second post after you got upset and said I was taking cheap shots at you?? ?

You do like putting vinyl on things.... There's nothing wrong with that. It's down to taste. I don't like vinyl, there's nothing wrong with that. It's down to taste. You don't like this case, there is nothing wrong with that. It's down to taste.

See where I'm going with this?

Looks like the case has all the features you would need, love it.

I certainly think so, it might not be to everyone's taste, but I think it will do the job fine =)

I'm not a fan of the many rivets on the side, looks unfinished in some way.

The angles are different and a bit "out there" but if anyone can make it look good Davido can.

Thanks sir! We shall see if I can change your mind a little =D

That's the whole problem with this case. It looks completely rushed and unfinished. Whilst that is alleviated a tiny bit by it being white it's still apparent.

It looks like a case that has had all of the plastic outer panels removed. And the handles just drive me nuts. Where was symmetry?

YAY, constructive criticism!!! Yeah, i agree about the handles, they wouldn't be my choice either. They will help me lug it around though hopefully!

I think this is perhaps the first time I have actually agreed with you

Careful Rich.

 

[davido_labido]

And still you think I'm criticising you... I give up. I wasnt criticising what you do at all. I was saying you like things that I don't, which is the same as me liking the case and you not.

You seem to take most comments either the wrong way completely, or to heart. I'm not knocking you, your abilities, your builds or even your taste I'm just trying to say how our tastes differ. Either I'm saying it incorrectly or your reading it a different way though as you seem to think I'm having a go lol.

It's commendable that you spend so much on your builds, I spend most of my money on modding too, or going to events, so I know them feels haha.

Your right about the comp though, a lot of people were put off about the watercooling aspect, but mostly the dual gpu bit. A lot of people would have had to spend a fortune on it.

 

[davido_labido]

I'm on the fence about it but will reserve judgement until the finished build. Have you selected the parts you're using? Anything interesting ?

Also those 3 bays in the front are begging to have some sort of touch screen tablet moulded in so you could use it maybe as a controller. That would be a nice touch rather than an off the shelf controller

EDIT : I remember Phobya wanting 2 GPUS in this build, a bit strict! Is it still the same?

This isn't part of the competition, but I will be having 2 gpu's in this hopefully!

I'm not a fan of all the screws/rivets all over the place, but I'm interested to see the final product.

I think it could look quite nice with some carefully-applied decal work (there was a modder posting builds with some really sharp decals a little while back, but I can't remember their name at all). My memory is awful.

I have something planned for the exterior of the case, I just need to get it all drawn up =)

 

[davido_labido]

I love to see how split people are over this case! It certainly makes the build log far more interesting haha It certainly seems like a marmite case!

No, without further to do, lets see what my awesome sponsors have sent me for this build shall we?!

The first 2 that I'm going to show are MSI a new sponsor for me although I have been talking to them for around 12 months waiting to do a build with them for a while, and have attended many events with these guys, they are pretty awesome!!!

Also, HyperX. I'm pretty sure anyone who has seen one of my build logs before knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE these guys and gals. They help me out all the time and the people are great! If I could choose a company to work for... it would be HyperX!

So:

MSI will be providing the motherboard for this build. They sent me the X99 A SLI Krait Edition with USB 3.1

This board matches the build colour perfectly!

I'm sure i can add some orange easily if I do decide to pop a little bit of colour into this...

This will be my second experience with X99, Nom Nom Nom

Plenty of sata ports on this board, always great to see!

For all you M.2 lovers, this has a front slot.

and now for

These guys have been awesome and sent me the following Savage SSDs and also their new Predator DDR4 (click the links for more information on these as they have some great specs!)

So, HyperX sent me 2 SSDs, both are the same drives, but one comes with a great little adapter and case to enable you to run any SSD drive from USB. This is awesome for me as it means i can keep all my games on one drive and just move them between computers!

These have an updated design from the 3k series, but still have the prominent X we all love

.

This is the case that came with one of the drives.

Its as simple as putting the SSD into it....

then locking it using the little switch on the back. It comes with a USB cable and its plug and play! Winner!

HyperX also sent me this ram.... NOM NOM NOM!!!!

When I get a silly amount of ram, i like to make spiral staircases with it....

So what happens when we put MSI and HyperX together?!

It's a match made in heaven!

There is something about 8 sticks of ram that just make things look... beastly.

I will leave you with this one last picture, if I get time I will show some more sponsor products tomorrow!

 

[davido_labido]

Well, I have been working away a lot and doing a few events, so I haven't been at home long enough to do any updates!! I do however have LOAAADS more products and stuff from my awesome sponsors and I have a few hours before i have to head out the door again so I thought I best show off a little bit more!

So first up, a huge thanks to be quiet! for supplying me with the fans and PSU for this build!

I actually got an email from be quiet! a long time before I knew I was going to be doing this project asking if I would like to use their products. I have already got a lot of fans from them, and I've also used their PSU's in the past, so it really wasn't a hard decision to make!!

be quiet! have been very generous and sent me this:

I have actually been sitting on this package for some time, and I got the PSU the same day as it was released!! !

It's a beasty! 1200w platinum rated with one of their Silent Wings fans to keep it cool and quiet.

I certainly dont think I will be running out of connections for this build, there are plenty of connectors, I do particuarly like the idea of running the fans of the headers they provide, I have never used a PSU that does this, so it will be interesting.

the rear of the PSU has a rubber gasket surrounding it. This will, of course,reduce any vibration that the fan might make from getting to the chassis and making any noise. It wouldn't be be quiet! if it wasn't silent!

http://s3.postimg.org/e5jashzz7/IMG_7065.jpg

The PSU comes with a lot of accessories, and i mean a lot. its got 2 sets of screws, valcro cable ties, the usual box of modular cables, but then it has fan cables, an OCK jumper and an OCK bracket with a switch

For the fans I went for Pure Wings 2 from be quiet!

I think everyone has used be quiet! fans one way or another and they really are decent fans, especially for how little noise they make. I have never actually used the Pure Wings 2, however I have used the Shadow Wings before and if these perform at a similar rate I will be very happy.

As you can see I have gone for 120mm fans and a lot of them (10), I no doubt will hook them up to a fan controller rather than direct to the PSU just to give me some more control over them, I doubt I will need to have all 10 running at 100%, so I will be able to have a rather quiet PC this time round

The fans are rather sleek with the usual black on black that be quiet! love to use. I'm not going to go crazy on the pictures for these as you will see a lot of them when I'm doing the radiators

So, that's be quiet!, again a huge thank you to them for supporting me!

 

[davido_labido]

well, I just realised I never updated this thread!!!

well, what happened was I dislocated my thumb and I was in a cast for 2 months... TastyPC was meant to be doing a build for Alphacool, so mine wasn't needed as much, so I was going to put it off until my hand was better. Unfortunately, the day before the event, Lauren (TastyPC) said she wasn't going to be able to finish her build, so I got a panicked phone call to see if I would be able to finish my build... in 30 hours.. (including travel, sleeping and everything else I needed to do!!)

This is what the build looked like when I got the messages:

I had literally only just fitted the motherboard and RAM blocks. oops!

So, I got to work. the biggest problem I had was my hand looked like this:

As you can see, my right hand was FUBAR so I had to call on my fellow OcUK forum member Confused to see if he could come round and do my grunt work whilst I pointed at things, told him what I wanted to happen and generally made a fool of myself trying to screw things in with my mouth

In the end, with a lot of panic and very little sleep (setting the alarm for 3 hours was not fun) I managed to cobble something together for the show stand. It wasn't great, but it actually garnered A LOT of attention and Alphacool were VERY happy (to my amazement!)

This is what it looked like at the event....
(thanks to bit-tech for this picture)

So, once I had got it home, I needed to sort out some extra bits and bobs for it, and just tidy it up a little ready for some better photos... I was just going through my server and found them all

so... Here goes!

So, that is pretty much it!!! I have changed a few other little bits and bobs, but nothing worth noting really! Thanks again to my awesome sponsors, mainly for understanding when I had my accident and being so patient with me. Also a thank you for Gary (confused) for always lending me a hand when I am against a tight dead line and need some help!

Cheers folks!

 

[davido_labido]

Totally awesome. If I can end up getting 50% close to this build with my MSI krait I will be happy.

Certainly one of the best builds I've seen in this section.

Hope that the thumb is healed now?

Have you got a decent overclock going yet?

Cheers buddy, I am sure you will do the Krait justice, it is a nice board!

The thumb still hurts, but mainly when I clench my fist, I have full movability with it and can do all tasks fine now Thanks for asking!

Tbh, I haven't even tried to clock this one, I've been playing with my 5960x more, I will chuck the chip on my test bench soon though, I have another couple of 5820k's also to play with, so it might be interesting!

As always the finished product looks stunning, I love the look of the chromed tubing as it fits in great with the white

Great work as always

Thank you sir! yeah, the tubing is quite hard to work with (well, when I had one hand it was, when I rebuilt, it was far easier haha) especially as I couldn't bend it due to it damaging the finish to the tubing but I like the straight lengths anyway

I understand the marmite opinion on the case, but seeing everything together, I don't think it's so bad. I personally wouldn't get one and use it unchanged, but I think it has a lot of potential as a modding canvas.

Seeing the complete build with the industrial-looking chrome piping I think the excessive rivets on the outside actually works, and if anything could be exaggerated. Hell, I'd love to see this thing stripped down to the bare metal.

Good job to both of you for such a fast turnaround.

Yeh, exactly, the case has a lot of potential for modding, if I had more time with it I would have done a bit more with it, but I actually like the simplicity of the build.

Hmmm, stripping it down to metal might be interesting too, I don't think il do it to this one but I am in Germany on monday playing at Alphacool, so no doubt they will have some of these cases knocking around... maybe I will get chance to have a go

 

[davido_labido]

I will do a post shortly for any questions people might have for them then i will jot the answers down and post when I get back to my hotel

 

[davido_labido]

If you do think of anything, I have put a thread in the watercooling section

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18717048

 

[davido_labido]

That's a fantastic looking rig. Really great work there OP. Two thumbs up.

haha, not sure if intended, but im glad you can use 2 thumbs I couldn't at the time

 

[davido_labido]

Thanks buddy!