Project: Pheonix Prime

gerico · 8 Jul 2014 at 21:55

Project: Phoenix Prime

So after 5-6 years out the game, and using the same system I finally decided enough was enough and it was time to get with the times. I'd like to mention a massive shout out to a few people who really helped me and continue to be a source of inspiration for this build.

LtMatt - for all his AMD wisdom and just having a cool name.
Pgreenwo - for all his water cooling help and letting me pester him on email with endless questions. Your help in educating me means phase two will be a reality as your words about buying the right parts for aesthetics was bang on.
Stulid - i posted a lot of threads and im sure on many occasions your suggestions improved my direction in parts

There are many more people that have helped massively and if I've forgotten you, please let me know and you'll get a mention!

I'm a massive gamer and I love computers, I've just never had the money to upgrade very often. I decided to go all out on this one though.

My build is split into two phases - the first being getting all my desired components and building (on air) and phase two will be putting everything on water. I had a real time choosing parts and deciding if I should go water from the start, but in the end I couldn't afford all the lavish fittings that I wanted and rather than settling for second best I figured I'd play the long game.

A little note on my choosen spec. I decided to give the noctua industrial fans a go for many reasons, but one being that the 750d has an awkward front panel that obstructs airflow and I wanted to see if the high pressure, insanely overpowered notucas would keep my sexy 290s cool as ice. It was mainly due to worries of the 290s that i invested.

My initial component list looks like this:

YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-04-40G) £339.95 (£679.90)
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard **Overclockers UK Exclusive** £159.95
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £129.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
1 x Corsair Dominator PLATINUM 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit with DHX Pro Connector (CMD8GX3M2A1866C9) £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H105 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060016-WW ) £89.99
1 x Corsair Fan, SP120 PWM Low Noise High Pressure Fan 4 pin, Dual Pack (CO-9050012-WW) £25.00
3 x Noctua NF-A14 IndustrialPPC 3000RPM PWM 140mm High Performance Fan £22.99 (£68.97)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Cable Bundle - Orange £21.95
2 x BitFenix Alchemy Premium Modding LED Strip - Connect White 12cm £9.29 (£18.58)
Total : £1,716.95 (includes shipping : £14.75).

First two, dedicated to LtMatt:

Dam these fans get me all excited.

This coming soon:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Lamptron FC Touch Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x MTN Fixer Matt Varnish - 400ml £4.99
1 x MTN Primer / Undercoat - 400ml £4.99
1 x MTN 94 Spray Paint Fluorescent Orange - 400ml £4.99
Total : £74.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Pgreenwo · 8 Jul 2014 at 22:06

Brilliant - Good to see you landed the spec.

Looks like its going to be a stunner. Subbed to your log mate - good luck!

gerico · 8 Jul 2014 at 22:18

Pgreenwo said:
Brilliant - Good to see you landed the spec.

Looks like its going to be a stunner. Subbed to your log mate - good luck!

Thanks bud, hopefully will be a goodun. Appreciate all the help thus far - looking forward to phase 2, down the line

cwgk91 · 8 Jul 2014 at 23:12

Looking forward to it. Those vapour xs do look sweet.

Fan wise, I got a bunch of the noctua redux fans and they do really well, I keep them at a constant 1200rpm with my fan hub. Will be interesting to see how much better these industrial fans are, albeit they go up to much higher rpm!

Pgreenwo · 8 Jul 2014 at 23:22

The blue on the GPU's would look great in orange.
could do the fan rings - H105 centre insert.

gerico · 8 Jul 2014 at 23:25

Pgreenwo said:
The blue on the GPU's would look great in orange.
could do the fan rings - H105 centre insert.

That's my thinking. Def going to do the CPU cooler ring. If I muster the balls I'd love to spray the 290 fan hood as it'd look the part in my orange theme, but need to look into how hard it is to get to.

alexhaslam · 9 Jul 2014 at 00:07

Those are nice looking GFX coolers.

kaku · 9 Jul 2014 at 03:20

Phoenix, surely?
Some drool-worthy hardware going in! I've always wanted Dominator Plats but could never justify the cost =(

colinmcr · 9 Jul 2014 at 05:05

I think I might have to sub this one, looking forward to seeing it once you get started.

LtMatt · 9 Jul 2014 at 07:13

Awesome Matt, those vapor x's look mint!

gerico · 9 Jul 2014 at 07:24

colinmcr said:
I think I might have to sub this one, looking forward to seeing it once you get started.

Thanks

LtMatt said:
Awesome Matt, those vapor x's look mint!

Don't they just! Can't help but keep looking at them... mmmm

kaku said:
Phoenix, surely?
Some drool-worthy hardware going in! I've always wanted Dominator Plats but could never justify the cost =(

Damn, well spotted and thank you

I've amended that little typo. Dominator does come with a price tag although for me it was all about looks.

Furyus · 9 Jul 2014 at 07:44

looking forward to this

alexhaslam · 9 Jul 2014 at 08:44

kaku said:
Phoenix, surely?
Some drool-worthy hardware going in! I've always wanted Dominator Plats but could never justify the cost =(

Its one of those, if the look is important to you, it justifys the cost.

GiraffePencils · 9 Jul 2014 at 09:46

Looks good

gerico · 9 Jul 2014 at 10:00

alexhaslam said:
Its one of those, if the look is important to you, it justifys the cost.

Exactly my thoughts

i dont do this often, but i want to do it right.

GiraffePencils said:
Looks good

Cheers man

Luggs · 9 Jul 2014 at 10:51

Really like the colour scheme, very unique colour combination +1

Tohrazer · 9 Jul 2014 at 11:41

looking forward to seeing this one completed

kaku · 9 Jul 2014 at 15:24

gerico said:
Exactly my thoughts i dont do this often, but i want to do it right.

Cheers man

One day... one day...

Maybe in the unlikely event of a bonus!

The Vapor-X cards are sexy as hell too.

gerico · 9 Jul 2014 at 23:08

Update

Ok so building is going well. Had some issues getting things running and in the end the beta bios drivers fixed some SSD issues. Still have one issue where one of my noctua fans in the front is not working.

It's plugged into sys 4 fan header at the bottom of the board and it just isnt spinning so I need to look into that.

Anyway, here is some more pics of the build itself.

Some nice 750d — don't she look purdy

Dirty...

Got straight to work stripping out the stock fans and removing some hard drive bays for more room.

Something sexual about them?

Next installation of the CPU

This is a sex shot, look away if your easily offended, because this baby is hot.

Coming together in the case

Sexy PSU

I then got to work placing my most cherished possessions in..

Still to do

Ok so most the parts are in place and cabling done, however I have the fan issue and at the moment no way to control the speed of the fans. Although I think I can do that via software, at least until I can a fan controller?

Also need to add the LED lighting and finish the cable management at the back of the case. There is also some spray paint on order as I intend to paint the plastic ring on the CPU cooler to match the mobo orange, as well as the white circle ring on the corsair fan at the bottom which you can see in some of the last pictures.

I might also look at if it's possible to paint that blue on the GPU's as it really doesn't go with my theme.

** NOTE ** I know I had the RAM positioned slightly wrong in the pictures, that is actually corrected now.

Feedback welcomed.

Nathan94 · 9 Jul 2014 at 23:15

Looks great, how's the H105? Considering one of those, and are you keeping the blue of the graphics cards or going to change the coolers or modify the colour?