Project : Primo Midas

Looks amazing that does Colin!! I wish I could afford one of them bridges too expensive for my taste though haha

I have a brand new one spare now that I don't really need ! I'm thinking it looks good enough on the old bridge. I have more money than sense, I should have tried the carbon after my crap spray job. I'll have to try for some sponsors next build to keep cost down.

Trying to overclock Midas right now will see what it can do... ;)
 
Loving that bridge, nice to see some variation with the texture effect on it

I really like it tbh Rain, the swirl effect is rather cool. Spraying it neatly was a bit too fiddly for me anyway. The only other thing is that the three black strips don't actually light up, I was always under the impression they did which was kinda sad when I realised considering the effort I've gone to trying not to paint them lol :D

My pics don't really do it justice its much nicer in the flesh.
 
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I can't believe I haven't actually commented on this build. Absolutely incredible, this has t be one of the most stunning builds on this site, the attention to detail is fantastic. I'm loving that SLI bridge, and those connectors look like a mission dollars. Outstanding work buddy :D I hope one day I can have a rig that is at least 1/4 as good looking as this.

Why thank you, it makes all the hardship and stressful times worthwhile when I read comments like this, so I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I will have some evolution of Midas in the future.

such bling!

Yeah Midas is a wee bit bling but some of the pics make it looks very bright where in real life its more subtle.

The colour scheme is simply great.
Loving the gold.

Its hard to work with Gold, but I think its come out pretty good tbh and I was so worried it would just look garish, but I think I've avoided that. There was a temptation to add more gold to various grills etc, but I've managed to resist.
I would like to still have the word "Midas" somewhere but still not sure how or where to do it. Thanks for your comments.
 
Lovely build mate looks like you've put a lot of attention to detail in!! I must admit i'm not a huge fan of black and gold colour scheme but your's looks fantastic



Have you thought about putting Midas where the Phantek logo is in the 2nd window? Obvious place?

I cut away the section that had the phantek logo on, saved the little Phantek plate though. I'm sure I could do something for the window though, have to have a wee think about that.
 
As for performance I've got my 4930k at 4598.93 Mhz and I managed to run my 780 Ti's @ 1452/3850.

Gonna try getting a little bit higher on the cpu, temps are sitting at 60 degs on Prime95

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1452 core? Isn't that a seriously high overclock? :eek:

Yeah probably a bit silly really, however I made a mistake during that bench. My power profile in windows wasn't on high performance, so my cpu didn't ramp up.
I've just run it again with the cpu fully at 4.6ghz during the test and this is what happened. I jumped the score to 5417 :D
I also installed the Nvidia Beta driver 340.43 before the test, maybe that helped also??

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Ok this is a quick guide how to strip down an EVGA Sli bridge. I have done this as I found painting mine very tricky, therefore I've dismantled my small one to show you it is possible. Also a few of you had asked whilst I was doing Primo Midas if it was possible.

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What you will need...

1. A heatgun, or hair dryer.
2. A small hobby knife.
3. Most important, a T6 torque screwdriver.
4. Some double sided tape or similar.

Steps

Using your T6 torque screwdriver, remove the two screws on the back and separate the two halves.

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Next use your heatgun to gently heat the metal tabs, you don't need a lot of heat. Then using your knife gently prise up from one corner to separate the metal from the top, try not to force it too much or you will bend the metal. Just apply a wee bit more heat so that the glue will more readily give.

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Once it comes free you can easily lift it off with your finger

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This is how you should end up at this stage. For reference the small plastic EVGA logo will prise off very easily with your knife should you want to.

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Now you need to remove the glue backing from the underside of the tabs.

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Tease it off with your finger, kinda roll it over itself until its all off.

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Once the underside looks like this you can then do what you wish to the tabs either spray painting or carbon wrap or whatever you are planning. Once you have sprayed your metal tabs and they are dry (if you painted them), simply cut some of your double sided tape and apply to the underside taking care to cut out the slots. I don't have any tape so I've just coloured in black where you should apply your tape.

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Now just simply reattach your modified tabs to the top and then screw the top and bottom halves back together. Hey presto you are all done. :D As you can see I removed my dodgy gold paint job ;)

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Also for the more adventurous I tried changing the colour that you see through the EVGA logo using coloured plastic gels, the kinda used by in large stage lighting. However the stuff I found did not provide a good enough colour and I decided not to use it. The LED's themselves look to hard to change for me tbh.

For reference I also split my triple sli bridge that's in Midas to see if the colour changed much but my plastic doesn't really give a good effect. but just so you can see what I mean here's a pic. If the likes of Parvum had some off cuts they'd maybe make them to fit this ;)

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Anyway guys its very easy so don't try taping the bridge up with masking tape to paint it, just follow those steps and you'll get a much nicer finish.
 
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The castor base was made by fellow Forum member "doyll" you will see quite a few post from him in the build log. So send him a trust message and maybe he will do one for you.
I'm really glad I did because of the weight of the finished machine and when you are turning it round when doing the cable runs etc its been a life/back saver.

Thanks for the comments, if you have the same case as me it can't look 10 times worse they are awesome modded or not ;) But I appreciate the sentiment.
 
I see my favorite log is still going strong :-)
Fantastic job.

I got bitten by 'upgrade bug' again and I am just waiting for X99.
And will be moving to smaller case too.
CL of course, but smaller.

Yeah I know the feeling, I'll let you into a little secret, Primo is getting a little companion called Luxe. My x58 rig will be getting replaced. I hear none of the Asus X99 boards will be Gold so "Lux99" will be fun in a different scheme.

very nice like the black/gold theme

Thank you

Just as a teaser...what's on order.

Monsoon Hardline Bending Kit 13-16mm
Monsoon Hardline Acrylic Tube - Black 16mm
Monsoon Hardline Compression Conversion Kit 13-16mm
Monsoon UV Acrylic Glue
MDPC-X Vanilla Sands
 
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Are you going to out some 16mm hardline tubing in this build? Should look even nicer

Yes I am, its on order. Plan to convert over, might have to rotate the the CPU Block through 90degs for neater look on the pipes. I'm hoping that EK Logo on the block will come off easily so I can reorientate it the right way when done. Also yellow sleeve will be changed to Vanilla Sands.

Holy hell that's neat/tidy. Like the Gold EK bit on the rads. Might just shamelessly pinch that idea :D

Thanks, feel free to colour your EK Logo. I think its a nice touch to break up that slab of black. What colour scheme are you planning?
 
So, upgrading to x99 soon, I guess and rebuilding?
The damn upgrade bug bit me already, as you can see in my sig :D

I won't be changing Midas to x99 just yet, I'm replacing my CM690 II x58 rig. Which will be housed in a Phanteks Luxe (White), the colour theme shall remain a secret for now, well one man knows already ;)
 
Hi guys its been a while, however...

Not sure if folk are aware but Enthoo Primo supports SSI EEB, now if I was into Folding (oh I kinda am) and I started looking around the net (because I was asked to help over at the Skynet Challenge) what do you think I found?

Well I'll tell you, quite possibly a Monster of an upgrade to Midas ! WTF is he talking about you ask?

Well just imagine this sitting in Midas.....

http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/Z10PED8_WS/overview/

Its even the right colour :D

I'm gonna have to start saving some more pocket money :D
 
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wow that would be some updgrade, whats the price of the 2011 xeon's these days? I'm assuming that the i7 2011 CPU's aren't compatible with that motherboard?

No they aren't compatible, a couple of 8 core 2.4ghz will be just over a grand. 32 threads to play with.
It would certainly make for an interesting build challenge, I'd have to go dual loop and maybe cpu loop in parallel would be interesting.
 
Well gents, I am stuck at work and having to get paid OT for staying offshore for another week.

So while searching the web I discovered one Asus Z10PE-D8-WS in stock...

So I bought it :D

I think I'll do a Midas II log for you all when the time comes, waiting for the ram to come to retail and then decide exactly which Xeon V3 I can buy as a pair.

So watercooling suggestions please dual Xeon's and dual 780ti's to start, I need to go dual loop now me thinks. But would welcome some advice.
 
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