Project:- R3s

KiiYzOo · 30 Dec 2011 at 17:06

Hey guys, after getting an upgrade to my skelly build, I was left with my old motherboard, cpu and ram and decided that I wanted to do a htpc that I could have in my room, was silent and could do some light gaming in bed when I feel lazy.

Thus Project R3s was born

I'll explain the title first, then list the components. 'R3' represents the Fractal R3 arctic white that the project is centred around, the 's' stands for stealth, not stealth in the conventional sense of all matt black, but more sleek, silence.

I'm warning you now, I got bored and decided to include this duck in the first set of pics:

duck by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

on with the spec.......

i3 540
prolimatech megahalems (run passively)
msi p55a-g55
4gb of corsair xms3 1600mhz ram
zotac gtx260 216 core
wd caviar black 640gb hdd
ocz modxstream pro 500w
sony dvd drive - the only time I'll have a dvd drive in a rig
and, of course, the fractal design r3 arctic white

here are some pics of what I have so far (just waiting on the case and graphics card)

components by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

psu and hdd by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

this pic isn't so good but meh

megahalems by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

mobo and cpu by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

cooler fitted by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

ram by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

so far, I'm planning to:

Hopefully, wrap the case in white carbon fibre vinyl
replace the dvd drive with a bluray drive
replace the hdd with an ssd, and make a file server/get a nas
maybe replace the stock power led (red) with an orange one

so far, I'm not planning on watercooling, but that's not 100%

also if I do watercool, then that'll mean a sidepanel window

I hope you guys like....

KiiYzOo · 30 Dec 2011 at 17:24

It's much easier to mount a cooler when the motherboard is out of the case, I have learned from experience

KiiYzOo · 30 Dec 2011 at 17:32

more a silent, gaming/movies rig

I am also going to include putting the surround sound system and how/ where all the parts will be in my room (monitor, rig etc)

thanks

will look even better when I get my case

KiiYzOo · 30 Dec 2011 at 18:25

it has sound dampening hyburnate

you better be

KiiYzOo · 31 Dec 2011 at 10:44

King Damager said:
Cooler looks a bit wonky o.o good luck though, looks like a good plan so far....

kd

it's slightly bent from shipping

Hyburnate said:
Probably because of the mobo pcb.

Still sad to see no arc but each to their own. Will be watching you unsolder the led

lol, shouldn't be too hard

Cleeecooo said:
Caviar black?!

That is the worst HDD in existence! SOOOO NOISY!!!

I didn't realise it was a caviar black until I got it

KiiYzOo · 31 Dec 2011 at 13:21

My graphics card arrived around an hour or so ago, it's freaking massive!!! I thought it'd be about the same size as my gtx 460, it's about 2" bigger!

020 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

KiiYzOo · 1 Jan 2012 at 22:21

not exactly a update but I want to show you guys something that I am pretty sure that I want to do with this.
So, I managed to stumble across this build log whilst looking for a pic to be the base for my sig, it looks amazing, and I think you guys may like it too

(yes it is in german, but if your using chrome it'll translate for you

)

http://www.overclockingstation.de/m...modding-wakue-worklog-projekt-icebreaker.html

KiiYzOo · 4 Jan 2012 at 11:19

I don't understand how the stuff about my case being delayed is irrelevant to the log, the only posts that I think I have posted that are against the rules are the ones that I've hinted at competitors. (obviously I can't see deleted posts though)

KiiYzOo · 4 Jan 2012 at 18:25

thanks toxic

but the duck is mine

KiiYzOo · 7 Jan 2012 at 17:58

I bought an r3 last night for £59

and also a pump and res for my main rig, so I'm not sure whether to watercool this rig or not (I'm pretty sure what most answers will be on here

)

KiiYzOo · 7 Jan 2012 at 18:03

thanks

KiiYzOo · 13 Jan 2012 at 22:03

yesterday when I got home from school I was greeted by this at the side of my house

009 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

it's taken me up and till now to build it and post the pics, mainly because I was also re-doing my skelly's watercooling loop, I did have a couple problems too, but it seems to be all good now

so enjoy

021 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

001 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

009 (2) by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

011 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

Xigmatek fans installed:

015 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

018 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

023 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

the cable management is slightly different than this now, but not by much

034 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

040 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

last shot from yesterday, windows wasn't installed at that point:

046 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

Then I ran into some problems, mainly, the 260 wasn't displaying properly, so I tried to use my 460 to see what was wrong, it wasn't working with my 460, so after a while I decided to see what clearing the cmos and moving the 260 down a slot got it working

059 by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

I thought the xigmateks were a little loud after installing windows so I decided to replace them with my orange bitfenix spectre fans and do a little more cable management, now the system is whisper quiet

here is the finished product:

htpc complete by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

Thoughts on the case:

I love it! it's soooo sleek and gorgeous, the finish is amazing!!

there are only two slightly negative things I can say about the case, one, the rubber grommets are too flimsy, and that there are no cable tie down points nearer the back of the case.

Hope you guys like

KiiYzOo · 13 Jan 2012 at 22:07

thanks

I quite like the stock cooler on it, but I would prefer a better card

I like this case so much that I'm considering moving my main rig into it!

KiiYzOo · 14 Jan 2012 at 00:18

yeah, I like having the fan facing up like ttl does, but the 8 pin was too short

no I haven't, but I did consider changing the fan and braiding

KiiYzOo · 14 Jan 2012 at 00:23

it's kinda pointless if I can fit it when the cable can reach with the psu the other way

KiiYzOo · 15 Jan 2012 at 15:07

It's an awesome cooler

KiiYzOo · 15 Jan 2012 at 15:13

Pretty much certain that I want to move my main rig into this case, so I need a little help deciding what to do, should I:

1. have a slim 240/280mm rad at the top and remove the hard drive bays and have a thick 240mm rad in the front

or

2. build a rad box to house the two 360mm rads I currently have, and place it underneath my case

KiiYzOo · 15 Jan 2012 at 15:52

my pentium g620 (plan to upgrade) and my 460, which I also plan to upgrade

KiiYzOo · 15 Jan 2012 at 16:33

not in the top, but I could remove the hard drive bays and put a second, thick one there

KiiYzOo · 15 Jan 2012 at 16:43

gonna go with all silver bitspower too

and I'll sell the left over stuff and get some upgrades and wait for the raspberry pi's to come out and use one of them as a media pc as they can run 1080p video!