Project Radster - Case Labs S8

Bart_Hunt

Bart_Hunt

Bart_Hunt

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Joined
12 Jan 2013
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Location
Gdansk, Poland
Hello guys

At first I would like to warn you that this project is going to be long, mostly because of the cost and of stuff not being available in Europe.
But if you are ready to wait, check every now and then for some updates, there will be some starting early next week :)

This is my second project within 6 months.
First one was a dud, a failed attempt to build a complete custom case, however I still consider it good experience. Maybe not exactly a fail, I still use the PC desk I made for that project.

Anyway, back on the topic.
Where did I take the name 'Project Radster' from?
Radster is a crash of 2 words: roadster and radiator.
I am pretty sure most of you know what type of a car roadster is, however I will explain anyway. Basically it is a small, lightweight and maneuverable machine, with strong engine :)
Why adding radiator to the name?
Well, considering the size of the case, adding multiple thick rads should explain that :)

Anyway, on to the main topic.
What gear am I planing to use?
My shopping basket is below - mind me, I already have some stuff and some parts aren't there, as I mentioned I had to import them from States. No, not just the case.

More or less this:

YOUR BASKET
2 x evga geforce gtx 780 sc acx superclock 3072mb gddr5 pci-express graphics card (03g-p4-2784-kr) £407.99 (£815.98)
1 x evga z87 classified intel z87 (socket 1150) ddr3 atx motherboard £329.99
1 x evga supernova 1000w '80 plus platinum' modular power supply (220-p2-1000-xr) £161.99
1 x xspc d5 photon 270 reservoir/pump combo £139.99
1 x creative sound blaster x-fi titanium hd sound card (70sb127000001) £94.99
2 x ek water cooling fc titan & 780 se (original csq) gpu water block - nickel £85.99 (£171.98)
2 x hardware labs black ice radiator gt xtreme 360 £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x roccat isku fx multicolour gaming keyboard £69.95
1 x edifier r1600t studio plus 2.0 monitors £59.99
1 x ek water blocks ek-supremacy - acetal + nickel £52.99
1 x ek-fc bridge dual serial csq plexi £18.98
1 x enermax t.b.silence uctb14b 140mm fan £9.98
17 x enermax t.b.silence uctb12 120mm fan £6.98 (£118.66)
total : £2,205.53 (includes shipping : free).





what is not here are mainly water cooling parts and cpu:
- primochill hardline 10/13 mm acrylic tube - blood red
- primochill 10/13 fittings for acrylic tube - red
- primochill 'vortex' visual flow indicator - red
- i7 4770k

and most importantly :)

case labs s8, with all the options i chose - not all possible upgrades - and delivery, around 350£ (ordered and expecting to see it at my door in 2 weeks tops).

case is custom painted for me in dark gray and primer gray - i will be spray painting some parts in mtn's intense red.

i will be asking davido_labido to help me with psu cables.

also, you might have noticed that most of the hardware is made by evga.
i am a fan of this company and i planned to make this evga themed build all along.

photo's of the case:

front/side view - my case will have different front and side panels though:



My choice of left side panel. Window + radiator ventilation:



My choice of front panel (no usb/sound i/o). 240 rad mount and fan mounts on left side:



Color options. In my case front and top will be custom painted, rest is Dark Gray:




How often you can expect updates in this project?
I'd say, once or twice a month, the bigger ones.
I am just about to buy a motherboard, PSU and one GPU tomorrow.
Then either second GPU or CPU water cooling in March etc.
Planning to finish in June - unless I win in Lotto :)

Anyway, I hope you liked this short introduction.
Stay tuned for more news and updates, starting this Saturday.

EDIT: I had some more thought and decided to make some changes, to make the build a bit more affordable. My basket with case and parts I already have would be well over 4k £ worth and when I run the numbers through my head a few times, it started to get really scary :)
So I changed a few pieces: 2 cards instead of 3 and normal SC instead of Classified's. PSU down from 1300 to 1000W but Platinum (it's on weekly offer :P ). Rest stays the same.
I bought the m/b, PSU and 1 GPU this morning. Plus, I opted for Saturday delivery so there should be some pics tomorrow (painting fans).
 
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I just read the news on US forums that CaseLabs guys they are out for the weekend (for some LAN party), but will send a huge batch of cases on Monday. Hopefully mine will be there, otherwise It will be hard to find something to do at home :)
Painting fans and re-painting fittings will take me a few hours.
Maybe I'll have to paint 1 fan and 1 fitting per day? :D
Anyway, after I changed this spec a bit June is the latest possible date when I will have the build finished.
Schedule looks like this:

March:
2nd GPU + fans.
April:
Water blocks, rads, pump/res.
May:
Peripherals, some cosmetics stuff.
 
I already have loads of my own pressure, you adding more won't change anything :D
I was waiting way to long, last 2 months my pc was mostly in pieces so you can imagine how eager I am to have it done at last.
Most likely I will be adding a pedestal sometime in the future, mostly because I need more HDD storage and the left side rad mount means I cant put any storage in there, so only 4 2.5" or 2 3.5" under the motherboard. Pedestal ads 2 more 360 rads, another PSU and 16 3.5" hdd's total. But I'll leave that for later, probably sometime after summer holidays.
 
Whole inside of the case is dark gray matte, as on last pic in original post.
Fans and rads will be painted in MTN Intense Red, but fan frames will remain semi transparent grey/silver - Not sure how to call this color, just check the fans in my basket.
Fittings will be painted in same MTNs Intense red.
Motherboard is mostly black with few small red parts.
Still not sure about ram, either Avexir core or new blitz.
I am also a bit tempted to do 4x4 gb with Avexir Core, 2x4 red and 2x4 white. Its same model and timings so should be ok.
Not sure about cables, but I will probably avoid the grey - there will be enough of it.
Instead I'd probably go for the red I got from you, white and possibly black.
Not sure about coolant, I am a bit tempted to use clear UV but also like red UV.
I'll see when I have all components. Don't want to much red inside. Fans, rads, some cables, maybe led strip or diode, flow indicator have red led as well. I'll see how it goes :-)
 
Just like I promised yesterday, some pictures :)

1. Treasure chest:


2. Group picture of EVGA with Primochill:


3. Poor Haribo's, need to save them quick :D


4. EVGA Supernova 1000 P2. Quality on every step:


5. Great cables and free cable ties:


6. A monster :D


7. EVGA Z87 Classified. A lot of cables.


8. CPU Socket instructions in mini book, step by step.


9. Great layout and heatsinks.


10. ROFLMAO.


11. This card is huge :D


12. ACX. Really quiet and really great cooling.


13. I don't like posters, but I'll make an exception and this goes on my wall:


14. Enermax fans. 120s and 140.


15. Primochill fittings. They used to be purple :)


16. Primochill rigid acrylic tube, 10/13, blood red.


17. Primochill flow indicator. 4 G 1/4 threads, 1 plug + 1 plug with LED hole. Nice little gadget.



I plugged the GPU into my current rig.
Stock speed 4770k
Asus Z87i-PRO mini-itx
8 GB Avexir 2133
60GB SSD
EVGA GTX 780 SC

18. I run firestrike, extreme preset. Results out of the box:


19. Launched Precision X, added + 6% power, +100 Mhz core, +100Mhz memory.


That was just out of curiosity.
2 of those with balanced overclock and overclocked 4770k, under water, will score fantastic :)


Well, that is it for now.
I didn't manage to do anything with fans, as I promised before, it took me to long to unpack all this stuff, make pictures, select the better ones etc
I have Monday and Tuesday off, so I'll paint them and rest of the Primochill fittings then. You can expect few more pics then, possibly with good news about case being shipped at last :)


I hope you enjoyed watching these and I do apologize if some look a bit out of focus, those were my first photo's in years with a camera which I just bought today - a Nikon Coolpix.

As always I appreciate your comments :D
 
You can actually buy them on auction site in UK.
I bought mine from States because I bought tubing and some fittings at the same time.
Btw. I woke up early and couldn't sleep, so I went to my workshop and painted one of the fans red :-) I'll see the results when it dries properly, tomorrow morning, will post a picture as well.
Its painted in MTN's Intense Red, same as those fittings. Same color will be used for front and top panel of the S8. Funny thing, the small red parts on Z87 Classy are in exactly same color :-)
Almost forgot, I'll post the picture of the sample sleeve I got from you.
It all matches perfectly :D
 
paulstung said:
Looking good mate, I can't wait to put my order in later.

I didn't realise that they were starting to ship the new S8, they were going to message me when they started. I'm going for the full window top, front 360 rad mount and window, and with the same sides as yours. I'm not sure if my wallet can spit enough out for the pedestal
Click to expand...

S8 pedestal with all the options, custom color and 2 360 rad mounts cost 250$ + 80$ delivery to UK/Europe. That's around 200£, definetely good upgrade. Or you can use it as standalone unit. Seen someone use a pedestal from one of bigger Magnum cases to build a complete system. He could hide it in the desk drawer :-)
 
Hey :)

I promised I'll add some pictures I made when painting fans.
Problem is with light and paint being very bright, plus wet paint reflects light.
I chose 2 pictures after all, I'll make some more when the fans are dry.

1. Freshly painted (I warned you they are bright :P )


2. 140mm fan painted, installed. Next to it an unpainted 120mm.


Hopefully tomorrow evening I will have good news, that case have been posted.
 
I asked davido_labido (or Dave :P ) to do that for me, otherwise it could look ugly and destroy the whole build.

Until the case arrives there isn't really much I can show you so it's time to wait now.
Be patient and stay tuned :)
 
I looked at Magnum and it was just to close to Corsair 540, just with more rad slots.
Look at Merlin cases. SM8 is a nice choice with space for very thick rads.
My favourites were Magnum single wide cases tho, SMA 8 and STH 10.
Until I saw an announcement of new case coming and seen some specifications, that it will be Mercury line but bigger case. So I waited a bit, then pre-ordered on first day.
I'm patient :-)
The reason I have to wait is because they have to do this in the order.
Apparently Case Labs have only 1 painting studio so they need to paint all black cases first, dispatch, go clean the stuff, paint white cases, dispatch etc.
Last week they admitted 2-color cases will have to wait a few more days.
And mine is pretty rare, don't think many people asked for gray/primer gray combination.
So I may be looking at beginning of March to start building the rig, which isn't di bad actually because I will be able to order more stuff or ask Dave to do the cables for me.
I opted for the MDPC sleeve and it is expensive.

Thanks for the comments :-)
I appreciate that a lot, keep'em coming :-)
 
Well, I had an email from CaseLabs that my order should be shipped tomorrow (that's GMT-8 time, so it is actually around 1 am on Thursday). SO it will arrive at my place by the end of next week.
Unfortunately I won't have any more updates until then.
 
I said there won't be any updates for a while, but I couldn't be more wrong.
I checked CaseLabs site as usual every evening and... at last:


It is max 5 days from now.
Real work starts soon :D
 
I think we may have a few people who actually said they have CL case.
I know someone had a project log with STH10. Think it was called 'Project Bloodfang', but didn't see any updates for a while.
 
Looks like I may need to change the list of things to buy, a little.
I will be playing ESO with some friends and looks like I have strongest PC, means I'll be frapsing a lot. I tried it a bit this week and the amount of space it takes is huge.
So plan for March is bigger storage :D
Probably 2 3TB caviar green's, I think I can run them in raid as well.
And my mobo have mSATA port, so I'd add the ssd there to run OS.
And I already spoke with davido_labido about the cable sleeving so that will eat up most of my money in March.

/goes to FedEx page and spams refresh on tracking page
 
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There was pre-order bonus, -40$, so including delivery 540$, thats 350£.
But mine have some bonus options.
The most basic one would cost you around 460$, including delivery, but that's without front rad mount, side rad mount, windows or custom color or accessories, like mounting system for 5.25" devices.
Its best to check at their site:
http://www.caselabs-store.com
 
I am not sure yet, whether I am going to bend it or use angled connections.
First would be cheaper, but I feel a bit uneasy/unsure if they are going to be solid enough to withstand the water pressure.
I really wouldn't want to have a leak over 2k£ worth of components /touch wood
 
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