Project Radster - Case Labs S8

Colin, some pics for you :)

Unfortunately when I put side panels on, windows reflect light and all pictures look moved so sorry, but won't be posting those.

Instead I made a few showing areas I will be working on, mainly cable management and left/right side view without panels.

1. EVGA also fails sometimes. Like here, I got this nice I/O panel/shield. A pity it's for X79 Dark:


2. Most PSU cables are to long, so I managed to put them above PSU:


3. And behind this side panel. Also showing how many options I will have for routing the tube when I instal water cooling. Also, most likely position of a water pump (next to the fan).


4. Right side view. In the back of motherboard panel you can see very nice feature, a cutout for CPU power cable.


5. Left side view. Shows all the fans I have currently installed. And I can't hear them at all. Only thing I can hear is GPU when it's under load :D



That's it for now.
Next week I will be sorting some cable management, mostly fan cables - I bought a Zalman FC5 controllers and some 3-Pin Y splitter cables for the fans.
I'll post pics when I get the stuff (this time will try to make some during work, not after :D ).

Cheers
 
It will be mostly fans. And I'll exchange the SATA cables, because I have 3 different cables there.
I won't be touching the PSU cables, because they need new sleeves anyway, so no point tidying them.
By the way, did some overclocking on the CPU, first time in ages.
I was running it on stock ever since I bought it.
Overclocked it only because wanted to do some benching.
Had my first BSOD, trying to get it to 4.5, didn't feel like messing with this EVGA bios, it is way beyond my knowledge so I settled for 4.2 ghz, which is fairly ok on air, I guess (that's with Megahalems and 1 slow fan on push).

I managed to get better score in Firestrike Extreme than last time:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/2610756

and first try with Unigine Valley, apparently I can overclock my EVGA a bit more than in Firestrike:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18489026&page=60

So had some fun and few moments of panic when Valley crashed, flashing my screen spectacularly :D

Couldn't be more happy with temps either. CPU idles at 27-32 C, under load goes to 59 C max (that was only in Firestrike Extreme physics test so far).

I'll make another update sometime next week, Tuesday probably.
 
Thanks.
I love S3 and S5, but this was supposed to be a full evga rig.
S3 was to small for my needs and unfortunately evga doesn't make mATX motherboards.
I considered going for S5, but would have to choose different motherboard.
Evga z87 Classified was my dream ever since I heard of it last year.
Naturally I felt reluctant at start, because of early bios'es having many bugs and compatibility issues, but eventually I bought it.
And this is one if those things I won't regret buying, like 4770k or my 780. This motherboard is a monster, it seems to have a text written all over it saying 'OVERCLOCK ME!!!' :D
Triple bios, large heatsinks, temp meter, overclocking bios, very clean looking pcb. I found all the pin headers I needed just by looking at the board.
Anyway, enough about evga, lol, you can tell already that I am a fanboy :D
 
whyscotty said:
Yeah, I rang customs for a heads up on what to expect to pay.

My case arrived today and I rang Fedex to ask about charges and was informed
that I would receive a bill with 10 days with the amount to pay
Click to expand...

Thats when i got my fedex bill,i paid them in 3 installments :)
 
Hey guys

Time for a small update.
Today was the day of anger management...
I mean, cable management :D

I was first planning to sort it out much later, but changed my mind today, when I had to instal new HDD. The maze of cables looked really bad and was blocking airflow from side fans almost completely.

At first I thought it was such a brilliant idea. I did not take into account, that I just got back from work and was pretty tired. All thoughts about that completely disappeared from my mind as soon as I heard a knock to my door.

1. I opened the box in a record time and started to drool on the sight of goodies :D


2. Started with plugging in that sexy keyboard, just to see how it's going to match the rig. It looks great :D


3. After that, I decided to paint the fan controller face plate. Black is nice, but just doesn't fit with the rest. So, I made something new. Lamptron FC6 Custom :D


4. Well, time for anger management to start. SATA cables were an inch to short so had to plug them to closer ports. And they kept falling off the my os ssd (wrrrrrrgrrrroarghhhhhh....)


5. I re-routed power/reset/led cables as well. They are almost completely hidden now. Only minor rage storm happened :D


6. In the meantime I heard a letter being dropped in my mailbox, so I checked and was very happy to find these - Phobya UV Red Y splitters :D


7. No ragestorm here, but took me a while to sort out fan cables. I used the Velcro kit to tie fan cables together, then Phobya UV Red Y splitters to connect them to the fan controller, finally again used Velcro to tie them together and stuff them in the corner :D


I didn't even notice when it was already afternoon.

I am quite happy with the stuff I bought. Didn't really do anything with HDD yet, its supposed to hold fraps and movies from ESO PvP fights :D
Keyboard is very nice but I need to get used to having those extra keys.
I am not used to macro keys at all.
Few features it has are really awesome. I downloaded the drivers and small program to re-assign keys etc. I assigned some keys to control Winamp, so now I can easily switch tracks while gaming, without alt-tabbing. Cool stuff.
As you have seen on the first picture, I've set the color to red as it looks great with rest of the rig.

I may have to change my plans a bit again what to buy next.
My PC desk suddenly started to be small.
I will need to buy a much bigger one, so that is the plan for the end of the month. Next real upgrade will be on first week of April - most likely second 780, but I have other options in mind as well.
My screen is getting old and it have poor stats, so I was looking at 1440p and 1080p/144hz screens.
And here I have a dilemma. Most cheaper 1440p screens come from Hazro and I heard a lot of bad stuff about them some time ago. Have this changed at all? If it didn't change, could you recommend me an alternative? Max 400£ :D
Thanks in advance

As usual waiting for your comments
 
Well, there is one flaw.
It is really loud.
I had cheap Microsoft keyboard for ages and it was much quieter.
I have my winamp at around 25% loudness and I can hear the keys click when writing.
But at least I won't fall asleep while gaming (which happened before with hilarious side effects :D)
 
Bart_Hunt said:
Well, there is one flaw.
It is really loud.
I had cheap Microsoft keyboard for ages and it was much quieter.
I have my winamp at around 25% loudness and I can hear the keys click when writing.
But at least I won't fall asleep while gaming (which happened before with hilarious side effects :D)
Click to expand...

Hehe I know the feeling, I have a Corsair K70 and it's very clicky but that's partly why I love it!
 
I wish I could start thinking about watercooling sooner, but as someone said before, build log never ends, it expands all the time :D

So I have already decided to buy a bigger desk for this pc, as the one I have is to small. I also want a bigger screen, but not decided what type yet, 1440p, 120-144hz or even ultra wide, hmm :D

I put the second 780 on the end of my buy list, just before watercooling.
After that, its just the rads, pump(s) and fans, some smaller bits and pieces as well.

So it will most likely take much longer than I anticipated.
Nevertheless I will try to make smaller updates rather than big ones, to keep the log active. That's what I always like in other logs and I am sure you do as well.

Anyway, enough chit-chat, back to work - but no pics today :D
 
I got myself a Primochill flow indicator but couldn't decide where to stick it
so its still in the box :(

fans are looking good mate ;)
 
I have the location specified, but the whole loop is going to look like hydraulic's mad dream.
Trying to make it simple, but it's a bit tough.
Watercooling is still miles away, I need to sort out cables and get 2nd gpu first, new ram etc, so I am looking at mid May to have it finished.
 
Bart_Hunt said:
I have the location specified, but the whole loop is going to look like hydraulic's mad dream.
Trying to make it simple, but it's a bit tough.
Watercooling is still miles away, I need to sort out cables and get 2nd gpu first, new ram etc, so I am looking at mid May to have it finished.
Click to expand...

All good things come to those who wait - so it is said, but......

Coming together nicely.

Mark
 
I am not sure what to do with cables :/
I calculated sleeving would cost me around 100-150£ and extensions max 50£.
Might have to go with those to be honest.
Cables will be mostly hidden anyway, only ones that are exposed connect to gpu's.

It is a hard decission, but I checked how much I have left to buy - neccesary stuff only - and it's a bit over 1k. Didn't include 1440p screen, speakers and new desk.
So will need to cut corners a bit.
 
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