Project Smurf

[savagesam117]

This has come a long way from when I last had a look.

Looks awesome dude, well done. Looks much better than my loop I had in this case!

Is it hardline? Some tubes suggest it, others like the one on the left, say otherwise.

 

[Smffy]

This has come a long way from when I last had a look.

Looks awesome dude, well done. Looks much better than my loop I had in this case!

Is it hardline? Some tubes suggest it, others like the one on the left, say otherwise.

Cheers mate, its all hardline (PTEG) just a number very technical bends due to the size of the case and mega rads (don't forget I have 2 x 360mm rads stuffed in here )

One on the left of the case pic is the one on the right of this picture, its a tricky shape to come out and back over the GPU... Then it has to kink in to meet the rad, difficult to grasp in 2D laying flat:

 

[Smffy]

Some more updates! So I've been busy wrapping the rest of the case today, only one chunk left to do but alas I've not go enough wrap in the right direction (stripe matching)... Will have to order another piece to finish it off. So what have I been up to...

Removed, wrapped and replaced the black insert on the power shroud - looks pretty good I think, a quick note if anyone is looking at this case and wanting to swap out the blue led this one is actually white with a blue insert which can be easily removed. Now looks like this:

Once i'd got that done I go to work finishing and re-wrapping the bit I did as a tester, I did a more thorough job this time on the USB ports and added a black wrap to the power switch as an accent:

Decided to treat myself to a relative NORMAL shaped wrap, my god this case is awkward to do this on:

The two bits together:

Wrapped the window piece which involved a lot of swearing and two coffees.

Close up with the PSU shroud:

Diff angle, the wrap isn't really as shiny as it looks in the pics. My room is quit badly lit and the flash makes it sparkle much more than it does in person:

So almost done at this point then I realise I can't do the last bit....... . Decided to add another accent to stop it being just a total white case with this front piece done in contrasting black carbon. What do you think, I think it looks kinda cool.

Diff angle (the black mesh is not present as this is just propped in to place...)

So thats it, tomorrow some cables arrive so i'll be firing it up and then hopefully this week i'll have to final piece wrapped (last big white bit on the front). Final jobs to do: Order plexiglass for the window and side of drive bay, custom GPU cables and lighting... Almost there!!!

 

[russell664]

Wow, I really like it man!

 

[Smffy]

Happy New Year! Been a bit busy eating and drinking everything in sight but some updates for you... The beast is now in use,typing on it as I speak, it's not completely done yet as i've got a few case mods to complete but its finally working.

Getting it to post was a total nightmare, in the end I had to drain everything and test bits from this and my old machine and narrowed it down to the CPU. For some weird reason when I loosened the spring loaded caps on the block it was fine, bit tighter and nothing at all... Now I did as per the instructions and screwed to the end of the thread by hand, it really wasnt over tight so not sure what was happening here?? Anyway its was a bit of a fussy booter but i've steadily been tightening it over time and seems perfectly happy now. So what does it look like:

Drives in place, when for some blue braided cables but the white SATA cables were out of stock...

Unfinished front end:

And i've been playing with some overclocks on the GPU first, this seems pretty stable thus far:

Now my new wrap did arrive to complete the front, had a quick look and for some reason the bigger size is not the same as the smaller so i'll have to test it and see if its useable or not... But unfortunately I tripped like a muppet when I was running and have some nice chunks of skin missing from my hands so wrapping is not really an option . Things still to do:

1. Lighting, any advice on it - the UV blue fluid in particular
2. Wrap front final piece
3. New perspex for the window and internal drive bay wall
4. Custom braided GPU and CPU cables, to be ordered now i'm back home!
5. NZXT Grid 2, think i'm going to buy one and replace the stock unit so I can properly dial down the fans... System runs pretty cold so really no need for the noise

I'll be cranking up the CPU clock once I know the GPU is doing fine, runs most of what I was playing like a dream... I also pulled the trigger on this whilst a bit bored on boxing day:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/dell...reen-led-monitor-midnight-grey-mo-084-de.html

Loving the screen so far!

 

[sreeve1993]

WOW! What a beautiful build. Well done mate, be proud of yourself

 

[darwin1859]

You made a neat job of the wrapping, well done.

 

[Smffy]

Hello all.

Some more updates, my hands still pretty out of action to finish the wrapping but i've now ordered some pretty cables for my GPU/CPU and purchased some UV cathodes as a bit of a test to see how it looks on the UV Blue fluid. I also ordered a load of sound denting which i've applied inside the side casing to help with any vibrations or noise, it will make a small difference only but why not.

Pics or it didnt happen right?

Sticky sound denting, its the kind you use if you do car audio in the doors around speakers to tidy up vibrations and give better sound (my car is full of this ):

And a quick test of the UV lighting, what do you think? I'm thinking about getting some white LEDs instead but i'm torn really...

Also any advice on changing that ****ing red LED readout to blue? I'm thinking i'll just have to stick a bit of black on it and simply remove it if I have issues and need to see the code. In other news i'm enjoying overclocking this... Seems like a 600mhz overclock on the CPU is massively easy and temps don't get far past 60c at 4.6ghz. I've also noticed the GPU overclock seems to exceed what its set as so in games my stock 1100mhz core clock is reaching 1500mhz with no issues and a very small over volt (literally +24mv).

CPU temps at full load for 30 mins, 4.2ghz (over the stock 4):

Stable overclock on my GPU:

As I said in game GPU-Z is record it clocking in excess of 1500mhz and the temps literally stay around 40-45c on the GPU. So in short, I really wish I had two good looking EVGA cards in it but i'll have to be patient...

Cheers!

 

[_lecro_]

I havnt been keen on all the wrap in it but it looks really nice with the UVs.

 

[faheemrazzaq]

its a very nice build. like pretty much everything you have done there. i hope you are enjoying the system now.

 

[Smffy]

its a very nice build. like pretty much everything you have done there. i hope you are enjoying the system now.

Few bits to finish off, hopefully get case and lights done this weekend... Cables on order so then its just the perspex and done!

The PC runs like a dream, literally I can run the GPU at 1500mhz core clock (minimal increase in power of 24mv) and it doesnt get over 45c... Thats with the pump speed about 50% and the fans at 45% . The CPU seems happy at 4600-4700 and sticks in the 60-65c range, again pretty great considering the pump/fans are turned down. Really enjoying the performance increase for Photoshop/Video editing and needless to say it eats games for breakfast. I do still wish I had two of the 980Ti in it but just can't justify it when i'll blatantly want the next gen soon!

 

[OJ46]

What does the CPU temp go up to after 30+ minutes stress testing it with Prime95, if you don't mind me asking? I'm running the same CPU + a watercooled 980Ti in my new build so was intrigued to see how well the loop was performing atm. Oh yes, and top work on those awkward acrylic bends & on the wrapping, think if I attempted either it would have gone through a window after an hour or 2

 

[Luggs]

I really like the UV lighting, why you thinking of swapping to white LEDs?

Yeah I wish they would use neutral colours (white) on mobo's etc as not everyone wants a red colour scheme

Great to hear you are enjoying your new build mate!

 

[Smffy]

What does the CPU temp go up to after 30+ minutes stress testing it with Prime95, if you don't mind me asking? I'm running the same CPU + a watercooled 980Ti in my new build so was intrigued to see how well the loop was performing atm. Oh yes, and top work on those awkward acrylic bends & on the wrapping, think if I attempted either it would have gone through a window after an hour or 2

I havent actually checked using Prime, i've tested using a few other benchmarking tools and found generally it settles down pretty well. I'll do some testing later on while I drink a few beers and let you know, the GPU is the thing which I find incredible at such a low temp and large overclock! I'll probably see how the temps are with my fans around the 50% mark, don't forget i've got 2 x 360mm rads and 6 fans in this tiny case lol.

The bends I was really frustrated with until the new insert arrived (the Alphacool one just wasn't big enough and prob wasted about £30 on that/tubing, cheers Alpha), then using olive oil I actually really enjoyed it - bent them all by hand/eye over the LED fan on my other PC . With the case what is quite annoying Corsair just released this:

http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/landing/specalpha

My god I want it...

I really like the UV lighting, why you thinking of swapping to white LEDs?

Yeah I wish they would use neutral colours (white) on mobo's etc as not everyone wants a red colour scheme

Great to hear you are enjoying your new build mate!

I might have spoken too soon but basically I'm primarily using it with a fairly brightly lit room, this weekend I should have it installed and to be fair i've got 4 30cm bulbs so I think it might show up quite well. The other reason is that if you light the fluid well enough it looks really nice non UV but lets see how it looks - probably get some pics up Saturday.

 

[OJ46]

I havent actually checked using Prime, i've tested using a few other benchmarking tools and found generally it settles down pretty well. I'll do some testing later on while I drink a few beers and let you know, the GPU is the thing which I find incredible at such a low temp and large overclock! I'll probably see how the temps are with my fans around the 50% mark, don't forget i've got 2 x 360mm rads and 6 fans in this tiny case lol.

The bends I was really frustrated with until the new insert arrived (the Alphacool one just wasn't big enough and prob wasted about £30 on that/tubing, cheers Alpha), then using olive oil I actually really enjoyed it - bent them all by hand/eye over the LED fan on my other PC . With the case what is quite annoying Corsair just released this:

http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/landing/specalpha

My god I want it...

Cheers mate, that would be awesome. Only running a Crossflow 360 plus a normal 120 here (+ 2 x 120 inlet fans & 1 x 120 exhaust) so expecting it to be hotter, just wondering how much difference there is
I've not had time to stress the CPU at all yet so we'll have to see how it reacts to some serious gaming abuse next week
You really are a sucker for punishment aren't you, that must be the only case around with more awkward angles than the one you have now!

That really sucks about Alphacool, but must be happy you got it sorted and found a better insert rather than trying to persevere and ending up with a load of bends you aren't happy with. The £30 in the bin would be rather annoying mind!

 

[Smffy]

£30 + hours of dissapointment . Re: Gaming, I've been playing hours of things like Black Ops 3 with everything on full (1440p) and it rarely gets far over 55c on the CPU, 45c on GPU and the same goes for rendering video its not making things hot at all... I don't have anything nuts like Witcher to test with .

 

[Smffy]

What does the CPU temp go up to after 30+ minutes stress testing it with Prime95, if you don't mind me asking? I'm running the same CPU + a watercooled 980Ti in my new build so was intrigued to see how well the loop was performing atm. Oh yes, and top work on those awkward acrylic bends & on the wrapping, think if I attempted either it would have gone through a window after an hour or 2

Having real issues getting windows not to BSOD because it thinks the temps are too high I think... It runs at about 77-81c to begin with and i'm monitoring temps with RealTemps, using 8 threads and i'm not sure where the issue lies...

I've got no issues stress testing with anything else, in fact temps are much lower on everything else. In short i've got no idea what im doing with Prime95 but googling the error seems like its linked to windows protecting it (although in the Mobo I think I see the max set as 115c as default). Ideas?

 

[OJ46]

£30 + hours of dissapointment . Re: Gaming, I've been playing hours of things like Black Ops 3 with everything on full (1440p) and it rarely gets far over 55c on the CPU, 45c on GPU and the same goes for rendering video its not making things hot at all... I don't have anything nuts like Witcher to test with .

If I can get the same sort of temps using the smaller rads but leaving things closer to the stock clocks I'll be happy, even if it does mean a little bit of fan noise (although it is ALMOST silent atm)

Having real issues getting windows not to BSOD because it thinks the temps are too high I think... It runs at about 77-81c to begin with and i'm monitoring temps with RealTemps, using 8 threads and i'm not sure where the issue lies...

I've got no issues stress testing with anything else, in fact temps are much lower on everything else. In short i've got no idea what im doing with Prime95 but googling the error seems like its linked to windows protecting it (although in the Mobo I think I see the max set as 115c as default). Ideas?

That's a strange one, although I had read somewhere else on here about people having issues with Prime95 overheating Skylake CPU's. Did you run the standard test or go for the extreme heat mode? I ran the standard torture test for just under an hour and it stayed at 50°C - 60°C for ages, and never went above the mid - high 70's. I know yours is clocked but you also have far better cooling, so that's a bit odd

Out of interest, what other software have you been using for stress testing? I'll run a few tests on those and see if the results are more normal

 

[Smffy]

If I can get the same sort of temps using the smaller rads but leaving things closer to the stock clocks I'll be happy, even if it does mean a little bit of fan noise (although it is ALMOST silent atm)



That's a strange one, although I had read somewhere else on here about people having issues with Prime95 overheating Skylake CPU's. Did you run the standard test or go for the extreme heat mode? I ran the standard torture test for just under an hour and it stayed at 50°C - 60°C for ages, and never went above the mid - high 70's. I know yours is clocked but you also have far better cooling, so that's a bit odd

Out of interest, what other software have you been using for stress testing? I'll run a few tests on those and see if the results are more normal

How many threads? I was a bit confused on that, I ran the Small FFT which I think was completely nuts so what settings are you using - I've just read quite a comprehensive thread which says Large FFT... :/

Others i've just been using those that come with CPUz etc.

 

[OJ46]

How many threads? I was a bit confused on that, I ran the Small FFT which I think was completely nuts so what settings are you using - I've just read quite a comprehensive thread which says Large FFT... :/

Others i've just been using those that come with CPUz etc.

I didn't alter a single setting tbh, just downloaded it and ran a torture test without touching anything (was a bit confusing, so just defaulted it!). Ah, I've got CPUz on there now so will have to run a few tests on there, see how it performs