Project: Soul Junky and a BIG Thank You :')

[Jay85]

WOOOP Okay so today made a little trip and got the things that i have been on about getting for the past few weeks! As some of you know, i've had problems with power supplies and cooling and at one point wanted to go a water cooling system but after some good advice from you guys and some persuading :'P i decided to go for the new case and aswel as PSU and fans etc :').

So heres what i bought today:

Antec Mini P180 (Gun metal)
Corsair HXUK 650W modular
2 x Sharkoon SE modular fans
Coollaboratory Liquid Pro (Came in a syringe)
White Cable Braid
White Heatshrink
Anti-Static Wrist strap

So here begins the transformation, i started this build at 3pm in the afternoon today and didnt finish till roughly about 10pm!!! It is my first build though so be gentle aha!

Theres quite a few pictures so please be patient and let them load if you have a slow connection.

A pic of my old case and current build: Very messy and just looks sorry for itself tbh!

Started out with stripping the PSU out first to release some space aswel as removing the CPU cooler.

All components stripped out of my old case and ready to be cleaned and dusted off.

I was going to take pictures of the new thermal paste/gel stuff but i got carried away and totally forgot to do so! Heres a pic of what it looked like after though anyway. I changed the direction of the CPU fan so it blows out of the case instead of blowing in since my old setup was to blow into the case and out the front.

With that done and the parts dusted off, its time to put the board into the new case. I struggled abit here and had to remove the rear fan for more work space, don't know if anyone out there with the same case had to do so aswel but it saved me a lot of time i think.

Hard Drive goes into the top bay and at the same time i did some cable braiding with any that needed doing so it looks all tidy and neat :'). White Cable braid looks lush tbh!

With that done it was time to install the fans! NOW, i bought 2 fans today in hopes of replacing both the antec ones but as i found out when i looked inside the case the existing fan is wired into the fan control at the rear so i can't remove it completely! So i decided to mount 2 fans together, the old one and the new one and set the rear fan on medium to help the inner fan. Not sure if this even works or if its a good idea but i didnt want it to go to waste :').

At this point i still had the PSU you to go in and the GFX card which had been cleaned up and dusted off aswel.

MODULAR!! and its CORSAIR!! YUM!

PSU is in and so is the gfx card, all thats left to do is to do some cable management! I suppose out of everything, this took the longest... purely because my fingers were actually really achey by now! But hey we pressed on and got the job done!

Finally the finished product, all new and shiney and tidy aswel! After god knows how long and much blood and sweat i reckon i did an okayish job but still not bad for a first timer :').

Whats next?

ATI 5850 and hopefully a new bigger and better cooler at some point so i can overclock further without having to worry about heat problems at a later date but right now i am dead happy that everythings gone well today!

Thanks for the advice and help guys these past few weeks, you've cleared up a lot of questions for me and i'm happy to be part of the forums.

Cheers OC'ers
Jay

 

[Jay85]

Idle temps are now at 28-30C :'). Not loaded it yet so will find out later tonight! Looks promising though!

 

[Jay85]

very nice clean looks

Thanks man, glad you like it :')

Sweet little case, personally I think I would have the 2 x 120mm (front and back) fans drawing air in and letting that huge roof mounted fan exhaust hot air upwards. Possibly orient the CPU cooler upwards aswell.

Nice work, your first build did you say? Well done mate.

Thats what i've done, the front fan draws air in and the rear and top fans exhaust it out so it should be fairly efficient i think.

It is my first build, i had to make sure everything was right before i started and did as much research as i could before i bought stuff to minimise build problems. Think its paid off pretty well :').

Thank you JCBeastie :')

 

[Jay85]

I dont have any sort of fan controller at all ION, i was going to get one but i opted to get modular cables instead with the silent eagle fans. Got them running on standard at the moment and the rear fan that is sandwiched to the OEM rear fan is connected to the motherboard.

ION whats the tool called for removing the pins from the molex plugs and power connectors etc?

Thanks man, i worked pretty hard on this and i'm glad its paid off well :'D

 

[Jay85]

Thank you mate, is it difficult removing pins?

 

[Jay85]

Aha! This should be fun then lol, i'll practice on the broken psu first then i guess before i go diving into the deep end lol.

BTW! will removing the pins and braiding the wires void my warranty on the corsair?

 

[Jay85]

Hmmm i dont wanna wait 7 years though lol before i start modding it. Guess its one of those choices you gotta make.

 

[Jay85]

Extremely nice!
just get a blue graphics card in there and itll be perfect!

Any suggestions :'P, £250 is my budget.

Someone else who colour coordinates their parts, yay!

lol thinkin about it now, i wish my motherboard was black!

Great job, I've built over a hundred by now probably and the closest I got to cable management still looked messier than yours, I often just CBA with cable management myself too much work and a massive pain in the a to later modify again. Good job though . I'll probably never make myself work 7 hours (!!) just to make the inside of my pc look a little tidier and the only reason I bought a more expensive than peanuts costing case is for extra space/size and something easier to filter for dust.

Thanks man, thats a nice compliment :'D. I can't stand untidyness inside a case, it makes it easier to clean aswel if there aren't cables hanging everywhere. But like you said though, if you've got a big case messy cables usually dont affect airflow much and cooling efficiency.

I was going to stop when my fingers started to ache but i wanted it done asap so i dont have to think about it tomorrow :') lol, less pain!

 

[Jay85]

I like the first one more, the HIS cooler looks sweet. Will match the case perfectly :'D!

 

[Jay85]

Cheers guys, i added my blue LED's in today for some back lighting. Nothing flashy just something to light up the case abit.

The HIS 5850 is a defo aswel, should be getting that in a few weeks time hopefully if i can get the money together :').

 

[Jay85]

Ah what i meant is u said u could remove the fan cause it was connected to a small fan control.



Removing pins can be a pain just depends on the connector some are easier than others. Main reason i do it would be it probably not going to help in the noise front likely to make a bit of turbalance.

Nah i meant the existing fan was connected to the fan controllers on the rear of the case which is built into the case and came with the case.
Hmm i spose what i need to do first is to check out corsairs warranty policy before i make any moves to start pulling pins out.

 

[Jay85]

post the pics of the lighting if you can please.

Will do, let me get some pics first and i'll post them up :')

 

[Jay85]

Few updated pics as requested by DotA

 

[Jay85]

I do, i bought one to solder my LED's haha. By extension cables do you mean using molex extensions etc and braiding those instead?

I was going to say aswel, i've never seen the braided cables in white other than black.. shame really.

 

[Jay85]

I'll have a bash it at tonight, theres not that many wires tbh and like you said aslong as i know which is the live wire and which is for temp sensing etc i'll be fine.

The T-balancer is a nice piece of kit! Not quite sure how it works actually just reading through it on OC'ers shop but for that price its gotta be good!

Did you heatshrink wrap the ends aswel? With what diameter?

The ATX 12v is the one i wanted to do in the first place but worried about warranty issues if i do. Still haven't confirmed anything yet but hopefully get a reply from corsair soonish.

 

[Jay85]

Im really liking the LEDs ties the build togeather i think. cant wait to see pics of it when you get the 5850.

Me too haha! Just need to save up abit more now then i can progress more and update this progress log :')

 

[Jay85]

Well then just remove the old fan by getting that solder off and then simply strip ur new fan of its connector solder that and ur done. Mind u i have to say buying a good fan controller is always a good buy (T-Balancer is the best if u can afford it(but any manual one will do the job just as good)). Yea you can buy extension cables for pretty much every cable in ur pc then just release the pins from the connector and place the braid right over (to get a nice tight fit). Btw just so u know if u plan to braid any fan cables make sure u use 4mm braid at least cause anything lower is tight and just ends up killing ur fingers (then again i had to do over a metre of braiding for each cable and i individually did each wire seperatly apart from a few).

Thing is really though with ur case is cause its so clean and most of the cables are quite well hidden anyway. However wouldnt take u long as u've already done most of them might as well do the the atx 12v as thats really the only one noticeable apart from the fan cable at the top.

I had a look on the tinterweb and managed to get hold of an extention for my Mobo 24pin cable :'D! Should be here in a few days!

 

[Jay85]

Project Update:

Had a fiddle with OverClocking tonight and managed to get it to 3.82ghz and testing for stability right now. Temps are looking good at just over 52C at max load using the Asus Silent Knight Aircooler. May attempt 4.0ghz if this runs fine over night...

 

[Jay85]

it does void the warranty with coarsair. I wanted to change the braid over on my HX1000W but any removal of pin connectors, braiding or screws voids the warranty .

Shame really as there great PSU's but they just need that better cable braiding...

It's alright i ordered an extension cable thats already braided yesterday, should be here by tomorrow or saturday latest. I wanted a white braided 24pin cable but they dont do one D:

Yea mind u it is a bit bull considering its a modular power supply but hey only bad thing i can say about corsair. Glad i did just braid a extension cable instead though as thinking of upgrading my psu soon anyway.

Thats exactly what i did, your advice was very very helpful tbh :').

Nice cable management, very clean tidy looking system .

Thanks man :'), should have more bits and bobs coming soon. I really do fancy a new cooler but might just head towards watercooling if im going to spend again.

 

[Jay85]

very nice indeed
that cooler looks like a jet engine !
looks very clean and tidy.....bravo

Lol it does doesn't it, especially when you look at it straight on through the front of the cage. Looks the biz but its only a light cooler tbh.

Looking very very clean/ Good job

Thank you :')