Rain's Caselabs S5 WC Build

[Rainagul]

Ello,

Back again now with my second build after I dissembled and sold my previous Parvum build. Nothing was wrong with the last build, but I couldn't wait to get started on a new one to try new things and put my new found skills from the last build into action again.

When trying to figure out what I wanted for this build, I knew that I wanted something a little different than the mainstream and after finding out about Caselabs, their product range instantly hooked me in. The mercury range had my attention more than anything else on the site, and I went back & forth between the S5 or S8. Eventually, the S5 won as I again favored having a smaller build as I'm usually on the move, and lugging around a massive/heavy case can be tiresome.

Once again, the case in question needed to have good water cooling potential and the S5 has plenty of options, without even considering the additional pedestal.

Hardware

CPU: i5-4670k
Mobo: ASUS Z97-Plus mATX
PSU: Corsair HX750i
SSD: 2 * 128GB Corsair Force
HDD: 2 * 1 TB Storage

Currently using a ROG 760 MARS gpu & 8GB g.Skill RAM temporarily before they are replaced with newer components, but more on that later.

Theme

I've decided to go with a stealth look with this build, every component will be black, with a small amount of parts to be in chrome/silver to provide contrast.

Hopefully a minimalist approach to color choice and presentation should make this look pretty sleek by the end, but we shall see as this project goes forward.

So about a week ago I got this lovely package delivered!



I was actually expecting a much bigger package and was surprised at how compact this was, I guess the flat packing that CaseLabs do is to thank for that.



And here are all the parts laid out. The individual packaging on each component was done really well and looked like some work went into it which was nice to see.

For anyone interested, this was the specification for my case along with prices.



Including the customs charge, I spent £285, which I didn't think was too bad considering what you are getting for it.

More updates soon!

 

[Rainagul]

Spent some time putting together the case, and for the most part it was a breeze, though I can't help but thinking a slightly better instruction manual would be nice. The small black and white images with vague directions is a little meh



Very happy the quality and feel of the case. It feels very solid and also lightweight.
I opted to have use casters undermine rather than the default rubber mounts. Being able to scoot the case around has been rather enjoyable so far.



Also really digging the 3 windows I've got, gives plenty of angles to appreciate everything inside.
My only concern is keeping the damn things clean, already covered in dust particles which no doubt will accumulate even more over time.



On the whole the design of the case is very spacious and well laid out. However, one area that pretty much brought me to a small rage was the area allocated for the HDD/SSD drives (as seen above)

What the picture doesn't show too well are the nuts that are holding in the drive holders(cages). The space is so tight, and without the right tools its a fiddly nightmare trying to unscrew/screw the drive cages. With the rest of the case using screws to secure everything in place, I would love to know why they opted not to use them.

On top of that, the small rectangle cut out meant for SATA/SATA power cables to be routed is also really tight on space when you have 4 drives sitting pretty much right on top of each other. It certainly isn't impossible to get everything connected obviously, but I'm quite sure if the cages had another 1-2cm of clearance between them then this wouldn't be an issue. I'm hoping that in future phases of this build that braided cables will make things easier. If not, I'll bring out the drill and move the SSD cage slightly more to the right.







I've only gone as far as installing the hardware, in order to get it running for daily use, so cable management is non existent. However, seeing how all the components sit within the case has given me a better idea of how things should look once it's all done.

The biggest priority, especially looking at the photo above, is the cables from the PSU. The standard sizes are way to long, so cable shortening + braiding is first on my list of things to do. The ugly corsair cooler will be replaced soon too with a nice EK block.

Another thing I'm not a huge fan of is the cables running from the power button on the top left. Luckily they are already braided + black, but I'm thinking I will have to hide them behind some other components, as having two random cables sticking out will drive me up the wall.



So with everything up and running now to start working on my to do list:

• Shorten + braid all visible cables (hopefully using mdpc)
• Replace 760 MARS with 970/980
• Replace g.skill ram sticks with 4 * 4GB 1600Mhz (black)
• Decide on Fans/Lighting scheme
• EK Waterblocks CPU/GPU
• 240 Rad + Pump + Res
• Aquacomputer Monitoring
• Spraypaint over motherboard IO plate & gold heatsinks
• Acrylic Tubing vs Normal Tubing?

No doubt more items will be added to the list over time but for now this is enough to consider