RIVALRY - Dual BitFenix Phenom rivalling game projects

Hukkel

Hukkel

Hukkel

Associate
Joined
27 Sep 2012
Posts
593
Location
Netherlands
bqzgs.jpg


Welcome everyone to a new project.

I am in the closing stages of Game Hard, Fold Harder and Opteron Prime. I am waiting for some stuff and in the meantime I am starting this project.

I can only confess I have gotten the idea from my nametwin (Tim Longroadtrip). He started his Ying and Yang project log a long time ago now. Due to a flood in his workshop and other reasons of his own the air + watercooled projects never got side to side. But I liked the idea right away. When Bitfenix launched the Phenom ITX case I was instantly in love. It is such a clean and fluid case. (Ian; strak en kaal!) It just has something special about it that keeps grabbing my attention.

Therefore I present to you project Rivalry. Like Ying and Yang they are are two builds. I am personally using a black and a white Bitfenix Phenom case. (after Opteron Prime I wanted to do something smaller xD)
They will be similar but also different. One will be watercooled and one will be aircooled. One will have a black theme and one will have a white theme. They will both use differend brands hardware, fans and a different modified Bitfenix logo. Yet both will be ITX, both will have a single gfx card, both will be using a raid setup and custom box for 4 SSDs, both will have 16GB ram (same brand and type). And both will be modified by me :lol:

Here is a quick overlook of the hardware being used.

Black build:

- Bitfenix Phenom ITX in black
- Bitfenix black fancontroller with touchscreen
- i7-4770k
- Gigabyte Z97N
- HyperX Beast 2*8GB 1600 mhz
- 4*HyperX 3k SSDs
- BeQuiet Dark Rock pro 3 cooler
- BeQuiet 140 and 120mm fans
- BeQuiet POWER 850W PSU
- Gigabyte GTX770 OC Windforce 3
- MDPC-X sleeving

White build:

- Bitfenix Phenom ITX in white
- i7-4770k
- Gigabyte Z87N
- HyperX Beast 2*8GB 1600 mhz
- 4*HyperX 3k SSDs
- Diamond Cooling CPU waterblock
- Diamond Cooling custom GPU waterblock
- Diamond Cooling custom reservoir
- Diamond Cooling hardline tube fittings
- Enermax white LED Vegas fans in 120 and 140mm
- Enermax Platimax 1250 W PSU
- KFA2 GTX680 Hall Of Fame
- MDPC-X sleeving

I am still unsure about a few watercooling parts for this one. But I will pick them up along the way :)

I will start on the aircooled build first as I am also waiting for a few parts for the white build.

I need to make a small comment on the sponsoring of this project. It has become quite a heavily sponsored project in terms of hardware. This is due to the fact that I am using remains of projects that didn't went through / got cancelled etc. They weren't even my own, I made an arrangement with one brand to use the hardware that was meant for another ones project that didn't got to it anymore because of things happening in his personal life. Next to this I have been lucky enough to be able to write some reviews for some parts and I am using those review samples in this build as well. I have chosen to use those parts in these two builds as they suited them perfectly and also name the companies that provided those review samples.

I would like to start of by showing a very very rough render / idea / comcept for the black one. I normally don't do this, but I am kinda still searching for the design on some details. But the general idea is present in this render.



Ian thanks again for all the help with the render and the gfx and banners for this log :rock:
 
Hukkel you are like an expert fisherman ! You got me hooked !

Most definitely subbed for this, your builds are inspirational. Can't wait to see some progress and lots of pics :D
 
Meant to add the below comment to my first post, sorry.

The logo you have chosen is very cool, have you just kinda stretched the original Bitfenix one?
 
Last edited:
GiraffePencils said:
Subbed, should be good
Click to expand...

Thank you sir, happy to have you on board.

mightymouse said:
Looks very nice.
Click to expand...

Thanks MM!

colinmcr said:
Hukkel you are like an expert fisherman ! You got me hooked !

Most definitely subbed for this, your builds are inspirational. Can't wait to see some progress and lots of pics :D

The logo you have chosen is very cool, have you just kinda stretched the original Bitfenix one?
Click to expand...

Very happy to see you will also follow this project CMcR! It really means a lot to be to read you find my projects inspirational. I will be sure to give you your weekly shot of pictures to last untill the next one ;)

A good friend of me (Ian) always does my banners and such and I asked him to use the BitFenix logo and change the phoenix wings into more evilish wings for this one and more angellike wings for the white build. So yeah it is the BitFenix logo with a twist :)

--------------------------------------------------

I hope to show all sponsors and hardware in this reply so I can more on with the modding in the next reply. Since I really need to show modding to be allowed in this section I hope my previous projects have given me a little credit so that the moderators will know that in the next updates modding shalt commenceth!

First of all BitFenix with the case. I will start with the black one. The aircooled "dark being". ;)











Thanks BitFenix and especially Michel for providing it to me for this project :thumb:



Next up is Gigabyte. This is one of those sponsorings where a previous project that didn't go through changed into a change of hardware and led to this project. Gigabyte BeNeLux provided the project with the new MiniITX Z97N-WiFi motherboard. I bought the Z87N-WiFi myself for the white build. Gigabyte HQ provided this project with a GTX770 OC Windforce3. I am really happy to receive this for the black build. It fits in perfect in every way. From the performance to the shape and colour of the aircooler.

























Gigabyte also provided me with 2 sets of in-ear headphones. Well not me personally. They are for giving away to followers of my log in 2 different communities.

Thank you Gigabyte for the sponsorship with special thanks to Bernice, Eva and Catherine :rock:



https://www.facebook.com/GIGABYTE.Benelux

A sponsor special for this project is BeQuiet. The stealthy look and strong performance of their high-end hardware fits the project perfect. They provided me with 2 120mm fans, 2 140mm fans (all silent wings 2), a Powerzone 750W full modular PSU (and I LOVE full modular PSUs) and a Dark Rock 3 CPU cooler.



































Thanks a lot for wanting to help me with this project BeQuiet! Special thanks goes to Christopher and Armelle :rock:



And last but certainly not least the fine gentlemen from Kingston HyperX. They were planned on 2 other projects that were cancelled because of reasons outside of me. So I was getting quite nervous about it. I think when you get a sponsorship you need to deliver as well. You need to create a good project and feature those parts in. And I could understand very well that these gentlemen would become rather restless since it was taking ages now. It is a great thing I could use the parts in these builds. They sponsored me with 4 HyperX Beast 8GB 1600 Mhz memory and 4 of their 120GB 3k SSDs. I have a special plan for those babies.













Thanks a lot for believing in me Krys, Edward and J.B. and thank you HyperX for helping out with this build :rock:

 
Last edited:
The bequiet gear looks awesome, the fan blades look like they will match the theme perfectly. The CPU cooler looks beast also :D

Once these builds are complete what happens to them? Your home must be full of gear!
 
I have to say that case looks awesome, although it doesn't appear to have much in the way of vents for air intake (although that could just be the picture).
 
davido_labido said:
nice :D
will look forward to this!

if you want to offload one of them sets of headphones.... you have my email address lol ;)
Click to expand...

I will be sure to write that down ;)
And thanks Dave!

colinmcr said:
The bequiet gear looks awesome, the fan blades look like they will match the theme perfectly. The CPU cooler looks beast also :D

Once these builds are complete what happens to them? Your home must be full of gear!
Click to expand...

Well first of all yeah it is full of gear. I am keeping GHFH and Opteron Prime. These two builds will likely (when not wanted for trade shows) be taken apart to re-use the hardware for another project. Unless someone really likes it so much he wants to buy one.

WalderX said:
Gonna be awesome!
Click to expand...

Thanks mate!

DJ_Bucho said:
I have to say that case looks awesome, although it doesn't appear to have much in the way of vents for air intake (although that could just be the picture).
Click to expand...

That I where I come in my friend ^^
Just follow the project and you will see the changes :)
 
Well I needed to get an idea how big stuff was on and in the case before I could start measuring and make and order stuff. So that is what I started with.









I have also been busy sketching on the case with a white pencil to see what looks good and what doesn't. haha



I will show you what I did with the sidepanel in a bit.

First the motherboard. The Z97 is a big up compared to the Z87 because the Z87 socket is waaaaay too close to the PCI-E slot for a normal aircooler.
It is silimar in specs but boy did they improve on the layout of the mobo. Almost alle connectors have gone to the outside border of the mobo.
The Z87 has all kinds of connectors under the aircooler in the middle.

Only downside is the placement of the 4 sata connectors. When using ram and a gfx card they will be hard to get to.
But hey you have to put the stuff somewhere on this tiny mobo.



















Here it is fixed and installed.
As you can see the front 140 mm fan hits the ram so I have the option to a) move the fan up like I have did now b)put the fan in pull position only or c) get a 120mm fan instead. I am really toying with the idea of getting a 120mm PWM fan and installing that instead of this one. It should fit exactly. I have tried with one of the fans I was already using for the top.









Next update there will be modding!
 
colinmcr said:
wow that's a tight fit :D
Click to expand...

It is actually quite ok :) Because I put the fans on top of the fan holders in the top instead of hanging them from the brackets there is plenty room :)

WalderX said:
Ha that cooler on that board is hilarious!
Click to expand...

lol ^^ I kinda like it. Imagine how it would look with the dual heatsink cooler on it.

CharlieRich said:
Its almost like the heatsink on the RAM is designed for this build, just about fit that massive CPU cooler in haha
Click to expand...

A friend of me said the same. But Iam going to put a 120mm fan on it, the thing sticking out on top is just annoying my **** off.

JCX50 said:
Dis gone be gud
Click to expand...

Thanks man, hope so!
 
One of the things I have been realy struggling with in my hollow skull is the exact shapes and holes for the fans and sidepanels. I had like a concept in my mind, like a flow. But I just couldn't get the right angles on paper. But after a while I just had a go at it. Who doesn't dare....etc etc

So I created a rectangle shaped hole for the front fan to match more the top of the case. There will be a smoked plexi cover over it like the idea in the render. I also created the windows on the sidepanels for a testfit and then made the holes in the doorpanels. And tbh I am rather happy with it. Although it needs to come together with the cover over the case as well.






What are these holes and drawings? :think:



ZOMG it almost looks alien-like. It this their landing zone??? :eyebrow:























What I did not like was the transparency of the plexiglas. It needs to be less transparent / let less light through. So I ordered another 4 samples of various types of grey smoked plexiglass. I chose a better version and have just ordered a big 750mm*750mm sheet from Germany. I will recreate the windows out of it and a shop close to me will laser the front and top end out of it.

Lastly I will need to bend this lasercut piece in the shape of the case myself. That is going to be tricky to say the least. If I screw up it means throwing away an expensive lasercut piece and ordering it again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom