The Jaffacake- An Antec Striker MATX Build

Curlyriff · 16 Nov 2020 at 14:44

Hey all,

So finally getting to do something a little different with a build and doing some modding. This is a little in flux with certain parts, colours, design but progress has been made over the last few weeks so thought I would share where I am at and where things are aiming for.

Hope you enjoy

First up, parts list. All purchased to get it working.

Main Parts

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950x (Purchased)
GPU: AMD 6900xt (Purchased)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M Aorus Pro MATX (Purchased)
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 3600-CL16 (Purchased)
Drive: 1x Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB M.2 NVME, to be used as OS & software drive (Purchased)
Drive 2: 1x Sabrent Rocket Q 4TB M.2 NVME, to be used as games drive (Purchased)
Case: Antec Striker ITX case (Purchased)
Power Supply: Corsair SF750 80+ Platinum (Purchased)

Watercooling - Blocks & Rads

CPU Block: EK-Quantum Magnitude - AM4 Copper + Acetal (Purchased)
Reservoir/Pump: EK-Quantum Kinetic FLT 240 DDC PWM D-RGB Plexi (Purchased)
Rads: EK-Coolstream SE240 (Purchased) + PE240 (Purchased)

Watercooling - Fittings

EK-Torque HTC 14mm hardline - Black (Purchased)
EK-Torque HTC 14MM Fitting colour pack, this will get re-anodised in orange to match system (Purchased)
EK-Torque Angled 90degree Rotary Fittings - Black (Purchased)
EK-Quantum Magnitude Accent - Black , this will also get re-anodised in orange to match system (didn't purchase, change of plans)

Watercooling - Fluid & Fans

Coolant: 2x EK-CryoFuel Solid Fire Orange 1L (Purchased)
Fans: 4No. Lian-Li Uni fans, one set of 3 with controller + single additional (Purchased)

Peripherals

Iiyama G-Master GB3466WQSU-B1 34" 3440X1440 144Hz monitor (Purchased)
Logitech G915 Lightspeed RGB wireless keyboard (Purchased)
Logitech G903 Hero wireless mouse (Purchased)
Logitech wireless mouse mat
Logitech Pro X Wireless headset (Purchased)
Generic headset stand (Xmas present from family member)

Other

Custom wiring to PC (Price TBC, approx £150 on quote)
Custom anodising to plates/panels (All done, see photos below)
Transfers for logos/names (Price TBC)

Cost wise including a few custom parts and all the little extra, tools etc needed this build should

NEW Current build cost is coming in at £4697.28 for whole system, with tower costing £4198.34 of that. As above got cables and custom transfers to go cost wise. I have also got to make a PCIE riser shroud from some steel plate I have and will go black and pick up another heatsink for the second M.2.

Proposed Design Images:

General Build
With the above all set out in concept and that I have now started putting parts together that I have managed to purchase currently. The MATX board of course was step 1 to making this all work. The case is officially only designed for ITX boards.

Fortunately the case is an all metal/glass construction which meant I could drill & tap the 2mm thick aluminum motherboard tray to suit the larger mobo. For this I had tried different orientations to suit hole positions bearing in mind the other cutouts to the frame from stock. This lead to the conventional rotation of the mobo.

Cabling
Utilising an SF power supply has meant there is plenty of room for cabling and tidying. Custom cables will be getting produced, which at the moment I am talking with To The Wire on FB to do the cabling in January (earliest available). That will include the 24pin & 8pin mobo cables, two PCIE cables as needed for the GPU (unless go 3080 with 12pin) and custom cabling the DDC pump to use just the fan header rather than the Molex for power.

I have yet to confirm details and also depending on the case fans (looking at the Lian Li Uni fans) might have those done too. Oh and also I am loosing the front IO panel and switching to just a stock on/off button that needs integrating into the case and also have the cables done.

Work complete
The white panels have been stripped of paint and cleaned ready to off to be anodised black. I am yet to do the pre-finish and give the panels a brushed look to match the heatsinks on the Gigabyte Mobo.

As can see from pictures I have test fitted the mobo, blocks, one of the radiators (waiting on the PE) and I have borrowed a CPU to get windows installed and check components are working at this stage.

I am currently in process of making the custom plate to cover the front IO section as per the renders. This will be made from 0.9mm aluminium and also anodised to match. Underneath will be a 2mm orange acrylic panel to match to give the orange edge as per render.

Current build images:

Curlyriff · 16 Nov 2020 at 15:27

This was the prep work to get the radiator & reservoir block on back of PC build. This meant moving the radiator 8mm to the right to allow the reservoir to clear the frame. A few of the holes will not be connected to the chassis due to the opening. At the moment I haven't changed the aperture of the radiator area to match the new location as for the most part the frame from the radiator is there anyways. The same was done for the holes needed for the reservoir.

Curlyriff · 16 Nov 2020 at 21:53

Cheers bud

Curlyriff · 17 Nov 2020 at 13:45

Been playing with the renders since taking the paint off and wondering if going brushed aluminium and no anodising to the panels would work.

Or even just going painted/polished anodised orange

Curlyriff · 17 Nov 2020 at 22:57

Shaolin Chicken said:
I much prefer the polished anodised orange.

Ta for the feedback

Curlyriff · 18 Nov 2020 at 00:19

Will do SC.

Jay85 said:
Very nice mate, abit different to the enclosed cases we usually see.

Cheers buddy. With it being in the bedroom wanted something that stood out a little to the normal batch of as you say enclosed cases.

Curlyriff · 18 Nov 2020 at 00:20

So today didn't consist of too much. The 90 degree fittings arrived so had my first go at bending some hardline acrylic tubing. Wasn't too bad.

Not quite right at moment, as you can see the top fitting isn't 90 degree due to the two bend directions I had to do but I could probably heat it up again to bend it out a little.

Still playing with if I am going to do the kink at top or space out the 90degree. Will do a pure 90degree tomorrow to see what spacers would be needed. There is about 3mm clearance between the bottom fitting and glass panel so will be pretty snug.

Curlyriff · 20 Nov 2020 at 14:50

update to cooling, may be a possible design change depending on if it pans out so have test fitted another tube.

The second rad, fans and fittings rings should be here on Monday so then will just be CPU & GPU to go and then will get hi-res shots and build videos over the next month or so. The panels should be off to anodiser by end next week and then parts for custom cabling will follow.

Curlyriff · 20 Nov 2020 at 18:41

Shaolin Chicken said:
Coming along nicely.

Thanks

end of this weekend I'll have another go at those two tubes to get them better than current. They were only done by eye initially for concept.

Curlyriff · 24 Nov 2020 at 15:00

Unfortunately not a lot happening at moment. The rest of the components less the CPU & GPU have arrived. However the wrong radiator was accidently picked & dispatched so it is way too thick to fit into the case. With that it also appears stock is non-existent of the CoolStream PE 240 and so until that arrives I can't do too much. I have got the plate for the front IO cover all cut and so all the parts that need to go to the anodising company are ready to be dispatched which will happen on Friday. Will get some pictures of the bits and pieces sorted later anyways and will try and do a full shot of all the parts/boxes I have received to date.

Curlyriff · 24 Nov 2020 at 21:48

Quick image of the Lian-Li Uni fans installed on the one rad that does fit.

Curlyriff · 1 Dec 2020 at 17:36

So small update (sorry lacking pictures).

The last radiator has been dispatched to me and is on it's way after the wrong one turned up as above. Also all the fittings & plates have been sent off to the anodiser to get sorted. Decided on the Orange based on the feedback I have had overall. These should be back in a week or two depending on other jobs he has on (I just said slide them into a space as no rush since haven't got all the parts). Without me being able to get a GPU thus far I have still gone and got an EK block for the reference 6800/6900 from EK which should also arrive over the next few weeks. With that it means that the second tube I bent when possibly going air is going to be changed.

Still on the hunt for the CPU side of things but with stock starting to trickle through a couple of different companies it looks like it wont be too long till can order a 5950x for this. Going to try the F5 war for a 6900xt as well and see where I get too. Well over double what I would really want to be paying but I just want this built tbh. Then last thing is the second M.2 drive. Prices have risen to almost double what they have been previous and so am waiting to see what happens with regards to that. Nothing went on sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday with them and at moment it is more cost effective to get an 8TB second hand from CEX than a new 4TB so yeah that may well be the January upgrade.

So far the only actual build issue I have is the length of the dongle for the Logitech Pro X wireless headphones I have picked up is way too long and need to get an extension cable to plug into the mobo and then I can double-side sticky tap that to the mobo tray panel. Next on my list whilst I await for the arrival of the panels back and radiator to do some more tube bending is to design the logo transfer to get printed for the panel. Want to go for something larger than initially designed and wrap it over the front third. Oh and I need to spray the small grey panel that has Antec on the front to black or make it polished silver to match the EK logos. Will see how looks once stripped.

Yeah I think this covers the small update. Will get photos once stuff comes back and there actually progress to show.

Curlyriff · 4 Dec 2020 at 10:59

Tiny update. The anodising is done...bar one part which ended up being nickel plated so that will be what it will be. Sorry about picture quality, it is off a message through FB messenger.

Curlyriff · 5 Dec 2020 at 09:18

Destination said:
shiny shiny

Indeed

be good to get them on the chassis next week to see how it's all looking so far. Need to get on and designer he vinyl decals to wrap over next.

Curlyriff · 9 Dec 2020 at 00:42

First post parts list been all updated having managed to pick up a 6900xt today! With that I have received the 4TB M.2 drive (very good price and brand new/sealed unit). I do want to buy two custom heatsinks for the drives to give it a different look and to make them match as both will be visible due to the riser cable. Other than that the 2nd RAD is installed, the fans installed. A waterblock for the 6900xt is on it's way. That means I can get on with bending some tubes hopefully this weekend for the proper runs and positions then. I need to flush the rads with the Mayhem kit I have. There will be picture updates tomorrow in hi-res to give a proper update as lots of text here without any real context.

Curlyriff · 9 Dec 2020 at 18:12

Promised images. Ignore tubes lol. They are floating about till GPU arrives and block is here. But yeah all the orange goodness

Everything wired up just to see where at but still needs to go off for getting cables done.

Curlyriff · 10 Dec 2020 at 00:21

Shaolin Chicken said:
Black and orange really work well together.
Glad you decided on that combo.

Keep up the great work, looking sweet.

Cheers bud. Yeah I'm pleased with the colour combination in end. Any bold colour I think could work with the black tbh.

Whatever your fav is tbh as long as it's bold. British racing green was tempting for something way different and then going black tubing instead.

Maybe in a future update.

Curlyriff · 10 Dec 2020 at 13:24

So the 6900xt has arrived so a few quick photos up of it. Just slides in until can get waterblock and of course the cabling a bit naff at moment till that done. But hope you al llike.

Curlyriff · 12 Dec 2020 at 11:00

MrJB said:
Coming along great, orange and black reminds me a bit of Jaffa cakes (that's a good thing haha). The orange really pops.

Glad to see your 6900xt arrived, guess you cant wait to get a waterblock for it though to keep building, plus the red really clashes with the orange.

Very jealous you managed to source those Lian Li Fans, this seems to be the main thing holding up my orders right now.

Edit: Nvm, missed your "ignore the tubes for now"

Thank you. The orange is great although looks a little dark in some these photos cause lack of natural light at time. Will try and get a few in the day to do comparison.

Yeah mate has block for me as he ordered one for me and one for him to save shipping from EK so just need to collect or get it delivered. Indeed it clashes bad but actually in real life is a lovely looking block if you got a coloured build to go with and very highly made.

Tested it on mates PC that has cyberpunk and got to 70c but pretty much silent with fans at 1300-1450rpm. No sag either considering its size. It's actually really skinny and was smaller than the 1070 he has in width and length, just thicker.

It took me three months to source them bud. Was a pain but so so worth it. I can't imagine needing to cable every fan for lighting and keeping it clean. The controller has one too many cables in my view with it for some reason not being able to use the USB header it needs for software to also power it. But minor detail. The fans themselves are really well made and look excellent.

Haha no worries on tubes. A lot of text to read in these posts that was first attempt at a bend ever, it needs redoing regardless as it's got three little bubbles in bottom of bend and I didn't install properly.

The reason for the link in top though at moment is because would need to use a lot of spacers to pull out the connector on rad to align to the reservoir or do a couple 90degree but at moment I'm playing more with angles to give it some visuals. Pleased to hear you think front one looks great. I'm actually pretty happy with that one with second attempt. It's exact shape/location depends on waterblock so hard to know how will end up at mo but I'm pretty sure I'm going to go through plenty of tube to get it right.

Curlyriff · 14 Dec 2020 at 15:15

MrJB said:
Yeah I'm perfectly willing to put my build on hold for them, but didn't want to order them via a big auction site at horrendous markup. The concept of less cables definitely has me sold. And on top they look great.

Yup the factory block of the new radeons is pretty neat and seems like quality what I have seen from photos and reviews.

Ah I see now, the rad connector is on a plane behind the Res, yeah deffo would recommend to try and measure the difference / distance, and then put an extender on the rad to make it align as close as poasible. Then you can do one nice and simple 90 degree in the actual tube. If you want to keep the character / visuals of slightly more angles, experimenting with a couple 45 degree fittings might be worth it too if you can get them to align. Anyways, lots of options to make it look good, and sounds like you already have a few ideas in mind.

Replied in other thread to your build

am indeed still looking at option for the bending. Hoping I get some time in the evenings this week. I have also started my desk layout so that is a bonus, sorry bad picture. Awful phone cam and no natural light late last night lol

And as can see, am using the old PC tat on floor at moment. Mate has confirmed I can borrow a 3900x so hoping that comes this week to get it going.