Build Log: The Green Dragon

[jappe66]

Welcome to my very first Build Log! I'm not very good at blurbs or anything like that so I'll just get right on it.

Last week I finally ordered the parts for my build. Today one package arrived but I'm still waiting for a second package from different shop. I should have just ordered all parts from the same website so I could have started to work on the build today already 😛

I don't have much for you yet, but I will show you what is my starting point and some teasers!

So my case is a white BitFenix Shinobi XL. I've heard a lot of people complain about it being plastic and crappy but I just don't see what there is to complain about? The finish on those parts is absolutely amazing and it feels very nice to my hands. The side panels are metal as well as the back and bottom. The front and top have BitFenix SofTouch finish.

The case cost me about 150€ about 6 months ago and I wouldn't change it to anything! Now there's so much room and I started to enjoy watching water cooling build logs so I fell in love with this new hobby.

It turned out to be quite big thing on the money side but I decided, what the heck. "I want it so I'm gonna do it!"

My main colors will be white and green. White coming straight from the case itself mostly and the tubing and liquid will be green. Also green LED fans.

Here's my first plan that I made a couple weeks ago:

At first I was planning to mount the reservoir outside the case like mentioned in the picture but then I found one that would fit perfectly on the inside. To the same location. And when I start building this there will probably be more changes to the plans. Or so I've heard from people who have done this before 😀

Now here's some teasers for you to enjoy:

So there you go! I named my project The Turtle because I couldn't come up with anything better. Actually I could go further with this idea and get some turtle figures standing on the case when it's finished or something. See how crazy this watercooling makes me? 😀

You will have to wait until early next week for some build pics but I'm hoping to get the other package by Friday.

Not much to show yet but you gotta start somewhere!

 

[4Ryan6]

^ Agreed!

 

[jappe66]

Cable management is one of the hardest things to get right and can easily make something look messy, I try to use wire ties where I can but It does look really good with the green lighting and the white. You did a great job with the tubing and the top radiator. It all looks good nice job.

Now your going to be picking it apart and saying what you'll be changing for the next build or upgrade. :lol:

To be honest I'm already thinking about adding another 7970 for Crossfire and some misc stuff like adding a 230mm fan to the top giving a little push for the airflow.

Looks great! good to see that you got it going, I can hope that the build I am on now, ends up looking this nice.

Thanks mate! Do you have a build log for your build?

Looks awesome! 😀
The external rad being white, perfect. It looks as if it was supposed to be there the way you have done it,

Same verdict as Ryan, would be 10 if not for cable management.

The wires to the front of the case coming from the fan controller and front radiator. Run the fan cables along side of the rad like you did with the external one, zip tie them together and do as short a run as possible to behind the mobo. Same with the fan controller cables, zip tie together and pull tight.

An awesome thing to try, see if you can hook up the LED strips to your fan controller. Having them a bit dimmer would be perfect.

@Inzone
Upgrades are addictive, I added water-cooling to my rig just 3 months after I built it. Then 6 months after that the loop got overhauled 😀
Jappe here seems to have done all that in about a month :lol:

Thanks! I'll try to get those wires routed a little better. I'm sorry I didn't quite get what you meant with "see if you can hook up the LED strips to your fan controller" 😀 could you explain a little more?

 

[inzone]

He may be suggesting to connect the lighting to the fan controller so that the lighting can be adjusted like the fan can. A fan controller can adjust anything that it can be connected to like fans and light strips, even pumps.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Of course I do, here have a look.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284615-29-build/page-2

 

[jappe66]

Oh I didn't even think of that. Might as well give it a try 😛

@toolmaker_03: Nice! Looks like you have the exact same Alphacool radiator on the build as I do! It looks monstrous with push/pull configuration 😀 You're also using same fans 😛

Lookd really nice. I wish I would have friends who wanted a water cooling loop so I could plan and build one for them 😛

 

[toolmaker_03]

Yes, you had a nice looking setup going there, so I thought that I would use it as well. I have built a red rig(IE pink) and a blue one, never tried white before, but I liked how yours was coming out, so I did the same thing. hope you do not mind. I am not to good a coming up with my own ideas, but I can copy others with ease :lol:

 

[jappe66]

Haha 😀 I don't mind. I just wanted to make something not so common and since I had already the white case, I chose green color theme. Most of the systems I've seen are red and blue so I wanted something different.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Since the inside of that case will be black I was going to go with white lighting on the inside of the case and UV lighting on the outside of the case on that build. I haven't bought the lighting yet, but I think that it will look nice.

 

[jappe66]

White lighting is something that I've always wanted to try out but since my case is already white it would have just been too white for me 😛 I'm sure it will look awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing the final rig!

 

[jappe66]

First overclockings are done.

i5-4670k is functioning @ 4.6GHz now with 1.25 voltage. Graphics card is working @ 1,200MHz Core and 1650MHz Memory clocks. I ran 3DMarks and Fire Strike gave me 7,395 and 3DMark11 gave me 9,873. Going to try and tweek the 7970 a little further if I could reach 7,500 and 10,000 marks 😉

I have also posted the rig to EVGA's Mods Rigs website: http://www.modsrigs.com/detail.aspx?BuildID=32552

If you have registered there, please leave a comment 😛

 

[jappe66]

I would love to have a decent storage (1 or 2TB) with a HDD but unfortunately I can't find a spot to install it 🙁 Any suggestions? If I could move the inner radiator to the top then I'd have a lot of room in the front again.

 

[manofchalk]

Double sided velcro, on top of the PSU.
Behind the rad, again velcro to hold it in place.
Do what you did before and screw the HDD's onto the top fan grill. Also the bottom fan grill in front of the pump.
On the back-side of the 5.25" bays, screw a HDD in.
Possibly velcro some 2.5" HDD's to the backside of the motherboard.

 

[jappe66]

I have the boot drive attached behind the 5.25" bay.

I only know a few Western Digital HDDs that are 2.5" but they are all with Sata2 connectors so I'd prefer a 3.5"
I was thinking about moving the pump closer to the PSU so I could have some space for a HDD (or 2) between the pump and the radiator so that the back of the HDD would be facing the backwall of the case so that the cables would go straight behind the motherboard from there.

Would just need to do some measuring if I can move the pump enough to get room for the HDD.

I like the idea to put on top of the PSU 😀 I was first thinking about that when I thought about the SSDs.

On a side note, I could get 16GB of RAM for only 95€ now since it's on sale: http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/KHX16C9X3K4/16X
My current kit of 8GB costs 81€ new so I could probably sell it for +50€ forward. Would it be worth it? Those Kingston's would fit well to the color scheme of the case in my opinion

I also used the £100 rebate I got for returning the GTX670 waterblock to order these:

XSPC 1/4" Thread Inline Temperature Sensor with Green LCD V2

Phobya 360mm Triple Radiator Grill Bricky : White (a little bad picture since it's white)

Pulse Modding 30mm Universal Radiator Shroud for 360mm Radiators

Mayhems Dye 10ml Dropper Bottle : Green / UV Green (didn't really like the laser green)

In addition to those I ordered 5 litres of Mayhems Ultra Pure Water and a second 30cm green LED strip (to be attached to the bottom of the window side panel to light up the bottom as well).

Oh and I'm changing my tubing from green to clear. I hope the Mayhems dye gives as good look as the green tubing

 

[manofchalk]

I'm still hoping for fan grill mounted drives, just damn. Your SSD's when you put them up there were pretty cool.

Will the upgrades ever stop with you? :lol:
I guess at this point, do what you want. I see no need for 16GB if all your doing is gaming, but whatever.
Also, you don't want that kit. Runs at 1.65v, which is .1v higher than Intel specs (at least for Sandy/Ivy) allow. Kingston should really start making their kits run at 1.5v.

 

[jappe66]

Yeah the 16GB was only an idea since it was so cheap at the moment 😛 8GB is more than enough already.

I could mount both of the SSDs to the top fan grill for sure. We'll see when I get the time to work on the rig next time.

These upgrades were only because of the rebate I got for returning the GTX670 waterblock 😉

At least the motherboard manual tells me 1.65v RAM is okay: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z87-PRO/Z87-PRO_DRAM_QVL.pdf
In fact there's also Patriot's RAM with 1.7v listed (1600MHz)

Will probably pass on the RAM upgrade since it's not mandatory.

 

[inzone]

Well you have the bug now and you will be sitting there ever day looking at your rig and while admiring your work you will also be thinking of things that you could have done differently. So what you want to do so you don't go broke and become homeless sitting on the side of the road with your computer :lol: is to start a notebook log of things that you notice and would change next time. Plan for a yearly water system upgrade and then a two rear component overhaul, however since you are infected I don't know if you'll be able to wait. :lol:

 

[manofchalk]

We actually have quite similar rigs if you look at it in terms of hardware, and I have given much thought into the upgrade path of my rig.

Spoiler

Monitors are your only way forward now 😛.

 

[jappe66]

Thanks for the tip 😀 I know the rig is right in front of me and I'm indeed thinking about what would I upgrade next. I have a vision of having 2x 7970s, 256GB SSD as a boot drive, 1TB or 2TB storage and adding more airflow to the case (for example adding push/pull to the radiators instead of just pull). Also if EK or some other company releases full motherboard block for Z87-PRO you can be sure that I'll get it 😀

Wow I see you have upgraded from your 580s to TWO Titans! feeling like extreme overkill already? 😀

EDIT:

We actually have quite similar rigs if you look at it in terms of hardware, and I have given much thought into the upgrade path of my rig.

Spoiler

Monitors are your only way forward now 😛.

No, monitors are not the only way to go forward 😀 read above^

I'm not really fan of 3 monitors so when talking about them, my upgrades will only go up in size. Current 23" is enough for me but maybe in a year I will be changing to 24" and above 😀

 

[4Ryan6]

Well you have the bug now and you will be sitting there ever day looking at your rig and while admiring your work you will also be thinking of things that you could have done differently. So what you want to do so you don't go broke and become homeless sitting on the side of the road with your computer :lol: is to start a notebook log of things that you notice and would change next time. Plan for a yearly water system upgrade and then a two rear component overhaul, however since you are infected I don't know if you'll be able to wait. :lol:

Cool statement, but was that meant for him or you?

Two Hydro Copper Titans!

Awwwesome!

 

[inzone]

Actually both but I can't seem to follow my own advice. :lol:

 

[manofchalk]

No, monitors are not the only way to go forward 😀

But however will you justify Crossfire 7970's 😀
Of course, you could go with a 1440p screen or a 120hz. At this rate a 4K display may even be a possibility.

Inzone, your rig is too beast, has it grown horns yet?
Thinking like big, old Minotaur horns.

 

[inzone]

Funny you should mention that as I am beginning to do a transfer from the CM HAF-X to a new Case Labs TH-10 Magnum case with the additional pedestal piece. I could rent this case out as a small apartment. Stay tuned as I will begin a build log soon. I was hoping that the rumors of Intel releasing a i7-3980X were true but I'm starting to think that it was just something that got cancelled. Intel is now saying that an 8 core Ivy Bridge-E will be coming out so maybe it got redirected to that and it's supposed to fit the 2011 socket

 

[jappe66]

No, monitors are not the only way to go forward 😀

But however will you justify Crossfire 7970's 😀
Of course, you could go with a 1440p screen or a 120hz. At this rate a 4K display may even be a possibility.

I'll be thinking about the monitor change later 😛 My current monitor is still quite new and I think I'm gonna stick with it for a while.

Funny you should mention that as I am beginning to do a transfer from the CM HAF-X to a new Case Labs TH-10 Magnum case with the additional pedestal piece. I could rent this case out as a small apartment. Stay tuned as I will begin a build log soon. I was hoping that the rumors of Intel releasing a i7-3980X were true but I'm starting to think that it was just something that got cancelled. Intel is now saying that an 8 core Ivy Bridge-E will be coming out so maybe it got redirected to that and it's supposed to fit the 2011 socket

They're releasing i7-4960X, i7-4930K and i7-4820K in September (Ivy Bridge-E). Just read about it today

 

[inzone]

Hmmm... Must have been the Haswell-E then and that's slated for next year, don't know why these E processors come out so late, I mean Ivy Bridge has been out for quite awhile now and even Haswell is now released and their just now talking Ivy Bridge-E in the Fall ? Don't make sense.

 

[jappe66]

Hmmm... Must have been the Haswell-E then and that's slated for next year, don't know why these E processors come out so late, I mean Ivy Bridge has been out for quite awhile now and even Haswell is now released and their just now talking Ivy Bridge-E in the Fall ? Don't make sense.

Yeah the Haswell-E will bring DDR4 and LGA2011-3 socket to the market Release will be H2/2014 so even I'm maybe getting one 😛 It's still a year away so it could be that yearly upgrade you were talking about 😉