WetSandyBeast

tiagojcp

New member
Hi guys,

This is the history of my rig.

Back in 2011 my brother wanted a desktop pc, so instead of buying the cheapest thing available, he got mine, and that gave me an excuse to buy a new system.

I kept the case, a Cooler Master ATCs 840 (still my favourite case) and bought the following components:

i5 2500k
MSI P67A GD65
4GB Gskill 1600MHz
2x Radeon 6950 (flashed bios to 6970)
Cooler Master Silent Proo 850w
Zalman CNPS 10x

In 2012 I got tired of the Zalmans noise to keep low temps when in load, and bought a Corsair H100. Until February 2013 and after many cosmetic changes to the case and components, my pc looked like this (all pictures taken with Nokia N97, sorry):



After a failed bios update, I replaced the GD65 for an Asus Maximus IV Extreme (dual bios and more space between graphics cards). So until August, this was my pc:



This summer I got REALLY tired of the graphics cards noise. So I had two options: Buy a new one with a silent cooler, or watercool the system.

I have so many older games to play (steam deals and stuff), that I don't need more graphycs power for a couple of years so... watercooling!!!

My rule was - As cheap as possible but with good looks, so this is what I came up with:

Phobya Balancer 250 silver nickel
2x Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X³ 69X0
6x Swiftech Helix fan PWM
Phobya CPU-Cooler UC-2 LT Silver
12x 13/10mm (10x1,5mm) compression fitting outer thread 1/4
Phobya DC12-400
2x Phobya G-Changer 360 Ver. 1.2 Black

The case had to be modded in order to fit two 360 rads, but isn't painted because I don't have a wide and dust free and cat free space to do it. So here are some pictures of the final product.






I wanted to put my 3 hdd in the 5.25 bays with some adapters, but I couldn't get then on time, so I used the bottom fan holes to hold them in place with screws and foam tape to reduce the vibration.

I don't have any lights for now. The CPU block as four holes for 3mm leds, so in the future I may try some in white.





I was planning to have the DVD drive as external, because I only use it to rip CDs (to flac) and play Morrowind, but since I found a better place for the HDDs, I've put it in the case. The bay covers are from the CM Storm Stryker.


SDDs love double sided tape.



The desk: WetSandyBeast, Dell U2713hm, Ozone Stryke keyboard (cherry mx black, portuguese layout), Steelseries Diablo III (Sensei) mouse with 8 year old Qck mouse mat, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD soundcard and Grundig CRT TV remote.

Hope you liked it, and sorry for the low quality photos. Any questions, please ask.
 
Looks great mate, i love the way your hard drive look there.

What kind of temps do you get on your cpu and gpus?
 
Looks great mate, i love the way your hard drive look there.

What kind of temps do you get on your cpu and gpus?

Thanks

I wanted to have the fans (pwm) controled by the board, but since it didn't work, I have them connected to a 7v molex. Dead silent, but don't move a lot of air.

The CPU is at 1.485v (4.9GHz) and at max load 73ºC
The GPUs are at 1.22v (930MHz) and at max load 55ºC

I have the PC in my (small) bed room and it's really hot here in the summer, so the temps will never go higher than that.
 
I actually quite like the silver, on the rear panel at least. It accents the tubing and fittings quite nicely :) Nice rig!
 
Yeah, looking good. I like how you put your HDD's..

I'm gonna have the same difficulty with my upcoming build because I picked a rad over HDD racks aswell ;)
 
I love how the drives are arranged in the bottom, is that default with the case or did you create a bracket?
Nice rig mate!
 
I love how the drives are arranged in the bottom, is that default with the case or did you create a bracket?
Nice rig mate!

That's just the default bottom fan mount from the case, some screws, and foam tape between the drives and the case. No mod there.

A last resort solution turned into feature :).
 
Yeah This looks pretty sharp. Took an older case and kept it looking stylish and being functional. Great temps on everything as well, good job.
 
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