Arashikage - All White Build

[SrgntBallistic]

Arashikage | Storm Shadow
From Japanese
嵐 Arashi (Storm) and 影 Kage (Shadow)
Silent and Deadly White Ninja Build

Most recent update: Main Build Done!

Table of Contents:
1.Introduction/Parts List/Rationale<- You are here lol

2.Parts Snow Shoot!

3.Asus TUF Z97 Sabertooth Mark S Photos

4.Enermax ETS-T40 White Cluster Photos

5.Fractal Design Define R5 Photos

6.​

Welcome to my first major Build Log! I’ve built quite a few systems in the past but nothing with this heavy and thought out of a theme. If you take a look at the parts you’ll see I’m going for an high-key white on white on white look. I’ve also got quite a few ideas for mods above and beyond the initial build.

This will replace my Corsair C70/FX-8350/Sabertooth 990FX/EVGA GTX 770 build as my primary gaming rig. One of the biggest issues I have with this current rig is that it sounds like a jet engine under load, and even at idle it isn't that great. This will likely become a very nice looking test bench. Not sure I can get rid of it. It was my first personal non-donor build in quite a while.

I'm hoping to keep the build as silent as possible. The Define R5 should hopefully help with that. I also eventually want to go with a fully custom water cooling loop, but for now will probably start out with air cooling.


Mods will include some painting of parts, custom graphics/vinyls and probably quite a bit of other things as the system comes together to get as clean and stealthy look as is possible.

A Huge Thank You to the sponsors of this build. So far they are as follows -

Sponsor images are waaaaayyy too big. Please resize to 200x200 px or 300x100 px and re-upload

Phase I Main Build
Main Components
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 White Windowed (sponsored, acquired)
CPU: Intel i7 4790K (kindly furnished by Intel and LinusTech, acquired lol)
Mobo: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 Mark S (bought, acquired)
PSU: Fractal Design Newton R3 1000w White (sponsored, acquired)
GPU(s): 2X - EVGA GTX 980 FTW (1/2 bought, 1/2 acquired)
RAM: Avexir Mark S LED lit 16GB (4x4GB) 1600 MHz (sponsored, acquired)
SSD: 2X - Intel 730 240GB (bought, acquired)
Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40W | White Cluster (bought, acquired)

Other Components
Cables: Ensourced Custom Accessories
Capture Storage: 1TB WD Blue 7,200 RPM HDD (bought, acquired)
Fans: Fractal Design Venturis (sponsored, acquired)
SLI Bridge: UNDECIDED
LED Strips: UNDECIDED
GPU BACKPLATE(s): EVGA FTW backplate (bought, acquired)

PCPartPicker:http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fCdMgs

About Me
I'm an avid gamer and technology enthusiast. I also enjoy photography and making videos so I've parlayed that into a budding YouTube Channel. I review products, build PCs, ocassionally post gaming content and just anything I think is fun. I've been lucky enough to be a guest host on shows like Tech Talk with Jay and Jerry and Pimp My Setup with Matt Philie. I just love making content to educate and entertain others.

I'm really active on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so check out the links in my profile if you want to see more of what I'm up to!

Build Rationale and Inspiration
This will be my primary gaming machine. I'll go ahead and call it my "Dream Build"

Why are you calling it "Arashikage"
So this whole build idea was initially born out of the release of the ASUS Z97 Sabertooth Mark S. I had planned on getting a Mark 1 and then this was released. From there I started looking at white cases and talking to Josh at Fractal Design, and oddly enough one of the G.I. Joe movies came on one night in a bar and I thought Storm Shadow is the most bad a$$ character in the Joe universe.

I watched the shows and movies growing up. Had a ton of the toys when we could afford them and read quite a few of the comic books. So when I saw Storm Shadow everything just kind of came together. He's an all white ninja so my build will be as well

Why this is a significant build for me
Growing up I didn't have the money to make custom and purpose build gaming PCs. I picked up parts and whole systems from anywhere I could to put together the best machine I could (hardly ever good enough to run a modern title even on low-med settings).

Every custom build I've done in the past 7 years have almost all been AMD as their Cost/Performance ratio tends to be a lot more attractive for someone with a small budget. I have two FX8350 builds currently.

I've wanted to do an Intel and NVIDIA build for quite a while now. AMD has gotten stale with their enthusiast based platform while Intel continues to release refreshes and improved platforms. X99 pricing is out of the question for now, but having the opportunity to get some parts sponsored I'm able to splurge a bit on some really high-end/premium components. So Haswell-E - 4790K and my first 2-Way SLI system is what we have!


Build Log Format
This is my first build log like this so I'm kinda playing it by ear and what I like from others. I've got some pics below of the components I have in so far. I'll continue to post unboxings and any integration I do as it happens. Like I said this is my first Build Log like this so, I'm kinda just playing it by ear and basing it off of what I've seen and liked in build logs from the likes ofJameswalt1

If you guys want to see anything in particular let me know!

Thanks and I hope you guys like it!

 

[SrgntBallistic]

So there was a bit of a snow storm where I live. Delayed a few of the parts for this and a couple other builds I'm working on. But we got out of work early enough for me to have light to shoot some photos and videos. So I tried my hand at a little bit of a snow shoot. I really Like a couple of the shots.

All the components so far again

Even the Sabranco mother board just screams "Arctic Warfare!"

Didn't freeze the snowflakes as well in some of these as the others. Required like 1/4000th s

Fractal Design Stuff is just kinda used to this weather

I wish the snow would have waited for the finished build the this case looks pretty at home

And this one might be my favorite!

That's it for today but I'll hopefully start some other unboxings this week.​

 

[SrgntBallistic]

So I haven't had time to do any major unboxing video content yet. But I just couldn't wait to check out the Sabranco (Mark S). I went a little crazy cause so much came with it and there's so much detail to see. Hope you like the pics!

 

[TPC]

Feronix is that you???
Lovely parts there mate. Looking forward to the build.

 

[SrgntBallistic]

Feronix is that you???
Lovely parts there mate. Looking forward to the build.

Thanks! This is my first build log so I'm just kind of looking at other logs and emulating some of the things I like seeing.

Any feedback positive or negative is welcome!

 

[SrgntBallistic]

So I went ahead and decided to go with the Enermax ETS-T40 White Cluster for the CPU cooler. At least to start out with (Really want to water cool this eventually). But It's obviously all white.

The powder coating is pretty good. I'ver heard this and the Black version perform pretty well.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fans. The Enermax cutouts are kinda cool but would rather the thin plastic of the body, mounts and fan blades to color match perfectly but will probably look pretty good with LEDs on.

I like the sleeved cable but wish it covered the entire length. We'll see if I feel like resleeving it (probably not! lol). It has a little push button for the LEDs. Overall I'm happy to have it in the build!

Now for some pics!

 

[SrgntBallistic]

Took some time to film and photograph the Fractal Design Define R5. Really loving this case. The amount of refinements FD have make show how much they pay attention to their customers, the industry and reviewers. Air and Water cooling should be a breeze and cable management should be great.

I love the captive thumbscrews. My only gripes so far are that the captive screws aren't used everywhere and that the color/texture matching between the plastic and metal isn't perfect. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Thanks again to Fractal Design for their support of mine and other YouTube Channels as well as partial sponsorship of this build!

 

[SrgntBallistic]

Very Pleased to have Avexir as a sponsor for this build! They've provided a kit of their 16GB (4 x 4GB) Series Sabranco DDR3 RAM (1600MHz CL11)! This is some pretty unique RAM aimed at modders and overclockers. It's of course white and has a custom color scheme to match almost perfectly with my Asus Z97 Sabertooth Mark S Motherboard (Pics - Video Review). They also make heat spreaders that match several other high-end motherboards such as the MPower series from MSI. Go check them out!

These dimms actually have build in LEDs running along the top which turn on in a special breathing pattern to show RAM activity I'll definitely be getting some HQ pics and video of that so stay tuned!

 

[Davva2004]

Looking good so far!

 

[Tolemac]

Oooh white build ^^ subbed but I would have gone with a Superflower PSU but i'm biased on that decision

 

[SrgntBallistic]

Oooh white build ^^ subbed but I would have gone with a Superflower PSU but i'm biased on that decision

Thanks for the sub! I'm actually not familiar with that PSU manufacturer. Perhaps because I'm from the US? I can't seem to find it on any of the major retailers here.

The PSU, Case and Fans (not shown yet) have all been sponsored by Fractal Design so that was obviously the best deal I could get for that!

 

[Doomslayer]

EVGA SuperNova G2 is a rebrand Superflower 750 watt and up i think

 

[Excalabur50]

This is going to be an interesting build and I like the shots you took in the snow

 

[SrgntBallistic]

This is going to be an interesting build and I like the shots you took in the snow

Thanks for checking it out. Those shots were both awesome and a pain in the butt. I want to do another shoot in the snow when the build is complete but there's some obvious dangers to that....

EVGA SuperNova G2 is a rebrand Superflower 750 watt and up i think

Oh cool. I wasn't sure who the OEM for EVGA's PSUs were. I remember seeing something about it in a Johnny Guru review a while back.

It makes sense now though. Super Flower may not have the means to distribute in the US/North America so if they OEM/ODM for EVGA it gives them a way into the market.

 

[SrgntBallistic]

The first of my 2 240GB Intel 730 SSDs came in. Never used an Intel drive before. I know they make all of their on stuff and I've heard good things about their controllers. Figured I'd try them out as they'll look ok in my build even before I paint them.

Second should be here before the end of the week.

 

[SrgntBallistic]

So here is the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 FTW. Pretty killer graphics card. Really love the LED lights. Other than that it's not that big of a departure from the previous ACX heat shroud/cooler design, visually at least.

One pretty disappointing feature it's missing is a backlpate. This is a pretty high end card considering the reference card had one I think anyone charging more than the reference should include one.

That said the Titan X didn't have a backplate so it might have just be in flash in the pan.

And now for some pics!

 

[SrgntBallistic]

So here's the backplate I picked up for the EVGA GeForce GTX 980. I'm still disappointed it didn't come with a backplate but I'm happy with the way it will end up looking.

Think I'll probably be painting it to help it fit into the white them better.

I did a dry fit with the gpu. Just placed it on top It looks pretty dam sexy!

 

[SrgntBallistic]

IT'S BUILD TIME!
Well just a test build outside the case and Power On Self Test check. I pulled out my trusty testbench (AKA the motherboard box). And assembled the Motherboard, CPU, PSU GPU, and stock cooler.

Everything worked fine out of the box which is always a great feeling. I photographed and took video of everything so I'll be starting my build Video Log soon. Check it out on youtube.com/c/SrgntBallistic.

But here's some of the pics I took of the process. The EVGA GTX 980 FTW has led lighting which looks great but I think the highlight is the Avexir Core Series DDR3 RAM kit which are LED lit and look pretty sick!

The "Open Air Test Bench"

So the plan is to do some basic benchmarks/stress tests with the stock cooler, then pop on the Enermax ETS-T40 White cluster and compare temperatures to see how much better it performs.

I still have new PC builders asking why and if they "have" to buy an after market cooler for X cpu/case. Just want to show them a practical example so they can form opinions for themselves as to whether $40 for an air cooler or $100+ for some AIO coolers is necessary for what they'll be doing.

 

[Doomslayer]

Oh cool. I wasn't sure who the OEM for EVGA's PSUs were. I remember seeing something about it in a Johnny Guru review a while back.

It makes sense now though. Super Flower may not have the means to distribute in the US/North America so if they OEM/ODM for EVGA it gives them a way into the market.

It's not all of the EVGA PSU's only the SuperNova G2 750watt and up like i said i know the Supernova G2's are but i'm not sure at which wattage they start being a Superflower.

Also some advice don't multi post just do it all in one post you don't want to made the Mods mad.

 

[sheroo]

Lookin' good!!!