[BL] Feronix goes ITX

[Feronix]

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If you want to see the end result, you can check out there Rig Gallery here!

Thanks to Corsair for supplying me with RAM!



Heya guys!

Since my final exams are over and I now have a LOT of spare time on my hands, I thought it was time to finally start the new build. This is an early introduction as I'm currently still working on getting the funds together but I wanted to start the build log anyway

So I was looking for a lot of things in one build; It has to be OS X compatible, it has to be ITX, it needs to look good, be relatively quiet and still cool plenty. There's also kinda a strict budget as a student. The computer will be used for PhotoSoup/ video editing, and a bit of gaming. After weeks of researching and reading I came up with the following spec list:

- Bitfenix Phenom ITX White
'-> Bitfenix Spectre Pro 230 mm fan in white (with a simple mod)
'-> Bitfenix Molex to 3x3 pin 7Volt white sleeved
- Corsair RM 650 with white cable kit
- Gigabyte GA-H87n-WiFi
- Intel Xeon 1230 V3
'-> Corsair H60 2013 Edition
'-> Bitfenix Spectre Pro 120mm PWM white (with a mod again)
- 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance 2400MHz
- 2 x 1Tb WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM (One for storage/programs, one for OS X)
- 240GB Crucial M500 SSD
'-> Bitfenix Molex to 3xSata white sleeved
- EVGA GTX 760 ACX 2GB

As you may or may not have guessed the colour scheme will be black & white, with some tiny green accents. There will be some mods involved but nothing too special with powertools and all (I don't really have those anyway )

Off to a good start: After unboxing the Phenom I wanted to take the Flexcage out (the upper HDD cage) and the clips just snapped off. Luckily for me I won't need them at all, but this is just poor :huh:

Now the Phenom doesn't have the absolute best front intake. I needed to take care of that. At first I wanted to do this by making the holes at the sides bigger but as you can see them through the mesh I didn't want to mess that up and decided to go with a somewhat more subtle approach at the bottom:

Before:

After:

Filed it down a little and it looks alright, straight at least, but you won't see it anyway. Should probably get some mesh/dust filter in there though.

Considering so far I only have the case here yet, there's not much else I can do so far so I decided to make her 100% ready to start the build. After removing the stock fans I decided that the LED cables also needed to go. I never even use them in my own builds and it would only create more clutter in what is already a small case with many cables.

Then I noticed that the audio cable shows quite a bit of colour on both ends. Especially between the HD Audio and AC '97 connectors, where it isn't covered by anything at all. Fixed

Although I might still decide to remove this and just cut off the AC '97 connector entirely. Does anyone know if this is safe to do?

I then decided that after the stock fans, LED cable, 5.25" bay , top HDD cage and mounts for the top HDD cage the 2.5" drive slots on the right side panel needed to be removed too:

Finally, I started a tiny bit of cable management. I've already thought it out completely, now all I need to do is actually get the rest of the components to do the build :lol:

 

[barnsley]

oooh is this a possible hackentosh I see before me?

 

[Zoot]

Although I might still decide to remove this and just cut off the AC '97 connector entirely. Does anyone know if this is safe to do?

Should be fine.

The only thing to watch is if any of wires that are left get shorted together
AC'97 pinout.

 

[QuietOne]

Like Zoot says, you will be fine. TTL cut his during his TNR build.

 

[Feronix]

oooh is this a possible hackentosh I see before me?

Dual boot, yes matey

Should be fine.

The only thing to watch is if any of wires that are left get shorted together
AC'97 pinout.

Like Zoot says, you will be fine. TTL cut his during his TNR build.

Thanks guys!

 

[Feronix]

For Barnsley's infamous totally-accurate-especially-when-you-take-skewed-photos vodka bottle size comparison:

Tiny, tiny update:
Some concepts that I'm planning to use in this build

 

[barnsley]

Nice bottles. they go well with the theme .

Are those Spectre Pros? I've heard mixed stuff about them :I.

 

[SuB]

Are those Spectre Pros? I've heard mixed stuff about them :I.

obligatory I had spectre pro's and i hate them /post

 

[wassupdoc]

If it's not plugged in you can cut it off Think about it logically, no current is flowing down the wires - nowhere to flow to - no need to keep it

I do love iTX builds!

 

[NJB Mods]

Love those RAM!

Make it happen!

 

[Feronix]

Nice bottles. they go well with the theme .

Are those Spectre Pros? I've heard mixed stuff about them :I.

Yes, I'm going to finish that last bottle right before doing the build I think!

That would be a modified Spectre Pro as they either come in all white or all black. I've decided that I want a black frame with white blades. Actually, the only one that I've ever heard complain about them is SuB, so I'm thinking he may have had a bad batch :lol:

If it's not plugged in you can cut it off Think about it logically, no current is flowing down the wires - nowhere to flow to - no need to keep it

I do love iTX builds!

Makes sense, I'll do that later! It's just that I wasn't sure if any of the connectors shared cables (like cables that ran from the HD Audio to AC'97 connector and back).

Love those RAM!

Make it happen!

I shall try my best

 

[Etlar]

How is the build going dear mate ?

 

[Feronix]

How is the build going dear mate ?

Heya matey!

Thanks for the RAM, will certainly come in handy (even though I was planning to get 2x8GB (only 2 RAM slots on ITX) @ 2400MHz kit, I might just run it with these first and see if I can get some good overclocks when I put 1.5v through them

The build is currently on a bit of a hold though, finances are a bit tight atm, and I'm facing an incredibly busy week (gran died this weekend and we need to arrange the funeral and everything, she lived at a nursing home and they even want all her stuff out of the house by next week, which is ridiculous but okay).

I'll try to find some time during the week though, then I'll give the RAM kit a test drive and might do some cable lacing. It might also be time to finally fix that audio header on the case. Just doing small things to prepare everything before I can order the big stuff

Edit;
Chucked the RAM in the backup PC (Hackintosh) and it all works like a charm Shame this cheap Gigabyte Z77 board doesn't have a lot of memory tweaking options next to XMP Profile1 (can't even set it to 1866 which should be easy for this kit) but thanks a lot

 

[RickPlaysWarr]

Hi

Can't wait to see the end of this build. Its great to see another mITX Hackintosh build. Are you using TonyMacX86 stuff to do your build?

--Rick--

 

[barnsley]

man part of me wishes I got a gigabyte 'board for my builds. OS X has been pretty neat at times .

 

[Antony1995]

Subbed this should turn out great
I gave OS X a go on my current rig and was amazed it worked because of my spec. Was slow as hell though

 

[Feronix]

Hi

Can't wait to see the end of this build. Its great to see another mITX Hackintosh build. Are you using TonyMacX86 stuff to do your build?

--Rick--

Hey!

I was going to, but I'm really tempted to go the more difficult route this time. If I have to do everything manually, at least I'll get a vague understanding of how to OS is built up, rather than just doing an install and get some kexts from the internet.

Not sure though, might just want to get it up and running and use the Tonymac way as it worked really well in the past. Actually sold my main rig Monday so while I'm waiting for new parts I've been using my backup machine (with OS X only) and honestly, it's not a bad daily driver... like at all. Just a shame some of the things don't work (mainly any sort of sound input like the mic and Midi keyboard).

man part of me wishes I got a gigabyte 'board for my builds. OS X has been pretty neat at times .

Not too late to swap it out? Surely you'll lose a bit but meh, if you really want it

Subbed this should turn out great
I gave OS X a go on my current rig and was amazed it worked because of my spec. Was slow as hell though

Thank you! It should, but I can't promise anything

As said above, I've been using it for nearly a week now on an i3, HD4000, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HDD and not once have I felt the need to grab my Windows laptop (neither do games anyway).

Update

Well, I gave the cable lacing a try. It was a nightmare, I hate you all for making me want to do this :lol:

Didn't help that I was using sewing thread, but I guess it turned out nicely for a first attempt. Also an awesome way to add some subtle green accents.

Out of the entire bag of cables to the left, I need a whopping 3 of them. One PCI-E cable for the GTX 760, one 4 pin EPS cable for the CPU power and one of the Molex cables to use my Molex>Sata and Molex>3x3pin 5v adaptors.
Hope I can find a white 24 pin somewhere soon

After countless of hours and profanity (both literally) I got this:

(don't worry about the one on the far left, it's the backside).

More updates incoming hopefully this weekend!

 

[Dicehunter]

Shaping up to be quite a sexy build, Might have a play around with OSX when I get a chance

 

[Feronix]

Doesn't happen often that your GPU box is twice as big as the motherboard one

 

[lAnimal]

That's a big fan too! How come the gpu box is so large though? :huh: