My First Ever Custom Case

[TopSecret]

I have just finished building my first custom case and it was good fun. Especially as I didn't have any plans drawn up and it sort of all came together without any major strategy. Basically, I wanted an acrylic cube case but could only find the micro ATX type, which wouldn't house all my hardware. So I decided to build one!

Specs of the rig are as follows:

Asus P5K

Leadtek 8800 Ultra Leviathan factory OC'ed

C2D E8400 OC @ 4GHz

Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 4GB Kit OC @ 1GHz

ThermalTake toughpower 750 PSU

WD 250GB SATA II HD

18x DVD RW

Danger Den MC TDX 775 & EK 8800 full cover waterblocks

XSPC RS240 radiator and 750l/ph res/pump

The barbs and tubing are 1/2″ and I use Feser 1 coolant.

It took me just over a week to complete it, and I still have to install some lighting but that can wait!

Cheers,

Stuart

 

[kataras]

ohh my coolness, that is some sexy rig

what sorta temps you get, wanted to get xspc rad myself, been told, airflow is very restrictive on them

 

[JN]

Very tidy, yet industrial looking. Me likey

 

[TopSecret]

Thanks! I was aiming for an industrial feel with the rig, and the grills really help.

The temps as read by Speedfan are 35c at idle with the 4Ghz OC, and 38c at full load using Prime95 stress test so I am happy with the rad. The fans on the rad are from an Antec 900 and I have them set on medium speed.

 

[Pseudonym]

Only 3c increase, that's very very nice. Can you push the chip any further?

 

[TopSecret]

I can't get past 4.06GHz unless I ramp up the voltages, which I am not keen on doing. I know I could probably get a better stable OC, but the rigs fast enough for everything I chuck at it so I left it at 4GHz.

 

[!TIMMY!]

Very, very nice!!! U shud get on the bench team with that bad boy.

 

[FarFarAway]

That is one tasty rig mate, you should be very proud

 

[firefly]

It's Orac!

For those too young to remember Blakes 7

http://www.frost.net/~matthewf/orac.html

http://www.waveney.demon.co.uk/whoswho/Orac.jpeg

replica;

http://www.blakes-7.co.uk/pictures/gadgets/orac1large.jpg

http://www.blakes-7.co.uk/pictures/gadgets/orac3large.jpg

 

[Mr. Smith]

Smooth as a motha F!

 

[TopSecret]

Thanks again! I have heard that it reminds peeps of ORAC a few times now. I wish i had known about it before I started the project and it could have been ORAC V.2

Cheers,

Stuart

 

[PV5150]

I can't believe I missed this Stuart as it's a bloody nice rig. Excellent result

 

[TopSecret]

Thanks! I have got a problem now though, and that's where to go now with this rig. I have enjoyed messing around with it for over a year now. It originally started life in a Gigabyte 3DFusion case, then an Antec 900 and now it's in it's current form.

The hardware has evolved too. I started with an Asus P5N-e SLi, and an 8800 GTS 320mb, 2gb RAM, a C2D E6600 and air cooling. Slowly, over the course of the year, everything has changed and this is my favourite part. I love tinkering, but I am never happy with the final result. I always end up thinking about how I could improve it.

It looks like it may be time for a new project! It will give the missus something to moan about for a few weeks ;-)

 

[inonefly]

nice work on the rig, what coolant you using?

 

[TopSecret]

Thanks, the cooloant is Feser 1.

 

[TopSecret]

I have sold the Ultra and bought myself a 9800GX2. So it's all change with the PC at the moment. Basically, I am now going to be running the GX2 on stock air until I manage to get a block for it. I am also going to be setting up another loop when I get the block, one for the CPU and one for the GPU. I have to get another pump, res and rad too so it won't be up and running for a month or so. The current 240mm rad will be used for the GPU and I will be buying a 120mm rad for the CPU. I am going to use two different coloured coolants in the loops, so it should look good when it's finished.

There should be plenty of room within the case for another loop but it means I have to get working a little harder to finance the new kit There was nothing wrong with the PC as it was, it's just that I get bored when I have nothing to do with it. I might try and actually use the PC for a change, instead of building/rebuilding all the time I am looking forward to running some benchies, and I might even have a few sessions on Crysis.

Cheers,

Stuart

 

[BloomerzUK]

Looking forward to it. Not sure if there is a great availability on GX2 blocks at the moment.

Edit: Spoke to soon

http://www.aqua-pcs.co.uk/ek-fc9800-gx2-sli-1312-p.asp

 

[TopSecret]

I got the 9800GX2 today and have installed it. I haven't had the time to put it through it's paces yet though. The bloody thing is huge!! It also kicks some heat into the case too. I had to install another fan on the side panel aimed at it to keep things cool.

as I said earlier, the next job is getting and setting up another WC loop, but I'm not going to be rushing to do it.

 

[Socks]

SEXY!!!

Im liking these builds everyone is doing....May get round to making myself one.

Id love to make one like this, but make the entire outside and all sides of it a reservoir. Just gotta think about cooling it all with no fans first. lmfao.

 

[TopSecret]

I had some major problems with the rig last week and have ended up rebuilding in my Antec 900 for now. I was repairing a printer the other day, when I noticed the PC had reset itself, so I kept an eye on it for a mo. It done it again after a few seconds and just kept restarting every time it got to the desktop. I checked for all the usual culprits and couldn't find anything wrong, so I started swapping out components one at a time to see if any of them were playing up.

After I had reinstalled Vista, swapped out the GPU, CPU, PSU, memory, and hard drive, it was still playing up so the only thing left to try was the mobo. I hoped it wouldn't come down to that as it meant draining off the WC loop and stripping the rig down. I didn't have any other choice though, it took me ages aswell. I dropped in an Asus P5N-E SLi, rebuilt the rig and it worked a treat for the first 5 minutes, then it crashed and then refused to POST.

I double checked all the components on my test rig and got the multimeter out on the PSU, but couldn't find anything wrong other than the 2 mobos being trashed. As I say, the PSU and components were fine, so the only thing I can think that may have caused it is a static discharge from the acrylic, or I was just purely unlucky enough to get 2 mobo failures in the same day! I didn't mind the P5N-E SLi so much, but the P5K is only a few weeks old, I will have to wait and see what Asus say about the RMA.

I ended up having to buy another mobo, I got an Abit IP35 Pro and I am well pleased with it. The board's layout is great and it is a good OC friendly board! I decided to rebuild the rig using my Antec 900 for now as I don't want the expense of another mobo and can't be sure that the acrylic wasn't at fault. I am also running the CPU with an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro at the mo, as space is limited in my 900 for the WC loop.

I will be using the rig as is for the forseeable future, I am gutted cos it took alot of work building the acrylic case. I am thinking of building a new case, based around the mountain mod designs, in aluminium. My cousin is putting together a design for me in Solidworks, and he can get me some 'cheap' metal from his work so hopefully it won't take me too long once I get going. That's going to be a few weeks away though, as I have too much on at work at the mo.