Newish rig sorta kinda maybe.

[AlienALX]

So I bought a Threadripper board and CPU (1920x and X399 Carbon) to replace my ailing X99 rig. I was going to throw it into the Alienware case and put the H80i V2 on but well, I had a spare water block. This one.

At first I thought I would just shove it all in the silver Alienware (Dianoga) and bingo bongo new rig. Sadly I forgot that the silver Alienware can't really hold more than one 2.5" drive, so that idea was kinda screwed. I have about 5 hard drives I need in this new build.

IDK if you remember Dianoga, but here is the last shot of it running before it got stripped out.

That was an awfully long time ago. Maybe two years or more, IDK. I threw what I had into the Triad case and it's been used in that since. But it's annoying me once again because of its lack of cooling potential, so once again it will be shoved in storage.

Not sure what case I am going with yet but it will be water focused.

I know, it's a mess. The rest of the fittings are in a Quality Street tin lol. Thankfully I know where they all are. Some of them are nasty cheapo things, and I am not in the mood for them so I bought 5 of these.

I know I have some Monsoon chainguns in green and possibly silver that were in there, but it has been so long I just don't remember. What I did need was a way to use the D5 pump that is in there without the bay res thing. Mostly because cases these days don't have bays, but also because it has hairline cracks in the back (doesn't leak) but it looks like ass. Someone gave it all to me free (the EK 360 rad and the pump bay res).

So I got this.

Basically a nasty plain black top is £35. That was £33, for the pump cover, "top" thing and the stand. Cool beans.

I also ordered 3m of clear hose, and will be reusing my Bitspower Z tank 100mm. It should literally bolt straight onto the pump.

The rest will be coming out of the Alienware Triad (so Aorus PSU, drives, GPU etc).

 

[AlienALX]

Right well now this is turning into something mildly exciting.

Last night I began the boresome task of trying to find a case. I found a few, but by the time I had them how I wanted them they were either £250 or I would have to take risks on a cheap case no one has reviewed and take my chances everything would fit.

I lined up several options (which I won't lie I wasted most of a day doing) but none of them really appealed to me. I decided to sleep on it, then order one when I landed at my mother's today.

And I nearly did. However for some reason this thing popped up.

Interesting. So I decided to look at the cases it would work in. See, most of these are around the same price (about £80) but unfortunately the cases they need to fit and work properly are north of £150. However, that one listed these cases.

PHANTEKS Enthoo Primo
PHANTEKS Enthoo Pro
PHANTEKS Enthoo Enthoo Pro TG
PHANTEKS Enthoo Luxe
PHANTEKS Enthoo Luxe TG
PHANTEKS Evolv ATX
PHANTEKS Evolv ATX TG
PHANTEKS Enthoo Pro M
PHANTEKS Enthoo Pro M TG
PHANTEKS Evolv X
PHANTEKS Eclipse P600S
PHANTEKS Enthoo Luxe 2

So I was like "OK, let's just run Enthoo and see how much we laugh".

I stopped laughing when this popped up on OCUK clearance for £59.

I couldn't have ordered it any faster. £148. Less than I was prepared to spend on just a case.

Oh and yeah, it won't look anything like this.

 

[trawetSluaP]

You certainly have a lot of unique looking parts!

That CPU block is gorgeous.

 

[AlienALX]

That block was £32. Amazing what you can get from China for peanuts tbh. It looks lovely all lit up too.

OK so I did the tear down earlier. Took a while. Got tons of fittings (5 Monsoon chain guns, few XSPC, three Monsoon fat ass rotaries etc).

Now let's see which of our sharp eyed members can see what I have screwed up.

Look back through the thread and tell me which part I ordered that I had to cancel lol.

 

[AlienALX]

OK I now haz all the fittings.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so maybe you noticed that I had ordered a D5 kit for a DDC pump lmao. DOH.

Thankfully I managed to cancel it. Could have sworn this pump was a D5

Got these instead, cost about the same.

 

[AlienALX]

That ought to do the ordering.

 

[AlienALX]

Ordered two kits of those last night. Issue is the ram I have is red, which is no good in a green themed build.

Then the issues started lol.

I watched a few reviews of the case on YT and they all complained about the packing for the case.

Now I can see why. Thing is, I didn't even order a windowed version. Am currently getting that sorted. Here is the clear coolant I ordered LOL

So aye, that's no good either.

Hopefully I can come to some sort of resolution on the case because it's fine otherwise (will explain later) and then I can start building in it.

The board and CPU came too. Never bought a second hand board that was so complete tbh. Like, everything is there.

 

[AlienALX]

Sorted it with OCUK. First thing to do was take the entire chassis apart and change out the front 200mm white fan for two Eloop.

Frames were left over from the Alienware build.

Get rads ready (they have been cleaned) and fit the fans on etc. Then mount the top rad into the roof panel.

Mess

Fit the rads to the case, put the top back on.

Fit distro panel (temp, it still has plastic peel on it) and see if the vert riser fits.

And then tidy up.

 

[AlienALX]

Fitted the first (and only for now) tube.

Was more of a test as to how much skin I was going to lose. Not as much as XSPC hose it would seem.

 

[AlienALX]

Quick RGB test. The block is 12v 4 pin also, so that can be ran with these. Not sure on the distro yet, but the mobo has controllers for both thank god.

It's nice being able to use up spare parts I have just had lying around for ages and ages and get some use out of the money spent tbh.

 

[AlienALX]

Pump top and cooler got. Not terribly impressed with the top, tbh. It only gives you one option of top feed. Which has made me have to move the res somewhere else. You won't see it, but TBH? I kinda like that. Will give it a more stealthy look.

It's nothing terribly exciting but it gets the job done (that's what she said)

I should stop teasing with board pics. As it stands I didn't fit the CPU until about 3am. I hate doing it, it's terrifying tbh.

It should become law that every motherboard comes with these !

I also fitted a couple more tubes. Sadly unless you fit a GPU into this you need to use a U bend, as basically the GPU bridges the distro. I quite like it though, it definitely looks interesting lol.

And a better look at the back.

 

[AlienALX]

Board in.

Managed to figure out how to change the RGB on the GPU, so that has been done now.

And the state of the 2x3m room I am using LOL. I can't wait for this to be over, then it's a trip to the dump for me.

 

[Dicehunter]

Looks great !

 

[AlienALX]

Danke. Worst part is going to be fitting the pump and res. I think I will need to get the power tools out for that :S

It's going behind that Phanteks "wall" thing. Good thing is the pump sink will be in direct airflow.

 

[AlienALX]

I actually used common sense for once

I figured that before I cut the case up and then found out it wouldn't work I should actually try the GPU to be totally sure.

It worked. Let cutting commence.

 

[AlienALX]

Another marathon session. It doesn't look like I achieved much, but I did. Basically the big panel with "Phanteks" on it came out. That meant removing a lot of the case again.

I've found a home for the pump. I've also plumbed it in.

The hose just sticking out? ignore that. To do the fitting up properly you need to remove that Phanteks panel. Hence whilst I was in there I decided to run that hose (obs far too long) so I wouldn't have to go back in there just to run that hose.

I need to make a mount bracket now. Shouldn't be too hard.

 

[AlienALX]

Had a bit of a result earlier.

The case only comes with one actual 2.5 mount. There are a metric ton of places to put them, but only one comes with it. I needed two more. I went searching and they are £10 each. Then a buddy of mine asked me to look at cases that will fit the board I am giving him and I came across this on B grade for £5.99

Duly ordered. That's me sorted now. That will hold the SSD RAID and the other one can hold the Firecuda.

Oh and I just made the isolated pump stand plate too.

 

[AlienALX]

First Corsair SSD I have bought in years after numerous failures. I hope they have sorted that.

Instead of buying tons of cables and messing around.

And of course one for the 12v

Just to make life a little easier.

And then I ordered the wrong coolant.

I had put that one in my wish list, before deciding on black UV. So hopefully they get my web note in time.

Back with it now. I can get on later and fit some more stuff.

 

[AlienALX]

That ought to be the loop cleaned and finished.