Shifts Phantom AMD Rig

[Shift87]

So awhile back I decided to toss the old E8500 rig See here. Initially the plan was to upgrade it bit by it into a SB / Nvidia rig but that pretty much all changed after seeing some deals I couldn't pass up. So new plans are for both an AMD rig and a Intel/Nvidia rig though the latter will wait till SB-E and possibly the 6xx gpus release date pending. But here is the AMD rig!

Box #1 Shows up

8gb Mushkin DDR3 1333mhz (Most the MB will support)

Coolermaster Hyper 212 (stock fan was way to loud)

Coolermaster 120mm Sickle flow blue LED fan (For the front of the case)

XFX 6870 Black Edition (replace the older 5770)

The 6870 was on sale for $140 so roughly £90

Bits get attached and the E8500 system goes into the phantom

Shortly after Box #2 gets brought home

6 cores up in here!

Mmmmm all black motherboard so much nicer then that rainbow of a board that was in there

badly needed a new PSU the previous OCZ was terrible the fan was unbelievably loud so it had to go. The PSU and MB where both on sale at a local store and the 1100T cost the same as the x4 980 so that sealed the deal on the AMD rig.

The Phantom

Cables managed slightly better

Also just after I took that picture I noticed the cpu cooler was crooked and fixed it.

Second attempt at some cable management around back

Box #3 gets brought home.

3 more Coolermaster 120mm Sickle flow fans with red LEDs to replace the blue up front and the two NZXT ones on the side.

WD Black 1TB HDD

OCZ Vertex 3 60GB SSD

And windows 7

After installing the 3 CM fans I noticed a clicking sound from the case took a loot into it and 2 of the fans were off balance and at low speed wobbled the third fan did the same at high speed so they all went back these replaced them.

No not empty boxes I forgot to take a picture with the fans in the casing. They are so much better and nearly silent except at 12v even then I think thats the noise of the air going over the hard drive cage.

I still have afew things I would like to do to finish this rig off. First windowing the side panel, no plans on putting a side fan in anyway and wrap the entire case in matte black vinyl with maybe a carbon fibre vinyl for the strip that runs down the side and along the top. After that replace the blue LEDs for the fan controller, hard drive light and power button with red LEDs. Lastly probably going to get a D-14 cooler not sure how well this one is doing with an OC'd 6 core and a 140mm fan for up front, possibly a few red cold cathodes not sure on that yet.

 

[Matthias2437]

Nice build man, how are you liking that gigabyte board? I went with the Sabertooth 990fx with my last build and love it, got my 1090T -4.2 ghz no problem. I do love that the gigabyte board is all black though.

 

[ruthless_villain]

that motherboard looks great but the phantom... not so much

but looks like it could be a great build

 

[Solidarity]

I must say the matte black pcb on the mootherboard looks damn good. I'm also liking the psu choice, mainly because I have that model.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Heatsink looks out of place and scrawney, when you can afford it put some beefier cooling in there

 

[Shift87]

Nice build man, how are you liking that gigabyte board? I went with the Sabertooth 990fx with my last build and love it, got my 1090T -4.2 ghz no problem. I do love that the gigabyte board is all black though.

I am really liking it some of the other boards I've seen use over 1.5v for the vcore to get an 1100t up to 4.0hgz im doing it at 1.475. So I think their is room to push this further though I wont till the cooling is upgraded. The Sabertooth was an option but this cost about half as much and was all black.

that motherboard looks great but the phantom... not so much

but looks like it could be a great build

Thanks. Seems like most people either like or hate the phantom i have afew friends which said the same.

I must say the matte black pcb on the mootherboard looks damn good. I'm also liking the psu choice, mainly because I have that model.

Thanks! Debating on going to a 750 though for extra headroom to go with a CF set up.

Heatsink looks out of place and scrawney, when you can afford it put some beefier cooling in there

Don't worry ill be getting a D-14 shortly this heat sink will stick with the E8500 and get sold to a friend for dirt cheap. It was bought because it was in stock, cheap and a lot quieter then OEM ones. Never meant to be a permanent solution

On a side note I bought the plexi glass and tape so ill be windowing it soon. Ill probably extend the window to show the psu and have it level with the bottom side intake.

Having some issues with finding the vinyl wrap locally and auto body places want outrageous prices for it, so it will probably be ordered online.

 

[ShortAlieN]

Nothing wrong with a phantom in my book. Mine is slightly modified, but it is still very nice

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

A D-14 will allow you to go as far as stability and volts allow, good choice

 

[Shift87]

Well a few things got done today. Picked up some shiny new parts and got to work on installing them and some soldering.

New bits

Noctua NH-D14

Noctua NF-S12B

and 8gb of Mushkin Blackine 1600 ram.

Also what's not pictured are a lot of red LEDs I bought as well. Used them to change up the fan controller and power leds as blue is boring.

End result of that

Lastly the amazing new cpu cooler installed and the other fan

Didn't get around to getting the window done today was far to hot in the garage for me to bother.

. Still haven't decided on what I want to do for interior lighting of the case, Cold cathode or the NZXT led strips. Sadly still no luck on the vinyl wrap locally one place I went to said they will only sell it in 10'x 10' sheets

. With that I could wrap half the stuff in my house. Carbon Fibre table tops perhaps?

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Better

 

[G-Dubs]

Very nice build.

Only thing is those fans. They are good fans granted, But I do wish they didn't come in the same colour they make arteficial limbs out of.

Any chance you could spray them matte Black?

 

[Shift87]

Better

Haha figured you would like it, not that I really care what other people say haha

Very nice build.

Only thing is those fans. They are good fans granted, But I do wish they didn't come in the same colour they make arteficial limbs out of.

Any chance you could spray them matte Black?

Initially I really disliked the colour of Noctua fan but they have grown on me. I've painted fans before and it ended terribly with them no long being balanced pretty much ruined the fan. So they are going to stay the brownish colours.

I'm thinking as I have the day off tomorrow I'll tackle the side window and change the LEDs in the top 200mm (well 192mm) fan and change them to red.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Haha figured you would like it, not that I really care what other people say haha

Strangely I'm not insulted by that, I don't really care what others think either.

A word of warning: if you decide to replace the Noctua fans, you can't use fans with one single screw chamber at each corner, you need fans with two seperate screw threads per corner or else the retention clips won't work (you may well have already realised)

 

[AMDFTW]

nice rig mate very neat

 

[Solidarity]

It looks far more complete now that you have an nh-d14 in there

 

[Dandaman91]

Looks ace, I have the same mobo.... gotta love that all black/grey finish

 

[Shift87]

Strangely I'm not insulted by that, I don't really care what others think either.

A word of warning: if you decide to replace the Noctua fans, you can't use fans with one single screw chamber at each corner, you need fans with two seperate screw threads per corner or else the retention clips won't work (you may well have already realised)

By no means was it meant to be insulting. Thinks for the heads up about the Noctua fans as well I did not notice that.

Looks ace, I have the same mobo.... gotta love that all black/grey finish

Thanks, yeah I love it looks so nice and performs great as well.

Going to start on the window today after I actually wake up. So ill update this again in a bit with a finished window.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

S'okay

Was dissapointed I couldn't mount the excals on mine

 

[TechSmart]

Nice rig, but I woud have thought a better choice to have been the Silver Arrow as it matches your set up abit more and looks better than the D-14 and performs just aswell if not better and is also 2/3's of the price.

I would also have thought a better choice would be to get Akasa Apache fans which are just as quiet as the Noctuas but push a ton more air and cost again 2/3s's of the price

I keep seeing people automaticly go for the D-14 ans Noctua fans without even thinking about better alternatives due to popularity and propaganda and being expensive.

Nice rig though looks great

 

[G-Dubs]

Haha figured you would like it, not that I really care what other people say haha

Initially I really disliked the colour of Noctua fan but they have grown on me. I've painted fans before and it ended terribly with them no long being balanced pretty much ruined the fan. So they are going to stay the brownish colours.

It's your build matey and if you're happy that's what counts.

BTW the fans with the "thread holes each end" are referred to as open corner fans, as opposed to closed corner fans.

For ages I didn't realise there was a diferrence, but then fell foul of the mounting bracket thing myself.

Keep up the good work.

Dubs