[WIP]Dragon Blood / Poison Ivy Shinobi Mod/Build Log [SUGGESTIONS WELCOME]

[jarthur36]

[WIP]Dragon Blood Shinobi Mod/Build Log [SUGGESTIONS WELCOME]

Intro: Hey, just started up on the forums today although have been watching OC3D for a while now. Primarily, I am 15/16 by the time this will be finished, this means I have extremely limited budget. I am only on £10 a week so getting the money for PC components is difficult as it is. Just to add to the difficulties, my parents are split up so 2 PCs are required(one for each house) but the one I put the effort into is my £750 sweet-spot PC (specs below). Christmas is just around the corner with my birthday just 12 days after so I have plenty of opportunity to make some major improvements to my rig. It performs absolutely fine although slightly loud and its not particularly visually appealing aswell as running a little on the hot side after long gaming sessions.

Upgrade/Mod Budget: <£200
p.s. I have access to any tools I may need.

Specs:
Case: Stock Bitfenix Shinobi Black Windowed
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670k @ 4Ghz
Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo w/ 2X Stock Case Fans
MOBO: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
GPU: Asus GTX 760 DCUii (I play at 1440x900 so no problems here)
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengance 1600 Black
PSU: Corsair CX750
Storage: 1TB Seagate Barracuda(7200rpm)
300GB 2.5" 5400rpm(Optional)

Peripherals:
Mouse: Razer Deathadder 2013
Keyboard: Dell Default (Looking to upgrade for Christmas(Any suggestions?))
Headset: Razer Kracken Pro

The Problems:
-Loud
-Runs Hot after long gaming sessions(1h Prime95 = 82oC)
-Visually Boring and Unappealing
-Not Unique
-Cant Decide on Colour Scheme - Peripherals = Razer Lime Green/Components = Blood Red

The Plan:
1)Sand, Prime and Spray Mesh Strips, Shinobi Logo,Top Mesh and PCI slots in chosen colour.
2) Remove Front HDD Cage and dremel bottom of 5.25 cage
3) Add Custom Loop
-240mm rad in front
-dual bay res/pump combo in 5.25 bays
-CPU Block on CPU
-Coloured Tubing (dependent on scheme)
-Clear/UV Fluid
-POSSIBLE KIT - XSPC RAYSTORM 750 EX240
4) Led Lighting inside of case (dependent on scheme)
5) Cut New Perspex Window and Frost Decal onto it - Fit with fake bolts

This thread is a Work in Progress but I appreciate any suggestions massively on how I could get this build looking nice affordably.

Updates:-

19/11/13 -
Definitely going with Red colour scheme now.
Considering Dual Sleeving the PSU Cables in Red. Will be difficult with the non-modular PSU but would definitely be worth it. It Might be enough to just do the 24 pin, the 2 8 pins and the sata Harness and then i can hide the rest of the cables somewhere.
I've also come across about £50 more money now, Where do you think it would be best spent?

20/11/13 -
Spoke to my "technical adviser" in real life and talked through the practicalities of the mods.
Very good news, tomorrow I spray the components and cut the window. Then for free I can get the acrylic window laser etched with the MSI Gaming Dragon symbol on the side. I am going to mock up some photoshop things to see how it looks, apparently I could also get the dragon in red but I'm not sure how that would work. I will have a look tomorrow and post some pictures.

A quick mock-up of what I hope to achieve visually and what it will look like with the res(right):

27/11/2013 -
Didn't manage to get too much done this week. I remade the side-panel with a solid clear window and need to do maybe one more coat of red on the mesh. I have decided on the Red CM Storm Quickfire TK for my desk as this will actually give me decent mouse room and if I disable the LEDs on my mouse wont look too mistmatched. Next I have to decide on actual improvements inside the case. I will probably wait till after Christmas for most of this as I will actually have a considerable amount more money then but at Christmas I atleast hope to pick up a couple packs of SP120s and some nice red LEDS. I'm thinking if you guys are against the idea of a custom loop that I just get a h100i - I will have a virtually unlimited amount of clearance for rads.
The panel with WIP window:

01/12/2013 -
All of the mesh and everything is finished now and on the case, it's looking great. Today I tried out a red switch and realised I dont actually like them at all. This leaves me with a dilemma - I still like the Quickfire TK but I can go with Blues that will look out of place with my red system or I can go with the Red one which I'm sure I could get used to but would look amazing. Bearing in mind my mouse and headset are already green I'm sure it wont look too out of place. Any help would be appreciated.

15/12/2013 -
It's been two weeks since this has been finished and all I've done since is some sort of attempt at cable management, the PC is a mess round back but on the side I see it looks clear enough besides the one GPU cable that I have no choice but to have really visible. Sorry for my phone camera quality and the lack of light in the room but I've made do with what I've got to get you guys some pictures of the entire build to date.

First up a picture of the full rig in place:

Yes the walls and surrounding are ugly and I need a new monitor but this is what I have for now.

Next a couple of the peripherals:

I am getting a Blue Quickfire TK to go with this for Christmas and so I will actually have some mouse room for once.

The case from the outside(Excuse the print server on top):

The colour doesn't come out very well in this pictures but it is a very nice vibrant red with a subtle gloss finish. I did no surface prep on any of the painted pieces but they've come out great. I am also really happy with hte clear window although there was no chance I could get a nice picture of that without ugly reflections seeming as though most of the light was coming from a white screen on my monitor.

Lets pop the side off:

I'm not actually using any of the front hard drive cage bays so techincally I can drill that out and make room for a 240mm rad, I'l discuss why I'm not going to do that later.

A couple pics of inside:

And my crude attempts at cable management:

So that is my rig as it is right now but I have more plans. Whilst here I have secured a nice mechanical keyboard and some steam moneys I have managed to confuse my mum with 3 lists one after another. The first asks for a 7850(For litecoin mining) and some other things, the second asks for a define R4(As a replacement for my zalman z11 so i could silently mine) aswell as a 128GB SSD and the third asks for a white Corsair C70 (What i really want more than anything right now) Unfortunatly she has hinted that the last list was a little too late which suggests I am probably going to get one of the first two. Since I have no interest in litecoin mining seriously any more they will be kinda wasted although I know Ebuyer do operate a system where you can return any chrismas purchase before the end of january for a full refund which I may be able to arrange with her.

My new plan is simple. To save me money I will get a portable case such as the C70(Which i will attach some kind of appropriatly themed carrying strap to, and put all of my best components for both houses in there. I will ensure that I still have a basically functioning system at both houses but I will have the best gaming rig able to be moved at will. That way I can watercool that and put all of my money into one rig instead of splitting it across two. I will have to buy some new components to replace the ones in the Shinobi as shown here but the externals will remain the same. I think after the case I will buy another GTX 760 and put them in SLI while watercooling them using a strange passive/waterblock solution I have come up with.

That's all for today and will probably be it until Christmas is done. Any comments/suggestions are fully welcome and appreciated but most of it will depend on what I get for Christmas.
Thanks for reading, Folks.

 

[giannakos23]

nice idea !!
for peripherals though you can buy corsair keyboard and mouse...the k70 with red backlight...now you will need to change the mouse as well...the raptor m40 is really cheap and has red leds on it !!
waiting for an update

 

[jarthur36]

nice idea !!
for peripherals though you can buy corsair keyboard and mouse...the k70 with red backlight...now you will need to change the mouse as well...the raptor m40 is really cheap and has red leds on it !!
waiting for an update

I think I may well keep my mouse just disable the LEDs. New keyboard for Christmas have seen the k70 before and it looks quite nice. Headset I will have to wait for a while but i dont really mind, I can't see it when it's on my head anyway.

 

[giannakos23]

nice you won't regret it the k70 is a very good choice and it has a very elegant design !!

 

[jarthur36]

20/11/13 -
Spoke to my "technical adviser" in real life and talked through the practicalities of the mods.
Very good news, tomorrow I spray the components and cut the window. Then for free I can get the acrylic window laser etched with the MSI Gaming Dragon symbol on the side. I am going to mock up some photoshop things to see how it looks, apparently I could also get the dragon in red but I'm not sure how that would work. I will have a look tomorrow and post some pictures.

A quick mock-up of what I hope to achieve visually and what it will look like with the res(right):

 

[enRodjavel]

looking good =D, even for being yet a Red and black build haha

 

[SeekaX]

you got 200 quid and want a custom loop? not worth it imo
go ahead with the rest though.
for the keyboard, the k70 is nice, but if you want a smaller one i'd take a look at the cm storm quickfire tk.

 

[jarthur36]

you got 200 quid and want a custom loop? not worth it imo
go ahead with the rest though.
for the keyboard, the k70 is nice, but if you want a smaller one i'd take a look at the cm storm quickfire tk.

As I said, I have £50 more now. The loop would only be for the CPU but i like clear/translucent coloured tubes and the fact that I then have the option of expand it later. I can get multiple kits in the range of £100-200 including the extremely cheap XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240.
Thanks for your suggestion, I have disabled the LEDs on my mouse and that keyboard looks really good, especially seeming as I have extremely limited space on my desk. And its very cheap with Blues which is what I would have gone for.

 

[jarthur36]

looking good =D, even for being yet a Red and black build haha

haha, I would be more adventurous if i had more money. I way considering carefully painting the heatsinks on the motherboard and the shroud on my graphics cad and making the whole thing green and black but decided I would probably break everything. It would have gone with my peripherals A bit better But Im happy with my current choice. I'm going to see if i can think up something super special to do to it.

 

[SeekaX]

As I said, I have £50 more now. The loop would only be for the CPU but i like clear/translucent coloured tubes and the fact that I then have the option of expand it later. I can get multiple kits in the range of £100-200 including the extremely cheap XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240.
Thanks for your suggestion, I have disabled the LEDs on my mouse and that keyboard looks really good, especially seeming as I have extremely limited space on my desk. And its very cheap with Blues which is what I would have gone for.

tbh those cheap kits won't perform any better than an h100i and i doubt that that pump could handle two rads + 2 blocks. if you don't have much to spend it might make more sense to spend the money on parts that offer more value for money, a waterloop really is a luxury that doesn't pay off.

 

[jarthur36]

tbh those cheap kits won't perform any better than an h100i and i doubt that that pump could handle two rads + 2 blocks. if you don't have much to spend it might make more sense to spend the money on parts that offer more value for money, a waterloop really is a luxury that doesn't pay off.

Hmm, I'l definatly take your opinion into account. I wont be doing any watercooling stuff until after christmas at an absolute minimum and I'l do some research. From the numbers I saw there was a noticeable temperature drop even with that cheapest kit, it ended up a couple degrees cooler than a swiftech h220. I'l see how much money i have to play with after christmas and then see what i can afford.

 

[SeekaX]

Hmm, I'l definatly take your opinion into account. I wont be doing any watercooling stuff until after christmas at an absolute minimum and I'l do some research. From the numbers I saw there was a noticeable temperature drop even with that cheapest kit, it ended up a couple degrees cooler than a swiftech h220. I'l see how much money i have to play with after christmas and then see what i can afford.

if there is one thing probably all members of this website agree on then it is that custom waterloops aren't exactly great value for money. They only really make sense if you put your GPU under water because the temp differences aren't that amazing on CPUs, but that means spending a lot more money and you end up with something that is more of a token of your enthusiasm.
i sure as hell don't want to talk you out of doing a nice project, but you are in a similar position as i am. i have a bit more money than you, but still i currently can't justify a waterloop when there are so many more things i can spend my money on that would benefit me a lot more, not to mention that even a lot of the affluent guys appreciate matx builds using an h100i these days.
sleeving your cables is a way more cost efficient way to make your rig look great if you already have access to the tools.

 

[jarthur36]

if there is one thing probably all members of this website agree on then it is that custom waterloops aren't exactly great value for money. They only really make sense if you put your GPU under water because the temp differences aren't that amazing on CPUs, but that means spending a lot more money and you end up with something that is more of a token of your enthusiasm.
i sure as hell don't want to talk you out of doing a nice project, but you are in a similar position as i am. i have a bit more money than you, but still i currently can't justify a waterloop when there are so many more things i can spend my money on that would benefit me a lot more, not to mention that even a lot of the affluent guys appreciate matx builds using an h100i these days.
sleeving your cables is a way more cost efficient way to make your rig look great if you already have access to the tools.

I really want to sleeve my cables but i have a non-modular PSU.

 

[theDTP]

Open up the PSU, sleeve the cables as you would at the connector end, run the sleeving down the wire and when they are all done get a cable tie or two to hold the sleeving in place on the PSU side

 

[jarthur36]

27/11/2013 -
Didn't manage to get too much done this week. I remade the side-panel with a solid clear window and need to do maybe one more coat of red on the mesh. I have decided on the Red CM Storm Quickfire TK for my desk as this will actually give me decent mouse room and if I disable the LEDs on my mouse wont look too mistmatched. Next I have to decide on actual improvements inside the case. I will probably wait till after Christmas for most of this as I will actually have a considerable amount more money then but at Christmas I atleast hope to pick up a couple packs of SP120s and some nice red LEDS. I'm thinking if you guys are against the idea of a custom loop that I just get a h100i - I will have a virtually unlimited amount of clearance for rads.
The panel with WIP window:

 

[jarthur36]

01/12/2013 -
All of the mesh and everything is finished now and on the case, it's looking great. Today I tried out a red switch and realised I dont actually like them at all. This leaves me with a dilemma - I still like the Quickfire TK but I can go with Blues that will look out of place with my red system or I can go with the Red one which I'm sure I could get used to but would look amazing. Bearing in mind my mouse and headset are already green I'm sure it wont look too out of place. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Have you seen my 6 hour mod challenge rig and "the NurburgRig" builds Ive done dude?

Both are Shinobi's

 

[jarthur36]

Have you seen my 6 hour mod challenge rig and "the NurburgRig" builds Ive done dude?

Both are Shinobi's

I've seen the 6 hour mod challenge and your mod guide for it. Actually inspired me quite a lot to do some of this stuff although Its highly likely I will not be doing anything that extreme. I've got to decide whether to splash our for a custom loop or just go h100i and then I am going to do the de-riveting and dremmeling so I can fit a rad in there. It looks pretty sick with the new mesh and side panel but I'm looking forwards to getting more done after christmas. I think I am going to have to go with the Blue Quickfire TK just because I love Cherry MX Blues and don't think i could go with Reds and that's going to ruin the colour scheme a bit.

Also dreading having to sleeve all the cables but its going to look great at the end.

 

[jarthur36]

Big update to first post.
15/12/2013 -
It's been two weeks since this has been finished and all I've done since is some sort of attempt at cable management, the PC is a mess round back but on the side I see it looks clear enough besides the one GPU cable that I have no choice but to have really visible. Sorry for my phone camera quality and the lack of light in the room but I've made do with what I've got to get you guys some pictures of the entire build to date.

First up a picture of the full rig in place:

Yes the walls and surrounding are ugly and I need a new monitor but this is what I have for now.

Next a couple of the peripherals:

I am getting a Blue Quickfire TK to go with this for Christmas and so I will actually have some mouse room for once.

The case from the outside(Excuse the print server on top):

The colour doesn't come out very well in this pictures but it is a very nice vibrant red with a subtle gloss finish. I did no surface prep on any of the painted pieces but they've come out great. I am also really happy with hte clear window although there was no chance I could get a nice picture of that without ugly reflections seeming as though most of the light was coming from a white screen on my monitor.

Lets pop the side off:

I'm not actually using any of the front hard drive cage bays so techincally I can drill that out and make room for a 240mm rad, I'l discuss why I'm not going to do that later.

A couple pics of inside:

And my crude attempts at cable management:

So that is my rig as it is right now but I have more plans. Whilst here I have secured a nice mechanical keyboard and some steam moneys I have managed to confuse my mum with 3 lists one after another. The first asks for a 7850(For litecoin mining) and some other things, the second asks for a define R4(As a replacement for my zalman z11 so i could silently mine) aswell as a 128GB SSD and the third asks for a white Corsair C70 (What i really want more than anything right now) Unfortunatly she has hinted that the last list was a little too late which suggests I am probably going to get one of the first two. Since I have no interest in litecoin mining seriously any more they will be kinda wasted although I know Ebuyer do operate a system where you can return any chrismas purchase before the end of january for a full refund which I may be able to arrange with her.

My new plan is simple. To save me money I will get a portable case such as the C70(Which i will attach some kind of appropriatly themed carrying strap to, and put all of my best components for both houses in there. I will ensure that I still have a basically functioning system at both houses but I will have the best gaming rig able to be moved at will. That way I can watercool that and put all of my money into one rig instead of splitting it across two. I will have to buy some new components to replace the ones in the Shinobi as shown here but the externals will remain the same. I think after the case I will buy another GTX 760 and put them in SLI while watercooling them using a strange passive/waterblock solution I have come up with.

That's all for today and will probably be it until Christmas is done. Any comments/suggestions are fully welcome and appreciated but most of it will depend on what I get for Christmas.
Thanks for reading, Folks.

 

[maniac]

Big update to first post.

for those following, it would be easier to add the update to the last post too instead of the OP only, updating the first and last post is the best way to do it