Carbide

furball zen

Well Grez got the jump on me for a new worklog. Yes, UFO^3 is still on, but awaiting some interesting equipment needed for some slick ideas.

Well as most of you know I got divorced, and for the past year plus she has been without a main PC because i sold off the 939 system she I built for her with the intention of quickly replacing it. Money problems got in the way of getting my new stuff to gift my DFI 790FX to her. I really hate to give it up because it is such a rock solid board, but the only thing i can do with it now is make a server or such out of it due to hardware limitations.

So, on to the list of parts. I did not intend for this to happen, but Corsair is the main brand for a lot of the components. I was going to reuse the case she had which is the same one Grez just used for Kolorful, but slide a Swiftech 360 rad on the side panel, but some complications with fitment and additional cost involved made me start looking for a case that would work, and that she could clean with relative ease once in her new house.

I happened across the Corsair Carbide Series on Newegg for a whopping $94 after rebate. This is a larger mid size case with some serious muscle and options for the modder minded. I wont do a review as the one on NE was what sold me on the case. The size is large enough to actually fit a 360 in the front or on the top with some modifications, but more than i really wanted to do, so ill be using my older Black Ice 240 and if needed the Swiftech 120 rad im using on my laser cutter. I think the 240 will work fine as the CPU, SB and vid card will be the only pieces, im using a Thermalright IFX on the NB since it can heat up the loop pretty good.

Components list:
DFI 790FX mobo with modded Thermalright HR-05IFX on the NB chip
AMD 5000+ Black Edition 2.6GHz CPU OC'd to 3.3-3.4GHz
4 gigs of Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2
Sapphire HD4860 (cut down 4890)
Corsair Carbide 500R case in Graphite
Coolermaster R4 case fans in red
Corsair CX430 PSU
HW Labs Black Ice 240 rad
Swiftech Apogee GT (CPU)
Swiftech MCW30 (SB)
Swiftech MCW60 (Video)
Swiftech MCP355 (pump)

Onto some pics













This is all i have for now :)

Grez

Sweet. Xox forums is lurching back to action!

furball zen

I was going to use Yate Loons on the rad, but i forgot about these gems and decided to try them out...

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/psho...number=259-122

120mm, 12V, 3100rpm... 140CFM!

furball zen

Update. Got most of the assembly done, waiting on my first Xoxide order since they sold the business. Need the tubing to tie it all together, and some minor wiring to make it all work.

Had to get creative in mounting the 240 rad due mainly to its sheer size. Its too thick to fit up top where a slim 240 rad would, its too tall to fit in the front without completely taking out the entire 5.25" drive bay.





The top fans and a cable management port that just happened to fit a fill port without modification. One thing i did not want to do a lot of with this case, although i could have gone hog wild and still would like to and make some nice accessories to sell.



Artsy view of the 24pin through the drive bay.



5.25" bay res i just happened to have that will work perfectly. Inlet and outlet and fill port inlet. Will have a single red LED lighting it up.



24 and 6 pin sitting in a cable comb i was 'dared' to make and they turned out really well. Can fit 3 wires deep in each channel and the smaller ones can fit 2.



4 channel comb with the 8pin mobo connector.



Backside of the drive bay.



Heres a full frontal. You can see the DVD, twin 40 gig Intel SSD's and WD Black 2.5" 320gb drive. The SSD's will be in RAID1 with the lappy drive as backup and major program storage. This way if one of the SSD's die the full image will be on the other plus backed up on the 320gb. This was not meant to be a low power consumption rig, but aside from the 5000+ and 3850 (replacement for the 4860) there wont be much power used.

sui_winbolo

DFI makes some of the sexiest boards, I only wish they made more of them, and still had their Lan Party series. It was always my dream to build a computer with a Lan Party board in it.

This system is looking sexy like a mofo, keep up the awesome work. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

furball zen

They dont make consumer boards at all anymore :(

furball zen

Man, it really sucks having OCD when all you do is ruin material and end up finding out that something wasnt made with the same OCDness. I spent the better part of 4 hours trying to make a template to cut out a window from 1/8" acrylic to replace the mesh in the side panel, which was inset 1/8". Soooo... i get it just right and go to test the template (AGAIN! 5th time) and it freaking turns out that the hole in the panel ISNT CUT SQUARE!!!

So i ended up cutting the 'ledges' off and had enough (+14" to spare) C-channel and trimmed the edge and mounted the red window. Pics will follow soon.

SacredTbag

Lookin real good so far. Careful with those wire pass thru grommets. My case "had" them. I got in my case a while back to replace my psu and those had all dry rotted and rubbed off on my hands. Took me two days to get it washed off.

furball zen

Its possible your case was older? This is a brand new line, but then they probably didnt make new ones (shrug).

Dragnous

Very nice so far. Looking forward to a finished build to check out.

furball zen

Thanks, me too! Itll get her off my back lol. But in all fairness, shes been using an Asus EEE as a main PC for over a year now. Its sad when an HP Touchpad can render Dancing with the Stars better than an actual laptop/netbook.

furball zen

Grez

Red acrylic! I haven't seen that in a while...very cool. Me likey.

furball zen

Stuff is a fricking dust magnet lol.

SacredTbag

Ditto on that. I hated the stuff on my Korn mod.

Looked good though. When it was clean.

furball zen

Got some more work done last night, still dont have the tubing. Only thing left is tubing, water and 2 power cables for the drives.

Figured out how/where i wanted to mount the pump, the LED's are coming off the HDD indicator circuit. To the right you can see the disassembled Aerocool Gatewatch 2 which will monitor the water and case temps and control the rad fans (i hope).



Couple shots of the wiring. Still some zip ties to do and i ran out of the red doing the PSU way back when, so i decided to use some more purple for the remaining sleeving.





Wire management for the upper fans and front controller panel. In the bottom you can see the custom loop temp sensor and power LED in the res. Ironically all 5 ports are used, but the top fill port is not and wont be.



Upper left hand corner shows the case temp sensor, should be a bit warmer there i hope so i dont get false readings.



Full frontal.

RcRon7

You need paint or cover that opitcal drive, but other than that this looks good.

Nice job, and for that red plexy, use RainEx anti fog, I hear that works for the dust issue.

Jamesc359

I noticed you've mounted the R4's horizontally. Is the newer long life sleeves better at horizontal mounting than the older sleeved type?

furball zen

Ive got a plan for the drive ;) Didnt know about the rainex ill try that.

What do you mean? Ive never had an issue mounting them 'normal'?

Jamesc359

Normal mounting is vertical. Horizontal mounting is what you've done with the top exhaust fans. I'm told that mounting sleeved fans horizontally shortens their life. Which is why I've always gone with ball bearing fans with horizontal mounts.