• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

The Utterly Imbalanced CaseLabs TX10-D build(s)!

VSG

Editor, Reviews & News
Staff member
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
3,450 (0.97/day)
Ok, so this is mostly an unboxing of some parts. Here's what a 140 x 38mm "Yate Loon" fan looks like:



The quotes in there because these aren't the same version that Petra sold, or even those bought directly from Yate Loon. They run a little slower (1250 rpm max) but at $1.40 each I am not complaining. This is how it looks next to a Swiftech MCX12-XP and Phobya G-Changer 120mm radiator:





These fans are monsters, having a molex input (w/passthrough) for power. The Aquaero 6 could easily power 1 of these, but I haven't tried to see if all 9 I have can run off a single channel with needing the molex input. They move a decent amount of air- nothing close to a Corsair SP120 HPE or NB-eloop B12-4 at full speed. Noise wise, they are about the same as a SP120 QE and slightly louder than an NB-eloop B12-2.

I then opened up the BitFenix care package. They included 2 of their aluminum case badges too:







Nope, these aren't free and nor do they come with their products like the PSUs. Not sure about the cases though! Next up, the Alchemy LED strips:



They sent me 4 x 60mm strips of white LEDs.



Let's see them lit up:





That doesn't really help much. What about a black background?





Ok, that's better. Let's turn off the softboxes and see how these illuminate the interior. I have 2 strips hooked up here:



Not too shabby. With all 4 strips, I bet it is enough for a single TX10 motherboard compartment :D

I have more lighting samples coming in and will do a small comparison before deciding on what to go with. Next up, the Fury 750G:









At this point, I saw the accessory box in there and figured that was a nice touch to help store unused cables. After all, this was a semi-modular design PSU with only the 24 pin cable attached. But then:





So much for that! The modular cables are bundled in 2 sets and is accompanied by a 14 AWG power cord:



They also give 5 screws in case you lose one for whatever reason. I wish these were black but not a deal breaker.



Here's the PSU itself now:





So you either go fan down and get the BitFenix logo on top + side lettering, or go fan up and get the spec sheet in typical cases. Another thing to complicate that decision is the fact that the motherboard cable is all the way to one side. So depending on how the PSU is placed, the cable may not be long enough.



A look at the internals is best seen from the review over at TechPowerUp, I won't be opening this up. But I did get a PSU tester so I will review performance later.

Finally, a little something red from Gunslinger:













Ok enough of the teasers. It is the hard to find EVBot from EVGA:





This will be pretty useful when benching, especially if/when I do go subzero.
 

VSG

Editor, Reviews & News
Staff member
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
3,450 (0.97/day)
I finally am done with 1 NDA only to have another pop up real soon. I got the new EK Supremacy Evo which I spent the last 2 weeks testing (among other things):













I made a review of it here for anyone interested: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-ek-supremacy-evo-my-review.204599/

I was hoping my order from PPC had the small LEDs in it but nope. I wanted to show the Plexi top with the locations for 2 LEDs in it. I now have a bunch of 10/12mm acrylic tubing thanks to IceModz as well as some more stuff that will be shown soon. I also got a few EK and Bitspower 10/12mm fittings for these along with a sample piece of the Alphacool chrome tubing and fittings- they are surprisingly good. I will show them really soon once the Corsair 380T NDA is up.
 
Last edited:

VSG

Editor, Reviews & News
Staff member
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
3,450 (0.97/day)
I got a Haswell family portrait done: 2 core, 4 core and 8 core









Here's big daddy:

 

VSG

Editor, Reviews & News
Staff member
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
3,450 (0.97/day)
Update time (although probably not one you were expecting since I have not yet finalized on my x99 motherboard and RAM):

Another sponsor? I must be the luckiest guy in the world:



I was speaking to Will, the CEO/CTO at Hardware Labs, about a few things in general and then realized my hotbox would be a great place to test out radiators. One email later, he had 2 of his new Nemesis radiators on the way to me:



A GTX 560 (No, not an old Nvidia GPU) and a GTS 480. We had previously agreed on a GTX 480 and a GTX 560 but he was extremely confident on the GTS 480 being able to beat out other 480/560mm radiators and sent this as an intended replacement for my SR 1 560 radiator. The few reviews out there all seem to agree that these rads pull a lot of weight in performance compared to larger radiators so I am pretty eager to test these out soon.

Here's a look at the GTS 480 (GTX 560 barely fit in my light box):
























Bonus- A terrible video looking at the two rads stacked:


I will do a full review soon.
 

VSG

Editor, Reviews & News
Staff member
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
3,450 (0.97/day)
Now thanks to Mundi from Ice Modz, I obtained 5 meters of some really nice 10/12mm acrylic tubing. So of course I got a few 10/12 fittings to see how they are before I decide on getting them in bulk. In all likelihood this will be for Side 2:





First up the EK HDC fittings:



The finish on these is nice but I would have liked a little more on the "barb" end to grip on to when securing/removing the tubing. Next up, Bitspower Enhanced multilinks:



No wonder I have a ton of BP fittings, the finish is great on both parts here. The tubing needs to be near perfect though else it won't fit in fully- I ended up cracking one of the ends on my tubing because of this. I also got the EK fittings in red as previously seen with the Supremacy Evo. Perhaps it is from the anodization but the compression ring is much coarser than the nickel finish HDC here and feels somewhat cheaper to me personally.

Oh, I also got a section of the new Alphacool plated copper tubing (10/13mm) and 2 of their fittings to try out:



The 10/12mm fittings definitely don't fit. The tubing is quite hefty as expected and the finish isn't bad (I made a mistake and got the black chrome version instead). It is also a fingerprint magnet and, as per James Walt, can actually bend without the finish crazing. I will get a bender and check for myself.







Here are the fittings opened:









Now a size comparison:







So far I am leaning towards getting the BP fittings for the 10/12mm tubing although the EK nickel HDC is also pretty good. Nothing finalized just yet.

Mundi also sent along some of his lighting that he is known for:



Here is 1 set:



You can connect these as long as you want and the only limitation is the amps on the PSU rail powering the cable. I got the RGB kit with wireless controller because he is a pretty darn amazing guy. The default color when hooked up is blue:





Very easy to cycle through the colors and brightness, here are a few examples:









There are various modes and brightness levels to play with as with most RGB wireless controllers.

Finally, he also sent 2 of his sleeved wires at my request. Other than lighting, he makes custom extensions at a very reasonable price (inclusive of shipping worldwide) so I asked for 1 each of a 16 and 18 AWG wire in different colors:







The sleeving is heatshrinkless, even for 16 AWG, and looks very well done. If any of the lighting or sleeving shown here sounds interesting, do go visit his website: http://www.icemodz.com/
 
Top