Lucky 13 - NZXT Phantom featuring the new Primochill Compression Tube Res!

[Kaged]

Hi everyone! I've been registered here for sometime, and finally decided to post up a work log!

I just completed this mod earlier tonight, and got some free time to make a log.

System Specs are

Asus CrosshairFormula V
AMD FX-8120 @4.6Ghz
16GB G.Skill Ripjaw 1600Mhz
2 - XFX 6970 w/EK 6970v2 water blocks - Bitspower Crytal links
XSPC Raystorm CPU Block
2 - MCP355 Pumps w/ XSPC Dual Pumo Acrylic
Alphacool 240mm Radiator
XSPC RS360 Radiator
2 - Corsair Force Series 3 60GB SSD in Raid0
1 Seagate Barracude 7200rpm 2TB for storage.
ModSmart 24pin, 6pin PCIe, 8pin PCIe sleeved cable extensions.

A little background for the motivation on this build. I've been into hot rods for a good majority of my life. I used to modify and drag race a few of the cars I have owned through out the years. Mostly Camaro's, but I've built a few decent DSM's as well. 2 years ago, I injured my shoulder at work, and have not been able to do any of the heavy mechanicing that I used to be able to do. I have since had 3 surgeries on my shoulder, and have been told heavy lifting or a lot of repetitive work is going to be off of my list of capabilities now.

Luckily, I have also been building and fixing computers for at least the last 10 years as a smaller, back burner(winter) hobby. So I started modding cases, and building more computers while recovering from my surgeries. It has now become my passion, and I can do it one handed if the need ever arises again

On to the mod. I decided on Lucky 13 for the name, because I like the brand, and it deals around the old school hot rod scene, which is the theme I wanted to go far.

I loved NZXT's Phantom case, ever since I laid eyes on it in a few forums. It's shape, size and cable management possibilities are great, not to mention the moddable aspect of them. I loved my white Phantom, but with all of my watercooling gear, it felt cramped, and I got sick of feeling claustrophobic, looking inside the case. So I obtained a black Phantom, and got started.

I ditched the 5.25", and all the HDD bays immediately. I fabricated a panel to smooth out the visible part of the MB tray, and gave me room to mount my HDD and SSD's in the back of the case, and wrapped it around to the front of the case also. I decided to add 2 more 120mm fans where the 5.25" bays used to be, since I removed the original fan mount on the front of the case. Next, I made up my PSU, and radiator shroud for the bottom of the case.





Once I had all of that test fitted, I drilled out all the rivets on the case, sandblasted all the panels(except for the plastic pieces of course) and got to repainting. I painted the exterior, the MB tray, and cover satin black. I then taped off the back side of the rear panel, and painted it, and the PSU/rad shroud, and the exterior plastic trim, satin red, to accent all of the black.






Reassembly of the case after painting.


I then decided that the front door of the case needed to be able to flow some air, for the 2 new fans that I was going to install, and took the opportunity to make something special. This is what I came up with.




Case and new fab'd parts all put together.






Once all of the big modding jobs were completed, I got started build all of my wiring blocks for my pumps, and LED's. Turned out to be a good time to do it, while I waited for my new reservoir to arrive.




Resistors soldered onto the LED's


They worked! Success!





The first Primochill Compression Tube Reservoir to leave there building





With the arrival of the new res, and tubing, the transfer of hardware could commence!







Here is how she sits now, back up and running. I'm still going to doing a better photoshoot of the build later tomorrow, and will update the log with the new pics.

[de.das.dude]

sub

[Bo$$]

awesome!

[xxdozer322]

damnnnn, looks like Vegas. pure sex. nice yob

[de.das.dude]

Originally Posted by xxdozer322

pure sex

OMG thats totally my line.
Hi5 mental twin



i like what you did with the front and the meshing and stuff. also, maybe you can change the white block LEDs to orange ones?

[freaksavior]

This made me smile. http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j.../wireblock.jpg

it's simple but still awesome.

[Gjohnst4]

Well done sir.

[m1dg3t]

Great mod! Very well executed

[Kaged]

Thanks everyone This was a very fun build to do, and am glad you are enjoying the view!

Originally Posted by de.das.dude

OMG thats totally my line.


i like what you did with the front and the meshing and stuff. also, maybe you can change the white block LEDs to orange ones?

Thank you sir. If I didn't like the white glow so much, I probably would be changing some of the LED's.

Originally Posted by freaksavior

This made me smile. http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j.../wireblock.jpg

it's simple but still awesome.

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Great mod! Very well executed

Those are a huge time and space saver. Keeps the amount of molex connectors to bare minimun, and can run the LED's on a switch if I happen to have a need to turn them off.


Working on the final pictures of the build now. Should have them ready to post in a few hours or less!

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

This made me smile. http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j.../wireblock.jpg

it's simple but still awesome.

I was thinking about the same thing for my fans so I could swap between the 5 and 12V rails. Very smart use of it I like it

[Kaged]

Thanks again everyone

As Promised, here are the final build photographs from my photoshoot today. Hope you all enjoy them

[t_ski]

Very clean build - nice job

The one thing I notice is that the crystal link tubes look out of place (clear tubes and silver fittings). Have you thought about replacing them with straight tubing and some more monsoon fittings? If not, you might be able to dress it up a little by cutting some of the red tubing to length, then splitting it from end to end so you can wrap it around the tubes. This is what I did before:

[Kaged]

Thanks t_ski, I may look into to doing that, but I am also waiting for some new, soon to be released coolant from Primochill to arrive. The crystal links, and my pump's top are the only place it will really show up well, unfortunately.

Also, not sure if the nickel plating is making my link fittings look silver, but they are actually black. I did use tubing for links between my GPU's before this build, and it didn't look quite right to me, so I decided to go with crystal links this time around, since EK doesn't make an FC link for dual card 4 slot spacing.

[SP3KT3R]

very nice work , I like the iron cross / 13 cutout.

How do you like those Monsoon compression fittings ? planning on a single loop for my system and those caught my eye, but I haven't seen many people use them

[Kaged]

Thanks SP3KT3R. The monsoon fittings are really nice. My only gripe about them, was getting them started on the thread. The tubing I got was slightly thicker than 3/4" on the OD, which is fine, but it made turning the compression ring more difficult, even with the fancy tool they give you for the fittings. But from my experience with tubing, from multiple manufactures, the 3/4" OD rating is just a guideline, and never exactly 3/4" Monsoon's do look pretty cool too.

[PopcornMachine]

It is a spectacle. The last pic could make a very nice desktop background.

[Kaged]

You read my mind Popcorn, its been my wallpaper for the last few days.

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Very nice and clean build.

[tacosRcool]

badass yo

[Kaged]

Thanks guys

[s{orpion]

never was a fan of that case... but you make it look fk'n amazing! lol

nice work with colors and lighting... thanks for sharing

[Kaged]

Originally Posted by s{orpion

never was a fan of that case... but you make it look fk'n amazing! lol

nice work with colors and lighting... thanks for sharing

Thank you Glad I could turn a case you dislike into something you do

[Kaged]

I made a video build log, with all of my pictures a couple nights ago. It's my first attmept at making a video in ~10 years. Constructive criticism is welcomed
Lucky13 - YouTube