Well, build log, profession advancement... The works I guess!! :) Complete and Total Overkill part 3!!

[phill]

So I have a bit of catching up to do now so, best get too it...

A few new editions to my collection and a few developments..... So without further ado..... Two more Crosshair Hero boards to add to the completed list





Then along came a mass random box, I had no idea what I was getting through!!


Followed by a HP microserver as well, for free I think it might be little out of date but I'm sure it'll do for the for the girls when I get some bigger drives to fit inside of it



And then as mentioned in another thread,



I had hoped to be grabbing a 3850 AGP card as well but for some reason, I was outbid and I've not been very happy since It was a lovely boxed GPU, looked in fairly decent condition just needed a bit of a clean from the looks of it... Gutted I missed it, instead I end up with something else, that I wasn't really looking out for!! Still never mind..

I think for the moment, that's sorted out the hardware I've bought in for the most part... Now on to something a little more exciting but in a new post as I've used up all of my images for this one!!

I hope you'll enjoy it

 

[phill]

Oh and didn't someone say something about Coolermaster Stacker cases?? Here's a couple I still am holding on too......



Both are the 810 model but the blue model is the version one, where you could have PSUs top or bottom and the V2 which is obviously the black model, that just has the one placement for the PSU but two 120mm fan spaces at the top of the back of the case.
If I'm honest I prefer the version one but not sure how many would agree with me there... lol Now I've remember that, I can get on with the main bit for the update....

 

[phill]

Now, this next post might take me a while and might have to cover a coupe posts due to the amount of pictures I may or may not put up... (I thought I'd warn you first off!! )

So, bit of a background for this next update.. I'll try and cut too it as I'm feeling tired, it's 1am and it's not a good time for being an emotional wreck! So, back in 2015, it was a pretty crap year.. In March after I'd come home from work one night, my ex had took my little lady (Isabelle) and I was heart broken and things wheren't so great. Thankfully about the worst thing I was doing was spending a literal crap ton on hardware as I just dived into benchmarking like a loon.
After a year or so, I had kinda of sorted things out, still an absolute shite pit in some regards, but I got/get to see my daughter and we make sure we have an amazing time when she is with me.. Back in 2016, it was just me and her as I was on my own.

As I was getting a little more sorted out with money and such like, I decided as I had my rig left on the side, I needed a case and I had been looking around and saw a massive behemoth that took my fancy as I thought as I'd given up benching at this point, something to work on and something that would give me a decent project to build in it. I'd come across the ThermalTake WP100, a Caselabs knock off and this thing at the time wasn't badly priced I guess, but £350 was certainly a lot. But then I remember looking over to my Danger Den cases thinking, well, oh well

So I'd got that ordered and thought, I'll need a few things for it and get building.. Here's a few pics...



As it was my year to have Isabelle on her birthday, I'd built it and thought, well that's a bit bigger than I was expecting or thinking it might be... Still, looked cool to me So after getting home with Isabelle, she'd noticed the case and was, well, intrigued to say the least...



Isabelle was 4 in these pictures.... So, it could fit my daughter in?? Right... I think we might be able to get a PC in there then....

Time flew by as it tends to and after all that, the case just sat on the desk and it became a rather heavy paperweight... Until 2020 when it was my 40th on the 2nd August... I had decided that I needed to get my PC off the desk in a case, without any fans showing so Sophia my youngest who is 18 nearly 19 months old, can't put her hands in them.... So that's exactly what I did.... I ordered a few fans, a couple new radiators, some pump/res combo's, along with some CPU blocks to try out and then it was official... The build was starting....



But then I thought, I wonder... Would Isabelle still fit in the case, 4 years on?? Well in the name of science, I got her to see if he could fit in and well...



So even after 4 years and even with Sophia in there as well (to a degree) I figured whatever I was going to try and do, I'm pretty sure would work, so I got to it....

 

[phill]

So with a few fans attached the case and rad I was putting in the top of the case for the CPU loop, it was now official, this was actually going to happen and actually finish with some luck!!



So after some fun with the EK fans, I'd been having issues with them getting installed on the radiator properly, it seemed that some of the screen holes for the fans, weren't 100% accurate and I was a few mm's out from the radiator screw holes and I wasn't able to the fans installed with ease.
I found a way around it which was to put a slightly larger screw driver down the screw hole of the fan, and just grind it out, so it was ever so slightly bigger so that the screw could move and I could get it attached to the rad... That was not fun trying to figure that at at 2am....

I'd ordered a pump mount that would fit on a 140mm fan, so I could mount the pump and res to one and when I got it installed, I thought, it's not a bad place to get it installed...



The only slight draw back I had and again around 1am this time, was that the provided screws for the pump fitting, where too small...



Unless 6mm is the new 10mm, I wasn't getting much luck in screwing it together with a washer in there as well, so without the washer it has attached fine but I will when I have 5 minutes, get a mail off to where I got it through and say is there any chance of getting some replacement 10mm long cap screws as only 6mm were included in the packaging....

I thought since I had 3 rads and two pumps I wished to see the difference between the air cooler (Noctua 14D) and the water loop whilst I was still messing about with things. So I setup a loop in the way I always do and got it leak testing... The in tube from the CPU block to the res on the right was not cut to the right length and whilst it wasn't the best, it did it's job as you can see below -



The system was a mess and thank god it needed to come apart anyways... Wow... Only problem with open test benches, the dust and the mess they can make!!

Whilst it was on the test bench, I found the rather dodgy Asus Aura software and was trying out some lighting effects.



I was aiming and hoping for a white and black theme, I had hoped to find white tubing but couldn't find any decent stuff so I went with clear instead.

After a few days of testing just to get an idea on the temps I was getting with the same settings as the air cooling was doing, I decided to get it on to the next and stop wasting more time... So with my brain in a kind of forward thinking gear, I set to clearing everything off the desk so it have a decent clean and polish, I could get on with the next step, getting everything into it's new home.....



Oh the small cube on the left hand side holding the door open, that's the HP Microsever I put up in the tech purchased thread.... This case is massive and even then, that's kind of an understatement!! Since another 30 pictures uploaded in this post, hopefully I can get the last post covered with the rest of the little journey....

 

[phill]

Now whilst it was fast approaching 230am again and it was Friday, I was so very close to having everything under wraps and ready to be quickly leak tested and then left together properly... Well this morning it wasn't mean to be...



I found that the pump and res combo had slightly come apart and it had leaked water into the molex plug, and all the way down its cables... I was soooo not amused... So I drained the loop, checked over what I thought it was, and then found that the pump and res had slightly come apart so, I got it all done up and then before I went to bed about 245am, I put a little liquid in there and made sure by the time I'd finished work that day and such, it was all the same so I could then get the system finally and I do mean finally finished....

Work flew by and boy was I glad it did

I was off out with the Mrs as Sophia was off spending the night with Nanny, so when I got home I made sure before we left for the meal, the system was up running and working!!



Please excuse my former heavy self and my leak testing methods, but after about 10 minutes of it, I had at this point hoped that it was all working well enough so I made sure everything was connected to the PSU that needed to be, then it was literally crunch time....



It turned out, it was working fine.. I think the best thing for it was a constant heavy load on it for as long as possible... Well what do you know, I crunch for WCG for TPU so...... It's been on now for about 2 days and it's been working fine so far

I wasn't sure at the layout I was hoping for with the monster case. I did wish for it to be showing off to the room so I hope that now how it is in the third photo, is how I've finally got the system and monitors setup like



As I went with the all Nickel block, there wasn't as much light as there was with the acetal and nickel block as with the later, there was a strip of LEDs around the base of it rather than just the EK lighting up on the front of the block.



I for one, am finally and I mean finally so pleased its now in the case, you wouldn't imagine!!
The setup is far from finished, I have the cabling to do on the other side and possibly get some white cables in for the 8 pin CPU plugs, the motherboard 24 pin and then the GPUs as well. I do really love the white light but that Asus software it terrible to use.. No presents of any colour and so on.. Utterly crazy.... Still... I love the light in the case, the pump and the CPU block and even the motherboard I've changed to white which inside the black case, I think looks awesome

Possibly upgrades for it would be a 3950X or 4950X, along with two new GPUs with water blocks on them which will be coolers by the other 560mm rad in the base of the case... I'm going to try and cover over the silver on the optical drive and as it's nearly 3am here now, I can't think of anything else at the moment so I'll call it there!!

Feel free to make a comment, let me know of anything you'd change and why I should consider it and so on.... Night guys

 

[biffzinker]

Feel free to make a comment, let me know of anything you'd change and why I should consider it and so on.... Night guys

Looks like you, and me could benefit from a exercise workout plan to get in shape. After turning 40 my high metabolism rate for burning or not gaining body fat has taken a noise dive. It hasn't gotten any better going on 42 for me. At least you look healthy.

 

[phill]

Looks like you, and me could benefit from a exercise workout plan to get in shape. After turning 40 my high metabolism rate for burning or not gaining body fat has taken a noise dive. It hasn't gotten any better going on 42 for me.

I know it well.. Although that said, lost 1 kg this last week, so pretty happy with that.. I need to get my ass back in a routine of the gym 5 times a week but with things going on, I'm not sure how possible it will be.. Have a feeling I'll be doing more cardio than weights as I used to. That said, just miss all the aspects of the gym!! I think lockdown hasn't been kind to anyone. This last month or so, has definitely not helped me and with the Mrs being nice and buying me beer, one a night wasn't helping!! (like 1/2 pint bottles each night...) I think that's helping now as I don't drink at all!

Roll on a few weeks/months maybe, things will be back where I want them to be or at least on the road to recovery!

 

[Solaris17]

Man im super jealous. I run a black and white build myself but it looks like we are inverted! I should have gotten a white rad and fans.

 

[The Foldinator]

Nice and clean work, love it

 

[biffzinker]

Love the black to white color scheme you got going @phill. Case still seems kind of empty even with all the hardware inside.

 

[phill]

Man im super jealous. I run a black and white build myself but it looks like we are inverted! I should have gotten a white rad and fans.

Nice and clean work, love it

Love the black to white color scheme you got going @phill. Case still seems kind of empty even with all the hardware inside.

Thanks guys for the lovely comments
I do love the look of the build, surprisingly I seem to be doing ok with getting them ok and tidy ish in side!

I know it looks a little empty now @biffzinker but I'm thinking when I change the GPUs and water cool them, I'll put another loop in so there will be something more there as well. I've got another rad down the bottom of the case which you might be able to see, hopefully another 560 rad will be good enough for a couple more Nvidia or AMD cards when they are released I'm not sure what I'd be going for, but these 1080 Ti's are beasts and I love them They'll go to the Mrs and Isabelle. Sophia will have to have something else but I think at 18 months old, she might not be quite ready for a PC just yet

I'm having a bit of an issue if I'm honest to decide where to put some drives in, at the moment, there's literally just one SSD installed which is on the back side of the case!! I'll have to get you guys a pic of that, it's a little untidy if I'm honest, I just wanted the build ready to crunch and use since it's taken me nearly 4 years to get to this point!! lol I was also hoping to not have any mechnical drives installed in this build but I think I might have to at some point but we'll see

I'm glad someone other than myself likes this!! My best mate says I need to go hard tubing but I couldn't be bothered with spending even more money than I already have done, so I'm sticking put for now!

 

[Robert B]

I'm speechless phill !!!

I need a few hours to chew all the pics and assess all the HW pr0n.

Damn son! You knocked it out of the planet! (The park is way too small)

 

[tabascosauz]

@phill at this point, you're just reminding me to hate myself for not getting a Caselabs Mercury S3 or Nova X2M before they closed up shop. Really rubbing it in huh lol

Entire setup looks really good mate, clean and understated. Could've easily fooled me from here if you didn't show us the Thermaltake logo on the front hope everything's been smooth over yonder

 

[phill]

I'm speechless phill !!!

I need a few hours to chew all the pics and assess all the HW pr0n.

Damn son! You knocked it out of the planet! (The park is way too small)

Coming from you sir @Robert B I feel honored!! Thank you sir!! I do try my best when trying to put things together nice and tidily and neat as possible, I know I need some more time with this build but right now, I'm just too busy enjoying it lol

There's quite a few things on my list to change or that I'd like to change and swap out I think, all jokes aside with regards to the cables, I'm wondering whether or not some white PSU cables would make it look better and then possibly some white SATA cables as I still run those types of drives... There's a few software tweaks I'd like to make with regards to the fans and the spinning up/down as it's driving me nuts with how it's spinning up and down every so often.. The fan controller at the front I'm not sure is perhaps working so well with the fans being 4 pin and I've modded some cables to make them fit 4 pin plugs, as they only have two pins in all but one which has 3 pins...
I had even wondered about swapping the rad 180 degrees and then moving it slightly nearer to the back of the case, so that the top fan wouldn't get in the way of the barbs/tubing but I'm not sure about that one just yet...
The GPU loop I'll put in, will have a pump mounted around half way in the case, but hopefully the tubing will aline to the bottom card, in then out straight down to the base of the case where the rad is, so that should hopefully be a very neat run with some luck.... Suggestions from anyone would appreciated and gratefully received

@phill at this point, you're just reminding me to hate myself for not getting a Caselabs Mercury S3 or Nova X2M before they closed up shop. Really rubbing it in huh lol

Entire setup looks really good mate, clean and understated. Could've easily fooled me from here if you didn't show us the Thermaltake logo on the front hope everything's been smooth over yonder

I think I might have a chance at owning a Caselabs case but when I bought this one 4 years ago, I was very fixated on the price, and being nearly 3 times as much for what was near enough for me, the same case, I couldn't be bothered with the extra outlay... I would have rather put it towards some new GPUs, storage or something I'm sure you could find them on Ebay or something @tabascosauz ?? I half wondered if selling off my Danger Den cases would be worth it but they home my X58 rigs I have, I can't get rid of those, ever!!

I love how you've described it since it's meant to be exactly that, just clean and understated. Kinda reminds me of seeing these amazing builds with the beige cases of yesteryear and them having £5000 worth of kit inside them.. It's just freaking awesome

4 years has been a long time, but I'm looking at it now and thinking, yeah, I think I know what I'm kinda doing

Thank you all for the replies, very touched

 

[stinger608]

Well hell @phill finally put a face to your name bro!!!!!!!!! About dang time.

 

[biffzinker]

Well hell @phill finally put a face to your name bro!!!!!!!!! About dang time.

He’s also blonde so cut him some slack if he forgets anything here on the TPU forums.

 

[tabascosauz]

I think I might have a chance at owning a Caselabs case but when I bought this one 4 years ago, I was very fixated on the price, and being nearly 3 times as much for what was near enough for me, the same case, I couldn't be bothered with the extra outlay... I would have rather put it towards some new GPUs, storage or something I'm sure you could find them on Ebay or something @tabascosauz ?? I half wondered if selling off my Danger Den cases would be worth it but they home my X58 rigs I have, I can't get rid of those, ever!!

You'd think that would be the case but the S3/S5 owners are smart. The ones that still have their cases are hanging onto them for dear life. I see one occasional listing every few months, but the sellers know exactly what they can get for them. There's an S3 advertised for $1999 right now, whereas the case used to sell new for about $400USD in that configuration. Granted, the paint is a custom color (or more accurately, the metallic flakes in it are custom), but that's pretty much the state of looking for Caselabs cases now. And finding a X2M is literally impossible, given how much less popular it was compared to even the S3 during the Nova's short run.

That, and there were only so many S3s around in CL's heyday. The future desirability of those cases is a little uncertain without anyone continuing to manufacture accessories and brackets for them.

I have a Cerberus now and the quality of the aluminium and powercoating on it is enough to satisfy my Caselabs cravings. You should really hang on to Danger Den and Mountain Mods cases. Even considering comical price tags like the used Caselabs cases nowadays, sometimes, no amount of money will recoup the loss of a case like that.

 

[phill]

Well hell @phill finally put a face to your name bro!!!!!!!!! About dang time.

I don't wish to give people nightmares, so I stay in the shadows as much as possible!! Thanks for spending a little time here @stinger608 !!

He’s also blonde so cut him some slack if he forgets anything here on the TPU forums.

You forgot to add what's left of the blonde hair... Cos there ain't bloody much!!

You'd think that would be the case but the S3/S5 owners are smart. The ones that still have their cases are hanging onto them for dear life. I see one occasional listing every few months, but the sellers know exactly what they can get for them. There's an S3 advertised for $1999 right now, whereas the case used to sell new for about $400USD in that configuration. Granted, the paint is a custom color (or more accurately, the metallic flakes in it are custom), but that's pretty much the state of looking for Caselabs cases now. And finding a X2M is literally impossible, given how much less popular it was compared to even the S3 during the Nova's short run.

That, and there were only so many S3s around in CL's heyday. The future desirability of those cases is a little uncertain without anyone continuing to manufacture accessories and brackets for them.

I have a Cerberus now and the quality of the aluminium and powercoating on it is enough to satisfy my Caselabs cravings. You should really hang on to Danger Den and Mountain Mods cases. Even considering comical price tags like the used Caselabs cases nowadays, sometimes, no amount of money will recoup the loss of a case like that.

Yeah that's the funny thing people can sell them off for whatever price but if after a awhile they think, ummm I should have kept it and it was an awesome case or whatever, they'd be definitely peeved when they can't buy another case at all or for even double the money from what they sold it....
It's a reason I keep hold of things I really like.. It'll just go south when you have sold it or whatever, it's never worth the hassle. I've done it with so many bits and pieces of hardware, I'm just not keeping all I buy regardless.... It's just bloody easier!!

 

[stinger608]

Thanks for spending a little time here @stinger608 !!

Na, it's just nice to see real people bro!!!!!! You never know what folks look like and it's great to see a face to the people that post here.

 

[basco]

Phill if ya still want a 3850 agp card.
good place to look is:
at the moment just this dude

Grafikkarten - PC-Komponenten | willhaben

3.668 Angebote in Grafikkarten - PC-Komponenten. Günstig kaufen und gratis inserieren auf willhaben - der größte Marktplatz Österreichs.

www.willhaben.at

he has 2x dustfree + very good condition in his words- price little bit high i think but retro is not so my cup of tea.
if ya want i could talk to him.

 

[phill]

Na, it's just nice to see real people bro!!!!!! You never know what folks look like and it's great to see a face to the people that post here.

Oh mate, I wouldn't wish that on anyone!! This is a face meant for radio!!

Phill if ya still want a 3850 agp card.
good place to look is:
at the moment just this dude

Grafikkarten - PC-Komponenten | willhaben

3.668 Angebote in Grafikkarten - PC-Komponenten. Günstig kaufen und gratis inserieren auf willhaben - der größte Marktplatz Österreichs.

www.willhaben.at

he has 2x dustfree + very good condition in his words- price little bit high i think but retro is not so my cup of tea.
if ya want i could talk to him.

I believe I have managed to find one thank you @basco I'll find out when it arrives......

 

[phill]

As its been a while, I think it's time for a small update....

Since my mate gave me the PS4 Pro and a few other bits and pieces, I had been wondering what the heck could I do for him in return...
Whilst Sophia was inspecting the case and making sure I had all the relevent tubing for the build, I managed to grab some hardware and get started.... The case I had had for ages and didn't really know what to do with it, so I grabbed that and picked that up for the build...



I tore down the case and cleaned it inside and out, it really did need a clean!!

So after cleaning it through and starting to put things inside the case, I knew I had a few bits I'd need, so I ordered another Xeon CPU for it since the one I had with the board was a hex core and 1.9GHz, so that had to go.. I went with an Xeon E5-2658 V2.... I also needed another PSU as I didn't have one currently spare then, so I managed to grab a decent buy on a Seasonic Focus 650w model
Here's a few more bios and setup pictures of the case




So now I'm just waiting for a time I can drop it off to him, hopefully it'll do all he wishes for much faster and without any issues at all I'm hoping to take it around to him today...
I've got it on a few SSDs and it seems to be screaming along

I hope it makes up for the PS4 Pro and the other bits and pieces he's helped me with

As it's getting later here than I would like, I'm going to head off everyone, but I'll post back tomorrow what he thinks and such I hope he's impressed

Thanks for taking a look everyone !

 

[biffzinker]

Thanks for taking a look everyone !

Thank you for the update.

 

[lexluthermiester]

@phill Are you going to OC that Xeon a bit?

 

[Rob94hawk]

Awesome!! That's all I have to say.

And I thought I was hoarding saving all my stuff from the 440BX days to now. If you want ancient hardware to tinker with let me know. I feel guilty letting this sit in my closet collecting dust.