Worklog: Project Raven - Case Labs M8

[TommyD]

My build is already in progress and I completely forgot that I had an an account here so I'd figure that I would finally start posting so enjoy the pictures and the commentary

Hardware List:

Hardware:
Intel Core i7 2600K - replaced AMD Phenom-II X6 1090T - New addition
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7 - replaced Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 - New addition
16 GB (4x4) Kingston HyperX Grey series DDR3-1600 - replaced 8 GB G.Skill Trident DDR3-1600
Powercolor Radeon 6990 4GB - replaced dead Sapphire Radeon 6950 that caught on fire
Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB flashed to 6970
KillerNIC 2100
SB X-Fi Titanium HD PCI-Express - New addition
(2) Intel X-25M 80GB in Raid 0
(2) Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 SATA
(1) Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB 7200 SATA - New addition
5.25" to 4 3.5" SAS/SATA Hot swappable bay
LG Bluray-RW SATA
Corsair AX 1200 - replaced Enermax 85+ 1050 Watt PSU
Case Labs M8 - replaced XSPC H1 Cube case
NZXT Sleeved Orange LED kit - replaced White LED kit
MDPC Sleeving Titanium Grey and Orange
MDPC Black Heatshrink
MDPC Cable management clamps

Water cooling hardware:
Koolance RP-402X2 with (2) PMP-400 pumps - RP-402X2 replaced by below items
(2) EK Multioption 150 Advanced Reservoir
(2) Koolance DDC pump tops
(2) Koolance DDC Heat sinks

Aquaero XT 5 with (2) PowerAdjust 2
Koolance HX-CU1020V 360mm Radiator
Koolance HX-CU420V 120mm Radiator - removed
EK CoolStream XT 360mm Radiator - New addition
Phobya G-Changer 360mm Radiator

(16) Xigmatek Orange blade/White LED 120mm fans

(6) Enermax White Cluster 120mm PWN fans - replaced by fans above
(1) Enermax Red Cluster 120mm fan
(9) Xigmatek Octane 120mm fans

EK Supreme Full Cu nickel plated CPU block - RMA'ed with EN version
EK Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 block
EK 6970 full cover block with EK back plate - Both blocks replace the Swiftech blocks
EK 6990 full cover block with EK back plate
(20) Enzotech G1/4 (3/8" ID x 1/2 OD") compression fittings - New addition
Various BitsPower and Koolance fittings
(4) Sets of Koolance VL3 3/8" ID QDC fittings - New addition
Aqua Computers in-line temperature fitting
Aqua Computers flow meter
15 Ft. Tygon 3/8" ID tubing - replaced 10 Ft. Masterkleer 3/8" ID tubing

(5) ModMyToys 3-pin power distribution PCB - 5-way block - New addition
(5) Hammond ABS Project Boxes - New addition

The build has evolved quite a few times starting with a CM HAF-X to a Silverstone FT-02 then an XSPC H1 Cube, finally settling on the Case Labs M8.

 

[TommyD]

I am skipping the pictures of when the build was in the CM HAF-X and the Silverstone FT-02 and I'm jumping straight to the last 2 days where i've been building it using the XSPC H1 Cube.

Here she is! The cube has arrived The packaging is definitely better then what I've seen the MM cases shipped in.

In the middle of assembling it

Heres one of the packages with some of my miscellaneous crap

Some stuff from Nils - sleeving, heatshrink, those funky cable management rings

My Swiftech 6900 series Komodo Full coverage GPU blocks (I hate the picture, the new picture on the 6990 Epsilon is sooooo much cooler)

Koolance Crosshair IV Extreme motherboard block

Koolance 120mm x 3 and 120mm radiators with a nice matte black finish

My Aquaero 5 XT, (2) PowerAdjust 2, Inline Temperature sensor, and Flow meter.

 

[TommyD]

My Bluray-RW and my SAS/SATA HD Canister. I am gonna have to debadge the Thermaltake off the HD canister before Waterlogged sees it and never lets me live it down.

Some soldering and sleeving work for the hotswap bay cables. Before and after pictures!

Here is the Phobya G-Changer 360mm rad dressed up with the Enermax White Cluster fans.

All my 5.25" bay devices installed - Bluray RW, HD SAS/SATA Hotswap, Aquaero 5 XT, PA2, Koolance 402X2

Do you notice the horrible 2mm gap above all the top 5.25" bay devices? Bad BAD machining on the part of XSPC.

Top view - work in progress

Retarded problem with my case thanks to XSPC's bad quality control. I fixed it by drill the holes into an oval shape so I could slide the mounting screws down more and I had to use nuts to hold down the mounting screws.

After the little set back I finally got back on track

Here is a shot from the top of my motherboard mounted with the EK Supreme Full Cu nickel plated, Koolance CH4E block along with my 6970's with the Swiftech blocks, my Geforce GT 240 and my KillerNIC 2100. I'm still contemplating if I want to use my MCW-80 on my Geforce. The next picture after that is my Hotswap bay loaded up.

Here is some additional shots, I have finished deciding which way my tubing will route but I am missing a few fittings to finalize everything so everything will have to wait about a week. This will give me time to finish up some sleeving. :rofl:

Please excuse the mess inside the case as I haven't gotten around to my wire management yet!

 

[TommyD]

This is what my Aqua flow meter and drainage setup looks like. At the moment I just have a stop fitting after the valve but what I plan on doing is using a Unibit to drill a hole in the bottom of my case and I will then hook up a 90° triple rotary fitting which will go through the hole for my drain.

Here is a picture of pretty much my finalized WC route. Where you see the mutiple extender fittings stacked on top of each other, I plan on replacing them with BitsPower 20mm extension fittings. If you look closely at the bottom (even though it's cut off) you will see that I did indeed put my MCW-80 on my Geforce GT 240 It's my PhysX slave card.

Here it is again, zoomed in a bit.

Ugh, more sleeving to do...

 

[TommyD]

Here are some top view pictures for a better look at the entire case.

1 of 3 fan sets completed now (soldered and sleeved) It was a complete pain in the ass but worth while. As you can see in the picture I did miss about 1 1/2" of sleeving. I'll have to make sure I don't make that mistake on the next 2 sets.

I unfortunately have to take apart my 360 Rads so I can fix my Enermax White Cluster fans as I soldered together the RPM sensor lines which causes signal errors.

Re-worked Enermax White Cluster PWM 120mm x 3 setup. Took off the pre-sleeved junk and re-sleeved with MDPC-X red sleeving and fixed the RPM sensor wire from daisy chained to single.

Here is my Phobya G-Changer 360 redone. I wasn't happy with the way the Enermax White Cluster fans turned out with the soldering and sleeving so I decided to take those off and re-solder and re-sleeve those and use them for the case exhaust. The radiator now has 3 Xigmatek XOS-1251 fans which I have daisy chain soldered (except the RPM wire) and sleeved.

Looks alot better then my initial job with the Enermax fans. I'm glad that I didn't settle for the "average" job and got it to where I wanted it to be.

Some newly purchased tools for my modding habit Assorted wire cutters/pliers, Helping hand with magnifying glass, Torch (for heat shrink!), Irwin clamps and last but not least my Unibits. It almost seems like S&M gear :laugher:

 

[TommyD]

Here is the Lamptron Vandal button installed, thanks to my trusty new Unibits the hole came out perfect! I thought these damned things came pre-wired but to my surprise they do not, thank god I had an old PC laying around where I was able to steal the front panel wires/connectors from.

I also used the Unibits to make myself a drain hole for my loop and I must say it was a perfect fit as you can see in the second picture.

I hate laying down this acoustic dampening material.

Here is the main part of the case as well as the left and right side panels finished up. I just need to do the top panel after I am finished soldering/sleeving the last set of Enermax fans together.

On that note, I am off to work! I'm sure I'll be trolling the forums on my laptop inside of my ambulance

 

[TommyD]

I got around to some power tool work a few moments ago and I took my NZXT sleeved LED kit and I drilled out holes for mounting screws and the power button as well as a rectangular box to accommodate the brightness switch.

Yes, I'm aware that the panel is scratched but I just had the time to do a fit test to see if it mounted. I should have time tomorrow to grind down the sides to make it look uniform.

Here is a shot of the back side of the case with the new holes for the power switch, the 3 selector brightness for the LEDs. It came out looking well I must say!

I got my sleeved LED kit mounted along the top of my case and my Enermax White Cluster fans all wired up, so here it is while I was running an LED test.

Late update from June 10th.

Here is the leak test on it's 22nd hour. Still no leaks after getting home from work this morning!

I also got some sleeving done as well after getting home from work, I think it's time to to finish up some small odds and ends and put on the final touches and boot her up.

I still have to sand off the white writing on the acoustic dampening foam and I'm still deciding if I want to repaint the case.

 

[TommyD]

Here is my desktop, my (3) Asus VW246H 24" and my 21.5" HP Touch screen off to the right. I have yet to plug it in as I had it hooked up to my Geforce GT 240 (which was my PhysX card) but removed the card out of my PC temporarily.

Here is a picture of the Corsair AX1200 that replaced my Enermax. I wish I had taken some pictures when I had taken it out of the box but I just wanted my system up and running.

Excuse the mess but I'm not gonna organize anything or zip-tie anything down until I sleeve this power supply, install my new Radeon 6990 with the water block and move everything into the Case Labs M8 case I will be purchasing.

I finally got my Powercolor Radeon 6990 in the mail. No water block yet but here she is! (forgive the blurring effect I did but I did not want to chance anyone getting my serial number)

Does anyone see a distinct pattern going on here? How the cases kept getting more and more expensive?

CM HAF-X
Silverstone FT-02
XSPC H1 Cube
Case Labs M8

I also have some huge purchases coming in the next 4 weeks which will be in the form of my Case Labs M8, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7, Swiftech Epsilon Full cover GPU block with single slot PCI bracket, and an OCZ RevoDrive PCI-E 120GB SSD.

 

[TommyD]

Well earlier this morning I got my packages from UPS. I got my replacement for my 6950 (that caught on fire) and my shiny new Case Labs M8 with the Extended top.

Here is the replacement card from the RMA. I hate that it's not a reference block like my old card, which means I need to buy a new water block. It is also a dual bios card, so you bet that I'll be bios hacking it to unlock the shaders/speed just like my other 6950.

And here she is, the Case Labs M8 w/ Extended top. I have been anticipating for the last 2 weeks waiting for her to arrive and all the user reviews I have read are definitely spot on. The fabrication process on this case is amazing and so is the quality control. The best part is that it comes pre-assembled and the packaging was nothing short of excellent.

Little baggy with my case accessories inside of it, all written to show what is what, and even my name on the baggy

Here are front and back shots of the case.

The front has your typical I/O panel (if you want audio/USB/Firewire you will have to pay more) The left side of the case can support 10 5.25" devices and the right side compartment can accommodate 9 3.5" hard drives/devices. You can gain access to the mounting system by removing the face plate as seen below.

As you can see on the back side there is a removable motherboard tray (which rocks) and support for dual PSUs (if you so choose) in the other compartment. There are also grommet covers (and grommets provided) just in case you want to put your radiators outside of your case.

 

[TommyD]

Here is a shot of the extended top (upgrade which I paid for) which can accommodate placement of 120mm fans so you can mount radiators up top.

As you can see from the pictures with the top off there are plates that you can keep in place if you decide to use a 2x120mm radiator rather then a 3x120mm radiator.

Here is the right side of the case. This compartment houses the PSUs and radiators as well as hard drives and 3.5" devices. The side panel is well cut and provides for excellent ventilation. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the left side which has a grey acrylic window panel.

The panels on both sides of the case also have nice inset handles and the panels themselves are on hinges.

The motherboard compartment side of the case has support for the XL-ATX motherboards like the SR-2 and the Gigabyte. It has a huge CPU mount hole (unlike many other cases that I've seen with this feature). There are also plenty of large pass thru holes with grommets to prevent the cables from sheering.

The PSU/radiator compartment has plenty of room to play with various configurations.

On the bottom of both sides of the case there are fan hole covers like you saw in a previous picture on the top side of the case. I think this was an ingenious idea on Case Labs part which does give you plenty of cooling options.

Well thats it for now, I'll start building it once I get my new video card blocks, more tubing, some miscellaneous fitting and more sleeving from Nils!

 

[TommyD]

I am going to be brave and give the new EK Electroless Plated blocks a chance. After all my messaging back and forth with Niko over at EK he assures me that there is no longer a Nickel plating problem so I decided to buy them on good faith. I also found out that the old Dual Bridge connectors and the adapters they made are indeed compatible with the Radeon 6XXX series cards so I picked them up as well.

I picked up some Lamptron 1/2" OD reusable aluminum clamps. They are actually pretty nice in quality but I think they are a tad bit expensive for what they are at $3.99 USD a piece.

I tried to do some color level adjusting in the next set of images using Photoshop to remove some of the amber hue I get from my walls. I still have yet to buy decent photography lamps and I keep forgetting to take a white bed sheet from my hospital so I can use as a back drop

My bad attempt at trying to be artistic with the packaging and items. Here is the EK Dual Xfire/SLI link and the block adapters.

Now... Here are the front and backs of the 6970 and 6990 blocks and the back plates. I love the bling

The picture of the 6990 block does not do it's justice in showing how large the block is.

 

[TommyD]

Update to previous post - I ended up selling the 6950 Dirt 3 Edition as there is no full cover block for it and even though it sports a dual bios, I have found out that Sapphire laser cut channels so unlocking the shader cores will no longer work.

On to the new stuff!

UPS dropped off my Newegg package with new toys I ordered last week The only thing I did not take pictures of that I had ordered was the 4 APC Surge arrest power strips. I don't think anyone wants to see pictures of that stuff anyway.

Heres a quick picture of the motherboard box and the motherboard itself. I love the color scheme with the black PCB with the grey peripheral connectors and the orange (copper) accents on the heatsink.

And here are the tons (16 to be exact) of Xigamtek 120mm fans with the orange fan blades and white LEDs.

It's update time!

I went a little overboard and went over my spending allowance I give myself every pay check.

I'm still waiting on my package from Performance-PCs in which I ordered.

• (2) EK Multioption 150 Advanced reservoir
• (2) Koolance Heat sinks for DDCs
• (2) Koolance pump tops for DDCs
• (3) sets of Koolance 3/8" ID QDC VL3 (older model since I read the newer VL3N have been having leaking issues)
• (4) Bitspower 3/8" ID Black matte barbs
• (20) Black 3-pin fan molex connectors
• (5) ModMyToys 3-pin power distribution PCB - 5-way block
• (5) Hammond ABS Project Boxes

I suspect that US Customs still has my package of sleeving/heat shrink from MDPC which is hampering my sleeving efforts! :thumbsdow

But some of the stuff I ordered arrived

Here is my shiny new sound card, the SB X-Fi Titanium HD PCI-Express

Another 3TB hard drive, more specifically a Seagate 7200 RPM.

Here is a little freebie from Newegg for purchasing the hard drive. It's an HD cooler, I don't think I'll be using that.

 

[TommyD]

Uchhhhh I'm awake! I came home, put out the white sheet (that I "borrowed" from my hospital) on top of my computer desk and took pictures of all my new stuff that I got from PPCs the other day. I tried to get the update done in the morning when I got home but I was too tired to deal with Photoshop :laughings

Anyway, onto show and tell.

Here is the EK Multioption Reservoir 150 Advanced. It came with the Anti-Cyclone insert that has the EK logo cut out but I prefer the tubes.

Koolance PMP-400 / DDC Laing pump tops with the mounting bracket. My photography work does not do these things justice, they are damned sexy. It also came with a reservoir adapter to connect it right on top using a Koolance reservoir tube.

Now these things are just plain awesome. You get the shiny factor from the replacement body for the pump and functionality between that and the heatsink for the PMP-400 / DDC Laing pump lines.

Here are the Koolance QDC VL3 series male 3/8" ID compression fittings. Unfortunately no females to join the party because PPCs screwed up my order.

So just like everyone out there I got sucked into the vortex that is the impulse buys, while browsing around to make sure I got everything I needed and stumbled upon these little suckers.

ModMyToys 3-pin 5 header PCB boards. I figured that I may have some use for them so I picked up a few.

Of course then I saw some Project Hammond boxes and figured that I could probably use them for something and going with the old saying of "It's better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it" I purchased a few as well.

So while I was waiting those few days for my package and hiding in the comfort of my apartment from Hurricane Irene I started to think, what could I possibility do with the ModMyToys PCBs and the Hammond boxes...

Then something magical happened...

And then... LIGHT BLUB! ModMyToys + Hammond box = Fan power box.

1 + 1 = 2 ?

I could put 1 or 2 of the PCBs into the Hammond boxes and with a little dremel work I could make Fan power boxes so I wouldn't have to go through the fiasco of all the wire snipping and soldering to daisy chain the radiator fans together. I can instead use one of these, zip ties and wire management clamps without all the headache of wire snipping and soldering.


Warning! Picture does not depict final product :tonguesmi

Anyway, that is all for now. I think I have everything I need to start my build minus the sleeving.

*SHAKES FIST AT US CUSTOMS*

 

[TommyD]

Look who finally decided to join the party! The mail man just dropped off the package moments ago, I guess US Customs finally got off their behinds and did something useful.

Sleeving and building SHALL COMMENCE!

Here is a quicky...

Before and After on my Xigmatek fans

I switched the 3-pin molex for a black one which looks tons better. I will also use orange sleeving on my other set of fans for my other 360 radiator.

 

[TommyD]

Anyway, late night post before I goto bed. :sleepysmi

I got some sleeving done before I went out to dinner, (1) PCI-E cable and (1) SATA cable with the other molex connectors removed.

The one thing that boggled me was when I was stripping down the PCI-E power cable and removing the pre-fabbed sleeving and heatshrink I found this. What the heck is it for?

It's not magnetic and the only thing I can think it serves is for shielding. Does anyone know? Do I have to have it on or can it do without it?

Welp, I must goto bed now, I have work in 4 hours I'm contemplating bringing some cables and my sleeving stuff with me to work and do some sleeving in the ambulance. :sneaky:

Until tomorrow! :wave2:

Well here is the rest of the sleeving I finished up while at work in between calls. I put it in my system just to get my PC up and running again.

Here is a shot of the brand new sleeved cables in the old case. It won't be long until I rip apart this build to move over everything and the new water cooling stuff into the Case Labs M8

I think tomorrow at work I'll be able to get the 24-pin ATX cable and the 4-pin molex cables completed and maybe some fans.

Night!

 

[TommyD]

I got some fans done this morning I decided to use SATA heat shrink on the 3-pin molex connector to get a clean sleeving look as suggested by someone. As you can see there is a set of titanium grey sleeved fans and a set of orange sleeved fans. This will be my scheme as I place my 3 set of fans through out the M8 case. I think oranges for the sets that will be on the 3 x 120mm radiators and titanium grey for just ventilation.

6 fans done, 10 more to go.

I've been contemplating if I want to purchase any radiator shrouds to improve the air flow or not, it's not of a huge importance but there is a decent gain in air flow. I also ran into a little snafu and realized that I cannot use my EK FC-Links as there will be a 1.25mm disparity in using the 6970 v1 reference block and the 6990 block. So I am currently trying to sell my reference 6970 and v1 block to buy a v2 reference 6970 and matching block.

And...

The females have finally joined the party! (PPCs sent me the correct Koolance QDCs)

I wasn't happy with the initial mock-up of the reservoir placement so I went back to the drawing board. I was lucky enough and found some old UN design 120mm pump brackets which I thought I had thrown away and they worked perfectly to help me mount the reservoirs where I wanted. This will be the final placements of the reservoirs. There is one in each compartment.

All the fans are sleeved finally. Here are the remaining ones that I finished up moments ago, 16 of them were too much!

 

[TommyD]

You guys are all caught up now, enjoy the log!

 

[zCypher]

Holy jeebus. I thoroughly enjoyed your picture walk-through of your gleeful modding adventures, and I didn't think the artistic efforts were that bad That is a lot of nice hardware you have there. Is everything up and running? How quiet did it end up being?

 

[TommyD]

It is completed in the XSPC H1 Cube case but I'm gonna be breaking it down today to start moving stuff over into the M8

It is not loud when the 6990 isn't roaring like a jet engine. In my current build I never ended up putting the water block on the 6990 since I knew I would be moving to a different case within a 2 month period so it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[TommyD]

I got my EK motherboard block for my Gigabyte FXA-990 UD7, and my EK CoolStream XT 360 radiator in the mail today. The EK block is quite nice and small which is great but the separate heat sink that they provided for the Southbridge does look a little rinky-dink.

It took me about an hour to remove the stock Gigabyte Southbridge heatsink from the heat pipe without causing damage to the heat pipe itself. I had to sit there with a torch and heat up the pipe until the epoxy loosened up enough where I was able to get a blade in between the heat pipe and the heat sink to pry it off.

It definitely looks tons better then the heat sink provided by EK.

Here is a picture of the EK CoolStream XT 360 radiator. I figured it would be best to get an additional 360 since I am adding my 6990 into the mix, and I didn't want to run into any kind of heat dissipation issues.

I'll be posting some more pictures through the night as I want to get my current setup in the XSPC H1 into my M8.

 

[TommyD]

Here's the motherboard block mounted and using the Gigabyte stock Southbridge heat sink. No damage was caused to the heat pipe

 

[TommyD]

Zoom zoommmmm! Progress!

 

[Zargon]

nice!

 

[TommyD]

Earlier this morning I got a decent amount of work done. All I have left at this point is to actually figure out if I am going to use a dual loop or if I am going to just daisy chain the PMP-400s. I am leaning more towards the latter and putting the 6990+6970 on the 2 thick 360mm radiators and putting the processor and Northbridge on the Koolance 360mm rad.

Anyway here are some more pictures

The 6990 and 6970 right after having the EK block and back plates installed on them, I also got the single PCI bracket for the 6990.

Here is the the motherboard compartment. As you can see I have the PowerAdjust 2 mounted reverse, I have to find some of that carbon fiber lining to cover up the silver on the PowerAdjust 2 and the BluRay-RW. As you can see I have not gotten to doing anything with my loop, not even fittings on my hardware, heh.

And onto the last picture, the radiator/power supply compartment; it's nearly finished. Just missing one of the thick 360mm rads up top, some wire management clamps and hammond boxes which will have my 3-pin power cable splitters inside of them.

 

[MODist]

Very nice! I love the new Case Labs M8 case. How much does it cost?