[Dooms101]

Well I really wanted to finish my aluminum case but I don't have any free time to work on it since AP exams are coming soon and its school crunch time before college. Two nights ago my dad randomly told me he'd buy me a new case and some parts because I've been getting good grades, so this is what I picked up:

Dual 12" Logisys UV cathodes
3x Yate Loon High Speed blue LED fans
10ft Primochill Pro Lrt 7/16" UV Blue
2x Enxotech 1/2" HF Barbs
UV Blue ployprop. Wye fitting
Enzotech chrome fill port + fitting
Kingston HyperX Black frame + Blue LED fan RAM cooler
White NZXT Phantom

Half came from Jab-Tech (some of the best prices around but not much in stock) and the other half came from trusty NewEgg. Here's the parts that I have right now that'll be going into it:

PhenomII 1090T BE
ASUS M4A88TD-E EVO/USB3
2x 2GB Kingston HyperX Blu
HIS HD6870 1GB
Thermaltake Tough Power XT750 modular
Some HDD's and an ODD

And for cooling, I'll be using the beasty lapped Sapphire Rev.A cpu block, matching enzotech NB block, and possibly the matching universal enzotech GPU block. The coolest part of this build will be the MCR320-QP triple rad, we shall see how well it fits up top

Edit: I know the universal block will mount just fine on my 6870, but there's hardly any room for ramsinks above the block where the fittings are. The mem placement on the 6870 is really weird, and the VRM's are in the most inconvenient orientation too. I got the gpu block for free so its not a big deal if I can't use it... but I'd rather not spend $100 on a fc block. Any ideas? I was thinking I could cut up the reference cooler and make something... but I don't want to incase I need to RMA.

[Dooms101]

Well the case came yesterday and I had a bit of time to pull my old system apart and try fitting the rad up top. There is a little mounting bracket for mounting a 120.2 rad underneath the 2 200mm top fans, but it didn't work for the 120.3. There is definitely plenty of room up there and the 2 giant holes for the 200mm fans provide plenty of space for ventilation. I think all I'll need is 2 pieces of aluminum flat bar and it'll mount just fine. The tubing and fans are coming today so I might actually get most of the work done depending on if I can go to Lowes or not.

One thing I can say about this case is that it is very very large. When I pulled it out of the box I was completely surprised, the thing is gargantuan. The build quality is top notch, the paint quality is good, the wire management is decent, and the looks are killer. I really love this case, and I'd recommend it to anyone with an air cooled system. The case is not meant for water cooling IMO, it is pretty easy to mount a rad externally on the rear 120, but you can do that on just about any case.

Hopefully I can get most of the work done by sunday and post some pics in the meantime.

[hokiealumnus]

Looking forward to seeing a water cooled space shuttle. The blue theme should look pretty sweet too.

What about one of these kits to help your GPU issue?

[Dooms101]

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Looking forward to seeing a water cooled space shuttle. The blue theme should look pretty sweet too.

What about one of these kits to help your GPU issue?

Well I looked at a number of kits like that, especially the enzotech copper ones, but I was looking through a google search and I saw that people have been putting universal blocks on GTX460's and then removing the shroud and heatsink from the base plate and using that with the stock fan @ 30%. So I tried the same with my 6870 and it looks like it'll do the job just fine. It kinda looks crappy, but that's alright xD.

I've started mounting up my blocks, I am running CPU, NB, and GPU all on a 120.3 with 3x high speed yate loons. I daisy chained all 3 fans on 1 of the 20watt channels of the built in controller and they move soooo much air on low and are absolutely quiet. Everything else came in the mail, I am just waiting on the ram cooler.

I've decided to keep the case stock, just move some fans around. After looking at the top of the case, it looks pretty easy to just take 2 aluminum flat strips and mount it to the rad and the 200mm holes. I'll hopefully go to lowe's tomorrow if I know what I need by then and pick some stuff up and I can get this done.

[Ironsmack]

Im looking at the top of the phantom, and wouldnt the plastic shroud by the front area be blocking 1/3 of your rad?

[Dooms101]

Originally Posted by Ironsmack

Im looking at the top of the phantom, and wouldnt the plastic shroud by the front area be blocking 1/3 of your rad?

That's what I thought at first, but the mesh on the top plastic cover is plenty open enough for the whole rad. The 2x 200mm fans provide plenty of room for the entire length of the rad's fans. I read that NZXT is coming out in a few months with a Phantom v2 that'll hold a triple. I think they should just sell a bracket for it since it would be easy enough to make.

I finished up mounting the blocks, and I gotta say this Primochill tubing is soooo much easier to work with than the ultra thick Tygon I had. I thought 7/16" ID would be hard to get on barbs, but letting it sit in really hot water for a minute softens it up and it goes right on, then when it cooled it was on there like nobodies business. I will post some pics of the blocks and my 6870 when I get home around 4.

[Dooms101]

Update:

Well I know I've been promising pics so I made sure to take a bunch while mounting up the rad. I bought some 1.5" x 4' aluminum flat stock at Lowe's yesterday before work for about $6. I then cut it up into 2x 15.5" long pieces and used some paper to make a template after hours of fitting the rad and fans over my mobo. The problem was that the clips on the ram slots were just barely hitting the fan, so I had to trim the fan and the clips:


It doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done.

Here is the template I made night before:

Basically the 2 aluminum bars bridge the gap between the 120mm fan holes on the rad and the 200mm fan holes on the case.

I then started carefully drilling out each hole for the rad side and checking for fit after each one. It took about an hour and a half to do both:



First side done...


Second side done!

After that, I had my dad hold the rad in the case where it should be, and I marked the holes for the 200mm fan mounts. I drilled those and used some machine screws and lock nuts I had laying around to hold them in place:


Then I fitted up the rad to check for fit and it fits great! I then marked the 3 holes for the clips on the top plastic shroud and marked a hole for my fill port:



I really don't want to cut the case at all, so I just used one of the aluminum bars as a mount for the fill port.

After everything was drilled and fitted, I peeled off the masking tap and mounted it up. I gotta say it looks awesome!





I am now working on getting the rest of the system together and I should be uploading the rest of the build in the next couple days.

[hokiealumnus]

Smart work, well done. Looks good too!

[m0r7if3r]

For real, way to work with what you had available!

[Dooms101]

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Smart work, well done. Looks good too!

Originally Posted by m0r7if3r

For real, way to work with what you had available!

Thanks guys! It took a bit thinking of how to get this to work and not cut the case. In fact this was so cheap and easy, I think NZXT should just include a bracket with their case so people can mount a 120.3. Maybe I'll send them an email...

Anyways, the build is coming along great, the ram cooler came and it just barely fits, there is maybe 1 or 2 mm of clearance from the top fan xD I am finishing the tubing and then I'll do a leak test. Wish me luck!

[Dooms101]

Well the 24 hour leak test went great and it literally took 3 seconds of the pump turned on for the bubbles to clear out, everything is crystal clear. I am 90% done and all I need now is to wire the ccfl's to a on/off switch on the back and mod the side window. Here's some pics to hold you over:


Lights off


Here you can see just how close the RAM cooler gets to the top fan, there is just enough room here.




Lights on xD looks awesome with the white interior. I wasn't so sure about getting the blue led yate loon fans, but now I am glad I did, they look awesome.


Here you can also make out how I water cooled the GPU, I threw on the universal block over the bottom reference cooler base plate that covers most of the PCB. I'll be doing some benching later and hopefully it keeps it cool.

I will be finishing it up soon and I'll post the final pictures in a few hours. Tell me what you guys think

[m0r7if3r]

Consider ditching the ram fan for better airflow to the rad yet?

[Fatticus]

Hehe, snug fit, looks really good man! i really like the phantom cases, the white interior looks bawlin

[hokiealumnus]

Looks great!

[Lennan]

The white & blue is just pure class...
and that white fan at the rear of the case just pulls off the look.
So sleek and slick, love it.

[Conumdrum]

Looks great! Nice work!

Hows temps? When you get there in a few days.

[Dooms101]

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Looks great!

Originally Posted by Lennan

The white & blue is just pure class...
and that white fan at the rear of the case just pulls off the look.
So sleek and slick, love it.

Originally Posted by Conumdrum

Looks great! Nice work!

Hows temps? When you get there in a few days.

Thanks guys! It took TONS of work to get here, but nothing too difficult. I spent a good 4 hours on cable management this morning to get it to look like that, behind the motherboard try is actually pretty organized and tidy, and I think I used like 50 zip ties altogether but it was well worth it. I am really interested to see how adding in the nb and gpu will effect my cpu temps, this setup has sooo much better airflow than before so it might even be better.

Since I have a bit of time on my hands I'll be running some quick benches too tomorrow. I also have to finish the side panel, I am cutting out the excess metal for the 200/230mm fan mount and painting behind both meshes in black. I've seen it done before, and it looks killer.

[Dooms101]

I've been using the computer all day without a problem and it booted right up the first try (that's a first lol). I cut out the stupid side panel fan mount for the window with my dremel and cleaned up the edges with a file, I just got done painting the smaller side vent and it should be ready in about half an hour. I did some testing with P95 blend today and here's some numbers for you guys:

Old case with same pump, same res, same rad but mounted externally, 3x cooler master R4 fans in pull, 40mm chipset fan for NB cooling, and reference cooler on GPU:

Idle:

• CPU: 31C
• NB: 35C
• GPU: 46C

Prime95 Blend Load:

• CPU: 45C
• NB: 39C
• GPU: 50C

CoD:BO 3 hours of gaming:

• CPU: 40C
• NB: 38C
• GPU: 70C

Current Setup:

Idle (fans low):

• CPU: 28C
• NB: 28C
• GPU: 34C

Idle (fans high):

• CPU: 28C
• NB: 28C
• GPU: 34C

Prime95 Blend Load (fans low):

• CPU: 47C
• NB: 34C
• GPU: 41C

Prime95 Blend Load (fans high):

• CPU: 44C
• NB: 32C
• GPU: 38C

By "fans" I mean the 3 yl's on my rad. They're really quiet when on the lowest setting, but pretty dang loud even half way up, and really loud full speed. I am glad I got the high speeds though, I can crank them up for benching xD I will have to watch my temps while gaming but I can see already that temps are lower. Putting the fans on high dropped temps a good 3C all around. Also, the GPU temps are wayyyy better now, and the mem and vregs are around 35C - 40C at idle, before they were closer to 50C. I will have to see what they do at load though.

[charles1]

good job man. Love the white and blue look. I like white but doesnt fit well with my paint scheme in the house LOL.

Kudos on the rad mounting hardware.

[Dooms101]

Originally Posted by charles1

good job man. Love the white and blue look. I like white but doesnt fit well with my paint scheme in the house LOL.

Kudos on the rad mounting hardware.

Thanks! Yeah I wasn't sure how the white would look at first, but I am so glad I got it now that it's all done.

Last Update:
Well its finally done. Took maybe 20 or so hours of work but it was well worth it. All I had left to do from last update was finish up the side panel which i just got done with as the paint dried over night.


Here is what the side panel looks like stock, not too pretty.


This is after cutting out the 200/230mm fan mount and test fitting.


Painting the inside of the other mesh vent for the two 120's makes a huge difference; now it looks more like a vent and less like it was just stuck on there.


Ahhh, much better.

And now for some night shots of the completed project (my camera sucks at this btw):






CCFL's on


CCFL's off



Finally, some in the day:






Nice and tidy cable management too


The bare aluminum looks cool through the mesh vent


Final shot of the inside.

Now for a little conclusion of how the build went... This is the smoothest build I've done yet by far. I only had minor problems with the ram slot clips hitting, but that was easily fixed. I gotta say that this case is a dream to work in, I'd buy it again in a heart beat, I highly recommend it. Although the case is best suited for air coolers and compact water cooling systems (H50/70, etc.), it is definitely capable of holding a good custom loop internally without sacrificing a ton of room. I had a lot of fun building it, and I've earned some more building and water cooling experience. I believe this rig should keep me satisfied for at least a few years, with the occasional mobo/cpu/gpu/ram upgrades.