Project: Threshold

[JustDepends]

Have fun sleeving

 

[Sneaky]

Started sleeving with the 24-pin ATX connector:


labeled all the wires with wire tags:

mr. molex, say hello to molex remover:

cover the bunch of bare molex pins with a bag:

and shove it into the sleeving, or in this case black silicone tubing

and out they come:

 

[Sneaky]

cut 24 4" pieces of 1/16" expandable sleeving

and slide it onto the ends of the wires:

heatshrink the ends of the sleeving, or in this case, I used black electrical tape (yes I got a bit lazy, and I didn't have any 1/8" heatshrink at the time)

and heatshrink over the silicone tubing and sleeving:

 

[Sneaky]

2x 8-pin EPS 12v connectors

 

[CompuTamer]

Lol, one down, a million to go!
Looking really good though Can't wait to see the final product!

 

[Sneaky]

4x 6-pin PCI-E connectors:

 

[Sneaky]

burnt the midnight oil and got my Zippy 1200w completely sleeved in black silicone tubing

 

[Sneaky]

I got my sample of the fluorescent yellow/silver vein powercoat sample from Mountain Mods today... it looks good and all, but it's nothing near what I was trying to achieve.

My Psycho Lime green translucent candy topcoat powder shipped from Caswell Plating today, so when that arrives I'll be shipping it out to Ben @ MM to coat my case and the extra parts I have to get match coated

 

[Sneaky]

I'll do things in order - yesterday, the Psycho Lime powder from Caswell Plating arrived:

along with 25ft spools of 1/8" and 3/16" of black heatshrink tubing from mcmaster

next, I packed everything up that needed to be match powdercoated, and mailed those parts and the powder out to Mountain Mods


after the post office, I ran to the local hardware store to get a few things - a new dial calipers (yes they're cheap plastic ones, but it's all I really need), a 1/8" to 7/8" Unibit (I've been putting it off for a while, but I finally gave in and bought one for $40), a 1 3/8" bi-metal hole saw and a new hole saw mandrel

and grommets 1/4" ID, 3/8" ID, 1/2" ID, 3/4" ID, and 1" ID

 

[Sneaky]

pulled off the electrical tape and re-did the 24-pin connector with black heatshrink tubing:

 

[Sneaky]

Last week, I gave Ben @ Mountain Mods a call to get some information, and got all my parts to be match powdercoated sent out with the Psycho Lime powder that I ordered as well. Got an email a couple days later saying that the March production run was finally finished, and that it would be 3-4 days before he'd be able to get my case and parts into the powdercoating booth. It's been a long ways coming, but the custom case should be here within 1-2 weeks from what Ben was telling me. I can't wait!

 

[Jolly-Swagman]

Should be looking great , or should I say better be looking great, and worth the extra waiting time!

 

[Sneaky]

Not really related to build, but I got a couple of new toys this week:

Motorola SurfBoard Extreme Cable Modem & NetGear WNDR3700 Gigabit WAN+LAN Router:

Logitech G500 Mouse:

 

[Ben333]

Damn man, looking great! How much was the zippy? It noisy? Probably just as good as the ones targeted towards gamers, I'm guessing it cost less?

 

[Sneaky]

The Zippy PSL-6C00V 1200w PSU cost $239 + shipping direct from Zippy USA's New Jersey warehouse. For anyone wanting one, they only stock one PSL-6C00V unit at a time, and their next stock order from Zippy HQ in Taiwan is in May, so if you want one, shoot Brian @ Zippy NJ an email and tell him to order some extra units in [email protected]

You honestly can't get a better PSU for $240... I'll buy a Zippy/Emacs PSU long before I buy a PC P&C PSU. I still have my Zippy PSL-6701P-SATA 700w from 4 years ago and it's running like a CHAMP

And unlike older Zippy PSU's where they have a dumbass loud San Ace 80x32mm fan in it that was 45-50dba, the new PSU's have a thermally controlled San Ace 80x38mm fan that even when my skulltrail is at 100% load and running MSI afterburner on my cards, is barely even audible!

 

[Sneaky]

I talked to Ben @ MM and my custom case shipped today via Fed Ex ground... he also sent me a teaser picture of what the final powdercoat looks like... OMG IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

[Jolly-Swagman]

I talked to Ben @ MM and my custom case shipped today via Fed Ex ground... he also sent me a teaser picture of what the final powdercoat looks like... OMG IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!

Your not wrong there Sneaky that is going to look Awesome, and then some!
Looking forward to seeing, it soon!

 

[Sneaky]

Alright, watercooling loops specifications have been modified to include two loops right off the bat - one for CPU + NB, and one for GPU + SB. Block choices have also been altered for Apogee XT CPU blocks, and matching Swiftech Komodo GPU blocks

I've been looking at CPU + GPU block combos lately, and I'm not too please with what I've been seeing on the market from most manufacturers.

The HK 3.0 & EK Supreme blocks look good and all, but I'm not sure that micro channels are the most effective cooling technology out there, as it is something that has already been visited to an extent in the past, and has been proven to be extremely effective, but micro pin and micro jet designs have surpassed that performance in my eyes.

Then for GPU blocks, the selection of full-cover blocks is quite extensive, but when looking at even the best full cover blocks out there like the EK's and HK's, it's pretty bad. The EK GPU blocks are using the same EK wave design over the GPU core that Eddie has been using for almost 5 years now, and I'm not seeing the level of performance that I would like to on newer cards with this older design. The HK blocks are extremely nice with the micro channel design over the core, but there's no way in hell I'm going to put a full-copper GPU block on an unsupported video card - that's just not something I'm comfortable with.

All in all, I've seen extremely good performance and customer service from Swiftech in the past, and have used their parts in many builds dating back to the beginning of my water cooling days. I'm quite happy with what Swiftech has done with the micro pin design in the Apogee XT, and also how they followed through with the micro pin design into their new Komodo & Epsilon full-cover GPU block lineups. So I've pretty much decided to play it safe and go with a name that I trust as far as CPU + GPU blocks go in this build.

 

[Sneaky]

I'm a pretty indecisive person in general, and over the weekend I've changed up what I want to do as far as waterblocks for this build at least 3 or 4 times.

Alright.

Current Fuzion V1 CPU + Fuzion V2 GPU blocks are solid blocks, but I want better

Heatkiller 3.0 CPU + Heatkiller Full Cover GPU are great blocks, and look hella nice, but I really don't feel like using solid copper blocks in my system

Swiftech Apogee XT CPU + Komodo Full Cover GPU both look like good choices, but Swiftech's quality control on these blocks is sub par - too many bent pins, plus I'm not a big fan of nickle/chrome plating on anything

EK Supreme HF CPU - probably my favorite block on the market right now as far as CPU cooling goes... definitely going with one of these

EK Full Cover GPU blocks - ehhh... great looking blocks, but the old EK wave technology used for core cooling is sub par in my opinion

EK VGA Supreme universal GPU block - same base as the EK Supreme CPU blocks... definitely going to have to go with these, I've kinda given up hope on a full cover block that satisfies all of my needs. I'll be pairing these blocks with Swiftech ATI5850 Uni-Sink heatinks for the video cards


Now I have all the waterblocks, radiators, and pumps figured out, but I'm still up in the air as far as reservoirs go.

I have the Alphacool AGB2 Copper reservoir, but there's no way in hell I'll ever find a second one to match that for the dual loop setup, so that's out of the question.

I've been looking at the EK and I&H tube reservoirs, but have no idea where I'm going to put one in my case while still routing tubing cleanly for a dual loop system. I thought about mounting them horizontally ont he floor of the case, which would look pretty cool, but even then I still have questions about how I would route tubing the way I want to in the E-U2-UFO case.

Danger Den single 5.25" bay res - have always liked bay reservoirs, and it would allow me to route my tubing exactly as planned, but then again, they really do just look cheap and cheesy in higher-end builds like the one I have planned.

My favorite so far is the Aquacomputer Aquatube delrin reservoir - it has options to mount in an 80mm hole in your case, or in two 5.25" bays with an optional mounting bracket. I'm looking at this and going "how cool would it be if I got two of these and mounted them right in the front of my case under the power/hdd LED/switches". This would once again let me route my tubing exactly how I want to, give me some bling on the front end of the case, but the only problem is that no one in the US carries them - I'd have to order directly from Aquacomputer in Germany, which entails a 40 euro shipping surcharge to the US.


What do you guys think?


Edit: Specs have also been upgraded from 2x HD4870's (one of mine died last week), to 2x HD5850's compliments of Stoneyman, and I also acquired a THIRD Samsung Syncmaster 940BF 2ms 19" LCD for pure ownage.

 

[Sneaky]

Alright, I'm gonna keep the build log going.

Today I dug up the set of 4 2.5" swivel casters that I bought from McMaster for my first U2-UFO case to replace the puny little 1.5" casters that Mountain Mods ships with their cases. Gotta have the BIG WHEELS!