New Home for my hardware - U2-UFO CYO :)
Just wanted to share my experience with Mountain Mods and their products.
The Gallery is here - Mountain Mods U2-UFO - Africa
About the product and the service:
Very happy with the case and the service. Reasonable price for such an awesome case, delivery charges are a bit on the higher side though, but considering how far away we (New Zealand) are it is very expected. Case is great, roomy and very easy to work with, the system was assembled very quickly and put to test without delay. Even though there is no user manual in the package, there is one on the website and it is quite clear on how to assemble the case, though more thorough instructions could be appreciated (got lost in supplied nuts, bolts and screws, lol).
Was in the local hardware store and came across some interesting screws which I later used to hold intake fans, fan grills. You can see em on the photos, they look a bit bulky, but I think they make some visual impact in comparison to skiny normal fan screws. The screws I used were 10G x 16mm Gold Passivated Self Drill Screws. Though I would go with longer screws next time, probably 24mm as 16mm is just enough to hold your fan with the fan grill, I wanted to use some grommets and silicone pads as well but screws turned out to be too short. Note to self - buy longer screws :)
Final build specs:
Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz
Patriot DDR3-1600 RAM 7-7-7-18
Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Motherboard (CPU overclocked only by changing one setting to Extreme Performance)
2x 500Gb Seagate HDDs
2x 500Gb Western Digital HDDs
2x ASUS EAH 4870 in CrossFire
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000 HD Quad-mode TV receiver
STLab PCIe SATA II RAID Card
Ultra X3 1000W Power Supply
Cooling with all 1/2" fittings
EK-Supreme Plexi Waterblock
EK-Multioption Reservoir 250 Rev 2
Swiftech MCP355 12VDC Pump w/ XSPC Premium Laing DDC Clear Acrylic Top
Thermochill 120.3 Radiator
Feser UV-Red Anti-Kink Tubing 1/2"
Feser One F1 Cooling Fluid UV-Red
Intake Fans
4x Enermax "Magma" - Twister Bearing Silent Extreme Operation Fans (on Fan Speed Controller)
(3 on Thermochill P120.3 and 1 under the 5.25 Device Bay)
2x Noctua (NF-P12-1300 )1300rpm Premium Silent 120mm Fans @ 900rpm
(on the side window as intake fans to help cool down GPU)
Exhaust Fans
6x Noctua (NF-P12-1300 )1300rpm Premium Silent 120mm Fans @ 900rpm
Also various Fan Grills and stuff....
There are plans on getting 4870 watercooled, all the hardware is ready, the only bits missing are 4870 waterblocks.
Addition:
Done some burn tests to see what the temps gonna be like and it actually came out quite nice.
Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz (9x400)
CPU-Z & Everest reported VCore Voltage - 1.55V
The temps are as folow:
Room ambient - 22 C
CPU Idle - 32 C
CPU Load - 49 C
Mobo - 55 C
Nice more then acceptable temps in my opinion. ;)
About the case:
So far it is the best modding case I've ever seen and used. Awesome versatility and plenty of room to accommodate even most powerfully water cooling system and other hardware. There are a couple of minor issues with the case, they are minor but if they could be worked on the case will be 100% perfect. E.g. I like using thumbscrews to hold PCI/PCI-E cards in place instead of normal screws and there some mobo tray holes are in the way of the extension slot screws, so it is impossible to use a thumbscrew to hold PCI/PCI-E cards, but only standard screw (not all but only 3 extension slots are affected). Also etching job is quiet good, however it can be better (I mean attention to detail, I've asked to make background smooth but it wasn't and so on), but it is good nevertheless.
Addition:
also ordered Acrylic 3-1/2 to 5-1/4 converter and the hole on it is a bit too tight in my opinion, had to shave off some corners on my card reader to make it fit...
P.S. ordered a few different things from MM, not sure if it is supposed to be so but got my ThermoChill radiators with no fittings at all (expected some fittings to be included), so had to order some after the case arrived and lost some time, not a major but it is nice to know if radiators come with or without fittings prior delivery.
Well, all in all it is 9 out of 10 for the case and the service, and 8 out of 10 for other products. 4 out of 10 for delivery charges, but I am happy with the purchase anyway.
