[GEEKBOX] Ego Maniacal X58

Hey guys!

Started building a variation of our Ego Maniacal machine. This time, we're doing something a little different. With all of the Ego Maniacal builds we've done to date, we've focused solely around the Sandybridge platform. This time, we wanted to pay tribute to the 1366 platform before Intel puts it into the history books with socket 2011 later this year. I began production on the machine two days ago. Every time we build one of these, I document the project heavily - so I will make sure to post some good snaps for everyone to enjoy.

We have another Maniacal build currently in production for one of our customers out of the country, so I encourage you all to check it out as I finally get to posting photos. It's been a busy month - as such, I've had a little less time to make the builds public. I will make an effort to throw up some goodies soon.

I hope you find inspiration, as well as enjoyment following the build.

Back to sleeving...

We've decided on running with the Asus Rampage 3 Black Edition for the build. The R3EE is a legendary board, and we always get great results - this board should be no different. The Black Edition will certainly fit our color scheme much better.

Attachment 118423

Picked up a couple i7-990X processors. I typically like to cherry pick the processors we intend on overclocking - I'm hoping one of the two of these gives us what we're after. As for memory, this was an easy decision based on our experience over the years. However - the heat sink color, while pretty, is going to clash horrifically with everything else in the system. Something must be done!

Attachment 118424

Attachment 118425

Yikes! Naked memory... those thermal pads will need to be replaced if we're changing the color of the heat sink. I also have some spare heat spreaders from Mushkin. Not quite sure which way I want to go yet. More on this later.

Attachment 118426

Decided to go all out, and try a little speed experiment with some of the new SSD's that have recently hit the market.

Attachment 118427

As such, we're going with a new RAID controller that should keep up with these drives. The Chronos Deluxe drives should rip - the question we had was, would this RAID controller work with the motherboard. After some research, the consensus was this card wouldn't work with the new Black Edition Asus board. This had me concerned, but I've also learned over the years. Rare is the day I trust what I read regarding things like this - unless the source is credible. So I picked one up - and to my delight, the card works great. Just had to disable the on-board SATA3 ports. Yikes, this is going to be fast. TRIM support be damned - RAID0 sounds too fast not to try :)

Attachment 118429

Yuck - the cables bundled with the card are far too long, and red. Luckily I have some shorter SAS/SATA cables we can use.

Attachment 118428

Beautiful color of sleeve. Nils, you're a genius - thank you!

Attachment 118430

I wanted to get an idea of how everything would come together with the drives. The TJ-11 has all those wide bays - I kind of like the float look. Not too sure if I want the butt-ends of the cables on this side though. I'll definitely have to crimp a custom power cable to feed all 8 drives in a clean method. Peak wattage is only 3W per drive, so a single run should do the trick. At this angle, it almost looks like the prototype case is part of one of our completed projects behind it. :)

This case is just the "mess around" case. I've already disassembled and prepped the TJ-11 we'll be using - paint should be wrapped up tomorrow. Almost done sleeving the power cables as well... it will be interesting to see it all together. Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me! So much to do, but "working" a Sunday to perfect every detail is what it's all about.

Speaking of perfect details - yikes, sorry about the white balance on the camera. I must have had it set to my outdoor settings.

Until tomorrow...

Any updates?:D

awesome hardware, looking forward to some updates :)

Have been absolutely swamped with builds. I documented the entire project, and plan to post the photos along with the finished product. Turned out exceptionally well :) Building two more as we speak... pics soon!

oh, so its done already? :D feed us then!

Food coming soon ;) I also have some sneak peaks on the one we're currently working on. yikes, I'm behind in my logs!

Really good job with previous projects, I'm looking forward for this one as well.