black and white Fractal

hi guys,

a friend of mine asked me to build a nice watercooled-PC for about 1500€...
well, this is what i came up with:


http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/9628/config2.jpg


the case is ordered yet.
i'll be placing my orders for the rest of the parts soon.
will let you know more as soon as i get them!
feel free to make comments ;)


list of parts:
http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg = got it
http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/ordered.jpg = ordered
http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dunnow.jpg = not ordered yet

pc hardware:
case: Fractal Design Define R3 artic white http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
PSU: Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-P http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
MB: EVGA P55 FTW http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
CPU: Intel Core i3 530 http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
GPU: XFX HD4850 512Mo http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
RAM: OCZ Reaper 2x2Go DDR3-2000 CL9 http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1To http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
sound card: Asus Xonar D2 PCI http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
DVD: Optiarc SATA DVD-burner http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg

cooling
Scythe Himuro http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
3x Enermax Cluster 120mm http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
Laing DDC + Watercool top http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
EK Supreme LT http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
Watercool GPU-X2 4850 LT http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
EK Multioption 250 basic http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
white tubing http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
black coolant http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg
fittings http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg

ligntening http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg

sleeving http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/check.jpg

I love that board! :cool: I loved that board. Wait, I love the evga boards :D

Good luck! :up:

Not best case for water cooling, but radiator this small should fit inside easily.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dacosta89

I love that board! :cool: I loved that board. Wait, I love the evga boards :D

Good luck! :up:

---

so do i...
my dream board would be a X58-classified full black! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aerial

Not best case for water cooling, but radiator this small should fit inside easily.

---

i know. first i wanted to do it in a 800D, but then i thought: too easy :shakes: (and too expensive too). so when i saw the FD R3 artic white i liked it already, since it matches the colour scheme even more!
besides the HDD-racks are going to get cut out! the rad will be frontal, just behind the 2 fans!
but STOP, you won't get more!!! that's all i'm sayin' for now :p:

I want your friend... none of my buds have money/want to get a new computer that's not a Dell :P

Mmmmm is it really worth it to buy a 4850 AND a FC block at this stage?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by josk1

.. my dream board would be a X58-classified full black! :D ..

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Unfortunately all classified ones (including recently announced classified3) are black & red. Full black are lower end FTW3 / SLI3 and older SLI LE x58 motherboards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScottALot

I want your friend... none of my buds have money/want to get a new computer that's not a Dell :P

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i know what you feel... i'd do more builds if they'd assk me more too !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by prava

Mmmmm is it really worth it to buy a 4850 AND a FC block at this stage?

---

No, you're right. ain't worth buying a new one, BUT i'm not buying a 4850. Actually my friend's no hardcore gamer so a 4850 is plenty engouh. and since i wanted to watercool the GPU (watercooling the CPU only is a non-sens to me) i thought i'd "give" him my "old" 4850 and get myself a new one... (5870 by the way). i checked new GPU first but the cheaper you can get and watercool decently is a 5770 which would cost at least 200€ (WB included) and that's outta reach for our budget! ;)
with this solution we're both happy: he's got a good watercooled GPU, I got a very good watercooled new GPU for less :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by churchy

Unfortunately all classified ones (including recently announced classified3) are black & red. Full black are lower end FTW3 / SLI3 and older SLI LE x58 motherboards.

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yep... always thought if i won the lotery i'd go ask Mr. EVGA for a full black (not grey/black) classified. :D

I'm really sure I'm going to fell in love with that build since I've seen what are you able to do with white theme rigs ;D

I really like the way you show us the parts from the project, really cool.

Subscribed.

josk1: i doubt it will be ever possible. It's very costly to release separate batch different from rest, you'd be better off painting red slots yourself, or get FTW3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by guilleguillaume

I'm really sure I'm going to fell in love with that build since I've seen what are you able to do with white theme rigs ;D

I really like the way you show us the parts from the project, really cool.

Subscribed.

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thanx man, i try to do my best!
always aiming for perfection... will get there someday!! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by churchy

josk1: i doubt it will be ever possible. It's very costly to release separate batch different from rest, you'd be better off painting red slots yourself, or get FTW3.

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i said if i win the lotery , and THAT my friend is highly improbable!!! :shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScottALot

I want your friend... none of my buds have money/want to get a new computer that's not a Dell :P

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No kidding.

One of my friends just spent $2400 on an air cooled XPS with a 980X and SLI GTX480's.

I wanted to slap the $h^t out of them.

yep,

just a quick update... i know it's a bad quality picture (HTC)
but hey, you can see what's goin on there, huh?! :D
got pretty much everything ordered i'm just missing a fan for the PSU (this Silverstone 140mm makes such a noise! :shrug:) and the DVD.. but i'll do that soon

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/test.jpg

Edit: ordered the DVD and the fan ;)

been gathering everything i need lately and started working the case by cutting out spaces needed for a decent cable/tubing management. i'll have a nice paint job at the end, when every hole needed is done! ;)

i also started sleeving the white cable with white sleeves (don't need to prep the usual muli-coroed cables so you don't see the color through... waaaaay easier!)
here's the first result: the 8-pin power cable

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/sleeve2.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/sleeve3.jpg

the 24's getting ready to be done too:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/sleeve4.jpg

you noticed the pump:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/pump1.jpg

i'm gona get the bottom a nice finish soon (i've cut the "feet" that look ugly and are useless in my case), and those ugly cables will... disappear!!!

... to be continued ...

oh you have one of the loudest laing tops there :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPLsZqarZUo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z541Ri87TMw

Nice sleeving, So you sleeve your only 24 pins??? Never seen it done like that before.. u got from murdermod yeah??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bundymania

oh you have one of the loudest laing tops there :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPLsZqarZUo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z541Ri87TMw

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i don't see how the top could make such noise?? :confused:
but it seams you're right... i've checked a few reviews... damn it i couldn't imagine that :down: i'll see at the end what it does :shrug:
might gona mod it ?!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johnny87au

Nice sleeving, So you sleeve your only 24 pins??? Never seen it done like that before.. u got from murdermod yeah??

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nope, i got the sleeving and the crimping from MDPC-X but the cable come from a local electrical store! (was kinda hard to find, but there's some over the internet too)
(look at farnell... they've got everything... i ordered there too... but i don't know if they'd ship abroad)

Edit: i've ordered 100m of black and 100m of white cable... should be enough :D

a few novelties...

res-holders:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/ring2.jpg

cutting a few things out:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cut6.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cut7.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cut8.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cut9.jpg

and the empting-port...

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cut5.jpg

to be continued ...

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cables3.jpg

few updates here...
got a bit more than half the cables sleeved, and got the pump brand new white cables coming out from the bottom (cables must be pretty at least, but better not be seen ;) )

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/cables1.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/pump3.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/pump2.jpg

looks good mate, definately gotta sleeve my 24 pin like that..

here's a bit of news for you guys!


http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec1.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec8.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec7.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec6.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec2.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec5.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec4.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec3.jpg

...to be continued...

nice!!!!

Well, it was a pain to remove the black noise absorbing material in the side panels, eh ? I made it some weeks ago with nail color remover and other things :D

hell no...
sorry to tell you this now, but it only took me a few minutes... with a hairdryer!!! i only had to warm it up a bit, and it went away as easy as regular tape!!! :shrug:

Oh ok, so your method was better than mine to remove this nasty stuff :ROTF: I will remember it, if i have to do such work someday in the future :yepp:

Very uniform, can't wait to see the GPUs in there! (1000th post)

the GPU ... AND the sound card! they're both pretty... but don't be so impatient ;)
time will come!

here's a bit of news...

before:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec14.jpg

after:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec12.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec13.jpg

closed:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec16.jpg

open:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec15.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec19.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec20.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec21.jpg

from the inside:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec18.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec17.jpg

I'm in love with that case :yawn:

Keep going! :up:

I also got this case :cool:

Will be folowing it , nice work until now;)

looking good mate!!

little teaser...

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec23.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/dec24.jpg

looking good matey!!

little update for the new year! ;)


http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan02.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan01.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan03.jpg

That reservoir placement it's so tight wow! :D

Nice mate, U should of added atleast 1 cable sleeved black on each cable.. Would of been rad man!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by guilleguillaume

That reservoir placement it's so tight wow! :D

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yep, as you say... pretty tight, but it works just the way i thought ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johnny87au

Nice mate, U should of added atleast 1 cable sleeved black on each cable.. Would of been rad man!

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i thought of this, but finally i decided to keep it all white, so the cables coming out of the PSU look all the same (would be kinda messy otherwise!)

Going to use black or white tubes?

white tubes and black coolant... you'll see that soon!

:)

I believe white tubes will be perfekt. Matches the sleeving.

Looking forward to seeing plumbing.

me too ;)

Did you paint that front metal plate? I think you did, but I can't tell from that one picture almost still looks metal to me 0.o.

It's been white painted... I know the picture quality sucks!

Is that a sheet of plexi behind your mb?

Did you drill holes for the standoffs, or did you mount the MB to the plexi?

"behind" the mobo, on the bottom of the case, and maybe around the PSU/back fan too...
no the plexi goes around the mobo, the holes i drilled are for cables and tubing!
i have a week off next week... should be finishing this baby !! ;)

Any plans to do lighting with the acrylic?

there is... but no more info yet... too soon!
you'll see that too! ;)

Very interested now.

love the heatshrink the most. very clean!!

bit of news here...
been tubing a bit, and got the plexi windows done too!

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan04.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan05.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan06.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/jan07.jpg

ok guys here you go!!

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/8544/imgp7637.jpg

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5500/imgp7640p.jpg

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4721/imgp7641.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7186/imgp7642.jpg

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2561/imgp7643.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3761/imgp7644.jpg

:up: or :down: ??

http://th01.deviantart.com/fs26/300W...tattoomary.jpg

Beautiful project. Love white builds.

Looks good josk, Can i suggest you get some MDPC-X cable mounting clips though? Would look alot neater thats for sure :)

:shocked: love the finish.. Awsome build. Plexi is real nice touch, it really set off your case. I can't get over how clean ur heatshrink is.

Thanx guys!
Too bad the white noise dampening for the pump turned yellowish so fast! 'looked kinda cool: like the pump was floating in the air ;)
About the cable mounting from mdpc-x i have some, but i havé nowhere to fix them! Ain't no TJ7 here!!

Nothing wrong with drilling some holes in the mobo tray :up:

Looks good! The window design is certainly fitting, too. :yepp:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johnny87au

Nothing wrong with drilling some holes in the mobo tray :up:

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I don't really wanna drill holes now... Something tells me that drilling holes with the mobo behind ain't a good idea! See what i mean?

This Build Looks Beastly !!

What a perfect build!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by josk1

I don't really wanna drill holes now... Something tells me that drilling holes with the mobo behind ain't a good idea! See what i mean?

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Yeah i feel ya, no need of clips anyways tbh, cable management is fairly clean :up:

last pictures:

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final2.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final4.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final5.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final10.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final11.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final12.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final13.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final7.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final16.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final6.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final1.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final3.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final14.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final15.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final8.jpg

http://dr.pfeffer.free.fr/pc/final9.jpg

Job well done :up:

Looking very good, I love white project:up:

Awesome job!

Hey, I just found this thread when I was looking for water-cooled Fractal cases, sorry for the late post, but i just wanted to say this build looks great. Awesome job on the cable sleeving and the lighting. I really like it. Great attention to detail too, superb job. However, I can't believe that you finished this thing for under 1,500 Euro's, because it looks like you spent much more. But if not, well then your work is even more impressive. Only thing I don't like is the Corsair-style "sail" window treatment. I don't like it on the Corsair cases, so personally I would have gone with a regular rectangular window, but that is just my personal preference. Plus, it's a Fractal, so why make it look like a Corsair? (especially since Corsair is inferior to Fractal, IMO.) Anyway, great job! I wish you lived in New York, so that you could build me one, because at that price, it's cheaper than doing it myself (although I would want mine in black). :up:

Looking good! Did you use the standard edge C-Stripping that came with the case, or did you find that somewhere? I'd love a link if so - I've been trying to find something other than black C-Stripping...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eth0s

Hey, I just found this thread when I was looking for water-cooled Fractal cases, sorry for the late post, but i just wanted to say this build looks great. Awesome job on the cable sleeving and the lighting. I really like it. Great attention to detail too, superb job. However, I can't believe that you finished this thing for under 1,500 Euro's, because it looks like you spent much more. But if not, well then your work is even more impressive. Only thing I don't like is the Corsair-style "sail" window treatment. I don't like it on the Corsair cases, so personally I would have gone with a regular rectangular window, but that is just my personal preference. Plus, it's a Fractal, so why make it look like a Corsair? (especially since Corsair is inferior to Fractal, IMO.) Anyway, great job! I wish you lived in New York, so that you could build me one, because at that price, it's cheaper than doing it myself (although I would want mine in black). :up:

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thanx:
about the corsair look, i kinda had to use this sort of shape since i wanted the pump to be seen but not the DVD... and i actually like it so :shrug:
about the price i have to admit that i came over the initial price, i'd say around 1700€...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sanctified

Looking good! Did you use the standard edge C-Stripping that came with the case, or did you find that somewhere? I'd love a link if so - I've been trying to find something other than black C-Stripping...

---

thank for the nice comment, but i've no idea what the C-stripping is ? please light my bulb...
sorry :D

Any chance you have a digital template for the front rad mount adapter you made?
Also what rad is it?

Looking to do the same for my R3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony_L

Any chance you have a digital template for the front rad mount adapter you made?
Also what rad is it?

Looking to do the same for my R3

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ain't digital but it worked fine...

hand made sketch

and the radiator is a basic 2x120mm (aquacomputer airplex i think... or noname? nothing fancy)