Project: Phoenix

[Lagaaja]

Well, just 4 months after my last build I'm already starting new Okay, not completely new, same old hardware but new case, new mods and new loop. I never actually got my current casemod finished and it really started to bug me, so I just decided to order new case and start all over again. So the goodies arrived today (after waiting for one week for processing and one for shipping lol) and I figured out to start this log right away.

Like I stated hardware is still the same:
Asus P5Q Pro
Intel E6420
ATI X1950 XTX
2 gigs of PQI DDR2 800 Mhz
Corsair HX620W
2 HDD's

And cooling too:
Swiftech MCP655-B
Alphacool NVXP-3
50x45cm Car radiator
Swiftech Apogee GT
12/15mm PUR tubing

--

Yay, pics!

13kg of pure Caseking vs our cat:


Hmm, what's inside?


Nice So the case is Enermax Phoenix Neo, "Performance Reborn".


250mm fan, I wonder will it be my rads next best friend


Sorry for the bad pics, but the specs are 12VDC, 0.40A, 600-900rpm. How does that cat get to every freaking picture?


I started to strip down all the extra stuff like the bottom HDD cage (not shown in the pic) and other little bitz that aren't going to be painted.



Colortheme will still be black and red, and here is the list of mods / things to do:
- interior will be painted matte black, not glossy like last time
- 250mm fan will be removed from the sidepanel and plexi window will replace the covermesh -> instant window with very little modding
- monster fan will be paired with my monster rad to get some monster temps
- however the fan controls will stay on the side panel in their original places, I will just re-route and extend the cables
- case will have two 120mm fans (front and back), red Sunbeam Silent Led series, around 1000rpm they're quiet but still bright
- HDD's will be mounted to 5,25" places with same system I currently have in my Sonata II
- and there's one thing I haven't tell you guys yet, but let the picture speak for itself:



More updates coming this weekend

[SiuL]

nice case

[Lagaaja]

Some progress..

- the case is painted flat black
- stock fan grills have been cut and the sharp edges have been covered with some black u-list
- some sleeving has been done too, mainly the fan cables and the case frontpanel IO cables


W00t gigantic hand!



This one is a fattie Four USB wires inside.


And the pwr/rst/hdd/led wires are inside one sleeving too, fortunately it didn't come out as big as those USB wires.

[PsYcHoNo0b727]

good stuff, ill be watching along

[Lagaaja]

So I got the system finally up and running (that's why the lack of updates), here are some random shots from the past few days.



Sleeved the small cathodes and the pump. Altough I ended up using only one of those 10cm cathodes, it found itself a perfect spot and it's bright enough alone too.



This is how I mounted the HDD's this time. You can also see where the cathode is currently sitting. It lights up basically everything inside the case above the video card.



Shot of the cable routing / sleeving. I decided to left the sata cables unsleeved, as they're red (goes with the theme).



Assembling the loop. Note the y-line for filling (instead of regular t-line).



Damn I really love that colour of the water. It's even more sick IRL and those coils are nowhere near that bright. They fit together nicely.



And the bling shot without flash:




I still need to mount the big fan to the rad and extend all the control wires from the sidepanel to the fan. I'm not going to use the leds in the big fan, instead I used the sidepanel ledswitch to control the one cold cathode inside the case The whole thing turned out to be rather quiet, as the fand run only ~1000rpm and the HDD's and the pump doesn't transfer any vibrations to the case. I try to finnish up the whole thing this weekend (mainly tomorrow, because today is independence day and I've been celebrating with my family and friends).

[PsYcHoNo0b727]

Nice stuff.

[kylepaddock]

Wow

[N3it1]

There are no points in your work logs since your done already after 6 posts!

[Ming@s]

good job.

[exe163]

Three posts and its over already?! Come on more pix!

[Lagaaja]

No it's not over yet lol The big fan is still not mounted and there is ton of wiring and soldering to do so I can get the sidepanel controls to work. I think I get this thing finished today if I have enought time, and I'll surely post some pics of the final result.

And hey, this is quite fast because I mainly changed parts from the old case to the new one one while doing it I managed to do some modding too

[pcaddict]

LMAO

[Lagaaja]

Well I got the case 99% finished, and I'm more than happy of it Here's some more or less random shots of the final product.


Just some cablework..



Just look at that color of the coolant



With flash...



...and without:



This is how the sidepanel/controlpanel works:

and here is video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9DahsXg1o


My new favorite pic:





I still need to order more antikink-coil to "sleeve" all the tubing inside the case, I think it would look better that way. Otherwise I'm pretty much done with this, and that window turned out great or what do you guys think? I will do some testing with the 250mm fan to see what kind of temps I get with passive rad, the fan push/pull and with min and max rpm's. So stay tuned for more


Thanks for reading,
Lag.

[Lagaaja]

Minor updates..


I bought more antikink coil and the loop has now more finished look:


Here is the 250mm fan. It looks ridiculously small compared to that rad


And the final flash shot:



With the 250mm fan at lowest speed (push configuration) idle temps of the processor are around 33'C and gaming/orthos/etc never gets to 60'C When using rad passive, cores idle around 40-42'C and stress temps depend how long the stress is, haven't tested the peak temp yet.

However when using the fan at full speed, it doesn't seem to affect the temps. I think this is due the rather small area that the fan is blowing to.

[Asgard_thor]

sweeet rad

[mr-rob]

I really like that colors
What is your coolant please? Such a lovelly color

[atomic ferret]

Big fan of that monster rad.