[Build Log] Project Mini Me - M-ATX Phantom, 3820, RIVG, 7970, watercooled

[Phelan]

The Plan:

Make a Phantom go from this:


To this:


And stuff a whole lot of awesome in it.




A couple things to note about this build:
-The above pic was done in MS Paint as a reference point. The plan is to shorten the height by 6" and the length by 3.5".
The final will have 2 5.25" bays and 2 3.5" bays
-The power supply will mount sideways in the bottom-front, like in silverstone cases.
-The final will not have a 200mm fan in the top, though it will likely have one in the bottom, similar to my last build.
-Door design is still being decided.






Parts List.

case: modified NZXT Phantom Full Tower (owned)
processor: Intel i7 3820 (owned)
motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Gene (owned)
RAM: TBD, currently Avexir CORE series 4x4 GB 1600mhz (owned)
graphics card: Diamond 7970 reference (owned)
storage: Mushkin Chronos 120 GB SSD for OS, WD Scorpio blue 2.5" 640GB and 250GB for storage (all owned)
power supply: TBD, currently XFX 750w (owned)
CPU block: Swiftech Apogee Drive II (owned)
GPU block: Swiftech Komodo (en route)
chipset blocks: XSPC RIVG chipset blocks (needed)
radiators: Swiftech MCR220-QP-RES and Swiftech MCR120-XP (both needed)
pump: Swiftech MCP35X, integrated in the Apogee Drive II
reservoir: integrated in the MCR220-QP-RES 240mm radiator
fans: TBD
fittings: TBD
tubing: TBD

[Phelan]

Index will go here.

[Phelan]

Final pics will go here.

[Phelan]

This is what the loop will look like. The green circles indicate where there will be Y splitters. I plan to run most of the loop parallel to minimize pressure drop and optimize flow.

[Calathea]

This looks great, Rampage Gene x79 is about the only reason I would like a x79 setup. So small yet room for a 6c/12t cpu. But of course 3820 is good enough. Good luck, I will follow this!

[Ivanlabrie]

I'm a fan of all things SFF, and an X79 rig would rock so bad :p
Why not the 3930k? Can't you resell that 3820 and go big? If not, I guess you can always replace it further down the road.

[Erdrick1980]

Wow, this going to be badass looking!

[Phelan]

Thanks guys! 3820 because I already have it and funds are limited, though I plan to upgrade to a 4950K or whatever they call it next year .

Not much of an update until I get some stuffs in, but I ordered the paracord and some tools today. As this thing gets moving I'll do my best to log all tools and materials I use as well.
I ordered 200' of red camo nylon 550 paracord and 50' of thin red line nylon 550 paracord from mrparacord. I would've ordered more of the latter but thst's all they had.
I alsi ordered 48 male and 48 female atx pins, some black connectors, ATX pin removal tool, and a Molex crimper from Frozen CPU. When I get more funds I'll order a molex tool as well. Gonna do my best to go heatshrinkless.

[Phelan]

New Case!!! This is my third Phantom Full Tower!


I got it in white/red for the red LEDs, since I'll be sandblasting and painting it anyway.



I believe this is revision 3.0 for the Phantom, since it has updated drive bay locks. I believe 2.0 only had a revised fan controller PCB and an added USB 3.0 port, since those were the changes my second Phantom had in camparison to the first.


It even has a new hardware box. Sorry for the bad focus on the first pic.





Here's a pic of my old, jealous Phantom in pieces.


Some of the hardware for this build (before I had to send the mobo back for replacement)


A pic of the capacitor I replaced on my Diamond 7970 (front left)


And a few pics of my Mad Max PSU. Those extensions won't be used in this build; I'm going to sleeve the PSU as well as build new sleeved extensions. The hole on one side is where the wires used to come out when this was in my previous build. For now I just flipped the metal shroud.




And here's what the Paracord colors look like.

[Phelan]

My overdue holiday update:

I hope everyone that celebrates had a great Christmas; over the last few days I got my sleeving stuff in and got some stuff done!
Here's a shot of all the stuff I got in.


I wasted no time building the first cable extension, a 6 pin PCIE.


I later found this approach rather troublesome, as for some reason the male pins kept getting stuck in the plug. So now I'm building the female end of the plug and sleeving the wires before I start the male end, so I don't waste more pins. But I managed the first cable.


After boring out the connectors with a box knife on the first extension, I decided that took too long and didn't have the cleanest finish, so I opted for my trusty $35 35k RPM rotary tool from Harbor Freight for the rest of them.


Quick an easy.


And here's the other tools I used.

FrozenCPU crimper
Walmart Wire tool
wire cutters
box knives
FrozenCPU atx pin removal tool
scissors
electrical tape

Today I managed finishing the business end of the 8 pin PCIE as well. But I'm tired and burnt out already for the day at sleeving.

[miptzi]

man, SFF cases rock, especially the full ATX reduced ones...lol

[Phelan]

lol, thanks!

[Phelan]

Another update.
First I took out the 3.5" drives so I could do some test fitting.


Unfortunately, the front fan mount protrudes to far inward, moving my PSU back too far. To remedy this, I will cut off the fan mounts and weld them back on flush with the front. There is still plenty of room for a 25mm wide 140mm fan up front.


Just another day, working on a power supply...


And here's the finished result. If I had the pns and connectors to make the SATA cable detatchable, I would have made a multi SATA extension and left tha cable short. I like short cables for less clutter, and I also decided against sleeving the wires that aren't seen in the build. Too much work when there's so much more to be done for the rest of the build.


Now we're getting somewhere... No plastic on the case (except for the feet that I forgot to take off before the pic).


Oh snap! Dissassembly complete!


ALL RIVETS MUST DIE. (drilled these out with a power drill btw )


Too bad these won't fit in my build. They were awesome in the last one.



I also have a 25lb box of crushed walnut shells to blast the case. I hope to sandblast the case this week and maybe even start cutting.

[Phelan]

Sorry for the lack of updates; things are moving slow since I now have another co-project, a model of a '56 Ford F-100 that I'm modding with '07 GT500 running drivetrain and misc parts, as well as some crazy stuff. It's brushing up on my plastic skills so it ties in. Speaking of which, I cut down the front panel today! I needed to do this first to find out how much I can cut the height of the case itself. I can't cut the top panel yet though because the length change is dependant on clearance inside the case, which I still need to do.

Here it is after I cut it down. I used my rotary tool for the preliminary cuts, then a box blade for the closer cuts, and finally sandpaper to fine tune it before I glued it together. You can see the significant height difference. It's 5.125" shorter.


Here it is with glue on it, tape to hold it in place while the glue dries.

[Blu3berrX]

Looks great!

[Phelan]

Thanks!

[Phelan]

Sorry there hasn't been an update more recently, but there have been some good developments! The front panel glue together nicely, has been sanded, and is almost ready for paint, unless I decide to mod it more.... I've mapped out almost all my cuts on the case pieces, and it should be ready soon to start cutting. I also picked up a Sponsor, but I'm waiting here back from him on his company or dba name so I can put it on the front page. Once I receive the part he's sponsoring I'll have my log moved to the Sponsored section. I also have a couple friends that are going to send me some undisclosed parts that will really set this build off. For now I must bid you adieu. Off to mod!

[Phelan]

Hey guys! There's been some heavy modifications to the plan, although it's still pretty much the same. A lot of exciting stuff is gonna go down, but it requires that I wait for the stuff to get here in a couple weeks. So other than finishing my sleeved extensions, there's not much I can do on this at the moment. That's all I'll say about it for now. So hang tight, bear with me and let your imagination run wild on what it might be!

[Ivanlabrie]

No prob man...grab a cold one, cheers!
Nice sleeving color scheme btw. And ship me those rads if you're not using them

[Phelan]

No prob man...grab a cold one, cheers!
Nice sleeving color scheme btw. And ship me those rads if you're not using them

I would but I actually traded them for a Komodo block.

[Ivanlabrie]

Cool :p
You're gonna watercool the vrm right?
I like your idea for this project, at first I considered doing something like this and inverting the mobo tray in my cm 690 II or just inverting the chassis and making it matx but never got around to do it.

[Phelan]

Cool :p
You're gonna watercool the vrm right?
I like your idea for this project, at first I considered doing something like this and inverting the mobo tray in my cm 690 II or just inverting the chassis and making it matx but never got around to do it.

That's the plan, but it's not critical to the build, and may go on the back-burner, depending on funds.

[Phelan]

Here's a teaser of something a good friend is making for me. Mind you, this guy doesn't do these things commercially, and has no interest to do so. So if you know who it is, be kind enough not to bring it up




Choncho, sometimes, when you're a grown man, you tear up brand new stuff... Just for fun...





I decided on some new memory instead of the Avexirs and Dominators I had. I just ordered a quad channel set of 4x4 GB 2400 MHz Gskill Trident X DIMMs. These will perform much better than the 1600 MHz Avexirs I had, and look sweet as well. I didn't want LED RAM for this build because I'll be using the NZXT HUE unit from the Phantom 820, and want be able to change the lighting color without discrepencies .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231588

Also, I decided to run the new Swiftech H220 CLC instead of the Apogee Drive 2. I have the unit in my possession and it is lovely. I plan to run benchmark/temp tests with it cooling just the 3820 on the solo 240 rad, with my 3820 and 7970 with Komodo block in the loop with just the 240 rad, and with both the CPU and GPU in the loop with the 240 rad and an additional 360 rad (MCR320-QP).

Here's a photo of my H220 with push/pull Helix 120 fans. Also note that I'm using the larger thumbscrews from the Apogee Drive 2. Functionaly they are identical, but the larger ones look better IMO.

[Phelan]

Guess what I did today


And the door in its final form before paint, being sent to me now


Also I ordered the material to make my new motherboard tray. What is it you ask?
DIAMOND PLATE. I'll have to grind down all the diamonds under the mobo to ensure no shorting out occurs, but the end look will be worth it

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Awesome! I'm subscribing.

I've worked w/ 3 nzxt cases (two 410s and a 630). Kick ass cases. You couldn't have picked a better case to mod. Good price, lots of options & you obviously have a keen eye for this.

I'll be taking notes.