Project "Formal Black"

[Cutless009]

Nah Ill have some minor updates on some of the stuff, but no major ones till friday at the soonest most likely.

One interesting update for anyone following this thread, I ordered the wrong compression fittings from bitspower, I go the 1/2 ID 5/8 OD instead of the 3/4 OD, so im selling them off, I put them up in the for sale section for $7.50 per shipped, but for the awesome LC guys that are following my thread I'll sell them off to you guys for $6.75 per INCLUDING shipping, they are BRAND NEW and have never been used AT ALL, and are spotless:





Just had to order the right ones to the tune of $224! >.<

[N19h7m4r3]

Wow!

I wish I had your budget

[FrostyPanda]

I wish I had your budget

says he who has murder and mod in his sig..................

[N19h7m4r3]

Haha, I resemble that remark. But I'd still love Cutless's budget. It's more than 10x mine :P

[Cutless009]

My budget for this build was $5,500, and Im just under that atm at around $5,350 so far.

[N19h7m4r3]

Bloody hell!
With 1000 I'd finish of the build I'm planning and get some upgrades in.

[Cutless009]

Lol the scary part is, I had to "settle" for two loops instead of three and a single 1tb drive instead of a 4tb raid array just to keep costs down D:

such is life when ur running the worlds fastest processor and two of the world fastest graphics cards ^_^

[MJR]

Very nice build. But may I ask, why not x58 and i7?

[Cutless009]

Dunno, force of habit over a decade of building systems, I've always bought right when there was a change and one version back from the most current simply because its not brand new and the market has been established so it's easy to find parts and solutions to common problems, I'm really not very good with computers, not when you dig really deep into voltages/troubleshooting etc etc, so I prefer to remain in my comfort zone of well-established hardware

[N19h7m4r3]

I am with Cutless on this, I prefer a try and tested platform to one with loads of problems.

I felt like a king when I got my first edition Athlon 64 3200+ and socket 754 mobo and system.
Was buggy as hell and couldn't OC for cack! To make matters worse, AMD left 754 shortly after for socket 939.

So until now I wait for the market to settle and prices to drop. By then all the problems could be solved

[Cutless009]

Some of the custom painted pieces going on on the back. I'd love to show you guys what it looks like through the top window, however ben sent me the wrong top to my case D:

[short114]

Really amazing work also a lot of money involve, keep up the good work!

Short

[Cutless009]

OMG, updates soon guys, still no parts in that I ordered, but the PSU is in and all the power wires for the motherboard and graphics cards are run, the first radiator is mounted (still waiting on NCIX to get stock in and ship me the 2nd one), and most of the fans are in, waiting on some fan bolts from MM before I can mount fans to the rads, and Im also waiting on some parts from MM to custom fab up a lot of the copper pieces. So much work! not really much to show since its all been the tiny minute stuff so far, but updates soon! promise! most likely tomorrow

[Cutless009]

This probably doesnt seem like much of an update, but its actually quite large. Everything is in its final seated position, power is run to everything thats in the case so far, the four white CCFL tubes are mounted along with all of their wiring and switches, the correct fittings are now in the case, and the Swiftech NB Rampage Extreme block has been added in place of the stock cooling solution.



I ran into huge problems trying to route all the power cables because for some reason all of the cables that come with the Ultra are very short! So I did my best and I think it came out quite well. My custom switches came in today so Ive got those mounted in the front of the case now, and Im waiting on more shipments to come in.

Still to come: XSPC Bay Res's (one for each loop), drain and fill ports (one of each for each loop), my sheet metal stepped drill bit for drilling the holes for the drain and fill ports, fan extension cables, more fittings including some 90 degree fittings for the graphics loop, still waiting on my 2nd rad to come in, more fans, another 40 feet of sleeving, fill cap adapters for the res's so I can run the fillports down to them, fan filters for me to customize with copper cloth instead of wire mesh, fan-bolts from MM, silver kill coils (one for each loop) from petra, and more!

[PsYcHoNo0b727]

Nice looking set up so far! I like the way the Enzotech ram heatsinks look.

[Cutless009]

Hard to take pictures of the updates at this point, so here's a short vid of it:

[Logos]

the idea of posting a video is just brilliant; people should do that more @XS

[BigJoe]

Yap video is soo cool

[Cutless009]

A better video since the last one sucked balls:

[j.almonte]

Great video... keep us posted.. !!!

[MasterChiefElmo]

Looks good man I can only dream of having a comp that nice one day...

[Cutless009]

After placing multiple orders with the following vendors, I'd like to write a very short review for each so other builders can know what to expect when ordering from these companies:

NCIX: Save a few bucks usually, but not good if you're in a hurry, expect 5-10 business days for PROCESSING, and another 5-10 to actually get your item. Ive never had an item arrive in less than 2 weeks from the time I ordered it from these guys. They are slow to ship.

Performance PC's: Great customer service, quick to respond to emails. They keep you up to date via email on the status of your order, and processing is never more than 1-2 business days. They've been great in regards to a stocking error and exchanging parts for other parts. Highly recommend this vendor.

Petra: Yah, nothing really needs to be said here. If they have what you need, order from them, they have great prices and fast shipping, as well as great customer service.

Chilled PC: Fast processesing, decent prices, have parts that I couldn't find for sale in the US and needed for my build. Don't expect fast shipping from the UK lol.

Mountain Mods: No disses on Ben, he's an awesome guy, and his products are nothing but absolute top notch, however I do get the feeling he's a bit overwhelmed in running his business. The case I ordered came with the wrong top (it was finished in black gloss powder coat instead of anodized black), however Im getting that sorted and they've been decent about it. Great guys with a great product, I get the feeling this error was an anomaly that doesn't occur very often with this shop.

The Egg: Do I really need to put this here? Not really, but just to say it, newegg is awesome, fast processing, fast shipping, great products. Beware of the shipping cost of small items, as they often add up to very great amounts (i.e. 10 120mm fan filters at $1.50 a piece, with shipping came to $46 shipped).


In short, Id rather pay a little extra and get my stuff from PPC's than order from NCIX, and Petra is God. No better cases than Ben's anywhere on the market.

[Chicken Patty]

After placing multiple orders with the following vendors, I'd like to write a very short review for each so other builders can know what to expect when ordering from these companies:

NCIX: Save a few bucks usually, but not good if you're in a hurry, expect 5-10 business days for PROCESSING, and another 5-10 to actually get your item. Ive never had an item arrive in less than 2 weeks from the time I ordered it from these guys. They are slow to ship.

Performance PC's: Great customer service, quick to respond to emails. They keep you up to date via email on the status of your order, and processing is never more than 1-2 business days. They've been great in regards to a stocking error and exchanging parts for other parts. Highly recommend this vendor.

Petra: Yah, nothing really needs to be said here. If they have what you need, order from them, they have great prices and fast shipping, as well as great customer service.

Chilled PC: Fast processesing, decent prices, have parts that I couldn't find for sale in the US and needed for my build. Don't expect fast shipping from the UK lol.

Mountain Mods: No disses on Ben, he's an awesome guy, and his products are nothing but absolute top notch, however I do get the feeling he's a bit overwhelmed in running his business. The case I ordered came with the wrong top (it was finished in black gloss powder coat instead of anodized black), however Im getting that sorted and they've been decent about it. Great guys with a great product, I get the feeling this error was an anomaly that doesn't occur very often with this shop.

The Egg: Do I really need to put this here? Not really, but just to say it, newegg is awesome, fast processing, fast shipping, great products. Beware of the shipping cost of small items, as they often add up to very great amounts (i.e. 10 120mm fan filters at $1.50 a piece, with shipping came to $46 shipped).


In short, Id rather pay a little extra and get my stuff from PPC's than order from NCIX, and Petra is God. No better cases than Ben's anywhere on the market.

Thanks for this dude.

Out of those I have ordered from Performance PCS, and Newegg.

Performance PCS is about 4 hours away from me so shipping is quick and their service is great.

Newegg of course is 2nd to none.

[Cutless009]

lol thats funny, they are right at 2 hours away from me :P Still, $20 shipping < the cost of gas + time to drive there >>



oh yah and I forgot to add, kudos to XSPC for OVERNIGHTING the screws for my DDC tops from CHINA. Yah. They get my vote.

[Chicken Patty]

lol thats funny, they are right at 2 hours away from me :P Still, $20 shipping < the cost of gas + time to drive there >>



oh yah and I forgot to add, kudos to XSPC for OVERNIGHTING the screws for my DDC tops from CHINA. Yah. They get my vote.

nice, what area you stay in??

I'm down in Miami