Shazza's Modest Mountain Mods Build

[dualbrain]

shazza ...

can you please ... please ... please get photos of these more than wonderful interior-parts with also shots of an impressive exterior. You don't know how much I would love to see an all around system photo-shoot where everything is as impressive as your internal-shots and design. This would be tremendous! Please, please, please. One day - but don't let us wait too long

btw. Charles' XS account seemed to be hacked - there is no way he could have left his cell ... eeeh workshop

[BlueAqua]

I bet $100 bucks that it's DangerDen-TFC 3/8" ID 5/8" OD tubing.

Edit: Damn missed page 14. lol

[shazza]

I've come out of my work hole to say one thing...

Shazza, you rule!

I've been keeping my nose down and plugging away like a good little worker bee... I came here on my break and was greeted with your bountiful offerings du jour which put a giant smile on my face. Thank you Shazza - keep up the great work!

p.s. don't tell Nils I got out.

BUSTED!!! Thank you Charles ... I'm trying.

Great job. I'm pending an Ascension build myself so it's nice seeing a similar build in action (especially with such nice hardware). I wish I could have the 5.25" bays up top, but looking at it from the side it looks like that'd be a very close call. Oh well.

Looking forward to your build. I tried the bays up top ... just couldn't get the cabling to work. Would have been possible had I gone with the extended CYO option.

i understand when i am going to build my computer i am going to take my time and enjoy it while it lasts
seems like shazza your a perfectionist just like me

I'm looking forward to your build. You're doing a lot of research, and that's to be commended. Just remember ... you don't have to get it perfect your firt time through.

shazza ...

can you please ... please ... please get photos of these more than wonderful interior-parts with also shots of an impressive exterior. You don't know how much I would love to see an all around system photo-shoot where everything is as impressive as your internal-shots and design. This would be tremendous! Please, please, please. One day - but don't let us wait too long

btw. Charles' XS account seemed to be hacked - there is no way he could have left his cell ... eeeh workshop

Get that man back in his cell! Nils ... you don't know how much I wish I could get some good photos of the exterior. First, I have to make it look good, and that ain't easy. Second ... my photography skills are not up to making the anodized aluminum come out right. BUT, I'm trying, trust me. You will, of course, forgive me if I stop to play a game or two

I bet $100 bucks that it's DangerDen-TFC 3/8" ID 5/8" OD tubing.

Edit: Damn missed page 14. lol

You, of course, are right again. I love this size tubing ... easy to work with, and several color options. As I said above, however, I'm still not sure that clear tygon with Feser colored coolant wouldn't look better. I should be redoing my CPU loop instead of lounging here ... but, there is always tomorrow.

[theseeker]

Shazza,

Please check your PM's.

[skinnee]

I take a couple day break to work on the lab setup...and I miss all the shazza eye-candy.

Excellent work as always, photos are just great! Eagerly awaiting your next entry in the photo diary!

[shazza]

Shazza - I generally am one to stay away from colored tubes - BUT....when you have the perfect placement of 45's & 90's, & achieved tube flow that looks as good as yours does...the choice for multi color was a great one (& they are a natural color choice in the video world) also...nice job taming the tons-o-wires (by the PS/v-cards)- again..nice flow

Oops ... I missed you in my last response. Thanks so much, PradaG - means a lot coming from you.

I take a couple day break to work on the lab setup...and I miss all the shazza eye-candy.

Excellent work as always, photos are just great! Eagerly awaiting your next entry in the photo diary!

Thanks, skinnee. I'm going to have to send an extra payment into management to help pay for the bandwdith excess.

[dingdong555]

The BP fittings are all shiny silver (bought before "True Silver" came out, thank goodness).

May I ask why Shazza? I'm going to order the true silver ones as they look shinier.

Once again, awesome job! The colours are freaking awesome IMO.

[ShoNuff]

Glad you guys like the pics. I'm so pleased that all is working. I've always wanted to do Tri-SLI. It's ridiculous overkill, and I am the first to admit it - but, I like it

I hope to be posting pics this weekend, but have no idea how to deal with the excess cabling that comes with 3 x 285s. What a mess!!! You guys are going to when I show the before pic.

OK I have a question. How did you achieve the sleeving result in the pic below with the Corsair psu? I ask b/c that psu comes with 6 pci-e video connectors and only two of them are "ready to be" sleaved. Of course I mean only two cables come without the "filters" on the cables. I'm assuming you just cut the filters off of the other 4 to achieve such a nice result below?



I ask b/c I believe I will need to do the same soon. I would be nice to know that those have gone before have successfully completed the task.

Thank you in advance for the help. Please keep the pics and hardware coming. You inspire me!

[Zeus]

Very clean build Shazza, absolutely awesome! I really like the way you routed the tubing. Very well executed. Enjoy it.

[N19h7m4r3]

Holy moly Shazza!

I wanna come live with you!

Amazing stuff, the tubing seem to fit perfectly.

[Borys]

OMG this build is awesome. And this 3 card's on sli

[ILikeCosmosS]

hey shazza where did you get shiny silver bp fittings ( i like them they are shiny)
i still finishing my research for dual loop cosmos s and well i am stuck for my drain and fill ports
i was going to from the
ek res a 90degree>1inch d-link ( to get past the ek res)> quad fitting>fill port on top> drain on bottom>male to male to the pump

that was how i was going to do it but then i thought if i open the fill port won't the water spray in my face?
( o yeah shazza i want to show you the idea i am going to do to mount everything in its coming it really nice in my head!)
if it does spray in my face i will have to put hte fill port on top

blue tubing feser or primochill?
red tubing is feser right?

[headala]

Wow, Shazza, looks great! I love the candy-coated tubing colors (and your saturation in your camera!).

[Grinch]

if you are using colored tubing...why use anything but distilled and pt nuke?

[shazza]

Thanks for the comments Borys, Al, and Zeus.

To answer the questions (I've gotta take some more pics ... can't have too many pages of text in a work log )

May I ask why Shazza? I'm going to order the true silver ones as they look shinier. ...

I was being facetious ... if I switched to True Silver, I'd have to start buying even more stuff! The True Silver looks nice.

OK I have a question. How did you achieve the sleeving result in the pic below with the Corsair psu? I ask b/c that psu comes with 6 pci-e video connectors and only two of them are "ready to be" sleaved. Of course I mean only two cables come without the "filters" on the cables. I'm assuming you just cut the filters off of the other 4 to achieve such a nice result below?

I ask b/c I believe I will need to do the same soon. I would be nice to know that those have gone before have successfully completed the task.
...

You are right ... I just used a pair of needle nose pliers and ripped off the "filters." Turns out they are just plastic pieces covered in heatshrink. So, don't know if they really provide any signal noise filtering or not. So far seems to work fine. I also simply cut off the extra 2-pin piece that makes them 8-pin. We have 3 Corsair HX1000 PSUs around, so I still have spares.

Make SURE you have room for all the uni-sleeved wires. I am really not sold on it, but it works okay in this cube case.

hey shazza where did you get shiny silver bp fittings ( i like them they are shiny)
...
...
blue tubing feser or primochill?
red tubing is feser right?

Shiny Silver BP fittings are pretty much readily available on line. My main supplier is Performance PCs, but some are cheaper at Sidewinders, and Jab-Tech. I believe Frozen CPU also carries them. Not sure who else does.

All tubing is Danger Den/Feser. I used blue primochill in the earlier version - but it was 7/16x5/8 so went with the DD tubing all the way around this time.

Let's start another thread to discuss your drain/fill port designs

Wow, Shazza, looks great! I love the candy-coated tubing colors (and your saturation in your camera!).

Thanks, headala. Note ... on the photos, I took them in Raw, then processed in Lightroom 2. Didn't mess much with color other than trying to get them to look as realistic as I could - mostly adjusting luminance. Green is the most difficult - but I tried to match it to the EVGA green on the board, which is what it looks like.

if you are using colored tubing...why use anything but distilled and pt nuke?

I'd like to see some color in the acrylic EK blocks, and also perhaps the reservoirs. I may try it with the colored tubing, just to see what it looks like - although clear might be best. Or, even leave as is.

Thanks again for the feedback. I have a couple of other things to fix this am, then I'll try to take some more pics.

[CptDreadFlint]

'Tis always a pleasure to see your craftwomanship, Shazza. Photos are looking amazing as always. Loving the "RGB" color scheme of the tubing.

[zlojack]

Well Shazza, the combination of your inspiration here and the crazy heat of i7 have pretty much convinced me to build a Horizon in the very near future.

I'll be checking back here for tips!

[ILikeCosmosS]

hey Shazza i will private message you later i got my hands full right now

[recent]

ueh, havent seen this much beauty and interesting parts for so long
Good worklog and pictures, F1.2-F1.4 looks so great, i use F1.4 allmost all the time (Lens)

[anubis_is_evil]

3 colour combination...awesome shazza..

guess it Italy flag LoL..but it does really catch every eyes...especially that 3 GPU in place

ughh..when i can do SLI like that

[Angmaar]

Wow this build just keeps getting awesomer!!

[shazza]

'Tis always a pleasure to see your craftwomanship, Shazza. Photos are looking amazing as always. Loving the "RGB" color scheme of the tubing.

Thank you so much, CptDreadFlint ... you know I just love your build.

ueh, havent seen this much beauty and interesting parts for so long
Good worklog and pictures, F1.2-F1.4 looks so great, i use F1.4 allmost all the time (Lens)

Too kind, you are. Yeah the 1.4 EF-50mm is a very fun lens.

3 colour combination...awesome shazza..
guess it Italy flag LoL..but it does really catch every eyes...especially that 3 GPU in place ...

Thanks, anubis. You'll laugh, but I actually thought about doing a North America theme ... red & white for the GPU/Canada, red, white & blue for the CPU/USA, and Red, white, green for Mexico!!!

Wow this build just keeps getting awesomer!!

Thanks, hotwaxisbad!

Appreciate the comments - you guys are great!

[xguntherc]

Great work here darlin, looks good indeed. I wish I had that system.

[shazza]

Great work here darlin, looks good indeed. I wish I had that system.

Thanks, xgunterc. I feel very fortunate to be able to buy these toys.



And, without further ado .. lest you guys think I just goofed around all weekend, here are a few more snaps:



1) First ... my apologies to Dave from (UN) Designs - he sent me a wonderful gift (even his packaging is perfect). Unfortunately, I still can't find the right screws to put it in the case nicely - not the fault of Dave, just those crazy Thermochill hole sizes. Let me say ... for anyone with the Mountain Mods case, and the Thermochill rads ... this is a wonderful addition. I believe they are going to be available commercially very soon:





2) My infamous CPU intake/outtake f'up ... here's the new pic. Guess what? No discernible differences in temps. I prefer the original tubing layout much better - I hate it when tubes cross. This version probably won't last:

Actually considering giving the Koolance 350 a try.


3) And then ... the experiment (ok, this whole thing is an experiment) - just what would that beautiful EK waterblock look like with some color?:


It actually looks pretty good in RL. What you can't see is the res ... have a nice foamy layer on the top, kinda like a raspberry float. What you also don't see is the fact that I had to rebuild the SLI loop Had a little bit of tissue in the first block. Have you ever tried to reseat the o-ring on one of these blocks Trust me, don't try it!!!! As my beloved Mother used to say, "Girl, can't you just leave well enough alone???"



4) OK ... several people have asked or full case views. I'm still not there, but here's a sneak preview of the front:


I know ... it's dark. But it's near impossible to get the exposure right with those LEDs from the Sunbeam and Power button. My main Man is going to help me do the resistor mod, but we haven't had time.



I'm experimenting with two different fan grill looks: the top are my little plastic filters ($3 each at Fry's) - they do good, but look a little cheesy. The bottom is the Thermochill rad grill by Iandh - it looks better, but not sure how two would look. It's also a major PITA to get these screwed into the case ... I need some extra hands.




And, just for fun -- some close ups:


The Thermochill grill (with a Bitspower filter), and, my $3 special:




I much prefer the LED fans on the front ... looks better than my previous Scythe S-Flex black version. BUT, performance is not as good. These are Jab-Tech YLs ... maybe not the best. Also, I'd love to get some of those cool LED fans that don't show the LED line on each corner. Just not sure which are good with Rads.

So ... that's an update for now. Thanks for looking.

[zlojack]

Wow, Shazza, it's looking sweet!

One question...what is that? ^^