Guru3D Rig of the Month - February 2014 - Page 4

9. What's the best part of your rig?

The case without a doubt. I think is a piece of art of case engineering. First time I saw it for sale, I couldn't belive it. Since I VoodooPC showed it, It was one dream case for me, but insanely expensive and inaccesible. Then a couple of years later this third-handed-scratchy beauty crossed in front of my eyes for a I price I could pay so I went for it.

I wanted to wait for build something special inside of it, first I waited for IB-E but was a little disappointing improvement over SB-E (didn't had the case when SB-E was released). So I was thinking about wait for X99, but this summer I've been dad, so now the preferences have changed and I didn't want to wait any more. I decided starting the new build, changing at least the video card, as soon as possible.

The case has a 480mm radiator at the bottom, a MCP355 pump inside the chassis at the back-bottom of the case and a reservoir at the front-top, behind the LCD front screen. All these parts are communicated through (what seems to be) steel tubing that ends at the quick disconnects, and from them to the water blocks. The radiator has four Delta AFB1212VHE PWM fans attached that take the cold air from the bottom of the case and send it to the top. Finally, the front screen is a 800x600 TN monitor connected to an USB port of the motherboard. The system detects it as a second monitor (I use it for temp gadjets).

10. Any dislikes, things you should not have bought?

11. Did you modify anything ?  cases/video cards/other? Did you do it yourself? Walk us through it.

The case needed some restauration work and piece finding. It came without quick disconnect endings (QDCs), and first trouble I had was finding information about the case. VoodooPC wasn't around anymore so I had to look through many QDC manufacturers searching pics of their quick disconnect fittings. Finally I found them: Colder Products Company. I bought the QDCs and they fitted perfectly. Next step was to test the whole loop, integrated in the case.

I connected the whole loop with some PVC tubing for connecting the QDCs , filled it with distilled water, and turned on the pump. It didn't work. Tried with another MCP355 connected to the PVC tubes (I had another from an old rig) and worked perfectly. A new problem here: the original pump was dead. Changing the pump was a pain in the ass, by the way. The case isn't very friendly for accessing inner parts.

After that I saw that PSU I had wouldn't work. The PSU is mounted at the back-top of the case with vertical alignment. The problem was obvious, a standard high-end PSU with side fan would not get any air, as the case chassis would block the intake. I searched for high-end PSUs with front fan intake and thats the story of why I'm using an Antec TPQ. I'm very happy with it anyway. Probably in the future, if I go again with dual GPU, I'll give a try to some Silverstone PSUs models that has front intake.

At last I could move all the stuff and mounted the blocks without problems.

Another part of my rig I'm pretty proud it the delidded 3770K. I think I was one of the first ones doing it the first week it was available and even I did a little home made review using different TIMs, including Coolaboratory Liquid Pro inside the IHS. Posted at OCN and N3D forums, with many pics and a little DIY tutorial.

12. Your 3DMark scores

13. Do you have any Future updates planned ?

No, next rig it's going to be on X99, upgrading everything. Probably all this stuff will go to a new mediacenter built in the FT03.

14. Does your rig or mod have a name ?

I call it Omen, but my wife call it "the child" due to all the time I've been working on it.

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