Project Xsesive

Xsesive? Maybe. Worth it? Hell yes! ​

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, kiddies of all ages, shapes, sizes and species I present for your viewing pleasure a little something I put together from the inspiration, insight, and intelligence I gathered through the forums.

Specs:

Case: NZXT Phantom
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth x58
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @ 4.2 ghz
RAM: Patriot Sector 7 1600mhz 6gb
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 480 @ 850mhz

For quiet and efficient cooling for these smoking hot chips I went with a mix and match bunch of liquid cooling equipment. The 480, NorthBridge, and Vreg are all cooled with the help of Koolance water blocks. Extremely happy with these products with high quality, great looks and superb cooling you cant go wrong with these. I also used the XSPC RASA 750 RS360 water cooling kit and added a Black Ice 120mm radiator on the back. I stripped down the case, painted it and made it my own. Plumbed everything with BitsPower compression fittings and some 3/8"ID 1/2"OD clear tubing, then quenched it with some Feser One. Stuff it full of hard drives and away we go!

The Goods!

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I got lights on switches!





Super Green!



Air is pushed around by nine Cooler Master Sickle Flow 120mm Fans with Green LED's











Of course you have to keep the cables tidy.



Makes for a nice clean look.



And there it is, thats what I have for you fine people today.



Not bad? What do you guys think? I sure had fun building it.

Make sure you check out the build log below..

 

Really diggin the look

 

Thanks

 

nice. What type of Mosfet block you have ?

 

wow !!!:eek3:

 

Very nice mate, what kinda temps ya getting @ 4.2 there? I should be taking receipt of the xspc rx240 kit pretty soon, just cooling the CPU though. how's the pump/res combo doing?

 

It's from Koolance, MVR-100. perfect fit.

Temps are not too bad considering I have two chips that are very much suitable for cooking with. It idles at about 40, but under full load it can get around 70. No problems with the pump/res to speak of.

 

Looks nice and solid. I'm not a fan of the green watercooling look anymore, but regardless of my taste it's a very high quality build sir.

After looking at it some more, I really have to say I like it more than I initially though. In most builds the green is played out, but here it really does look good.

I'm rather jealous of your overall look. I can't wait to do custom water and sleeving.

 

ahh thank you Jummy

 

clean build! looking good

 

Good stuff!

 

Thank You

 

Awesome :')

 

I was thinking of posting a build log for this, people seem to like them. Should I just put it in the same thread or start a new one?

 

You should post it in the same thread! I would love to read it.

I'm going to order the Rasa 750 RS360 or RX360 kit tonight. If I go RX I won't need a second rad for my setup, but I kind of want to do an internal 240 mod so I'm thinking RS360. I really want to put my 800D under water other than my H70. You truly inspired me sir!

I see you used the BlackIce 360 rad. Did you try out the rad that came with the RS360 at all? I only saw one 360 in the build. I've heard good things about the whole kit, but I might want to customize it a bit. Your input would definitely help me make a decision.

Thanks bro!

 

I would highly recommend putting more in the 800D, it's such a sweet case to add water to. Lots of space for rads. I actually have the RS360 in this case, the Black Ice is the 120mm rad on the rear. The RS seems to work quite all right, I used it mainly because of how close the fans come to the clips for the RAM and the top mosfet heatsink. Only thing that I don't like about the RS is the low fin count per inch. It works great for airflow so that low speed quiet fans can be used, but they could of put a few more in there.

Be posting a build log here shortly. I actually made one for another forum, and it turned out really well, so I shall post it here

 

Looks great man. Loving the green theme and the custom case.

Great job you should submit for rig of the month.

 

Thanks, and what is the rig of the month? I R new here... and pretty much everywhere. Am willing to try new stuff though

Edit: Found it. now to enter. this is interesting.

 

By popular demand I am proud to bring you a build log

Since I don't have much else to do this evening and I'm bored, I hope you are all ready for a good read.

First: A little back story.

Around August of '10 I was beginning to look for a new computer since my well aged desktop was beginning to show signs of complete failure and my laptop that I got in early '09 just wasn't filling the void I had. I walked into a pawn shop and seen a brand new NZXT Lexa S with the plastic still on. Upon further inspection I found that it had a decent motherboard and processor. The OS had no key, one of the hard drives wasn't even hooked up and it had two cheap ass video cards in it that were not even capable of crossfire. After tinkering with it for a bit I found it had a few problems. No biggie for me, but easy pickings for getting a good price on it. They wanted $450 for the box... walked out with it for $200. Not a bad start.

After bringing the box home I stripped it down to its bits, found and fixed the hardware issues(someone had left a couple of extra stand-offs on the motherboard tray) then hit up the Egg for a few new bits for it. New RAM, PSU, hard drive OS and GPU stuck in and bam, good to go, and for about $400 total I was sitting decent with my first quad core and decent gaming PC in a long while.



Now three years ago this system would have pleased me to no end. It had everything I needed, a quad-core, four gigs of RAM, good graphics card and it was shiny and blue, not bad, but it didn't leave me feeling whole again. I felt it was lacking. Something was missing in my life and I couldn't quite figure out what. Only when I did, I wished I hadn't. I just wanted to build something, or keep adding to that something. I felt the itch that had been hiding away deep inside of me for a long time. I actually was not aware that this particular itch was still alive in me. I thought it had died, cause I was sure that I had killed it, but that's another story.

I needed to build a computer, a new one. So I began looking. One of my clan members had recently upgraded to a 980 and was willing to part with his i7 920 for cheap. I was screwed. I knew I couldn't stop myself now. So I started hunting for parts on the Egg again. It must have been fate, because the Sabertooth x58 had just been released that same day and NewEgg had sent me discount codes. Had to have it. Talked my boss into buying the computer that I had just gotten up to Par. Sold it to him for $300 and kept all the parts that I had just bought, including the case it came in and the Zalman CPU cooler. Stuck that setup in my really really old case and dropped it off.

Seen the Sabertooth and had to have it. Loved the look.





Now I'm feeling better, but I kept watching videos, reading reviews, started overclocking again. This itch was bad. No matter how much I scratched I couldn't get rid of it. Seen the closed loop H50... thought I would give it a try.



Not bad... could run at 3.6ghz and run at a respectable temp and really got into the nice and tidy internal. Video card was the next itch to scratch. The 5670 was commendable, ran all my games at a decent FPS, but not much of a clocker and didn't score.... well. Seen a few reviews for the MSI GTX460 Hawk that had just been released and really liked the card. Kept my eye on it for a while because I just couldn't bring myself to spend $250 to replace a card that didn't have any problems. Then around Christmas time it went on sale and I couldn't hold back anymore.



Looking respectableish



Finally the itch subsided for a while, or so I thought. Overclocking was fun, got the 460 Hawk to clock to a nice steamy 932mhz benchable clock. Was having a bit of fun, but was feeling a bit cramped and started looking into Full Tower cases. The NZXT Phantom had recently been released and was getting high praise in reviews and it was appealing to me. Early January one morning I woke up like usual, hopped in the shower, got ready for work and did my morning ritual of checking emails and other online interactions. Figured I would stop by the Egg and see if I could pick up a deal on something. Front page the Phantom was on sale for $99 delivered. Sold.





All Right! It's Done! Or so I thought. This damn itch just will not go away. What the hell am I going to do. Even snowmobiling in very epic winter conditions was not taking my mind off this damn thing, I feared something may be wrong with me, but before I knew it I was balls deep in computer parts.

I had just sold my old snowmobile and had a pocket full of cash, at this point I think the itch is gaining ground while I'm losing it. February rolled through with tons of snow so I was occupied well, but still felt itch eating at me and early March I ordered more... stuff. New monitor, PSU, and five hard drives later the hunger had been fed.



I could breath better now. I had a very respectable system that pleased me greatly. I could run all my games at top settings and a great FPS. What I had not realized is that my itch had mutated into a full fledged monster with a stomach that was seemingly bottomless....

 

Feeding The Monster​

The itch had turned into a monster and I was scared of what would happen if I let the hunger build. I was too late though, the monster had an accomplice that I was unaware of from the very beginning. Their teamwork was incredible and I was no match for them, they took me down with a single blow.

I had no sooner got the computer together and taken a picture when my clan-mate let me know that he had just replaced his video card with the new GTX 580 and was willing to part with his GTX 480 for $50. I bit and swallowed. Hook, Line, and Sinker.

The 480 was amazing, and amazingly hot. Combined with the heat of the i7 920 at 4.2ghz, the monster had all he could take and took possession of me. I recently seen a review for water cooling and the hunger had built to such a degree that the monster could no longer be contained. He went for it, and he Feasted.

Koolance blocks for the GPU, NB and Vreg. XSPC Rasa 750 RS360 kit, Black Ice x-Flow 120mm radiator. Nine Cooler Master Sickle Flow 120mm fans. BitsPower compression fittings, rotary angle adapters, and barbs. Acrylic panels for windows and fan grills. Corsair HX850 PSU. The Monster was mean.



The monster had feasted like a king, but he had only began. I started into the water cooling full force, but before I knew it I had drilled out almost every rivet on the case. The beast demanded paint. I tried to appease him, but my choices were wrong, and he became angry.

I tried to just get some spray paint from the hardware store and work with that.



The monster became angry and consumed $200 worth of paint and supplies at the auto shop. At this time I was not sure if I would survive the his wrath. A Dremel tool was picked up at the pawn shop(not sure, but I think the pawn shop may also be in league with the Monster) and some adjustments were made to the side panel.



Bits of the case were strung up, primed and painted.





Not even the plastic parts were safe anymore...





Found some copper rivets that were especially appealing.





360 radiator fits pretty nicely in the top of the Phantom.