Caselabs SM8 Build - EVO IV

[mav2000]

Why EVO IV?

Well, cause its my 4th water cooled build in as many years. While I was quite happy with the way things turned out on the other mods, I think this time this is going to be something special. And for something special, we always have to start with a good base canvas....

After traveling 16,000 kms in the last few days, the case has finally arrived.

 

[sreeram180]

whats in the box?
waiting to see

 

[mav2000]

The first case labs in India...

 

[stalker]

bah.. get done with the drama already

 

[mav2000]

I hope to post some pics this evening guys..

 

[mav2000]

Anyway, to keep you guys entertained, here's how it looks when opened up. Warning there's a whole lot of packing material:

Basically all the large parts are in seperate compartments with a lot of packaging in between. All the parts are properly labelled and also all screws and connectors are in different packets, again properly labelled. Each compartment is covered by a thick cardboard piece and each part , specially the panels are covered in thick plastic.

So this is where I stopped last night. Took me almost 30-40 mins to unpack all the parts...

Sorry for the lack of good photos. WIll get better after this. Yesterday was just a mess.

 

[rock2702]

So, are you doing an all together new build or using your old hardware for it?

 

[sreeram180]

awesome bro .post some more pics of case
whats yours damage for sweet big case 25k?

 

[mav2000]

@sreeram, yup about that much

First things first. Need to redo the sleeving on the front panel connectors. The sleeving used it very nice and quite thick. But the ends have been left bare. Now for a dream project that just wont do will it. So off with the old:

and on with the new:

 

[mav2000]

And finally its all together:

And trust me, I could not be happier. The quality is just something else. I have worked with a few aluminium cases, but this is just on another level.

Now, a few plans. At the bottom, there is going to be mid plate, but one which will not cover the PSU, as the PSU is too close to the mobo and then I wont have enough place to install a light panel....yes, thats right, this build is going to have a mid panel light mod...

The whole piece will be made out of acrylic. and I will install a length of LED's which will light up the top of the box. AT the bottom, I have installed the Heatmaster, which will automate my water cooling pumps and fans as per temperatures. And the white box is the controller for the LED's.

 

[mav2000]

Started work on the top of the mid panel. Like I said earlier, the idea is to get a light panel in here which can light up the whole case. So heres how it went:

So first up, the frame with a mirror acrylic inside and the LED strip attached to the sides. Then:

On top of that we install a plain thick block of acrylic which has been scored

And finally a white piece of acrylic on the top. And this is the final product:

The controller can dim the lights, can brighten it up and do about 13-14 different colors, which you can change according to the theme you want. It can also do a bunch of other stuff, but I am not getting into that right now.

Next is the moment of truth. Will it fit? Are the dimensions right? It looks a bit bigger than I thought. But hopefully it will be fine.

 

[mav2000]

And finally into the box. It fits, but its a bit tight. A bit difficult to put in and take out, but overall I am happy with the outcome.

Now, the box will also have a fan underneath it. I have already installed the fan and also a filter which is removable from the outside. That way I can reduce the amount of dust going in and can also clean the filter easily. Work has started on a new sata power cable as well.

Now, the confusion and why the sleeving is all halfway there is because I hear a ton of bad press about the Haswell, specifically about the fact that they used crappy TIM again and delidding will be more difficult this time around. SHould I just continue with the IB I have (already delidded) and just get a brand new spanking board? That way I will have more funds as well when I plan the new GPU.

The other issue I have is the color scheme. I guess I will have to wait for a couple of days to finally figure out which way to head, but suggestions are most welcome.

 

[Arun.P]

awesome case, and i would be waiting for see the final one after mod and purchase your hardware parts

 

[mav2000]

Thanks Arun...very few people seem to be interested in modding and water cooling anymore. I dont know whats the Indian tech forum scene coming too...

 

[viralbug]

OMG! Case Labs in India!
Will be looking forward to see this build! Keep us updated.

 

[mav2000]

Thanks Viralbug.

As I had said before, I am using a heatmaster from Alphacool to control my fans and pump, as well as for warnings when any of them go down. Now, unluckily Alphacool skimped big time on the cable that connects it to the internal USB connectors and its really very short for my needs. SO basically I got a normal USB to USB "B" cable and kind of massacred it for a good cause.

This is the cable I got. A simple USB A to B

And this is what I needed it to be. Alphacool did not even provide a single connector for the four wires...
Extremely thoughtless of them. Someone would actually have to and search for a pin out and then attach it.

And on with the operation:

Dont laugh at my camo knife...its really very sharp and helps to open packages really really quick. It even has blades that can be changed.

Cleaned up now:

Testing that it works....and success:

And sleeved:

And thats the update for today....oh and one really crappy pic. Started cleaning out the blocks...one year of distilled with biocide:

Not too bad..

 

[BIKeINSTEIN]

Thanks Arun...very few people seem to be interested in modding and water cooling anymore. I dont know whats the Indian tech forum scene coming too...

While i am equally guilty of not being active on the forums for sometime now, I have always said that you are 'The Man' when it has been doing things for the fun of doing it and taking initiatives like OCing contest for AMD users, ...
Definitely following this thread.

 

[mav2000]

Thanks Bikey and happy to see you here. Please do giv me your inputs as and when you feel it appropriate. Have a lot more in store, but am waiting for some things to happen before announcing the final hardware list.

 

[mav2000]

Finally sold my 6970 and have moved on. I have been using this GPU for the last two years and I must say that it kept me quite happy with its performance. The only game where I had some issue was in FC3, and taking into account that I am still to play some of the newer titles, I thought a change of card makes sense.

So it was all down to choosing between the 770 GTX and the 7970. The performance difference between the two is minimal and the prices I found for the 2 were around 3k apart with the 770 being more expensive.

I was all ready to go for the 770 GTX and pay the extra price, but was confused about the water block availability right away. At this point of time I saw an interesting discussion on the same topic on another forum and a lot of people were swaying towards the 7970 because of the extra 1 GB of Vram and also the bigger Bus.

Last night, while surfing flipkart to see if any new cards have been listed, I saw a 10% off on the reference 7970 and that kid of clinched it. Ordered right away and got a 3k discount. I also get 4 free games, worth around 3.5-4k, all of which I am yet to play anyway (Bioshock, Crysis 3 and TR) so net net it works out to around 26k with 3 new games....thats a good deal if I may say so. Sorry Bikey, I know we wasted a lot of time discussing this, but I think finally the 7970 comes out tops, with all the extras and a good discount to boot.

Now, the fight for the mobo and SSD are crowding my mind......lets hope I can sort them out quickly as well.

I need to fix on a mobo quickly, as that will decide the theme and colors for the build at large....and thats where the confusion begins and does not seem to end for me.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Very good deal you had at flipkart.

Case is super and your modding skills are the best... Watching this thread from day one... and every update is eye candy.

Now as per SSD, I would suggest to go for Samsung Pro SSD in RAID 0.

Personally I am also thinking about upgrading my 2 x OCZ agility 3 60GB to 2 x Samsung 128GB (non Pro).