Am I the only one?

XehnRage

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Well just started the long path to building my PC. Now the reason I say it like this is that I have like a 12 step plan. Okay, maybe not that many. But it's a path for sure. So this morning I just placed the order for my CaseLabs STH10. I was able to get a rain check on the two tone that they just ended at the end of February. So I'm doing Gunmetal Grey on the outside panels and then making the chassis and all internal parts Black.

My current system is a Phanteks ITX case with a EVGA Z97 Stinger in it with a 4690K and 16Gb DDR3 1600Mhz G.skill Sniper RAM. I have a Galax GTX 970 Short GPU and a SSD for OS and a couple games and a 3Tb HDD for my other games and movies that I stream to the TV with.

So my plans are this. I have a buddy that has a MSI Z97 XPOWER AC mobo and 32Gb of G.skill DDR3 2400 Mhz RAM that I am getting for free because he doesn't bench on them anymore. This board has a PLX chip on it so it's like getting 4 extra PCI lanes. I'm waiting on the Pascal cards to release and not the first card of the series because that should more than likely be the Titan version with HBM2. I owned a Titan X when they first released and as soon as the 980ti hit the market I regretted it so I am not making that mistake a second time. I plan on running 3 GTX "1080" cards(" " are since the new series name hasn't been announced yet) and getting a 4790K or 4770K for this board. I'll get water blocks for the GPU's and the CPU. I already have blocks for the RAM on the way and the Motherboard has water cooling built in.

Now with how the STH10 is designed, I plan on running a 480 mm Rad in the top bay and a 560 mm rad in the lower bay. 480 for the CPU, RAM and Mobo. 560 for the Tri-SLI. Once Skylake-E hits towards the end of next year, I'll switch back to Enthusiast chipset series(I had a X99 build before this ITX system).

Now I only plan on going with the "1080" series because it's supposed to be the GDDR5X type VRAM and be much faster than the GDDR5 VRAM that's on the Maxwell series currently. Titan is supposedly HBM2 and people are hinting that the new ti series should be HBM or HBM2. Only problem with this is that from my understanding is that HBM/HBM2 will not be overclockable. Now, not everyone needs to overclock their GPU's but I usually like to do some benching to see how efficient my cards are then I apply a small OC.

So pretty much, took that first step into my Main build today. lol Almost $1000 put down on the case. That hurt.

Sorry for the novel here but Tech is one of my hobbies and I love it. Plus I have really enjoyed this group and wanted to share my plans. Anyone else do this too or is it just me?

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EpilepticCricket

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Almost $1000 put down on the case.

Do you live in the Mojave? Is everything going to be overclocked to near melting point? Don't get me wrong, it's a damn sexy case and I can appreciate it for what it is, but I don't see the need for all the room when you're only planning on using 2 radiators.

I do want to see pics of the finished build though... I love a sexy rig.
 
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ThomSirveaux

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Interesting case choice, but the issue I have is that is much to expensive. I understand you're going to run radiators, but unless you live in a place that is super hot, there's no reason to. There's no need to OC a 3xGTX SLI. I mean, if you're trying to run Crysis, I understand, but that's more of a novelty, at this point ;)

In all seriousness, I would not have spent $1k on the case. If you really want it custom, it's probably easier to just build your own case, or buy a Silverstone or CM Cosmos II for 1/3 and spend the rest on other components.

I guess I'm just a frugal gamer, lol.
 
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XehnRage

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Well you don't have to live in the desert for larger rads to show a difference in performance. Being able to run the fans at 30% and keep it just as cool as fans running at 50-60% for the same cooling effect. When I had my 5930K I ran it 4.6 all the time. Doing the Low Profile rads and only a Push on both rads will be enough for me to run 2000/2200 rpm fans at 30% and get the same performance of a standard thick or thicker rads of 240 or 360.

I've played with a couple layouts of rads and fans when I did a client build. Just found that surface area for cooling over thicker rads can be just as efficient and much more quiet.
 

EpilepticCricket

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Well you don't have to live in the desert for larger rads to show a difference in performance. Being able to run the fans at 30% and keep it just as cool as fans running at 50-60% for the same cooling effect. When I had my 5930K I ran it 4.6 all the time. Doing the Low Profile rads and only a Push on both rads will be enough for me to run 2000/2200 rpm fans at 30% and get the same performance of a standard thick or thicker rads of 240 or 360.

I've played with a couple layouts of rads and fans when I did a client build. Just found that surface area for cooling over thicker rads can be just as efficient and much more quiet.
I honestly hadn't even considered fan noise or power usage. I've never done a watercooled build before and I was under the impression that they used a passive dissipation system using heat sinks, but I couldn't tell you where I got that idea other than my own ass lol.

I still want pics of this beast when it's put together or even better, step by step as you put it together.
 

XehnRage

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I honestly hadn't even considered fan noise or power usage. I've never done a watercooled build before and I was under the impression that they used a passive dissipation system using heat sinks, but I couldn't tell you where I got that idea other than my own ass lol.

I still want pics of this beast when it's put together or even better, step by step as you put it together.
Oh I will make sure to take pics and post them here along the way.
 

WarrenPeace

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$1k on a case? And I thought my build was ambitious, lol. Definitely want to see what you end up with, post lotsa pictures!

Sorry for the novel here but Tech is one of my hobbies and I love it. Plus I have really enjoyed this group and wanted to share my plans. Anyone else do this too or is it just me?
Not a problem whatsoever. I confess that I'm only an average computer geek, but I do love seeing what people put together.
 
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XehnRage

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This was my X99 originally. I was about to do a custom loop but then decided that I wanted to go after my "dream" setup.
 

XehnRage

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Well looks like the STH10 is coming Next Tuesday. So hoping to borrow a buddies DSLR so I can take some good pics while assembling the case. Will keep you guys posted.
 
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XehnRage

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Okay, so got the STH10 last week and assembled it and finally got around to taking some photo's on my Note5 which haven't come out too bad. Waiting for my buddy to get his DSLR stuff together. So I'll be taking some pics on that and seeing how much of a difference inside the house it will make. I know that with natural light the DSLR will destroy my Note5 but with the inside lighting, probably not that much of a difference. So here are some more images. I went with Gunmetal Grey Exterior and Black Interior. The black cover plate that is on the Motherboard will be removed, stripped of paint and painted to better match the black inside the case.

Beginning of the puzzle was a little overwhelming to say the least. But I was a little boy in a "candy shop".






Center section is for mounting 3 120mm fans. Though it's going to have way more than needed rad surface to keep everything cool, not a bad idea to have fans blowing through the main chamber for positive air flow.


Four location to be able to mount a PSU is nice. Planning on doing some custom sleeved cables to make it more clean when looking at it.




With the Rad support brackets installed in the top and bottom chambers.






Don't mind the Swastica. lol Was a book my wife read for a report in one of her Criminal Justice classes. >.>


Love that the Mobo tray slides out if I need to work on the hardware itself.


And the Ram I am using:

Planning on adding another 16Gb 4x4 kit to fill all the DIMM slots and use the RAM water blocks i have as well.
 
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BUTUZ

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No you're not the only one!!! I am with you 100%!

Holy shit that case is a beast!!! Looks like you've picked some great stuff to shove inside it!

I've got a few ground rules I've learned over the years.

1. Power = Fun
2. You can never have too many graphics cards.
3. Watercooling is excellent.
4. Get as many and as big radiators as you can, there's something beautiful about dissipating 1KW with you're fans running at 600rpm in near silence.

Here's mine built it a few years ago it's a bit of an OAP in the gaming world but it still runs most things real nice. I may upgrade in 2017.
watercooled.jpg
 
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