[Mod Log] POLARIS - Shadow_Foxx's Watercooled ITX Gaming Build - watercooling on hold for school... - Page 12

Hey thanks! It should be coming together pretty damn soon, so stay tuned


I know, ive been doing nothing but working and working on this, 6 hours last night, from when I got off work to when I went to bed

Okay, proper update here. Back to college and made it through hell week. As Ive already said, this project ran out of time, so some things were put on hold, some things could not be done, and some things were done less than perfect. I literally booted it for the first time 8 hours before I had to leave. If it hadnt of started up I would have been shafted. No tools at school Anyway, as this is a gaming machine, that is what I have been using it for. I have been testing it with dirt 3, sleeping dogs, deus ex: HR, and GTA4. While the transition from water back to air has made it more difficult to deal with the noise, temps have been acceptable. Sleeping dogs take my 6950 to the wall, but 35-40% fan keeps it under 70C, which is manageable. On the proc side, the night hawk edition (fanless as I will talk about later), keeps the processor in the low 40s (yes, it is stock clocked and undervolted though). Here are some pics I havent had time to upload:



Things I put off:
Watercooling (on hold for unspecified amount of time)

Things I couldnt get done:
Sleeve sata cables
better cable management
Cutting a window etc into the top panel
Getting rid of the red on the GPU
Fan on the heatsink covered the 8 pin so I couldnt use my white fan

Thats all I can think of. I may come back and add more info with my thoughts on sleeving, modding techniques of this build etc. I have even less time now, as I am an editor of some sort for OCN now.

Final thoughts! This build was a great experience for me. I am still a young modder without the proper tools to do half the things I do. This build is far from perfect, but it is just another step in my modding career. I learned how to do so many things in this build, and I know these things will come in handy and make my future builds even better. Unfortunately, this is my daily driver and I cant afford to have it out of commission for too long. Some modders can work on things for 8 months straight, while using another computer. I dont have that luxury, and it is something I will have to deal with I consider this build another stepping stone. Of course this build didnt pan out like I thought in my head, because in my head I have unlimited tools, time, money, and everything goes smoothly. Either way, this thing is more powerful than my red alert build, has a sleeker and more refined look to it, and it in a very small package, which is what I wanted. The anodized aluminum with matching grills aquaero faceplate and feet make this things look sweet on my desk. It also hides the mess that is currently on the inside, and looks sexy doing it. And boy do I love that aquaero, although it comes with zero instructions . In the future I think this build will eventually end up as my home server, whenever the time comes to build the next greatest thing

Thanks to all who have followed, and thanks to OCN for teaching me everything I know

Thanks kgtuning! Im sure there will be many more projects, as is always the case with the serial modder type And thanks for following this whole time!