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Carbide

3K views 31 replies 6 participants last post by  Furball Zen 
#1 ·
Been a while since i posted here, for many reasons. But i thought i would go ahead and 'spread the love' to you guys. Build has been going on for a few months, but ill catch you up eventually
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Well as really none of you know I got divorced, and for the past year plus she has been without a main PC because i sold off the 939 system I built for her with the intention of quickly replacing it. Money problems got in the way of getting my new stuff to gift my DFI 790FX to her. I really hate to give it up because it is such a rock solid board, but the only thing i can do with it now is make a server or such out of it due to hardware limitations.

So, on to the list of parts. I did not intend for this to happen, but Corsair is the main brand for a lot of the components. I was going to reuse the case she had, but slide a Swiftech 360 rad on the side panel, but some complications with fitment and additional cost involved made me start looking for a case that would work, and that she could clean with relative ease once in her new house.

I happened across the Corsair Carbide Series on Newegg for a whopping $94 after rebate. This is a larger mid size case with some serious muscle and options for the modder minded. I wont do a review as the one on NE was what sold me on the case. The size is large enough to actually fit a 360 in the front or on the top with some modifications, but more than i really wanted to do, so ill be using my older Black Ice 240 and if needed the Swiftech 120 rad im using on my laser cutter. I think the 240 will work fine as the CPU, SB and vid card will be the only pieces, im using a Thermalright IFX on the NB since it can heat up the loop pretty good.

Components list:
DFI 790FX mobo with modded Thermalright HR-05IFX on the NB chip
AMD 5000+ Black Edition 2.6GHz CPU OC'd to 3.3-3.4GHz
4 gigs of Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2
Sapphire HD4860 (cut down 4890)
Corsair Carbide 500R case in Graphite
Coolermaster R4 case fans in red
Corsair CX430 PSU
HW Labs Black Ice 240 rad
Swiftech Apogee GT (CPU)
Swiftech MCW30 (SB)
Swiftech MCW60 (Video)
Swiftech MCP355 (pump)

Onto some pics

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Got most of the assembly done, waiting on my first Xoxide order since they sold the business. Need the tubing to tie it all together, and some minor wiring to make it all work.

Had to get creative in mounting the 240 rad due mainly to its sheer size. Its too thick to fit up top where a slim 240 rad would, its too tall to fit in the front without completely taking out the entire 5.25" drive bay.

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The top fans and a cable management port that just happened to fit a fill port without modification. One thing i did not want to do a lot of with this case, although i could have gone hog wild.

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Artsy view of the 24pin through the drive bay.

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5.25" bay res i just happened to have that will work perfectly. Inlet and outlet and fill port inlet. Will have a single red LED lighting it up.

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24 and 6 pin sitting in a cable comb i was 'dared' to make and they turned out really well. Can fit 3 wires deep in each channel and the smaller ones can fit 2.

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4 channel comb with the 8pin mobo connector.

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Backside of the drive bay.

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Heres a full frontal. You can see the DVD, twin 40 gig Intel SSD's and WD Black 2.5" 320gb drive. The SSD's will be in RAID1 with the lappy drive as backup and major program storage. This way if one of the SSD's die the full image will be on the other plus backed up on the 320gb. This was not meant to be a low power consumption rig, but aside from the 5000+ and 3850 (replacement for the 4860) there wont be much power used.

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Man, it really sucks having OCD when all you do is ruin material and end up finding out that something wasnt made with the same OCDness. I spent the better part of 4 hours trying to make a template to cut out a window from 1/8" acrylic to replace the mesh in the side panel, which was inset 1/8". Soooo... i get it just right and go to test the template (AGAIN! 5th time) and it freaking turns out that the hole in the panel ISNT CUT SQUARE!!!

So i ended up cutting the 'ledges' off and had enough (+14" to spare) C-channel and trimmed the edge and mounted the red window.

Had to get a bit creative with what materials i had laying around...

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Got some more work done last night, still dont have the tubing. Only thing left is tubing, water and 2 power cables for the drives.

Figured out how/where i wanted to mount the pump, the LED's are coming off the HDD indicator circuit. To the right you can see the disassembled Aerocool Gatewatch 2 which will monitor the water and case temps and control the rad fans (i hope).

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Couple shots of the wiring. Still some zip ties to do and i ran out of the red doing the PSU way back when, so i decided to use some more purple for the remaining sleeving.

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Wire management for the upper fans and front controller panel. In the bottom you can see the custom loop temp sensor and power LED in the res. Ironically all 5 ports are used, but the top fill port is not and wont be.

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Upper left hand corner shows the case temp sensor, should be a bit warmer there i hope so i dont get false readings.

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Full frontal.

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24
#2 ·
Here are a couple teasers till later (hopefully)
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Part 1:

Well, ill be getting Carbide back (ex didnt want something 'high maint' so i gave her an FM2 mATX air cooled box) and itll be time to do a config change, swap some colors out and then ill use it for my WHS box.

Color scheme (UV colors never get old with a DFI board hehe) and the rads that ill be using

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I have almost all the PSU sleeved but no pics yet as i need more SATA passthrough connectors and im not sure if ill need a 4 pin Molex line. Im also waiting on the proper orange paracord as the stuff in the pic is from a different manufacturer and isnt the same weight as the yellow even though it says 550 on it.

the rads are all Swiftech and the funky stack is made possible with one of the older stackable 120's and then since i got a really good deal on two 120 reg rads i stacked one and the other will go on the back before the CPU. I also have an XSPC dual bay single DDC res that ill be using instead of the current plexi topped pump.

Part 2:

Lots of work got done over the weekend im glad to say. I stripped the sleeving off of the Corsair CX430 and swapped it to another Antec TPQ-850 (same PSU ive had since i got the DFi mobo) and added the orange sleeving. I also chewed through roughly $25 of 1/2" plexi trying to make an AM2 mount for my Swiftech Apogee GTZ waterblock. I wanted to use this for a while even though its overkill, but i also wanted to use this as my main PC for a while so i can RMA my Gigabyte 990FXA as it keeps dropping my RAID randomly killing off one drive till i rebuild it. Took a while to get the mount made using only a drill and router
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Im not done with it as im going to frost the surface so the 4 LED's will light it up better. This is done using a fine grit sandpaper to just rough the surface, ill probably use a 220 grit.

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Ok PSU sleeving time
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The orange is a bit more UV reactive than the yellow so in some spots it looks red. I didnt want to adjust anything with Photochop so just deal with it
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I have also perfected the sleeveless look and can get great results the first time.

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Some motherboard shots to show the difference between this iteration and the 'beginning' one. The first noticeable change is the addition of a thermo-controlled 70mm fan on the Thermaltake IFX chipset cooler. I have two of these fans that i got way back when i first started in wc-ing when i got the Coolermaster Duo Viva back in late 2008.

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Here you can see the sleeving pretty well and how i mounted it using zip ties.

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(Jaws theme music...) in come the twin Sapphire 4890s (factory OC edition) cooled with Swiftech water blocks! I was saving these for my FX build (UFO ^3) but realized that i couldnt flip the tops like i intended due to how the pins are cut for flow, they dictate that it must be oriented like this
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Oh well, once i decided i was going to use these, i grabbed the TPQ-850 and found a good price 955BE CPU to really hot rod this out, since like i said itll be my main rig again for a while.

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Clearance between the IFX and first 4890.

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Installed the PSU and started some wire management. When mocking it up the 8 pin CPU cable was a bit tight taking out to the back of the mobo tray so i wanted to see if i could get a bit more length going behind the mobo itself. Worked out pretty good as you can see. Had to drill a few holes for zip ties to keep it 1 wire thick. I had to drill 3 more at the bottom to keep it flat and away from the mobo standoff.

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No interference with the mobo installed.

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Plenty of room
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Bottom of mobo

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XSPC DDC Res and fan controller.

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#3 ·
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Start of a VRM cooler using some of the mesh from the side panel

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Lapping the 955 to 1000 grit. Going any further is not needed as getting it flat and smooth is better than shiny. Both surfaces are so flat there is a slight suction when pulling them apart.

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Swiftech GTZ to same 1000 grit
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How do you void the warranty of a Velociraptor? Well, since it expired i wasnt too worried! Only has a few weeks of use off a fresh RMA and with 5 million MTBF im sure this wont hurt a bit.

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Little bit of 3M Di-Noc Carbon Fiber film...

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#4 ·
Stock finish on the left, semi-gloss black on the right...

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And a bit of...more teasing...

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Carbon fiber and metal flake paint
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Front panel Corsair badge with metal flake clear on it

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Top of the front panel covered in 3M Di-Noc, im only using the 2 USB ports and audio ports so i covered everything else up since there are no wires to hook them up with as i removed them. The power and reset buttons are also covered up but can be felt. Im not using the stock HDD and Power LED's so covering up these buttons was not a big deal

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Tray and fan grill on the top case piece also with Di-Noc and metal flake paint treatment

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Close up of metal flake in day light

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Misc pieces with same flake treatment

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Close up of I/O port

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Custom PWM fan i made from an ASUS assembly. I had some spare mesh from the side panel so i took an idea from Kier (i think?) and used a soldering iron to 'weld' the pieces, this isnt hard, but you need to sand any paint/powder coat away or the solder wont stick

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#5 ·
Bored of your normal SSD? How do you snazz it up? Void the warranty!!!

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Placed an order from Xoxide Sunday night for the rest of the stuff i need, 3- 120mm Yate Loons and 3- 140mm Yates and a couple misc pieces of this or that. Also ordered two 22" 16:9 Samsung LED monitors from Wal-Mart (of all places and only $99!) for $250 shipped rush, so those will come Thursday. All three of my current Samsungs are suffering from failing CFL convertors and just sit there and flash at you all day if they get a couple mins of 'off' time. This bothers me as i cant have the monitor turn off and have to run the screen saver all day.

I give you...

Corsair XMS2 1066 Ram Carbided!!!

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#6 ·
XSPC ram cooler and modules

Decided to take some of the spare mesh i had and make a replacement cover for the plexi trim piece

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Cant have silver screws!

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Artsy stuffs

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With barbs

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Quick and dirty, kinda. Needed a way to add some lighting up top as a sort of glow but didnt want it to be obnoxious. Switch controls the LED strip, i left it white intentionally to reflect more light.

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Not quite UV, but certainly not pink

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With the top cover

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With two 140mm fans. Better pics later on in the mod.

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#8 ·
Looks great so far! Can't wait to see the end product of it all.

Used to have that systemboard, loved it to death
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Took my 955BE to 4.1ish iirc.
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AMD_RULES View Post

Wow nice build so far!
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Thanks
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NameUnknown View Post

Looks great so far! Can't wait to see the end product of it all.

Used to have that systemboard, loved it to death
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Took my 955BE to 4.1ish iirc.
Yea, too bad i have bad news coming
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I dont have much in the way of modding photos, been mostly doing some wiring and wire management, but i wont disappoint too much
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Behold, twin 4890 OC Editions...CARBIDED!!

First pic is of a test subject. I wanted to use fluorescent yellow acrylic to make back plates, but once painted black on front/back it turned dark green and wouldnt transmit light along the edge well enough to warrant using it. So i cut my losses and turned to plain black with the same semi-gloss black/metal flake treatment (if you wonder why i would paint black acrylic black, its so the surface would be the same as the rest of the other pieces).

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And how the first one turned out

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Before...

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After
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CCFL circuit box and drain port assembly

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Needed a spacer for the drain port
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#10 ·
I've got to say, your attention to detail is amazing.

Wish I had the time and resources to do mods like this
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#11 ·
I try
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What part of Cinci are you in? Im right about 5 miles south
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#12 ·
Getting close to being done!!!

The last thing i needed to fab up was the HDD 'rack/cage/thingy' to mount the two SSD's and Velocitraptors.

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I also carefully cut a fill port in the top tray and also as carefully drilled and tapped a port into the XSPC bayres right beneath it and installed a piece of tube in between the Swiftech fillport and fitting

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The case in its current completion

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The only things left to do other than the obvious tubing is an RGB LED strip and UV CCFL's. Then ill fill it with PrimoChill SysPrep/distilled water mix and run it for a few hours, drain and fill with PrimoChill PC Ice UV Purple coolant.
 
#14 ·
Well, got it all put together this past weekend, bled, rinsed and went to boot...blah. Not sure if something hosed or what. Took forever to pull it all apart Tuesday night to test the mobo by itself, but it booted up. However a reboot like after saving BIOS settings cause it to not boot up, or not display video, cant tell. Ill post the update pics i have from the weekend anyways and update when the 990FX board is in there.

Silverstone add-on dual SATA port controller so i can run 6 drives (for sale, brand new) with custom backplate

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Progress pics, most wire management done, waiting on the drives now....

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Plumbing, FINALLY!!! Still waiting on drives...

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4 VelociRaptors and 2 Intel X-25M SSD's...

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Aaaaand how they mount

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All plumbed up and ready for liquid
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Bitspower fill funnel

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Starting to mod the 990FXA board

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How the mobo looked stock

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#16 ·
It's looking better by the day
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As for Cincinnati, I'm on the west side of town.
 
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#17 ·
The last time this will look like this

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After about 10 mins of 150 grit

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Switch to 600 now for about another 10 mins

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Yay! Copper!

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Ready for some 1000 grit wet...

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And, in its home ;-)

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Small update as i wait on (yet another small order) a couple 45? fittings from Swiftech due to where the GPU bridge lands the inlet/outlet hoses.

Of course, Swiftech GPU bridge and GTZ waterblock top, Carbided naturally

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Testing the ~395nm UV LED strip i got off eBay, i like the richness of color on the acrylic pieces i made for the heatsinks

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Frosting the XSPC acrylic part on the memory cooler

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Wiring up the 30 LED's...im thinking it might be too much so i may put them on a fan controller

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All done and ready to test

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Works
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Not sure im liking the mesh look even after the pains i took to make it so im 'Carbiding' the stock piece

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#19 ·
I didnt like the mesh cover plate i made, so i went with the solid one, but of course it had to be 'Carbided'
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Sorry for the blurriness, showing the custom switch panel, stealthed of course. The one with the huge mess of wires is for the triple rad stack fans so i can run at 5v or 12v depending on work and sound load needs. Plus i figure 4 high speed Yate Loons will push a butt load of air even at 5v. The other two switches are for the side panel lighting, one to turn it on/off, the other to switch between sets

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Showing the drive bay lighting and power connections

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Just how hidden are they? Pretty well id say, its actually a bit hard to flip them but you can manage

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Ugh! What is that??!!

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Oh, proof you can remove the silicone from a 'waterproof' LED strip

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I opted to go with a UV and an RGB strip setup. The UV strip should be self explanatory, but i went with the RGB instead of plain white because the white strip didnt have the 'LEDs per inch' i wanted, plus they were 3528's vs. the RGB's 5050 size.

Showing in white

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I swear this is red on the lowest setting, the sunlight messes up my camera, ill pull out my older Carl Zeiss lensed camera for some nicer shots later

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Well, thats all i have for now. I would say that its about 98% done as i just need to cut the side panel window and wire in a USB hub for my wireless accessories. The hub is optional since i have 10 ports on the back and 2 on the front, so i may not need the extra internal ones.
 
#20 ·
I see you, what are you doing with my computer hooman?

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The modding continues...i figured since i have to wait till Tuesday for the new mobo i would see what i could do to dress it up a bit. I thought some glow from certain places would look cool.

The 'hub' as it were is the southbridge heatsink and the two PCI-E lanes below the two vid cards. Under the heatsink is certainly hidden, i just hope the vid card ones are not as visible once they are installed. This is powered by the sysfan header.

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#21 ·
Looks good really like the LED lighting on the blocks. Any new progress on it?
 
#23 ·
Thanks. I was waiting on the replacement RGB controller and this past weekend wasnt good for tearing it down and replumbing it. Hopefully this weekend ill be able to tear it all down, clean it up and take some nice pics
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#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Furball Zen View Post

LOL, its metal flake clear coat
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SHHHHHH. no its not... its uhhhh MAGIC! yea. lets go with that
 
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