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[Build log] Diva Does Threesomes, Foursomes, & Moresomes, . . . a Veritable Orgy of Caselabs Mercury Series Builds

10K views 109 replies 32 participants last post by  Barefooter 
#1 ·
WELCOME
.
To Another Diva Plunge into Decadence and Insanity
.
Lightly Scented with a Prurient Bouquet of Double Entendre

Let me introduce you to my girls;

Mods said I had to take the "Haulin' A$$" Girls Out

No, Not those girls, . . . . That poster's so old, they gotta be older than Hillary Clinton by now . . .

I Mean

My Caselabs girls:



That's Blanca on the left, she's my old white S8 build from last year, but she needs to go under the knife for a little facelift to look a little more streamlined and youthful.

In the middle is Flo, she's my Fat Little Oreo, a two-tone, white/black S8S. She's a new X99 build with plans to add a chiller with heat exchangers in a sort of hybrid cooling setup.

On the right is Glo, she's my Gunmetal Little Oreo, a new two-tone, white/gunmetal S5, Z170MX build.

Below is Slo, she's my Sweet Little Oreo, a still in the womb er, box, two-tone, white/black S5, Z170MX build



Now that you've been introduced, let me sneak a few more Fireball shots and chasers, and I'll tell you the sordid tale of a gray-haired old lady with perhaps a bit more money that brains, and how[ S]I[/S] she ended up with so many Caselabs builds all at the same time . . . And I'll flesh out, (love how that almost sounds decadent) what's planned for each build.

Let me offer a bit of an overview, what I have, . . . and where, at least in my mind's eye, I want to go with it:

Blanca has always been a bit of an aesthetic disappointment to me, since I finished her last December.

It's my fault, in that I failed to visualize the posted dimensions of the S8 accurately in my mind's eye, especially with the extended top, and dual vertical front windows.

From the front, it's really OK, the extended top doesn't do it any favors, but even with the dual windows with the dual reservoirs, I like it OK.

Unfortunately, from the side, it just looks too short from front to back, and the extended top exacerbates this..

If I stuck a hand crank handle on the side, and a bit of paintwork, it would look just like a giant Jack in the Box

To me, the S8 is just too short, front to back, to look right with its height.

I have a full window side panel, which is even worse for looking excessively boxy . . . the window / ventilated side panel at least has 2 rectangular optical patterns, which helps to visually, at least, accentuate the front to back dimension over the top to bottom dimension.

To try to give Blanca a sleeker, more modern look, I'm going to excise the top rad on the GPU side, bring the CPU side rad and top fans below the drop in mount, user shorter reservoirs, and put a regular height top with a window on the GPU side to replace the ventilated extended top.

From an internal perspective, Blanca has a Gigabyte Gaming GT mobo with 6700K, a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro, and a modest 16GB of Trident Z 3200, and a 1000W NZXT PSU, all running Win 10.

Flo, my Fat Little Oreo, is in an S8S. The S8Short is a discontinued offering, but can be had, as I did, by ordering all the individual parts, "ala carte".

Since I was ordering all the parts individually, it allowed me to specify the color for each part in the order. Even though 2-tone cases were no longer offered, selecting parts and their colors allowed me to create the white / black 2-tone S8S.

I feel that the S8S is one of the most, if not The Most, aesthetically pleasing case CL ever released.

Its lower height to length gives it a sleek, streamlined look from the side, as well as a leaner/meaner frontal perspective.

The downside to the overall leaner meaner look was the lack of rad and fan space, that pretty much made you get a pedestal, which then raised the cost considerably, and totally destroyed the longer/lower aspect ratio. . . . no wonder it wasn't a top seller . . .
biggrin.gif


To compensate for the lack of rad space, while still maintain a capable X99 atx mobo with multiple GPUs and a hex core CPU, Flo's going to have a single 360 in the lower GPU side compartment, with a dual-parallel heat exchanger module setup to allow a chiller(s) to add to the overall cooling capacity when needed.

As you can see, Flo gets a new custom front window mod, which is full width horizontal. This should let the lighted midplate that the pumps and exchangers mount on to be a real focal point, and accentuate the leaner/meaner look.

Internally Flo gets an Asus 99 Deluxe II with a 6850K, a Samsung 950 Pro, 32GB of 3466 Trident Z, and an EVGA 1500W PSU

Now how did I end up with 2, two-tone S5's, on top of the two-tone S8S you ask . . .

Well, mostly a succession of fortuitous coincidences.

As it happened, I had just ordered all the parts for Flo, the S8S build, and not but a day later, CL announces that they are opening a 10 day window for whites and two tones, at the end of which, all custom ordering will cease.

Having always wanted to do an S5 build, and seeing that I may not get a chance at a white or two-tone one again for a very long time, I ordered a two-tone, white / black S5, patterned to match the S8S I had just ordered the day before. . . . Fortunately, it was payweek, so I had a few extra bucks to make it happen.

That white / black two-tone S5 I ordered way back in July, that just got here last week, is my Sweet Little Oreo, Slo

So fast forward about 3 weeks, from ordering the S8S and the S8 from CL, and one of the regular posters in the CL owners thread mentions having just put his white / gunmetal two-tone S5 up for sale in the OCN marketplace.

Again with the fortuitous coincidences, I happened to see his post, soon after he posted, while I was at work, which doesn't give me much OCN time, actually had a few sheckles to spend, and was the first to make contact.

From when he posted, to when he got PayPalled, was less than maybe 3 hours tops.

A few days later, I had a two-tone S5 to start getting measurements from and working on what I wanted to do so far as mods.

It wasn't exactly as I would have ordered it, but I just put in an order with CL to get what I needed to have it be a sister build to the black / white two-tone that would arrive about 10 weeks from then.

That White / Gray two-tone S5 is my Gray Little Oreo, Glo

Internally, Glo has an Asus M8 Gene, a predominately gray mobo to go with the case color, a 6700K, 950 Pro, 16 Gb of 3733 Trident Z, and a 750W Seasonic Snow Silent PSU (cuz it's white)

Last, but not least, is my Sweet Little Oreo, Slo.

As you've now come to know, Slo's the baby of the bunch, having been a full trimester in the making, to finally arrive, just this last week.

Internally, Slo gets a Gigabyte Gaming 5 Z170MX mobo, which is predominantly black, with white and red accents and a 6700K. the mobo colors should work well with the white / black case. The usual 950 Pro and 16GB of Trident Z 3200 should offer a good basic setup that doesn't break the bank, all run from another Seasonic Snow Silent 750, (again, cuz it's white)

That's pretty much the overview, tomorrow, I'll start putting some pics of the progress on the ones I've worked on in separate posts, so we can start moving forward.

thanks so much for being patient and reading such a massive wall of text, but with 4 pc's here, at least you have the roadmap.

Darlene
 
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#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabrielzm View Post

Lol. Pic is old but backplate still look good... Subbed. I take you like oreos
smile.gif
Hi Gabz,

Good to see you mate
thumb.gif


Oreo has a unique double meaning in English based on the cooky's 2 colors, since the 3 new cases are all 2-tone, it gives me 3 names that all share a similar sound, and a bit of prurient double entendre.

Good to have you on board,

Darlene
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by battleaxe View Post

Subbered
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kojaqe View Post

Love all your build logs subbed!
Welcome guys,

My early buildlogs were pretty good, but then the busier I got, the more they went to hell in a handbasket.

It just got too hard to update several unrelated builds when I liked working on a build, a lot more than writing about it.

These builds are all related, which is why I put them together in a single build log, which in theory, should help me to keep it up to date.

Darlene

Hey Scot,

Welcome aboard
wave2.gif
 
#9 ·
Subbed, for your quads. And, I guess I will look at your PC builds as well.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by essanbee View Post

Subbed, for your quads. And, I guess I will look at your PC builds as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TGBM View Post

I know I need to sub when I'm laughing away at the post I LOVE the names of the builds and having just done a 10 system simultaneous build an looking forward to seeing what you do with this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by AllGamer View Post

subbed!
biggrin.gif
Hey Guys,

Welcome aboard
cheers.gif


I just finished fleshing out the first post. I know it's rather a giant wall of text, but with 4 builds/rebuilds, it offers a pretty good starting point and a roadmap so as to keep all the girls sorted out as the builds and log progresses.

I really hate writing that much, it's a lot more fun building and taking pics along the way, but I thought it was important enough to take the time.

Let's fire up the power tools and have some fun . . .
wheee.gif


Darlene
 
#16 ·
Definitely subbed for this... on a related note that poster features my first truck... but not with the smexy airbrushed stripe.

Wait... there was a truck in that poster?!?
wink.gif


Based on your previous builds... if at the end of this they aren't all able to assemble themselves into one gigantic robot computer to fight the forces of evil, I may be a little disappointed.
biggrin.gif
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by nzphil View Post

Wow so many builds at once, totally in for this
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akira749 View Post

Of course i'm IN!!!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Deedaz View Post

Subbed! Your builds are an inspiration, can't wait to see how these turn out
thumb.gif
Maybe I'll get some ideas for future upgrades to mine. In fact, I think it was your builds that sold me on white cases
tongue.gif
Quote:
Originally Posted by DiGiCiDAL View Post

Definitely subbed for this... on a related note that poster features my first truck... but not with the smexy airbrushed stripe.

Wait... there was a truck in that poster?!?
wink.gif


Based on your previous builds... if at the end of this they aren't all able to assemble themselves into one gigantic robot computer to fight the forces of evil, I may be a little disappointed.
biggrin.gif
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharangir View Post

In for the ride
smile.gif
Welcome to the orgy guys . . .
grouphug.gif


Now when was the last time you had a chick say that to you . . .
biggrin.gif


But seriously, Welcome aboard.

Ohhh, . . . And the real reason I keep a towel draped over each of them isn't to keep out dust, . . it's so they can't see each other and come to realize what a powerful army they could collectively morph into
gunner.gif
gunner2.gif
 
#24 ·
A Little Weekend Update:

If anyone tells you that you can't fit a 60mm thick 360 rad in an S5, just tell 'em, "Diva Did"



Now let's backtrack a bit and see how we got there . . .

The key is having the right mounting brackets and the right rad.

The Alphacool brand rads, while one of my least favorite rads, is the smallest dimensioned relative to total width.

The UT60, 360 measures in at about 126 to 128mm total width.

The S5 while being the same height as the S8S, is dimensioned differently in the lower compartments.

The S8S keeps the dimensions of the regular S8, which has a side mount 360 available.

The S5 is notably more compacted with only about 135mm available under the mid chassis, and part of that is taken up by the pem nuts the casters screw up into.

XSPC has some nice rad brackets that are very low profile, and with only light modding to accommodate the outside port caps on the Acool rad, a little tweak to the rad mounting holes to have some adjustment range, and a little mod to the foot profile to clear the rear pem nuts, they are ready to go.







I actually tapped the brackets for M4, and locktited the screws in place. . . There's no way to reach the screws from inside, so I need them to be almost like studs coming out the bottom of the brackets, so I can put a washer and nut on the under side of the lower chassis plate to hold the rad in place.

This is still a mockup assembly, so I just used regular nuts, the final build will have locking nuts.

Here in the pic below, you can see that I had to mod the upper lip of the mid chassis to give a little more clearance so the rear fan fits at the top rear.

I also did a similar clearance mod at the front, it looks a little more symmetrical and gives more room to get my fingers in when it comes time to install the drain fittings.



You can also see that there's about 3mm total clearance above and below the fans, and I have about 1mm at the top, and about 2mm between the fans and the lower chassis lip.

I thought about mounting the rad right to the mid chassis, but that would have put the fans' frames in line with the chassis lips, and the frames being slightly bigger than the bodies, would have made clearance a major issue.

So as you can see in this pic, by using the brackets, I could space the fans out from the mid chassis by a few mm's, (about 5 to 6) so that the frames are to the outside of the chassis lips.



As you can see below, there's still about 3 to 4mm clearance between the fan mounting screws and the side panel



Just being able to get the rad to fit in, doesn't do much good if the air can't move thru it, so I had to mod the back side of the mid chassis.

I left a bit of extra space to the front, since I'll need some access to tighten fittings and the cables will ultimately pass thru at the front as well.



One of the other mods I always do to my S series builds, is to lower the CPU side support rail by 1/4".

That puts it exactly at the same height as the mid chassis, so that a midplate now fits flat across the full width of the chassis.

It also means that the mobo tray needs to have 1/4" standoffs to keep it at its normal position.

The plus side to that, is that it opens up some additional cable routing options.

In the pic below, you can see the stainless steel mobo tray standoffs and the lowered side support rail



And finally, with the mobo tray installed



So with the rad mod essentially done, except for the touchup painting where the cuts were made, I couldn't resist assembling the rest of the panels to get an idea of how the white / black was going to look.

I setup a front USB / switches assembly just like the other S5, and a lighted midplate as well.

I'll be doing the full width front window mod too, but I'll have to save that for another weekend.

In the meantime, here's how it's looking for now:









Hope you like it,

Darlene
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by IT Diva View Post

Welcome to the orgy guys . . .
grouphug.gif


Now when was the last time you had a chick say that to you . . .
biggrin.gif


But seriously, Welcome aboard
Last week, i like to play!!????
 
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