[GraphicsWhore]

Parts:

Spoiler

Case: Thermaltake Core P7 (main chassis only) + custom powder coat
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XII Formula
CPU: Intel i9-10850K
RAM: G-Skill Trident Z Royal DDR4-4000
GPU: EVGA 3080Ti FTW3
PSU: Corsair RM1000x
Storage: Inland 2TB NVMe
Storage: Crucial 1TB NVMe
Storage: Samsung 980 1TB NVMe
CPU block: EK Quantum Velocity
GPU block: Optimus Absolute
Pump: EK Quantum Inertia
Radiator: HWLabs 480 SR2 MP
Rad fans: Noctua NF-F12 120mm
Tubes: Bitspower Brass 16mm (shining silver)
Reservoir: Bitspower Tank Z 300mm
Fittings: Bitspower Enhance Multilink (Silver Shining)
Keyboard: Logitech MX Keys
Mouse: Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Other: 8.8" 1920x480 IPS LCD
Other: ColorWare custom DualSense
Other: 3D printed support legs

Originally finished October of last year but been too lazy to create the thread.

Inspired by one my favorite cars - the 2004 Ford Mustang Cobra which came in "Mystichrome" - color shift paint from blue to purple.

Having built my first custom loop in the Thermaltake P5 in 2017 I decided to follow it up with a P7, with initial plans to use one of the side chassis for additional custom work like an iPad on an arm as a hardware monitor among other things. After drawing up several different designs, it was clear it wasn't going to work so I decided to use just the main chassis, aka the P5.

Wanted custom paint to match Mystichrome as closely as possible. Ordered some swatches from Prismatic Powders (www.prismaticpowders.com) and had a local automotive powder coating place (www.nvcoatings.com) do the work. Really pleased with the result - a color that shifts between blue and purple:

http://imgur.com/yQDDqu0

This particular color also has starry effect up close which I liked:

Old build (log here) and new side-by-side before I got started:

Parts coming in:

This was July of 2021 and I was still scouring for a 3080Ti. Lucked out, found a sealed EVGA FTW3 for $1550 cash on Craigslist from a local seller. That was close to what I would have paid MSRP + tax and shipping from EVGA

Bitspower Z Tank 300mm res

Laying things down to get a sense of how tubes will run

10850K ($319 in-store at MicroCenter!) + EK Quantum Velocity + G-Skill Trident Royal Z to fit the blue-chrome theme

Quick side project for cable management. In the old build I used cable raceway with adhesive attached to the side of the case to hide cables coming from motherboard (see build log above). This worked well but wanted a new solution. The holes I had to Dremmel in the raceway didn't look great and using adhesive on powder coat would strip it if I had to remove. Case has factory holes for cables - one each on both sides - so I decided to add two more, one for USB cables and one for display cables. The side chassis which wasn't going to be part of the final build ended up being useful for practice cuts:

Final product with chrome grommets. The bottom hole is factory and initially had a grommet but I ended up having to remove to allow the PSU power cable to fit. The other two came out nicely and I used rubber bands on the backside to keep them from moving:

Rad, fans. Wanted push-pull but didn't want all fans on the front side. Would stick out a lot and make the tube from rad to res more complicated. Removed the I/O panel (which I don't use because the case sits against a wall on the right side) and after some tinkering and extra long radiator screws, fit 4 fans inside the case:

Whole unit on and the EK Quanum Inertia mounted with a bit of driling. Managed to hide the cables from the pump nicely and fed directly into the case:

Another side project to mount PSU horizontally. Needed to leave space for the LCD hardware monitor and a mount for the DualSense. P5 and 7 don't come with horizontal bracket and couldn't find one for sale from a P3. Ended up trying out a couple of chrome shelf mounts, secured with nuts and bolts after more drilling

Worked ok but the PSU was sliding around. Happened to find these two foam strips with adhesive on the back. Don't remember what they were from originally but worked perfectly to keep PSU stable:

Res mounted and first tube installed

Second run from res to pump

VRM to rad run and a quick leak test with no issues

Back to the PSU for another side project. Didn't want the spec sticker visible with the PSU sitting horizontally, removedwith GooGone. Also had some mirror sheets with adhesive back and wanted to see how it'd look on top. Loved the result so I kept it

LCD mount with some simple L bracket engineering

More drilling and more nuts and bolts to mount:

90 degree mini-HDMI to HDMI and Micro USB to USB cables to keep the profiles low, fed right into the cable hole

Coming together but glaring issue which may be hard to spot in the picture (uneven tube from VRM to rad). This was due to the case, which has lanes for the rad screws that are separated by solid metal every 3 inches or so. The lowest possible position I could place the rad meant this was the straightest the tube could be:

Was originally going to ignore. Removing the rad/fan unit, cutting away parts of the case is a lot of work but it ended up bothering me enough that I went ahead and sawed off some metal to be able to lower the rad and now the tube was pretty much perfect:

More L bracket engineering for the DualSense mount

In old build a similar mount was secured with drilling holes and nuts and bolts. This time I wanted an easier solution and found it on Amazon: magnets. Was worried they might not be strong enough until they almost took my finger off separating them

White DualSense or black? I wasn't sure although - spoiler - it ended up being neither:

Removing RAM spec stickers. More GooGone and a polish:

Purchased an RGB stick with magnet and wasn't sure what I'd do with it but decided to try it out behind the res. Looked good and matches the look on the Trident Royal Z

Direct die cooling for CPU. Used Rock It Cool's 10th gen kit to pop the IHS and give the chip a good clean and polish:

Installed and liquid metal applied

Block on, CPU to VRM run in

Optimus block for 3080Ti was going to take a few weeks to come in so decided to run the card on air until then. Had a CPU-related error on first attempted boot but just powered everything down and back up and - she's alive!

Cable management test. Everything went in on the left side, inside the case and out on the right. The case sits against the wall on the right side so nothing should show once it's in its permanent place:

Cables fed through the grommets and build moved to the desk. Combined two GPU anti-sag stands for a jerry rigged solution as the sag was bad. Found a nice AIDA64 template to match the theme of the build for the LCD hardware monitor:

Optimus block arrives

Stock cooler removed

Clean and polish, block installed and unit plugged in

Bitspower offset fitting was clutch, allowing me to do a perfectly straight run from GPU to CPU

Plugged in. Power tucked under the GPU and above tube for a clean look

Almost there

Back view

Looking good next to the LG 38GL950G-B which I had just picked up a couple of months before:

Few last side projects. Strong lean at the front of the case because of the weight. Found the supporting legs on Thermaltake's 3d print site and had a buddy print me a couple. Spray painted black and threw them on.

More noticeable seeing it in person but before and after:

Next wanted to hide cables from PSU feeding into the case. Measured and ordered some custom acrylic pieces in various colors and found a nice blue to match the theme.

Heat gun and a bend + 3M adhesive to apply:

Before and after:

And lastly, after going back and forth between the black and white DualSense, I logged onto Colorware to find a similar chameleon-type custom DualSense they had just released. Despite being twice the price of a regular DS I figured I was all in at this point anyway and it matches really well:

Done. Now to move it to its permanent spot, plug everything in and finish cable management with various extenders for ethernet, display cables, etc.

Additional Pictures

Lights on:

Lights off (game mode)

Benchmark: TimeSpy

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i9-10850K Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ROG MAXIMUS XII FORMULA (3dmark.com)

This was the result at 5.2 and 2130. I was stable at 5.3 for general use but couldn't pass any 3DM bench

Benchmark: Cinebench

Final Thoughts

Metal tubes were a pain but would have been far easier to work with if Bitspower had recommended a different type of their hard-tube fitting. I had tested this fitting at one point but by then I had most of the runs established with the fitting they recommended and didn't want to start over. When I flush and clean in a few months, I'll likely switch.

The LCD monitor looks cool and it was fun engineering the mounting but as I suspected I pretty much never use it.

Direct-die cooling - was it worth it? I don't know. I didn't test with regular mounting but I know I'm getting max performance and it's actually much easier to do than I thought for just an extra $60 in hardware.

'm still surprised at how well it all came together. There were a few times I thought this project was going to be a bust but it worked out and as I expected this destroys anything I throw at it (except Cyberpunk, of course) at 3840x1600, maxed out and with RTX. VR on a HTC VIVE Pro is flawless. Along with the Phillips Hue lighting this is without question the best gaming experience I've ever had.

 

[Ichirou]

Really love this concept. Now spray paint everything else with MystiChrome too

 

[Digitalwolf]

What a beautiful build! It just looks amazing.

 

[jiffysound]

Really excellent workmanship. It all comes together great and the RGB looks nice too.

 

[caraboose]

Looks great! Disappointed it isn't installed in a Mustang... But that's minor!

 

[GraphicsWhore]

Looks great! Disappointed it isn't installed in a Mustang... But that's minor!

One of those rich guys on youtube should make a small car into a custom loop for sure.

 

[vf-]

This is some awesome bling!

 

[TurboMach1]

Nice color choice. That was always my favorite color on those cars but it wasn't very popular.