RAMPAGE III

[Pri]

I knew the budget for this would keep growing. Today I altered my Fan order from Amazon, swapped out some of the SP 120's for SP 140's as the case has three 140mm mounts and the 120's would have looked dinky in those positions. I'm still using the 120's on the radiators however as it makes sense on those. This bumped the cost up a bit by £20.

I also have ordered two EK Backplates for my GTX 780's - I was so lucky, Specialtech was the only one that had any, EK have stopped making them and so I got the last two. £50 cost but I think it'll be worth it, here is a picture of what the backplates look like (not my photo):



My light tent arrived this morning so once I actually get some parts I can begin taking photos. Unfortunately more items that I've ordered have gone out of stock. Amazon is giving me a delivery estimate of Monday to Friday for my 120mm fans although my 140mm ones are coming tomorrow.

My Monsoon Fittings, EK 480mm Radiators and NZXT Fan Controller are still out of stock at scan.co.uk where I ordered from so it could be a long while before this build comes together. I decided to have them hold all the stuff until they have everything in my order before sending me things since I can't build anything without those three parts anyway and it just makes sense not to clutter our home with giant boxes full of things.

Tomorrow when the SP140's come I'll probably setup the light tent and take some pictures of the GTX 780 Waterblocks and the 140mm Corsair fans then I can get this thread rolling.

[Pri]

I took some pictures today. Corsair AF140 & EK Waterblock, enjoy
















I really like these SP140 fans. They feel very high quality and the rubber grommets are a nice touch to reduce vibration. I also like the black cables, much nicer than coloured ones. The fans have a nice weight to them.

The EK Waterblock just looks great, beautiful craftsmanship, I know that these blocks are hand assembled and they do a lovely job. I especially like the little silver EK logo it's a nice touch. Hopefully the rest of my parts will come this month. I'm currently still waiting on the SP120 fans from Amazon (eight of those) and the Monsoon Fittings, EK Radiators and NZXT Fan Controller which is holding up my order from Scan.co.uk.

I hope you enjoyed the photos I did use my new lightbox to take them and I think they came out great!

[Db696]

So is the lightbox/tent a little enclosure thats all whitewalled so you can take pictures like that?

[Pri]

So is the lightbox/tent a little enclosure thats all whitewalled so you can take pictures like that?

Yup exactly. It's about the size of an A3 piece of paper and it all folds out in to a square box. It has two lamps on either side of the box for illumination and the sides act as diffusers so the light is softened but still bright. Only cost £31 from Amazon and came with the lamps and everything. Bargain.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006 ... UTF8&psc=1

That's the one I got, looks like it's out of stock now but they have others similar to that. I like how it all packs away and takes up like no room.

The main reason I got it is because I didn't want to use the flash on my camera as that makes the pictures look weird, so I knew I needed to get some lamps, but lamps are big and you need to get diffusers for them. So I looked for a light tent instead as that would be cheaper and smaller and with the same results. I'm really happy with how these pictures came out

[Pri]

Decided to take some pictures of the Back Plates since I got them yesterday.

It was really difficult to take pictures of this because it is buffed to an almost mirror finish making it very hard to get the camera to focus. So I'm just going to show you how shiny it is, this is the camera actually focusing on the light tent that is reflecting off the backplate


And here is a picture of the logo on the corner, I managed to take this by getting a really low down angle.


And finally just the back which is where it bolts on to the card. This side is easy to take a photo of since it's quite dull and hasn't been buffed to a shine. This backplate does offer cooling for memory chips which are on the back of the card, however my cards (GTX 780) do not feature memory on the back. If I had GTX Titan's that would be a useful feature for further overclocking.

[Pri]

Received my eight SP120 fans today. They look exactly like the SP140 I posted before but a bit smaller so I'll spare you the images of essentially the same looking fan haha

But I'm glad they arrived now I just need the rest of my parts and this thing can get rolling. I'm hopeful I'll get this build finished before march but it is looking unlikely, still no ETA on the Radiators or Fan Controller disappointedly.

[Pri]

I decided to cancel the Fan Controller from my order in hopes of getting the rest of my stuff faster. I found a seller on Amazon that had the Fan Controller instead so I ordered it there and it arrived today. It's incredibly tiny. About the size of a match box. Here are some photos I took of it. Again this is the NZXT GRID 10 port fan controller.





It doesn't actually come with that "SERIAL REMOVED" on that sticker, I removed it in photoshop as I wouldn't want anyone stealing my warranty! - Comes with a reasonable two year warranty and for something that only costs £10 (£15 on Amazon) I'm quite happy with that.

I've not tested it yet but again I'm still waiting for other parts. The last item that is out of stock is the EK Radiators and scan.co.uk (where I ordered from) still do not have an ETA for their arrival. I hope I can get this finished before March.

[Pri]

The wait to finish this build is killing me! - But tomorrow the radiators for my build come in stock according to Scan and hopefully that means I'll get my order on Tuesday or Wednesday and can start building.

Today I ordered some more parts to go along with this build that I realised I'd need but they should arrive tuesday as there all in stock. I ordered some fan extension cables as the case is so big I think I may have some difficulty getting all the fans to reach my fan controller. I ordered some extra hose for doing the initial cleaning of my radiators, I got some extra shitty barbs for spares, I ordered a hose cutter so I can make cleaner cuts, I always use scissors usually but the cuts are never as clean as I'd like. And finally I ordered an extra long tube to replace the one that comes with the EK reservoir so it'll make the case look more full when it's in. I think the tiny res which was only like 5 inches was a bit short so I ordered an 8 inch one.

Things are moving hope to have more pictures up later this week as the final parts start coming in. Just realised it's now monday.

[Pri]

Sadly the radiators did not come in stock as planned on Monday so I am still waiting. I have thought about switching to different radiators but I really had my heart set on the EK ones so I'm going to wait.

In the meantime I have ordered some more parts, I've ordered a 120cm RGB light strip that connects to my Phobya LED controller that I already have. This allows me to set the inside of the case to any colour I want but I will be keeping it on white I imagine. I can connect three light strips to this controller and I already have two 30cm ones but due to this case being so huge I've decided to purchase a third one and this one will be able to go all around the door.

I've also ordered three black monsoon plug fittings. Two for my graphics cards and one for my EK Res top inlet port. I didn't want to use EK's default silver ones as they just wouldn't match what I'm doing. I've decided to go with a parallel water setup on my graphics cards which just means the water is split and sent to both cards at the same time and then after it is combined again to exit the cards. I've not done this for performance as serial (where one card feeds in to the other) works just as well. I've done it for looks as this means I can use two pieces of tubing between the cards instead of one making the area look more substantial.

I've also ordered two more 45 Degree Monsoon Rotaries and two more 90 Degree Monsoon Rotaries as I think I will probably need them. This means I now have four of each and I think that will be more than I need but it's always best to have more and not need it than to delay the build even longer waiting for needed parts.

This build is really coming together but more money has been spent. The budget for the build is now over £1000 with the recent additions totalling £170 on their own. But I'm glad I could reuse my LED controller instead of throwing it to the wayside and replacing it with Bitfenix Alchemy stuff which I was going to do before this.

I'm really quite happy with all the parts I've chosen so far, lots of research and decision making leading up to this. Now I just need those damn radiators to come in stock so I can get the rest of the parts I paid for in early January and finish this thing!

Here are some images of things I ordered today:

Monsoon Plug in Matte Black:


Monsoon 90 Degree Rotary in Matte Black:


Monsoon 45 Degree Rotary in Matte Black:

[Pri]

Spoke to Scan today and they said their lead time on the radiators is now March 31st. So I've had them remove those EK Radiators from my order because I'm not waiting that long. Instead I've ordered some XSPC radiators which look almost identical to the EK's. They cost a bit more money but this means I can finally get the build finish. The final pieces of my build will arrive on Monday so I can start building it next week.