# [Build Log] Orange You Glad You Switched? (Re-build, Switch 810)



## Winnah9000 (Apr 20, 2012)

NZXT Switch 810 Black
i7-2600K
Asus Maximus IV Extreme
2x Sapphire 7950
2x OCZ Vertex 3 60GB
WD VelociRaptor 300GB
Corsair HX1000 Sleeved
Laing D5 w/ BP dress kits
XSPC EX240
SR1 360
EK Supreme HF
EK 7950 Blocks (with EK single-slot brackets)
EK Maximus IV Extreme Block
EK Dual-Series 3-Slot Bridge
PrimoChill PrimoFlex LRT Black 1/2" ID

Overall orange/black theme, tired of all the black/red, green, blue.

Was keeping this on OCN to compete in MotM, but they don't allow sponsored builds :shadedshu

Keep watching this as I update it!


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## Winnah9000 (Apr 20, 2012)

Unboxing of the Switch 810 Black and a test mount of EX240 with push, push/pull fans:





























































































































































































Mobo came in!





















Decided to do a mock placement of the board for anyone to reference. This is what E-ATX is like in this case 

















My 360 got here today, thanks Desert Rat! This is a bunch of other stuff going into the build as well (I forgot to add my HDs to the OP, updating now!).





Velociraptor 300GB





XSPC 450 Pump/res





XSPC EX240





Black Ice SR1 360





Rads compared





6 Bitspower Matte Black Fittings
4 Bitspower 90* Fittings





4x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 + 2x 60GB OCZ Vertex 3 RAID 0





Xonar Essence STX + EK Supreme HF









Decided to replace the bracket on the mobo while I was sitting here. Its the 115x EK Bracket that keeps you from having to use spacers :up:





I felt like seeing if I could stuff a fan controller in the stealth bay with a 360 up top with push/pull fans... BYAH!













































Look what UPS left for me:













































USPS' turn today (big thanks to Bacchus451 for the good price and fast shipping  ) :













Huge update 

Here's my awesome package from EK! Big thanks to Gregor Hribernik at EK for helping me and keeping me up to date on progress since late January and the sponsorship/review material (review will be written as I build this weekend, I'll add it in the third post for the 7950 blocks/backplates). This would've been much more difficult to accomplish without him 











EK FC-7950 Acetal + Nickel Blocks





EK FB-Maximus IV Extreme Block





EK FC-7950 Backplates





Unboxing of the 7950 blocks













Special notice now included with EK nickel blocks. Use coolants with corrosion inhibitors pre-mixed or make sure you include corrosion inhibitors in distilled water to make sure the plating does not fail.





Notice, Manual, Thermal Pads, and Hardware









That feel (or sight I guess) bro 













I love this block. There's no other way to describe it. Its far better than the 5970 block I used to have (and I really liked that one). I'll save the other comments for the review 

































The pair together













Backplates unboxing (unwrapping technically  )





Backplate, Manual, and Hardware/Thermal Pad













That's nifty 













EK Maximus IV Extreme Block Unboxing













Manual, Thermal Pads, Hardware





I think EK really wanted to make sure I knew how to install it. Two manuals  USE ALL THE MANUALS!





Oooo, shiny and gigantic 













Again, an amazing block. Fantastic build quality, appearance, and just lots of thought went into it.





























Everyone out of their shell!





An idea of how big the blocks are compared to backplates if they were installed (screwholes lined up) as well as an actual measurement









Family photo! This is the 7950 blocks, single slot brackets, backplates, Max IV block, EK HF Supreme Acetal, EK FC Bridge Dual-Serial 3-Slot, and EK FC 58x0/68x0/78x0 Links. So much EK, lol.





















The prized jewel  Big thanks to Mallory Kolbe at FrozenQ PC Mods for sponsoring this build! She was quick to answer my questions, got my sponsorship order put right in, and shipped immediately when it was ready! This reservoir's look and quality blew me away when I opened the box. I can't wait to get it installed and running!


























And that about sums up the actual parts! Check the next post momentarily for a quick sneak peek at what I've been up to


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## Winnah9000 (Apr 20, 2012)

My plan is coming together... Nicely... *taps fingers together*

The paint on some pieces will be done Friday night, the other part needs to be sanded some more (this is exhausting, but here's the beginning of my labors):





















Finished the mesh pieces, absolutely beautiful:





























I forgot/didn't notice the mesh on the bottom sides... :shadedshu So I painted them and here they are (yes, the case is upside down, lol):









Forgot how much I hated sleeving, lol. These came undone since the last build due to my terrible sleeving skills:













Don't worry, I redid them so they'll stay in place. Discovered a technique that actually works (consistently too).

IT LIVES:













That's professional cable management on the rear 

I also finished painting my EX240 rad after about 3 or 4 tries 

















Redoing my sleeving on the new Corsair HX1000  Here's two firsts I've seen, the orange/black camo Paracord and braided cables!





















Quick note, I have been redoing that sleeving with a better braid  I'll take pictures once I have all the cables I want braided done 

Here's a quick top secret preview  Replacing the labels on my Corsair HX 1000 with some better colored choices  (Ignore the peeling sticker, I superglued it and its flat now. My fingers were mad though  )









Huge update, brace yourselves.

Goodbye air setup (especially that stock Intel cooler, ugh).





Gotta love when you already have rads installed but you have to remove them anyways -_-





You're coming out too.





Let the mobo dissection begin! This is the stock cooler removed. (Look at the AS5 on the CPU from the Intel cooler, gross)

















Now we place our thermal pads in the appropriate areas 





Thermal paste 





Absolutely sexy  My first FB block, always wanted one, never had the money.





Card #1. Powercolor 7950. (I'll be writing a review for the whole block and installation in the coming days once I get my A/C fixed - 82F is not comfortable, that's part of the reason I'm awake at 4AM - so I can use normal ambient temps for better comparisons)









They are getting really cheap on these coolers  No heatsink for anything besides the die? I think it might touch the RAM, but that's not even thermal pads, just some weird plastic material.





Naked 





Gross.





That's much better 





Thermal pads and paste applied 





Gotta prepare the backplate with a thermal pad for the rear of the VRMs 





So sexy.









Just put on my gloss black painted single-slot bracket 









Card #2. Sapphire 7950. They were almost identical to disassemble.













Sapphire is much better about thermal paste 













Just as awesome as the first one 









Some barbs.





Finally get off the stock cooler 





The first tube to be installed 









Here's the bridge installed with the FC-Links. I had to make a trip to Lowe's to get appropriately sized screws because I bought the bridge used and he didn't include screws :shadedshu





Big thanks to Kortwa for getting these stop fittings and the pump top out to me at the perfect time 





First bridge I've used, looks way better in person  (weighs an unbelievable ton though  )





Got the board back in, got the 360 back in with tubes (extra slack) attached so I could actually clamp it down 





Not going to lie. I made a huge mistake going with the 250MM res and D5. They were not going to fit at all with push/pull on the 240 at the bottom. I ended up sacrificing one of the top fans and both of the bottoms  Not to mention the filling, oh boy.





No res.





Res  Just like magic.





Now its gone again 





This is not an optical illusion. I leaned the reservoir outward, undid the stop fitting, attached a barb (do not use 90* to fill, absolutely worthless, trust me), put tubing on and funneled in. Again, poor idea of the huge res/pump, but they worked out in the end.





Leak test!





Nothing was seen for 8 hours, so that was good enough for me, wired it all up.





Here's some more close-up views of everything in it's current state.

















So the liquid is done, but there is more to come 


*NOTE* I've been asked this a few times in PMs actually. "How did you mount the res?" Well, I took the normal mounts FrozenQ provides (they gave me normal and extended, wasn't sure what I needed), put those on to have proper spacing. I then put three zipties together, and wrapped it around the res at each end by the acetal (blends really well  ) and looped them through the wire grommets. Also, the pump keeps it pushed up and it keeps the pump from bursting forth (it was a nightmare with that crazy angle I have down there), gotta love symbiotic relationships  *NOTE*

And, after many painstaking soldering sessions (I mean literal pain, burning/cuts... ), I have achieved my goal (part of it, the finer points will be taken care of later  )


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## Winnah9000 (Apr 20, 2012)

Reserved for final photos.

Feel free to post questions/comments


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## PopcornMachine (Apr 20, 2012)

Thanks for the multiple cool pictures.  This is certainly a great case to do a project with.


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## techguy31 (Apr 20, 2012)

I hope you fixed the leakage problem because those Brawny Towels make your rig look hideous.  Other than those Brawny Towels, your rig is magnificent my friend.


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## Winnah9000 (Apr 21, 2012)

techguy31 said:


> I hope you fixed the leakage problem because those Brawny Towels make your rig look hideous.  Other than those Brawny Towels, your rig is magnificent my friend.



Lol, I never had a leak, its common practice to place them under potential leak points (any connection point of tubing really) to be able to see the slightest leak.

My previous build (6 months ago), I just threw it in and ran it, no problem. This one I was going to play it more safely because I've never worked with a separate res and pump (usually use the pump/res combos), that and the $3,500+ I have in all of my build 

Thank you


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## techguy31 (Apr 21, 2012)

Winnah9000 said:


> Lol, I never had a leak, its common practice to place them under potential leak points (any connection point of tubing really) to be able to see the slightest leak.
> 
> My previous build (6 months ago), I just threw it in and ran it, no problem. This one I was going to play it more safely because I've never worked with a separate res and pump (usually use the pump/res combos), that and the $3,500+ I have in all of my build
> 
> Thank you



.  Must be doing some serious gaming man.
 for the 7950s.  I have only one though.


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## Winnah9000 (Apr 21, 2012)

techguy31 said:


> .  Must be doing some serious gaming man.
> for the 7950s.  I have only one though.



I do have EyeFinity:






Been trying to sell the set of them for awhile to go to a 2560 monitor, but have yet to find anyone 

Yeah, they are really awesome cards (mine don't like overclocking as far as I can tell though :shadedshu ).


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## techguy31 (Apr 21, 2012)

Nice, making good use of them 7950s.


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## Winnah9000 (Apr 27, 2012)

Updated!


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## Winnah9000 (May 1, 2012)

I retract my statement of these cards not overclocking. I'm now #1 in the world with 2x 7950s!


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## Law-II (May 1, 2012)

Winnah9000 said:


> Decided to do a mock placement of the board for anyone to reference. This is what E-ATX is like in this case



Hi

Looks like a micro itx, lol; lots of room to breath, sweet build; loving the zip magic with the res

thanks for posting this

atb (all the best)

Law-II


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## Winnah9000 (May 1, 2012)

Lol, yeah, this case is pretty big. Thanks! That was the easy way since I didn't want to drill holes for the screws to the mounts.


On an entirely different topic. My girlfriend of 3.5 years broke up with me on Sunday, so I'm not feeling so hot. Don't expect a whole lot of me around the forums for a bit. I thank everyone for their views and comments and praise on this build, but I won't be doing anything to it for awhile.


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