Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstance I didn't have the funds like I was hoping for a new build, but the old folks and wife chipped in for $100 to Micro Center. I like how the case for my HTPC/Plex computer keeps things a lot cooler so I found myself picking up the same tower for my rig.
About 4 years ago I spent a good chunk of time sanding and painting a case. I had it for 1 main reason, I had always been using SLI builds and I liked the extra space for cooling in full towers. I found a Fractal Design Arc XL calling my name. I liked it, but black and white is boring. Hours of sanding and painting resulted in this guy (as you can see, she's a bit dusty, I hadn't wiped down the outside for a while....plus is doesn't help the kids have to constantly touch it.....)
I spent a good hour pulling parts out of this tower, cleaning them off good and completely cleaning the tower (inside and outside). Then I finally unboxed my new case.
A lot smaller, but it's large enough to house my 13" 980Ti AMP! Omega. Here are a couple of shots of the inside pre-installation.
(Top down shot)
(Side shot - you can see all the parts in the background that are going inside)
The MB tray comes out to allow easy access to the PSU and hard drive cage. I had to install the HDDs (1 SSD and 2 HDDs) along with the Blu-Ray drive first, then run all power cables and SATA cables for them. I had to then add a power cable for the GPU and an extra one for H100i (don't forget the obvious 24pin and 8pin for the CPU & MB). Once those were all in place and all cables pulled out in the direction they needed to I moved to the trickiest part of the build.
With the Corsair H100i on the front with two fans, I had to wiggle/jiggle and use just a little force to maneuver it into position after I installed the MB and GPU. I couldn't get the GPU installed with the radiator screwed into place. It took a few minutes to get everything into place and then screwed in. I also added a 200mm fan to the top of the case. The case consists of 3 fans being in use. 2 - 120mm fans on the radiator and the 1 - 200mm fan on top. The system runs whisper quiet. My CPU runs a few degrees cooler with the current OC. It was flirting with just about 90C under stress testing. Right now it tops out around 85C. As for the GPU, she usually ran around 65C during most gaming sessions, now she doesn't break 50C (at least this is the highest I've seen the temps reach for now).
Here are two pics to show the interior and one gives a closer look at how the GPU is resting against the radiator.
I just thought I'd share my new case here. So far, things run great. My system specs will list what's in this build, if you're curious at all.
