That is incredible - is that a Caselabs case?
No. A Thermaltake W100 with optional P100. I wanted a Case Labs but had to cut corners somewhere. Case Labs would have cost me a fortune to ship here and was double the price. It would have been a much better case though.
Very happy with the case though. Has exceeded my expectations.
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Well - I’ve put together a PC partspicker list of EVERYTHING I plan to attach to this desktop. I already own a whole bunch of stuff in this list, apart from -
- the Dell P4317Q is arriving next week. Thanks to @wendell for the review, which made it possible!
- Predator X34 - I got this in August 2016
- Corsair K95 Gunmetal keyboard, this is recent. I may attach my Coolermaster Masterkeys S Tenkeyless with Cherry MX browns if I’m not gaming on the TR4 Desktop.
- Logitech G903 - got this about a week ago.
- GTX1070 // Got this earlier this year (June-ish); right now it’s inside the Threadripper “Server” box. I’ll most likely cannibalise that or maybe add a Radeon (more on that later).
- 2x Samsung 850 PRO 256GB SSDs // Arriving next week from Amazon.
That covers what’s already here - it’s mostly a reshuffle.
Total cost for the core components
- 1950X
- ROG Zenith Extreme X399
- 2x 16GB Corsair Dominator Plats 3200 MT/s
- Corsair AX1200i
$2,089/75 before shipping
$2,239/- with shipping to my home in Sri Lanka
EVGA GTX1080 Ti FTW3
$799.99 before shipping
$860.01 with shipping.
So if you have a lot of other PC stuff and most people here probably do, irrespective of age, you can see that putting a box like this together “BARE BONES” - sure, costs a bit, bit it’s not like I had to shell out $5000-$8000 JUST for the core components.
Update - I’ll keep the GTX1070 in the XenServer, for now, and instead add a Vega 64. Was just listening to @wendell explain the open-source drivers perform better than the 1080ti in linux. This has been the host GPU.
The 1080Ti can be PCIe passed-through to the Windows 10 VM.
56 lbs shipping weight, wow. That’ll cost a LOT to get it here.
Thoughts on this Thermaltake Core P5? I wanted to really show-case the internals + allow me to plug in SSDs/unplug as needed. I see this being more of a DIY/Lab style system so the open nature really appeals to me…
Not all boards, no. I have the ASRock Tacihi and I’m using the big Noctua and the top PCIe slot. Everything fits fine.
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Not my thing and very limited for water cooling which I do with all my builds. Also there is no forced air across the MB.
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Is that because you can scoot the TR4 Noctua up/down a bit?
I do have it scooted up, yes. But unless you have a huge VRM heatsink or something there are no clearance issues there with doing that. Actually my Noctua came in the box set to the highest position…I think they’ve realized that’s where most people are going to use them.
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Well, I may mount fans at 90-degrees to the water-cooling mounts. Worst case I can 3d-print some brackets and just make sure there are grommets/rubber-spaces a la Noctua to prevent any rattling.
Since I’m starting out with the Noctua cooler, I’ll see how I can fair without having to resort to a custom loop if I can help it.
While I don’t mind spending cash on functional components, I can get a bit thrifty when it comes to splurging on custom loops.
- custom loops can cost over $1000 especially with GPU cooling
- the whole watercooling maintenance aspect
- pump failure
- leaks
On the plus side, they look stunning. Not saying “No”, but at least for now, I’m trying to avoid it.
As you all know, I can easily get carried away with builds/projects. Don’t want to open pandoras box getting back into watercooling 
Yes unfortunately. Expensive from scratch but far more moderate when just upgrading.
Maintenance? It takes me 15 minutes per loop every 9 months to a year.
Never had a pump fail.
Never had a leak. Fear is the mind killer young Padawan…
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Duly noted - Are you running EK stuff all around or…? Would be cool if you could share details on your build (in another thread) if you haven’t already.
No EK at all. Bykski CPU and GPU x2 blocks. Heatkiller reservoir x2. Darkside fittings. Thermaltake hardline tubing (not recommended). OCOOL rads - 560 CPU, 560 and 420 GPU. Alpha cool D5 pump x2. Mayhems X1 clear fluid.
I will when done and time allows. It is not finished yet.
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Oh yeah - sorry brain fart; need to catch up on sleep. Recall you were mentioning how EK has a bogus fin-stack.
Ace looking forward to it - do remember to mention me when you do get around to posting it as I don’t want to miss it 
That’s certainly something I hadn’t considered!
Sure, but I am in no hurry to brag. I am only considering it to be helpful. So much BS out there about water cooling. Everyone is so brand loyal. I am a price to performance guy.
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Fantastic, that’s exactly what I’m after too. Put it this way - there are obvious benefits running TR on water, and I just don’t want to do it the AIO route. So if there’s an ‘efficient’ way to choosing parts - from pumps, to connectors etc, I’m all for it.
I only need a single CPU loop, a 240 or 320mm rad should be plenty.
BTW where did you also source your parts and if you don’t mind my asking did you get everything delivered via courier etc? or was it a long wait with slow-post? (Where are you based?)
Set budget.
In country and across the globe.
Yes.
I like a very quiet system, hence large rads and 140 fans. My fans run at 20% normal and 50% performance and you can barely hear them on performance even with your head right up to the case. CPU max was 50c after full out for 2 hours, OC and 21c ambient. Vega 64s max at 45c after 8 hours at 100% OC at 1710 core and 1100 mem.
Now after reading that, decide what temps you want at what level of noise. Do you want to bend or use soft tube. Hard tube is better, cost is same and maintenance is lower. Also looks better.
Blocks took longest at 2 weeks from China. I am in Canada.
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Honestly I wouldn’t consider there to be enough advantage to justify the additional costs of going open loop over a TR specific AIO if you have 240mm or less radiator, I’d probably recommend you just buy whatever if the biggest single rad that will fit in your case. I say this because even if your already at the point where your seeing diminishing returns on temperatures, increasing the rad space will let you drop your noise for a given temperature right out to silly numbers of fans (+3dBA = twice the number of fans… yet running fans -3dBA will only halve your airflow if your already right down near the minimum speed).
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@Raziel thanks for all the advice, most appreciated!! If/when I look at this, I may start with soft-tubing given ease of install and later graduate to hardline.
@SheepInACart Agreed - I’ll be sticking to air-cooling a la Noctua to start off and evaluate temps, noise etc. and decide/strategise at that point.
Regarding the case - since I already have a Air 540 in black, I’m rather tempted to throw the new TR4 rig into another Air 540.
Why? I will most likely use the remaining 3D-printed brackets to install 8x HDDs in the bottom floor of the case. I then plan to PCI-pass through a LSI HBA card, which will let me wire up 8x SATA drives with just 2x SFF8087 cables.
I’ll only be able to evaluate the viability once I test IOMMU with the HBA card installed - and in any case, the Air 540 has quite a few advantages. I’m planning to go with the silver version of the case to
- Complement the black ROG X399 mobo
- Contrast next to the black Air 540 I already have.
What’s nice is that I can ‘stack’ this on top of the existing Air 540 and that way I don’t waste table-real estate too.
Jealousy Intensifies
Not a fan of cases that don’t have dust filters. That thing is going to require a lot of cleaning. If that doesn’t bother you, go for it, it looks good
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