Coming Soon to a worklog near you!







S3 unboxing...

I was actually surprised at the packaging of the case, it was really packed very well!

Box:




Open it up and to has foam corners and a really thick plastic wrap...




Out of the box...




Plastic wrapping...




The windows are covered on both the outside and the inside...along with a lot of packing inside!







The hardware kit is pretty well done and each bag is labeled...




Holes for the feet...




Simply screw them on...(although these will probably get changed out)







Panels removed...







I like that it has room for a triple slot GPU and the watercooling holes have caps (grommets are included to change out)




HDD side...I like how easy the access is to the front panel wiring...




Drop in rad mount for a 240 or 280 mm rad




2 USB 3.0 and typical antivandal switches...




Front 240 mm rad mount...




This case is really not going to see much in the way of modding...When CL was designing it, I spent a lot of time offering up suggestions based on what I saw as shortcomings with the design of the Prodigy. Jim took it all into consideration and this is almost like getting a custom built case for me. It has almost everything I want, where I want it.

Rad and Aquaero Mounting

Mounted the Aquaero last night...not much to say really..two little brackets and a few screws...(Did switch over to the black faceplate on the Aquaero though)




The front flex bays are a two part assembly that sandwiches the fans with the rad mounted to the back of it...Here's the fan side...




Rad side...




In place...




Top drop in rad mount...(:facepalm: Yes, I realize now that the drop in plate is upside down)




Rads in place...







Even have enough room for the Aquaero wiring!

Hi LRT and a very warm welcome!

That's really nice beginning for a build log! I enjoyed checking it out. My first impressions were that this case is surprisingly similar to the BitFenix Prodigy and later on you say, that basically it's an improved prodigy. Telling from the looks of it I like the fact, that it's a bit bigger then the BitFenix, the possibility to install a graphics card with three slots makes perfect sense and also the two places to mount rads are well thought.

I'm curious to see what you're going to do next

Hi LRT, finally here! Welcome!

Very nice, I really love your case!

What you will mount inside? Main?

Thanks rewarder and Lucas!

@rewarder...it really is a solid design, I've yet to find any major flaws and there certainly are no quality issues...

Fan/Lighting Control

Started working on the fan/lighting control today...basically, not much to do. Going to be running three separate fan channels. One for each rad and then the exhaust.

First thing to do was get the distribution blocks placed...If you look on the side of the vertical rad, you can see the fan power distribution PCB...




For the drop in rad, it was a little easier...




Cables roughed in and temp sensors in place...







Lighting control...this will in turn go to a latching vandal switch similar to the power/reset buttons that I am using. This way I will be able to turn the lighting on and off...




Poweradjust Ultra...going to use it to control the PWM/Power functions of the pump...




Placement for both (still trying to decide if this is where I want them...)

@LRT
This really looks like a case, we should review

What about placing the fan and lighting controls below the plate that carries the motherboard?

Can you tell us something more about the components you're using? So far I see a HD 7970. Which board, CPU, ... are you using?

System components are:

EVGA Stinger
3770k
16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RAM
Silverstone Strider 750W PSU
Dual 500GB Samsung 840 Pro SSDs
3TB WD Red HDD

Water cooling components are:
Aquaero 5 XT
Alphacool XT45 240mm rads
Noiseblocker eLoop B12-3 fans
MCP35x Pump w/ Koolance pump top and 80mm res
Monsoon fittings
Mayhems Pastel White fluid
Primochill Advanced LRT tubing

I've already got a new spot for the fan and lighting controls...you will see it in a couple of updates...

I thought that you're using an EVGA Stinger because of the black PCIe slot. I wanted to get such a board for review but it's quite hard these day to get your hands on EVGA motherboards when you're living in Europe.

The SilverStone PSU is ultra short (14cm) right?

Damn, this will be one hell of a nice setup You make me thinking about rebuilding my everyday PC

The Silverstone Strider is 160mm deep...This will be my "daily driver."

Trying to decide if I want to keep my ASRock Z77E-ITX that I currently am using in my Prodigy...I just bought a used RV-03 and Z77 Extreme4...not sure which one I'll go with for my gaming rig. If I keep the Z77E, I'll put the Extreme4 in my CAD rig in the shop.

There is one of the SilverStone PSUs which is only 140mm short and imo perfect for small form factor builds.

Personally I like having one full-sized rig or at least a rig with an mATX board or bigger. Those miniITX builds are very practical when you want to take them with you from time to time, but it's a pain to exchange components. That being said, I think having a small and a big machine is a good compromise

LRT, very nice update and pics!
I'm curiour about what temps you will have with what overclock
All of us here have a 3770k (or have had, like me)..curious about temps with that cool setup!


BTW there is a PSU long only 140mm, gold, 650W and full modular. Maybe this information can be usefull for your mods, Silverstone ST65F-G

Oh wait..but your Prodigy is THE Prodigy with hot swap things?
EDIT: I have seen now in other thread! Good!