Project Thief - CaseLabs TX10-D Dual Workstation/Gaming Build - Gulftown and SB-E

[stren]

Alright LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, TROLLS, HATERS AND PEASANTS!

Project Thief is COMPLETE. Cue Drums..... Cue trumpet fanfare....



Project thief is based around the enormous, nay monstrous, CaseLabs TX10-D case, and if that wasn't enough, there's a pedestal to make it even bigger.

The build features two full size gaming computers in one case along with custom wood panelling and powder coating. The name thief comes from the this build stealing an awful lot of my disposable income. The Thief symbology is integrated through the use of Skyrim Thief's guild symbols as well as two different themes representing the duality of the thief's life. The "light" side of the case represents the Thief's role by day as an ordinary hard working member of society and features my workstation. The "dark" side of the case represent's the Thief's role by night and features my gaming rig. The ability to fit so many radiators and fans means that the fans can be turned down to be almost silent while still being able to perform at the top of their game.

The idea was really to build a no hold's barred setup with the best of the best that was not only hardcore but easy to maintain. One computer would be my linux based workstation that I use for my day to day work. The other would be my windows based entertainment/gaming battlestation.

Light side:
- Rampage IV Extreme + 4930K + 32GB Corsair Dominator GT 2133 + 2x 7990s + 1TB SSD
- Fully watercooled with 2 loops: cpu, memory, motherboard, gpus

Dark side:
- EVGA X79 Dark + 4820K + 16GB Corsair Dominator GT 2133 + 4xR9-290s + 1TB SSD
- Fully watercooled with 2 loops: cpu, memory, motherboard, gpus

Final Pics here






And so the build log begins

The project name is not finalized so suggestions are welcome - I thought of thief because it dual wields and it steals all my money!

I am working on a huge monster build that will showcase CaseLabs newest case - the monster TX10. This monster case can fit two SR-2 (HPTX) systems with full water cooling. As shown it could fit multiple Mo-Ra 140x9 raditors, or 6 140.4 radiators. It can even fit front mounted 140.5 radiators.

The main feature will be two giant custom waterfall reservoirs that will occupy the front bays.

Here is the current hardware that I have to go in:



Unboxing Videos and Pics

I picked up the case directly from Jim - so the packing was reduced in order to fit in my car. If you buy one of these it will come in two boxes as it's packed a lot more securely.




Lots of Parts



Building the case

As Jim knew the case was going to be powder coated by FTWPC he saved FTW the hassle of sandblasting it by skipping the CaseLabs normal black/white powder coat. Because of this the case is not only in it's raw bare aluminum state, but it also is less assembled than normal in order to save on time taking everything apart.


The Pedestal frame consist of top, bottom, front and back that are screwed together with countersunk screws

[stren]

Screwing the casters in


These are the spring clips that hold the panels on - they hold the panels tight, while still be pretty easy to remove for changing your loop up


Pedestal frame with one of the clipped side panel and the back plate screwed on


Pedestal with all panels attached except the top/bottom cover


Main case frame coming together, this is the view from the back showing the holes for the dual vertical motherboard trays


Case + Pedestal with XXL window fitted on one side

Here's a quick video of the partially assembled case

[stren]

Choosing colors for the powder coat

To make sure I was making the right choice on the color I decided to get some card and tape it to the frame. I removed the acrylic window and used a grey piece of card to model the motherboard:


Metallic Charcoal Grey and Metallic Crimson Red




Metallic Charcoal Grey, Pearl White and Crimson Red


Metallic Charcoal Grey with Metallic Pearl White



These are the colors I think I've decided on:

Outside:


Inside:

[stren]

Samples finally came in:



I'm thinking the galaxy grey 2 (#5) and the silver/white (#2)

[stren]

2nd AX1200 also arrived - time for a group shot:



Picked up another D5 and a bitspower dual d5 top, they should be shipped on friday

[stren]

Thought you guys might want to see some pics of the existing hardware that will be *partly* reused as well as some of the new pieces. Apologies that the photos aren't that great, my wife took the camera with her tonight so I had to use my phone.

Here's my modded Antec 300 that contains my gaming rig (i7-920, Rampage III Extreme, 3xGTX480, Xonar STX, AX1200). When the workstation gets SB-E this will get the 990x. Note that one gentle typhoon is stopped - I unsoldered the power wire because it's out of balance so the noise is annoying.



Here's the front of the case with the space efficient but bubbly Koolance dual D5 reservoir as well as the dual 24V controller. I'll be using this reservoir until the 18 bay FTW reservoirs come in. No dvd drive, I removed it after installing windows and a couple of games. Most other games I have are on origin/steam.



Here's the interior - cable routing isn't perfect because I knew I was moving to the TX10 soon. I'll also be replacing all the blue LEDs with reds to match the ROG theme a bit better:





Here's the workstation in it's current temporary incarnation in a DD torture rack. i7-990x on an asus p6t. LSI raid card, 3 ssds and 3 hard drives and a 8800gt to drive the monitors. It has the H100 cooler temporarily and as you can see it needs some sleeving work:



Here's a front shot showing the push/pull AP15's on the H100, they perform about as well as the stock 2600rpm corsair fans at max, but with a *lot* less noise



Trident + turbulence memory - back in the day this was sweet stuff 3x4gb @ 2000-8-9-8, now of course you can get better for a lot less money haha such is progress!

And now for some parts waiting to be installed - vintage EK gpu block:



My old rasa block - I'm hoping to not use this and instead get a second raystorm soon - note the o-rings on the barbs seem to be dying:



EK 250 res and DDC-1 for the worksation gpu and motherboard loop that will be self contained on the motherboard tray.



That's about all the fun stuff I can show for now!

[chrsplmr]

Incredible...
...it was like seeing black&red..built for real...almost.
with the exception of the board and the size of the case...

what a beast...cudos...looking forward to this thread...thnx.c.

[stren]

Incredible...
...it was like seeing black&red..built for real...almost.
with the exception of the board and the size of the case...

what a beast...cudos...looking forward to this thread...thnx.c.

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it too haha. What do you mean by seeing black and red?

[xeromist]

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it too haha. What do you mean by seeing black and red?

It's an art project he's working on. Linked in his sig.

[stren]

It's an art project he's working on. Linked in his sig.

D'oh - checking it out now