Project: Beast III

I have gotten the itch again! It's time to build another system. Before I get into the details, I thought a little history was in order. This is the first time I have posted a build on any site so please bear with me on the symantics. The very first system I built from the ground up was completed in April of 2002. Here are a couple pics.





Nothing fancy by todays standards:
P4 2.0GHz
1 GB PC800 RAMBUS (a lot of memory for that time)
GForce 4 Ti 4600 (expensive for it's day)
WD 120GB 7200 8MB (These were the first drives with 8MB cache)
Lian-Li PC60 (I think ?)
Round cables, oooooh (these were also just comming onto the scene)
CD-RW drive (recordable DVD drives had not hit the sceen yet)
Windows XP Pro (another oooooh)

Today I use it to do my budgets and type up papers (I don't have MS Office on Beast II).

My inspiration came from a copy Of Maximum PC I saw on the newsstand. I was lucky in that the Beast (named for the size of Lian-Li cases) fired up the first time, and Windows installed without a hitch.

I completed Beast II about 1.5 years later. The next post will highlite that system. The following post will chronicle the development and building of Beast III. Stay tuned!

This post is also a test.

hmm, not seeing any pics

sorry, they are woking now. I didn't capitalize JPG. Doh!

Beast II was a new beast (pun intended). This was another from the ground up. I'm not big into upgrading. For me, a whole new build is way more fun. On this build I knew I wanted to do water cooling. This was still considered the dark art in the fall of '03. This system is my current gaming rig and has gone through a couple of changes:



I wanted to dabble in modular power, so I came up with this idea


I also built my own reservior


I also didn't want the mobo to support the weight of the CPU block so the rectangular black box with the four holes (in pic above) actually supports this

The little holes and slots are to clear components soldered to the back of the mobo.

I also had to make a plate to hold the PS. The one that came with the case wouldn't work with the orentation I wanted. I also sleeved the leads



Custom handles



Radiator with custom shrouds



The currnet system consists of:

P4 3.0GHz 478pin 800MHz FSB
Abit IC7-Max3 (second board, the support chip block pulled a loop out of the mobo and tilted and ate itself)
Corsair XMS 1GB PC3200
ATI Radeon 9800XT (fastest board at the time)
SB Audigy 2 gamer
2 WD 36GB Raptors (cooled by the Lian-Li EX-23, had a RAID 0, freaking fast!)
Most of the H2O cooling is from Danger Den
Lian-Li PC70USB black case (almost identical to the PC60)
New Pioneer DVR-610 burner (old drive wouldn't read disc two of F.E.A.R.)
Vantec PS and 'Stealth' case fans 120mm x 3 and 80mm x 4
Logitech MX510 mouse and Elite keyboard

Logitech Z680 5.1 speakers with retractable surrounds (custom made by yours truly)


And my newest toy, a Dell 24" widescreen LCD




The new LCD prompted me for the new build. My current vid card can't give me good frame rates at 1920 x 1200 on any game even with the eye candy off! Sheese!

I also upgraded the Hydor L30 pumps to the new 12 volt DC ones from Dangder Den (DD).

I also added a flow meter (the Hydors wouldn't always start up. POS pumps)

The next post will go into much much more detail on the current build 'Beast III'. Stay tuned.

I say paint the inside black.

I have nothing nice to say, so I will say nothing at all

WHOA simmer down now 0_0 that was just uncalled for.

I cant wait to see progress! It better be in a v1000 or the like :P

Originally Posted by xrdotimcr

I have nothing nice to say so please ignore me.

Give him some slack, he's from Cananda.

Edit by mashie

Originally Posted by 0mega

WHOA simmer down now 0_0 that was just uncalled for.

I cant wait to see progress! It better be in a v1000 or the like :P

Close, try the PC-V2100.

Originally Posted by CrimandEvil

Give him some slack, he's from Cananda.

not funny. So am I.

And i like the 2100 as well, nice silent uber tower :P Gonna be a hell fo a project im guessing, watercooled no doubt

Originally Posted by xrdotimcr

You're a fucking moron. That's all history, he's not gonna be working on that case. Read the words douche.

Been nice having you here, you will be missed....forever.

^ROFL...pwnd by Kyle
back on topic.. nice work so far man (love those handles) cant wait to see the new project.

so is he banned now?

oh yeah, sweet handles

Look under his tag.

I still say paint the inside of that case black, to match the outside.

Just because I said paint it black, does not mean I didn't read it, I just think it would look better that way.

Can't wait to see some progress though.

Originally Posted by CrimandEvil

Give him some slack, he's from Cananda.

Don't be racist.

First and formost I wanted this build to be as future proof as possible. Not an easy task considering how fast things change in this market. I figured the case would be best starting point for the foundation. Since I have been a big Lian-Li fan, a case from them seemed the perfect place to start. I settled on the Lian_li PC-V2100B. Here is a collage picture courtesy of Newegg (and MS paint by me):



This case is big! It measures 8.3" x 24.3" x 25.6" (WxHxD). It's going to need to be big cause I'm gonna stuff it full. Here is a quick run down on what I have planned:

Watercooled of course. I'm planning on using four (yes count em four) complete loops.
Loop 1 will be for the vid cards
Loop 2 will be for the CPU (and may be the support chipset)
Loop 3 will be for the hard drives
Loop 4 will be just for additional cooling.

I'm planning on four radiators. Two will be located within the case and two more located on the outside. Along with each radiator will be be one pump. The pumps are going to be the Danger Den DD12V-D5 Pump (image courtesy of Danger Den)


The two internal radiators will also be from Danger Den (from here out to be referred to as DD). They are the Black Ice Pro and Black Ice Micro II (both in chrome).


The other two radiators are stupid money crazy big! They are the Innovatek Konvekt-O-Matic ULTRA Passive Radiators. One will be mounted on each side of the case (image coutersy of FrozenCPU)

These babies measure 60 x 37 x 5.5 cm (23.62 x 14.57 x 2.16 inches)
I think each one of these things weighs in at 12 to 13 pounds each! Empty!

The Xoxide Single 5.25" Acrylic Bay Reservoir times two will also be put into use


I have allowed enough room in the case for three hard drives. Each will be cooled by a Koolance HD-50-L06 Hydra-Pak Hard Drive Cooler


Stay tuned!

I personally would ditch the HDD coolers, and just put some silent fans infront of them.

Originally Posted by Borgschulze

I personally would ditch the HDD coolers, and just put some silent fans infront of them.

Thanks! But there is no such thing as a running silent fan. Besides, I allready have the Koolance coolers (got two from the wife for x-mas)!

Nice wife, I need to find a girl like that I had a girlfriend, she bought me Quake 4 for Christmas

Originally Posted by Borgschulze

Nice wife, I need to find a girl like that I had a girlfriend, she bought me Quake 4 for Christmas

If you check the first picture on my LCD, you can see my copy of Q4. Still haven't installed it. Posting these threads takes quite a bit of time.