Project "Calico" & Project "Apollo"

For the past 15 years that I've been building computers I've always had a few big upgrades that have earned names.  These names are Traditionally based on some of my many horses over the years.  Some living, some who have passed.  These two builds will both have names and I've carefully considered who I'm using.

Build 1
Project "Calico"
Calico (aka Callie).  This was one of my first miniature horses.  She was about 33" tall full grown.  I trained her from quite young and she ended up a nice little driving horse.  She was quite a friend to me when I was younger and has always stayed with me even after passing suddenly of Colic.  With this in mind I think I have finally found a build that this suits.  Tiny horse, Tiny Platform.

CPU: - Intel Core i7 4770K
MB: - Asus Maximus VI Impact
Ram - Corsair Vengence 8gb - Will be upgraded shortly after
Vid: - Radeon 6970 2GB  - Will be upgraded shortly after
PSU - Corsair TX750M
SSD - Intel 530 Series 240 GB SSD
HDD - WD Green 2Tb  - Will be Black shortly
Case: - Caselabs Mercury S3

Build 2
Project "Apollo"
Apollo - Now this boy is still with us and is one hell of a boy.  He is a Belgian Draft horse meaning that he is the type used for pulling plows and farm equipment and such.  He is about 6 feet tall at his shoulder and weighs 2500lb.  I rescued him about 2 years ago,  He's 6 now.  He was still a stallion meaning that he wasn't fixed yet which when combined with his size made him quite dangerous.  When I got him he was very malnourished and had never had any maintenance done  This meant that feet and hair were awful.  On top of this he also had a broken mandible that had never been treated in over 2 years.  I might elaborate through out the build log and I'll have pictures through out also.  Needless to say he is now healed up very nicely considering.  Anyhow Very big horse, Very big platform.

CPU: - Intel Core i7 4930K - Already own
MB: - Asus Rampage IV Black Edition
Ram: - Corsair Dominator 32gb
Vid: - SLI 780ti TBD
PSU: - 1200watt, Still undecided.
SDD - I have a 240 GB Mushkin SSD and a 2tb WD for this but this might change.
Case: - Caselabs - TBD (or might grab a 900D)
Cooling: - This will of course be water cooled.  I plan to block almost everything.  Full board block, Ram Blocks, CPU of course and Graphics cards.  There will be 2 separate loops in here and I want to really go overkill on the rads.

The reason there is Two builds here is for a couple of reasons.  I work from home as a Software Developer and I also game at night although I haven't in awhile cause of many things but now I can again.  So I want to get back to having two separate rigs for each thing so that I can have some separation between work and play.  Next reason is that both of the CPUs used here are from the Intel Retail Edge (RE) Program.  I got both processors for under $400.

This build will really get rolling once the CPUs arrive which should be very early in the new year.  I think Calico is going to be the primary objective as I really need to get off this dying board lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

I was looking hard at the Enthoo Primo especially during the launch. It is a sweet case and I might use it for a build with my 2500k that im about to free up. The main reason I'm looking at the 900D or perhaps the STH10 is because for the 4930 I'm wanting to kinda go crazy on the rads so i can run super low RPM fans Thinking 3 480s and a 240 or something sorta crazyness.

I also want to put a 240 on the ITX build. I'm not against the prodigy line but at the same time It doesn't really thrill me. maybe a Mercury S5 or something.

I do love asus products as they've treated me very well over the years. I JUST sold 2 Asus 7970 DCII with blocks on here about 3 weeks ago.

I'm looking forward to doing this build log for these two rigs in this thread soon. All of my computers are named after my horses either past or present. I'll have names for these ones soon.

I'm thinking of watering with Mayhem Aurora coolant but I'll worry more about that when the time comes to fill it up

I've been putting a lot of thought into these builds. Especially Calico since that is the primary build of the two since it's for work.

I think I've got a pretty cool idea for color schemes for these. I'll leave that a bit of a mystery for now.

I need to look to see my options for sleeving colors.

Need some opinions though as far as Calico is concerned. With the Mercury S3 goes. I want the 3 sides windows. That leaves me space for just a 120.2 rad in the front in push pull. I'm aware this is quite limited for a full loop with ram/board/Cpu/gpu. So here is my question. I think I already know what to do but want to see what you guys think.

I could either put another 120.1 in the loop and keep the build small.
Or
I could get the pedestal and put in 2 120.2 rads in the bottom and forget the 120.2 in the front of the case.
Or
I could get the pedestal and put in the 2 120.2 and also keep the 120.2 in the front.

First hardware purchase will be January 2nd and then we can get started!

Can't wait to see these rigs come to life:)

Wery nice horses. Sad to hear that Calico is not with us anymore, but that is life.

Looks like your machines use exclusively Asus mainboard, huh Interesting. Never had any fixation to manufacturer… many do good and bad things. Most adventurous seems to be to be MSI. Many of their designs are quite interesting, starting even back from Athlon days...

Regardless...  Ram: - Corsair Dominator 32gb  - Oh my…  ??? 

This will be something quite serious. Let's hope these rams are also fast, not "just" having huge capacity...  Good luck with the builds 

Hey Thanks Trodas.

Its not exactly intentional that they're both ASUS boards.  They just seemed to be some of the better ones I looked at recently.

Got a bit of an update or maybe its more of a teaser!  The Case for Calico came in thanks to the great guys down in California.

CaseLabs Mercury S3 in Matte White.  I have some plans to do some painting in this case.

Going to be doing some work on this today so there should be another update

That is one sexy case

You are right Soulless, that is quite the nice looking case.

Amazing and quite nonstandard looking case. The airflow that you can get from it is probably very high… judging by the number of possible intake holes

As for the Asus boards, well... they could be pretty good. I have no personal company preference when come to mainboards, but I have to acknowledge that I just running on friend board and it is also Asus. And since 2008 I put this machine together it run just fine, so that is way to go, Asus!  ;D

And with my rams (2G is need) and PSU and GFX card (8600GT) it can run WOT at the lowest possible settings reasonably well to be played a bit, so... Asus seems to be good choice - unless they screw things badly from the socket 939 times, lol.

BTW the mate white is IMHO cool looking. What paint job you have in mind? I would say that she is just looking purrrfect

Birk you get your care package yet?