March 2020
PUBLISHED BY
WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF
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This is a monthly digital magazine for custom PC enthusiasts, created by the partners in crime, Nik & Jansen over at ExtremePCUK. We are a two-man team from London who builds influencer PC’s for the big names in the gaming industry and now also make amazing magazines. We have our fingers in a lot of PC gaming related pies along with a massive Discord community, Twitch Stream & weekly Podcast. We also run the Streamer Zone at the largest L.A.N party in the UK. If you enjoy this magazine be sure to come back here and check out our Patreon link below. There you can receive this magazine for the same price but with all the back issues for free. We also have other payment tiers that include YouTube videos, tutorials & bloopers from behind the scenes. Come and check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
CONTENTS
4-7
DEATH BOX
8-13
PROJECT 27
14-19
OLYMPUS
CONTENTS 22-25
STRIKER ROG MAYA
26-27
RIG OF THE MONTH
28-33
OBLUVION
34-35
STREAMER ZONE
36-37
EPIC SETUP
38-39
GRAY MASTER
Death Box A rig built for battle
When Paul “Battlerigs” McCaffrey was approached by one of the leading PC case manufacturers, he was asked to build them a rig for the launch of their new case, he knew that he had to build something special... And so, “Death Box” was born. EPCUK: What was the influence and ideas that made you build this PC? Paul: Antec asked if I wanted to build them a pc and launch the P120 Crystal. This was a huge opportunity and so I agreed instantly. I wanted this to be my 2019 masterpiece so put everything I had into the build. The look I was going for was Industrial, Black and straight edged. EPCUK: How did the name come about? Paul: The original project name was “Hardline” due to the straight lines of the tubing. However I put it out to my followers and the best name was “Death Box”.
EPCUK: Have you built previous machines? Paul: I’ve lost count however this is my 3rd hardline build. EPCUK: How did you choose the specs for this build and why? Paul: The X470 Prime was definitely the perfect board for the job. The sharp edges and white tones work perfectly with my design. The RAM reminds me of the top part of an assault rifle and worked really well with the board. As for the Ryzen 7 3800x I firmly believe that this is the best pound for pound CPU for the money. Equally the RTX2080 black edition by EVGA represents insane value for money. All in all
Name: Age: Location: Occupation:
EPCUK: What was the hardest part when building Death Box? Paul: Definitely the runs from GPU block to radiator and then radiator to CPU block. I wanted straight tubing and had to use 90 degree adaptors to get the positioning right. It was insanely tight!
“I wanted this to be my 2019 masterpiece”
Paul (Battlerigs) McCaffrey 35 Lincoln UK Director of Battlerigs Media Ltd & Retail Manager
Social Media: Battlerigs
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each component had to look as industrial and metallic as possible.
www.battlerigs.co.uk
“The look I was going for was industrial, black and straight edged”
EPCUK: Did you need to use any unique tools or machine when creating Death Box Paul: Not really. It was my first go at PETG tubing, I thoroughly recommend it over acrylic. Only downside for me is you have to be super careful with it as it scratches far too easily. EPCUK: From start to finish how long did it take to create Death Box? Paul: It was surprisingly quick only 6 hours from start to finish. EPCUK: If you were to build another PC is there anything you would do differently?
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Paul: Definitely! I love experimenting with new parts and push myself to learn new techniques. My followers give me great feedback including negative feedback. I take it all on-board and make sure my next build is much better.
Paul: The PC design and layout was meant to be industrial. Using parts with as much metal and black colour on them as possible. Even though this PC is full RGB it was designed to be as dark as possible.
EPCUK: Are you happy with the end result?
EPCUK: Is there anything you would like to add?
Paul: I would say 90% happy. There’s a few things I would like to have done better like the cable management of the fans. If I had the chance to rebuild the PC, I would also have a play with more bends and use a clear fluid. Although black Mayhems fits the name Death Box very well.
Paul: Anyone looking to try out hardline tubing for the first time I definitely recommend the EK P360 Classic RGB kit. It’s a great way for beginners to get their hands on all the essential parts for their first build. Also I’d thoroughly recommend the Antec P120 Crystal as its a great show case.
EPCUK: What was the planning behind the colours and design of Death Box?
Case: Antec P120 Crystal
Storage: 500GB M.2 NVMe
CPU: Ryzen 7 3800X 8 core 16 threads
PSU: Seasonic 1000w Platinum
Motherboard: Asus X470 Prime
Cooling Parts: Custom loop using EK Kit P360 Classic RGB Upgraded the reservoir size to 20cm Added the huge Coolstream XE360 Radiator
RAM: 32GB Ballistix by Micron GPU: EVGA RTX 2080 8GB Black Edition
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Project With the excitement of being one of the first people in the UK to get his hands on the new Ryzen 3950X processor, Scooby got to work on building a machine that would match its performance. Project 27 is a perfect match and does the job with its extreme watercooling and clean design. EPCUK: What inspired you to build this PC? Scooby: I’ve been an Intel fanboy most of my working life (IT Manager in the Legal Sector), so every few years I would see the AMD hype train roll into the station, you know the drill, they get all the bells and whistles blowing and their marketing team make out that this ‘new’ train (sorry CPU) is the real deal, when in fact it usually just turns out to be some steam driven relic engine from the past with a slow clock-speed and a super-hot boiler that’s
struggling and puffing to pull along a bunch of even slower ‘core’ carriages behind it… (OK a little harsh, but it made you laugh).
bin it all and blame the hype train for nicking my money and convince myself to wait at the next Intel platform to catch the next upgrade.
This time around it was getting more rave reviews than normal, so I thought I’d jump on board and give it a go and try out a test build. This was mainly to see what a 3700X could do and more importantly see how well (if at all) they have improved since I last took a serious look at them some 20+ years ago.. and well if it all went wrong, I could just
Boy did I get a shock when I plugged in this 3rd Gen CPU and it absolutely flew. I was so impressed with it that by the end of the second week I was checking to see if I could get my hands on a 3900X…. but alas within 2 weeks planet earth was sold out as everyone and his dog had latched onto the fact that Ryzens were causing quite a storm.
“I ended up being the 27th person in the UK to get my hands on the Ryzen 9 - 3950X processor” Name:
Scooby69uk (aka Scoobs, Kitty, or Oi)
Age:
Well I remember using a ZX81 as a 9 year old, if that’s a clue
Location:
South-West UK
Occupation:
IT Manager
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So, it was with disappointment at the thought of not getting a 3900X, that I decided that I would be amongst the first in the UK to get my hands on a 3950X and make a new personal rig build out of it. My plan is to use it for video editing and getting into Twitch steaming as I also run a 450+ player Elder Scrolls Online guild in my spare time. As this would all be several months away, it would give me the time I needed to select parts and get everything ready. Shameless plug for ‘Bashed & Battered’ guild on the PC EU mega-server EPCUK: How did the name come about?
“My initial plan was to do a full on RGB unicorn poop build”
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Scooby: As things turned out, I ended up being the 27th person in the UK to get my hands on the Ryzen 9 - 3950X processor (I’m not telling how) so I did not have as long a wait as I originally thought I would. This in turn then made everything a bit of a mad rush to get it sorted, so the project name just became known as ‘Project 27’ or ‘Kitty’s insane ESO Twitch streaming build PC.
EPCUK: Have you built previous machines? Scooby: Yes, I’ve done quite a few over the years (I’ve even watercooled a server rack – don’t ask). Some of the older members may remember me from the PC modding scene back in the mid/late 90’s. The last build I completed before this one was the ‘Project Pink’ build that some of the ExtremePCUK community members may remember. It was built for one of our ESO guild members as birthday surprise, so we all chipped in to make him a not so manly ‘Pink’ PC, complete with Pink ribbon bows on a Pink graphics card, Pink fans, Pink memory, Pink case, Pink Razer kitty ear headphones, Pink keyboard, Pink mouse and 27” Pink screen you get the idea…. Ironically the guy still talks to me and he was tickled Pink with it (#sorry!) xD EPCUK: How did you choose the specs for this build and why? Scooby: I knew the 3950X would be a hot processor, so straight off the bat I knew
I would be looking at doing a liquid cooled solution and let’s face it, if you’re going to build a monster of this size then you may as well go extreme! *wink* *wink*. The EK 360 XC in push/ pull and EK 360 PE Radiators were my first choice, so I would need something pretty big to put them in. The Lian Li O11D Dynamic was always a case I’d liked the look of and the fact that they had just launched the XL version was just too tempting to say no. As this was going to be my personal rig I also wanted to go with hard tubing and that was the first major decision… what size tubes? 12/13, 14, or 16mm? well 12 and 13 mm seemed too small and 16mm too big, so that left me with 14mm, as I had gone for EK radiators I decided that EK fittings would be the obvious choice. My initial plan was to do a full on RGB unicorn poop build, with the view to actually setting it to either white, blue or Ryzen orange afterwards and that’s where I made my first mistake, I originally decided to go with a Corsair XC7 CPU block and whilst it’s full of RGB goodness… it didn’t quite fit in with the build so I changed it for an EK RGB Plexi block. I also wanted to keep the runs as simple as possible with only one bend per run, so decided to use a distribution plate (O11D-G1) this was also a very sneaky way of integrating a water pump and reservoir whilst helping to keep the build looking clean. Ultimately even though I’m doing the runs in 14mm PETG, I will eventually be swapping these out for pre-bent chrome 14mm tubes. Other parts in the build to be considered were the Motherboard, I wanted to go for an X570 chipset to get PCI v4.0 as I wanted to use PCI 4.0 NVMe drives for the fastest drive access. This is yet to be raided but I will get around to that one day – have you noticed that your own rig is always never finished? lol. In the end I went for a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master motherboard and Gigabyte Aorus NVMe drives. EPCUK: What was the hardest part when building Project 27? Scooby: I actually thought doing the 14mm PETG pipe bending was going to be a nightmare,
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it’s actually surprisingly easy as long as you take your time (top tip, use the corner of a desk to line up to get those spot on 90 degree bends. The hardest part I found on this build was cable management, with 6 x Corsair LL120 RGB Fans (+1 in the PSU) and 3x EK Varder Fans that’s a lot of PWM Cables (x9) all connecting to a DeepCool FH10 fan controller, not to mention all the separate RGB cables (x7) connecting to the 2 Corsair RGB hubs and 2 Corsair Lighting Node Pros with USB leads… then you got all the ATX, SATA, Molex, D-RGB and PCI-e cables to deal with etc... so yeah cable management was a bit of a pain. EPCUK: Did you need to use any unique tools or machine when creating Project 27? Scooby: I originally wanted to mount the GPU in a vertical mount but due to using a push/pull configuration on the super thick XC radiator it meant that I had no space for a traditional GPU Mounting kit. I decided to fashion my own that could be mounted on top of a radiator, take one block of 20mm thick Plexi glass (300mm x77mm) add 3 x 120mm EK pump mount brackets to the bottom via super-glue, 2 x Corsair RGB strips to go down the sides. Get your local sign-display company to cover the top in silver frosting and then cut and black spray paint some 10x25mm trunking and boom, one instant RGB kickstand just add a PCI riser and away you go. I’ve since removed it and gone back to a traditional slot mounted position. (so I can have chrome pipe work, *feel free to insert Homer Simpson style mouth drool here*. EPCUK: From start to finish how long did it take to create Project 27? Scooby: From starting to order parts, waiting for delivery to actual switch-on and the first explosion… two weeks, for the rebuild and waiting for GPU replacement another week, so three weeks in total…. Oh yeah the explosion... Well it turns out that if you don’t use the correct backplate with the correct GPU something may get a little fried! In my case I had a very (in case wife is reading this) knackered TitanX
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Pascal graphics card to begin with and I could not source a backplate for it. I ended up going for an EK Geforce RGB Water Block using a Geforce 1080 Ti backplate (rather than the official Titan X backplate), and whilst technically it should of worked and not caused an issue (or I messed something up – perhaps a little too much on the righty tighty) or even if the card just decided to pick that moment to join the GPU graveyard in the sky, I’ll never know... but yeah I switched on… and that was shortly followed by whizz, bang, pop and the GPU died. So I then had to go tell the wife that I had accidentally killed my GPU and I need to go out and buy a brand new RTX 2080 Super graphics card. (insert: sad looking puppy face… followed by evil grin… followed by huge smile!). Note to my wife, I’m sure those facial expressions really did happen in that order when the card died… and
definitely not the reverse order just before it died… and it really is pure coincidence that I ended up with a new graphics card for my new build - honest! *gulp* EPCUK: If you were to build another PC is there anything you would do differently? Scooby: Ohhh that’s a hard one… building PC’s is always an on-going learning experience (still learning after 30 years), sure I would of liked to avoid blowing up my old GPU *wink*, but actually no I don’t think there is anything I would have done differently for this build. EPCUK: Are you happy with the end result? Scooby: Yes I love it, there is always a never-ending list of upgrades running through your head, especially when it’s your own private rig and you
Case: Lian Li PC O11 XL CPU: Ryzen 9 3950X 16 core 32 threads Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black (32GB – 2 x 16GB with 2 x Fake RGB Modules) GPU: Aorus RTX 2080 Super
see someone do something different on their’s, you instantly want to give it a go. But yeah once I get the chrome tubing and raid array setup I’ll be happy… Or at-least until the next bigger / faster chip comes along! xD EPCUK: What was the planning behind the colours and design of Project 27? Scooby: It was originally going to be a full on, in your face RGB build, but actually I think I prefer running it as a soft white / light cyan setup. EPCUK: Is there anything you would like to add? Scooby: To my answers… nothing…. to my rig, well… I’m already thinking about flow meters, 7” HDMI temp screens, oh and perhaps an ‘ExtremePCUK – PC Approved’ sticker!
Storage: 2 x Aorus 1TB PCI 4.0 Nvme drives 2 x 4TB WD HDD’s 1 x 2TB WD HDD PSU: Novatech 1200w Cooling Parts: EK WB, EK XC & PE Radiators (360) and 14mm PETG Tubing
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olympvs When Adam “LiquidCooledUK” decided to build a PC with the sole purpose to turn heads he knew he had to build something of mountainous proportions. Olympus is definitely a build that lives up to it name in scale. EPCUK: What was the influence and ideas that made you build this PC? Adam: I didn’t really have any influence for this build. I wanted to make a build that would grab peoples attention and make them stop and look. I knew I would need a big case, finally came across the Tower 900 from Thermaltake. I didn’t quite realise how big it was until my wife was chewing my ear off about it. Even then I had no idea how I wanted to go about it, constantly running ideas through my head at night, thinking crazy ideas that could work and came up with the idea of doing two central spirals. I’d not seen it done before and knew that would grab peoples attention if I pulled it off.
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I wanted to re-mount the graphics card centrally, as I felt it got lost in the case. I managed to create a custom bracket so could mount it below the screen, the screen size was a fluke as it was what I had left over from a previous build. EPCUK: How did the name come about? Adam: “Olympus”, I wanted a name as big as the build. Doesn’t get much bigger. EPCUK: Have you built previous machines? Adam: I’ve built a few previous to this build. Several P5 cases and a Lian Li 011D my most notable ones.
Name:
Adam “LiquidCooledUK”
Age:
32
Location:
Midlands
Occupation:
Printer Coding Engineer
Social Media:
LiquidCooledUK
EPCUK: How did you choose the specs for this build and why? Adam: I literally went all out. I needed this build ready for Insomnia 65 and knew Ryzen were bringing out the 3000 series CPUs. I grabbed the credit card and told the wife I’d pay it off in no time (complete lie) bought everything that I knew would grab peoples attention. The retailer was over the moon. EPCUK: What was the hardest part when building Olympus? Adam: The hardest part without a doubt was fitting a piece of tubing from the GPU at the front, to the drain port at the back.
“ I would say there was close to 100hrs of work in total”
Sounds simple after creating to spirals but I hated it. I wanted to maintain the look, I had to bend it so it could go underneath the right hand pump, through the small opening to the back, then up and across the back of the case and to the other side. I wanted everything as neat as possible and the drain port for the GPU was already set on the opposite side. It nearly killed me. EPCUK: Did you need to use any unique tools or machine when creating Olympus? Adam: I actually created a lot of the tools I used myself, from mounting broom handles and banisters onto blocks of
wood which helped me get some of the bends in the tubing. EPCUK: From start to finish how long did it take to create Olympus? Adam: This build has definitely taken longer than any of my builds by a mile. Working it out roughly I would say there was close to 100hrs of work in total. Whether I was just researching ideas, planning, building or modding. EPCUK: If you were to build this PC again is there anything you would do differently? Adam: I don’t think so. I really enjoyed the build by the end and it turned out
“I literally went all out. I needed this build ready for Insomnia 65” 16
how I imagined it to be. I was really satisfied with it. EPCUK: Are you happy with the end result? Adam: I was over the moon. The PC did its job in grabbing peoples attention. From Jayz2cents, Bitwit Kyle and Paul’s hardware to Asus and other companies. Which was what I set out to achieve. EPCUK: How was it making the spiral tubing? Adam: Not bad at all. I had previous practise at making spirals before in my Lian Li build. I found it much easier this time and remembered to do certain things I didn’t do the first time. Learning from my mistakes. EPCUK: What’s your thoughts on the Thermaltake tower 900?
Adam: Great case overall. I’d say it takes some planning to pull off a build in this case. I’ve seen a lot of builds which just look lost inside, but when people get it right, they look incredible. Seen so many great builds in that case now. EPCUK: Where did the colour inspiration come from? Adam: I originally made the build with pink and purple fluid. Something a bit quirky. As it approached Insomnia 65 I did a Instagram poll and asked what colours people wanted to see. Red and white was most popular. EPCUK: Why did you choose to go with two watercooling spirals? Adam: The main reason being the look of it. A tower 900 case should have two reservoirs to look right.
“The PC did its job in grabbing peoples attention”
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“I originally made the build with pink and purple fluid�
EPCUK: Tell us a little bit about the screen in your case? Adam: It originally came from a previous build I did in the Thermaltake P5. It wasn’t my first thought when getting the case to build in. I was constantly playing with different ideas to try and make this build a bit different and stand out. Just so happens that screen was a perfect fit. Barely any room left between the screen and the motherboard which was perfect.
Case : Thermaltake Tower 900 CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X 12 core 24 threads Motherboard: Asus Strix X570-F RAM: 32GB Trident Z RGB GPU: MSI RTX 2080TI 8GB Gaming X Trio PSU: EVGA 850W G3
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB Samsung 860 Evo 2TB Cooling Parts: EK Velocity CPU block, EK Vector Trio GPU block, x2 EK Revo D5 240 pump/res combo, x2 Hardware Labs black ice 360mm radiators, EK classic black fittings. Custom parts or Mods: 10” IPS Panel
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Striker ROG MAYA Wael El Kadri may be a man of few words but the high quality and innovative design of his build speaks volumes. Inspired by an Asus geometric pattern and utilising the power of 3D printing Wael has produced one of the best mini ITX builds we’ve ever seen. EPCUK: What was the influence and ideas that made you build this PC? Wael: I’ve always admired the Maya pattern from Asus products, so I wanted to reproduce it on this custom build. EPCUK: So, that is an Asus pattern you have on the side panels? Wael: Indeed it is, the Asus Maya pattern can be found on several of the brand’s production lines.
print the side and font panels. EPCUK: How did the name come about? Wael: It simply refers to the names of the products, Striker, ROG and Maya. EPCUK: Have you built previous machines? Wael: Yes, this is not my first custom PC. EPCUK: How did you choose the specs for this build and why?
EPCUK: Did you need to use any unique tools or machines when you were building?
Wael: I chose the parts according to the format of the Striker case and also the products I have in stock.
Wael: Only my 3D printer, the Anycubic Chiron. I used this to
EPCUK: What part did you find most challenging?
Name:
Wael EL Kadri
Age:
32
Location:
France
Occupation:
Civil Engineer
Wael: The watercooling loop was by far the hardest part of this build. EPCUK: From start to finish how long did it take to create Striker ROG Maya? Wael: It only took me about one month to complete the build. EPCUK: If you were to build this PC again is there anything you would do differently? Wael: Hum! No :D EPCUK: Are you happy with the end result? Wael: Yes, I’m quite satisfied with the finished product
Social Media: Pause Hardware
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EPCUK: So why did you choose the Antec Striker case? Wael: Because of its creative design, compact size and high quality construction, made it the perfect choice for this project. EPCUK: Is this the standard case layout? Wael: Yes, this is the standard layout of the case. Apart form the reservoir mounted on the back. EPCUK: Is there anything you would like to add about this build? Wael: Not really :-) EPCUK: Short and sweet, thanks Wael.
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Case: Antec Striker
Storage: Crucial P1 500GB M.2 NVMe
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x 8 core 16 thread
PSU: Asus Thor 1200W
Motherboard: Asus ROG x570 Impact
Cooling Parts: Bitspower
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 2x 8GB GPU: Asus ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti
Custom parts or Mods: 3D printed side and front panels
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“This is one of the best PC’s I’ve showcased on my Instagram Channel this year”
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RIG OF THE MONTH
Paul McCaffrey
Each month Paul McCaffrey picks a Rig Of The Month from his very own Battlerigs Instagram. He’ll tell us exactly why he thinks that this rig is worthy of the top spot and an insight into the build and builder. This month we have this super clean build from Innovative Mods.
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nnovative Mods are no strangers to outrageously beautiful watercooled builds, this stunner in the Lian Li 011 Dynamic is no exception. Based in the USA Innovative Mods have forged a reputation for making fantastic custom cables, distro plates and clearly one-ofa-kind PC’s! Naturally at Battlerigs I have seen a lot of builds in this world-renowned and highly celebrated case by Lian Li. The most popular mod being a water distribution block added to the right hand side of the case (as you look through the tempered-glass window). Clearly Todd and the team at Innovative Mods wanted to stick to that tradition but have put their own spin on it. Moving the custom (in-house) built distro block to the bottom of the case is a new concept and one that should be celebrated. I have personally done this previously in a Phanteks case and it really sets the PC apart from the rest. The major difference here is the use of vertical tubing which I think looks absolutely fantastic. Innovative Mods have to be praised here as the distro really fits the case perfectly and there’s a strong case for Lian Li offering this as an added extra for enthusiasts looking to take this case to the next level. It’s very rare to see tubing done like this simply because it covers the PCI-e slots and looks incredibly unorthodox. Clearly building a PC a little bit left-field was exactly what Innovative Mods were going for. In my opinion it has absolutely paid off. The PC is finished beautifully with their own custom braided cables and again what a brilliant job they’ve done. My favourite feature of the PC has got to be the way they have mounted the GPU. A truly unique way of mounting and I’m sure a hint of witchcraft has taken place here. I also love how the RAM is set to a slightly different blue drawing your eyes to that area of the PC where their custom vertical tubing runs can be seen. For those wondering if there’s a performance loss by adding the riser cable to the lower PCI-e slot the answer is no. The Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula is an enthusiast level, Z390 ATX Gaming motherboard with M.2 heatsink, Aura Sync RGB, up to DDR4 4400MHz & dual M.2’s.
Battlerigs
Innovative Mods
The Z390 is an LGA1151 socket, ready for 9th/8th Gen desktop processors and so is a perfect partner for the i9 9900KS chosen for the build. The i9 9900KS is the refresh of last years gaming king and costs around double the pricing of its predecessor’s final pricing. This 8 core, 16 thread beast comes with a base clock of 4Ghz with 5.0GHz all core boost. This is a huge upgrade from the not-so-terrible 3.6Ghz of the i9 9900K. It can be overclocked to 5.2GHz on all cores but to keep the CPU from overheating it is highly recommended you use a watercooling loop when hitting these overclocks. Speaking of which, the build uses the new chrome “Torque” fittings and waterblocks from watercooling specialists EKWB. The chrome and clear look of these parts work really nicely with the Ice-Cool theme, coupled with that beautiful speckled-blue liquid coolant. This machine wouldn’t look out of place in the White Witch’s Castle in Narnia! With this loop I can imagine temps are way under 50 degrees with maximum overclocks applied to the CPU and GPU. As if that isn’t enough overkill for you, the boys then added 32Gb of G.Skill Trident Z RGB RAM. The Trident Z RGB retains the iconic design element of the traditional Trident line-up but then adds a completely exposed light bar with vibrant RGB LEDs. Of course, these are software controlled, in this case, via Aura Sync. Allowing the user to completely customise to their heart’s content. Clearly this PC is more than capable of handling heavy multi-tasking and for gaming it has a Black edition RTX 2080 Ti from EVGA. Having used the RTX 2080 Black Edition variant myself, I know that this “budget” card isn’t to be messed with! This is one of the best PCs I’ve showcased on my Instagram channel this year. Innovative Mods have pushed the envelope and burst the purse strings with a quite frankly eye-watering machine worth well over $5000! It received a mixed reception from my audience when it was showcased in February but the main thing is it got people talking. Creating a machine that is truly out of the ordinary attracts more attention and this one certainly grabbed mine!
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Obluvion
Each month we pick one lucky community member from our Discord to have their PC featured in the magazine. We picked Ants Obluvion build for our first issue as we knew this was a PC built the highest standards with a flawless finish and..... OK, yes we did built this one, so maybe we were a little bias. EPCUK: What influenced you to make this build become a reality? Ants: This is the first PC I’ve have built since the early 2000’s. I have had “gaming laptops” over the last few years but I never really played anything other than football manager. I wanted to get into more diverse multiplayer games so I bought an Alienware 15 R3. I had this for a year and got annoyed due to it constantly overheating, CPU regularly hitting 100 degrees and burning my lap. I sold this for £900 and then used the funds to build my new PC.
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EPCUK: How did the name come about?
now was it having an Athlon processor.
Ants: After deciding on using Mayhems Pastel blue liquid for coolant. I decided on the name Obluvion a play on the word oblivion. I also asked for some name suggestions in the Discord and GrayGamer25 persuaded me to stick to my initial name.
EPCUK: What made you choose blue coolant? Ants: Its my favourite colour and I love the way it looks. The pictures make It looks a lot darker than it actually is, its more of a sky blue.
EPCUK: Have you built previous machines?
EPCUK: How did you choose the specs for this build and why?
Ants: Yes, in the early 2000’s I built a very basic PC and a budget of about £300 with parts out of Maplin, the only thing I remember about it
Ants: I had a budget of around £900 and I didn’t mind buying parts that were second hand. I ended up deciding on a Ryzen 2600X as the 3000 series had
Name:
Ant Grindrod (AntsInYourPants)
Age:
34
Location:
Chelmsford, England
Occupation:
Transport & Logistics manager
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just come out and these were only going for about £120. I thought I could easily upgrade this down the line and it was a very capable processor to get me going. I wanted to sink most of my budget into the GPU so allocated around £500 to my GPU and managed to find a good deal. On Ebay I found a RTX 2080 for around £450. At this time the Nvidia 2000’s super series had just been released and I couldn’t get hold of a RTX 2070 Super or RTX 2080 Super reference card without seriously overspending (none in stock anywhere). EPCUK: What was the hardest part when building Obluvion? Ants: Building a PC is like playing with Lego, these days just click together. I had my PC built for a couple of months before I could afford to water cool it and this was the thing I was most nervous about. I’ve always been a fan of the style and look of a watercooled PC but had no idea how to go about doing it. I ended up watching virtually every video on “how to guides”
“Building a PC is like playing with Lego, these days it just clicks together” on YouTube which introduced me to Linus, Jays2cents etc. Still not feeling 100% confident I approached Nik and Jansen who said they would help me do it and we would make a day of it. EPCUK: Did you need to use any unique tools or machine when creating Obluvion? Ants: Other than a standard phillips screwdriver no. Nik used plenty whilst watercooling, including a Dremel to make the radiator
fit. Even though the case was listed as being able to hold a 360 radiator it needed a little persuasion to actually get it in.
EPCUK: If you were to build this PC again is there anything you would do differently?
EPCUK: From start to finish how long did it take to create Obluvion? Ants: In total around three months from my first purchase (the case) to the final product of it being watercooled. The pc (without the watercooling) took about a month for me to buy all the parts I wanted and to shop around for the best deals.
Ants: I would probably move away from an MSI motherboard. I chose this as it was a good budget option that would support the 3000 series of Ryzen CPU’s. If I ever wanted to upgrade again theres been a few people that have recommended Asus motherboards so I would probably try them out next time. I may also add additional
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radiators to help with temps. Not that my temps are bad but I do worry about them on heavy gaming sessions. EPCUK: Are you happy with the end result? Ants: Yes very much so, its got me addicted and I’m currently thinking about a next build or recycling the parts to put in a different case. I would like to design my own case from scratch and being a huge Batman fan I would like a Batman theme. Having worked with ExtremePCUK on this build I would like to attempt this on my own. Nik will probably have a heart attack when he sees this he knows how heavy handed I can be, as I tried to force the CPU into the motherboard the wrong way round in front of him lol. EPCUK: We noticed you didn’t use one of the more popular cases for building a watercooled PC, why is that?
“It’s a thing of beauty and has me hooked on pc gaming”
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Ants: This was cheap on Amazon and I think it looked pretty cool. Also advised it would hold a 360 rad. Turns out it could but only with a little help with a few tools. EPCUK: This build is ultra clean, was there any issues hiding all the cables? Ants: None at all I let Jansen sort them out! EPCUK: Is there anything you would like to add about this build? Ants: It’s a thing of beauty and has me hooked on pc gaming.
Case: Sahara P35 CPU: Ryzen 5 2600X 6 core 12 threads
Storage: 1TB Samsung Pro 970 M.2 NVMe 1TB SSD
Motherboard: MSI Tomahawk Max
PSU: Gigabyte Gold rated 750W fully modular
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 4x 8GB
Cooling Parts: Phanteks waterblock for the GPU, Alphacool Eisblock Aurora CPU waterblock, 1x EK CoolStream PE360 rad, 1x Phanteks Glacier R160 reservoir
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080 8GB Black Edition
If you would like to have your PC featured in our Community Builds section, join our Discord and let us know
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STREAMER ZONE
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PC SPEC
STREAMING SPEC
MB: Asus X99 Deluxe GPU: GTX 980 Ti RAM: 32GB DDR4 CPU: i7 5930k @ 4 Ghz SSD: 250GB HDD: 1TB PSU: EVGA 650 GQ CASE: Phanteks Eclipse
Keyboard: Cyborg Mouse: Corsair M65 Headset: Hyper X Cloud Alpha Mic: AT2020 with Behringer Input Camera: Logitech C290 Light: Veltron Ring Light
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i, my n ame is Billie trixx a nd I ’m a p a r t t i m e s tr eamer o n Twitch. I lov e stor y d riv e n RPG ’s, s i n gl e pl aye r g am e s like Witche r, Skyr i m an d Sh en mue al o n gs i de commu nity g a me s Ca ll o f Dut y, Ra f t an d T h e Fo r es t. I stre am we e kdays f rom 8 pm G MT a n d o ften r un c o mmu nity nig hts f or e v e r yone o n m y D i s co r d fr o m J ac k box Pa rty g ame s to mov ie n i gh t s. M y b r o th er ac tually g ot me into g a m in g, h e ’s pr o b abl y s mug abou t that e v e n thou g h he i sn ’t n o w a mas s i ve game r himse lf. H e is six ye ar s o l de r th a n me s o w o uld g e t all the late st con so l e s i n cl udi n g th e Meg adriv e, Playsta tion 1 a n d o ur o l d b ei ge P C th at wou ld only ru n Ag e of Emp i r e s 2. I a l w ay s go t h i s h and downs e v e r y time the l at e st c o n s ol e c ame o ut, so natu ra lly I f e ll in love wi t h Str e e t s o f Rage, S p yro, AOE 2 & Po ke m o n o n my Gam e boy colou r. I s tar ted getti ng inte re ste d i n gami n g P C ’s p rop e rly at ei g h teen w h en I wou ld se e my f r i e n ds w i th s o me basic se lf bui l t r i gs. I w an ted one too bu t I d i d n ’t h ave th e f u nds, so as peo pl e upgr aded the ir se tu p s I w o ul d take th ei r use d p arts a nd I v a n (my bo yfr i en d, of te n he a rd in stre ams ye l l i n g a t games ) w o ul d bu y me p arts on Birthdays t o bui l d me up an d ge t me into bu ild ing the m myse l f! I s ta r ted s tr eami ng in 2 0 1 7 , on my ab so l ut e po ta to o f a c o mp u te r, ju st p laying Ov e r wat c h a n d S k y r i m an d talking to m y f rie nds. That was w h a t I w an ted, to ma ke a conne ction with p e o p l e l i ke me an d get into g a ming, be ca u se I a c t ual l y d i d n ’t k n o w th at ma ny p e op le who we re o n PC. Str e a mi n g h as brou g ht me the most a maz i n g f r i e n ds h i ps an d op p ortu nitie s and it ’s st i l l o n l y th e begi n n i n g. Stra ng e to think how bu s y I am ev er y n i gh t n o w comp a re d to be f ore str e ami n g w h er e after w o r k I wou ld come home a n d my o n l y s o l ac e w as sitting alone in Skyri m an d
h avi n g n o o n e t o sh ar e m y fai l ur e s and s or r ow wi t h wh e n I l o st, di e d an d h ad t o r e d o l ev el s o ve r an d o ve r an d n o t t o me n t i o n al l t he f u nny mo me n t s l o st wi t h n o -o n e ab l e t o l aug h a t me. O ve r t h e ye ar s I ’ve b e e n fo r t un at e e nou g h t o b e i n vi t e d t o h o st an d st r e am at var i o u s ev ent s i n c l udi n g man y E p i c L A N ’s, Dr e amh ac k i n S w ed en an d al so I n so m n i a wh i c h i s c o mi n g up. I n A p r il I ’l l b e i n t h e B Y O C S t r e ame r Z o n e wi t h Ex t r emeP CU K so c o me gi ve me a wat c h ! I ’ve go t t e n t o k now a l o t o f am az i n g p e o p l e i n t h e gami n g ind u s t r y wh i c h h as l e d t o so me gr e at l o n g t e r m fr iend s hip s. T h i s ye ar I h o p e t o fi n d a b e t t e r b al an c e of cont ent c r e at i o n an d l e ss t i me fo r m y day j o b a s I l ov e st r e ami n g an d wan t t o ma ke it f u l l t i me. M y go al i s t o make Pa r t ner o n Twi t c h an d gr o w my commu nit y, t h e y ar e t h e b e st. No t f or g et t ing my o t h e r h o b b i e s o n l ine f r om p o st i n g o n so c i al s an d m y Cos p l a y so o n e day I wo ul d l i ke t o d o it mo r e ful l t i me o r wo r k w it hin t he gam i n g i n dust r y un t i l t ha t p oint. I st ar t e d up m y Pat r e o n t his y ea r mo r e fo r Yo uTub e an d C o sp l ay c o n t e n t cr ea t ion. I ’ m e x c i t e d t o e vo l ve mo r e i n t h o se a r ea s t oo an d t o go t o m o r e c o n ve n t i o n s dr es s ed a s wh at e ve r c r az y c h ar ac t e r I fal l i n l o ve w it h nex t. Fo r an yo n e j ust st ar t i n g st r e am i n g I w ou l d s a y t o fi n d wh at m ake s yo u. Mayb e yo u ’r e g r ea t a t gui t ar an d l o ve gam i n g, m ayb e yo u wan t t o hos t a t al k sh o w o r e ve n i f yo u h ave a c o o l b ea r d. U s e wh at e ve r m ake s yo u st an d o ut. Fi gur e o ut w ha t y ou st an d fo r an d b ui l d yo ur p e r so n al b r and a r ou nd t h at. C o n si st e n c y i s a maj o r fac t o r fr om b r a nd t o t ur n i n g up wh e n yo u say e ve n i f i t i s onl y one day a we e k. Yo u c an h ave t h e b e st PC s et u p in t h e wo r l d an d al l t h e fan c y gr ap h i c s b ut it mea ns n o t h i n g i f yo u c an n o t b r i n g yo ur vi e we r s v a l u e.
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EPIC SETUPs
SNOWBLIND Epic Setups is where you can find PC builders that have gone the extra mile and customised their whole room or maybe even more. We love how creative you guys and girls can get with your room designs. This month we have this super RGB setup featuring the crazy Snowblind case.
“The PC was built for gaming, but also able to handle workload multi core projects�
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profile
“I usually stick to pink and cyan. Vice city themes” Name: Tyler Rohrman Age: 29 Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA Occupation: Inspector
PC SPEC
Case: iBuyPower Snowblind CPU: i5 9600k Motherboard: Asus Z-390P RAM: 16GB XPG 3200Mhz GPU: Gigabyte 2070 OC
Storage: 500GB SSD 500GB M.2 NVMe PSU: 500W EVGA Cooling Parts: Liquid AIO 4x 120MM Fans Custom parts or Mods: Snowblind case with built in monitor on side panel
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