ATCS 840 by Coolmiester

Red or Black or Red?...or Black? Red it is!

The rest of the CPU / Chipset loop would use another “one off” custom made X-Flow GTX360 radiator that HWLabs had specially made for the mod. It was top mounted so ample cooling capacity was on tap, plus with it being X-Flow with barbs either end, it also meant that hose routing could be kept to a minimum without affecting performance.

What's more, it also matched the base mounted GTX240 (used for the GPU loop) in the looks department, so another massive shout for HWLabs for going above and beyond to accommodate my needs.


And while on the subject of sponsors, I would also like to give OCZ a big shout this time around for coming on board and supplying me with 6GB of PC3-10666 Triple-Channel memory and couple of 60GB 2.5 Solid State Drives to play with. My initial intention was to set them up in RAID0 but admittedly time did get the better of me so I only just managed to get Windows 7 installed on one of them. Nevertheless, it worked flawlessly and once the machine came back from CeBIT 2009, I set the RAID array up where it was displayed at the next three UK events.

Anyway, all chassis parts back from powder coating and it was a simple case of re-assembling the chassis and finally getting the exterior wet sanded and into primer so I could test fit the top vent which amazingly fitted perfect first time which had to be more by good luck than good management but I wasn’t complaining as time was marching on and I knew I had to get this thing into paint pretty damn quick otherwise it would be going to CeBIT in grey primer which I don’t think would go down too well with Cooler Master.

At this point I still hadn’t made a final decision on what colour it would be but was tempted to go with another gloss black to match the Skulltrail mod I did but so indecisive I was, I added a poll to the project log to get feedback from forum readers. That only made things worse though, as I was even more undecided as the vote really was too close to call.

Finally, driving to the painters, it was red / black / black / red in my head all the way until eventually I was there and literally blurted out the first colour that came into my head. It was red and I remember driving home, spending all that night wondering if I’d made the right choice.


Luckily, the paint gods had been with me that day as when I went to pick it up it looked absolutely stunning in all its red glory - another close call which turned out way better than I’d expected.