Setting this up as a place holder for now.  But I promise I will document this and will add much more context and history.  

Essentially, it is time to retire my CaseLabs Magnum M8A case.   I know...  Clickbait BS.  But I promise I will add context when I get some other projects dealt with

Upgrading to something bigger and better?

Curious to see how this shapes up. 

Okay. I am back.   Well, Im pretty sure I am back.     And to be honest, I had completely forgotten about this thread till a friend of mine who was researching my case (he was kind of interested) and found this thread. 

So it's time to get some projects finished and updates done.   Need to get projects finished because they're stacking up on me.   Not much to show at first.  Just me getting things in motion.  

First I need to show you the buildup of Project Cairn (aka Cairn) before I can show you the dismantling of Monolith.  (The M8A).  Largely because I need an operational PC up here.   Okay, I'll shut up and put up some pics.

Cairn Specs
MSI Z690 MEG ACE (MSI loves it's capitals apparently)
Intel i9 13900k.  In my defense, I bought this before everything went sideways with the 13 and 14 gen CPU.  I have a 12900KF on standby, JIC.
Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420mm non RGB
64GB Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5-6000
Galax Serious Gamer 4090
2TB Crucial T500 NVME
4TB Crucial P3 Pro NVME
EVGA 1600 T2
7x BeQuiet Silent Wings 4.  Might up that by 3 more if I decide to go push/pull

I chose a BeQuiet DarkBase Dark Base Pro 901. Sadly, I did not take any pictures of the new chassis before I dismantled it. 









And here we hit the second stumble in the build.   As I was prepping to breadboard it, I figure, might as well mount the heat sink.  But decided that better check clearances before I go any further.   Pics speak for themselves.  




The Corsair Dominator Titanium is some of the tallest RAM sticks/heatsinks I have ever dealt with.

cool looking project

I agree, looks good. 
 

Oddly enough I was looking at the Dark Base Pro 901...looking good, my friend!

Helped my stepson build his first PC over the weekend, which gave me a good poke in the backside to finish this build so I can move to the next stage of this project.    I accomplished more in the last several hours than I have over the last several months.    Also.  I apologize in advance if the pics look janky.  Got new phone and did not realize the "ai enhancement" or whatever it is was turned on.   Not pleased with the end result, but not about to take things apart just to shoot proper pictures.

Prepping for bread board.



Just using the 3090Ti because it was handy.

And what is up with that CPU clock?   Going to be watching some tutorials on how to sort this properly.  Also updated to the most recent BIOS.  Still need to do the firmware update.

Side note.   With the build over the weekend I got one of my old 1080's back.   And it is very nasty and dirty.   TOS won't allow me to mention why it is nasty and dirty.  But we will be doing a complete disassemble and clean. 


Now that I know that I have installed the parts properly.  Lets install more parts.  NVME Drives.   Crucial T500 2TB for the OS and a Crucial P3TB for storage and Steam.


Also.  Don't forget to peel all of the plastic the first time you take the heat sink off.
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This is where the 901 really started to win me over.  See these little gold fingers?  This is the front, just under the I/O


Top fan mount



I absolutely love this It makes wire management so slick and clean.   I know other cases have this feature, but this is the first time I've experienced it.

And then another wonderful thing?  How often with these "standard" cases are we griping that we can only access the basement/psu chamber from the back?


BeQuiet was listening and said "No worries, I got you"