Shadow Base 800 Strix Edition

Cre8 Modding

Active member
It's been a while, so it's time to crack on with another mod!

I'm returning to modding after a bit of a break, my friends over at be quiet! sent me over a new Shadow Base 800 FX black edition a while ago, so it's time to put something in it!

To pair this up, Intel have supplied a 13900K, and TeamGroup, a long-term sponsor of mine, is sending memory in the form of their T-FORCE DDR5-6000 White 16GB*2 (2 kits).

I have fancied doing a Strix-themed build for a while so I have gone for a Z790-H and a Strix 4080 OC Edition for the main base of the system. I am running a new sim racing channel over at YouTube so this will become a daily driver, literally, for that and the workload involved, plus those boards have great I/O, with a GPU capable of 4K60 for what I am putting out. I am also running an Elgato 4K60 capture card to bring in PS5 footage from Gran Turismo, so the blue and red Strix colour scheme will also line up with some elements of sim racing too!

Since I started modding back in 2019 on a serious level, ASUS is the one hardware manufacturer that I have had no issues with, everything just works and while some parts command premium prices, I cannot fault my experiences down the line. From a GTX 670 to a 770, a 970, to a 1070, and beyond, their GPUs have always delivered for me personally.

Originally I was looking at an air-cooled build, but with Alphacool being a great supporter of mine this far, I am hoping we could maybe go for a dual loop system as it starts to come to life. Yes, moderators and staff, I am looking at you right now :)

The first job then is getting the case and other bits here, take a look, and see what can be potentially modded for what I have in mind. When it all lands I will grab some pics to plonk here, but for now, it's a little bit of waiting and then some planning before moving forward with what I hope will be something a little different, with some nice colours to match.

Stay tuned guys, this one will be fun!
 
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Cre8 Modding

Active member
Okay, so it's time to get this thing moving!

So be quiet! kindly sent over their 800FX some time ago, a lot has happened since then. I decided to come back to modding and got the ball rolling on a few things and then recently, both my parents have been quite ill, to say the least, so I have been taking care of family stuff.

Now it's time to get this build done, and Alphacool once again kindly stepped up and supported the build.

First up, the case. The 800FX doesn't take a giant leap forward from other cases I have used from be quiet!, don't get me wrong, the build quality and overall performance are up to their usual high standards. Still, it would be nice to see be quiet move forward somewhat (something it seems they are now doing with the new Light Bases that I am hopefully going to be building in soon). The 800FX comes with the dual 2.5" mounting bay that first popped up in the Pure Base 500, it would have been nice to have this space usable for a 240, or 360mm mounting option though.







So I have stripped the case down, ready to start on the build. I've decided against actual case mods this time around, first because I have done this with so many be quiet! cases before of the same type of design, and secondly, due to some time limitations around the whole family situation.

In terms of hardware the first step was to prep the motherboard, the Z790-F from ASUS, with the Intel 13900K, and 64GB of DDR5 from our friends over at TeamGroup, using their T-Force Delta modules that I love, and have used for various projects over the years.












The 13900K is then cooled using the Alphacool Core Carbon Edition, a lovely little CPU block and I love the design of this thing. The backplate is also solid too, knowing this thing will sit tight on the CPU and give me the performance and reliability I need.









So with the motherboard ready, its time to get it installed.



Next up, we start the loop!
 

Cre8 Modding

Active member
Time to move on with the build then :)

I asked Alphacoool to send over one of their vertical GPU mounts so I could plonk my Strix OC 4080 into the system, so the first job of the day was to get the block stripped from this huge card.





Its here you start to get an idea of the color scheme I want to go with, the red and blue of the Strix cards.







For the size of the Strix card, it's really simple to strip and transfer over to its new block, the amount of space saved is amazing!



So I got the vertical mount installed and to start figuring out the loop.



Before we go any further though, its time for some distros, fans and rads!

















It was at this point there was a knock at the door and my new CableMod extensions arrived!







And then, after some figuring out of tube runs, I decided to ditch the vertical GPU. Sadly it just made things even more complicated than it needed to be. I love vertical GPU-based systems, but sadly this won't be one of them. Again, to this point, I am finding the 800FX, just to be a little bit off from perfect.

So for now I will leave you at this point, with the GPU in its final position, ready for some tubes!



Right, time to go race, if you like GT3 racing, hit me up!

 

Cre8 Modding

Active member
Right then, time to tube up this build!



With things going on around home life I have simply cracked on with this, so didn't get too many pictures along the way sadly.

The runs have been fairly straight forward and I only ran into a couple of areas when I changed the planned runs.

While the Alphacool 120 Distros do have a number of ports, in this configuration I did struggle a little with the options I had available, but I have worked around this and I think it will look really nice once it's filled.





I've got some little bits to tidy up before I fill it up. Speaking of which, I have gone with Corsair coolants, XL5 Red and Blue. The red seems perfect but the blue I think could be more solid. When the time comes I will fill the loops and if I need to change something out down the road then I can.

I am leaning towards red for the GPU and blue on the CPU.
 

Cre8 Modding

Active member
So, here it is in its final glory!

Apologies for the pic quality, I'm back using my phone now. Overall then, I am happy with the build, the blue CPU loop could be a bit more solid to add some depth to the contrast so I will keep an eye out to see if I can find something more suitable.

The build was fairly straightforward, even being the first time I have done a dual loop. Once again, Alphacool made this project possible so a huge thank you to them once again for supporting my work. I would love to hear your guys thoughts on this one, and what I should do next!

Hope you like it guys!

Final Config;

be quiet! Shadow Base 800FX
be quiet Straight Power Pro 1000W
Intel 13900K
ASUS Z790-F
TeamGroup 64GB DDR5 T-Force Delta
4x2TB Seagate FireCuda 520
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4080 OC Edition
Cable Mod Extensions
Full Alphacool Loop (Dual Loop 2x 360mm)
























 
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