Production S700: Salvo Studios <23L ATX Steel Watercooled Unibody Chassis

[Allhopeforhumanity]

I am listing the S700 for sale now. You can purchase yours here.

Please ask me questions before purchasing if you are aren't 100% positive of compatibility.

Firstly, congrats on getting to the sales stage!

Second, Questions:
1. Will the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme (XL-EATX) fit?
2. You say at least 12" custom PSU cables, but do you have approximate measurements for standard 12V EPS and ATX plug locations?
3. On 280mm Radiator support, what are the exact dimensional limitations and/or known incompatibilities?
4. On the 500mm riser for the rear: Do you have any pictures of this option, namely if one wanted to try and source a Gen4 riser in the future, should be be looking at straight on, or 90 degree terminations?

 

[grsychckn]

Firstly, congrats on getting to the sales stage!

Second, Questions:
1. Will the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme (XL-EATX) fit?
2. You say at least 12" custom PSU cables, but do you have approximate measurements for standard 12V EPS and ATX plug locations?
3. On 280mm Radiator support, what are the exact dimensional limitations and/or known incompatibilities?
4. On the 500mm riser for the rear: Do you have any pictures of this option, namely if one wanted to try and source a Gen4 riser in the future, should be be looking at straight on, or 90 degree terminations?

1. Not 100% confident yes. Physical size is fine, but I question the mounting hole locations. Given that the Supermicro H11DSi-NT fits, I think you'll be fine. The only real question I have is how thick the backplate is. The standoffs on the S700 are 6mm tall so anything more than 6mm thick will cause the backplate to interfere with the chassis.
2. I just measured using my Gigabyte Aorus X399 motherboard and the minimum 24-pin cable length I would use is 15 inches end-to-end. For the 12V CPU cables, the stock cables on my Cooler Master V850 were long enough to reach (they are ~19 inches end-to-end).
3. I have information about the depth of the radiator + fans on the product page, but if you need specifics there, let me know. Otherwise, so long as the radiator(s) have standard 280mm mounting holes and are less than 155mm wide by 330mm tall, you should be fine.
4. Take a look at the pictures below. My mounting holes should be good to use with either Li-Heat or LinkUp PCIe riser cables. For Li-Heat, I use the Type.B and for LinkUp you want to buy the Left (270-degree) cables. At this time, I don't think a gen 4.0 cable exists that is longer than 28cm.

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

1. Not 100% confident yes. Physical size is fine, but I question the mounting hole locations. Given that the Supermicro H11DSi-NT fits, I think you'll be fine. The only real question I have is how thick the backplate is. The standoffs on the S700 are 6mm tall so anything more than 6mm thick will cause the backplate to interfere with the chassis.
2. I just measured using my Gigabyte Aorus X399 motherboard and the minimum 24-pin cable length I would use is 15 inches end-to-end. For the 12V CPU cables, the stock cables on my Cooler Master V850 were long enough to reach (they are ~19 inches end-to-end).
3. I have information about the depth of the radiator + fans on the product page, but if you need specifics there, let me know. Otherwise, so long as the radiator(s) have standard 280mm mounting holes and are less than 155mm wide by 330mm tall, you should be fine.
4. Take a look at the pictures below. My mounting holes should be good to use with either Li-Heat or LinkUp PCIe riser cables. For Li-Heat, I use the Type.B and for LinkUp you want to buy the Left (270-degree) cables. At this time, I don't think a gen 4.0 cable exists that is longer than 28cm.

1. Cool, I'll take a measurement of the backplate and see how it looks.
2. Gotcha, yeah the stock 24pin on the silverstone sfx-L is only ~20cm
3. Sounds like the ones I have should fit here just fine.
4. Yeah, I haven't seen a gen4 that length yet, just curious what to keep an eye out for if the Mobo fits.

I've been lugging a beQuiet darkbase 900 to the office on the occasions when I have to actually go in, and can hopefully convince IT to let me make the swap so that I'm not carrying around the 50lb behemoth anymore.

 

[thelaughingman]

First post, not mine Looks a bit empty without radiator at the front.

 

[grsychckn]

First post, not mine Looks a bit empty without radiator at the front.

Thanks for posting that. That's LOHTEC on YouTube. He's going to be reviewing the S700 soon.

His build is a bit odd though because he's using an ITX mainboard which really exposed some shortcomings in the S700. Cable lengths were primarily the problem. I added warnings to the S700 product page about ATX PSU cable lengths because of his feedback. Also, I now have new front buttons with longer cables and am debating offering HD Audio extensions.

He also had some compatibility problems with the AIO as his first one was the Arctic Liquid 280 II which doesn't clear the height requirements of the S700 for the CPU so he swapped that one out for the NZXT.

Lastly, he mentioned that the top radiator mounting hole locations could have been adjusted with a bias more towards the front because some radiators will not mount with the inlet/outlet near the rear IO.

 

[grsychckn]

LOHTEC finished his review.

 

[duynguyenle]

Quick PSA for anyone planning on using an RTX 3090 FE version (or any AIB cards with very wide PCBs) - Check your motherboard clearance, especially the I/O area. The PCIe slot closest to the motherboard overhangs the I/O area slightly, so if you have a GPU with very very tall PCB like the 3090 FE, there's a chance your PCB might clash with the bottom part of your motherboard I/O shroud/VRM heatsinks, and if the PCB is also very long, you may also clash with memory modules if they've got particularly tall heatspreaders.

Mounting it in the slot further away from the motherboard should alleviate this, but you may need to trim off your waterblock/GPU's PCIe bracket, since it seems like the majority of waterblocks on the market use dual-slot brackets.

This is probably a very niche scenario, the FE version RTX 3090 have abnormally wide PCBs, I guess most AIB cards wouldn't have this problem (and AIBs cards with reference PCBs seems immune, they have a very compact PCB).

 

[grsychckn]

Quick PSA for anyone planning on using an RTX 3090 FE version (or any AIB cards with very wide PCBs) - Check your motherboard clearance, especially the I/O area. The PCIe slot closest to the motherboard overhangs the I/O area slightly, so if you have a GPU with very very tall PCB like the 3090 FE, there's a chance your PCB might clash with the bottom part of your motherboard I/O shroud/VRM heatsinks, and if the PCB is also very long, you may also clash with memory modules if they've got particularly tall heatspreaders.

Mounting it in the slot further away from the motherboard should alleviate this, but you may need to trim off your waterblock/GPU's PCIe bracket, since it seems like the majority of waterblocks on the market use dual-slot brackets.

This is probably a very niche scenario, the FE version RTX 3090 have abnormally wide PCBs, I guess most AIB cards wouldn't have this problem (and AIBs cards with reference PCBs seems immune, they have a very compact PCB).

Thanks for the update! I'm going to be sending you a DM soon so keep a look out. I didn't realize how wide the 3090 PCB was.

I've been on vacation and didn't get much rest (2 kids) so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, starting with a price reduction of the S700. I'm going to drop the price to $250 shipped to the lower 48 states effective immediately. I need to move these chassis in order to gain back some much needed space and funds for my next project(s).

 

[grsychckn]

In case anyone has wondered what I've been up to, I wanted to post that I've been working on my own S700 build. It's been a long time coming as I've been waiting on the Hybrid-Cooling-Modding H11DSi monoblock, but when I actually received one I was fairly disappointed. Below are pictures of the monoblock I designed and now need a few tweaks and finishing touches to make before I can actually start my build.

Question for anyone looking: What color tubing/fittings should I use?

1. Copper fittings/Matte-Black tubing
2. Black fittings/Copper tubing
3. Black fittings/Matte-Black tubing

Since I used the copper plates I feel the need to include copper in the design and I figured the fittings/tubing would be one of the best ways to do it. I also need to figure out what GPU I'm going to use, but I think I'll eventually choose a 6900XT as the Radeon Pro variants are too expensive to consider right now.

 

[duynguyenle]

I think copper tubing would look good, but you probably will need to clear-coat them first as they tarnish pretty readily (at least here in the damp British Midlands). My vote would actually to polish/clear coat the exposed copper bits on your block and maybe go with polished nickel coated copper tubes? That would look really good (but I am not sure you're able to bend them easily while protecting the finish. Maybe you'll need to use straight tubing and lots of 90 degree elbow fittings

 

[grsychckn]

I think copper tubing would look good, but you probably will need to clear-coat them first as they tarnish pretty readily (at least here in the damp British Midlands). My vote would actually to polish/clear coat the exposed copper bits on your block and maybe go with polished nickel coated copper tubes? That would look really good (but I am not sure you're able to bend them easily while protecting the finish. Maybe you'll need to use straight tubing and lots of 90 degree elbow fittings

I'm definitely going to clear coat them. I've got a 2-stage clear that will be perfect.

On the subject of the tubing, I was actually thinking of having the copper plates nickel plated anyway because then I wouldn't have to figure out how I'm going to polish them myself. I do like the copper/black look better than the nickel/black though. I've got some time to think about it though but I'll probably make my decision the next few days.

You're also probably right about the plated tubing. It would be hard to bend and not damage the surface. I think the proper way to do that would be to bend copper tubing and then get those plated once they've been fitted. The expense (both time and money) will probably prevent me from plating anything though.

 

[duynguyenle]

Here in the UK it's fairly easy to get affordable at-home nickel plating kits (they're quite popular for cosmetic re-finishing vintage motorbike/car parts). They can get pretty damn near factory mirror finish with a bit of practice.

The downside is that I don't know how well the plating holds up in a watercooling loop, but if you're feeling brave, you could give it a look: https://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=207

The kit is basically an electrolytic plating solution and a nickel anode. You clean/degrease the parts, then just stick it in the solution, hook up the part & nickel anode to a DC power supply and let it run.

 

[grsychckn]

Picture update.

 

[rfarmer]

Beautiful, that copper looks incredible.

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

Picture update.
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Looking awesome! The copper really makes the build pop.

 

[grsychckn]

Engagement challenge: DM me with your guess as to what is wrong with the reservoir below and you win a free hat. I've got a free Salvo Studios hat for the first person to get it right.

 

[grsychckn]

Engagement challenge: DM me with your guess as to what is wrong with the reservoir below and you win a free hat. I've got a free Salvo Studios hat for the first person to get it right.

Someone guessed it right. The logo on the back player was cut backwards. Just ordered a corrected version.

 

[grsychckn]

Quick update image:



That's the 3.5" drive cover. Spent a lot of time polishing copper the past week.

 

[grsychckn]

Another update pic. Wiring is going to be tough. So will the plumbing.

 

[grsychckn]

Well, my build is done. I'll be draining it soon and packing it up to send off to Wendell at L1T. So far, the monoblock has done well.