Scratch Build Cold Winter V.3 | By C4B12 | 2013-03-14 PSU installed

[C4B12]

Hello again!

Now that Im finished with CURV3D I can start with my next project. I have been waiting to start working on this. Ive been planning how to make this as good as possible. This is the project I will spend most time on ever. Hope you will enjoy this log, feel free to comment and please give me advice and tips.

Lets start with a little info about this build. You may remember my Cold Winter build I posted around a year ago. I also made a version 2 of it, and now the third and last version is coming.

This is my favorite build of all time, so now I want to make it as goodlooking as possible. What Im going to do is to correct the mistakes Ive made before, add some features to hide cables and things like that. I will also fill it with a little bit newer hardware and this time Im going for some nice watercooling, not an all-in-one like the Antec Kuhler I had in V.2.

List of things to do:

• Paint the right acrylic side of the case (on the inside) black, so you cant see in from the side. Thats the side where the motherboard will be installed. DONE
• Make coverplates out of acrylic to cover cables, psu and waterpump.
• Make a hole in the bottom and in the backpanel for the new psu.
• File down the acrylic so it fits perfectly with the acrylic piece. DONE
• Sleeve everything white, black and aqua.
• Hide as much of the cables as possible
• Install watercooling
• Getting the hardware

Hardware:
MB: ASRock FM2A85X-ITX
CPU: AMD A10-5800K
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 2x4gb 2133MHz
SSD: Samsung 840 120gb
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 2.5" 1tb
PSU: Be-Quiet SFX 400W 80+

In V.2 I used AMDs Llano, and I fell in love. Since then I have been waiting for the next generation and now Trinity is here. When I have time for games I either play Starcraft 2 or Dota 2 and those arent really hardware demanding games, but the Trinity still is pretty good. So what I want is a HTPC but with possibilities of some simpler games to be played. So what I want to add for hardware is a m-itx motherboard for Trinity, socket FM2. As APU I want the best possible so Im trying to get a hold of a A10-5800K, and then add 2 sticks of 4GB DDR3 2133MHz ram. Im currently looking for sponsors so lets see what happens!

The psu:





EK DCP 2.2 Combo:



What Ive done so far is to strip the case from almost everything except the LCD and powerswitch.

Front:



Back:



Left side:



Right side. This is the side I want to paint black on the inside so you cant see into it from here.



The acrylic is pretty messed up as you can see. It was that from the beginning. Many scratches. But at the same time I feel like it gives the case a kind of vintage look, I still want to make it look a bit nicer though. So I will start by cleaning and polish it as much as possible. Do any of you guys know how to remove scratches from acrylic? Clearcoat it? Use a little blowtorch? Any advice?

First thing Im going to start with is to cut the acrylic maybe 3-4mm so it fits perfect with the white plate. Then paint the backside of the acrylic black. So this is what I have to work with for a couple of weeks:



Will be updating as much as possible. Please comment and give me advice and tips. Everything and everyone is welcome.

Thats all for tonight!
Johan Nyman

[C4B12]

This is how Im planning to place the PSU and pump/res. Im going to hide them later with a bended acrylic sheet, only the reservoar part will be showing a little bit.



Fits perfectly. Going to make a nice little hole in the bottom for the psu, with some kind of dustfilter.





I really like this tinted acrylic!



Thats all for tonight. Going away for the weekend so dont have any updates before sometime next week I think.

See ya!
Johan Nyman

[fr0Zen]

i like it but where are you going to fit a rad other than the front??

[C4B12]

@fr0zen
Im going to use one 120mm rad in the front. Thats it.

[fr0Zen]

okay then

[C4B12]

I havent made so much to the case yet, just started to clean the acrylic and prepare for a little bit of black paint. But on the hardware side something is going forward atleast. Today I ordered pretty much of the hardware I will be using. Ive been planning this build for a couple of weeks, and I thought I would try to talk to some companys about sponsorships and so on. Took some time to write some emails but didnt get any real positive answers, but I know Im not so good at writing so I dont blame anyone. Enough with that, the hardware I ordered today was a motherboard, APU and ram.

Asrock FM2A75M-ITX
AMD A10-5800K
Corsair Dominator Platinum 2x4gb 2133MHz

That black Asrock motherboard looks really good and Corsairs new ram looks nice too, that cold white LEDs fits perfect for my build. So thats probably it for today, going away for the weekend, visiting Dreamhack, but next week Im planning on putting up a update with some pictures of my progress.

I started a Facebook site for some weeks ago where I post smaller updates and other things about my builds. Check it out and like it if you want to.

/Johan Nyman

[C4B12]

Hello!

I couldnt wait until next week to make something to the case. So I painted the right inner side of the acrylic piece black. Looks pretty good. Now you cant see anything from the other side, just as I wanted.

I started with isolate a little bit.



Then I just painted it, 3 layers.










And this is how it looks from the outside.




Next week I will be cutting 3-4mm of the acrylic so it fits perfect with everything else. Then Im going to start trying different techniques of fixing scratches on acrylic, I have a spare piece I will be trying on. Do you have any advice?

I will also be starting to make the shroud for the PSU and pump + res. See how it works out.

Tomorrow Im going to Dreamhack so now Im SURE there will not be an update before next week. Hope this was something atleast.

Johan Nyman

[k.3nny]

Cool design

[C4B12]

Originally Posted by k.3nny

Cool design

Thank you!

[C4B12]

Hello!

A little update here. Ive lowered the plexi a few mm to fit better to the white bended plate. I put everything together and took some pictures, I really love the black side.

The edge before. A little bit to high.



Measured how much to cut.



Dada!



Think this looks really good.




Right now Im waiting for the hardware so I can start measuring out how to fit everything, how to make the shroud and so on.

/Johan Nyman

[C4B12]

Im sorry for not updating. But Im having problems getting the hardware I ordered, hopefully I get the stuff next week. I need the motherboard to measure out everything.

One thing I cant decide yet is if I should use colored tubing or colored water and what colours? What do you think?

Until I can make a real update here you could check out my facebook-page where I have all my scratchbuilds posted. Like/share if you want to!

Best Regards
Johan Nyman

[C4B12]

Woho!

I actually got something done today. Before I used a picopsu so now I had to make a hole for the sfx-psu. Measured out the hole and used a jigsaw to cut it out. But Im not satisfied about the look, maybe make a cover in white acrylic?









What do you think?

[GuilleAcoustic]

Good work mate ... but maybe you should drill some holes. I'm afraid that the warm air will be stuck inside your PSU without any venting hole.

I'm following your build closely since I'm planning a similar build (same component, but different layout). Is this PSU silent ? I'm hesitating between the SFX and the TFX version.

Keep up the good job

[C4B12]

Hello Bit-Tech!


As you may know Im not that into 3D rendering and stuff. Sometimes I use paint just to try to show people what Im thinking, like today.

Im planning the shroud for the psu and the bottom of the case. In this picture you see the case from the left side. The red is how Im thinking the shroud should go.



I want to have it go all up to the top to hide cables from the LCD, powerbutton and fans. What do you think? Im thinking about how Im going to be able to bend it like this, maybe make it in two parts, will be easier for assembling everything to. Would love some feedback on this!

I also is thinking about painting the inside of the left side of the acrylic black so when its finished it would look like this:



What do you think?

Thanks
Johan Nyman

[C4B12]

Originally Posted by GuilleAcoustic

Good work mate ... but maybe you should drill some holes. I'm afraid that the warm air will be stuck inside your PSU without any venting hole.

I'm following your build closely since I'm planning a similar build (same component, but different layout). Is this PSU silent ? I'm hesitating between the SFX and the TFX version.

Keep up the good job

Thanks! Im getting a new PSU now though, Silverstone has a modular SFX. I will cut a bigger hole then for the air.

Put up a log on that when you start, love mitx-builds. About the sound on the psu, its a 400W 80+, and my system maybe gets up to 150W in load, so the psu doesnt have to work that hard, wich makes it pretty silent. Could always change the fan. I recommend going SFX.