Hello and welcome to Project Hades by Darwin PC! Introduction Hades was the ancient Greek god of the underworld, a son of Titans and brother of Zeus and Poseidon. As Project Hades will feature an inverted ATX conversion, the underworld theme made sense. I have a few mods planned to make this build stand out. Hardware Case: Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K GPU: Palit GeForce GTX 1060 Super JetStream Memory: Kingston HyperX Savage 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 PSU: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ gold modular CPU cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 Cabling: Custom-sleeved with E22 Teleios Sponsors Thanks to the following sponsors for making this project possible: Cooler Master, Gigabyte, Palit and Kingston / HyperX. Updates Hardware Test build Case modding pt. 1 Case modding pt. 2 Build complete
I did a quick test build to make sure everything was working. Assembly was straightforward, although it took some clever positioning of the CPU cooler radiator and fans to not put strain on the tubing. The test build booted perfectly first time, and with no SSD connected, went straight into the UEFI/BIOS. The CPU temperatures were good, and the BIOS made easy work of adjusting the fan curves and pump speed. I did have to swap the pump cable to a different fan header, as the ‘pump’ header on the mobo couldn’t control the speed (in voltage or PWM mode). It worked fine on a different header though.
I began work on the case modding. The first task was to invert the motherboard. Here's the case during stripping down, with most of the panels removed. Most of the removeable modules use these retained thumbscrews, which I find pretty useful for not losing the things. This is the fan and LED controller on the back. All parts removed from the case. The case completely stripped down. Checking the placement of the motherboard within the case. Starting to drill out rivets. I had originally planned to completely disassemble each section, but then decided to keep the middle section intact, and remove the top and bottom sections then swap them over. Removing rivets from the corner brackets. Bottom section removed. Top section removed. Checking alignment for reassembly. There was a lip in the middle of the top section that prevented the corner joints from lining up. I cut off the lip with the Dremel. Here is the top section in place. On test fitting the IO panel, I found it was blocked by another lip on the front section. This part was also removed. Edges cleaned up ready for the IO panel. The IO panel now fits perfectly.
To complete the ATX motherboard inversion for the Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5, the pieces were reassembled and secured by rivets. Holes where rivets had been drilled out were measured using digital calipers. Here are the rivets, in black, with various sizes to fit different thicknesses of material. Here is the heavy duty pop rivet gun to be used for assembly. It is pretty hefty, but clearance in tight spaces can be an issue. The case was reassembled without any issues. The case now works just as previously, but with everything upside down. I then put together a quick test build to check everything fits properly upside-down... ... and added the plastic panels.
Build complete! I started Project Hades to create something original and different with the Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5. The case is already highly customisable, but I wanted to go even further. As a theme for the mod, Hades was the ancient Greek god of the underworld, a son of Titans and brother of Zeus and Poseidon. With the underworld theme in mind, my goal was to create an inverted ATX conversion, with a black and red paint job and custom detailing. Components - Case: Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5 - Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming - Graphics: Palit GeForce GTX 1060 Super JetStream - Memory: Kingston HyperX Savage 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 - CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K - Power supply: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ gold modular - Storage: Kingston HyperX Savage 480GB SSD - CPU cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 Mods - ATX inverted case mod - Custom red case powder coating - Chaos skull case and graphics card vinyl detailing - Fully sleeved custom cables - Red CPU cooler mod
