Hi everyone. Time for a little project. This is actually a 'filler' project log. Just something a little different for me and to work on something until the next big project. When I say different we have and plan to explore many new techniques and materials in this build. There shall not be any watercooling here either which actually will be a big first for me. Something I'm actually looking forward to. Due to the nature of how busy we are with Parvum this will be kept a somewhat photo based project log. I'll be more than happy to answer all questions as we go but the text will be kept to a minimum in the project. This build is possible with the support of Intel, Hyper X, Nvidia and Republic Of Gamers. I tend to gather a series of images and physical items as project inspiration before I start anything. I thought I would share them: Main Components: Case - Custom Steel Parvum X1.0 CPU - Intel i5 4670k Motherboard - Asus Maximus VII Impact Memory - Hyper X Unknown GPU - Asus GTX 750Ti SSD - Hyper X Unknown PSU - Silverstone Strider SFX 600 Miscellaneous: MDPC-X Sleeving Large Coolers - Prolimatech Genesis CPU Cooler & Alpenfoehn Peter 2
Steel case panels & ageing the metal coolers We start with the stock coolers for the project. It's going to be EXTREMELY tight to fit the CPU cooler but we will make it work. In their retail form. I wanted to keep away from the very bright chrome so we had to step into some unfamiliar territory here. I'm usually not a fan of making things look aged or old but really wanted a rough and organic feel here. I suppose with an architectural background; the desire to mix rustic and aged with clean and sophisticated was always to our taste. We first sanded the nickle plating with a fine grit and dunked into a a bronzing solution to eat away at the coolers. We wanted to add hints of colour so we chose to flame heat the steel finishing plates for the CPU cooler. Next up some of the base panels for the case. Laser cut entirely from 5mm thick mild steel. We then left the panels to weather a little. The rebated holes and chamfered edge have been done by hand. We then sanded down some parts of the panel and left the raw look here. We sealed the panels with a lacquer to prevent further weathering and darken down the over all look.
Holy Z! a steel Parvum... Looking forward to seeing how this goes, a diversification into heavy metal. Can you do aluminium too???? Suuuuuuuubbed
We have just started to cut metals with laser yeah. That said its not on site, we are still focusing full efforts in acrylic. Metal is a weekend job
Great stuff Justin, pleased to hear you're busy, metal at the weekend sounds a bit of a Busman's Holiday - ohhh the dedication. No w/c this time, bit of a shocker for you...the horrors of air cooling. I do like the aged look, entropy Cheesecake! It's going to be a HEAVY rig in 5mm steel, I shan't be lugging one to the weekly LAN. One question [I know you're busy] could the ITX case design be extended vertically to take a mATX board with the other 2 dimensions remaining the same??? My ITX is 1/2 assembled, and now I have the right board [Max VI Impact] I can get building when the CPU comes and I have chosen a cooler... Keep up the good work
Ok I'm interested.. this should be interesting.. Aluminium, hmmmmm How about something similar to the case labs M8 but bigger in aluminium of course.. Big enough for me to get at least 4 triple rads in. I could have hours of fun with something like that. Just an idea ...lol
erm it MAY be possible. I'll have a play around and post a few little sketches in the thread next week
J, awesome stuff but one Q, when will we be able to get big cases? When, where (well, we know that )? Magnus, X1.0 (BTW, using that numbering, you saying something about this case being available).....I could give them a home.....
No panic, more an academic question for the moment. Don't want to distract you from the day job or the new ironclad construction I need to get myself into gear and get the custom Parvum ITX put together and on BT
Small update. More than anything we need to choose the acrylic colour for the accents and mid wall. I have taken a number of photos of the choices we like and have considered for the project. If I'm honest we do want to use acrylic here.. because we love acrylic! I have posted a poll for you to choose your favorite. The numbers are labeled here: Full information on choices: Colour - Light Silver / Finish - Gloss Metallic / Light transmittance - NO Colour - Silver / Finish - Gloss Metallic / Light transmittance - NO Colour - Slate Grey / Finish - Frost Matte / Light transmittance - YES Colour - White / Finish - Frost Matte / Light transmittance - NO Colour - Clear / Finish - Frost Matte / Light transmittance - YES More photos of the samples with one of the panels as a reference: Hopefully with the above photos this will give you all enough to make an informed vote. I know what I would chose but I must say I was pulled towards a couple. I will be going ahead with the winning vote Monday/Tuesday of next week so we can get these parts cut and the thing together. In other news; Asus ROG have sent the board. Thanks guys. A shot of the thing (You've all seen the Impact by now) and a photo with bits removed: Now to think about what we can do with these easy to remove bits
Yeah of the selection, I think I like slate grey the most. Although saying that, silver is pretty good IMO, just a tad light though. Something like a cross between the silver and slate would be awesome, but failing that, yup slate.
OMGeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I love love love apocalypse industrial projects. Cannot wait to see how this turns out!
Thanks for all the voting thus far everyone. I will compile results from all 3 forums and let you know the answers. I will also post the most interesting reasons behind the winning votes. Oddly black slate is the clear winner so far here but frosted clear going high at another forum.
Results: Light Silver - 6 Silver - 2 Slate Grey - 21 White - 6 Clear - 23 So with that I will cut and try to post photos of the case built with the frosted clear tomorrow. If for whatever reason we at Parvum and you guys think it doesn't look great we will cut the Slate Grey and compare. It makes sense because votes our quiet close.
White. You will get great contrast between the degraded and rusty Iron to the pristine pure white.... Or Magenta,if you can get it.