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Scratch Build – Complete Cold Winter V.3 by C4B12 | 14-02-23 (completed)

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by C4B12, 15 Nov 2012.

  1. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
    CPU: AMD A10-7850K
    RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 2x4gb 2133MHz
    SSD: Samsung 840 120gb
    PSU: Be-Quiet SFX 300W

    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 A10-7850K, and then add 2 sticks of 4GB DDR3 2133MHz ram.

    EKWB! Thank you for helping me.

    [​IMG]

    Be Quiet sponsored me with a Shadow Rock 2.

    [​IMG]

    Gigabyte sponsored me with a GA-F2A88XN-WIFI.

    [​IMG]

    MNPCTech sponsored me with this fan grill to have in the front, should look awesome!

    Clear Acrylic 120mm Overkill "Nautilus" PC Fan Grill from Mnpctech.com

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The psu:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    EK DCP 2.2 Combo:

    [​IMG]

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

    Front:

    [​IMG]

    Back:

    [​IMG]

    Left side:

    [​IMG]

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

    [​IMG]

    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:

    [​IMG]

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

    Thats all for tonight! :dremel:
    Johan Nyman
     
    Last edited: 20 Apr 2017
  2. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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.

    [​IMG]

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

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I really like this tinted acrylic!

    [​IMG]

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

    See ya!
    Johan Nyman
     
  3. fr0Zen

    fr0Zen back i guess

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    i like it but where are you going to fit a rad other than the front??
     
  4. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    @fr0zen
    Im going to use one 120mm rad in the front. Thats it. :)
     
  5. fr0Zen

    fr0Zen back i guess

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    okay then :)
     
  6. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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
     
  7. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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.

    [​IMG]

    Then I just painted it, 3 layers.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    And this is how it looks from the outside.

    [​IMG]


    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
     
  8. k.3nny

    k.3nny Minimodder

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    Cool design :D
     
  9. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    Thank you! :)
     
  10. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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.

    [​IMG]

    Measured how much to cut.

    [​IMG]

    Dada!

    [​IMG]

    Think this looks really good.

    [​IMG]


    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
     
  11. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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
     
  12. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    Update!!!

    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?

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    What do you think?
     
    Last edited: 7 Feb 2014
  13. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    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 :thumb:
     
  14. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    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.

    [​IMG]

    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:

    [​IMG]

    What do you think?

    Thanks
    Johan Nyman
     
  15. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    Thanks! Im getting a new PSU now though. 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.
     
    Last edited: 7 Nov 2013
  16. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    This build stopped a while ago, but when I finished my recent build F4DE I got the motivation back to finish this. I will start by making a aircooled version for Dreamhack that starts now on thursday, I will enter it in a modding contest Gigabyte is throwing there. After Dreamhack I will really start the modding and make a custom loop for this mod.

    MNPCTech sponsored me with this awesome fangrill for the front!

    [​IMG]

    Clear Acrylic 120mm Overkill "Nautilus" PC Fan Grill from Mnpctech.com

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 25 Nov 2013
  17. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    I rushed to finish a aircooled version for Dreamhack that was this weekend thursday, for a Gigabyte contest there. After that I will start the real project with custom loop and other goodies.

    To start off:

    Be Quiet sponsored me with a Shadow Rock 2.

    [​IMG]

    Gigabyte sponsored me with a GA-F2A88XN-WIFI.

    [​IMG]

    What I started doing was to fix the 120mm hole in the front and also make the 92mm hole in the back to 120mm.

    [​IMG]

    Then I started working on a shroud that would cover the powersupply. Used acrylic that I painted black on one side.

    [​IMG]

    Then I painted the inside of the acrylic black too so it would hide the powersupply and everything else.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Then I added the fan grill I got from Bill. Looks awesome!

    [​IMG]

    I got the motherboard and cpu down at Jönköping where Dreamhack is, so I installed everything there. It ended up looking like this.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And here it is together with all the other mods, I always ends up with the smallest mods haha.

    [​IMG]

    So next thing to do is to make a watercooled version. I also have to get ahold of a CPU, I think Ill wait for the new AMD A10-7850K, should be released in January, the 14th I think. I was thinking of using a 50-60mm 120mm radiator in the front. Should be enough for the CPU.

    So what did you think about the "aircooled Dreamhack" version of this mod?

    With kind regards
    Johan Nyman
    Minimalistic PC's
     
    Last edited: 22 Feb 2014
  18. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    Sorry for no updates here, but I have been waiting for the release of AMD A10-7850K, now it is here and I cant wait to start. Im still waiting for watercooling gear from EKWB though, after I got that I can start the casemodding for real. :)
     
  19. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    Good news, can't wait to see it!
     
  20. C4B12

    C4B12 Minimalistic PC's

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    Here you go!

    I want to start by announcing a new sponsor and thank them for all their help, EKWB! Thank you for helping me and sending me:

    • 120mm XT Radiator
    • Supremacy Clean CSQ Nickel-Acrylic
    • RES X3 150mm
    • Fittings

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I started out installing the loop to see how I wanted everything, the RES is installed in the top like this.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The 120mm XT rad goes in the front of course together with the DCP 2.2 pump on the bottom.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The entire loop from behind, whats missing here is the cover over the PSU and the pump, working on that right now aswell as fixing all the cables to perfect lenght.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I cant get a good photo from the side because of the tinted plexiglass, although, as soon as I have some lights inside the case there will be good pictures.

    [​IMG]

    Last picture of the day!

    [​IMG]

    What do you think so far?

    I have dissassembled everything now to finish the last small details.

    • Complete the coverplate for the PSU and pump.
    • Fix all the cables to perfect lenght.
    • Install a SSD.
    • Leaktest.
    • OS Install and config.

    Hopefully Ill have a new update this weekend, until then, have a good day!

    With kind regards
    Johan Nyman
    Minimalistic PC's
     

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