Scratch Build – Complete ⭐ CURV3D by C4B12 | 20-02-10 100% Finished!

Haha yes the irony! I kinda only builds with mini-itx.

Thanks!

Thanks! Haha I got it after!

Thankyou!

 

Well done Sir!

 

OHHHHHHHHHH that is such a sexy Lian Li case. Congrats!!!

 

So we're seeing a 900d itx build soon? Should be interesting

 

Thanks CMos!

Oh yes it is! Im selling the Cosmos II, not my thing. But the Lian Li.. Soooo nice. Future casemod maybe.

Haha lol. I could probably fit CURV3D 10 times in these cases.

 

awwwwww you shouldn't have

 

hahahaha lol

 

my face lit up when i started scrolling down the thread and realised what build this was and who it was by JOHAN!

Ive said many i time, love the build

(PS, its Jack. B)

 

Haha thanks Jack!

 

I can't believe I missed the last of this. I'd have turned the hard drives the other way round, but I love that little hard drive holder.

It's a shame the SATA connectors on that board are a bit awkward.

Have you worked out what you're doing with those cases yet?

 

Thank you Primum! Yeah the placement of the sata connectors on the motherboard is the small detail I dont like, I would love to be able to hide the sata cables more. But I did my best.

Im actually working on a even more simple design so this case would be possible to manufacture. In black and white and lcd and non-lcd versions. Im working on it!

 

You might have been here before, why? Because this project log was started in 2012. But then, why are you here again?

Well this project is kind of a never ending story for me, I upgraded the hardware along the way and changed it, I still have it and I still change it. But I never was totally satisfied with it. AMD also released their A-10 7850K a while ago and I really wanted to have this in this small build to make it a really awesome HTPC, but how should I be able to cool 100W in this small case?

I will watercool it, first with a Corsair H75 and further on I will make an entire custom loop in this small case. That is what Im going to show you now, but first, if you have time, go through the worklog to see how I built this case from the beginning.

I want to start by announcing new sponsors for this project.



The new hardware in this case will be:

MB: MSI A88XI AC
CPU: AMD A10 7850K
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 2x4GB 2400MHz
PSU: Streacom ST-NANO150
SSD: Corsair Force LS 120GB
FANS: 2x Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12

New things to do:

• New front and backplate out of aluminium.
• Sleeve the new PSU and all the other cables.
• Cut a bigger hole in the bottom for 2x 120mm fans.
• Installing the Corsair H75.
• Sand down all edges and polish them.
• New case feet.
• Custom loop?

I hope you will be entertained by this project and follow this log.

With kind regards
Johan Nyman
Minimalistic PC

 

Much excite!!

/MA

 

Excitement here too man!

What I have started doing is to cut out a bigger hole in the bottom of this case to fit 2x 120mm fans.





I started by taping of the entire bottom to measure out where to cut.



This hole should get some air in and out!



Got dust?



The left fan will blow hot air out and the right one will blow colder air through the radiator, had to cut the fan frame to get it in there.

Right now my focus is on my other project, F4DE, cause I have a deadline on that one so I have to finish that first, so next update on this project will probably take a while.

But Im really excited about this project and as soon as F4DE is completed I will put all my focus on this one.

With kind regards
Johan Nyman
Minimalistic PC's

 

Extremely long time no see...

So hello...

Been a very long time since I posted something here on Bit-Tech. Since last time I was here I have gotten a new job, a son and just going through things in life.

However I have not lost my love for modding. Or given up on this project. Im the kind of person that have problems leaving started projects unfinished, even if it is very old projects.

So the last months I started building on this case again, finishing up small details and making new parts. Im going to Dreamhack Winter for work and as they started having a modding contest over there I thought I would try my luck in the "Open class" with this project.

So I started ramping up the work on this. I know I planned back then to first do something with Corsair's H75, so thats the plan for Dreamhack, after the event I will change it out to a completely custom loop. So yeah, lets see some photos now?

So before the front and backplate was made out of stainless steel, this time though it will be made of aluminium. So lets make those!



I cut it out with a regular jigsaw.



Used files to make it smoother.



A quick photo of my old little workspace.



I measured out the hole for the LCD, powerswitch and for the I/O-plate on the backplate.





Drilled and cut out the holes.





For the backplate I wanted some holes to get more air to go through the case.





Lets testfit this!

 

Next thing to do was to figure out how to fit a SSD into the build, what I came up with was a small SSD-holder attached to the radiator, I made this out of a small piece of aluminium sheet.



This was the first idea.





Making it a bit nicer.



This is how I thought it should work.



I gave it some black paint to make it fit together with everything.

As this build was sponsored by Corsair back then and it will be shown at Dreamhack, I wanted to do something with the blank black SSD.





Lets get the Dremel!



Yiha!

 

I have limited fan-ports on the motherboard, only two, so I had to solder together the two 120mm fans in the bottom.







I really love doing scratchbuilds, because you can build it exactly like you want it, and optimize it after the hardware you use, make the cables exactly as long as they need to be.





I wanted some kind of dustfilter for the fans, aswell something to "hide" the fans a bit. This was my solution, a old MNPCTech fangrill with a dustfilter that I cutout for it.

 

So next thing I want to do is to tidy up all the cables and sleeve some stuff!





First thing was to make the LCD fit in better, the backside of the PCB was green and really stood out of everything else, so I got a can of Plastidip to cover it in black.



It also got a custom-sleeved USB-cable.



Im using Streacoms Nano-PSU. So I shortened the power-cable and sleeved it as well.



Then I made a cable that goes to SATA first, and then over to a 4pin CPU cable.



Power-switch also got worked on!



This is how it turned out.



Using P-clips to tidy down the cables.



Finally the small ring on the H75 also got some white paint instead of the original grey/silver.

Right now I am working on painting the front and backplate. After that is done I will mount the LCD to the frontplate, then the front and backplate will be mounted to the case.

Then the only thing left is to install the hardware, configure everything and clean everything up.

Hopefully someone still looks in this thread and likes the progress. As I have been offline from here a long time I will soon post some of my other projects I done the last year.

Best regards,
Johan Nyman
Minimalistic PC

 

Dreamhack Winter 2016!

Ohoi!

Dreamhack Winter 2016 is over, yay! I was able to finish the AIO-edition of this build in time! Dreamhack was really fun but also exhausting. I got some time over from my job to run of to the modding contest that was held there, they had two classes, enthusiasts and sponsored, I was placed in the enthusiast class and in the end got the 2nd place with this build winning around 800USD which was awesome!



As I had lots of work before Dreamhack I was not able to update the buildlogs on the forums, so I have to do it now retroactively. So lets get to that now!





The H75 coolers pump-cable needed to be shorter, so I cut that off and sleeved it black!



The fangrill/dustfilter needed to be mounted somehow, the way I did it was to press it under the front casefeet and then screw it down on the otherside, into the fan frame.



Mounted and done!





Casefeet is made by Fannblade and are mounted with screws, added some small rubberpads as well.







The front and backplate are now painted white, finally!



The 4x20 LCD was mounted with epoxy glue.



Same with the front and backplate, glued together with the help of straps and clamps.





Front and backplates are now mounted! Next thing to do is to mount all the hardware and configure everything.



I also needed to polish all the acrylic, for that I am using Novus which in my opinion is the best for acrylic polishing.

In the next update I will show how the hardware was installed as well as some photos of the finished build at Dreamhack Winter 2016!

Best regards,
Johan Nyman

 

Oi!

Time to install the hardware, eh?



When I build smaller PCs with little of space in, the hardware has to be installed in a specific order, this time I started with the motherboard and routed some cables under it to hide them as well.



After that I mounted the SSD-holder to the radiator.



And then the radiator was installed in the case and the cables were installed and held down with some P-clips.



The pump/block was installed to the CPU.





And that was about it for the hardware, I tried to route the cables as nice as possible while trying to keep it natural.



The last thing to do was to configure the LCD with the software LCDSmartie.











Here are some photos of the end result from Dreamhack, I managed to get the 2nd place in the unsponsored class which I am very happy about.

This build is now back in the workshop and is being disassembled, why? Because now the superfun begins, I will be installing a completely custom loop with some interesting custom-parts. The next update will be a while though as it is a lot to do at work now, but I am very eager to finally finishing this project as I wanted it from the beginning.

I hope you will continue to follow this project and please leave a comment with feedback.

Best regards,
Johan Nyman