Scratch Build – In Progress Loramentum - Fan Upgrade! - Update 27th January 2017

Yeah I can really picture that, I too think the first three are best of the lot. Although as I mentioned, I reckon somebody could get the other two to work (I doubt they'd be quite as saturated as they appear in that render).

Hmm, I've definitely been considering doing this. Would make for some cool macro shots too, not to mention maximum bandwagon exposure (got to jump on some day eh?) Don't know if it can match Pope's though, no harm in trying mind.

 

Oh my... She's purdy as all get-out!

 

That is seriously sexy.

 

Thanks guys! I'm steadily working my way through mounting holes and whatnot right now, should hopefully have some more progress to post tomorrow.

 

A little update for today. Since we're nearing the final stretch on this project, I'm going to be doing more of these little changes posts. So first up on the agenda is the GPU mounting bracket. Since it's being laid on it's side, the normal mounts won't work, so I decided instead to make my own one from some aluminium. This is still WIP as I was short on time today.

Remove that old bracket asap


Template all cut out


Eh, it's a bit rough at this stage


Looking much better now, still very rough though, that'll change drastically


When finished, the bracket will be painted matte black so as to fit with the rest of the build and not draw attention to it, still has a lot of work left. I also managed to add in the motherboard standoffs, but that's hardly an interesting picture so I left it alone.

 

What's this? Back to back updates? Well it's not a huge one, but it's rather important. Managed to finish up the GPU mounting bracket today, now both the motherboard and the graphics card can be attached to the main chassis!

Finished shaping things up


I don't have a workbench, nor a vise, so I whipped up this... thing to help do the bending.


After the initial sanding, looking much better already


Forgot to taking a priming photo, so here it is finished. The matte paint fits perfectly with the black acrylic.




Fits the graphics card quite nicely.
​

 

That's a really interesting solution to mounting a graphics card. I am planning my first build which will use a graphics card mounted parallel to the motherboard (like so many others these days) by using a similar mount, only using a custom back plate to mount it. I think I can make a fully water cooled PC that's less than 9cm total thickness

 

Sounds awesome! It's amazing what opportunities these riser cables present, you can really go for some wacky form factors.

Update

Small one for today, I received all the parts for the flight case, along with a better riser cable. This thing is genuinely quite beautiful, and comes fully shielded to boot, so no dodgy foil wrapping is necessary. Since a roll is pretty boring and you've all seen it before, I used the diNoc as the background this time, picked up a pretty large piece of it for the case protection.

This one is exceedingly long...

 

It's not a riser, it's a silver belt

 

Well maki IS the mod-fu master

 

​

Right I believe it's time for an UPDATE!

Managed to get a lot of small things finished this time round. I made a bracket to mount the PSU, added a rear hole there too for the kettle lead so that it will be hidden during use. I also added the mounting points for the SSD and the radiator along with filing the 24 pin hole so that the connector can sit flush against the surface. The interior sealant has also been tweaked (should prevent air bubbles from re-entering the loop from the reservoir). I stitched up a neoprene sleeve for the pump too, which should allow it to fit snugly into the mounting point without transferring vibrations to the case.

I'll have some pictures of things being assembled later when I've had the chance to do so.









The 24 pin cables will head straight into the plate nice and seamlessly


All soft and cosy in there

 

MOAR BACK TO BACK UPDATE!?

Well we're within sight of the end everybody! Today I received the Monsoon bending bits for the tubing (my old power cord trick won't work with the larger ID of this tubing) so soon will get on with that. I fitted together all the parts minus cables and fans too. It's beginning to look rather similar to the concept work now, something which should be even more pronounced with the cables in place.

Next on the list is the stand so that I can do the filling and tubing properly, along with the flight case and cables. I'll need to pick up some more plastic for the stand so in the meantime I'll probably start on finishing all the wires.

Handy mandrel set


This little shim was the last part needed to mount the GPU, helps maintain even pressure across the card.


Popped everything together, fits rather well.




The PSU is already hooked up to that connector, an extension will be running from the motherboard to that rather than the PSU itself. Should keep things very neat whilst also preserving functionality.

 

Awesome

I was hooked when I saw that the frame was just one big sheet of acrylic with everything beautifully machined and with the loop integrated into it. It's a shame most of that is hidden.

 

It looks amazing man. I only now see how you managed to line up all the 1/4 ports perfectly. That is just amazing.

You should have James make straight plexi connections for those

 

Loving what I see so far!

I can't help but feel like you need to dye the fan blades on the PSU (and later radiator) a matching gold colour though.

 

Kudos to you Alex, it looks amazing man.
Can't wait to see it filled.

 

I definitely see what you mean, i love gazing through the back as it doesn't have the cover so you can see everything. At the same time, the cover does a great job of focussing the eye to the highlighted sections, also helps to make the loop itself look rather mysterious in my opinion.

Haha it appears that they have lined up through mostly dumb luck i think. I didn't have the exact measurements when i made the initial model for machining, so placed the holes where i figured it would be close enough. They won't be dead parallel sadly, but they're certainly not going to be skew enough to cause annoyance I reckon.

I may end up painting one of the radiator fans as per the renders, I'll see how things look stock first though. I considered taking apart the PSU to do that, but given I won't be the final recipient of the build, I figured keeping the warranty might be handy.

Cheers James! Yeah it's going to be quite a nerve wracking moment filling her up. The previous test run worked out, but there's so much more going on now. Started planning for a mark II of this build also, going to see how many parts of the build can be made more streamlined. Whilst i like the build currently, there's a hell of a lot that could be improved really.

 

Wasn't originally planning this to be a double post but hey

Update-ish

Since I realised that the stand would be rather important (I'll definitely need it for filling and probably much of the cable work) I decided to see if I can get it out of the way as soon as I could. Since I can't really afford to have this laser cut, I'll be doing it by hand instead, no biggie as it's a very simple design. I've ordered the plastic, although it could take anything up to a week to arrive as my usual sit doesn't stock frosted black acrylic, my other source also only sells it by the sheet, which is a bit more than I need (not to mention expensive). After figuring out the design, I whipped it into Inventor to make a quick 3D model to see how it would look. Decided to render it up too so you guys can take a look. I also decided to have a play around with the coolant type, seeing as how a fair few have asked to see what a pastel coolant would look like. Seeing as how I have pastel concentrate and yellow dye already, I'll probably just try both in real life and make my mind up as to which looks better. Must admit, from the renders the pastel does look really interesting (in a good way), would have to play around with it a fair bit to get just the right shade though.

It has the same kind of construction as the main body, being a sandwich of 10mm clear acrylic and 5mm frosted black on either side.​

Bit of an outdated 3D model now, but it'll do.​

 

wow... how have I only just found this? It's lovely.