Case Mod - In Progress The Powerful Pretty Pink Processor (aka, "The PPPP")

YOU! -Flaunting your use of your left hand, using it to harass small animals and pajama-clad women! For shame!
The rig is coming along great. Gotta see the powdercoat.

 

Can only hold the camera with my right hand....so until I decide to hire a personal assistant at home.....you're stuck with viewing my left hand.

 

You are in for a treat tonight! I was lucky enough to receive, and Kevin was kind enough to send me, some pictures of the pink parts getting the powder applied right there at the secret laboratory CaseLabs keeps in California! Let the action commence....

Looks like they use a nice Encore powder gun system....





Kevin was even kind enough to drill some holes for me in parts that didn't have a place to hang already. Like the memory heatsinks in the picture below. Here they are up on the line...awaiting their glorious pink treatment....







This lucky guy got the honor of seeing the first Corsair pink heatsink.





Spray on, my brother. Spray on....











Yes!





Looks like the powder covered the engraved lettering on the Lamptron faceplate nicely....





Into the oven to bake!





Kevin mentioned that actual curing was done at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. Must still be heating up here. Man they've got some cool toys!





Just like any tasty treat....needs some time to cool after baking.








And presto! All done. These look even tastier than a fresh hot blueberry muffin. Or, something like that. Er....never mind.






Even some protective film for parts that didn't need powder! I was going to sand off these areas. CaseLabs saved me some time!





They'll shoot the black parts next, and then return my lovelies to me. Kevin also shared some pictures of my PSU cover....which got pretty bent up during transit. He spent some time trying to return it to its original state, and thinks it will survive. USPS. Gotta love em'.

Anyway....thanks a ton to CaseLabs for sponsoring this project and continuing to show it love. Above and beyond the call of duty!

 

Received confirmation that my newly powder coated parts have shipped and will be here early next week. Hooray!

While I'm waiting, today I'm working on prepping the midplate for some additional cable management spots. To get to the midplate, I needed to take out the motherboard tray. Really appreciate how quick and easy this is to do with the CaseLabs S8. Four quick screws and I can lift the whole thing right out....





There are two changes I'm going to make to the midplate. You see that existing rectangle cable management cutout right on the other side of the PSU? Well, the way I'm going to wrap my GPU cables down and around into the PSU compartment, I need for that cutout to be further back so I can make the cables curl up right out of the PSU and disappear underneath the motherboard tray. I also want it higher up so that the cables are hidden underneath the tray and can't be seen through the windows.

I also need to widen the existing cutout on top of the midplate where the GPU cables will drop down below the midplate. The double 8pin cables are wider than the existing cutout.





A few more screws and I can take the whole midplate right out for easy Dremmel action. See Tebow's tail down in the lower right? He sat and watched what I was doing with great interest.





He even likes the kitty....





Need to tape the midplate where I'm going to make the cuts. I'm fresh out of painters tape, so I had to borrow some of my daughter's Duck Tape. Of course, she had a variety of colors and combinations available, but she picked this fabulous pink and black tape for my use. FAB-U-LOUS!!!





Taped and ready to go.....





Sweet Dremmel action on that FABULOUS tape!





I tried this little brush attachment to clean-up the edges and it worked well.





I'll take some more pictures of the midplate after I get it back in the box. Should all make sense then if it doesn't already.....

 

DAMN!!! This is one funny,interesting and awsome Build log,
Great work on everything,realy love the Panther popping up every where,i started to make a game out of it with my daughter,"can u see the panther in this picture".
Keep up the amazing work!!

 

Midplate back in, and sewing on my GPU cabling all done. Really happy with how this portion of it came out....so time for some glory shots!

There are a total of 4 8pin cables for the GPU's. The two for each GPU are sewn together into what looks like a 16 pin cable, and then both 16 bin cables fold toward each other to meet in the middle and drop down between the two GPU's and through the midplate bottom. I even sewed the two 16 pin cables together so they would become one cable dropping down to the floor. You can just make out the expanded cut-out in the midplate at the bottom of this picture that was necessary to run the cables down this way.





This view from the top (radiator drop-in mount removed) shows the cabling off well.










I still have some cabling work to do for fans and lighting, and a touch more sewing to do on the motherboard power cables, but I'm stoked with the progress. Those dual ASUS DirectCU II 780Ti's look nice already. Can't wait to see them blocked up!

More soon!

 

Always a good day when you come home to a FedEx from CaseLabs.





After removing all of the paper and bubble wrap surrounding the items....they even had packaged all of the items individually into their own little baggies!





Those are spare windows at the top of the stack, for some sponsor logo etching I'm going to have done. I'm going to start putting some of the items back together now, and will take some glamour shots as I go. More later....

 

I've been busy playing with all my freshly powder coated parts. Today, I'm showing off the Corsair Domintor Platinum sticks.

I spread out my powdered parts and went to work...





One last parting shot of the RAM in it's as-is form. It's really nice looking RAM already.





But...now it's a lot nicer looking RAM. Especially if you are building a pink and black computer.





The lightbar cover is now black, and the heatsink fins are now pink. These customizations are in addition to the dyed light bar insert I showed awhile back. Pretty sure these are the only Dominators Platinums like this....







Kitty liked them so much he suggested a photo shoot up in the studio. Kitty always likes pictures....





He started some weird modified Full Metal Jacket chant when we got upstairs for the photoshoot: "This is my RAM. There aren't many like it....but this is mine. My RAM is my friend. My RAM is my life....."





I just ignored him and kept shooting....





It looks pretty sweet in the build also. Since the black and pink powder used on the RAM parts are the exact same as that used on the inside and outside of the case, they are a perfect match.








More done already....so more pictures soon!

 

ROFL LOL hahaha I couldnt stop picturing him shouting that with the RAM HAHAHA so silly LOL

the powder coating looks amazing, Love the amount of detail you are putting into this absolutely love it

 

Thanks Darwing!

 

Pictures of the Aquaero and Card Reader reassembly....

The Aquaero face plate was sent for the pink powder treatment, along with the Lamptron face plate. Aquaero face plate on the bottom, ....looking positively pink!





But before I put the Aquaero 6 back together....I might as well go ahead and install the passive heatsink I bought for it. Black version, of course. This thing is solid, heavy, and reeks of quality....





I cut and laid down the required thermal pads for the heatsink installation.....





But then took a pause. I hadn't really decided yet whether or not I was going to water cool the Aquaero. If I'm going to....it would make sense to go ahead and put the block on now...while it's disassembled. Quick executive decision.......yes. Yes, must water cool. But....the waterblock is copper. I love copper. But not in this build. What to do.......what to do.....





So....I grab my roll of FABULOUS tape, and protect the innards. Then a few thin coats of this......





...and a few thin coats of this.....





BOOM! Yes, I like that. Put a couple of my EK fittings on also.





BOOM! Sorry. Had so much fun typing that the first time, I thought I'd throw in another one. I like how the sealer I used created a matte texture to the block. Makes it really match the inside of the CaseLabs case.





BOOM! Really sorry. Couldn't resist one more. I'll stop now.






Here is the heatsink put back on the PCB's...





...and here is the entire thing reassembled with the face plate and display back on also. I'm pretty sure this is the only pink and black Aquaero 6 with a black waterblock. BOOM!





Now....before I go and show you how awesome this thing looks inside the build....I want to show you the card reader. First....you must be subjected to a reviewing of what the card reader looked like before it was sent out for the powder treatment. Sorry to do this to you. It was grey, unfinished, had shiny silver screws, and ugly rubber cables coming out the back. It was really throwing off my mojo. See...?





But now...my freshly powdered card reader case looks black and beautiful. I even went ahead and sleeved the USB cables while I had it disassembled.





Snap the cover back on the top....and I've got one sharp lil' card reader. My mojo is realigned and reinvigorated.





Even had the PCI pass through bracket powdered black also. No need for a shiny silver part back there....





Now. Here is how they look in the build. I'm really happy. It's a clean, sharp and sexy little corner of the build. An improvement of 1000% from it's pre-powdered days.





BOOM! Hehe....had to throw in one more. Also notice the black mounting brackets for the Aquaero. These used to be silver also.





More to come very soon.....since I've stayed busy on the build the last few days! BOOM!

 

More stuff going back together. Tonight, I'm displaying the PSU, the Lamptron and the flow meter.

Now....the PSU isn't done, ....because I still need to cut some acrylic for the window. But...you can get a feel for how gorgeous this thing is going to be even now. I had the top case of the PSU done in a matching black for the interior of my CaseLabs S8, and the fan grill done in a matching pink for the exterior of my S8. Mmmmmmmmm...







Imagine the window in place with some logos etched into it and lit up from the inside. Mmmmmmmm.





I showed this Lamptron face plate picture off yesterday with the Aquaero assembly pics....





....and now here it is on the front of the Lamptron. BOOM!





I also had the face plate for one of my Aquaero flow meters done in pink also.





I'm pretty sure this is a one-of-a-kind flow meter.





I've been busy getting stuff done on the build, so there will be more BOOM tomorrow!

 

You'll remember that I took apart the SSD's and sent in the shells to get the powder treatment. How much....is that kitty....in the window.....





Not done....because I'm going to put a piece of acrylic in here also, etch it, and light it up. At least that's one of the two options I'm playing with in my head. This shot really shows off the texture of the matte black that CaseLabs uses. The SSD's will match the case interior purr-fectly.....




Two are twice as much fun!





The tough thing here is finding a place to mount them.....that shows them off. With the window and lighting....these things are going to be beautiful. They are worthy of prime real estate inside the case....but I'm almost out. Would love some ideas on location and mounting methods so that these get shown off! What say ye?!!!

 

This looks amazing,the ssd's could go on top of the usb hub?or on the side of the radiator,or over the io shield,or on top of each ram pair,since you will light them up it looks good everywhere,as long as you are able to show it off.

 

Can't go on top of the memory after I spent all that time dyeing the light bar inserts and powder coating the covers!

Side of the radiator might be an option.....

But I think putting it on top of the I/O shield would look unbalanced.....

Thanks for the ideas!

 

I'll definitely show off some mock-up pictures of the SSD's in some different locations. But on to more cabling pictures for today.....

Working on cabling for the fans on this radiator. Way too nice of a morning to stay inside....so......





Similar to the approach I took on the last radiator....I created a branching wire that lets me plug all 5 of these fans into one Aquaero channel....







Female connector on one end.....





...and male connectors on the other 5 ends.





Plug the male connectors into each of these fans, and then run the female end to the Aquaero. Minimal wiring.





Viola! More soon!

 

Yesterday I finished up more of the Aquaero cabling.

First up....I present to you....the world's longest Aquabus cable! Measuring in at almost 4 feet....sleeved in beautiful black Lutro0 Telios! I contacted Guiness but apparently they don't keep official records on longest Aquabus cables. But since they didn't threaten to sue me....I'm going to claim the title. World Record baby! Until you provide proof of your own Aquabus cable that is longer.....





Naturally it has black female connectors on both ends, with some heatshrink. It will connect my AQ6 in the flex bays with the AQ5 in the rear of the build. To keep the wire somewhat hidden, it has to take a long path from the front to the back. I"m going to run master/slave mode this time instead of two independent Aquaeros. I'll show some pictures of both Aquaero's, and how they are connected, coming up soon. By the way, that's Tebow in the top picture and Taylor in this one. They're siblings. I love these dogs.





Next, I need to run some power cabling to the second Aquaero. So I measured out my desired cable run, and cut four lengths of wire, and put a female molex pin on one end, and a female ATX pin on the other. Cut some more of the Lutro0 Telios sleeving......





...and then melted the sleeve onto the pin on the ATX end....





....melted the sleeve onto the pin on the molex end....





....slid the pins into the connectors, and....BOOM! Sorry. I'm still on my BOOM kick, and it's tough to stop once you start. Anyway, I can now check off power cabling for the Aquaero's, since I've done both of them.





But I also need a USB cable for the AQ6. Now, of course they come with USB cables, and AC actually sleeves these for you. But....as you can see in the picture below, their idea of sleeving a cable isn't the same as mine. It's an improvement over bear wire....but come on Aquacomputer! If you're going to do it....do it right! The picture below is the USB cable that came with the units....





I replaced the sleeving with some more Telios, and then used some heatshrink to cover the ends. Much better.




OK. That's all the basic Aquaero cabling. There will be some temp sensors that need sleeving eventually, but I won't know for sure where those are going until after the plumbing is done. The only cabling I have left is one more bank of radiator fans, and a couple of solo fans on the back side. Plus the pumps still need some work on the cables. But that's not much....and then I'm ready to start blocking everything and bending some hard tubing. Can't wait!

 

Radiator cabling work last night. This finishes up all the fans!

I start with doing a rough layout of how the wires should connect. Then I strip insulation at each "join" point, and open up the middle of the wire and wrap the joining wire around it.....





Then each join gets some solder. I'm notoriously bad with the solder iron....but have improved somewhat from my last build....







Then each solder join needs protection so it won't be touching the other wires underneath the sleeve. I use this tiny little heatshrink from Bitspower that barely goes over the cable. Very tight fit. I forget exactly what size this was....





But here it is compared with some normal heatshrink. You can see it's much smaller.





Here's what it looks like once it's shrunk on the wire....





Couldn't resist a shot of a perfectly crimped Lutro0 male fan pin on the Lutro0 wire with the Lutro0 crimper. His tools really work well together.





Skipped a few picture opportunities along the way....but here is the finished radiator cabling. This is the front flex bay area 240. Minimal wiring. Nice and clean.











Ready to move on to the pumps!

 

Time to finish up showing the Aquaero's in the build. I already showed the back of the Aquaero 6 in the build, and the black waterblock, and all the wiring work I've done, but I haven't shown the 2nd Aquaero 5 LT that I'm running....





I'm going to use these in master/slave mode, instead of running them independently like I did in the BBBB. Mounting this second one became more of a challenge, since I'm completely out of flex bay slots already. It was going to require a little creativity. So....I got my drill....





....and some more of my FAB-U-LOUS tape, and stuck this controller right above the PSU on the back panel of the case. It tucks away pretty nicely there....





BOOM!







This is what the front of the case looks like, without the panel, but with all of the faceplates (Lamptron, Aquaero and card reader) powder coated in the same pink as the rest of the case. BOOM!







....and with the panel on. BOOM!





In this shot of the back of the case, you can see the 4 screws above the PSU that are holding the Aquaero to the back panel. Some standoffs on the other side of the back panel create plenty of space between the AQ and the panel.





I'm not usually a fan of pass through cables....but I actually really like the way these came out. The cables are clean and sleeved, and the pass through bracket itself blends right in with the powder coat treatment that CaseLabs gave it for me. This build will not be in a spot where it will be handy to access the back panel, so it was important to me to bring as many USB ports to the front as I could....





Just got another nice size package from ASUS also! Can't wait to get it out and play with it. More soon!

 

Last night I parked myself in front of the TV with Game of Thrones playing, lots of sandpaper close by, all my waterblocks and pump tops, and some water and towels. Just a normal Sunday night, right?

The kind folks at EK have equipped me well. But I'm itching to polish up these blocks before I put them on. So I gathered them all together....





Started with some 320 grit. Wet sanding....





The pump tops are such large and thick pieces of acrylic, that I really wanted to start with them first. Out of the box they were pretty clear and smooth on top.....but were still kind of frosted on the sides, and had lots of machining marks on the underside. I used a heat gun to warm up the glue under the EK badge, and lifted that off.

After the first pass with 320, they looked frosted all over...





Next....600....





Frosted......but smoother.





Then 1200.....





Even smoother....





Then 2000....





Even smoother....





Then comes the plastic polish....





BOOM! After you get to this step....the blocks just gleam. Like a solid chunk of highly polished glass. These pictures don't' even really do them justice, since I have such poor lighting down here. I'll get them up in the studio with some pink coolant next.....but I'm pumped with how they came out.










These are going to look amazing stacked on top of each other in the 3d printed pump stand. More soon!