After the finish of The First Order ( http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=300608 ) Supermicro launched their top tier Z170 motherboard. The C7Z170-OCE. This is, in my opinion, a huge step up by them. It has big improvements in just about every section. Especially appearance of the motherboard and BIOS are just as good as anyone elses in my opinion. Plus this motherboard uses a PLX chip. Not so much you can add as much gfx cards are you wish, but also because you can use all gfx card lanes AND all storage lanes at the same time. I really wanted to do a mod with one since it looks great as well so we decided on a new project. Where we covered a bit of the dark side of the Star Wars universe in the previous mod we cover a bit of the good side I chose to use a theme with an Xwing squadron which I named the Green Squadron. It applies to the colour of the motherboard, the fact that is it the good side and the fact we are using an Nvidia gfx card. So lets get to work on the first batch of photos. First of all again a big thanks to Supermicro for having the faith in me and my work and having me do this The supplied me with their Gaming S5 chassis (that for the occasion had a green front!!!) and their newest C7Z170-OCE motherboard. Since I have gone over the chassis quite big in the previous thread I am not doing that again. Next to this for this mod is the motherboard. I would like to show it off a bit as probably 95% of you guys have never seen it. Just like last time Bitspower was kind enough to supply the project with watercooling equipment. Thank you very much again Bitspower I will show more when I install the products. We then proceeded to add some more hardware to the build. Since I couldn't wait I proceeded to install the CPU block to the motherboard. It fits the black motherboard nicely I think. I then proceeded to take apart the case to paint it. As I wasn't going to build in a silver workstation chassis. I first cut out the rear fan mesh and the mesh underneath it as I have plans for that. And then sanded, cleaned and primed it. And we have a chassis very lichtly metallic black with some clearcoating over it. That is all for this update.
A Green Squadron project without a green squadron is not done of course. Dual layer on the grills. UV green and matt black. The mobo tray cover is matt black (see previous post) and the PSU cover is also matt black. Because I am using the same chassis I could reuse those last 2 drawings and adjust them a bit. For other Dutch and Belgian people looking for a good lasercutter and laserengraver, I get all this done by http://www.kalkman-lasertechniek.nl/ .
I am re-using these fans. Enermax doesn't sell them anymore. They were used on a previous big Supermicro mod: Opteron Prime. Love them so much I will use them again for his one. Using my trusty home built bending wire to bend the 3mm thick panels. So happy I built one of these. Makes bending not only easier but the bends are just better. More straight and less wide. And this is how it looks fitted. Really happy with it.
Time to fit the radiator in the top. The case is standard not equiped to fit a 360 in the top as the 5,25 inc bays are there. But the basis of the case is perfect for it. Fit nicely. This is the Bitspower radiator. I think they source them from Hardwarelabs as they look very identical and also make use of M4 screws. Which is a good thing. The only downside is that the 1/4 in and outlets are on one side only. Which makes the Bitspower logo half of the time end up upside down xD Time to run a few 4mm holes through the fresh paintjob. The case has the option for 240 mm radiators to fit closer to the doorpanel so the motherboards stays clear. So I just added a few holes et voila. I fitted the top fans on top of the radiator as I didn't want the inside to be lit up too much by them. The radiator also gives a nice stealth look to the top.
Of course I cannot live with wiring with all kinds of colours in a project no sir. So before mounting the reservoir with pump setup I am going to sleeve the power and rpm cable. Sleeving is a dirty job but someone has got to do it. Fitting the reservoir only by the pumptop mounting system. The top side will be fitted to the radiator with quite a small pipe. So it will be updright. What the pictures show is that I used a black metal plate behind the mobo tray where all 4 screws go through to fortify the setup. It will travel with Supermicro and I do not want the res to be torn from a plexiglass mobo tray during travel. I think it looks splendid
I want to show off this block for a small second. I was sent the gold version for the TitanX because there was no other one in stock anywhere. I had to cover the backplate with black metallic vinyl for the theme, but it was almost a sin. The gold coloured block and backplate are absolutely bloody gorgeous. I have NO idea where the finished photos for the block have gone. I will look for them on my pc because I am sure I made them.
I didn't really have a nice spot to put the SSD this time. So I decided to tuck it away under the PSU cover. To make a bit room for the connectors (and my fingers) I put it on standoffs.
Time to put some time into the sleeving of the cables. The 24 pin will get an extensions (because of double wires), the 8 pin eps will also get one and the PCIE cables will be sleeved themselves. I also put some carbon sleeving on the SATA data cable.
Started putting the fittings all over the place and come up with a loop in my mind. Of course I always ask for 2 or 3 fittings too litte. So I end up making some kind of contraption to make it all work haha. Which usually ends up around the pump and reservoir.
After some searching I found some UV green vinyl. It will just colour better with the greens in the system. I have lime green and other shades of green, but they were just all different. I knew I wanted to have a logo on the PSU cover again (like the previous one). And I knew I wanted to do something with the GPU backplate as well. I kinda like the name of the project in a STAR WARS font. Then after I stuck it on it felt like it needed just a little additional touch. So I stuck on the Nvidia claw and that finished it I was finished now with the PSU cover and all cables beneath it so I fitted it. First had to pull the GPU wires through 1 by 1. LIKE A GLOVE This connector right here is for powering the UV LED strips going on the inside of the sidepanel. Some additional photos just because I felt like making them.
Very nice! But I want to see more "extreme" and unique builds now You have to tell Supermicro to step up the game a little
What do you guys think of the engraving on the sidepanel? The gfx I got from Google. I cannot take any praise for it. I just thought it would suit the theme of the project very well
Looks very nice. Do you have the other build? can we see pics of them side by side when you're finished please?
