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Scratch Build – In Progress Fallen Angel

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by w3bbo, 18 Feb 2011.

  1. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Project: Fallen Angel

    So it's time for a new project. I wanted to do something a little darker than my previous build Project Angel so I decided to go for a red/black theme which ties in nicely with the Angelic alterego, hence the Fallen Angel title.

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  2. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    As the inside of the PC-P80 is not coloured in anyway and because I wanted it to be a little different I decided to try out some vinyl wrap:

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    Satin 'deep' red

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    Carbon Fibre

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    I ordered the smooth glossy carbon fibre as 3M Di-noc is matt and embossed like the real thing. I'm hoping the glossy finish will reflect light better as where I want to put it it needs to do just that. The downside of course is that light reflection will show up every imperfection as well as dust accumulation which is going to cause me some headaches no doubt.
     
  3. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Motherboard tray:

    Here's how the tray looks in situ:

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    Tray removed and cleaned with IPA to remove and grease/fingerprints that may affect adhesive:

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    Template cutting:

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    Removal of bubbles. I was gutted with initial application due to the severe bubbles that wouldn't budge, hardly noticable in the photo but it looked like woodchip wallpaper so these had to be 'popped' with a pin; very therapeutic truth be told :D:

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    Motherboard tray mount holes: Odd shapes which made it extremely difficult to get the edges right but looks ok:

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    Next up: Cutting the cable holes and pci slots!
     
  4. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    How ******* fiddly was this to do?!:

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    Outcome worked out well though:

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    Most of the bubbles have been worked out now. There are a few slight 'bobbles' but these are the screw holes which I'll be leaving covered for the now:

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    All, done (for now)

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  5. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Base of case.

    I was undecide whether to go red vinylwhich was the original plan but it look a bit 'flat' and didn't work really well so I went for carbon again:

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    I came across a few probles thanks to LianLi's excessive amount of screw holes which made the surface a little uneven in places. It's pretty much masked by the carbon but noticable close up. A few pin *****s and a heatgun made the job a hell of alot smoother though.

    PSU bracket.

    In hindsight the whole job would have been so much easier had I had a pop-rivet gun but I havn't got one to hand at present so I had to cover everything in situ which took a hell of alot more time (more thn it would just going out and buying a rivet gun!).

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    The vent holes were easier to cut than I imagined thanks to a scalpel but were still a little fiddly to manage a clean cut.

    PCI BAckplate. I was really dreading this part as there were so many holes and rivets as well as rolled aluminium to cover it was always going to be a nightmare. Depsite drawing a template, you can see what I was up against:

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    The Vinyl is pretty much like a large section of sticky tape so you have to be real carefull of creases or worse, it folding up against itself. Once in position though it was a case of using the heatgun to spread the stretch the vinyl into position and de-bubble the piece:

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    More to come...
     
  6. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Next up, the HD tray.

    A doddle to do after the pci backplate:

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    The HD brackets themselves would be nigh on impossible to cover effectively in vinyl so these were sprayed 'rampage' red :):

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    Might get a bit more done tonight, hoping to get the 5.25 trays sorted. Alcohol is calling though so perhaps best I put the scalpel down for the night lol.
     
  7. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    5.25/HD racks:

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    These were easy enough to do however I won't be making all of the cutouts as I prefer the 'stealth' look. The only holes that will be cut in these are for what I need (Blueray + HD racks).

    It's all coming together nicely now. Here's some shots with the mobo tray in place:

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    Next up, a few little details....
     
  8. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Details:

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    After spraying the HD racks red and liking the look I went on to do a few more little touches:

    I was gonna use some plain black rubber edging for the cable cutouts but thought I'd give the stock ones a lick of paint:

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    ...and while I had my overalls on, I painted the thumbscrews to match the build theme:

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    Here's how it looks thus far:

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    That pretty much finishes the internals for now. There might be a few more little touches here and there but I don't want to over do it tbh. Simple but effective is the way forward now.
     
  9. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    And so it begins....

    First off I had to strip down the PSU ready for braiding.

    Here's a quick reminder of the PSU as it looked:

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    Looked great in my Angel build but hardly becomming of something a little more devilish so time for a complete colour change.

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    I'm no electrician but it goes without saying that you should not do this while it's plugged in. The coils/capacitors can also harbour some residual current after switching off too so be careful if you intend on doing this.

    It helps to take photos of the internals for an aide memoire when putting it all back together:

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    Perhaps the most difficult thing when stripping down the psu was removing the on/off switches and power socket:

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    With those removed the rest was pretty much plain sailing and self explanitory, right down to the bare psu itself:

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    ...and the psu frame which needs a spruce up:

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    next up pt.2
     
  10. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    So with the psu now stripped down it was time to kiss my fingers goodbye. I thought I'd do a mini guide to braiding but there are more comprehensive ones on the net if you wanna search around.

    The braiding I have gone for is red and black to match the theme. I was undecided over the red and black mix braid you can get but I think that looks a bit dull and much prefer the brighter, separate colours:

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    First step really was the strip all the old braid off. This was actually quite painfull considering the amount of time it took to do the first time around...knowing I got it all to do again lol.

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    I must have tried every tool going to remove female pins from PCIe/24 pin ATX. Most snapped after a few uses but the good 'ol cork pins are by far the best tool I have used for this. Just slide it down one edge of the pluf, then the other and a gentle tug frees the cable :)

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    Same for the 24 pin

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    1 word of warning before you go stripping yours down, make sure you number your cables.

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    There are pin out guides on the net which can also be used but I find this just as easy and less confusing as you put the cables back.

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    Another problem I encountered with this psu was that not all of the cables were single. Alot of them were spliced so the braid could not be done singulary all the was to the psu. Not to worry though because I doubt the hole in the psu would take all of the cables when braided anyway.

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    Here's the solution I used:

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    Still very neat and tidy and won't look like a rats nest coming out of the PSU :)

    When cutting the braid melt the frayed ends so they don't...er....fray!

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    Don't forget to re-lift the metal slithers up as the cable won't latch into the plug.

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  11. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    You can get heatshrink in different shrink ratios. I chose 3:1 as that gives a good tight fit without too much 'shrinkage', if that makes sense. You can also get it with adhesive on the inside which provides fantastic grip to the braid/cable. The last heatshrink I used was not adhesive and while it gave a tight fit, it lost it's grip when bent, resulting in the braid coming loose.

    To get an even measure on the braid I used a custom measuring tool...a spare watercooling barb :D

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    The 'measured' heatshrink tubes were then cut again in half for the 24 pin.

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    Keeping everything neat and tidy speeds thinks up when braiding and after a while it becomes pretty much like an assembly line allowing you to braid methodically rather than stopping and starting all the time to use different tools.

    Here's a shot of the heatshrink while still maleable after heating up with a hairdryer. You can use a heatgun but a decent hairdryer is just as effective on full heat:

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    8pin ATX:

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    Because my case is large and the PSU being at the top of the case I extended the PCIe cables by 50cm, easy enough to do and looks neater than using some of the pre-braided cable extensions available.

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    All done.

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    Rinse and repeat for the 24pin:

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    Next up PSU frame mod...
     
  12. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Remember the white frame? Sanded down, primed and then sprayed black:
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    Carbonised :D

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    I decided to keep the revolution 'arrows, if somewhat a little more descreet than stock :
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    Thats the psu done with now. I just have to sleeve all the modular cables but that can wait till I get some feeling back into my finger tips!

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    Hope you like. I'm rather chuffed with how it's turned out and matches my build a treat. :D
     
  13. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Minor update: Memory

    I was gonna sell this kit and go for a 12gb kit but in all honesty I wouldn't make use of 12GB and despite having some serious offers for the memory, none were really enough for what the memory was worth so I decided to keep it and match it to my build. HEre's how the sticks look stock:

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    Time for a bit of domination :D

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    Now I could have just sold these and bought a set of dominator GT's for the same aesthetic effect but this kit out performs the dominators by a fair margin (I know because I have reviewed both ;)).

    The edges need sharpening up a tad but thats an easy enough job.
     
  14. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Now for the fans:

    I innitially bought some of these in 120 & 140mm guise:

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    and while they are good fans, I really wanted some with red fins. Choices were a bit thin on the ground. Phobya Nano-G fans had the look but not the performance. Enermax Apolish fans also would have fit the bill but the cfm was dire and clearly these put looks over performance.

    Enter the Prolimatech Vortex :)

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    These were perfect (apart from the price!) high cfm, low noise with great looks. Only problem was the cables wern't braided. Did I mention I hate braiding? Grrrr. Had to be done though:

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    Another 3 on order along with a 120mm Coolermaster sickleflow as the exhaust fan.

    The plan is to have 3x140mm intakes along with another 140mm roof exhaust and 2x 140mm on the Super Mega HSF.
     
  15. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    So as this case doesn't have inbuilt SSD holders I decided to mount the drive to the motherboard tray.

    Sticking the SSD to the tray would have been the easiest option however plugging the cables in could dislodge the drive and make a mess of the vinyl so I used some old extended motherboard risers:

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    Didn't like the look of brass (not that anyone will see) so I heat'shrunk' those:

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    ...and mounted it to the motherboard tray:

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  16. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    The hard drives should go connector side showing, however I don't like looking at cables and prefer to keep the look as clean as possible so placed them this side around. Attaching the HD rack might take a little modding but thats the price I'll pay for a cleaner look.

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    The SATA cables were fiddly to do , especially as the connectors needed re-alligning to match up to the spacing of the HD's but I think they came up a treat:

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    and here's how they look attached:

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    Shame that they won't be seen....might change my mind about the clean look!
     
  17. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Before cracking on with the mootherboard prep I wanted to clear up a few odds and sods so 'carbonised' the GPU's to match the build:

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    Next up was the window mod.

    The case came with a mesh panel:

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    but I prefer perspex, black tinted of course:

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    Needs a good polish with anti static but looks sweet in situ :).
     
  18. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    Time to finally start building. I seem to have spent so long preping and modding stuff :(.

    Anyway here she is, the Rampage III Extreme:

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    The perfect motherboard to match the case and build:

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    After prepping the motheboard by removing the stock 'cement' with some MX-3 I set about mounting the heatsink, Prolimatech Super Mega:

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    Love the mounting hardware of the Super Mega. Easy but with 70lbs of pressure thanks to the optional black screws it should be effective :).

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    Dunno if the copper fins will make that much difference but I managed to get the cooler for the same price as the all aluminium megalahems so I'm not not complaining:

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    Mounted:

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  19. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    I originally had the Bitfinex Spectre 120mm fans planned for the HS but it made it look too black so I plumped for Prolimatech Vortex 140mm in push pull:

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    Memory in situ:

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    Sadly the board and tray together wouldn't fit into the case in one go thanks to the size of the cooler so I had to hide cables as I went rather than do a big cable tidy at the end of the build:

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    I also used the same fans on the intake door:

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  20. w3bbo

    w3bbo What's a Dremel?

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    For the lighting in this build I was just going to let the LED fans do their bit but to add a few minor highlights to the rest of the build I decided to add an LED string, hidden behind the motherboard:

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    With that done it was pretty much plain sailing apart from hiding all of those cables I spent so long braiding!!!

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    Finito!!!
     

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