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Scratch Build – In Progress Project Neophyte - Update - 2/09/12 - Back to the build & New Hardware!!!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Briaireous, 15 Jan 2012.

  1. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Hi guys,

    So I finally got some time to start after the Christmas/New year season :)

    This is my first ever attempt at modding i've only ever built PCs and done general hardware upgrades etc so I may not be doing the most ... rational of design choices lol.

    Anyway, back to business...

    A quick thanks to my sponsor as of September 2012 Evetech

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    Concept: Create the quietest and easiest to upgrade PC possible. After upgrading numerous times over the years I've gotten to the point where I'm tired of having to struggle for space and deal with wiring messes. To solve the issue of noise I'm going to Water Cool the CPU (First time using WCing) the space and wiring will be solved by creating a case with plenty room for any future upgrades.

    Theme: White/Black/Blue
    Inspiration: Project white by alain-s & Honeycomb by Fuganater()Not to mention all the hundreds of other projects I've seen so thank you to all the amazing and inspiring work here on the bit-tech forums)


    • Build Frame [x]
    • Make Frame Mountings
    • Build Reservoir
    • I/O panels
    • Side panels
    • Motherboard tray [x]
    • Purchase water cooling parts [x]
    • HDD Cage
    • Sleeve Cables
    • Make radiator stand/holder
    • Paint case
    • Install water cooling parts and hardware

    First Render and general idea of the final design
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    Started by cutting a "v" shape piece out of the length of angled aluminium and bending it together to form a 45' angle which was then tack welded together
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    Making sure that its actually at 90' :)
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    Next in order to get the curve i wanted (as per the front panel) a rectangular piece was cut out leaving a straight bar connecting two pieces of angle aluminium
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    Stuck an aluminium cylinder shaped piece in the vice and slowly bent the welded angled aluminium around till it formed a right angle
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    Came out like this :)
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    then tack welded the two ends together since it now formed one side of the frame
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    Did this for both pieces. Also note that i took an off cute piece and put it in the gap to fill the piece the was previously cut to help with the bending.
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    Lining them up and ensuring that nothing has warped or moved out of place so that both pieces are as close to identical as possible
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    Both sides completed
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    Welding the struts onto one of the side frames to join the two together
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    Welding(Just adding this because it gave an awesome lens flare effect) :thumb:
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    Started sanding down the welding on the corners and joins
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    Next i will clean up the rest of the welding, ordering some more hardware and buying the acrylic for the customs built reservoir :) more updates soon
     
    Last edited: 3 Sep 2012
  2. logicmike

    logicmike What's a Dremel?

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    Looking good, keep the pictures coming :)
     
  3. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Received a package from Titan-Ice :) not sponsored but they have great support and are one of the few suppliers of water cooling in South Africa.

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    (Also a quick thanks to my actual sponsor Evetech)
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    I ordered some modding supplies to match my theme as well as some ram heatsinks
    - Arctic MX-4
    - Thermalright Ram Heatsinks High & Low profile
    - Lian Li Sleeved/Blue SATA Cable
    - EZ grip UV blue molex connector kit
    - Vizo UV Blue cable sleeving kit

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    Unpacking the Thermalright heatsinks :)
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    The one package from Thermalright only had 3 thermal pads :( But i emailed their customer support and they have mailed me new ones so thanks to Thermalright for being so quick and helpful!

    Also ordered my XSPC Raystorm :thumb:
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    Last edited: 3 Sep 2012
  4. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks! :) will hopefully have more comming during this week as i start on the res and start making the mountings on the frame
     
  5. Angel OD

    Angel OD Pump Killer

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    YAY! More aluminum welding! :) Looking good! :)
     
  6. Pranja

    Pranja Blackwolf

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    More pictures,please. :D
     
  7. Sarakon

    Sarakon The German

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    More South African Modding :D I like it....And thanks to the titan-ice link/name....they had some super cheap (compared to other shops) HDDs...
     
  8. Archer

    Archer Talga Vassternich - Deserve Victory

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    Woot, another SA modder :D
    If you're in the CT area and you need any help just shout. Good work so far, I'm jealous of that bend you managed to get, and being able to weld aluminium. Really takes a lot of complexity out of a design being able to weld. Keep it up :thumb:
     
  9. peteski

    peteski long live the pc

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    great start mate cant wait for more pics :rock: :rock: :rock:
     
  10. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    It's coming along slowly but surely, it really helps that my dad owns his on business and specialises in cylinder heads lol, have access to lots of machinery just no CnC machines, just yet anyway :)

    More pics coming soon! :)


    No Problem, I'm doing all my shopping through them now they seem to be the cheapest with the widest variety, according to Jump and Pricecheck anyway lol

    Live in Durban unfortunately :(

    Thanks for all the support guys really appreciated :D its great to know i have support from local modders too :thumb:
     
  11. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Small update... ohhh look what i got, a package :) No im not sponsored (although i wish i was) but Titan-Ice has excellent products and I think they deserve my loyalty :)

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    I wonder what's inside, oh wait I already know :p

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    Still new to photography so bare with me

    I chose the Raystorm because of its great performance, its versatility(fits2011/1366/1156/1155/775) so I can always reuse it at a later stage if i upgrade and it matched the colour scheme (including Leds) :)
    XSPC Raystorm Review

    Chose the Thermalright fans for their low RPM, quiteness and performance infact many of reviewers rate it as one of the top fans in the 140mm category, not to mention its pre-sleeved!
    Thermalright TY-140 Review

    Package contents:

    1 x XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel)
    2 x XSPC G1/4″ to 1/2″ Barb (Black Chrome, Twin Pack)
    6 x Thermalright TY-140 140mm PWM Fan (Fits 120mm mounting)
     
  12. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Motherboard tray

    So i had some free time this weekend. Unfortuntately life caught up with me and I havent been able to post the progress until today.

    My goal was to make the motherboard tray, PSU mounting and rough cut the side panels and the rest of the covers for the case :)

    I had an old ATX motherboard laying around so i decided to use that to work off of for dimensions and shape.

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    Here you can see the general shape i'm going for. You might be wondering why i made it so much larger than the actual motherboard thats because i have a plan, which hopefully i will start working on soon :)

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    Started cutting the aluminum using a circular saw as you can see there is something underneath the plate on the saw scuffing up my shiny aluminum :( I'll sand it down anyway so the primer will stick to it nicely so i guess its not a tragedy

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    General shape of the motherboard tray

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    The aim of my project was to build a case that would be quiet, cool and future proof and that's exactly why i'm using an old motherboard tray as a template so i can tap holes for generally any size motherboard i may come across... well at the moment anyway we will see maybe in the future i will have to tap some more when i upgrade

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    Before you can tap a hole you obviously need to drill it and before that mark it. The easiest way to do this since the white board marker i had was too thin to go through the hole is use a nail and hammer. Decided to use a nail and tap a mark into the aluminum since the mark would get drilled out anyway. The nail could mark it at an angle and through the alignment off so used a piece of would as a guide and made this little tool to keep the nail straight when marking the tray.

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    Tool in action

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    After marking all the holes, u might be able to see the little dimples in the aluminum. I gave the motherboard its first coarse sanding to smooth up the edges

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    And heres what it came out like :) I'm quite happy with the outcome. More sanding needs to be done but ill do that at a later stage

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    I mentioned in a previous post that the one box of RAM heatsinks i recieved from Thermalright was missing a thermal pad and it was also not thick enough because there was only memory chips on the one side of the RAM i owned so the heatsink would not fit tighly over the RAM.

    I managed to get hold of Thermalright support and they sent me some extra thermal pads and thicker ones :) so thanks to Steve Shen from Thermalright Taiwan for helping me out so quickly! Sorry about the blurry pictures

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    Thanks again Thermalright and thanks for checking out my project log.

    Next upodate will include more on the motherboard tray side panels and mounting for PSU :) I'm busy looking for a tap for the motherboard tray so if you can help me out please reply here: Motherboard Tray tapping They are cut out but i thought since they just large squares so far i would leave the boring pics out till i can show off some progress on them
     
  13. peteski

    peteski long live the pc

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    looking good mate keep up the good work :rock: :rock: :rock:
     
  14. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    Wowzers, very nice frame work & this is looking awesome especially for your first project, mod on mate :D:rock::).
     
  15. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks guys really appreciate the support!! :blush:
     
  16. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Project Neophyte - I/O Panel & floor panel

    Another update :) finally feel like its looking like an actual case now

    So last night I worked on the case covers and I/O back panel. As mentioned in the last update i just cut the rough sizes that were needed to cover all the sides. You can see them below. The long piece will be for both the top and front panel.

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    Test fitted the back panel looks good to me :) Its not an exact fit but i will sand down the perimeter of the panel until it fits properly. Doing it this way as it's safer than cutting it to exact dimensions and then realizing that the panel don't actually join up and your left with a gaping hole to try fill in so i'm doing my best to avoid that.

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    Also cut out the piece of aluminum that the PSU will mount to at the bottom of the case.

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    I got excited and wanted to mount the panel onto the case so that was the next step. I marked where the holes for the screws would go. The little black dots lol

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    After the holes were drilled into the panel, i remounted it to the back of the case and then marked the holes onto the case so they would all line up. Drilled and tapped them.

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    I then used some black anodized screws to mount the panel :) cant wait to get some paint on the outside will be white so i think the black anodized screws will have a great effect, well i hope lol

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    Then followed the exact same process for the floor panel of the case. The welding on the inside will get cleaned up before i prime and paint the case

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    Next up will be:
    - The top and front panel which is a single large piece which will be bent over the curve on the front of the case
    - Taping the motherboard tray
    - Taping and mounting the PSU mounting bracket(thingy) :p

    Thanks again for the support and comments :)
     
  17. peteski

    peteski long live the pc

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    sweet mate keep up the good work :rock: :rock: :rock:
     
  18. Asouter

    Asouter --------

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    Liking the progress, are you finding it addictive, watching the project logs ? I know I am
     
  19. Conica

    Conica What's a Dremel?

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    Cool, Good Luck with the build :thumb:
     
  20. Briaireous

    Briaireous What's a Dremel?

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    Thank man :) will try my best, everything is still quite rough at the moment but it will get cleaned up before the paint goes on.

    It's very addictive every time more gets added to it I get more excited to have it finished. I wish i didnt have to work then i would work on it all day long hahaha

    Thanks :) I want it finished now but i also need to try remember to make a quality rig which sucks because i'm a very impatient person lol

    Thanks for the comments and support received from everyone hopefully more updates in the next day or 2
     

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