Case Mod - In Progress Azure - Phantom 820 mod - Finally Finished!

Looks much better fits in really well now.

 

Decided to work on painting the RAM today. Gold hold of some metallic blue enamel paint, should be perfect for the job. All I had to do was remove the heat-spreaders... Well, it was simple enough anyway. Just a quick once over with the heat gun to get the thermal adhesive to soften so as not to damage the memory modules when I removed the pads. This was followed by painful minutes of easing the spreaders off with a small screwdriver.

They're currently running fine in the machine I'm using to type from, so at least I know I haven't done anything to them. Only got half done today, will do the other 4 DIMMs tomorrow hopefully.









The bits of red you can see in the last photo are on the inside of the spreaders and aren't visible once the RAM is in the rig. I didn't want to risk painting over the thermal pads inside, and I don't have any spares so can't replace them if they're ruined.

I'll update tomorrow with a pic of the rig complete with blue RAM once I've finished the last 4 sticks. ATM it's in a rather fetching situation of alternating between red and blue.

 

Well yesterday I had a bit of a rethink on this project. I was staring into the case, on the ground next to me, trying to figure out what was bothering me. I think I worked it out, my original design left the optical bays intact as I was going to add both an optical drive and a fan controller in there. I have since moved away from both of those thoughts. I don't use an optical drive ever, o what's the point of it being there? After having used the in-built fan controller of the 820 for a week, I've also realised that it works fine for me too. It doesn't offer the same kind of flexibility as my old one (NZXT Sentry LX), but I don't use that. I like to keep everything running on low-rpm, and I found that I was able to maintain a 4.7GHz overclock fairly easily even on those settings.

So seeing those empty optical drives above the SSDs, I've decide to remove them intirely and place the reservoirs there instead. My issue with the current reservoir placement is that it's very cramped over there, and the tubing blocks access to half of my SATA ports (not an issue atm but will be in the future). If I relocate them to the top, not only will there be much more space (neater cables!) but you'll also be able to see the white coolant res. Currently it's obscured by the blue one, you wouldn't know it's even there were it not for the tubing!

So here's my updated idea, these are raw renders with no editing (cba to re-install photoshop for a week):






These are only quick renders, not so much made for beauty. Should give a rough idea what I'm on about.

 

rough they are not- the point is crystal clear. I thought i might not like it but the renders slapped me back to reality and made me realize just how much more awesome this will be.

 

Yeah that's one of the main reasons why I do them like this to begin with. I know many prefer seeing the sketch-up style ones where each component is a toon-shaded element for clarity, but I feel these are useful too. I already know the layout etc from the 3D model itself, this way I can easily experiment with different aesthetic points too. Saves cocking something up down the road when I realise it actually looks a lot worse than how I imagined

I updated the renders with some more detail, also fixed a load of texture oddities on the fittings (they do that a lot for some reason). The faint magenta is just to give a feel of what the actual lighting is like when I switch to white. The overbearing colour is white int eh real thing, but the magenta is visible, so I stuck it int he renders too. Spent at least an hour trying to make the white coolant more accurate. Translucent liquids inside tubes are really hard to get right for some reason.

 

Hey guys, thought I'd share a little update on the progress on Azure. Currently I've been bogged down with coursework so haven't been able to do any physical work to the case, however, that will change come next week.

First up: A huge thanks to the guys at Yoyotech. My SSD is now back and working, which I'm very pleased with. They handled everything really well and I had it back in my hands nice and quickly.

Second: I have again re-done the loops in 3D as I wasn't happy at all with the way the tubes crossed over each other. It was cleaner than they are currently in reality, but it still looked a bit of a mess. This new design, I think, looks much cleaner and simpler, plus it will make draining yet even easier.

So here's a new render of what I'm talking about. I've steadily been going through it updating materials, models and lighting too. If anybody would like to see some other angles just ask, I can render these up very quickly using the GPUs, 6-minutes or so vs 2 hours+ using the CPU.



Really looking forward to getting the RAM and side panel done soon, and looking a little further past that, hopefully upgrading to a pair of Titans, we'll see how that goes. Turrah

 

well its good to see most of the problems you had before are fixed and the renders look terrific, you cant go wrong with straight piping, as it can be seen with other builds, it simply makes it super clean

 

Just can't comprehend how some take something as simple as pipe routing and make it look so... amazing

 

Love the use of the tubing here Keep at it!

 

Wow I honestly can't believe that I've been nominated for MotM! That's literally a dream come true for me, especially considering the caliber of the competitors. I honestly never thought that this mod would receive the coverage that is has, thank you everybody

@Hanoken: Cheers! Always loved builds with straight tubing, glad to finally get to have a go at it.

@Siliconfanatic: Haha thanks

@Korvus: Thanks, will do!

Remember to go and get ya votes in people.

 

WOW outstanding render those pipes look outstanding.

One question, the tube that goes to the motherboard tray has space to male the 90º curve, or you will use a connector?

Excellent. render

 

Azure - Phantom 820 mod - Water loops re-think... again - Update 18th March 2013

I love that tubing and ssd mount!!!
That little things looks like it's made for the ssds!

 

A well deserved nomination, Like your build alot

 

@Ziza: Thanks it has just enough room behind the tray for a 90 degree fitting. I've installed it already, luckily that's where the rear-side panel extrusion is.

@Averageninja: Yeah it's quite a practical spot as it if s out, keeps the SATA data cables nice and straight too.

@Asouter: Glad you think so I'm a real fan of both Thing and Deep Thought, really great, original ideas and superlative execution. Amazing how you turned that ugly bit of wood into that hand.

Guys sorry for the current lack of updates, I promise I'll have something up on the weekend!

Edit: Woo 30k views too thank you everybody who's taken an interest in this project!

 

Seconded!

Also just about to start my own mod and hope it turns out as neat as yours .
Looking at the cables in my case at the moment make me want to commit seppuku.

 

Well this is no doubt going to be a little disappointing as it's been quite a while and all I've accomplished is a paltry update. However. That was all down to a lack of time owing to uni assignments, deadlines etc. I'm now free to finish this mod over the coming couple of weeks

So recently I've managed to get the blasted side door and the RAM done. I decided that since I'll be moving the reservoirs to the 5.25" bay locations, I should pop a window section there, and why not a little one for the SSDs too eh? Decided that I liked the angular nature of the default NZXT window, so I styled the new ones in the same fashion, came out quite well too, especially considering I've never tried even a window mod before.

I've ordered some more white acrylic so I can do the top mounts and redo the midplate. I've also put an order in for a new batch of fittings so I can finish the tubing. They should hopefully arrive by the end of the week, but early next week seems most likely given how long things took last time.

Here are some pics of Azure in it's current state:









Playing around with the blue HUE lighting

 

Work, work, blah blah blarbedy blahr blah. Excuses, excuses...

Still looks good either way!
Popping out those 5.25's is the way to go. With the full-size angled window its one step closer to perfection. Im afraid k3nny has just gone bonkers.

 

I think removing the 5.25 bays is a great idea. Would provide a much cleaner look through your windows.

 

Remove it ! go clean, and 1 big window

 

The side window has that spider web effect, and thats pretty cool, you should take a "in the dark" man your build is coming along nicely, and CONGRATS ON YOUR MOTM and dont worry about the competitors, I have a strong feeling that you will get a majority of the peeps on bit-tech to love your build