I would just like to open by saying thanks for looking and I hope you will appreciate that I'm not a professional modder; I'm someone just getting into it! My plan is to strip the awesome looking InWin 901 of the unnecessary inner parts and use only what is needed. The more space made the better as water cooling inside this case will be tight as it's not officially designed to house a custom loop (correct me if I'm wrong?) The overall design is of course based around the World of Warcraft Alliance theme as not only am I an avid lover of WoW, but my partner is too and aside for using this PC to test graphics cards, she will be using it in the evenings to play WoW! OFFICIAL SPONSORS: ASUS Republic of Gamers CoolForce by Nanoxia Mayhems The parts being used to complete this system: Case - InWin 901 ITX chassis CPU - Intel Core i7 6700k Mobo - ASUS Z170 Maximus Impact VIII GPU - ASUS GTX 1060 STRIX Memory - Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) 3000MHz Cooling - Custom CPU Watercooling Loop Storage - TBC PSU - bequiet! Straight Power 10 600w For storage, I will be using Crucial SSDs, but I'm currently unsure of which ones to put in and use yet! The water cooling will come via CoolForce (Nanoxia) and Mayhems; Mayhems will be providing me with all the amazing fluid I need and CoolForce have provided me every fitting I am going to need to create this pocket rocket WoW system. I didn't want to go "overkill" with this build as it's primary function is to play World of Warcraft and let's be honest, it's hardly super intensive at 1080p which it will be played at; this makes the ASUS GTX 1060 STRIX and Z170 Maximus Impact VIII the perfect combination here! I really cannot appreciate ASUS enough for providing the parts to make this build/test bench happen! Although the GPU won't be put under water (obvious reasons), the Intel i7 6700k will be. Not only will I be doing a small VLOG series of my progress, but ill be updating the forums as frequently as possible too! Thanks for looking, I really appreciate it! Update #1 So since today was hot, I got the InWin 901 washed and prepped for a layer or 2 of primer! Primer time! 1st coat done, awaiting a soft dry time of 1hr (20 mins is touch dry) as it's really hot outside today! Update #2 Since I started priming early on in the hot day, it allowed enough time for the primer to dry and allow me to start putting the blue metallic finish on the exterior of the chassis. If it dries like it looks, the finish will be superb (only time will tell)
Update #3 Having done some further internal planning for the CPU loop, I realised I needed a bit more space. This made me question the need for the HDD cage given that I'll be using a single SSD for this rig. The 901 is held together with rivets! Out comes my trusty Dremel 3000; rotary tools are amazing Pop pop pop as each rivet is drilled out of the frame The rivets are no more and the main inners of the chassis are comprised of 3 main parts. I had considered making a new frame from aluminium and acrylic, but I quite like the motherboard tray that InWin has implemented; saves all the faffing around too! The actual part of the HDD tray compartment causing me space issues was moulded into a part of the main frame. This means I had to cut it off; I know the cut looks a bit gash, but it's getting cloudy and there is a very good chance of rain The plan is to file/sand the edge down so it's smoother to reduce the risk of cutting my finger. This part will be covered anyway, but in the interest of not botching too much, I will fix it Here's the interior frame without the HDD bay! This should give me plenty of space for a nice sized res and will allow me to show off more of the Mayhems coolant; Aurora 2! I would have continued with the cleaning/washing/spraying, but I don't trust the weather and my parents are over for the weekend (my brother died not long ago and family time is too important to miss up). This build will be dedicated to his memory, but still trying to work out how to make it tasteful! I may end up even doing my InWin 805 or doing another build altogether. Possible an Everton FC themed build!
Update #4 So while I was working away and had the chassis sitting in front of me, I thought to myself...I'm not sure I like the metallic blue finish as I didn't feel it was as close to the WoW Alliance logo as it can be. I then decided to go with a shade of royal blue! Everything is back on track with the build now time wise as I have set aside a few hours a week to getting this finished I still need to buff the shell up a bit, maybe even possibly wet sand and re-coat...but the finish looks much nicer in the images!
#Update 5 Got everything sprayed with multiple coats, polished it a little and rinse and repeated I like how it's turned out so far! Next step, putting in the hardware and planning the loop! Here is the gorgeous ASUS Z170 Maximus VIII with the EKWB M8I Monoblock!
