Hello and welcome to my next project. In the ninth episode Boost My PC (about a year ago) I modded for ASUS CZ case Evolv ATX from Phanteks. And from this time I had some idea about this case in my head and now it will finally come to realization. Phanteks meanwhile released a new version of the case, which has tempered glass sides - which I take as a big plus. The overall style will be according to the motherboard. I chose the ASUS TUF Z170 "S" because performance gains of Kaby Lake is nothing special, and this motherboard is simply gorgeous Plan As the main there will be CNC machining of a water cooling component - reservoir. Case will be adjusted inside adding new plates for an overall simplification and finishing the interior. Outdoor parts (except glass) will be airbrushed in the style of motherboard. Components - Intel i5 6600K - ASUS TUF Z170 "S" - ASUS GTX 980 Ti Strix - Phanteks Evolv ATX Glass - G.SKill TridentZ 16GB 3200MHz White - CoolerMaster V850 Everything will be cooled by water cooling from Bitspower. I have some first steps of progress in this project - I started with a measurement of the inside of the case for the new plates. I have all hardware and watercooling from Bitspower prepared so this will have some progress very soon
Sooo, finally the first update! Let's start with the case - Phanteks Enthoo Evolve ATX TG. For me one of the best cases I've ever had. But still will be modded Phanteks gear – case, RGB lighting etc. I am not sure if I will put the RGB inside the case, but for sure it will light up background behind the LCD monitor. Also Phanteks fans with high static pressure ideal for water cooling radiator. Also thermal paste from Phanteks. With that I have no experience, so I hope that will be good There is case stripped off all demountable parts. I will put inside the case 4 plates new steel sheets, which usually have only aesthetic - interior cleaner, hiding unnecessary openings, etc. Measuring and drawing phase for all sheets took me about an hour, I'm a perfectionist and I wanted it all precisely, and most nicely The plates are laser cutted and bended on CNC press brake. The first plate inside, is mounted in to a case with 2x M3 screws. But lacks a hole for the radiator (which is 360 mm) because I did not know until the last moment if I will be using 35 or 55 mm thick rad. For the needs of a measurement hole, I used an older radiator (which is pretty old ), so I will not scratched new one from Bitspower. Hole for the radiator I had to do a little bigger. If I did not do it I will not be able to put in radiator or the plate. The cut was done fairly level, but it was still necessary to grind it. Before drilling the holes for the upper part I mount the second plate, which will also be on M3 screws, but countersunk head. A lower part of the case ready Then I took these plastic caps from positions where are positions for HDD brackets. Plate with smaller holes for cables. A bent about 27 degrees - according to the original frame. Current status More soon!
Very clean and organized work. Will you painting the new parts black? Or are you looking to change the entire case a different color?
Thanks man! Yeah, inner parts will be all black - maybe with some white/grey touches on it. not sure yet Thank you!! And here is next update ----------------------------------------------------------- Here is the raw drawing how it will looks inside. I am trying to have most of the tubing at 45 degress - it will look very clean imo. In the upper part of the case I have to cut one "piece". It was quiety easy as the material is thin. I will paint cuts with black paint soon. Can anybody guess what is this plate for? Upper part of case, for fans or radiators, I decided to fill with sheet. I dont know what I was thinking about when I was drawing this plate, but it is terrible.. So I draw better one and cut it on plasma cutter. Much better In the top I also mounted the alu profile for LED strip. And here is the final render of this beast. Gold(True brass) Bitspower fittings and white pastel coolant. Do you like it?
Finally I got time to CNC milling custom reservoir on the TOP of the case. To the 3 mm top plate was milled big hole for acrylic and 18x 3,2 mm for screws. Milling was at my friends work on highquality machine for the best result. This is the final render of my custom reservoir. 20 mm acrylic, 3 mm Al case part, o-ring and 10 mm acrylic. Also 18xM3 screws and Bitspower True Brass fittings. I had GoPro on the machine, but with the cooling powered on there was not much to see, so only some screens from the video. While (at the start of this project) I was laser cutting sheets I also cutted this one. Just for a test. First hardware parts for this project. Thanks for support ASUS. Beautiful motherboard Z170 "S" and Strix GTX 980Ti which will be watercooled too. Back to the reservoir. Render of main part which will be made out of 20 mm acrylic. First assembly. Fits perfectly! Next time I will be machining second part of the reservoir! More soon
Second part of the reservoir is finished. CNC machined out of 10 mm clear acrylic. Before photos of completed reservoir here is how I planned loop for this computer Some drilling in old motherboard and with old blocks. Few screws and here is my plan for this loop Finished reservoir. Countersunk screws will be painted in gold as the whole loop will be with Bitspower True Brass fittings. O-Ring is 3 mm diameter. Next part will be airbrushing outside parts of the case. All in the style of the motherboard - white and grey digital camo. On the fron big TUF logo. TUF logo will be in this colors Also I have recently finished one of my pinkiest projects
Here is next update! In april I have not much time because I have to complete one computer for ASUS CZ office. Airbrush and clear coating on this case is finished and only remains polyshing. Update about airbrush will be very soon! For now I have placed in case MB, GPU and RAM. Thanks G.Skill for amazing support of those RAMs TridentZ DDR4. Black 16 GB 3000 MHz. As always beautiful watercooling from Bitspower! Whole loop from BP, here are few photos, photos of fittings and etc will be in next updates. I took off the cover from the GPU block. I like it more in "classic" style. Also in few moments I took off this black terminal and installed clear one. So far the biggest PCB I have Acrylic parts of the block will be polished for better look. Painted backplate and also the red part on the core. Rear 140 mm fan I changed to white - it looks better. Back side of case has 2 positions for 2,5" disks. Here is 512 GB SSD without sticker ADATA. For 3,5" disk I have to make new position, because the original place - in the bottom of case - will be "filled" with D5 pump. Here will be placed 3,5" 2TB Seagate Barracuda. Holes for PCIE power cables I did not laser cut because I was not 100% sure about their position But the idea is to cut hole, fill with cables and cover with this 3D printed part. I have 3D printer for only few weeks now, so it is not 100% calibrated yet and it was not super expensive, but quite good result More soon!
Airbrush on the case is finished! Also the clear coating on it and polishing. The BIG gold TUF logo Also the Bitspower on the front side. Finally I know how the entire water loop will look like. There goes lot of time to measuring holes for tubing because every mistake will be very noticeable. But it went fine Next step was to drill same two holes on the bottom of the case. And here are all amazing fittings from Bitspower for this project. All in True Brass color - they are just amazing and super quality. Middle step with drilling was also cutting the hole for PCIE cables for GPU. All cutted and drilled finally 3D printed part coated with matt black paint. PCIE cabling with printed cable comb and also with 4 Icemodz black cablecombs. Custom sized hand maded cables from Icemodz.eu (sleeving, cable combs, clips, connectors...). Be sure to check out their eshop with amazing stuff for amazing prices http://www.icemodz.eu In the next update I will place the pump in the bottom of the case. There is really not much space but it should work out. Also few photos of D5 pump combo kit (TOP and gold mod kit). More sooon!
It was quite hard to fit D5 pump in the bottom part of the case Really small space for pump so I was able to drill only two holes for the pump. Other the I have to drill from other side. There was no way to access nuts so I have to glued them to the plate, but it works out very well and do the job perfectly. Not so pretty, will be painted with black matt. After painting it looks much better! Last cutting on the case D5 PWM pump ready to install in the case. After that I mount inside radiator with Phanteks fans. There was some space next to the fans exactly for some cables - fans cabling, power for LEDs etc. And covered with dust filter. Bitspower valves are the best you can get! Bottom part only waiting for one tube and it is finished. Beautiful IO shield. Decided to polish acrylic parts on the GPU block. It looks much better clean. Just love Bitspower flow indicators. They are so pretty Big progress and only few steps to finish this beast. At this moment is GPU holded by boxes. In finish will be holded by tubing.. More soon!
Last update Next one will be with final photos Lots of measuring for tubing so in the end it will be all accurate and straight. Bitspower passthroughs The parts I cant imagine my loop without The most measuring was with the graphics card but it paid off This tube will be hidden by custom reservoir on the top GPU with block and all fittings prepared, just to put it in The next and nearly last tubes I am really happy how this cable 3d printed comb came out! Huge thanks to CoolerMaster for this amazing PSU V850, keyboard MasterKeys PRO L and mouse MasterMouse LITE S Last tube and its finished! Filling time!
