Case Mod - Complete ⭐ Project SparklePony - Thermaltake 2020 Case Mod Challenge

Hi All.

My name is Chris and I am from Scotland. I have been dabbling with tech ever since I got my Commodore 64 back in the '80s, but did not get my first 'proper' PC until I threw together a bunch of other peoples' leftover parts. Oh yes, my Pentium II @ 400Mhz with a Riva TNT2 PCI card was quite the beast; or maybe not .

I served in the military for a total of 8 years, then briefly worked in I.T. before starting a career within the Civil Service. Tech and Gaming have both been passions of mine now for several decades, but it was only recently that I returned to higher education to pursue a tech-related degree. In my spare time I play my fair share of video games, but also enjoy the outdoors as much as I can.

I am very humbled to have been selected as one of the five contestants for the Thermaltake UK 2020 Case Mod Challenge, and hopefully my build progress can at least put a smile on your face during these difficult times. Speaking of progress, it will be a few weeks until I get started building I am afraid; as I am in the final weeks at University. But as soon as my online assessments and dissertation are out of the way, I will post regular updates.

The first shipment of components consisted of:

• ThermalTake View 51 Snow
• ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F Gaming
• ASUS Radeon RX 5700
• 500GB Seagate FireCuda 520
• 14TB Seagate IronWolf Pro
• 850W Thermaltake Toughpower GF1
• Thermaltake Pacific Hard Tube Water Cooling Kit
• Thermaltake Pacific V-RX 5700 Series Plus GPU Waterblock
• Thermaltake Water Cooling Pacific Hard Tube Bending Kit
• 300mm Thermaltake TtMod Sleeved Cables
• 300mm Thermaltake TT Premium PCIe Extender

The crew at #scancomputers worked tirelessly to get these parts out to us, so huge thanks to them. I am blown away by #Seagate not only for providing the blistering fast PCIe 4.0 FireCuda, but the huge 14TB Ironwolf Pro; I wonder if it will be possible to install my entire Steam Library?

The next package was the CPU and RAM: AMD Ryzen 3700X and 32GB Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB


More components are on the way from the fantastic folk at Thermaltake, so I will make sure to post pictures of them when they arrive.

As far as the design itself...







...that will also have to wait for another day.

Stay safe and take care everyone!

 

This isn't going to be another Unicaorn Farts is it?

 

No, I will be going a different direction with the design of this.

Once the introduction video goes live on the 6th I can be a bit more forthcoming with the details, but the build itself will not actually 'kick off' for a little while yet
I still have a fair bit of outstanding academic work to complete first, actually using the system to run some virtual machines for my experiments.
So the first few weeks will just be small updates, but once all that is out of the way I will get cracking on it!

Cheers folks

 

Introduction video is now live, I talk a little about myself and the tentative plans for the project. There is also some swag up for grabs from Seagate (UK Only).

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2817341335027163

You can enter the competition here, entries close on the 12th April: https://bit.ly/2JHdjTh

 

Hey there modders!

First off, huge thanks to everyone that engaged with the intro video that Thermaltake posted on Facebook; best of luck to all of you that entered the giveaway!

No real progress to report for this week, so let me explain why that is the case.

As you know-given current events-shipping of non-essential items can be fairly delayed these days, so many of my materials are still to get here. I am also still awaiting delivery of more components from Thermaltake, so I am currently in a hold pattern (nevermind the fact I still have exams on the horizon).

Once everything arrives I will be able to properly start the modding. You may not agree with my methodology, but let me break down my plan so you can hopefully see where I am coming from.

1. Assemble the full custom loop. I won't spoil what that is going to consist of, but I need to see how/where everything precisely fits in order to decide on how I want my tubing runs.
   
2. Once that is assembled, then I can make some templates for my acrylic. Nothing high-tech here, the only power-tools i have are drill/dremel/jigsaw/heatgun. Then of course I need to construct all of that using a combination of cutting/bending/bonding, to make sure it all fits and looks alright.
   
3. With that out of the way, everything will get dissassembled and the case itself gutted. A combination of cutting bits out and fabricating new bits will then be followed by a complete repaint.
   
4. With everything painted/sealed, as well as some other small details (artwork, glass, etc.), then reassembly can commence. The finishing touches and of course wiring will be the real pain here.

Whilst that all sounds simple enough, we all know that things very rarely go exactly to plan. These 4 bullet-points are also a vast oversimplification of the work that will be carried out, but we will get into the full details as they happen.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is staying safe and staying at home; take care folks!

 

Little overdue for a weekly update here, because reasons!

First and foremost, a huge thanks to everyone that is checking in on my progress (albeit very little so far) here on the forums; as well as those of you reaching out to me on other platforms. Hopefully when the work really begins, you will be rewarded with frequent posts full of pictures and commentary. hell, even if (when) things go wrong, I'll make sure to post my experiences.

Just last week I submitted my disseration, so fairly glad that is behind me. As fate would have it, Project SparklePony became a vital asset for it; as I ran all of my experiments on the system. I don't want to bore you all too much, the TLDR: a virtual network with a web-server/legitimate traffic generator/malicious traffic generator, comparing the performance of open source IDSs (Intrusion Detection Systems).

The extra oompth of the 3700X meant that each of my virtual machines could have more processing power than the 2600 in my current build, whilst the Firecuda 520 provided much higher performance than the drives that I have currently also. For multiple VMs this makes quite the difference, as each of their 'virtual' hard drives were all on it. So when multiple VMs need to read/write at once, that extra speed really impacts the performance of each VM.

For comparison, here are a few CrystalDiskMark results so you can see the difference.

First up is a 2TB Samsung 860 QVO that is my storage drive in my rig, by no means a fast drive:



Next is the Samsung 960 EVO that is my OS/APP drive in my rig, we all know that it is a solid performer:



The Firecuda 520 in SparklePony? Holy hell:



Whilst everyone will tell you that it makes no difference in gaming, aside from initial/subsequent load times; it really depends on the game. An environment like The Division 2 for example (which continually loads in data from your drive) does experience a benefit, or at least it feels like it does.

Regardless, whilst these faster speeds may not make a big difference for gaming; it certainly made a huge difference for my studies.



Ok, but what about the modding already?

Right, so the majority of my raw materials are here, I will have to clear my workspace up and lay them all out for photos in the near future. For components however, due to the current 'world situation' those are slightly delayed

I have however slightly began on an area that does not require the other stuff to come in:



Originally I was just going to cut out at a square (before actually getting my hands on the View 51), but after seeing the clearance between the PSU and the back panel:



I just did not feel comfortable potentially restricting the airflow there. Whilst I know a lot of mods out there don't really care about actual functionality, this setup is going to be used all the time: gaming, art, potentially college (no pressure on her at all ), etc. So I decided to leave that little section of grill down there and I'll trim the included magnetic dust filter to fit there.

One thing I did notice of course was the upside-down logo on the PSU (due to the orientation of the View 51):



That was a whole 2 second job, but is now rectified.

That's it, that is all I managed to get around to doing I'm afraid. I just had a final exam this week, I have one more the week after next; as well as an essay to complete as well. Once those last 2 tasks are out of the way, then I can really get my teeth into it. Hopefully the other goodies will be here by then as well!



In the meantime, thanks once again for stopping by.

Stay home, stay safe!

 

It's Monday morning and once again the weather is absolutely glorious!

I know I sound like the boy that cried wolf, but the additional components from Thermaltake and Scan UK should be with me very soon. So in preparation for that, I decided over the weekend to get some other things in order first.

First on the agenda was the AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 graphics card from Asus, which comes with the reference blower cooler and no backplate.



Disassembly was a fairly straightforward affair, with only minimal residue left over by some of the thermal pads.



As you can see, the Pacific V-RX 5700 waterblock from Thermaltake will be getting installed onto the card, but before that we have some minor detail work to be done first.

Now each to their own and all that, but one thing that drives me crazy is when I see someone slap a beautiful block on a graphics card, but do nothing with the stock bracket:



The unpainted bare metal sticks out like a sort thumb, unless of course that is the look you are going for. For Project SparklePony however, something had to be done about this eyesore. Whilst you can of course purchase aftermarket single-slot brackets, which are usually painted or powder-coated, I am a cheapskate; so giving it a good paint was the 'thrifty' option



A few coats of primer followed by some gloss black and clear lacquer...



Ahh, much better.

Now on to the next pet-peeve of mine. So many graphic cards have that irritating burnt orange/rust edge on them, in your average build it isn't the end of the world; but when you are trying to make a build as aesthetically pleasing as possible, something has to be done.



Nothing that a Sharpie can't fix of course



The Sharpie trick is an ancient technique that has been passed down throughout the generations, works really well for any random silver screws you have as well as those silly little coloured wires on your front panel connectors/audio header.

Once that was all prepped, it was time to put the block on.



If weight is a sign of quality, then this thing is top-notch. Feels really solid and installation was very straightforward.



I look forward to finding out how all the temps are with it, especially since the card has been flashed and will of course be overclocked.

The backplate that comes with the block is also a really solid piece of kit, whilst it won't be on show much due to mounting the card vertically; it still serves the important function of giving the assembly some rigidity.



With that all sorted, next up was ditching the stock cooler that came with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and installing the waterblock.



I was really impressed with the backplate that comes with the Thermaltake Pacific W4 Plus RGB CPU block. Really sturdy but also a very nice premium finish.



And of course the underside of the block itself has that gentle reminder, folk forget to take that off much more often than you would expect!



I wasn't sure how I would feel about the look of a circular block, PCs are usually full of right angles. But actually I quite like the look of it.



With that installed it was then time to get the graphics card in as well, just to get an idea of how/where everything is going to align.



From this angle below, you can see that the minor tweaks of painting the bracket and busting out the Sharpie has accomplished exactly what I wanted it to. If there was a rusty edge around the graphics card, your eye would be naturally drawn to it; whereas now you'd really have to go looking for it. The devil is in the details after all.



Once the rest of the LCS components from Thermaltake arrive, I'll be installing it all so I can see exactly what I need to do in regards to bends as well as my acrylic work.

Then once I'm happy with what all needs to be done, everything will be removed so I can work on the case. A combination of more cutting, grinding, and painting are on the menu; as well as a few other things.

In the meantime, stay home and stay safe folks!

 

Not much to report this week I'm afraid, still awaiting delivery of the remaining components from Thermaltake. It has worked out well however, as I was able to finish up all of my academic work without any distraction; just sitting my last exam yesterday.

So now I am done with everything and just waiting for my results!

As soon as the rest of the parts arrive, I will finally be able to really get stuck in; so this past weekend I decided to do a few preliminary things to get the ball rolling.

Since the weather was nice I decided to take a stab at cutting my first piece of acrylic:



This particular sheet is actually gloss white, but comes with a protective blue film on both sides. The film is quite handy for plotting your guidelines, as well as providing some surface tension to prevent cracks or splintering. I just used a cheap jigsaw (nothing fancy) but with a high-quality metal-cutting blade. As long as you keep the speed slow and with no articulation, cutting acrylic this way is fairly straightforward. Just remember not to go too fast, otherwise it will melt back together.

The radiator/fan brackets also needed a little bit of cutting with a dremel:



Just little slots to allow the acrylic sheet to be flush with the frame. An alternative option would have been to put notches in the acrylic, but doing it that way would require pinpoint precision; whereas this way I could basially 'eyeball' it.



Not bad for a first test-fit.



I will need to trim the top bracket a little bit more, as the acrylic isn't perfectly perpindicular at that top-left corner. Plenty of other little bits of cutting to do as well, for cable and tubing access; as well as more acrylic pieces to measure and cut for the rest of the inside. Unfortunately I can't do that until the rest of the cooling parts come, as I need the exact measurements.



It is nice and bare back here for now, but once all of the power/argb/fan cables are in, it is going to be a nightmare to tidy up.

Well that's it for now, weather permitting I will do a little more acrylic work over the weekend. Now that all my academic work is out of the way I plan on making steady progress relatively quickly. The sooner I get everything assembled and mocked up, it will be much easier for my step-daughter to plan out the 'artsy' stuff. She has plenty of ideas, but it can be difficult to visualise without having the blank canvas set up to see how everything will look/fit.

In the meantime, take care folks.

 

The eagerly anticipated second delivery came in this week!



A few fittings unfortunately came in chrome rather than black, which I imagine is due to issues with stock; which is completely understandable given current events. The extra-thick radiator did however really catch me by surprise. My intent was to install a 2nd Pacific C360 radiator at the front, for a total of 2 radiators (top and front).

After a good couple of days trying different layouts, it became clear that I would have to have the slim rad up top and the thick rad at the front. Not only is the Pacific CL360 thicker, it is also a fair bit wider as I soon found out:



Whilst it has all the mounting holes in the 120mm position, the actual dimensions of the radiator are that of the 140mm position. The knock-on effect is that I have to trim the notches for the acrylic a bit more, which isn't too bad; but it also resulted in having to experiment with the positioning of the Pacific DP100-D5 distribution plate.

I also got my pipe-cleaners out to try and get an idea of possible tubing runs:



Wasn't too keen on this first iteration, so pondered over it for a little while and tried again:



As you can see, the 64mm thick radiator brings some issues. The View 51 only officially supports such a thick rad in the area that the distro plate currently sits. It kind of fits up top, but requires to be offset a fair bit; resulting in the fans being off center. So the front will have to do. It also unfortunately intrudes on quite a bit of space where artwork was orginally going to be, so will have to go back to the drawing board a little bit there as well. Once I trim and install the acrylic we will be able to get a better idea of how to proceed.

As you can see, the distro plate also has to end up sitting quite low in order for drain port clearance. This also means that only 2 fans will be able to fit down below.

Right, so before diving into more fabrication and prepping for paint etc., I wanted to make sure the components were working and that the radiators didn't have any leaks. I'd much rather take the time now to check, than find out AFTER all the work has been done.



The run from the top radiator to the CPU block will definitely have to be remade, I was off by fair bit and really had to force placement. Fairly happy with the GPU>radiator run though.



The CPU>front rad run is alright, but I will likely bend a fresh one later on. Originally it was going to enter the other port on the radiator, but the run from port back to the distro plate was just way too sharp; so had to change it up at the last minute.



Whilst I do love the look of perfectly perpindicular bends, I also really like curvy ones like this little rascal. This one will definitely be a keeper. I also like the angle at which the previous bend had to it.



The final run (first run in the loop order) sucks. Due to the position that I have to have the distro plate in, that port on the distro plate is too low. This bend will definitely be getting changed, I will most likely run from the higher port and come down at an angle like the CPU>fat rad run.

But it will do for now for the sake of making sure everything works.



Sure enough, that dodgy run had a slighly leak. The tubing was basically sliding out due to the tension on it, at least it will hold for this test.



Thankfully that was the only issue. The D5 pump runs like a champ, and the radiators are rock solid with no leaks. The loop ended up taking 1.5L of fluid to fill, and getting all the air out was quite the headache; but I got there in the end.

Mission accomplished, everything works and I have a better idea now of how the runs will likely look (they will be tweaked a fair bit by the end).

Now time to drain the loop and dismantle everything.



Having spent all of yesterday mucking around with the case, I am going to have to take a day or two of rest; my sciatica is unfortunately screaming at me.

Next on the agenda is to modify/trim the acrylic sheet that was hugging the motherboard, now that the distro plate and thick radiator are there. Then I can move on to the remaining acrylic pieces that will inhabit the interior as well as around the fans. Once all of those have been done I can then move on to a full tear down of the case, a little bit of cutting, and then prep for paint.

I also need to begin work on the back/side panel as well. Hopefully the weather this weekend cooperates with me!

Thanks for stopping by folks, take care and stay safe!

 

After mulling it over, I’m just not happy with it. It has become way too ‘busy’ due to that thick rad.

I think I’m just going to bite the bullet and put it up top with the fans off-centre:



For the components that are in there, a single 64mm radiator should be more than enough. So if I just go with the single:



I’ll have much more ‘canvas’ and it should look a lot cleaner and less busy.

At least that’s what I’m thinking; and my girls like it better this way, so I’ve got to listen to them!

 

Cheers mate, yeah I know what you mean. Whilst the original runs needed just slight tweaking (especially the distro>GPU run), I was quite fond of them myself. They were definitely in line with my step-daughter's personality, but I just couldn't get past the amount of space we lost by having the thicc boi up front.

So I just had a quick try without bending anything new, just trimming the bits I already had laying around:


Much happier with the real-estate that has been reclaimed. Probably not representative of what the final runs will look like (that distro>GPU run is far too straight for my liking), but at least now I can move forward with getting the acrylic interior panels sorted out.

Usually that is exactly what I would have said myself, but the tubing was actually sliding out by a good 4-8mm due to the tension. I'd push it back in, tighten the collar some more, it would slowly slide back out. It was a bad bend that should have just been thrown in the bin, but I was in a hurry to just get something put together to give it a test.

 

Coming along nice,

Watch some Declassified Systems for some "hard tubing" god goodness. After nearly 30 years of modding myself there is no one that impresses me more continually with his runs.

 

Cheers Jeff.

Aye, I’ve been subbed to Mark‘s channel for years; his attention to detail is always superb.

 

Ooft, what a week.

So picking up where I left off, plan for this past week was to get all of the acrylic pieces hashed out. I wanted to get that out of the way, since it was going to be one of the more tricky items on the agenda. Sure enough, it was fairly tricky.

Attempt #1



The holes for attempt #1 were slightly off, but nothing a little moulding/edging wouldn't be able to hide; same with the cutout for the pump and drain port. Unfortunately I had a bit of an accident when I was drilling the last hole, my step bit had got stuck and I accidentally applied to much pressure when trying to get it unstuck.

Which resulted in a crack:




Whilst only apparent when you get up close and personal, I knew I would have to try again.

Attempt #2



I decided to take a short break from redoing that particular panel and started working on the rear and bottom. Ended up reusing the broken panel for the rear bit and did a test fit with the edging, fairly happy with it. Bottom still needs a fair bit of tweaking, but I was ready to dive back in to getting the big piece sorted.

Got everything cut and drilled, was looking better than the first attempt. If you look closely however, you will likely notice a large crack above the fittings. That crack happened whilst I was dusting off the acrylic, couldn't believe it; another significant amount of time down the drain.

On the plus side, it gave me some food for thought and I decided that I would make some tweaks for...

Attempt #3



I now had a really good template for what I needed to do, and can report that everything went perfectly! Holes are spot on, edges straight and most importantly NO #### CRACKS. In retrospect, the cracks were of course my fault; but valuable lessons were learned.

Next up was the acrylic pieces for the top and front fan areas:



The top didn't cause me any real issues, just some minor tweaking was required to get it to fit snugly. Not convinced I'm 100% happy with it, so may have to revisit later.

The front part though, that was interesting.



I figured that a 200mm hole saw cutter would do the trick:



What an absolute beast of a unit, considerably heavy as well! It definitely does the job, you just have to take it nice and slowly; ensuring not to force it too much. The problem however was that whilst the scrap piece of acrylic (the circle or 'donut hole' if you will) was 200mm in diameter, the piece I was using ended up being larger. Which is of course due to the width of the saw bit itself.

This meant that once I trimmed the piece to fit in the front section, I was left with 3 separate pieces (very slight tolerances on the sides) that didn't actually line up well with the fans themselves.

So I ended up having to cut the pieces up even more (into 6 pieces) and try to fit them together like some kind of jigsaw puzzle:



In its current state, it clearly looks like crap. The curvature of the circles is off, edges don't line up, etc...

I've got a few plans up my sleeve to achieve the end result that I want, just a case of some more experimentation. It has made me reconsider trying to achieve the raw acrylic finish on the front and top though, as I think it will look much cleaner if the panels are paint-matched to the rest of the case; with the seams all removed so it looks like 1 piece of plastic.

So whilst it was a frustrating week for me (1 day of work, 2 days of sciatic pain afterwards, rinse/repeat), it has also been a great learning experience for me.

I'm going to take the weekend off so I can relax and recuperate, but full steam ahead next week; time for some dremel work and get started on paint!

Thanks for stopping by folks, take care and stay safe!

 

Been a bit of a slow week, the weather was hit and miss up in my neck of the woods so was limited as to what I could get done outside.

I wanted to get started on painting the frame, but needed to do a little bit more cutting before I could get started:



This large rectangle was of course for an LCD screen:



A little rough around the edges at first glance (I was just making sure it actually fit), but the acrylic within the interior should hopefully give it a clean finish.

I cleaned up the edges a bit more, then sanding everything down in preparation to start laying down some primer:



Even just a coat of primer looked better than the stock finish, hopefully the final product will be worth it.

This week I'm hoping to finish off these bits so I can start putting components back in, then next on the agenda will be front and top panels.

Thanks for stopping folks, take care and stay safe!

 

Hey there folks, been a little while since my last update.

I had originally planned to get a fair bit done last weekend and have an update for Monday, but things didn't work out that way. But anyway, what progress has been made since the last time?

The front and top panels were not going to plan, which is definitely my own fault. I think I misjudged just how tricky doing the things I wanted to with the acrylic would end up being! After seeing how the first run ended up looking, it also made me realise that I would end up painting those bits anyway; as the raw acrylic would look slightly out of place.

So I decided to try a different material:



Yep, that is going to work a lot better. Need to do some finishing work to it of course, fill in the gaps and sand smooth. But at least this mock-up gives you an idea of what my plan was for these areas. Hopefully the final product will look alright!

I had ran out of supplies, so just put those pieces to the side for now. With the holes all lined up I could now turn my attention to the fan/radiator brackets:



I trimmed off some of the front fan mount so it's less busy, then gave both mounts the usual primer then paint. Unfortunately I was out of clear and couldn't purchase any locally, so had to wait until this Friday until I could give them a few coats of that.

Since that was on hold, I turned my attention to the interior of the case. I figured that whilst I have a lot of exterior work to complete yet, I could potentially get the inside sorted in the meantime. So that is exactly what I started on:



The rubber moulding/trim isn't quite perfect at the moment, but is lined up fairly well for now. Whilst all of my measurements for the acrylic panels were fine, once I popped all the bits in I soon found that I needed to sand some of the edges down a little more. It was definitely a tight fit.

Speaking of tight fits, it took me ages to get the GPU in; I'm still amazed I didn't crack the acrylic in the process. I really should have put that in before the rear acrylic piece, but oh well:



Before I get bombarded with comments about having the exhaust at the bottom and the 'but heat rises' argument, yes I know. I am no stranger to the concepts of cooling a PC, and the decision to have all the fans orientated the way they are is purely aesthetic. Whlst the 200mm Riing Trios have lighting on the front and rear, the 120mm Riing Quads do not. So they needed to be orientated this way to provide the lighting necessary for the other acrylic pieces yet to be installed. But with that being said, the airflow that will be present within the case is more than enough to overcome the mechanics of convection.

I installed a single fan guard on the fan underneath the GPU, so as not to catch the riser cable. Those fans won't be visible anyway, so no biggie.

Just today I managed to apply clear coat to the fan mounts as well as the small front panel, so the plan is to get those installed tomorrow so I can carry on with the interior. Once the rest of the fans are installed, then I can start on some cable management around the back:



Whilst I will naturally try to make things as neat as possible back here, most of it will end up being covered anyway in order to faciliate the plan for the rear side panel.

I also wanted to add a little easter egg for my stepdaughter. Even so so already has a PC (which I made from old bits several years ago), this will be a proper PCMR build; so plopped a cheeky sticker on the unused drain cap for her:



So whilst I wait on things to dry before moving on, I thought I would start working on something else:



That's all for now, thanks once again to everyone that has been stopping by or keeping tabs on my progress; the support is greatly appreciated. Hopefully the next update will be the interior all sorted out.

Stay safe!

 

Just some foamboard from a local craft shop.

Still haven't got around to finishing those bits off and painting them, but I'm hoping they end up looking alright