Scratch Build – In Progress MSI FIRE PIT MOD

Hi everyone and welcome to another build log of mine, this time we are building another PC from scratch out of an old fire pit.
There will be lots of modding and custom work done to complete this build and in the end we will be displaying this build at the MSI booth at PAX Australia.

Before we get started I need to thank our sponsors for this build because without them these builds would not be possible.






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Beginning

Firstly I wanted to show everyone what I started with and where I plan to head as the build progresses.
I did a very quick sketch up of the build as I vision it but kept it plain and simple not to give too much away before I actually progress with the build.

Below is my first render and as you can see i have kept it very bare but i just wanted to show a general shape as to where this project is heading.



So as you can see, I am aiming to create two separate sections, one essentially houses the components
and hides wiring while the other will be the main displayable area housing the motherboard and main parts of the PC.



I forgot to take some images of the build before I put it together and started working on it however,
I found these two photos of it untouched so please excuse everything else on the photos.



Below I have just sectioned the build off to see if components would fit or not and just placed a bit of paper down to create a temporary floor for the motherboard tray.

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PROGRESS 1

So below is the first progress in this build, today I wanted to get the sections cut out for the acrylic windows,
get the back piece of MDF wood cut out which will act as a support for the whole build as well as provide a solid panel
for me to screw my motherboard tray and mount my power supply to.



These 2 panels were cut out using a dremel. First I taped up all of the edges which help to create a nice clean cut and it
also reduces the risk of me slipping and accidentally scratching an area. Second I marked out with a pencil the area
that needed to be cut so I had a guide line to follow. When using the dremel I let it do the cutting instead of forcing it which
normally leads to slips. After the windows were cut I filed the edges down to remove any bumps and loose metal.
Last I grabbed the dremel and a polish wheel and ran that along the edges to make sure it had a nice smooth clean finish.



In the back panel I wanted to add a MDF panel to strengthen the build and provide an area for me to mount the motherboard tray to.
I cut out the panel using a jigsaw and filed it down to size. The panels have screws in them so I had to cut some grooves in the
MDF so that the screws were not interfering with the installation of the Panel.



Now that I had these cut outs complete I put the build back together to test fit some components to insure my ideas were going to work.





For testing purposes I am just using my test power supply to see if I can mount the PSU in the correct space without ruining any other plans.



All three windows are cut out and are ready for some plexi glass.



Thank you for following the build everyone, please check out the video below for Progress 1 of the build in video and
some of the cutting processes and building process I went through.

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Hey everyone, here is another small update on the build. I got the main frame all painted with a 2k paint. The paint is 2 pack Auto black gloss so the paint is mixed with 2K Thinners and Hardener,
it does not need a clear coat. I am very happy with how the paint sprayed on and turned out. The nice gloss black should contrast really nice with the components going into the build.

Here are a few photos of the main frame all painted.













If anyone would like to check out part two of the build all painted then here is the video below.

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Hi everyone, sorry for the long Delay in updates but we are finally back from PAX and the most exciting news is that my wonderful girlfriend and I are now engaged, but nobody apart from close friends and family know so keep it quiet .

Pax was a wonderful experience and id do it again in a heart beat. It was a great opportunity to meet new faces and catch up with friends i had never seen in person.

Id love to thank Thermaltake for supplying our build at the MSI booth with all of the liquid cooling gear to make this build come to life. Here are some of the goodies that made this build look amazing.



Here we have the RGB Riing fans which i placed on my two radiators. The colour options are limitless, with high static pressure.




The Ventus X gaming mouse was an excellent edition to the setup, i love the feel of the mouse and the adjustable sensitivity works perfect for the type of game that i am choosing to play.




The Thermaltake Pacific P1 is a d5 pump with variable speed making it the perfect choice for my loop as it has a good amount of head pressure to keep the loop flowing at a consistant rate.




Now this bad boy was just made for the xpower titanium gaming motherboard, the colour combinations were a huge attraction and the performance is just an added bonus.




These radiators are very thin but they have dense fins so the liquid is getting cooled a lot more, these radiators were a perfect option for the space we had to work with.


These fittings are designed for 16mm hardtubing and we went with thermaltake PETG tubing which was very easy to work with, much easier than normal acrylic.






Once again Thank you Thermaltake for helping us out with this build all help is greatly appreciated and keeps us modders doing what we love best.
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more goodies

Hey guys, once again a big thank you to Thermaltake and MSI, we now have another sponsor on-board, thank you to Kingston for supplying us with some RAM for this PAX project. Here are some photos of the motherboard and the RAM.

The motherboard we are using is the MSI Xpower titanium z170 motherboard. The thermaltake CPU block looks amazing installed on this board.





I had some help to hold the RAM up for a nice photo. This is 16gb of Hyper X Predator




And here are a few shots of the components installed into the motherboard









Once again thank you so much to our sponsors, you have exceeded yourselves into making this build a reality.​

 

tubing done

Hey everyone, i am back again with another update to our fire pit pc. There was a large amount of work that i was unable to capture due to the short amount of time i had to complete the build, however i did capture enough to show you the majority of the progress we went through.

Today i would like to show you guys the full assembly with tubing right up to the point of filling the build.

As you can see here there is a bit of a mess around me, i was working on two builds at once around 2 days before PAX. The back board you can see in this picture is MDF wood with some carbon fibre vinyl on it. I marked out where each cut needed to go so that the motherboard tray fit nice and neat.



Here we have the bottom section of the build. We have begun tubing and so far everything is turning out as planned.



I decided to hide the on/reset buttons underneath the build this time because at PAX the people have a habbit of pressing the buttons all of the time and they turn the PC off.



The thermaltake radiators are mounted to some radiator brackets that i made and i am using the thermaltake RGB RIING fans as a stand out feature of the build.



We got the top section in and added the motherboard. The tubing routes from the bottom and into some through panel fittings which i have running into the custom reservoir i made.





I added some clear perspex to the cut out window spaces and finished all of the tubing in the top section and now it is ready for filling!





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FINISHED!

Hey guys, we have finally finished the build and what an adventure it was. We had many hiccups along the way but it got done within 2 days and everything went successfully at PAX in the MSI booth.

A huge thank you to our sponsors who made this build possible! It was a great opportunity to work with you and hopefully we can do the same next year.

I do not want to talk too much more about the process of the build as you should already be up to date however before i show you final photos, id just like to mention that we had a hiccup with the liquid that was meant to be used.

We wanted to go with mayhems Aurora yellow for this show piece build however, the liquid just started throathing up when we filled it and the throath wouldn't go. So instead we wanted to try some distilled water with yellow dye, and of course, no companies had yellow dye, so on the day before the PC was due to be on display, we had to go with yellow food colouring.

Here are the pictures!!!!



























































Thank you everyone for the support! it is greatly appreciated!, check out the video below to watch the PC in action at the MSI booth at PAX and afterwards!!



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