Scratch Build – In Progress Project 2077 - Update 18-11-2020 - Acrylic reservoirs near completion!

Today I finally introduce my current project which has been in the planning stage now for some time. Movement on the project is now progressing pas the planning phase so I thought this would be a great time to start documenting the progress.

Project 2077 is, as you may have already guessed, themed upon CD Project Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 which I am excited to play in November.

Taking the yellow / blue / digital aesthetic of the game I have created a simple rendering of what I imagine the case to look like with an internal layout similar to the Lian Li 011 with the PSU and HDD’s behind the motherboard panel.

To start off, here’s a quick sneak preview of the project concept, overall dimensions of 500mm x 480mm x 185mm



I guess some may be interested in the spec, don’t expect it to be a monster, it’s my daily driver and it’s enough for what I need.



SPEC:

CPU: Intel i7 8700k @ 4.7ghz All Core 6C/12T

Memory: 32gb Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3000mhz

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix z390-F Gaming

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650w (Fully Modular)

GPU: RTX 2060 Super (To be upgraded to 3080 / AMD Equivalent with waterblock close to project completion)

Watercooling: 1x EK Quantum Velocity CPU Block, 2x EK CoolStream 360 Radiators, 2x Alphacool DDC Pumps, 14mm Acrylic Tubing and yet to be selected coolant.

Storage: 2x M.2 Drives, 2x SATA SSD

Fans: Corsair LL 120MM Fans (taken from current build but may need more)



Next Update: Step One – Motherboard Panel – Coming Soon!

 

It’s been quite a while since my last update due to taking some time to get some of the parts but work has now finally started to progress and I expect to have regular updates over the next few weeks.

First step, I wanted to work from the inside out. Starting with the motherboard tray a quick design in Fusion 360. Taking inspiration from the Cyberpunk 2077 website, the Yellow/Black and also Neon colours from the game trailers I came up with a few ideas. I vaguely remembered seeing a motherboard tray that was backlit from a mod a few years ago and really liked the idea and expanded on it a little.

I settled on the following design.





Using 10mm acrylic, I created a recess for an 5V ARGB strip which will eventually be attached directly to the ARGB header on my Asus Z390 Strix motherboard.



The edges of the acrylic were intentionally left in their raw form to catch the light and to highlight the edges of the tray. A fan of Asus ROG and for additional detail I engraved the ROG logo to a clear section. Please note; not sponsored in any way, just enjoy their products over the years.



To cover and block-out the light to the front, a sheet of 3mm black acrylic was cut.

The motherboard will be mounted onto 10mm standoffs giving ample ventilation to the rear as I run this machine OC’d 24/7.

Here's a few shots of the final motherboard tray;




Once complete, the main internal panel needed machining, using 3mm aluminium.

After several tests, I finally decided on Ford Signal Yellow, painted prior to machining as I wanted the raw aluminium machining marks to be visible afterwards.


Time to assemble the items created and connect the RGB, here’s a few shots of what’s been completed so far.






Next step, CPU reservoir & pump combo but that's this weekends task so a little update at the end of the week.

 

Pretty cool!

 

Did you layer the acrylic yourself, or buy it like that? great shapes and lines on the design!

 

The two pieces are not bonded together as I wanted to leave it serviceable incase the RGB strip dies at any point. They are however aligned and fixed together using the mounting hardware.

Thanks it's been a long time coming.

 

Tasty sammich! What size bit did you use for the logo?

 

0.2mm Engraving bit and LOT of testing.

 

Cool design, I'm liking the chunky acrylic look too

 

Work continues on Project 2077, aiming to get it complete before the game gets released, currently 10th December.

This week means a lot of time spent in Fusion 360 and a lot of time watching the CNC machine while listening to podcasts.

First point of call was to finalise the design and export what i'm calling the motherboard reservoir which will be the reservoir for the CPU. The target to was integrate it with the aluminium panel for the motherboard at the same time creating a central wall inside the case.

Finally settling on the following design;


And of course, renders of the file. (Wish they would do ray tracing in the GPU)




After this, it was a few hours of machining on the CNC (and a lot of cleaning up afterwards)


And some very tense moments using an M3/M4 thread mill. Jeez its fragile. (the hole is 3.3mm diameter for scale)


Unfortunately i've lost a few photographs of the assembly due to a memory card failure.

2mm Nitrile Cord was used for the seal the reservoirs withEK Black Nickel fittings for the 14mm hardline tubing for the fittings.

An ARGB strip was added for full control over the lighting internally.

Here's a few shots of the reservoir so far and temporary position attached to the motherboard tray.





(combination of two images due to currently only having access to one ARGB header until cables arrive)

With that section now complete I moved onto the front panel reservoir and pump combo again starting in Fusion 360 and finalising the design and double checking everything would fit.

Settling on the final design below we cracked on with the reservoir first as this acts as the main structure for the front panel.












The front panel is currently incomplete at the moment, an aluminium panel will cover most of the right hand side.

Over the next few days, the front aluminium panel and IO are being machined with the rear panel top and sides coming very soon!

Let me know your thought's and let me know what colour coolant you would like to see in the reservoirs!

 

Lovely. Can you do a UV-reactive clear for the coolant? I think that would have a neat effect.

NONSENSE! Blinking like mad when the system is taxed and doing potato-level rendering is what CAD software is all about. If it doesn't feel like your eyes are being sucked out of your head at the end of a session, then they feel the software designers have failed.
That's 90% of the reason I still do most of my drawing in sketchup. I'm still going blind, though.

 

I have two coolants on order at the moment, EK Mystic Fog & Mayhems UV Blue to see what they look like.

 

Very interesting project! Really good work with that distro plate!

 

Thank you. It took a while to get the design just right.

 

You gain a stalker
Can't wait to see more.

 

More this weekend. Just machining the front aluminium panel and painting the external panels that arrived this week. I may have underestimated the amount of ARGB in this build too. Nevermind.

 

So, the other day, I made a boo boo and as with anything typically Cyberpunk 2077, it's now officially behind schedule.

Here's the boo boo.


(please ignore the mess, it was a test fitting and not cleaned correctly prior to the photograph taken.)

There is however plenty of work carrying on behind the scenes.

The acrylic you can see above, has been replaced with a fresh piece and is now much better than before. I have machined the front aluminium piece and after getting fedup of waiting for paint to dry (litterally) I have a friend professionally painting the aluminium panels ready for the outer skin of the build. I should have these back before the weekend which will allow me to get a sizeable update completed for you guys.

As someone who can't just sit and wait around, I have also a couple of related projects which I have been working on which I will post here in a few days.