When Raven Meets Saints - Silverstone Raven 01 Gold Build

[jiyang1018]

Hardware Overview

 

Finally I talked one of my friends into building a custom computer, so I ended up with a table full of hardwares.

 

I tried to talk to him in to black & red, or black & white color scheme, but he is a huge New Orleans Saints fan.

 

So color choices are limited for a lot of hardwares.

 

Looks good.

 

A lot of people do this type of shot.

 

This SSD was on sale, and that is the main reason to choose it. It is so good value I even bought one for my wife's build, which was posted here before.

 

 

Not a lot of accessories, only a SATA data cable which was never used.

 

I remember XLR8 text in gold on some of PNY's graphic cards, so I was expecting the same here. It turned out to be a warm grey.

 

Very popular choice. I suggested i5 for gaming, which is the purpose of this build, but he preferred i7.

 

Can you read the SN?

 

Stock cooler not in shot.

 

Guess what this is.

 

Household LED strip actually. It is cheap, a lot of lights, remote control to change color, cannot ask for any more.

 

I originally recommended stock cooler and get the shroud gold plated or powder coated. He thought it would be too much trouble for me to go through for his build, so we switch to this ACX version.

 

With protective film.

 

Without it.

 

Wish it was gold.

 

Details determain design.

 

780 Ti is way over his budget.

 

Again, details determain design.

 

Quite standard right?

 

Gold motherboard is very rare to find. I remember a gold one on Z77 platform from another brand.

 

 

 

Is it gonna match?

 

This is definately yellow.

 

That's not golden, missing orange tone.

 

 

Yellow again.

 

 

If it was gold heat spreader, how will the performance be?

 

Surfacing coating vs bare metal, difference is quite minimal actually.

 

It is listed as marigold, and with this picture:

 

Side by side, this is how it looks.

 

Our plan is to disassemble it and use it internally. I have done this to 4 of my external drives in the past 5 years, all of them are still working fine. We are willing to take the risk.

 

Will be naked soon.

 

He demans a blu-ray writer. To be honest, I don't see the reason for it.

 

Simply ugly.

 

After I painted this, I saw this, but it was too late to return the ugly one.

 

We were thingking about Cooler Master Eisberg 120 switching to gold tubes, but H80i was on sale and has LED.

 

THE selling point.

 

Reason for H80i over H100i is RV01 doesn't support 240 mount.

 

This was purchased over 1 year ago when it was on sale. Great deal, great PSU, and it is gold.

 

Modular sockets for future awesomeness.

 

GOLD!!

 

Main character. He was almost certain with NZXT Phantom 530, and I sent him a link. He then switched.

[AMICLG]

This is going to be one of my only favorite gold builds, most are unbalanced or tacky but not yours. Can wait to see it put together.

[Witt]

Followed! I'm really seeing forward to see progress.

[jiyang1018]

This is going to be one of my only favorite gold builds, most are unbalanced or tacky but not yours. Can wait to see it put together.

Thanks for the comment.

 

The build is complete, but I am still organizing and editing all the pictures.

 

Stay tuned.

[Bluejay0]

[ArumanBE]

curious to c how this will turn out. Maybe it's just the lighting or something but that sleeving does look kindah bright. was expecting somthing more subtle.

subbed!!!

[ltguy]

When i saw the title i thought this was gonna be the new RVZ01 raven.

[mrivnak]

Where'd you get the LED strip? I want one to put behind my desk.

[jiyang1018]

Where'd you get the LED strip? I want one to put behind my desk.

newegg, this and another brand on sale constantly around $25.

[jiyang1018]

curious to c how this will turn out. Maybe it's just the lighting or something but that sleeving does look kindah bright. was expecting somthing more subtle.

subbed!!!

As I stated in my post, the seller's picture on amazon looks very close to gold even though it is nylon, and that is the reason I bought it. side by side, it is not gold color.

[jiyang1018]

Cable Management Mod

 

Top cover locking mechanism is quite unique and interesting.

 

This is how the 2 bottom 180mm Air Penatrator fans are mounted.

 

Wish there was some smoked acrylic behind the back cover.

 

Test run, everything works.

 

I removed pretty much everything to install H80i since there is no backplate cutout in RV01 case. This H80i caused so many problem. The first one I received from newegg does not have fully filled loop. When I shook it, it made a lot of liquid noise. I contacted newegg customer service, and they send me a replacement. Surprisingly enough, the replacement has exactly the same problem. I thought it might be designed this way, even though my old H100 (not i version) does have similar problem. I went another test run with everything on motherboard box. Since there was no place to mount anything, H80i radiator was just leaning on another box and slight below pump block. Fans and pump were at full speed all time, and CPU was 80c at idle. I could feel one hose warm and increating temperature, but the other stay at room temperature. Corsair link software shows pump was at over 7000 rpm, but clearly it was not doing the job. I contact Corsair customer service and they decided to send another one to me directly from California, and they suspected that newegg has a bag batch. The 2nd replacement works just fine.

 

In the picture above, you can see all the cable clutter because there is no cable routing hole for 24 pin and PCI-E power cables on the motherboard tray. It desperately needs this. One of my suppliers sent me 2 of these when I was starting my shop at store.design4paragon.com.

 

That should be a good place to place it.

 

Avoiding all the stand off points, this is a perfect position for this grommet.

 

A closer look.

 

So I marked the 2 centers and started drilling.

 

Using 1.5 in hole saw, which is the perfect bit for this grommet.

 

Connecting(cutting) the 2 circles and the job is done, well, after filing for sure.

 

This position seems like Silverstone was originally planning to put a grommet here but somehow dropped that idea.

 

I also cut a piece off from here to pass through SATA cables easily.

 

Of course, the plastic fan holder needs to be trimmed off a little as well.

[jiyang1018]

Applying Vinyl

 

Since a lot of parts have nothing to do with gold, this should help a lot.

 

For a New Orleans Saints fan, emblems cannot be left behind.

 

It took a lot of time wielding an x-acto knife.

 

Not sure if I can live with all the rough edges.

 

Applying vinyl on an SSD is quite easy.

 

Shiny?

 

I want to know the rough shape of the 2 pieces, so I put some painter's tape on.

 

Trimming it once as a practice.

 

Then the real deal.

[One Who Craves Souls]

Niiice, reeeally nice!

[Father Fuzzy]

nice work on the modding

 

lookin good

 

bring on the raven

[Magic Puffin]

Saw this one Overclock.net aswell, but I'll rather follow it here

 

Well done!

[jiyang1018]

Niiice, reeeally nice!

Thank you very much.

 

nice work on the modding

 

lookin good

 

bring on the raven

Thanks a lot. I love Raven series except RV04 maybe, but I don't hate it.

 

Saw this one Overclock.net aswell, but I'll rather follow it here

 

Well done!

Thanks. Started posting on overclock.net yesterday, but I first started here.

[Homicidium]

This looks so good so far! Really looking forward to more progress updates  

[jiyang1018]

Painting

 

It is almost impossible to get gold fans, or golden fans. All I could find were yellow ones, and they look rather ugly. What else can I do? Do it myself.

 

Hope this does not void warranty.

 

Hair drier + X-acto = sticker removed.

 

Side panel mesh painted, not in my bathroom.

 

I taped the interior parts of the fan blades to protect the magnets and stuff.

 

It somehow reminds me Plants vs Zombies.

 

PCI slot cover and graphic card bracket painted and drying.

 

That is dental floss I believe.

 

Matched pretty good right?

 

Assembled together. Some parts were painted beofre I applied vinyl, but I just want to group similar things together.

 

Fan blade looks good through black fan grill(painted black, resprayed later).

 

Gold behind black looks good.

 

Paint the I/O shield? I am not quite sure about it.

 

Top cover on. Gold isn't quite visible any more.

 

So I painted the top mesh the next day.

 

Now it's AP181's turn.

 

Man made vs natural plants.

 

I rotated the sticker 90 degrees to get better sense of the orientation.

 

A bit shy.

 

This is what I meant orientation.

 

Remember the emblem with vinyl from previous part? It has a lot of rough edges, so I decided to paint it gold. I also departed them for difference use.

 

A little touchup after filing the edges.

 

I have a very fine tip brush, and I use some black paint to cover the groove.

 

This is really for hat, but it just fits really nicely in this position.

 

So bring on the taping and keep wielding my X-acto.

 

Pretty much the same setup as in surgery.

 

tahdah

[jiyang1018]

Wiring

 

Paracord sleeving should not be a tough job.

 

24 pin down.

 

PCI-E done as well.

 

RV01 is quite old, so these are what to expect.

 

Yellow connector, rainbow color wires, well, rainbow has no black color for sure.

 

This is power LED connector. Just can't stand this.

 

IEEE1394? Really? When Silverstone upgraded USB3 connector, why did they decide to keep this? Give even just 1 USB2 connector would be a lot better.

 

All that messy wiring.

 

Buttons, LEDs all sleeved. IDDD1394 removed. There is no such header on the motherboard, and my friend does not have any devices using it either.

 

All front panel connectors sleeved and replaced with black connector housings, as well as 1 of the AP181 fan.

 

LED strip has a control module, and this is the receiver, which originally has a white heatshrink.

 

3 wires in the middle section is from the receiver, and will be replace with black wires.

 

When I ordered supplies for my shop, I also got some flat ribbon style black wires, and it should look a lot better on that receiver.

 

I made the receiver with a 3 pin fan connector linking back to the board. The reason I did this is, if the wire is not long enough, I can easily make an extension for it. And that did happen.

 

The module uses a power converter, 120-240v AC to 12v DC. There is a million ways you can get 12v DC inside a computer case, so I soldered the power socket off and replaced with red and black wires and crimped a PCI-E 6 pin connector to it. This is more of a accident proof method. I prefer not to use Molex connector, and I do not have mating SATA power connectors. By using a PCI-E 6 pin connector, if it is plugged to a graphic card, system won't start since there is no power to graphic card. PCI-E power cable from PSU cannot connect to this either; same form factor, not mating ones. This way, there is only one way to connector it, which you are about to see.

 

That white cable is a little annoying.

 

So I painted it black, as well as the module housing, and sleeved the power wires.

 

I used some of my harddrives as a place holder/positioner to punch these SATA power connectors. I used an SSD for the first (to the right) slot and I could not push it too hard, so that first 2 sections are not perfectly straight. I regret a little for not redoing it.

 

This is another reason to use 6 pin connector for LED module, it is off the peripheral 5 pin. The power lead will be hidden as in the previous picture.

 

 

 

[CtW]

My god that's pretty! Superb job!

[jiyang1018]

My god that's pretty! Superb job!

 

Thank you for your encouragement.

[Hikaru12]

This build is definitely inspirational for my future build. I really like what you did with the vinyl. Nice job.

[Almercenary]

Awesome job, the gold looks beast

[jiyang1018]

Embellishment

 

Almost all screws came with the case are bare steel finish, even the motherboard standoffs, and it would be lame not to replace them with something more suitable, like these:

 

The stock one itsn't bad, just not in the right color scheme.

 

Any comment?

 

I don't want to damage the gold paint, plus the screw is longer than standard ones, I put some black nylon washers inbetween.

 

Fortunately, Corsair H80i, motherboard standoff, and most of the case screws are all 6-32, that makes things a lot easier.

 

Even the housing for bottom AP181 fans uses 6-32 machine screws, in plastic housing, interesting.

 

All lined up. I tried to align the direction of the screw caps, then some of them would be just too tight or loose.

 

2 nylon washers on motherboard since these screws are a bit longer.

 

Another one just hiding there.

 

Case screws replaced.

 

Stock fan grill was already painted black, but H80i has 2 fans so I ordered another black grill to save some time.

 

Brass machine screws on top fan grill. But how to use machine screw to fasten grill and fan, you may ask.

 

This is how. I could use very long screws to go through grill, fan, case, silicon gasket (hidden from any view), into radiator, but it would expose too much of its thread which does not look nice. There are 2 rivets fastening I/O bracket to top of the case. Mounting a 120mm fan inside has no problem at all, a lot of clearance. However, in order to show more of the hardware through the side window, I need to put one of the 2 fans out side the case, wihch means the radiator is up against the top panel. As we all know, radiator is slightly bigger than fan frame, which causes interference. I can put some washers as spacers, but then there would be too much gap for air to leak. That is why I use a silicon fan gasket between radiator and top panel.

Graphic card supporting braket uses wood screws. Luckily, it is a smaller size one, so I drilled all the inner threads, using a steel 6-32 screw on my magnetic screw driver and heating it with my butane torch and tapping new threads. Why? Because I do not have a 6-32 tap; I wish I did.

 

It is machine screws into plastic, so I was able to aligh all the directions.

 

Mounted in the case.

 

A glamour shot.

[jiyang1018]

This build is definitely inspirational for my future build. I really like what you did with the vinyl. Nice job.

Thanks. I am looking forward to your future build.

 

Awesome job, the gold looks beast

I appreciate your attention.