Stormborn

[sylarspock]

My build name, noooo. t-t

 

That mobo with the black ram looks really nice! Are you planning on modding anything? Like plasti-dipping or something? If so, what do you have in mind? Oh, and the 970s are still great cards anyways, so don't sell them or anything.

 

Thanks.

I was initially thinking of sending my case to get powder coated to white, but decided against it since the motherboard pcb is black as well.

 

I'm just doing some minor "modifications" to the case itself, but the only thing I'm remotely going to be paint are some  spare silver PCIe slot bracket covers I bought to matt black.

 

The 900D's stock PCIe slot bracket covers have too many holes for my liking. (Stock Cover Image in Spoiler)

 

[spoiler=] 

[sylarspock]

More of my WC Items arrived.
Excited about the EK Vardars especially.

 

Tempted to do some basic testing vs my old Gentle Typhoons. 

 

[Delusional Phil]

Daenerys Stormborn?

Oh you and your Game Of Thrones craziness , you should have called her : Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen , The Firest of Her Name , The Unburnt , Queen Of Meeren , Queen Of The Andals and the Rhoyvnar and the First Men , Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea , Breaker Of Chains and Mother of Dragons

[Guest]

Oh you and your Game Of Thrones craziness , you should have called her : Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen , The Firest of Her Name , The Unburnt , Queen Of Meeren , Queen Of The Andals and the Rhoyvnar and the First Men , Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea , Breaker Of Chains and Mother of Dragons

Yeah, engrave THAT on the case

[sylarspock]

Day One: Case "Mod" - Stripping the 900D


1) Remove PCIe Bracket covers, HDD Cages and Brackets

Presenting to you the bare 900D.
 



 
2) Mount Back Plate
 
Covered up the 900D's back which had too many holes for better dust protection.
Demciflex 3M Dust Filter covering the 140mm Fan intake.
 

[sylarspock]

Setbacks
 
Had a few set backs and felt really sad that the build was not going according to plan and on time despite the meticulous planning I did.
Sold a few of my components and placed my order for the new parts and they have all finally arrived.

Almost felt like giving up.  :unsure: 
This is my first custom WC rig and it has been quite challenging.

Detailed some of the set backs and changes I had to make here.

1) Not enough clearance at the bottom to run the loop the way I wanted.

Alphacool's 80mm Monsta Radiator was too big and didn't give enough clearance for me to build the loop in the order I wanted it to be in.
Weighed the options and decided that my other radiator at the top, a UT60 was more than capable of handling the combined thermal load.

- Decided to sell my Monsta Rad and go with a Quad 30mm Radiator instead for the bottom radiator. 
- Ordered and arrived from PPC.
 
2) The DVD Drive bays were out of place without the HDD bays below it.

It looked like a random object floating at the top corner and somewhat of an eye sore.

- Decided to remove the DVD Bays and make an extended cover to give the whole system a flat look.
- Had to measure and do up the vector file to send the acrylic for laser cutting.
- More waiting... while I find some free time during working hours to visit the acrylic warehouse store.

3) Custom SATA cables I ordered with the same person who did my Custom PSU cables came in the wrong shade of blue.
 
- The guy didn't do refunds, despite me sending him a pic of the original cables I ordered with him. (Close to 50 USD down the drain)
- Peeved at his mistake, but I had no choice but to place orders with him again as I couldn't find the same shade of blue with other custom cable makers.
- More waiting for the cables to arrive and to collect from him.

[sylarspock]

While I wait for some free time to get the custom acrylic cut, here are the Water cooling items.

 

[sylarspock]

Slow moving, but finally got my acrylic back plate order in and I was told I should be able to collect it on Monday.

Day Two: Mounting the Water Blocks

1) Mounting the EK Full Cover Water Blocks for my MSI GTX 970 TF5

2) Mounting the EK Supremacy EVO Full Nickel Water Block

[sylarspock]

Day Three: Case Modding

1) Removing the 5.25" DVD Bay Cage

The 900D without the 5.25" DVD Bay Cage

 

2) Mounted the Mid Plate, Alphacool ST30 480MM Radiator and EK Vardar F3 - 1850RPM Fans

[sylarspock]

3) Mounted the Custom Motherboard Tray Cover, XSPC Photon 270 Reservoir and XSPC Thermal Probe Display

Here's a overview of the Case Mod and Back Plates all fitted in.

--- The custom acrylic cover I made for the HDD/DVD Bays had the cut out for the SSD too high, so I've made the changes and sent them in to be laser cut. Will continue working on the build once I get the new piece in.

Next Part: Spray Painting Spare PCIe Slot Cover and Cabling

[gmaesplayer]

So nice

[gazabi]

Slow moving, but finally got my acrylic back plate order in and I was told I should be able to collect it on Monday.

Day Two: Mounting the Water Blocks

2) Mounting the EK Supremacy EVO Full Nickel Water Block

 

 Thats a whole lot of thermal paste. Very nice build though.

[sylarspock]

Thats a whole lot of thermal paste. Very nice build though.

yeah, my friend who was helping me a slapped it on while i was fiddling with the camera

I used a cardboard to remove some of it after I took the pic.

So nice

thank you

[sylarspock]

1) Spray Painting the Silver PCIe Bracket Slot covers

As mentioned earlier, the stock Corsair covers had too many holes for my liking.

Bought some spare covers from Amazon and spray painting them Matt Black.



3 Spray Painted Matt Black covers to the left vs 3 Unpainted Silver Brackets to the right for comparison

[sylarspock]

Apologies for the lack of update(s).

Was away on holiday down under for a week+ while some right angle fittings I ordered arrived.

 

[sylarspock]

Day Five: Case Modding Continued

1) Mounted the Alphacool UT60 480MM Top Radiator and EK Vardars 

 

 

2) Hooked up the fans to Swiftech PWM Fan Controller

Was deciding between this and the NZXT Grid fan hub but decided on this after I saw Linus and team using this.

Really a cheap an effective solution, especially if you have a decent motherboard from brands like Asus which have an extensive Fan Control UEFI.

 

 

3) Fixed the newly laser cut Acrylic Backplate.

The SSD mount area is now lower and in line with the XSPC Photon Reservoir and motherboard tray.

 

 

4) Started messing with the wires and hooked up the custom sleeved case cables.

 

[sylarspock]

Just a quick update on some minor progress.

Tried doing cable lacing, but failed spectacularly at it after watching some guides on YouTube.

Perhaps LTT's upcoming video will reignite my interest in pursuing it again.

 

Here's a sneak peek at my custom sleeved cables using cable combs instead.

 

Realized I needed more cable combs to keep it tidy and have since placed order for a second batch of cable combs.

Ordered some White LED Strips and a Right Angle Sata converter for my SSDs mounted on the case itself as well.

Purchased an overpriced piece of Step Drill Bit from a local store to create holes on the acrylic mid-plate for the pass through fittings. I would say this is the most expensive piece of single use equipment I have bought for this build so far.

I would have absolutely no use for this after I finish my build, but hey some things have to be purchased...

 

Really worried that I might break the 3mm thick acrylic mid-plate at this stage.

Planning to drill a 1-2mm pilot hole, followed by a 6mm one before using the Step Drill Bit to drill 14mm.

Any tips to safely make the hole without damaging the acylic is welcome.

[JT8101997]

Really worried that I might break the 3mm thick acrylic mid-plate at this stage.

Planning to drill a 1-2mm pilot hole, followed by a 6mm one before using the Step Drill Bit to drill 14mm.

Any tips to safely make the hole without damaging the acylic is welcome. 

I've never had a problem drilling through acrylic. Pretty easy. Just go slow if you're concerned it's gonna crack, it'll heat up and melt out of your way anyways Only thing to be careful about is just making sure that the drill bit doesn't grab onto it. So take your time and you'll be fine.

(It was really hard to write this without it sounding really really wrong )

[JT8101997]

Looking really nice btw

[sylarspock]

So the sata angled adaptors came and....

Silly me got the wrong ones.





Ordered the Right, RIGHT Angled ones this time which have the connectors facing the right way.
(side effects of too much LTT ^)



Bought some extra cables combs, but they sent me bat combed versions instead this time.

And I actually bought the combs from the same ebay listing as before and they gave me straight ones the previous time.

Will be changing out all the combs for the bat designed ones shortly.

[beach_boy98]

This build is going to turn out sweet. Hope it goes well for you. Subbed.

[sylarspock]

Final Piece of Stormborn is finally arriving.

Will install Windows 10 on this beauty and complete this project shortly. 

[iDeJayDzn]

Final Piece of Stormborn is finally arriving.

Will install Windows 10 on this beauty and complete this project shortly. 

 

I'd love to know why Amazon UK dont stock these yet. Either that or theyre a pain in the arse to find.

[sylarspock]

not sure how to delete this. 

[sylarspock]

Purchased  a GTX 1080 last November and sold my GTX 970 cards.
Single  card instead of SLI. More of a sidegrade.

Finally got around to water blocking it and did a simple vLog style video of the changes.