kazuma

Ooooh, before I forget, in addition to the T-Force SSD that I have in this system I will be using an M.2 ssd on this project too. Here's the final photos after putting some color on the loop. Here's a drawing that I did for this project before it got colored up. And here is the actual project. Close enough I would say with the exception of the front panel that I was planning. And that's it for me for this quick project. Working with the Lian Li 011 Dynamic was a fantastic experience. When I started modding, most of the time, people are modding their existing or new computer cases to suit their needs and add functionality to it (dremeling a hole for a radiator mount or additional fan). But with this case, there's plenty of radiator and fan mount, top, bottom and side. But yeah, even though I wasn't able to do the front panel that I was planning ( I didn't want to ditch the front TG since when doing stress tests, temps were okay and acceptable, CPU max temp was between 65-69c, which is completely fine in my books, GPU temp never went over 55c on all the stress test that I did. So sacrificing the front TG to make a new plastic one that has fan mounts on it didn't made any sense and will be a waste of material in my opinion). But yeah, this was one hell of a fun project, and I will definitely be grabbing another one of this case as a "reserve" case. LOL! Thanks for going through my work log and hope you had fun as much as I did! Ciao!

Hey all! Got another "quick", sponsored project for you all. First off, a huge shout out to all the sponsors, EVGA, Bitspower and TeamGroup Inc.! And of course, a very HUGE shout out to EVGA and their Gear Up with EVGA program for the continuous support! And this project will be a special one because I have finally got my own logo that I have been wanting for quite some time now. I wanted something simple that I could use for designs and cutouts for future projects. Came up with this design. And then asked a friend of mine to put in some touches on it. Since I mainly use Aluminum and Acrylic plastics, I asked him to throw those in, and this is what we came up. And now that that's out of the way, Let's start, shall we? Recently, Bitspower reached out and asked if I wanted to do a project for them using their new TouchAqua Sedna 011 for the Lian Li 011 Dynamic computer case. I have not worked with them for quite a while and since the person who reached out and requested is a very good friend of mine, I immediately took that opportunity that he laid in the table. After receiving the packages, I immediately strip the case down. My plan was to do a quick custom paint job on this project since the Lian Li 011 Dynamic is one hell of an awesome computer case. There's really not much, if nothing, to mod on this case. And this case, by far, is my favorite computer case that I have worked on. After a quick look, some measuring here and there, I started to tear the front, brushed aluminum part of it. I recently found a guy who accepts small custom paint jobs locally, and I immediately contacted him to ask if he can take on a small project. He agreed and I wasted no time and strip the case of it's parts. At the time that I got the packages, I have been waiting for a pc game to come out. Anthem. I only played it once, for a couple of hours, flying around and exploring the open world. I got inspired to do a case mod base on the "Interceptor" javelin class of the game. So I started to draw up a sketch of what I wanted. Came up with a simple one. And when I came up with this, I didn't have any clue that the game is starting to "flop". Sent those over to the paint guy, a couple of changes, just minor ones, and after a week, he came back with this. It was not as perfect as what I was expecting, but this was A LOT far better than what I can produce using aerosol paint. All in all, I am happy with the result! And since the paint job was done quickly, well, I started to put the thing together. I've got to say, Z390 FTW is A LOT sexier in person! One hell of a beefy heatsink!! EVGA's waterblocks for their 2080Ti are one of the sexiest that I have seen in a while. With a beefy card like this and a monster board like the Z390 FTW, adding in a 1000w power supply is not a bad idea. EVGA sent over a set of their sleeved cables for the SuperNova 1000G+ power supply. For the CPU water block, I like how it looks, but I was trying to reduce the "dark" colors on the build since the Interceptor character has mostly white and green armor. So I ended up peeling the black top cover of the water block. One of my favorite parts of this project. For quite some time now, I have been wanting to explore the world of custom "distribution plates", unfortunately time didn't allow me to. But seeing this TouchAqua distribution plate in person inspired to go and explore how to make your own plate. I will definitely make one in the near future. TeamGroup was awesome and generous enough to send these out for the project. Assembly time! Now, when I was putting this together, I overlooked one thing. After installing the card, I was planning on the tube route, when I noticed something. I did not realized that the FTW waterblock was too "wide" when using it horizontally. The stock cooler fits in no problem, but since the EVGA FTW waterblock is one hell of a beefy block, the thing was poking out. At that time, it was poking out by around 5-6mm and when I realized it, all I could think of is make a acrylic side panel and make a 7mm spacer between the case and the side panel. But here's the awesome part, EVGA then said "nah, nah, nah, looks like you need a different card that will fit inside that thing. Here, the waterblock for this is not as wide as the ftw block.". They then sent this over! I was damn speechless on the awesome support that they showed. 2 days after that, the EVGA 2080Ti XC and the waterblock for it showed up on my door step. That kind of support, is just, well, AWESOME! And if you are reading this, there's another incident that happened, and yet again, I experienced EVGA's awesome support. Keep on reading below. And after that little hiccup, I started running some tubes in the system. I was actually quite excited about it since this was my first time using a distribution plate on a project. And after that, I did a quick leak testing. No leaks! Now, I was about to wrap the project up. All I needed to do was to put in some green dye on the loop. And here was the 2nd problem. After running the loop for an hour or so, I noticed the LED debug indicator on the board kept on cycling through a bunch of codes. I got curious so I plugged in an HDMI cable from the system to a monitor to see if the thing gets into BIOS. Aaaaaand, nope! I tried all the ports on the card, still no display on the monitor. I tried for a day and a half to see what the hell did I do wrong, no luck. So I reached out to EVGA again, we did some more tests upon their instructions, and we confirmed that I got a dead board on my hands. BUT! Here's where EVGA showed their awesomeness again. 2 days after I reached out to them, they've sent me a replacement board! It still kinda sucks that I have to drain and take the loop out, but that was nothing compared to what EVGA have shown. That will be it for me for now. I will post the final photos tomorrow! Ciao!

Thanks for going through the worklog! I really appreciate that.

Thanks Bill! Those case feet really looked well on this one!

Well, the cardbox booth didn't work well for me. It did' for a little bit, until the winds started to b*tch out again on me. Whenever I would hold an aerosol paint outside, the winds would pick up.

Thanks man! If you are planning on doing more painting, I am hoping you don't have "white stuff" scattered outside yet. Or at least have a proper "paint booth" and don't be like me. LOL Thanks! For the record, I wasn't a fan of hockey till last playoffs. After watching the Jets go against Nashville, I became a fan. LOL That series was intense AF.

Hey Guys! I'm back! What a 2018! And as usual, I just finished another project sponsored by EVGA, Thermaltake and Zadak511, and I am here to share it with you guys. This project got delayed a bunch of times but in the end I got it done before the end of 2018. Let's start shall we? This project is called "WhiteNoise", and the theme of the project is based on a NHL team, the Winnipeg Jets! I got inspired to do this project after watching the Winnipeg Jets go against the Nashville Predators last year in the playoffs. Looking at their official uniforms, I thought, why not make a case mod with their theme? Blue, White, Gray and a little bit or Red? Sure! So, I asked EVGA if they would like to throw in their DG-76 computer case to be murdered by me. A week after asking, well, they've sent me these. They were kind enough to send a DG-76, x2 GtX 1080 with Hydro Copper Blocks, 850PQ power supply, some awesome sleeved power supply cables (blue and white), power links and some awesome poster. And Zadak511 stepped in and threw in a 64GB kit of their Zadak MOAB RGB ram sticks with some swags included! And Apacer global jumped in too and threw in one of their M.2 128GB SSD for the project. Now, for the main "star" of the butchery.. Now, originally, my plan was to flip the whole case so the front panel will be the bottom, Remove the part of the case that has mounting holes for reservoir and slap x2 360mm radiator, which sadly didn't work. This would have work, but if I went this route, I would need to either cut some breathing holes on the right side panel or make a replacement for the let tempered glass with holes on it for exhausting air from the radiator fans. So, I ended up with the easier way. One 360mm radiator on front. And before dismantling the DG-76, someone rang the doorbell, and this was in the front door. And after that, I decided to dismantle some parts of the DG-76, mainly the power supply shroud and the motherboard tray since I wanted those to remain white, and the rest will be blue. Aaaand off to the backyard we go! This was around October, and the temperature around here is getting colder. I was planning on doing some more cutting on the computer case, but if I remembered correctly, I only had 2 more days before the weather goes down to below zero. While waiting for the fresh coat of paint to dry up a little bit, I went ahead and did some cutting on the plastic front panel. Now, I wanted to do a push/pull config for the radiator, and I want to have the fans pulling to be outside the case. That is impossible to do unless you trim off this tab with magnet that holds the front dust cover and trim a little bit of the bottom too. after doing those, well, time to give this a blue bath! Now, a few days after I have torn the DG-76 to pieces, I ordered some White Delrin PC case feet from MNPCTech.com . These looks and feels premium and thought would go nicely for this build. Installing them was a breeze too. The DG-76's original feet has 2 mounting holes for each. Conveniently, those holes are almost the exact, same size as the included mounting screws for the White Delrin case feet! just need to file those hole a little bit and the screws just slide in. How convenient is that! While waiting for the top, front and back plastic panels to dry up, I spewed some paint on the right metal panel and some of the random accessories for the build. The hydro copper block, the Thermaltake CL360 Radiator and the sli bridge. Aaaaaaand.... At this point, there is just no way for me to be able to more paint jobs since the temperature outside is well below 0c, so I opted with using Vinyl stickers for the Winnipeg Jets logos for the build. As much as I wanted to do paint instead of stickers, It just won't work. I tried, but things just got ugly and I ended up sanding the paint down. But in the end, the vinyl sticker worked pretty well. This is Thermaltake's W4 pacific water block. Again, vinyl sticker for the Jets logo. But after doing the logo, I realized I screwed up something. For the logo to stay upright like this, I need to rotate the whole block, which sadly won't work. The mounting bracket and the holes are just waaaaaay off. LOL! Now if I took the sticker off and rotate it upright, well, the logo won't look good anymore. So in the end, I ended up changing the logo. Aaaaaand, after a few days of waiting, everything dried up well. As I have mentioned, after the blue paint job, I could not do anymore painting outside, so I ended up with using Vinyl stickers and a little bit of clear coating. Now, a couple months back before I started this project, I ended up dismantling half of my CNC machine to try to get it leveled as much as I could. Office life got busier than ever, so the cnc was out of commission when I started this project. Now, I am not a huge fan of front panels that doesn't have any breathing holes on it and instead have gaps all around the side for air to be either pulled in or exhaust out. I wanted to make a custom front panel for the project, so I ended up contacting one of my buddies, killRMODZ to do a solid for me and make the custom front panel. After a very short noticed, and a few exchanges of emails about the design, this is what we ended up with. The bottom piece is actually a gpu support in the form of a hockey stick. Now, all I need to do is to drill some mounting holes for the front panel, and the front will be completed! Looks awesome in my opinion! And now, if ever, I will be comfortable using the front as the front intake and won't worry about not having enough airflow! And I think that was all the stuff that I need to do before putting the thing together. Got all the panels painted up, logos on them, why don't we put the thing together then? Shall we? Sooooo, back when I was making a list for the stuff that I will be using for thermaltake, I screwed up that list. Instead of asking 3 sets of Thermaltake Riing Trio fans, I ended up writing 1 set of 120mm and 3 sets of 140mm fans (stupid I know). In this project, I will need at least 6 fans for the push/pull config. It's a good thing that Thermaltake sent me one of the Floe AiO coolers which has 3 120mm fans. So I ended up using those since the 140mm wont fit either inside the case or outside the front panel. Time to do the hard line tubing! Although after finishing up one bottle of beer, I fell asleep and ended up doing the hard line loop the next day. I have a very, VEEEERY low alcohol tolerance, so usually, one bottle of beer is enough to knock me off. Now, after doing the whole loop, I filled it up and discovered I have a bad leak on the cpu block fitting. And by the looks of it, I didn't tighten the fitting enough. The coolant got on the motherboard just a little bit, probably a drop or two. So I needed to drain the whole loop, and blow dry the board. And in hindsight, it was actually good since I realized, I needed to add one more drain valve on the tube from the GPU's going to the radiator. And for the coolant, Thermaltake was kind enough to send these baby for the project. Aaaand after doing some leak test, and testing if the board is still alive (which I already knew the board was fine), it's time to wrap this baby up! Thermaltake's Pacific C-Pro fittings is one of the easiest fittings that I have used so far. And they went really well with the project. They actually sent over some blue fittings too but after asking the wife which color to go, I ended up with the one fitting. Aaaaaand, time to turn this baby on! And that's it for this project! After some delays, small problems here and there, this was still a fun project for me! Now I can officially say, I am a HUGE Winnipeg Jets fan now! To the sponsors, thank you very much for the support! I hope you guys had fun going through this work log and hopefully, learn a little bit too. Have a happy new year and see on the next project!

Already gave that a try. It didn't work.

LMAO! Just what i thought. It just freaks me out whenever my hands go near a socket full of pins. I mean dropping the processor, no problem, but seeing an socket for 2 minutes, without anything covering it, just freaks the hell outta me.

Thanks! I might try that although it still makes me nervous. I've accidentally bent a socket pin before and I don't wanna go through that nightmare again. You RMA will be an option? I doubt it though.

Sorry for the dumb-dumb question, but how would I use that?

Question! Is there a good way to remove a small amount of thermal grizzly's conductonaut on a cpu socket? I accidentally dropped a small amount on the edge of the socket. (Warning: Cringy photo below) I've already tried sucking it out using the syringe that came with it, was able to remove a small amount but still. Im guessing my Z270i Strix will see the beyond now?

Update time! This update is basically going to be "butchering" the hadron air case. So my plan was to use a SFX Power supply on the bottom and have a 120mm radiator on the bottom too. But the hadron air has rails for the Flex ATX power supply (not sure if the included power supply is Flex ATX size, but looks like it). So I needed to clean that up a little bit. And while i'm at it, took out my good friend, Mr. Dremel rotary tool and..... Now I have a flat surface to work on. Next was the motherboard tray. Having a 3D printer, even if it's just a cheap-o one, really helps a lot when it comes to this stuff. The bracket that I 3D printed will hold the motherboard tray like this. And I know, the motherboard stand off length looks too long, but I designed it like this so I could route the power supply cables behind the motherboard and the PCIE Riser cable. This will make the inside a little bit cleaner. There is not much space inside to run cables around and hiding the cables between the motherboard tray and the motherboard is the cleanest way I could think of to hide the cables. And of course, I forgot to cut out the motherboard tray of the case when I did trimmed off the top panel of the case. After spending some more quality time with Mr. Dremel, did some assembly and test fit of the components that I will be using. Well, that's all for today. Everything seems to fit perfectly.... Or do they?

Hey! Just learned that today. Because to be honest, whenever I'm putting a system together, storage is the last thing that I'm looking at. Didn't even know some storage would need some sort of firmware upgrade nowadays, but it's a good thing that I encountered this and learned something new. This knowledge will definitely be of use for future troubleshooting. Thank you for the information and help! P.S I just did the firmware update today and looks like everything went well. I just need to do a restart of the system later and see what happens. I'll try to put the system in to sleep mode and wake it up to see if the problem gets fixed. I could not do that right now since my boss is currently working on a critical file (really dont want to bug him right now or he might eat my soul up).

Thank you so much for the reply. The firmware upgrade was the only "solution" that I could think of if it ever happens again. Although in Crucial's website, there is a warning on the download firmware page that says: "WARNING: Crucial recommends that you back up or make copies of all important files before installing this firmware update. This firmware updated is done entirely at your own risk. If performed correctly , there will be no loss of system or user data currently stored on the drive. However, if the firmware process is interrupted, your solid state drive might not function properly. If the firmware update is done on a notebook computer, Crucial recommends that the computer is plugged in to avoid interruption." As much as I could, I am trying to avoid to do the firmware upgrade just because of that warning about data loss since it's my boss's workstation. If there will be a data loss event, he is going to eat me alive for sure. I guess for now I would wait and see if it happens again (I am hoping not) and will try to look for other options to try out.