tristan1035

The EarPods are pretty good, I really like mine and our perfect when I walk my dog (stay in my ears, really good sound quality, and enough noise cancellation so I can still hear the outside world).

Back from the dead (well nearly so). I had some nasty medical issues to take care of and now currently recovering from a surgery. This combined with the custom parts from Caselabs and the whole review website taking off pretty well resulted in this massive delay. 
 
But here we are. Caselabs worked on this for a while, and I finally have a TX10 HPTX to XL-ATX conversion kit (which incidentally is now available for retail purchase also!):
 

 

 

 
Each kit comes with an XL-ATX motherboard tray, a backplate for the motherboard tray and the new divider section for the case itself. The reason I went for this is because the TX10 comes standard (well used to till now anyway) with HPTX which is more or less dead in the enthusiast segment now:
 

 
Having even an E-ATX board such as the RVE on it looked out of place:
 

 
Now with this on, and re-using the back section:
 

 

 
Ah much better. A few hours on the case and everything was in:
 

 
Of course it had to be done for both sides:
 

 
There were a few hiccups such as the ATX motherboard mounting holes being slightly offset for some reason but we worked through it, and Caselabs was amazing as always. New trays came in which were perfect.
 
Now with that taken care of, I had a few items come along which weren't for review:
 

 

 
This is a red plexi top for the EK Supremacy Evo, and they were good enough to send the badge separately. My original plan was to go replace the top on the standard plexi top version:
 

 

 
to the red plexi top:
 

 

 

 
I will have to see how this looks with something like a white pastel coolant through it, but as is it clashes a bit with the lighter colors on the motherboard. To further complicate things, I got this:
 

 

 
That nickel finish isn't exactly like how it is on the Corsair Dom Plats, but it gets close as you can see here:
 

 
Along with the red plexi top was this:
 

 
A strange no-name box? What could be inside?
 

 

 

 

 
Ah so it is a D5 pump top in their CSQ style. Or is it?
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now we are talking! I also got this:
 

 
But let's save that for the next update. Don't want to get ahead of myself again

It is long overdue that I post these. I have been so busy with a lot of other projects, that this one has been left as a smaller priority. But now it is time! I present to you the final Experiment Nr. 5.   I would like to give a huge thanks to ASUS ROG Nordic, Bitspower International Co., Ltd. Case Labs, Corsair and EK Water Blocks for helping out with parts for this project.   I would also like to thank my friend Peter Berg for helping with the milling of the panels. A job that seemed simple at first, but ended up taking way longer than expected!   Final specs:  
ASUS Maximus VII Impact ASUS GTX 780 Corsair RM1000 Corsair Dominator 16 gb 1866 mhz 2 x Corsair Neutron GTX 240 gb ssd´s Intel 4770K WD 4 tb red Waterblocks by EK waterblocks Fittings by Bitspower Sleeving by teleios Cable combs by E22     But we all know what you guys want to see. So lets move on to the interesting stuff!                                                               That was all for now. I hope you have enjoyed this. I will be starting something new up VERY soon:D Some of you can probably guess in what case

I think of religions as franchise operations. Like chicken franchise operations. But that doesn't mean there's no chicken, right?
WILLIAM GIBSON, No Maps for These Territories
 
I know...I know.....
I have been busy with the EK build,but trust me,things have been going on in the back ground.
Namely....painting the GPU blocks and the XSPC AX rads.
The blocks started out clear and originally were just due a copper flake dusting and a clearcoat,sadly i underestimated the drag clear would have on flake and it pulled it. So that means a sand back and going with the case colours.
In this instance,black metallic,deep candy blue and copper flake.
The STRIX logo was infilled with copper electrode film.
They still need a little cutting back but the 1k Smart Acrylic I use takes an age to fully cure.
 

 
The rads got the same treatment too.
 

 

 
The EK build is due to finish very soon so I can get back to this beauty. I have to make the copper backplates and wrap overs yet for the GPU's,but at least I can block the cards now .
On the subject of paint,I have been asked a few times now for a spraying guide,I have just ordered a new LVLP gun which could be brilliant for hobby painters,low compressor requirements and very low material loss being the highlights.
When it comes,I will demo it.

Alive and kicking - Just very busy
 
 
I hope that this little bump will remind you once again:D
 
 
Lets hope they do not burn out too soon
 
I know that I am slow, and for that I am sorry, but there is quite a few things going on at the moment:D   None the less, I will leave you with this:  

UPDATE!
So this is the final working update for this log. The case is all finished and operational, just waiting on Antony and the main reveal in order to post the final pics. So until then, let's have a look at what was done in the meantime:


Picked up a new camera! Should be a lot of fun down the line, still very much getting used to the additional capabilities though. In time I'll adapt and push it further.

Corsair sent me a trunk full of stuff, big cheers to Antony for making this possible!


Turns out this is what you get it you strip off the insulation and shielding from a USB 3.0 extension

Painted the switch so that it fits in better.

And here's a pic of my cat to tide you over until the final pics can be posted

So,the loop layout is done,just need to bolt everything in place.
A fully parallel loop,nice clean and efficient runs should keep this tidy inside. The tubing and res need to be airbrushed in a candy brass/gold colour along with the pump cover which will be a deep red like the tray.
I need to get a handful of E22 Ultraclear in the post Monday.......:wheee:
Then its sleeve time.......
 

I hate sleeving but it needs to be done!
 



 
Still need to do the back panel paint work but  I really need to give them another few coats of base first.....which I ran out of......:doh:

Guess only one person looked, lol, anyways. Just some general info here, my computer now fully works again after three RMA's of a 780 Lightning and I'll try to get pics up of the whole build ASAP with the RAM installed. This is the first and last major update of this year most likely. I crashed my truck and its gonna be $2000 to get the dents popped out and it repainted but there will most likely be some smaller stuff like some HDD's or painting or something of that nature. I hope you're enjoying the build so far. I hope I can continue it on. Check out the update ABOVE.
Also as a afterthought. A little #throwbackthursday to my old motherboard.

UPDATE:
I found something growing in my garden when I got home today. I wonder what this could be!!!! 32GB of 2133 Corsair Dominator Platinum's straight from the factory in Taiwan. Btw, this was the teaser.

Pluck them out of the ether mostly...
 
Haha I think a lot of it comes down to seeing something and saying to yourself "I'd like to make something like that", could be a rock, animal, landscape, other product or anything really.  Certainly this is the reason why my own builds and concepts don't follow a set theme, I find variety to be a lot of fun.
 

  Thanks Bsmith!  Not sure if I'd be able to best their own simple case mind, I was very impressed when I received it.  It doesn't necessarily look fantastic, but it's gloriously utilitarian whilst using solid materials, they're much more interesting in person than in photos.  Online the stock case looks a bit naff and plasticky.
 
 

Update
  Not a good one today unfortunately, but also not some sort of catastrophe, just an inopportune inconvenience.
 
So the other day I placed the build into the flight case, all fitted nicely and it was suitably snug., I then forgot it was in there.  What I hadn't thought about was the curing time for the clear coat.  Now I left it for 2 days before doing this, so I figured it would be cured enough, obviously it wasn't.  Interestingly, when I opened it up today to finish everything, I noticed some really curious patterns all over it.  It appears that the foam has imprinted the clear coat and left it like the images below.
 
I mean it's kind of funky in a hideous way, the eggcrate foam has left a nice polka dot look on one side and the flat polypropylene left an almost leather-like pattern on the other sides.
 
So what does this mean?  Not much, I just have to paint it again, it basically means I don't get to play GTAV for a few more days.  I have the materials to do it, plus I can easily paint in the evenings so no worries.  Should all be fixed up in time.  I'll also want to look at the flight case to see if there's much I can do there to alleviate any issues in the future.  If Intel do pick them up then I wouldn't want them to unbox it like it is below.
I apologise in advance for the rubbish pictures.  Only have my phone with me but more crucially I was lazy so didn't really try to get the most out it.  They do the job of showing what I mean at least.
 

Update 23:
 
I've got some long awaited update pictures for you guys of the airbrushing. My artist just sent me some pictures of the work so far, along with steps of the process of creating the Riddler theme on the computer case. Hope you guys enjoy, I know I was excited to see them and now I can't wait to see the end result. This is one of the three panels that are being done.
   
1- We start by cleaning all surfaces to be painted with a wax, grease and silicone remover.    2- Next, we mask off the back side of each panel to keep things clean.    3- We also mask the clear acrylic window.    4- Then we begin to prep sand the panels.    5- Notice sanded vs un-sanded.    6- We also use a scotch brite pad to help sand the edges and tighter areas.    7- Everything is ready.    8- Notice sanded to the very edge.   9- Next, two coats of black base coat are sprayed.    10- Now we begin the artwork portion. The supplied artwork is resized to fit the panel.   11- In this case, the highlights are trimmed and the neon green base coat is airbrushed through it.    12- You can see here the details of the layering process. Several different greens are used to create depth and black is used to tighten things up.    13- Here is an example further along in the process. Things are getting much tighter and detailed.    14- The artwork is about 80% complete. A few more details to pack in, highlights to pop out and we are ready for the matte clear finish.    15- An angled pic shows the layering.

UPDATE!

So today and yesterday were very productive days. First up I managed to finish off the painting! Lots and lots of thin paint layers, sanding up to 2500 grit and many clear coats later it looks pretty good. I went with a metallic black rather than flat as I thought it looked better on the sample pieces, glad I did. After getting the painting out of the way, I decided to start working on the flight case. In total I managed to complete the whole exterior, just the interior foam left to do now.

You may notice that the flight case has different corners to those in the renders, well this was a surprise to me too. I actually ordered grey, but for some reason was sent black instead. Whilst I'm not particularly happy with that, it does still look good so I'm not that bothered. What I am bothered about though is how instead of being sent 6mm ply, I received 3.3mm instead, which is damn near useless. I have no idea how that happened as the store I used doesn't even sell that thickness, very odd. It would have been a disaster had they not shipped it sandwiched between two 4mm MDF boards. Instead I just cut and glued the ply to the MDF and used that instead, worked out fine.
 

TEASER:

 

UPDATE!
 

 
So I've been rather busy lately, both at work and at home, leaving me little time to get the ball rolling.  Luckily I now have everything I need to finish the project, just a matter of putting in the time.
 
So first up, remember that pile of wood from my last post?  Well over the Easter weekend my Old Man and I turned that into something more useful.  Whilst there's still painting and finishing details left to do, the vast bulk is now over.  Over the coming weeks I'll be steadily finishing it up and moving tools and supplies into it, eventually it should be a proper workshop!  The electrics still need to be added, but that should be handled fairly soon too.
 
 
I hate roofing, evidently not the profession for me.




Front door windows going in



Floor laid and now just painting to do!


 

 
I finished up all the priming today, probably used a good 12 coats to keep things nice and smooth.  I imagine it'll be a similar number of coats for final paint plus extra for the lacquer, with lots of smoothing in between.  I also took the opportunity to thread the mobo mounting points, add the side magnets and get the windows to fit just right.
 
 
All primed up







Windows in



Hardware (most of it) in






Bear in mind that massively long cable won't be there, I'll also jazz up the switch too.  I just haven't shortened it yet, so coiling it up was the next best thing.

So....
I have been quiet...for a good reason tho!
The res has been machined and is back!
Its still in the polishing phase to get rid of the mill marks on the inside,im using Lowfats acrylic polishing guide for this,you can find it using OCN search.
I know you were all expecting pron pics but they will come when its finished.....anyway...TA DAAAAAAH!

 

 
The XSPC rads have been base coated,one was white and the other was black,couldnt get the silver ones I wanted with the bare core sadly.....
 

 
Everything fits just so,not much space wasted here!
 

But in the end it's all worth it.
 

 

 
 

UPDATE:
 
It's been quite some time since I built this pc and generally I'm happy with the performance it's giving me. The PSU was quite loud though so I wanted to change it.
There are some sides of it that haven't been seen before so I devided to take some pics.
 

 
I kind of regret making the side panels hinge, but not removeable. Also lining it with felt will still happen but it's a WIP.

 
Ready for PSU extraction
 

 
Individually braided extensions are pretty but cable managing them is a nightmare. There's ample cable management room, which is needed because the magnetic catches aren't suitable for squishing the wires together.
 

Sorry for the death of the thread guys.  I went through a rollercoaster of medical issues over the last 6 months.  I've been unable to work on it at his house, and he's moving about 45 minutes away in a few weeks, so he's going to bring the entire project to my house to finish up, and they we'll get it transported to his new house.  Also, we're pondering switching the graphics cards to Titan X's because... why not?
 
The rig is still working on air cooling.  I have the radiators mounted, the fan controller in place.  I have a lot to do still before I can setup the watercooling loop.  I was over there the other day since the rig would not boot, and it turns out one of the UPS devices is not staying on longer than a minute, so I need to RMA that to Tripplite.  For now the rig can run off of one since we aren't overclocking yet.  
 
Edit:  Here's  how we're planning on mounting the eight SSDs (One is missing because it's connected as the boot drive):  

So whilst I'm in the process of sanding down and priming, I decided to think a little about the future of this little box.  Intel (like last time...) mentioned that they would like to use the NUCs as occasional exhibition pieces at events.  Some of you may know I've not had the greatest luck with shipping things around, so I decided that it would be a good idea to make a flight case for Moderne.  This should help to keep it safe during transit and whatnot.
 
Befitting of the thread, I went and modeled all the parts that I ordered and assembled the whole thing in Blender.  As such, it should look pretty similar to the renders below when complete:
 
 

Hey everyone, the MSI gaming cabinet is finally complete. Sorry it took a while, there were a few issues going on at home which caused the delay. I'm glad to be back into it and i plan on sharing some more close up photos, night shots and shots of this beast powered on. I will also release a final video for you guys.
 
Now for some pictures, i hope you all enjoy, i have a few more cable combs on their way to make those cables look even neater.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
and of course we need a picture of the Photographer/girlfriend with the cabinet =)
 

 
Thank you for all the support guys, i hope you enjoyed this project as much as i did. A huge thank you to my sponsors and please stick around for them close up shots, night shots and the final video for the build =)
 

BIG UPDATE!
  So today marks quite an important step in this project.  The vinyl arrived yesterday!  Since I'm using a capacitive proximity sensor as the power switch unfortunately I can't use real aluminium/steel for this (a real shame as I actually had those materials to hand).  Whilst the vinyl won't look quite as good as the real stuff, the area I'm applying it to is small, so it will still look kickass.   But as you can all guess, that's not the real news.  Today I went to pick up the 3D printed parts!  Much like with Vesper, I've chosen to go with SLS nylon 3D printing.  Whilst more expensive than other normal methods, it's basically better in every single way.  Not only does it have a very high resolution, but the stuff is ludicrously strong and durable, not to mention easy to work with.  To give you an idea just how strong, Vesper currently sits on the top of a 6'6 foot tall cabinet in the lounge.  My cat has managed to knock it off the top a total of 3 times, but amazingly it only has one minor paint chip and the NUC itself is fine.  That's a 6'6 fall onto a hardwood floor, not bad eh?   Taking the photos was a bit more of a challenge this time as the room I was using as a studio space has been taken over by, well... wood.
 

 
  That was all delivered today, was a nightmare job tbh.  Assuming I can construct the thing properly, it should turn into a sizeable log cabin in the garden, which will be used as a workshop!  London is not good for space, having even a small dedicated workspace will make so much of a difference.  I'll finally be able to move the stonking big pillar drill and all the tool boxes out from the bedroom at least.   And onto the main event.  Mark at Digits to Widgets (where I got the parts printed) kindly took a couple photos of the parts being prepped.  No in progress pics of the pieces in the printer sadly, not that you'd see much as SLS machines are all sealed up usually.
 
            And with the windows installed.  They just clip in and out, thanks to the edge bevel they sit nice and flush.  
 

Gunmetal and roiling blood,what a combo!








 
 
Its tight in there,very tight.
Challenge accepted!

Chaos in Ceramite.....
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!

The slim EK 290 blocks,very nice indeed, I will have to use them more often I think.
 



 
A fully parallel loop this time...because,you know....I can....
I will mention those EK AF fittings,If you are in the market for a matt finished,simple and clean looking fitting then these are for you.
The tray is finished in a dark gunmetal,a nice counterpoint to the frame panel inside which is a red marble effect (pics up later)......
 

Here's the bracket installed with a 180mm ATX PSU. The X41 is on top because I forgot to grab some double-sided tape so I could stick it to the front.
 

Here you can see why the PSU is so far forward, it has to clear the AC inlet
 

Not much room between the PSU and the board
 
 

Went ahead and test fit the Alphacool ST30 in the front
 

 

You can see here that this configuration will limit the card length.
 

For fun here's a pic of my growing collection of SilverStone PSUs
 
 
Even with the fairly heavy ST1000-G the side bracket held up just fine, I don't think that having an ATX on the hinged bracket would be a problem in the long run.
 
That said, it really doesn't leave much space up front with a longer PSU like this one so we'll probably be looking at the PSU mounted to the frame rear.

Waffling produces waffle.
 

  UPDATE!   So I'm sure many of you are wondering what the hell's taken me so long to get an update on this?  Well simply put it's because the shipping times on small electronics are stupid, I had to wait almost 2 weeks to get these two recent switches, and that's after waiting ages for one that doesn't even work.  Basically I tried everything I could to get these things to operate properly and they just wouldn't.  It seems finding a source of stable +5V on this board whilst off is a real challenge, the normal USB headers aren't present and the one that is doesn't supply juice when off.  Even the auxiliary power connector was a bit shifty (not to mention its stupid location under the M.2 SSD mount.  It went on like this for days.   So a little disappointed, I sat down at my desk and began to tinker with the switches again this morning.  After some fiddling I decided to have another go at testing them on the auxiliary power connector again, low and behold I managed to get two of them to work!   This is all three of them next to each other.  The left and middle are both capacitive proximity sensors, the one on the right is an infrared:
  I had really wanted to use this particular sensor as it's simply so small and efficient, sadly it refused to cooperate.  It's designed for use with an arduino board, seems it really needs it to be controlled properly.   I picked this one up on Nexxo on Bit-Tech's suggestion for a future project actually.  I figured I may as well try it as an infrared on switch could be pretty cool if the others didn't work.  I got it to work eventually, it has a good range too!   This big mamma is the one I've settled on.  This thing's huge, but it'll do the job.  I was worried it wouldn't work properly as it's rated for 6-36V and the board can only supply 5V.  Luckily it does work, so I'll be using it.   I've build the mounting system into the case itself, as you can see it slots in rather nicely.  I was really worried that it wouldn't fit at all!     And the best bit of news?  My side windows arrived from Parvum Systems today!  As usual the finish is really excellent, although my photos seem to have brought out the worst in them (that's what I get for rushing eh?)  They slot into the side panels and should run completely flush with the outside without any joins or seems.  Thanks a lot guys, you rock!