indiyet

Finally, a worklog. i would like to thank Linus for posting my work and sharing it to the internet last night!

Asus was kind enough to send me a GTX690 last 2012  because they liked what i did for their Sabertooth z77 board. The ArmorSuit Z77 build. 

Now I started thinking if I could sell this card but then I realized that it's a bit old now and maybe it needs some overhauling before I sell. Thus I made my first ever AsusGTX690 Paultan Edition GPU.
 
Here, I will show you the 2weeks building process. enjoy


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
So as you can see, there's a big problem for me. The green logo that lights up will mess up my color theme. So before I started this project, I made sure that I already found a way how to change the color of the logo. From green, to GOLD!
 
now for the process!

I started drawing the pattern of ROG motherboards and got some vinyl stickers and started cutting them. Then applied it on the card it self.
 
The goal is to make a texture that doesn't take too much attention.


 
now ready for painting
 

 
First layer is a matte black finish.
 

 

 
The black is too mainstream for my taste and doesn't add any "paultan" feel to it. so I decided to add another coat this time with a mist of gun metal.
The goal is not to make it silky smooth finish, I'm going for a rough surface. here's the result
 

 
Then next is the edges of the card.
 
You can clearly see how brown it is. So I will fix it and make it more sexier.

 
DONE!
 

 
Now let's make the case/box
 

 

 
I'm using a acrylic here. Left overs from my previous projects.
 

 
bending
 

 
looks good
 

 

 

 
Thanks to Soundblaster for giving me this awesome headset. No problem with noisy gears and more for inspirational music!
 

 

 

 
Looks good in picture but i don't like the wrapping effect.. so I decided to make an aluminium version of it.
 

 
 
 
now I'm gonna make the main body using MDF wood.
 

 

 
Then aluminium
 

 

 
Now bending!
 

 

 
bending using hands. lol
 
looks good!
 

 
more bending! and filing
 

 
filing is the key for straight lines/precision
 

 

 

 
now some details.
 

 

 

 

 
done!
 

 
now for the deatails!
 

 

 
another problem is that the doors needs a guide so it can slide nicely when trying to open and closing.
 

 

 

 

 
testing the guides perfect but needs lubrication
 

 

 
perfect when closed!
 

 

 
now applying the texture!
 

 
then sanding!!!!
 
 
wear complete mask to avoid inhaling the particles.
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 
this is why you need to wear mask.
 

 
after few hours
 

 
now let's make the foams
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now painting!!!
 

 

 

 
after the matte black. here's the rough gunmetal!!! I love it!
 

 

 
add some signature!
 

 

 
then label.
 

 

 

 

 
the bottom
 

 
the base!
 

 
bottom
 

 
then some acrylic to add ease when sliding the doors.
 

 

 

 
now I'm adding gold strip for accent!
 

 

 

 

 
finished!
 

 
more pictures here of the finish product!

http://www.paultandesigns.com/gtx690-pde/
 

6th Day
 
Today it was sanding and caulking to aluminum sheets






 
as seen in this last picture bigger plate had many imperfections and pores..
no choice but to stay put putty:
 


 
Tomorrow should finally be ready to paint.
 
7th Day
 
Yesterday was a day of sanding, painting and cleaning.



 
That ended plastic putty sanding
 
Then I had to apply red putty to refine the details:




 
After painting and cleaning








 
 
8th Day
 
Today with all painted finally start putting together:



 
Applying foam weatherstripping to the plastic holders to not scratch the reservoir: ;)






 
He also had to paint the DVD reader .. : D

 
For good measure a preview of how it goes with everything mounted leaving without wires:







 
Surprise of the day .. want to place the SATA power cable to the ssd I find that the font is backwards! probe with molex to sata adapter but does not go straight:



 
9th and last Day
 
Today at the end I could finish assembling everything without complications ... yeah! :D
 
First the correction veneer ssd service to come good cables:



 
While the paint was drying take advantage to drain the circuit ;)

 
This morning I finally began to build and was able to finish the HAF-X Mod V1.0


 
I had to get it out so that the photos can be more clearly








 
Well that's all for now, hope you liked. Greetings!
 
aesthetic mini update:
 







 
If I get time before the end of this mod contest, I'll put transparent tubing to appreciate better the blood red liquid, change compressor, black 230mm fan and why not a dedicated rad for the vga card ;)
Also will update ssd and 480 SLI.

Closing this thread since I'll no longer be monitoring it. I've read through all the feedback and will carefully consider it. Thanks so much guys.
 
I'm not turning this thread into a poll because I intend to carefully read the replies of every single person who posts in the next couple of days.
 
I won't make a decision like this without consulting the community that made us one of the top technology channels on YouTube.
 
I am considering completely abandoning unboxings in 2014 to focus on reviews, guides, Tech Quickie, and our upcoming daily news show.
 
What this means first of all is LESS CONTENT. Unboxings take a fraction as long as all that other stuff, so we won't be able to cover nearly the breadth of products that we used to do...
 
What it also means is MORE QUALITY and MORE FOCUS. We'll be able to really spend time getting familiar with things before we show it to you and really zone in on the stuff that we feel is most relevant, exciting and interesting.
 
Please let me know your thoughts.

I might as well weigh in on this since I tweeted this as a discussion topic:
 
Mantle:
- Unproven
- Requires no new hardware if you already have a GCN (7000+) card
- Requires developer support (but we know that at least some is coming)
- Unknown performance improvement over non-Mantle
- Takes time to implement, limited compatibility with existing hardware and fragments market, which will be a major barrier
- No support for existing titles unless ported in after the fact
- Potentially makes Linux gaming more feasible
 
G-Sync:
- Requires Kepler GPU (600 series or better)
- Requires new hardware on monitor side of things (but not that expensive to implement compared to existing scaler hardware)
- Does not require developer support & supports pretty much your entire existing library of games.
- Proven performance. Holy crap does it ever make a big difference. I'd rather play 50FPS with G-Sync than 80FPS with tearing from what I saw. Seriously..
- Requires hardware manufacturer support (at least some is coming, but not from A+ players like Samsung. I saw Philips, ASUS, BenQ, and Viewsonic on the list...)-
 
I'll discuss this more on the WAN Show this week, but let me put it this way. To all of the folks saying any of the following about G-Sync:
- a useless features
- can't convince me that lower framerates can look better
- snake oil
 
You just don't understand the technology here fully. This is ABSOLUTELY game-changing. It makes a HUGE difference. Enormous. Earth-shattering. Not open for debate. End of discussion. Unless you've tried it, (I have, you haven't at this point unless you're another journalist that was at the event) then it's best to say nothing before you make yourself look like a fool.
 
The challenges for G-Sync have to do with adoption by monitor makers, NOT to do with whether it's a GREAT technology that ideally EVERY gamer would have. For me a key factor here is going to be the availability of monitors with G-Sync that don't suck. If you can't buy an IPS panel with G-Sync, you're going to have a hard time selling someone like me who games very little compared to doing real work on his PC on it.
 
Mantle has the capability to dramatically improve performance in the traditional sense, but doesn't address the same issues that every card has the way the G-Sync does. Mantle's success rides on the implementations we see from devs like DICE with BF4. If it's awesome, then it will drive more developers to embrace it. If it sucks and it turns out to be really hard to work with, it won't.
 
So here's the summary in my mind. They're both potentially incredible. The only difference is right now we KNOW that G-Sync is incredible, and Mantle has the POTENTIAL to be incredible. We still need more information about BOTH of them before I'd be willing to drop real money on either of them, though.

6th Day
 
Today it was sanding and caulking to aluminum sheets






 
as seen in this last picture bigger plate had many imperfections and pores..
no choice but to stay put putty:
 


 
Tomorrow should finally be ready to paint.
 
7th Day
 
Yesterday was a day of sanding, painting and cleaning.



 
That ended plastic putty sanding
 
Then I had to apply red putty to refine the details:




 
After painting and cleaning








 
 
8th Day
 
Today with all painted finally start putting together:



 
Applying foam weatherstripping to the plastic holders to not scratch the reservoir: ;)






 
He also had to paint the DVD reader .. : D

 
For good measure a preview of how it goes with everything mounted leaving without wires:







 
Surprise of the day .. want to place the SATA power cable to the ssd I find that the font is backwards! probe with molex to sata adapter but does not go straight:



 
9th and last Day
 
Today at the end I could finish assembling everything without complications ... yeah! :D
 
First the correction veneer ssd service to come good cables:



 
While the paint was drying take advantage to drain the circuit ;)

 
This morning I finally began to build and was able to finish the HAF-X Mod V1.0


 
I had to get it out so that the photos can be more clearly








 
Well that's all for now, hope you liked. Greetings!
 
aesthetic mini update:
 







 
If I get time before the end of this mod contest, I'll put transparent tubing to appreciate better the blood red liquid, change compressor, black 230mm fan and why not a dedicated rad for the vga card ;)
Also will update ssd and 480 SLI.

There you go. Now you got your badge.

General rule of thumb is 120mm per component. But of course more the better

I would wait another day or two and then if you still haven't gotten it I would Private Message  Slick here on the forum.

This contest is now closed!! Winners are below!
 
GRAND PRIZE: WINTHER
RUNNER UPS: SUSHISKY & WING2K5
 
INTRODUCTION
 
Western Digital is taking a "go big or go home" approach to at least two things right now. One is the all new 4TB 3.5" Red NAS-optimized hard drive, and the other is this giveaway. Western Digital provided us with an incredibly generous EIGHT 4TB Red drives to give away. Because these drives are RAID-optimized, we thought it would make sense to group up the prizes so that you guys can run them the way they're meant to be run!
 

 
Again... HUGE thanks to Western Digital for making this giveaway possible. They've been so supportive of Linus Tech Tips. They sponsored our trip to Computex, sponsored our trip to PAX, and they're giving awesome stuff away to our community
 
PLEASE TAKE SOME TIME TO READ THE SPONSOR MESSAGES BELOW!
 
 
SPONSOR MESSAGES
 
1. Check out this excellent review of the WD Red 4TB over at Storage Review. These guys are awesome and know far more about testing drives than we ever will!
 

 
2. Check out the WD Red lineup even if you're not planning to enter the contest: http://geni.us/YQabkT
 
3. Check out this video outlining the advantages of WD's Red lineup of drives: 
 
 
 
WD RED 4TB GIVEAWAYS RULES & REGULATIONS 
 
I decided to split things up into one GRAND PRIZE and two runner up prizes. The big winner (who will be drawn first) gets FOUR 4TB WD Red 3.5" hard drives. That's right. FOUR. That's enough to store 12TB of data in RAID 5, or 8TB of data in RAID 1. Each runner up will receive TWO 4TB WD Red 3.5" hard drives. That's enough for 4TB of RAID1 safe storage! This is a Linus Tech Tips giveaway (WD is providing the drives to us to decide what we want to do with them) so it's WORLDWIDE!
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
 
This giveaway is only available for Linus Tech Tips forum members, and as usual you can either get ONE entry to win, or you can get more!!
 
1x entry - Post about your storage setup in this thread. The most important thing is WHY you run the hardware you run. There are NO bonus points for talking about WD, and there are no wrong answers. It's okay to say what brands you're using, and it's okay to have a reason that's as simple as "my friend recommended it at the time"
 
1x bonus entry - Include a link in your post of you sharing the giveaway on your personal Facebook

1x bonus entry - Include a link in your post of you sharing the giveaway on your personal Twitter

1x bonus entry - Include a link in your post of you sharing a link to this giveaway announcement thread in some other community (forums, social networks, super-active community websites other than linustechtips.com like Digg... etc). We aren't trying to spam so make sure you are sharing with people who you genuinely think will care about it!

You can get a maximum of 4 entries by including links in your post to the three eligible sharing places. Here is an example of what an optimal maximum entry (4) post would look like:
                                                                                                                                                                                    
1. I don't have a desktop, but I run an OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD for my boot drive because it was a great price, and offers great speed with a 5 year warranty. I don't keep any storage drives in my system because I use spotify for all of my music and I don't watch many movies, but I do have a 1TB external USB3 drive that has 1-touch back up, so I plug that in once in a while so that if my laptop gets lost I will still have my data. 
 
2. Facebook share from (Name Goes Here): (insert verifiable link here)
 
3. Twitter share with Twitter handle @Example: (insert verifiable link here)
 
4. Community Site share with nickname (nickname goes here): (insert verifiable link here)
                                                                                                                                                                                    
 

The contest closes September 30th, 2013 and the winner will be contacted after we've had a chance to tabulate the entries. Good luck everyone! Thanks for participating, and a big thanks again to our sponsor, WD!

You got featured on Build of the week. You should be getting a badge since you were featured.

The 3rd and last part.
 
Well folks here's the last part of the photos, by that I remained for a while and I dedicate myself to enjoy it.
I had to disassemble yesterday because it was poorly put the sli bridge and the 2nd vga warmed me twice as above haha what animal .. lol 
Also change the tubing because the liquid started getting pink and dont like me how it turned out, Mayhems DYE That's not what it says ...   
Hope you like the end result as it changes the look and the reservoir at odds with the rest of the mod .. thanks again Mayhems..  :angry: 
I will Buy soon as possible the rigid acrylic tubes of primochill to accompany the reservoir.
 

Last week arrived the package from UK! Now just wait to come the 200mm RAD.   B) 

I decided to mod the side panel to full window Was waiting for a long time and day arrived:   acrylic ready   Tomorrow if I have time I make the holes and paint if the weather let me..   Holes made   Painting   Acrylic  

As promised has been update.
First go with the photos of new acquisitions:
 


 
Sandisk Extreme 120Gb RAID0

 
EVGA GTX 480 + XSPC RAZOR FULL COVER BLOCK (soon)

More Pictures: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/111237322300148541384/albums/5878347497899917217
 
Phobya G-Changer 280




 
That's all for now as I can not build until I arrive backplates for 480 SLI.
Tomorrow I will be working with the new rear cover 5.25 bay

6th Day
 
Today it was sanding and caulking to aluminum sheets






 
as seen in this last picture bigger plate had many imperfections and pores..
no choice but to stay put putty:
 


 
Tomorrow should finally be ready to paint.
 
7th Day
 
Yesterday was a day of sanding, painting and cleaning.



 
That ended plastic putty sanding
 
Then I had to apply red putty to refine the details:




 
After painting and cleaning








 
 
8th Day
 
Today with all painted finally start putting together:



 
Applying foam weatherstripping to the plastic holders to not scratch the reservoir: ;)






 
He also had to paint the DVD reader .. : D

 
For good measure a preview of how it goes with everything mounted leaving without wires:







 
Surprise of the day .. want to place the SATA power cable to the ssd I find that the font is backwards! probe with molex to sata adapter but does not go straight:



 
9th and last Day
 
Today at the end I could finish assembling everything without complications ... yeah! :D
 
First the correction veneer ssd service to come good cables:



 
While the paint was drying take advantage to drain the circuit ;)

 
This morning I finally began to build and was able to finish the HAF-X Mod V1.0


 
I had to get it out so that the photos can be more clearly








 
Well that's all for now, hope you liked. Greetings!
 
aesthetic mini update:
 







 
If I get time before the end of this mod contest, I'll put transparent tubing to appreciate better the blood red liquid, change compressor, black 230mm fan and why not a dedicated rad for the vga card ;)
Also will update ssd and 480 SLI.

WAN show archive: 
Go to 2:09
Forum post: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/32655-livestream-builds-of-the-week/

WAN show featured build!

i'm not a fan carbon fiber, but it should look good 

man that watercooling is SICK

Kewl, awesome job

Wow that looks really nice, I get a bit bored of black and red rigs but sometimes you find rigs like this one which look really outstanding. Only thing I personally don't like as much is the split in the top graphics card's PCIe power cables.

Very nice looking build you got there . 

Very nice!

6th Day
 
Today it was sanding and caulking to aluminum sheets






 
as seen in this last picture bigger plate had many imperfections and pores..
no choice but to stay put putty:
 


 
Tomorrow should finally be ready to paint.
 
7th Day
 
Yesterday was a day of sanding, painting and cleaning.



 
That ended plastic putty sanding
 
Then I had to apply red putty to refine the details:




 
After painting and cleaning








 
 
8th Day
 
Today with all painted finally start putting together:



 
Applying foam weatherstripping to the plastic holders to not scratch the reservoir: ;)






 
He also had to paint the DVD reader .. : D

 
For good measure a preview of how it goes with everything mounted leaving without wires:







 
Surprise of the day .. want to place the SATA power cable to the ssd I find that the font is backwards! probe with molex to sata adapter but does not go straight:



 
9th and last Day
 
Today at the end I could finish assembling everything without complications ... yeah! :D
 
First the correction veneer ssd service to come good cables:



 
While the paint was drying take advantage to drain the circuit ;)

 
This morning I finally began to build and was able to finish the HAF-X Mod V1.0


 
I had to get it out so that the photos can be more clearly








 
Well that's all for now, hope you liked. Greetings!
 
aesthetic mini update:
 







 
If I get time before the end of this mod contest, I'll put transparent tubing to appreciate better the blood red liquid, change compressor, black 230mm fan and why not a dedicated rad for the vga card ;)
Also will update ssd and 480 SLI.

3rst Day   Today I gave thread to see if something moved. As I wrote before I had to change the position of the pump and reservoir for aesthetics more than anything (besides had no other compressor 90 to match reservoir-pump) so I had to put the reservoir hung back and the pump below the PSU COVER.   First of all amure While aluminum chapon   After measuring, marking and cutting to make the hole to pass the hose down and go to the pump.     This was finally:   Tomorrow is to finish the hole for the pump and start sanding sheets to be best:   4th Day   Today I dedicate to complete the circuit pump-rad-cpu-vga-reservoir-pump. Seeing that the PSU cover was not decided whether to spend hauling in the "L" that anchor the grooves that brings the haf-x factory. In fact he had not done before because I thought would look good but no, I did not like aesthetically.   I also had to put screws in front and moving a bit:   to finish the hole to pass the mouth of the pump:   Now screw the pump to display and measure to cut the hose:       Finally after placing all   Now place the ssd is in the top 5.25 "(bottom not like me any way), paint and any other paint.   5th Day   Today it was the ssd :D   Trying different positions for the above I decided to put it as originally planned, at the top of 5.25 ". A measure and holes:   Then make the cavity to pass the cables:   in this last photo shows a calculation I did wrong because I had to enlarge a couple of holes :P   Finally:   Now the hard part I play so far is doing the same cavity in the cabinet and not passing through any other side:   After a good time to hand filing was more or less but the important thing is that the wires run:   Finally for today .. presented'm something like this:   A preview of what will be painted aluminum sheets, flanges and bolts: