Maarten/Pine

It’s finally time, the final pictures have been made! The only thing there’s left to say: enjoy. As an end to this build log, I’d like to thank my sponsors again that supported me on this project: Alphacool Cooler Master Cablemod Apacer Teamgroup Please let me know how you like it in a comment!

Following up on the last update, quite a lot has been done. The underlying picture is halfway during the assembly of the whole build. All the lighting still had to be done, and some hardtubes still had to be bent. Finally got the lighting done! Then Cooler Master asked if they could show the build at Firstlook, an even in the Netherlands. I had to finish the build, and shortly before that quite some problems arose. First of all one of the fans showed the wrong color, and one of them was broken (the pwm wire was broken off at the center.) On top of that, one of the pumps decided to break down on my as well… So: I showed the build and it looked perfect (apart from the fans), it was just not running. The lights worked, fans worked, the PC just wasn’t powered on. Proud! And next to Peter Brand’s C700P as well! High quality pics from Cooler Master That’s it for this one sadly. Next update will contain final pictures, but I’m still waiting for new fans from Cooler Master. Will come soon I hope!

Well, ehm… Scratch builds take a long time…! Haven’t posted an update in a long time, so here is an update with some pics taken during the building process. Enjoy! Let’s begin with the cables from the new sponsor: Cablemod! These new Pro cables are thicker than the regular cables and stay in shape really well. For this build I’ve chosen aluminium cable combs. Been busy tidying up all the cables. Cyberden Systems made aluminium cable combs that can be attached to the aluminium panels. Here is part of the result! And everything plugged in to the PSU! And last but not least, the lighting… These are the RGB-W strips from Cablemod, so with RGB leds and a separate, white led next to it. This makes it possible to combine white with colours, which gives quite nice glows. Also bought some aluminium profiles to make the LED light more subtle.

Lol... woops. Thanks maat, appreciate it!! Thanks for the kind words. I must say this has gotten a little out of hand. It always takes way more time than you think beforehand lol. Loving it though! Onto the next quick update. First I’d like to welcome Apacer as a sponsor to this project. They provided the two SSD’s that will go on the side of the project. These are their ARMOR SSD’s with a capacity of 240gb and they look awesome to be honest! They look so good I’m doubting if I’m even going to put a sticker over them or just leave them as is. Feedback is welcome! Furthermore, let’s have a closer look at the CPU block with the matching colors of the color scheme. I also thought it would be cool to just add some simple and elegant accents to the motherboard heatsinks. Let me know what you think! After doing the motherboard I couldn’t resist to paint the covers of the CPU block screws orange as well, accents complete! Now onto the first big test fit to see how everything looks. Enjoy! The pressure gauge will be hooked up to the loop, just a simple but nice touch imo. The temperature gauge won’t be hooked up to the loop but will read the ambient temperature instead. I’ll have a temperature probe inside the loop that’s hooked up to the Aquaero. Oh, and the cables on the rad aren’t finished yet. They still need to be tidied. Drop a comment to let me know how you like it!

Next update! Delidded the 8700k with Rockitcool’s delidding kit. Even though it was the first time, it was an absolute breeze! Used the replacement IHS while I was at it. Realised a 17 degree drop under load, which is awesome! Also shot some more pics of the Alphacool tubes and fittings, this time too with the modding nuts on them. Loving the look of these!! Next, I scrubbed all the paint off the waterblock! I used sodium hydroxide as the active component (drain cleaner) which got it off quite easily. The remaining bit was sanded off Then I tested the fountain effect with some blue dye. The effect looks truly amazing if the pump speed is turned down a bit.

It’s been quite a while, mostly because I’ve been really busy with graduating from college. Now I’ll present to you the progress of the last 3 weeks. As mentioned earlier the plan was to totally change the frame design, which is visible in the upcoming pictures. The frame is finished already. I made the aluminium plates as well and made holes for the screws and side panel plates. Enjoy the pictures! After the frame was put together, I installed the I/O panel from Mountain Mods. In the meantime I installed all the hardware with a temporary cooler. Everything works fine! Some nice RGB effects for ya. Watercooling reservoirs: installed. Because the frame looked really bad after the prickling, I sanded the whole frame once more to get a nice brushed look. And.... everything fits! Started with the cable management, first: fans on the radiator! Looking good imo, only some cable ties left. The radiators will be rotated to 45 degrees in the bottom part of the frame, however: the phobya radiator stands were quite big. Made them a “bit” smaller.

And now the GPU of choice: the Asus Strix 1080 Ti! This beast of a card will pair nicely with the 8700k that’ll go in the system. Although it will be watercooled in this build, I have the possibility to use it air-cooled in another build if I wanted to. Took some pictures of the card, enjoy! Also got the memory for the build, here’s some shots of the awesome TeamGroup Delta RGB! Hope you enjoy, I’m loving the looks of this RAM.

The motherboard of choice for this build: Asus Z370-E Strix Gaming Love the aluminium look of the heatsinks on this board, they’ll go perfectly with the aluminium plates. Enjoy some tech porn!

This time will be a small update, as a follow-up on a few updates earlier. In update 2, I showed some test paint-effects on the aluminium plates. I’m not sure what to do with the plates yet, but decided to polish the steel pipes. The pipes will be sanded and lightly polished. On the picture below the pipes have just been sanded, but still have to be polished. The polishing will erase the bigger scratches, but the metal will keep a light brushed look.

Thanks for Cooler Master for sending me the PSU and fans! First off: some fancy shots of the Cooler Master V750 modular psu which is going in the system. Hope you guys like this stuff, at the moment I’m just trying out different backgrounds so let me know if you like it. “Cooler Master Masterfan pro 120 RGB air pressure fans” Jeez what a mouthful… They’re beautiful though. Can’t wait to light them up. Cooler Master RGB Controller that comes with the 3-pack. Will hook up 4 fans to both the controllers, each for one radiator.

Closeups of some Alphacool products for this project. The Alphacool Eisblock GPX will be paired with a modding kit for the same block in blue. The modding top The Eisfluegel flow meter. And of course, the chrome Eisblock XPX. I’m not sure if I like the dark-blue logo, so I’ll probably change that to another color (white?) that came with the modding kit.

Haha thank you very much mate, had a good one indeed. Welcome aboard, enjoy the ride.

Yessir, although "steampunk" usually lets me think of copper stuff. Metal ftw, I'm so in love with the look of bare metal!

Second update, let’s begin with some nice metal flakes to complement the theme… All threads tapped, good stuff! Not sure what I’m going to do with the frame and aluminium plates, so I tested some effects on the fittings and pipe. I’d like to hear what you think of this! Test fitting the aluminium plates onto the metal fittings and pipes. The aluminium plate was bent at my brother’s work, where they have all the machines to work with metal. That’s one big PC, but it’s going to be hella pretty!

First update on the project, the parts for the frame came in! Metal scaffolding pipes The fittings with the aluminium sheets, they look so goddamn good! Loving the industrial look. Trying to tap threads into the fittings that will attach the aluminium sheets to the frame. Works like a charm! That was the quick first update. Next I’ll test some different painting effects on the fittings and metal sheets.