Fluffybakon

Next thing to do is give the clear vent panels some matching white tops.   Back over for some more Jig sawing.....              Some temp d'sided tape and time for some router profiling fun!                 A quick fit check ,  gaps are ok at this stage.         Next is to ruff cut and router profile a frame to attach the vents to.                     The Vents are each laid into position marked and drilled for the swing pins.           To keep the holes aligned and straight a simple jig is made for the drilling.           I envy the modders that just draw this all up in a program send it off and have some one else do all this shit for them......   Not!   one at a time bishop one at a time.       All the swing pins are counter sunk  to keep flush         Some time later ....   Ta da !  a real sense of " i can mod!"         To lift the vents a simple cam/servo method will be used.  For now just to see vents will work a qick cam was made.   The lift is too aggressive and will be rounded to a fuller profile in the next revision.....   Also the timing has to be set better, as i want the lift to work 5>4>3>2>1 rather then all lifting @ the same time.\                              

Hiho every one!
 
It has been a year that I've been around, I have had plenty of fun and enjoyment in this forum, cheers for every one I get to know in here, I have been always really into the PC world but since my Core2Duo E7600 and GTX 560 Ti computer from teenager times I went a huge gap even without it, only stuck to a shitty laptop.
 
You know how it goes college and all harsh times but I sworn to myself when I got a good job and all was settle down nicely I would really invest in this as a hobby. As promised as delivered, when I got hired on my new job which I'm still at for this whole year I went and bought myself a system at last, it was the best I could possible do on Brazilian market at the time for the budget I had in hand.
 
Nothing to throw away either it featured an i7 6700, Asus h110m-C, 8GB Corsair Value Select, 2nd hand GTX TITAN X on my recently moved in new home:
It served me greatly but obviously I always wanted more and I chased more through this first year I was part of here, I become addict for the second hand deals and I managed over time get a pair of two GSkill Trident Z static white 3200mhz 8gb sticks for a killer price almost I feared every day until it get to me that it was a scam from how good ^^
 
I managed to sell my TITAN X and in the very same day get off our brazilian ebay (mercadolivre) a second hand only 1 month used EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FE from a closing down rendering studio making a "trade" without losses ^^
 
With these two awesome deals I managed to have a far better system that was already perfectly capable of any game I throw at it featuring the i7 6700, 16gb still at 2133mhz though, and the 1080 Ti:
Sadly though that wasn't "bleeding edge" enough to fight my brother
Seriously though I wanted to balance all nicer, I kept trying to find deals until a church, yes a church, ask me to do a budget for a capable enough system for their youtube streaming and video editing and what not... it was the supposedly "tech savvy" of the church, very good kid they say but really bad at knowing hardware... heheh
 
He wanted i7 and gpu with 2gb, that's it, literally all he could say.
 
So I offered the i7 6700, with the old 8gb Corsair VS stick, for a fixed priced plus work, and he said "oh much wow most cheap one I go with you" literally.
 
Be as that I may I built him an i7 with 2gb GPU, made quite the buck on it, don't feel bad about it because for what is worth it still a great computer.
 
Went though the hassle of preparing it:
Either ways when I went to give the PC all went well and I very soon already ordered my new one, I literally tried to make the best value ever possible within high end, I knew it would still be costy but I with deep thinking I walk away on overclocking the i7 and settle for the locked one, as I have written plenty around already I strongly believe that is the best value in Coffee Lake since not only the CPU is cheaper you get to cheap up on just about every thing and still something cool and awesome performing.
 
Parts got home and building it up began, it was all pretty enjoyable, had wine during it and all, had a scare at the end when it wouldn't post but was a silly out of practice mistaken with the memory dimms used:
Now this is the part I will give my special thanks to @MageTank suggestion of case, I have been wonderfully satisfied by the product in every way, thanks to @PCGuy_5960 and @done12many2 and @Morgan MLGman for always reassuring me that even though overclocking is all that awesomeness one can live quite satisfied with the locked one in the mainstream just as much, be this a living proof that sometimes that unlocked i5 with all the fancy cooling and mobo might not be the best way around.
 
@dizmo Because I like talking to ye
 
@STRMfrmXMN for making picking a good power supply easy.
 
System is up and running delightfully, I have upgraded my bedroom as well with good furniture so you can say the very hard working year totally paid off ^^
 

&

 
Will start playing around with it now, seems like it'll deeply suffice for my gaming and content creation ^^
 
I lost the superposition SS right now but it was 6000 perfect score on 1080p Extreme for whoever wants to know, graphics card is running according to MSi Afterburner at 1976mhz  core clock and 5999mhz memory clock once stables at long period of usage with around 77Cº max temps.
 
Cheers and thanks for checking out.

Did you try the PSU switch?
 
Maybe a different outlet

Not exactly the aforementioned night, but here are some final pictures. It's done now (and yes my desk is a mess atm). Some tubes are not perfectly as straight as I would like them to be, but I cannot fix that without wasting tons of tubing. Overall I think it turned out to be a pretty nice loop. Only the lighting is a little too bright maybe. I'm thinking of adding something to make it more diffuse.

Hello and welcome to my first review on this forum, the Corsair Stafe.
 
Ill break the Review down into 3 sections, Build Quality, Lighting, and Software.
 
Build Quality
 
The Strafe is a very well built keyboard from the bottom to the top. It is made completely from a solid black plastic with a nice texture. The combination of this plastic and the metal plate inside the keyboard means that this keyboard has zero flex whatsoever, and you never feel like the keyboard is going to collapse while you're typing. There are 2 solid plastic feet at the back of the keyboard that can be raised to provide the keyboard with some extra hight, but i found that the keyboard was comfortable in the stock position, and left it there. Moving on to the keycaps, they are made of a clear plastic material that has then been coated with black coloring, which makes the light shine through the keys very nicely. A side note on they keys, the windows key has 1x spacing compared to the more standard 1.25x, which can make it somewhat more complicated finding alternate keycap sets for the Strafe. In the box come included 2 additional sets of keycaps, one is FPS gaming keys, featuring WAS and D keys, amd the other, for MOBA gamers, features QWERD and F keys. Both are contoured and textured, and I like that the Strafe comes with these included.
 
Lighting
 
The Strafe has 3 lighting 'zones', all of which are software controllable. The first 'zone' is the backlighting. There are plenty of presets to chose from, and the LED's are fantastic. They get bright, they're vibrant, and you can on the fly change their brightness aswell as lock the windows key. The second and third 'zones' are the 2 LED strips on either side of the keyboard. While useless to you, they do look very sleek from a distance, and i really like their inclusion.
 
Software
 
Finally, software. The Stafe can be controlled through Corsair Utility Engine, or CUE. CUE is decently intuative, but fairly useless for most. You'll probably end up setting the lighting effects to what you like and never going back, or maybe returning every so often to spark some new flair to your keyboard. What's nice is that you can edit the lighting effects and make your own, which is a benefit for some. On the RGB variant of this keyboard, you can change the color as you wish, but on the solely red version, you can only change the brightness

http://www.inno3d.com/products_detail.php?refid=297
 
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-Graphics-Cards-N750TI-2GD5TLP/dp/B00SOXMPJY

Oh yeah, some low light photos. I apologize for the quality, I absolutely suck at low light photos. And please excuse my messy desk.
 

 

 

 

Here we are guys. This is the result of all that hard work.
 
First the frame!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And lastly some natural light final shots. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nvidia is going to be releasing an article this month about my build. 
 

 

 
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my build. It was a lot of fun and please feel free to reply with questions!

Sorry for the late update, the machine is done now and its running below 50'c on full load (:

After deciding to turn my in house office into a playroom for the new daughter its forced me to be even more productive and turn one of our smaller garages from a junkheap into a little den of tranquility...
 
We have a table which I made myself from offcuts from the local DIY Store and a desk frame I picked up at the local skip - £5
Blue Carpet from offcuts in our office - £0
Paint £5
Office chair from office which was being skipped for falling below "ergonomic parameters" - £0
23" 1080p 60Hz Monitor again... destined for the skip from work - £0
2 seat Leather Sofa - £0 we were going to throw it out so rescuing it for some casual gaming seemed the most sensible idea..
Getting it wired up with Ethernet - £10 
 
so new office for 20 quid...

Not too shabby!
 

 

 
Still need to get the other Rig hooked up and the second monitor in as well as put up some shelving for the plethora of component boxes that's been accumulated... all in all though... Im pleased.

Although I think I might have a fight on my hands for the Sofa...
 

Cheers  -Lukas ty mate, there's no shortage of those coming
 
 
Let the RGB madness begin!!       Got a fav colour?     im warming to that puke green....
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 

*******New Build and Title more suited to the build.
 
 
Current/latest Build Progress Thumbs.
 
          
 
     
  
 
 
 
 
 
I haven't modded in what feels like eternity. The past decade or more ive been doing head light and tail light mods for local rev heads.Just as challenging as PC modding but it's sad seeing all you works drive off into the sunset
 
I found this forum from a random google search for some thing modding related and decided to join up.   I'm an old old skool modder.  No fancy sketchup stuff no real plan and usually no real clue!
 
I just take a case that has something i like about it and get to modding.  All of my previous mods were heavily Perspex themed this will continue thru this mod and will be done from scraps only.
 
The chassis actually had nothing i liked about it..... just a dumpster find.    An Octek branded oem compaq mini tower.    But something happened one day when i turned it upside down........   My little White Stinger mod.
 
It's not a pretty case.... but that is where the challenge is. To give the LTT forums something they haven't seen before.
 
 

 
 
In the first few shots Some initial cutting is done to the top/window  front/intake fans  Rear/exhaust fan
You can see this is an old skool design... psu uptop.
 

 

 
 
But here's the "sting" flip the case upside down and all of a sudden it's got every thing i want for my nightly surfer and the modding starts!
 

 
 

 
As this is going to be a "Very White" mod. The chassis is given a few coats of dulux vivid white as a base coat to work with.
 
The final colour before end assembly will be more arctic white to better match "THE PLEX".
 

 

 
 
Speaking of "THE PLEX" here it comes.... literally.. in scrap bin loads of the stuff.
 
And the first few bits get us off to a flying start.
Using a DIY line bender to knockup what will be the start of the PSU cover.
The Line bender is just some MDF with some hinges and some alu channel and some Nichrome wire -- 20 AWG Powered by 12v. I switched to this rather then a hot air gun to get sharper cleaner bend lines.
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
MB back Cover, Left blank for now till i decided what board i'll use.
 

 
 

 
 
Front Fan mount panel.
 
The idea of this build is to clean and maximise space.. no matter how you look at it fans take up space.
This will allow me to incorp the fans directly into the front panel.

No fancy sketchup or lazer cutting just good old dremel and router recess work
 

 

 

 
 
The same is done for the rear
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Honestly, if you want to do more of the things you stated above, the photoshop and blender and all that, then you probably want to get the ryzen 3 1200 and a gt 1030. If you want to focus more on gaming, then get the 1050, but be warned, a dual core rendering, espesially in programs like blender will be painfully slow.
 
-Lukas

Hello there!
 
I am a new member, and I found out about this forum because of my friend. I am very happy to be part of a wonderful community of tech geeks, and I am looking forward to establish a friendly relationship with all! Currently I am not an expert in any genre of technology, but I think Wiki Code counts, so yeah.
 
thanks,
 
Michal

Happy birthday
 
In terms of your pc, i would go for this: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/N6bfQV
 
Features an asus mobo paired with an asus strix 1080, though the asus 1080 costs 80£ more than some other 1080's, which means i was at your budget before adding a cpu cooler. I added the ever-reliable hyper 212 evo, but it probably wont be enough for overclocking. Its up to you really, this is what id puch though. You can also drop the 500gb ssd and get a 2tb hdd with a 250 or 128gb ssd, maybe save some money and put it towards a beefier cooler.
 
Anyway, happy birthday and good luck!
 
-Lukas

Before I worked on the hardwood version. I wanted to build a shell out of plywood to make sure my design would work out. I mocked up a design in sketchup before I got started.
 

This is the design for the left and right panel. There is a rabbit along the top and the front to allow for the front and top panel to be joined. There are slots that run the length for the rail system. I just cut these with a single kerf width on the table saw. Also I'll route another rabbit around the inside of the window to allow me to secure an acrylic window from the inside. Lastly there is a dato slot on the back (left side in this picture) for the rear I/O LEDs. This has a small lip all around the edge so that I can seat a piece of frosted acrylic to help defuse the light. 
 

This is the top panel. Similar construction to that of the side panels, just thinner. 
 

I first cut the rabbits on the left and right panels. I then marked out where the window would be cut out. I'm using 1/2 baltic birch plywood for this. 
 

I used a router with a strait edge to cut the first panel. This wasn't as accurate as I would have liked and required a fair bit of sanding to get the opening the way I wanted it. 
 

For the second panel. I used some scrap pieces of wood to create a guide all around the panel in which the router guide would follow. This made for a far more accurate cut and I was able to use it for the other panel as well to clean it up to the same size as this one.
 

I used the same technique described above to cut out the rabbit on the inside. Only this time the bit depth was set to half the thickness of the material. 
 

The other side before sanding. 
 

 

Again same process for the top panel. 
 

 

 

This was just a test fit around the internal frame. The openings are in the right spots and I can move on too creating the rails. I wanted to wait to do the rails in case I needed to make the windows larger.
 

For the rails I used 4 lengths of 15mm aluminum angle. I pre-drilled evenly spaced holes that I'll use to attach the lateral supports on the frame. 
 

Here you can see my solution for connecting the power button, front LED lights, and Rear I/O lights from the internal frame to the exterior shell. This 8pin connector will act like a harness, so that when you slide the internal frame into the shell, it will mate with a corresponding male 8pin on the shell. I held it in place with some crazy strong adhesive glue. I I tested its durability with a hammer and the connector stayed in place. 
 

As I was working in this area, I went ahead cut a hole for the power pass through and secured it with 6/32 screws. I'll be making a custom length cable for this later in the build. Also you can see where I attached the rails to the frame. They are attached to the lateral supports. 
 

I used a chisel to make a seat for the male end of the connector. There is also a channel under it to allow room for the wires. I'll be gluing this in place as well. 
 

I used a single kerf cut to make a channel for the wires. The LEDs site in the channels on either side of the front panel with a piece of acrylic on top of them that makes the back surface of the panel the same thickness all the way across. Here you can see me routing the wires for the left side. I left them long and then ran them through the connector as pictured. I then trimmed them flush with the top of the connector. This way when I go to crimp the pins, they'll be the perfect length. This part was a huge pain in the ass, but well worth the effort. 
 

 

Lighting for the front panel is finished. I'll be adding the rear I/O and power switch later. 
 

 

Next I needed to add the diffuser strips. These are pieces of acrylic that I sanded down to make it frosted. This will capture the light from the front panel LEDs and transfer it to the front of the case diffused. They are glued in place.
 

 

 

Just testing the result here. I'm really excited how well it worked out. 
 
At this point I'm pretty satisfied that the design is going to work. Now I can take what I learned and start working with the hardwood. But first I need to go back to the drawing board in sketchup and figure out a new solution as I won't be using solid pieces of hardwood and then cutting a hole out of it. That would be a huge waste and way too expensive.

OK so today's fun began about 30 mins back. The postman came with the LEDs etc. However, one thing that has always boiled my pee is how easily LED strips come unstuck. It's annoyed me since the dawn of the things. 3M my ass. So I decided to add this before even attempting to fit them.
 

 
Which was an absolute nightmare. If it touches itself you are in big trouble. One of those jobs where you need like ten hands. Eventually I got them in (apols for poor pic quality the weather is crap)
 

 
Can hardly see them which is what I wanted. Here they are in place, they will never be removed.
 

 
And on the underside of the box
 

 
And on.
 

 
So now I have to get a 240v cable into the PC somehow to power up the PSU. Then I found this little snap out hole.
 

 
So now just some soldering, braiding, tidying etc and it will be done.

The thing is the r5 1600 doesnt have integrated graphics, your gonna need the gpu to get any video, so you need to connect via hdmi or dvi (or any ports that your gpu and monitor share).
 
-Lukas

The thing is the r5 1600 doesnt have integrated graphics, your gonna need the gpu to get any video, so you need to connect via hdmi or dvi (or any ports that your gpu and monitor share).
 
-Lukas

Dont worry, i have the same cpu/gpu combo and it works great! Enjoy your new build
 
-Lukas

The thing is the r5 1600 doesnt have integrated graphics, your gonna need the gpu to get any video, so you need to connect via hdmi or dvi (or any ports that your gpu and monitor share).
 
-Lukas