scratchbuild *DONE* "Christmas Calendar" - Reaper PC

[AT0MAC]

**Reaper PC**

 

Intro

 

I got the challenge from at friend to re-build his existing PC into a wallmounted build like no other.

Challenge Accepted!

 

Why Reaper?

 

• Reaper is death
• My friends case had to die to be rebuild into this
• It's also the name of some cables I ended up using, "Reaper Cables"
• The whole build is kept black/metal
• The machine is really quiet, quiet like death, most likely because it's now an open air design and heat don't gets trapped

 

 

Some of you have maybe found other of my creations before, they are quite popular whenever I build something - I don't have the time anymore to go complete ham and build insane things, but that don't mean you don't get to see some of what I tinker with, like this one.

 

I decided to make it somewhat a Christmas Calendar and release little by little until the 23rd of December.

 

When I don't build PCs a lot of my spare time goes with the game "Sea of Thieves" - so come and say "Ahoy" if you see me:

 

 

My pirate stories are also shared on Twitter, Clutch and Instagram so see if you can find me if you also have a little pirate in the stomach

 

 

 :cheers:

[AT0MAC]

30th November - planning

 

1st drawing in Sketchup:

 

 

Feedback from owner was that it looked really cool, but was too compact.
Another little thing he had forgot to tell me, is that he had planned to replace the harddrive with 2 SSDs for an all SSD build - also to again keep it as quiet as death.

 

2nd drawing in Sketchup:

 

 

Feedback was that it looked really cool!!
...but a small thing called gravity would probably soon stop me from doing that, the AiO tubes can not be run as neat and the GPU would for sure sag as nothing is really keeping it in place.
Also, notice the glow around the frame? My friend would like to have it somewhat backlit

 

3rd drawing in Sketchup:

 

 

Very close to the final design, a few tweaks left, mainly because of cable lengths and a few other tid bits to adjust.

Result:

 

 

Follow along tomorrow where I show more of the build process before we reach the actual result

[AT0MAC]

24th December


Let me present:

*Reaper PC*

 



 



 


Test-fit at my place:

 



 



 

And this is how it looks installed at the owner (switched off), right next to a window and above his 2 monitors

 




 

Thanks to everyone looking
This have been a challenge and very fun to build, hope you like the result as much as I do.

 


Merry Christmas, Yo-Ho-HOoo to everyone

 

 

 

[AT0MAC]

1st of December - shopping and preparing

The very first thing I bought, was the black color for the board the whole thing will be placed on.
Decided to buy an outdoor paint, as its tougher and little easier to wipe off in case of cleaning.

Bought parts from both the UK, Germany, Netherlands and locally in Denmark, all took a while before the arrived.

One of the things I bought was extra long round SATA cables and angled adapters

Background light for the board

The tiny little details like I even bought black screws, just because they will look nicer

If you have not looked on the link from yesterday, this is how the machine looked when I originally build it

Next step, a small test to see if the concept about having the rad far away from the pump even worked (it does)

Time to strip....

-see more tomorrow  :cheers:

[AT0MAC]

2. December - "Casemod"

 

 

It is a casemod afterall, so let the casemods begin! 
First, a little new tool, I might have burned out my old Dremel, most likely overused it on other projects...
 

 

Lets take it again from yesterday, this is how the case looked before meeting my Dremel:

 

 

Aaaand this is how it looked after my Dremel been used:

 

 

 

Here you go, 1 piece motherboard tray, recycled:

 

 

 

 

...follow tomorrow to see what then happens later, it is a calendar afterall

[AT0MAC]

3rd December - paint

 

 

Any casemod tend to have at least some degree of paint involved.
In Reaper PC there is more paint than normal, as I had to build up a case from close to nothing.

 

First thing to be painted, the motherboard tray I cut out yesterday so it will be an even matt black:

 

 

 

This is what in the end will be "the cabinet"
Yea I know, a pretty big piece of wood, but the owner did not like the idea of shrinking it down so had to go big

 

 

 

Let's begin

 

 

 

 

 

...see you tomorrow for another update  

[AT0MAC]

I just remembered, I have not yet said anything about what hardware is in the actual machine:

• Intel Core i5-7500 3.4 GHz Quad-Core
• NZXT Kraken X31
• Asus STRIX H270F GAMING
• Corsair LPX CMK16GX4M2A2400C14 16GB RAM
• OCZ Trion 100 240 GB SSD
• Intel 520 240 GB SSD
• OCZ Agility 3 240 GB SSD
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB WINDFORCE OC 6G
• EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650 W 80+ Gold
• 3x Swiftech HELIX120BW fans
• USB LED strip white light
• Long round SATA cables
• Angled SATA adapters
• RGB LED strip
• Shakmods front panel extensions
• Reaper Cable carbon/billet cable extensions
  

 

 

It was not ment to be upgraded now, only given an overhaul on the look. It's still a very good machine, and actually now even easier to upgrade as there is no case in the way

[AT0MAC]

4th December - PSU mod

Daughter is not feeling well, so yesterdays update got skipped, instead you will get 2 updates today!

Let's start in the right order with the 4th of December.
 

Beside the fact that I re-used the motherboard tray, I have also reused the "PSU mounting bracket" from the original case. Also considered to re-use the SSD bracket that used to be part of one of the sides in the original case.

 

 

 

Owner of this PC really like wallmounted PCs that have the whole surface covered with carbon foil, but as I'm building this at his expense he did not feel like paying for a huge amount of carbon, those foils get pretty pricy real fast.

Instead I found a small scrap piece of carbon foil I have used in another casemod not too long ago and covered the side of the PSU, there where the 5v and 12v sticker normally is.

 

 

...enough about the 4th, let me write the more exciting 5th for you

[AT0MAC]

5th December - more mods

There was a PSU shroud in the original case, was pretty useful to keep the kind of ugly connections on the PSU out of sight.
To literally think outside the box and re-invent the PSU shroud for a build like this, that was quite the challenge. This is the beginning of what I did:

 

 

All metal parts have been painted in the same matt black spray paint, even this one, it is almost not visible but the fan grid part is sometimes able to be seen, see later what I mean by that

 

 

I have used a ton of techniques on this build and so many tools, I've never build a PC that involves this much work before, so let me know what you think later on when you start to see it all come together

 

 

 

...follow the build to see more pieces get done tomorrow  :cheers: (there is even a part for tomorrows update that's hinted in these pictures, curious what it is, see that tomorrow)

[AT0MAC]

6th of December - Metal!

I am from Denmark, it 's over midnight here now, so technically its considered the 6th now

I know I will come home very late today, so you get the update now instead. In the last update I mentioned that something was already kind of revealed, so here it is:

After I had painted the plate it all will be attached to, the edges don't looks super great, so to give it some character I decided to give it a steel edge!

 

Not yet fully mounted, but the layout is there:

 

 

 

A small backstory:

 

I have over 300 pictures of this build, but to sort them out into 24 days and only show the best and most interesting ones is actually a bit of a task.
On top of that, I post it to 4 forums, in 2 languages, on Twitter and on Instagram, that alone is more work than what most would think.
Im going to show the build almost piece by piece until the last 3-4 days when I start to show how it all goes together, and lastly the big reveal the 23rd of December.
I think the result is much better than I would have hoped for, but lets wait and see what you think...

For tomorrows update, Saturday, I can tell you there is only 1 picture to show, but it's a pretty cool one of something you see more of later on.
On sunday there will be "cable porn" to look at, some of the very nice cables I ended up using from Reaper Cable.

 

 

Follow my calendar to see how it all goes  :9xo

[AT0MAC]

7th of December - I'm sorry

It turned out to be very late Friday before I was in my captains quarters going to bed, so naturally I ended up having a pretty short Saturday where there simply just wasn't enough time for all I needed to do.
I'm sorry, but instead you get 2 days today instead of just 1. First, the single picture I told you about the other day:

 

 

The 5th December I wrote about some kind of shroud to hide the not so nicely looking connections on the PSU.
This is a close up of what I build, imo it turned out pretty freaking cool, but lets see what you say later on.
It is afterall a "Christmas calendar" so can not show everything now, have to build up suspense to the last few days/episodes.

 

Let's move on to today instead...

[AT0MAC]

8th December - Cables

My alias AT0MAC started back in around 2005 - but this is the first time since then, I have tried to have a package delivered that did not have my actual name on it, instead it was send to AT0MAC XD

I really wonder what the mail man must have thought of that...
In the package, was the nicest looking PSU extensions I have ever worked with, I have seen a bunch as I build a bunch of PCs through the years, but the colours and materials here is looking almost sexy...
Even the packaging is pretty clever, because they are packed like this, they are straight as an arrow when you get them out, no strange turns or twist you need to overcome.

 

Reaper Cable:

 

 

 

 

Colour is Carbon/Billet Grey and match perfectly this build.
There is already a teaser picture up on my Instagram and twitter of how they actually look, but you have to wait un till later to see that picture

 

Follow along to tomorrow where more mods will be made

[AT0MAC]

9th December - holes!

 

Then came the day where I started drilling into the rather nicely looking black plate...
I am right now actually doing some complicated graphical work for my Sea of Thieves related posts on Instagram and Twitter, so I will keep todays update a bit short.

 

 

Nothing wrong with the tool as some say...

 

 

First little hole...

 

 

...filled out with one very sweet start button  

 

 

 

Fun fact, the dude I build this rig for have actually for a while now turned it on using a screwdriver, because somehow the case mounted start button has given up XD

 

See you tomorrow for more casemod shenanigans

[AT0MAC]

By the way, no the button is not scratched, its sawdust and drill dust from all the holes I ended up making in the plate, you see that later how much I actually cut away

[AT0MAC]

10th December - holes, holes, holes

 

As I wrote yesterday, I made some holes in the plate...
For one, I made a big hole where all the PSU cables will pass trough, it will not be visible in the end so does not matter its kinda big

 

 

 

To mount SSDs is always fun, specially if its with hidden cables, I found these pretty clever angled SATA data/power adapters and some power extensions to make this possible

 

 

 

 

Don't mind that the plate split a little when I did the holes, we will fix that another day

 

 

 

Follow the calendar to see where we end

[AT0MAC]

11th December - build bonus!

 

I just remembered I will have a pretty long day tomorrow so most likely can't do a post, instead why not give you an extra episode today, for tomorrow!

 

This is how the build look at the moment in this story, don't really look like a computer, but that's the point

 

 

 

The green light is a Philips Hue lamp and a green table cloth, worked out great

 

 

See you on Thursday for more

[AT0MAC]

12/12

 

So this it how the plate ended up looking full of holes:

 

 

 

Today you will get another bonus update with tomorrows update today.
My Sea of Thieves piracy is going a little bananas on Instagram and Twitter and I think it would be best to try and have a somewhat relaxed Friday the 13th.
For instance, someone just mentioned me in a Twitter post with Pace22 and a list of other people, that gets attention, and also I made a little stop motion video of the newly released Sea of Thieves Roleplay Boardgame that turns out to be pretty popular too.
My phone these days receives a lot of notifications.

 

 

I know it gives a little negative impact on this type of thread to not do daily updates, but I still see that quite an amount of people pass by to see what I'm up to this time, a huge thank you for looking!

 

 

Hang on, I will write up the 13th for you now too

[AT0MAC]

Friday the 13th

As you might imagine if you know a little about the GMT+1 timezone where I am in, then most of the work is done pretty late in the evening (same goes for me updating this thread, now its 22:30)

So some pictures have kinda bad lighting, today is just like that:

I had to reshape some of the holes as the plate got little messed up by cutting holes in it. Had to re-sand it and paint again multiple places.

It's getting harder and harder to wait to show what I actually build, but let me give you a little teaser by again showing the really nicely looking Reaper Cables:

 

 

 

See you Saturday and beware and have a safe Friday the 13th

[AT0MAC]

14. December - It's starting to look a lot like c..... asemod!

Oh my as time does fly, it's already the 15th and I apparently just skipped out the Saturday, sorry about that.

 

I'm a Gamer with a big G so got cought up in both Sequence with my wife (I won 4 out of 5 games, oops), a couple of different voyages in Sea of Thieves (there is a new Maiden Voyage Tall Tale I rushed out), and some rounds of CS with my local friends - I do a lot of headshots.

 

 

 

 

In the build, the sanding and painting is almost over, so soon more assembly can begin!

 

 

Just needs 1 more layer of black to be real Reaper black

 

 

 

Hang on a moment and I will write up the 15th too...

[AT0MAC]

15. December - SSD mods

 

Not sure if you noticed, but somewhere in the beginning my friend told me that he wants to run the machine totally off SSD, to make it more quiet and look nicer - a raw bare HDD is not a very pretty sight.

 

Here is 2 of the in total 3 SSDs:

 

Disassembled:

Before mod:

Black out mod:

 

 

 

Sea you tomorrow for an AIO mod (yep, I'm a pirate)

[AT0MAC]

Oops I've done it again, I made a little video clip of something in Sea of Thieves and all day got a ton of response on platforms like Twitter + my son injured himself so I had to leave work really early and keep an eye on him most of today, so in the end I'm actually pretty tired.

Only enough energy for a little sailing trip - so whenever I am recharged (most likely not until tomorrow) you will get a much larger update for all you miss out on. Sorry...

[AT0MAC]

16th December - AiO mod!

All-in-One coolers are not always the prettiest, NZXT Kraken X31 included. (of course I use a Kraken cooler, I am a pirate right)
Remember, the PC this time is actually not new, so it is also an older model AiO and there will not be any upgrades done, only mods.

This is how the AiO looked before I started:

Disassembled:

 

...for those with an eye for detail, I have actually teased this mod earlier, the round thing in the middle:

I sadly ran out of paint, so could only give it 2 layers so the white lines shine trough a little, but IMO I think it actually looks kinda cool. To spice it up, and because the motherboard is an Asus ROG type, I added this:

...sorry but I'm a few days behind on the calendar aspect, so let me write up some more. See you soon

[AT0MAC]

17. December - deep mods

 

 

We have started diving into the little details not everyone does, the little things that distance one mod from another and make it something very special.

Like this one, this is how I found the GPU to look when I picked up the PC from my friend:

 

 

 

 

Dusty, orange and grey - somewhat reminds me a little of LTT

 

Started with a little round of strip:

 

All the way down to the chip:

 

 

Everything got cleaned, new thermal paste (my favorite is Coolermaster Master Gel Maker Nano) and painted!
Remember the theme is "Reaper", so a batman-esque matt black it is now:

 

 

...see you soon for the 18th December

[AT0MAC]

18th December - Progress

 

 

This is how the whole thing looks as of now:

 

One of the little extra things I've done is I bought this very cheap RGB strip, only issue is that it apparently was so cheap because it came without a wire attached....

 

But a little solder work and it lit up!

 

You can't see it clearly in the finished build, but it's doing a little underglow effect under the motherboard:

 

 

 

 

...now you got a lot of updates to get this up to speed, so todays update is going to be little relaxed (my son is alright btw after his little injury the other day)

[AT0MAC]

19th December - "Reaper"

Every build needs a name, just like a ship does it, and in this case the name came from these great looking cables from Reaper Cable - I really dig them and must do a shoutout, their quality and colours are very very nice!
Not the last time I'm going to use their cables, that's for sure.

This colour is called "Carbon & Billet grey"

It's because I think these cables look so great, that I try and do as much as possible to hide all the other wires and cables in this build

...follow along and see more in the next "episode"