X-8 Featuring White Lightning. An 8 core Hackintosh...

[ERSCreeper]

Nice

[ALXAndy]

Afternoon guys and girls

 

Been pretty busy with life for the past few days but am just deliberating over the case ATM.

 

Usually when I do a build I need the build, hence I tend to rush it a little. I'm taking plenty of time this time around

 

More soon !

[ALXAndy]

OK guys, I'm back. I probably need to explain...

 

I had a vacation planned for September. It was really lovely and nice. I just don't make a point of announcing to the online world that I am going on holiday. Kinda makes sense with all the gear I have.

 

Any way, good news ! multiple orders were placed yesterday for the kit and kaboodle that I will need for the build. Note - there will be a minimal amount of carbon wrap in this build most of the parts will get paint.

 

Talking of which, 1 x 500ml white primer.

 

 

And then something a bit different, two 250ml cans of white glitter paint.

 

 

Obviously I will be experimenting with that... I didn't order any gloss because I have some clear coat left over from the TVR build. Any way, I settled on the case...

 

 

And ordered a few chrome apple logos.

 

 

Fan resistors (7v). This rig is going to be as close to silent as I dare...

 

 

OK. So I needed a fan controller for the 60mm fan going on the cooler. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything I liked so I just said fuggit and ordered this thing.

 

 

The controller will be modded and I'll use that white fan as an intake for the front of the rig, with it being so pretty and all.

 

Also remember I need to purloin the XFX power supply out of the media rig so I just ordered this bucket of bolts.

 

 

500w. £15. If my rig eats more than 100w I'll be amazed (Kabini onboard etc).

 

OK. So last but not least.. You'll note in the title I promised White Lightning? Well, I don't mean this shite.

 

 

I mean the GPU itself. Expect heavy modifications, including these.

 

 

Whilst they are pictured as having a 3 pin PWM connector (which would work fine I could control it with the Gigabyte software) they should in effect look like this...

 

 

Meaning they should connect directly to the GPU so I can go back to using some sort of GPU software..

 

More to come soon. So far I found a few bits in the hall way when I came home. A can of primer, 40 or so white LEDs (wired and resisted) and the first 50ft of paracord..

 

Over and out !

[GhostWindGamer]

Awesome looking forward to the updates that come soon hopefully

[ERSCreeper]

Sweet Logos

[ALXAndy]

Thanks guys ! Yeah the logos should make it look OEM, which is what I'm really going to push for here.

 

All I need now is my tummy to settle down after all of the fine dining I have been doing with my amazing lady. We got properly engaged (one knee and all) and I gave her a newer sapphire engagement ring with a ruby and white diamond eternity ring (the sapphire is pinkish red...).

 

Had a wonderful week, but my tummy is still saying "WTF WAS THAT?!?!!?"

[ERSCreeper]

Thanks guys ! Yeah the logos should make it look OEM, which is what I'm really going to push for here.

 

All I need now is my tummy to settle down after all of the fine dining I have been doing with my amazing lady. We got properly engaged (one knee and all) and I gave her a newer sapphire engagement ring with a ruby and white diamond eternity ring (the sapphire is pinkish red...).

 

Had a wonderful week, but my tummy is still saying "WTF WAS THAT?!?!!?"

Congrats

[ALXAndy]

Thanks Nicholas.

[ALXAndy]

OK so I got some stuff done. First I took apart the graphics card and broke it into the component parts so that I can modify it. Here are the parts to be modded.

 

 

Apologies for the quality of the photos. It's now very dark here.. OK, so whilst I was away I saw these.

 

 

Which are very good for creating a key on plastic. I did the main body of the plastic with these, then hit the rest with P600 wet. The back plate has also been wet sanded, both are now cleaned, dry and ready for paint.

 

 

More soon

[ALXAndy]

Been working pretty hard today. So the parts for the Lightning are now in flat white. Here they are..

 

 

The back plate.

 

 

The other back plate.

 

 

 

And all together.

 

 

I will now leave those to harden for a few days, and if I like the way the white glitter sprays I will coat them, then hit them with laquer.

 

Also today I have  been making the cooler. I have made parts for it, will post more on that later What I need to do now is convert the Nidec fan that's on Dell connectors to a 4 pin PWM. I've found this..

 

 

So at some point today I will need to crack out the solder iron, braiding and so on.

 

Also.. The case just arrived with the PSU I needed. There are some things I love about it, and, some things I really dislike. Looks like I am going to need to order some more spray paint...

[ALXAndy]

OK so here is the case. However, it's not together ATM as I'm saving that for later

 

 

And the mountain of pig iron I freed..

 

 

Had about 20 rivets to drill out and then some pretty severe cutting. But it's where I want it to be now

 

Edit. Forgot to upload the photo of the finished cooler

 

[GhostWindGamer]

It's looking good so far

[ALXAndy]

It's looking good so far

 

Thanks. I'm very pleased with how the paint came out

 

Time to talk about the top, and how much I hate it.

 

As you can see from the photos of the case the front has that lovely slatted late 90s IBM Intellistation look about it. Sadly, unlike the photos it's not matte. It's gloss, but it's really horrible gloss that has absolutely no place on the rig at all. That's why I've not taken any photos of it yet. Now the front is lovely, nice and solid too, but the sides of the front (the side edges) are the same as the top. It really is putrid.

 

Now I thought about just masking up the case, giving those shiny areas a quick sand and then blowing on some matte black, but then I had an idea. This stuff is relatively new, but basically it's 3M with a twist.

 

 

White matte glitter vinyl. So, what I intend to do is cover the entire top, cut out the nasty button panel and cover it in and then mount my own power button. Instead of taking out the mesh and painting it white I will take it out, cover the top white and then just put it back in as is.

 

Not sure how this will look tbh, but it'll look a darn sight better than the crap it looks now. I've also not seen this vinyl used yet on a build and it should go nicely with the white glitter painted parts

[GhostWindGamer]

Not much more to do then I suppose. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished build

[ERSCreeper]

Oooo Shiny 

[ALXAndy]

Not much more to do then I suppose. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished build

 

LOL you're joking

 

Things to do..

 

Cover the top. Cover the sides of the front panel.

Finish making the cooler (I've kept the plans secret but it won't even look like a PC cooler by the time I'm done)

Glitter spray all the parts.

Take the motherboard apart, paint all of the 'sinks.

Braid the PSU.

Make several panels for the inside, inc 24 pin + 22 pin GPU drilled hole panels for wires to pass through.

Make front 120mm fan bracket (there is nowhere to mount one now)

cut out all of the PCI back plates and make a panel for a fan to mount.

Make the PSU box

Make the side box.

Cut several Apple shaped logos from 5mm acrylic, make light up logo.

Cut out button panel from case, replace with blanker panel.

Fit all fan LEDs.

Rebuild the GTX Lightning.

Ed.

Clear coat all of the parts after glitter.

Make the hard drive panel.

Fit the fans to the Lightning.

Make IO cover.

 

It just goes on and on

 

I predict several weeks of work here dude.

[ALXAndy]

Oooo Shiny 

 

Shiny but not quite shiny, just how I like it

 

My car was the same. It looked plain white. Hit it with some light? then it really started to dance

[GhostWindGamer]

LOL you're joking

 

Things to do..

 

Cover the top. Cover the sides of the front panel.

Finish making the cooler (I've kept the plans secret but it won't even look like a PC cooler by the time I'm done)

Glitter spray all the parts.

Take the motherboard apart, paint all of the 'sinks.

Braid the PSU.

Make several panels for the inside, inc 24 pin + 22 pin GPU drilled hole panels for wires to pass through.

Make front 120mm fan bracket (there is nowhere to mount one now)

cut out all of the PCI back plates and make a panel for a fan to mount.

Make the PSU box

Make the side box.

Cut several Apple shaped logos from 5mm acrylic, make light up logo.

Cut out button panel from case, replace with blanker panel.

Fit all fan LEDs.

Rebuild the GTX Lightning.

Ed.

Clear coat all of the parts after glitter.

Make the hard drive panel.

Fit the fans to the Lightning.

 

It just goes on and on

 

I predict several weeks of work here dude.

Well good luck and keep the updates coming

[ALXAndy]

Will do mate.

 

The nice thing about X8 is that I am in no hurry to get it built because I don't need it yet. One thing that's always crippled me in the past with modding is that I always tended to need the PC built before I could start modding. This makes things incredibly difficult, as by the end of each day you tend to need the rig back together so no job can take more than one day.

 

My recent mods were just that; mods. Just some tidying, cover panels graphics etc. The last proper full ground up build I did was N-Fenix.

 

http://www.specialtechforums.co.uk/showthread.php?1349-N-Fenix-I-m-a-Survivor-vor-vor

 

Note lots of paint, lots of cutting and lots of braiding

[ALXAndy]

Update. The Postman came just as I said "Oh come on Postman I want to get modding !" which was kinda strange.

 

Anyhoo, lots of stuff came. I got white glitter spray* white heatshrink, the fans for the GTX 480, and the fan and controller**

 

So here is the fan and controller**

 

 

The fan. This is going in the front***

 

 

I've already moved the stickers around, so this side is bare.

 

 

Oh, and the white GPU fans.

 

 

OK, so I had an idea. I did not want to mount a silver 3.5" panel in my PC as it would look kinda stupid. As you've seen I have already chopped out the bay (in metal from the inside of the front of the case structure) so I had no way to screw it in any way. So, I took it apart like this.

 

 

And then bought a knurled knob (hehehehe) and did this.

 

 

So I ground out the back to make it flat, drilled a hole and simply mounted it into the actual case panel. This clips in and out very easily. Here is the knurled knob (hehehehe)

 

 

*s.

 

* The glitter spray does not have any glitter and is just white spray paint.  So the white parts will go back together as they are.

 

** Sadly the fan controller only works with the 120mm supplied fan. This is not an issue as I will just use it for the front intake.

 

*** The front of the case does not have a mount for the 120mm fan. It is not on the plastic part, and wasn't on the metal part I cut out. Strangely it does have a dust filter in the front  :? 

 

All very, very odd. Any way, I have made a plate that carries the fan (will be glued into the front panel) and have began painting it black.

 

More later guys, be good !

 

A.

[GhostWindGamer]

Awesome timing on the post mans part

[ALXAndy]

Awesome timing on the post mans part

 

That never usually happens. Usually I'm busting for a poo and he takes forever

 

Currently starting the rebuild of White Lightning. Have hit a few snags.. Firstly the connecting cable between the fans wasn't long enough. Major PITA, but have extended it and braided it white. Then they don't fit into the grills of the cooler properly but I knew that any way so I've been slowly chopping them down. I have glued on some rubber washers which are going to be guides for when I glue the fans down. Once they're set, fingers crossed I can rebuild White Lightning in full tomorrow and post some pics of it.

 

Sadly the 3 pin fan cable (no 4 pin ) is too short also, so that needs extending and braiding too. A lot of work, but in the end the GPU should look the absolute doggy's nuts.

 

Fan plate is still being sprayed. One or two more coats on the visible part to go, then that too can be fitted and glued into place tomorrow.

[ALXAndy]

Problems.

 

So last night I braided the fans and modified the cooler plates on the GTX Lightning, but when I test fired the fans one of them just sat there jerking. After lots of troubleshooting I had to face it, the fan was dead.

 

This is an issue. I do have other fans and I am in the process of spray painting them white, but I have now cut off the screw in supports for them /doh.

 

Two options then. 1. Buy another set of the Arctics and spend two hours modding them (testing them first of course) 2. Paint some yellow ones white and then find a way to mount them.

 

For now I have gone for option 2. The fans are apart, have been wired braided and all sorts, just got to hope they fit when I'm done.

 

So a humble lesson to all - make sure you test hardware before you mod it. Thankfully £8 isn't above me, but it's caused major hassle. It is a little depressing however that failure rates on new hardware seems to be higher than ever which indicates price cutting during manufacturing and poor quality control.

 

Ah well, ever onward and upwards...

 

Good news.

 

OK so the top of the case has mesh in. Sadly 'New Wave' or whatever they are called have designed the case badly. I fully expected this, and, take great pleasure in fixing their mistakes. Basically the top 120mm fan mounts are bulged upward so you get clearance in the case to fit them in there. However, had they left it flat the fans could have been mounted, invisibly, into the roof.

 

So, what I have done so far is take the roof, hack out the two middle posts (that do pretty much nothing) and then ground down the plastic to support plates. The plates have been made, glued in and are sound. Then I will take two 120mm fans, cut off the frames and mount them in the roof. This way the inside of the case will be less cluttered. Sadly to create that clearance I have to take the case to the Dremel again and hack out the entire top.

 

Fun fun fun lol.

 

No pics this time I'm afraid, but may have some later for you all

 

Be good !

 

A

[ALXAndy]

This is my graphics card. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My graphics card is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

My graphics card, without me, is useless. Without my graphics card, I am useless. I must overclock my graphics card true. I must overclock higher than my enemy . I will...

My graphics card and I know that what counts in war is not the hardware we run, the noise or heat, nor the brand. We know that it is the megahertz that count. We will score higher...

My graphics card is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its limits and its temperatures. I will keep my graphics card clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God, I swear this creed. My graphics card and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviours of my life.

So be it, until benchmarks are mine and there is no enemy, but peace!

 

 

Ladies, Gentlemen, boys & girls, I present -White Lightning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also braided the 120mm fan and put on some dinoc to cover the wires. This is the front intake fan.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK this is the front panel.

 

 

But there's nowhere to fit a fan So I made and painted this yesterday.

 

 

And it goes in here.

 

 

And then...

 

 

Note. The black dinoc wire cover will be switched to a white one when the vinyl arrives