Exsectus by Maki Role - First place in the Thermaltake UK Modding Trophy! Back from Computex 04/07/16

[Maki Role]

On 17/04/2016 at 1:40 AM, p0Pe said:

Can't have that, can we now @Maki Role.

 

I am excited to see how the graphic card will look on the backside of that distributing plate. Seeing you do that makes me sad that I never got my "flatpacked" concept realized

 

The next 10 days are going to be fun for you. Good luck, and I look forward to the end result! You did not even need a case to be a top contender in this one.

Cheers Hans

 

Yeah the pressure's really going to ramp up over the next few days.  Have a tonne of traditional modding work to get done and really not enough time to do it in.

On 17/04/2016 at 2:29 AM, nycesquire said:

Very interesting. Subbed.

Welcome aboard!

On 17/04/2016 at 2:56 AM, RustyHamrLickr said:

Really love your builds. You made me join the LTT forum just to comment on it. I read through all your build logs, and I am really amazed by your designs. Your renders are breathtaking as well.

On a more technical question, what are the dimensions of the flow channels you are doing in your custom blocks? I'd think it needs an area similar to the standard tubes that would be used, but I would like to be sure.

Thanks!

Thank you for the compliments   I'm glad you like my builds, hopefully this one will live up to expectations!

 

I tend to use a 10mm channel width or so, although it's not a huge deal going a bit bigger or smaller there as flow is more dictated by the fittings and blocks.

On 17/04/2016 at 4:05 AM, ConnorDahne said:

Another Maki Role!!!!

Instant sub after seeing Aetos.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you and welcome!

 

_____

 

Let's fill this beauty up eh?

After extensively fixing up seals with fittings and the pump, it all worked perfectly!  I also received the last shipment of fittings too, albeit after I'd done the leak testing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[potoooooooo]

How do you do O-rings for these custom blocks you make?

 

Custom O-rings, or do you do some seriously meticulous planning?

[BigJames83]

Looks incredible so far!

Can you tell me which fluid you have used in those last photos? It looks to be exactly the shade of purple I'm after

[Maki Role]

20 hours ago, potoooooooo said:

How do you do O-rings for these custom blocks you make?

 

Custom O-rings, or do you do some seriously meticulous planning?

Make them from scratch, means I don't need to worry about the channel lengths at all.

21 minutes ago, BigJames83 said:

Looks incredible so far!

Can you tell me which fluid you have used in those last photos? It looks to be exactly the shade of purple I'm after

It's actually just some distilled water with some dye in it.  Basically popped a few drops of Mayhem's red and blue in it to get a rough idea how it will look.  It's quite a bit darker in real life though, the camera flash really floods the scene with light which makes it much more vibrant.  If you have white LED lighting in your rig you can get a similar look though.  Mayhem's has a purple dye, which should work well.  Alternatively you can use something like UV pink and darken with some blue to get a more magenta hue.

[nycesquire]

38 minutes ago, Maki Role said:

Make them from scratch, means I don't need to worry about the channel lengths at all.

1 hour ago, BigJames83 said:

How do you make O-rings from scratch?

[xc0mbatx]

I saw thermaltake fittings for the first time the other day (well excluding there very old ones) and was quite impressed. They have nice angles on them and shiny silver is quite nice.

Amazing job on the renders and bring it to life. I am envious of the tools at your disposal.

Good luck with the build!

[xc0mbatx]

6 hours ago, nycesquire said:

How do you make O-rings from scratch?

Cut to length and glue/bond the ends together.

[Maki Role]

21 hours ago, nycesquire said:

How do you make O-rings from scratch?

As @xc0mbatx mentioned, you just need to glue together O-ring cord of the correct gauge.

15 hours ago, xc0mbatx said:

I saw thermaltake fittings for the first time the other day (well excluding there very old ones) and was quite impressed. They have nice angles on them and shiny silver is quite nice.

Amazing job on the renders and bring it to life. I am envious of the tools at your disposal.

Good luck with the build!

TBH I'm most impressed by the O-rings, they're huge!  To me that's a real positive as most leaks are caused by O-rings not compressing enough or fully, making them larger helps a lot with this.

 

____

 

UPDATE!

 

Time to get some ACTUAL MODDING going eh?  

 

Now for a normal build I really quite like the width of cases like the Core X31, but for something like this it's a little... much.  The X31 is a biggish case already, don't really see the point in making it even bigger when the hardware is fairly modest.

 

So I decided to cut it in half down the middle and reduce the width by 80mm or so.

 

Taped off and prepped for cutting

 

Yeah it's a bit smaller now

 

Removed all the troublesome parts on the bottom panel

 

New aluminium panel in, going to be finishing it tomorrow

 

Test fit with the waterblock, gives an good idea of what the layout will be

 

 

[xc0mbatx]

The cleanliness of this build thus far is on point!

[Maki Role]

10 hours ago, xc0mbatx said:

The cleanliness of this build thus far is on point!

Just need to make sure I can keep it that way rofl

 

____

 

UPDATE

 

I only realised how few pictures I took after I stopped...  Shame really as it makes it look like I didn't do much haha.  Was in the workshop for most of the day today, lots and lots of structural work going on atm.  The motherboard waterblock is now firmly in place, along with the rear and roof panels.

 

The main structure is now very sturdy.  You might have noticed that I'm keeping the side panel rails, they're going to serve a handy function later.

 

The roof rails were still too big, so I cut them down to size and attached them to the panel

 

Whilst this might not look particularly different to the last image in the previous post, it really is.  I've cut up a huge amount of the remaining case pieces, many of which are rather useful.

[nmil]

Very nice as always. I really love that pass through plate.

[Maki Role]

UPDATE

Had a very long day today making the front bracket and whatnot. I actually remembered to take photos along the way this time too! Bear in mind that I haven't begun the beautification process yet. Everything is still super rough and placeholder in case I need to replace anything. I'm aiming to start prettying things up tomorrow. Going to be cutting it very close with this build rofl.

Started with a cut panel

 

Can't emphasize enough the importance of careful marking out

 

Getting the holes in

 

Panels cut out

 

All bent up

 

Aye it fits, I think

 

Quickly fitted to the front panel main bracket. Things are starting to take shape finally.

[nmil]

Why not print out a template and then glue it to the aluminium? It would be more precise and take about the same amount of time.

[Maki Role]

1 hour ago, nmil said:

Why not print out a template and then glue it to the aluminium? It would be more precise and take about the same amount of time.

1) Printer's broken

2) Would require me to make the file on my PC first which I hadn't done, would end up being slower in this instance.

[AWF_Noone]

I kid you not, I got chills when I saw the finished fluid board in the case.  Awesome job.

[Maki Role]

Let's pick up where we left off eh?

I had a serious inconvenience last week when some crucial materials didn't arrive on time, which put me two days behind. Been pulling ridiculously long days to get this all done in time, hopefully I'll be able to manage 

Connected all the panels together, until now things were mostly balanced in place

 

Phew, everything does indeed fit

 

I decided to split the Riing fans down the middle, should work better for my design

 

Fans in place

 

Finishing up the front bracket

 

Made a bending jig so that I could bend 2 pieces of 2mm aluminium along with a thicker 3mm section

 

Lots of filing here, wanted to make sure the windows would fit flush and with strength

Things are taking shape!

 

Making sure edges are flush and flat

Post workshop cleanup operation. The case is all sanded and the relevant parts ready for painting

 

 

 

Strung up ready for primer!

 

 

If anybody has the nerve to tell me this time that the CNC machine did all the work I'll mail them a knuckle sandwich. I spent a good 10 solid hours just filing and sanding, never mind the rest of the time spent actually cutting, drilling, checking, starting over and finally finishing.

[RustyHamrLickr]

5 hours ago, Maki Role said:

snip

If anybody has the nerve to tell me this time that the CNC machine did all the work I'll mail them a knuckle sandwich. I spent a good 10 solid hours just filing and sanding, never mind the rest of the time spent actually cutting, drilling, checking, starting over and finally finishing.

Sooo... How much did it cost to have all that laser cut?

 

On a more serious note, I hope you won't be late because of the parts you waited for. Also, good job on bending the aluminium, sometimes thicker sheets can be hard.

 

Back to the silliness, on your second to last pic, it looks like there is no IO cutout. Was a bit confused at first.

[Maki Role]

On 27/04/2016 at 11:08 PM, RustyHamrLickr said:

Sooo... How much did it cost to have all that laser cut?

 

On a more serious note, I hope you won't be late because of the parts you waited for. Also, good job on bending the aluminium, sometimes thicker sheets can be hard.

 

Back to the silliness, on your second to last pic, it looks like there is no IO cutout. Was a bit confused at first.

 

It was close, submitted my pictures just 30 minutes before the final, final deadline (which I had managed to get pushed back twice rofl).  The bending came out rather well, I was surprised myself too.  A few weeks back I had made a makeshift bending jig out of some spare materials I had lying around, seems to have done the trick even with the thicker 3mm sheet.

 

_________

 

So this is going to be quite a progress jump.  I just plain didn't have time to take pictures and upload them between then and now thanks to the competition deadline.  But thankfully I did manage to make it, just, although there are a few things I plan on fixing up over the coming week just for personal satisfaction.

 

Until then, I present Project Exsectus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AlienALX]

Dear God....

[Yahtadi]

Bender would say "I came"

[Avericious]

Fantastic. What a stunning piece of work. Nice going on the non-standard color scheme as well.

[NoobCase]

damn... and GTX in the back

[Maki Role]

6 hours ago, Avericious said:

Fantastic. What a stunning piece of work. Nice going on the non-standard color scheme as well.

Many thanks!  IMO there's a distinct lack of purple in the modding community, way too much red/black for my liking too

 

5 hours ago, NoobCase said:

damn... and GTX in the back

Gotta keep both sides interesting eh?

[daemyrs]

This is purely amazing. Stellar work man.

[ConnorDahne]

This is my favorite build on the forums right now.

Can't wait to see what's next!