[SPONSORED] - Project Sinister

[Sphinx]

Hi all! I hope that this year has been great to all of you thus far?

I was asked by Cooler Master South Africa to complete a case mod on the new MasterCase Maker 5 chassis for the rAge expo this year in October in Johannesburg, this is a large computer and gaming expo here in South Africa, and I have to say that this is an amazing opportunity.

So without further delay, let the modding begin!

The day I received the chassis:

 

 

 

 

 

[2FA]

Awesome, following

[Sphinx]

1 minute ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

Awesome, following

Thanks!

[Sphinx]

Here is a shot of the beginning of my textured technique for this build:

 

Now as it is meant to represent power and customization, the name and "Sinister" appearance are important.

 

 

 

 

Let the paint process begin!

 

 

A close up of the veins...

 

 

Here is a close up shot of what I like to call "Dragon skin", another technique of mine:

 

 

Another close up of the "Dragon skin" on the top of the chassis:

 

 

 

[Sphinx]

Why are there veins around the logo you ask? It's simple... Cooler Master is empowering many branches of creativity in multiple industries, and I wanted to highlight this!

 

 

Time for the frame of the chassis to get a new paint job!

 

I decided on Primer grey as this matches the grey that Cooler Master uses for some branding and I want this build to match that.

*insert elegant spray booth...

 

 

 

Final inside paint job with the grommets re-inserted:

 

 

 

 

[Sphinx]

Cooler Master South Africa was kind enough to sponsor the gorgeous tempered glass accessory for the Sinister mod, thanks so much!

 

Now time for some glamour shots!

 

 

 

 

A close up shot of the final top "Dragon skin":

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

[jonnylaw13]

love the dragon skin, would love to know more about you technique, following and now waiting to updates!

[Sphinx]

8 hours ago, jonnylaw13 said:

love the dragon skin, would love to know more about you technique, following and now waiting to updates!

Thanks! Will be posting more updates soon!

[Sphinx]

Hi all! Hope everyone is well, here are some more shots of the Project Sinister rig!

Alright, so with the MasterCase series, there is this dust cover that is magnetically held in place for the top exhaust fans. I did not want this to be plain and flat... Take a look at what I did...

 

 

So I used my technique to give this panel a really unique appearance to match with the rest of the Sinister build:

 

The effect worked out so well, it makes the top of the chassis have a really rugged appearance!

 

Here is a shot of the cover with the rest of the chassis:

Now one thing I noticed that some people are concerned about, is whether or not the front I/O panel of the MasterCase series is interchangeable or not, it is definitely interchangeable.

The highest spec front I/O panel that is out there is the one that comes with the MasterCase Maker 5, it has 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB Type C port, the Power and Reset, a switch for the lighting effects (This controls the included RED LED strip within the chassis) and of course the fan speed switch.

 

Here is some more texturing treatment:

 

 

The final result:

 

Now the panel does light up with red logos to indicate what each item does on the I/O Panel, I have tried to thin out the texture so that these icons are visible when the I/O panel is powered, however it just looks bad due to the blurry result. So I've decided that I am going to paint the logos onto the texture (Will post pics of this when it is done).

Here's the I/O panel installed with the rest of the panels:

I have also received some of the hardware from Cooler Master South Africa and ASUS South Africa for the mod, thanks a lot guys! It is really appreciated!

 

- GPU: ASUS GTX1070 STRIX 8GB DDR5

 

- MOBO: ASUS Z170 Deluxe

Here are some mouthwatering shots of this gorgeous hardware:

Did someone say motherboard?

Alright, so the system will be water cooled with a custom hard-line loop, therefore I wanted to make this chassis really unique and at the time of writing this, is the only Maker 5 Chassis that has this built in reservoir panel that is known.

Here I took the real panel of the chassis off, and then took it to engineering to remove the material that I do not need for the built in reservoir:

Take a look at this machine that was used for the cutting work!

Now for some perspex goodness...

Final profiling work:

Here's an action shot of the water channel that was milled into the 15mm perspex panel (8mm deep):

Here's the completed panel that will contain the water:

 

A before and after shot:

Now when it came time to put the perspex panel into the chassis, the top most piece of the metal that folded over was causing some interference issues, so it had to go...

Before:

After:

 

And here we are with the original metal panel re-riveted into the body of the Maker 5 chassis, along with the perspex built-in reservoir.

 

I ensured that the 15mm perspex panel was fitted to the rest of the chassis, which meant making the necessary holes and threading them!

Also, the GPU mounting bracket needed to be accommodated within the perspex (about 1.5mm depth). Therefore, correct size and depth marked, time to get cutting...

 

Success!

 

Alright, the radiator will be a 360mm XSPC (One that I used from my Envy build), it will be mounted in the front of the chassis between the front plastic cover and frame. Now for the fittings to not be obstructed by anything, some modifications are necessary (of course!).

'X' marks the spot...

Now for the other side...

And now the final result! Nice clearances for the radiator!

In case (pun not intended ) everyone was wondering what type of screws are used to keep the perspex panel in place...

Only the best

An overview shot of the chassis from the back with the motherboard and graphics card installed:

A close up of the graphics card mounting bracket, this will be re-painted once the chassis is ready:

Finally, here's an internal view:

I also received the EK parts for the build from Cooler Master South Africa and Rectron South Africa, thanks a lot guys!

A side profile of the famous D5 pump, I decided on the PWM version to harness the PWM water pump socket on the Z170 Deluxe board from ASUS South Africa, thank you again ASUS SA!

Here is a macro shot I took of the high-quality black compression fittings from EK. Thank you Cooler Master South Africa and Rectron South Africa!

The reservoir is really high quality, I decided on the EK-RES X3 150 due to space and I think it's a perfect size (Stay tuned for where this bad boy is going to be mounted!)

A close up of the D5 pump (which includes the new XTOP from EK) with the black EK compression fittings.

Another close up shot, a profile of the new D5 pump from EK!

Here's a close up of the XTOP that is included with the Revo D5 PWM EK pump from Rectron South Africa, thanks a lot guys this is a gorgeous piece of hardware!

A close up of the reservoir with some fittings!

Thanks again Cooler Master South Africa and Rectron South Africa for the gorgeous EK components, they are going to work so well in this build!

I had to hunt down a shop that had the correct 1/4" BSP tap to thread the perspex cover for the built-in water channel for the build - Managed to obtain one from THT Tools.

Long story short, I obtained one and was able to thread the 3mm perspex cover, needless to say, a perfect fit and the results are as intended!

An overview of the two EK Black compression fittings installed. Thanks Cooler Master South Africa and Rectron South Africa! The result looks so great and cannot wait to get busy with the rest of the amazing EK components!

A profile shot of the two EK Black compression fittings installed into the 3mm perspex cover panel, this is so exciting!

Here is a shot of the profile that needs to be cut into the 3mm cover panel for the water channel side. Measure twice, cut once!

 

Stay tuned, more updates to come soon!

 

 

[Sphinx]

Hi everyone!

Okay, today I received the Power Supply, RAM and CPU from Cooler Master, how exciting!

Yes, here come the close ups...

To start off, is an overview of the gorgeous hardware received today.

 

 

The Corsair Vengence LED (Red) to match with the red accents and red LED strip that the MasterCase Maker 5 has:

 

 

 

Now for the Power Supply, Cooler Master was gracious enough to send me their new MasterWatt Maker 1200!

 

 

Here is a shot of the contents within the hefty packaging:

 

 

People know that I am a sucker for aluminum... This is one beautiful power supply

 

 

A close up of the fan grille:

 

 

 

The rumours are true, you can connect your phone via Bluetooth to this power supply and use the app to monitor various aspects, this little guy is responsible for all that:

 

 

The MasterWatt Maker 1200!

 

[Sphinx]

So I finished polishing the perspex panels and prepared them for the bonding process, here are some glamorous photos...

 

 

Here's a side profile, this is what will be seen from the exterior of the chassis:

 

 

A macro shot of one of the mounting holes for the panel:

 

 

And a macro shot of the channel from the outside view:

 

 

Inside view of the channel:

 

 

 

Some side profile goodness of the threaded mounting holes:

 

 

This is why I love working with Perspex... It's as if this is from another world!

 

 

Some more updates to come soon!

[Sphinx]

Alright more updates!

This has been quite a hectic few days, but the system is coming together really nicely!

Let's start off by saying that yes both CPU & GPU (ASUS STRIX GTX1070 8GB DDR5) will be watercooled, the blocks are from XSPC (From my Envy System), take a look:

The beginning of the conversion process:

Some close up goodness on the GPU:

Heat sinks on the VRAM to make up for the missing behemoth of a cooler:

Close up of the waterblock with the compression fittings from EK:

For the top side of the GPU, yes I am keeping the back plate

The famous before and after shot:

And of course, we end the GPU mod with some texturing goodness:

We move to the CPU:

Intel Core i5 6600K was provided to me for this build by Cooler Master South Africa, thanks guys!

XSPC Raystorm CPU Block, also received the texturing treatment:

The RAM as well... Corsair Vengeance LED (Red) 2x8GB DDR4 3000MHz:

A picture of them installed:

I will be updating more quite soon, stick around for that one

[Sphinx]

A huge thank you to BeyondCustoms for the beautiful MDPC-X Sleeving for the Sinister mod!

Take a look at their site for more sleeving awesomeness! (Custom Sleeving – Beyond Customs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you know the EK Reservoir is mounted on the front panel of the chassis, so it needs to have soft tubing as the face of the Maker 5 can swivel open and closed.

Therefore a "softline to hardline adapter" had to be made

 

 

 

 

 

Another juicy update, is a 7" monitor will be mounted internally to display hardware usage:

 

 

 

* The void is strong with this mod...

 

 

 

 

 

[Sphinx]

I attended a "Mini Roadshow" with Cooler Master, whereby the Sinister mod was there to be discussed and also their new range of products.

There's a close up of the mod at the "Mini Roadshow":

 

 

 

The loop & interior shot when the water was filled:

 

 

After the coolant concentrate (EK Blood Red) was added:

 

A shot of the rear of the chassis before final painting and texturing of the chassis:

 

 

Top:

 

 

With regards to the adapter plate:

 

 

Here is a shot when the system was at the rAge expo in October 2016:

 

 

 

 

[Sphinx]

I know this took forever, but here are the final images of the system.

 

With these, I end this build log.

 

Here is the front view:

 

 

 

Rear:

 

 

Side view:

 

 

 

 

A close up of the name plate:

 

A close up of the reservoir:

 

A shot of the rear panel:

 

 

Another shot of the top cover:

 

 

An overview of the completed front:
 

 

A shot of the program I specifically wrote in C# just for this system's real time display:

 

 

Lastly, the final overview image of the entire mod: