EVGA Gear Up - Project "Interceptor"

[kazuma]

Hey all!

 

Got another "quick", sponsored project for you all.

 

First off, a huge shout out to all the sponsors, EVGA, Bitspower and TeamGroup Inc.!

 

 

 

 

And of course, a very HUGE shout out to EVGA and their Gear Up with EVGA program for the continuous support! 

 

And this project will be a special one because I have finally got my own logo that I have been wanting for quite some time now. I wanted something simple that I could use for designs and cutouts for future projects. 

Came up with this design. And then asked a friend of mine to put in some touches on it. Since I mainly use Aluminum and Acrylic plastics, I asked him to throw those in, and this is what we came up. 

 

And now that that's out of the way, Let's start, shall we?

 

 

Recently, Bitspower reached out and asked if I wanted to do a project for them using their new TouchAqua Sedna 011 for the Lian Li 011 Dynamic computer case. I have not worked with them for quite a while and since the person who reached out and requested is a very good friend of mine, I immediately took that opportunity that he laid in the table. 

 

 

After receiving the packages, I immediately strip the case down. My plan was to do a quick custom paint job on this project since the Lian Li 011 Dynamic is one hell of an awesome computer case. There's really not much, if nothing, to mod on this case. And this case, by far, is my favorite computer case that I have worked on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a quick look, some measuring here and there, I started to tear the front, brushed aluminum part of it. 

 

 

I recently found a guy who accepts small custom paint jobs locally, and I immediately contacted him to ask if he can take on a small project. He agreed and I wasted no time and strip the case of it's parts. 

 

 

At the time that I got the packages, I have been waiting for a pc game to come  out. Anthem. I only played it once, for a couple of hours, flying around and exploring the open world. I got inspired to do a case mod base on the "Interceptor" javelin class of the game. So I started to draw up a sketch of what I wanted. Came up with a simple one. And when I came up with this, I didn't have any clue that the game is starting to "flop". 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent those over to the paint guy, a couple of changes, just minor ones, and after a week, he came back with this.

 

 

 

 

It was not as perfect as what I was expecting, but this was A LOT far better than what I can produce using aerosol paint. All in all, I am happy with the result!

 

 

 

And since the paint job was done quickly, well, I started to put the thing together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've got to say, Z390 FTW is A LOT sexier in person! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One hell of a beefy heatsink!!

 

 

 

 

 

EVGA's waterblocks for their 2080Ti are one of the sexiest that I have seen in a while. 

 

With a beefy card like this and a monster board like the Z390 FTW, adding in a 1000w power supply is not a bad idea. 

 

 

 

 

 

EVGA sent over a set of their sleeved cables for the SuperNova 1000G+ power supply.

 

 

 

 

For the CPU water block, I like how it looks, but I was trying to reduce the "dark" colors on the build since the Interceptor character has mostly white and green armor. So I ended up peeling the black top cover of the water block.

 

 

One of my favorite parts of this project. For quite some time now, I have been wanting to explore the world of custom "distribution plates", unfortunately time didn't allow me to. But seeing this TouchAqua distribution plate in person inspired to go and explore how to make your own plate. I will definitely make one in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TeamGroup was awesome and generous enough to send these out for the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assembly time! 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, when I was putting this together, I overlooked one thing. After installing the card, I was planning on the tube route, when I noticed something.

 

I did not realized that the FTW waterblock was too "wide" when using it horizontally. The stock cooler fits in no problem, but since the EVGA FTW waterblock is one hell of a beefy block, the thing was poking out. At that time, it was poking out by around 5-6mm and when I realized it, all I could think of is make a acrylic side panel and make a 7mm spacer between the case and the side panel. But here's the awesome part, EVGA then said "nah, nah, nah, looks like you need a different card that will fit inside that thing. Here, the waterblock for this is not as wide as the ftw block.". They then sent this over!

 

 

I was damn speechless on the awesome support that they showed. 2 days after that, the EVGA 2080Ti XC and the waterblock for it showed up on my door step. That kind of support, is just, well, AWESOME! And if you are reading this, there's another incident that happened, and yet again, I experienced EVGA's awesome support. Keep on reading below.

 

 

 

 

 

And after that little hiccup, I started running some tubes in the system. I was actually quite excited about it since this was my first time using a distribution plate on a project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And after that, I did a quick leak testing. No leaks! 

 

 

 

Now, I was about to wrap the project up. All I needed to do was to put in some green dye on the loop. And here was the 2nd problem. After running the loop for an hour or so, I noticed the LED debug indicator on the board kept on cycling through a bunch of codes. I got curious so I plugged in an HDMI cable from the system to a monitor to see if the thing gets into BIOS. Aaaaaand, nope! I tried all the ports on the card, still no display on the monitor. I tried for a day and a half to see what the hell did I do wrong, no luck. So I reached out to EVGA again, we did some more tests upon their instructions, and we confirmed that I got a dead board on my hands. BUT! Here's where EVGA showed their awesomeness again. 2 days after I reached out to them, they've sent me a replacement board! It still kinda sucks that I have to drain and take the loop out, but that was nothing compared to what EVGA have shown.

 

 

That will be it for me for now. I will post the final photos tomorrow! Ciao! 

 

 

 

 

[kazuma]

Ooooh, before I forget, in addition to the T-Force SSD that I have in this system I will be using an M.2 ssd on this project too.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the final photos after putting some color on the loop. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a drawing that I did for this project before it got colored up.

 

 

And here is the actual project. Close enough I would say with the exception of the front panel that I was planning.

 

 

 

 

And that's it for me for this quick project. Working with the Lian Li 011 Dynamic was a fantastic experience. When I started modding, most of the time, people are modding their existing or new computer cases to suit their needs and add functionality to it (dremeling a hole for a radiator mount or additional fan). But with this case, there's plenty of radiator and fan mount, top, bottom and side. But yeah, even though I wasn't able to do the front panel that I was planning ( I didn't want to ditch the front TG since when doing stress tests, temps were okay and acceptable, CPU max temp was between 65-69c, which is completely fine in my books, GPU temp never went over 55c on all the stress test that I did. So sacrificing the front TG to make a new plastic one that has fan mounts on it didn't made any sense and will be a waste of material in my opinion). But yeah, this was one hell of a fun project, and I will definitely be grabbing another one of this case as a "reserve" case. LOL!

 

Thanks for going through my work log and hope you had fun as much as I did! Ciao!