Portal Themed 900D Gaming PC

[ThinkWithPortals]

OMFG... as I'm sure you can tell, I am a MASSIVE fan of Portal. This build has my seal of approval, I'll be interested to see it...

[Tearass]

 

 

Damn i can't even tell you how many things have gone wrong on this build. For one, the second 980 i had purchased was stolen from me ;-; so that set me back another $500. So yeah with that and EVERYTHING else that has happened, i kinda just gave up on the build and let it sit for the time being. Seriously, how many things can possibly go wrong on this build I'm starting a new job and within the next few weeks i will have money coming in again, and thus can continue my build Things you can expect fairly soon would be my PSU being painted white, the side panel window finally being replaced (meaning i also have to put case fans in now) and the lights being put in. Hopefully i can get this back up and running ASAP, and once i start getting pay checks again i can replace the 980 and start with some water cooling! (and yes fix the stupid paint  :angry: ) I'm actually getting excited about this again. New ideas are forming. Sorry for such a long wait

 

 

Man that's terrible to hear, hope you'll do well with the new job and that you're happy.

 

If you want any ideas with the layout or font choice with the paint job, let me know. Along with the misspelling, the font doesn't look all that great, but I'm loving that slice of cake on the rear side-window. 

[JT8101997]

Man that's terrible to hear, hope you'll do well with the new job and that you're happy.

 

If you want any ideas with the layout or font choice with the paint job, let me know. Along with the misspelling, the font doesn't look all that great, but I'm loving that slice of cake on the rear side-window. 

Yeah the front will be redone as well. I think i might have posted it somewhere else on here but the guy who cut it obviously didn't understand what i was asking. That's $50 for another front plate and probably another $50 for the cut. It will be done though

[JT8101997]

Hello to all the awesome people following my build! I have the first actual update to the build in quite awhile now. So here it is

 

I currently have a RM750 in my computer as a temporary power supply. However, i already own a RM1000 i just haven't swapped it out yet because i wanted to paint it first. Now that it's finished, i will probably be installing it sometime tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Thinking tonight though as i have another component to install c: (see below)

 

So to start off, here is just a reference picture of what it looks like before i touch it.

 

Bye bye!

 

Pulled the top off and started to disect. Probably shouldn't have bent the casing, but it seemed like the only way to get it out.

 

So i got the internals out and realized something. I'm going to have to de-solder some of the connections to take everything out.. Blah.

 

The blue wire has to be removed from the board while the red can be disconnected at the switch.

 

And about 25 minutes into the job, i realized that my 5 year old 23 watt soldering iron i bought off the shelf in the checkout line somewhere for $6 was not going to cut it. The solder would not melt even after holding the iron in place for near 30 minutes. So i went ahead and spent the $50 or whatever it was to buy this. A 150 watt soldering gun, which melted the solder in about 5 seconds from plugging it in. So glad i bought this. It's never been easier to solder. I used to hate it but now it's actually kinda fun

 

Finally seperated the casing from the internals.

 

The paint i used

 

And finally the painting. This is after the second coat of primer, which ended up needing attention. The primer i used was very liquidy and ran very easily as you can see in the bottom right. So after about 5 hours of sanding, painting, sanding, painting, etc. i finally got it right just the way i wanted it with a nice smooth finish.

 

Here are the final results

 

Overall, as long as you can solder, this isn't a very hard project. Just be careful to make sure there's no charge left in it (mine has been sitting for around 8 months now unplugged so i had no worries). Very happy with the results and i'm glad i did it. What do you think?

 

And for the surprise component, a GTX 980Ti I decided to get these instead as i was looking for another 980 and instead found one of these for around the same price as a 980. It's brand new, but the box got messed up. I checked and everything is fine, still in the original packaging and i was given a guarantee that i have a month to return it for any reason (even shipping covered!). I was kinda skeptical at first but if the box is all then i don't really mind, which that's pretty much the case. And also the seller (on amazon) has a very great rating and like i said i can still return it at any time if it has any problems. Now i just have to sell my 980 and get another $150 or find another deal and i'm good to go and can start saving up for water cooling Super excited for that.

[Tearass]

 

 

-wow looky at my smexy banner! -

 

-snip-

 

 

 

Glad to see this build back on it's feet! Any thoughts on a custom sticker or even vinyl for the power supply?

[JT8101997]

Glad to see this build back on it's feet! Any thoughts on a custom sticker or even vinyl for the power supply?

Yeah i was actually thinking about that when i was putting the stickers back on. Forgot to mention that i guess. Idk exactly what i'm going to put on it, but i would like to do that. My idea for the gpu's is to make some custom acrylic backplates laser cut to read

 

"GLaDOS

Logic Core"

 

or something like that.

[JT8101997]

Well i guess i just got lucky I've got the RM1000 and the 980Ti in, and i've been pushing this card as hard as i can with games and stress tests and all that. Framerate is pretty average for this card as expected, no problems there, and no matter what i do to it it maxes out at 78c (this is running a stress test while playing a game). Stress testing for about an hour now and it's sitting nice and steady at 76c. Woo! I guess i actually got a good deal and not a broken card I was guessing it would be fine but obviously i have to check.

Edit: This is with no case fans btw. I just don't have any yet.

[starwarsguy99]

 

.I used to hate it but now it's actually kinda fun

 

I used to love soldering in School (Design Class)

But then I managed to place a hot soldering iron against the side of my finger and burnt it from top to bottom. 

That was painful..

 

I really love the way this build is going and cant wait to see the watercooling!

[DieHörnær]

Looks good so far, not sure if you've seen this build log but so far its my favourite Portal themed build

[JT8101997]

 

Just thought i would share this with you guys. Here's something i drew during school earlier today. Now obviously it's not to scale or anything but it's kind of just so i could figure out where i can fit everything and how to plan the loops and all that. For the bottom part no they will not be stacked like that i just didn't have any other way of showing it in a drawing. Placement of everything isn't necessarily final, but i like the way this looks so far. And about the cpu to 480 up top, i know it would be easier to just have a direct run over but i like the look of this better. and the blue line coming from the orange pump is actually just running behind it from the bottom 480. Btw there will also be a midplate over the basement of the case if i haven't mentioned that before. Let me know what you think

 

[starwarsguy99]

I guess its been a productive day at school for you!

[CtW]

For the cpu loop, I'd recommend having the tubing going into some kind of floor panel then around the back of the case then through the mobo tray where the rad is. That way you show off the run to the loop, but aren't showing an unnecessary amount of tubing.

[Tearass]

What @CtW said 

[JT8101997]

For the cpu loop, I'd recommend having the tubing going into some kind of floor panel then around the back of the case then through the mobo tray where the rad is. That way you show off the run to the loop, but aren't showing an unnecessary amount of tubing.

Yeah i actually didn't even consider that. Thinking about it though that makes more sense. First time i've worked in a case like this where you could do that so it wasn't really running through my mind. I think i could make that work though and it probably would look a lot better. Thanks

[JT8101997]

Oh another idea, if you don't mind circuit building, maybe have a timer circuit that plays certain portal sound effects as the system boots. Maybe the sounds you hear as glados reactivates in portal 2

 

 

This. I want to see this. This would be so epic!

Video coming soon! 

[Cwis3man]

Very nice - Can't wait to see the finished product. 

[JT8101997]

Ok so yet another problem with the build, of course. I swear this is the build from hell. Anyways, I got my second 980ti and installed it, only to realize i have a dead pci-e slot and need to rma the board. Hopefully i can still do that. I put in a request and i'm waiting to hear back. In the meantime i had to buy another 4tb hard drive to back everything up onto so i dont loose everything being that i'm using raid 0 and i don't want to risk loosing data. I needed it anyways to recover from my other 4tb wd black that got wiped by accident. Well i guess once it's all back together, i'll be part of the 10tb club and i could even add another 980ti That will probably be more around Christmas time if i decide to do that though. So i guess expect to see some progress maybe in 2 weeks? By then i would think i should have the pc back together with a fully functional board, 2 980ti's and 10tb's of storage Along with the previously promised boot sound effects (I was going to make a video but the 980ti came and i found more problems ). I now have my rads 2x 240's (480's on the way) and 2 reservoirs (need to figure out how to mount them) both pumps and some of the fittings. Now i just need the water blocks and some tubing along with a few extra fittings and i should be good to go.

[Kigerone]

Wow. I've just come across this after I thought of doing a Portal build myself. I think I'll wait to see how yours turns out. It sounds really great and I hope it turns out. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product, OP.