Air 540 Revamp

[Guest]

I honestly have no idea how to do one of these threads, but I'm gonna try anyway.  Since I'm out a desktop, I'm gonna be doing this on my 12" school laptop, so I'm not gonna do anything super fancy with this thread; it's gonna be more of a personal keepsake that other people can look at than some hyped up build log.  The build isn't going to be anything super special at all, but it's going to be mine and I'm going to love it <3.

 

I've already had the parts for this build for about a year, I just haven't gotten around to doing anything fancy with the colors.  It's also my birthday on the 30th, so the upgraded color scheme is going to be a birthday present to myself .  Speaking of birthday, I've already decided that I'm buying an a6000 with my saved money, it's just a matter of time before I get the last few hundred I need.  Because of that, the picture quality will change really suddenly in the middle of the build; going from my phone to a fancy schmancy camera is going to make a world of a difference.  

 

Goals for this build:  Get it to look nice.  I bought the parts with painting in mind, so it was completely black and pretty plain, but it looked very stealthy.  

I added LEDs a few weeks ago, but they were way too overpowering and honestly looked pretty cheesy, so I took them out after a day or two.  I'm eventually going to add them back, but I need to somehow dial back their brightness a bit.

 

I was originally going to do a red/black color scheme, but I changed my mind to do black/white with a tiny bit of red.  I already took the whole case apart as far as I could, and I am getting the parts powder coated tomorrow morning.  All the metal is going to be white, but all the plastic parts are going to be black.  Hopefully it looks good, crossing my fingers hoping for the best!  I will probably sleeve the cables red while I'm at it, just to add a bit of contrast.  I gotta figure out how to do it myself though, since I don't want to pay for it, saving all the money I can for that camera.  

 

I'll add my progress in other posts down the road.  This build hopefully shouldn't take too long, maybe a week max, a bit longer for the cables.  

[Br3tt96]

Looks very solid and stealthy, but my main problem is the upside down nzxt CPU block.

[Nonco]

uh-oh prepare yourself for the "COOLER LOGO UPSIDE DOWN" spam D:

[Swndlr]

You need black fans for your AIO!

[hoot.]

OMG THE COOLER LOGO IS UPSIDE DOWN. RUINS THE ENTIRE BUILD.

 

Just kidding.

 

That's sexy as hell. Looks extremely nice.

[Guest]

Looks very solid and stealthy, but my main problem is the upside down nzxt CPU block.

Yesyesyes I know, I'm fixing it when I redo the build.  There were 2 reasons I put it like that in the first place.  1.)  For some reason, NZXT made the tubes so damn long that if I put it right side up, the tubes would hit the top fans.  It could have fit right side up if I rotated the radiator, but the tubes filled up the empty space a lot better that way.  2.)  You can't really see the logo when the panel is on.  Like I said, it's stealth, so there are no lights on the inside, therefore you can't see the logo.  

 

Glad I got that off my shoulders.  

[Guest]

You need black fans for your AIO!

I'm probably gonna be getting some nice fans with the extra money I have after buying the camera.  Not sure what yet, but the ones I have don't match and they are loud af, so anything would be better than what I have now

[Guest]

Quick pic of the parts I'm sending off to be powder coated white.  Includes the case frame, fan grilles (I already had those painted red), GPU shroud and backplate, and the thing that holds the pump in the AIO to the mobo.  I'm also going to be hand painting the heatsinks on the mobo.  

[Guest]

All you guys should hate me more; I just checked my brothers rig and I guess I built that with the AIO upside down too .  You can be mad, but no riots please.

[Guest]

Update #1:  I actually painted something and didn't break it!  I painted the mobo heatsinks with white plastidip.  It didn't turn out great and I might repaint it with actual high quality paint down the road, I just wanted to see what it would look like in white before I made it permanent.  The coat isn't that even and there are a few mistakes, but you shouldn't be able to see them in the case.  Also, hopefully getting that camera tonight along with all of the painted parts back, so I'm gonna try to take some actually decent pictures.  

[anthonyc813]

mine looked the same too when I added a red cold cathode light in the case... same as in your example

 

looking forward to seeing the progression! I personally don't care which way the logo is facing!

 

what paint did you use? meaning what brand?

[Guest]

mine looked the same too when I added a red cold cathode light in the case... same as in your example

 

looking forward to seeing the progression! I personally don't care which way the logo is facing!

 

what paint did you use? meaning what brand?

I just used plain old Plasti-Dip.  Like I said, down the road I'm going to use actual nice paint, but it's fine for now the way it is.

The logo is definitely going to be fixed, I'm just redoing the whole build right now since I'm putting off doing a custom case for a while.

As for the light, yeah it was way too overpowering.  I put nearly 3 feet of LEDs into it, so I'm gonna cut it down to less than a foot to just give it a subtle glow.  

[anthonyc813]

I just used plain old Plasti-Dip.  Like I said, down the road I'm going to use actual nice paint, but it's fine for now the way it is.

The logo is definitely going to be fixed, I'm just redoing the whole build right now since I'm putting off doing a custom case for a while.

As for the light, yeah it was way too overpowering.  I put nearly 3 feet of LEDs into it, so I'm gonna cut it down to less than a foot to just give it a subtle glow. 

wow! 3ft!?! I put in one 12 inch cold cathode and it was the same lol! the MSI board looks good in black and white!

[Guest]

wow! 3ft!?! I put in one 12 inch cold cathode and it was the same lol! the MSI board looks good in black and white!

Yea a bit overkill.  I had 15 feet to spare and I wanted to use all of it.  Thanks though!

[Guest]

Turns out they aren't running white until later in the week, so it's going to be a few days before I post another update.

[Necrodead]

Turns out they aren't running white until later in the week, so it's going to be a few days before I post another update.

Powder coat should look amazing! Can't wait!

[SeventhPillars]

Im definetly a big fan of the case lighting. Great job on this build

[Guest]

Im definetly a big fan of the case lighting. Great job on this build

nowait what that's the old build, I'm redoing the colors as we speak

[Guest]

Update #2!  

Parts are powder coated and they look beautiful!  Sadly I can't get them until tomorrow, so I'm stuck with this picture to drool at

[Guest]

UPDATE #3!  Second to Last Update!  

 

I finally got all the parts back at my house, finished the build, and got it up and running.  The only thing I have left (other than hopefully moving my desk to my room) is putting in some sleeved cables which are supposed to come Sunday.  I was gonna sleeve the cables myself, but it turns out Evga makes really weird PSU cables which just aren't possible to sleeve .  Anyway, brace yourself for many pictures that aren't super beautiful but good enough to get the job done.  I'm still figuring out how to use the camera, and I needed to get the build done as fast as I could so I could get back to my homework.

 

AHHH here they are!  Finally!  (Don't do what I did and build on carpet.  I did stand on cardboard but still, don't)

 

 

Took all the parts out, wow they look good!  There are a few imperfections, but they are pretty small and in weird spots so it doesn't really matter.  

 

Had to put some electrical tape on the backplate because there was some plastic thing that I had to take off.  I think it is just an 'in case metal thingies touch it" electrical protection thing.  It's really crude but meh.  

 

Pic of the finished GPU after I put the shroud and backplate on.  

\

 

You can see the little nick in the backplate here.  It's really super small, barely even noticeable from even close up.  

 

Here's the case itself.  Ignore it being upside down, I wasn't thinking.  

 

Put on the front plastic things with the fan grilles, starting to look like an actual case now!  I really love the look of this so far, so glad I choose white.  

 

Put the motherboard in, I'm really surprised that the Plasti-Dip and the gloss powder coat match up so well.

 

Putting the x61 in really fills up the space of the case.  

 

Wow, putting in the painted Strix REALLY makes the case look so much better.  I am so glad this is working out as well as it is.  

 

Last step, putting in the HDDs.  

 

And the build is finally finished!  I really love how it turned out.  I put in the panther just because I could.  Also panthers are awesome, so that's a plus.  I do have LEDs for during the day because I like the slight shine on the pearl white, but it is too overpowering at night, so that's when I turn them off.  Either way, enjoy the final pics!  Like I said, I couldn't spend too much time on pictures at all because I had to get it set up for homework.  

 

A wild dog appears!

 

Back to the finished product!

 

Here it is with some LEDs.  Dunno why it looks orange in the pics, but it is red IRL.  I don't really like the LEDs, it's just too 'in your face' for me.

 

Like I said, I don't have the time or the supplies for fancy pictures just yet, but I should eventually.  I really like how it turned out.  The colors are just very unique while staying very simple, and it is possible for pretty much anyone to do without a whole ton of money if you paint it yourself.  I only powder coated the parts because a factory is really easily accessible to me.  I don't think I need to re-paint the motherboard heatsinks because they actually don't look nearly as bad as I thought they would.  Like I said, I still have sleeved cable extensions coming in the mail Sunday, but that's only a minor update.  

 

Hope you enjoyed the really badly thrown together build log.  If you have any questions or suggestions, just reply.  I'm always looking for advise!   

[ELSknutson]

paint thoughts HDD tops white and get some sleeved extensions and change the rear fan. But all in all its a very nice system.

[hoot.]

-snippy snip snip-

HOLY HELL THAT LOOKS AMAZING.

[Guest]

paint thoughts HDD tops white and get some sleeved extensions and change the rear fan. But all in all its a very nice system.

Working on doing all 3.  I got red extensions because I think just a little bit of red looks good, and I'm either going to paint that fan white or black to match the rest soon enough.  I took the stickers off the hard drives to make it look a little better, but I just didn't have the time right then to make a mid plate.  I don't have the time to make a super fancy one, so I might cut up a plastic box that we don't use to be a makeshift one.  Either that or some kind of stained wood.  

[Guest]

HOLY HELL THAT LOOKS AMAZING.

Thanks, loved how it turned out.  So much cleaner looking than a red/black system.

[hoot.]

Thanks, loved how it turned out.  So much cleaner looking than a red/black system.

Agreed.