My first ever mod, Orange and White wall mounted PC Build Log

[SpaceTurtle917]

Hey guys, A few weeks ago I started work on my first ever pc mod for a spring break project and it's finally done. This was done on a tight budget and old parts laying around so don't be to impressed with the specs okay.

 

Let's start with the specs.

Spoiler

Motherboard:

     ECS P67H2-A3

CPU:

     Intel Celeron G540 2.5 GHz (Sandy Bridge)

Ram:

      2X4gb Corsair Vengance DDR3

GPU:

     EVGA GTX 560 (2GB variant)

PSU:

     EVGA 500B

Hard drives:

     OEM 250GB Hitachi 2.5 in HDD (Primary)

     OEM 128GB Seagate 3.5 in HDD (Secondary)

LMAO as you can see these are just spare parts lying around because my smol little 15 year old self couldn't spend a lot.

 

The project begins with mounting my lga1155 motherboard to the 1/8 in Baltic Birch plywood left over from making a few longboards (Seen in later pictures, bottom 2).

I originally started by screwing motherboard standoffs into the wood but I decided to go with something more secure so later I used m3 screws with plastic 3d printed spacers in between.

 

The bleed edge celeron in all of its glory lmao

 

I began to plan everything out with pencil as well as start making holes for the cables.

The holes were eventually cleaned up with a file.

 

Test boot with my other computer because my power supply hadn't come in the mail yet.

This was right after I had gotten my GTX 560 off of craigslist for $50. Bask in the 2011 era graphics card and all its glory.

I eventually began mounting everything else to the piece of wood including the graphics card separated from the motherboard.

 

Getting the nut screwed in was very difficult.

 

I cut off the extra wood with a table saw and also cut the trim for the edges of the board.

I took everything off and began my first coat of pure white paint. I later applied a second.

I chose this paint to match the trim of my bedroom.

 

I began painting the trim pieces orange.

 

 

 

The 2 extra cheap $5 sketchy PCI-E riser cables came in the mail. I took off the tape and carefully inspected the sloppy solders. One of the risers was fine but I noticed a small imperfection on the other one while looking through a magnifier glass.

The 2 solder points were barely connected and I proceeded to force them apart with a razor blade.

 

After testing both the risers worked which was great because I didn't want to buy the $100 3M ones.

I smothered the solders with hot glue for strength and then covered that in electrical tape.

 

I began taping off the board for painting. It was very tedious work.

 

The painting was ruff and took a long time but I finished the design and it made a very good "10 ft mod".

Never the less I'm still very happy with the painting because I had little to no painting skills.

 

 

I added the trim that keeps the board of the wall and hides the wires with glue and assembled the entire thing and it was done.

 

I added picture frame wire hangers to the back and mounted it to my wall. The power button was added later to the top left.

 

 

 

I'm veryyyyyy happy with how this build turned out. It was my first ever mod and I made on a very tight budget. I plan to upgrade the processor later but for now it sorta works okay. Thankfully this isn't my main rig. My main has a gtx 970 and an overclocked FX 8350 and a Samsung 850 EVO all in a NZXT S340. This was just a fun spring break project that I finished a few weeks after spring break. Spring break was gross and rainy.

 

I don't have the cable management situated yet either for any of the i/o.

 

I actually made this entire build log on this PC. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aytex]

Only thing i would add is cable hiders, and you should be good

[SpaceTurtle917]

Just now, Aytex said:

Only thing i would add is cable hiders, and you should be good

Enlighten me on what that is.

[Savir]

10 minutes ago, SpaceTurtle917 said:

Enlighten me on what that is.

Maybe like tubes to route your cables through to make it look cleaner? If I were you I would switch the PC and skateboards. That way the cables could have a direct route to the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Techsource mentions cable hiders/tubes many times on setup wars.

[Aytex]

10 minutes ago, SpaceTurtle917 said:

Enlighten me on what that is.

small half cylinders or squares that you can fit your cables in

[SpaceTurtle917]

6 minutes ago, Aytex said:

small half cylinders or squares that you can fit your cables in

Ayy Yeah I plan to get some small hooks to have at least straight clean cable runs because I want the option to easily move and unplug my peripherals.