GLaDOS: LTT Themed Ncase M1----COMPLETE

[AHaskin14]

 

An LTT Themed mini-itx build with a focus on silence, productivity, gaming, and taking over the world in the name of science

What's The Story?

Spoiler

Hello everyone, and thank you for checking out my build log. I hope to keep this well updated and fun to view throughout my build process. It's been over 2 years since I built my last pc, and I've been getting very antsy to do another. I love tinkering and modding computers, which is why my current rig has windows, spray paint, lights, and a CPU liquid cooler zip tied to my GPU. For my junior year of college pursuing a Mechanical Engineering degree, I will be house in a single room, with much less desk space available than my past two years, so mini-itx was a great route to go. I also have an LTT Noctua fan that I really like, and want to cut a window on the side of the case so I can stare at the beauty, so silent air cooling with an LTT theme was a natural decision.

What's In A Name?

Spoiler

GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is both the protagonist and the antagonist in the widely popular Portal series. While she held her form primary form here in Portal 1,

 

 

She also spent a considerable amount of time in Portal 2 as this potato.

 

So the name follows the idea that such a powerful computer can be equally large and small. Plus, If you've every played the games you will know that GLaDOS is one of the sassiest women to ever exist and you will form a love-hate relationship with her.

 

What's Inside?

Spoiler

Here's the PC Part Picker link for easy reference, and I will explain my part choices below. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kWPBgs

 

Anything in green is purchased and not up for debate, the rest, I'm all ears if you have any tips or tricks.

 

CPU: Intel Core i5 6600: I still don't need an i7 just yet and I don't feel likely overclocking this build (because of power and thermals) so I got this for a good deal.

 

GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 FE: I wanted an open air cooler, but it would have suffocated. Blower it is. I still really like the cooler and it does perform great. I have a +225 core boost.

 

Case: Ncase M1: One of the most beautiful little cases out there. Small batch manufactured to perfection. About as small of a case as you can get while retaining the same aesthetic principles of a larger tower case.

 

Motherboard: EVGA Z170 Stinger: My original plan was the MSI H170i Pro and an i5 6600. However I saw this board go on sale for less than the MSI, so I figured Hell why not. I may not be able to get a blazing overclock on the cooler I'm using but I will be content with a 4.2 or so. This is a really good looking board with some basic premium features. Hopefully it works out well.

 

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8Gb 3200MHz: Necessary speed? no. Good deal? yes.

 

Storage: 850 EVO 500Gb: My 2 840's have been running without flaw for 2 years so of course I went back to Samsung. 500gb is enough for me to run my whole build.

 

PSU: Corsair SF450: These have been getting better reviews than the silverstone models so I'm going to try them out. 450w is perfect for this build

 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master GeminII S524 V2: Had a lot of debate between this and the better looking (imo) shadow rock LP. went with this due to RAM compatibility and price.

 

CPU Cooler Fan: Noctua NFF12 PWM LTT Edition: A centerpeice for the build. Displayed nicely on the top down facing cooler.

What's Your Current Status?

Spoiler

 

5-15-16: Motherboard delivered. It's a sexy little beast.

5-17-16: Made Build Log Thread. Case should be here by the end of today

5-18-16: Case Actually arrived. Wow is this thing amazing. I'll upload pictures ASAP

5-24-16: Kind of at a standstill. May order some more parts in the coming days with memorial day sales popping up. Also may begin painting some motherboard pieces.

5-27-16: Got 16Gb of Corsair Vengeance LPX at 3200MHz for a really good deal. More RAM than I wanted but at $38 a stick with no shipping or tax I couldn't refuse.

6-10-16: Painting Underway. All Parts Ordered and delivered. Preliminary build going to happen tonight.

6-13-16: So the initial build went essentially great. As it turns out my only hassle was the cooler. Cooler masters website and everywhere lists its compatibility with lga 1151, however nowhere's on the packaging or instructions is the term "1151" ever mentioned. My belief was that I had gotten a model shipped that was before 1151 parts were added to the box, so I was really pissed. I tried again later on and found that one of the brackets did work so I'm set there. Then the cooler angles out so much that it hangs over the PSU. I was nervous that this would result in me not getting flat contact on the processor but the thermals seemed fine when I tried (like 19' fine). Time will tell when it's fully built and I torture test it >:-) Once everything was built though and I tried things out I tore it apart again so that I could paint the power supply. I got the materials to cut and attach my window so I may get to that tonight.

6-14-16: Added another layer of paint to the IO cover and PSU last night. Cut out the window on the side panel.

6-15-16: SSD arrived yesterday so I'm all set to install windows (maybe tonight maybe not). I finished filing the panel window and glued it on last night. Looked amazing when I checked on it this morning.

6-16-16: Last night i put all the painted pieces back together, got the cooler on, and started getting windows installed. Everything works great. I messed up my side panel window though, see more about that in its sub topic.

6-22-16: I fixed my side panel (after 3 tries). The Lights came in. And this computer looks amazing. I kinda still need a GPU though...

6-29-16: A few updates I suppose. Ordered an EVGA 1070 FE. I wanted an open air but after analyzing the thermals of the case It would be a bad Idea. So now my plan is to paint the silver parts of the FE in orange. That should look cool. I'm also annoyed by the fron USB 3.0 header on this board. It is right over the PCE16 slot so I would have to have that big thick cable draggged out over the top of my card. I plan then to order a ribbon extension so that I can nicely tuck it away. That's all for now though!

 

8-13-16: I suppose it has been a while but the build is complete. Graphics card is in, usb 3 extender is in, 80% of the LED lights were taped off, and about 4 side panels were applied before final. Enjoy!

Pics Or It Didn't Happen

 

-Final Build

Spoiler

 

 

 

-Preliminary (Does this stuff even work) build

Spoiler

So I didn't do any over the top B-Roll during this build phase because I had friends over when I was doing it and didn't want to take up too much time. The goal here was make sure everything was nice and compatible and worked. Fortunately nothing was DOA.

 

Here's a pile of parts. Everything but the SSD (arrives tomorrow) and GPU (haven't bought that yet)

Here's the sexy EVGA mobo with the processor and RAM installed. Which I had taken the protective wraps off the heat sinks because this is a nice shot.

And here's two angles of the working build. After this I tore it apart for more painting.

 

-Assembly (Not done yet)

Spoiler

The psu and IO cover installed

Cooler Installed

Not too shabby looking

Cleaned up the cables more (the long one sticking out is for the GPU) Wasn't really that difficult since they were all confined to that corner and the rest could get hidden behind the cooler. Mind anyone that is unaware that this case offers no room behind the motherboard for cables, so this is my only choice.

Being thrifty, I ran a sata connector and power to the front and secured them behind this little zip tie bar. Now I can pop off the front panel and quickly plug in drives and disc readers without tearing apart the whole cabling of the build.

Installed a 60cm Cablemod Widebeam light strip. VERY nice kit. Boy are these things bright. I'm also finding that the window will be a nightmare to keep clean :-( enjoy these pics :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Modding and Painting

       -I/O Cover (Painting)

Spoiler

Before:

Primed:

The first coat of actual paint came out great, However I got anxious and applied the second coat too thick and it wrinkled :-( So i had to sand it down...which was a pain after primer and 2 coats of paint, but I managed. The black you see is from the original finish and wasn't thick enough to cause problems.

Here it is all painted up next to the psu cover

 

 

 

       -Power Supply (Painting)

Spoiler

Disassembled the SF450. Very easy but one screw was in tight and I almost stripped it which made me nervous that I wouldn't be able to get the cover off.dfg

So the side with the fan faces the backside of the case, while the corsair logo and IO side faces the viewing side so it's a perfect piece to paint. Here it is primed up.

Here it is all painted up next to the IO Cover

My PSU > Your PSU

 

      -Side Panel (Window Mod)

Spoiler

I used pencil to mark out all the lines on the back, with the line in the center serving as my practice space to get a feel for the cutter before I made the real cuts

Clamped it down on a soft cloth over a piece of wood. It was night time when I did this so the extra light was very helpful.

Some filing to even things up has already been done here but I still want to touch it up more. Came out great in my opinion.

After everything was filed down I had to take care of the hideous silver colored cut marks on the edges. I had given lots of debate into this, considering options like rubber u-channel and splitting a thin rubber pipe to line the outside. Turns out though, two "coats" of black sharpie do the job perfectly as seen below.

I was able to use a table saw to cleanly cut the acrylic sheet I got, and I attached it with little dots of super glue.

Left to dry with expensive clamping devices

Story Time........So the first time I did this as you see above, I made some mistakes. After the first glue set I ran some more along the entire edge of the plastic. This ended up ruining the fit, so I began to file it down. The file of course slipped, ruining the window. So after extreme effort as seen below I was able to get that all off.

So after I finally cleaned the piece up I cut another piece of plastic out of the sheet I had and carefully glued it on. Not careful enough though, as I ended up getting glue on the window portion.....So I tore that one off. While trying to cut out my THIRD window I realized that despite having a large sheet to work from, I had inefficiently cut the first two and had no more working space for a third, so I had to go buy another sheet. The third time went great, and the final product is seen in the build photos. Moral of the story, be sparing on glue and measure a lot.

 

 

 

[mikat]

nice

[Vercii]

29 minutes ago, AHaskin14 said:

An LTT Themed mini-itx build with a focus on silence, productivity, gaming, and taking over the world in the name of science

What's The Story?

  Hide contents

Hello everyone, and thank you for checking out my build log. I hope to keep this well updated and fun to view throughout my build process. It's been over 2 years since I built my last pc, and I've been getting very antsy to do another. I love tinkering and modding computers, which is why my current rig has windows, spray paint, lights, and a CPU liquid cooler zip tied to my GPU. For my junior year of college pursuing a Mechanical Engineering degree, I will be house in a single room, with much less desk space available than my past two years, so mini-itx was a great route to go. I also have an LTT Noctua fan that I really like, and want to cut a window on the side of the case so I can stare at the beauty, so silent air cooling with an LTT theme was a natural decision.

 

What's In A Name?

  Reveal hidden contents

GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is both the protagonist and the antagonist in the widely popular Portal series. While she held her form primary form here in Portal 1,

 

 

She also spent a considerable amount of time in Portal 2 as this potato.

 

So the name follows the idea that such a powerful computer can be equally large and small. Plus, If you've every played the games you will know that GLaDOS is one of the sassiest women to ever exist and you will form a love-hate relationship with her.

 

What's Inside?

  Hide contents

Here's the PC Part Picker link for easy reference, and I will explain my part choices below. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kWPBgs

 

Anything in green is purchased and not up for debate, the rest, I'm all ears if you have any tips or tricks.

 

CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K: Was going for the 6600 to save some money and all but then the story explained under the mobo happened. No need for an i7.

 

GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070: The perfect GPU for me. I've always liked getting the newest product so the 10 series is a must, and the 1070 will perform how I want.

 

Case: Ncase M1: One of the most beautiful little cases out there. Small batch manufactured to perfection. About as small of a case as you can get while retaining the same aesthetic principles of a larger tower case.

 

Motherboard: EVGA Z170 Stinger

 

RAM: Kingston FURY 1x8GB

 

PSU: Corsair SF600

 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master GeminII S524 V2

 

CPU Cooler Fan: Noctua NFF12 PWM LTT Edition

 

What's Your Current Status?

  Hide contents

 

5-15-16: Motherboard delivered. It's a sexy little beast.

5-17-16: Made Build Log Thread. Case should be here by the end of today

 

 

 

 

Interesting, can't wait for more

[AHaskin14]

I've added lots of updates enjoy!

[AHaskin14]

Lots of pics added to the modding categories and Ill add to the "assembly" tab once I get the picture off my phone. enjoy!

[Kovarr]

Great to see another Portal inspired build! I'm doing one as well! Can't wait to see how your's turns out. It's my first build so I'm not too keen on modifying the parts at all. My friend is gonna help me with a water cooling kit install. Got blue/orange/white tubing to mimic the propulsion gel! Should be up and running next weekend. 

 

 

[AHaskin14]

1 minute ago, Kovarr said:

Great to see another Portal inspired build! I'm doing one as well! Can't wait to see how your's turns out. It's my first build so I'm not too keen on modifying the parts at all. My friend is gonna help me with a water cooling kit install. Got blue/orange/white tubing to mimic the propulsion gel! Should be up and running next weekend. 

 

Nice! GLaDOS is quite the little trouble maker

 

[AHaskin14]

LOTS of more awesome pictures. Might be a while before the next update, as it looks like obtaining a 1070 is no easy task.

[AHaskin14]

All done and all pics uploaded! Enjoy!

[SnowCore]

Looks awesome! Big fan of the M1 case. 
What material did you use for the window? Is it acrylic? I think by changing to something with less glare you could improve the aesthetics a little. Either way beautiful build and love the orange painted parts.

[amvoith]

Fellow NCase owner. Always sub these great builds. 

 

I think painting the silver on the gpu shroud (and possibly the logo) and the grey writing and square on the samsung SSD would make this even better. 

[AHaskin14]

On 8/13/2016 at 8:47 PM, SnowCore said:

Looks awesome! Big fan of the M1 case. 
What material did you use for the window? Is it acrylic? I think by changing to something with less glare you could improve the aesthetics a little. Either way beautiful build and love the orange painted parts.

It is some degree of plastic. I got the most expensive type I could find at Lowes and even then it was still pretty cheap.  I would have liked to try glass but it already took me 4 tries to get the final window so I'm not sure I want to try again. Either way, the glare you see in the pictures isn't hardly as noticeable in real life. Glad you like it!

[AHaskin14]

On 8/13/2016 at 11:02 PM, amvoith said:

Fellow NCase owner. Always sub these great builds. 

 

I think painting the silver on the gpu shroud (and possibly the logo) and the grey writing and square on the samsung SSD would make this even better. 

Ya I still may do some more painting. If I did anything to the SSD I would probably paint it all and then get a small WAN sticker made up to slap on. That would look cool. As far as they GPU goes, I do intend to touch it up eventually, but I wanted to make damn sure it was a good, stable card that I was happy with before I customized it like that.

[Guest]

o0o another NCASE user! Very nice!