[Build Log] Project Orzhov

[samysnes]

WELCOME TO PROJECT ORZHOV

 

 

This is my first serious build. First of all, I want to apologize for picture quality. I'm not a photograph and I take the pictures with my phone... so yeah...

 

 

Parts so far

Case: Corsair 750D

Motherboard: MSI Z87 Mpower

Processor: Intel Core i7-4770k (aiming for OC @ 4.5 GHz)

RAM: 16 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum with lights bar.

Graphics card: Asus 7970 DirectCU II

Sound card: X-Fi Fatal1ty Titanium Pro

SSD: Intel 520 Series 128 GB

HDD: A few Western Digital Blacks

Cooling: H100i

Power supply: Corsair AX850

 

Peripherals

Keyboard: Ducky Shine III Year of the snake edition #142/999 (my most prized possession)

Mouse: Logitech G600

Speakers: Corsair SP2500

Headset: Astro A40

Monitor: Samsung BX2450/Dell Professional P2412H

 

The idea

Ok, so I currently have a White and black themed 600T build. At first I was very into the whole white and black theme but I quickly realized I would prefer a black and white theme (mainly black with white accents). I searched for a case for months without ever finding THE perfect case. My criteria were a mid-tower, big window, water cooler compatibility, classy black brushed aluminum, black painted interior. I really liked the look of the Silverstone FT01, Fractal Design Arc Midi R4 and Lian-Li PC-7H but all of them had flaws that I couldn't bear with.

 

Then came the 750D. Had all the stuff I wanted except it's a full tower. I figured I could deal with a small full tower :-)

 

For the motherboard, I couldn't find a nice black and white themed motherboard for my price point. I really liked the MSI Mpower products but I could not bring myself to have yellow in my case so I decided to still get it and hopefully be able to mod it to change it to a white themed board. The rest just went on from this base idea. Why Orzhov you might ask? Because I am a long time hardcore MTG player and it's a big part of my life.

 

The mod

Here I will list all the mods I will make to any parts.

First is the motherboard. The big concern was keeping my warranty so at first I thought I would just cover yellow parts with white vinyl but I quickly realized how modding friendly this board is. Everything is screwed in place so it's very easy to disassemble.

 

 

 

Here I wasn't too sure how to get to that yellow layer in the middle of the main heatsink.

 

 

Turns out the top layer is glued with non drying glue and the yellow part is screwed and glued to the bottom.

Everything is easy to put back together so far so my warranty is fine.

 

 

Then I searched for paint options and I discovered Plasti Dip. This amazing paint is in fact rubber coating

that is easily peelable if you ever want to revert back to the original part. It's a cool warranty friendly paint.

 

 

Little setup for painting.

 

 

After the first few coatings.

 

 

For the MSI yellow illuminated logo I discovered it's in fact just a white LED with yellow plastic over it.

 

 

I decided to just cover this one with a white sticker and just block the light.

 

 

My next concern was the Audio Boost illuminated logo on the board (exactly like the MSI logo).

For this one I had the idea of replacing the plastic part with a custom acrylic part to just have a big white

light in this corner.

 

 

After sanding (I want the light to be diffused).

 

 

Final touch is a layer of white frosted sticker just to make sure I don't get just a very bright single white spot.

 

 

The results.

 

 

A stock picture for comparison.

 

 

Hope you guys enjoyed this first part of what I hope is gonna be a cool build! Stay tuned and follow this topic for news and updates!

[Excon]

I love anything with an MPower @TheSLSAMG

[hehehehhehehehe]

Looking good! Subbed

[Thecrazyswede]

Looks amazing, will look out for this build

[danBrown]

looks good. looking forward to seeing the finished product

[Exotath]

Excellent work on the motherboard. B)

[Toasted Waffles]

Nice Job, Keep up the work and I really want to see this finished.

[b45op]

That board looks sweet! The white is so much nicer than that yellow.

[adi518]

awesome mod

[samysnes]

Thank you for the kind words everyone! I will start building this weekend since I just got my H100i today.

[TicTac]

Nice mod looks awesome good job

[L_Dub]

Dude so far just amazing, definitely earned a follow and great job with the mods i love them so far

[lazerphazer21]

m-power boards are up there with sabertooths when it comes to modded awesomness.

[JarJarBanksy]

Orzhov? Like Magic the Gathering? Black and White? You are living up to the name well. Now form a church around your computer and charge for people to be in it through "communion". (Source, I read the flavor text).

[samysnes]

UPDATE #1

 

Thank you for all the encouragement guys!

 

So last night I fired up the board to see what the LEDs would look like.

 

 

The audio boost replacement came out looking very good. I'm very satisfied with it.

 

 

But the MSI logo came out as orange since my sticker was not opaque enough.

 

 

I'm just going to remove the yellow plastic completly. Unfortunately, a screw is stuck in one of the heatsink so I'm gonna have to do some grinding and working tonight if I wanna build this weekend. Let's hope the board is ok

 

Next up, getting rid of the awfully bright blue LEDs...

[samysnes]

Orzhov? Like Magic the Gathering? Black and White? You are living up to the name well. Now form a church around your computer and charge for people to be in it through "communion". (Source, I read the flavor text).

 

Yep, you got it!

[atrash]

samysnes, on 14 Dec 2013 - 05:44 AM, said:

-snip-

 

 If I may, that cover piece for the audio boost doesn't look quite rectangular to me (OCD kicking in).What do you think?

[ixi_your_face]

Dat white bumblebee, mmmmmmmmmm

[samysnes]

 If I may, that cover piece for the audio boost doesn't look quite rectangular to me (OCD kicking in).What do you think?

 

Yeah I know it's bugging me too lol! The acrylic snapped a little bit diagonally inside the part. I did my best with a file but it was the third part I did since the other 2 cracked while drilling the 2 holes (very close to the edges) so I got pissed and kept this one

[samysnes]

There you go! Much better!

 

 

By the way, I'm posting this on the actual system on a ghetto test bench. Everything seems to be working just fine

[samysnes]

UPDATE #2

 

Today's mod is presented to you by generic black nail polish!

 

 

I wanted to get rid of the annoying OC buttons and bright blue LEDs on the motherboard. Black nail polish works perfectly!

 

 

Finished.

 

 

Starting to build. This case is ready for love.

 

 

Motherboard in. I know it's boring...

 

 

H100i installed in pull. Waiting for my other set of SP120 to show up for push/pull. Also waiting for my

AF140 for the rear fan.

 

 

Loose cables for testing featuring my fridge.

 

 

Ok so I found a weird/neat spot to fit my SSD in this case. This is the beginning of my next mod (see last pic for a teaser).

 

 

Dat cable management. Quite proud of it

 

 

Current state of the build (don't mind the temporary sata cable hanging there).

 

 

So what's left?

 

-Rear modded AF140 fan.

-2 more SP120 on the cooler.

-A few hard drives.

-Illuminated Dominator Platinum.

-DVD drive mod (black painted and case mod).

-SSD mod.

-Pictures of my setup.

 

 

Here is a little teaser picture of my next mod (that's the Orzhov logo for those who don't know).

 

STAY TUNED!

[shouldervalley]

looks awesome

[JAKEBAB]

That is soo sweeeeet. love the white and black heatsinks it would be boss if u got a twinfrozr and did the same.

[samysnes]

looks awesome

Thank you very much

 

 

That is soo sweeeeet. love the white and black heatsinks it would be boss if u got a twinfrozr and did the same.

Thank you! Yeah I know, but there's no way I'm leaving my ginormous 7970 ^^

[MrFluffyPants]

Looks awesome dude. Looking forward to see some more updates soon!