Evil Elegance - A NVC build (No visible cables)

[vegaspimp22]

I have 3 goals in this build.  1st, include skulls.  2nd, bring interior design elements into a PC, like clean hidden lighting, recessed lighting, cove lighting, and just have a super clean RGB build.  3rd, HAVE NOTHING SHOWING LIKE CABLES, TRANSISTORS, CAPACITORS, NOTHING.  Trying to have the cleanest build ever.  I am just now doing my build log here, but I have been working on this build for 4 months, and i am about 3/5ths complete.   I have over 300 hours into this build so far.  The motherboard armor alone took 60 hours or more.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to buy all my powertools new for this build.  I purchased 3 saws.  A circular saw, a moto scroll saw for detail work, and a table saw for long straight cuts. I also bought a dremel.  (I love the dremel and table saw so much).  

I also bought a new cordless drill, and then I was like drilling passthroughs sucks with a cordless.  So I bought a drill Press as well.  All of that just for this build.  (And i thought it would be nice to have.)

 

 

 

 

 

By far the two hardest things, was the motherboard armor and suprisingly enough the painting which im still working on now, I have most of it done, but still working on a couple more pieces.  The motherboard armor was so hard because there is no "template to follow", I had to make one, printing out a pic of the motherboard and cutting it out of semi hard thin plastic.  But once I put the CPU block on it got way harder because it had to be close enough to not leave even a mm size gap, but far enough to let it slide on and off no problem.  And I used a dremel and moto saw and it took 60 hours plus, because if you cut too much off your screwed.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At least I thought that if you cut too much you were screwed, when i changed my radiator size, I needed to fix a small 3mm by 40mm gap and another 15 mm gap at the top, and once i discovered plastic putty and weld on 4, I found I could fix it and leave no gaps because of that putty.  See the black, thats black acrylic, ( i should have kept it clear but who cares, its getting painted)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also had to make my own radiator mount.  Because of the way the case is, unless your rocking a fat 60mm thick rad, the fans wont sit flush to the front of the case.  SO I made my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only when someone pointed out that I have to drill holes in it for the Rad to breathe.  (omg im so dumb to overlook that)

 

 

 

 

Then I realized that it still wasnt enough so i just cut it up.  And it worked and held fine!

 

 

 

 

I also made a TON of modifications to the case to fit everything nicely the way I designed it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I made the floor.  Realized the tubes just didnt look right lined up the way they were, and I didnt take into consideration once I screwed down the reservoir back plate, the whole thing shifted a few mm, so my passthroughs no longer lined up right.  And I had to completely redo the floor again.

 

 

 

 

 

I also custom made some lights and borders to hold the lights.  I wanted to hide the LED's under the floor, but light up a punisher light above the floor.  But I had to have a frame, just slapping it up didnt look clean enough. 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and I stopped to buy my first delid tool, i had not previously ever delidded.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh they said a 480 wouldnt fit up there, but it DOES FIT.  You just have to drill a couple holes in the top of the case, and buy some longer screws.  But because this had never been done with fans on top before, I had to buy a TON of screws as I didnt know which was the right size.  Ended up being 40mm long.  

 

 

 

 

To find the correct spot to drill, I put a fan on top, used a nail to scratch the spot, and then drilled through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a shot of beginning tubing my all vertical design, and a sneak peak of what it looks like with the motherboard armor on as well.  It looks so awesome having the tubing/passthroughs end in the armor itself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this brings me to where i am today.  Painting. I have been STRUGGLING.  I have painted then sanded it all off, then painted then sanded it all off, then repeat, then repeat a dozen times.  Been doing it for 2 weeks.  I FINALLY gave up on gloss black with a gloss clear.  Its impossible with spray paint without a pro gun.  When I say impossible I mean to get every piece identical and FLAWLESS.  Yea i can get some to come out ok, but some minor flaw always happens and I just could never get them all without either, orange peel in clear, or sheen problems or what.  I even ended up taking weather and humidity out of the equation with a home made spray booth and heaters and ventillation and dehumidifiers.

 

 

 

 

And even the heat sinks were SUPER HARD to get perfect with High heat engine paint and gloss.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally just went all matte EVERYWHERE and gave up gloss.   Same with tubing I really wanted those gloss

 

 

 

 

 

I even wetsanded and polished

 

 

 

 

But always a problem.  Yesterday I finally, after the 5th tubing painting try, got a good outcome and when i went to polish, I ate through the clear in a coule spots, as that polish is pretty abrasive for a thin clear coat.   So today I ordered some black acrylic tubing.  They dont make black PETG tubing ANYWHERE.  But I have never used acrylic tubing so im kinda nervous.  

 

 

Lastly, Im also vinyl wrapping a few pieces so everything isnt matte black.  From the get go I wanted to match the brushed metal look on the front of the case.

 

 

So my hand made acrylic GPU backplate got wrapped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made that by hand!  And thats where i am at today.  Waiting for new tubing, and vinyl wrapping tonight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gainastyle]

This is dedication!

 

Really looking forward to seeing more updates!

[vegaspimp22]

SO because I came home to see 1000's of termites, i didnt get alot done last night.  I did have time to flush a rad, and most importantly I succesfully finished painting the heat sinks after MANY failed attempts as the pictures in yesterdays post shows.  Took me forevor to realize you can paint matte over gloss, but gloss over matte works great.  Ughh.  But the important thing is, I FINALLY FINISHED PAINTING!!! ONLY TOOK 13 DAYS!

 

[vegaspimp22]

I didnt get a whole lot done this weekend, really sucks, had to kill termites all weekend. In just a couple hours all I got done was 

Re-installing rad with new static pressure fans

 

 

 

And putting in a LL120 with a handmade acrylic piece hiding the fans LED cable, the power cable will later be hidden.

 

(why does it have wrap on it? For protection, EVERY SINGLE TINY SOFT BUMP SCRATCHES THIS MATTE PAINT LIKE IT WAS SOFT BUTTER)

[vegaspimp22]

I installed all my LEDS last night. Going to have to temporarily run the PC without a GPU and with a stock intel fan on it to test out the LEDS as addressable LEDS require software to function....ugh.. Will have to wait a couple days to test, will be busy next couple days.



So first I installed a shelf/ledge on the bottom mobo armor, to hide a strip. Then carefully glued the ledge onto the armor. 
Again, wrapping is to protect the matte paint job as it scratches so easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better look under the ledge/bracket thing

 

 

 

Then I installed strips behind the res mount. Sucks the corsair strips have a 3 inch connection cable that leaves a gap with no lights....

 

 

 

 

 

No updates next day or two, have other stuff to attend too, on thursday I should be able to run the PC for the first time, to test LEDS and fans before I install the watercool tubing. 

 

[Nicnac]

very nice work! looking forward to seeing the finished pc!

However, having the top of the case as intake is unusual at least.... any specific reason for that?

[AT0MAC]

I see you have started following same plan as me, posting to multiple sites with same content a great way to really let your work shine and get lots of different perspective as people think differently wherever they are from.

I look forward to see more here or in other forums m8

[vegaspimp22]

23 hours ago, Nicnac said:

very nice work! looking forward to seeing the finished pc!

However, having the top of the case as intake is unusual at least.... any specific reason for that?

Yessssir, trust me, I put a TONNN of thought into that, first reason, is I didnt want light coming from the top, as the fans I am using are LL120's, but i also didnt want to have different fans, that did not match either.  But then, when I realized the fans wouldnt fit up top,  I even tried to put the fans on the bottom, but then there just wasnt enough airflow into the case.  The floor/basement is separated so the airflow goes right out the back bottom, and I removed the front intakes, so all thats left is the top.... I had to buy some of the highest Static Pressure fans i could find, to increase the flow through a restrictive rad, and even drill holes into the case to fit the fans up top, but it does work!

[Capnspace]

So far its looking great! I wish I could have that scroll saw setup you have.  Living in an apartment so its very hard to mod around here.  I am stuck with a dremel.  But your build is definitely coming a long.  I can't wait to see the finished product.  I will have to go through the same thing with my mobo cover and will probably be harder considering mine is a microatx board . But again... Great job so far!!

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

No idea how I haven't seen this build log before, Following this thread I'm so hyped for the finish.

[vegaspimp22]

12 hours ago, Capnspace said:

So far its looking great! I wish I could have that scroll saw setup you have.  Living in an apartment so its very hard to mod around here.  I am stuck with a dremel.  But your build is definitely coming a long.  I can't wait to see the finished product.  I will have to go through the same thing with my mobo cover and will probably be harder considering mine is a microatx board . But again... Great job so far!!

Dude....that setup...is in MY LIVING ROOM!! My roomate HATES me right now.  HAHA, I dont have a garage, and NOWHERE to do this build, so everything is strewn all over my kitchen and living room.  So I feel your pain, but you cant let that stop you! And that dremel scroll saw was $80, that table saw was only $120, and that drill press was $140, so for under $300, I purchased a whole little powertool shop. 

 

2 hours ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

No idea how I haven't seen this build log before, Following this thread I'm so hyped for the finish.

Its only been up about a week.   thanks though, i just wish i had more time, life keeps taking me away from the build, but this weekend, im devoting ALL of it to the build

[vegaspimp22]

So I ran an LED Test and turned on my system for the first time! I mentioned previously, I wanted to do that before watercooling in case there was any problems.

It ALMOST went off without a hitch, ALL CORSAIR STRIPS/FANS WORKED FLAWLESSLY. 
The one cablemod LED strip I had running on AURA SYNC of course did not work.....ughh, i had to literally break my arcylic armor to get behind the LED bracket and remove the LED......... Now I have to fix that.....

The Reservoir mount looked great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skull came out great, this isnt what the finished product will look like though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loved LL120's by corsair, dont worry, rgb haters, im not going to have rainbow RGB EVERYWHERE, but lights are a big part of this build, I just want the ability to have cool lighting in many places.

 

 

 

 

 

[GDRRiley]

Great work so far. 

[vegaspimp22]

So... I had a HORRIBLE weekend, build wise. As anyone who has read my previous posts know, I have struggled ALOT with painting. Spent weeks trying to perfect gloss black, then gave up and went to matte. Well, Matte scratched soooo easy without clear coat, so I protected it with Syran Wrap. 

Well, I went to take off the Syran Wrap, and to my suprise, apparently, the Syran Wrap has this slightly adhesive, super thin, glue type substance just ever so glazed on the sheets. I never even detected it on there. So when I pulled it off, It Left the UGLIEST glue marks on the paint, and ruined all my work. I spent all weekend REPAINTING EVERYTHING AGAIN!


You can see the honeycomb looking ugly sticky CRAP

 

 

 

 

 

So to try to clean it off, I first used windex, didnt work. So I stepped it up to label remover. It kind of worked for the already permanently in place, and piece i couldnt repaint anyways (the res holder piece), but when I wiped it on the heatsink, IT WIPED OFF ALL THE PAINT IN FIRST WIPE!!!!




So all the rest of the pieces, that didnt have vinyl wrap on it, or that I didnt permanently attach to case, I started to repaint. And of course ran into problems like usual.



I did get a little other work done, this weekend, the painting took about 7-8 hours of my time. Rest of time went to other fixes. Im almost glad to have redone the bottom mobo armor, and bracket, as the previous non corsair led had to be broken out, and fixed, but this one came out even better than before. I added a white piece of acrylic to diffuse to LED, so it didnt look as much like multiple bulbs, and more like a bar of light. 







I also worked on another LED diffuser, a bracket I bought online, it was the perfect size, and angled up in the direction I wanted!! It works great for PC builds.







And the last thing I did was prep the new acrylic tubes for watercooling this week. They look great, and I wanted to keep them clean and scratch free, so I wrapped them up. THIS TIME I USED PLAIN NEWSPAPER NOT SYRAN WRAP!  3 sets I went through so far in search for perfection......

 

 

[vegaspimp22]

11 hours ago, GDRRiley said:

Great work so far. 

thanks! Im almost done, I cant wait to see it all finished

[stealth80]

Dude I feel your pain with the painting, a couple of years ago I bought the Thermaltake X9 pretty much straight after released - I emailed TT before had to ask if they were likely to do a Snow Edition, I was told no so bought it in black then proceeded to strip it and paint every part of it including the radiators and the Asus RoG Front base which I had. Not to derail your thread (hence spoilers) but here's some pictures of all the parts that needed painting:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished item:

 

Spoiler

Literally two weeks after I finished the build a "Snow Edition" X9 appeared, after i had spent like 11 days painting it all and around £60 on primer and paint...

 

But then like a total sucker I did it all again with my following build, only this time I painted all the rotary fittings and the pump housing, even the fans!  and acrylic:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then because i just love rubbing back runs and white themes, the RGB ram followed and an Acrylic sheet:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

I know your pain, I don't think people (not all) appreciate how long it takes to get things painted for these builds especially the time it takes to remedy imperfections.

 

One question - Do you think that motherboard armour could adversely affect the temps around the VRMs and caps? Might it be worth going with a monoblock to cover more stuff, not worry about heatsinks and not run that risk? Just a suggestion here 

 

Your idea is awesome and I cant wait to see the final things, keep yourself going man, I know it sucks when the paint goes wrong!!

[vegaspimp22]

2 hours ago, stealth80 said:

 

I know your pain, I don't think people (not all) appreciate how long it takes to get things painted for these builds especially the time it takes to remedy imperfections.

Dude yours looked great!  Mine, I had to redo over and over and over for almost 3 weeks.  Then do it again because of syran wrap.....

Ughhhhh I must have sanded it all off and redid it all like 6 times.

 

2 hours ago, stealth80 said:

 

One question - Do you think that motherboard armour could adversely affect the temps around the VRMs and caps? Might it be worth going with a monoblock to cover more stuff, not worry about heatsinks and not run that risk? Just a suggestion here 

 

Your idea is awesome and I cant wait to see the final things, keep yourself going man, I know it sucks when the paint goes wrong!!

So that was initially a big concern of mine.  There was a problem 2 fold.  The first, the paint itself would hurt heatsinks temps.  But I bought a special high heat paint that is made up of ceramic particles, that is supposed to be really good for heat dissipation.  

 

Then there was the concern the acrylic armor would somehow trap in heat, or melt.  But I did alot of research and it seemed that the heatsinks should never get hot enough to melt it, at least I really hope it doesnt.  And as for trapping in the heat, I dont think it will.....I guess I will just have to wait and see......  I will montior temps VERY closely the first few weeks.  I will put a ton of load on them the first couple days and use a heat gun and sensors and just keep an eye on it.   But if people can cover them in freakin plastidip, and just regular ol paint, I dont see why ceramic paint on it, and acrylic a mm or two away from the edges, will make a big difference. No one has ever done a build like this before, so its kind of new territory.  

 

 I will keep ya updated.  

[Rosinbole]

What kind of did you use? I've never painted anything from which the paint came off so easiy... Tough luck! Looks great though!

[vegaspimp22]

2 hours ago, matias_a_etersen said:

What kind of did you use? I've never painted anything from which the paint came off so easiy... Tough luck! Looks great though!

It was rustoleum engine enamel high heat spray paint.  I cleaned it with water and it stayed on fine.  It only came off like butter when I put that label and sticker remover liquid on it, Im guessing it just eats it up like paint thinner.....  Wont use that again...  And also the heatsinks are SUPER slick, so that adds to the ease of it coming off I think. 

[vegaspimp22]

So I finally am really starting watercool routing now. The end is in sight. I connected the reservoir route up last night. The top took me about 10 min. The bottom however, took me almost 3 hours. To do 1 single run. 
If anyone knows a tip/trick for short runs I would love to hear it. I really struggle to connect a short 1 inch run. I tried fittings only didnt work, I just couldnt get it the perfect height. And even with using a short tube, the compression fittings kept me from being able to have the compression fittings installed into the components first, and snapping the tube and compressions in. So I had to put the compression fittings on the tubes first, and try to get those in that way instead. 


The problem I had was, in order for the male end of the compression fitting to get into the G 1/4 female opening, it has to pass the lip of the G 1/4 fitting. (See image below)  Now a shorter tube will get passed the lip and into the female end, no problem, but then it wont screw in all the way once inside. Long tube runs are easy and have some give to them, and some movement, but what about short runs where there is NO give on the component or tube.... I spent hours using every option and alot of strength trying to force it in. Im suprised I didnt break anything.

 

But after hours I got it done. Res complete.





I also had some time to install GPU and GPU cover. 




I will have some time tonight to do a couple runs, then will take a day off and start back thursday, and should be complete this weekend!

 

 

[Ginger_]

Good choice on the power link, really matches with what you're going for. 

 

Gotta admire your dedication to this as well. I wouldn't have the patience for the perfectection you're going for, but it looks like it's starting to pay off

[vegaspimp22]

On 4/24/2018 at 10:55 AM, Ginger_ said:

Good choice on the power link, really matches with what you're going for. 

 

Gotta admire your dedication to this as well. I wouldn't have the patience for the perfectection you're going for, but it looks like it's starting to pay off

 

 

Yea i have heard that a few times now, people saying wow man you have alot more patience than me, and I think its because I wanted this build as clean and as perfect as I could possibly do.  In the past I always looked at a build or two and went, you know, if I wasnt so rushed to finish this, I could have done more.  This build, I didnt want to look back and say I could have done better/more.   So I mentally prepared myself before starting that this build was going to take some time.  (although I didnt expect painting to be so hard and take so long)

 

 

 

Im also going to do an update and a reply all in one. 

 

 

Here is what I did last night, Im soooo glad I scrapped the painted PETG tubes, and purchased my first set of acrylic tubing, colored acrylic.  Its VERY reflective, and EXACTLY what I wanted.  I wanted the tubing and floor of this build to be reflective black, the walls to be matte, and a few components to be black brushed metal.  I got everything I wanted and im so happy with the choices.

 

 

Does anyone know if VHB or Gorilla Tape is strong enough to hold a pump in place?  Or is that dumb, and it has to be screwed in?  Cause right now the only way to screw it in is having the pump face away from me, making it difficult to put the tubing in.....  Drilling new holes is not possible due to spatial access. 

 

 

See here its away

 

[Ginger_]

1 hour ago, vegaspimp22 said:

Does anyone know if VHB or Gorilla Tape is strong enough to hold a pump in place? 

You need a decent amount of contact area for it to, and it varies with different surfaces. Metal on metal it might be alright, but there's only one way of finding out. 

 

In general if you can screw it in that's a better choice

[vegaspimp22]

Hmmmm very few comments/views here, not sure if I'm too new here, or maybe just no one thinks this will turn out good?

Whatever the reason, I am going to either make this my last update, or I will consider doing one more final update on monday maybe, of the tubing runs in back of case. (Although does anyone really want to see how I run the back and basement tubes? I doubt it... ) Then after the "potential" update on monday it will be a few added days more, while I take final pictures/video, and then It will be the final reveal. So hopefully I didn't lose everyone (or never gain anyone) before the reveal next week. Months of work coming to a close. 

Here are the last front of case pictures I will release. Did the CPU runs, in the all vertical runs I wanted. 
 



I mounted the pump with Tape only. Im super nervous about that, I really wanted to screw it in, I just couldnt do both screws and front facing, so I just went with super strong tape. I watched videos, it had a 100lbs shear strength, and a 250lb tactile strength. So I dont see why this wont hold it tight. 

 


If someone SPECIFICALLY asks for that final update, of basement and back of case tubing runs, Ill do that monday, otherwise, Im signing out untill the reveal sometime next week, after the final pictures are taken.

[Ginger_]

9 hours ago, vegaspimp22 said:

Hmmmm very few comments/views here, not sure if I'm too new here, or maybe just no one thinks this will turn out good?

This isn't the most popular sub forum. Nothing wrong with it, and no one here discriminates new from old users, there's just not a lot of traffic through here.