The Monolith - Custom Case Attempt 2 - Ryzen

[mkeras]

Second custom case I am building. The first one I did last year did not end up as aesthetically pleasing or as clean looking as I would have liked as I did not have a clear vision of what I wanted to make. This time I went with a full size ATX motherboard and the size of it second to aesthetics. The specs of this one are:

• AMD Ryzen 2700x
• Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti
• EK Waterblocks on both CPU and GPU
• 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200MHZ Ram
• Evga Supernova 850 G2 Power supply
• 2x Ek 280 Radiotors and fans
• EK pump/resovoir combo
• Soft Tubing, Hard Tubing, fittings

 

Materials I am building with are:

• Ceremic floor tiles
• Laminated Pine board
• Stainless steel

 

So far I have completed the main frame and have mocked up everything and so far so good, despite small setbacks such as breaking an O ring of one of the fittings and little parts not quite lining up perfectly. Completed the bending of the hard tubing as well, which, while decent enough, probably would have come out better if done by a pro. I have yet to finish outer sides and radiator mounts, as well as potentially build a built in monitor arm, if I am able to come up with something that works.

 

Video of some of the machining and building of the frame, I apologize for the editing.

 

 

[ShadySocks]

Just paste the link and it'll work

(resolved)

 

really nice build btw

[mkeras]

Just now, ShadySocks said:

Just paste the link and it'll work

Thanks!

[FakeGamerGuy]

Awesome start, dude. Building custom cases is a lot of fun and very rewarding.

 

My only feedback so far would be running a straight bit of tubing from the CPU to the GPU. I'm sure the goal was to increase visibility on the GPU waterblock but IMO it looks messy compared to a straight run, especially since they seem to be more-or-less parallel. I think bulkheads for going through the plate might look better and be easier to work with as well.

 

Looking forward to watching this progress.

[B1scu1T]

Subscribing to this thread, looks like an interesting project. Good work for far and good luck.

[mkeras]

Thanks for the feedback, I do have to agree the hard tubing run isn't Ideal and I should change it in the future once my wallet recovers from this build. My original plan was to actually have both tubes go through the mounting plate, leaving both gpu connections hidden behind, but I decided to change it at the last minute to have more visible tubing.

 

Took off the mobo, GPU, and pump to continue building the case without worring about damaging the parts. I have just finished drawing, cutting and bulding the second section of the case. In this section the radiotors will be mounted, as well as where all the cables will be hidden. I also added a mount so that I can have the option of putting the monitor arm on or off. Now that the overall skeleton of the case is complete, I can focus on the external covers, and monitor arm. The outside covering will be made out of mostly wood, with a bit more ceramic tile as well.

 

Also, the dimensions of this thing are getting pretty huge; 28" tall * 18.25" wide * 8.5" deep - ~1 inch can be added to each of those dimension for the thickness of the external covers!

[Rackooo]

I actualy like what you did with the tubing it king of goes with the agressive theme of the motherboard. And i just love what youve done with the tiles looks super clean. Cant wait to se the finished product

[mkeras]

Managed to finish the rest of the ceramic tile plating that it will have. Also installed the radiotors/fans, as well as cut the bottom plate for the case. Unfortunatly I over tightened one of the tile pieces or something and it cracked. The other issue is the bottom plate holes didn't line up perfectly, so i have to drill them out slightly tommorrow. The look is starting to come together.

 

 

[mkeras]

Cut the wood sides and top, and recut the broken ceramic piece. Wood all fits fairly well together, although something about the internal frame seems to be off square, as well as a couple of the holes of the wood don't match up well.

 

The experience of cutting the wood with the water jet was a bit trickier than I originally imagined. My first fan grill design went across the grain and the pieces were too thin so they swoll with the water and noodled. After I changed the design of the grills and rotated them 90 degrees to go with the grain they worked out well. The other issue is that the dirty water of the machine tends to leave stains on the wood, but hopefully I won't have to do any recuts with enough sanding.

 

Now that the overall shape is complete I just have to make the panel to cover the back, figure out how best to put glass in front of the PC, build the monitor arm, and of course complete the actual hardware build. I have figured out a rough idea for the monitor arm, and have decided that it will be made out of 3" stainless tubing, which will allow the cables to pass through internally as desired as well is give the arm a super sleek look. 

[Adult Man]

let me guess, it's a wood design so you going to use Noctua fan. surprise surprise surprise.

[mkeras]

On 9/22/2018 at 8:18 AM, Adult Man said:

let me guess, it's a wood design so you going to use Noctua fan. surprise surprise surprise.

Lol I have 4 fans, 2 are EK Vardar and 2 are fractal design!

[mkeras]

Finished wood sides and top, and intalled the mobo and gpu. If I did it again I would leave more space for all the connections to the mobo because getting them all plugged in was a hassle and stressful due to the amount of bending/ force I had to use on some of them. The hardline tubing was a bit hard to install as well, I'm crossing my fingers that once I get the system filled and everything is done that the system won't leak and will post. The only pieces that still need to be built are the rear panel cover and the monitor arm.

[mkeras]

Build Complete! (minus rear back panel and front glass)

 

I am quite pleased with how this one turned out. I really enjoy not having the mess of cables visible.