Wallace Corp. PC-011 - Blade Runner 2049 Build Log

[Quantom]

 

The year is 2049. The replicant threat has spread to the net. In order to go against the rogue replicants, you'll need a better weapon.

Wallace Corporation has you covered.

Latest render. Modelled, shaded, in blender.

 

 

 

Initialization

Hello, and thanks for embarking with me on this journey. While I've done quite a bit of research in preparation for this build, there's still work to be done. My plan is to reverse engineer the production design of Blade Runner 2049 and distill bits and pieces into a product that would be worthy of the Wallace Corp. brand name. I'm looking to explore different aesthetics not typically reflected in the PC building world; RGB, "gamer design", etc. As you'll see, Wallace Corp. has a completely different design language, one I hope to break down and understand. I'll do this through analysis of screenshots / extra footage through out the Wallace Corp. Building.

 

Deconstructing Design

Wood + Light

The first big obstacle to matching the feel of Wallace Corp. (WC) is to find the correct wood veneer. In the world of Blade Runner 2049, natural materials such as stone, wood, and silk are very rare. Niander Wallace, the CEO of Wallace Corp. is one of the richest people in this universe, it's no wonder wood is prevalent throughout his office and the WC archives. It's draped over all the walls, covering every inch of the scene.

Inside Luv's Office, below the water of Niander's above.

Obviously a very powerful motif, made even more so by the context of the city surrounding it. L.A. is extremely futuristic, yet it's a future that has been covered in a thick layer of grunge. Inside WC the warm orange and yellow hues welcome you into the room. I'll be sure to incorporate a fair amount of quality wood veneer into my build as it's a reflection of wealth in the 2049 universe. It's impractical to cover the entire inside of the case in wood, as most of it will be covered up by the components, slight hints of it, on the back wall of the case, on the front panel, should do nicely. Wood also represents health, and strength, as it's used throughout the outside world to lead Officer K to his ultimate destiny.

 

Now onto, the actual design artifacts within the world. The interior design contains quite a few hints, however, the product design also tells a story. In the next two images you'll see Officer K's Emanator, which allows Joi's hologram to be projected anywhere, and Niander's collection of bio-interfacing chips.

Officer K's Emanator

Niander's Bio-Mods

 

What's old is new again. While both are products of design from WC, their language is vastly different. The Emanator's case is hard, metallic, and cold. While it's quite beautiful, it's design is sharp and uncomfortable to hold. Niander's designed box still has those sharp angles, but with a rounder and warmer wood material including a soft felt inlay. PC aren't really meant to be handled and touched in this way, but my build should feel comfortable to the touch, while still maintaining the clean lines and aesthetic standards of WC.

 

 

For any color theory nerds out there, this shot is especially interesting. Officer K's world (the blue tinted glass boxes) is being literally engulfed by Luv's world (the surrounding warm colored wood). We'll be sure to take some of these color hints and apply them in our build.

Luv and K walk through the hall of replicant models.

 

Another important motif, the lighting. Light in this universe is incredibly artificial, LED, florescent, neon. Between the buildings and thick fog, natural light barely has an impact over the much brighter artificial light produced by signs, street lamps, and cars. WC captures this by creating natural sunlight indoors.

Light sweeps across the giant archive room within Wallace Corp.

 

The effect is very convincing. Time itself is betrayed, days can fly past in a matter of minutes. Even though the overall tone of these scenes are warm, the unnatural movement of light is extremely unsettling. Thanks to RGB, I'll be able to tune the colors inside of my build to a high degree of accuracy. Since providing fake moving sunlight inside a PC case is quite difficult, especially considering the top needs to be free for ventilation. I'll steal another design from the lobby within WC where the Archivist meets K.

Officer K checking up on his cold case.

Fortunately, strip RGB lighting is prevalent, and with some custom light channels + diffusion. The same effect can be achieved. I'm still torn on whether a white or black case would fit better, given the dark corners and bright highlights inside WC, black is seeming more favorable.

 

Component Selection

CASE: lian li pc-O11 dynamic.......$129

CPU:  intel i9-7900X.................$495

GPU:  evga 2080ti XC gaming........$1169

RAM:  g.skill 32 GB DDR4...........$329

MOBO: ASUS X299 Prime-A............$295

SSD:  970 Evo 1 TB M.2.............$229

HDD:  seagate 2 TB 7200RPM..........$58

PSU:  corsair rm1000i.........$129
 

Renders

To be completed

[Quantom]

UPDATE: 90% of the parts have been ordered.

I've created a BoM for those of you who want to play along at home.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQgd-8LQcD_bRpWf5janaAW3IBnb6AxTMFOuX9pwVQdtyqc6cYR4W7H2oLSQL-vZAS5Btu6ArUW0nuu/pubhtml

CASE
	MANUFACTURER	MODEL	PRICE
	lian li	pc-011 dyn.	$129.00
MOTHERBOARD
	MANUFACTURER	MODEL	PRICE
	asus	prime x299-a	$289.00
CPU
	MANUFACTURER	MODEL	PRICE
	intel	i9-7900X	$495.00
GPU
	MANUFACTURER	MODEL	PRICE
	evga	2080ti xc gaming	$1,169.95
RAM
	MANUFACTURER	MODEL	PRICE
	g.skill	tridentZ 32gb (4x8)	$279.00
STORAGE
	MANUFACTURER	MODEL	PRICE
	samsung	970 evo 1tb	$227.99
	seagate	barracuda 2tb	$59.99
LIQUID
	MANUFACTURER	PART	PRICE
waterblocks	ekwb	ek velocity CPU.	$119
	ekwb	ek 2080ti nickel
	ekwb	ek backplate
radiator
reservoir	radikult	280mm acrylic custom	$160.00
fittings	primochill	gold comp. fittings	$70.00
pump	xspc	d5 vario	$84.95
MISC
	MANFACTURER	PART	PRICE
	der8auer	delid mate 2	$36.95
	cablemod	pro modmesh ext. white	$34.97
	ebay	marbled sapele veneer	$5.99
PERIPHERALS
	MANFACTURER	PART	PRICE
	dell	AW3418DW	$899.99

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Here's a fish eye render.

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Reservoir has been mounted! Had to drill some holes but the fit is nearly perfect.

 

Thanks to Radikult Customs!

[Quantom]

GPU Testing! I picked up my RTX 2080ti (EVGA Flavor) on black friday. A local computer store had 100$ off the XC gaming model. I ended up paying 1169$, which is nearly how much I paid for my FIRST gaming computer 6 years ago. I think they might have dropped the price since EVGA cards, and RTX in general, had been catching on fire. That's what a good warranty is for right?

 

 

I popped that bad boy into my existing system. i5-3570k OC'd to 4.2, 8gb ram, etc. Surprise, surprise, the CPU is bottle necking preeeety hard here. I was still getting the same frames in BF5. I was mainly testing the GPU, I wanted to try RTX but windows update was causing BSOD's.

 

I didn't end up overclocking it since I only have a 600W PSU.

Ooooh RGB! (I think?)

 

I received my EKWB for the GPU in the mail so I'll be installing that shortly.

[Quantom]

Custom Veneer time. I ordered some absolutely beautiful veneer from thinwoodandoldtools on ebay. It's Marbled Sapele Wood and it was only 6$!!!! Considering what other components cost, it's a bargain. With a bit of contact cement and some exacto blade work, I was able to apply the veneer pretty well! I decided not to veneer the entire shroud because these are largely accents and will be covered up by the GPU / water cooling system.

 

I also decided not to veneer the front panel since it can't be easily removed, and it's brushed aluminum is beautiful as is and would detract from the case design.

 

 

 

Here's a test fit with my custom wood pieces installed, it's a really clean look IMO. I'm still on the fence about the "ice blue" accents, I'll probably paint or tint them a darker orange color. I've got some really nice orange acrylic. The white cable mod extension kit is looking pretty good too! I've got a sticky note as a cheaper stand in for my 7900x which is getting shipped to me by a friend later this week.

[Z3R0 CHANC3]

Wow.  That's pretty cool!

[Quantom]

GPU / CPU Water block time!

 

First off EVGA does a KILLER job with their thermal management. The back plate has tons of thermal pads, and there's an intermediate layer for capturing heat from the VRMS / chokes. I'm really sad to remove this cooler, oh well the EKWB one will perform better since it's got a MUCH larger surface area and the VRM cooling is only 1.0mm from the metal. I digress. I'm planning on reusing the EVGA back plate by machining out the existing holes and using the larger EK screws.

 

Cleaned off all the gunk with some ArtiClean 2-step. I had it laying around, it works well and it smells good too.

 

Time to apply thermal pads and paste.

Now, contrary to popular belief, you can go nuts on the GPU thermal paste. EK says to make a "star shape"

 

Next is to smush it all together and put it in!

But, before that I'm going to change out the JET in my CPU waterblock. It's .2 mm thinner so I guess that's going to give me better cooling. Off comes the shiny base, and in goes the metal piece.

 

 

NEXT, I did a test fit in the case. Still no CPU but I'm really liking the look. I'll probably pick up an EK backplate if I can't mod my EVGA one.

 

Looks pretty good with the colors!

 

Stay tuned! I'll probably fabricate some more wood parts soon.

 

 

[Quantom]

I FINALLY found out a good usage for the veneer I've got left. I picked up some beautiful acrylic from a local plastics shop and plan to do the following. I'll laser cut out some of the florescent orange and place it over my fans. Their Corsair LL 120s which are f**king expensive, fortunately I got some of them on a black friday sale. Basically, I plan to veneer the acrylic on the top side, then let the light from the fans spill through. This will create a nice orange lit edge which fits well into the over all aesthetic. I'll do some test runs this Friday. Check the parent post for my latest render.

 

 

NEXT UP! The wallace corp emblems. I'll keep the branding minimal, I'll most likely make a badge for the front and one to cover up the water pump

[BeardRex]

Interesting!

[Z3R0 CHANC3]

My builds are so basic compared to some of these builds, including this one!

[Quantom]

Fan shrouds are finished!

 

Spent a few hours CAD'ing and laser cutting.

Here's me checking the brightness and "light pipe" effect of the material, normally this stuff looks greenish, but with the wood and warmer light it shapes up nicely.

Here's all the fans attached!

 

I mocked up a test design with some scrap acrylic, mainly to see how much of the ring diffusers I wanted to cover up.

 

Here's what the material looks like on the laser bed, it essentially projects any incoming light to the edges. Neat effect!

 

It's really a shame that I'm not doing a cyber punk 2077 build

 

Tossed to the wayside.....

 

I simply repeated my top shroud cuts onto my veneer pieces and applied a double sided tape mask, peeled off the backing and stuck it on. I also made a side panel to cover the side of the fan housings. Since this veener is slightly transparent, some of that light bleeds through as well.

 

Here's the finished product!

And here it is with both of them mounted in the case! It looks very very similar to the renders, I'm happy with how it turned out.

 

I finally got shipping confirmation on my CPU so stay tuned for when I delid and install the water cooling bends. I ordered parts to do loop pressure testing and I'll be getting some final odds and ends for when I finish this build, probably next week!

 

 

[Z3R0 CHANC3]

Damn that looks awesome!

[8uhbbhu8]

Oh damn! this is going to be good!!! Love the Blade Runner style  

[mercenarygod]

On 12/8/2018 at 8:26 PM, Quantom said:

Fan shrouds are finished!

 

Spent a few hours CAD'ing and laser cutting.

Here's me checking the brightness and "light pipe" effect of the material, normally this stuff looks greenish, but with the wood and warmer light it shapes up nicely.

 

This looks awesome.

[19_blackie_73]

35 minutes ago, mercenarygod said:

This looks awesome.

can't argue with that, but would be nice if you could edit your quote so you don't quote the picture, makes it horrendous to read on mobile and OP will get the notification anyways.

[Quantom]

The year is 2049. The replicant threat has spread to the net. In order to go against the rogue replicants, you'll need a better weapon.

Wallace Corporation has you covered.

Hello, I've spent the last two months putting together a new system. Inspired by the design elements in Blade Runner 2049, a 2017 film directed by Denis Villeneuve, I tried to encapsulate the environment inside of the Wallace Corp building. While the outside world of 2049 is bleak and cold, Wallace Corp is warm and natural, filled with wood grain and pseudo-sunlight. I have a write up of the design and build here. The total cost came to around 5K. I was able to get some good deals, through employee purchase programs, etc.

 

SPECS:

CPU: Intel - Core i9-7900X 3.3 GHz 10-Core Processor (DELID)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME X299-A
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 1 TB
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
Case: Lian-Li - PC-O11DW
Power Supply: Corsair - 1000 W PSU
Monitor: Dell - AW3418DW 34.1" 3440x1440 120 Hz Monitor
Other: EK Vector 2080ti GPU Waterblock
Other: EK Coolstream XE 360 Triple (x2)
Other: Radikult Custom 280 Reservoir

 

Thanks for taking this trip with me and I hope you enjoy.

You can find the full album here.

 

 

 

 

[LukeSavenije]

looks pretty cool! what are the specs?

[Quantom]

11 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

looks pretty cool! what are the specs?

SPECS:

CPU: Intel - Core i9-7900X 3.3 GHz 10-Core Processor (DELID)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME X299-A
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 1 TB
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
Case: Lian-Li - PC-O11DW
Power Supply: Corsair - 1000 W PSU
Monitor: Dell - AW3418DW 34.1" 3440x1440 120 Hz Monitor
Other: EK Vector 2080ti GPU Waterblock
Other: EK Coolstream XE 360 Triple (x2)
Other: Radikult Custom 280 Reservoir

 

Sorry! Totally forgot to post them

[LukeSavenije]

3 minutes ago, Quantom said:

Sorry! Totally forgot to post them

Looks like a nice build to me. are you using this for yourself or did you build it for someone else?

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Damn, that's clean. Really pulled off the gold color scheme well w/o looking tacky. Nice job!

[Quantom]

Just now, LukeSavenije said:

Looks like a nice build to me. are you using this for yourself or did you build it for someone else?

It's for me. I built my first PC 6-7 years ago, and I was looking to upgrade. It's my first time water cooling too.

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, Quantom said:

It's for me. I built my first PC 6-7 years ago, and I was looking to upgrade. It's my first time water cooling too.

then that's a really nice upgrade! have fun with it I would say!

[LaserLion]

This is my favorite build since I've been active on this forum

[Quantom]

The full build has been completed and I'll be uploading the last of the water cooling portion soon. It's Christmas and I'll be playing Battlefield and flying back home, sorry I guess

 

Thanks for coming along with me in this journey!