[Work Log] Project: Arete (ACU Camo & Military Themed) - Page 3

Thanks.

Setback update: My Sabertooth motherboard decided to crap out on me today. The SATA ports completely shut down, and soon after the motherboard stopped detecting my CPU. I submitted an RMA request through ASUS's RMA department, but I'm nervous as to whether I'll even get my request fufilled. It took me at least 30 minutes to find the RMA form through their website, and I didn't recieve any kind of E-Mail confirming my RMA request. The only confirmation I got was a little pop up box on the RMA form webpage that said "RMA Request Recieved!".

Well this is just going to be a great week...

Metalwork Update!

So while my motherboard is being RMA'ed by ASUS, it gives me a great excuse to get set up for some radiator painting and other component setup. To get there, I needed to get some much needed cutting and metalwork out of the way.

Well I got one side of the 5.25" bays knocked out early on, but I needed to take care of the other side. Unfortunately it's built into the side of the case, and it's provides some decent structural support so I couldn't just cut it out. However, I found a solution. I decided to cover it with a piece of 22ga cold roll steel that I recieved from Online Metals. To get started, I had to chop all the little cutouts for supporting the components in the bays.


I didn't take pictures of me actually cutting the metal since it's not very interesting. Just measured out the proper lengths and cut the sheet metal using a jigsaw equipped with a metal blade. Then using a dremel, I cut a little notch on the bottom to give it clearance over some base piece inside the case.

Looks like it fits!

I picked up some hardware as well for the whole project. I got little packs of Akust 6-32 thread, 1/4" screws and matching lock nuts. I also recieved a 6-32 thead tap in my McMaster-Carr order, so these screws can be used for the whole build. They also don't look half bad, especially when painted over.

I drilled 6 holes in the side of the drive bays and put the screws through and attached the whole metal piece with lock nuts. Good to go! It will be painted over black (obviously )



Finally I focused my attention on the 240 radiator space I cut in the bottom of my case awhile back. It doesn't look very eye appealing whatsoever.

I had a Phobya hex 240 radiator grill in my possession that would be perfect for this situation. I took off the stupid stickers though.

I mounted it in the same way I mounted the metal piece for the drive bays. I drilled some holes, and used the screws with the matching lock nuts.



Not too shabby! I would have loved to continue, but it was getting late. I'll be mounting the fan controller tomorrow.

Pretty large update for you guys! Sorry for the delay, I've been pretty busy with Cross Country since our championships are approaching quick.


Got some new tools in my downtime. My last Dremel gave out on me, and I've actually had great experiences with the off-brand Harbor Frieght rotary tools so I picked up another one.

Also mounted the reservior.


I wanted to mount the pump right under the reservior, but I wanted to avoid having a huge amount of it sticking out from the back of the case, so I wanted to encorperate mounting that into the case as well. There are holes on the back of the Koolance PMP-450 that work perfectly for this.

Took a hole saw and corded drill and cut through the metal. Unfortunately I found out that my hole saws weren't made for metal, so I had to switch to my new dremel halfway through.


l also cut out a pretty ugly looking hole in the back of the case for the pump end to go through. It won't be seen, so I didn't try to make anything look pretty.


Well the hole works, but the back is too big! The case won't close, so I was in need of a spacer of some sort.

Perfect! The back piece to the EK pump mount would work perfectly. Unfortunately, it was a little too small, so I took the sanding piece for my rotary too and roughly cut out the diameter that I needed for the PMP-450. It works great!



To hold everything together, I measured, drilled, and tapped 6-32 thread holes into the spacer peice.

Hooray it fits! Obviously it will get painted, but these are test run pictures. I have painted the piece as of today, but I'll have a paint update tomorrow probably.


A little crooked somehow. I'll see if I can fix it, but if not it's really not that bad in person. The pictures exaggerate it in my opinion.


Next, I really wanted to mount some kind of screen to this bad boy, but since I had no 5.25" bays anymore, I needed to get creative. I decided to mount in in the top. The screen won't be seen when the top is closed, but it gives me a good reason to leave the top open. The Scythe fan controller you see will NOT be used in this build, I ordered something different that will come in a different update. The screen I ordered wasn't here yet, so I used the Scythe fan controller as a template.



Finally I had time to paint some pieces! Got the hard drive tops painted OD Green. The Koolance PMP-450 pieces became black, as well as the rest of the case. I didn't get the case powdercoated because I didn't want to spend the money if I needed to go back and mod something later and screw up the powerdercoat.





I've got more coming for you guys soon! Stay tuned!

Thanks!

Haha thank you. Yeah taking pictures is one of the hardest parts because you have to stop what you're doing.

Another update, got some parts in yesterday and had time to paint/mod after my early morning 5k. Thanks to everyone for the subs and great comments!

In a lovely box today I received a Watercool radiator cover and three Noctua 140mm fans.



The radiator cover won't be used for a radiator, instead it will be used for the front of the case. I couldn't really figure out what to with the front hole, but after doing some browsing on Google images, Overclock, and PC parts websites, I thought this would work extremely well. It already fits pretty well and comes powder coated black, so there isn't any need to excessively modify it or paint it.

I got three of these fans for the radiator grill. I haven't decided whether or not I like the circle design of the fans, but I needed some 140mm fans that matched the radiators and these are the only 140mm fans Noctua makes. In fact, they have 120mm mount holes in a 140mm frame, but come with 140mm adapters. It will be interesting to see what they look like when it's installed.


The grill isn't straight in this picture because I couldn't get it to stand up by itself. But you get the idea


I've been awaiting this package for awhile.

I present to you: the GX Typhoon. While it's a fairly old piece of technology (like 2001-ish), it still works fantastically. It is a fully programmable display output sold by Matrix Orbital, an LCD company. To program the display, you can use any client or SDK you choose, but the most common is LCD Studio. The display can display realtime data for nearly every piece system information, allowing you to create different menus for CPU, GPU, even iTunes. The unit came with a remote and infrared sensor to control the unit from a distance if I wish. The best part is the GUI is completely customizable. I'll edit this post with some example pictures later.

Once again, not the final fit, but you get the idea of how it should sit.

Not only is it a fairly epic display output, but it solved my hard disk mounting problem. I'll mount my drive to the bracket coming off the fan controller and attach the waterblock too.

It was unusually warm today, so I took advantage of the weather and went outside to paint my radiators. I decided on a mud-brown for two reasons. It matched the build and Noctua fans, and it was also spare paint from a long time ago so I didn't have to go out and buy more



I'll take better pictures once the paint is done curing and I can actually handle these radiators, but these are the radiators after 2 coats of paint and 15 minutes of drying. Sorry about the crappy light conditions.


The rest of today is going to be focused on getting that grill mounted to the front of the case, and soon everything will be coming together.