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[Build Log] Mk-1 Chaser "Green Screen" HTPC

2K views 20 replies 4 participants last post by  vaatibal 
#1 ·
Hello fellowship of fancy puters...

I recently finishing up my first attempt at hard pipe water cooling for the Corsair Domination contest and have grown bored now that it is complete. (for now at least) Link to most recent build thread.

I am in desperate need of an HTPC that can house my collection of "legally obtained" media, personal family photos, years of home movies and many many Johnny Cash mp3s.

I had planned to start this project in August and purchasing the newly announced Corsair Air 240 mini however, I have a few spare parts laying around and it feels silly to not take advantage of what I have and use the money that I would have spent on upgrading my main rig next year.

In an earlier build, I had been using a 400mm Phobya Rad that sat OUTSIDE my case and decided that it looked cheesy so I threw it aside and forgot all about it, until now.

Just recently, we were watching a movie in the living room and it hit me, that 400mm rad should be the main piece of hardware in my upcoming HTPC build. It's large enough to cool the spare A10-5800k and the 200mm fans on low settings should be inaudible. Brilliant. (or so I hope)

Only, what case out there can house a 400mm fan internally?... Surely my old Mk-1 Chaser from thermaltake couldn't hold it...unless.

After building many a PCs... all for fun and not for profit..I have never once taken to saws and paint. All of my builds have been hardware/watercooling expressions of love...but fear kept me from mutilating a $100+ investment on cases that looked great as they were imo. Now I have a reason to saw..a reason to buy a rotary...a reason to walk out of home depot with sheets of acrylic and an expression of confidence that can only be found by a man on a mission. Wish me luck.
smile.gif


Current Parts list:
  • AMD A10 - 5800k
  • Thermaltake Full Tower (Mk-1 Chaser)
  • 1200 InWin Commander PSU (iffy, as it seems like way too overkill but it's what I got)
  • A ton of left over clear PETG Rigid tubing from PrimoChill
  • Swiftech MCP655 Pump (G1/4 threaded)
  • PrimoChill CTR™ Compression Tube Reservoir System Phase 2 - 240mm Clear
  • Phobya 400mm rad
Needs
  • One SDD and at least 8tb of HDD space
  • Gigabyte Sniper A88x
  • Some green RAM (not decided)
  • AMD water block (Brand undecided, leaning towards the EK clear so the green liquid can show)
  • Green/Black/Grey MDPC sleeving (first time, super exciting about this!!!)
  • 4x 200 MM fans(Probably black with green accents and no LEDs)
  • Looking for a unique Mesh that will keep dust out and not look to tacky
  • Green accent lighting (Still undecided, so many ideas to chose from)
  • Numerous sheets of acrylic, this will be my first time playing with acrylic sheets so I may get carried away. Sorry in advance.
Build Mission

To build a Full Tower HTPC that can internally house my 400mm Phobya rad, be completely silent, CLEAN, green themed, powerful enough for HD movies/light gaming now with enough pre-planning to easily upgrade to 4K capability in the future and just showy enough to have visitors ask me what the hell is that when they step into my living room.

Hope everyone enjoys my build and I welcome any feedback at anytime, I am always humbled when I come on here and see the high level of awesomeness on this site and I can only hope to be even a small twinkle of that spotlight of talent.
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DAY 1: This is what I'm starting with. I no longer enojoy transformer-ish cases, but I feel that I can tone it down a bit with some alteration.


Here is a picture of the 400mm Phobya Rad, My sister dropped by to say high so she was forced to hold it for reference.
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Here is the stock inside, no room there for a phobya rad.


Now that's better...all gutted out.


If it fits, it sits.


Cutting a larger viewing area into the side panel..I decided to keep a few of the lines that thermaltake used. Also started on the front panel...researching meshes, I need something that stops dust and doesn't look too tacky.



That's it for now, Monday brings me back to normal work lol. Next weekend I will have to pick up some more metal rotary discs, sand that down, pick up some rubber stripping and the acrylic sheets. Maybe even a little paint? Who knows stay tuned to for more.
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#2 ·
This looks interesting, what is the main purpose other than being an HTPC? Looking like you got some good work started already
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#3 ·
Besides media playback..

It will be used in light gaming..steam games mostly. Maybe a little bit of MMO action. My youngest will probably go minecraft crazy once it's complete.

Also it gives my wife somewhere to upload all of her phone pics/movies and keeps her out of my office when she decides to spend a few hours updating her ipod.

I know what you are thinking..a custom water cooling loop is overkill for an HTPC. It crossed my mind before..lol. But with the pump on 1 or 2 setting...the 200mm fans on low..I don't see any way to get a noiseless HTPC besides passive cooling.

Plus, it gives me an excuse to do case modding! yay power tools!
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by RepTexas View Post

Besides media playback..

It will be used in light gaming..steam games mostly. Maybe a little bit of MMO action. My youngest will probably go minecraft crazy once it's complete.

Also it gives my wife somewhere to upload all of her phone pics/movies and keeps her out of my office when she decides to spend a few hours updating her ipod.

I know what you are thinking..a custom water cooling loop is overkill for an HTPC. It crossed my mind before..lol. But with the pump on 1 or 2 setting...the 200mm fans on low..I don't see any way to get a noiseless HTPC besides passive cooling.

Plus, it gives me an excuse to do case modding! yay power tools!
I'm all for it and curious to see how it turns out, and why not do a custom loop for an htpc? I modded a tower cooler out of a low profile case for my htpc. I think it will be nice.
 
#6 ·
Well that big rad should cool nice and quiet. The rad going to be internal or external mount?
 
#8 ·
dang that looks tight, but it fits like a glove it seems.
 
#9 ·
Here is today's update.

I finished up the cutting portion of my mods.

Side panel cut and is ready for a window after some sanding and paint.



I decided to use fiberglass window screening for a few reasons. One, it's cheap. Two, when stacked together it acts as an excellent dust screen.




Hopefully I have time tomorrow to drop by the hardware store. I need to buy a few Plasti Dip cans, I have been dying for a reason to play with that paint and I think if I can find the right colors to test then it is the best option.

Also need some door/window molding for the panel's rough edges and of course a few sheets of pexi glass. I'm guessing within the next two weeks the case mods will be complete and I can start on the actual build parts lol.

Hope you enjoy..cheers!
 
#10 ·
Finally got around to finishing the custom window side panel. I messed around with plasti dip and instantly fell in love. However, I found that the over all best look to make the panel match the plastic molding from the top/front panels was rattle can in mat black. The plasti dip will probably be used on the interior acrylic work down the road.

Plasti-Dip Fun


Primer and Matt black Rattle Can.
Window Molding cut from door weather stripping.
One finely cut sheet of Pexi Glass.



Next up Will be the Mesh to finish up the exterior while I put aside some funds for cable sleeves and sleeve tools.

Thanks for watching.
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#11 ·
After reading a few reviews of the Gigbyte Sniper board and looking over the Asus ROG new FM2+ board.. I have decided to change the theme from project "Green Screen" to project "Red Screen".

I love the looks of this board...I will be finishing up the exterior of this case with red accents and ordering the cable sleeving to match. My only concern is that there are soooo many red themed builds out there....we will see if mine can stand out a bit.

I Wants!!!!
 
#13 ·
Thanks Vaatibal.

Update for project Red Screen...(formally green screen)

Completed the custom screen needed for the front intake along with matching the top screen. Basically Matt black paint, J-B weld..some black Duct tape and a lot of time.
smile.gif




Finished the exterior painting, along with the PSU/Rad painting.

I used Plasti-Dip on the PSU and RAD so that I could peel it off if I hated it.



Then I proceeded to paint everything with Red!!


I then proceeded to hit the rest of the case with Matt Black for that Subtle look.



Once everything was painted and dried I was not happy with the color combination. The red items stood out way too much against the Matt Black paint.

It looked like a Goth girl with Bright red finger nails and matching bright red lipstick.

I needed to tone it down. So I experimented with Matt black and some red splatter effect. In the end I was happy with this result. From a distance, someone walking through my living room wouldn't even notice the red...up close with some accent lighting on..i think the red stands out. Paired with the cable sleeving and hardware I think it will go nice together.





Here is the final picture, excuse the horrible angles, lighting and cell phone pic. Once this build is complete I plan on finally buying a decent camera and a camera light so I can take some more pro-style pics.



I just placed my order with Lutro0 Customs and will attempting a Heatshrinless finish for the first time. I also ordered the Lutro0 tools available. Once the cables are all done, hopefully I can order the crossblade Ranger from Asus )If they ever release it) along with the HDD, Ram and waterblock.

Once again thanks for following.
smile.gif
 
#14 ·
Ugh...Lutro0s is taking forever to ship out my cable sleeving and tools.

I couldn't wait I have the modding bug pretty bad right now...so I decided to start looking at fan options.

I had finally settled on corsair 200mm fans but then added up the costs and $100 seemed like just too much for this media center build. After digging through my spare parts I found 2 thermaltake clear and 2 cooler master clear 200mm fans!!! Yay!! Free fans!!

However, clear fans with different color LEDS inside a subtle, matt black painted build would look tacky. So I did what any bored guy would do. I stripped them apart and painted them.




After the painting dried it was time to put them back together and perform a simple mount/fit/noise test.




The test results are as follows...
  • They fit well
  • They turned on
  • They were so quite I had to put my ear to them (even with the panels off) to make sure they were on. I am so glad I went this route, I know for a fact that I will NOT have to worry about any noise during our family movie time. I think the loudest component in my living room will now be our ceiling fan... lol!
Well now there is nothing else I can do until Lutro0s sends my stuff. Until then cheers!!
 
#15 ·
Well I've had it with Lutro0s customs.

Made my purchase on August 1st, it's now August 14th and still not even boxed up. I have sent an email asking for a refund, I may try purchasing straight from MDPC-X as soon as I can get my money back.

What a waste, can't Start the tubing till the sleeving si done...don'e want to order the motherboard or other hardware until I can set it up and test all together.

In the meanwhile I juggled some ideas on mounting the Res and pump. I decided it was time to play with the left over acrylic sheet I had from making the window and got to working out of boredom.











I think the hard acrylic piping with red liquid will stand out against the matt black panels I added in. What do ya'll think?

Okay well this time I am absolutely out of things to do until Lutro0s refunds my money and I get some sleeving in...have to sleeve all the fans, the pump and the PSU...run thew wires ..mount, cable maangement...then order the fun stuff. Sigh.
 
#16 ·
Just a quick update.

My order delay from Lutro0s was due to a family emergency. Thoughts and prayers to Lutro0s and family...Please don't let my experience reflect their establishment. Family first!

In the meanwhile I'm trying to figure where to mount the hdds? Lol. I knew I overlooked something.
 
#18 ·
After recieiving my money back I decided to just buy some sleeving and a sleeve tool from amazon. I need to get this htpc done so we can catch up on all the movies we have been missing.

Learned a bunch with my first sleeving job.

I was too forceful with the tool the first time and slightly bent the tool. I didn't measure out the heat shrink well enough and so they came out uneven.

Besides all that im happy with it..better than multi color wires all over the place. Will definatly take my time and measure with more care in my next build. Here is a sneak peak. Next up will be ordering the mother board when I scrape up a bit more cash.

I keep having second thoughts about the fm2+ socket and have been looking at some dedicated gpu combos. More decisions!



 
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