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[Sponsored] Timeless Warriors - Samurai themed build COMPLETE

12K views 63 replies 15 participants last post by  iandroo888 
#1 · (Edited)
Project – Timeless Warriors

So It Begins.

Personal Intro
Hi all those of you that know me or dont, I have been modding PC's since the year 2000 give or take a few years, I have been inspired over my modding life from modders of past and even some modders of new, I was modding back in the day when we used caravan window rubbers to put case windows into a PC (i know ghetto but we done what we could back then with what we had) I am known across various forums as rchiileea, Richi and Richie123 as well as r1chieB on instagram. I also have the Lucky advantage of having a wife who is very talented and hand engraving images using only dots that create depth which far exceeds my flat images i used to engrave with the trusty old dremel.​

So let me introduce you guys to my latest project build that will be crazy mad, inspired by the samurai and will be built into Lian Li DK05x Twin PC desk, (hence the timeless warriors name). This project is going to be a labour of love, not only will it feature a lot of engraving by my wife, there will be also a heavy theme on samurai inside as well as engraved on the outside.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A very very huge thank you to Lian Li for supplying the desk for the project, was honoured to be offered it so thank you.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

Thank you to intel who stepped up again for me to provide CPU’s for this project



Website/Facebook/Youtube

As some of you know from previous mods gigabyte have supported me with motherboards on projects so again thanks to them for being involved and helping out.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thanks to Toshiba for coming on board on this one too, with not only the OCZ m2 drives but some SSD’s too.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thanks to Razer for supplying the Peripherals for the project



Website/Facebook/Youtube

I would like to say Thank you to Sapphire for stepping up with two cards for second side of rig



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A massive thank you to LG for offering more than I asked for the build, watch this space



Website/Facebook/Youtube

Thank you to bitspower for supplying all the watercooling fittings, pumps and blocks for this.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

Dremel need no introduction as they have been around on all my builds from day one.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thank you to TeamGroup as well for supplying the memory for both rigs.



Website/Facebook/Twitter

Of course two rigs are going to need two PSU’s so thank you to Seasonic for stepping up..


Website/Facebook/Twitter


Website/Facebook/Twitter

A massive thanks to the Mayhems team for supplying my custom colour mixes for this project, amazing work as always.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thank you to QNAP for supplying a 10 GBE Nas for the project to handle the external storage side of things



Website/Facebook/Twitter

A huge thank you to The AirbrushCompany for becoming one of my permanent sponsors going forward



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thank you to western digital for supplying some Red drives for the NAS.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thank you to Aqua Tuning who stepped up to supply the crossflow rads.



Website/Facebook/Youtube

A big thank you to Edifier for supplying the sound bar and sub for the desk.​


I must say again I have to thank the sponsors BIG TIME on this build for coming on board as it basically means they are supplying double the amount, no pressure to deliver then.


First off here is the case in question.




Looks great, then when it arrived, well it is huge, here is packaging next to my 1 series.




Funnily enough the desk comes in two boxes, one for the feet and one for the desk itself.



This was the lighter of the two boxes, the second box was not so light.




To assemble the case we have to lay the top section on top of the two boxes, then attach the feet.


Once the feet are attached, it’s a case of plugging the power for the adjustable legs in and raising it above the boxes, then lifting it into place (which is not a one man job :p)


For now that is the start of this build as I have to finalise the design for the engravings on the outside, once I have I will post an image of the plan to give you some idea of what is going to happen to this desk.
 
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#32 ·
Hi all sorry about delays in posting, did not get round to the GPU blocks as I need to take them apart when addressable RGB strips come in and replace the current non addressable ones.

On another note though side one of the etching has been complete and is looking like a piece of art to me. I defo think this build is going to cross over between mod and artwork.





I love this and can’t wait until this starts coming together, the theme is coming out amazing, leather is on route from Italy for monitors, some internal stuff and keyboards and mice so, looking forward to starting that. More as soon as it happens guys.​
 
#35 ·
So another small update with some pieces done for the build, the end is in sight and should be complete by end of aug so not long to go for hardware porn side of things. In this update, ill be showing you some of the right side of engraving, picture being used and memory customization.

First up from previous post you saw side one completed, side two has now started.




This will progress a lot faster than other side due to the fact the little one will be going to day nursery in a couple of weeks freeing up more time.

Onto the next part of the project, the memory, we all know its very rare to get memory to suit your build and as one side of this build is black with gold highlights and white/silver with black highlights, so I had to do this to the TeamGroup Dark kits.



Yes that is 24 sections of the heat spreaders, which funny enough were attached with 4 screws and 4 nuts each to the main heat spreaders.



Yes so in total I had to take undo 96 nuts with screws this tiny and try not to lose any, Yes it was fun and just as fun as its going to be putting them back on :p



So just gold for 8 of the sticks, and then black for the other 4 and with one side being white/silver I had to do the 4 main sections of the spreaders in white too.



I love the way these came out and suppose most of you can realise why I wanted these kits over other choices I had as the gold and black sections of spreaders, almost loosely resemble the sort of helmet decorations that samurai had.

Also why doing all this another idea cropped into my head and I done a proof print to see what you guys think of the idea, having one of the tube runs look like this.



What do you guys think of the idea, yay or no, would be making this out of acrylic though to give a clean sharper look to it.

The only other thing I did as well was this



Yes that is a razer keyboard with white leather, more to follow soon as I try to make sure it looks perfect.​
 
#37 ·
So another small update with some pieces done for the build, the end is in sight and should be complete by end of aug so not long to go for hardware porn side of things. In this update, ill be showing you some of the right side of engraving, picture being used and memory customization.
First up from previous post you saw side one completed, side two has now started.




This will progress a lot faster than other side due to the fact the little one will be going to day nursery in a couple of weeks freeing up more time.

Onto the next part of the project, the memory, we all know its very rare to get memory to suit your build and as one side of this build is black with gold highlights and white/silver with black highlights, so I had to do this to the TeamGroup Dark kits.



Yes that is 24 sections of the heat spreaders, which funny enough were attached with 4 screws and 4 nuts each to the main heat spreaders.



Yes so in total I had to take undo 96 nuts with screws this tiny and try not to lose any, Yes it was fun and just as fun as its going to be putting them back on :p



So just gold for 8 of the sticks, and then black for the other 4 and with one side being white/silver I had to do the 4 main sections of the spreaders in white too.



I love the way these came out and suppose most of you can realise why I wanted these kits over other choices I had as the gold and black sections of spreaders, almost loosely resemble the sort of helmet decorations that samurai had.

Also why doing all this another idea cropped into my head and I done a proof print to see what you guys think of the idea, having one of the tube runs look like this.



What do you guys think of the idea, yay or no, would be making this out of acrylic though to give a clean sharper look to it.

The only other thing I did as well was this



Yes that is a razer keyboard with white leather, more to follow soon as I try to make sure it looks perfect.
this stuff looks fantastic and hard

from a maintenance standpoint it might be better to go wiht leatherette for the keyboard, leather will require a lot of work to prevent it from drying out and cracking, whilst leatherette just needs a wipe down with a damp cloth every once in a while, it also might be easier to use leatherette in terms of how its attached since its a cheaper more pliable material you can use some elastic to make a backstrap that holds it in place across the wrist bar whilst attachign the same thing to some leather might be rather more difficult/ either way its your hardware so your choice
 
#36 ·
I'm digging this HARD! Keep up the good work, I look forward to the finished piece when it all comes together.
 
#38 ·
Thanks

this stuff looks fantastic and hard

from a maintenance standpoint it might be better to go wiht leatherette for the keyboard, leather will require a lot of work to prevent it from drying out and cracking, whilst leatherette just needs a wipe down with a damp cloth every once in a while, it also might be easier to use leatherette in terms of how its attached since its a cheaper more pliable material you can use some elastic to make a backstrap that holds it in place across the wrist bar whilst attachign the same thing to some leather might be rather more difficult/ either way its your hardware so your choice
Steam is your friend with real leather it can do wonders to pliability of it ;), maintenance is not an issue either as the custom length forged carbon steel katana is going to need to be oiled now and then too.
 
#39 ·
Wow it’s been super-hot lately, but excitement is boiling over as we get to a stage were the etching is getting closer and closer to completed on the other side of the desk. I’ll just leave you with these pics.






I have to say as well as my wife and boy I am in love with something not human its officially gone crazy, but super stoked and pleased with how the design I made is coming out.

Also had time to play with some things and just lay down samurai armour style covers over the gpu blocks to get a feel for them, these will be cleaned and polished and put on gpu’s for all 4 cards (2 one side and two the other).



I reckon its going to look lush once done, let just get a move on and in the coming weeks I will be starting internals ect with the engraving so close to being done.​
 
#42 ·
This is incredible, great work, just wow!!!
 
#46 ·

So guys and gals it’s been a while since I updated, but the exciting news is we are getting very close to the end of the engraving side and onto the building side, ill just through these pics up for you to see how close we really are.








Oh I wonder what the lines to the right are for…………………………………..





So finally getting to the end of the amazing engraving and then onto the building part.​
 
#47 ·
that is looking fab, just from the way the various bits reflect the room lighting I bet you could add different spotlights around the desk to give it a special life colouring as well (not sure how practical that would be for normal use but for a showcase event it would be pretty awe-inspiring to look at :) )


have to say every time I see these updates it does make me kinda jelly that I dont have those kinds of skills nor the patience required to do that sort of thing (my art ability is like a 3 yr old with really fat crayons) last time I tired to make something that wasn't created with straight lines on a draft table it didn't go very well ….
 
#49 ·
Back again with another update to the build, a long time coming was waiting and stalling it for some special items that a due in for the build (well 2 of them) but I thought I better put something out there to keep you all keen.




So engraving has finally finished at last, and boy is it truly an amazing piece of work do I call the build a build now or a piece of art, or artisan PC mod, god knows but I just can help staring at it. Time to put it back on top of the desk and get drilling some fill and drain ports in.


This is starting to take shape now, also one thing I decided to change was the toughened glass top, not only for practicality but also for the fact the std glass top was tinted and I did not want to dull the engraving down on the build.



I also added some extra overhang on the rear when sizing the replacement up, I wanted to ensure I had this to aid with my lighting plan for the rear of the desk and will aid in spreading light behind the monitors.


I also added a cut out to the rear of the desk were the monitor mount goes, my thought behind this is if for any reason I change something be it ram ect ect in the future, I wanted to be able to lift the glass off without going through the process of breaking down the monitors pulling the desk out and undoing the clamp on monitor mount as on the original glass it would of sat on top of it.


Finally I added a vanity panel to behind the legs and desk for cable tidying, which will enable me to only have three cables coming from the desk as the panel will allow for the power adaptor, router, network switch ect to be place in this. Which leaves only one power cable to wall socket and two network cables to the nas.

That’s all for now, as soon as the final two pieces turn up ill photograph them and get them up (although its four pieces in reality to give you a clue to what I am waiting for).
 
#50 ·
Glad to see more progress being made on this build!

That artwork is gorgeous :drool:
 
#52 ·
Back again guys with another small update, still waiting on a few items to turn up to get into the actual build part, but started working out layout ect, so here are some pics.


Memory is ready to go into the motherboards, have replaced logos as well to match paint job I done them with, now to put them in these two puppies



Also some other parts turned up too, firstly the fans and cables needed to complete the build.



Yes that is 12 fans, a couple of splitters and 24 extensions for the fans…. A lot I agree, but I want to run the fan cables around the sides of the desk to keep them out of site as much as possible, a big thanks to noctua for sorting these out, much appreciated. Also the rads turned up and as I wanted crossflow, well thanks to the guys at Aquatuning they did.


Simple position of getting the fans on the radiators and putting them in and we can finally see what is starting to happen.



Let’s put the SSD’s in place and glass back on to get the look I am going for as a little test.


My samurai Armour SSD’s are now in place, now the one thing I had not taken into account when planning this was the length of Sata Data cables to reach round, even 90cm ones are not long enough, so I have had to outsource so small male to male data connectors and run over 2 cables each of the on show drives. And yes I do expect I will see a slight decrease on performance on 2 each on each side as they will be using these male to male adapters.

Good news is why I was doing this, two of the other 4 items I need to get stuck in turned up to, A huge massive thanks to my contact at Gigabyte for pulling these out of a magic hat, I did not expect them and thank you.



Now just waiting for the other 2 items, the waterblocks for these to turn up and I can finally start assembly, yes there are many minor and small things to do yet. But we are finally getting near the end.
 
#53 · (Edited)
Wow it’s been a while with any update so this will be a longer than normal post.

First off the GPU blocks have arrived (eureka) so let’s take a look at them.







Overall I like the design of these BP-VG2080RD-A2 blocks and they are also very heavy.





One thing I did like about this design is the use of the extra support for block on the back bracket



A nice small addition to help with the support of the heavy block, now shall we see how they look in place with the covers.







To be honest I was now at an small stall, waiting for a few more things to turn up so I thought I would figure out a cunning plan to hide the cables coming out of the PSU, despite them being mostly hidden by the top anyway. Also something to aid in my plan of having green gpu cables both sides to represent bamboo and tie in with the Japanese/samurai theme of it all.



So being me, I ordered to self-construct type Japanese houses and 2 watch towers for this sort of placement, thus hiding the psu output cables and guiding the green cables to the gpus, of course I will be painting them to match the colour schemes of each side.



Wanted to hide these cables specifically with the houses.



After doing this and despite knowing the houses won’t be hardly visible with top back on, I still wanted to spruce them up a bit… but first let me show you how this looks in



I know some people won’t like this idea, but I love it and it ties in with the theme, and wanted them to match the theme, translation of writing is dragon clan, then tiger clan on the matching sides to match the engraving. And know I won’t ever do stencils this small again and then hand paint them on (more on that later in post). The most shocking part of this stage is working out how to hide nearly 38 meters of cables and lighting in the desk :O.

On another note, I also decided to mod one of the bitspower hex tanks, the one for the black and gold side already had a black dragon on it (bitspower logo) I decided for the tiger side of the build I would try to make something not like bitspower logo, but very similar with tiger logo. I made this with vinyl.



It should match the general theme of one side of engraving being a tiger and samurai and one side being a dragon and samurai.

Now I did warn this was going to be a long post, so I’ll start by mentioning I am now lucky enough to be permanently sponsored now going forward by airbrushes.com on this a future builds (wish it would of arrived before I done the houses :p and hence my comment of I will not be hand painting ever again and can get back to airbrushing stuff again.













Hopefully I get the rest of the stuff soon to finish this massive project, on a plus note I don’t have to hand paint my planned stuff on the vanity cover on the bottom of the desk now this has arrived J

Mod notes to do list, fittings for gpu blocks to connect to each other to do, painting of vanity panel, tidying of the cables and extensions to go in and make acrylic covers for cable tidying inside the desk, fill and get air out of the loops, then sit and install windows on both machines and check for any conflicts or issues.. then book time to do photos and video of this epic piece.

 
#54 ·
So just another small little update, remember this.



This is the vanity panel I made to hide the power strip, switch ect under the desk, of course I decided to airbrush this too and tie it in with the inside.



I used a samurai quote in this which is used to describe two samurai warriors working as one.

Translation is “Different body, same mind.” Which for us westerners means Harmony of mind between two people. While I am here, I should also translate the writing on the houses for you, the lower roof on the house on black side says Dragon clan and on the white roof says Tiger clan. On the side of both the houses the translation is honor and truth.

Any way guys stay tuned as more of the small stuff is done before the big reveal

 
#57 ·
At last we got there in the end, it was a long process but I am so happy with how this mod/art piece came out, there were a lot of choices to make and I am amazed with the end result, it truly is a one off piece, some ups and downs during the build but got there in the end, enjoy the pics and the videos guys.





















































I Love it, but just when you think I already posted too many pictures, here are some different lighting modes for you of course with the rainbow unicorn too :p






























And to finish it off, here are some videos for you to watch, first up is the video of how the engraving was done by my wife.



Second the Desk in normal mode



Last but not least Desk in unicorn mode ;)



One massive journey (and desk :p) but we got there in the end and I love my new art piece in my home, special thanks to the sponsors involved and also my wife for the engraving.
 
#60 ·
Absolutely spectacular build. Really is incredible. Great job. It looks fantastic.
 
#64 ·
crazy engraving skills.. cant even do that with a pencil. unique idea of using japanese style house to cover !
 
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