Project: Zerg

[Elpy]

I'm not tired enough yet to go sleep and dont have anything to do do though that I might as well finally start this thread.

Here is the original thread that I canceled/postponed if someone has any interest in there. But I will finally start building the PC tomorrow so this time I should get the PC together ^_^. Maybe...

Hardware:

CPU: Intel i7 920
GPU: Sapphire Ati Radeon HD5870
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2000mhz DDR3
Motherboard: Asus P6T-Deluxe
PSU: Corsair HX850W
Harddrives: OCZ Vertex turbo 120gb for games/OS (Hopefully) and 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 for storage
Soundcard: Asus Xonar d2x

Case and cooling and stuff:

Case: Lian Li PC-A71F
CPU: EK Supreme HF acrylicnickel
GPU: EK FC5870 acrylic nickel
Res: EK Multioption 250 v2
Pump: MCP655 with petra's gel stuff.
Pump top: EK X-TOP
Fittings: Bitspower silver shining compression
Radiators: Thermochill PA120.3 and PA120.2 (with tecnofront shrouds)
Fans: 7x Gentle typhoon 1450rpm
Fan controller: Scythe kaze server
Tubing: Either Masterkleer clear or blue. (Havent decided whether to use mayhem's dyes or colored tubing)
Sleeving: Either MDPC aquamarine or chilledpc blue. Dont know yet which one fits the setup better.

Allright I think that includes everything. Will edit in if I forgot something.

The name?
The original name was Gene but then I changed it to waterdrop along with a new theme. But I got bored with that them also so now I've just been trying to think of some name for it. I happened to get a beta key to StarCraft II today and just randomly named it Zerg. I really seem to play with all 3 races and actually more with Terran/Protoss now than Zerg, but I still love the Zerg style generally in all games

What I already regret with the build?
Not waiting and saving up the money to buy everything in one go. I dont even wanna know how much I've spend on postage fee's and ordered often from the same shop. And also the fact that I got delayed so badly.

Then also my ability to be so indecisive about everything. I changed a lot of parts because of it and confused myself also in regards to what I want to do with the PC. Not gonna start making a huge list but I just changed a lot of stuff from the original plan.


I finally want to get the PC together. I've had it running with air on a box this week and after finally playing games again after a long break... I just wanna finish it and just playing (BFBC2 is fun). But okay enough with this boring talk. So I will start working on the case tomorrow and will start taking pics then. I mentioned in the earlier thread that this time there will be less talk and more pics. Gonna head to bed now.

PS. PSU might not get sleeved immediately. Might RMA it because its too loud. Sounds like the fan would be spinning 100% all the time. my old HX620w was inaudible at 1meter but I can easily hear the HX850w at 2 meters and over HD5870 cooler (at 20% speed) and i7 stock cooler (60% speed in speedfan)

[josk1]

dude, I don't usually say this, but get a mac!!
if you don't know what you want, at least with a mac you don't have the choice for all those parts ...

[Elpy]

Ewww. I will kill myself before buying an apple of any kind (seriously ). Choosing the parts is part of the fun in the end. It cant just be a pain in the ass too if you are undecisive like me :P.

[Elpy]

Got some other stuff last week and didnt have the time to work with this but started today. Also got the last package on tuesday (PA120.2 ).

Too tired to upload pics now, probably tomorrow. But there is something I want to say: I hate metal . Yeaaah maybe doing this at home wasnt the best idea afterall. Dremel was almost useless. Jigsaw does saw well through aluminum but the result isnt that goood. Or it could also be that I was too hasty. Other problem as well is that I really dont have enough room for this... Will show pics of my room too and it really doesnt have the space for all this stuff and tools. I honestly cant wait to finish this just so I will have more space again.

Originally i was going to make a holder for the PA120.3 inside the frame of the case so I no screws would be shown on top of the case top... But the 1mm aluminum I bought wasnt quite strong enough and it started bending too much when I tried to cut the hole in it... So I ended up just making the hole in the top panel. I really hope that I can file it into good shape or I'll have to buy a rad grill. ATLEAST the screw holes seem to fit ok. Did a quick test with just some needles and the fit! I would had cried if they didnt fit... .

Buuut yeah my drill ran out of battery so gonna continue tomorrow. Hopefulyl will get into painting then.

[Elpy]

Picture time.

The case frame. After taking the holder on the top left corner. It was a small pita to remove because it was attached with rivets and 2 of those were behind the motherboard tray. So I had to remove it first and it was also attached with rivets


So yea my original plan was to make a holder for the radiator so I wouldnt need to attach it to the top panel with screws. But since that failed due to too thin aluminum, had to start drawing on the top panel


Working with aluminum was more PITA that I expected and it didnt come out quite as cleanly as I hoped. I cut a bit over of some lines with the jigsaw so even with filing the result clearly shows that its handmade... But it still looks decent as long as you dont stare it right close up .

Main thing I was happy about is that small quick test showed that the holes are atleast somehow in right place. This picture was before any filing


And hurray all the screws fit pretty nicely too . Except one that I had to modify a bit with dremel, but now its good too. (Couldnt screw all screws all the way in because they would had hit the water channels. The holes werent perfect so some of the screws went in with small angles and therefore the waterchannels got in the way.)


And finally since I will be using the rads in pull-setup since that seems to work the best on low-med speed fans. Tested fitting the fans together with shrouds (which you cant see in the pic) and this is how it looks like:




There will of course be mesh over the fans and the sides of the hole will be painted black but atleast it doesnt look as bad as I feared.

Edit: Question: I have no the system running just on a cardboard box without overclocking. The heatsinks for SB/NB/mosfets are quite warm on it. Not really hot as I can still put my finger on them but they are still really warm. Do you think it would be worth removing it once and putting MX-2 there? I'm not sure if they are using pads but if its TIM, then I could probably do it.. Just dont wanna take it apart if there isnt a good reason for doing so.

Edit2: If any of the photography guru's are reading this. Please feel free to comment on the pictures . This is my first time ever playing around with raw pictures in Lightroom 2 and I'm finding it quite challenging . Some pics are fine but with some I have to do quite a lot of bar sliding. I'm not expecting to really learn stuff but rather just trying to try different settings with white balance, brightness and other settings to make the picture look nice. Just realized that lightroom has brightness +50 as default and because of it a few pics were too bright . So well yea anyway if you have any opinions on that, please tell me

[F3L1X]

awesome build, i'm thinking of re doing mine with this case

[serialk11r]

Hehe, as a diehard Starcraft I fan, isn't that HD5870 a little excessive? If it weren't for the title, I think I wouldn't have clicked on this one. You should try playing Brood War though, people on iccup are GOOD at that game (unlike me, D- here). Your temporary paper clip mount reminds me of what I tried to do a long time ago, use dental floss, since it's teflon thread (lol).

[Elpy]

Naah the HD5870 is perfect . I really love it. Totally worth the money. Cant wait to have it set up with the block. I definitely regret not ever really playing the old starcraft games and now I'm enjoying the SC2 beta so much that I doubt that I could go back to the older games. Especially since I'm a graphic whore . Cant really play many old good games because I dont liked the outdated graphics .

Here's one pic of how the system is running atm . I hate the noise.


The only thing making me a bit sad is the PSU :/. Because it's just too loud. Since pixmania (the seller) told me that it would take 1,5months for it to be fixed. Im considering just sending the PSU to maintenance and buying some other PSU. And after receiving the HX850w back, I'd just sell it. Any suggestions for a good QUIET 800-1000w psu? (The problem with the PSU is really just that the fan seems to be running same speed all the time even when there is 0% stress and air is cool.. So it's too loud when its idle.)

[serialk11r]

I think SC2 is a great idea, seeing how they really did need some kind of refresh, but I don't like how they changed so many things. Infestors? Mothership? What? They killed the REAVER, like what were they thinking?? The buildings now look like cartoon crap. I wish SC2 to Brood War was more like Brood War to the original, with graphics redone in a way that preserved most of the original look, just better picture and effects.

[Elpy]

They are still doing lots of changes though. With every patch I see units getting nerfed (mothership for example) or boosted. And even a few units have been removed and some abilities removed/replaced. I think there is still a lot of balancing to be done. Buuut enough about that topic. Might as well continue here

[InCredible]

I think SC2 is a great idea, seeing how they really did need some kind of refresh, but I don't like how they changed so many things. Infestors? Mothership? What? They killed the REAVER, like what were they thinking?? The buildings now look like cartoon crap. I wish SC2 to Brood War was more like Brood War to the original, with graphics redone in a way that preserved most of the original look, just better picture and effects.

i agree with this 100%..
its cool/fun to play sc2 however i think they went a little to far from the original..which imo ONLY needed a graphic update..other wise i think the game was perfect..

ill play sc2 when it comes out and once i get use to it ill probably like it more..but i would of been totally satisfied with just update graphics of SC..MAYBE a few new things..

[Elpy]

Bleh got some extra space. Took apart that grey desk you can see in the pics and threw it to the balcony. MORE ROOOOOOM and I love it.

The holder I was making for the 240mm rad failed also. I needed to make one because I will use the gentle typhoons and the fan holes of the case are designed for 140mm fans. But the holder failed for the same reason as the 360mm holder, too thin aluminum. And my template was a bit bad too and my holes didnt quite match and the hole wasnt "long" enough. I guess I could had still worked on it but I just cant be bothered, this small room and the noise just dont give me the motivation to do much metal cutting myself. I wouldnt mind the noise otherwise but when living in an apartment block, I just feel annoyed by the fact that everyone else is 100% hearing the noise and most likely being annoyed. So I'll just go with the same idea that Whuzabi did it and buy a ready made radiator grill to hold the radiator. Although I will probably cut the "grills" from it and just use the frame . No need for any extra airflow blockers.

So that's gonna cause a bit more waiting to receive it. But I think I'm gonna start painting the case soon. Filed the top panel a bit again to fix a few things. It's still not perfect, I'm a bit upset of the fact that I could had done it better if I just wouldnt had run out of patience but bleh. Could be worse.

[Elpy]

Been busy trying to paint the parts black now. I'm all covered in black and my bathroom is all covered in black dust. It seriously sucks. Here's what I've learned from this experience
1)I will never ever paint indoors again. Next time I do this, if I'm still living in a freaking apartment block and dont a good space for doing this, I will wait for the summer, go to my parents and paint the damn parts over there.
2)Looking at how many cans of spray I've used. I might as well had taken the case for powdercoating and it probably wouldnt had been so much more expensive anyway.. Next time I'll probably do that instead of trying to save my wallet.
3)I want to take a shower but I cant because my bathroom is all black and I havent cleaned it yet. And I am also black and dirty.
4)I could had done this with waaaay better results if I had actually done it with seriously proper sanding and cleaning and so on. However with my patience this would had not been possible because of the same reason I wrote above to 1). I do not have the room here in my small apartment for this stuff and it really makes me lose patience .
5)It could had been worse. Luckily it's mostly decent and the bad parts shouldnt be visible... So I guess I'll live with it and maybe do some rework in the future..

Anyway, here's a few pics that I have taken. Hopefully someday soon pics of the painted case itself.

Some riveeeeets when I started taking the case apart for painting


Gentle typhoon blades (Those small clips really were a pain. Almost lost one >_<)


Shrouds before painting (I'm kinda sad because I stepped on one of the 240mm sides and it cracked. I clued it back on with epoxy and though it was ok but today realized that it still missed a small piece that had one of the screw holes... Couldnt find it anymore but it should hold on well enough even without it. Luckily it will be on the side where it shouldnt affect the shroud's performance.


One of the GT blades after painting. (Doesnt have a clearcoat yet though). This is one of the "good" results.. There are a couple that didnt go so well so I'll put them in a place where you cant see it so well


My first sleeving ever. I have ordered black connectors for them.


This was done after the gentle typhoons. Havent sleeved anything else yet.



Now the sleeving is still causing me a lot of pain. That sleeving there is ChilledPC blue sleeve. I also have MDPC aquamarine blue and grand bleu or whatever it's name was. I'm kind of thinking between the chilledpc sleeve and the aquamarine. On the other hand I think the ChilledPC might fit rest of the PC better because I'm probably going to use masterkleer's blue tubing, and the ChilledPC sleeve matches it pretty well. However when it's not lightened well enough, it doesnt seem to stand out from the black sleeve so well. Although under blue cathode (which I'll use for lighting), it stood out better.

Aquamarine on the other hand would stand out from the black no matter what the light, but it feels like it's a bit too light especially compared to the tubing. I dont have any pics of the tubing yet but the color looks quite much the same as blue tubing in Shazza's torture rack.

So I just cant decide which one to useeeee

PS. I wasnt able to remove the molex pins from the 6-pin connector that you plug in to the PSU. Tried and tried but I just couldnt get the pins out and ended up breaking the tool

PS2. Funny to see how the light affects the looks of the sleeve. I cant find any light source from my apartment that would make it look that bright . Even the light that that I use for those shots isnt enough. I had to add just a bit of exposure to the picture with lightroom in order to get the background white instead of grey . I realy want more liiiiiiight in my room.

[zanzabar]

nice color and job with the sleeveing

[Anemic]

OOoh, nice work so far! The blue sleeving looks great =)

[C-J]

This was done after the gentle typhoons. Havent sleeved anything else yet.

Damn Amazing Sleeving Job Bro!

[HuffPCair]

Very nice. I am planning on getting some GTs when I purchase a RX360, What paint did you use for the blades. I am either going to paint them black or a blue color.

[aka_GK]

nice project! and great paint job on that typhoon, would like to see it assembled

[johnnymossville]

I have a the A70F case and am about to cut the top panel for a triple radiator myself. Can I ask how you came up with the position on the panel you decided to go with?

I was considering moving mine further up towards the front than you have yours, but I like the look you have there.

By the way, The cutting job doesn't look too bad to me.

I'll be following this thread closely!

[Liderc]

That blue is killer, fan blades look nice as well.

[Kurz]

i agree with this 100%..
its cool/fun to play sc2 however i think they went a little to far from the original..which imo ONLY needed a graphic update..other wise i think the game was perfect..

ill play sc2 when it comes out and once i get use to it ill probably like it more..but i would of been totally satisfied with just update graphics of SC..MAYBE a few new things..

To be honest Starcraft 2 is about balance of your army.
You cant just have a massive army of Stalkers (The new Dragoon) to take out your enemies.

You need a good balance of casters, Tier 1, and Tier 2, Tier 3 units.
Example:

I completely decemated 2 armies of Warp Rays with a mothership.
One with Marines, Maruaders, and Medivacs.

I used my Zealots to counter the marines with charge.
High Temp to Spam Psi Storm on the warp rays and the marines/Maruaders.
Used my Stalkers to clean up the rest of the Warp Rays.

My partner took care of the mother ship and rest of the Marines and took the fight to their base where we won the game.

I lost every single unit in that exhange. They should've had ghosts and temps and tanks.

The game is so much fun and not so bland as the first one.

[Kurz]

*Wanted to make a seperate post so my suggestion doesn't get lost*

Try to get some purple in there. (Since the orginial Zerg color was Purple).
Though I was wondering maybe you should theme it like Hive.
With tentacles, Maybe some Ek res's with Red for the blood.

[Elpy]

nice color and job with the sleeveing

Thanks. I think the sleeving could had gone better, a few first of the heatshrinks didnt quite go close enough to the connector (you can see this in the second picture, connecter on the left) but I think I might just leave it like that. All in all it does look pretty nice imo.

OOoh, nice work so far! The blue sleeving looks great =)

Thanks. Now actually after seeing it from the pictures, I'll go with that blue. Just fits there a bit better than the aquamarine .

Damn Amazing Sleeving Job Bro!

Hehe, thanks . Although I wouldnt really call it amazing ^^. Decent for a first time I guess

Very nice. I am planning on getting some GTs when I purchase a RX360, What paint did you use for the blades. I am either going to paint them black or a blue color.

Just normal can spray that you can get from any car/department stores. I wish I would had done a bit better job with the painting, my biggest mistake was not cleaning up the parts after each coat so a lot of the fans (and other parts) now have small drips/particles/whatever on them . But that was pretty much because I lost my patience here in with the space I have available. If I had more space and especially some space that I could use for dirty stuff, I would had done this much more carefully.

nice project! and great paint job on that typhoon, would like to see it assembled

Thanks, I'll take some pics of the assembled fan once I get all the parts clearcoated and can start putting them together.

I have a the A70F case and am about to cut the top panel for a triple radiator myself. Can I ask how you came up with the position on the panel you decided to go with?

I was considering moving mine further up towards the front than you have yours, but I like the look you have there.

By the way, The cutting job doesn't look too bad to me.

I'll be following this thread closely!

I ended up with that position simply trying to get the hole in a position where the radiator would get as close to the back panel of the case. So I just removed the top panel, put radiator there right against the backpanel and measured how far the first radiator fins/mounting holes were from the back and used that as the starting line of the cut. Main reason I wanted to have it as back as possible was that it would leave room for the dvd-room at the front. There's not really much room there at the front after you place a 360mm radiator there so if you want to mount a dvd drive on it, you will have to mount the radiator at the back.

The cuts themself didnt really come out so badly.. It's just that all the corners and so on are nowhere symmetric . You can realy see it from those angles but if I took a picture directly above the case, you would clearly see how the corners around the mounting holes dont look symmetric.

That blue is killer, fan blades look nice as well.

Thanks!

*Wanted to make a seperate post so my suggestion doesn't get lost*

Try to get some purple in there. (Since the orginial Zerg color was Purple).
Though I was wondering maybe you should theme it like Hive.
With tentacles, Maybe some Ek res's with Red for the blood.

Well yea i guess purple would really fit the zerg theme a lot better, but I basicly decided to go with black/silver/blue them before I even got the name so I'm not gonna change from that anymore even though it doesnt fit the name ^^". Plus I like blue more than purple

I did however order some stickers with the Zerg logo ^^ (Although colored blue). Planning on possibly using those to replace the Gentle typhoon fans. But I'm not sure yet if I'll use those or just completely black stickers.



On a side note. I just finished cleaning my bathroom and I will never paint indoors again. Atleast not with sprays! It was a freaking pain. However now I finally got to shower after being smelly and black for uhum, 4 days and I'm feeling freshhhhhh.

[laevanira417]

Elpy,Nice Nice sleeeeeeeving
Good job!!

[Elpy]

Thanks laevanira. The project has been kind of stalled because I've been so much xD. But I've gotten all parts painted now and clearcoated too. I'm not happy with the results though . I obviously messed it up because I didnt have good room and ran out of patience thanks to it. But oh well, luckily all paint is inside the case so it wont affect the outside look so bad. Atleast I learned from this mistake. But anyways, I started putting the case together now and I will most likely put liquid running atleast on weekend. I'm not likely gonna order a Intel X25-M 80gb and Samsung F3 1TB today and hopefully receive them on friday. I think my barracudas are dying, sometimes making really loud scracthy noise and my system crashes every now and then randomly. I'm really suspecting the harddrives for causing this so one more reason to upgrade.