--- r e f l e X i o n ---

[Xion X2]

A view from the front. The effect is starting to come to fruition.



All four drives attached.












And now... FINALLY... the near-completed Zero Gravity Chamber!



Here you can see the bottom compartment for the PSU.








Some close-ups of the drives.










Of course, this piece still needs to be dressed up quite a bit. It's still very rough around the edges. It will all look nicer once it's powdercoated and I've had a chance to dress up the joins and edges of the perspex. I'll be using a combination of edge molding and a heat gun to do this. Then, the plan is to powdercoat the entire interior in "Starlight Black" so as to give the effect that you're looking into space. Both the interior and the exterior of the chamber, as well as the rest of the interior of the case frame, will be painted this color.

Next on the agenda is to notch the shelves in place with the centerpiece and then weld them in place with solvent cement. Also, dress up the perspex edges and joins to clean those up. Then, the Zero-G Chamber is officially finished, and it's onto the next stage of the project...

Lighting.

[Wezly]

that is very much ftw

and then some

[Kibbler]

Very very nice! It's all coming along just like you designed!

Do you mean 'windex' colloquially or literally? Because windex contains several alcohols albeit in dilution and I wouldn't use that on perspex...

[martensch]

a wonderful build till now!!

i know design is a matter of taste but i have to give you some thoughts on the design...

first of all i`d suggest you use a different mobo than you stated in your opening post... what about a EVGA classified 3 way sli: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...board%20Family wich is on my opinion the most beautiful board on the market right now...

and then the waterblocks... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=224344 from bitspower, on my opinion too beautiful in relation to design!

or you you choose the EK fullcover: http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/...d.php?t=232916

or the koolance version: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=223808

then the case... arent there a lot of cleaner cases on the market? let me suggest a LianLi for your build... not only in relation to design, but also regarding the materials used in the stacker...

as i already stated it`s a matter of taste, and i don`t want to say you have a bad taste not at all... maybe you`re very focused and have somthing bigger in mind, so just forget my suggestions!! otherwise think over it...

a technical questions i do have... may it be you forgot about the decoupling of your pumps? i guess if you install them without you`ll have heavy vibrations within the case wich will be noisy... i just thought you forgot about it, because the pumps will be slightly in a higher position if you will mount something decoupling between the plexi and the pumps wich will affect the view through your small windows....

again: I love your build!! it`s awesome craftsmanship and beautiful ideas in the details, wich i really admire, so keep up the good work!!

[callen_1]

a wonderful build till now!!

i know design is a matter of taste but i have to give you some thoughts on the design...

first of all i`d suggest you use a different mobo than you stated in your opening post... what about a EVGA classified 3 way sli: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...board%20Family wich is on my opinion the most beautiful board on the market right now...

and then the waterblocks... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=224344 from bitspower, on my opinion too beautiful in relation to design!

or you you choose the EK fullcover: http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/...d.php?t=232916

or the koolance version: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=223808

then the case... arent there a lot of cleaner cases on the market? let me suggest a LianLi for your build... not only in relation to design, but also regarding the materials used in the stacker...

as i already stated it`s a matter of taste, and i don`t want to say you have a bad taste not at all... maybe you`re very focused and have somthing bigger in mind, so just forget my suggestions!! otherwise think over it...

a technical questions i do have... may it be you forgot about the decoupling of your pumps? i guess if you install them without you`ll have heavy vibrations within the case wich will be noisy... i just thought you forgot about it, because the pumps will be slightly in a higher position if you will mount something decoupling between the plexi and the pumps wich will affect the view through your small windows....

again: I love your build!! it`s awesome craftsmanship and beautiful ideas in the details, wich i really admire, so keep up the good work!!

I personally think it looks great and i'm sure criticism is welcome, but your basically suggesting he start all over again. Give it a bit more time and the project will be complete in all its powder coated glory. If all goes to plan (as it has so far) it will be a masterpiece.

Nice work mate

[kgtiger]

Excellent to see that this stage in neally done Xion.

Just two small sugestions.
The first one, I think is a must, I feel you need to put some large flat washers between the head of the screws and the perspex.
This will help to displace the pressure on the perspex from the head of the screws and will help stop the perspex from cracking around the holes.

The second sugestion is just a superficial one, just for looks.
It's the open/non-used mounting holes in the SSD that face out to the window.
It might just be me but they are the first thing that I see and the last thing I look at when I look through the window.
If they could be either be filled with screws, plastic plugs or a strip of black tape running the full lenght of the SSD to cover both holes.
I find the devil is in the detail and this for me would just finish this off perfectly.

Looking good mate well done.

[Xion X2]

and then some

Thanks, Wezly.

Very very nice! It's all coming along just like you designed!

Do you mean 'windex' colloquially or literally? Because windex contains several alcohols albeit in dilution and I wouldn't use that on perspex...

Thanks, Kibbler!

I meant Windex as in literally; it's what I use to clean the glass with. I've never heard that it could be dangerous to use this on glass or acrylic/perspex before as it's what I've always used to clean it with?

a wonderful build till now!!

i know design is a matter of taste but i have to give you some thoughts on the design...

first of all i`d suggest you use a different mobo than you stated in your opening post... what about a EVGA classified 3 way sli: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...board%20Family wich is on my opinion the most beautiful board on the market right now...

and then the waterblocks... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=224344 from bitspower, on my opinion too beautiful in relation to design!

or you you choose the EK fullcover: http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/...d.php?t=232916

or the koolance version: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=223808

then the case... arent there a lot of cleaner cases on the market? let me suggest a LianLi for your build... not only in relation to design, but also regarding the materials used in the stacker...

as i already stated it`s a matter of taste, and i don`t want to say you have a bad taste not at all... maybe you`re very focused and have somthing bigger in mind, so just forget my suggestions!! otherwise think over it...

a technical questions i do have... may it be you forgot about the decoupling of your pumps? i guess if you install them without you`ll have heavy vibrations within the case wich will be noisy... i just thought you forgot about it, because the pumps will be slightly in a higher position if you will mount something decoupling between the plexi and the pumps wich will affect the view through your small windows....

again: I love your build!! it`s awesome craftsmanship and beautiful ideas in the details, wich i really admire, so keep up the good work!!

First of all, thank you for the kind words, martensch. I'm glad that you're enjoying the build.

I appreciate your suggestions, but like callen mentioned, I think a lot of them would require starting over from scratch at this point. A lot of work has already been done on the Cosmos, and the Zero Gravity Chamber is sized to fit that case specifically. So, to this point in the build, everything is designed around the layout of the Cosmos S.

As for the "Classified" SLI motherboard, last I looked they are quite expensive, and I'm running Crossfire with two 5970s, not SLI. So it wouldn't benefit me. I already owned this Foxconn board from a prior build, so it saved me money to use it instead of purchasing another board. I do have in mind some techniques to dress up the Foxconn board to make it more visually appealing. More to come on that later.

For the waterblocks, I have already worked out a deal with DangerDen for sponsorship, and the blocks will be here either today or tomorrow. I plan on modifying them a little by either nickel plating the copper or painting the copper facing so that it blends in with my color scheme a little better. I think the blocks will look outstanding after this as they have an aggressive, futuristic look which fits this space theme well.

As for your "technical question," before installing the shelves, I had already offset them by 1/16" to make room for placing an anti-vibrating pad underneath the pumps that will fit between them and the shelves. So the pumps/res tops should still line up with the windows perfectly.

Thanks for your interest and suggestions.

I personally think it looks great and i'm sure criticism is welcome, but your basically suggesting he start all over again. Give it a bit more time and the project will be complete in all its powder coated glory. If all goes to plan (as it has so far) it will be a masterpiece.

Nice work mate

Thanks, callen! Looking forward to seeing your awesome build progress even further. (And still jealous as hell of your workshop.)

Excellent to see that this stage in neally done Xion.

Just two small sugestions.
The first one, I think is a must, I feel you need to put some large flat washers between the head of the screws and the perspex.
This will help to displace the pressure on the perspex from the head of the screws and will help stop the perspex from cracking around the holes.

The second sugestion is just a superficial one, just for looks.
It's the open/non-used mounting holes in the SSD that face out to the window.
It might just be me but they are the first thing that I see and the last thing I look at when I look through the window.
If they could be either be filled with screws, plastic plugs or a strip of black tape running the full lenght of the SSD to cover both holes.
I find the devil is in the detail and this for me would just finish this off perfectly.

Looking good mate well done.

Thanks, kg.

Yep, I was already thinking about adding washers below the screw heads. I'm working with thicker perspex than before (1/8") that's very sturdy, so I don't think this stuff will crack with the minimal weight of the SSDs. But I am going to add the washers anyway just to be safe and also because the screw heads are slipping into the drill holes and causing the drives to not sit perfectly parallel to each other. Adding washers should take care of both issues.

As for the screwholes on the sides of the SSDs, I'm in the process of looking for something to fit in those holes or layer over them. I was going to use the same black MDPC screws, but they're a little too long to fit flush with the sides of the drives.

If you or anyone else has any suggestions of something that I could use to insert in those holes that would look nice and neat, please do. I looked for some small rubber inserts at Home Depot, and they didn't have any that small that I could use.

Thanks for the continued interest, everyone!

[aka_GK]

WOW absolutely stunning

[Weevil]

Now thats an F'n update!

Nice work Buddy, two thumbs up!!

[Osterman]

IN CRE DI BLE!
I felt like I was in front of a window, looking straight to the space.
Pretty nice work.

I would like to ask, those screws you had used to attach the SSD to the perspex. They are tight? Because usually allen needs a nut at its end.

[martensch]

of course, you`re right, i don`t want you to start over again and i bet your cosmos s will be one of the most beautiful cosmos out there!!

about the board, you are right you won`t have any benefit if you are using crossfire X, wich indeed with your cards is the most powerful setup these days! may be a bloodrage instead the flaming blade? no i understand your point of stop spending more money...

nickel plating is for sure a good way to fit into your style... i guess my dislike for the dangerden waterblocks comes from the coppe look. as you can see in my worklog i have all waterblocks in black nickel except the GPU block wich is in silver nickel, cause i bought it second hand like this!

i thought so you don`t forget about some anti-vibrating mat! it just wasn`t obviously visible on your pictures that you planned an offset!

[Xion X2]

WOW absolutely stunning

Thanks, bud!

Now thats an F'n update!

Nice work Buddy, two thumbs up!!

IN CRE DI BLE!
I felt like I was in front of a window, looking straight to the space.
Pretty nice work.

I would like to ask, those screws you had used to attach the SSD to the perspex. They are tight? Because usually allen needs a nut at its end.

Thanks, Osterman!

The screws are nice and tight. They're a very snug fit in the screwholes on the SSDs. I will be doing what kg suggested, though, and add washers on the back side so that the drives mount more level to the glass.

Also, happy to hear that you got the "space effect" by looking at the chamber.

nickel plating is for sure a good way to fit into your style... i guess my dislike for the dangerden waterblocks comes from the coppe look. as you can see in my worklog i have all waterblocks in black nickel except the GPU block wich is in silver nickel, cause i bought it second hand like this!

i thought so you don`t forget about some anti-vibrating mat! it just wasn`t obviously visible on your pictures that you planned an offset!

No problem, bud. I appreciate your suggestions and just wanted to explain my mindset behind the direction that I've gone with things. I know that this worklog is up to many pages now (with probably many more ahead of us,) so it can't hurt to restate it now and again. I know that I originally had the GTX275s in SLI earlier in the project but then decided to upgrade the GPUs to 5970s.

And yeah, DangerDen has cleared me to modify the blocks to fit r e f l e X i o n 's theme. A big thanks to them for allowing me to tweak what I feel is an already exceptional product!

[Armitage]

Drives look great, How sturdy are they? I guess they don't move and don't weigh much... hehe

[Xion X2]

Drives look great, How sturdy are they? I guess they don't move and don't weigh much... hehe

Very sturdy. They don't move at all.

The perspex backing is 1/8" and is plenty firm to hold them in place.

[Red-5]

It's good to see that the problems you had with the Zero-G chamber have all been sorted, and it's all come together to the point you are at now. The SSD's and pumps look great through the side windows with exactly the effect you were after. It should look fantastic once powder coated and look forward to seeing the finished item. Excellent work as always mate.

[Xion X2]

Waterblocks came in from DangerDen yesterday. Had a chance to snap a few photos tonight. I'm even more impressed with the blocks in person. They have a nice futuristic look which I think will go great with this build. Thanks to DangerDen again for their wonderful support on this project.

[Xion X2]

It's good to see that the problems you had with the Zero-G chamber have all been sorted, and it's all come together to the point you are at now. The SSD's and pumps look great through the side windows with exactly the effect you were after. It should look fantastic once powder coated and look forward to seeing the finished item. Excellent work as always mate.

Thanks, Red.

[aka_GK]

ouch, last 2 pics look like renders
awesome blocks and shots anyway

Does "r2" on 5970 block means second revision?

[kgtiger]

I had a idea as to what you could use to fill the un-used mounting hole in the SSD.
Black Grub Screws.
I feel would be perfect for the job. They come with hex heads and can be screwed down flush with the side.
You don't need to use one that locks down tight on the bottom.
Just use a little thread tap to give the thread some resistance.
This is just a link so you can see what I mean, you may know them as set screws.http://www.hajitools.net/ssfast/grubscw.htm

The DD blocks look sweet to.

[callen_1]

Here's a relatively simple idea for the SSDs (pic's below). Nothing special but it should look pretty clean and
allow you to use the screws you currently have. The idea would be to paint/powder coat the aluminum spacers
the same colour as the case. It should also provide a suitable medium so the screws can be tightened properly,
but by all means take it or leave it

The blocks also look much better than i was expecting. It's been a while since i checked out danger den gear,
and if you do decide to nickel plate they'd look even better, not to mention original.

Looking forward to the final results

[noeru]

This is beautiful! Careful work is amazing

[Xion X2]

ouch, last 2 pics look like renders
awesome blocks and shots anyway

Does "r2" on 5970 block means second revision?

I'm guessing it is a revision, but I haven't ask them.

I had a idea as to what you could use to fill the un-used mounting hole in the SSD.
Black Grub Screws.
I feel would be perfect for the job. They come with hex heads and can be screwed down flush with the side.
You don't need to use one that locks down tight on the bottom.
Just use a little thread tap to give the thread some resistance.
This is just a link so you can see what I mean, you may know them as set screws.http://www.hajitools.net/ssfast/grubscw.htm

The DD blocks look sweet to.

Thanks for the suggestion, kg! I'm concerned that the set screws would still not give a flat, finished look, however, since there is still a hex-shaped hole in the center of the screw. I would prefer something that had a smooth, button-like finish on it so that it doesn't distract from the smooth sides of the drives.

Thanks for responding to my question about the nickel-plating. I just haven't had a chance to respond yet, but you had me rolling with laughter, bud.

Here's a relatively simple idea for the SSDs (pic's below). Nothing special but it should look pretty clean and
allow you to use the screws you currently have. The idea would be to paint/powder coat the aluminum spacers
the same colour as the case. It should also provide a suitable medium so the screws can be tightened properly,
but by all means take it or leave it

The blocks also look much better than i was expecting. It's been a while since i checked out danger den gear,
and if you do decide to nickel plate they'd look even better, not to mention original.

Looking forward to the final results

Thanks, callen! I appreciate your suggestion and will keep it in mind as I continue to look around.

I do plan on nickel-plating the blocks at this point. I'm just looking for a reliable shop in the area that can do it for me.

This is beautiful! Careful work is amazing

Thanks, noeru!

I do appreciate the suggestions on the screwholes, guys, and will certainly keep them in mind as I continue to research all options. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

[Xion X2]

At this time, I'd like to provide a brief summary of r e f l e X i o n to this point, provide a glimpse of what the next steps are, and then I will introduce my third sponsor for the project.

First of all, thank you to everyone who has participated in r e f l e X i o n to this point by posting many encouraging and flattering comments here about the work that has been done thus far. I read each and every comment that's posted at each of my logs and try to respond on a person-by-person basis, because your comments are both encouraging and entertaining, and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to post and +rep to let me know they're enjoying the build or to offer suggestions. These comments greatly help and sometimes are the difference in motivating me to go forward--especially during times when you've hit a brick wall with your fabrication or design. So thanks to each and every one of you here at XS.


Design and Build

To this point, everyone has seen the first two stages of the project: Design and Build. I designed the Galaxy side panel with 3dsMax, an autocad program. A freehand drawing of the galaxy image was first done by my friend, Mark (a part-time artist), which I then imported into 3dsMax and made several modifications to. The design time once in 3dsMax was around 80 hours, and the drawing is composed of over 300 individual vertices that were used to create the circular, orbiting rings from a 3-D perspective. Just to quickly review, this was a shot of the image editing in action:



After that, I had the finished 3dsMax drawing file cut into a clean side panel at a waterjet shop about two hours from my home. You've probably seen it a hundred times by now as I'm quite proud of it.

Next, I began designing the "Zero Gravity Chamber," also in 3dsMax.

Concept:


Reality:


This part I have fabricated myself except for the windows which were carved with the same waterjet that did my side panel. It is now close to completion.. just a little more polishing and fab work need to be done, and then it will go off to be powdercoated with the rest of the case frame.

So now, it's time to move into the next key stage of the project, which is:


Project Stage III: Lighting

And with that, I would like to introduce my next key sponsor for r e f l e X i o n, Lamptron.



Lamptron contacted me a few weeks ago about partnering on r e f l e X i o n. I let them know that it was perfect timing on their part as I was just about to start creating the lighting scheme behind it.

Lighting is a priority in this build, as I will be using it to give r e f l e X i o n its identity. There are three distinct lighting techniques which will be used. Lamptron will be assisting me with two of those, while I will be both designing and fabricating the other myself. In the coming weeks, I'll be revealing the specific items that Lamptron will be sponsoring me for and the lighting techniques we have decided on.

A special thanks to Lamptron for joining the team. I look forward to working with them in the coming weeks.

[martensch]

very nice shots of the cooling blocks!! you use a very good lighting, and like this i really like the blocks!!

[Vinas]

Lamptron makes good blocks... Sounds good.