Level Twelve

I think I spent an entire day researching power supplies. Info on dimensions was sometimes sketchy. What I got is exactly the same width as stock but a little shorter height.There is a photo on the first page.
 
your woodworking skills never cease to amaze me. That along with your ingenuity in how to build the case. Been following this build with much excitement to see it in its final glory...
 
You have some considerable skill. I'm loving this build. Keep up the good work.
 
That came together very nicely and very quick too.

Nice work man.

Thanks! I haven't even gotten to the best part yet.:) The contest is over in two weeks and I intend to finish early so I can enjoy some of the holiday season. (and watch my competitors struggle to the end. lol)
 
Haha I voted for you because you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. And you made me laugh reading that, amazing work man, truly first ass class.
 
Haha I voted for you because you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. And you made me laugh reading that, amazing work man, truly first ass class.

Cool! I'm glad you like my write up. I wrote my very first work log here at HardOCP nearly five years ago and it's always a pleasure posting here.

Now that was some significant ass-kissing deserving of a vote dammit. :)
 
Awesome work, wish I had such skills. Keep it up, I am sure you are inspiring others to do great things.
 
Yep University of Central Florida. We have our Championship game this Saturday at home, GO KNIGHTS :p
 
Let us know when you get final pics up here and we will give it front page linkage. Looks like it turned out friggin beautiful.
 
Unfinished? Not from the front, I think it is a thing of beauty. But match those screw colors on the back. Silver heads stick out and look kinda cheap.
 
Yeah, if you could pull the chassis down to bare metal and paint the back black then do black screws and thumbscrews, it would look a lot more elegant from behind.
 
That was on my to-do list but time has expired. Painting tends to be a huge time pit for me and weather conditions aren't exactly optimal (insert other excuses here) I haven't even had a chance to properly test the equipment yet so it all boiled down to priorities. It will be interesting to see what my competitors will give up on in the coming week because they are far, far behind me.

EDIT:On second thought, I'll give the painting a go after I get some current "final" photos just in case things go badly. I'm going to paint it anyway...it's just the timing.
 
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Followed the front page linkage that Kyle posted, and after reviewing the Level Eleven and Twelve threads all I can say is that you do some incredible work with your case mods. I'd be delighted to have half the talent and patience you have when it comes to custom fabrication like this. Excellent job on both mods, and thanks for inspiring the rest of us to be a little more creative! :D
 
Followed the front page linkage that Kyle posted, and after reviewing the Level Eleven and Twelve threads all I can say is that you do some incredible work with your case mods. I'd be delighted to have half the talent and patience you have when it comes to custom fabrication like this. Excellent job on both mods, and thanks for inspiring the rest of us to be a little more creative! :D

Thanks Axdrenalin. I appreciate the kind words.

The front page article is great! It pains me to read comments like "Right now I see no regard given to ventilation and that saddens me." and "who needs unblocked air vents anyways?". People will make judgments based soley on what they see. It comes with the territory when you go out of your way to conceal vent ducts and fans. In a way it is a compliment. A photo with cutsey blue and red arrows showing airflow in one of my cutaway photos should be helpful but not if people are link impaired. Sigh.

If someone needs something to knock on then noise would be acceptable. At full tilt that Delta fan sounds like a margarita blender. No ventilation problems at all. :D
 
You talked about maybe putting brass between the boxes where you have black now - that might bling it up, or it might make it too busy - but I think it might look nice.
 
Pure Awesome!
Thank you!

I have been having fun playing with the computer. I figured that the video card was the weak link in the performance and by overclocking it I would be simultaneously testing the ventilation system.

I got a core clock of 870 (700 stock) from the 5750 and the memory clock of 1300 (1150 stock). I like to use the Far Cry 2 benchmark tool for testing. 4x AA and all settings maxed. Stock average was 49 FPS, Max 70, Min 38. Overclocked average was 64 FPS, Max 89, Min 51. The Delta cooling fan was turned down all the way using the Fanmate - about 2000RPM (max 4000RPM). The OC GPU temp hit 59 degrees C and the stock run came out at 57 degrees. I'm very pleased with the results.

Next up. Overclocking the CPU and bringing the PSU to its knees. :p
 
I understand your disdain for optical drives, and I can understand commitments to sponsors, however, when you do employ an optical drive what dictates it being a slot, or tray design? It would seem that recessed slot installations would hardly be noticeable. Please enlighten us. Cheers!
 
I understand your disdain for optical drives, and I can understand commitments to sponsors, however, when you do employ an optical drive what dictates it being a slot, or tray design? It would seem that recessed slot installations would hardly be noticeable. Please enlighten us. Cheers!

First off, I have no commitments to sponsors. I don't like the word "sponsors" because it smells of some sort of legal agreement that doesn't exist. They are friends and fans of my work who are smart enough to know that giving me stuff helps me do what I do and in the end turns out to be a cheap, effective marketing strategy. You might notice that no company name or logo has ever appeared on one of my projects. The subject has never been raised.

I am an early adopter of new technology and also an early disposer of old technology. Optical drives are dead whether people realize it or not. I only used an OD in this project because I thought using one in conjunction with USB 3.0 technology would be pretty cool. I didn't even use it to load the OS but instead used one of my trusty external USB OD drives instead. Purely out of habit. I'm confident that history will prove me right as it did when I rejected floppy disks. :D [/rant]
 
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