[Build Log] Arctic Water

[B NEGATIVE]

This build is based around the massive CosmosII from Coolermaster,a very well appointed beast of a case!
Omega Stalker from OC3D contacted me to build something for him using this oooooge chunk of enclosure greatness
The theme running thru this is a white/black/copper colour scheme with some icy touches...

These are coming out for 2 240 Koolance rads...

Looks about right for 2 large bays....

Magoo approves this post!

And the mandatory Cosmos 'bird of prey' pose.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Leta make a start on the cooling..

Omega got a great deal on some Koolance rads and decided he wants to go with those,these 240 rads have a neat party trick!

Prep and primered.

These will be white. Thanks Koolance for making my life easier.

Now,you cant leave the 360 on its own,it need some love too!

Just waiting for Paints 4 u to get the white paint then i can do the rads,finish them off and turn my attention to the outside of the case.

Large window cutouts to do,lots of interior paneling out and more tasty things....

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Today i get on with the paint triage and the dis-assembly.
Not hard to do but you must be careful,the tab plastics are thin and wont take abuse..

Lets start by getting those doors off,nicely made and with the best hinges i have seen on a case.

Clear out the endless drive bays from the now rad bay.

Magoo surveys the scrap for potential morsels...

Greedy boy....

Top panel.

Separated for painting..

The usual sharp edges from the fold tabs made me a few choice expletives a few times

And the now exposed 360 rad mounts.

Surgery performed and parts stacked up for prep.

Magoo is making pointed reminders about dinner in the background....

Oooge fan!

So now its paint prep time,the more effort i put in now,the better the result!

I wont bore you with all the prep photo's when im done,you must of seen that kind of thing endlessly now....

 

[B NEGATIVE]

OmegaStalker sent down the pump top he is using,a dual loop EK D5 top.

As you can see,this one is crop circle free....and better for it...

What is this? 2mm Copper? Shiny copper? Luuuurvely copper....

This is going to be for the front panel and pump tops,plus any detailing that i want to pick out...

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Take one plain looking EK dual top..

Add copper and a whole lot of manual metal working...

This piece needs to be hit with a bench buffer before it goes on,i have seen one at a good price so that will be my next purchase for the 'lab'
There will be a matching piece for the pump side too,should look good when its done.

Its been a bit busy recently but today I made a start on the back plate for the pumps.
Its roughed out,I need to take some fine files to it to finish it off.

Round the corners and finalize the shape then off to the buffer!

Knocked the copper back with 1600 W/D ready for some bench polishing (when the bloody thing arrives)

Holding off the final profiling of the corners until i have some pumps in.

Brightens up an otherwise ordinary pump top....wishing for a drill press too i think,would of made the hole drilling much easier than the trusty 18v cordless...

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Some progress.

Fans and rads painted and soon to be fitted,got some 240 rad stands coming so i can clear out the bottom bay.
I could of got a pair of 360 rads in the space under there!

Top 360 in,this will have a mesh cover over the rad face or may make a rad guard out of copper sheet....Time took get hammer out!

Top panel painted.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Sorry about the wait,I have been waiting for forever for my sheet metal bender.

Thankfully it arrived today so i got on with the shrouds and rad mounts

Lower bay has been cleared of all the excess junk so i can get to work.

In the bay.

The PSU end of the shroud will be detailed with a plexi window to show off the PSU

You can see the midplate is in,the pump mount is cut and ready to fit and the first of the rad mounts in the lower bay is done.
I will be getting the rad mount on the other side finished and the shroud for the drive bays done.

Once all the metal work has been done then i will move on to finishing the paint work.

 

[dieseldog49]

Mmmmmm, copper always a good choice

 

[B NEGATIVE]

And for the other side...

Cant do one side and not the other,this is a double sided case design so it has to look good front and back.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

A little teaser....

 

[ivoryg37]

love all the copper in this build! Too bad they didn't make a MSI golden edition twin frozr for the newer card like the 560

 

[B NEGATIVE]

He is going for 7950's with blocks anyway my friend. Moar copper to come!

Omega Stalker has settled on what he wants 'under the bonnet' as it where.

3770k and a Z77 Sabertooth,this is the second one I have used as they just look and perform great!
A good choice all round from what i see!

Just need to breadboard it all for problems before i mod the armour and ram.

Initially there was a 3570 going in but Omega found a 3770k in his price bracket and jumped on it fast,wise move i think.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

First irritant of the day...

Coolermaster make a PSU mounting bracket for this case,shame it doesnt seem to fit without removing the PSU fan grill....

Interesting.....someone wasnt thinking.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

So,the bottom rad bay is done on the windowed side and the main components are in for the pre-mod shake down

Forgive the pic quality,using my cam phone.

There will be thin clear plexi strips across the opening like a grill.

More Alu coming tomorrow for the interior,im aiming to get the whole lower rad bay finished,pumps mounted and all the plastics back on by weekend (better pictures as well!)

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Sorry about the delay,cant find my flash card for my DSLR so its cam pics for this little update.

Midplate in and painted

And the pump top is mounted,the copper top is missing as it needs polishing.

Front shot showing the copper accents on the drop down panel.

The res are off to Tom at Chilled PC for the front ports to be drilled and tapped.
I was going to attempt this myself but Tom is great at what he does and charges a very reasonable rate,I would be mad not to get him to do it!

Next stop,getting the hardware in for its shake down before hitting it with teh paint gun.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Sorry its been a bit quiet from me but i have had some heavy work commitments,thankfully im back to normal service!!

Which means i have had time to get Omega Stalkers build moving again!

So,I cut some 2 mm hole mesh and sprayed it copper for the PSU area of the bottom bay.

And got the res back from Pulse modding with shiny new 1/4 ports on the front.
I can heartily recommend these guys for a pro service and I will be using him again,I can see why Specialtech use him for their TJ07 modwork.

And finally (for today anyway) caustic soda punches EK anodizing in the face...

White or copper,not decided yet.......

Now im not working stupid hours, i can invest more time into this build and finish this bad boy!!

 

[B NEGATIVE]

And the first backplate is done...

Copper and white,cant lose!

 

[B NEGATIVE]

So now i know that this board is a good one,we can start with the paint...

Alphacool block with a painted mount.

Im not normally one for fancy TIM but i just had to try the current best..

Board in its new home!

Little trims as i didnt want to see bare joins or edges.

So all need to really do inside is the panel covering the drives and other little details but its coming along now.

Externally,The res cover needs to be drilled out and the doors need doing,cant wait to tackle them!

Unfortunately both the XFX 7970's were DOA and as they were second hand the seller wants nothing to do with it....so Omega Stalker is hunting ref spec cards,if anyone has a pair that they want to sell cheap then please PM me.

 

[DogsofJune]

That is coming along nicely.

 

[AuraofVengeance]

Very nice build I like the copper and white on your build as well. Awesome job so far can't wait to see the rest.

 

[firas]

very nice, can't wait to see the tubes part.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

3mm thick copper front plate roughed out for filing...
Magoo has given it the once over,he runs a tight ship on quality control.

 

[Arcygenical]

You have fantastic paint skills.

Are you using rustoleum professional high gloss white?

 

[wra18th]

This is an amazing mod to an already amazing case. Sub'd!

 

[DraginDime]

I'm really liking the white/copper colors together. Did you make those PCI slot covers? they look really cool on that board. Great work so far.

 

[haunter]

very nice

 

[motokorth]

Very nice, and clean. I just picked up that MB too.

 

[magoo]

Nice dog. Great name.

Your paint skillz are top notch. As are your Copper bending skillz....I love those fans.

Really neat design you got going.

 

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

great build.
i love my z77 sabertooth. it will go beyond what pretty much every other z77 board will go, at least on air. i like cool temps though so its also a good board for undervolting because the power delivery on this board is top notch.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

I'm really liking the white/copper colors together. Did you make those PCI slot covers? they look really cool on that board. Great work so far.

They come with the board along with fake ram if you run 2 sticks

very nice

Thanks!

Very nice, and clean. I just picked up that MB too.

This is the second i have used in a customer build,I like them very much

Nice dog. Great name.

Your paint skillz are top notch. As are your Copper bending skillz....I love those fans.

Really neat design you got going.

Thanks man,Magoo approves this post

great build.
i love my z77 sabertooth. it will go beyond what pretty much every other z77 board will go, at least on air. i like cool temps though so its also a good board for undervolting because the power delivery on this board is top notch.

She is a beauty.

 

[DraginDime]

They come with the board along with fake ram if you run 2 sticks

Interesting, I've never seen fake RAM before lol. They do look really good painted. I almost went with that board when I built my rig. It is a good looking board.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

A little update.

The front panel is nearly ready for the buffer,just need to add the chamfers on the edges.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

in other news...

TO THE BUFFER!!

One of the fill ports is slightly out which is annoying as i can really take any more out of the top face of the cover....

 

[B NEGATIVE]

Got to say it looks great!

Today i did the first cut on the buffer.

SAFETY FIRST!

Stating with a sisal wheel and brown cutting compound.

Load her up....

And let her rip!

Looks good right?

This is the first cut,I will have to repeat this process as will become clear....

On to the cotton mop with blue compound.

Getting there....

Peek a boo! That copper spray is an amazing match!

Now that does look good!!

You can see that the copper still has imperfections so its coming out again and being redone

 

[Draconian]

oooOOO Shiny! I like! Copper and white go good together.

 

[wra18th]

(drool......)

 

[t_ski]

Are you clear-coating the copper somehow after polishing?

 

[Jorona]

Are you clear-coating the copper somehow after polishing?

This.

Oxidation would SUCK.

 

[t_ski]

This.

Oxidation would SUCK.

Unless you're going to that patina look. I would think that doesn't match with what you've got going so far, as that might be more steam punk.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

The copper is getting a sealing wax finish as it doesnt change the colour in any way,spray sealants can dull the finish.