Project: APASF ("A Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk Future")

First update of D-Day -1.

I am plausibly going slightly crazy...

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...yes

Started drilling based on measurements taken yesterday and test mounted both radiators.

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Matt black painted the chasis, even though in the picture it doesn´t look matt, that´s because paint wasn´t dry yet.

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Painted one side of both radiators (mainly the middle as the the non-radiator-y-bits will receive the wood treatment later today. Before anyone goes crazy about loosing performance and all that. I´ll say what I´ve said every other time I´ve painted a rad or heatsink and noticed no loss of performance. If you do it with acrylic paint, it´s fine. It´s not fine when you do it with synthetic or plastic paints. You can argue all you want, but I wouldn´t be doing it if I hadn´t tested it countless times : )

I´m hoping I can run the system without fans on the radiator to acceptable temps, since there´s 2 rads and all they are cooling is the cpu, if not, will add fans at a later point, but for the "final" look they won´t have fans on them.

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Painted the plastic parts of the reservoir...

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...and it´s mounts.

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And finished all the wood effect trimmings.

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Piping won´t be done today as all the parts need to be mounted and while that will happen today, it won´t before the plumbing supplies shop closes for the day.

So will be going hopefully first thing tomorrow morning and getting all the piping done, leave the loop running for as many hours as I can allow it to and still have time to mount the hardware and psu in and finish by midning tomorrow.

...I can´t believe I haven´t aplied the matt clear coat finish yet...

Now I have to go to my actual job and pretend like I´m not freaking out about not finishing this in time :S
 
Looking real good so far! Definitely something VERY unique will come from this!
 
Kty said:
Just wait till I go on my little NZXT modding adventure. ;)
Click to expand...

Can't wait! This is one of the most interesting builds I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot because I've seen just about everything, lol. I'm serious, your paint skills are absolutely brilliant!

Keep up the good work!
 
Not sure if that message was meant for Kty or me XNine, but if it was for me, thank you, I try my best! : )
 
Right, I´m at then end of D-Day -1, tomorrow is the last day.

Now, a lot of stuff has been finished but because some where still drying I didnt want to risk mounting what I need to measure for the piping till tomorrow morning, then as I mentioned in the previous post, piping time.

Anyhow...

Rads finished.

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Reservoir unmasked...

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...and aged with a touch of "filth".

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If all goes well, tomorrow 1 to 2 updates + final update... after that, beer and a nervous breakdown :D
 
Right guys, we´re at that point, this is the update before the final update (in theory aniway).

So, this morning I assembled all that needed to be in or on the case in order to do the piping.

So, rads, motherboard and other assorted pieces.

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And this is what the case looked like pre-piping.

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So went down to my local friendly plumbing supplies shop and with some help from the shop attendant (my mate) and later on the owner of the shop (he was intrigued on what we were doing), I put it all togueter, it was incredibly hard to measure everything up correctly, tighten all the fittings being very carefull with the fragile ones (like the plexy ones on the cpu cooler or the plastic ones on the pump and reservoir). And after almost 4 hours, got it ready.

So here is the bare essentials case (nothing is screwed in, details wise, only the liquid cooling related stuff.

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I now of course have to aply all the ageing effects to the fittings and pipes.

After that I went to my actual job (as I mentioned in previous posts I took both yesterday morning and today morning off to work on the project but still had to work 4 hours in the evening.

I´ve taken the motherboard out and left the loop running to be sure there´s no leaks before I put everything togueter.

And yeah if there´s no leaks I feel optimistic about meeting the deadline but words cannot express how tired and generally exhausted I feel.

Again, thanks for reading and following the project.
 
Thats a good question, hmmm maybe I guess, it certainly should be better than normal tubing as doesnt it make it kind of like one big radiator?
 
Awesome, looking forward to the final build pics... I hope this thing will be shown off at some LAN parties?
 
You´re prob right Jorona, still, it´s always going to run colder than with the usual tubes.

Grambo, of course, at least 2 major ones this year (4K+ People) and several other smaller ones, mainly for modding competitions and so on.

-----------------

Hi Guys,

I tried my best, I´m sure you all know from my hectic updates these last almost 3 weeks that I´ve been working every second I get free on the project. Unfortunately it was not enough. The reason for starting so late was waiting for parts to arrive and basically financially being able to buy all the materials, paints, etc I needed to make this truelly unique.

The fact is I´m about 1-3 days short worth of work on detailing, fixing some last minute issues (that always pop up) and so on to be happy with the final result.

That said, I have made it as presentable as posible to be able to participate in the competition I started this for.

As you can see some parts are missing like the wood trimmings (that´s what those holes in the metal are for), some modifications to make everything fit better, and a few other things, also theres 2 very small leaks on 2 different fittings on the radiator side of the case which I need to fix.

And a long list of "small things to do".

Goes without saying I am finishing the project, but since the hectic deadline is now over I will be taking my sweet time, and making sure everything is as perfect as my skills allow it to be.

Aniway, here are the pictures of how it looks right now.

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I'm so intrigued by this that I have to see the finished product. Sub'd!
 
Jorona said:
You'd have to fin the tubes for it to do any real heat dissipation.
Click to expand...

Not really, a cylinder has fairly high surface area, it'd still dissipate quite a bit of heat.

Build is looking great now that things are starting to come together!
 
Don't really care for the not-quite-straight piping in places, most obviouslt coming out of the top radiator. Given you did clean right angles most other places it just comes off as sloppy and not really fitting with theme, where if things were more consitently "off kilter" I think it would actually add to the theme ("steampunk" and worn down).

Otherwise well done, it honestly came out better than I imagined it would so far. I don't really care for the watches in the picture frame window either, but you did a good job on them.
 
It is extremely hard getting these things to fit straight and stay straight, it simply wasn´t possible to get it to fit better, I understand why you mention it but you wouldnt understand until you see it being done, it takes a very very long time to get the best out of it.

But thanks for the comment
 
This is by far one of the coolest builds I've ever seen. I'm not even a fan of Steampunk, but hot damn is this thing is looking gorgeous! I bow to your modding skills!

You've done so much work in so little time, too. It seems every day when I come back there's a huge update. Keep it up!
 
Cheers XNine : ) I´m just a bit sad that I didnt manage to finish in time for the compeition, but at least now I can take my time in making it perfect, there´s still a ton of details and little parts that will be part of the final look that need to be done, but I´ll be taking a couple of days "off" as it´s literally been 3 weeks no stop to try and make it for that comp
 
Hmmm...I'm kinda neutral on this one.

Started off so well and the theme and idea behind it are excellent but something about final product seems lacking in fit and finish. Almost like, and I mean no offense, that it should have been done a little more professionally.

I'm sure you had it all planned out but even not being one to mod cases I see tons of little problems and finer details that I think are a little obvious. I could go into detail but whats done is done. Overall the idea is a 8/10 (steam punk is kinda been there done that but I LOVE the SFF case, actually giving me ideas :-p) where as the execution feels more like a 5/10. Impressive than what many could do that's for sure.

Not bashing or anything, just a little criticism.
 
Thanks guys, Joe, while I understand your post and take no offence on it you obviously haven´t read the currently last update post. I´m not finished by a long run, those pictures where put togueter for the sake of a competition, if you look closely nothing´s plugged in, no cableing etc. There´s a ton of detailing still needed to go on, etc ; )
 
Hey Luciel,

First glance at your post and I have to say, rather splendid job so far to date. Steampunk isn't my particular preference, but I can certainly appreciate the sheer amount of work and detail you've put into the rig so far. It is evident at every stage of the build that you had a definite vision for precisely how you wanted the case to come out, and your painstaking work has paid off.

As for comments regarding how straight the piping is, or the inclusion (or exclusion) of various details, I would say to disregard them, but rather I will say this: if the piping was perfectly straight, it would be a greater continuity error than Greedo shooting first. You described your goal as the depiction of a "post-apocalyptic steam punk" and have gone to great pains to infuse a look of age and abuse into the build; crooked, even cracked pipes would be expected.

Though I realize it isn't actually possible (considering that this is after all a computer), it's almost a shame that you can't preserve the two small leaks you mentioned. It would only add to the look.

I'm subbing the thread to keep up with your updates. Good work and good luck, mate!
 
thanks a bunch guys!

Driawyer, thanks for the detailed post, I hadn´t though about it that way, but you definately have a point! : )
 
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Update:

I´ve been fighting for the last two weeks with the tubing, I´m still trying to fix the leak on one of the outputs on the reservoir, the other two leaks have been fixed (I took apart those sections and reinforced the joints with teflon which seals it quite nicely, for whatever reason that doesn´t seem to be working with the reservoir.

I have a couple of options I will be trying on monday, hopefully one of them will work. Worst comes to worst I can permanently fit the joint which will fix the issue but will not allow for it to ever be taken apart again (not that its an issue as I never planned to but its nice to know I can if for whatever reason I need to).

Updates to come following that.

On another subject, I´ve been nominated for MOTM over at bit-tech, and the voting has been going on from the 6th of July. The voting ends on the 6th of Aug, i.e. tomorrow monday at 8 am. I´m currently fighting for the first place so if you feel like helping out, pop by and vote. But I´d like to stress that, only do it if you believe APASF is the best out of the 6 mods shown there. I´d greatly appreciate it : )

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=233580
 
Thank you everyone who voted for me on the Bit-Tech.net Mod of the Month June Edition Competition. I´m over the moon for winning! ^^
 
Hi Everyone,

After almost a year since I started the project, it is now Finished.

Since October I´ve been adding paint effects, ink effects, done some detail changes, added missing details and essentially obsessed over there damned thing. Following the original idea I did 2 casings, one for the psu and one for the gpus, unfortunately I just wasn´t happy with them, I felt they changed the overall look to much. I never wanted it to look clean as it simply doesn´t fit the post-apocalyptic style so in the end I opted for a rough way around it. The last 4 PSU connectors are bare and inked cabling for the GPUs. I´m sure quite a few of you would´ve proffered casings but I feel this way is what suits the style of the project best.

I also pretty much "coated" the whole thing with a mix of inks that took me a month to get right for a more old-n-gritty feel as while I was very happy with how the faux wood effect turned out, I felt it didn´t much the rest of the oxidized copper effects, this slight effect ink helps blend these two together and really make it look like it´s been around for a hundred years. If you compare these final pictures to the previous update pictures you´ll find you can´t exactly point why, but you´ll understand what I mean (or at least I hope you will :) )

I also realise there´s no SLI bridge, this is simply because I´ve misplaced mine and didn´t want to wait till I ordered a new one to make the final pictures as I didn´t feel it was that important and... I really needed to end this stage of my life.

APASF is the project I´ve always wanted to do ever since I started painting and modding and while there are somethings that NOW I may have done differently, I´m extremely happy with the final outcome, I´m also relieved it´s over, it's taken a huge toll on me and in the end, it was more of an obligation and obsession rather than something I enjoyed doing as sad as that may sound.

I´d like to thank my sponsors for being so patient with it as it´s taken 6 months more than I originally thought it would and of course for being there with me all the way.

Right, without further wait, here is the final shoot of APASF "A Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk Future".

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Thank you all for reading through this long worklog during what for me has been the hardest project I´ve ever done!

Until next time,
Luciel
 
Not too shabby. I think the piping is too big...would definitely look better it were closer to the body, more compact in a way. It looks crooked in some places too. That and the frame on the front is too large and looks out of place and though I get the thought in mind for what's in the frame it just doesn't look good...perhaps throw some gears in there or bigger clocks/watches to fill it out more, too empty as it is.

Over all though the design is sound, definitely like it, just can't say I love it ya know? Not trying to be a hater or anything I just see how with this or that it could be a lot better.

Sorry for being an ass.
 
I'm curious to see how the cabling will work. Some ports on the motherboard are cover as well as the video cards. Also the power supply has some things blocked. Well done so far though!
 
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