Candy Cube

colossous — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:28:06 +0000

Well, its been a long day and i got a fair bit done ! The tubings on but not secured and ready for testing ! The hard drives underneath (think i might move it back out of sight - what d’ya think ?) so that i could stealth up and de-clutter the case llike this :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0147-1.jpg

Neither side finished yet but you get the idea !!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0139.jpg

Rest time !!

Filled the loop and done some testing, few things to change (bought some RED led’s that turned out to be blue (AAHH) - teach me to test them 1st !!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0155.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0156.jpg

And the Dragon is becoming a bit of a theme - had to cover the DVD writer afterall !

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0161.jpg

And a snippet with the lights out !!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0149.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0153.jpg

colossous — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:42:14 +0000

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0147-1.jpg

Neither side finished yet but you get the idea !!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0139.jpg

Rest time !!

colossous — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 12:00:46 +0000

Another minor update - some wet black paint !! :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0076.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0073.jpg

colossous — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:43:29 +0000

Had a chance to work on the side and top panels today before work, i’ve got smoked plexi glass to replace the originals so the first job was to drill them using one of the original panels as a template :-
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0067.jpg

I’ve decided to paint the inside of the plexi panels, from the outside with no lights on they should look plain smoked but when the insides lit up it should show up the shapes i’ve sprayed :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0070.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0071.jpg

I also got quite a few pieces of plexi sorted for the interior and heres a taster allthough this wont be staying like this !! :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0065.jpg

Tomorrow i’ve got lots of black things to spray !

colossous — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:43:48 +0000

Right, its out with the tools time !! Stealth covers and acrylic to cut and 2 hours before work !!!! :-

My friends the tin snips and AC Ryan Mesh !

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0046.jpg

Once cut its the bend it over the edge of a bench technique !

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0049.jpg

Both sides bent !
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0052.jpg

Holes drilled and in need of finishing but its off to work so - can you guess where its going ?

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0055.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0056.jpg

Got all the acrylic cut and the othet mesh i wanted too and now i’ve had to phone work and say i’m going to be an hour late lol !!!

colossous — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:28:49 +0000

In my 3 hours again today before work, got down to dressing the mobo and Graphics card. Its my 1st time with waterblocks so i took my time and was very methodical. As i said in an earlier post i stripped the thread changing to the copper block on the Apogee GTX and after talkin to Tom at Chilled PC i decided to get the D-tek Fusion block (with the accelerator nozzles) as its rated better for quads anyway and i can get the GTX fixed at leisure and use it on another build and not hold up this one !!
Heres some pics of todays progress :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0041.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0043-1.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0045.jpg

More soon folks !

colossous — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:14:22 +0000

Ok folks, i finally have all the pieces to get the job done, i had 3 hours this am before i had to work and having started the other day with the sleeving of wires/fans etc i thought i’d show you the end product of around 5/6hrs of soldering and sleeving and this is about 80% of what i have to do !!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0031.jpg

I have a few hours in the morning to start some work on the stealth covers i have in mind so more updates soon !

colossous — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:24:35 +0000

Ok folks, have done lots of little jobs while i’m waiting for the last parts to arrive. I’ve decided to go with the P5k and it should be here soon ! Had a mountain of sleeving to do and i’ve got through about half of it before running out of heatshrink, i’ve still got eight 120mm fans to sleeve !! Here’s a few led’s for the cause ! :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0003.jpg

Decided to go for a bay res in the cube, the double bay XPSC jobbie should suit the case and the black Feser that will occupy it !! :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0019.jpg

And i went for the Swiftech GTX cpu block but decided that the “aluminium” word was out so this is the solution ! :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0009.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0012.jpg

You’ll see the finished item in situ soon ! I could mount the EK gpu block too but i want to make sure all these parts work together when the mobo arrives so that will be later.

colossous — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:19:14 +0000

There was a couple of things about the case that were’nt to my personnal preference, the 1st being the side panels so i bought some smoked acrylic to use instead (more later) and the powdercoat finish whilst very practical i thought was’nt the best finish for such an outstanding case. There was quite a bit of “orange peel” effect and i wanted to do something about it.

I started with 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper, went to 2500 grit and finally polish and elbow grease which resulted in the following (pics are in order of each stage) :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0141.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0147.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0146.jpg

I’m not skilled at paint finishing at all but after about an hours work i could see how this could work really well in the hands of the pro’s. Aside from that, i saw an American muscle car at a show back in the day that had been finished in Candy Apple red paint (red over gold) and it was the best paint job i’ve ever seen before or after and i started thinking about the cube…….

I went to a sprayers i’d been reccomended (they specialise in motorcycle tanks and fairings as well as cars) and on talking to the guys they reccomended using the candy red over the black and whilst it was wet - clingfilming it to create a marbled effect before laquering the whole thing and flatting to a mirror shine. The results of 2 weeks work speak for themself !! :-

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0193.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0184.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0196.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0194.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0183.jpg

I am well pleased with the finish, i’m awaiting the last couple of parts for the build (1 being an Asus P5k Deluxe motherboard) then i’ll be starting the interior build and my plan is to make it as neat as possible sticking with the red and black theme, i’ve got mesh and acrylic panels to stealth the cabling and air and watercooling to fit into this big box so till next time ….

colossous — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:13:10 +0000

Hello folks, i’d like to show you and tell you about my current Project - Candy Cube - using a Mountain Mods Opti 1203 cube casethat will be pimped over the next few weeks ! The case came into my possesion 2nd hand like this -

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j303/richmawr/PICT0014.jpg