Permalänk

Project Snowflake [scratch build]

Welcome to Project Snowflake!

Background: I've been thinking of doing a scratch build for a while now. First it was just kind of a dream, but since last summer I have seriously begun planning and I now finally have a finished first sketch that I want to share with you! There are still many things that I need to figure out about this project and I have yet to decide about which parts and components I will use but I wanted to let anyone who wants follow this almost from day 1. I will do my best to update you on the progress along the way!

About me: My name is Axel, a 20 years old guy studying Industrial Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Sweden. I’ve been into computers since my dad bought our first computer about 10 years ago. A few years later when we decided to get a new machine, I did get a chance to disassemble the old one and in that moment I was caught. I have now built about 10 systems and have gathered all the experience, knowledge and inspiration I think I need for this project! You can find my last two builds here:
http://www.sweclockers.com/galleri/12766-corsair-350d
http://www.sweclockers.com/galleri/12506-mitt-250d-delid

Large update with a lot of changes! (Read here) The new idea is a mITX case with alot of inspiration from the original Project Snowflake drawings bot made all out of Plexiglas and without the curves the original drawings and renderings had. More info in this post: http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/143-projektloggar/1338458-project-snowflake/#post15118838

Old info:

The project: The basic idea is a simple but elegant mATX system with just the necessary components. No large raid array or extra USB panel etc. For the cooling I’m planning to use a single thick 280mm rad in the front with a loop including CPU and GPU(s). Since it is an open case design, acoustics won’t be my number one priority. I still haven’t decided whether to use acrylic tubing or normal soft tubing but in either case I’m planning on a white and light blue color theme for the build. The timeframe for this project will be a few months. This might sound long for a computer build but school takes a lot of time during the weeks and I don’t want to rush this.

The case: It’s designed so that the motherboard tray either can be mounted the “normal” way on the right side panel or inverted on the left side. Most of the back side and the side opposite to the motherboard will be mostly open to create better airflow and easier maintenance. To get a simple and clean look, the case will have a front panel with just a power button and a snowflake cut out. The fans behind will get air through the side vents on both sides. Everything will be mounted together with moding cubes from Parvum systems. I have also made mounting holes for two 120mm fans in the top if I decide to go for just a single GPU.

Dold text

Right now: Boot testing with moth most of the core components done! Now the modding can begin! I have painted allt the red parts of the mobo white and also painted the radiators and the waterblovk to match the color theme.

The work on the case keeps on. Unfortunately it takes longer than I expected, mostly because I really want it too look nice and I cant really stop working on the small details. I also don't have all the tools I wish I had so some things like cutting and drilling takes longer than it could have taken with the right tools... :/

Take care,
Axel

PS. Jag kommer att skriva huvudinläggen på engelska då jag har projektloggar på engelskspråkiga forum också men kommentera gärna på svenska om ni vill! DS.

Update 1, New plan!

Update 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Permalänk
Medlem

Ser lovande ut. Snöflingor är fina

Hade varit kul att se en mockup med komponenter monterade lite senare

Permalänk
Medlem

Så du menar att du kommer inte att täcka över moderkortet? Inget glas?

Visa signatur

För övrigt anser jag att tobak ska förbjudas.

Permalänk
Medlem

Ser mycket lovande ut, gillar verkligen formspråket. Tankarna går omedelbart till Jonsbo UMX2, som jag förmodligen hade skaffat för länge sedan om det gick att importera till ett rimligt pris

Visa signatur

Nu lurade jag dig att slösa bort ett par värdefulla sekunder av ditt liv på att läsa denna fullständigt poänglösa signatur!

Permalänk
Skrivet av Greven.:

Ser lovande ut. Snöflingor är fina

Hade varit kul att se en mockup med komponenter monterade lite senare

Jo det är ju något man skulle kunna göra. Tror att det är lite lättare i sketchup där det finns en stor databas med delar man kan använda. Jag har använt mig av Autodesk Inventor och tyvärr har jag inte hittat nått lätt sätt att göra det.

Det finns dock en sak som är bättre än en mockup med komponenter och det är riktiga komponenter. Tror jag satsar på att få till bilder på det så snart som möjligt istället!

MVH Axel

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Permalänk
Skrivet av Findecanor:

Så du menar att du kommer inte att täcka över moderkortet? Inget glas?

Precis, det är tanken!

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Permalänk
Skrivet av kaput:

Ser mycket lovande ut, gillar verkligen formspråket. Tankarna går omedelbart till Jonsbo UMX2, som jag förmodligen hade skaffat för länge sedan om det gick att importera till ett rimligt pris

Va roligt att du gillar designen! Inspiration har jag fått från olika håll men bland annat Jonsbo, riktigt snygga chassin!

MVH Axel

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Permalänk
Medlem

Ser snyggt ut!

Permalänk
Medlem

Hur kommer du att fästa hårddiskar?

Visa signatur

i5 3570k / Asus p8z77-i Deluxe / Asus Gtx680 DCII / Corsair Ax 750w / Ocz Petrol 256GB / Corsair Vengeance 16GB

Permalänk
Skrivet av Mr.Azum:

Hur kommer du att fästa hårddiskar?

Inga hårddiskar! Planerar att ha två ssder som jag antagligen fäster nånstans med dubbelhäftande tejp eller nåt. Kanske mellan nätagget och sidopaneler där dom inte syns!

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Permalänk
Medlem
Skrivet av axelpaxel:

Inga hårddiskar! Planerar att ha två ssder som jag antagligen fäster nånstans med dubbelhäftande tejp eller nåt. Kanske mellan nätagget och sidopaneler där dom inte syns!

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Intressant! Min tanke går väl lite att om du nu ska göra ett sådant fint och välbyggt chassi känns dubbelhäftande tejp lite som fusk! Men det är bara vad jag tycker!

Visa signatur

i5 3570k / Asus p8z77-i Deluxe / Asus Gtx680 DCII / Corsair Ax 750w / Ocz Petrol 256GB / Corsair Vengeance 16GB

Permalänk
Skrivet av Mr.Azum:

Intressant! Min tanke går väl lite att om du nu ska göra ett sådant fint och välbyggt chassi känns dubbelhäftande tejp lite som fusk! Men det är bara vad jag tycker!

Håller helt med dig! Ska se hur jag kan få till det. Det jag tänker direkt är att det borde gå att fästa ssderna där jag tänkt mellan nätagget och sidopanelen med hjälp av att skruva antingen från botten eller genom plåten som täcker nätagget, vad tror du?

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Permalänk
Medlem
Skrivet av axelpaxel:

Håller helt med dig! Ska se hur jag kan få till det. Det jag tänker direkt är att det borde gå att fästa ssderna där jag tänkt mellan nätagget och sidopanelen med hjälp av att skruva antingen från botten eller genom plåten som täcker nätagget, vad tror du?

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Lite svårt att kommentera på det när jag inte vet mått och så, men det är nog fullt möjligt!Tänk bara på att kabeldragningen ska funka också

Visa signatur

i5 3570k / Asus p8z77-i Deluxe / Asus Gtx680 DCII / Corsair Ax 750w / Ocz Petrol 256GB / Corsair Vengeance 16GB

Permalänk

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since my last update, I’m sorry about that! I announced this project just a few weeks before Christmas and that happen to be really bad timing… I had a lot to do in school the last days before Christmas and it appeared to be almost impossible to find a company with the equipment to help me cut out the parts I needed. Because of all these unfortunate happenings I have decided to change the idea to something I could do better on my own, but I think that’s a part of doing a project in this scale. I realize that my plan might have been a bit unrealistic and more expensive than I can afford as a student.

When I went to my parents to celebrate Christmas I spent the long hours on the train to find a new way to reach my goal, to create a custom case from scratch that would look good, be compact and fit powerful enough components for heavy gaming and some light video editing and rendering. I figured that, as I failed to find a workshop who had time to help me before the holidays and as I was eager to get started and use all the extra time I had during my Christmas break, I had to find a way to do this mostly on my own.

I picked up some 3mm sheets of Plexiglas, both white and transparent, at a store close to my parents. Furthermore I chanced the drawings I had done to better suite the new conditions. This included removing most of the bends and the single middle part, as well as making the case a bit smaller to fit just a mITX board with a single graphics card. I borrowed my dad’s jigsaw and his garage to roughly cut out the parts I need. This is where I am right now.

My plan now is to continue to cut out the more tricky parts like the Mobo, GPU and PSU cut out with my dremel. I will also try to sell some of the parts that I don’t need to have more money to spend on this new build! During the Christmas sales all over the internet I managed to pick up some of the new components I need to this new case, including white Primochill fittings, white 10/13mm tubing, an Aquacomputer res and also sleeving for the PSU. I have also decided to reuse a lot of the parts of my last build. As of right now, this will be the setup:

Intel i7 4770K (delidded)
Asus z87 Maximus VI Impact
Gigabyte GTX 780 Ghz edition with EK-WB block and backplate
XFX XTR 650W PSU
120+240mm HW-Labs Black Ice GTS radiators
Koolance CPU-380I CPU Block
Laning DDC Pump with EK top and heatsink
Aquacomputer aqualis 450 reservoir

I have still to choose RAM, fans and some other smaller things. Also I might try to change the GTX 780 to a GTX 970 that is a bit shorter.
That’s all for now I guess, I promise to write updates more often in the future. Here are some pics of what it looks like this far, remember that it is far from finished!

Permalänk
Medlem

följer Ser fram emot resultatet!
Lycka till!

Permalänk
Skrivet av August L:

följer Ser fram emot resultatet!
Lycka till!

Kul att du följer mitt lilla projekt! Fick hem en massa grejer jag beställt från nätet så imorgon blir det till att fota och sen slänga upp en uppdatering!

/Axel

Permalänk

Okey guys, it's time for a new update! As I wrote yetarday, most of the stuff I ordered during the christmas sale has arrived so I thought it was time for a small photo shoot!

First a pic of my small "studio"

One of the two packages I got yesterday was from ModDIY. Mainly some nice white sleeved cables for my XFX XTR power supply, but also some random screws and standoffs for the custom case.

I did also get some of the cooling parts I ordered from Specialtech in the UK. White tubing, Primochill fittings and a Aquacomputer res! The waterblock you can see in the pics are from my last build but I will reuse it for this one too, it's the Koolance CPU-380i which I think look really cool

And finally some of the other parts I will bu using. The ssds are Seagate 600 480GB and I will run them in Raid 0 and the GPU is a GTX 780 from GIgabyte with a EK-Block.

I will keep on working with the case and hopefully do an update about it this weekend!

Best regards
/Axel

Permalänk

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last post, whih I am really sorry about. I hope there still someone following this project even if it have had a slow start to say the least. The biggest reason´is that school takes a lot of my time and I have had exams both before and after christmas. A second thing is that I really want this project to turn out as good as possible so I won't rush it at all. The good thing is that the I have had some time during the last two weeks or so to get thing going for real, so I finally have something to write post about... YEY!

I've chnged a few thing about the Component since last post. here are the main changes:

*Motherboard changed from Asus z87 Impact to the new MSI z97I ACK, mainly because of the colors of the RAM and PCI-E slots of the Asus board. I will do some modding of the MSI board so stay tuned for photos of that!

*The Aquacomputer res I originally wanted was larger than i expected and even if it did fit in the case, the cable management and tubing runs would have been really bad. I will change it for the EK X-RES DDC 100.

*The tubing will be changed from white to black and the coolant will change the other way around, from Mayhems Pastel Black to the Pastel Ice White!

*The RAM will also be water cooled and I have ordered EK Monarch block for that, sadly they have not showed up yet....

Now for the actuall update!
I've been trying my best to take photos of the whole process but sadly I often do thing late at night so the lighting isn't the best, so keep that in mind...
The most of the core components have arrived so I started with a boot test to chack that ecerything was working Before modding anything. i dont want to end up with a painted mobo that was DOA... During the process I did change the TIM between the CPU and IHS of my delided 4770K (I use CLU), and I also had to run down to the local computershop to pick up a cheep air cooler. Finally I removed the heatsinks from the RAM sticks.

Thats all for this time. I have also painted the mobo and some other parts, update will be up tomorrow! (for real this time, the photos are alredy uploaded....)

Permalänk

Ok, let's do some painting?

I want EVERYTHING to be either black or white, preferably both...

First of I'm painting the mobo heatsinks. Step one, removal...

I also painted the silver part of the Koolance CPU-380I block, both radiators and the RAM heatsinks!

After drying over night I'm really happy with the results, hope you like it!

I Think it looks really stunning!

What do you guys think that I should put on the white spot where the dragon logo were before?

Im not a huge fan of the MSI gaming logo so I would prefere something els, or do you think I sould leave it white?

Permalänk
Discokungen

Det blev riktigt bra! Kan du göra en egen logga kanske?

Sugen på att bli av med Aquacomputer-tanken förresten?

Visa signatur

AMD 5800X3D - G.Skill Trident Z 3200 CL16 32GB - Asus B550 TUF - ASRock 7900 XTX Phantom - Intel 900p - CaseLabs S8 - LG 42C2 - Corsair AX1200i - Aquaero 6 - Vattenkyld

Permalänk
Skrivet av Flamso:

Det blev riktigt bra! Kan du göra en egen logga kanske?

Sugen på att bli av med Aquacomputer-tanken förresten?

Jo jag funderar lite på en egen logga men vet inte riktigt vad den ska föreställa. Får jobba på det... Haha

Tyvärr är tanken redan såld, har lite andra grejer som ska bort dock. Kolla min annons!

Permalänk
Discokungen
Skrivet av axelpaxel:

Jo jag funderar lite på en egen logga men vet inte riktigt vad den ska föreställa. Får jobba på det... Haha

Tyvärr är tanken redan såld, har lite andra grejer som ska bort dock. Kolla min annons!

Det ser jag framemot!

Fasen också! Såg annonsen, hah. IGÅR??

Visa signatur

AMD 5800X3D - G.Skill Trident Z 3200 CL16 32GB - Asus B550 TUF - ASRock 7900 XTX Phantom - Intel 900p - CaseLabs S8 - LG 42C2 - Corsair AX1200i - Aquaero 6 - Vattenkyld

Permalänk
Skrivet av Flamso:

Det ser jag framemot!

Fasen också! Såg annonsen, hah. IGÅR??

Ja den gick snabbt som tusan är jag ledsen!

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Permalänk
Discokungen
Skrivet av axelpaxel:

Ja den gick snabbt som tusan är jag ledsen!

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Inget att vara ledsen över!

Visa signatur

AMD 5800X3D - G.Skill Trident Z 3200 CL16 32GB - Asus B550 TUF - ASRock 7900 XTX Phantom - Intel 900p - CaseLabs S8 - LG 42C2 - Corsair AX1200i - Aquaero 6 - Vattenkyld

Permalänk

Hi again guys!
I'm sorry for the silence now for some time, I've been skiing in Italy for more than a week without internet...

OT, I've done some things since my last update so I thought I would share some more pics with you!

I realized that the case i'm building would take longer than I can manage without the computer so I decided to find a temporary case that I could use for the system until the "real" case is finished. I was really happy when I found a second hand white BitFenix Phenom M for just a couple of bucks, and bought it right a way! Here are som pics of the temporary build.

I'm pretty happy with it, even if I had to use some old ugly fittings that doesn't match the rest of the theme. Also the new fans I have ordered hadn't arrived when I built this so I used some old fans.

What do you guys think?

Permalänk
Medlem

Ser grymt ut!

Visa signatur

CITERA SÅ JAG HITTAR TILLBAKA!
Fraktfritt på Inet

Permalänk
Skrivet av Zoubiey:

Ser grymt ut!

Kul att du gillar det!

Permalänk

Hello again!

It´s been a while since last time a made a post here, more than two months actually, and I want to start by apologize. I never gave much information about why I suddenly stopped posting, but I will try to explain as much as possible now!

I started this project way back in December of last year and I had a vision about how I wanted to create my own “ultimate case” and build a really cool system in it. That´s still my vision. The only thing that´s changed is me taking reality into my calculations. So this is still very much happening and I´m more optimistic than ever right now about the outcome of the project. I really hope that you are still interested and want to finish this with me.

So, what happened? It´s really quite simple, I had no time and no space in my everyday life to work on this project during this semester and had to prioritize school and my relationship. Luckily I survived both those things and had my last exam before summer just a few days ago. Now I have lots of time and, since I´m at my parents’ house for a few week now, also a lot of space and better tools.

Because so much has changed since the start of this project and also this thread here on the forums, I decided to start a new one with more up to date information. My thought is that this will make it easier for new readers to come along, not having to dig through a lot of old irrelevant posts. I hope to see you there as well.

/Axel

LINK TO NEW THREAD