Colourworks by Engelmods

[Mulletsoldier]

Build update #6: My custom acrylic reservoir (one chamber for each loop) is finally finished being engraved and sand blasted!

I’m not able to work on my rig this weekend, but come Monday I can finally start building in earnest.

[Mulletsoldier]

Build update #7:

I wasn’t feeling the View 91 bottom, so I decided to make a floor from frosted acrylic. I’m going to raise it off the case by 1/4” with window seal tape (to reduce vibrations) and put an LED strip underneath to give the illuminated panel look.

[Mulletsoldier]

Cutting some more acrylic for my light panel.

I initially tried freehanding the cuts, but they look unpolished. Using a guide should yield a much better product.

[Mulletsoldier]

This is VERY rough, as I haven’t cut the LED strips and soldered then back to produce even light, but this photo gives a sense of what I’m going for with the light panel.

I’ll attach the LED strip to the addressable 4 pin header on my MOBO so much of the lighting effect is synced.

[Mulletsoldier]

Build update # 9:

I'm hoping that audience participation is not one of the judging criteria, or I’ll certainly lose! Feel a bit like I’m keeping a Dear Diary entry.

At any rate, I took a day off work so I could complete some fairly significant steps in the build.

A few things done:

1. Finished cutting and fitting the acrylic for my light panels and inserted the LEDs. I used 1/4” window tape, as I noted before, but left gaps because I’m mounting 4 Corsair fans on the bottom.

2. Mounted my side-facing 360mm radiator. Cutting and repurposing the included fan/rad bracket worked better than I’d hoped. The solution that ThermalTake includes for the spot is the solution shown in the fourth photo - not great.

But they do include two additional fan brackets that fit up to 4 x 120mm fans. So I cut it, used an angle grinder to smooth the edges, painted it, and ground out a section of the case for it to fit.

3. Mounted my 420mm in push/pull configuration. Continuing the “best of both worlds” approach, I have Corsair LL 140s in the push position and Noctua NF-A14s in the pull. The Corsairs will run at very low RPMs and are the show piece, while the Noctuas will follow a temp curve.

I have three 8-to-1 PWM fan hubs that I’ll use in conjunction with two Corsair Commander Pros to regulate the 23 fans in the case.

4. I didn’t love how the rad looked at the top of the case (lacked symmetry), so I made an aluminum fan shroud and painted it in the same carbon/bronze pearl colour as the read of the case. I cutout a space for the ThermalTake RGB rad light panel (which gives off amazing light and looks slick).

5. I then mounted the MOBO and tested all components. Boots into Windows fine!

Tomorrow I hope to finish all my cabling (with sleeves from DazMode, of course) and mount my final radiator (waiting on some M4 screws - which I then need to paint.)

Some thoughts:

- Cutting aluminum is difficult, as it’s a finicky metal. You need to cut and low speeds and with a steady hand, or the metal starts to melt and cuts become choppy. Same goes for acrylic.

- This is actually my first case mod, and I must say I love it. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I already have plans for a desk PC that I plan to design and build myself.

[Mulletsoldier]

[Kaidis86]

Starting to shape together! Looking good! Nice dewalt clamps I've got the same set heh they're awesome!

[section31]

Coming along nicely . Gives me idea on fun projects, buy an thermaltake clone case. Then get an aluminum extended top, temper glass front panel and then side temper glass side door made. Then I got an caselabs SMA8A revision lol

[Mulletsoldier]

I definitely considered an SMA8A for this build. With a luminous light panel, of course. Lol.

But for the configured options I chose, to make it more or less similar to what I’ve done here, it was $1300 (without shipping) and a 12 week wait.

[Kaidis86]

Caselabs is beauty but now they're so costly it's not worth it for most people. I got lucky and got my case as part of the NCIX auction lot I bought. Was only missing the front flex bay and io cover!

[Mulletsoldier]

Caselabs is beauty but now they're so costly it's not worth it for most people. I got lucky and got my case as part of the NCIX auction lot I bought. Was only missing the front flex bay and io cover!

I still can't believe I missed the NCIX auction. I was travelling and it slipped my mind.

Did you read about the data breach? Plain text information from their servers being sold on Craiglist.

[Kaidis86]

I did, super choked about it but at least the cc info on file they had for me expired years ago. But I lost almost 15,000 points when they went belly up as well

[section31]

I had same dilemma. Hence why i did not buy it. However that would be money better spent than on the new upcoming hardware products (look at rtx wacked pricing). I literally was about to order it during there sale in feb/mar (i would have made there cutoff date too)

The ncix leak is bad, basically lot of screwed people with employees getting hit hard. Maybe you can impersonate linus based on info available and get access to his bank account. Worst is the rcmp initial reaction, they did not do anything till reddit thread started getting the public attention

[Mulletsoldier]

The RTX launch has certainly been a dud. Unless you own a 4k monitor - which I do not - the 2080 poses no measurable benefits over the 1080Ti (both stock PCBs, whereas I'm running a custom PCB from EVGA). And until I can purchase a 4k monitor, at 32", with low lag and high refresh rate, I'm sticking with 1440p.

I suspect I'll upgrade to the next iteration of RTX in the next year, as there is some better panel technology coming down the pipe.

[section31]

That's going to be expensive stuff. If the 27inch 4k 144mhz asus is 3000cad. What is the 32inch going to cost. The upcoming lg 32inch 4k hdr600 60mhz is so far behind (announced 2018,delay till 2019) and that carries near 2000cad price range

I am on fence for monitors too. Though I'm leaning towards lg 34gk950f, the reviews for the rtx2080ti are showing 35% jump at 3440x1440 resolutions. An 1080ti is good for 100fps max in some games and 50-60fps for intensive games at that resolution. That's pretty significant jump. Price will determine which path i go.