Project Artem

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my first complete modded project. Even though I’m slightly late in posting this, this project has been going strong for the last 6 months, being on and off mostly waiting for parts to arrive!

First off, let's start with the setting of the project and the name. Since my desk is in a very visible area in my home, I had the task to create a modded PC that would go blend well and be part of the decor. While thinking of how to do that and with my first idea being a desk pc, my girlfriend kept, jokingly, was telling that, the computer could be as visible as being on the wall, as long as it was treated as "art". Thus, the wall mounted mod and name of the project begin to emerge. Focusing on the word art, I’ve look at different word meaning and finally, while translating it in Latin, artem caught my eye. After that, it stick to me and i knew Project Artem was going to be a center piece of art, drawing from its environment color as inspiration.

As a starting idea, here was my desk space. Also, bonus image of my first ever WC loop and with small mod



First thing to do, getting rids of the IKEA desk wasa must. Here is the new handmade desk from a 1in stained plywood, and cleaner cable management

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With the new desk and environment in place, time to decide on the build color scheme and case. With the dark green wall and black desk as obvious color, I still wanted to add a touch of extravagant. Finally, gold was chosen as a nice addon color to the darker color theme. Since I was going with a wall mounted build, I chose the Thermaltake P5 as a base case to begin.
Next on the list was going to be the part to choose. Since I was on a still on a budget, I decided to reuse the most I could like my GPU, one 240 PE radiator and my fittings. I knew I was, unfortunately, going Intel since it’s was the best bet for my application (until the nice Ryzen 5000). As I didn’t need biggest core count, I settled on the I7. Since I wanted a monoblock, I decided to go with the MSI and EK collab for faster availability while still getting a solid motherboard. Then, 2 part I wanted to add to this build. watercooled RAM because I could, and the gorgeous EK FLT reservoir.
Important Part:

• CPU: Intel I7-10700k
• Motherboard: MSI Z490 Carbon EK X
• RAM: 4x8go 4400Mhz CL19 Patriot Viper Steel
• GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 SC
• Cooling:
  • EK Kinetic FTL D5 240
  • 2x PE 240
  • EK GTX1080 Block
  • Bykski Ram block
  • EK Classic 16mm Hardline Fitting
  • Barrow 19mm Soft Tubing Fitting

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With the case arriving, I decided to plan the layout. I knew I wanted to rotate the case to have the GPU vertical and the 4 fans on the bottom. That would allow me to plan a nice long tube section at the bottom, connecting the two 240 radiators. Then, with the vertical GPU, I decided to showcase the FLT reservoir next to the GPU, thus moving the PSU to the middle section of the case. The last empty section would house a small screen.



The only problem with that layout was the protruding GPU mount that was pushing to far out. I decided to remove 4 slot worth of width since that was just for having dual GPU. This would be easy on the first piece, but the vertical GPU plate one would require removing the middle section and re-solidify after. With that out of the way, the GPU assembly would be in line with the FLT reservoir and a good 5inch thick to the wall, removing a 2.5inch




Once I got the case layout decided, I had to figured out to mounted it to the wall without the ugly monitor mounted showing and with enough force to stay on the wall. Also, it had to be as slim as possible to mitigate the space problem. Since I still had some 1inch plywood from the I decided to try a large French Cleat solution which made wonder. I added some strip of plywood around the back, which would cover the French cleat and would be stain black as the desk.

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Next, painting was in order to fully understand the finished concept. I decided to go dark green on the entire case body. After that, all piece that was protruding from the case would be painted the gold accent, that meant that the GPU plate, PSU bracket, FLT bracket and the radiator was going to be gold. Let’s say, I took major risk with that made-up holding structure for painting!! But the result was so satisfying, with the project beginning to clarify more!

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After that, the next painting job was going to be the visible fitting. I decided at the beginning that too much visible tubing was not desirable for the “art” theme and that most of the line would be in the back of the case with soft tubing. But, for the visible fitting, I wanted to have them black since the chrome one I had was not inline with the build. First batch went well, it was just a matter of prepping the fitting first. Then, I ran out of paint and since I couldn’t find the same matte black can I was using, I switch the type…. That was such a beginner mistake!! The next paint wouldn’t adhere to the surface (In the photo, you can see the first batch fitting, the new one and the cleaning process)……I had to clean all the paint and if you look the EK fitting I have, well there is a F*** ton of small ridge that the paint was not easy to remove !!

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After that, I had to use the computer to work a little and game since its my only rig that was out of commission for a month. Little did I knew, I was in for so much problem. Preparing a small loop in some PETG I had lying around for the CPU, it reassures me of going with most of the tubing in the back of the case. First off, I couldn’t get the loop to hold air with the EK Tester or water…. After dissembling everything, I found out that the old radiator was the culprit. A damn O-ring was mostly destroyed. After changing that O-ring and reassembling the loop, that where the second problem arrive. A DOA motherboard……. That was such a disappointment. Had to wait more to game again! At least, EKWB customer service were quick to send a replacement unit and even got back mine to investigate the problem.

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Meanwhile, the Aliexpress packages had arrive, but with another problem. No soft tubing fitting in the box. Still being in late August, I decided to re-order from Aliexpress to get to those fitting and some more spare since the last one took 1 month to arrive. I didn’t knew that it was going to be a 3month wait since the new order…. At least, I had also received the small monitor and decided to mockup the result.

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Next in line, was the custom cable. I chose to go with Dazmode pre-done single cable. It was easier for me as I was already stress with the cable bit. I told myself that this was going to be in another mod. I decided to go with a repeating black-black-gold pattern. The only thing I had to manually do was 3 split wire.

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After all that, it was time to start the biggest partsof this project. I wanted to hide multiple hole showing in the case while providing passthrough for the tube run by doing a custom acrylic plate. Some holes were easy as I could use a step bit, but some other were in the middle of hole in the case I had to take the Dremel out! Since I had gotten a Core P5 acrylic version, I decided to use that to make the plate. After the passthrough holes, I decided to use the remining place to pass all the cable. Since I was going to go custom cable route, I thought that a comb like hole would be an awesome touch. Meanwhile, I had finally finished my fitting painting and was only missing the soft tubing one. Since I was still waiting on the last Aliexpress packages, the project was then put on hold for 1month

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Finally, after so much waiting, updating the tracking and whishing I had paid more to order at Dazmode, the last Aliexpress package arrived. Still had to paint the plug and the 3-way fitting. Another dissemble of the temporary loop later, I was plug in the cable and the soft tubing run in the back of the case. The last bits were the hardline runs to bend. In hindsight, I should had done that way before to leave me some time. I had order 4 nice acrylic 1m run in my Dazmode order. As this was on the 22december, as I was doing bend and scrapping them, I realize acrylic was not as forgiving as PETG and that I was going was through my stack. Next thing, I knew, I had 1m left with 2x 3-bend run to do for the GPU. I had only 1 shot to nail both of them. Unfortunately, I made some errors (bottom one is too long before going in the GPU and the top one has a bump in the bend), but I was out of tube and Dazmode is now close. At the same time, i was leak proofing everything, not wanted another dead O-ring in the middle of the run. That was a genius move because I found out I had some 90degree fitting without the bottom O-ring!

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While I’m still really satisfy of my Project Artem, there are always stuff to learn and modify. Here is the list of modification I'd like to do for the next revision of this build.

• Will redo those GPU bend as soon as possible
• Change to an RTX 30-serie with a nice D-RGB block.
• Need to make a small dashboard with Aida64 for the screen
• Want to modify the coolant to the Primochill Vue Candy Gold or Black coolant, either see through or solid.
• Considering taking the run from the fill port and lowering it to the inlet port of the FLT, in the bottom, with a parallel run above of the outlet port.
• Adding some cable comb for the 24 pin PSU side and changing some cable to longer 45cm version.
• Thinking of remodifying the GPU plate to push the GPU closer to the face of the bracket. Will need a single line of input port on the GPU to do so. Mine has a DVI port on the second row that prevent me to do so.

I truly hope you like the build as much I do. Also, please feel free to add criticism since I’d like to improve for my next modded project (which might be a in a good while considering how much I got over budget!) Final shot of the desk with the full build will be up in a few days when I go back home!

[Hooded]

Very nice piece of work.
love the layout and tube runs.

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Here are the final Shot: