Arise - Bumblebee!

Bumblebee

Part 1 - Case - Complete
Part 2 - Components - Pending
Part 3 - Watercooling


Sadly a stick of memory lost its life so I am down to only 4GB at the moment but specs are:

• i7 3770K
• MSI Z77 Mpower
• 8GB Avexir Mpower 2400mhz
• 2x Corsair SP 120's (ring painted yellow)
• CM Silent Pro Gold 1200w PSU
• Corsair Carbide 500R painted in Vauxhall Solid Yellow 40C (with 20.6g Gold Yellow EP added) and 3mm acrylic side window added to replace mesh
• 2x2TB Western Digital Green HDD's mounted on a Nexus dual 3.5" to 5.25" adapter
• 256GB Crucial M4 SSD
• Lamptron 6 channel fan controller
• HIS HD 7950 painted Satin Black
• Thermal Take Contac
• Custom cabling

Components coming soon:
Replacing memory with higher capacity sticks of same brand
Additional HDD's
Additional SP 120 fans
2nd 7950 for X-fire


The concept











And so it begins...

Black and Yellow extension cables



Slightly tinted Acrylic window (3mm) with U-bend test fitted - Edges will be rounded off and the U-bend will be fitted properly when I get going.



All black 90cm round sata cables, no more inconsistency or right angled Sata cables (Words cannot explain how much I dislike them!)




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Supplies!




MOAR supplies




Extra paint




The test panel (a side panel from a cheap spare case)




Cleaning, prep and lubrication




Testing grit level




MOAR sanding




Cleaning off the excess liquid (now blackened)




Sanded and cleaned with tack cloths




Applying the primer




Primer applied!




Applying the 1st coat of custom mixed paint




Paint applied




Tacky/Sticky paint




My dad pointing out the chemical reactions in the paint




The drying game



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The noise from the Tt cooler got on my nerves along with having an empty fan slot at the front. Sooooooooooooooooo I put the Antec Kuhler 620 back in (for now) and mounted it in push/pull and put some Akasa Apaches (black) in the front. All controlled by the fan controller





final update for the day.

I tried to stick the Autobots face behind the mesh but unfortunately the mesh was too dense and it wasnt easy to make out what it was, so for now, the logo has a temporary home.

thats a great looking machine nice job you've done

Very Nice!

A great how to - a Father / Son project does it get any better!?



.....no it doesn't!

Great job

Its a monster of a machine and im extremely happy with it.

I could easily say this was 90% preperation.

How we arrived at the paint colour was a story in itself.

Ian originally wanted Pontiac Camaro Sunrise Yellow, but a) Halfords couldn't mix it and b) it has an iridescent lacquer that would be awkward to apply and match throughout the case.

So, we started at the Paint Mixing section at Halfords as they didn't have a colour we thought was close enough. We tried to choose one that was on their system and was a reasonable starting point, so we asked for Vauxhall VX220 Solid Yellow 40C, as seen here:-





That looks like quite an orangey yellow, or so we thought when we saw it on Ian's phone. In the flesh, it was seriously yellow and nowhere near what we wanted, which was more of an American taxi cab yellow.

So, we asked the guy to start making it more orangey, at which point he bailed out and Ian asked me to step in and 'freestyle' the colour for him. I aimed for a colour similar to a shade called Arc Chrome 6, which is an orange-yellow shade and I got as close as I thought by adding 20.6 grammes of Gold Yellow EP to the Solid Yellow 40C.

We are both happy with the results of the paint work and it is stunning to look at in the flesh. The memory has LEDs on it that gently pulsate like a 'heart beat', which gives the machine a sort of life of it's own.

Ian's got a lot more plans for taking this further and this is really just Phase 1, as he stated earlier.

Theres a lack of watercooling... Gone back to air for the time being or are there plans afoot?

Very nice, makes my carbon wrapped fractal with a couple of space invaders stickers look quite lackluster.

Brilliant work ....

I'm inspired to do something...

The careful cutting out of the case at the front (see the build pictures) at is for a large two-fan watercooling radiator, as well as another radiator Ian intends to fit in the roof of the case - you can make out the fan holes during the painting of the case parts.

The Antec cooler is purely temporary. Once the heavy duty water cooling is fitted to the CPU and graphics card, it should be almost silent.

Ian doesn't like the Antec watercooling one bit, as the fittings under the motherboard are more than a bit poo. The metal ferrules are inserted into a plastic bracket that is too soft and as you tighten the screws up to secure the cooler to the CPU, they start to spin - not a masterpiece of design. :double

mjnurney said:

Brilliant work ....

I'm inspired to do something...

Click to expand...

Me too; I now have a Corsair Vengeance C70 case in Military Green that I am mulling over designs for. This one:-



The other side panel is similar to the one on Ian's case, slightly bulged and otherwise plain looking.

I am tempted towards a WW2 B-17 bomber nose art style makeover, but more of a fantasy one, as ones such as the bombers Memphis Belle, Sally B or Sentimental Journey with Vargas-style airbrushed girls are an inspiration, but I want to add 'something extra', I'm just not sure what at this stage.

Alternatively, it's an RAF Camouflage makeover with roundels and invasion stripes, although artwork on RAF planes in WW2 wasn't as vivid as the US counterparts. A fantasy RAF version of what the US artwork might have looked like if the RAF went nuts with the crayons might be cool.

Another idea is the Full Metal Jacket makeover with R. Lee Ermey artwork and lots of ammo-box stencilling and movie quotes, with maybe some Apocalypse Now or We Were Soldiers art thrown into the mix.

yay very nice, its wot kitchens are for

Great job. I like it a lot.

That is awesome!

sneeker said:

Theres a lack of watercooling... Gone back to air for the time being or are there plans afoot?

Very nice, makes my carbon wrapped fractal with a couple of space invaders stickers look quite lackluster.

Click to expand...

Im no stranger to custom loops, Its only a matter of time until its all under water. The gear I am after is a smidge over £360 so i will have to be gentle on my wallet for a while so I can buy it all as soon as possible

A small update, the 2nd card arrived this morning and I threw it in to get it benched so the cable management isnt great yet. A 2nd set of custom cables is on order and should arrive before the weekend.




I'll probably move the HDD's round the other way round over the weekend as OCD monkey doesnt like seeing those sata cables :nuts:

You've done an amazing job. I never got into modding my computers to this extreme, but I can certainly appreciate the work that others do. Simply wonderful!

Heather

Thanks

Next on the agenda is the intricate-but-fun part, watercooling!

I have a feeling I might need to cut another 15-20mm out of the optical bay to fit the rad i'd like in there. It now needs to support the i7 3770K and 2x HIS 7950's and a 30mm and 40mm rad wont cut it - I'd need something along the lines of a 60-65mm just for it to have stable temps.

Overclocking will get interesting when the loop is in though, all depends if I can achieve the speeds i'd like, within a temperure bracket I feel comfortable with.

If you need any help with the cutting, just shout up. You may need my trusty B&D RT650 with the thinner nose for the corners like last time, as your new Dremel may not fit.

Will do!

Just bought some yellow carbon fibre vinyl wrap, vinyl spray glue, craft scalples, a metal ruler and a cutting surface as I intend to wrap my keyboard in it to make it a little more interesting

I know that hair isn't one of your priorities (teapot, kettle, black ) but you may need a hair drier as well, to make the vinyl soften, stretch slightly and wrap around the corners more easily without creasing.

Yellow carbon fibre vinyl on the SLI bridge? (hint)