Project: Honeycomb

t_ski said:

That's enough people - take it to PMs if you want to discuss this further. No need in messing up this project log with your arguement.

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Indeed....

Cutting the Mobo Side Panel

de.das.dude said:

the thing is this guy is working hard on this case as he is building it up from scratch. and his honey comb idea is great. ALSO, his sponsors think its an awesome build.

really cant wait for the honeycomb side panel to finish!

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As you wish

After I finished drawing up the side panel yesterday I started cutting it. It took me roughly 4 hours to do the 1 large window and 3 small ones. I wanted ever cut to be perfect because you can always take more off, you can never put it back.

When cutting windows plexi, first thing to do is drill out your corners so you have somewhere for you blade to go.


First one done.


Second.


And finally the third small window.


You can see how the edges are just a bit off. So here they are after filing for a good 30 minutes to get it perfect.








Next up is the large window. I had to drill lots of holes.




Done! Well... almost.


Using the technique that I do, You will still have most corners looking like this but that's OK. I take my jigsaw and clean up the corners with ease.

All done!


Here are some shots to show the edges. Remember, this is all done by hand so its only about 95-98% perfect. I might have to file 1 or 2 of the the sides again.








And here is what it looks like on the case.




This is only the 1st level of the side panel. There will be raised hexagons on the top, one orange with a black one on top. And behind the window cut out there will be Orange and then the clear piece. The Orange will have LED's behind it to give it some glow.

Since I have some clear plexi I figured I would cut that to size too and since I don't have a table saw or a laser cutter, I had to make my own.

Here I am using a level as my guide so that the line is perfectly straight.


Up close shot.


Not too bad.






And since I cut that piece off, I used it as my straight edge for the next cut.


Another good cut.




The line to the left is where the frame stops.


Here is what it looks like in comparison to the panel.


That's it for now. I'm still painting the mobo plate and I/O back plate. Until I receive more plexi all I can do is attach the front panel. I might find some other small things to do but nothing major.

Cheers till next time.

When I do the other side panel I will give a few steps I skipped here.

Custom Waterblock and Cables

After talking to a guy on one of the forums he has agreed to help me make a custom made mobo waterblock. Here are some shots of the beginning stages of me planing it out.

These are pictures from a few days ago. The current layout is almost perfect. I still have to work on it for a few more days.






Now for the cables.

CPU Power cable cut.


Assembled


And sleeved.


Here is where I stand with all the other cables.

The CPU Power and 2 PCI-E cables are assembled so far. I have the ATX Power cable cut in the middle and on the left was an attempt at sleeving a SATA cable. I just finished cutting the cables for the SATA power for all the HDDs, the SATA power for the Blu-Ray player and the fan hub power cable.

Now to connect all these to the mobo I need more holes. I wanted to make a hole for each wire to go through but that didn't work out. But it did look good.









I ended up doing this.

Here is where all the wires will pass through the center piece.


This is at the top left of the mobo. The CPU Power will pass through here.


Here are the holes for the ATX Power, SATA cables and the PCI-E cables.










I didn't get a good one of the CPU power. I'll have more later.

And finally I couldn't resist doing a fan test. The white LEDs look good for now.


Today I am working on the PSU support, fan grills, painting the I/O backplate/PCI covers and more PSU cables.

Cheers till next time.

de.das.dude said:

if you want any help with the desigining of the block, i am game. i'll use autoCAD

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That sounds great! I'm using sketchup right now to make it, print it out and see if it fits. Its really hard to measure due to all of the caps and such on the board. I'll let you know.

Ya thats what I've been doing. Measure cut. Need more on one side or less on another. Draw, cut. Rinse and repeat. I'll be working on it more this week so there will be pics.

Sure I can have a look.

EK Waterblocks Goodies

My EK Waterblocks order finally got here! Thanks EK for this massive sponsorship.



Here it all is


2x DCP 4.0 Pumps




2x Multioption X2 Res 250





2x 420 Rads (These are MASSIVE!)






1x Supreme HF




1x RAM Dominator




Tons of 10/13 Straight and 45 degree Compression fittings.
Straight and 45 degree



Huge thanks again to Gregor at EK Waterblocks for sponsoring this build.

Installing the Rad/Res

First thing is first. I'm not using the stock bolts for the rads. I like the ones I bought but they don't fit the threads of the rads.



So I drilled


and tapped them to accommodate an 8-32 bolt


When I tried a test fit I was like OH CRAP!! THEY DON'T FIT! My initial measurement was off by about 3/8" to accommodate the rads. So I cut spots in the bottom of the case for them to go.


Here you can see how far it sticks out the bottom. Which isn't much.


Here is the front one on.




How it will look with the second one. Can't install it until the new plexi arrives. Should have been shipped yesterday or today.


I forgot to take a close up but at the bottom of the left rad you can see the barbs are on. I had to cut about another 3/4" to be able to fit the barbs on. No biggie.



It took me quite awhile to figure out where the heck I was going to put the Reservoirs'.

This was my first thought.


And my second.


But in the end my buddy came up and told me they would look sick if I put them back to back on the same stand. I said OK lets try it.

I cut the clear piece of plexi to be exactly as wide as the res clamps.


Drilled and mounted the res clamps. I had to drill a hole the drill a larger hole on the opposite side but only 1/2 through the plexi. The screws they give you are extremely short.


and attached the reservoirs'


Here they are in the case.

This is not actually the final position. They will be about 1 1/2" to the left of where you see them... well to the back of the case but to the left of the pic.

From the front you can see they only block about 1/4 of the 2 front fans. That's fine since everything is WC'd. The 2 fans in the front are just to keep air moving.


With the side panel on.

You can't really see them... Lets fix that.

I cut 2 more hexagons out so that you could see them better. I won't cut anymore because then it will lose its look.




Things are finally coming together. My next update is all about experimenting with lighting. I've never used SMD LED strips before nor just using normal 5mm LEDs but some of the effects look pretty good.

Cheers till then.

Lighting

As I said in my last update, I've never worked with SMD LED strips or used LEDs for this kind of lighting.

I drilled some holes in a scrap piece of clear plexi to see how the lighting looks. At the top is a few 5mm LEDs and the bottom is the SMD LED strip.

It looks ok. I don't like the spaces between the light on the side of the plexi.

Now here is the same piece of pelxi but with the SMD LED strip taped to the side of the plexi.

MUCH better looking IMO.

Here it is in the case. Its a bit hard to see it because I didn't cut it to size yet but I'm testing here.




From the front




I also wanted to see how it would look with LEDs directly under the res.

Deff not very good.

Since most coolant is crap I will be doing distilled water and some silver coils for now. The EK blocks are nice because they have a 3mm hole for an LED so I bought some Orange ones 2 days ago. They should be here next week. Anyways by doing this I won't need the coolant reaction, the LEDs should look great.

Well sorry for the bulk updates but I've been working really hard and didn't have time to publish them. I'm gonna work on the lighting some more tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I get some more materials in.

Cheers till next time.

de.das.dude said:

i friggin love EK's minimalist packaging!

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You mean the news paper that they use in the box?