# CURV3D | By C4B



## C4B (Mar 22, 2013)

*Hello there!*

Just registered today and want to show you a little project Im working on, its actually pretty finished, new motherboard and changing to only 2.5" disks will be the last thing. However, this all started as a side project to my other build Cold Winter, but turned out to be pretty fun and took a lot of time. Its a simple HTPC but with a special design.

This is a HTPC/NAS build. The specs of the hardware is:
Asus AT3IonT-I Deluxe
Intel X-25-V G2 40gb
4gb Corsair DDR3
Western Digital Green 2TB & 3TB

Sponsors:












I got the idea for this build when I was looking at some of the acrylic I had left from Cold Winter. Saw some nice shape coming. So I started cutting, and got these two acrylic pieces:





















The next thing I did was to put some feet on it, havent decided yet if I should get some smaller ones. Then I put the two pieces together with two small hinges.











Glued the motherboard stand off screws into the acrylic.






And sleeve the power cables for the drives.






Some overview pictures.











Next up is the front and backplate:






Should I go for a powerswitch on the frontplate or hide it in the back? The cross is where Im thinking of putting it.











Put some paint on those! (Sorry for Instagram picture)











So this is how far Ive come. Dont have that much left to do.











I also got a nice powerswitch with a white LED ring.






So I installed the LCD and the powerswitch on the frontpanel and soldered the cables and sleeved everything white.











So this is how the front and backpanel looks like.
















Here is some pictures of how I managed all the cables.





















I took some small Fractal Design fans and soldered together and put on the side of the harddrives to cool them down a little.






Thats about it. After this I cleaned everything and took some final pictures of the build. Im soon gonna buy a better camera so I can take some better pictures and I will post them here later. But here is the final pictures Ive got right now.




































I sanded down the edges and polished it. Looks a little bit better. Also made a 100mm hole under the motherboard, will put a slim 100mm fan there on low rpm too. With a little dustfilter.

The edges
















100mm hole











I also did a little "mediabenchtest". Put on 10x 1080p movies in a playlist and the CPU and GPU never got over 65c. So Im satisfied. Now with a intake it will get even better.

I got the 100mm fan today. A slim version from Scythe. I wasnt going to make an air intake even though everyone wanted me too, I just want to clarify, I didnt really needed it and I had no idea how to install a fan without hiding it. But then I found this fan, its 12mm thick, and the acrylic is 8mm thick, so I made a 100mm hole and installed the fan with help of some glue. So it extends 4mm over the acrylic. Just waiting for a dustfilter to go over the fan.

The only thing Ive got left now is to take the whole system apart, clean everything and fix some edges on the white plates, then put everything together again.











I bought a Canon 400D from a friend a couple of weeks ago so now I got some better pictures, the final pictures. The last thing I did was to install a fan filter over the 100mm fan under the motherboard.

I have been using this build as my main computer for a while because Im working on another project. The temps are pretty good, uses it for movies, music and internet. No problemo!

Enought with that, here are the final pictures. Hope you enjoy them!

*Left side*











*Right side*











*Backpanel*






*Frontpanel*
















Thank you and Ill see you soon again!

*With kind regards
Johan Nyman
Minimalistic PC*


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## Peter1986C (Mar 22, 2013)

Beautiful, very beautiful.


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## RCoon (Mar 22, 2013)

Umm, where does the air go from the airflow generated by those fans? Or are you just circulating warm air around the interior?


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## C4B (Mar 22, 2013)

Chevalr1c said:


> Beautiful, very beautiful.


Thanks mate!


RCoon said:


> Umm, where does the air go from the airflow generated by those fans? Or are you just circulating warm air around the interior?


Actually I didnt even need that fan, at first I didnt have any air intake at all. The temps were still ok for a HTPC. I benched it over night and it was no problem, just added that fan anyways and the temps went down even more. So its not a problem. Air is getting in and air gets out.


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## RCoon (Mar 22, 2013)

C4B said:


> Thanks mate!
> 
> Actually I didnt even need that fan, at first I didnt have any air intake at all. The temps were still ok for a HTPC. I benched it over night and it was no problem, just added that fan anyways and the temps went down even more. So its not a problem. Air is getting in and air gets out.



Well then, sounds and looks awesome, what are the detailed specs in that thing?


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## C4B (Mar 22, 2013)

RCoon said:


> Well then, sounds and looks awesome, what are the detailed specs in that thing?


Thank you 
How do you mean? Like hardware specs? Or the size of the case?


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## RCoon (Mar 22, 2013)

C4B said:


> Thank you
> How do you mean? Like hardware specs? Or the size of the case?



Specific hardware specs, clock speed, voltage etc


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## C4B (Mar 22, 2013)

RCoon said:


> Specific hardware specs, clock speed, voltage etc



Its a Intel Atom 330 and a Nvidia Ion on that motherboard. Got the cpu up to 2200MHz (1600MHz original) running at 1.212V.

The Ion I got up to 650/1400/1400. GPU/MEM/SHA.


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## C4B (Mar 23, 2013)

*Hi again!*

I can never really finish a build, like many others I think. Anyway, I sold the harddrives I was using in this build, got a 1TB 2.5" instead and a Corsair Force SSD. Also a Asus E45M1-I Deluxe is coming. So some hardware upgrades is going on here.

When changing to only 2.5" disks I wanted to make a harddrive bay. Here it is!






I drew up some different designs but I went with this one, measured out and cut with a jigsaw. What about some white paint on these?











And this is how it looks in the case:






What do you think?

*Johan Nyman*


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## Peter1986C (Mar 23, 2013)

I recognised the Ikea desklight! 

Nice HDD cage, indeed.


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## C4B (Mar 24, 2013)

Chevalr1c said:


> I recognised the Ikea desklight!
> 
> Nice HDD cage, indeed.



Haha yeah weve got some Ikea stores here in Sweden 
Thanks!


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## C4B (Mar 25, 2013)

Hmm what could this be???






My friend HCP thought I should make a harddrive bay in the same design as the case. So heres the result.






Which one of the harddrive bays do you like? I cant decide really.


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## Peter1986C (Mar 25, 2013)

Thae last one is better.


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## C4B (Mar 26, 2013)

Chevalr1c said:


> Thae last one is better.



Well then maybe you like this...






Made new cutouts of the second design, this time for three harddrives. Sanded down the edges and ofcourse painted it white. I think Ill go with this design actually, I asked around what people thinks and its 50/50. But when the case has this round, smooth design it feels better with a similar harddrive bay instead of something with raw edges.

Second design rev 2:











In the case











It kinda looks like a smaller version of the case. Ill go with this one!

Tomorrow Ill start with the cables for this so everything is ready when the motherboard gets here.
*
Hope you like it!
Johan Nyman*


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## cadaveca (Mar 26, 2013)

Killer build man, love it immensely.


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## C4B (Mar 27, 2013)

cadaveca said:


> Killer build man, love it immensely.



Thank you!


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## C4B (Apr 3, 2013)

*Hiya there!*

My new motherboard is here! Finally, without the i/o shield though so I had to get a new one from ebay. However, I installed the new mobo and this time I need to use a picopsu so some sleeving was done. Now you can see my harddrivebay in action! 

Whats in here???











Open it up and tada!






Goodlooking cooler!






Im pretty satisfied with this harddrivebay.






I cant decide if Im going to go like this, with sleeved cables, or hide them all under the harddrivebay and motherboard so only the sata cables is showing. What do you think?

*Cheers!
Johan Nyman*


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## de.das.dude (Apr 3, 2013)

wub wub sub


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## Peter1986C (Apr 4, 2013)

Leave it as it is, it looks wonderful.


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## C4B (Apr 4, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> wub wub sub





Chevalr1c said:


> Leave it as it is, it looks wonderful.



Thanks! Ill maybe try both ways and then decide.


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## de.das.dude (Apr 4, 2013)

also how are you using that LCD? how does it work ?? can you do other things with it?


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## C4B (Apr 4, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> also how are you using that LCD? how does it work ?? can you do other things with it?


Its a usb-lcd from LCDModkit.com. Just plug it in, install the drivers and then I use LCDSmartie to show different info. Many possibilities.


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## Sasqui (Apr 4, 2013)

I think Apple could use some inspiration about now.

Send them a resume and some pictures, that's plain awesome.


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## de.das.dude (Apr 4, 2013)

ahh! chinese stuff


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## C4B (Apr 4, 2013)

Sasqui said:


> I think Apple could use some inspiration about now.
> 
> Send them a resume and some pictures, that's plain awesome.


Haha thank you! 


de.das.dude said:


> ahh! chinese stuff



Oh yes!


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## C4B (Apr 8, 2013)

*Hello!*

Its time for a update, probably one of the last. This all started out as a sideproject but turned out to be my priority. So I have been putting time into every small detail and now its 100% finished. Last thing to do is to take some time to get some really nice final pictures (again).

Anyway, I read on another forum that a fabric called "Sarita" from Ikea works perfect as dustfilter. So I bought 1sqm = 5$. I havent found any fanfilter for 100mm fans so had to make my own. Made a frame in acrylic, painted it white and glued the fabric on it. The installed it over the fan under the case.

















Another little detail I wanted to do was a little shroud for the back of the LCD. Just made it simple with acrylic again.





















Took out everything, cleaned everything and assembled everything again. I think Ill go with the sleeved look. Gives it a little extra.






















So thats it. Been a fun project and Ive got really good feedback on it. If I have time tomorrow Ill get the final pictures up. Going out in the sun/snow to take some pictures tomorrow.

*Thanks
Johan Nyman*


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## de.das.dude (Apr 8, 2013)

it looks absolutely awesomepictastic!

btw did you change the motherboard?


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## C4B (Apr 9, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> it looks absolutely awesomepictastic!
> 
> btw did you change the motherboard?



Yes I changed to a E45M1-I Deluxe.


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## C4B (Apr 9, 2013)

Here you have the final pictures. Hope you liked this log as much as I did. Dont have so much to say. Now I can go on with my other build Cold Winter and finish that.

Thanks to LCDModkit and Aquatuning for helping me with some parts.































Comparison with a Coke






On top of my receiver, hifi-style






Thank you for all the nice comments and feedback. Ill be back with another project for sure! 

*With kind regards
Johan Nyman
Minimalistic PC*


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## Mindweaver (Apr 9, 2013)

Nice work!


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## C4B (Apr 15, 2013)

Mindweaver said:


> Nice work!



Thank you!


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## C4B (May 14, 2013)

*Oi!*

I entered CURV3D in a mod competition on a LAN-party here in Sweden called Birdie. I won both peoples choice and 1st place by the jury.

I got some sick prizes too. These two cases that you see, Lian Li PC-X2000FN and Cosmos II. I also got a Intel I5 2550K, MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming and a MSI N650Ti PE.

Really happy about this! Can you find my build on the picture? lol


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## Peter1986C (May 15, 2013)

Congrats!


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## micropage7 (May 15, 2013)

congratulation
you deserve that


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## HammerON (May 15, 2013)

Wow! Great job


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## C4B (May 15, 2013)

Chevalr1c said:


> Congrats!





micropage7 said:


> congratulation
> you deserve that





HammerON said:


> Wow! Great job



Thank you all!


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