Project: Monolith.

[Omega]

Waiting for parts!

Anticipating the delivery of my new Corsair PSU and the FrozenCPU window this week, I suppose I should really go to Home Depot and get some cutoff wheels...

[TheMainMan]

Pretty excited about how this is shaping up! Can't wait to see your top piece. Sounds like your Amazon order is coming from China by boat...

[TLHarrell]

How does the design of the top piece keep you from spilling a drink into it again?

And I'd advise not to machine the whole thing out of Acetal... that'd be pretty darn expensive. Acrylic would be cheaper by at least 2/3, and that would still be a bit on the spendy side for something that thick.

[Omega]

Pretty excited about how this is shaping up! Can't wait to see your top piece. Sounds like your Amazon order is coming from China by boat...

I reckon it probably is, though the last time I had an Amazon order the ship time was way the hell off. Ordered mid-Dec, said it'd be here in mid-Jan but it arrived a week later.

Regardless, this project is going to be slow going as I fiddle around in my free time anyway so there's no rush.

How does the design of the top piece keep you from spilling a drink into it again?

And I'd advise not to machine the whole thing out of Acetal... that'd be pretty darn expensive. Acrylic would be cheaper by at least 2/3, and that would still be a bit on the spendy side for something that thick.

Realistically I've stopped putting drinks on my computer, I don't know why I bothered mentioning that but it's more for aesthetics.

Also I intend to make it out of styrene sheet plastic and not acrylic, unless I can get acrylic sheet scraps for cheap/free from the local TAP. That bit is still up in the air ATM. I do have a friend who works at a hobby shop though, so I'll probably be using the homie hookup and also some guidance as I've never worked with stuff like that before.

Oh, and on track, I got a fantastic rectangle today:

I chose the RM series specifically for it's quietness. The fan stays off until at least 40% load or if it hits high enough temps. There were some models (Batch <1341) that could have potential cooling issues but I did my homework on Corsair's site and found out that they will modify/repair any if you get those batches for free. Well luckily I got batch 1349 so we're in the clear there.

The cables that come with it suck, plain and simple. They're these all-black ribbon cables and they're stiff and just pretty terrible. I don't even want to take them out of the bag.

Luckily though, Corsair sells pre-sleeved cable kits for all of their modular PSUs on their website. I did the math and for me to buy sleeving and sleeve them all myself (re-using the sucky, stiff wires) would be marginally cheaper, but to do it with nicer wire would be more expensive. So in this regard I'm gonna go pre-mod and just buy Corsair's cables. This should also help me retain my warranty should anything happen.

Also I need to get ahold of Corsair and see if I can remove the specifications sticker from the PSU without any issue, as I'd rather put something else a little less obtrusive there...

[Omega]

dirty ****ty photo but it gives you an idea of what it looks like in there. That is, Perfect.

The finish on the Corsair PSU matches the Fractal case almost perfectly. Some thoughts now, though:

Not sure if I want to retain that 140mm intake fan down there. I likely will as it should help keep things flowing near the PSU (which is good since the PSU fan will stay off under 40% load), but there's going to be a bunch of cabling down there, causing turbulence.

I think rather than removing the sticker off the top of the PSU, I might bend a sheet of acrylic to form against it, and use some plasti-dip to recreate the rippled black finish effect. I think I'll pick some up at the hardware store tomorrow when I'm getting cutoff wheels and see how close the finish is. I'd like to get rid of the yellow from the sticker on the PSU as well as the top sticker so if I do an acrylic sheet that's all black, I can just get some vinyls custom cut for it (likely just a big plain "Corsair" logo, and the greek letter Omega) to help keep it looking nice and clean.

Also looking at those mobo cables, I think I may need to find some big 3:1 white heatshrink so I can make them a little more color-appropriate....


Damn, and this mod was supposed to be simple "slap it together and call it good".

[Omega]

Okay so the FrozenCPU absolutely-freakin'-huge window kit came in today. I debated skipping out on spending time with the girlfriend to put it in sooner, but I know she'd be mad if I canceled on her. So I went and did that, hit Lowe's on the way home and grabbed some cutoff wheels (and plexi for other things ) and raced back home.

So, here we go:

re-apply painter's tape to help protect the finish. This was a good idea actually as it helped a lot. There's only one small nick that's barely noticeable as a result.

Lined up the window, made sure it was even on all sides, and off we go...

So the way the FrozenCPU kit works is it's two pieces, the window itself and the trim "ring" or whatever. Once it's lined up, you mark and drill the holes (this pic is the first hole) and then trace the outline of the inside of the trim ring as your "guide".

I chose this kit specifically for that trim bit, not only because it looks good but also because it allows you a pretty high margin of error. My cuts are not clean, not even close. But you'll see how good it looks regardless.

Corners cut straight-on for simplicity, and because of that trim ring you'll see why this doesn't matter.

Almost there...

This should give you an idea of just how absolutely massive this window will be.

It was at this point too that my back started to hurt and I was getting tired so I stopped taking pictures. All I did was file the edges and re-drill the holes out larger because they weren't 100% centered before. Removed the tape, mounted the window, and...

Blam. Look at that hotness.

Oh, you want more?

ba-blam. So good.

So there you have it. You can see how clean and freakin' awesome and totally fitting this window is here. It's the perfect detail, and FrozenCPU wasn't kidding when they said "this shows off every inch of your case".

I suppose I'll need to really be on my "cable management" game when the time comes...

Oh, and although I paid for it out of pocket I'm still gonna give a shout out to FrozenCPU for making this awesome window kit and making it pretty damn easy in all. Took me about an hour and a half using a dremel to cut it out.

That's all for tonight folks, and thanks for reading.

[billygoat333]

I have to be honest, I haven't finished a mod 100% either since I have been a TBCS member. ambition is the root of all evil, haha. and warranties. Looking good, can't wait to see this finished. I will cheer you on to victory for the both of us.

[Omega]

...So I bit the bullet and ordered my new PSU cables. Should be here the next week or two...

Also the LED strip landed in LA finally so hopefully we're looking at the next week or so as well. Only way that could have been better is if it had landed in Oakland instead... ah well.

[Omega]

oh so i did something

[OvRiDe]

I think I just had a seizure....