HELIOS (Caselabs SMH10 | black/copper | EVGA SR-2 | Geforce Titan) - by alpenwasser

[WYP]

looking good, those fans look fantastic!

Keep up the good work

[Mark3Max]

Fine job alpenwasser , they look even better mounted with the copper or copper painted screws.
I'll say it again , the detail in this rig is going to be amazing!!!!

I don't envy you having to solder all those fan wires back on though.

[alpenwasser]

Originally Posted by WillSK

Those fans look the S**t!! Gorgeous mate

Thanks mate!

Originally Posted by Feronix

Holy fuuuu-gulp-

That's sexy mate!

Careful, don't swallow your tongue...

Originally Posted by Cxizent

Mate, seriously? Holy ! Could you, like, maybe tone it down a bit? You're really making the rest of us look bad.

Sorry about that...

To make you feel better, here's a repost of an earlier image showing my previous
rig. I'm not ashamed of it (it worked, and it worked very well), but pretty this wasn't.

Originally Posted by Tripp

bitfenix would do well if they made these haha, looking good mate keep the updates coming

Oh that would be nice. Maybe I'll send them a link to show them what unused
potential they're sitting on.

Originally Posted by Watsyerproblem

looking good, those fans look fantastic!

Keep up the good work

I shall do my best, thank you!

Originally Posted by Mark3Max

Fine job alpenwasser , they look even better mounted with the copper or copper painted screws.
I'll say it again , the detail in this rig is going to be amazing!!!!

Yeah I'm very happy with that small touch the screws add to it, and the fact that
they're hex bolts matches very well with the Spectre Pros (I will have to make sure
the hex heads of the bolts are aligned with the hex pattern on the fans though).

Originally Posted by Mark3Max

I don't envy you having to solder all those fan wires back on though.

Yeah... I see it as an exercise in meditation...
I've already spent about eight hours on the fans, I reckon it will be quite a bit more
until I'm done.

Thanks for the support everyone! It is highly appreciated!

[Ace_finland]

Geez, how many hrs have u spent on this artwork? just read through most of the 30 pages and i am amazed. Such detail on very single bit, i love all the copper details! Not often im speechless but i really don't know what to say

[alpenwasser]

Originally Posted by Ace_finland

Geez, how many hrs have u spent on this artwork? just read through most of the 30 pages and i am amazed. Such detail on very single bit, i love all the copper details! Not often im speechless but i really don't know what to say

Thanks for the kind words mate, they are highly appreciated. TBH honest I'm not completely
sure how many hours I've spent on building this so far (let alone do the research, that must
be a few hundred hours by itself). A rough estimate gets me at somewhere north of 100 actual
work hours, but less than 200.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go check if the GPU block is ready for taking some
pictures.

[alpenwasser]

Colour-Coordinating the Kryographics Titan


I really like this block, but it's not black and copper. Can't have that now, can we?

The block comes in a nicely sealed bag:

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...and without the plastic wrapping. You can see the steel bracket which is used to hold down
the acrylic cover. It really is a very nice concept because you're almost certain not to crack
the acrylic with this method of bolting it down. Plus, it allows for some subtle modding...

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The bracket itself. I just so happened to have exactly as many copper screws left over as I
needed for this mod. I did have to shorten them with the cutting wheel though.

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The acrylic itself looks like this below the bracket:

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TADA!

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Some glory shots...

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Naturally, I needed to paint these screws as well:

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I really like the rough powder coat finish on the Caselabs cases, so I tried to approximate
that with a simple spray can. First I gave it a coat of etch primer, then three coats of black.
I let it dry and sanded it (wet) with 5000 grit. Finally, I gave it one last coat of black, but from
rather far away (~50 cm/20", as opposed to the manufacturer-recommended 20~25 cm),
which results in small droplets instead of one contiguous coat. I'm definitely no paint expert,
but I'm pretty happy with the result, it's certainly a lot closer to CL's powder coat than a
flat coat would have been (plus, I'm painting the Raystorms' alu brackets, which has a texture
that also results in a similar finish to this, so it matches rather nicely that as well).

(click image for full res)



As always, thanks for stopping by.

[Tripp]

that gpu block looks the dogs bollox mate

[SparkleDJackson]

For my taste the blocks would be nickel with a copper highlight ring. Not to say they dont look amazeballz cos they do I just prefer silvery to coppery

[MadMarc]

Very nice little mod on the gpu block mate. These are going to look awesome in you rig!

[alpenwasser]

Originally Posted by Tripp

that gpu block looks the dogs bollox mate

Thanks mate!

Originally Posted by SparkleDJackson

For my taste the blocks would be nickel with a copper highlight ring. Not to say they dont look amazeballz cos they do I just prefer silvery to coppery

Nickel block with a copper bracket? Hm, that actually sounds like it has some potential.
It wouldn't fit my build, but there's always the future.
And it's OK, we can't all have the same tastes now, can we?

Originally Posted by MadMarc

Very nice little mod on the gpu block mate. These are going to look awesome in you rig!

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to putting it all together.