Project Orion

[RadeonHDx]

The mystery unfolds

I see what you did there .

I cant wait to see what other mods come out of that crazy mind of yours . Subbed

 

[Highlander89]

Has been far too long, but it's UPDATE time!

Finally got the rig up and running after months of planning, building, headscrathcing, more headscratching, and even more headscratching.

The front mod is done. Still work to be done on it but cant be arsed right now to be honest. All that hardware has been gathering dust for far too long now.

Time to bring out the power tools in pop's garage.

Had to move the metal piece holding the rad in place

Cutting out some plexi.

Plexi is cut and almost fits

The pipes are in.

Made a wooden frame to get some stability in it.

3 fans fit perfectly, quite astonishing.

a mountain of putty applied.

sanded and painted.

And there she is.

The blue glow in the middle is from a LED strip that's inside the middle pipe. I just cut it open from the back and glued the strip inside.

And that's it for this time. Enjoy!

 

[Permafrost]

Has been far too long, but it's UPDATE time!

Finally got the rig up and running after months of planning, building, headscrathcing, more headscratching, and even more headscratching.

The front mod is done. Still work to be done on it but cant be arsed right now to be honest. All that hardware has been gathering dust for far too long now.

Time to bring out the power tools in pop's garage.

Had to move the metal piece holding the rad in place

Cutting out some plexi.

Plexi is cut and almost fits

The pipes are in.

Made a wooden frame to get some stability in it.

3 fans fit perfectly, quite astonishing.

a mountain of putty applied.

sanded and painted.

And there she is.

The blue glow in the middle is from a LED strip that's inside the middle pipe. I just cut it open from the back and glued the strip inside.

And that's it for this time. Enjoy!

i need new pants!

 

[paulstung]

That front panel looks sick mate, it blends so well with the rest of the case, well done buddy well done.

 

[TalllPaul]

*drool*

 

[Highlander89]

i need new pants!

Hahaha.

That front panel looks sick mate, it blends so well with the rest of the case, well done buddy well done.

Cheers mate! Still to put the mesh behind the pipes and get some nylon sock fastened to it so I she wont get so dusty.

*drool*

You need a handkerchief?

Temps for now are around 55 degrees celsius on the CPU @ 4,5Ghz fully stressed. Have just played around with the overclocking a bit. Pump speed is at 3, a bit loud.

Cheers!

 

[BigBlue1]

I like the color, but I'm not crazy about the open grill, I don't like seeing so much fan there, I think it might be a good place for more nylon socks
Good job overall but I'd do something about the visible wires.
Nice.

 

[Highlander89]

I like the color, but I'm not crazy about the open grill, I don't like seeing so much fan there, I think it might be a good place for more nylon socks
Good job overall but I'd do something about the visible wires.
Nice.

Yeah mate, there are always room for improvements. This is just Orion 1.0 I also thought about the HDD/SSD cables (I assume those are the ones you referred to) that a cover plate wouldn't be too shabby.

At the same time why not do a full back cover plate with motherboard backlighting and PSU cover like in the H440. The possibilities are endless.

Cheers.

 

[Dicehunter]

Facebooked, Looks great

 

[Highlander89]

Facebooked, Looks great

Cheers mate! Appreciated

EDIT:

I've had this idea that I'd have the Orion constellation somewhere on the rig. How about making a PSU cover plate from plexi and have it go all the way to the rad in the front. Then print out a sticker with the constellation on it and glue it on top of the cover, and then have leds from underneath shine through the sticker.

or something like this

I've seen some awesome cover plates around, but no constellations Think this idea could have potential.

Thoughts?

 

[Kushiro]

Highlander would you mind telling me what you used for the lighting? As those quite nice, also did you add an extra pair of leds to that XSPC block?

Nvm just realized the light in the res wasnt due to the strip, looks nice.

 

[RadeonHDx]

Cheers mate! Appreciated

EDIT:

I've had this idea that I'd have the Orion constellation somewhere on the rig. How about making a PSU cover plate from plexi and have it go all the way to the rad in the front. Then print out a sticker with the constellation on it and glue it on top of the cover, and then have leds from underneath shine through the sticker.

or something like this

I've seen some awesome cover plates around, but no constellations Think this idea could have potential.

Thoughts?

I'm not too sure about how a sticker would look. It could turn out really well but it also might look a little tacky if you're not careful. Thats just my opinion.

Awesome work on that front grill, makes me wish I had such a creative mind . Keep it up!

 

[Highlander89]

Highlander would you mind telling me what you used for the lighting? As those quite nice, also did you add an extra pair of leds to that XSPC block?

Nvm just realized the light in the res wasnt due to the strip, looks nice.

Thanks The strip in the back is a silverstone 60cm white led. The leds on the cpu block were included. The one in the res is a Phobya 5mm led and then in the front it's a phobya 30cm strip.

I'm not too sure about how a sticker would look. It could turn out really well but it also might look a little tacky if you're not careful. Thats just my opinion.

Yeah I dunno either. I guess paiting it is also an option. But how in the world do you paint space and nebulas?

Awesome work on that front grill, makes me wish I had such a creative mind . Keep it up!

Thanks mate. All I did was I got some inspiration from a car grill and then I saw a baby crib lying around. A bit random I have to confess.

Cheers people!

 

[BigBlue1]

You can print out a picture of the image you like, then cover it in a 'modge podge' type of acrylic sealer, and then after if has dried completely, remove the paper by putting it under water and rubbing off the paper. This translucent image can then be stabilized into an acrylic (or acetate) sheet and used for the case design.

Or you can skip the complexities of making a complete nebula and just use the locations of the stars in the constellation.

 

[RadeonHDx]

Yeah I dunno either. I guess paiting it is also an option. But how in the world do you paint space and nebulas?

I know this may take some time to get right but if you're willing to spend the time you could always learn to do a nebula like some of the street artists do by using spray cans and things like bowls and pieces of card to make shapes...

I'm bad at explaining so lets go with a video, eh?

 

[Highlander89]

You can print out a picture of the image you like, then cover it in a 'modge podge' type of acrylic sealer, and then after if has dried completely, remove the paper by putting it under water and rubbing off the paper. This translucent image can then be stabilized into an acrylic (or acetate) sheet and used for the case design.

Or you can skip the complexities of making a complete nebula and just use the locations of the stars in the constellation.

Like those fake tattoos? Yeah the nebula was just a cool thing I got when I googled. Also thought I would only have the belt of Orion not the whole constellation. Would also be a bit easier to do, just 3 stars in a row.

I know this may take some time to get right but if you're willing to spend the time you could always learn to do a nebula like some of the street artists do by using spray cans and things like bowls and pieces of card to make shapes...

Oh how could I've forgotten those. Remeber they were really popular here in Finland some years back. They look indeed pretty amazing.
Would also be nice to feature somewhere the name "Orion" with a cool looking font. Perhaps just use a cardboard cutout.

For the record I got the name Orion from the Metallica song with the same name. It's one smashing song! And it just escalated from there

Thanks for the ideas guys. Appreciated!

 

[Highlander89]

First of all, I'd like to just say thanks to everyone, being so helpful and polite here on the forum. I don't really have that much knowledge as far as PC's go, so I try to contribute in other ways. Your time and advice/criticism will be greatly appreciated!

So about a month has passed since anything major has happened to Project Orion. The PSU cover mod will soon hopefully commence.

Having the HDD at the back was a cool idea, but (as Feronix mentioned) it is quite loud. The whole idea of this mod would be to fill out this humongous case a bit, make it look a bit more complete, and ofc the most important thing: making it quieter.

So this is how Orion looks at the moment.

And pardon my extremely limited MS Paint skills, this will give you a basic idea of where I'm going with this.

So I have 4x NZXT 140mm stock fans that came with the case that are just lying around, and the stock drive bay. (I could only find 3 fans for the picture )

For reference, this is how the noiseblocker fans look like:

So the plan is:

- Putting my current Noiseblocker fans inside the case so they will be visible. Since I like the dark blue transparent thing they have going on.
- Moving the pump a bit to the left.
- Putting in the drive bay with a fan mounted on, or make a custom bay for the drives
- Installing the 3 extra NZXT fans above the top rad so it will then be in push/pull.
- Installing a Corsair AF 140 blue or purple LED fan at the back of the case, where I have my HDD mounted atm.
- Moving the tubing a bit out of the way so it'll be neater.
- Making the fans run at 5V
- Making the pump run more silent.
- Constructing a PSU cover that covers the whole bottom of the case, from the mobo and down, made similarly as the front mod. A wooden frame and plexi on top, painted matte black.

What I want help with:

-Is it a bad idea to install the stock NZXT fans since they are a bit more loud than my Noiseblocker fans?

-Adding all these extra fans (11 in total) would I be able to run all fans at 5V? Making the rig über quiet. My temps for the moment are really good; (fans at 12V) GPU about 25°C, CPU about 45°C @ 4,5Ghz, RAM at 25°C when gaming(RAM temp measured with a basic in/out thermometer with the sensor touching the heatsink.)

- I have heard something that the PSU needs to have the same amount of V going out that comes into ground. What does this mean in this context?

- Moving the pump and installing the drive bay would fit, although it would be really snug. What do you think? Should I try to make a custom drive bay so it'd be smaller, or just cut off extra stuff on the existing drive bay?

- LED fan at the back? Blue or purple? Or would the LEDs ruin it?

- How to make the pump more silent? Fasten it to a big piece of rubber...?

- Is there a big difference in having the front intake in push or pull? As it is now I cant fit the front properly on since those pipes are too thick. I either need to cut them a bit or put some 12mm thick fans there if I want push/pull.

Thank you for your time.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Im really not a fan of the rad in between the cpu and GPU block tbh

You could have made pretty much all of those hoses hidden better IMHO

 

[Highlander89]

Im really not a fan of the rad in between the cpu and GPU block tbh

You could have made pretty much all of those hoses hidden better IMHO

Which rad are you talking about? :S One is in the roof and one is in the front. No plans on adding another. Or are you talking about the fan I plan to put at the back?

As for the hoses, yeah I know mate. Considering it was my first ever WC loop the result was perhaps not the best. That's why I plan to improve it! How would you have done it?

Cheers.

 

[Highlander89]

I take it I asked too many questions in the other post so here is a simpler one: What do you think of this setup?:

The hose from the pump to the 360 rad goes behind the rad, to hide it better.