Project: UniKaorn Farts.

[davido_labido]

Well, it has been a while folks! As a few of you know, I started to work for bit-tech so all the builds I did last year were either for content for the website or I didn't have time to do a proper build log. Now, I have left my job there and I work for Alphacool instead as the UK and US rep!

As such, my builds are my own again, so I can do proper build logs!

The first build:

Yes, that is correct. RGB. I am not a huge fan of RGB, but as everything is RGB at the moment I thought I would embrace it. Afterall, I have done things in the past that included RGB lighting, but I usually just set all the colours to one and leave it at that.

So, First things first.

Hardware pron:

A huge thanks goes out to Cooler Master for this project, seriously, I was just chilling out one day having some food and I got a message asking if I fancied doing a build. Cooler Master sorted out pretty much everything (bar a processor). They offered their cooling too, but obviously, I want to use Alphacool as I am now staff. Once again, a huge thank you guys!

This is what turned up:



So, let's go through some of it... First of all, the ASUS stuff! Now, as some of you may know, ASUS are one of my favourite sponsors, they help me out a lot and I meet the team a few times a year at events and they're always top folks. However, for this build, ASUS Taiwan dealt with the motherboard and one of the 1070s who I have never met! (I was meant to, but I ended up in hospital whilst in Taiwan!!)

The motherboard is the ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming. This is the first Z370 board I have had and it is rather tasty.



As always, the Strix board is quite aggressive and has some nice details, I like the hidden m.2 slot for instance.



I was surprised there weren't more USB ports on the back of the board, but I have a 12 port and an 8 port powered USB hub anyway, so that doesn't matter to me!



mmmmmmmm.... socket.



As mentioned, ASUS TW sent me 1 x 1070 Strix for this build.... "but there are 2", I hear you cry. Yes... remember when I said ASUS are babes? they sent me one a while back for another build and as always, I repurpose everything that I can



I was really struggling to find a processor for this build. Until very recently I would only have a few pounds a month to myself to spend and most of that would go on paint, tools and other items so a new processor was going to be a big hit for me. I did think about doing the build without a processor, but whilst talking to my guys at ASUS, they mentioned they had an 8700k that I could have! Mental.



So, that is the motherboard, GPUs and CPU sorted - I think this is going to be a beast!



For the SSD and the RAM, Cooler Master managed to get Apacer on board with me, this is the first time I have used Apacer for a build so a huge thanks for supporting me!

As always, I am as honest as possible and I am not sure about the aesthetics of this memory, but, that is why I mod things! I will make them something I like. If everything was perfect, there would be no point in modding it!

Once I had popped the ram into the slots, it does look a lot more pleasing to me - What do you folks think?

I really do like the SSD however, like, I NEED this pattern somehow. I might have to change the panther to a Unicorn though just to fit in with the theme

Now, let's get onto the case! I was asked if I wanted an H500P or the Cosmos C700P. Now, I REALLY like the cosmos, but I know a lot of my modding friends are working on them, so I thought I would go for this one instead.



ooooh, I made a gif!

So, this is the case! when I took these pictures, I had no idea what I was going to do with this, in fact, I still don't really, but I certainly have a theme now!



These vents are not going to be black once I have finished with them.



In fact, the whole case needs to change colour... and I am not sure about this layout for me either!



The PSU cover is great... but... I doubt I will keep the PSU here...



A lot of people love this case because of the huuuuuuuuge fans. Well, I don't think I will be keeping them! Sorry!! I am a big fan <- fan... get it? Of 120mm fans so I will be using those.



So, I want to RGB all of the things. I don't particularly like RGB, so I thought I would go all in for it and make my PC look like a unicorn farting rainbows.



Obviously, I am going to be using Alphacool for the liquid cooling, but I will go through the parts I have chosen for this build at a later date.... but I think I have plenty of fittings!



So, the first task? stripping down the case - how far can a case be stripped? well... very.



This is where I am going to leave it for now, I have ideas. you can see a rather big clue as to what the idea is here



For now though, I am going to leave you with this... Yes, I did buy this costume thing just for this build.

 

[Tolemac]

Nice to see you back and RGB?



Woo my 1st post at half a century old "wheres the Whisky"

Subbed

 

[Wraith]

Subbed for Sho Dave, although the onesie was better during your twitch streaming.

 

[davido_labido]

Nice to see you back and RGB?



Woo my 1st post at half a century old "wheres the Whisky"

Subbed

Happy birthday!!! Thanks for the welcome back And yes, yes it will have flashing lights. (possibly)

Subbed for Sho Dave, although the onesie was better during your twitch streaming.

haha, I shall wear it again soon! I haven't had time to stream much this last week though. I shall be back on it!

 

[tinytomlogan]

Be interesting to see what you do my love!

 

[Bartacus]

Jack Black builds PCs now? Cool!

 

[davido_labido]

Be interesting to see what you do my love!

Thanks princess! I have some little ideas, I want to try and make it as gaudy as possible with LEDs strips and what not.... Maybe I need to learn how to spraypaint a mist of different colours too... I want it look like an RGB factory has gone haywire.

Jack Black builds PCs now? Cool!

Aaaah, Jack has talents... I don't

 

[tinytomlogan]

Thanks princess! I have some little ideas, I want to try and make it as gaudy as possible with LEDs strips and what not.... Maybe I need to learn how to spraypaint a mist of different colours too... I want it look like an RGB factory has gone haywire.

Talk to Bneg about Kameleon paint. There are paints out there that colour shift

 

[AlienALX]

This makes me smile. And +100 for dressing up as a unicorn, that makes it even better.

But the win for me is use of the word fart. There is simply nothing funnier upon this entire planet than a fart....

As for chameleon? if it's wrap-able then wrap it then just clear it with some cheap clear. I experimented with the vinyls a few years ago on a never finished TVR project but the front panel of that Dell looked incredible, especially in the light. It also costs pennies VS tons for paint. Seriously, it's one of the most complex and expensive finishes you can do, if you do it properly..

IIRC - KO seal, primer, black base, chameleon in intercoat, then lots of clear. And the thing is? once you clear coat those vinyls that cost about three quid there is no difference.

 

[davido_labido]

Whilst the weather was still rubbish, I decided to at least start on the waterblocks.

Alphacool NexXxoS GPX blocks this time, for my next build, I will be using the new Alphacool blocks, they're rather sexy!

One thing I do like about these blocks is how the bags are colour coded, it makes it so much easier to know which pads go where on the instructions.

First thing I did was just a quick test fit of the card. Always worth doing if you're going to mod a block!

Fits perfectly! Yay!

Have some (anti) peel porn

We're going to be giving these blocks a quick blast with some paint, nothing too crazy, but still, I want to make sure that I mask off the areas that I need to.

Obviously, anything that touches the card I want to keep paint free. I won't be spraying the underside of the block, but when it gets sprayed some will inevitably get on it so as a precaution I taped the contact plates.

A quick coat of primer and a quick coat of white and I am done! Hopefully, they will dry in this horrible weather... seriously, this year sucks for me so far! I can't do anything outside!!!

The next job is to de-rivet the whole case. Quite a few of you are on my facebook (search davido_labido) so you will have seen the completed article, but here is the process!

first I took the lid off, I want to invert the case, so everything needs to be flipped.

I still want to floor to be the floor, this does mean I am actually making the case less useful for liquid cooling at the moment. The reason being is that the rad space at the top will be fouled by the PSU now. I might put a rad on the bottom though, I will see how it pans out.



So many rivets! This was around 50% of the way through the case...

As it had started to rain/snow/sleet/drop hellfire outside again, I had to resort to using sheers to cut the case in places where I needed to remove things.

My cutters are rubbish... it wasn't really worth doing, but it allowed me to test fit how the case would be!

early in the morning the following day, there was a little bit of sun! Wooooohooooo! time to do some work outside

First things first, clean up that horrible edge that the sheers made.

Then rivet the case all back together to make sure inverting it doesn't make it too unusable.

Yay! It worked!

Hmmmm, I am going to have to make a bracket to hold the PSU I think!

Also, some of the edges don't really go together properly, not a problem, I will make some makeshift brackets for now and then if they can be seen when I finish, I will make some nicer ones.

It all fits together! Yay. Well, time to drill out all the rivets again.... I want to change the colour of the case!

That is where I am going to leave it for today! Now a question for you....



... I have 3 blocks which one should I use in this build? The build will be white and multi-coloured basically.



clear satin with RGB ring?

Clear with RGB ring?

Black XPX but with a white casing

Let me know folks!

 

[AlienALX]

Clear with RGB. Only because it is a unicorn.

 

[davido_labido]

Sorry it has been a while folks! I have been crazy busy in Taiwan, Germany, America and next week I fly to Canada! It's all fun and games, but it has meant I have been neglecting the build logs. Oh, and I have fixed all the images =D

So let's start getting this case sprayed up, I said I didn't want the grills black, and that is the first thing I am going to tackle.

Some of the clips are very easy to get off, just use a craft knife or small screwdriver, some of the others you have to melt the tabs - I just used a soldering iron.

As per usual, a blast of primer first.

Then let's go with those UniKaorn farts!!! colour... colour everywhere.

Second coat to clean it up a little bit

Once the mesh was put back in, it looked rather tasty, I just wasn't sure about the case colour.

Now, I usually use rattle cans, but I have recently starting to use an airbrush - I am still learning, I am a VERY VERY new user.

First I did a test run on the GPU backplate - not a bad job for a first attempt

Then I thought I would try with a small part of the case, hmmm again, not too bad.

So, Let's try with the WHOLE case, first I hit it with some primer.

Then started with the air brush hype

every panel.... with a tiny airbrush. It took ages.

But I did it!!! and now the table is trash

The finish is pretty good too, I haven't done a clear coat yet as i still don't really know what to do with the case.

Once again, I put the mesh back in, white and rainbow barf, what a winner!

Speaking of rainbow barf, let's start on the back panel. ooooooh yeah, taste the rainbow baby! by now, you should know this build isn't serious and I don't intend it to be. I spoke to some of the Cooler Master crew in Taiwan and I think they think I've lost the plot. At least I am having fun!

UNIKAORNS!!!! UNIKAORNS EVERYWHERE!!!!!

I am hoping that I can do what I want here, basically, I want this jumble of unicorns and colour to be like a background, then I want to spray text over it, but, do I have to spray another colour on first in a block so that it stands out?

I.e, do I have to put white on, then the text? I have no idea - this is the first time I have tried to do paint like this.

Whilst I try to figure that out, I thought I would start with the PSU!

It wouldn't be a build without some nice warranty voiding. Remember, if you're doing this, don't touch any capacitors! They can store electricity for quite some time and can give a nice jolt. You can't see any large ones here, but I used a multimeter to discharge the caps.

Now, I can paint the case without getting any paint in the PSU.

A few hours later UniKaorn PSU!

And that is where I'm gonna leave it tonight. Have an old picture of me in the UniKaorn onsie to giggle at this time as I don't really have anything to give you a hint as to what the next update will be this time - sorry!

 

[AlienALX]

and next week I fly to Canada!

Better get a head start...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSTWw6-ueIs

 

[davido_labido]

Better get a head start...

haha, during the emails back and forth, I keep adding the odd "eh?" and "ok buddy" (which I do say anyway), send the mail then realise they probably think that I am just doing it to annoy them

 

[AlienALX]

haha, during the emails back and forth, I keep adding the odd "eh?" and "ok buddy" (which I do say anyway), send the mail then realise they probably think that I am just doing it to annoy them

haha that's great yeah we got a few on a BMX forum I visit and they do tend to get ripped on a bit very laid back nice people though, so take it on the chin

Canada is awesome. It's like the best part of the U.K, crossed with the nice parts of the U.S.A. (the space, the size, the cars, etc only without all of the murdering).

When I was on my voyage of craziness half way across the U.S.A I was invited to live there. Guy was going to let me live in his converted basement flat. Sometimes I wish the crazy had gone for a while longer and I had said "bugger it" and just gone for it.

 

[davido_labido]

It will be my first time to Canada, I will be in the Richmond BC area all the time as far as I know, although I do have 1 day where I have nothing planned so I might jump on a train and see where I can get to

It should be interesting I think!

 

[AlienALX]

It will be my first time to Canada, I will be in the Richmond BC area all the time as far as I know, although I do have 1 day where I have nothing planned so I might jump on a train and see where I can get to

It should be interesting I think!

Yeah it's one hell of a place man. Far safer than the U.S too. Obviously there are bad areas, but nothing like the U.S.

 

[Bartacus]

davido_labido: Hopefully the extreme heat wave we're having doesn't ruin your trip. I'm in the capital (Ottawa), and it's been well above 30C with horrible humidity for the past week, approaching 40C some days, and surpassing 40C if you take the humidex into account.

 

[davido_labido]

aaah, it will be fine, I have just got back from Taiwan which is like that standard I am good at finding places to hide from the heat..... like supermarkets with large freezers.

 

[Warchild]

aaah, it will be fine, I have just got back from Taiwan which is like that standard I am good at finding places to hide from the heat..... like supermarkets with large freezers.

Is that the place of Zen you get your inspiration from?

Could just imagine walking down the isle of frozen food and see a guy in a unicorn onsie deep in meditation hiding among the frozen pizza with a frosticle beard