be quiet! - Project Octane

Kris Butterill

Kris Butterill

Kris Butterill

Associate
Joined
19 Jan 2019
Posts
23
Hey everyone!

Excited to be starting out on a new build this week!

This project is supported by be quiet!, kindly providing the components on which this build will be based. This build will feature the be quiet! Dark Base 700, be quiet! Straight Power 11 650W and be quiet! Silent Loop.



So, my name is Kris and I run a small cnc and vinyl cutting service and I want to incorporate our own custom cut parts and graphics into this build. For these, further along in the build I will take you through the design and cut process on our cnc and hopefully get some footage of the parts being cut too.



The name for the project is Project Octane, as some of you may have guessed, this will be a Rocket League themed build. When I put the idea to be quiet!, this was what I had in mind for the case exterior, featuring team colours and graphics. Some aspects may change along the way, sometimes what you visualise doesnt fit when you start with actual products in front of you so parts of this build could change as we move along. I like builds with clean lines and aesthetics and hopefully by the time this project is done it will tick all the boxes.

For the case interior I will be adding a custom shround for the front mounted radiator, the radiator will be behind a custom panel and placed at an angle for better viewing. There will also be custom made cable combs, cable management slots and PSU basement cover. Its hard to describe these so il go into these further along in the build. The Silent Loop will also be customised with new tubing and cpu block design.



I wanted to build on the be quiet! Dark Base 700 for a number of reasons including the modular design, size, build quality, the seemingly large number of mod possibilities, full glass side panel, built in fan controller and RGB lighting, I/O and psu basement area.



The case arrived this week, well packaged and in my eagerness to get started I forgot to take some pictures of the unboxing
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First off is to strip down case down as far as possible, this thing really is easy to take apart! There are no sharp edges and everything is very well put together. First impressions leave an imprint and the Dark Base 700 is off to a good start here leaving me full of confidence this project will be a sucess. Below, I am stripping down the front panel ready for painting. The air intake grilles I have decided will be orange and I have an idea for the back feet too but we will come to that later in the project.







Im really excited about this project and I cant wait to get cracking with the painting, slow and steady wins the race so stay tuned and follow along, I will be updating the thread as often as I can, hope you will come along for the ride!
 
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Thanks @LuckyBenski! I looked at the Dark Base 600 when I was thinking about the project but the 700 seems best for what I have in mind. For the cnc and vinyl parts I want to do something with the rear feet, custom fan shrouds and depending on how water cooling and GPU mounting works out a few other bits too.
 
Today we start on painting!



As part of this build I contacted Rust-Oleum to explain what the project was about. I use Rust-Oleum products a lot for sign making and cnc cut wooden lettering and asked if they would be willling to support the project. We discussed what paint would be best to use on the brand new case and came up with the Hard Hat range for both the metal and plastic components. Rust-Oleum were kind enough to send over the following;



2x Light Blue Hellblau RAL5012

2x Pastel Orange RAL2003

2x White Aluminium RAL9006

1x Prep Cleaner

1x Surface Primer



All the products used in this build can be found here.







With the RAL colours slightly different to what I had originally planned for, the concept art is slightly off but I do believe that the colours used will make the project brighter and stand out more. Now the case was stripped down I started on the blue for the main chassis and top.


























So the main chassis is now painted, bolted back together and ready for the orange parts to be added once I get them ready, hopefully that will be my next update.
 
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Been a little busy the past couple of days but managed to get some more painting done, this time on the orange side of things. A few of the orange parts are plastic and so they were prepped with the Rust-Oleum Adhesion Primer prior to being sprayed.









The PSU shroud has the recessed be quiet! logo, Im planning to vinyl cut white lettering to fit these parts later on in the build. The top removable radiator mount also got a coat, this will hardly be see once the build is done but will also accent the case features.

It will soon be time to start putting it all back together, more progress coming soon.
 
Thanks guys, its coming along nicely and behind the scene obviously further along than the pics. Il be putting some more up in the next few days and will be showing off some new parts that are on their way too!
 
Big photo update this time!

Progress coming along really well and I have 99% of the painting done. You will see the basement area and HDD covers are orange, this was just to see how the orange will look as part of the new floor and shroud I will be cutting on the cnc.































So now the canvas is almost ready for cracking on to the good stuff! I have to say that the dark base really is so easy to work with, the only area I may struggle is painting the front panel as I cant seem to remove the RGB plate from the aluminium. I will probably end up just taping it off and hoping I dont get any overspay. I have also decided to keep the front blue to match the top and the back panel will be orange. Then once all the decals are fitted they should break it up nicely.

Speaking of decals, heres the Masamune I use for Rocket League. Here you can see the colour stating to line up with the build. I will be using my cnc software to draw up some of the decals including the Otaku pattern.



Im also hoping to compliment the wheels I can go with addressable RGB fans and I may have some news for you guys on my next update!
 
Most of the painting is now done so I will be moving on to the internals and the main shroud. The mock up is very close to what I have in mind with intergrated cable pass through for the 24 pin, I still have some measuring to do for other parts and need to make sure everything will fit into place. The shroud also included 2x 120mm cut outs for fans and hose for the Silent Loop to reach the CPU.



I will be cutting this on my cnc this week and putting it together before painting ensuring I have a good fit and I have not overlooked anything. Loads of pics have been taken this week for some more new parts that have arrive, updates to follow!
 
Ok its hardware update time!

As you know be quiet! are supporting this build, and today I am unboxing the Straight Power 650w and Silent Loop 240mm.

650w should be plenty for this build, a 6700K and Strix 1070

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Note I have not gone into depth on the cables, more on that below! As always great build quality from be quiet!, this isnt the first PSU I have used, previously using a Dark Power Pro 100w for a build.

Next up is the Silent Loop 240mm, I originally planned on a 280mm buit while in shipping it became clear that a 240 would be the way to go and be quiet! were good enough to send out a replacement.











I really need a better place for photos, so apologies there, the 240mm Silent Loop will recieve upgrades to hoses when installed, more pics coming on fitment when I get to that.
 


See more at BitFenix.com

I am delighted to announce that BitFenix are to join in on this build, complimenting the existing support with a range of products including;

1x Alchemy 2.0 Modular Cable Set White SP11
6x Spectre Addressable RGB Fans 120mm
5x Alchemy 3.0 Addressable RGB LED Pack


















The Alchemy 2.0 Modular Cable Set for the Straight Power 650w directly replaces the be quiet! cable setin and is supplied in a wide range of colours. I have the white to match the build, originally I requested orange but sadly they were not available at the time.

The Spectre Addressable RGB Fans 120mm mean that all existing fans are to be replaced and as mentioned above, explains the change to 120mm from 140mm. It also gives me more room to work with for the internal shrouds.

Our final unboxing for today is the Alchemy 3.0 Addressable RGB LED Pack, provided in a range of sizes to fill every last inch of case space!





The LEDs include a controller in cae you do not have an Aura compatible motherboard (such as my ASUS Z170 PRo Gaming)

Now that these are all heare and unboxed I can move on to the internals and ensure everything will sit where it needs to be. Ive CNC cut some internal panels today so that will follow soon!

Again a big thank you to be quiet!, Rust-Oleum and BitFenix for supporting this build!
 
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Another big update, this time we are going to be looking at cncing all the internal shroud components.

So, a cnc in simple terms works by taking a drawing and converting it to co-ordinates so that the router can follow the lines drawn. You can set the depth, speed and tool to be used to allow the machine to cut cleanly. Some projects suffer from whats called tear out, where chunks of the material chip off during the cut process. After taking some measurements from the case, I then drew what I needed in my cnc software.

The picture below shows from top left going clockwise, 2x thin strips to cover the existing cable management cut outs, 24 and 8 pin cable combs, the main front plate for 120mm fan mounting, with holes for the radiator tubing, fans and screw holes. The large piece at the bottom is the basement shroud with 8 pin gpu connect pass through, to cover the existing be quiet! modular sections. Finally we have the left hand side of the vertical shroud including 24 pin cable pass through holes.


So now we have the drawing of the parts we need to cut, we can export the "co-ordinates" to a file that the cnc can use.

Now we need some material, Im using 3mm plastic for this so thats something else we need to tell the machine so it knows how deep to cut. We peel off the protective coating and fix the material to our waste board of the cnc.





Next we have the actual cut process, this happens quite quickly so I took photos as and when I could.









Next we have to bevel the edges for the vertial shroud, rather than do this in the cnc software I use a diy router table on my cnc for small jobs like this. Also see I only use 2 tools to cut the whole shroud, a 3.2mm straight cutter and a 90 degree V bit.







Now we have our pieces we can sand the rough edges, wash them and begin assembly. The photos below show my test piece and the final cut with markings for where the 8 pin connector needs to be, as you can see they line up quite well. Masking tape was then used to transfer the positioning of the vertical shroud. Same goes for the 24 pin.







To fit the parts together I use a trick used by picture frame and box makers, masking tape the front of the components, apply the glue and fold together, it works really well and will leave a nice edge hopefully.





Now we wait for the glue to dry so I can paint this and get it fitted ready to complete the build!



Last thing, the cable combs, these turned out really well, for future projects I will play about with designs to really mnake them stand out.

 
This is really starting to come along now!

Internal shroud is now painted and I have started on the wiring for the GPU and 24 pin. The 2x BitFenix 120mm fans are also in place with the Silent Loop 240mm radiator placed behind. Its going to be a tight squeeze to get this into the case but I am confident that my measurements for the cnc parts are accurate.









Because the Strix 1070 only uses a single 8 pin connector, I have removed the additional wiring from the connector to help with cable management. There is plenty of space in the Dark Base 700 basement but every little helps.



I bought the Phobya pin removal kit, its been great for removing pins and saves trying to do it with staples or paper clips, especially when I have 32 wires to do. GPU cable is now in place with my custom cut cable combs.















We will leave this update here for now, next we will get a look at the completed wiring and the installation of the shroud.
 
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Update time for the wiring, finally got the 24 pin finished and the shroud installed this week.

Comnponents have been installed for a test fit, I have all the wiring to tidy up once everything is in place.

I didnt even test fit the shroud before gluing it all up, confident that my measurements were right. To get the shroud into the case, with the 8 pin GPU wiring pre installed meant removing the top panel and removable radiator tray then slotting it in from the top. I have removed one of the be quiet! basement covers to get the wirting through to get to the PSU.





Next up was to tackle the 24 pin, I had a small issue with the install and BitFenix were good enough to send out a replacement cable, meaning that I installed this whilst in the case.







To gain access I removed the front panel to feed the cables through, as you can see, space is a bit tight here.













So now they are all in place they will need tidying up to make them perfectly straight with my custom combs. This is gettting close to finish now, just one more plate to make to cover the pre-exisitng cable holes then its on to vinyls.
 
Decal time!

Ok sorry for the lack of in progress photos here but its very difficult to hold a camera and apply decals at the same time.

The final internal panel has also been fitted, still need to tidy up some wiring but we are almost ready for some final shots of the case!

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Ive seen that done before, however, we are trying to demo what we can cut with our cnc hence the combs. Its not the most comlpex project I have ever done but hopefully gives people an idea.

I have a Fallout build coming soon that will again use cnc cut parts from in house. Heres an aztec calendar I designed and cut, the theme will potentially follow this.


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