[Build Log] - Project Big2Small

Bryan Kortez · 30 Jan 2015 at 18:59

[Build Log] - Project Big2Small (Prodigy ITX Build)

So, after building my Corsair Carbide 540 in the summer of last year, I decided it was looking to bulky and that was a good enough excuse to build a new PC.

The build is going to be done in stages, using some parts from my existing build while I learn about custom water cooling loops and decide on a new graphics card etc.

1 - Modification of the Bitfenix Prodigy (Side panels, front panels, relocation of power buttons etc)

2 - Installation of motherboard, PSU and basic components and create custom cables to avoid any excess cabling.

3 - A top mounted H100i I currently own will be used to cool the CPU until I learn about a custom loop and decide on which card to go with. I would prefer to go with an acrylic tubing setup rather than hoses, so as a newbie to custom loops, it's going to take some learning.

I have just started drawing out templates for new windowed panels and front panels.

The front panel is going to be 10mm thick acrylic in either black or very tinted so you can only see through it when there is a light source on behind it.

I am going to cut up the existing side panels and have some tinted side windows made up. These will be mounted using M5 bolts rather than double sides tap to get a better affect.

I will update as I go along. If you have any ideas or suggestions for my build feel free to comment.

Update 01-02-15

I've just cut the side panels using a Jigsaw.

Panels have not warped or bent from cutting. Fairly impressed with the quality of the metal work from Bitfenix. Need to clean off the remaining masking tape and sand the edges down a bit more. I was originally thinking I would have to repsray the panels, but i'm going to see if I can get away with a black marker pen and colour up the exposed edges.

Bryan Kortez · 31 Jan 2015 at 19:04

paulm71 said:
good luck with your build, there are a ton of videos on the web for bitfenix prodigy going through water loops custom panels to fittings etc, great case to work with. here is a good one

Looks very nice

I'm taking some ideas from that guys previous builds.

This is the board I am thinking about using http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-630-AS

The colour scheme of my build is going to be black and white. The red on the board is a bit of an off put for me, but i'm not sure what other options I have. Can anybody recommend me a similar board?

Bryan Kortez · 31 Jan 2015 at 21:17

paulm71 said:
the Evga z97 stinger is a good board. its got the post read out on the board and not on the I/O plate, like the Asus one, jameswalt1 used it in his parvum warfare build.

I'll check it out

I use Visi Vero from work to draw up designs.

Bryan Kortez · 2 Feb 2015 at 09:14

paulm71 said:
try not to cut corners, no pun there but if you do a respray of side panels it will look better in the end.

Ha

I'm just worried if I spray the panel, I may get some mismatch between the rest of the case.. Guess I just need to find the right paint.

Bryan Kortez · 2 Feb 2015 at 22:37

Need some opinions here.. I am thinking of going with a 240mm rad up front with fans pushing air in, and a 120mm rad on the rear exhausting. What would you guys do with the 2 x 120mm fan ports up top.. Leave them empty, exhaust or intake?

Bryan Kortez · 7 Feb 2015 at 13:22

Got my motherboard, PSU and fans delivered the other day. I've taken measurements for custom cables but I am still undecided on how the colours are going to look..

(Sorry for bad quality pictures, haven't got any lighting setup and my iPhone is rubbish)

My original idea was white cables with some black strands thrown in the middle to break it up a bit. I am now thinking of black and red cables, and then maybe a UV Red coolant? What do you guys think?

Bryan Kortez · 7 Feb 2015 at 15:36

Was just about to do that, but the company I have been looking at who supply some good looking braiding etc seem to be in Hong Kong, so I'm going to have to find somewhere else. Can't seem to get hold of MDPC any more and i'm put off by the telios braiding.

Bryan Kortez · 11 Feb 2015 at 21:30

So, I got my 2 side windows and front panel from my plastic supplier this afternoon.. Everything was looking good until I measured the figure 8 dimension. They have cut the diameters to 120mm instead of 114mm. Sent them an email informing them of their error, so I should get a replacement. But here is how it looks.

Hopefully I will be drilling the pin holes tomorrow to mount my side windows. I decided to use bolts instead of double sided tape or glue as I prefer the look it gives. Then, to sand down the side panels and respray them. Has anybody used the MTN 94 Spray Paint? I'm wondering if the matte black is the standard they use on the prodigy case.

Hopefully I will be jigsawing the front of the case up in the next few days so I can start assembling the case. Then to order the rest of my parts. I have decided to go with a 60mm top mounted radiator with fans exhausting (hopefully shouldn't foul on the GPU waterblock inlet/outlet).

Got my paracord to, very impressed by the quality.

Bryan Kortez · 11 Feb 2015 at 23:08

FL630 said:
Looking forward to seeing how that front panel turns out, you're giving me some good ideas about modding the front of mine now too, not something I had initially intended to do.

I think the 114mm should look a bit nicer, do you mind me asking where you got the panel produced?

Looks like it should be better at 114mm. I was going to have a rad at the front, but decided to go against it, as I think it will look good seeing through the fans while they spin with the back lighting.

I got it produced by a company called The Plastic Man in Walsall. Google for the website as I'm not sure if I get in trouble for linking

They require .dwg files for quoting, and .dxf files for cutting. They seem pretty reasonably priced, half the price of the people in my home town, but luckly I work round the corner from them so picked it up at lunch. My side panels are a light tinted 3mm thick with 6 holes, rounded corners and a shaped side, cost me £13, about £7 for clear. I thought that was a bargain considering I would mess it up a few times myself as i'm useless with acrylic lol.

Bryan Kortez · 12 Feb 2015 at 00:00

Yeah that's including material cost. They have a calculator on their website to give you a cost. You enter material type, size, holes etc

Sit with handles, what do you mean?

Bryan Kortez · 12 Feb 2015 at 00:00

Yeah that's including material cost. They have a calculator on their website to give you a cost. You enter material type, size, holes etc

Sit with handles, what do you mean?

Bryan Kortez · 12 Feb 2015 at 00:13

ohh. The 3mm windows are mounted on the inside of the side panels. I had to carefully measure sizes to miss the motherboard tray.

Bryan Kortez · 12 Feb 2015 at 18:17

I've used Wild Elk Paracord 550. Seems to be okay

Just been waiting on my delivery from E22 with all of my connectors and cables. It's been a week now

Bryan Kortez · 12 Feb 2015 at 22:18

Did a test fit with the acrylic in the side panels and they all fit perfectly. I am going to be sanding down and spraying up the side panels to clean them up. Can anybody recommend a good brand of spray paint to use? I'm not sure which will look the best, Satin Black or Matte Black.

Bryan Kortez · 13 Feb 2015 at 18:23

Yeah Plasti-kote may look good, sell it at the local store too

Right. So after a bit more Jigsaw play, I have cut off the front of the case and fitted my panel. Here are my results..

(Top handle is only placed on for pictures as the clips break easily when taking it on and off properly)

The front panel is still the original one that the plastic people messed up on, the diameters measured 120mm around the fans instead of the 114mm I have drawn. I told them about the mistake and they promptly got me a replacement 4 hours later! I'm not going to fit the new one until the end of the build in case I slip with a screwdriver

The fans look real good with a background LED, and they change to what ever colour is reflecting behind them.

Bryan Kortez · 13 Feb 2015 at 18:46

I'll get my proper camera out for the next update. iPhones just don't capture very well anymore -.-

All of my wiring turned up today. So i've got the fun of crimping and sleeving every cable over the next week. Currently trying to decide on what colour to have the top mounted rad, either black or white. It's going to have 2 x Noiseblocker NB-eLoop Fan B12-PS fitted running at 400rpm idle and up to 1200rpm under load. The front fans running at 1300rpm are pretty much inaudible as there is not airflow resistance.

Also another thought I had about the top rad. Mount it like Case > Fans > Rad then exhaust at the rear fan. I can't see this being an issue going against natural convection?

Bryan Kortez · 24 Feb 2015 at 21:57

Haven't had much to update on lately, as I have mainly been making custom cables and waiting for parts.

I finally got the water cooling loop together for a test run. I'm using a D5 pump X-Res combo and i'm impressed.. I am currently just doing a leak test before I check what temps I'm getting.

I couldn't even here the pump running once all the air bubbles went out the system. So I decided to turn it up to maximum, to see how loud it would be.. I then found it was already set to max and I can't hear it!

Will hopefully be spraying up the panels on the weekend if the weather is better.

I am going to be getting my LED's ordered soon as well. I have come up with a good way to control them. I will be running them off a fan controller that will be monitoring coolant temps. When the coolant is at an acceptable level it will just have the standard white LED's on, and as the coolant goes over the temperature I am happy with, it will turn the red LED's on.. If the temperature goes even higher, I think the controller even has the option to shut down my PC to prevent damage (handy for if I leave my PC on while I am away and the pump fails etc).

Bryan Kortez · 15 Mar 2015 at 14:41

The build has been going a bit slower than planned due to faulty parts etc, but here is where I am at so far.

I decided to go with installing the radiator on the outside of the case and have the fans inside the case exhausting through the radiator.

As you can see in the picture below, the Prodigy has a 5mm pocket for the dust filter, this ment there would be a gap between the fans and the radiator.

So I made a 5mm gasket to go inside the pocket, and sandwich between the radiator and fans.

I then had to cut away a bit of these top to allow for the tubes to the rad.

The radiator now sits flush on top of this with no gaps. I am also going to install a 3mm Thick Neoprene gasket (when it arrives) between the fans and the top of the case to seal any small gaps.

For the lighting, I have gone with 12" Darkside White LED's. These are powered off fan headers, so the brightness can be adjusted to suit.

Here are some quick pictures of the build so far. I still need to make all of my custom cables and tidy things up.

Bryan Kortez · 15 Mar 2015 at 14:53

The pump/res is the EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140.

I only use 3.5" external USB 3.0 HDD's for storage. I can't stand the sound of hard drives lol.

Bryan Kortez · 15 Mar 2015 at 17:19

Yeah, I was shocked at the size when I got it, even though I had measured it up before.

My drive config will be a 256GB SSD for system, and a 256GB SSD for temp storage. I'm going to be doing a server build with WD Reds in raid for my storage and also for running services.

What kind of videos do you do?