[CASELABS BH4] MILSPEC II

[B N3GATIVE]

Welcome everybody to my latest log! This one is a remake of a simple build done a few years ago for someone else,this time im remaking it for me,hopefully with none of the facepalm that comes with a sequel!

The latest victim is the 'hot from the press' Caselabs BH4,a case designed by Jim and his hardworking team to be a compact case for aircoolers....well...Challenge Accepted as I dont do aircoolers so this build will be a Sli,fully watercooled rig instead.
Most of you know,if you cut me in half then the words In Win can clearly be seen like a stick of rock....however,when a case gets my interest then Im going to have to have a go at stamping my style on it,this is one of those cases!

First off,lets look at the case.
As usual,Caselabs have gone for a thick gauge Alu but opted for a clamshell design rather than the traditional frame and panel design favored by most manufacturers. This saves on weight and materials which is why im guessing Caselabs dont charge the earth for it. Its compact,really compact...however I have a second lower clamshell which will be flipped to make a small rad bay underneath (more on that in the pics). I also went for the dual window option because...who wouldnt?!? Finish is,for now,Caselabs excellent primer finish,I have used this before and found it excellent so I saw no reason not to use it again,thanks to Jim for that as i know its a PITA to change out colours and primers for just one case!







Caselabs provide well for storage fiends! 4x 2.5 and 2x 3.5 mounts no less.





Board in place...





You can see from the pics that I have mounted standoff's to the lower section,this will mount the panel that will hold the rads and the vanity panel on the front.










You will probably guess that fitting the GPU's with waterblocks will be hard...well,it is with my choice of cards,the excellent ASUS 980Ti Strix cards,as they are HUGE! Not to worry tho,there will be a form fitting cutout on top to allow the cards and blocks some space.

The GPU's,courtesy of ASUS UK! I went for the awesome 908Ti Strix as availability of a second 1080FE to go with the one I have already was next to non existent. Who cares tho when they are as good as this!









You can see how tight it is when I did the shakedown...

Spoiler

The RAM courtesy of the excellent team at KLEVV,a new sponsor for me and provider of some sexy sophisticated looking RAM,this is their DDR4 CRAS kit....so cool looking! Thanks KLEVV!





The motherboard,the awesome X99m WS platform,this was provided by my mate Tom Logan @OC3D,once he found out what I was doing and how much I wanted to use that board,he selflessly offered me his one from his ASUS pron stash!! Good Work that Man!!!









And with that gorgeous RAM in situ





Its like KLEVV had a picture of that board next to the designers workstation with the memo 'Make it look awesome on that board'....

Watercooling ,as always,comes from the best,EK. Derick was excited to hear of my collaboration with the ever awesome Caselabs so it was not a hard choice to make!



As you can see,this will need a post all of its own!

PSU's are in the form of dual Cors68air SFX series,no ATX will fit in the gap and those GPU's are not on a diet so the back panel will be modded to hold 2 of these,a 600w for the CPU and 1 GPU while the other smaller 450w unit has the second GPU and the ancillary equipment.



Im not giving to much away on this yet but you can count on paint,lots of metal cutting and a dirty great res in the front!!

Thanks to the teams at Caselabs,ASUS UK,KLEVV,The constantly awesome EK and me old mucker Tom Logan at OC3D for providing me with the support time and again to do what I love. Big kisses guys XX :thumb:

 

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Today's post is the EK kit that I couldn't squeeze in yesterday.

Fans are the 2200 PWM Vadars,that black finishes them off nicely compared to the grey of before!

Because of the limited space in the 'ped',I went for EK's slim SE rads,a pair of these will be cooling everything down.

And taking care of the CPU is the X99 EVO block......and I forgot to take the bloody blue sticker off!

Now to the positively OOOOOGE 980 Ti block for the Strix...

I went with nickel backplates,I have something in mind for those!

I still cant get over how damn big they are.....

To space space I have left my beloved D5 setups behind and gone with the PWM 18w DDC....and because ,you know,that heatsink......

And finally,the fittings,normal EK HD here and the inclusion of a pair of Y's should provide something to think about.....

HALF LIFE CONFIRMED!

I thought,as I have a lot of painting to do and its overdue as i need a new primer gun (goodbye Graco,enjoy the rest of your short life grey!),I invested in a new toy for the workshop....

 

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Sneaky peek at the backplates?

 

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And now the blocks are fitted!

Enjoy the pics.

 

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A small update,just a show of progression of how the rad ped is setup,just need some larger feet and the extenders for the rear rad ports,its too tight to get bends in there as the pics will show.









And as a finishing touch to the inside....



I have 14mm +/-1mm between the fans and the roof of the ped,I had to jack up the midplate inside the main chassis to get the clearance I need. If I had thought longer on this,I probably would have got another clamshell lower and made a much larger rad bay....I didnt want to lose the compactness of the case tho....

Making good progress tho!

 

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So have you vinyl wrapped the backplates leaving an edge keyline and cut logo?

Yup. Looks easy,is a PITA to get lined up.

 

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Impressive build! On a separate note, can I inquire about your photography set-up for those product shots? Look great.

Canon EOS m,stock lens,£12 backdrop, 14" ring light.

How you light the shot > Everything else.

If you have a DSLR,iso 100,aperture priority,play with the f stop to get your depth of field and use a tripod.

 

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So after an hour or so in the garden,I made the second PSU mount in the rear of the case to mount the extra Corsair SFX PSU for the second card and ancillaries like the water cooling,storage etc.

It all fits like a glove!





600w for the board, first GPU and OS drive,the 450w for the second card and the rest of the gubbins,lovely job!

Now to cut the res mount and top clamshell,get the bottom plumbed in with the passthru's. I do believe we can get some paint down after that!

 

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Cool thanks. I have a 500D and tripod, but nothing else, and I've been very curious lately as to how take these kinds of shots, particularly as I have a WC build I'm planning for so would like to get some good shots of it all. What ring light do you have? One of the tripod ones the camera sits in the middle of? I saw the below one (which is compatible with the 500D), quite cheap, wondered if it would work?

No,they are really for facial portrait shots,most of my pics are done on my desk with my monitor up and pointing down on to the subject from overhead with notepad opened fullscreen so its just a white lightpanel.

These pics were taken like that...

I've grabbed a pair of cheap studio umbrella lights from the fleabay for about £30. Could be an alternative if you can't score a light ring.

They work but the bulbs are where you need to spend money,cheap bulbs have odd colours to them.

Lovely work as always.

You love it.

 

[B N3GATIVE]

Great shots, that's what I want to try and achieve. So you have the camera on tripod with the 14" ring light around that? From what I'm seeing they're around the £60-70 mark?

Sounds about right,get an LED one if you can.

Those pics where just my monitor lighting the subject,nothing else.

 

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In more news,the pass thrus are done and I managed to keep all the storage options too.

 

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The roughing cutouts have been done,now to get the res made for the front and a more form fitting cutout for the GPU terminals/SLI bridge. I will machine that later today I think.....

After that...PAINT TIME!

I love the way I can see a lot of the hardware from 3 sides,so much so that clear coolant maybe the way forward.









5mm clearance from the top of the case to the GPU's......

So this is the rough clearance cutout,there will be a machined plate going full length that will have a closer tolerance of around .5mm.



And the block just fills one side....

 

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You say "rough" but it looks pretty good as it is - especially round the water terminals!

It will look much tidier with the panel,trust me.

I think the phrase I'm looking for is.....seriously impressive work. Looking forward to seeing this one develop for sure.

Im machining the last piece now,once thats done I can etch primer the Alu parts then possibly get a top coat on tomorrow,the problem being that I want to get at least 3 coats on before airbushing and clearing,preferably quite quickly (2 days max) so it will be well cured for I series,dont want fingerprints in it on the ASUS stand.

 

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Apologies for the cam phone.....
The top plate is cut and everything bare was etch primered ready for colour tomorrow!



The sli bridge is almost flush with the plate now.





Now to strip it all down to the last bolt and key everything ready for the lovely green basecoat. Sleeve is on its way too,the job I hate the most.......

 

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GREEN? Was not expecting that. Or have I not been paying attention?

I dont know,I may or may not of mentioned it.....

Im getting on in my years..

Yeah, I gotta give it to you; it does look better with the plate. Was good before though.

"GREEN?": Given the name Milspec, it wouldn't shock me if it was olive drab or similarly themed.

Trust me,it will look good.

Or not....

 

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Green. Yes,very.




Got in there quick before it clouded over....now to start the airbrushing.

The new gun is bloody amazing,sips air and paint but covers so well the final lay is like glass. If I get a shuffle on then it could be cleared over by Monday. The acrylic has arrived for the res,once the chassis is clearcoated I can take the final panel depth for the clamshell res,it needs to be exact so as not to foul the res seals,to start machining it.

 

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I couldnt resist putting the Caselabs build back together before clearcoating,it will help me get the airbrush stencils where I want them to be as I can visualize the layout much easier. Then strip down,airbrush then clearcoat!














Dat Green tho....

Its starting to all come together now,once the case is cleared over then the rest is plain sailing. Airbrushing,clearing,HDD/SSD's to fit then cable it all up. Then its res and the final tube up.

Hopefully this will all be done for I Series at the end of August!

 

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How many MIG's have you shot down wearing the airmask

BTW left you a PM on ST dunno if you go there now.

Sadly my log in there is broken and I dont have the email addy its attached to anymore,does anyone still go there Spider?

 

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Nope it's kinda dead there shop is shut again, time to turn the lights out.

End of an Era....


......again.......


Sad times tho,I had a real laugh there with some great guys and Specialtech were always really good to me.

 

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A quick peek before I finish up scuffing the yellow with a scotch pad to soften the lines and give it a used feel.

First time with Inspire H20 airbrush paint....and my last,back to solvent for me,viscosity had to be just right and I just couldnt get it,resorted to airbrush flush as a thinner in the end.



If the weather is good then clearcoating tomorrow.