Green Squadron

[Hukkel]

After the finish of The First Order ( http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=300608 ) Supermicro launched their top tier Z170 motherboard. The C7Z170-OCE. This is, in my opinion, a huge step up by them. It has big improvements in just about every section. Especially appearance of the motherboard and BIOS are just as good as anyone elses in my opinion. Plus this motherboard uses a PLX chip. Not so much you can add as much gfx cards are you wish, but also because you can use all gfx card lanes AND all storage lanes at the same time. I really wanted to do a mod with one since it looks great as well so we decided on a new project. Where we covered a bit of the dark side of the Star Wars universe in the previous mod we cover a bit of the good side :clap:

I chose to use a theme with an Xwing squadron which I named the Green Squadron. It applies to the colour of the motherboard, the fact that is it the good side and the fact we are using an Nvidia gfx card.

So lets get to work on the first batch of photos.

First of all again a big thanks to Supermicro for having the faith in me and my work and having me do this



The supplied me with their Gaming S5 chassis (that for the occasion had a green front!!!) and their newest C7Z170-OCE motherboard.



Since I have gone over the chassis quite big in the previous thread I am not doing that again. Next to this for this mod is the motherboard. I would like to show it off a bit as probably 95% of you guys have never seen it.

















Just like last time Bitspower was kind enough to supply the project with watercooling equipment. Thank you very much again Bitspower







I will show more when I install the products.

We then proceeded to add some more hardware to the build.

















Since I couldn't wait I proceeded to install the CPU block to the motherboard.
It fits the black motherboard nicely I think.

















I then proceeded to take apart the case to paint it. As I wasn't going to build in a silver workstation chassis.





I first cut out the rear fan mesh and the mesh underneath it as I have plans for that.





And then sanded, cleaned and primed it.





And we have a chassis very lichtly metallic black with some clearcoating over it.





That is all for this update.

 

[Hukkel]

This looks like a really nice build, green really looks great

Thank you Keaneo.

Looking good Tim ! I'm a sucker for a green and black build

Thanks Andy. Then you will love this build

Cant wait to see this one progress. Black and green

Thank you Lewis.

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A Green Squadron project without a green squadron is not done of course.

Dual layer on the grills. UV green and matt black. The mobo tray cover is matt black (see previous post) and the PSU cover is also matt black. Because I am using the same chassis I could reuse those last 2 drawings and adjust them a bit.

 

[Hukkel]

Looking good - especially the X-Wing grills.

Not heard of the Klevv ram before, but like the look.

Nice to see a supermicro board as well

Thank you very much I like that it offers you new hardware to see

Looking brilliant, great colour choices

Thanks!

Awesome work with those fan grills. Can I borrow your skills and tools

haha sadly I don't have a lasercutter at home. But if you need specific grills done let me know man. You know how to contact me

Oh just what I needed this week, a build log by you. Thanks mate you've made my week, love the theme and it's looking like another great build.
Subbed

Hey buddy
Good to see you here as well.
Glad you like them.
Hopefully you will like the entire log.

 

[Hukkel]

I am re-using these fans. Enermax doesn't sell them anymore.
They were used on a previous big Supermicro mod: Opteron Prime.
Love them so much I will use them again for his one.



Using my trusty home built bending wire to bend the 3mm thick panels.
So happy I built one of these. Makes bending not only easier but the bends are just better. More straight and less wide.



And this is how it looks fitted. Really happy with it.

 

[Hukkel]

Time to fit the radiator in the top.
The case is standard not equiped to fit a 360 in the top as the 5,25 inc bays are there.
But the basis of the case is perfect for it. Fit nicely.

This is the Bitspower radiator.
I think they source them from Hardwarelabs as they look very identical and also make use of M4 screws. Which is a good thing. The only downside is that the 1/4 in and outlets are on one side only. Which makes the Bitspower logo half of the time end up upside down xD







Time to run a few 4mm holes through the fresh paintjob.
The case has the option for 240 mm radiators to fit closer to the doorpanel so the motherboards stays clear. So I just added a few holes et voila.



I fitted the top fans on top of the radiator as I didn't want the inside to be lit up too much by them. The radiator also gives a nice stealth look to the top.

 

[Hukkel]

Those RAM modules look gorgeous. Must look into that brand as I've never heard of them.

Edit - Just saw it on Tom's Hardware review and not surprised they are very expensive. They illuminate though, nice!

They do look nice in person. Feels heavy and quality.

Loving the progress, however I'd be very interested to hear more about your bending wire. I'm about to make a metal brake to bend up new internals for my project, but yours looks like it could be a bit more versatile than mine.

Thank you very much.

I will do a video on it shortly on my Facebook page so everyone can make one.

 

[Hukkel]

Of course I cannot live with wiring with all kinds of colours in a project no sir.
So before mounting the reservoir with pump setup I am going to sleeve the power and rpm cable.





Sleeving is a dirty job but someone has got to do it.



Fitting the reservoir only by the pumptop mounting system. The top side will be fitted to the radiator with quite a small pipe. So it will be updright.
What the pictures show is that I used a black metal plate behind the mobo tray where all 4 screws go through to fortify the setup. It will travel with Supermicro and I do not want the res to be torn from a plexiglass mobo tray during travel.







I think it looks splendid

 

[Hukkel]

Thank you

 

[Hukkel]

Dude, I've misplaced your Facebook page...point me in the right direction?

My name is Tim Warning

I made the ghetto video last night so hopefully in a week it will be online.

Looking lovely. Keeping an eye on this.

Thanks a lot Gary

Hukkel - Excellent fan grill work mate. Just love what you've done there.

Thank you very much. I am also happy with the grills. The sad thing is once everything is in people won't notice it that easy.

Looks like a great build, the Klevv ram looks great as well

Thank you

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I want to show off this block for a small second.

I was sent the gold version for the TitanX because there was no other one in stock anywhere.

I had to cover the backplate with black metallic vinyl for the theme, but it was almost a sin. The gold coloured block and backplate are absolutely bloody gorgeous.















I have NO idea where the finished photos for the block have gone. I will look for them on my pc because I am sure I made them.

 

[Hukkel]

That's a very gorgeous block Tim.

It is man. I was kinda surprised by how good the golden colour looks.
It looks really expensive haha

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I didn't really have a nice spot to put the SSD this time. So I decided to tuck it away under the PSU cover.

To make a bit room for the connectors (and my fingers) I put it on standoffs.

 

[Hukkel]

Standoffs. now that's a very good idea. I think I may steal it to mount hdd's in my case. That's the only bit I am not sure about that where the HDD's go.

Thanks man. Do remember that HDDs vibrate. So you might want to think about that. I would look at the Scythe HDD aluminium coolers. They look great and make the HDDs silent and can be mounted all over the place in the same matter. For SSDs this is easy though.

Mind blowingly simple and I can't believe it never occurred to me!

Haha sometimes the easiest solutions can be the best

Got to say Tim, like eveyone else posting above, that the standoff idea was brilliant and I will use that myself at some point. Great idea buddy.

Steve

Thanks Steve. No problem.

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Time to put some time into the sleeving of the cables.

The 24 pin will get an extensions (because of double wires), the 8 pin eps will also get one and the PCIE cables will be sleeved themselves.

I also put some carbon sleeving on the SATA data cable.

 

[Hukkel]

Started putting the fittings all over the place and come up with a loop in my mind. Of course I always ask for 2 or 3 fittings too litte. So I end up making some kind of contraption to make it all work haha. Which usually ends up around the pump and reservoir.

 

[Hukkel]

After some searching I found some UV green vinyl. It will just colour better with the greens in the system. I have lime green and other shades of green, but they were just all different.

I knew I wanted to have a logo on the PSU cover again (like the previous one). And I knew I wanted to do something with the GPU backplate as well. I kinda like the name of the project in a STAR WARS font. Then after I stuck it on it felt like it needed just a little additional touch. So I stuck on the Nvidia claw and that finished it








I was finished now with the PSU cover and all cables beneath it so I fitted it. First had to pull the GPU wires through 1 by 1.





LIKE A GLOVE









This connector right here is for powering the UV LED strips going on the inside of the sidepanel.











Some additional photos just because I felt like making them.

 

[Hukkel]

Top notch mate. Really loving this build coming along.

Thank you Faheem

OMG those GPU psu cables are so satisfying to look at!

hahaha thanks. I kinda had the same thing. They just seem to "flow".

looks awesome, top work!

Thanks a lot Ash

 

[Hukkel]

What do you guys think of the engraving on the sidepanel?

The gfx I got from Google. I cannot take any praise for it.

I just thought it would suit the theme of the project very well

 

[Hukkel]

I decided to lose the doorpanel completely and replace it with a plexiglass panel. I just wanted to make sure I could place enough window space on it since there is so much to see.

I decided not to put too many UV strips into the case itself as I couldn't place them enough out of sight and I hate it when you look into a case you get blinded by the LED strips BAM in your face.

 

[Hukkel]

another nice engraving job there. any plans to edge lit these?

Thanks man. I think the case will have enough lighting from the inside to make the engraving visible. The fans also emit quite a bit of light.

 

[Hukkel]

After filling the loop and looking at it I thought there was something missing. It needed something more to attract just a tad more attention.

So i decided to change the top dustfilter with a custom grill.

First I had the grill lasercut from UV green plexiglass.

I then added a layer of black vinyl with the name of the project cut out of it.

When you look at it from the side of diagonally you will see the edge of green of the plexiglass.

 

[Hukkel]

Coming along great

Thanks a lot Colin

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Here is the first batch of final pictures. These are with the system off and daylight.























































Next update with the system on and late in the evening.

 

[Hukkel]

Bro mind blowing. After looking at the final images, I have lost all courage to do more work on my new build. How one gets close to this craftsmanship.

Thank you Faheem
Don't be discouraged by it. Build for yourself and learn new things one step at a time.

Some work gone into that !

Thanks. Yes it has taken a bit, but it wasn't that bad I have to say.

Looks like there is one just after the bend.

Incredible work tho mate. Looks so good!

haha true. There is very little room behind the motherboard so the 24 pin cable gets pushed all over the place.

Great panels mate, loving the glass one.

Thank you

I wish I could do stuff like this but I'm not very confident just yet haha.

Amazing work!

Thank you!
Just go for it. No other way.
Don't be affraid and take one step at a time.