(In Win 901) Asteria II: Rearmoured

[LePhuronn]

Welcome one and all to my very first build log. Hopefully this will be a great experience to share with you all as this is a project of many firsts: first extensive case mod, first foray into custom water cooling, first hardline loop too, and first time putting everything out there for public display! Exciting and terrifying in equal measure

Asteria II: Rearmoured is based around the stunning In Win 901 Mini ITX case, and was inspired by Laine's "Clarity". It was great to see a custom loop put into this case, but I felt more could've been done with his radiator placement. A year of planning and exploring later I've bitten the bullet and giving it a shot of my own.

The name
Asteria was a Greek goddess associated with falling stars and prophetic dreams. She was also a Titan and, frankly, that's why the original Asteria was named as such - all of my computers are female and she had a GTX Titan inside The Titan and a few other parts of being reused in this new project, and hence Asteria II: Rearmoured was born.

Hardware

• i7 6700K
• Maximus VIII Impact
• 16GB Dominator Platinum
• GTX Titan
• Silverstone ST45SF-G V2 Corsair SF600 Platinum PSU

Water cooling

• EK Supremacy EVO Acetal
• Watercool Heatkiller GPU-X3 Titan LT with EK FC Titan backplate
• Alphacool UT60 360 primary radiator
• Alphacool ST30 120 XSPC TX120 secondary radiator
• Alphacool DDC310 pump with Aquacomputer custom-designed DDC top
• Aquacomputer Aqualis ECO100 res
• EK 12mm hardline compression fittings

Fans

• 3x Corsair ML120 White LED
• 1x Noctua NF A12x15 Black

Since this has been in the planning stages for over a year, there's no starting pics of the case I'm afraid since it's all in bits for measuring!

Where I can though I do intend to give some stock shots of components before they're modded. Right now though I only have my phone camera available, some cheap lights and a black bed sheet that refuses to have the creases ironed out of it, so don't expect miracles in the photography department

Thanks for looking, progress will be updated as it comes.

 

[LePhuronn]

Maximus VIII Impact motherboard

To get the ball rolling here's a quick tour around the motherboard.

It's a great looking board, but I think the Z97 Impact VII actually looks a little better. What bothers me is the different textures involved on this board.

For instance, the chipset heatsink has a matte grey sticker with subtle ROG embossing, however the shroud for the SupremeFX sound card is a very reflective shiny silver, and fingerprint magnet to boot.

And the same grey matte is applied to the Impact Power daughterboard heatsink:

Yes, the ROG logo is embossed with that crosshatch style. Very nice, but I'm not sure I can retain it.


And, frankly, a £200 motherboard should have a more elegant way of connecting a BIOS battery!

Also, since Asus decided to put a U.2 port on the board (why?) rather than M.2, the I/O cluster for me looks a bit haphazard now with varying heights of ports and big gaps and whatnot.

A silly thing to fixate on? Of course


All of this is going to be corrected. The red is going and all the textures are being unified. Bring on the vinyl!

(now that I have this first post out of the way I can actually get on with some work )

Catch you soon.

 

[LePhuronn]

Thanks for the interest Smffy.

The battery actually made me rage! Not only do I have to faff with some tiny sleeving but somehow make the plug black (tiniest amount of black paint and a fine brush methinks).

As far as modding the case goes, that's the bit I'm most excited about as it's been the bulk of the year's planning and 6 months in Photoshop and Illustrator.

 

[LePhuronn]

Isn't the original Titan 300w? If it is then isn't a 450w PSU pushing it a bit?

Well 300W can go into the Titan but it never does, even at 100% load. I've been running the Titan off this PSU for 3 years with no issues. And the 6700K will draw a smidgen less than the 2500 I have right now too.

I've never gone above 400W from the wall.

 

[LePhuronn]

Oh it's a bugger to water cool properly when you want things to look stock. B Negative is doing an awesome job with his Celestial project, but he's rebuilding the entirety of the inside for his. I'm only rebuilding about half...oh wait, was that a spoiler?

 

[LePhuronn]

Life has gotten in the way a little bit recently, so apologies for no updates. I did want to update the log in thematic batches, but that's proven to unnecessarily delay things.

Will get something up a bit later.

 

[LePhuronn]

Hello to all, back with a minor update.

I had intended to post content in more complete, thematic blocks, but life has gotten in the way recently so I've not made much progress. Still, here's what little I've been up to.


Motherboard work, part 1
As said in my opening posts, first thing I really wanted to do was balance the colours and textures on the motherboard.

All laid out ready for some love. You can really see the difference between the heatsinks and the sound card shroud, and already in its naked form the board is looking a bit more unified.

So let's break out the black matte vinyl wrap...

The wrap is a reasonably chunky 0.2mm thick with a nice texture not too dissimilar to the stock heatsinks so it's covered well without too much effort. Need to tidy up a few edges here and there.

SupremeFX III soundcard. It turns out the lettering and red design lines are slightly embossed, so I may well give it another blast with the heatgun to bring the details out a little more.

And yes, I'm too much of a coward to invalidate warranties on my very first proper project, so I just wrapped over the serial number label it'll be face down towards the GPU though so you won't see it.

Impact Power heatsink. The embossed ROG Eye logo came out really well, but unfortunately the Republic Of Gamers text just wouldn't take - looked lovely and crisp when the vinyl was warm and being rubbed down, but it just relaxed a bit too much as it cooled, losing definition.

Not overly fussed right now because, again, this will be facing down and obscured by the CPU block. Plus this took me 4 attempts and is still a little scruffy, so I'm walking away for a bit

Chipset heatsink. The ROG branding came out really nicely, lovely and crisp embossing. Excuse the dodgy edge, I was a bit excited by how well the ROG turned out and had to take a pic!


All together then...

Maximus VIII Impact Black Edition anybody?

Much, much tidier now I think. I did think about covering the capacitors on the power daughterboard similar to B Negative's Celestial, but I think in my case the little flashes of silver here and there serves as nice accenting.

 

[LePhuronn]

Motherboard work, part 2
The red and the textures have been tidied up now, but the I/O cluster bothers me as well. It's not the colour this time, it's the haphazard spacing and heights - I just don't want to see it at all.


Bit of measuring, bit of Illustrator, wee drop of ink on some paper and...

Test fit an I/O shroud. It also covers up the serial label on the sound card cover too

I think I can extend that wall a few more mm just to get a bit more coverage.

I'll be honest, the EVGA Z97 Stinger is my inspiration for the I/O shroud (and probably my entire board rework too).

I love that it's not just a hard-edge plastic box you slap on top of the I/O cluster, but much more organic with a nice bend radius at the ends and all folded from a single cut piece. That also ties in nicely with the smooth, sweeping corners of the 901's aluminium external skin, so I'm rather happy at how my own bend radius has mocked up.

Of course, it needs to be done in something that isn't paper yet. It also doesn't need to be done in 2mm thick acrylic

Now this was always more playing with the material rather than making something final, but 2mm is (for me anyway) a bit too thick to get some intricate cuts and rounded corners, and also to fold evenly. Bit of a pig's ear really.

So I'm changing to 1.5mm thick PETG sheet, but will have to wait until I've made up my DIY metal brake to get more accurate, even folds.


Thanks for looking, hopefully be back soon!

 

[LePhuronn]

Why didn't you just buy the the EVGA Z97 Stinger? What benefits do you get from the ASUS?

You can't get the Stinger any more, not even 2nd hand. Nor can you get the Asus Z97-I Plus which was my first board choice. Originally was looking at the Impact VII, but they're hard to come across and B Negative is using one in his own In Win 901 Celestial build.

I was then looking at the Asus Z170 Pro Gaming and B150 Gaming Aura, but had a stonking deal show up for the Impact VIII and just couldn't pass it up.

 

[LePhuronn]

Did you use 3M primer on those heatsinks? I've just got a bad feeling that when that vinyl heats up it's going to remember what shape it used to be and cause you headaches.

The heatsinks don't get hot and what little heat is generated doesn't pass through the metal stickers, so at this point in time I think I'll be OK.

That being said, I'll be giving the board a run through once the CPU and block are back on just to check everything's still working before building, so I can stress the board a bit and see how things go.

 

[LePhuronn]

It's looking good so far. Colour me interested

I was wondering when you'd come on very pleased to have you on board

Note to all: had a tumble on my bike last night and smashed my wrist up. Nothing broken, but very sore right now. Sorry to keep you all hanging with lack of updates!

 

[LePhuronn]

Almost forgot about this until you posted in my other thread! You sure that vinyl isn't going to part ways? In my experience with it even the case ambient and hot air blowing might cause it to start coming away.

Good way to test would be pointing a hair drier at it from a decent distance and warming it up, if not I would get some decent matt paint. Board looks great without all the kiddy colours though!

I've not posted an update in weeks so I'm pretty sure everybody's forgotten about this had a hold up on building the material bender I need so things stalled a bit, and then I smashed my wrist up.


I'm also not 100% sure the vinyl will stay when everything's built up, but so far it seems OK. The heatsinks don't get hot really and I've wafted the heatgun into a box with the bits in to simulate a hot environment and we're good at this point.

But yeah, paint will be the backup plan.

 

[LePhuronn]

Wrist is improving, cheers Cenedd. It's slower than I'd like because I'm not properly resting it (insanity at work so it's hard to take actual time off right now), but I'm getting there.

Bender material should be arriving in the week (MDF and door hinges FTW), but the weather is a bit grim so I can't do much chopping if my wrist is up to it, away the weekend so hopefully I can make up the bender next week and, at the very least, get the acrylic I/O shroud and GPU sorted.

And then the aluminium work begins...

 

[LePhuronn]

Cool, the bits that might become an obvious problem is over the lettering. Even if you don't have it trying to peel off what can happen is a sort of one bubble forming which will look a bit off.

Kinda had that problem already with the daughterboard heatsink - the Republic of Games text is a bubble because it was a bit too fine to retain shape when cooling. I can kinda live with it because it's small and you won't see it, but if the ROG eye or other logo puffs up it's look rubbish.

So far so good though, but we'll see when I put the board through a pre-build water test

 

[LePhuronn]

I'm sure hand relief is the correct term to somebody

I'm giving the wrist another week before I think about fixing/replacing the bike and getting back on it, which also means I'm reticent to start sawing my MDF - it's only a couple of cuts in 18mm thick material, but I'm not investing in power tools for a one-off job, so it's all about a hand saw, and my grip's a bit weak.

I'm annoyed because this sheet bender is the big hold-up - need it primarily for the aluminium work, but there's some acrylic I want to do too. Without the bender everything is held up, and without a wrist I can't build the damn bender.

I may see if I can sort out the GPU though - don't need 2 hands to play with chemicals

 

[LePhuronn]

 

[LePhuronn]

I'm doing something, honest!

Wrist is healed, but now lacking strength. Strapped up I can just about cut some MDF. OK, it's not a computer, but it is an integral part to the project.

"One-off job" he said. "No need to buy a circular saw" he said. Yet when your pre-cut MDF isn't squared up properly like you thought it was, a dodgy wrist isn't helpful when you're trying to get some right angles!

 

[LePhuronn]

Just noticed that pic's a bit misleading!

It's not actually square to the workbench and the camera angle makes it look worse. The steel rule is a guide for me to shave a bit off the right edge so it's square with the top edge. But even so I drew up square edges on the 4 sheets I have and some were out by a good chunk, the worst one be 3mm difference (width of material 300mm, I'll leave you to work out the angle )

As long as I have a straight edge on 2 pieces to mate together, and at least a square adjacent edge to make accurate measurements for the hinges and bolts then I'm all good.

And yeah, MDF dust is literally a killer. Had the trusty face mask on, although sawing with a gammy wrist AND steamed glasses is more hassle than it's worth.

The sheets and blocks are all chopped up and accurate enough, resting the wrist now and marking out my guide holes for screwing. Hopefully I'll finish this up tomorrow.

Oh, and the laser cutting has been paid for and is underway

 

[LePhuronn]

TEASER SHOTS!!

Look what I just collected from the awesome guys at Congleton Engineering...

Lots of cleaning to do, I need to true up the sheet bender because it's a bit off and do some test runs with some scrap alu, but the core stuff has finally arrived.

Quite excited now to get going properly

 

[LePhuronn]

That's not all of it, and I have a spare set of everything because these guys are so amazingly priced I didn't hit their minimum charge!