(In Win 901) Asteria II: Rearmoured

[LePhuronn]

My guy did some CAM tests in acrylic for the internal structure.

Hot damn that looks good! So good in fact there's a small part of me regretting going black acetal for this. But, just like the cap head screws, however good this looks it doesn't fit with my overall theme.

Devil says "Except for the fact the SSD covers are a brushed metal plate with an acrylic light ring, and with the brushed stainless plate on top of this, it would actually look like the SSD covers if you light it up."
Angel says "Except the corners then wouldn't match because these are angled with a parallelogram motif and the SSDs are rounded rectangles."

NO! I shall be strong and stand by my convictions! And stop talking to myself!

 

[LePhuronn]

Ooh! My pump top is in somebody else's video!

Many thanks to Lucas at Mp5works for his help, incredible work.

 

[LePhuronn]

Nerd level intensifies...

 

[Cenedd]

Nice. Was contemplating revisiting the PCB idea myself to sort out the blown blue channels in the RGB LEDs without having to hand solder four lines to each of six LEDs and 18 resistors. Last time I looked to UK prototypers and abandoned the idea when the quote was north of £200. Ran across some adverts for JLCPCB claiming prices of $2 for ten pieces so might give it another go. Who are you planning to use to make the board up or are you going the laser printer and laminator route?

 

[LePhuronn]

JLCPCP will be my port of call, along with LCSC for a couple of the components (found a great eBay seller for proper 3+1 pin fan headers, PCB-mount male SATA power and bits). Everything designed with EasyEDA too - one stop shop for everything!

PCBs have changed a bit though, the front panel one is a bit bigger now to space things out, switched to 1.8mm LEDs and repositioned the tactile switches at the proper focal points of pressure. Hopefully ordering soon, need to make sure I have the various mounts for these bits perfectly aligned. I can hack holes in aluminium to compensate for dodgy screw holes, can't exactly do that with a 2-layer PCB

The smaller power distribution PCB does work out $2 for 10 PCBs at 1mm thick. The front panel one is actually $6 for 10 for some reason I forget, but they're not charging extra for different colours now so both of these boys will be black

 

[LePhuronn]

Brief sharing of activity!

I've planned from the start that the brushed aluminium backplate on the graphics card would catch and reflect all lighting in the motherboard area, but given the size of the Titan in the case it does act like an internal wall. So to prevent the motherboard looking like a small area just floating in the top corner of the case, I thought maybe use LED fans to create a soft under glow to give the main chamber a bit of substance, but wasn't too sure how well it work work given the fans will be in pull config and therefore the hubs are pointing downwards. A certain online retailer has discounted the white LED Corsair ML120 Pros, so I pulled the trigger:

It's not going to reflect quite that much once the aluminium bodywork is painted, but this has turned out a lot better than I expected it also means the beautiful custom DDC top actually gets some love too.

Stainless steel plates on the pump top and GPU block reflect the fans nicely, helping with filling that area with soft light.

Another step closer!

 

[Cenedd]

Nice. And I'm guessing those fans aren't bad either - their SP120's were really good once turned down. The larger SP140's were very disappointing though for some reason.

 

[LePhuronn]

Yeah, these are the ones with the mag lev motors and are highly praised. For some reason though, Corsair's LL series really suck in comparison, despite being mag lev.

 

[LePhuronn]

Potato phone pic with the lights on.

 

[Cenedd]

Potato pics are good.....all mine are like that Looking good so far....just need to get rid of the stock cooler - well, obviously. Far too much space between the pump cover and the gfx card though ;P Came out looking great though.

 

[LePhuronn]

Far too much space between the pump cover and the gfx card though

Yeah, 1.23mm is so much wasted space



Very happy too with the holes I chopped where the stock case meets the new floor. Turned out very tidy, almost as if they were there originally.

 

[Cenedd]

Yeah, 1.23mm is so much wasted space

Whole numbers of mm?! You've been spoiled if you're not having to use feeler gauges to measure the gap! ;-p

 

[LePhuronn]

It's come close a few times

 

[Plec]

Loving this build and the obsessional attention to detail.

Superb!

*And 4 screws was definitely the right minimal look. Plus, you know a project build is something special when you're validating the aesthetics of screw choice number on a pump...

 

[LePhuronn]

Cheers, Plec, greatly appreciate your comments.

 

[LePhuronn]

It seems my security certificates on my website are playing up and killed all the HTTPS links to images. Hopefully have this running again soon

Also, apologies for zero updates as of late, health problems are getting in the way. Good news though is I'm half way through building my new 3D printer, which means I can get assorted LED holders, clips and mounts printed ready for some serious soldering of PCBs and wire distribution blocks.

Hopefully be back soon!

 

[Cenedd]

It seems my security certificates on my website are playing up and killed all the HTTPS links to images. Hopefully have this running again soon

They do that. Don't worry, Google are angling to make it harder for you by reducing the allowable duration of certificates. Gotta love 'em

Also, apologies for zero updates as of late, health problems are getting in the way.

Hope it's nothing too serious/permanent.

Good news though is I'm half way through building my new 3D printer, which means I can get assorted LED holders, clips and mounts printed ready for some serious soldering of PCBs and wire distribution blocks.

...and the bad news is that you've just announced this to everyone on the forums - so expect lots of "Can you just print me a ...?" requests....and that's just from me!

 

[LePhuronn]

Hope it's nothing too serious/permanent.

Nah, just the usual mental foibles. The flip the phrase around "the flesh is willing but the mind is weak".

...and the bad news is that you've just announced this to everyone on the forums - so expect lots of "Can you just print me a ...?" requests....and that's just from me!

It'll take me a while to get the printer dialled in (Ender 3 Pro is a giant killer if you can get it perfect) but I'm open to printing for other people when I'm ready

 

[Cenedd]

I have some idea how that goes. If you can print me some enthusiasm/motivation/energy that'd go down a treat!

Cheers, I shall add you to the list of people whose equipment I really need to get round to abusing
I have a friend who bought a CNC router of something like 10' by 5' (for work) nearly a year back and I'm ashamed to say that I've totally failed to abuse this yet! (so you could be safe for decades!)

 

[LePhuronn]

I have a friend who bought a CNC router of something like 10' by 5' (for work) nearly a year back and I'm ashamed to say that I've totally failed to abuse this yet!

I'll quite happily abuse him for you

mp5works has done me some great stuff so far (the DDC pump top for instance), but he can't produce anything particularly big, and I have a project planned that will need about a 600x230mm alu sheet milling.