Monster Studio A45 Collaboration Project - Sponsored

Jay85

Jay85

Jay85

Soldato
Joined
22 May 2010
Posts
12,433
Location
Minibotpc
Another project in the works, this is 1 of 4 projects we have lined up for the coming year but not ready to announce those yet.




Website link to main project: https://minibotpc.com/studio-m-a45/​


We contacted Monster Studio for a chance to work together on a project on their A45 chassis, an open frame design but the motherboard is angled at 45 degrees to the floor giving it a unique viewing experience. Plenty of mounting points is pre drilled into the chassis to allow for versatile mounting locations which i intend on exploiting with some 3D printed parts.

The theme of the build will really come down to whether Kingston Technology can get me what i want for this build, i already have Carbon Fibre in mind too. Once again Bitspower will be providing us with the necessary watercooling parts so will be a little wait on them.


I don't even have a project name for this yet so suggestions are welcome! Keep it civil! :cry:



Let's begin as usual with some unboxing photos






Full Unboxing and assembly video can be found here:



some additional photo's of the assembly and test fit components installed.








 
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clone said:
Popcorn at the ready, my only concern is the evil dust bug :)
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In all honesty, i've had less dust on open frames than i have with enclosed systems. Purely because there's no fan's blowing over components transferring dust directly onto them.

I'm in talks with Daniel from Singularity Computers at the moment with the design of a Power Board for this project.
 
Turns out creating a powerboard from scratch as a one off will cost around $2-3K wow! That's a no go then.
 
LePhuronn said:
If you can design it yourself PCBWay would be about 1/10th that. Shouldn't be that hard to plan out a bunch of traces to route things.
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Just had a look at that, it's viable though they have a minimum order quantity however for prototyping of 5 pieces it seems.
 
LePhuronn said:
It's always good to have spares :p

I still have 8 each of my 10 pieces of front panel/fan splitter and SATA power board PCBs because of the minimum quantity.
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That's a lot LOL! I don't know what i would do with them seriously, maybe sell them to other potential owners?

If the powerboard is out of the question, Singularity Computers has definitely considered a one off distro for the case so it's something im working on right now.
 
A White version will be making an appearance soonish before we move onto the main black system. It just looks too good not to at this point.


 
LePhuronn said:
everything came from JLCPCB so it was cheap as chips, so I'm not bothered about having all the spares. But I am reusing parts of some of the PCBs for other projects. Cut the front panel board in half and you have a perfectly functional 3-way PWM splitter. And the SATA power splitter thing doesn't need the SATA power connector on it to split power since any one of the 4 Dupont connectors can be used as a DC in.

I'm sure I'll use the LEDs and tactile switches for something :p
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Always nice to have spares tbf, like with components it gives choice for different aesthetics too!

Need to look into pcb design abit more, if i am to make things abit more unique, i truly should look into making custom components from scratch like this.
 
jabski said:
looks good mate. I am excited to see how it develops
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The White one is nearing completion, notihng special with it but i wanted to explore what it could do with regular components and nothing too flashy.

Gepetto said:
Now that looks interesting! This, however, is not unusual with your builds. :cry:

I'm looking forward to this one!
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When you say that i feel like i need to step up my game again :cry:

LePhuronn said:
Hit me up if you want to chinwag. I'm not an expert by any means but I think I did a pretty nice job on my two, especially given I had space constraints to qualify for a first order offer JLCPCB had running at the time.
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I will definitely hit you up regardless :cry:, been super excited lately with all the new builds happening. I'm slowing down abit because i don't want a hobby i enjoy to turn into a chore.

What you created there looks exceptional! Definitely have to ask you about this at some point even if just to create something simple.
 
I got started with the component fitting this weekend and so far i think im happy with the layout. Though i want the run to the cpu abit cleaner so might end up moving the reservoir over for a straight run. Yes the orange EK badge puts me off abit too... i don't have a spare silver one though.






 
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jabski said:
looks good mate. I see what you mean about the EK badge, looks like a power button. Have you thought about white cables ?
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I have a silver badge coming so hoping to fix that though the orange badge is actually growing on me lol.

I tried with white cables, too much white. The contrast with the black actually breaks it up abit and looks better.
 
LePhuronn said:
Outside chance I might have some EK badges. Undecided about keeping the silver glass badges I have right now and doing my own, but also have a couple of old EK Supremacy EVO blocks for spares I can take an old flat badge from.
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If you're donating let me know :cry:, i just need the one though someone is sending me one but attached to a plug so will need to carefully remove it.
 
LePhuronn said:
Mine might not fit to plugs as they're the old school premium replacements. But I'll let you know in any case.

But gotta say I actually like the orange. One or two cables in orange to cut through the black would be a lovely accent.
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The problem is, i have hotpink coolant coming... so the orange absolutely wouldn't work :cry:.
 
Quick update with Sponsors for this build:
LePhuronn said:
Is this a loaner? Will they let you take that red off, or at least change it to pink?
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Nope, this is for me to keep. I wouldn't make this pink!

This is going into the Black version of this build which i'll start shortly.
 
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