-----'PARVUM SENESCENTIS'-----

[parvumsystems]

Hi everyone. Time for a little project. This is actually a 'filler' project log. Just something a little different for me and to work on something until the next big project. When I say different we have and plan to explore many new techniques and materials in this build.
There shall not be any watercooling here either which actually will be a big first for me. Something I'm actually looking forward to.

Due to the nature of how busy we are with Parvum this will be kept a somewhat photo based project log. I'll be more than happy to answer all questions as we go but the text will be kept to a minimum in the project.

This build is possible with the support of Intel, Hyper X, Nvidia and Republic Of Gamers.

I tend to gather a series of images and physical items as project inspiration before I start anything. I thought I would share them:

Main Components:

Case - Custom Steel Parvum X1.0
CPU - Intel i5 4670k
Motherboard - Asus Maximus VII Impact
Memory - Hyper X Unknown
GPU - Asus GTX 750Ti
SSD - Hyper X Unknown
PSU - Silverstone Strider SFX 600

Miscellaneous:

MDPC-X Sleeving
Large Coolers - Prolimatech Genesis CPU Cooler & Alpenfoehn Peter 2

 

[parvumsystems]

Steel case panels & ageing the metal coolers

We start with the stock coolers for the project. It's going to be EXTREMELY tight to fit the CPU cooler but we will make it work. In their retail form.

I wanted to keep away from the very bright chrome so we had to step into some unfamiliar territory here. I'm usually not a fan of making things look aged or old but really wanted a rough and organic feel here. I suppose with an architectural background; the desire to mix rustic and aged with clean and sophisticated was always to our taste.

We first sanded the nickle plating with a fine grit and dunked into a a bronzing solution to eat away at the coolers. We wanted to add hints of colour so we chose to flame heat the steel finishing plates for the CPU cooler.

Next up some of the base panels for the case. Laser cut entirely from 5mm thick mild steel. We then left the panels to weather a little. The rebated holes and chamfered edge have been done by hand. We then sanded down some parts of the panel and left the raw look here. We sealed the panels with a lacquer to prevent further weathering and darken down the over all look.

 

[parvumsystems]

 

[parvumsystems]

Well, this is different! I can't wait to see how you're going to make the MB, RAM and GPU look rusty......

Thanks for joining! Yeah damn now you mention it... I wonder what damage sand blasting them would do.

SUBBED! Love a good Parvum project

PS: ATX case - on sale when? My money is waiting to be thrown at you

We are aiming for first quarter 2015 my friend!

 

[parvumsystems]

oooo,
I like it, subbed

Welcome!

Im liking it - very fallout! Will the eaten away coolers have any impact on cooling do you reckon?

I have no idea, I'd probably expect it to have very little effect. With no before test I won't be able to help. Temps are not something I'm too concerned about however.

This looks amazing!!

Love it! going to look epic! subbed

(think it appeals because senescence could be used to describe myself lol)

Subbed! I'm thinking this will end up looking quite steampunky =)

Looks boss! Subbed!

Thanks all. Cheers for joining

subbing to this, looks great, a big change from the clean looking perspex.

Yeah it was very different and nice for us. We will still use acrylic within the build. Not sure what colour yet.. lots of ideas.

I'm in!

Welcome <3

Makes a nice change from all the clinical looking stuff, If you want anything else looking rusty in a hurry send it to me and I'll leave it on the deck of the ship for a month and I guarantee it'll look like it came out of Steptoe's Yard in no time.

Haha we may have to take you up on that idea. May add to the overall smell of the system!

This is gonna be different from you guys, looking forward to end result, and looking forward to the ATX case in the Parvum line up.

First quarter 2015 is the plan for ATX. Stoked

love the panels on this. very cool.

Cheers Rich!

 

[parvumsystems]

Small update. More than anything we need to choose the acrylic colour for the accents and mid wall. I have taken a number of photos of the choices we like and have considered for the project. If I'm honest we do want to use acrylic here.. because we love acrylic!

If you read the thread please reply with the choice you like the most. The numbers are labeled here:

Full information on choices:

1. Colour - Light Silver / Finish - Gloss Metallic / Light transmittance - NO
2. Colour - Silver / Finish - Gloss Metallic / Light transmittance - NO
3. Colour - Slate Grey / Finish - Frost Matte / Light transmittance - YES
4. Colour - White / Finish - Frost Matte / Light transmittance - NO
5. Colour - Clear / Finish - Frost Matte / Light transmittance - YES

More photos of the samples with one of the panels as a reference:

Hopefully with the above photos this will give you all enough to make an informed vote. I know what I would chose but I must say I was pulled towards a couple.
I will be going ahead with the winning vote Monday/Tuesday of next week so we can get these parts cut and the thing together.

In other news; Asus ROG have sent the board. Thanks guys. A shot of the thing (You've all seen the Impact by now) and a photo with bits removed:

Now to think about what we can do with these easy to remove bits

 

[parvumsystems]

Thanks for all the voting thus far everyone. I will compile results from all 3 forums and let you know the answers. I will also post the most interesting reasons behind the winning votes.

Oddly black slate and frosted clear are winning but the votes stacked very highly from 1 forum to another. Guess forum users have similar taste

 

[parvumsystems]

Results:

1. Light Silver - 6
2. Silver - 2
3. Slate Grey - 21
4. White - 6
5. Clear - 23

So with that I will cut and try to post photos of the case built with the frosted clear tomorrow. If for whatever reason we at Parvum and you guys think it doesn't look great we will cut the Slate Grey and compare. It makes sense because votes our quiet close.

 

[parvumsystems]

Hi all. Sorry for the large delay. Had a lot on at Parvum so had to just get around to it. First up I removed a little of the black coating on the Asus blocks:

Then assembled the case with the winning accent colour (Frosted clear):

Super happy with the frosted clear. Going to look awesome with some LED light.

Thanks for reading.

 

[parvumsystems]

woo my vote won!

Yeah the light coming through the frosted glass is a great effect so clean and elegant with the complete opposite look of the "rusted and busted" theme, compliments each other very well

Thanks, going to really enjoy playing with lighting on this one. Will be the make or break factor for sure.

This thing will be unreal when it's finished. Awesome work.

Thanks brad

 

[parvumsystems]

Fantastic, now you just need to add Metal s2.0's to the online shop

lol we could offer a limited run of them.. not sure I'd want to look at shipping costs >.<

 

[parvumsystems]

Slow project is slowwww

Had to take a while here, just working on this when I get a spare hour etc. Not a huge amount to do now. Just a big metal box with some lights soon!

The CPU cooler was just that tiny bit large. Removed a few strips:

Going to get the RAM installed and play around with LED lighting in the next update.

Sorry it was short & sweet.

 

[parvumsystems]

Good news, Senescentis is back with the addition of a new sponsor and some fresh thinking from fellow modder JR23. Having spent some time working together on PARVUM MATE he stumbled across the steel X1.0 hiding in the corner of Parvum HQ and demanded progress be made immediately!

With both of us able to put some time into the project we decided to step up the ambition and fill out the case with something a little more special than first planned. JR has some unconventional watercooling ideas he wanted to explore that fit elegantly into the theme of the build, or so he tells me


But first lets take a look at the swag from HyperX and the projects latest sponsor EKWB.

...much goodness already, lets unbox!

HyperX 3K's seem to get better looking every time we unbox them and the Fury matches the subtle aggression beautifully, too bad those spreaders will be coming off soon.

Beneath EKWB's vibrant packaging lies an understated lump of acetal and nickel, not something I typically go for (acrylic FTW!) however its very inkeeping with the architectural nature of the project.

Luckily EKWB offer a replacement acetal top for the monarch block just in case even moar clean CSQ epicness is required.

We also decided to go with a PE radiator on this one to complement the simple square lines of the blocks.

Finally we have the DDC and black heatsink/cover concluding our little array of watercooling gear.

From this collection of uber clean monochrome hardware it may seem as if we are straying away from the beaten up rat look and to an extent that is the case. Not everything in it will be ratted, instead we will try to achieve a very controlled contrast between the rough rusted textures and smooth black surfaces. But fear not there will still be some dirty industrial elements to look forward to.

It's great to have a some momentum back on the Parvum modding projects, i'm stoked to see what JR does with the watercooling kit and I can't wait to report back to you guys with more updates. Thanks to HyperX and EKWB for your support and thanks to everybody following the log for your patience.

 

[parvumsystems]

bump *cough* updates please *cough*

Oh so you want the updatez nao! I know JR23 is busy planning the loop so some substantial progress can be shown in the next update, but he did send me these teasers...

 

[parvumsystems]

wow if you can get these nuts and bolts to work in a water cooled loop this will be amazing, but yes been following this from the beginning! how ever long ago that was...

I see nipples ! The pipe kind of course, put some "stag" on those threads though !

For sure this is going to be a very awesome and unique loop. How long coolant will run safely in this loop however we don't know. It'll probably need changing a lot

 

[parvumsystems]

Although the log went a little quiet again the entire Parvum team has been busy getting involved in SENESCENTIS and we are now at a great stage to share our progress. Taking the experimental nature of the project a little further and drawing from the techniques picked up on PARVUM MATE we developed some unique watercooling ideas for SENESCENTIS.

Before they could become a reality much measurement and CAD was needed so we asked JR23 for halp! (sounded boring)

But he seems to like it... and this might just work!

For the first time we got a block of 12mm Acetal to work with, finding opaque acrylic in thicknesses greater than 5mm is challenging particularly when an entire sheet isn't required.

Acetal got rekt!

Next up all of the G1/4" ports were tapped out, at first using a pillar drill to ensure the threads were perpendicular to the piece.

One of the ports in the motherboard tray (yes, motherboard tray) was a blind hole so to ensure the fitting would screw in as far as required a tap with a less significant taper was used.

Now lets take a look at some glorious fittings.

Wow, such finish...

...you just don't get that oxidization with Bitspower.

Literally pushing those aside for a moment lets take a look at what was crafted from the block of acetal. Firstly a reservoir and pass through plate, allowing each run of tubing to sit parallel and elegantly disappear into the rear of the case.

Much tool path... <3

The threads cleaned up great, acetal has proven to be a fantastic material to work with both with the CNC and by hand.

Now for the main article, an X1.0 mid wall, with stand-off less inlayed motherboard mounting, precise fitting radiator opening and much more.

MOAR tool path, on so many levels!

Just in case SATA happens...

Further to that ATX spaced individual power cable holes perfectly placed for the Maximus VII Impact were implemented.

But what is this in the back of the motherboard tray m9's o.O

Clean Acetal dankness!

Lets just let that sink in guys.

Stoked to bring all of these elements together, thanks for your support, catch you in the comments or if not in the next update.

 

[parvumsystems]

I'm so glad I came late to the party for this build log! Looks awesome thus far. More updates please

Very cool! Can't wait to see more.

Thank you! More updates are on the way, JR23 is back down tomorrow to cut another set of accents for this and then it will be ready for tubing.

"acetal has proven to be a fantastic material to work with"

Acetal Parvum cases on sale soon.....calling it now

It could happen but the surface finish of Acetal is undoubtedly inferior to acrylic, such is that nature of an engineering grade plastic, this piece at least didn't turn up with any protective backing. It's also not readily available in 5mm sheets meaning we would have to adapt drawings a little to accommodate. The plate bought for SENESCENTIS was 12mm although it actually came as 13.3mm, perhaps in reality they were aiming for 1/2". It worked out great for this but that kind of thing could really mess with a production case. Finding acrylic in anything other than polished clear above 5mm is a real challenge hence why we gave acetal a shot.

Wow!

I wish my maximus vii impact was going into that

Can't wait to see this finished

Send it over we can use yours instead

 

[parvumsystems]

I like this a lot! Would love to see how much that case weighs. 5mm mild steel.....really?! hahaha

Currently without cables, tubing or coolant it weighs just over 18kg. It's not crazy heavy for a PC but it's ridiculous for it's size.

 

[parvumsystems]

Just a little update on SENESCENTIS to keep you all up to date, even in the extreme heat! All of the holes have now been tapped in the reservoir pass through plate so it's ready for action.

Also the accents were cut, this time from gloss black to match the acetal parts, clear frosted just didn't work out quite right.

So with all the holes tapped and the accents cut a pair of o-rings were all that was needed to complete the reservoir.

Time for Joe to start fabricating the steel tubing!

 

[parvumsystems]

MOAR

Due very soon! Thanks for watching.