Project Alter-Ego

The GPU block that I had was from Alphacool for the RX480, this came in black with blue font, however I wanted to paint the block to either white or silver. With help and advice from a good friend Admodz. I set to work on stripping the block down. I started by taking the actual water block off the cover as this cant be touched. Once I did this I was left with just the backplate and the heatsink top itself.

The method to stripping these is actually quite a surprising one and left me a bit sceptical as to the effectiveness of it, however I trusted Adam's advice and set to work. I placed the blocks into separate containers that had water in them, and added Mr. Muscle drain cleaner pellets. I left them for a few hours and before I knew it, the solution had completely stripped the paintwork from the blocks!

I was so impressed with the results that I have actually decided to keep them the way they are as it ties in well with the chrome and silver accents throughout the build theme.





















 
We received some more goodies for the build from a couple of the channel sponsors.

First of all we received some gorgeous cable combs by our good friends over at Hydra. These combs are 3d printed and look quite stunning. They came in black and blue, which was the colour requested by myself to suit the Alter-Ego blue/black/silver colour theme. The pieces are of very high quality and the attention to detail is second to none. The combs work by simply taking an allan key and unscrewing a single bolt which opens one side up and then the cables simply fit in, individually spaced apart by each segment. The screw is then closed into place and the cables are organised very neatly. The advantage to these combs compared to the traditional solid combs, is that they can be applied to any cables without the need to have them put on during sleeving or having to remove the pins from the blocks. A more comprehensive review will be shown on my channel shortly too.

The second items we received are courtesy of the team over at Team Group and that is a set of 2x8GB (16GB) 2400MHz DDR4 ram sticks. The T-Force Dark Gaming series of Ram Memory Modules are simply stunning, the first in the world of its kind with a unique 4 piece heat spreader and innovative design for optimal performance. These will be used within the system and will most certainly compliment the build. Once again, the review will be up shortly.













 
The plans had to be changed slightly to the dimensions of the desk to make it more manageable. Originally the desk unit with the system In was one single unit from floor to top and was going to have the box to the right of the desk to house a test bench. The top was set to be 6ft in length. However, after doing some trial fits and as you can see in the photos below, the space inbetween the box and the computer stack was very minimal and certainly left very very little room inbetween for comfortable seating. With it being a desk that I will use everyday, this would end up being a problem in the long run.

With that said, I redesigned everything and decided to lose the box on the right housing the test bench, cutting the desk shorter by 8" and then cutting the base of the main computer stack to allow it to be attached to the table and have space underneath it. There are many reasons for this, one was for practicality of the size of the desk. The test bench will now reside in a shelf to the left of the whole unit that I will mount separately but it will be linked in with the lighting and theme. With the carcass being made using MDF wood I solved a problem that many have encountered before and that is with water. Water and MDF simply do not mix, having 5 children in the house means that spills are inevitable, so taking the box off the floor altogether avoids this. (The whole carcass is going to be covered to make it waterproof when finished, much like the inside of the desk). I then acquired a motorised sit stand table from my sister. I took away the desk top it came with and have utilised the legs onto my desk, which now means that I can raise the whole unit to 5ft high, which might sound completely pointless in theory, but in practice this will provide me a whole host of benefits. Such as another angle for videos, but most importantly it will make maintenance so much easier for accessibility.

As you can see, its now starting to take shape and is in the rough stages of construction, the end results will be a completely different story.



































 
I am now currently at the stage of doing the final structural parts of the build. Once I have done these, I will be installing the system into the desk and then setting up the custom loop and getting everything powered up and tested. Once it is all up and running I can add the final finishing detailing touches, such as the final cladding, lighting and the tempered glass top.

The front has a piece of 4mm Ply cut to fit over the front box. This is then wrapped in vinyl to not only give it a more finished appearance but also to add that extra level of protection and waterproofing. The final details will be fan grills, chrome inserts that will cover up the cuts made to finish off. I cut 3x 120mm holes using my holesaw on this front panel, all the correct distance apart from each other to show the fans through the holes. However, despite measuring the distances between, it turned out that 1 of the fans actually sits 1/8" lower than the other 2. This might sound like nothing and seem trivial but it threw the lining up off completely. 1 fan now sat out of place and you could see the fan housing through the hole. So I took to work on changing the design slightly. I decided to keep the front panel rather than creating a new one, knowing that the 3x 120mm holes were measured perfectly. Rather than trying to cut the carcass up that holds the fans to make it fit and risking it looking butchered up, I decided to mount the 3 fans to the front plate itself, this way I could position the fans perfectly. The carcass needed to be cut to make the alterations fit, so I set to work on expanding the hole needed for the one fan adjustment, when I made the decision to just simply cut a large rectangular space within it that would easily house the fans. It might not look pretty right now but it is functional and works. Cosmetic appearances will be tended to upon completion.

I then cut a rectangle out for the fan controllers to fit into and it fits nicely, albeit with some slightly rough edges. The rough edges are not a concern however as I am as previously mentioned doing the final touches at a later date.

All I need to do now is cut 2x 120mm holes underneath these that will show off the pump and pump tops on the lower shelf.

I will be setting to work on mounting Led Lighting also and then working on structuring the desk itself to make it strong and sturdy.

Its worth noting now for those that are wondering, this build is purely a scratch build that I fully intended to create using basic power tools and minimal plans. To showcase a raw construction and build that requires no machining or milling. Of course, if I had chosen to use different materials, such as steel/aluminium etc and opted for milled/cut parts then the construction would have been much more simple, but that is not what I'm looking for here.

















 
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