Project: Hades

darwin1859 · 26 Mar 2017 at 23:26

Hello and welcome to Project Hades by Darwin PC!

Introduction

Hades was the ancient Greek god of the underworld, a son of Titans and brother of Zeus and Poseidon. As Project Hades will feature an inverted ATX conversion, the underworld theme made sense. I have a few mods planned to make this build stand out.

Hardware

Case: Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K
GPU: Palit GeForce GTX 1060 Super JetStream
Memory: Kingston HyperX Savage 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4
PSU: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ gold modular
CPU cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240
Cabling: Custom-sleeved with E22 Teleios

Sponsors

Thanks to the following sponsors for making this project possible: Cooler Master, Gigabyte, Palit and Kingston / HyperX.

Updates

darwin1859 · 26 Mar 2017 at 23:38

A few shots of the hardware - looking forward to playing with this!

darwin1859 · 27 Mar 2017 at 00:19

Safetytrousers said:
An i5 and GTX 1060 doesn't really squeeze my juice.

It's not top of the range hardware, but I plan to focus more on the mods than the specs.

And why a 1000w for those?

I opted for a bigger PSU to allow for future upgrades. Might seem a little out of place, but it was available, so no reason not to really.

darwin1859 · 27 Mar 2017 at 09:08

orbitalwalsh said:
Free stuff is free stuff

Pretty much - I'm happy to play with whatever is provided.

darwin1859 · 27 Mar 2017 at 09:22

orbitalwalsh said:
believe alphacool has an AIO for the 1070 version, should fit the 1060 version if you want something different in the build

Interesting, I had the option to go full loop, but I'd looked for full cover blocks and found none. Cheers.

darwin1859 · 27 Mar 2017 at 09:33

I did a quick test build to make sure everything was working. Assembly was straightforward, although it took some clever positioning of the CPU cooler radiator and fans to not put strain on the tubing.

The test build booted perfectly first time, and with no SSD connected, went straight into the UEFI/BIOS.

The CPU temperatures were good, and the BIOS made easy work of adjusting the fan curves and pump speed. I did have to swap the pump cable to a different fan header, as the ‘pump’ header on the mobo couldn’t control the speed (in voltage or PWM mode). It worked fine on a different header though.

darwin1859 · 27 Mar 2017 at 11:52

orbitalwalsh said:
there not as sexy as full blown water blocks but gets the job done at a cheaper cost.

What did your Board do with Auto Overclock? mine did 4.8Ghz with ram at 3000hz. really need to manually set it but was to lazy !

Nice, what kind of temps are you getting with that? Presumably on auto it sets the voltage pretty high? I haven't had a go at overclocking with this board yet, but I always do it manually.

darwin1859 · 28 Mar 2017 at 15:31

orbitalwalsh said:
I think the default voltage was 1.308v for 4.8Ghz, believe running Intel Extreme it hits 66c , but it has all C-States enabled so speeds and power drops. Couldn't get this to work on my Strix Z270E whether Auto OC or manual, had to run at full speed

That's not bad, what cooler are you using?

darwin1859 · 28 Mar 2017 at 15:32

I began work on the case modding. The first task was to invert the motherboard.

Here's the case during stripping down, with most of the panels removed.

Most of the removeable modules use these retained thumbscrews, which I find pretty useful for not losing the things.

This is the fan and LED controller on the back.

All parts removed from the case.

The case completely stripped down.

Checking the placement of the motherboard within the case.

Starting to drill out rivets. I had originally planned to completely disassemble each section, but then decided to keep the middle section intact, and remove the top and bottom sections then swap them over.

Removing rivets from the corner brackets.

Bottom section removed.

Top section removed.

Checking alignment for reassembly.

There was a lip in the middle of the top section that prevented the corner joints from lining up.

I cut off the lip with the Dremel.

Here is the top section in place.

On test fitting the IO panel, I found it was blocked by another lip on the front section.

This part was also removed.

Edges cleaned up ready for the IO panel.

The IO panel now fits perfectly.

darwin1859 · 1 Aug 2017 at 22:38

To complete the ATX motherboard inversion for the Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5, the pieces were reassembled and secured by rivets.

Holes where rivets had been drilled out were measured using digital calipers. Here are the rivets, in black, with various sizes to fit different thicknesses of material.

Here is the heavy duty pop rivet gun to be used for assembly. It is pretty hefty, but clearance in tight spaces can be an issue.

The case was reassembled without any issues. The case now works just as previously, but with everything upside down.

I then put together a quick test build to check everything fits properly upside-down...

... and added the plastic panels.

darwin1859 · 3 Aug 2017 at 11:31

LewisRaz said:
PSUs at the top could be a new thing! You trendsetter! Joking ofc Good work so far mate.

Haha. Only so many places it could go...

Cheers.

Minibiker said:
Great work so far.. look forward to seeing the progression... I'm liking the PSU at the top

Thanks. It's worked out quite well... though it will mean the power cable will be hanging from the top.

darwin1859 · 2 Aug 2018 at 12:58

Project Hades is complete. Project Hades uses the Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5 case. The whole case was disassembled and inverted to form an inverted mid ATX form factor. It was given a deep red paint job, chaos skull detailing and various mods.

PC Hardware

Case: Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming
Graphics: Palit GeForce GTX 1060 Super JetStream
Memory: Kingston HyperX Savage 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K
Power supply: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ gold modular
Storage: Kingston HyperX Savage 480GB SSD
CPU cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240

Mods

ATX inverted case mod
Custom red case powder coating
Chaos skull case and graphics card vinyl detailing
Fully sleeved custom cables
Red CPU cooler mod

Project Hades by Darwin PC

darwin1859 · 2 Aug 2018 at 21:06

Ganelon said:
I really love how those Palit cards look... but if you're modding stuff anyway, why on earth would you not flip that Palit logo? It's really easy to do; you can see the screws clear as day. I'm assuming it's the same process as on the current EVGA cards, and I've done that a few times.

Sometimes taking apart the cooler is a bit of a faff, but as long as you keep track of all the tiny screws I'm sure you can manage it it's got to be worth it to have the logo right-way-up.

Hmm it never actually occurred to me. There are a lot of upside-down logos elsewhere too, so I didn't really notice it.