Project Princess - Super Budget Build

Cyanide · 9 Nov 2015 at 11:24

Parkinson1NX said:
It's great to see something like this being done! Top marks on being a father!!

TechMinerUK said:
Excellent to see you invlove your daughter in the building process. Also the painted pink has a good finish and the build is a cracking bit of kit for someone of such a young age.

Great job

Cheers guys

Build video part 1 is going up ~6pm tonight, part 2 will be Wednesday and the benchmarking/testing will be next week.

Not expecting it to set the world on fire but I've ran it through a few tests already and it's holding up surprisingly well. I thought the Tomb Raider Ultra test would kill it but it didn't!

Cyanide · 9 Nov 2015 at 20:47

I'm currently working on a custom GPU cooler courtesy of savagesam117. Evidently the heatsink from a 4870x2 fits directly on to the 750ti with absolutely no modification to the card whatsoever and I've just had to trim the shroud down and extend the fan cables! Thanks Sam!

Cyanide · 9 Nov 2015 at 23:08

We now have a custom cooled 750ti! It's so much quieter than the stock cooler, vents straight out of the back so hardly any of the card's (admittedly very little) heat output ends up in the case. It also ramps up and sounds like a commercial jetliner if I change the fan curve

I've used the previously mentioned HD4870x2 cooler on the 750ti - don't mention this in GC or they'll lynch me

Stock heatsink on the left, new one on the right. I could probably run this thing fanless :eek:

Fits straight on, had to trim the backplate to fit the card as it was about twice as long as I needed it.

The holes lined up perfectly. Literally could not have fitted any better if I'd tried. No widening holes, no adapters - just bolted straight up

Repainted the fan and lengthened the cable. I've taken the plastic connector off the original fan as the new one was a 4 pin that wouldn't fit. Soldered in some extra cable in the middle so that the I could slot pins in to the original connector.

And of course... a coat of pink paint.

I'm tempted to get a princess decal for this one

savagesam117 · 9 Nov 2015 at 23:21

Oh sweet, well done on that man. Glad to see you got it working!

shadowscotland · 10 Nov 2015 at 00:25

A pc just isn't a pc without a scoopee drive.
Love the tickle bracket and screw drop too. Great vid and great little lady you have there.

Cyanide · 10 Nov 2015 at 09:13

savagesam117 said:
Oh sweet, well done on that man. Glad to see you got it working!

Thanks for sending it! I still can't believe how well it fitted!

Cyanide · 10 Nov 2015 at 09:15

shadowscotland said:
A pc just isn't a pc without a scoopee drive.
Love the tickle bracket and screw drop too. Great vid and great little lady you have there.

I might have to post in the 'Product Suggestions' forum and ask OCUK to start stocking Scoopy Drives and Tickle Brackets

chris_r · 11 Nov 2015 at 01:15

Awesome PC and that video is great!

Cyanide · 11 Nov 2015 at 11:27

Average FPS on the Tomb Raider Ultra benchmark @ 1080p last night was 19fps - I reckon that's fairly respectable!

I'm uploading the 2nd part of the build video tonight. Has anyone got requests of some benchmarks for me to run it though?

TechMinerUK · 11 Nov 2015 at 18:20

That heat sink is ceratinly beefy compared to the original, I'm surprised it fits so easily onto the card. Also the pink paint job looks excellent

Smashing work

Cyanide · 11 Nov 2015 at 19:54

Build video part 2!

Cyanide · 5 Feb 2016 at 16:06

I'm officially handing Project Princess over to Emily next Sunday so I thought I'd do a little bump with the current progress!

I've got her a decent 19" Dell monitor but it was the standard black & silver... So it needed painting. First coats are on (ran out of white too!) and I need to do the stand -

I've also ordered a Disney Princess keyboard and mouse set

scorchedbee · 5 Feb 2016 at 21:34

My daughter is about to turn one on Valentine's Day. Safe to say a couple of years and I'll be doing exactly the same kind of things. Excellent job so far sir!

Cyanide · 5 Feb 2016 at 22:11

scorchedbee said:
My daughter is about to turn one on Valentine's Day. Safe to say a couple of years and I'll be doing exactly the same kind of things. Excellent job so far sir!

Funnily enough that's my daughter's birthday too!

Don't hold back with the tech knowledge - kids pick up things insanely quickly these days. Emily's not even 3 for another week but she can already outpace my parents with phones & tablets

Cyanide · 5 Feb 2016 at 23:22

Apologies for the poor quality photos here, can't be bothered to set the camera up tonight

Not bad considering the paint cost me more than the monitor

OracIe · 6 Feb 2016 at 07:31

PRetty impressive work mate - I bet your daughter will be well happy!

davido_labido · 6 Feb 2016 at 08:17

it might be a little late but if you need anything, let me know dude, I will rummage through my many boxes of bits and try and sort you out. It is great to see so much interaction with your daughter especially over something you are intersted in and your littlun seems to be excited about!

Not sure if you will need anything, but apparently im only down the road (I'm in Hucknall) and happy to help

Cyanide · 6 Feb 2016 at 10:47

davido_labido said:
it might be a little late but if you need anything, let me know dude, I will rummage through my many boxes of bits and try and sort you out. It is great to see so much interaction with your daughter especially over something you are intersted in and your littlun seems to be excited about!

Not sure if you will need anything, but apparently im only down the road (I'm in Hucknall) and happy to help

Thanks! I think we're all sorted now but I'll be doing some last minute checks over the next week before her birthday next weekend so I'll give you a shout it anything pops up

Make me so happy to see other people being inspired to do similar things with their kids too!

scorchedbee · 6 Feb 2016 at 21:15

Cyanide said:
Funnily enough that's my daughter's birthday too!

Don't hold back with the tech knowledge - kids pick up things insanely quickly these days. Emily's not even 3 for another week but she can already outpace my parents with phones & tablets

Lexi knows the bottom button on my phone and iPad brings the screen to on. Can't believe how quick they learn. I'll do doing a build for her like this and modifying it for her, with her. When she's 3/4.

And good choice of birthday, our princess' can't have dates because birthdays are spent with daddy!

Again top parenting as the whole world uses IT now so it'll inevitably be a valuable skill!

Cyanide · 9 Feb 2016 at 21:36

With the addition of a keyboard and mouse we're pretty much set for the big day on Sunday now

(and no, I didn't paint the keyboard and mouse myself - I cheated and bought them

)

I'm having a few issues with the version of Windows 8 I'm currently running (Microsoft Dreamspark) so I might have to stick a copy of 7/10 on there but other than that it's good to go!