Project Rainbow (ITX)

[famas]

Hi all

It's been 4 years since I last built a PC and much has changed since then.
The biggest thing was moving into a new house and finding that my current Corsair Air 540 is just too big for its new home.

An upgrade was on the cards any way and I've always fancied a mini ITX case and seeing as space is limited it seems now is the perfect time for a change.

I'm also getting back into gaming so I wanted a fairly good spec system... Well as much as my budget would allow, which isn't a great deal unfortunately.

The case I've gone for is the Raijintek metis. I've seen some really great build in it on youtube from Andydjangoo and TechmaxTV which is where a lot of the inspiration is coming from for my build.

It will likely house a Ryzen build with a gtx 1070.

The case as standard has very poor air flow so some modifications are going to be required in order for the GPU and CPU not to over heat.

The idea is to have a colourful desk top pc with RGB lighting and water cooling on the CPU that I can sit back and admire while gaming.

That's the idea....whether it becomes a reality or a total mess only suitable for the bin is yet to be seen!

This is how its all starting.




I've ordered a few parts already and I'll update this thread with the modifications as I go.

Wish me luck!

 

[famas]

What Ryzen chip/board/Ram you going with?

Probably a 1600, possibly a 1700 depending on funds, the asrock fatality and I'm not sure on ram yet price are just crazy at the moment.

is that white or silver or grey ... what is the metis quality like ?

It's the white version but it's not a brilliant white like in the photos is more an off white. I have a plan for that later.

It's a £45 pound case, it certainly hasn't blown me away, you can tell it's made in China. Poor threading on a few of the screws, slightly misaligned panels, poor finish in places not really noticeable but on the whole for the money it's pretty good, I'd buy it again.

 

[famas]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys, keep it coming its really going to help me get through this build.

I had a little time to work on the case last night.

One of the first mods is to make the acrylic window on the side of the case bigger.

This can be done by cutting a sheet of acrylic to the same size as the panel, drilling a few holes and its done.
I would have done it this way but the only thing that puts me off is you can see the inner frame through the acrylic.

Instead I decided to leave a small parameter of the panel in place then later I can fix the acrylic to it. This should leave me with a nice large viewing window and all the fixings and inner frame are still hidden.

I started by marking out.



Next I made an exact template of the panel from MDF with the required margin pinned around the side.



Using an over head router with a following pin the same size as the cutter I can use the template to make an exact cut onto the panel.



After the first pass. the ragged edges is the masking tape being torn to bits. The cut into the aluminium is clean and sharp.



After another couple of passes the cut is complete.



This cut could have been easily made on a CNC but I don't have access to one of those so I have to do it the old fashioned way

Here I'm filing away the sharp edges being careful not to catch the paint.



And with the panel fixed back onto the case. Its a perfect cut no need for any sanding.



I'm still waiting on the acrylic to come in the post so i'll update again when it's here.

 

[famas]

Some goodies came yesterday

 

[famas]

WOW, Those cable sleeves will look amazing when in the build...

I hope so.

The acrylic came yesterday so tonight I finished off the side panel.

I started by cutting the acrylic to size on the dimension saw.



Then went to the over head router again to machine the rebate into the acrylic but I ran into a little snag.
I've machine acrylic before and all went as expected however this time the cutter started to melt the acrylic.
I'm not sure if its because this is a different type of acrylic or that its just thinner than want I've used before?

Luckily I tried it on a test piece first so no damage was done.
I got round it by focusing the air blower directly at the cutter and took shallower passes.

Thankfully it came out ok.



I found a needle file was the easiest way to round the edges.



Here it is fitted to the panel.



and a closer look at the rebate.



I think it looks nicer as the acrylic is flush with the panel. The original acrylic panel is fitted in front of the case panel and held in place by bolts.

I think this is a cleaner look. I'm just going to use strong double sided tape to secure it into position later.

 

[famas]

I can tell this is going to be a mint build

Fingers crossed, its my first time modding a case like this. I just hope it all works out.

Routers are awesome pieces of kit for doing stuff like that

Very versatile machines though this ones a bit of a brute! Similar to this one

 

[famas]

Cheers Darren.

I've managed to get a little more done to the case.

As I'm hoping to put a gtx1070 into this case I needed better air flow.
One of the main reasons I went for the original metis case rather than V2 is because I want two fans at the top of the case.
The V2 metis has a square filter with a fan already fitted at the top. I could have added another square filter however I prefer the look of round filters and guards so I set about cutting my own.

I started by making out where the fans will go. As you can see it's going to be a tight fit!



Next I relayed those marks onto a piece of MDF.



From there it was back to the OHR with a spinning jig to make sure the position of the holes where correct.



The router cuts a perfect circle and much cleaner than a hole saw. The first hole looks right.



Thankfully the second hole looked good to so no adjustments where needed.



From there I fixed the case top to the MDF and cut the holes.



Both holes cut.



All thats needed is a light sand to take the arris edge off.



And with the top fixed back onto the case.

I still need to mount the fans but I've more to do yet

 

[famas]

Thanks mate

 

[famas]

cheers guys.

Some more goodies have turned up

 

[famas]

Yeah went with the asrock board in the end, I was tempted to wait for the new Asus strix but it will probably be too expensive.
The asrock should do every thing I need any ways and I got it at a decent price I think.

Yeah they tried to improve air flow on the Metis plus with the added top fan but I'm not keen on the square fan guard they went with. Plus like you say it makes it more difficult to mod.

 

[famas]

Look forward to that build Darren.


I've had a bit more time on the case this week.

In an attempt to improve air flow a little more I decided to cut away some of the fan guard on the rear of the case. While I don't think it will make a massive difference every little helps.

I started by masking off the center section to give me a guide line.



Action shot. Tricky to do one handed



With the first section cut out I filed and sanded the edges smooth.



And with the second section cut out. I've left the center section intact to try and retain some rigidity to the IO cut out



That's all for the time being, works been crazy busy so I've had no motivation/energy to stay on at the moment.

 

[famas]

Thanks guys, I think this little project is going to take longer than I had anticipated but I've just got hold of a Vive so the upgrade is desperately needed

Couldnt you cut it all out? Once the fan is in place it will have the same if not better effect of making that panel rigid?

That's a good point. I'm going to mount a 120mm radiator here too so it should add all the strength back. I'll cut it all out I think.

 

[famas]

Also the last thing I need for the case mods arrived today.



Hopefully update with some more progress soon.

 

[famas]

Work was a bit more normal today so I stayed on and got a bit more done.

Cut the rest of the Rear fan guard away like suggested and happy to say its held up fine.



Next up was to drill the side panel mounting holes to accept M4 bolts.



And re-tap the holes to suit.



I ordered a load of black socket cap bolts but didn't realize they would be shouldered



So I had to thread them. I just ran them through a die with a cordless drill and plenty of lube. High tensile bolts are tough though!



Then I cut them to length and de-burred the ends. More action shots



All that work "x many many bolts" to get to this stage. It would have been a lot less work to just buy the right length but I've got a job lot of them and it's easy to do.



And a quick snippet of things to come.



More to come soon.

 

[famas]

I hope so, will definitely be a bit different

I did some work on the motherboard tray to help with access to the back of the board, hopefully this will give better access to the cpu bracket and m.2 if ever I need it.



Also stole an idea from Darrens thread about storing as ssd behind the tray so I made a cut out for that and added an ssd support.





Not sure if I'll use it but its nice to have the option.

this is how its looking so far.

 

[famas]

cheers mate.

Another goody turned up. It's a lot bigger than I was expecting. Really hope it fits!

 

[famas]

Thanks guys really appreciate the support. Hopefully I'll get a bit more done this weekend.

 

[famas]

Thank you. the plan was to go for something super colourful, I did have a fruit flavored sweet theme in mind but not sure if I'll go through with it yet. I need to find a sticker/transfer maker if I do.

I think its going to be a Marmite build once it's done but I just wanted something a bit cheerful.

 

[famas]

So in a further attempt to increase air flow into the case I decided to put some kind of venting into the front panel.

I really like the look of the Parvum cases with the aggressive angles and venting cut outs so wanted to do something similar.

I started out by measuring the front panel and drawing the pattern.



Then used the drawing to make a template.



After finishing the template I made a test cut on a scrape of MDF and realized that It wasn't going to work how I'd intended with the Parvum design.
Because I wanted to keep the round at the ends of the lines rather than finish with straight corners the pattern didn't look right. I think rounded ends will suit the Metis case better with its curved edges.



So I went back and adjusted the template then cut a few more designs. I wanted to keep the slanted look but also wanted to keep it simple.



Decided I liked this one the best.



Next I made a cradle to hold the front panel to the template.



The template rides on a pin on the bed of the OHR the same as when I cut out the fan circles. I could adjust the width of the cut by using different sized cutters.



Taking shallow passes and using plenty of wd40 as lube I made the first cuts.



With the first set of grooves cut I started on the second set.



And with both finished.



This is how the case is looking now.





More to follow

 

[famas]

I made a start on the cable sleeving today, man is that a tedious task!



Just got to get hold of some cable combs. I've laced the cables in the past but I really like the look of the combs at the moment so I think I'll go with them.



Still got the 24 pin to do and it's causing issues as for some reason a few of the connectors have double wires going to them, not seen this before any one know why it is?