Project Rainbow (ITX)

famas · 18 Oct 2017 at 21:38

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!

Minibiker · 18 Oct 2017 at 21:40

I love ITX builds i have one myself... I will keep an eye on this project

Aneskimo · 18 Oct 2017 at 23:39

Small form builds are great and with some great mods can really stand out, the case you have is actually a good base to start with.

What Ryzen chip/board/Ram you going with?

GWANGY · 19 Oct 2017 at 00:52

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

famas · 19 Oct 2017 at 11:58

Aneskimo said:
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.

GWANGY said:
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.

Darren_uk · 20 Oct 2017 at 12:28

Hey Famas ...Look forward to your Metis Build

Try to get the 1700 ,Not the X versions

Its the best deal & can do 1800x performance ,Also runs a lot cooler than the 1700x/1800x
due to only 65W TDP.

famas · 20 Oct 2017 at 20:04

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 · 22 Oct 2017 at 11:30

Some goodies came yesterday

Minibiker · 23 Oct 2017 at 18:44

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

famas · 23 Oct 2017 at 19:29

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.

Minibiker · 23 Oct 2017 at 19:34

I can tell this is going to be a mint build, I wish I had a creative side like this, Glad its all coming together for you bud

Aneskimo · 23 Oct 2017 at 20:53

Routers are awesome pieces of kit for doing stuff like that, the windows going to show off that awesome coloured sleeving.

famas · 23 Oct 2017 at 21:08

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

Aneskimo · 23 Oct 2017 at 22:08

Blindly that thing is massive, bigger than the handheld I used to fit a kitchen worktop

Darren_uk · 26 Oct 2017 at 12:34

Looking Good ,Famas

famas · 26 Oct 2017 at 19:57

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

systemerror · 26 Oct 2017 at 20:54

Really impressive clean work being done will certainly look forward to seeing this progress forward

famas · 28 Oct 2017 at 11:26

Thanks mate

Aneskimo · 28 Oct 2017 at 13:11

Looks like a factory finish @famas, keep up the good work

famas · 29 Oct 2017 at 20:33

cheers guys.

Some more goodies have turned up