Project Stealthlow

Loose track of this thread for a little bit and it's all change. Glad you got the fan holder/shrouds sorted out in the end. From the hardware you listed looks like is going to turn into quite the computer.

I would love to do something like this but I doubt I would have the patience to do it either.
 
Looking good now, those little fan holders are really starting to take shape. Do you plan to light them up with LED's or just let the fans light them?

I have to say though, not only do you have some skills, but you have a LOT of patience. I would have got the 2lb hammer out by now and did some demolition :D
As far as I know enermax apollish fans are really brightly lit so them alone should light it up plenty good enough :cool:, I do have a 100cm long led flexi light that I'll use somewhere nice though :), about the hammering it lol :D I dunno my patience has really grown with this being my 4th scratch build, you really get a grip of how much dedication is needed to do things right & it can take time so when you know this you just tend to go with the flow ;).
Thanks Diggsy :).

Loose track of this thread for a little bit and it's all change. Glad you got the fan holder/shrouds sorted out in the end. From the hardware you listed looks like is going to turn into quite the computer.

I would love to do something like this but I doubt I would have the patience to do it either.
It's a good thing I have the air cube to keep me going while I make this else it would be a rushed effort :D, the fan holders could be left as they are but the perfection bug is whooping my rear & telling me to make the joints seamless which requires a LOT of wet sanding :D.
And the new parts should be a nice upgrade coming from Q9650 & ddr2 :cool:.
Thanks Greboth :).

Think I came last in mod of the year 2010 with the Air Cube lol :D, but it was nice to be nominated amongst such excellent mods :cool:.
 
:) Got all the system parts ordered now & should have them on Monday, the spec will be.

Corsair Pro Gold AX850 PSU
ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel P67
I5 2500K
Prolimatech Megahalems Black
4GB OCZ Platinum 1600mhz 6,8,6,18

I've got these fan holders extremely smooth all over now but still parts here & there aren't seamless, truly is a monstrously tedious part of the mod, don't know if I can take another day of trying to make them seamless lol, anyway I won't bore you all with any more pictures of these until I get the apollish fans lit up inside them, the original goal was just to get them all perfectly aligned which I achieved but then the goal turned into trying to make them seamless so rather than waste more time on these I want to see what they look like lit up before I do any more on them which means :) upper level time, hope it goes smoothly & no major hiccups :).

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Ugh the man flu left me with a nasty cough so not really been on top form since the 1st also my sleep pattern has flipped upside down again, tried to put that right last night but fell asleep at about 7 am when I should have gone over to the garage & put a day of modding in, so I woke up at 7 pm lol so I'll do a bit on the case today & re start at 6 or 7 am, go at it all day & have the sleep pattern fixed & a bit more progress :D.

For the curved bend I'm going to use some spare flat bar to test how well it goes & how well it stays in it's form, I was going to form a joining piece at the top back out of solid square bar & tap it but I think it would be best to get some 20x20mm square acrylic bar, form it, drill it & push nut inserts into it, I just think it would be the easier & more reliable option for a semi pemanent joint.

If I do decide to go with acrylic to join the curved pieces to the top back then that will cause a small delay, but I could do a couple of other bits so no time would be wasted :).
 
Alright, I tried out the bending jig on some spare flat bar, used 3 clamps to hold it in place, thought it might snap & give me a mighty slap in the face lol, I think the way to make it so it doesn't spring back so much will be to use a piece of wood & a mallet to whack the bar against the jig bit by bit, then it might keep the form I'm after, simply way too much tension in the bar which would make it lose form massively to do it any other way, but yeah it seems a faily simple process :), the hard part is making the bar the correct length, but I can get around that by cutting the bar with 50mm longer than I think I need & then cut it down to exact size needed ;).

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I was just thinking, would you really see THAT much of a difference, moving onto the i5 2500k? I mean the Q9650 is a beast and overclocked with something like the megahalems I can't really see there being a huge difference, especially when paired with a gtx 580, be interesting to see comparison tests, anyway, the fan holders are coming along brilliantly, your patience and skill really is to be admired.
 
I was just thinking, would you really see THAT much of a difference, moving onto the i5 2500k? I mean the Q9650 is a beast and overclocked with something like the megahalems I can't really see there being a huge difference, especially when paired with a gtx 580, be interesting to see comparison tests, anyway, the fan holders are coming along brilliantly, your patience and skill really is to be admired.
I'll run a bunch of benchmarks before & after :), been on the edge of sidegrading to i5 760 for a while now so sandy bridge came at the right time for me, ddr2 was limiting my overclock also & I couldn't find a good 775 mobo that supported ddr3 + sandy bridge uses tons less power even with a decent overclock.
Thanks xxela1337 :).

Subbed.

Looking forward to following this to it's conclusion! :)
Thanks maximusmi2 :).

The bending of the aluminium flat bars is proving to be not as simple as I imagined :p, just spent 5 hours trying to get them curved exactly as I want them, think I've got it, they just need attaching to the rear panel & front bottom, it may be extremely difficult to make the acrylic piece in the middle match the flat bars for a flush look though because I had to manually bend the bars partly with the jig but mostly by hand, tried pushing against the jig but it just sprung back when clamps removed, found out heating it up did make it a little easier to bend but just makes it expand & then retract so didn't keep the form :o.

I'll have an update later, time to get back at it :D.
 
Tried heating it, no good, tried whacking it, no good lol :p.

Tried over bending & got a reasonable result :).

I got the form but not sure if I'll let it pass & take up Attila's tip about getting a roller or Kojak's awesome offer of rolling it for me :cool:, if I go with the roller I'll need to make a new jig also so I can take the curve from the roller & align the curve correctly, but I could keep on doing all the rest while I save up, I really shouldn't be spending any more for a bit so the roller might have to wait a couple of months before I can spend any more on it, undecided.
Heres what I managed through over bending, just not sure the acrylic piece will match for a flush finish ;) but I could remake the jig so it does match :).
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And here it is with both bars to perfect form woo hoo :D, just needs fixing to the base & the back panel & then I have my template for the mobo tray & side panels :D.
Used a big stew pan to perfect the curve :D.

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LOL sitting around watching TV while waiting for the delivery made me vegetate a little so I'm not in the mood for modding today but got the new parts :D.
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The CPU looks about the size of a chocolate orange lol :D.
 
Looking great so far, the curve really looks to be turning out well :)
Thanks CitizenSoldier, the curve took about 7 hours of trial & error & a big stew pan helped correct any imperfections of the curve :).

Looks like it is still coming along well!

Especially that curve.. seems to be developing nicely... might point out though that that case looks MASSIVE! :)

kd
Thanks KD & yep it's a tall one :D.
 
Grrr as I was a little worried about the light doesn't spread through the stick bars so the only way to do this right would be to plug some diy LED's in the base on both sides, but this could make for some extra nice effect :cool:.
Here it is with the LED strip draped around them.
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And here with just the fans.
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I suppose with the motherboard having bits of a nice blue I could use blue LED's the stick bits might look really nice too in a 2 tone :).

These fans are silent too BTW :cool:.
 
Typical ASUS

Oh I'm gutted I chose to give asus a last chance, years later & same old asus, honestly every single asus board I have bought has been a PITA, should have waited a little longer to raise the money & bought the p67-ud7, all asus is good for is wasting my time & stressing me out, honestly I'd be happy to pay double for a product that works so I take that back about gigabyte out pricing themselves lol I guess their price is very well justified.

Obviously there are many who don't have issues with asus but me I have been very unlucky with every single asus board I ever owned, I'm going to try & get a refund to put towards a gigabyte p67-ud7 I haven't got time for asus BS & waiting for a stable properly functioning bios.

Switched my socket 775 back in play until I have the gigabyte board which won't be for a while :(.

Cold boot & restart issues btw so freaking annoying utterly temperamental on how it works, wasted an evening & all night so I declare asus as total garbage.

:confused: No doubt I'll persist a little more before I get a replacement but damn such a PITA :eek: compared to gigabyte which is simple as it should be.
 
Sorry to hear about your trouble.

Project coming along nicely though.

Thanks Tealc :).

Well with me being busy with Stealthlow for at the very least of a month, I'll barely notice it with me not gaming or anything but it does stink, just hope the shop I bought it from are good enough not to mess me about when I ask for refund (I went with a Manchester shop for the mobo incase I had issues;)), another thing I've grown accustomed to with faulty boards unhelpful staff trying their best not to replace or refund, there are a lot of people with similar issue so I don't want a replacement, refund only so I can stick with good old gigabyte ;).
 
That's fair enough, Core 2 is getting quite long in the tooth now, your troubles with asus really sucks, I've been asus for a while + haven't had any problems, definitely a +1 for the UD7 though, looks like a fantastic board.
 
That's fair enough, Core 2 is getting quite long in the tooth now, your troubles with asus really sucks, I've been asus for a while + haven't had any problems, definitely a +1 for the UD7 though, looks like a fantastic board.

LOL I guess all mobo's are a draw of luck & I always get unlucky with asus boards :eek:.

The store I bought the asus board from confirmed it as being dead so I wasn't wrong :D so got it switched for the msi p67a-gd65 & it is awesome :cool:.

I'm not certain but I think intel advise not to go above 1.5v on the ram & think I found out why, when I did put my ram up to 1.6v it also increased the cpu volts from 1.17v to 2.05v.

My ram is 2x2gb ocz platinum 1600mhz 6,8,6,24 1.65v so not rated for these new sandy bridge rigs & I'm running it as 1600mhz 7,8,7,24 1.6v but holy sheet this memory wipes the floor with my previous 900mhz ddr2 big time more than double fast & with good low latency too.

I'm yet to overclock this rig, just been getting things sorted before I go there but I'd be really happy to achieve 4.5ghz on this & with the temps I'm getting on this I see no reason not to get to 4.5 or higher :).

Ran some bench marks with my overclocked q9650 & ddr2 so when I've benched this new rig on stock settings & overclocked I'll post my findings comparing the 2 :).

I'm super impressed with the msi board being rock solid & for having a reset cmos switch that totally works the second it's pressed so now I see gigabyte & msi in the same light, heck msi might be my new favourite as it had 2 extra sata ports & the cost was good & affordable which is a nice bonus so while msi are probably under selling themselves while their name rises to greatness, gigabyte is ramping up the price because of it's already situated good rep I think the winner of these new boards is msi in the premium low end :cool: and asus pffft :(:o.
 
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