Project: UniKaorn Farts

[davido_labido]

Well, it has been a while folks! As a few of you know, I started to work for bit-tech so all the builds I did last year were either for content for the website or I didn't have time to do a proper build log. Now, I have left my job there and I work for Alphacool instead as the UK and US rep!

As such, my builds are my own again, so I can do proper build logs!

The first build:

Yes, that is correct. RGB. I am not a huge fan of RGB, but as everything is RGB at the moment I thought I would embrace it. Afterall, I have done things in the past that included RGB lighting, but I usually just set all the colours to one and leave it at that.

So, First things first.

Hardware pron:

A huge thanks goes out to Cooler Master for this project, seriously, I was just chilling out one day having some food and I got a message asking if I fancied doing a build. Cooler Master sorted out pretty much everything (bar a processor). They offered their cooling too, but obviously, I want to use Alphacool as I am now staff. Once again, a huge thank you guys!

This is what turned up:



So, let's go through some of it... First of all, the ASUS stuff! Now, as some of you may know, ASUS are one of my favourite sponsors, they help me out a lot and I meet the team a few times a year at events and they're always top folks. However, for this build, ASUS Taiwan dealt with the motherboard and one of the 1070s who I have never met! (I was meant to, but I ended up in hospital whilst in Taiwan!!)

The motherboard is the ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming. This is the first Z370 board I have had and it is rather tasty.



As always, the Strix board is quite aggressive and has some nice details, I like the hidden m.2 slot for instance.



I was surprised there weren't more USB ports on the back of the board, but I have a 12 port and an 8 port powered USB hub anyway, so that doesn't matter to me!



mmmmmmmm.... socket.



As mentioned, ASUS TW sent me 1 x 1070 Strix for this build.... "but there are 2", I hear you cry. Yes... remember when I said ASUS are babes? they sent me one a while back for another build and as always, I repurpose everything that I can



I was really struggling to find a processor for this build. Until very recently I would only have a few pounds a month to myself to spend and most of that would go on paint, tools and other items so a new processor was going to be a big hit for me. I did think about doing the build without a processor, but whilst talking to my guys at ASUS, they mentioned they had an 8700k that I could have! Mental.



So, that is the motherboard, GPUs and CPU sorted - I think this is going to be a beast!



For the SSD and the RAM, Cooler Master managed to get Apacer on board with me, this is the first time I have used Apacer for a build so a huge thanks for supporting me!

As always, I am as honest as possible and I am not sure about the aesthetics of this memory, but, that is why I mod things! I will make them something I like. If everything was perfect, there would be no point in modding it!

Once I had popped the ram into the slots, it does look a lot more pleasing to me - What do you folks think?

I really do like the SSD however, like, I NEED this pattern somehow. I might have to change the panther to a Unicorn though just to fit in with the theme

Now, let's get onto the case! I was asked if I wanted an H500P or the Cosmos C700P. Now, I REALLY like the cosmos, but I know a lot of my modding friends are working on them, so I thought I would go for this one instead.



ooooh, I made a gif!

So, this is the case! when I took these pictures, I had no idea what I was going to do with this, in fact, I still don't really, but I certainly have a theme now!



These vents are not going to be black once I have finished with them.



In fact, the whole case needs to change colour... and I am not sure about this layout for me either!



The PSU cover is great... but... I doubt I will keep the PSU here...



A lot of people love this case because of the huuuuuuuuge fans. Well, I don't think I will be keeping them! Sorry!! I am a big fan <- fan... get it? Of 120mm fans so I will be using those.



So, I want to RGB all of the things. I don't particularly like RGB, so I thought I would go all in for it and make my PC look like a unicorn farting rainbows.



Obviously, I am going to be using Alphacool for the liquid cooling, but I will go through the parts I have chosen for this build at a later date.... but I think I have plenty of fittings!



So, the first task? stripping down the case - how far can a case be stripped? well... very.



This is where I am going to leave it for now, I have ideas. you can see a rather big clue as to what the idea is here



For now though, I am going to leave you with this... Yes, I did buy this costume thing just for this build.

 

[davido_labido]

Looking forward to this.

Have the same motherboard, the lack of USB was the first thing I thought of when I looked at the IO!

Yeah, the board isn't too expensive however and there are more on the higher tier boards. In all honesty, I have noticed a lot of manufacturers have reduced the number of USB ports on motherboards, I have no idea why! Hopefully, USB C becomes more popular and then they take up less space

 

[davido_labido]

@davido_labido all I want to know is where I can buy that onesie!!

Stelly

The Rainforest is your friend!

 

[davido_labido]

Oooou, I have been really busy this last week so I haven't managed to keep on top of this thread!

@davido_labido
when does OCUK start stocking gear like their Caseking counterparts ?

(sorry I missed this post first time around!) Some parts are already trickling in!! If there is anything in particular you would like to see, let us know! I am sure @Robbie_G will do his best to get them in stock

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=alphacool

Have at it, son. Get those farts going!

*Fthhwaaaaaawert*

Is there something deeply wrong with me for checking for updates, and find myself just looking at the onesie picture

I think you are the only one doing it right tbh.

Mr Labido that onsie oh look forward to updates bud

I know right, I am seeeeeeeexy!

 

[davido_labido]

Whilst the weather was still rubbish, I decided to at least start on the waterblocks.

Alphacool NexXxoS GPX blocks this time, for my next build, I will be using the new Alphacool blocks, they're rather sexy!

One thing I do like about these blocks is how the bags are colour coded, it makes it so much easier to know which pads go where on the instructions.

First thing I did was just a quick test fit of the card. Always worth doing if you're going to mod a block!

Fits perfectly! Yay!

Have some (anti) peel porn

We're going to be giving these blocks a quick blast with some paint, nothing too crazy, but still, I want to make sure that I mask off the areas that I need to.

Obviously, anything that touches the card I want to keep paint free. I won't be spraying the underside of the block, but when it gets sprayed some will inevitably get on it so as a precaution I taped the contact plates.

A quick coat of primer and a quick coat of white and I am done! Hopefully, they will dry in this horrible weather... seriously, this year sucks for me so far! I can't do anything outside!!!

The next job is to de-rivet the whole case. Quite a few of you are on my facebook (search davido_labido) so you will have seen the completed article, but here is the process!

first I took the lid off, I want to invert the case, so everything needs to be flipped.

I still want to floor to be the floor, this does mean I am actually making the case less useful for liquid cooling at the moment. The reason being is that the rad space at the top will be fouled by the PSU now. I might put a rad on the bottom though, I will see how it pans out.



So many rivets! This was around 50% of the way through the case...

As it had started to rain/snow/sleet/drop hellfire outside again, I had to resort to using sheers to cut the case in places where I needed to remove things.

My cutters are rubbish... it wasn't really worth doing, but it allowed me to test fit how the case would be!

early in the morning the following day, there was a little bit of sun! Wooooohooooo! time to do some work outside

First things first, clean up that horrible edge that the sheers made.

Then rivet the case all back together to make sure inverting it doesn't make it too unusable.

Yay! It worked!

Hmmmm, I am going to have to make a bracket to hold the PSU I think!

Also, some of the edges don't really go together properly, not a problem, I will make some makeshift brackets for now and then if they can be seen when I finish, I will make some nicer ones.

It all fits together! Yay. Well, time to drill out all the rivets again.... I want to change the colour of the case!

That is where I am going to leave it for today! Now a question for you....



... I have 3 blocks which one should I use in this build? The build will be white and multi-coloured basically.



clear satin with RGB ring?

Clear with RGB ring?

Black XPX but with a white casing

Let me know folks!

 

[davido_labido]

My initial thought is satin with RGB because I'm sick to death of seeing everybody try to light clear acrylic and just get blotchy hotspots where the LEDs sit. At least the satin will diffuse properly. But then on the clear CPU blocks the LEDs do catch all the edges and channels so it kinda works.

Tbh, the way the RGB ring sits on the blocks, the lighting is very even over the whole thing:I just can't decide which I like the best.

Not keeping Strix backplate for RGB ? Not to hard with longer m3s in the right places

I was actually thinking of doing this... (and still might) but the main thing is the backplate won't be seen as I have flipped the case, so they will be underneath :/

 

[davido_labido]

Sorry it has been a while folks! I have been crazy busy in Taiwan, Germany, America and next week I fly to Canada! It's all fun and games, but it has meant I have been neglecting the build logs. Oh, and I have fixed all the images =D

So let's start getting this case sprayed up, I said I didn't want the grills black, and that is the first thing I am going to tackle.

Some of the clips are very easy to get off, just use a craft knife or small screwdriver, some of the others you have to melt the tabs - I just used a soldering iron.

As per usual, a blast of primer first.

Then let's go with those UniKaorn farts!!! colour... colour everywhere.

Second coat to clean it up a little bit

Once the mesh was put back in, it looked rather tasty, I just wasn't sure about the case colour.

Now, I usually use rattle cans, but I have recently starting to use an airbrush - I am still learning, I am a VERY VERY new user.

First I did a test run on the GPU backplate - not a bad job for a first attempt

Then I thought I would try with a small part of the case, hmmm again, not too bad.

So, Let's try with the WHOLE case, first I hit it with some primer.

Then started with the air brush hype

every panel.... with a tiny airbrush. It took ages.

But I did it!!! and now the table is trash

The finish is pretty good too, I haven't done a clear coat yet as i still don't really know what to do with the case.

Once again, I put the mesh back in, white and rainbow barf, what a winner!

Speaking of rainbow barf, let's start on the back panel. ooooooh yeah, taste the rainbow baby! by now, you should know this build isn't serious and I don't intend it to be. I spoke to some of the Cooler Master crew in Taiwan and I think they think I've lost the plot. At least I am having fun!

UNIKAORNS!!!! UNIKAORNS EVERYWHERE!!!!!

I am hoping that I can do what I want here, basically, I want this jumble of unicorns and colour to be like a background, then I want to spray text over it, but, do I have to spray another colour on first in a block so that it stands out?

I.e, do I have to put white on, then the text? I have no idea - this is the first time I have tried to do paint like this.

Whilst I try to figure that out, I thought I would start with the PSU!

It wouldn't be a build without some nice warranty voiding. Remember, if you're doing this, don't touch any capacitors! They can store electricity for quite some time and can give a nice jolt. You can't see any large ones here, but I used a multimeter to discharge the caps.

Now, I can paint the case without getting any paint in the PSU.

A few hours later UniKaorn PSU!

And that is where I'm gonna leave it tonight. Have an old picture of me in the UniKaorn onsie to giggle at this time as I don't really have anything to give you a hint as to what the next update will be this time - sorry!

 

[davido_labido]

Thanks! I am not so sure about it, but I do like being silly so it is fitting into that bracket nicely.

The paints I have been using are model paints I think. They're from a company called Tamiya and I found them in the local hobby shop. I bought some Tamiya acrylic thinners too which was about £5 for, then realised I had a huge 5 litre drum of "all-purpose paint thinners" that I bought when doing some housework. I have been using the all-purpose far more as it seems to work better and it was cheaper iirc so it is worth looking around.

It is also quite crazy how little you need to cover a large area. The paints come in tiny little jars and I thin them about 1:1 and I can cover a decent amount, probably 2 panels with 1 jar!

Now, everything I have said above could be completely wrong as I am a noob at all this air brush malarky, but it seems to be doing what I want it to do for now.

 

[davido_labido]

Yep, Tamiya are popular for model making - had a boss who had the whole airbrush kit from them.

The thinner sounds about right! Are they solvent based?

I believe so, it was "Omi-Cron 2K Universal Thinner Medium 5L" that I have. it is good stuff!

Dude, this is grotesque. I love it!

Thanks.... I think!

Well, I started on the GPU blocks.... not a huge fan tbh and I ran out of blue paint -.- I will try them like this, if I don't like them once they're fitted I will strip them down again and start again! Hopefully when they're in they won't look quite as loud as you won't see as much of the block, we shall see.

Very quick update this time, I am crazy busy at the moment! I go and visit Linus Tech Tips, Jayztwocents and Gamers Nexus in a few days and I am organising that trip.... I wonder if they can teach me how to build a PC ?

 

[davido_labido]

Wait, a small update? Woot!

Well, I have had a busy few weeks! I flew to Canada and met with a few nice YouTubers, visited the Linus Tech Tips HQ after doing an event there. Then I landed back in the UK (ready for a nice relaxed week of modding) and the missus had booked a trip to Turkey for a week!!! I had less than 24 hours in the UK -.- .

Below is the last picture of the Linus event.... I am the fat balled bearded one on the left in the black top, can you name anyone else on the pic?

Soooooooo, I ordered a load more paints! Lots of white and orange, because....reasons

Finished the GPU blocks!!! I think i am going to put my logo into the middle of the 4 screws. I have inverted the case, so these will be on the top rather than the bottom of the cards like usual.

I did the backplates too, but I don't like the blue on them, I need to redo them a little.

I also bought all the sleeving I will need!

Just a little bit of a mock-up of what the cables may look like

Oh, and I ordered this. it looks like iron filings I know, but if you look at it in the bag, you can see rainbows

This needs to be finished in the next 2 weeks, so full steam ahead now! I think I have everything I need so I will be updating this build log more and more as it progresses. Bye for now though! xxx

 

[davido_labido]

Great work David, wonder why you have all that orange and white.

It would feel wrong to only have one PC on my work bench

Jayz2cents behind you?


Loving this build by the way, but wouldn't it have helped to have started with a white case rather than completely spraying a black one?

Certainly is! I work with Jay quite a lot! We tend to be at a lot of the same events and his team are good guys!

Yes, having the white one would have been an amazing idea, however, I got this the week they released the white version, it has all just been in storage for a while whilst I have been working on other things. I was going to swap it, but I couldn't be bothered tbh. I don't mind giving things a spray

 

[davido_labido]

Time for another little update!

Soooooo, I didn't really want to do too much to the motherboard, because, well, quite honestly, I wanted to use it in another build in the future which I think will be a match. Then, I thought it was too dark and all plans went out of the window and I thought, let's get it white!

So, first things first, let's strip off the motherboard, what a dirty naked girl!

Gotta cover that RGB goodness!

After a bit of time, I give it a thin coat of paint. Tbh, I just used primer here. I don't like to do too much on north/south bridges. That will do it for now

As you can see above, I chose the clear XPX block in the end. So, I can use the XPX RGB ring to make it spew rainbows. This isn't an addressable RGB strip, but I think we should make it into one

So, I pulled out the standard RGB strip and rummaged into my box of LED strips and found this!

It doesn't have any connectors on, so I need to make one quickly to test it out

I stole a female connector from one of my older strips and popped a bit of solder on.

then, the other end to the strip. Nice and easy! I didn't want to do it too long and they won't be multicoloured cables at the end, but this is just a little test.

ooooou, look at that! It works! Rainbow!!! (also, bask in the glory of my custom Open Benchtable!! They laser etched my name and logo into it! wooohooo)

I thought I would pop it on the block and see what it looked like. I didn't have any control of the colours/effect as I only popped into bios quickly as obviously, it isn't cooled at the moment. Luckily it will be fine for a few seconds with the copper plate

Here is a little video of it

Another job ticked off, Let's get some logos back on the blocks. Although these won't really be seen, I thought I would add them.

I decided to spray the logos on, rather than using vinyl.

Did I mention I added glitter...... GLITTER!!!! Ok, it is hard to see but when it is in the light, you can really see it sparkle.

I added MOAR glitter. MOAR!!!!

Glittery Glittery ooooooooou.

So, I started to put some things in the case. The motherboard looks so bare, it needs the rainbow treatment.

 

[davido_labido]

Spotted the glitter before you mentioned, it's excellent! Makes me want to start a new build and see how bad awesome I can make it!

Also loving the link between GPU blocks, that's really cool

Get it started! We need horrible builds everywhere. I mean Awesome, Awesome!

nice... so will be looking at addressable RGB XPX ring then from Alpha ?

I hope not. I hate seeing RGB everywhere. I mean, long live the RGB overlords!

Well, it's that time again - another update!

So after the last test build, there seemed to be WAAAAAY too much white and I wasn't a huge fan of the ram colour either. black and silver heatsinks with a white light - it just didn't fit.

So, time to spray again! sigh.....

Here is a quick reminder of what the RAM looks like. in the ideal world, I would make brand new heatsinks with "Unicorn" written on them and a similar style unicorn but, 1. I don't have the time to do it. 2. I don't have the tools to do it and 3. I don't have the skill to do it So, a different idea.

First job is to heat up the heatsinks and get them off the modules - nice and easy!

Then it's time for the primer party.

A coat of white makes everything right.

Time for the M.A.S.K (anyone remember those toys? I used to love them!)

Time to get some colour on them, get some clear coat on them and bang them into the mobo!

Oh Baby.....Wait... the rest of the board is... it's a rainbow!

I only used light coats on the heatsinks and I didn't bother clear coating them, I don't like messing with them too much (he says when they're multicoloured -.- ) but at least it was in mind.

I did clear coat the ram and the plastic part of the board though

I was going to try and get everything to match up, then I realised most of it would be pink and purple on the right hand side and the ram would all be yellow and orange and it would just look a little strange. I REALLY like how this has actually come out. In fact, I am slightly disappointed that it does look really good I was hoping to extract many salty tears with this build and it just isn't happening.

When inverting a case, you often forget the little things, like which way the cables are facing on the front panel. I couldn't have them coming out this side. I actually thought this was going to be a bigger job than it was. I started getting my soldering iron out and was thinking of making a new plate and things...

then when I opened it, I realised I could just cut a couple of holes on the other side of it and force the cables out that way instead. it isn't neat, but by gawd it works!

Now when I put everything together, the cables will come out the correct side and won't be horrible - Winner!

Now, the last thing I have done is played with some mesh. I know, I know, there is a mesh version of this case now, like there is a white one, but... well, I had this before they were released!!! I wish I did have those versions though, this was a pain in the proverbial.

I had already removed the plastic part of the case.

I then cut and bent the basic shape that the plastic was in. What I didn't realise it had so many silly bends and cuts in, to make it perfect would have taken far too long. I do have a bending break, but it is buried in the shed at the moment and I don't think it would have helped too much either way.

So, the front has to be flat, then it has to go in at the edges diagnally, then it has to flatten out again so it can attach to the panel. The top has to have an inwards angle, whilst still facing upwards -.- so much hate for this mesh part.

I managed to get it satisfactory though - this took me about 3 hours for the front panel, some of the struggle was cutting the mesh properly, some bending it by hand and some making sure I didn't scratch the panels. I also did the top panel of the case, which I *don't think* the mesh version of the case comes with.

It isn't completely perfect, you can see on this picture that there is a little bit of metal missing right under the diagnal, that is just down to the shape I had to cut the mesh at and I snipped one extra hexagon by mistake =( I'm not going to lose sleep over it though it's a damn good effort in my eyes

That's where I am going to leave it for now! I have a busy weekend ahead of me though still! Cables need to be made, some plastic/alu needs to be bent and I need to knock up a quick loop for this bad boy and no doubt I will think of things to do along the way!

I had a call today about going to GamesCom, leaving tomorrow evening, alas, I had to turn it down to finish UniKaorn Farts and to go to Insomnia. That is dedication right there!!!!!

 

[davido_labido]

I shall post some updates soooooooon, been so busy recently! I will take some pictures later though

 

[davido_labido]

In all honesty, I am not very happy with this build. I had to rush to get it finished for an event (as per usual) and I had quite a few problems. As such, it just got thrown together and there are quite a few issues that need sorting out. Also, whilst bringing the build back from the event, it took a fair few knocks and scrapes which I really don't have time to fix.

Having said that, it is a rather colourful build with plenty of Unicorn farts around it. I may revisit it one day, but for now, it is finished. Huge thanks to Cooler Master, ASUS, Apacer and Alphacool for giving me hardware to play with!

Hope you liked it Annie!

 

[davido_labido]

Impressive array of colours!

Terrible project name though..

did you click it because of the name though?