Pure Pastel

[Cre8 Modding]

Another build coming up is a project we are calling Pure Pastel. This will be a white and blue, clean, compact build using the be quiet! Pure Base 500 white windowed version, complemented with a pastel blue secondary colour scheme.

We will be cramming in a full hard-lined loop courtesy of Alphacool and AMD will be working with us once again, the heart of the system being a 3700X.

The Pure Base 500 is relatively new to the market and there are some great looking builds coming out, notably from Alex over at Bit-Tech. We are really excited by this case from be quiet! and will bring more updates as the build comes along.

We are also starting to work a bit more on our photos and while not everything has arrived yet for our studio setup, we had to make a start on this one so here are some pics from the unboxing of the case.

 

[Alan1969]

I think it will be a stunner with that white case showing up your cooling fluid.

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Slow start to this one, just waiting on Alphacool bits. We have the X570 ASUS board here and will hopefully be going with Gen 4 storage from Seagate. Not sure if a lot will get done before Christmas now

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Finally, we can move on with this one! I have been planning parts of this build for months now and I have just been so busy with work that I have not made any headway on it, that all changes today though!. I’ve still not got the studio fully set for photos and with Christmas, it’s just had to take a back seat for now.

For this project then, in terms of hardware, once again I am delighted to be working with ASUS, AMD, be quiet! and Alphacool. This will be based around the ASUS Strix X570-E Gaming and a 3700X from AMD. This board is packed full of features and includes PCI-E Gen 4 storage so I am hoping to make the most of that, possibly with all new Seagate Firecuda 520 drives.

Pure Pastel will also be my first pop at hardline tubing and will hopefully be a gracious masterpiece when its finished with a crisp, sleek white and pastel blue theme. This won’t be rammed with RGB and fancy extras, its a more mature build and given my recent projects, a step away from the norm for something more grown-up.

While time has flown past I have also hit other delays with parts from Alphacool on backorder setting it back further. Luckily Dave Alcock has once again been my savior and now I am hoping to be done by the end of January. for a project that should have completed way before now.

Whilst moving systems to get Pure Patel going I forgot I had saved a whole days worth of unboxing shooting to a drive, then deleted the lot when reinstalling Windows. From what I can salvage from Facebook and Instagram here's what we have so far.










I've had most of the system put together for test fitting and to ensure my plan is achievable with the custom loop. The Pure Base has space for 2 SSDs next to the motherboard, well that’s going and instead opting for a wall with bulkhead fittings to keep each tubing run clean. Il be using an Alphacool 240mm rad for both the CPU and GPU, not ideal but given the compact nature of this case its what I have to play with.

Today then, we will be making a start on transforming the gorgeous ASUS Strix X570-E Gaming motherboard. I rolled out my trusty Eisplateau mat and started stripping the cover plates from the board. Peeling the branding from the covers went fairly well, I am not sure if I will reuse them or go with something custom.

You can see we have gone with the Eisblock XPX Aurora from Alphacool. Chrome fittings paired with the white and the accents should work really well, a hint of color to draw in the eyes and we are all set on this one. The XPX will also get some love, the black trim being replaced with white in a future update. For RAM, that's still up in the air and using the Team sticks to gauge clearance for now.







I still need to get another couple of coats on, so far so good and with a little more work these should look fantastic and really fit in with the theme.

For my next update we will have the board back together and be moving on to what Alphacool have sent over, here's a couple more looks at that CPU block until then.

 

[Cre8 Modding]

So here is the X570 ready to go. Being a white / chrome build, the removal of logos but leaving the Strix chrome panel on the I/O shroud really fits in well.

Some RGB backlighting may still shine through a little, this will give it a subtle glow that I really think will look great when its all together.



Im going away now for a week or so, a little trip to Lapland, belated due to my lad breaking his arm but we will be on this once again when I am back.

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Today is a half update as such and I am hoping to get a little video out too of the progress that has been made with this. This is our first hard line attempt and I really want the final look to be as clean as possible.



With the Alphacool parts landing, I had a chance to start putting together what I had originally planned and most of it is possible. There are some aspects that may not happen purely due to space constraints and my OCD on these projects.



For the 3700X we have an Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora, we still have to mod the surround to match our white theme. The same goes for the GPU backplate although we are not entirely sure the RTX 2060 will be staying if ASUS can manage to find us a 2070 Super Dual. If that happens it will have to ship to Alphacool for a block to be made.


For the reservoir, I had planned for a parallel fitting but space is tight with the new back wall. At this point, we are still planning tubing runs but I have it mostly figured out to what was originally planned.


So the motherboard just looks fantastic, a simple blob of paint has really transformed the X570-E that ASUS sent over. I was unsure if I would refit the labels but I love the clean look. If Seagate comes through we will have Gen 4 storage and a tonne of it too!

Our next update should hopefully see the back wall cut and painted with bulkhead fittings in place. From there I can then run hard lines and start wrapping up this one.

 

[Alan1969]

thanks for the inspiration and ideas. Nice looking build so far. I may have to have a go at painting mobo heat sinks - never tried to remove them before - is it easy?
I like the white scheme and the pastel should show up well.

 

[Cre8 Modding]

No worries Alan, I got a load more done on this today too so stay tuned for another update soon!

Yeah, its easy enough to do, unscrew, paint and refit.

 

[Alan1969]

the vrm heatsinks aren't screwed on though are they?

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Yeah, they are bud. Easy enough to do on this board at least.

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Another little update for everyone on this project. We have now got all the big parts of this build done and can now concentrate on the smaller details.

The Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora in Plexi Chrome had its trim removed and painted to match all the other components. I have also got the GPU block on the RTX 2060 and that also had some paintwork. Il post more on the GPU in the next update.





The back panel has now got all 3 bulkhead fittings in place. originally they were fitted from back to front, the thread length was really close to obstructing the rear side panel and I was not sure if it would work. With the HF L connectors attached there is only just a couple of mm clearance so I am really happy with how this turned out.

All the bulkhead fittings line up with the 240mm radiator ports, this should give a really clean vertical line with the back radiator port connecting to the top back panel, the front radiator port will be a straight vertical run to the fitting next to the reservoir.

The middle fitting on the back panel is for the CPU in, again keeping a clean horizontal run and finally the lower fitting is for the GPU out. There will be a short run from CPU and GPU to tie everything together. I am really happy with how the lover panel turned out.

Its a shame be quiet don’t include a cover, similar to those in the Dark Base 700 and 900 but given the price point of the case its no surprise.







Moving around the back there are the three bulkhead fittings, given the loop plan the top and bottom fitting will be joined allowing a run from the GPU to the radiator in.



The pump fitting has been the hardest part of this custom loop. Space is so tight that joining everything up is a real challenge. I’m now just waiting on a few fittings from Alphacool to get it all connected.



RAM and storage are also not confirmed yet, I want to get this sorted before I bend and run all my tubing, trying to replace either of these would be a real pain to sort once the loop is completed.

 

[Alan1969]

what paint do you use? on some parts like the case you could use a spray can of car paint, on other parts you could use an air brush (my daughter has one but what paint do I get for it?) but the cpu block looks like a small paint brush is needed but what paint?

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Kobra spray paints for this one. The CPU block was stripped down, the trim removed and painted then refitted.

 

[koooowweeee]

Looking very smart at the moment. The mounting for the pump and Res it ready nice.

 

[gupsterg]

Black/White builds have such a "pop" to them, any more updates on progress OP?

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Hey guys, yeah another update is coming really soon. Ive been delayed quite a lot with this build, it should have been done before Christmas and I have a backlog of builds to clear out now!

There have also been a couple of changes in the layout of hard-line runs. Il drop an update maybe Thursday or Friday ready for the final build shots!

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Our Pure Pastel build has been really long in the making, we got hit by backorders and delays to deliveries but now it’s somewhere near.

While progress has been slow it has also given me some time to reflect on how I planned the build, the issues I have faced and the changes that needed to be made. To start, the Alphacool pump placement was tight, I mean really, really tight and I didn’t know if it would even work with what I had planned. the pump sits so tight that the top inlet blank screws touch the bottom of the acrylic cover plate that is seen from above. Even getting the reservoir to connect to the pump was a real challenge and you can see just how tight it is below.


After getting the pump installed it was time to move on to the hard-line runs, this was my first go at hardline tubing and the Alphacool Eiskoffer Bending Kit was a godsend. A few meters of acrylic was wasted before I really got my eye in and the hand of bending.








As you can see from above, the tubing runs went quite well but I knew deep down that I had to start over again for one simple reason, cables. One of my first builds used pass-throughs for cable extensions and I did think about using them on this build. I decided against it but halfway through running everything it dawned on me that I made the wrong choice. Back to the drawing board and CNC for another cut on the back wall panel.

While another panel was cut and painted, I ordered in some Bitfenix cable extensions and got to work. I went for the Alchemy 2.0 Kit plus some additional wires in blue to match our theme.



The results from the recut panel and cable combo made me know I made the right choice here. It looked so much better and rally set off the theme for this build.

Next up on deliveries was the Firecuda 520 Gen 4 SSD from Seagate. This 500Gb version will host the OS for this build and a massive thank you to Seagate for getting this to me.


Once the drive was installed and I bent all the lines it was time to fill this puppy up and check for leaks. Again another shout out, this time to Mayhems for their Blue Pastel coolant package they sent over.


Today them I have installed the OS and have the system all up and running, in fact, I am typing on this build as you read this! Its done, at last, a long old build for quite a simple project.

For now, I leave you with a taster and final pics to follow this week. After that it's on to my EVGA build that has been delayed by a couple of months, after that I have a really, really special project coming for you all!

 

[gupsterg]

Nerd p0rn at it's best ...

 

[BENBOBBY]

Beautiful build!

 

[Cre8 Modding]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Today marks the completion of the Pure Pastel build from us here at Mod 83. This has been such a fantastic project to work on and despite some setbacks and changes to the project, we think it has turned out really well.


As I have said before, the aim of this build was to produce something clean and minimalistic without all the distractions of over the top RGB, crazy case mods or an over the top configuration. It’s a compact system aimed at the purists out there and given the name of this build touches on so many factors of what we set out to achieve.


The white and blue color scheme is complemented by chrome accents, from the Strix logo on the motherboard to the mirrored PSU basement trim and Alphacool fittings, it all just ties in really well.



The final system specs are;

• be quiet! Pure Base 500 White Edition
• be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 PWM 120mm White
• Asus X570-E Gaming Strix
• AMD 3700X
• EVGA 850W G2
• TeamGroup Xcalibur 32Gb 3200
• Seagate Firecuda 520 500Gb
• ASUS RTX 2060 Strix 06G
• Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora – Plexi Chrome CPU Block
• Alphacool Eisblock GPX-N Plexi GPU Block
• Alphacool VPP655 PWM D5 Pump
• Alphacool Cape Corp Coolplex HF Chrome Reservoir
• Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 240mm
• Custom Bitfenix Cable Extensions
• Mayhems Pastel V2 – Blue Premixed 1 Ltr

Custom work on this project features painted components including the 240mm radiator, motherboard shroud, CPU block & GPU block. We have also included a CNC cut bulkhead to fit where the Pure Base 500 front-facing SSD try usually sits. We also have a custom GPU support to keep our 2060 nice and steady. For cables, we went with BitFenix custom extensions, the blue really works well with the coolant from Mayhems.


So that it on this one, I have plenty more to be going on with, starting with our EVGA build that is now 3 months behind schedule. We hope you like this build, something away from the norm and a colour scheme that we don’t see too often. Enjoy the rest of the pictures and we will see you on the next one!