Maximum PC

Hello All,

I was looking for a new forum to post my work on and a little bird told me to look over here.
And looking at the quality of the builds already here, I hope I can reach that level of detail and awesomeness.
I will start with my log from the partially completed USS EURISKO if you dont mind. It has won second place in the 2011 coolermaster casemod compo amongst others.
I really hope you guys enjoy the EURISKO as much as I enjoyed building it!

I am currently also working on the designs for my next build , this will start in a couple of weeks !

Best regards and happy modding !

ASPHIAX

Hello Everyone,

Allow me to introduce myself shortly. My name is ASPHIAX and I live in Boxtel (Netherlands). Just turned 33 and have been occupied with computers from the age of 17. (making noise - dont have another word for it - with fasttracker and fruityloops)
Started out wayback with an MSX and Commodore 64 and lately ventured into watercooling and have been HOOKED ON IT EVER SINCE!!!
What do I do when I am not thinking about modding: I am a business consultant at Belgacom and am designing VoIP and Unified Communications networks for the enterprise customers.

It all started about 9 months ago. After extensive reading on the fora I started out with my first watercooling project. A Dragonlord K62 with an XSPC 750H2O kit, couple of fans and an additional radiator. All good fun but it soon wasnt enough any more and I found myself cutting into my case with power tools and bending plexiglas with my wife's hairdryer. (which actually doesnt work, lol) I can post some pics of it, just a nice complete pc.

I needed something bigger ... One night I was cruising the web looking for something fun to build when the scifi channel caught my attention. It was the start tune of Star Trek Voyager ! The same second I was thrown 15 years back into time and saw myself (after a intense night of clubbing) watching Star Trek.
Knew it in a heart beat :cheers:
So here it is : the USS Eurisko , Intrepid Mark II Class



Technical Data :
Class: Intrepid Mark II
Type: Scientific exploration, general bad-ass
Crew: 141
Length: 344 meter
Hight: 66 meter
Width: 133 meter
Decks: 15
Holodecks: 2
Mass: 702.000 metrische ton
Max Speed: warp 9.975
Sustained Max Warp: Warp 9.985, 1 hour.
Cruisingspeed: warp 8
Cargo Holds: 4
Shuttle Platforms: 1
Armament: 8 Type X Phaser arrays,
4 Photon Torpedo Launchers (Stock 150)

After some serious digging on the web I found these designs. I just cant give enough credit to whoever made them (partly because i dont know :think: ) but: MAN isnt she pretty ...
I always found the original design form the serie a little to toy-like with all the markings and windows. This isnt! This is Rough, Industrial, Bad-azz !

Voyager-Angry --- Must kill Borg !!!

Man I'm itching to start this build ...

I already did some work, so here are the first updates,

































Later !

ASPHIAX

Ok, let me try to explain what I want to do in this build.

Its going to be watercooled thats for sure!
The warp nacelles on the wings (also called pylons) will be reservoirs
The hardware will fit in the front section underneath the "Canope"
The PSU, 2 HDD's and 1 SSD and the Pump will be housed in the body section (also called the deflector tunnel)
The hardware that will be used will be in a post that will follow shortly
It must be able to do a decent overclock
The Main deflector will house a green laser
The faser banks will be fitted with 2 red lasers
All the lasers and led's in the Warp Nacelles, Main deflector and canope will be controlled remotely by microcontrollers and IR transmitters
The fancontroller will be fitted in a LCARS display in the mount.

And the Warp Nacelles will be able to move up and down by a servo array controlled by IR transmitters !

Oh Yeah, did I mention the size ? Its going to be 154 cm long, 61 cm wide and 34~35 cm high.

There's tons more detail but i would like to refer to the build log or this will become a very long post

So here goes !

I first started out using MDF, but that was a bad idea !
The weight of the case would require me to build a elevator in my house to get it out for a LAN party!
Here are some pics of that work:








So I had to scrap that Idea and started searching the web for an alternative !
Quickly found it! XPS foam !



The Old and the NEW !!!


And that's where the real story starts ...

Here is the final kitlist of the USS Eurisko :









Laterz
ASPHIAX

Ok here is the first recap of the weekend
My wife is watching Idols or the voice of holland or some crap like that so time for me to do some damage !

Restarted the whole build, this time I used styropor foam (also called roofmate)


The Old and The New


I am fixing everything temporarily with sateh spikes (normally used for the barbecue)


Did all the rough work with a powertool


For the finer work i bought a styropor cutter. Just a piece of metal wire with 2 AA batteries. Unfortunately it was to fine ...


Man what a job !!!
There were some times where i really though i was going to quit and forget modding forgood...
The rough work SUCKS !!!!!!!!!


Slowly it is taking shape




After the rough work it is a matter of taking a breadknife and peeling the foam off. Even though it looks annoying, this is the better part of the forming of the model. She's taking shape in front of your eyes and you can get some decent detail in there.


The gypsum sanding paper (metal paper with little holes to let the gypsum escape) is degrading fast. There is some fight in this piece of foam



My wife was intensely happy with me !!!


Placed the old deflector tunnel to get an idea of the model.



Quickly placed the tail to see how long its gonna be. 1,54 meters is quite a stretch!
Oh yeah, the black circles are area''s i need to attack with the breadknife


Trimming her piece by piece. Tried all sorts of knives, the breadknife still reigns



Without noticing it, you tend to trim off quite a bit


I took some tape and started to place the drawing of the armor plating. Tomorrow i will start cutting away at the deep pieces making sure the drawing will get the proper depth.


Laterz
ASPHIAX

Ok here is another recap

Got up really early in the morning to make some filler


I had to make sure with this type of foam to use a cellulose based filler or it would reduce the model to blubber


Sorry for the Dutch Guys, it says cellulose based

Nice and smooth


I was not happy with the lines of the drawing of the model so i took out the tape and started anew...


The result !



Ok, what i wanted to do is to make room for the hex mesh and the "DCIM" air intake holes.
What I did is I took a stanly knife and I cut out the drawing and with a pointed plyer "plucked" out the foam. This works fast and you can get good accuracy.


HMMM : POPCORN !!!


Does not take to much time also


Finishing it off with a dremel on turbo setting. This also closes the foam (due to the heat) so the epoxy/fiber coat will not get into the model (well that's the theory behind it anyway )


DCIM and large depth of armor finished


Both sides finished. I found out that by making a lesser deep cut into the foam with the stanley knife, you would automatically "pluck" less foam and could easily alter the depth.


so this side with the armor to dcim barrier already completed


DO you feel lucky... punk ?


Quickly placed the old deflector tunnel to get a better view of the model


Also did the amor plating rims


BAD-ASS !!!


Not completely happy with the symmetry but its getting along nicely


Sometimes i tend to forget i need to build a complete watercooled pc in there aswell
Here is a view with an extremely simple filter but it is kinda like what i want to do


Laters
ASPHIAX

Here is some more background to the design

Oh no , the borg have taken over the ship !
Need to swap out the green enermax for a blue one.


Here is an overview of the placing of the hardware


later
ASPHIAX

Was able to squeeze another couple of hours : how to be creative with foam !

Started work on the deflector tunnel


For some reason i was craving for a good kebab...


Shaping




HOMER SIMPSON : HMMMM KEBAB !!!





Ok, a little flash forward, all that cutting ...
Quickly made a couple of pieces of foam for the pylon and warp nacelle




To compare: Nacelles down

To Compare : Nacelles up








And the final state for today


Untill next time !
ASPHIAX

Ok, Here are another set of pics

Spend the whole morning thinking, looking, sketching on how to place the Canope on the baseplate. The baseplate is a MDF panel on which the Mobo and radiators will be placed on top and the PSU, HDD's and pump(s) on hanged on the bottom. It will form the backbone of the case (if you can still call it a case ) Together with the Canope on top, the Deflector Tunnel on the bottom and the pylon partition at the back it will need to provide the rigidity and connection point for all the hardware and the electromotors for the movable Pylons and warpnacelles.

*EDIT : Ablative Armor actually does not allow warp (as far as i can tell) So the EURISKO will deviate from that point by allowing the ship to reach warp configuration.
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ablative_armor

The baseplate!
I made the baseplate a couple of cm smaller than the canope.




Here's a little trick I found. I only want to cut to the exact depth of the baseplate. So i measured the thrickness of the baseplate.

marked it with tape on the knife

If the knife flows along nicely through the foam, if it starts "jumping" you're to deep. EASY!


Let the plucking begin!


This weekend also POPCORN!


Needed to get the middle piece out. Not a quick job.


Perfect Fit! Exactly the right depth. The canope now has a wide support rim on the mdf When the canope gets covered with epoxy/glassfiber.


Also filled the little holes and cracks in the deflector tunnel. Also made the wing partition. It looks a bit big but these are the unfished elements. The Tunnel looks a bit strange but that is an optical issue.


Quickly put the whole thing together. i cant remember how many times i have done that. got to keep checking


Sunk the wing partition into the deflector tunnel


No we have a nice wood on wood connection (Hout = WOOD !!!) to create the backbone


Worked my ass of whole day and it looks exactly the same as yesterday !


Oh well, those days are also expected right ?

Laterz !
ASPHIAX

Ok Here is the final update for this weekend.
The bottom half of the saucer and side pieces are almost finished.
It was a big job thinking my way out of this.

And again the breadknife !


Little test fitting


The double chin !


Creating some depth


And another fitting moment


Also got to keep the hardware in the back of the mind


Smoothing out the depth




Black circles are area's where the breadnife needs to be applied


With the main deflector


Making the correct flow to the deflector


Better !


When there is no "hot wire" to cut the foam I need to use brute force !


The thin sideplates


Smooth flowing design ...




While i am posting this i see a lot of room for improvement. the connection between the bottom saucer part and sidepanel needs better flow.

Ok here is a short update !

Fan Layout (92 mm scythe fans) integrated into the lower saucer section


started work on the DCIM's and armour plating


Tricky Business, The deflector tunnel was not properly formed. So I had to cut it up knowing I did not have enough foam left to replace it.


After a extremely helpfull visit to a guy who has been building his model airplanes for 30 years i have descided to take the negative/positive mold approach. So removed the tape and started filling the sides.
Big advantage is that i can rebuild the canope within hours if i screw up!


Total view , in the background the bottom saucer section drying.


So now a week of sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, fill ....
Grt
ASPHIAX

I will not bother you guys with pictures of the sanding and filling process but I have taking a old piece of mesh and cut it up to make more clear the "Dilithium Cooling Intake Manifold" idea.
I will place some fat CCFL's or LEDS behind the mesh.

Was a real task to get all the lining straight. Used a dremel to "sculpt" the filling and every night put on a layer of filling and sanding ...




But i am not quite there yet. The symmetrie is a little off, so out comes the trusted dremel !

As Usual the first weekend update !

Hmm, what are these ?


Ahh, pylons!


And a Fitting session


Starting to look like something!






Tomorrow continue the sanding and filling of the pylons and brainstorm on how to fit the reservoirs and the 19mm tubing for the watercooling.

Before and After a round of sanding


Missed the correct symmetrie a lot of times, used up a lot of foam making mistakes. I really had to sit down to think why I got it wrong all the time and how to get the impuls drives correctly out of the foam.


Finally the right symmetrie !!!!!


Whats wrong with this picture... Can you see it ?


Nicely symmetrical but it had to be mirrored !!!!
:argue: , :violent1: , :angryfire: , :banghead: , :crybaby: , :bigsmurf:






And after that everything covered in filling and glued together!

Laterz
ASPHIAX

Here is part 1 of the overview of this weekend.



ASPHIAX


V.S

EPOXY


I was not looking forward to this job. I knew that if i was to mess up, a couple of weeks of work would go down the drain. Full enthousiasme started this job then...
I dont have to much pictures of the actual Epoxy work as the plastic gloves covered in Epoxy prevented me from using my camera.

So I first used several layers of loosening wax on the model. Let these layers dry and covered the model with a thick layer of epoxy. The placing of the glasfiber cloth on the straight and flat surfaces is not a problem, but then there were the corners.
What a DRAMA !!!
I knew of the difficulties with straight corners with glassfiber but I did not expect it to be that bad. A to straight of a corner (close to 90 degrees) will mean that a bubbel of air gets trapped on top of the corner and a corner with a radius will form in the lower part. The radius is not that bad, you can use a filler to resolve it. The bubbel on top on the other hand is not ok at all.
You cant push it down by hand (tried it, keeps popping up) and when not treated it can cause the paint to pop off when even moderate force is used on the model let alone fly at warp 9 :eyebrow: So I had to cut the bubbels out and fill them with epoxy.



For a layman simple forms and shapes are fairly easy. A complex shape like the EURISKO with several adjacent inner and outer corners is tough. Especially when there is a timelimit on the time epoxy can be used before it solidifies. For my next build I will think twice before using the material in this fashion again.

Here is the result!




Seperate the canope from the deflector tunnel


And back to the baseplate


Started to empty the canope. In the end I did not choose to do the positive/nagative mould. The primairy reason is that I do not trust myself enough with the epoxy.
(I can hear you thinking .... Yes changed direction again!!!)


The DCIM's can finally be opened


Layer on layer deeper. Looks kinda like an old roman theater!


Completely hollowed out the canope. Left some foam at strategic area's as the whole became encreasingly flexible and vulnarable. Due to the left foam the model will keep the intented form. I will put another layer of epoxy/glass on the inside making the canope around 2 cm's thick and much stronger.


Canope is completely finished. At least on the inside there is now enough room for the hardware. the outer layer will be covered with filling and I will recreate the straight corners.


So eventually it all came together. Had to do a lot of "On the Fly" adjustments but that is part of the fun for me. Thinking on my feet and adjusting where necessary.

As usual my wife was not so happy with me working on the model.


Laterz
ASPHIAX

Here are some more details on the hardware that is going to be running the EURISKO

First:

Gigabyte hase helped the EURISKO by fitting it with a new motherboard, the P67A-UD7





What a beauty, clean, slick, black with golden highlights! Super! Thansk a lot Gigabyte!


And :


Highflow will help the EURISKO to keep as cool as possible and thus help break the WARP 10 barriere!

Found a package at my house on friday.
The first Highflow order is in !

So here are the first starfleet approved USS EURISKO tech specs

The best radiators I could find. I am planning to overclock the system so i need all the cooling i can get. (also foam is a very good insulator so the less heat the better)





To get enough flow through a large ship like the EURISKO i need to have a strong pump. I have allowed room for a secondary laing pump if the circulation proves inadequate.


the fans for on top of the radiators. These fans will be put into a push-pull configuration with the planned fans in the bottom saucer. This to improve the cooling even better. Due to the thick thermochill rads, space was an issue. So I opted for these ultra thin (12mm) Scythe fans


The White Hot EPS Plasm Conduits will be made from the UV tubing from Feser


And a couple of beautifull pieces of mesh for the top and bottom DCIM's

Here is the update for this weekend.

Started work on the canope and bottom saucer. One of the final dusty jobs.


All the bottom saucer parts glued to the baseplate


And added a layer of epoxy




Started work on the Main Deflector
Found a sweet piece of plexiglas, cut a hole for the fan to suck in some air and sunk a piece of mesh into it.





Cut a quick couple of pieces of depron to cover the edges. Now I have to wait for the deflector tunnel to be put into the filler and epoxy before i can complete it.




Started work on the warp nacelles with the Brink of Modding reservoirs.
Quickly realised the foam pylons and nacelles were not going to do the job. Setback of about a day. I wanted to hollow out the nacelles and put the hardware into it but the stiffness of the epoxy/glas layer would not stand up to hold the reservoirs, coolant, tubing and fittings. Let alone the mechanical forces that would work onto the epoxy/glass layer once the servo's have been fitted and the whole wing section can move up and down. Back to the drawing board it is ...

Found the solution. There will be MDF plating in this baby !




Even in a starship they have to do weight reduction, so out with all the mdf we dont need!


And a quick test fitting. This picture is with the old foam pylons (the new solution in beneath it)


with this solution the pylon/nacelle partition will be strong enough to handle anything.


Made sure the dimensions stayed the same due to the relative sizes (nacelles vs canope vs width and height)


Side facing view with the reservoirs sticking out of the wood just slightly. This will be made better by the depron plates.


Just a quick test with a single led. working with WWWicked on a 10 fold led arrangement for the nacelles.


Total view


Could not resist testing the Main Deflector with the led. The MD needs to finished with the Angel Eyes or Frosted Led technique.



Wish I had a couple more loose leds for testing ...

Best
ASPHIAX

There were some new goodies from :

The Life support system has arrived ! Beautifull Alu NorthQ 92 mm fans


And what will be a much used piece of tooling soon (I hope ...)
Phobya Molex Kit


It has to become something like this


Quick fitting session as the rad's needs to be placed on the inside also


Some holes in mdf .. (needs to be cut to correct size though...)


And a quick fitting session to make sure it is in line with the model. Fitting and trying stuff on the model is something i do quite a lot and has prevented me from some major mistakes.


Need to cut a piece of silver mesh for the ouside alos.


Sunk the MDF into the bottom saucer


And then there was light !


Mulder : Look Scully, a UFO !
Scully : Nah propably just a pc in some guys basement!


Total view. The fans are now at Warp 10 so the leds will dim quite a bit at a comfortable warp 5.



Put a ledstrip into the model just to check it out. Even though the effect is funny and maybe usefull for another build (dropped into idea box) it is offcourse not what i would like for this build. The light pollution is heavy due to the thin layer of foam and epoxy is transparant by nature so ... That are going to be a lot of filling and airbrush layers !


The DCIM's will be covered with a black piece (strip actually) of mesh. Picture the blue glowing from behind the mesh and you got what i want to achieve. Will cut a piece tomorrow and post a new pic.

Well even though the glow lines look very cool, they were not intended! I suspected the verticals would become bleeders but i hadnt anticipated the horizontal ones. (i actually played with the idea to do all the vertical ones with mesh but that would destroy the structural stiffness of the canope. The previous foto's didnt show the biggest bleeder!
Starship with sunroof anyone?


The Epoxy/glass layer dries transparantly. This is made of 6 layers of 160 grams glass with a 2 cm thick layer Epoxy. Virtually indestructable.

To talk about structural stiffnes of the model here are some more details.
The Canope is made of about 1 cm layer of XPS foam (they make spoilers for race cars out of this stuff) , thick filling layer (ok, not as thick everywhere, see the bleeding light effect) and several layers of 160 grams glassfiber with epoxy on the inside and outside.

I think together these 2 cases with the K62 having a 280 rad in the hood are about 10-12 kg!

Here is the design for the fan/led controller I want to use for the EURISKO.
It will be integrated into a LCARS display in the standard that will support the model.

I will use a NZXT Sentry LXE with a remote touchscreen display like this one : Sentry LXE


The Idea is to take a thick piece of dark plexi and fit the buttons with transparant clear plexi. Different colour leds will light the buttons randomly with certain ones lit continuous making the screen come alive.
The NZXT LXE touchscreen fancontroller will be integrated into the panel after stripping the casing of it. The blueish voyager button left corner will be fitted with a on/off switch for the pc.

Really looking forward to this job, it might just get precedence above other work!
The colours in the design might change depending on the colour leds I will receive, but the layout is almost final!



ASPHIAX

Here is a short update:
It is good to take a break from the build every once and again. Left the build for a good week to come back and find several issues with the design that I didn't see before. So I spend the most part of the day with the dremel taking of milimeter by milimeter certain elements of the tail to make the "flow" of the design better. There was a 3 mm thick layer of dust in the room when I finished but its done now and I am happy with it!

Last time when I hooked up the tubing to the warp nacelle it looked like this:

The white coil only just prevented the tube from folding too much so no coolant would be able to flow through. Obviously not a good solution. Take this restriction times 4 (2 per nacelles) and the single pump would definitely (note that it is spelled correctly) not be enough umpff to make the ship fly any harder then warp 1,1. Back to the drawing board it is. What would make a perfect 180 degree turn and do that within 4 cm ?
Contacted Bitspower to ask for the heart to heart measurements of their snake fitting. Could not find the deatils anywhere.
Bitspower descided after seeing the buildlogs to send me a box with all different types of fittings, connectors, converters and what not to help me out. How extremely cool of them ! Looks like there are a lot of old trekkies around !

Tehy are all from the Black Sparcle Series ...


So now with the new fittings it looks like this :


PS. the yellow tape is to ensure the plexi doesnt get scratched




Looks a whole lot better al ready. No more restriction in the tubing which also doesnt want to press outwards by the strong curvature in the old solution.

This week will start the foam work encapsulating the nacelles and place the led array.
No small job .. (but so much fun!!!)
Laterz
ASPHIAX