[HEXGEAR] | IDORU |

[B NEGATIVE]

“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.

The Economist, December 4, 2003”
― William Gibson

Welcome everybody to my latest log and one that I have had to keep quiet for a few weeks now so im glad I can finally get this rolling.

Its a very very great pleasure to introduce a new case maker to the world,run by 2 of my good friends and all round nice guys,Nate and Hans from their new case company,HEX GEAR.

Im working on their new case,the R40 mATX.

http://www.hex-gear.com/

The case is a steel and aluminum constructed unit with a emphasis on quality and sleek lines,they have aimed this at the watercooling community with solid rad support (240 + 360) and has nice options available for those wanting something a bit different from the plastic fantastics.



Obviously,as Im doing one,its going to be heavily but subtly modded,again sticking to the ethos that I dont want to lose the 'Character' of the case but enhance it.

The theme? As a longtime William Gibson fan,I took cues from his near future 'world' and adapted the 'look' for myself. Copper...polished,mirror black and forced copper patination. Patina'd copper tube work. Normal I blow out and tell you what Im going to do with it but not this time,you will have to wait and see but I promise you this..its going to be pretty awesome!

As im discussion with a few interested parties,hardware specs are....fluid...right now but its not all about the hardware,this is about me stretching myself into new techniques and doing something special for a pair of good friends.



“When you want to know how things really work, study them when they're coming apart.”
― William Gibson, Zero History

I think some pictures are in order.....

The cable routing for the hidden PSU cabling

Thats all you get for now,I still have my awesome DFM LAN box to finish before I give this my full attention.
This is going to be a slow burner but the ride will be worth it.


“Secrets...are the very root of cool.”
― William Gibson, Spook Country ​

 

[B NEGATIVE]

"That's something that tends to happen with new technologies generally: The most interesting applications turn up on a battlefield, or in a gallery.”
― William Gibson, Spook Country

Now things are moving along with the hardware,ASUS UK sent me 2 980 STRIX cards to go with the z97 GENE that is on its way.

The coolers on these cards are something else,all metal with reinforcers around the card,shame its being blocked up but...well.....you know......blocks are ....

Im not sold in the back plate...a nice solid copper replacement is required...

That reinforcer loops around to the IO plate so the card is rock solid,I will have to try and incorporate that into the WC kit...I like the idea of more stiffness to the PCB.

A pair of very solid feeling cards,thanks ASUS UK for stepping forward,they are an amazing addition to the build.

Also,the 36% HCL and peroxide are here for the acid etching of the copper panels,when the panels arrive then I will be diving into that with excitement!
Im not really keen for chem burns tho...a few practice runs on scrap need to be done too.

“Somewhere, deep within her, surfaces a tiny clockwork submarine. There are times when you can only take the next step. And then another.”
― William Gibson, Pattern Recognition

After speaking the the helpful guys at Crucial UK,they sent me 3 of the yet unreleased M200 series SSD's and the Ballistix Elite memory kit I like so much
You can see the drive specs here: http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/storage-info

Ram.

Its the lovely Ballistix DDR3 kit that I love so much

Currently working on the copper cover boxes for them and the panels that are being re-cut are being lasered right now,new copper SSD mounts and pump mounts also!​

​

 

[B NEGATIVE]

“Stand high long enough and your lightning will come.”
― William Gibson

The board has arrived,a nice purty Z97 GENE,to go with the stonking GPU's.

It comes with all the usual bits and bobs and a quite lovely black chromed I/O panel.

Not often im even remotely interested in stock coolers but these STRIX ones are nice to look at for a change.

The matt finished board with teh awesome rams.

I like the roughcast look to the stock heatsinks but they do pick up fingerprint grease easily.
You can see the two colour finish ASUS make a point of mentioning...not really my thing....unless they expanded it to a whole board look rather than the VRM only.

Got room for a 40mm rad top and bottom,I will be using XSPC AX rads for this...I have always wanted to use them as they look so good and are ideal for painting.

Next on the list is waiting for Bitspower to finish their New Year and getting the loop planned out,drilling holes THEN painting for a change!

“Things aren't different. Things are things.”
― William Gibson, Neuromancer ​

 

[B NEGATIVE]

The 2mm laser cut copper panels are back and the first of the sanding passes has been done just for some pics....

A LOT more polishing to come yet,along with a cut copper top panel.

For me...this is pron.....

Now im focusing on the res and the accent pack that I want...white is doing nothing for me......

"Addictions ... started out like magical pets, pocket monsters. They did extraordinary tricks, showed you things you hadn't seen, were fun. But came, through some gradual dire alchemy, to make decisions for you. Eventually, they were making your most crucial life-decisions. And they were ... less intelligent than goldfish."

WILLIAM GIBSON, Zero History



Copper is ​

 

[B NEGATIVE]

“If you’re fifteen or so, today, I suspect that you inhabit a sort of endless digital Now, a state of atemporality enabled by our increasingly efficient communal prosthetic memory. I also suspect that you don’t know it, because, as anthropologists tell us, one cannot know one’s own culture.”
― William Gibson

The good folks at Be Quiet have been busy bees and sent me the PSU and fans for the build,I chose the Silent Wings 2 and a Power Zone 1000w for this,both products have exactly what I need,bomb proof quality and a nice spec sheet!

Start with the fans?

These are 120mm Silent Wings 2 fans,PWM and open cornered with a plethora of bits in the box,I have opted for the single side mounts as the rads will be inside the case with the fans in the bays.

Specs:
Fan speed @ 12V (rpm)
1500
Air flow @ 12V (cfm, m3/h)
50.5 / 85.8
Air pressure @ 12V (mm H2O)
1.63
Noise level @ 12V (dB(A))
15.7

And the PSU,the same one as I used in the EK build I have going an and CLOS3 IMPACT although i used a 750w for that one.

The hardware is in and has been tested,not aircooled for years too,I had to go and buy an aircooler can you believe! Not one in the house! The Bitspower package is on route from the ever fantastic team at Bitspower tho so it will be coming off again really soon!next up is the res and acid etching!


“I'm away for a while. But there's no cash on the premises, no drugs, and the pitbull's tested positive. Twice.”
― William Gibson, Pattern Recognition ​

 

[B NEGATIVE]

I spent the morning in the garden with quantities of HCL and peroxide,20 mins of stirring later and the test pieces are ready to look at.

Its about .015mm deep right now so the exposure time needs to go up to around an hour to get the effect im looking for.

Once I have achieved the depth I want then I can go on to the next step

 

[TommyT]

Great job

 

[B NEGATIVE]

You know what your trouble is?... You're the kind who always reads the handbook. Anything people build, any kind of technology, it's going to have some specific purpose. It's for doing something that somebody already understands. But if it's new technology, it'll open areas nobody's ever thought of before. You read the manual, man, and you won't play around with it, not the same way. And you get all funny when somebody else uses it to do something you never thought of.

WILLIAM GIBSON, Burning Chrome
​

The loop has arrived from the team at Bitspower,my gratitude to Lily and Vincent @ Bitspower for their continued assistance with what I do.

One of the reason i chose the GENE is for that really good looking 'full cover' mobo block they do.

Under pinning all that is the Summit Cpu block and a beastmode VRM block,very well finished in the usual Bitspower way.
That is to say,very well.

Now you cant have Bitspower and not talk fittings.

I went with the Carbon Black fittings and the Enhance compression fittings,to me the best looking fitting Bitspower makes,here is a selection of what Im using.
More eagle eyed members will no doubt question my use of angled fittings when I could easily bend it, recently I have come to like a mix of styles,not all bending and some strategically placed fittings works wonders for cleanliness.

And watercooling the ram,not a necessity but, coupled with that mobo block, should look pretty good.

Then we come to the GPU blocks,not a hard choice,a plain slabsided look makes a nice canvas to mod on,copper panels will be made to fold over and cover most of the plexi up,leaving space for the back light from the LED holes in the block to shine thru,a kind of evolution from the GPU block in CLOS3 IMPACT.

Finally! Discreet logo's!

They also come with backplates....

I have a pair of D5's going spare so......yeah.......

No 24v this time tho.....

Looks like my weekend just got full......

My first impulse, when presented with any spanking-new piece of computer hardware, is to imagine how it will look in ten years’ time, gathering dust under a card table in a thrift shop.

WILLIAM GIBSON, Distrust That Particular Flavor​

 

[t_ski]

I like your use of black and copper, but I'm guessing from your leading image that you may try to age the copper. Here's to hoping that you don't.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

“Because he had a good agent, he had a good contract. Because he had a good contract, he was in Singapore an hour after the explosion. Most of him, anyway.”
― William Gibson, Count Zero


Today is block the mobo day.

The bare board in all it glory!

You would not believe the effort required to get the chewing gum off of the SB.......

The VRM looks almost bare....but purposeful.

Blocks on!

Even without the cover block,it looks tidy and close fitting

If I can strip the nickel,or more likely,find someone else to do it (Nickel stripping is just toxic nasty) then the top cover may be left off. Otherwise all the nickel will be black painted except in the waterchannels for all the blocks,nickel is not going to work in the is build.

This panel will be laser cut in copper I think....

And with the distribution block fitted.....looks heavy....because it is. XD

Now Im torn on the decision to watercool the RAM,it looks really good as it is, a very good match to the block setup.

Post you own thoughts on that....

And back in the rig with the cards in.

The blocks themselves are easy to fit,no struggles nor mis-alignments to report.

There will be a copper shroud covering most of the top of that acrylic block covering the whole of the I/O,folded down both sides,cleaning up the silver ports out of the way.



“Take me home," she said, and the words hit me like a whip. I think I shook my head. "Take me home." There were levels of pain there, and subtlety, and an amazing cruelty. And I knew then that I'd never been hated, ever, as deeply or thoroughly as this wasted little girl hated me now, hated me for the way I'd looked, then looked away, beside Rubin's all-beer refrigerator.

So--if that's the word--I did one of those things you do and never find out why, even though something in you knows you could never have done anything else.

I took her home.”
― William Gibson​

 

[B NEGATIVE]

So....

I have been quiet...for a good reason tho!
The res has been machined and is back!
Its still in the polishing phase to get rid of the mill marks on the inside,im using Lowfats acrylic polishing guide for this,you can find it using OCN search.


I know you were all expecting pron pics but they will come when its finished.....anyway...TA DAAAAAAH!

The XSPC rads have been base coated,one was white and the other was black,couldnt get the silver ones I wanted with the bare core sadly.....

Everything fits just so,not much space wasted here!

 

[Vego]

more please!!!