--- r e f l e X i o n ---

(Actual shot of side panel above)

To start, the name of the project is pronounced the same as "reflection," just with an X, instead. I came up with the project name based on a particular theme that I had in mind and then thought, “You know, what would really set it off is to spell it a little different, and hey, my name fits perfectly!”

To get the wheels turning, I designed a logo and custom graphic specifically for this project that captures part of my vision for it. The theme is galaxies and the reflection of light. I have always been fascinated by the stars, and with a little help from a buddy of mine, the theme was born. With this, I believe I have some unique concepts in mind that will give this project both life and a personality. Some of these concepts, which I feel are unique and have not seen done before, I will not be sharing until the later stages in the project. But I promise to keep this worklog interesting and will try to provide updates regularly. In addition, I want this worklog to be a two-way exchange. All constructive feedback and ideas are more than welcome as that’s how we learn.

I'll briefly state my objective with this latest build before I get into the meat of the project.


My objective: To build a machine that pulses with life and personality and that exudes excellence.

My personal belief is that the ceiling of creativity in this hobby hasn't even been approached yet. My intention is to show a PC's artistic possibilities, to give it a name and a likeness. An identity, if you will. To accomplish this, I plan to inject some of my ideas, have them blend with a particular theme, and then to execute that theme through precise and risky modding. I believe that both can be accomplished, so my goal is to build a machine that's both edgy and refined.

So without further delay, I give you:

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Sponsored by:

Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos S
Side Panel: Custom Waterjet
Front Panel: Custom Waterjet
Interior: "Zero Gravity Chamber" (custom SSD and pump mounting device)

Hardware:
Intel i7 950
Foxconn Flaming Blade X58 (may change)
ATI HD5970 CrossfireX (4 GPUs)
SSD Raid0 x 4 (OCZ Vertex SSD x 4)
Corsair HX1000W PSU

Cooling:
Dual MCP350 Swiftech H20 system, dual-loop design
Swiftech MCR220 x 2
XSPC Reservoir DDC Top x 2
DangerDen Waterblocks (CPU, Chipset, GPUs)
Coolant: Fezer Clear (UV), Fezer Black (UV)
Tubing: 7/16" Tygon
Fittings: BP Rotary, DangerDen Compression

Apologies in advance, but this project has been going on for two months, so I'm going to move over all the work as best I can. There may be a few consecutive posts until I can bring everything up to date. Thanks.

The side panel was a custom design made in 3dsMax and is composed of around 350 vertices. It was a work in progress with over 80 hours of design time in order to get the perspective and smoothness of the image to a level that would look as if it was professionally manufactured, which I hope it does.

Below are some photos taken of the waterjetting in action, along with the finished product.

So with the exterior down, I began work on the interior by modeling different possibilities in Max.

I needed to see if I could be successful in blending two themes together. A space theme, as the galaxy image on the side panel shows, and reflective qualities. As you can see below, backing the side panel graphic is an acrylic mirror:

In general, it can be tricky when you're trying to carry more than one theme, but in this case, I believed that it could be done. In fact, I believed that adding the mirroring quality to the theme would add some "sexiness" to the overall design of the build.

Given the reflecting quality that I wanted to carry through to the end as well, I decided to design the interior around both a space theme and a reflective quality.

In various builds that I've seen, I've always hated looking at the drive cage. So I wanted to remove it completely and install something attractive in its place (I can do this since I'll be using external optical drives and lightweight SSDs.)

Along the way, I began to term this custom device the "Zero Gravity Chamber." In my mind, it would house dual water pumps, 4 solid state drives and the PSU. I would remove the stock mount for the PSU and mount it towards the opposite end of the case (front) for two reasons. One - to clean up the overall look of the build, and two - to make room for a second radiator to be installed in the bottom of the case.

Enough blabbing; here is what I mean:

The custom structure (Zero-G chamber) would have two shelves inside to hold the pumps/res in a vertical alignment, giving it a reflective property.

The inside of the chamber:

So the idea was to drill 4 holes in the chamber. Two exit holes for the pumps and two return holes, one for each res.

Somewhere along the way I figured, "You know, instead of just building a custom mount for the SSDs that can't be seen, I should show them off with an effect that fits the overall theme of the build.

This is when I came up with idea of "Zero Gravity" for the drives.

The idea, as may be obvious, was to give the drives a weightless appearance as if they are suspended in mid-air, like out in space. I would accomplish this by mounting the drives to a piece of plexiglass that was cut to size so that it was hidden behind the chamber windows.

With windows cut in the chamber to an exact size, if the plexi was large enough so as not to see the edges from the outside, then the drives would appear on a perfectly transparent background, thus giving them a weightless appearance.

This is a very cool project!
And some very nice renders.

Also, Welcome to TBCS, we hope you enjoy your stay.

So then I went to work on the Zero-G drive concept.

First step was to figure out a neat way to cut the plexiglass to size. I ended up using the least likely tool of all, a sheet metal brake.

I didn't have much luck cutting the plexi with either a jigsaw or a hacksaw with fine-toothed blades, but with a brake, I could simply score the plexi along the straight-edge steel brace and bend right at the score/seam for a perfectly straight and smooth cut.

Some shots of the plexi cutting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trace

This is a very cool project!
And some very nice renders.

Also, Welcome to TBCS, we hope you enjoy your stay.

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Thanks for that warm welcome, Trace. Glad to be here. :)

I just discovered this place a few days ago.. had trouble finding it as it wasn't coming up in a search engine. Hard to believe it took me so long to find such a great community of creative minds.

I usually frequent XtremeSystems and bit-tech. I'll have to spend more and more time over here, though, as I've been very impressed by the projects that I've seen this way.

The projects, the people, the community here are all great.

So the next step was to trial mount the drives to the plexiglass. I found drilling through the plexi to be a little tricky at first but soon figured out how to keep it from cracking.

Here's the effect on a spare piece of plexi that was used for testing.

The full-size plexi windows have been cut and are ready to be drilled. There will be two mounting brackets attached to the plexi, one for mounting the part to the shelf and one for mounting it above the chamber window to brace it for stability. The brackets have already been cut and filed; they just need to be drilled.

More on that later.

nice progress, lookin good! and welcome :D

Welcome to TBCS!
I can't wait to see more!!!
This worklog is getting more epic as i read on! :D

Welcome dude!!
Nice renders and a very good idea for a thematic mod :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA

nice progress, lookin good! and welcome :D

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Locum51

Welcome to TBCS!
I can't wait to see more!!!
This worklog is getting more epic as i read on! :D

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loki

Welcome dude!!
Nice renders and a very good idea for a thematic mod :D

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Thanks, everyone!

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much of a chance to check out too many other projects around here. Think I'll do that right now. :)

At this time, I'm excited to introduce my new sponsor for refleXion, MNPCTech.

I've been a fan of Bill's work for a while, particularly his rad grills, and he's been kind enough to supply me with two of his amazing new Billet 240 aluminum rad grills, along with some other small items that will be very useful in shaping refleXion into its final form.

The smooth shaped vents on the Billet 240s are great and will definitely mesh well with this build, but what makes them even better is you can actually rotate the vents against the grill in any direction that you like.

I plan to orient them diagonally on top and on bottom, with opposing angles, to fit the reflective theme of my build. I will be creating custom radboxes to mount them on both the top and bottom interior of the case. There's also a silver aluminum version of the Billet 240 that comes in a nice machined finish. I thought the black would look better in my case than the silver, although the silver looks quite nice as well.

In addition to MNPCTech's awesome rad grills, a number of other items will be very helpful in completing this build.

U-Channel molding for dressing up those radial cuts on the radbox.

Vandal Resistant Power Switch as I'll be replacing the stock switch and top casing.

Acoustical soundproof foam to install under both pumps in the Zero Gravity Chamber.

3-pin Wire Extension Kit for extending fan wires.

Fan Silencing Grommets to reduce vibration noise of the fans.

And some nice Socket Screws for a professional looking attachment on the rad grills.

Thanks to Bill for his wonderful work and for helping sponsor this project!


More to come soon on the Zero-G drives.

Welcome to TBCS! I love modded Cosmos' so I will be anxiously watching.

Waterjet cuts look great, and I like the pattern as well.

Congratz on the sponsor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

Welcome to TBCS! I love modded Cosmos' so I will be anxiously watching.

Waterjet cuts look great, and I like the pattern as well.

Congratz on the sponsor.

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Thanks, OvRiDe!

The water-jetting is very nice. Where did you have it done? Also, .max files are acceptable for that?
I like the whole anti-gravity chamber idea and the floating SSDs...I hope to float all the internals in my project. Hopefully it will look this good.:)
And welcome to TBCS.

glad to see you over here xion:) welcome!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mDust

The water-jetting is very nice. Where did you have it done? Also, .max files are acceptable for that?
I like the whole anti-gravity chamber idea and the floating SSDs...I hope to float all the internals in my project. Hopefully it will look this good.:)
And welcome to TBCS.

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Thanks, man. The waterjet was done by ADCUT in Aberdeen, NC. Mike Dixon runs the place.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by p0Pe

glad to see you over here xion:) welcome!

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Thanks, p0pe. :)

Fittings arrived this weekend. Believe it or not, this is not all of them.

For now, it's only rotary love.

love the idea for the zero grav SSDs. very cool! :)

Wow, very cool Xion! Really enjoying this! Congrats on the sponsor!

Welcome to TBCS! This project is looking great so far! Can't wait for more updates!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billygoat333

love the idea for the zero grav SSDs. very cool! :)

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mach

Wow, very cool Xion! Really enjoying this! Congrats on the sponsor!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luke122

Welcome to TBCS! This project is looking great so far! Can't wait for more updates!

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Thanks, everyone! :)

It's time for an update on the Zero Gravity Chamber. ;)


Here I'm marking off the bends for the chamber shell.

No turning back now... we're about to bend this thing for good.

I clamped through the windows here. I figured since they were hollowed out that it'd be the weakest point when the opposing force was applied to the brake. It worked pretty well.

Clamped down at a 1/2" bend and ready to go. This will be the back bend of the chamber that will be drilled and mounted to the inner case frame.

The first bend turned out very well.

Positioning for the second bend.

Bending upright. This will be the chamber side that shows the Zero Gravity drives.

She's really starting to take shape now.

The fourth and final bend. We now have our finished Zero Gravity Chamber shell. :)

Teaser. ;)

I hope to have the shelves installed by middle of the week and the zero G drive mounts shortly after. I had expected to finish the drive mounts first, but to ensure the plexi window mount is the exact height it needs to be to center the drives in the window, I thought it was best to install the shelves first.

Thanks for checking in!

Welcome Xion. this mod is looking fantastic. Love the floating SSDs. What kind of rig did you use to make those bends? Those came out very clean; nice and straight.

+rep worthy. Keep it up

Remy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Remy

Welcome Xion. this mod is looking fantastic. Love the floating SSDs. What kind of rig did you use to make those bends? Those came out very clean; nice and straight.

+rep worthy. Keep it up

Remy

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Thanks, Remy! Much appreciated. :)

For the bending, I used a steel sheet metal brake, 30" in width. Capable of bending up to 18 gauge steel.

It's worked well for aluminum in the vicinity of 1/16" to 1/8" thus far. The one caveat is it needs a solid mount to attain the leverage for the bend. So if you're like me and don't have a spare workbench to bolt it down to, you can get away with steel clamps. I use two steel C-clamps and clamp the brake at the bolt patterns to my Workmate 450. :)

Thanks for the info. I was actually thinking of building one from some 2x4s and a heavy duty piano hinge. Seems simple enough. Anyhow, can't wait to see more. The mod's looking great.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Remy

Thanks for the info. I was actually thinking of building one from some 2x4s and a heavy duty piano hinge. Seems simple enough. Anyhow, can't wait to see more. The mod's looking great.

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Yep, that would probably have the same effect. It's a simple concept. :)

Small update, guys.

I was able to get the shelves bent and installed so that I could test mount the pumps. The windows fit the XSPC res tops perfectly.

Thats some beautifull work man. I think i might need to subscribe to this thread.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CanaBalistic

Thats some beautifull work man. I think i might need to subscribe to this thread.

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Thanks!

Here are a few more pictures taken from last night.

Wow; great job so far. Not only the project is cool and fun, but your work is really clean. Your pics are well taken and well instructed.

I haven't been spoken much lately (still watching the forum at least 4 times/week) but this project catch my eyes. Cant wait to see more of this. Great job so far. :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by slytherock

Wow; great job so far. Not only the project is cool and fun, but your work is really clean. Your pics are well taken and well instructed.

I haven't been spoken much lately (still watching the forum at least 4 times/week) but this project catch my eyes. Cant wait to see more of this. Great job so far. :up:

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Thank you for the kind words, sly! Much appreciated. :)

There's much more to come, so stay tuned. In fact, what I feel is the central 'WOW' factor has not been revealed yet and, I believe, will tie the entire theme together with a fine seam. This will not surface for another few weeks at least, but it is coming.

Another update should be coming soon. In the interim, here are some more hardware pics that I hope you'll enjoy. :)

OH MAN! You'd better be faking that pile of SSDs! :D

(I want those.)

I'd probably do something stupid with 'em though...like make a 6 drive raid 0...:twisted:

Professional much?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Remy

Thanks for the info. I was actually thinking of building one from some 2x4s and a heavy duty piano hinge. Seems simple enough. Anyhow, can't wait to see more. The mod's looking great.

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FYI: I have made my own brake with 2x4's and a piano hinge, but due to the rounded edge of the 2x4's and the fact they were construction grade pine (soft), it did not work very well. I could never get as clean of lines as Xion has achieved with his brake. Mine were either crooked or rounded.

Xion, Thanks for sharing this worklog. You have done some really nice work here. Can't wait to see what's next!

Love the zero G drive bay.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Airbozo

FYI: I have made my own brake with 2x4's and a piano hinge, but due to the rounded edge of the 2x4's and the fact they were construction grade pine (soft), it did not work very well. I could never get as clean of lines as Xion has achieved with his brake. Mine were either crooked or rounded.

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A couple of pieces of 1" or larger angle iron should give a nice edge. Just a thought.

Very nice work so far! + REP and definitely following this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mDust

OH MAN! You'd better be faking that pile of SSDs! :D

(I want those.)

I'd probably do something stupid with 'em though...like make a 6 drive raid 0...:twisted:

Professional much?

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I'll have to settle for a RAID0 x 4 configuration for now as two of those SSDs are in my renderbox. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Airbozo

FYI: I have made my own brake with 2x4's and a piano hinge, but due to the rounded edge of the 2x4's and the fact they were construction grade pine (soft), it did not work very well. I could never get as clean of lines as Xion has achieved with his brake. Mine were either crooked or rounded.

Xion, Thanks for sharing this worklog. You have done some really nice work here. Can't wait to see what's next!

Love the zero G drive bay.

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Thanks, Airbozo.. I appreciate the kind words. :)

Yeah, some bends will definitely test the brake, so it's better that it's made of steel than wood. Some of the smaller bends like the 1/2" bends on the back required more work since you had less leverage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by msmrx57

A couple of pieces of 1" or larger angle iron should give a nice edge. Just a thought.

Very nice work so far! + REP and definitely following this.

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Thanks for the +REP, msmrx. I'm glad that you're enjoying the project. :)


Much more to come later. Until then, here are a few more hardware pics.

I'll be running the HK 3.0 for my CPU block.

refleXion will be running two GTX 275s in an SLI configuration. These are special edition GTXs with 1792MB of VRAM apiece. :)

My new radiators came in, two MCR220s by Swiftech. These will be replacing the XSPC RX240s because they're thinner and will fit on the inside of the case. The profile of the RX240 was too fat and was hanging over the motherboard when installed inside the case.

One will be set on each loop.

Loop 1 = CPU, NB
Loop 2 = GPU1, GPU2

:thumb:

nice rads! personally i prefer hwlabs but thoose are also nice:D
bitspower always equals win;)

What kind of camera are you using to take those incredible pics?