Project Timeless Warriors

Project – Timeless Warriors

So It Begins.

Personal Intro
Hi all those of you that know me or dont, I have been modding PC's since the year 2000 give or take a few years, I have been inspired over my modding life from modders of past and even some modders of new, I was modding back in the day when we used caravan window rubbers to put case windows into a PC (i know ghetto but we done what we could back then with what we had) I am known across various forums as rchiileea, Richi and Richie123 as well as r1chieB on instagram. I also have the Lucky advantage of having a wife who is very talented and hand engraving images using only dots that create depth which far exceeds my flat images i used to engrave with the trusty old dremel.

So let me introduce you guys to my latest project build that will be crazy mad, inspired by the samurai and will be built into Lian Li DK05x Twin PC desk, (hence the timeless warriors name). This project is going to be a labour of love, not only will it feature a lot of engraving by my wife, there will be also a heavy theme on samurai inside as well as engraved on the outside.

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A very very huge thank you to Lian Li for supplying the desk for the project, was honoured to be offered it so thank you.

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Thank you to intel who stepped up again for me to provide CPU’s for this project

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As some of you know from previous mods gigabyte have supported me with motherboards on projects so again thanks to them for being involved and helping out.

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A big thanks to Toshiba for coming on board on this one too, with not only the OCZ m2 drives but some SSD’s too.

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A big thanks to Razer for supplying the Peripherals for the project

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I would like to say Thank you to Sapphire for stepping up with two cards for second side of rig

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A massive thank you to LG for offering more than I asked for the build, watch this space

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Thank you to bitspower for supplying all the watercooling fittings, pumps and blocks for this.

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Dremel need no introduction as they have been around on all my builds from day one.

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A big thank you to TeamGroup as well for supplying the memory for both rigs.

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Of course two rigs are going to need two PSU’s so thank you to Seasonic for stepping up..

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A massive thanks to the Mayhems team for supplying my custom colour mixes for this project, amazing work as always.

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A big thank you to QNAP for supplying a 10 GBE Nas for the project to handle the external storage side of things

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A huge thank you to The AirbrushCompany for becoming one of my permanent sponsors going forward

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A big thank you to western digital for supplying some Red drives for the NAS.

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A big thank you to Aqua Tuning who stepped up to supply the crossflow rads.

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A big thank you to Edifier for supplying the sound bar and sub for the desk.

I must say again I have to thank the sponsors BIG TIME on this build for coming on board as it basically means they are supplying double the amount, no pressure to deliver then.

First off here is the case in question.

Looks great, then when it arrived, well it is huge, here is packaging next to my 1 series.

Funnily enough the desk comes in two boxes, one for the feet and one for the desk itself.

This was the lighter of the two boxes, the second box was not so light.

To assemble the case we have to lay the top section on top of the two boxes, then attach the feet.

Once the feet are attached, it’s a case of plugging the power for the adjustable legs in and raising it above the boxes, then lifting it into place (which is not a one man job :p)

For now that is the start of this build as I have to finalise the design for the engravings on the outside, once I have I will post an image of the plan to give you some idea of what is going to happen to this desk.

Interesting!

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

Interesting!

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going to be a long one thats for sure with all the real estate for engraving on.

So another small update and in general, most are going to be quite small until engraving is done, actually got started and so it begins.

I will not review the full design yet, but here is a glimpse of what has been has bee planned

I can not take credit for the engraving as its my wife that does this part, she asked to try and apply dotting as shading one day and let us just say the rest is history on that, I will add more photos as the engraving progresses of course.

Love the desk!

Going to figure out how to make my employer pay for one....

Another update for you guys, first showing you some stuff that turned up for the build.

First up the PSU’s, yes you did read that right as desk will be housing two rigs, it also need 2x PSU’s.

Seasonic stepped up here and provided 2x 1000w prime Titanium PSU’s for the build, solid and reliable power. Ill add some more photos of items when opened.

Next up was the gift from intel and very lucky gift indeed, it had me made up.

So both rigs will have almost identical processing power for this build, going to be a long ride I am thinking at the end with final pics and videos.

And last of course and not least, before we go of course a little update on the cherry blossom flower shown in previous post being finished.

Only 5 of these left to go and onto the main imagery after that, but going on this alone it’s going to all look amazing when put together.

Until the next update guys

Back again with another small update, as you know this dot shading engraving takes a while and you can clearly see that it is worth it in my opinion, the bottom of the engraving is coming out great.

Wanted to share this before, but I thought I would wait until there is another image of more progress.

I am completely blown away myself, just more amazing every day, this is going to be a superb art piece by the time its finished.

Lastly but not least, here is a sneak peak of a packaged that turned up from razer supporting this desk build, I have worked with them before and thought even with that asking for 2 of everything was a massive ask.

They stepped up with two tournament v2 keyboards, 2x wireless Lanceheads, 2x Wireless manowar headsets, 2x mouse mats, 2x base station (head phone stand and usb hub with razer chroma in base). Last but not least I got sent 2x development lighting kits for the project, feeling blessed. I will post some pictures of the stuff properly and others as they turn up. Still doing some 3d work to finalise my block cover plans, SSD cover plans ect before I post them.

So been a while, but was waiting on some new tips from dremel, some more work has been done on the engraving and this is the result, finally flowers done and onto the smoke and then one of the samurai.

Progress on from the flowers is starting to move along, more than ever

More to follow soon, and its coming out amazing, also thought I would also spill the beans on the design (subject to change of course, but gives you a rough idea of what it will look like.

Was going to leave it as a surprise, but I thought I would share what is going to happen on the image side of things.

Wow an update??? Well in truth its been a bit chilly to go out to shed and be engraving, so a nice little update on engraving now, as you know from last post we got as far as the smoke above the flowers. Well here is where we are now.

It’s been slow but I do expect it to move a bit quicker now, also had some great news on the sponsor front and have to say a massive thanks to sapphire for stepping up on this.

Feeling super blessed with these, and highly appreciated, I will add more pics of these over the coming weeks as my custom designs for waterblocks come to reality with a samurai twist.

Until the next post ;)

Awesome work!! And congrats on the sponsor. :up:

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Originally Posted by msmrx57

Awesome work!! And congrats on the sponsor. :up:

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its been going hectic, engraving is taking longer than planned, but so much stuff and already in the 10,000's of dots.

Another small little update, its been hard getting into the shed to engrave more because of the extreme weather, but its coming along and side one is getting closer to completion.

Been pretty amazing the fact that lost count at 10000 dots just on this side and that’s before the warrior was completed: O

Loving the dragons head tbh, yes this is taking a long time, but the result is so worth it.

Not much left to do on this side, also next week I can start doing the waterblock ect… so more to come sooner rather than later ;). Oh yes for the first time ever Monitor sponsorship on a build from LG amazing, will follow up with some pictures of these when I get the stuff to slightly alter them which is coming from Italy.

Looks fantastic!

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

Looks fantastic!

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thanks a whole side to go yet.

So it’s been a while since the last update guys and I am sorry about that, but having a 2 year old and cold days when work is done in a shed has put a brake on things.

The engraving is coming along very nicely and we are nearly at the end of side one here is some work.

I know it’s been taking a while but dots have gone crazy and has took a lot longer than anticipated, for example here are some close ups to show this.

As you can see there is not one line in the engraving part of the project, its all dots.

On another note let us take a look at a care package from bitspower that turned up.

Yes you can see correctly, that’s four gpu water blocks, two cpu blocks, two hex tanks, two mod kits, every fitting you could ever possibly need and a special package :P

Also I thought as the SSD’s would look out of place with something that is samurai, I thought I would make some sort of samurai armour for them, so this is the design.

I actually stacked it like armour so its flexible to curve (even though it will never need too, I just liked the idea of doing it this way) I have also used leather lace to connect them to insure they stay connect, probably going to be a pain to line up straight to stick onto the SSD’s, but hey I like it, this is also the design I am going to go with for the GPU blocks as well.

Stay tuned, I will be also adding some more pics in the coming weeks of doing the GPU blocks and moving onto over aspects of the build why engraving is going on.

Hi all sorry about delays in posting, did not get round to the GPU blocks as I need to take them apart when addressable RGB strips come in and replace the current non addressable ones.

On another note though side one of the etching has been complete and is looking like a piece of art to me. I defo think this build is going to cross over between mod and artwork.

I love this and can’t wait until this starts coming together, the theme is coming out amazing, leather is on route from Italy for monitors, some internal stuff and keyboards and mice so, looking forward to starting that. More as soon as it happens guys.

WOW!!! :bunny::banana::bunny::banana: Definitely qualifies as artwork.

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Originally Posted by msmrx57

WOW!!! :bunny::banana::bunny::banana: Definitely qualifies as artwork.

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thanks god knows why replies notifications are not working

So another small update with some pieces done for the build, the end is in sight and should be complete by end of aug so not long to go for hardware porn side of things. In this update, ill be showing you some of the right side of engraving, picture being used and memory customization.

First up from previous post you saw side one completed, side two has now started.

This will progress a lot faster than other side due to the fact the little one will be going to day nursery in a couple of weeks freeing up more time.

Onto the next part of the project, the memory, we all know its very rare to get memory to suit your build and as one side of this build is black with gold highlights and white/silver with black highlights, so I had to do this to the TeamGroup Dark kits.

Yes that is 24 sections of the heat spreaders, which funny enough were attached with 4 screws and 4 nuts each to the main heat spreaders.

Yes so in total I had to take undo 96 nuts with screws this tiny and try not to lose any, Yes it was fun and just as fun as its going to be putting them back on :p

So just gold for 8 of the sticks, and then black for the other 4 and with one side being white/silver I had to do the 4 main sections of the spreaders in white too.

I love the way these came out and suppose most of you can realise why I wanted these kits over other choices I had as the gold and black sections of spreaders, almost loosely resemble the sort of helmet decorations that samurai had.

Also why doing all this another idea cropped into my head and I done a proof print to see what you guys think of the idea, having one of the tube runs look like this.

What do you guys think of the idea, yay or no, would be making this out of acrylic though to give a clean sharper look to it.

The only other thing I did as well was this

Yes that is a razer keyboard with white leather, more to follow soon as I try to make sure it looks perfect.

Wow it’s been super-hot lately, but excitement is boiling over as we get to a stage were the etching is getting closer and closer to completed on the other side of the desk. I’ll just leave you with these pics.

I have to say as well as my wife and boy I am in love with something not human its officially gone crazy, but super stoked and pleased with how the design I made is coming out.

Also had time to play with some things and just lay down samurai armour style covers over the gpu blocks to get a feel for them, these will be cleaned and polished and put on gpu’s for all 4 cards (2 one side and two the other).

I reckon its going to look lush once done, let just get a move on and in the coming weeks I will be starting internals ect with the engraving so close to being done.

Man this is looking good! I can't wait to see it get closer to assembly time.

chears, this 100% beats the BF3 engraving that was done in bf3.3 mod. I am grinding teeth now itching to start the inner build and get cracking.

So guys and gals it’s been a while since I updated, but the exciting news is we are getting very close to the end of the engraving side and onto the building side, ill just through these pics up for you to see how close we really are.

Oh I wonder what the lines to the right are for…………………………………..

So finally getting to the end of the amazing engraving and then onto the building part.

Thats really cool!!

Back again with another update to the build, a long time coming was waiting and stalling it for some special items that a due in for the build (well 2 of them) but I thought I better put something out there to keep you all keen.

So engraving has finally finished at last, and boy is it truly an amazing piece of work do I call the build a build now or a piece of art, or artisan PC mod, god knows but I just can help staring at it. Time to put it back on top of the desk and get drilling some fill and drain ports in.

This is starting to take shape now, also one thing I decided to change was the toughened glass top, not only for practicality but also for the fact the std glass top was tinted and I did not want to dull the engraving down on the build.

I also added some extra overhang on the rear when sizing the replacement up, I wanted to ensure I had this to aid with my lighting plan for the rear of the desk and will aid in spreading light behind the monitors.

I also added a cut out to the rear of the desk were the monitor mount goes, my thought behind this is if for any reason I change something be it ram ect ect in the future, I wanted to be able to lift the glass off without going through the process of breaking down the monitors pulling the desk out and undoing the clamp on monitor mount as on the original glass it would of sat on top of it.

Finally I added a vanity panel to behind the legs and desk for cable tidying, which will enable me to only have three cables coming from the desk as the panel will allow for the power adaptor, router, network switch ect to be place in this. Which leaves only one power cable to wall socket and two network cables to the nas.

That’s all for now, as soon as the final two pieces turn up ill photograph them and get them up (although its four pieces in reality to give you a clue to what I am waiting for).

I've missed a whole lot of beautiful work.

Awesome job!

Wow!! Absolutely incredible work. It's definitely a work of art at this point.

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Originally Posted by Airbozo

I've missed a whole lot of beautiful work.

Awesome job!

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thanks

Back again guys with another small update, still waiting on a few items to turn up to get into the actual build part, but started working out layout ect, so here are some pics.

Memory is ready to go into the motherboards, have replaced logos as well to match paint job I done them with, now to put them in these two puppies

Also some other parts turned up too, firstly the fans and cables needed to complete the build.

Yes that is 12 fans, a couple of splitters and 24 extensions for the fans…. A lot I agree, but I want to run the fan cables around the sides of the desk to keep them out of site as much as possible, a big thanks to noctua for sorting these out, much appreciated. Also the rads turned up and as I wanted crossflow, well thanks to the guys at Aquatuning they did.

Simple position of getting the fans on the radiators and putting them in and we can finally see what is starting to happen.

Let’s put the SSD’s in place and glass back on to get the look I am going for as a little test.

My samurai Armour SSD’s are now in place, now the one thing I had not taken into account when planning this was the length of Sata Data cables to reach round, even 90cm ones are not long enough, so I have had to outsource so small male to male data connectors and run over 2 cables each of the on show drives. And yes I do expect I will see a slight decrease on performance on 2 each on each side as they will be using these male to male adapters.

Good news is why I was doing this, two of the other 4 items I need to get stuck in turned up to, A huge massive thanks to my contact at Gigabyte for pulling these out of a magic hat, I did not expect them and thank you.

Now just waiting for the other 2 items, the waterblocks for these to turn up and I can finally start assembly, yes there are many minor and small things to do yet. But we are finally getting near the end.

Wow it’s been a while with any update so this will be a longer than normal post.

First off the GPU blocks have arrived (eureka) so let’s take a look at them.

Overall I like the design of these BP-VG2080RD-A2 blocks and they are also very heavy.

One thing I did like about this design is the use of the extra support for block on the back bracket

A nice small addition to help with the support of the heavy block, now shall we see how they look in place with the covers.

To be honest I was now at an small stall, waiting for a few more things to turn up so I thought I would figure out a cunning plan to hide the cables coming out of the PSU, despite them being mostly hidden by the top anyway. Also something to aid in my plan of having green gpu cables both sides to represent bamboo and tie in with the Japanese/samurai theme of it all.

So being me, I ordered to self-construct type Japanese houses and 2 watch towers for this sort of placement, thus hiding the psu output cables and guiding the green cables to the gpus, of course I will be painting them to match the colour schemes of each side.

Wanted to hide these cables specifically with the houses.

After doing this and despite knowing the houses won’t be hardly visible with top back on, I still wanted to spruce them up a bit… but first let me show you how this looks in

I know some people won’t like this idea, but I love it and it ties in with the theme, and wanted them to match the theme, translation of writing is dragon clan, then tiger clan on the matching sides to match the engraving. And know I won’t ever do stencils this small again and then hand paint them on (more on that later in post). The most shocking part of this stage is working out how to hide nearly 38 meters of cables and lighting in the desk :O.

On another note, I also decided to mod one of the bitspower hex tanks, the one for the black and gold side already had a black dragon on it (bitspower logo) I decided for the tiger side of the build I would try to make something not like bitspower logo, but very similar with tiger logo. I made this with vinyl.

It should match the general theme of one side of engraving being a tiger and samurai and one side being a dragon and samurai.

Now I did warn this was going to be a long post, so I’ll start by mentioning I am now lucky enough to be permanently sponsored now going forward by airbrushes.com on this a future builds (wish it would of arrived before I done the houses :p and hence my comment of I will not be hand painting ever again and can get back to airbrushing stuff again.

Hopefully I get the rest of the stuff soon to finish this massive project, on a plus note I don’t have to hand paint my planned stuff on the vanity cover on the bottom of the desk now this has arrived J

Mod notes to do list, fittings for gpu blocks to connect to each other to do, painting of vanity panel, tidying of the cables and extensions to go in and make acrylic covers for cable tidying inside the desk, fill and get air out of the loops, then sit and install windows on both machines and check for any conflicts or issues.. then book time to do photos and video of this epic piece.

So just another small little update, remember this.

This is the vanity panel I made to hide the power strip, switch ect under the desk, of course I decided to airbrush this too and tie it in with the inside.

I used a samurai quote in this which is used to describe two samurai warriors working as one.

Translation is “Different body, same mind.” Which for us westerners means Harmony of mind between two people. While I am here, I should also translate the writing on the houses for you, the lower roof on the house on black side says Dragon clan and on the white roof says Tiger clan. On the side of both the houses the translation is honor and truth.

Any way guys stay tuned as more of the small stuff is done before the big reveal

Whoa this is looking awesome, keep up the great work!

So I know its been a long while but I am finished now, here is a quick glimpse of completed build before I do final photos and video

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net...25&oe=5D9BCCE8

Wow! Looking forward to the video. Fantastic work as usual!

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

Wow! Looking forward to the video. Fantastic work as usual!

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Been a long one 100%

At last we got there in the end, it was a long process but I am so happy with how this mod/art piece came out, there were a lot of choices to make and I am amazed with the end result, it truly is a one off piece, some ups and downs during the build but got there in the end, enjoy the pics and the videos guys.

I Love it, but just when you think I already posted too many pictures, here are some different lighting modes for you of course with the rainbow unicorn too :P

And to finish it off, here are some videos for you to watch, first up is the video of how the engraving was done by my wife.

https://youtu.be/7UZRzaHWM8I

Second the Desk in normal mode

https://youtu.be/LSxtzPjWqEU

Last but not least Desk in unicorn mode ;)

https://youtu.be/o7uMx_bOavs

One massive journey (and desk :P) but we got there in the end and I love my new art piece in my home, special thanks to the sponsors involved and also my wife for the engraving.

That really came out wonderful! Amazing details.

And you gotta love Unicorn mode! :D

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

That really came out wonderful! Amazing details.

And you gotta love Unicorn mode! :D

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Not personally but it does show off some coloring in the system, I suppose my favorite part of rgb is you can select the color you want for each piece.

That came out sick!

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Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA

That came out sick!

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Thanks bud wait until you see what's coming next