Enermax Ostrog - CES build

[BS Mods]

Finished up with the paint. I will still be sanding a few little specks of dirt and a couple bugs out of my clear. But it's looking pretty good.

I was able to knock most of the hard tape lines down and then plastered everything with a ton of clear coat to help hide the edges.

Speaking of bugs, this little bastard decided to jump on my second coat and wiggle through it before flipping over and croaking. You can see his trail of where he crawled. It's ok. Let it dry and it will buff right off.

PSU shell in clear..

The top piece finished. I added some white highlights here and there so it's more than just a bunch of stripes.

This pic shows the reason why I blended the red back into the stripes in this area. I thought it might look odd if the lines ran all the way through the lettering so I faded it out so the name would pop.

And after 3 good coats of clear...

You might think the name is not centered but it will be when the case is reassembled.

I also did the same thing for the front bezel.

It will sit all night and then it's ready for handling.

[SXRguyinMA]

this is coming along nicely

[Scottie Daddy]

Quick and cheap, permanent marker would hide wire color before you paracord

Looking good!

[BS Mods]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm slammed doing mods and I do have a day job...


I brought the white lines in a little closer to the logo's. They seemed a little too far away. It was a lot of extra air brushing but I like the way it came out better.

Here is a pic of it assembled with fresh clear coat.

I'm working on hardware install right now and should have another update soon.

[Rodrigo Vicentini]

Nice paint dude =D

[BS Mods]

Thanks Rodrigo-


I've been very busy so here is an update finally.


I'm using white Enermax fans to keep the red and white theme going. Plus, they're great fans.

Gigabyte was kind enough to step up and sponsor the build with a 990-FXA - UD5. THey are really great about supporting the gaming and modding community so please support them as well!


ADATA provided some RAM - 16 Gb AND a XPG SSD - 256 !!!!! Thank you so much to them as well. If you haven't paid attention to ADATA you might want to start. Especially right around CES (hint hint)

AMD has provided the dual 7950 GPU's. They are totally awesome obviously.

I'm spending quite a bit of extra time with fine details on this build especially since it will be seen by thousands real soon at CES.


The front grille looks good when I out it back in but this case needs something with a little more flair...

So, using some white 1/2" acrylic I cut a piece to fit where the grille goes.. I polished it up really good on all sides.

That took a lot of time and fine tuning.

I bought a NZXT pre-wired led 2 meter strand and stripped the sleeve off of it to expose just the wires and led's.

Drilled some holes through the back..

Then I glued the led's into the holes spacing them evenly. Hooked up the juice and gave it a test run.

That should work!

Now I'm back to wire management, and I'll be making a piece for the back of that front bezel to hide the wires to the led's and stuff.


More coming soon.

[BS Mods]

I wrapped up the whole build now. It looks fantastic and I am super proud of how clean it is. This will be a great piece to show off for them at CES. It will definitely get some attention.

Here are some more progress shots....

I am using the factory psu cables for anything that is modular. I would normally sleeve everything but these are the nice black wires and they look really clean and nice. The only thing I didn't like was the length of wire in between the 2 connectors for the gpu's. You can see in this pic that I shortened one already and the one I'm holding is the stock length one.

Shortened them up and they look much better.

Here's a shot of my 24 pin I sleeved with red paracord.

The inside of the front panel was looking pretty crusty from adding all the lighting and stuff so I came up with a way to dress it up. I grabbed some of my perforated aluminum sheeting and cut a piece that I could wedge in. I cut around the mounting tabs.

So once I snap the front panel back on this gives you an idea what I am up to. There will be no optical drives so this is one very empty rig. Dressing this up will make it look so much nicer.

Painted white and now it's time to button it up...

Ahhh so much nicer.

So I thought I was done and was so proud of myself. I set it all up to get some great photo's of it. Took some pics with it off, then powered it up and took some more pics, then hit the button for the lights on the front and........... nothing...... absolutely nothing!

Remember on the movie where Clark Griswold gathers his family in the front yard to turn on the lights he was so proud of that took several days to do, and then nothing happened. SO he had a meltdown.? Replace Griswold with me and you'll get the picture.

First thought.... Aww man a wire came unplugged...
Nope

Second thought.... I pinched a wire somewhere while tucking it so tight that they'll never show...
Nope

Third thought.... The metal piece I made for the front cut into a wire...
Nope

W T F man!

I unscrewed the controller and looked at it and it seemed fine. I then plugged it in to power outside the case and the lights came on perfectly. So I thought it was just a freak thing that might have happened and I re-installed it. And..... again..... no lights.!!!!

Again.. W T F man!!

I jiggled the wires ... jiggled connectors.... etc. and still nothing.

I unscrewed the controller and pulled it out of the slot and.... lights on!!!

So now really WTF!!

As soon as I touch the controller bracket to metal... lights out...
So it's obviously a short. But where???? Bad controller??? PCB cracked??? Nope.

Hmmm

It all looks ok right??

No cracks and I can follow the path of the power and it looks fine but... hhhmmmm

Insert every filthy dirty word you've ever heard and a couple more and you will understand my frustration...

The sharp edge of the bracket cut through the paint and into the power leg. So when I touched it to a ground. bzzzzttt. Lights out!

3 hours.... gone... never getting them back...3 hours.

:cry:


Final pics coming soon.

[Stonerboy779]

Damn that's tough....

Looking good though, any chance of getting some more defraction? Sanding the tops of the LEDs flat helps a bit and sanding some more of the strip too.

[BS Mods]

Damn that's tough....

Looking good though, any chance of getting some more defraction? Sanding the tops of the LEDs flat helps a bit and sanding some more of the strip too.

I experimented with the placement of the lights. I originally was going to make it so the lighting was solid all the way around. But after looking at the 2 different ways I decided to go with this version instead. I had several people's opinions and they all concluded the same thing too. \

I really wanted to use an led strip that I could use to change colors but then I don't think any other color but white would look good so it would have been a waste. If it were a black case or all white then it would work though.

[BS Mods]

All back together and finished up now. I still need to throw a coat of wax on the paint but that's it.

I'm pretty happy with how it all came out. It's nice and clean, really bright, and will definitely get noticed anywhere it goes.


So here are some final pics -

Thanks for watching the build.