Magnum Opus

[blueonblack]

This is the evolution of my previous project, Black Cherry. If you read that worklog you know that I made the mistake of building it all atop the PSU without any consideration for access or ease of replacement, and the PSU died a silent death sometime during construction.

After I tore its guts out to get to the faulty PSU I was so disgusted that what I had done went on a shelf for a few months.

I've decided to do it again, this time more thoroughly, and changed its name to Magnum Opus, kind of a challenge to myself, as this will be my last PC mod.

While I'm not keeping a proper worklog I'll share some in-progress pics along the way.

Phase 1 is the motherboard. I'm using the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 for this piece, and since it will be completely exposed by design I had to dress it up a little.

After removing the armor, I painted it with Wicked Colors Jet Black airbrush paint, then masked off most of the motherboard and painted a few key areas the same and finished up the paint with the mounting bracket, studs and thumb nuts for the EK Supremacy MX block.

The top of the I/O area, the custom top for the water block, and the nameplate are all made from polished .025 copper sheet.

Only one more thing to do here and Phase 1 is complete. I've got something special in mind for those slot covers.

[OvRiDe]

Well .. AWESOME! Looking forward to seeing the progress. Good to see you at it again.

[blueonblack]

Well .. AWESOME! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Thanks very much. Updates should some along fairly regularly, progress is being made more steadily than I had hoped.

Good to see you at it again.

One last time my friend. TBCS started me on this road years ago, I wasn't about to finish without sharing the last one.

[TheMainMan]

So glad this is getting finished! I loved the way Black Cherry looked and I'm really excited to see what you've got in store for this one!

[blueonblack]

I loved the way Black Cherry looked and I'm really excited to see what you've got in store for this one!

Thanks! I made a new base for it with some acrylic inlay on the side but other than that it's the same case so it will look very similar. Aside from the motherboard, the biggest difference will be the wiring and the plumbing. If everything goes *exactly* according to plan (and it always does, right?) I'll have this thing powered up on the morning of 3/15.