[Scratch Build] Project Black and White - Finished

[Dobrinhrkr]

Few months ago I've decided to build a new project from scratch.

It will be a small, stylish and theme based project for a small case/stand based on mini ITX motherboard with as few as possible peripheral devices.

The scratch build will offer a balance between stylish and futuristic design mixed with good looking white light and cooled by only one fan.

Before I start let's check the hardware that will be used in the mod;

The parts that will be used in this build are:

1. Motherboard - Elitegroup CDC-i

2. SSD - ADATA SP800 2,5" SATA 2 SSD

3. Memory - ADATA 8GB KIT 2x4GB DDR3 1600

4. Cooler Master Excalibur

5. Pico PSU

6. 60W power adapter

The full worklog was announced here: http://forum.coolermaster.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15666 and at this topic I will post only major pictures from the updates.

Enjoy

[Dobrinhrkr]

The mod started without any specific idea or scheme and was all in my mind. I was developing the idea in the process.

So let's get started:

First cuts of the first platform:

Sanding the first platform:

First platform got some shape:

[Dobrinhrkr]

At April, just few days after I started the mod we had 4 days off from work in Bulgaria and I went back to my home town where I have a workshop and did those parts:

Except the plastic, I was thinking to use aluminium or stainless steel plates but after all, the choice was aluminium.

Cutting process:

The first few aluminium parts were ready:

After that I've decided to assemble them with the plastic panel and do some sanding:

And of course mount them together:

So I made the aluminium parts for the next layer which you can see here:

This is the first picture with more than one parts together:

[Dobrinhrkr]

Ok I had the aluminium plates for the second layer so I had to cut the plastic part too:

Before I started sanding the plastic, I've decided to drill and attach the aluminium plates, so they can be my guide while sanding.

After I spent some time sanding the 3 parts together they looked like that:

I was so excited so I've decided to test how they will perform with lights:

Later I added the first layer just to test the lights on both parts together:

[Dobrinhrkr]

Ok... one more piece of the puzzle to be created

Back in time I had some free time and I've decided to make the second plate, which will be the base for SSD and CCL invertors.

After I finished cutting and started sanding, an urgent job popped up so I will finish it other time.

Before I continue with the project I want to show what parts I got so far:

1. The cold cathodes from Revoltec

2. The power and reset buttons:

I cutted the second acrylic plate and I had to do some sanding and make the aluminium plates for it:

I did those plates and I've decided to do some sanding on that acrylic plate. After 20 mins if sanding and my father watching me he decided to help with some serious machine sanding. After 2 mins the plate was complete and my ego was ruined:

All parts so far:

Next step was drilling the holes to mount the acrylic and the aluminium plates together:

After those parts were mounted together I had to do again some small polishing to make them fit perfect:

The last step for that day was to drill the holes for the buttons:

[Dobrinhrkr]

Next stage of the worklog is about first assemble of some parts together.

After I drilled the holes for the buttons it was about time to assemble those main parts to see what they look like.

After all parts were together, I decided to make the holes for the bolts bigger and increased their size from 3mm to 4mm.

At the beginning of the project I was thinking to make it like 4 parts with some standoffs between those plates, unfortunately the regular long nuts with inner diameter 4mm were only 15mm long and that wasn't enough. For that reason my father took a new big and noisy machine and we had to cut some 27mm pieces from stainless steel:

At the beginning we cut only 6 pieces at size 27mm and polished them with a drilling machine and sanding disc so I can mount those parts together:

To be able to assemble both parts together I had to cut long bolts into different size smaller bolts and attach them with round nuts.

After I had the first bolts and tubes ready I assembled the first parts together:

Since the drilled holes in both plexi parts were more, my father cut a few more stainless steel tubes at 27mm and I prepared the bolts plus polished the tubes.

After all the mounting parts were ready we installed the third main part of the project and all together they look like that:

After all parts were together I had to install the plexi feet that I had bought a few days before.

All parts were mounted together and the project looks like that:

[Dobrinhrkr]

Next stage of the build was the lights...

Since the total thickness of plexi plus the two aluminum plates was 7 mm and the LED strip is 8 mm, I concluded that I should install the lights inside the plexi.

Once I finished the first part I did the same with the second platform on which the motherboard is mounted. Once it was assembled, it looked like this:

Of course, I had to see how it looks assembled:

"Fear of the dark"

[Dobrinhrkr]

While I was waiting for the motherboard to come, so I can make the fourth part of the project, I decided to work on the cables that I’m going to need.

The first one I’m going to use is for powering the LED stripes. I needed to modify something, of course:

The cable is meant for powering and regulating 3 fans but I cut out the regulating cable and modified it as a fourth power one:

I had to apply some sanding the connectors:

And then came the best part – sleeving:

I had a SATA cable as well, so I sleeved it too:

After finishing the cables, I took some pictures of the whole structure put together:

I had the buttons too, so I decided to make the cables connecting the motherboard to the turn on and restart buttons.

And assembled:

When I come to the final assembling, I will put heatshrink on the buttons and finish them.

[Dobrinhrkr]

Back in time there was one big update in which I've build the 4th layer, unfortunately it was completely rebuild few weeks later.

After a few weeks’ wait, the motherboard kindly given to me finally arrived! I had planned to use the CDC-TI at the beginning but I assume it is not yet available, so sent me a CDC-I. The two boards have completely different structures; however I will accept this as a challenge and am going to use this one.

The motherboard itself looks like this:

The first model I had chosen was powered directly by an adaptor but this one uses power supply, so I decided to use PICO PSU

This is the mod with mounted motherboard. Of course, this is just done for the test.

[Dobrinhrkr]

I had a free day in July and the chance to go back to my hometown and use the workshop and I’ve decided to work on finishing the last part of the mod and install the motherboard and the cooling fan.

The workday started with disassembling the last part and install the 6 leds strip inside the acrylic. This time I had a machine to do the channel for the leds strip, the cable and the connector.

After 5 mins of cutting the part was ready and I started to do some measuring to install the fan. After more than hour and a half I had all holes drilled on both of the aluminium plates and later on the plexi part. First the holes were smaller but later I’ve decide to make them bigger so there are no bad noises.

And here is the moment when I found that the motherboard sent to me(made a mistake and sent me ECS CDC-I instead of CDC-TI) will give me some troubles. And unfortunately they popped up. After I installed the motherboard on the standoffs I saw that the pico PSU will stand just in front of the case. Except that there was no space to install the Cooler Master Excalibur fan which was sponsored by Cooler Master. For that reason I had to rebuild the mod and find a suitable position for the motherboard and for the fan. That took me some hours but I was able to see the result after I got back at home and the result was:

And all parts assembled:

After all was assembled I was so eager to find out how the lights will work: