CM/CM 2020 Cobalt Weald

[Jonathan Trotter]

Hey, people. First, I just want to say thanks for taking a look at this worklog. I'm new to this competition as this will be my first year competing, but I do have a reasonable amount of experience as a boutique builder. Because of this, I believe, first and foremost, a system must be easy to work with and function focused. I like to make things that look good and work well too. Aesthetically, material choice and finish quality are very important to me. 

 

 

CM 2020 Cobalt Weald (aka Smurf's Got Wood) 

 

This mod is based on the greatest game to have ever existed. You all know which game I'm talking about.

Obviously, it's Lumber Tycoon 2. https://media4.giphy.com/media/MqxZxTlvcY5BS/200.gif

 

Case: Cooler Master NR600

Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850w

CPU: I suppose

Motherboard: See "CPU:"

RAM: You Betcha 

Graphics Card: GTX 1080

Fans: I would assume between 0 and 97 included

Water-cooling gear: Assorted Alpha cool, Barrow, Hardware labs, Magicool, and EKWB gear.

Materials: Maple, Aluminum, MDPC-X cable sleeve, other junk and such.

 

Sponsors: 

RAID Shadow Legends - they said no

Norton Antivirus - gave me a virus, my computer got one too

Raycon Earbuds - Apparently you need at least 2 youtube subscribers

My Wallet - the real MVP. Gave 110% but now it's done. It's got nothing left. 

 

Unfortunately, I will not be able to really update progress for several weeks as I am in the middle of a move. I am also extremely limited on my usual tools for this mod and that won't really improve until after I'm mostly done with it. It's forced me to be extremely careful about everything. I will update with some pictures soon once I have taken all of my measurements and then nailed down all the components. There are a lot of things that I plan to do with this mod that I really want to talk about but I will hold back. Enjoy more soon.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonathan Trotter]

Unfortunately, I will not be able to complete this mod on time for submission to 2020's competition. I will complete the build log so maybe I can enter it into CM CM WS 2021. I have run into issue after issue with procurement of materials, damaged components, tools that randomly stop working, and a couple of dumb mistakes on my part.  I mean, if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. At this point, all I can do is throw my hands up, laugh at my bad luck, and learn for next time.

 

Here is the complete parts list:

 

Case: Cooler Master NR600

Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850w

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x with Alphacool Nexxxos CPU block

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming with an awesome custom armor created by S-Ranked Design(https://s-ranked.com/)  

RAM: Corsair LPX 16GB (2X8GB) 3600 CL18 with Freezemod RAM heatsinks 

Graphics Card: GTX 1080 Reference with Alphacool Nexxxos M01 GPU Block

SSD: 512GB SSD of Unknown Brand (I replaced the housing years ago, forgot I even had it, and found it again recently)

Fans: Lian Li Bora Lite

Water-cooling gear: Alphacool: Radiator, Blocks, DDC Pump w/top.

                                  EKWB: Radiator, FLT 240 Reservoir

                                  Barrow: Fittings

Materials: Curly Maple, Aluminum, MDPC-X cable sleeve, Keda Wood Dye(https://www.kedadyeinc.com/), Verathane Wood Stain and Gel Wood Stain in Weathered Gray, Silver Pearl Mid-coat mix from Sherwin Williams Auto. 

 

 

The original hardware labs L-series radiator was replaced after I took measurements and decided I wanted the extra 3mm that the EK Classic SE offered. The Magicool 240 I had planned to use seems to have had one of the tubes damaged in transit. It has been replaced by an Alphacool Nexxxos ST30 240.

 

 

The whole look of this build is meant to stay true to the original case but add in these nice materials. The inner maple pieces are first dyed blue and then stained gray. the outer pieces are stained gray, then dyed blue, and lightly coated with the pearl midcoat. Then each are finished in a satin clear coat. 

 

I have also added in a cable management approach I'm working on that will be a standard part of every case mod or scratch build I do from now on. This one is just a proof of concept for me and I definitely did not implement it as neatly or effectively as I would have preferred but now I know how to do it right.