Project Sputnik by S.PiC

[SPiC]

Good Day, Friends!

 

I am very glad to participate in the contest once again...

 

How it all started…
All my projects were created for the CMWS competition. And this project was no exception!
I first got into modding when I was invited to participate in the Cooler Master Case Mod World Series (CMWS) 2016 competition. Since then, I have prepared my projects every year specifically for this competition, and in 2017 I even managed to take 1st place with my VEGA project.

 

 

As a child, all the boys wanted to become astronauts, and I was no exception. I've always been fascinated by science fiction novels about space exploration, space travel, robots, spacecraft and distant galaxies. It was inevitable that this influence would find its way into my mods at some point.

 

 

The first sketches of this Sputnik-inspired PC began to appear a couple of years ago. At that time, I had no experience working with aluminum and decided to start with a simpler project to avoid expensive mistakes.
 

Once the old pencil sketches of the Sputnik project were retrieved, and the project started afresh. Looking at these sketches now, I see how little the finished project has in common with those first drawings. The layout and frame were redesigned several times, and the perforations that are a crucial part of the overall design have changed a huge number of times.

 

 

But again we return to space!) The Sputnik project is a reference to The first synthetic satellite of the Earth.

 

 

All stages of design and manufacturing was strictly controlled by the head of CATControl!

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SPiC

[SPiC]

When I was sure that the project was viable, I turned to some sponsors for help. ASRock Taiwan and TeamGroup responded to my request. The folks from ASRock provided the ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITX/AC motherboard and the ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX590 8GB OC graphics card for the project. TeamGroup also provided a 2x8GB kit of its Delta RGB 3000MHz RAM as well as two 250GB Delta RGB SATA SSDs. As this was a simple, balanced gaming PC build, it was decided to buy an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, as it’s sufficient for most games and is affordable. It’s an easy upgrade if a more powerful processor is later needed as well.

 

After receiving the components, I started fitting and refined some details of the project. For example, a new mounting plate for the SSDs was designed that helped show off their RGB lighting and hide their cabling. Side covers were also made with special air intake wings, which are not only decorative details, but also give rigidity to the side covers.

 

Despite carefully designing everything digitally and getting the parts precision laser cut, some errors were introduced during the bending and assembly. As such, the design of these side covers had to be tweaked to get the gaps around them nice and even.

ASRock x470 itx/ac motherboard provided by ASRock Taiwan

 

 

ASRock Radeon rx590 8gb OC video card provided by ASRock Taiwan

 

 

DDR4 memory T-FORCE Delta RGB 3000Mhz 2x8Gb provided by TEAMGROUP

 

 

Two SATA SSD Delta RGB 250Gb are provided by TEAMGROUP

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SPiC

[SPiC]

After a long time of development, the drawings were sent for laser cutting. I arranged with the guys to shoot the cutting process.

 

 

The time took about 4 hours, during which time the battery on the camera ran out.
 

 

 

 

Here's the backstage photo!)

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SPiC

[SPiC]

The cut turned out to be quite good, but the guys who work with laser cutting more often than me said that it could be even better!

 

 

Remove scale, remove burrs and Polish the aluminium..

 

 

Do not forget to take photos!)

 

 

And spend time with family!)

 

[SPiC]

I bent metal myself. If you want to do something well, do it yourself!)

 

 

 

[SPiC]

Sputnik project is based on rivets.

 

 

So let's start building from small to large...

 

 

[SPiC]

First fitting of components...

 

 

 

 

[SPiC]

More components:

 

 

RAM with RGB illumination. Built-in Force Flow RGB backlight effect. All lighting can be controlled via special T-FORCE BLITZ software. Power is taken directly from the slot. Radiators are not low profile, so choose the cooling of the processor with this in mind.

 

 

T-Force Delta RGB solid-state drives look very stylish even without backlighting. They have a separate connector for connecting the backlight via a special cable that is included.

 

 

 

For the project, I bought a Ryzen 5 2600. The processor is sufficient for most games and was inexpensive. In the future, you can update the new line on Ryzen.

 

[SPiC]

To install SATA SSD, a special platform was made that masks the cables that are connected to the drives.

 

 

There was enough space inside for a 240mm cooler with two fans that would pull air from the outside of the case and blow it through the radiator and onto the graphics card's backplate, giving it a little additional cooling (the graphics card has two fans of its own that pull cool air through the holes in another side panel and vent it into the case). The extra airflow also helps cool the RAM and VRM area of the motherboard. The large cooler will also allow me to install a more powerful processor in the future. Being able to vertically mount the case also helps with cooling, as the hot air can easily flow up and out the perforations in the top/front of the case.

 

The case is designed for installing a 240mm liquid cooling system on the CPU via a special mount

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SPiC

[SPiC]

An important factor in the design of this case was keeping it small. After all, Sputnik itself was very small and creating the triangular, rotationally-symmetrical and long-legged design I was hoping for would have made the case huge, with anything other than mini-ITX hardware inside.

 

 

As is ever the case, though, mini-ITX cases can be challenging when it comes to cooling, due to the limited internal air space. And this applied double as there’s no room for any extra case fans in this project. As such, I had to think carefully about where and how to position components.

 

 

The ATX power supply, which was left over from a previous project, was installed across the case, taking cold air from the bottom and pushing hot air out through perforations on the side of the case. The mains power input is then redirected from the back of the PSU to the back of the case.

 

The motherboard sits behind the PSU, with the graphics card mounted at an angle above it, using a PCI-E extension cable. This left a very limited space for a CPU cooler, which meant a water-cooling system was going to be required. However, I couldn’t use a fancy hard-line loop, and even conventional flexible tubing would have been a risk, as the panel with the radiator has to be removed to gain access to the inside of the case. Instead, an all-in-one liquid cooler was used.

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SPiC