[Project log] Project Dark Knightmare

[bmawn]

Hello! My name is Oskar, I'm 21 years old and I currently live alone in a small apartment in Sweden. This project will mark my second custom build, and I can't say how excited I am to share this journey with you. Last year I started planning my first ever custom loop, which then evolved into something else entirely and in the end it resulted in a pretty cool project which ended up getting the name "White Dream". The gallery recently hit 11000 views which is far more than I expected it to reach. With some newfound confidence I am now looking to improve from previous experiences and I've taken all critisism positive and negative with me to learn how to make a build like this better.

Anyways, that was a short presentation about me. Now lets talk about my next project. With influences from one of our most iconic superheroes of all time, who also happens to have his 75th anniversary this year, I am looking to create an interesting piece with a couple of nice details to honor the caped crusader himself, more popularily known as Batman.
With darker colours, mostly black with some influences of grey I will do my best to make this build as clean as possible.
The case used in this build is a Hex Gear R40 with black accent packs, I will also repaint or anodize the silver coloured aluminum profiles black.
As this build progresses, I am also looking to improve my photography knowledge, including learning photoshop. Hopefully both you guys and me will be able to see some improvement looking at the first pictures I post here compared to the ones I will conclude the build with.
For those interested, I will be using a Canon EOS 70D housing with a Canon EF24-105mm objective. I appreciate every single bit of critisism, without it I will not improve at my craft.

A list of the hardware used in the build can be seen below:
EVGA X99 Micro Socket 2011-3
Intel Core i7 5820K
EVGA GTX980Ti SC+
Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4 16GB
Corsair HX850i
Samsung EVO 850 250GB
WD Green 1TB
Cooling:
Coming soon...

 

[bmawn]

*Reserved for end pics*

 

[DBRichard]

*Reserved for end pics*

You don't have to reserve a post, you could edit the first post and add the photo's on the bottom instead or otherwise link to the post with the finished photo's in it

 

[bmawn]

You don't have to reserve a post, you could edit the first post and add the photo's on the bottom instead or otherwise link to the post with the finished photo's in it

Thanks for the tip and I am sorry if I broke a rule. This is the way I prefer to do it in my logs, I can change it is not allowed!
If it is I will keep it. Thank you for the tip though

 

[bmawn]

​

Hi everyone, I hope you had a pleasant week.
As this build progresses, I am looking to improve my photography knowledge, including learning photoshop on a deeper level. Hopefully both you guys and me will be able to see some improvement looking at the first pictures I post here compared to the ones I will conclude the build with.


For those interested, I will be using a Canon EOS 70D housing with a Canon EF24-105mm objective, for editing I will use Adobe Photoshop CS6. I appreciate every single bit of critisism, without it I will not improve at my craft.


For todays update I've been polishing my photography skills by taking some pictures in raw format and then editing them in photoshop to get my own touch to them.
If they take too long to load or if they look like crap please tell me. Otherwise just enjoy the pics:

​

I had to resize my pictures to fit the forum, if you want to see the pictures in full resolution please follow this link to the imgur gallery: http://imgur.com/gallery/M2Jmy

Last night and some time today I've also put a lot of time into learning how to create my own logo in photoshop which I did. It is called "BY BMAWN", a short and clean logo which I made to be used as a watermark in my photos and to give my banners and posts an identity true to my goals and personality.
So in the future you will notice that I have added the logo in all my photos and if you have any suggestions or opinions they are very welcome because they will help me improve!
Here is the logo by its own:

It will probably be a while until next update by then I will hopefully have some hardware pictures to upload for you!
See you then

 

[DBRichard]

Thanks for the tip and I am sorry if I broke a rule. This is the way I prefer to do it in my logs, I can change it is not allowed!
If it is I will keep it. Thank you for the tip though

No you didn't violate any rules, no worries

Nice photo's, really like the R40 case with the full black look

 

[bmawn]

No you didn't violate any rules, no worries

Nice photo's, really like the R40 case with the full black look

Alright good.
Thanks a lot! The goal is to make it look even meaner when I'm done.

 

[DeStuiterbal]

That is one damn expensive case! However, it looks great Keep up the good work.

 

[tijgervarken]

Nice case, looks great in all black. Yet with the photo's, some of them looks like there is dust om everything. Will see what you make out of it

 

[bmawn]

That is one damn expensive case! However, it looks great Keep up the good work.

Yeah it is haha. Worth every cent though. Will be painful modding this case considering it cost me so much. But it will be worth it!

Nice case, looks great in all black. Yet with the photo's, some of them looks like there is dust om everything. Will see what you make out of it

Yeah I didn't have any cans of pressurized air left so I left it as is for these photos. Everything will be cleaned thoroughly as soon as I disassemble the rig!
Thanks though!

 

[bmawn]

Hello people! Cincerely hope that you had a nice week.
Yesterday I recieved a package from Mayhems, see pictures below:

The clarity of glass is way higher than say, acrylic or PETG, so hopefully this will bring out the best of the Aurora fluid that I will be using.

In the package there were two bottles of Mayhems Pastel Black concentrate, one bottle of Mayhems Aurora 2 Silver concentrate and last but not least three 500mm long tubes of Mayhems brand new very own glass tubing. Can't stress how excited I am to try out glass tubing in this build and I can't thank the guys at Mayhems enough for these products.
The package from highflow and my fittings will most likely arrive monday or tuesday at the latest, so this week will be hectic with a lot of building and updates (hopefully).
So updates will start raining in this coming week,so please feel free to follow the thread
Thats all from me today, have a pleasant weekend.

 

[Ubbidude]

Neat, im wondering how you will cut the glass pipe to size and bend it

 

[bmawn]

Neat, im wondering how you will cut the glass pipe to size and bend it

Indeed! No bends in this build, will be using mostly 90-deg fittings. These pipes can't be bent in the same way as PETG or acrylic, if you want these pipes with bends you have to order them with your specifications form Mayhems and they'll fix it for you.
As for cutting, I will be using a scorer to score the tubing then just snap them off, as demonstrated in this video:

 

[Ubbidude]

Aah nice, cant wait for the end result :023:

 

[bmawn]

Aah nice, cant wait for the end result :023:

Thanks man, neither can I!

 

[bmawn]

Small update: fittings got stuck in swedish customs, but it should be resolved quickly. If all goes well I should have them by the end of the week!
Hope you had a nice weekend

 

[bmawn]

Nice to see some activity here! The glass cutting is still being sorted out as of how I will do it, but you can cut the tubes in a number of ways, one is explained my mayhems in their video which can be found here:

Today I finally recieved my fittings after spending one week at swedish customs. So with that said I will most likely be able to start this build up this coming weekend!
I snapped some quick pictures of what will be used in the build and also something else entirely which will make my gaming rig one step closer to being complete. An ASUS Rog Swift PG279Q. Been gaming on this since I came home and man oh man is it a good monitor. The IPS panel looks way better than the TN panel on the PG278Q. Haven't managed to get the 165Hz refresh rate working but I'll get there eventually. Last work day of the week tomorrow and I will probably start moving stuff over to my parents house to prepare for building, but tomorrow night me and some friends are going to see the new bond movie, Spectre.
Updates will come more frequently now hopefully, and I'll also set up a better environment for taking pictures.
Until next update I hope you'll have a great halloween!

​

Also, a full list of the watercooling parts:
Mayhems glass tubing 12MM
Mayhems Black Pastel concentrate
Mayhems Aurora 2 concentrate
Hardwarelabs Black Ice Nemesis Radiator GTS 240
Hardwarelabs Black Ice Nemesis Radiator GTS 360
Aquacomputer Aquatube Black
Bitspower CPU Block Summit EF True Black Version
Alphacool VPP655 - Single (D5 pump)
Bitspower D5 MOD TOP - Black "S" Model
Bitspower D5 MOD KIT - Black
Fractal Design Venturi HP-12 x5
Barrow fittings

Note: I also bought a NZXT GRID+ to control all of the fans. I've used the regular NZXT GRID fan hub before, so I figured I would give the GRID+ a try. This will help me keep the motherboard clean from all of the fan cabling. Everything will be sleeved.

 

[bmawn]

Hello everyone, I cincerely hope that you've had a great week!
Before you keep on reading I'll just quickly say that this will be a text only update, since I've disassembled my main rig. Tomorrow (friday) or during the weekend I should be able to get set up with photoshop and other tools to be able to get some better content uploaded as well using my dads workstation, this update is being written on a slow laptop.

Anyways, my week has been really hecic, starting sunday with packing stuff to bring to my parents home, couldn't move the stuff monday so I did it tuesday. Finally came home very late so I only had time to get set up in the workshop. Wednesday and thursday (today) though I got a lot of stuff done on the build. More on that when I can post an update with pics (probably tomorrow).

I know I said that updates would be more frequent as soon as I started building but I just haven't been able to get time off to write here on the forum.
So yeah, I'm sorry for not keeping my word. I will try my best to make it up to you!
So for all of you who doesn't go clubbing fridays, expect a more content filled update tomorrow night.

Just felt I needed to update the log. If you are really curious as of what is happening as I do it, follow my facebook page. I upload content there as soon as I work on the project.

 

[bmawn]

Alright, hello again.
I've managed to get some time to get set up and edit here in the "workshop". So this update I'll show you a bit of what I've been up to these last few days, I'll talk about the next steps after I explain what I did.
As mentioned earlier I've disassembled the rig, tried out the custom cables I recieved from Icemodz (they worked ). Efter doing this I was able to get started on the various "case mods" that I had planned.
Test mounting the radiators I found out the 'murica screws used with Hardwarelabs radiators didn't fit the brackets in the R40 so I had to do some filing but it fits fine now.
Originally I had not planned to repaint the radiators, but inspecting them I made the decision the original paint finish just wouldn't fit the build. So tonight/tomorrow I will repaint them using a new technique I think will look unique and awesome, more on this when I have some results.
I've also drilled the holes for the pump bracket which can be seen among these pictures. The hex gear R40 comes with an aluminum piece/plate which is intented for these kinds of "mods". It was very easy to work with, although I am very far from an expert working with metal I think I managed to get it done pretty well. The mounting plate will be repainted so it fits with the radiators.
Anyways, enough talking. I need to get to work testing the pump and painting radiators and plate.
Here are some pics:

NSFW below :3

Obligatory GPU close-up.

The bitspower summit EF CPU block.

I used a M3 tap to tap the holes for the pump bracket. Screws fit like a glove!

I'm going to repaint most screws as well. (I know anodizing would be better, but I can't afford it right now.)

Just felt the need to snap a pic of my dads awesome trackball explorer mouse. It's very comfortable for things like editing and browsing, although the sensitivity of the ball is a bit dull.

I'm spending my night here, where did you spend yours?
Hope to see you tomorrow!

EDIT: by demand I've resized my photos, if you want to see them uncompressed I'll upload them and post a link here later.

 

[Sw333t]

by demand I've resized my photos, if you want to see them uncompressed I'll upload them and post a link here later.

It's also possible to use a thumbnail as image here, with a link to the full size photo.

It's like two flies in one clap