Finally taking some completion shots

not quite as nice as I had hoped...but the material offers some challenges with the focus on my 8MP phone...

I am going to charge and get my 7.2MP sony camera on a tripod and try again over the holiday.

Having done so many cases with removable panels, and windows, and such it's remarkable how LITTLE I can show of the interior since there are no openings in the hardware areas.  ;)

sorry for the delays

While I had many intentions, and many opportunities to get the "completed" shots taken, I just couldn't motivate to stop and do the prep.

I lost a close friend to Kidney issues, cancer, chemo, radiation, etc. on 8/3.  Those of us close to him certainly knew things were very complicated, and he just kept fighting after every Hospital visit.

You can never prepare yourself.  :(

I have also been working to stay in touch with his family, and I now care for his fun dog Hopper.  A 4 year-old Border Collie compared to my 12 year-old Whippets.  Lots of fun, but quite a difference!

So, those still watching: thanks for your patience.  After Sunday (the Memorial) I will relax a bit, and get back to these tasks.

now that PDXLAN is over...

and I have caught up on some sleep, I will be getting some "final" photos out of the finished case.

Weighing the choice between White sheet backdrop with the silver case, or black sheet backdrop against the silver case.

Leaning towards black, any input?

White sheet pro: black radiators will stand out against it
White sheet con: silver case won't be as contrastY

Black sheet pro: silver case will be very constrastY, and will look sharp IMO
Black sheet con: black radiators will kind of blend in depending on angle and flash

cementing on the final trim for the PSU

after that cures (probably overnight, there are 6 pieces and I don't want them shifting) I will finalize my transport locking pins to keep the Radiators in place.

I needed a way to keep the from sliding back out when I have it by the handle, so a little 4-40 threaded bolt, drill, and tap and I should have a pretty compact, simple, and stealthed locking method.

See that soon!

nearly time for PDXLAN 18

got some finishing touches to get done before Friday:

1. finish PSU trim, have to recut one piece and then time for adhesive to set up.
2. brushed over the corner/side aluminum with gritty abrasive pads (first Maroon, then White): still looks a bit "used" but "abused"
3. softened the look of the metallic paint on my exhaust fan grill with abrasive pads (White only)
4. flashlight check for any leaks, loose barbs, zip ties, etc.

Ran Age of Conan on High settings last night, played up to level 14, no real issues since the BSOD and installing that internal fan.

Finish pics will come when I get those PSU trip pieces on.

Thanks for reading!

first BSOD

not unexpected, but it did occur.

Reasons:
1. small-ish Heatsink on NB/SB/Vreg area, stock on the Gigabyte, but very few builds would have such limited case ventilation
2. my case was closed up, see item #1
3. my one exhaust fan only moves about 24cfm (80mm, moderate rpm, low noise like this: JabTech Anodized Sunbeam fan) refer to item #1 for specifics
4. I had been playing DDO at Max DX11 settings with 4XAA and 16XAF, max particles, etc. for about 4 hours.
5. since the big radiator fans are OUTSIDE the case, there is very little "system" cooling. Item #1 should be referred to.

;) 4 hours is certainly enough time for a low ventilated case with vregs, NB/SB, SSD, HDD, and passive gains to add up and push past stable temps.

Overall, minor issue to open the lid during extended gaming sessions

Furmark temps

the first run the GPU topped out at 68C.

I tried to log speedfan, but it's not writing a log file even after I selected all my CPU, SYS, and GPU tick boxes for logging.

So here is the screeny of my SECOND Furmark run, it actually hit 70C:


You can see in the settings block I chose my native resolution, no AA, standard Benchmark run (no preset), and to the right hand block my score was 1904.

The GPU-Z file for the run has no pagination, so I have to sift through and get the columns aligned for it to make sense.