Been wanting to make a log of what I have been doing so far for this to work. Will update this post periodically so that it's easier to see my progres.
6 March
First, a quick review of the case.
It all started with the case. Like many, I was smitten with the clean edges and lines of the Formd, but found out about this case only much later. What sets this apart from basically every case (except maybe the mjolnir) is that it is basically a unibody construction - and even the mjolnir does not have that. From what I understand, the frame was made with an extrusion manufacturing technique, where a piece of aluminium is shoved through a mould.
This means that there are no side panels, no weld marks and no panel lines where the edges come together. The entire thing is smooth to the touch, and the only seam line that can be seen is from the front and back panels. This is what makes this case unique in the market, and I am suprised that it has not gained more popularity because of this unique look. Although, this also makes it slightly tougher to build in. There is also a space for a 120X25mm fan at the bottom near the front panel, which I will be attempting to fit in.
Some images of where I am at
Current Mods that I have made:
I am most proud of the CPU waterblock. I was quite skeptical about RGB implementation, but I wanted to give it a shot. Something that always bothered me about the way that people did their RGB was that you could always see individual LEDs when they powered it on which looked quite jarring and not aesthetically pleasing. That's why I really liked the look of the phanteks LED strips and I plan to incorporate that somehow in this build.
-> this is classy
The solution for this came to me as I was browsing aliexpress for light fixtures. Apparently its a thing for cars... to have a transparent plastic tube that acts like a piece of fiber optic cable. My solution was to remove one of the LED's from the circuit and isolate it in a small container where the light could be directed into the plastic wire. On top of that, I also cut out some translucent sheets leftover from deskmats and stuck them inside that crevice in order to diffuse the light. Very happy with the end product -> . The diffusion of light is much smoother and it is almost as if I was not using any LEDs at all.
I also made my own heatsink for the memory modules for the graphics card. Took a sheet of copper and dremeled out the dimensions. Hoped that I would be able to spread out the heat that was coming from the VRM, as the heatsinks that I had planned to add there were quite small. Not sure how much this would help cooling though... as compared to if i had just slapped on heatsinks to the memory modules. Also at this point I could not really be bothered to do a test with and without the heatsinks, although I did have some overclocking results from the stock heatsink.
For the configuration that I have chosen, the clearance on the motherboard side for the cooler is 48mm and the max GPU thickness is 54.5mm. I saw videos of the corsair one, and wanted a similar concept. Side mounted radiators, exhaust fan somewhere to suck air through. A good offer for the EK GPU waterblock came up, and I couldnt resist trying it out. In order to fit everything on the same side with a radiator and a set of 15mm noctua fans, the fan had to be pressed flush against the waterblock. To me, the amount of airflow that was blocked was quite minor, as most of the airflow from fans comes from the tips of the blades rather than the area near the hub. Will add pictures of this later.
I currently do not have any pictures of the GPU side as I have disassembled the case. Its basically a radiator sandwich because of clearance issues (20mm radiator + 15mm fans + GPU and waterblock = zero clearance). Will post more pictures of this later as well. Tubing was... difficult.
I have actually more or less finished the entire case, and am just waiting for stock for the SF750 PSU from the RMA place as mine has some funny noises coming out of it.
Updates coming soon! or at least when I get the replacement PSU. Feel free to ask any questions.
6 March
First, a quick review of the case.
It all started with the case. Like many, I was smitten with the clean edges and lines of the Formd, but found out about this case only much later. What sets this apart from basically every case (except maybe the mjolnir) is that it is basically a unibody construction - and even the mjolnir does not have that. From what I understand, the frame was made with an extrusion manufacturing technique, where a piece of aluminium is shoved through a mould.
This means that there are no side panels, no weld marks and no panel lines where the edges come together. The entire thing is smooth to the touch, and the only seam line that can be seen is from the front and back panels. This is what makes this case unique in the market, and I am suprised that it has not gained more popularity because of this unique look. Although, this also makes it slightly tougher to build in. There is also a space for a 120X25mm fan at the bottom near the front panel, which I will be attempting to fit in.
Some images of where I am at
Current Mods that I have made:
I am most proud of the CPU waterblock. I was quite skeptical about RGB implementation, but I wanted to give it a shot. Something that always bothered me about the way that people did their RGB was that you could always see individual LEDs when they powered it on which looked quite jarring and not aesthetically pleasing. That's why I really liked the look of the phanteks LED strips and I plan to incorporate that somehow in this build.
The solution for this came to me as I was browsing aliexpress for light fixtures. Apparently its a thing for cars... to have a transparent plastic tube that acts like a piece of fiber optic cable. My solution was to remove one of the LED's from the circuit and isolate it in a small container where the light could be directed into the plastic wire. On top of that, I also cut out some translucent sheets leftover from deskmats and stuck them inside that crevice in order to diffuse the light. Very happy with the end product -> . The diffusion of light is much smoother and it is almost as if I was not using any LEDs at all.
I also made my own heatsink for the memory modules for the graphics card. Took a sheet of copper and dremeled out the dimensions. Hoped that I would be able to spread out the heat that was coming from the VRM, as the heatsinks that I had planned to add there were quite small. Not sure how much this would help cooling though... as compared to if i had just slapped on heatsinks to the memory modules. Also at this point I could not really be bothered to do a test with and without the heatsinks, although I did have some overclocking results from the stock heatsink.
For the configuration that I have chosen, the clearance on the motherboard side for the cooler is 48mm and the max GPU thickness is 54.5mm. I saw videos of the corsair one, and wanted a similar concept. Side mounted radiators, exhaust fan somewhere to suck air through. A good offer for the EK GPU waterblock came up, and I couldnt resist trying it out. In order to fit everything on the same side with a radiator and a set of 15mm noctua fans, the fan had to be pressed flush against the waterblock. To me, the amount of airflow that was blocked was quite minor, as most of the airflow from fans comes from the tips of the blades rather than the area near the hub. Will add pictures of this later.
I currently do not have any pictures of the GPU side as I have disassembled the case. Its basically a radiator sandwich because of clearance issues (20mm radiator + 15mm fans + GPU and waterblock = zero clearance). Will post more pictures of this later as well. Tubing was... difficult.
I have actually more or less finished the entire case, and am just waiting for stock for the SF750 PSU from the RMA place as mine has some funny noises coming out of it.
Updates coming soon! or at least when I get the replacement PSU. Feel free to ask any questions.
