I was able to sneak in a little work this holiday season and have a couple pictures to share. I cut out the opening for the front panel intake and made a mount for the 2 fans. I also test fit the vandal switch in place.
I also posted DDCM’s first Youtube video! I figured unboxing EVGA’s PSU was a perfect opportunity to showcase my….. workspace? Haha, hope you get a kick out of the video and I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions.
YouTube Video:
Slightly off topic, #OperationChristmasSurprise went off beautifully and I crafted this plaque for my wife.
As always guys, thanks for sticking with me. Until next time….
Happy Modding!
I hope everyone’s holiday went fantastic and safely made it through with some sense of sanity.
To celebrate the new beginning of the new year, I figured I’d make the video giving a shout out to sponsor that helped the beginning of Project Military Tech, which is ModMyMods.com. Enjoy the video and if you’ve enjoyed the project before or got a chuckle from my newbie YouTube skills, please leave a comment or a like. I really appreciate everyone’s support up to this point. Hopefully more build log specific videos will come in the near future.
Just giving a update on how progress is moving….. slow…. But moving.
Got the front panel fabrication complete. Also prepped and ready for paint.... would have painted pictures if my spray can didn't clog 3 seconds into spraying. Took it back to Walmart and now waiting for them to get more in stock.
So we started prepping to begin sleeving station to hack through them all. We have our new pattern and it’s going to look awesome. It’s very non-traditional yet I think it’ll tie everything together well.
Only a few wires in the ATX pin extractor broke. I'm not mad though since it lasted through several sleeving jobs. When I broke I pulled out my trusty staples to continue. Before I started making my thumbs bleed on the staples I shot ModMyMods.com an e-mail asking if they had a tool they could send to help keep the process going. And like the awesome sponsors they have been so far, they already shipped one out to me this morning. Big thanks to them for helping progress keep moving forward. Until it arrives, I will do a little more using the trusty staple method. Also, I took the time to cut all the paracord for the 24 pin to the correct lengths.
Thanks again for tuning in and if you find us on social media…. Updates are a little more frequent. Until next time Happy Modding!!
I hope everyone had a great weekend! I was able to do a little work on Project Military Tech in the early hours of the morning before everyone woke up.
So a bit of sleeving progress, I was able to finish the 24 pin and will be working to finish the other cables shortly. Thankfully work going forward will be easier with the Billy Brown’s World Renowned Universal Dual end ATX pin removal tool! I am super excited as this tool is much more durable and the quality of the pins are even more so than my last tool. Thank you again to my sponsor ModMyMods.com for the quick response and getting this in the mail to me so quickly.
Additionally, I test fit the case handles and checked the bolt clearances. I need to use a bit shorter bolts, hopefully I remember to ask for some when Home Depot gives me the paint on Wednesday.
Once that was complete, I reassembled the case and made sure everything was lining up properly so I can finish my final cuts, paint and start mounting things. I can’t wait to start painting and the vision starts to take shape.
1/30/17 - HELP!
A call to all my supporters! HELP, I need your input!
First, we have the before and after of the motherboard and the painting of the heatsinks. Is this a good use of the green to tie it in? Open to other ideas.
Secondly, I have these two hot wheels vehicles. I want to incorporate them into the build, but I'm not sure how. Any suggestions are welcome! :thumb:
I hope everyone had a great SuperBowl weekend! I personally didn't watch the game as I'm not a fan of football unless I'm out on a field playing myself. But I digress, let's talk PMT progress!
First, I got to cutting out the side windows, for which I made a template to mark them. The cutting actually went better than planned. I was worried about the thin strips of metal between the vehicles. Then it was prep and primer.
Second, we turned our attention to the drive bay door. Used a DIY material warmer (or my electric heater) to give the copolyester a slight curve to mesh with the front panel cover. The small bent strip was a test of the company's claim that you can cold bend the material without it breaking or splintering. And to my surprise.... it bent easily and with no flaws. Now I just need to create a new brake.
But that's it for now, I wish I had more to update but I was caught up with a daddy daughter dance and setting up my new/temporary setup. Keep tuned over the next week for some possible updates on sponsors, fingers crossed they come through!
It’s that’ time again! We can now announce that Thermaltake has partnered with DDCM for Project Military Tech!! How awesome is this!! The team at Thermaltake has agreed to send the following RGB awesomeness to fill in some of the gaps of missing pieces.
First we have my original request…. The new TT Ring Pro 12 fans! I initially asked for 3 of the fans to handle the 2 front intake and 1 back exhaust. But after deciding the water cooling route and the capability to do a push/pull, they bumped the quantity up to 6! The extra fan is to be added to DDCM’s part pool for a later project. Who knows maybe these fans will make another appearance in the DDCM desk project.
Secondly we have the cooling solution! The TT Water 3.0 240mm Non-RGB version, because the fans don’t matter now that we have those TT Ring Pro 12. So we are going to take the individually controlled RGB LED fans and slap them all over that radiator. The fans included with the system will be added to the part pool as well. I can’t wait to see this water cooling system lit up with green and white LED patterns……. Is anyone getting as excited as I am?!?!?!
Next, we have the Poseidon Z RGB Keyboard w/ blue switches. Because, when you have such a pretty tower…. You have to have just as awesomely lit peripherals. I can’t wait to get my hands on this as I’ve never had the chance to own a mechanical keyboard myself. I see a product demo/review video in the near future.
To pair with the Poseidon keyboard, we also have a Ventus Z RGB Gaming Mouse. Why have just one peripheral lit up RGB style when you can have them all right?
Finally, to finish off the Thermaltake bundle of goodness is the Cronos RGB Gaming Headset. When you have all the gaming power and potential that is Project Military Tech, you are going to need some quality audio gear as well. I think these are going to pair nicely with Gigabyte’s Creative Sound Core3D Quadcore processor. I’m going to be sad to see this leave the workshop… but I think I might enjoy testing it.
Well that’s it for now everyone! I hope you have all enjoyed following the progress this far. Our next steps for sponsors is to fill the empty gaps of the CPU, GPU and HHD/SSD.
Did a little more this morning and put the first coat of paint on the side panels.... I think the green is a perfect shade. How's it look? Green is closer to color on non window side picture.
Yeah, I will break out the better camera when I get the rest of the chassis painted and assembled. I need to invest in getting a small but quality camera, the other one is just so clunky.
Yes, everyone you heard it right. Machausta got a tour of DDCM's modding dungeon(mosh pit). I hope to share my workspace with everyone once I can get rid of that chain link fencing.
First off, I would like to ask the question of what you prefer. Right now I have been saving updates and doing a write up with a bulk update with a lot of pictures. Is this what you prefer? Or would you rather see more frequent updates with just a couple pictures each time? As my updates are becoming picture heavy, I’m aware this might cause some issues for some. But, will continue if no one identifies a want to move to another option.
Now that’s out of the way, lets continue with PMT!
Let’s start out first with our sponsor hardware goodness from Thermaltake! They were gracious to send not only fans and a cooler, but peripherals as well! The peripherals will really generate some extra audience at the raffle locations!
Digging into the box of goodies, we first pull out the Ventus Z RGB mouse. A real thing of beauty, with sharp lines and great contrast. Design plan for it includes painting it green, excluding the buttons.
Moving onto the keyboard, Thermaltake sent us a Poseidon Z RGB. This thing is a beast! It has quite a bit of weight. In my YouTube unboxing video, I mentioned it weighed about the same as a brick… We are going to adjust the design to fit PMT by painting the keyboard body green while leaving the caps black. Over on social media I played with some of the RGB control modes, and I have to say my wife was actually impressed….. and she is a non-techie that gets bored with anything gaming/modding specific.
Finally, on the peripheral list is the Chronos RGB headset. I pulled it out of the box and test fit it to my head. When I asked if I would get weird looks at work if I used this…. She just laughed. But it does have some powerful output. When I plugged it in it took over the audio from my speakers but my wife could still hear the movie from across the room. Design plan for this is to paint all of the non-shiny pieces green. If I had the skills I would replace the red fabric with camo or green.
Moving from the peripherals and onto the rest of Thermaltake’s package, we turn our attention to the TT Water 3.0 CPU cooler. Like most AiOs the loop is very well secured, and this one is very well crafted. Nice clean lines, maximum space on the radiator, quality materials of the tubing. I’m sure the pump will perform splendidly as well, but I haven’t had a chance to push power to it. That functionality test will come with all the fans mounted and in place. I couldn’t resist and mounted the first two fans on the radiator already.
Speaking of the fans, can we say rugged durable construction. The diffuser over the LEDs really allows different colors to separate nicely. Here’s some RGB shots of playing around with possible settings for PMT.
We have also partnered with ArtMods(@artmods_ on twitter) and he is providing the vinyl cutout of the front panel design with the soldier memorial. As a veteran of the military himself, he was more than happy to help out any way he can.
Continuing onto some fabrication, we’ve gotten a lot more done and are preparing to get the bulk of the painting done. But first, we had a slight mishap with some heat and the front panel. It warped just enough that I can’t fix it. The positive side to that is that we get to remake a cleaner front panel and not restricted by the shape of the original panel. Also for this update we have the final shots of the side panels painted and the internal shroud created. Next steps are to finalize the motherboard tray cut outs and paint everything this weekend. Assembly of the case hopefully completed on Sunday(Feb. 16, 2017).
I discarded the whole front panel, fabricated a wooden frame, and cut out a plastic front. I still need to cut the access to the drive bays and craft a new drive bay door.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
