Completed Xenomorph

[akira749]

After many builds in the last 2 years I tought I would take a break after my last build (Hurrikaine) so it would ease my wallet a bit.

But things don't always happen like you think they will...


When I started doing watercooling builds I always told myself that each build would have a theme based on whatever comes to my mind. But from day one I always had one special theme that I had in mind but since I didn't have all the ideas and inspirations to do it I always ditched it so I would not ruin it with a bad result.

Since I first saw the 1979 Alien movie, I've been amazed by the creature created by H.R. Giger. In may of this year we were celebrating the 35th year of the release of the movie. So in march, I told to myself that I should push myself to do the themed build to celebrate this but I was already in the process of the Hurrikaine build so the pace of this possible build did come to almost a stop. In fact at this time I was only looking at THE case that could host this build.

Then on may 12th, H.R. Giger passed away.....That striked me so hard that at this moment I knew I had to do it....not to honor the Alien franchise but to Honor the man behind the creature.

In life, things mostly happen for a reason. Just 10 days before, I had started communicating with a possible case manufacturer for the build. I wanted something different...and since I was following James Walt "TitanFall" build, i fell in love with the small British company known as Parvum. The idea of a multi-layered acrylic case with some edgy lines is awesome and it inspired me with new ideas.

During our many communications, I explain to Justin from Parvum my theme idea in the first place to be able to figure the right acrylic colors...I had a few ideas and he helped my to figure things out. When everything got "almost" setup, I asked him if it would be possible to have a custom backpanel since I wanted something different there. He agreed on the customization and then told me something I didn't expect. Since he did like the theme of the build by being a fan of the movies, he told me that he would work something else on the case to match the theme. I was stunned by is offer and agreed right away.

And recently I had the surprise to see it appear on their Facebook page....my jaw dropped. It was superb!


This build is called Xenomorph in rememberance of the Alien creature. I will not spoil anything here about the concept since there's still small parts that could change but one thing I can say is that I want to use the inside of the case as a diorama in some ways...some 3D printing will be implied and maybe some acrylic or aluminum modding too.


The color scheme is not entirely set up but the case contains black, green and blue parts...I want to create a dark gloomy ambience...you might see some other colors pop I don't know but it should be subtle.


As always, I hope some will jump on my crazy bandwagon for yet another build!


Build setup/parts listing :


Case and accessories

• Parvum S2.0 mATX case (Black and green color combo)
• Swiftech PWM Splitter plugged to one motherboard CPU fan header

Components

• MSI Z87M Gaming Motherboard
• Intel i7 4790K CPU
• G.SKILL TridentX 16GB DDR3-2400 RAM
• EVGA SuperNOVA G2 Series 850W 80PLUS Gold PSU
• MSI GTX 780 Lightning
• Samsung EVO 500Gb SSD

Cooling

• Enermax Twister Pressure 120mm PWM Fans (4x)
• EK-CoolStream PE 240 (2x)
• EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Acetal+Nickel
• EK-RAM Monarch X4 Clean CSQ - Acetal+Nickel
• EK-RAM Monarch Module - Black (2pcs) (2x)
• EK-FC780 GTX Lightning - Acetal+Nickel
• EK-DDC 3.2 PWM X-RES 140
• EK-DDC Heatsink Housing - Black
• EK-HDC Fitting 12mm - Black Nickel (12x)
• EK-CSQ Adapter 90° - Black Nickel (10x)
• EK-CSQ Adapter 45° - Black Nickel (2x)
• EK-HD Tube 10/12mm
• EK-CSQ Plug - Black Nickel (2x)
• EK-CSQ Extender 8mm - Black Nickel
• EK-Ekoolant EVO CLEAR Coolant with Mayhems Blue Dye

Sleeving and Lighting

• Sleeving job done by Ensourced.net with Paracord 550
• GPU cover from ColdZero
• LED lighting will be provided by Darkside with there amazing RGB LED strips

Xenomorph

 

[akira749]

One little tease...some minor mods will be done to the final product

 

[akira749]

Hi Everyone!

Here's the hardware I have for now.


First, the Power Supply. I did go with the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 850w. My decision was driven by the fact that it looks awesome in it's rugged finish and also because it receive a 9.9/10 from JonnyGURU!!

The box, very good looking package from the outside!

On the inside, we can see that the unit itself is wrapped in some thick foam and the accessory box on the right

All black cables, even if I won't use them they are good looking! 4x VGA, 3x SATA. 2x CPU, 1x Perif "aka" molex, 1x MB and the power cable

The accessories are some nice fabric velcro zip-ties, a bag for the cables, a floppy adapter, the usual screws and one nice touch from EVGA...a PSU jumper!

The power supply is secured in a nice cloth bag

Here's the unit in all the angles!

Second, the CPU. I did go with the brand new i7-4790K instead of the i7-4770K only because I was disapointed by the overclocking possibility of my current 4770K in the Hurrikaine. So I decided to try if the 4790K would be better...and the price was almost the same.

The box...and the specs sticker

The usual heatsink and the little beast!

Some close-up shots

Followed by the RAM. Like my 2 previous build, I did go with 16Gb of G.Skill Trident X DDR3 2400 CL10. This RAM is simply amazing and curiously very affordable!

And "the piece de resistance" the Motherboard. This is always the part where it's harder to choose the right one. At the end, my last 2 choices were the Asus Z97 Gryphon with the Armor Kit or the MSI Z87M Gaming. I choose to sacrifice the Armor Kit look for the all black motherboard of MSI. What's left not being black will be painted...

Nice looking box with the cool dragon!

The motherboard in it's protective bag

The accessories in the lower compartment

We have the usual accessories and manuals. MSI provided a really nice big case badge too! The IO Shield is black on the outside which is nice but the inside is a classic silver foam....it will be painted black.

The motherboard in all it's beauty!!! On the motherboard...the dragon reminder appears on all the heatsinks...but only the head....and this head could be a look alike alien head too...

Nice black PCB!

The IO panel

We can see here that the black cover can be unscrewed from the red heatsink....so it can be painted

The red part of the mosfet heatsinks is also removable

That's it for the hardware photo flood!!!

One last picture before the end of this update...

As you might have seen on the motherboard, there's some red accent here and there...obviously the red won't match the theme so I will airbrush them so they match the theme better. As for the red on the RAM, it won't be there since the RAM will be under water.

After some discussions with Hanoverfist and also because of the amazing work this paint can produce, I did go with House Of Kolor as my paint choice.

Here's what waiting for me to create what I hope will look good!

Take care everyone until next update!

 

[TheDarkLord]

lol finally a non case Labs case, the first time I saw one of those cases was on OCN, the TitanFall. That was one sick looking build, I'll keep an eye on this thread, gl akira

 

[lowfat]

:thumb:

 

[sswilson]

Cool!!! Some summer Geek Pron.

 

[akira749]

Thanks Guys! :thumb:

 

[akira749]

Ok everyone!

A little tease!!!!!

I RECEIVED MY CASE!!!!!!

The backdrop is some white towels because I didn't had a big enough real white backdrop...this will be fixed soon :biggrin:


Here's all the parts! Sorry for the awful background but I didn't had a lot a space where I was able to display all the panels!

From here I will show you the custom work done by the Parvum guys! They are phenomenal!!!
I've seen things that I didn't even know they did...you little secret keepers lolll


The front of the case with the wide open mouth ready to eat anyone who dares to come close!

The back of the case where I had all 3 80mm fan holes removed and the addition of the Parvum logo!!

The awesome side panel with the surrounding acting as a reminder of the Xenomorph tail!

The top of the case with some subtle spike in the fan grills! Lovely!!

The right panel of the case with the PSU breathing grill again with some subtle modification to keep the theme even there which I find awesome!!!

I'm really happy so far and can't wait to assemble it!!!!

Take care and see you soon!

 

[akira749]

OK Here's the assembly in pictures!!! :biggrin:

ENJOY!!

Here are some pictures I took in my photo tent.
Natural light with long exposure....not bad

Take care everyone!

 

[Father Fuzzy]

unk:exciting project Akiraunk:

very cool case and love the choice of the blue motherboard tray looks Fantastic :shok: