cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

BatManned's Computer Build Log

BatManned
Level 7
Hello everyone! I am in the midst of custom building a gaming computer and thought I'd share my progress with this lovely forum. This build is still a work in progress but I aim to have it done by August 4th for the QuakeCon event in Dallas. So let's get the good stuff started!!

The 'End Goal' for this build is a wall mounted 'Batman' shaped gaming computer/case that will glow yellow and look AWESOME above my desk for when I play games. Did I mention AWESOME!?

Equipment:
• Plasma Cam
• Press Break
• PemSerter
• TIG Welder
• Drill / Drill Bits
• Small Angle Grinder
• Electric Sander
○ 120 and 220 Grit Sand Paper (roughly 20 sheets is what I used)

• Die Grinder
○ 40, 60, 80 Grit Sanding Tips (roughly 10 sheets is what I used)

• 1/8" Aluminum Sheets
• Rust-Oleum Truck Bed Coating Black Spray Paint (with and without built in primer)
• Foam
• Exacto Knife
• Ruler
• Protractor
• Sponge Brushes
• Paint Brushes
• 6/32" Sheet Metal Counter Sunk Scres / Nuts

~~possibly more to come~~

Software:
• AutoCAD
• Adobe Illustrator

Computer Components:

• Nvidia 960 Graphics Card
~~possibly more to come~~

Table of Contents

~~possibly more to come~~


Thank you for checking out my build and coming along for the journey. If you're coming to QuakeCon, come and check out the final version in the BYOC area. For those not coming to QuakeCon, I'll post images of the event and my computer being there!
14,717 Views
15 REPLIES 15

Phase 7 - Painting (Part 2)
http://imgur.com/a/2OhNO - Pics
58500
58501
58502
58503
58504
58505

Getting super excited that it is all coming together so far, I start to paint using Rust-Oleum Truck Bed Liner Paint. Specifically, the one that has primer built into the spray can. I basically just started spray painting it as I would any other project, but ended up with some unsatisfying build up spots on the back view of the case. I decided that I would focus the first of my efforts on the depth portion of the case as it was very irregular to get the paint to spray evenly from each of the angles. You can see from some of the images there are ‘bad spots’ which I chose to ignore until I felt good about the depth. I also (somewhat) focused on the interior paint. This not being a crucial concern for perfection, but I did want it to match the outside.

Once the depth all looked good to me, I taped it off with painters tape attempting to protect it from the debris that would occur from sanding the back panel again. This worked out okay, but in hindsight, it was probably unnecessary.

Anyway, I sanded the back plate so that it was smooth and ready for a fresh new coat. I didn’t want to mess up the depth portions though, so I re-taped this area so that I wouldn’t accidently do something to the good portion and have to redo it again, sanding and all.

This worked out perfect as I was able to give a nice even coat all around the back and front panels. After removing the tape and moving the case off the plastic I noticed there were a couple of areas I didn’t like. Either the tape pulled some of the paint off or it was just really dusty and I couldn’t wipe the dust off nicely. As a secondary coat / fixing slight errors; I used the Rust-Oleum truck bed liner paint that did NOT have the primer included. I’m not a paint expert, but it seemed that this paint went on lighter and not as thick, so I used it to do touch ups.

I also want to note that I live in Texas and the plastic I laid down to paint the case, ended up melting to the bottom wings where it touched down. I ended up taping off a large area around the melted plastic area and had to sand the paint and plastic off so that I could paint it again.

At this point, the case looked awesome and very nicely painted. There were no major flaws that stood out and I was happy with it. I then painted the back panel that covers the access opening which I apparently forgot to take pictures of… my bad.

Anyway, I moved on to the fans / ‘elbow’ pieces next. Being that this case is Batman, and I grew up with batman being black and yellow colors, I wanted to give it some character making these pieces yellow. I also have the intent on adding yellow LED lights so this is just for aesthetic purposes.

I pulled apart the fans and used painters tape to cover all the cables / open areas that paint shouldn’t go. I could have painted the cables I think, but I didn’t want to risk it and them not be usable. Overall, they came out rather well and the slight areas that are still white, doesn’t bother me.

I just realized, I didn’t take pictures of the ‘elbow’ pieces being painted. Guess you’ll just have to wait till the next post to see that those are yellow too.

Phase 8 – Starting to install


58587
58586
58585
58584
58583
58582
58581
58580
58579
58578
58577
58576
58575
58573
58574


Just for extra assured purposes, I waited about a full 24 hours making sure the paint settled and dried before bringing it inside. I placed some scrap felt down on the ground to protect the floor / case from scratching. I have a two year old son who is the BIGGEST helper ever >.>

As you can see, he just had to help daddy use all the wonderful tools he could get his hands on. Anyway, I installed the fans first as the corner areas that go to the wings give little to no room for easily attaching the nuts to the screws. I expected this to be much harder but it actually wasn’t too bad.

Just for placement, I put the elbow pieces in there to verify that all the fans would fit as well as the computer components. I originally was thinking that the fan immediately next to the power supply wouldn’t fit and would just be an open area. Being hopeful, I tested to see that both would fit and it did.

Phase 9 – Computer Component Installation

58612
58613
58614
58615
58616
58617
58618
58619
58620
58621
58622
58623
58624
58625


Time for the moment of truth right!? Time to install my current computer components into the new case and verify what I’ll need to finalize the case.

Knowing that this was going to be the toughest of the pieces to install, I started this process with my power supply in the upper corner. That being said, getting the back nut on the power supply’s elbow screw was the biggest pain in the *** so far to this case. Just contorting my hand and attempting several times to get that one nut screwed on took me an hour or so. Not to mention this whole time, my son was being ever so ‘helpful’ ^.^

Enough of my bickering, let’s move on. Once I finally got the power supply in, I put in the motherboard (nice and easy), followed by the heatsink fan (not too difficult), and lastly the hard drive (piece of cake).

I started running the cables around the way I thought would make the most sense and not just be all cluttered in there in one place. I was then able to see what cables / cable adapters / cable extensions I needed to make sure everything would connect and work.

Remember in Phase 6 when I said I thought the power supply cable was the biggest cable that needed to go through the triangular hole? Yea, it turned out that my cable hole was too small for the DVI / monitor cable heads to fit through. I decided in order to get around that, I would get DVI to HDMI adapters and then use the HDMI cables to get through the hole. Only one of my two monitors though has a HDMI connector, so I had to use another adapter to convert it back from HDMI to DVI for that monitor.

I got fan molex adapters/extension cables so that all the fans would be able to connect to the power supply. Also, since my graphics card runs extremely close to the top area, I bought right angle DVI adapters. There was a plastic lip bordering the connectors which made them too close together to get them to both plug into the graphics card at the same time, so I used a knife to slightly shave off a portion of this lipped area. This worked out perfectly allowing them both to connect easily to the graphics card and not rub up against the top of the case. This not only helped making it fit easier, it also helped with running the cables more cleanly.

So I got everything wired and connected and started my first boot up. For some reason, none of my fans were working. Though that concerned me, the computer otherwise booted up just fine and seemed to be working beautifully. I double checked all my fan connections and plugs and everything looked to be in order. Since I wasn’t able to figure it out, I called my brother-in-law who knows more about this kind of thing. He came over and played with it for a while; then when he looked up the cable online, he noticed that the pins were wired incorrectly. Basically, there is a red and black wire; the black wire was originally in the first pin location and the red was originally in the second pin location. According to the picture online, that was backwards. I had to pull these pins out and reverse their locations. Once I did that and plugged it all back in, everything worked perfectly and the computer is up and running.

Phase 10 – Up and Running

58626
58627
58628
58629
58630


So here are pictures of the computer all set up and it officially works. Everything is running smoothly, no errors or issues.

I have not yet added the LED lights which I won’t have time to complete before QuakeCon. I’ll be adding more details and hopefully new components in the near future. So look forward to Phase 11 - QuakeCon Photos, Phase 12 – Additional Details, Phase 13 – New Computer Components, and Phase 14 – Finalization.

Phase 11 – QuakeCon Photos

58789
58790
58791

Here are a few picture of the set up I had at QuakeCon. Originally like I said, I didn’t have any LEDs at all, but on Day 2 of QuakeCon I brought a strand with me and quickly attached them just using tape on the inside to give it just a little something extra.

Hundreds if not thousands of people stopped daily complimenting the case and taking photos of it; it was almost a non-stop thing for 3+ days.

Now, I am local to Dallas where the event is held so I go home nightly to bathe and tuck my son into bed. Due to the fact that I left, I missed out on meeting / talking to Adam Sessler, but according to my friends / gaming clan (Deadly Gaming - www.deadlygaming.com) that were there with me, he came by and checked it out and talked to them about it. I wish I was there for that as I used to watch his shows growing up through high school and that would have been awesome! Anyway, drawing attention from him in general for this build is still incredibly cool!

I was entered into the Modding contest and though I didn’t place in the top 3, I do believe I had the fan favorite at the convention. People seemed super impressed by the build and how smoothly it was crafted; including the judges who were feeling the edges trying to feel the welds or errors that were left from the welds and they couldn’t find any. Sanding as much as I did paid off in that aspect 🙂

Finally just before I was about to pack up and leave for home, I was visited by a representative at the Nvidia booth who offered me a trade / upgrade to my graphics card. My current card that I have been using for years was the Nvidia 570 and I was traded that card, for the Nvidia 960 card. Due to it being so dark in the BYOC and the fact that he wanted to do the upgrade in person, I wasn't able to take pictures of opening the box for the first time and showing a comparison from old to new.

That is a great build story and so glad other share the experience with the kids! Build is sublime and looks great. Being a builder and modder myself as well as father this was a great build! Hats off ..congrats on a work of art and great craftsmanship! Here is the Blue Dragon I build with my 12 year old daughter 2 years ago. She is now a PC Gamer and enthusiast.
59141