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[Build Log] Project Blueberry Apple G4

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Of course, case design is very subjective and up to you indeed. As for me, I really like the Apple old style design and try to offer another option. It's how the G4 Cube top panel looks like. IMHO it's is better suited with G4 case.
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I really like what you did here. What program did you use to make this? I would like to use it to measure exactly where to cut out etc :)
 
I really like what you did here. What program did you use to make this? I would like to use it to measure exactly where to cut out etc :)
Hi! My congrats, I love how this build is going ;)
As for software, I'm a DTP Pro and use Photoshop and Illustartor for over 20 years (yes, it's not a joke). But if you want to measure, CAD programs without a doubt the best.
 
Hi! My congrats, I love how this build is going ;)
As for software, I'm a DTP Pro and use Photoshop and Illustartor for over 20 years (yes, it's not a joke). But if you want to measure, CAD programs without a doubt the best.

Thanks man :). Yeah I'm a noob when it comes to all that software. However, I decided to take my front and top panel to a laser cutting service and see what they can do :)
 
Xmas and New Year holiday update

I finally managed to finish sleeving all the cables. It was a major pain in the &&s with the double cables, but Lutro0's guides on youtube helped a ton!

I used this pin layout for my SF600 and can confirm that it works :)
https://i.imgur.com/v1FAzqG.jpg

Here's a video of me testing it out on an old Core 2 Duo system:

Here are the latest pictures with some new parts that Santa dragged in ^^

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And here are the latest updates about the actual work:

1. Following the discussion on this thread and being inspired by Candy Apple, I decided to cut out a window. I just received my order of Isopropanol which should take off the paint of my side panel and make it clear :).

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2. A big thank you to Aquatuning again! I received a GPX full cover waterblock for my new Gigabyte G1 1070 ^^. It looks great with my custom sleeved cable! I would like to add that the overall installation of this block was MUCH easier than the older model I had for my 970. The block was also way better CNC'ed as this time it actually follows the layout of the different parts on the board! Thumbs up for the great product!

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3. Finished my 4 layers of primer :'). Now off to the matte black finish ;-)

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That's the point of buying 1070? I probably missed something important :)
(still no support of Pascal in 10.12.3 nvidia web drivers)
 
That's the point of buying 1070? I probably missed something important :)
(still no support of Pascal in 10.12.3 nvidia web drivers)

It saddens me that there is still no support, but as long as I'm sponsored, I thought upgrading a maximum while I still have the chance was a better idea than opening the loop next year and adding a new GPU ;-). That's why I also maxed out to an i7 and 32GB of RAM. I do plan on gaming regularly on this machine and 4k monitors will be the next purchases on my list, so having 8GB of VRAM is plenty but future proof :). So will have to stick to windows for the time being...
 
It's finally coming together!

Routing the cables took so much time, but I am pleased with how it turned out, given the limited space to work with!

Since the pump draws power from a molex connector, I needed at least one molex connector to the power supply. Unfortunately, it doesn't pass through into another molex connector, so you can't bridge them up. The reason I wanted that is because I also want to power my 4 LED strips and my SSD with that molex cable, as to avoid needing more cables.

The solution was making an adapter from 1x 4-pin male to 2x 4pin female. My cat wanted to help out :). I'm guessing that these components won't draw too much power and so the adapter cables should be fine.

Apart from that, the 4 fans are connected with 2x 3pin splitter cables. My motherboard allows voltage regulation, so I should be able to control their speeds that way. I wish however that Alphacool and Phobya should come up with more 4pin fans as this has become the new standard for quite some time now.

Sorry for the mess in the background, too excited to clean up, hoping to fill up the loop tomorrow and see if it's alive :')

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Since everything seemed to be going so well, something obviously had to go wrong somewhere

I had just finished filling up the loop with distilled water (to remove factory dust etc before putting in the UV liquid) and powered the system on when I noticed that my motherboard keeps hanging on the "00" error code with a solid CPU_LED. Damn... In the meantime I ordered another 6700K and another maximus gene mobo since I can always return whatever is not broken within 14 days and RMA whatever IS actually bricked.

It's lame though :'(

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I installed a new CPU and everything was working perfectly! Until I restarted the machine and the dreaded CPU_led error came back. I then put the new CPU in the new motherboard and just like the old cpu, same error on the other motherboard. So either the motherboard fries the cpu at some point or it's the psu... I have tested the psu though and the voltages didn't give any errors :/

I'll RMA the old motherboard and both cpu's :'(

The good thing about the loop is that the way it is set up, I can take out the motherboard without spilling a drop :)

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While waiting for another CPU, I decided to drain the loop in the meantime and see what it looks like with the UV led's and the blue liquid:

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Following the Candy Apple mod, I soaked the side panel in Isopropanol in the hopes of removing the paint and achieving a clear panel as a "window".

I let it soak for about 4 hours before I tried removing the paint by wetsanding it with 400grid. It didn't work.

My second attempt was with Acetone. This worked better and I managed to remove all the paint, while using sandpaper that is. However, what I didn't know is that apparently the Aceton leaves a foggy, cloudy effect on the acrylic :(. This was actually also documented in the Candy Apple build using Isopropanol, where @CommodoToshx86 managed to achieve a clear effect by using Pledge Future floor wax. I don't have acces to that product in Belgium, but I do have acces to Meguiars PlastX Clear Plastic Cleaner & Polish. Unfortunately, these are not the cheapest products to work with :/.

IMG_4157.JPG IMG_4158.JPG IMG_4159.JPG IMG_4160.JPG

After some googling I stumbled on a thread where a guy basically asked the same question: "How do I remove paint from acrylic without the fogginess". Turns out that nail polish remover WITHOUT acetone does the trick! I tried it on the other side panel and the little amount of nail polish remover that my gf had left did remove the paint! This method is about as cheap as a 1l bottle of acetone, so I will go with this method instead! It also gave me the idea to make all the panels around the case clear/foggy, since it'll make more sense seeing the black everywhere instead of having one black side and all the rest quicksilver. I'll probably paint the Apple logo's to match the Alphacool Blue to stay in the theme :)

IMG_4161.JPG IMG_4162.JPG

I am still debating whether to try and salvage the cloudy side panel with the PlastX, or use another one from my other G4 that I have as backup.
 
Small remark on the side: Isopropanol actually does work! It did however take 2 days before the paint started to peel off. It's less messy than the nail polish remover where the paint became half liquid and left marks behind...

Hoefer.de is a German chemistry web shop and they sell 6 liters for 22 euros, which is the cheapest I could find it! (making it cheaper than acetone and I can still use it to clean cpu's, gpu's etc.!)

I have removed the front USB and the front panel from the case because I saw some rust stains. I guess they got wet when I filled up the loop somehow the first time, so I have to ditch this part to avoid shorting, just to be safe...

Meanwhile the system is running again, with the mobo sitting on an antistatic mat to rule out case shorting. I still used my own cables since I don't think they were the culprit after all. It's running some benchmarks in the meantime :)

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As I decided to ditch the original front panel idea, since it takes up too much space and since it had become wet --> the res needs to be moved about 1 cm away from the front of the case, which in turn blocks the GPU. It's a tight fit! To remedy this, I cut out the front IO of an old Gigabyte case I had lying around, which was my original plan if all else failed anyway.

Since this layout renders the original button useless, I decided to hot glue a white LED into it, to keep some of the original look.
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I also have the first results of the isopropanol soaked side window :). I'm hoping to get all of the panels transparent like that one. I will then paint them blue/black from the inside ;-), more or less like the blue mac pro g3, which is a bit too greenish for my taste

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