# Making of Snow Lion



## grafreak (May 14, 2015)

Hi, to start with this is all about a new build... and am starting this right from the scratch how things really took shape..

The basic idea started with the ASUS Sabertooth Mark S, the arctic camo themed motherboard that they released a few months back. I had a few Sabertooth motherboards before (P67/Z77) and this one looked like the ‘one’. Then luckily I got my hands on a Corsair 780T white edition and thought to myself ‘Hey, why not a white themed build?

*When I reached out to Asus India with my plan, they responded by agreeing to be the sponsor for this build. Apart from the centerpiece Z97 Sabertooth Mark S, they will also be sending me the GPU for this build - the GTX 980 Matrix platinum
*
But first thing that came to my mind was that an all-white build may not look that attractive after all. Being from a design background myself, I started to think in a different way. I thought that to make it more beautiful I should have contrasting colors around it. Black was an obvious choice, and I also chose grey since it went well with the entire arctic-camo theme.

So to make the build I choose three colors-

· The base platform to be White
· Black
· And Grey or silver to break and neutralize everything.

Why snow Lion:

Snow Lions are elusive, powerful creatures. The rarity of them seen in the wild has made them somewhat mythical. I wanted that aura associated with this build – a sense of power, a sense of rarity, and a sense of beauty – all mixed into one.

Logo:

For the logo, however, I wanted the lion, not the snow lion. The lion’s manes always gave an impression of its power, so I initially drew three logos.




After a bit of thinking and positioning, I chose this one to be the final logo for the build.



- - - Updated - - -

The basic plan:

The Corsair 780T can house one 360mm radiator on top, one 360mm radiator at the front and a 240mm Radiator at the bottom.
For this build I will be using a single Black Ice GTX 360 Gen 2.0 Extreme radiator. It is 54mm thick and can be easily held on top of the 780T with push/pull.

The HD bays are placed in the stock position; they can be removed and adjusted. But instead of 2 HDD bays i decided to go with one as a single bay can host around 4 HDDs and there is a nice setup on the back to mount 3 SSDs. This will also help in uninterrupted airflow from the front.

To highlight the mobo, the colour inside the cabinet is kept black, with white paint job on some parts.

I am also adding in some covers- PSU cover, a cover for the front replacing the stock black mesh, and a cover for the top replacing the top mesh.

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There is markings for the 120 mm and 140 mm fans on top to help in mounting the fans, 

---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 PM ----------

And now some pictures of the stuffs that I am using

The Black ICE GTX Gen two xtreme 360 radiator

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*Fans*

Fans in my collection:
3 pcs SP120 High Performance edition fans of 2350 rpm
4 pcs Noise blocker Ultra silent xlp- 120mm fans of 2000 rpm
3 pcs Swiftec Helix [the stock fans that comes with the H320]
3 pcs Corsair SP120L of 2700 rpm


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*Airflow:*

Three 120mm fans will be pushing cold air into the cabinet, preferably- SP120 High Performance edition fans of 2350 rpm
A single 140 mm white LED stock corsair fan at the back as an exhaust.

Lastly, three 120 mm fans below the radiator mounted on top of the cabinet to push the air through the radiator- preferably- Helix 120mm or corsair SP120 high performance edition fans or Noise blocker 120mm fans will be used for this purpose.

If needed i can also get 3 pcs Silverstone SST AP121 white air penetrator 120mm.

Looking forward for suggestions on the airflow and placement of the fans.

---------- Post added at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:42 PM ----------

*Some camera work with some fittings*

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Tube reservoir

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- - - Updated - - -

*Some try outs with the fans:*

Aerocool DS Dead Silence Fan, the design of the fan is so cool that i couldn't ignore it but I cant get my hands on to those lovely looking fans, so thought of transforming the the cool design in the Sp120s that i have. First i tried out with some reflective vinyles. These vinyle is mainly used for road signages, as with mild lights on them they seem to be glowing. and they have a fine octagonal mesh kind of look on them.

*here are some pictures.*

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With black marker pen tried to draw the curved lines that is going to give the Ring effect when the fan will be running.

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The fans looking fine, spinning perfectly without any noise and RPM drops. now to check them on the radiator how well the sticker stays on the blades. As i have found some of the corners of the vinyl is peeling off as the the vinyl is thick and a bit hard. If this thing doesn't stays on the blade then will have to look for some other alternatives. 

The vinyl stickers started falling from the blades, so replaced it with simple sticker paper, they r thin and quite sticky.

from the vinyl stickers i got he proper measurements of the blades and as per that I draw the rounds and took printouts on the sticker and it went quite good so started with the painting of the body and the final fabrication of the blades. The pictures are as follows


First masking the electrical part with tape and the removal of the rubbers from all the four corners

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and the rings

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Spray cans for the paint job

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After the first coat of white matte paint

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The final body of the fan after 3 coats of paint

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The new Stickers are ready

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Now the Blades

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so to check how its gone a look and any noise or friction of the stickers with the body, while spinning 

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As everything went well and the sticker was also staying on the blade, so started mounting the fans

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The all three fans in Line

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- - - Updated - - -

its time for some psu cables sleeving, maintaining the colours of the build... the white, grey and black.. but as Asus India has sent me a Gtx 980 matrix platinum i have to include the red colour also in this list.... 

for cable sleeving am using Pre-sleeved cables, with black male and female connectors, here is what i have tried to do and this is how it looks

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- - - Updated - - -

Now its time for the surprises from *Asus India*

the much awaited Sabertooth Z97 mark S
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After the usual unboxing, I couldn't resist myself from putting the XSPC cpu block with white painted plate and screw on it, to check how its gone a look.
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Now its time to uncover the beast 
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In the mean time Paint jobs for some parts and accessories

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To check how its gone a look 

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## rhitwick (May 14, 2015)

Where's rest?

Post the rest...


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## grafreak (May 14, 2015)

yea will be posting the rest as the build progresses.


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## arijitsinha (May 14, 2015)

grafreak said:


> Hi, to start with this is all about a new build... and am starting this right from the scratch how things really took shape..
> 
> The basic idea started with the ASUS Sabertooth Mark S, the arctic camo themed motherboard that they released a few months back. I had a few Sabertooth motherboards before (P67/Z77) and this one looked like the ‘one’. Then luckily I got my hands on a Corsair 780T white edition and thought to myself ‘Hey, why not a white themed build?



Nice, waiting for more, and thank god i opened this thread in my office PC.


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## grafreak (May 14, 2015)

Thanks Kingston India for the Rams

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## grafreak (May 14, 2015)

Here comes the thanks giving label for SnowLion

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## bikramjitkar (May 14, 2015)

^Did you really need to quote that whole post.

OP: How did you get the sponsorship? Are you a well known modder?


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## anirbandd (May 14, 2015)

arijitsinha said:


> Nice, waiting for more, and thank god i opened this thread in my office PC.



please edit and snip the quote.. making thread too long and cumbersome.

- - - Updated - - -
 [MENTION=150581]grafreak[/MENTION] : where are you getting these parts in Bengal?? i see bengali newpapers and the tip of a jhadu in a pic. 

and please let us know how you got Asus, kingston to sponsor the build?


btw, this is one of the best mods here on the forum. hats off to you for that.


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## kalam_gohab (May 14, 2015)

Yeah! Awesome! How did you get sponsorship?


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## $hadow (May 14, 2015)

this is awesome


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## Sid_gamer (May 15, 2015)

[MENTION=150581]grafreak[/MENTION],

Really good build log and quality of work.
Keep 'em coming.
Subbed for updates


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## grafreak (May 18, 2015)

thanks a lot every one, sorry for the late reply.

lots of mails to Asus PR and submissions of the project plans, in paper as well as in practical... and 4 months of hardwrk and try outs on different things helped to get the sponsorship..


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## anirbandd (May 18, 2015)

damn.. all that hardware, and all for free. 

oshadharon.


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## grafreak (May 21, 2015)

the GTX 980 matrix platinum... it comes with the usual ROG colour combination... red and black... so for this a red coloured sleevings have been added to the usual black and white combination.... but the gpu needed a little bit of white impression also... to make it a part of this build... The ROG logo was white and the red streaks really looked awesome, so following that just tried to add some white streaks and the result is as follows.... some white vinlys on the cover and a honey comb design vinyl with matte lamination for back plate...

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## SunE (May 22, 2015)

Damn that GPU looks like GTX 980 | Asiimov


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## grafreak (May 23, 2015)

Its time for some fun with acrylic sheets. I planned to put the 3 SP120 fans on front and to show the white stickers on it, i need a transparent cover for it, so acrylic sheet comes as the first choice, made a honey comb design and then went for the laser cutting for the perfect finish. This was my first time with the laser cutting workshop so had some issues with the files, so did a basic try out and here is the out come...

the front panel
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The TUF logo
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The outcome
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a logo for the top mesh of the cabinet and some light effects on the Front acrylic panel
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## anirbandd (May 24, 2015)

wat the fack..........


what are you doing bro.. im getting a complex here.....................


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## grafreak (May 25, 2015)

Now its time for the pics of some tryouts that I have done inside with some acrylic, to start with,

A psu cover- an acrylic sheet of 4 mm with a matte lamination on it. used the Matte lamination to diffuse the visibility of the things under it, but still to get a hint of the light under it.

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Now its time for the tubing, got some acrylic tubes with G1/4 thread on both ends, so with both side male adapters i started using them with the help of some xspc 45 degree adapters and a bit of flexible white tubes where it was not easy to mount the acrylic tubes.

First I started the loop like from the tube reservoir the pump taking the water and pushing it straight to the CPU block and then from CPU block moving to the Radiator and from Radiator going to the Reservoir. 

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The Tube going to the CPU block was straight, but the tube coming out from the CPU block was at 45 degree. So in the next tryout I changed the direction of the tube carrying water to the CPU block from 90 to 45 degree to match the other tube, and here it how it looked.

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To maintain proper air pressure for the radiator I shifted the SP 120s from the front and put them inside the cabinet, pushing air thru the radiator, and have put 2 corsair ap fans on top to pull the air through the radiator. And planned to put to 140 mm LED fans on the front as intake... so this lead to rework on the front panel acrylic design. And this is what I did to the front panel. 

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## Deleted member 118788 (May 25, 2015)

This is ultimate. 

- - - Updated - - -

I want to steal this rig. Tell me your address.


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## Flash (May 25, 2015)

Geek-With-Lens said:


> I want to steal this rig. Tell me your address.


194.66.82.11


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## Ironman (May 27, 2015)

kalam_gohab said:


> Yeah! Awesome! How did you get sponsorship?



That was my question too.


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## grafreak (May 27, 2015)

Ironman said:


> That was my question too.



thanks a lot every one

lots of mails to Asus PR and submissions of the project plans, in paper as well as in practical... and 4 months of hardwrk and try outs on different things helped to get the *sponsorship*..


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## Ironman (May 28, 2015)

grafreak said:


> Asus PR



PR means ?



grafreak said:


> project plans


Thats my question : 
Project pans of building  Custom Rig ?
or am i missing something?
What is the PLAN exactly besides building custom rig ?


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## rhitwick (May 28, 2015)

Ironman said:


> PR means ?


Public Relations ('representative' which is not mentioned here)



> Thats my question :
> Project pans of building  Custom Rig ?
> or am i missing something?
> What is the PLAN exactly besides building custom rig ?



What you want to do?
How you want to do?
Designs in soft copy
Materials to be used
(may be) target timeframe he wants to finish

I guess so.


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## Ironman (May 28, 2015)

rhitwick said:


> Public Relations ('representative' which is not mentioned here)
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks For the Information

& Wow

I would like to do it someday .


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## grafreak (May 28, 2015)

rhitwick, yes... like that only, first i showed the plans then some works how things can be done, in practical, then they decided to lend me the board. After this i kept on improving on the quality and they decided to give the 980 matrix platinum, wher i had to face a serious challenge of involvmnt of another colour red, had to change the colours of the sleeves of the psu cables, then thought of adding some sticker vinyles on the cover of the card maintaining the streaks on it. this is how things worked out... slowly. .. i have been working on this for last 8 months.


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## bikramjitkar (May 28, 2015)

grafreak said:


> rhitwick, yes... like that only, first i showed the plans then some works how things can be done, in practical, then they decided to lend me the board. After this i kept on improving on the quality and they decided to give the 980 matrix platinum, wher i had to face a serious challenge of involvmnt of another colour red, had to change the colours of the sleeves of the psu cables, then thought of adding some sticker vinyles on the cover of the card maintaining the streaks on it. this is how things worked out... slowly. .. i have been working on this for last 8 months.



Now that's dedication! Do keep updating us on your progress. All the best!


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## anirbandd (Jun 9, 2015)

[MENTION=150581]grafreak[/MENTION] : did you buy the other parts?

and  you get to keep the system??


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## Hrishi (Jun 9, 2015)

This is one damn good build I saw on Digit in a long time.....probably the best. Awesome work!


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## nomad47 (Jun 9, 2015)

That's a lovely rig there mate.


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## grafreak (Jul 21, 2015)

Hi, sorry for the long gap in updating the Build log due to some unavoidable circumstances. 

After the completion with some new additions to the build here are the pictures, looking forward to the valued feedbacks, thanks in advance. 

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After the Snowy effects.... hoping it may become monotonous so added a RGB strip with controller to slowly change the colours ... here are some pictures of how it looks.. in different colours..

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And a video link if you like then do like, post comments there and subscribe. 

*www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEGvam3EeKY

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## amjath (Jul 21, 2015)

Holy cow, awesome build mate
Small personal question, in op you mentioned I reached out to Asus and they sponsored the build/GPU.
What do you do, a product reviewer?


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## bssunilreddy (Jul 21, 2015)

Great Build. Keep it up.


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## bikramjitkar (Jul 21, 2015)

Great build! Btw, did you take the first 2 pics in the Kolkata Maidan?


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## grafreak (Jul 22, 2015)

bikramjitkar said:


> Great build! Btw, did you take the first 2 pics in the Kolkata Maidan?



yes, am from Kolkata, and this build is mainly white based so thought of taking some pics in front of the white marvel of Kolkata- The Victoria memorial......

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amjath said:


> Holy cow, awesome build mate
> Small personal question, in op you mentioned I reached out to Asus and they sponsored the build/GPU.
> What do you do, a product reviewer?



 By profession am a designer in an Event management company, and having a passion for computer hardware I used to take pics of the mobos, gpus and other stuffs and help some of my reviewer friends. Then slowly started doing different stuffs as seen on net, but most of the things are not available in India. So to work with limited resource, i came out with a plan showed them and put some of the plans in actions also, and then they sent me the stuffs.


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## bikramjitkar (Jul 22, 2015)

grafreak said:


> yes, am from Kolkata, and this build is mainly white based so thought of taking some pics in front of the white marvel of Kolkata- The Victoria memorial......



Awesome! Yes, that's the most beautiful part of the city.  I'm from Kolkata too, would love to see that build in person someday and maybe get some modding lessons from you.


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## Arnab boss (Jul 27, 2015)

awesome build and design....good to c someone from kolkata  is gearing for smethng of this manar....best of luck for ur project...


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## grafreak (Nov 14, 2015)

Arnab boss said:


> awesome build and design....good to c someone from kolkata  is gearing for smethng of this manar....best of luck for ur project...



thanks a lot mate, a new project is there, the Metal Hero... its a scratch build. hope you will love to see this one also....


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