Who wants an iMac when you may have a full-on water-cooled mini-ITX rig mounted to the again of your monitor, like an iMac gaming PC? PC modder Björn Höjing Burle reveals us what you are able to do with a monitor for those who actually put your thoughts to it, with this gaming monitor PC, which he inbuilt response to his spouse asking for an iMac. It’s referred to as iPredator Powder, and it includes a customized aluminum chassis, in addition to some wonderful tubing bends.
Due to our quickly rising PC constructing Fb web page, we’ve seen many customized gaming PCs, from mods based mostly on current case designs to scratch PC builds. You possibly can even submit yours for consideration proper right here. Now let’s hear from PC modder Björn on how they made this water-cooled monitor gaming PC construct.
“It was an harmless sufficient request: ‘I need an iMac’,” he says. “My spouse uttered these phrases to me simply after I returned from Dreamhack Jönköping the place I’d hoped to exhibit my first try at a correct mod.
“Nonetheless, a blown motherboard the day earlier than the competitors scuppered my probabilities, so as a substitute I used to be on the lookout for a brand new venture.
As you possibly can think about, I panicked a bit upon listening to these phrases however quickly realized that possibly this iMac factor wasn’t such a foul concept. In fact, no precise Mac would ever cross my doorstep, however the concept of constructing a pc in or on a display? That I might get behind. In spite of everything, there’s loads of house on ultrawide screens.”
From concept to idea
“As soon as the thought had taken maintain, I began drawing up concepts in SketchUp for Internet. Within the meantime, I saved my eyes open for appropriate screens with sturdy sufficient stands, and ultimately settled on the Acer Predator X34P, a 34-inch IPS display with a 3,440 x 1,440 decision.
“I made a decision to go along with a design in step with our residence ornament, which is reasonably industrial however nonetheless minimalistic and white. The colours I went for have been black and white paired with brushed aluminum. Though I’d hardly ever see the bottom of the monitor, the geek in me determined to go along with an inside-out design. I needed to know that every one these stunning elements, pipes and lights are out within the open.”
{Hardware} decisions
“At coronary heart I’m a gamer. My PC is used 50% for gaming, 2-3% for photograph enhancing, video rendering, and workplace work, and the opposite 47-48% of the time I spend rebuilding and upgrading it! Thus, I wished high-end gaming elements.
“I noticed that even the bottom of a 34-inch monitor wouldn’t match a whole ATX system, so smaller kind issue elements have been the clear selection. I already had the motherboard and CPU – a Ryzen 7 2700 and Asus B450-I from my earlier PC – however nonetheless wanted the PSU. I additionally wanted all of the elements for an entire customized water-cooling loop, a GPU riser, sleeved cables, some thick aluminum sheeting on which to mount the PC, and naturally an Acer Predator X34P.”
Bits and items start to trickle in
“With the varied elements I wanted beginning to arrive, it was time to order the aluminum plate on which every little thing can be mounted. I wasn’t certain how thick it wanted to be, so I mentioned it fairly a bit with a buddy and fellow modder, Laine, who advised me that it didn’t have to be thicker than 3mm. By some means I misinterpret this and ended up ordering a 1000 x 500 x 5mm aluminum plate. Not solely would this make machining the steel tougher, it was costlier too. Good!
“Proper after that I discovered the monitor I wished, used, for an honest value. With among the key elements at hand I started measuring and designing. I deliberate to make a CAD file of the aluminum plate, with the concept to ship it off to get laser-cut or CNCed for an ideal end. Nonetheless, I overestimated my 15-year-old CAD expertise and after a four-month wrestle, I opted for a extra hands-on resolution. I summoned all of the elements I had, put them down on the slab of steel and bought out a whiteboard marker.
“From right here I simply drew out every part on the plate, marked out the screw holes I wanted, et voila! The draw back to this strategy is that I now needed to make each single gap and minimize myself, which additionally meant that every one the minimize edges can be jagged and wish a variety of cleansing up. I additionally realized it might be a while earlier than I’d get to make one other try if I failed, as I had already blown my finances.”
Deep cuts
“I spent one other month revising my plan earlier than I lastly discovered the center to begin reducing. I used a drill, jigsaw and a handsaw, and it took an excellent 5 or 6 hours simply sawing out the bigger holes, and one other ten to 12 hours to drill and faucet all of the screw holes.
“Fairly just a few noticed blades and drills went to their graves throughout this course of and all of this work had given me much more work. I had taped over the place I used to be sawing, to guard the floor, however apparently I didn’t do a adequate job, as as soon as I eliminated the tape, it revealed scratches all around the floor.
“The one possibility was to set to with my beltsander. Plenty of elbow grease and time later, the plate had a beautiful brushed end. In some ways, the entire above was the simple bit, as I nonetheless had two large issues to unravel. The primary is how would I be capable to bend 5mm thick aluminum. The second, how on earth would I handle to suit the plate to the monitor and stand?
“The primary was the quickest to unravel, although it took some analysis. The native sheet steel firm didn’t have the instruments to bend a 5mm-thick plate nevertheless it pointed me within the route of those that might. I’d calculated the required angle to be six levels and, as luck would have it, that was the largest bend they may do with such a thick plate.
“The second downside took extra time. I wished to utilize the VESA mount on the monitor stand, however there’s just one mount, and each the plate and the monitor to connect to it. After just a few months of sketches, I determined the perfect resolution was to detach the VESA mount from the stand and fasten the aluminum plate behind it. The monitor then attaches to the VESA mount as regular.
“In the course of the months it had already taken to get up to now, I befriended a man working at Trigono AB, a Swedish PC elements distributor. This friendship bought me my first sponsors, within the type of CableMod and Thermal Grizzly. A candy set of sleeved cables and a variety of thermal pastes and thermal pads confirmed up at my door not lengthy after.”
Going with the stream
“I nonetheless lacked fairly just a few elements for the water cooling, and I needed to cough up the money and order fittings and a stream indicator from Bykski. Fortunately it wasn’t that costly and the monetary ache was lessened by a modder buddy promoting me a brand-new Thermaltake Pacific W5 CPU block on a budget.
“I added within the new elements and, to my shock, it went very easily, your complete course of taking lower than half-hour. Now, for the primary time in over a yr, I used to be 100% sure this may work.
“I nonetheless thought one thing was lacking on the construct although. It was all black, white and brushed aluminum, as I’d deliberate, so I couldn’t put my finger on it. I requested my spouse, who in fact has impeccable style in the case of residence ornament, and he or she took a fast look and mentioned, ‘You want one other materials someplace, maybe leather-based, and the monitor’s colour doesn’t match the remaining’.
“She was proper, as ever – leather-based can be good for breaking apart the chilly look of the construct. However the place so as to add it? I pulled out just a few outdated belts and toyed round with them, inserting them in every single place to determine what may work. Finally, I noticed that I might resolve my PSU-mounting challenge as nicely through the use of the leather-based to strap the PSU in place.
“As for the monitor, I shortly tore it to items utilizing pliers, razors and screwdrivers. I then floor down the plastic with 80-grit then 120-grit sandpaper then sprayed on a layer of undercoat adopted by three layers of white topcoat. To complete, the floor was knocked again with 1200-grit sandpaper earlier than sealing it with clear coat. For the stand, I stripped off the paint with paint remover then I used 80-grit paper to provide it a brushed look.
“As quickly because the final elements for water cooling arrived at my door, I went off to the native ironmongery store to choose up some chromed copper pipes. Then I made the 100km drive to my buddy EGXI-Modified who had promised to provide me a crash course in pipe bending. EGXI has been a modder for nearly 15 years and his day job is plumbing – I do know none nearly as good as him at bending pipes, that’s for sure.
“Fifteen beers apiece later, I had constructed my first customized loop, on the bottom of my 34-inch monitor. I might by no means have discovered a few of these bends had it not been for EGXI. Particularly the one you possibly can see going from the stream indicator, behind the monitor stand to the GPU.”
Spreading the phrase
“Throughout this venture my spouse advised I begin a Fb and Instagram web page for my passion, as a substitute of littering my non-modding buddies’ feed with photos of my progress. In order that’s what I did.
“After I drove residence from EGXI I had 80 followers on my Fb web page, which I used to be fairly proud of. The day after, I took just a few photos of the construct on my kitchen desk, posted them and went off for a late-night assembly at work. Within the two hours I used to be in that assembly, I had gone from 80 followers to 200 followers. That saved going for the following week till I reached over 1,000 followers – it was a tremendous feeling.
“At this level I bought in contact with MSI a couple of future venture, they usually shortly determined that I couldn’t have an AMD CPU and B450 board for a high-end gaming rig, and {that a} swap to the blue staff was required. So, per week earlier than its public launch, essentially the most stunning motherboard I’ve owned arrived at my door. The MSI MEG Z490-I Unify was the right black coronary heart for my construct. I shortly offered my outdated motherboard and Ryzen CPU, utilizing that cash to get my palms on an Intel Core i9-10900K, which I might overclock.”
Classes realized
“I’m very pleased with what I completed with this construct. In hindsight, I want I‘d deliberate even higher for cable administration and chosen a thinner plate, however I really like the consequence.
“This construct has executed lots for me. I’ve realized make customized loops, construct a ‘case’ from scratch and work with steel. It additionally led me to begin up my very own firm, Inventive Options For Avid gamers (CSFG), along with three different tech lovers. We’re making an attempt to convey new forms of chassis to the market by way of crowdfunding.
“My subsequent two tasks are sponsored by MSI, the primary is in CSFGs second prototype chassis, the White Crow, which is a wall-mount design that includes customized distribution plates and pump tops. The second is for the streamer GhazzyTV, a Path of Exile-themed construct with a Kolink chassis.”
iPredator Powder monitor PC specs
- Weight: 26kg
- Measurement (mm): 830 x 170 x 380 (W x D x H)
- Construct time: ~ 250 hours
- Sponsors: Cablemod, MSI, Thermal Grizzly
- Case: Scratch-built 5mm thick aluminum plate + Acer Predator X34P monitor stand and monitor
- PSU: Corsair SF750 Platinum
- Motherboard: MSI MEG Z490-I Unify
- GPU: Nvidia Palit GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ProGaming overclocked to 2135MHz
- CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K with all cores overclocked to five.2GHz at 1.34V
- Reminiscence: G.Talent Trident Z 3600MHz CL16 overclocked to 4000MHz CL14 (Samsung B-Die)
- Storage: 2x Samsung 960 Evo 500GB, Samsung 850 Evo 250GB
- Cables: CableMod Professional sleeves Black/white PSU/SATA cables
- Cooling: Phobya Nickel 150ml reservoir, Thermaltake Pacific W5 CPU block, EK Velocity copper GPU block, EK D5 pump, Revo Plexitop RGB sleeved cables, 2 x EK Coolstream 240mm PE radiators, Phanteks PWM fan controller, Bykski RGB Plexi stream indicator, Bykski hardline gunmetal fittings, 4 x Corsair ML120 Professional white LED
- Lighting: Asus ROG controller, 4 x 300mm and a pair of x 600mm Asus lighting strips
Good work, Björn – what a hero. We admire your endurance, in addition to your expertise – that is an unimaginable piece of labor. Comparisons to the iMac apart, the customized chassis is wonderful, and it’s improbable to get the spec of a high-end gaming PC in the identical footprint as your monitor.
This submit initially appeared on Customized PC, which has been masking wonderful setups for over 20 years and is now a part of . Be part of our 500k member Fb group to debate this construct.
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