Overview / Usage

Why The Green Machine?

Well apart from having green in my name it also represents the concept that being environmentally friendly is not just about cutting back, but also about increasing efficiency and performance.

Because if you can do the same tasks quicker with reduced power consumption, like Intel does with each new generation of technology, then that is good for the environment.

Also with increased computing power comes better AI, which can result in better solutions for the environment in many areas.

The first thing you will notice in my mod is the trees.

The trees are alder trees, representing the Alder lake CPUs given to the seven finalists.

On both the left and right hand panels there are 8 trees, giving a total of 16 to represent the 16 cores of the i9-12900K.

4 big and 4 small on each, representing what is often called the big/little architecture of performance and efficiency cores that Intel has brought to x86 with it's 12 gen processors.

Also you have the trunks on all trees representing the core strength of the CPU.

On both the left and right hand panels there are also 3d printed Intel Logos.

The mod uses 3d printing extensively to represent Intel's Foveros advanced 3D face-to-face die stacking packaging process technology.

Left Hand Panel

The trees on this panel are winter trees representing Intel's latest CPUs ability to scale down to light workloads (i.e. no leaves) with efficiency cores generating less heat.

At the bottom there are blue LEDs to represent the water themed names in Intel technology such as Alder Lake.

At the top there are RGB LEDs changing colour between green and purple to simulate the Aurora Borealis and Intel's Aurora supercomputer.

On the cooler display I have a looping Aurora Borealis video.

You also see a meteor representing Intel next generation Meteor lake CPUs.

You will notice that the changing LEDs behind give a look like it is actually on fire.

At the top of the panel there is a night sky scene representing Intel aiming for the stars with it's technology.

Right Hand Panel

The trees on this panel are summer/spring trees representing Intel's latest CPUs ability to handle heavy workloads (i.e. heavy with leaves) using performance cores only when needed.

On this panel you see a velociraptor peeking out behind a tree representing the upcoming Raptor Lake.

You will notice that the Intel logo on this panel are backlit with blue LEDs to complement the lighting on the opposite panel.

At the top of the panel there is a day sky scene with cotton wool clouds representing the sky being the limit with Intel technology.

Front Panel

There are various logos on this panel made to look metal to represent the strength and solid performance you get from Intel technology.

The various logos represent the latest technology that Intel are bringing to the market, such as, the 12th gen CPU i9-12900K, the Z690 chipset, PCIe 5.0, Thunderbolt and 5.2Ghz boost clock.

As well as this you see 24 wires representing the 24 total threads that the i9-12900K gives you.

Top Panel

There are 3 red ribbons on the top being blown by the fans that are cooling the radiator.

These not only represent the hot air being expelled from the system, but also represents Intel's upcoming RibbonFET transistor architecture.

Underneath

Although not easy to see, just like the PowerVia Interconnects that it represents, there is a interconnected pattern surrounded by blue LEDs representing the power delivery underneath the computer just like the Interconnects under the transistor layer in Intel's latest technology.

Accessories

Also in keeping with the Aurora RGB lighting, the keyboard has it's own custom designed Aurora lighting that I programmed in Corsairs iCue.

The mouse also has a pulsing Aurora style RGB lighting.

Methodology / Approach

This was my first ever PC mod.

I completed it entirely on my own with no outsourcing of any of the work.

As I said in my original entry, I have assembled basic PCs in the past, but never worked with water cooling, AIOs or RGB lighting.

I didn't foresee any real difficulties as I am technology proficient, working as a programmer and dabbling in Arduino projects, I am also good at DIY.

And for the most part it went as expected and gave me the opportunity to pick up a few new tricks.

The vast majority of the mods were 3d printed and glued on to the case.

This didn't go as smoothly as I had planned because the 3d models were so much more complex that anything I had printed before.

This caused me a few issues.

Firstly, I was unable to split the models up into the smaller parts I needed to fit on my 3d Printer without generating a massive amount of geometry errors. I solved this by baking a heightmap of the models then splitting it into tiles in Gimp and finally generating 3d tiles using Curas import images feature.

Secondly, my planned print quality was too low, I had to increase it to get acceptable prints. This in turn massively increased the print time to around 5 times my original estimate. It's safe to say I would not have made it if the deadline had not been changed.

Thirdly, my 3d printer is a small hobbyist printer from 2017 with an unheated plastic sheet for a bed (meaning adhesion and warping is an issue, especially when printing to it's max dimensions).

It was not made for this kind of abuse (50 tiles for the trees alone). It broke down 3 times, each time with a different issue that I had to diagnose and repair. This was not straightforward as there are no easy replacements, so I had to fabricate some myself and my soldering iron decided to die at the same time.

I also lost two days because the MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI motherboard I received was dead on arrival, so I spent time trying to get it working and then time rebuilding with the tomahawk board.

Despite the difficulties and delays, much of the build turned out better than I had expected. There's always the fear that what you can imagine and render in something like blender won't be achievable in reality. I think I managed to get amazingly close.

The trees on the right hand panel were printed with green glow in the dark filament. This gives a nice effect from the LEDs in the logo backlighting when it's switched off at night. You can see the logo silhouetted by the glow. Sadly I was not able to get a usable photo of this.

I had an idea to print the uv unwrapped images onto thin paper and glue them on top of the 3d printed parts to get the actual physical textures on the trees.

I didn't have the time to try this out due to the delays I had, and had to resort to my backup plan and paint them instead.

However I think this worked to my advantage as it gave the final result a more artistic finish.

The water element on the right hand panel, the meteor and both sky elements at the top of the panels were printed on photo paper and glued on.

The raptor was 3d printed with the trees and painted.

The 3D printed text and logos on the front of the case were painted with chrome spray paint to look metallic.

I split the Intel logos into separate 3d printed parts.

The extruded parts were printed in vase mode to speed up the print time and the letters were printed flat to be glued together at the end.

This allowed me to do the back lighting for the logo on the right hand panel.

The blue LEDs were connected to a spare fan header on the motherboard.

The RGB LEDs for the Aurora effect were connected to a JRainbow header.

The threads on the front panel were made from coloured coated wire that I use in my Arduino projects.

I forgot to attach these wires before I made the video and took my main pictures, but you will see I added an additional photo showing the completed front panel with the wires included.

The pattern representing the interconnects was 3d printed in glow in the dark filament which continues to glow after the PC has been shut down thanks to the surrounding LEDs.

The ribbon for the RibbonFET was meant to be actual ribbon glued onto the magnetic filter on the top of the case, but this proved to be too heavy for the airflow so I had to use tissue and also move the fans above the radiator to sit underneath the top panel and remove the the magnetic filter to get any lift.

This didn't really have any effect on cooling.

It's been a new experience for me and I am pretty proud of what I have achieved as a first time modder.

Technologies Used

Seasonic FOCUS PX-850 Power Supply

SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD

ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 Video Card

Silent Base 802 White

CORSAIR K68 RGB Gaming Keyboard

Logitech G502 HERO Gaming Mouse

MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360

MAG Z690 Tomahawk (It was meant to be the MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI, but the board I received was dead on arrival)

2 x 16 GB

Intel Core i9 12900K

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Additional Items

Adhesive RGB Light Strip

Adhesive Blue LED Light Strip

Acrylic Paints

Chrome spray paint

Electronics wire

Sheet of Perspex

White filament for 3D printing

Black filament for 3D printing

Green glow in the dark filament for 3D printing

Photo printer paper

Glue

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Software

Blender for all 3d modelling

Gimp to cut heightmaps into tiles

Cura to convert heightmaps into 3d tiles and slice the 3d parts into g-code

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Tools

Inkjet printer

3d printer

Wire cutters

Paint brush

Soldering iron

Other links

• Aurora Exascale Supercomputer to Advance Clean Fusion Research
• Shows the i9-12900k using less power in many benchmarks than previous generation Intel CPUs as well as beating Ryzen parts especially in single threaded
• Introducing RibbonFET and PowerVia | Intel Technology showing future power savings and performance improvements