Q - Aston Martin

Cre8 Modding

Active member
Ok, guys and girls its time for a new build, and this time around this will be one that combines a couple of passions of mine, cars, and of course, PCs.


I’ve grown up with posters on the wall of cult cars throughout the years and now, at 37, my passion for cars still remains as strong as ever. I was a mechanic in my early working days, following the likes of the BTCC, Endurance Racing, Aussie V8s, and so on, and in all those years, Aston Martin has held a special place with me as my dream motor. Be it the DB5, a DB7, a DB9, or even their track versions, they are all wonderful works of art.

Aston obviously are synonymous with James Bond and that’s partly where these paths will cross. Named Q, this project will hopefully bring together the sleek and the powerful, the suave, and the underestimated. This won’t be one that goes balls out with mods but will sit modestly with people admiring it for a distance, just like an Aston.

Q be quiet! then (see what I did there?), once again they are more than happy to support my work and the canvas for this will once again be a Pure Base 500 DX. It’s not the first time I have used this case for a build, in fact, it’s the third, with both previous projects doing really well for all my partners and being really well received by the community. It really is a lovely little case, built well, and with the improvements over the original Pure Base, its perfect for this build. I did debate a few other cases but this one really is a little gem.

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The theme will be all black with brushed aluminium accents coming into play in a few areas, this will also be my first all air-cooled system. be quiet! are sending over a Dark Rock Pro 4 and I will get pictures out of that as soon as it lands. Other components are yet to be confirmed but we do have 2x Seagate Barracuda 120 SSDs 1Tb going into this. With the front-facing SSD tray in the Pure Base 500 DX, I will be stripping down the paint and polishing up these drives to accent the build, some tasteful Seagate branding will be also be applied.

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The focal point though will be a custom 3D printed Aston Martin logo going into the PSU shroud. I’ve already toyed with a couple of sizes and it’s almost ready to start cutting up the case. This will be prepped, painted, inset, and backlit with a frosted panel to really set off the build.

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I also have carbon cables coming from Michael at To The Wire Mods and Michael at Mayhems will be laser cutting me a one off plaque. Aston Martins come with a simple plaque under the hood and thats an elememtn I want to transfer over, so cant wait to see how this turns out, once he has time to do it for me.

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So that’s the project announced with plenty more to confirm in terms of hardware. The launch of the 30XX cards I missed out on, a FE 3080 would have been perfect and tied in with the theme so if anyone can help me out there then please do let me know. I am hoping ASUS get back to me as a Hero Crosshair would be a perfect fit for this one and I am waiting on AMD to send over a batch of 3700X CPUs so that may well be that sorted out too.

I have a few other projects on the go that I really need to get finished but this one really will be a great-looking build if it turns out as expected.
 

Cre8 Modding

Active member
An FE 3080 would be perfect for this one, really would tie in with the colors and theme but I have no chance of getting one. Not sure what to go with yet, I have an EVGA 2070 that I could modify the backlit panel on the shroud or see what comes with the new AMD cards. I've got a couple of PowerColor cards too but they are reserved for other builds. Pretty sure we will be going AMD and X570, its Aston as it deserved something higher-end :)
 

Cre8 Modding

Active member
So 2020 has been something of a forgettable year in terms of projects but I can finally bring a little update on Q. Given the time I have had on my hands to think about the aesthetics of this, I have decided on a little change in direction in terms of the mods.

After consideration, I am moving away from a 3D printed Aston Martin logo on the PSU shroud, to a completely new Alcantara covered shroud with an embroidered Aston Martin logo. This has now all been designed, the fabric is here and I am just waiting to have it embroidered. I think it is the right thing to do and will give the build a classier feel. There’s more on that coming in a later update but for today let’s take a look at a couple of parts that have arrived.

be quiet! were kind enough to send over an all-new Dark Power Pro 12 1200W and a Dark Rock Pro 4 to complete their input alongside the Pure base 500 DX. This will be an all air-cooled build, something that weirdly taking time to adjust to after my previous all water-cooled efforts.

I recently covered the Dark Power Pro 12 in an unboxing video and it’s a fantastic piece of kit. It’s suitably Aston Martin, sleek, elegant, and powerful, but maybe after all, and now seeing it in person, too much for this build. We shall see, I have options here granted but it just feels a shame to hide away all that perfection.

The Dark Rock Pro 4 will get its own unboxing coverage, again, sleek, elegant, and powerful. It’s a cooler I have wanted to use for a while but never had the build to hand to do it justice.

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I’m still waiting on some more hardware to arrive so it’s not time quite to start building quite yet but, every build needs that final piece of the jigsaw, and given this is Aston Martin, it has to be just the right piece too.

Now, since Aston Martin is proud to label each and every single vehicle, I thought I would do the same. This has been a long time coming, I posted the design in the first part of this build log, and it’s finally a reality,. I have had the design ready for months but was struggling to get it lasered or CNC`ed. Michael at Mayhems was able to do it on his fiber laser, well that was until it broke and so Alex Banks came to the rescue. Bit-Techs main man was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule and came up with, well, perfection. This plaque will adorn the front of the Dark Rock Pro 4 for that extra little touch.

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I’m hoping to have this done before Christmas, the CPU was supposed to ship 16th of October but AMD has now confirmed it will be the start of December. For the motherboard, ASUS are kindly sending over something that’s very Bond, a Dark Hero VIII and I am not sure what to go with GPU wise, I think maybe a 2080 Super may be well suited to this one. I can get the drives finally stripped of paint and brushed up with the new logos applied and then it will be a case of getting everything fitted.

Il keep everything up to date as soon as I can, until then, stay safe all.
 
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