The Approach
After giving you the lay of the land in terms of the components, we are going to tell you about the approach to building the shell of the Fastest Cyber Apache. As you already know, the inspiration for the build is the TVS Apache RR 310. It is one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made in India but that… comes with its own challenges as far as we are concerned.
The TVS Apache RR 310 has an aerodynamic design and it is a fully-faired motorcycle. That means that its design is complex and rather difficult to replicate. But it needed to be done and there were a few ways we could have gone about it. So, we got in touch with Deepak Bansal, also known as the ModelArtician.
In order to discuss how we were going to build the Fastest Cyber Apache, we visited him in his temple of creativity, his workshop where he came up with and built some impressive sculptures of things and some larger-than-life-renditions of things that caught his fancy.
Upon reaching the venue, we shared a rough idea of what we planned to do. We already had the concept ready and it was up to him to bring it to life. In our minds, we finalized two approaches; either 3D Printing or Clay Modelling. We also let Deepak know about this idea. The latter was a more hands-on approach. We also had a digital 3D model made, a very detailed one, that we shared with Deepak. The detail of the model had him impressed and gave him a rough direction of what he needed to do.
Now, to make things simple, we could have used the 3D model we got made to print just the parts we needed and get them together. But it is always easier to think about these things than actually do them. The first question that we had and the one that Deepak answered for us was the volume that we were looking at for the shell.
To make it clear, the idea was to hybridize the chassis of a computer and a motorcycle. As in, the chassis of the ASUS TUF GT 501 case was to be used as the chassis of the Fastest Cyber Apache. Looking at the case, Deepak said that the size of the Fastest Cyber Apache was going to be quite close to the real thing. Adapted to our needs, of course, but quite close to the size of the real thing. Fascinating, right?
Knowing that the motorcycle was to be built around the chassis, Deepak realized that being confined to one approach was not going to cut it. But he needed more time to attain a clearer picture of the path that we were going to take and so, we left him with the chassis of our PC case to work with. Once Deepak had everything figured out, it was time to get the actual shell built.
Since something like this has never been done in India, the references we had were far and few. So our process was based on hit and trial. Ultimately, we ended up using a bit of both 3D printing and clay modelling to build the Fastest Cyber Apache. As you can see, it is already starting to take shape and that, at the time, had us excited for what was to follow.
The final result, the actual shell was a bit smaller than the real motorcycle but it was still pretty darn close. But it was unavoidable to get the volume we needed and to preserve the dimensional ratios of the motorcycle intact. We also gave it a test by putting the chassis inside the shell and it was a perfect fit. It had taken us a while to reach the point we had.
Left: Deepak Bansal was responsible for getting the shell made along with finishing touches such as painting and lighting. Right: The man behind the concept, Sundeep Gajjar aka The MotoGrapher was responsible for the conceptualization and direction of this project.
But there was a lot more to be done. From lighting to functional I/O ports on the shell, a whole lot of work was yet to be done. So we left Deepak at it and as he readied the shell, we had some other things to work on in regards to the making of the Fastest Cyber Apache. So, let us move on to that.
The Test Ride
Now that the procedure was laid out, it underwent execution. Now while the shell was being built, we decided to take the components for a test ride by assembling them inside a regular enclosure. Once done, the PC components would come together to give birth to the heart, the life force, the Gaia of the fastest Cyber Apache.
By regular enclosure, we simply meant a conventional case. The ASUS TUF GT 501 is no regular enclosure. It is a wonderful case that has plenty of airflow and looks top-notch with the build quality right up there with the best. The photos you will see here will be of the complete case, fully built up. For the actual build though, only the bare chassis will be used with all the panels stripped off. So, let us build ourselves a PC!
Before we start though, let us quickly go over the components again; AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor, ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming motherboard, ASUS Strix LCII 360 ARBG AIO liquid-cooler, ASUS ROG Thor 1200P PSU, ROG Strix Gaming OC RTX 3080Ti graphics card, XPG Gammix S70 2 TB SSD, and 16GB x 4 Trident Z Neo RAM from G.Skill. For peripherals, we have the ROG Gladius III gaming mouse and ROG Strix TKL keyboard.
The first order of business was to unbox all the components, this process is really satisfying. Especially when the components reach you in such premium packaging. Post that, the first thing to be installed is the processor. Now, the simple thing that we have to keep in mind is that the processor has a golden arrow, a notch of sorts pointing in a direction and you have to match that with the notch or arrow on the processor socket. Then, gently place the processor in the socket and be careful so as not to bend the pins.
Next up, we will install the memory. We have 4 modules of 16 GB each. You have to open the locks on either side of all 4 DIMM slots, match the little notch in the slot with the space in the RAM’s connector, place it in the slot and push down till the locks close themselves. Afterwards, just ensure that all the locks or retainers are in place. And that’s your memory installed.
The next thing that can be installed with the motherboard still out of the case is the SSD so that’s up next. Now, the motherboard comes with heatsinks for the SSD as well so the one from the slot you’re installing in has to be removed. In our case, the SSD came with its own heatsink and we really liked the design of it. With that though, the motherboard’s SSD heatsink could not be installed. With that, we ultimately had to remove the chipset fan shroud as well as the SSD heatsink was an integral part of the whole assembly.
But again, we prioritized the heatsink of the SSD and therefore, ended up removing all the shrouds from the motherboard. The bare chipset fan may upset a few people but to be honest, it looked quite good like that as well because the heatsink was exposed and the chipset fan was exposed, and it gave it more of an industrial look. So, we finally placed the SSD in the M.2 slot, tightened it with the supplied screw and… done.
Next up was the liquid cooler. Now, installing the cold plate/pump combo with the motherboard inside the case can be tricky. So, we decided to do that outside the case as well. But then, it would have been tricky to get the radiator and the fans attached to the case. So, we first installed the radiator and the fan in the front of the chassis. To do that, we removed the two side panels. We left the one pre-installed 140mm fan at the rear as it is. Shifted the three pre-installed 120mm fans in the front to the top as exhaust.
We chose to install the radiator in the front; it may not be ideal but since a motorcycle has one in the front, we had to go with that. But with the mounting, we were able to alleviate most issues associated with mounting the radiator in the front. In simple terms, we ensured that some part of the loop was higher than the pump so that air can’t make its way to the pump and hurt it in the long run.
As it always is, it was a tricky affair but after a bit of elbow grease, we got the radiator mounted. After that, it was time to attach the pump/cold plate to the motherboard. The Strix LC II’s came with pre-applied thermal paste and it uses the default AM4 backplate that comes with AMD motherboards. So, we removed the stock tabs meant for stock AMD coolers, attached the mounting base meant for AM4 to the cold plate, and installed it on the kit. The only thing to ensure here is to tighten the screws alternatingly with one turn for each screw in the first cycle and so on. This is to even the pressure so that the thermal paste spreads evenly across the IHS of the processor.
The next component was the power supply. We loved the ROG Thor 1200P not only because of the aesthetics but because it came with pre-sleeved cables and combs. Once the PSU was seated in the case, it was time to start connecting the cables. 8+4 pin EPS for the CPU, and 24-pin ATX for the motherboard. At this point, we also decided to connect the fans, RGB cables, and case I/O cables to the motherboard as well.
Once all that was done, it was time to install the graphics card. Before doing that though, we pre-routed three 8-pin PCIe power cables into the case. Yes, three of them! Because the 3080Ti we have is a power-hungry monster. Moving on, we lowered the GPU in the PCIe slot, tightened the screws to secure it and connected the three power cables that we had routed. After attaching all the case panels we had removed, the moment of truth was upon us.
We connected the power cable to the wall socket, flipped the switch on the PSU and the ARGB lights of the motherboard came alive. Pressing the power button on the case brought the heart of Fastest Cyber Apache to life. We were all relieved to have had it boot in the first go because when these many components and these many cables come together, the chances of something not being right increase dramatically. Fortunately, that was not the case with us.
One of the best things about it was the RGB. Through the tempered glass side panel of the ASUS TUF GT 501, we could see all our components functioning with all of the RGB glory one could ask for. Now, it was time to install the OS and everything else including ASUS Armoury Crate, the program that would allow us to sync all the lights in our PC.
But for that, we needed to connect it to a monitor. But, here’s another surprise, not just any monitor. Our display was the BenQ V6000 laser projector that projected 120” worth of display real estate from a distance of around 12 inches! Even the screen used for it is not a run-of-the-mill projector screen. It is an ALR or ambient light rejection screen which means it rejects most light from all other angles. So, this combination is capable of coming close to the sharpest of panels you can get!
Moving on, we installed the OS, installed Armoury Crate, got all the lights synced and installed the benchmarks that we needed to run to get an idea of the performance that we had at our disposal. The first benchmark was Cinebench R23 where our Ryzen 9 5950X scored marginally lower than the mighty Threadripper! Then, we ran TimeSpy where both our CPU and the GPU scored insanely high as well considering they were all bone-stock with no manual overclocks applied at all.
In the initial phase, we also mentioned that this build would also be used for gaming whenever we could make some time. Guess who made time for some Forza Horizon 4 right after finishing the build? We did! And boy… with hardware so capable the experience was as smooth as one can get. Coming back to the build, with this we could confirm that the PC or the heart of our Fastest Cyber Apache was ready for deployment. The only thing left to be done after this point was to finalize the build.
The Great Differentiators
All of that must have made it clear that something like this has never been made in India. A few examples do exist in different parts of the world though. But they exist and that is why we wanted to take it a step further and make something that has never been built before… anywhere in the world! It is time to discuss how we did that.
You see, making the shell itself was quite complex. Priming it up to have a functional computer sitting inside it, even more so. Then, in true xBhp fashion, we decided to add a few more layers of complexities that will make the fastest Cyber Apache truly unique.
The first thing, and according to me also one the coolest, was our way to showcase the components. PC components have become really beautiful things to look at in recent times. So, PC cases nowadays come with glass side panels to showcase the components. Initially, we also planned to have a portion of the fairing of our build transparent. But then, that would have been conventional. And that’s one term we try to stay away from whenever possible. Along that train of thought, we wondered, “What if the fairing on both sides opens up like the fancy doors of a supercar?” Light bulb!
Since scissor or suicide door style wouldn’t have worked with the fairing, we went with the gullwing style. The result was absolutely stunning. With the fairings open, the build almost resembled something Batman would use to explore the skies of Gotham. But achieving this result was extremely difficult. The first problem, after precision cutting the fairing part from the shell, was to design a hinge that would serve our purpose. Due to the style and shape of the fairing, a regular hinge wouldn’t have worked.
So while looking for ideas, I found out about Abhishek from Studio 34. He had some ideas that he drew up for us and after multiple interactions, we finally got it right. The next step was even more demanding. We needed the fairing, or as we call them, the doors of our build to be automatic. Any sort of automation, as you may already know, needs a lot of electronics know-how and engineering acumen to get right. Even more so when it has to be used in a build like ours and that too, automatically. So, there was a lot of figuring out to be done.
Ramandeep helped us in taking care of everything electronic; from the actuators to the soundbox to the console.
That’s when The MotoGrapher decided to contact his old friend, Ramandeep. He is an electronics whiz and a genius when it comes to making electronic stuff and making it work. He needed to look at the fairing, the hinge, and the overall build to figure out a way to get this done. And in no time, he did. With the arm that extended via a mechanical actuator that he rigged to be controlled via a remote, he created the lever we needed to lift the fairing of the motorcycle on both sides.
Another thing that Ramandeep did for us was to make the console. We got the RR310’s actual console for this… in a way. The only thing that we had to do in terms of hardware was to replace the display inside the actual console of the Apache RR 310 with a generic display- power via USB and input via HDMI. Once the work on the hardware level was done, it was time to set the display up. For pulling up the various readouts from various sensors in our computer, we used AIDA64. Then, we designed our own custom layout and graphics for our build and et voila.
Another important thing that we simply could not overlook, even in a project like this, is that at xBhp, we put the biker above the bike. So if this build resembles a motorcycle, it had to have a rider! After looking for a lot of options; from mannequins to other shambled messes, we decided to make our own rider… out of wood. It took a little while but we could customize it in accordance with what we needed and also, get the size right according to the clothes we had bought for our little rider.
Finally, once all of that was sorted out, it was time to finalize the shell. Painting, decal work, lighting, and everything else. It was a lot of work but finally, it was ready. Now, let us take a look at how weeks of hard work paid off!
