Project: FrozenFire (MORE!! Watercooling changes Sep 8 05)

All this time and I don't know how I missed this project. Great idea with the dual rads. You will really like the AC bulkheads. The tubing fits "deeper" into the fitting than standard plug and cool connectors.

 

Yeah I just hope they arrive soon. I haven't heard anything from Dan in quite a while

 

I saw the latest thread on the [H] forum where he has his own thread. It appears several people are in the same boat you are in. Hopefully your gear will come in soon.

 

Our buddy "SlowDan".. The only thing I order from him is Aqua-Computer gear, anything else (aka: your fittings) AlphaCool has in stock, and ships quickly. I have yet to try http://www.it-trade.net/
The reason being, my aversion for PayPal.
another option is http://www.wizarddesigns.co.uk/ although he has not been accepting orders for what seems like 6-7 months. I am not sure whats going on with him.
Off topic, but http://www.xport1.com/ has reopened. If your are thinking about a laser etched window, this guy does great work.

 

Yeah in future I'll probably try IT-trade or perhaps the A-C-berlin.de shop which I believe ships internationally unless Dan does something good.

Of course I needed some AC stuff from Dan at the time and wouldn't be able to plumb the loop without it so it doesn't really matter that much. Hopefully my PPCs stuff will come today (it's getting late, but it says out for delivery!) and MNPCtech stuff this Friday. If it does I can complete quite a bit of my PSU work tomorrow since every other school day for me I get out by noon.

The good news is that once the stuff from SNT comes in, that's all I need for watercooling unless something comes up that I'm not prepared for. And considering how much planning I've done, I'll be quite irritated if that happens!

 

Well as luck wouldn't have it, the fools at UPS managed to miss my house today with the PPCs stuff. It wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't see them drop off a package at my neighbor's house.

Still, I should be able to do some PSU and misc case work over the weekend. The MNPCtech stuff should come in as well. Perhaps with a bit of luck I can order the 2x 6800GTs, Newegg has the eVGA ones for ~$375 a piece after instant rebate goodness.

/edit

As it turns out, Aqua Computer is soon realeasing a Cuplex XT block. I dunno when it'll be available, but with any luck I can get one of those and slap the misc watercooling parts I have around on an old(er) XP-M system that's going to no use. All I'd really need are some fittings for it, but that's another project for another day.


A bit more info on the block: SNT forum thread

/edit2 - I finally got a job Now I should be able to actually afford this. Nothing too fancy but it's a source of income. Go go go for part-time at Dunkin Donuts

 

"SlowDan" LOL. IT Trade is the way to go. No muss, no fuss. You buy, he ships. Dan is a good guy I just couldn't wait anymore.

 

Well unless Dan really speeds things up, I will be buying my future AC stuff from IT-trade or direct if available. My lack of speaking German doesn't make it easier but oh well.

You (or someone) said that you have to email them about setting up an account to the US right? Because I think it was them where I didn't remember seeing US on the dropdown list for countires.

In other news, my PPCs stuff came in. Nothing much, but the $5 molex grab bags are SO worth it and then some. I got about 25 right-angle molexes (white, but oh well), 2 ATX, 1 EATX, a few right-angle SATA and some misc normal molexes. I've since slapped on the PCIE power plugs which I'll show on the weekend with my MNPCtech stuff. I also swapped the mismatched rear 80mm fans for a pair of SilenX's. I've also got that second optical drive covered finally with a stealthing bay. Shame newegg finally carries them after I ordered it from PPCs but oh well. I also got one of the Zalman clip on mics, not that it has the slightest bit of relavence to the project.

I'd say to expect an update sat-sun.

I'm seeing the thermaltake water temp monitors popping up too... I'm kinda tempted to get one. Not sure, but it does at least look to use G1/8 fittings, same with the flowmeter. Functionality-wise they'd be great (well I know the water's going by the Aquajet) but integrating them would be tricky.

 

I believe AC Berlin requires a bank-transfer of funds to order. I have no idea whats involved in doing this ( sounds Painful ).
SlowDan posted a message today on his SNT forum. He as yet to even place the Aqua-Computer order!!
We are looking at a April shipment (perhaps April Fool's Day, that would be fitting)..Just Great.

 

Yeah I wasn't thrilled about that either. He had definately said in a different thread (2/22/05) that something was already ordered so with luck we've just misread what he posted.

 

Things really don't look good at SNT. One thing for sure is that Dan has been consistent.

Ordering from IT Trade is as simple as sending an email detailing the items you desire and sending in the specified amount via paypal. There is no language barrier! Shipping via DHL will save you even more money and you should have your items within two weeks. Given Modsquad's statement about IT Trades availability I really don't understand why you (Firehed) don't have all of the items you paid for.

I hope you get your things in soon as it appears your project is coming along nicely.

 

Thanks a lot Sho, I'll keep that in mind. Dan is sure consistant... just not in a good way I wanna try sending out some Pro Modding ads locally and see what interest I'd get. I need to finish my mod off first to show it in the ad What I should do is set up a fake version of the webstore I'd do if I were to set up my own SNT and have people place "real" orders (payment type would be COD so they wouldn't really happen) to see what interest would be in which parts, and then place some massive order from IT.

And technically speaking, the way Dan runs SNT is illegal, as are most online shops if my understanding is right. You're not supposed to be billed until your order has shipped. Of course Newegg does the same thing and I'd be a tiny bit pissed *understatement* if they got shut down for that reason! Maybe that's just for mail-order things or retail shops and doesn't apply to online stores though.

In any case I should have an update ready for tomorrow. My PPCs and MNCPtech stuff is in, but unfortunately Bill misread my invoice (actually it printed wrong but same effect) and I only got one of my four CF vinyl sheets He'll send them out on monday but I still didn't get to do as much as I'd have liked to. I did "pull a modsquad" by CFing one of the optical drives... I just hope I have enough to do the PSU, other optical, HDD rack and at least the visible side of the 5.25" rack. I may end up needing to just order more, in fact I have exactly $4.49 in my paypal account which is the cost of another sheet. I just sent him an email to see if I can add another in.

It turns out that the vinyl sticks even better than I thought... you can see (not so much in pictures though) where the glue that held on the labels raises up the vinyl a tenth of a millimeter. Oh well, most of the drive won't be seen anyways.

I do have ideas for a couple other places I may want to use it... but it depends how things work out. Doing the PSU will really suck, since I'll have to cut out about 300 hexagons once I apply the stuff. If you read the Bit article on some custom PC-60 setup for some game they applied a camo-style vinyl film to the case and had to cut out all 200 of the front intake dot holes. And hexagons are a lot more annoying to deal with. I may try and improvise a workaround but I don't really want to take shortcuts if it would compromise the final quality.

 

For the hexagons maybe you could rig up a "cookie cutter" type die in the shape and size of the hexagons so then all you would have to do is go through and punch out the holes instead of having to cut them all out. Of course that might end up being more work than just cutting with an Xacto but it's just an idea.

 

That's a good idea but probably more trouble than it's worth. I was thinking just painting the casing black first and then cut out a big rectangle of vinyl instead of all the holes. It would leave me with a bit more to use for whatever but like I said I don't know if the result would be as good.

Hmm... maybe I'll bondo up the kinda PS2-effect on the pumps and CF them too, now that I think of it. I'm not sure if that may give them heat issues though... it looks like they're set up in a vent-ish way but I never noticed them getting warm.

 

Are you talking about a area of the PSU just painted black w/ the CF around it? I think it would mess-up the carbon fiber-look..Poke the holes (@ least give it try)! Find the (more/less) correct size Allen wrench, that should work.
I like the look of the two C-System pumps as-is, but perhaps you could do-up something with acrylic (just an idea)..

 

Uuh nice...

 

Yeah I figured it won't look as good so I'll probably just try and do it the "right" way. I just hope it sticks to the PSU well enough to not get torn off while poking out all of those things. I may think about some acrylic setup for the pumps, I'm not sure yet.

I talked to Bill at MNPCtech and managed to get the three 12x15" sheets that didn't get sent to a pair of 24x15" which got back in stock for the extra 4.49. So I should have enough and it'll be a bit more flexible as well.

Unfortunately my dad is in Japan right now on business so I can't really get in touch with him to order what's left of what I need. In slightly better news, I found futurlec.com which seems to have prices better than Allelectronics on most of the stuff I need plus a few things that I could make use of. The only real problem they don't carry ANY bulk wire! I was going to get some 100' spools for whatever in 18 and 22ga red/black/yellow plus some speaker wire (for the z5500's I want, apparently they no longer have fixed connections according to Newegg reviews)

 

PSU and DVD burner work

Well for my 3000th post, I thought I'd give you all an update on FrozenFire!

Yeah, holy crap, that's a lot of typing.


The pair of PCI Express +12v power connectors I got from Performance PCs. These will hook up to the dual 6800GTs I'll get.


And the back of the connectors. They use the same pins as the ATX connector. It's hard to see in the picture but there are some very small numbers showing what is what (same on ATX and "P4" connectors as well)


Stupidly enough, I never grabbed a great pic of the "finished" cable, but it's not sleeved yet anyways. It's in that pile of wire under the bottom hard drive at the moment. Not really shown in this pic is that I did a tiny bit of work on the SATA power line, adding in a right-angle power plug for one of the drives. I plan to stick a total of six(!) on there so I'll be ready for as many hard drives as I can throw in there. I just hope that wouldn't overload the wiring...


Here's what you might find in a $5.00 molex grab bag. I got about 25 right-angle molexes (white, but still useful), two ATX, one EATX, a few sata power and some other misc stuff. Obviously the gloves and binders weren't included. Yes I need to clean my room. Again.


And now for some DVD burner modding action. The drive pictured here is a Lite On 16x Dual layer +/- burner. I like the Lite-on drives because they're about 3/4" shorter than most drives and very well priced. This one was only about $60... even not that long ago my 4x Lite On burner had just dropped below the $100 mark when I got it.

Yes, this was inspired entirely by Modsquad and his project Black Narcissus. He decided to chrome his drive instead but I loved the look.

The victim...


The carbon fibre vinyl sheet I picked up from MNPCtech. As I mentioned earler, a mishap in shipping them resulted in me only getting one of the four I ordered, but I talked to Bill and he was very helpful about it, the remaining sheets will ship out on monday so I can be sure of having more to do next weekend...


My heat gun, the drive and vinyl sheet. As it turns out the heat gun wasn't really that necessary, but I don't really care, it's better to have it and not need it than the other way around.


And a razor blade and old student ID. The ID is my "credit card" to act as a squegee (sp?) and keep the vinyl pressed down evenly and without air bubbles. The blade is to poke tiny holes in it if necessary to get out air bubbles if the turn up. It came in very handy for the stupid indentations around the drive, which serve no purpose but came out fairly well considering this was my first time trying something like this.


Sorry for the lack of progress pics on the drive itself, but I cared more about the result being good than getting a pic of doing it. It came out fairly well, and anywhere that seemed a bit off shouldn't really be visible anyways considering the placement of the drive.




Some more finished shots.




And the drive installed in the case. I honestly thought it would have been a much tighter fit but it wasn't that hard to get back in. After I remembered to poke holes in the vinyl for the screw holes... my Audigy drive however really doesn't want to go in the case at all and can be held in by friction alone easily. I figured it would have been more like that. Whatever, it works and came out moderately well. When I do the other stuff (second burner, PSU, HDD rack perhaps and the 5.25" rack) it'll probably come out better since I have a better idea of how to work with the material.

 

That looks awesome !!! To be honest, I can't see any thing wrong with it (by that I mean that you don't need practice). Looks great, keep up the good work.

 

lookin good