Case Mod the blue line - Team Sky Pro Cycling - NZXT Switch 810 - Update #11 (June 18th, 2013)

[slacka]

Originally Posted by XNine

Ha! Thank you for the compliments I think your build is looking great so far, very well planned out. It looks like you're doing quite a bit of metal work, and I always love seeing in-depth and robust modding. It really makes me feel good during the day to see someone being so creative!

Would you mind if I posted this build to our Reddit and FB pages?

Sure, go for it! Although I hope it'll look far better than it does now, when it's finished!

[jrs77]

Never understood the excitement for cycling, allthough I used to do Triathlons myself. Seeing the professional cyclists being nothing than a drug-train for the last decades.

Anyways, the case looks good so far and I like the colour-scheme.

[slacka]

Originally Posted by jrs77

Never understood the excitement for cycling, allthough I used to do Triathlons myself. Seeing the professional cyclists being nothing than a drug-train for the last decades.

Anyways, the case looks good so far and I like the colour-scheme.

Having enjoyed the excitement of racing myself, I can appreciate what the pros do on tv even if you can't believe everything you see. As you say the results of the last 15-20 years are hard to stomach for anyone, but after watching riders like Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins (whose athletic progressions can easily be tracked over the years), you have to hold out some hope and belief that things are moving in the right direction now otherwise we might as well all give up on watching professional sport all together....

As for the case, I follow the only British team in the World Tour peleton and so the theme and colours were a gimme really.

[Elenos]

This seems to be a popular colour scheme for the NZXT 810 switch! or just for anything in general. It looks really nice so far - loving the white carbon effect. Will stay tuned for more!

[slacka]

@Elenos - Thanks. I'm sure when it's finished some people might think there's too much white carbon effect, but for me that's the look I want as that's how it is on my bike with it's white carbon frame....

Right, on to the new update. First off I had to re-visit the PSU cover as the 'tape of the gods' didn't quite live up to it's billing and the mesh started to come away from the panel, so I drilled a few holes and secured it with the M3 machines screws (and nuts) used throughout the build. Still fits the theme and is a lot stronger now. Also, the 3 stripes made out of the vinyl decal paper started to curl and peel off so I changed them for white card stripes stuck down with double-sided tape.

When I came to re-fit it in the case, after beginning work on a Pump/Reservoir mounting, it quickly became obvious that it wasn't going to fit and be removable the way I'd planned. The PSU cover panel is actually longer than the horizontal width of the case so had to be put in at an angle. However, with the Pump/Res mounted in there, there wouldn't be room to manoeuvre it inside the case. Quick re-design followed, which basically meant removing the small section towards the back of the case so that the panel could be put in the case horizontally.

To fill the gap I used a small bit of aluminium angle, filed to shape.

After a test fit, I wrapped in Di-Noc and drilled rivet holes to secure it to the back of the case. End result...

Quite pleased really. It's barely noticeable at the back of the case, and it makes things a lot more practical for taking the PSU cover in and out when needed. The final panel now looks like this:

The main part of this update is to show the mod I made for the fillport. I wanted to have easy access to a fillport from the top of the case but the one 'supplied' in the Switch 810 case is not very practical really. If you can see on the picture (in the red circle), the hole provided for the fillport is located underneath the top clip-on panel which means every time you want to access it, you need to unclip the panel and doing that enough times is going to snap the plastic clips. Besides which, the hole drilled wasn't big enough for the fillport I'd bought!

As I'm going to use a 360 radiator on the top, it leaves a gap at the front of the case so I used this to place my new fillport plate. Small aluminium plate, 4 M3 screw holes, 1 25mm fillport hole.... done!

I put it together and wrapped it before trying it in the case. Small problem, not quite enough clearance between the front of the rad and the case, so I a small notch.

I added 4 of the M3 rivnuts from previous to fix the plate to the case with and voila!

Considering I work from home and will be sat looking at this machine every day, small things not quite right with it will niggle me! Looking at the new fillport from inside the case meant a big gaping hole which would expose a lot of the front panel wiring and the various holes in the case. Yuk!

I'm sure some wouldn't bother, but it's the details that will hopefully make this build, so I decided to fashion another little panel (wrapped of course!) to fill the gap.

With a couple more rivnuts in the sides of the top 5.25" bay, in it went. Much prettier!

View from above.

That's it for this time.... The planned update on the Pump/Reservoir mount didn't happen (yet) as the reservoir I bought (EK RES X3 150) didn't quite fit where I wanted to put it and would have made tube routing difficult. I've got a different model res on the way now, so hopefully that'll be put together soon.

Anyway, that's it for now. Thanks for all the positive feedback so far!

Cheers
Adi

[AverageNinja]

Awesome progress man! Really liking the fillport placement.

[Elenos]

I'm curious. I guess you have pipes that run through the mid plate. Are these bulkhead fittings or tubing pushed through grommets? If its the latter have you got an easy way to get them out without draining your loop onto your mid plate?

I hadn't thought about a fillport but seeing this gives me some ideas. What size tubing are you using? Mine arrived today and 1/2" ID 3/4" OD is huge. Might have a rethink but I've bought a old of fittings as well. It will work fine it's just chunky.

[slacka]

Originally Posted by Elenos

I'm curious. I guess you have pipes that run through the mid plate. Are these bulkhead fittings or tubing pushed through grommets? If its the latter have you got an easy way to get them out without draining your loop onto your mid plate?

I hadn't thought about a fillport but seeing this gives me some ideas. What size tubing are you using? Mine arrived today and 1/2" ID 3/4" OD is huge. Might have a rethink but I've bought a old of fittings as well. It will work fine it's just chunky.

Yes, the tubing will run into/out of the midplate/PSU cover through grommets.

My plan is to have a drain tap on a T-line (under the midplate) on the tube feeding out of the bottom 240 rad so that I can drain the loop without anything going on the midplate.

I'll still be able to access everything underneath, even with the midplate in place and the tubing in the grommets, as I can remove the side panel of the PSU cover. The only times I'd be removing the tubing from the midplate, I'd want/need to drain the system anyway....

I'm using 3/8" ID 5/8" OD tubing.

Cheers
Adi

[AmericanAl]

This is an awesome build!

I had a question - would you possibly have the measurements for the PSU cover you made? I have a switch 810 and I'm thinking of making my own PSU cover.

[slacka]

Originally Posted by AmericanAl

This is an awesome build!

I had a question - would you possibly have the measurements for the PSU cover you made? I have a switch 810 and I'm thinking of making my own PSU cover.

Thanks!

The top panel is 187mm (W) x 498mm (L). The side panel is 110mm (W) x 515mm (L) and then the small piece to fill the gap is 70mm (W) x 17mm (L).

Cheers
Adi

[AmericanAl]

Originally Posted by slacka

Thanks!

The top panel is 187mm (W) x 498mm (L). The side panel is 110mm (W) x 515mm (L) and then the small piece to fill the gap is 70mm (W) x 17mm (L).

Cheers
Adi

Thank you so much! Can't wait to see how the rest of your build goes

[avolla]

Looks great so far. Love cycling and your build. The water bottle holders on that Giant are awesome. Thought about incorporating something like them in your build?

[slacka]

Originally Posted by avolla

Looks great so far. Love cycling and your build. The water bottle holders on that Giant are awesome. Thought about incorporating something like them in your build?

Without spoiling too much of the surprise, you've hit the nail on the head right there! Stay tuned!!

[XNine]

Originally Posted by slacka

Without spoiling too much of the surprise, you've hit the nail on the head right there! Stay tuned!!

Update. Now! Do it!

[KoSoVaR^]

it looks great so far, i would rather like to see white paint than white dinoc :/

[slacka]

Originally Posted by XNine

Update. Now! Do it!

I'd love to put out an update but sadly the M3 mandrel on my rivnut gun has snapped off and jammed itself tight into the gun so I can't finish off the pump/res mount just yet. I've got a new gun and mandrel supplies on the way to me now, so I'm hoping to receive them and complete that bit by the weekend and update then....

Sorry to prolong the suspense!

Originally Posted by KoSoVaR^

it looks great so far, i would rather like to see white paint than white dinoc :/

Thanks KoSoVaR^. Like I said in an earlier post, I realise the dinoc is a love/hate thing for some people but in person it really does look just like the white carbon frame on my bike. Most top-end road bikes these days have nearly all carbon components other than the drivetrain so now I've started with it, I've got to maintain the theme throughout the build to remain consistent.

Cheers
Adi

[XNine]

Nooooooo! Stupid stupid rivet gun!

Can't wait to see what all is going to happen here. Maybe some sexy bike parts incorporated?

[slacka]

So it's been a while since I updated but it's not for the want of trying!

I've split this update in to 2 parts as it covers quite a lot and there's loads of photos.

So, the mount for the pump and reservoir.... this thing has driven me nuts and has taken far longer than it probably should! It's gone through 2 prototypes, 3 changes of reservoir model, a broken rivnut gun, and hours and hours of head-scratching to work out how it was all going to fit together.

The basic idea was to create a mount for a cylinder reservoir and a Laing D5 pump arranged vertically to each other. Holding all that hardware up was going to take some strength so I started with 1.5mm aluminium this time. I wanted to mount the D5 so that the body of the pump and all the wiring was hidden, so I designed a box shape that would fit to the motherboard tray in to which the pump body could fit. It's hard to explain, so less words, more pics!

I started with a main front panel and 2 side panels, along with 4 lengths of 20mmx20mm aluminium angle for holding them all together.

The left side panel had to have cutouts for the 24-pin ATX cable and the SATA cables. It was going to be fixed to the case by bolting it with M3 machine screws into rivnuts fixed in the side panel angles. I wanted the front panel to be removable as well, so that too was to be fixed to the sides by using the screws/rivnut method.

Left side panel:

Initially I held it all together with M3 screws and nuts until I was happy with everything fitting, at which point I was going to rivet the parts together.

The right side panel had to have cutouts to allow for cabling to pass through and for access to the pump from the rear of the case.

Right side panel:

For the front panel I wanted to mount a cylinder reservoir vertically and initially I had bought an EK-RES X3 150 but soon found that the locations of the ports made tube routing very awkward. I swapped that for a Bitspower Multi-Z 80 which had better situated ports.

But after looking through some photos of Team Sky from last season it suddenly dawned on me that maybe I could use a water bottle holder as the team use on their bikes to hold my PC's water bottle!

The bottle cages Team Sky use are Elite Custom Race and they are quite cheaply available in team colours and are identical to those used by the team themselves.

The one issue I had with using a cage to hold a cylinder res was that they have a small lip on the top to hold down a water bottle in the cage to stop it bouncing out when on the road. That lip would stop any cylinder from going in, so it had to go. A few nervous moments with the Dremel and all sorted.

With the reservoir holder sorted I could carry on with the front panel. I put 2 M5 rivnuts in for the cage to bolt to the panel. Then with a 64mm holesaw drill bit I made hole for the D5 pump to go through. A little bit of filing to tidy it up and some screw holes drilled and it looked like this.

The next issue was going to be finding a cylinder reservoir to fit the bottle cage. The cage had a diameter of 74mm and most reservoirs these days are a standard 50mm or 60mm.

Anyway, that's it for this update. I'll post the 2nd part straight after this, where it all gets finished....

Cheers
Adi

[slacka]

Right, part 2 of this update.

After much trawling of the internet trying to find dimensions of every known cylinder res, I hit on the AquaComputer Aqualis range which have a diameter of 75mm - almost perfect! Only 1mm too big but the cage is quite flexible. I went for the basic ECO model (cost the deciding factor). Not only did it fit the job but it also looked how I wanted and the ports were perfect for what I needed.

With the res sorted, next was the pump. I wanted a D5 pump so it would comfortably handle everything I was going to put in the loop. As I'm planning on using an AquaComputer Aquaero 5 for monitoring the water cooling, I thought getting the AqauComputer version of the D5 pump might make sense in the long run, and mean that I had better options when it came to compatibility.

Obviously the pump needed a top and I quite liked the idea of being able to see the cooling liquid in the pump so I went for the EK-D5 X-TOP CSQ plexi version. I don't mind the CSQ version to be honest but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea!

So with the main bits of hardware sorted, it was decision time on the compression fittings and the tubing between them. I went for Tygon tubing (ID 3/8" OD 5/8") after hearing quite good things about it, and for the fittings I really liked the look of the Monsoon ones.

Given the res and pump locations I had to use some 90 degree fittings as well. I know some people say they'll restrict flow, etc. but I'm not looking for top performance so much as making this thing look how I want it to end up.

I know Monsoon sell end caps for their angled fittings so that you can colour co-ordinate with your build but I saw that as the ideal opportunity to make my fittings unique to this build and I made my own end caps to fit the theme. Bradley Wiggins, last year's Tour de France winner for Team Sky is infamous for his love of all things 'mod' and he uses the Roundel symbol on his kit, his bike, etc. Check out his name on the side of his jersey in this pic.

With a bit of handiwork in Paint and some printing on glossy vinyl decal paper, I'd made my own personalised fittings!

One small issue I had to sort out was that the ports on the bottom of the reservoir are recessed in slightly meaning there wasn't clearance to screw in the 90deg fittings. I ended up using some Koolance Male-Female G1/4" extenders to push them out clear of the bottom of the res. Fortunately they had the same grooved pattern on them as the Monsoon fittings so don't look out of place.

So with all the hardware sorted and all issues ironed out it was time to di-noc wrap the panels to match the rest of the build, rivet the panels to the angles and put it all together in the case. Forgot to mention I also made a couple of cuts to the original motherboard tray of the case to allow easier access to the rear of the pump and the sockets on the back of it.

I'll leave you with the finished shots of how the build stands as of today. I'm really pleased with progress (albeit a little slow for my liking) so far. It's great to start to see ideas and visions I've had in my head for 6-12 months slowly turning in to results.

Cheers
Adi

[whyte]

My god, its beautiful. I can not wait to see more of this.