I've been a long time Bittech lurker but I have finally decided to post a build. Apologies in advance, I do not have anywhere near the talent (or patience) of the modgods on this forum and my photography skills are woeful at best. Aim of this build is modifying my Corsair 800d to make it quieter and have better cooling as bringing on another GTX 580 in SLI (now that everybody has decided to upgrade to bigger and better things.) Hardware is not changing much from before. I am actually quite obsessive about noise; I actually notice the sound from my xbox power block so this has got to be quiet!!! The Project is called overkill because I plan on stuffing in a Aquacool 560 rad in the top and a Hardware Labs Black Ice 360 in the bottom. (i was toying with calling it 'all internal' but decided against it... ) Also because I game a bit but seem to mostly use the rig for looking at modding! The 560 rad will poke out the back slightly, but shouldn't be too noticeable. Hardware: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3/Asus P8Z68-V Gen 3 (I have both for some reason) 2500k GTX580 (x2) Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB +1TB OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD PSU - Novatech 1000w (I know what you are thinking, but this is basically a rebadged OCZ; modular and rock solid and at £100. Their newer ones are apparently made by Seasonic. never had a problem with the 5Ghz overclock before) Blue ray drive... Cooling EK LTX CPU EK full cover GTX 580 x 2 Phobya dual bay res Laing D5 with EK top AquaCool Nexxos UT60 560 Rad Hardware Labs 360 SR1 Rad possibly an old XSPC single 120 rad at the back if I feel the need Various temp sensors Lamptron Touch Fan controller Lighting: UV leds and led strips. The 800d in its primary state. [/url] I am still quite pleased with this build, but the dual loops didn't allow enough cooling in the gpu loop for a second 580 and they dump hot air into the case. under load both loops get to 40 degrees (and the cpu up above 65 although I guess the 5Ghz @1.52v doesn't help that much! ) Also had my first foray into mayhems aurora. Looks awesome but read the warnings! my ddc 10watt just wasn't man enough! In case you are interested that is the 360 SR1 up top for CPU, and a magicool slim 240 in the bottom, and xspc 120 at the back for the gpu. [/url] [/url] I wanted to try out the new 580 so linked the two loops: what do you get if you mix blue aurora with white pastel fluid (& DI)? a rather tasteful blue! [/url] [/url] [/url] And then draining: Yum! [/url] [/url] OK, here is where I get a bit silly: SLI not working so after a lot of testing conclude it must be the MB, so buy a Gigabyte one from ebay... (it wasn't, it was the second card but more on that later) In the meantime you know what time it is?...... But hang on a second! what am I going to use for my BIT-fix in the meantime? Ghettomaster! The legend of the z68. [/url] and a blank canvas to work on...well sort of... [/url] Stay tuned.....
Time to take the Dremel & Jigsaw to this beast! main cut outs are a great big full length hole in the top for the 560 rad, a hole in the back for the rad to poke out, trimming some of the drive bay supports and cutting a hole in the front of the bottom compartment to extend the space for the 360 rad. I have already removed the drive bays from the bottom compartment and cut out a hole for the 360mm rad exhaust. I have also cut a hole in the mid panel to rest the pump in. MMMMM.....Filings.....!!! 7 hours later and goodness knows how many cutting discs this is what I am left with: and the somewhat rough hole for the 360 rad: Here you can see the hole in the back to get the 560 rad in and the repositioned holes for the bulkhead fittings. and an extra spot for a temperature display. I have to say that after being used to Alu cases, the steel in the 800d is pretty damn tough! especially around some of the holes on the corners where you are cutting through two layers of steel. Cutting the holes in the back for the bulkhead fittings was the worst. one ruined holesaw later, all I had done was scratch the paint!. eventually I got it the right shape with a dremel cutting bit, but not without scratching the paint a little. Who said a modded pc isn't a ***** magnet? next fitting the rads....
So I have a phobya 560 rad grill to go on the top. I want to remove all sources of vibration so rather than sploosh out on some neoprene gaskets I used some 2mm hobby foam at 40p a sheet. Flipping brilliant stuff to make custom Gaskets and shouds... Also useful for smartening up some rough edges.... All Antivibed up After a bit of stuffing, managed to get the 560 rad in. [/url] Ok so the 5 1/4" inch bays are 150mm wide and this rad is 146mm so it is pretty damn tight! IT FITS!!!!! well if you ignore the big hole at the back.... it does not have the cleanest of lines but this part is somewhat hidden under the desk... In fact it was much tighter at the front than I was expecting. I had to split the wires from the front panel connector around the side to get the radiator as far forward as this...More by luck than judgement the radiator placement was millimetre perfect! shifting down to the bottom now... here is some more foam being used to keep the radiator away from the power supply. again nice and tight with the 360 rad... In case anyone is wondering, that is another temp monitor next to the radiator, so I can quickly see the water temp... next Lighting!
OK, so lighting is all UV leds from ebay and one phobya strip. I cheated somewhat by buying leds pre wired for 12v. These have then all been wired onto 3 pin fan connectors. full list so far is 4x5mm leds for the phobya res (interestingly drilled for 4mm...wtf?) 2x3mm for the cpu block 3x smd strip to sit under the graphics block 60cm phobya strip for general lighting... I have also wrapped the blu ray drive in carbon vinyl. this sits beneath the res so should give a nice effect... [ I have also managed to get the tubing mostly done for the guts. loop will be Res - Pump - 360 rad - GPUs - 560 rad - CPU - Res. the tubing exits the case after the GPUs and comes back in for the cpu. this means that even though I only have one loop, the water is at it's coldest just before it hits the CPU...(every little helps!) Internal fill port goes into the top rear of the reservoir. the fan controller sits on top of the reservoir so I can't use the normal fill point. drain point is on the exit of the 360 rad. slight bodge for the rear fittings on the rad...was short an extender. Will be something to sort later... [/url] rear of the reservoir. There will eventually be 4 temp probes in the loop (2 for coontrolling the fans on the res, one for the display up top and one in case I want to do water temperature sensitive lighting... Sneaky peak of it all filled: [/url]
I don't really recommend it. In future I'll only get aluminium cases to mod! Sent from Bittech Android app
The only thing I would want to do with my is a custom side panel (laser/water cut), but the cost of getting a side panel to Ireland and the cutting is horrendously disproportionate to the effect. Good luck with yours though, I'll be following it.
