Hello everyone, I have been working on my 800D now for just over a week and doing bits and bobs when time permits. As this is my 1st ever case mod I thought I would share it with my fellow Bit-tech friends for comments... praise and of course FLAMES !!!!! Also whilst a simple mod that has probably been done countless times I figure that if I can do it anyone can, so my spirited efforts may just inspire someone to have a go !!! I suppose it would be a good idea to explain why I'm modding my case. My 1st custom watercooling loop (The one I'm using at the moment) was based on 120mm and 240mm low profile Koolance 30FPI Radiators which were built into a Corsair 600T White case. I found that when I was cooling the CPU only the temperatures were acceptable... but when I added a R9 290 into the loop at the end of last year the temperatures began to get a bit uncomfortable. In Feb of this year Modd1uk was selling an 800D in great condition in the Bit-tech market place so I decided to take the plunge and buy it with the intention of switching to a large and thick 360mm rad in the roof only. I had considered at this point modding the case for an additional 240mm rad in the base but my funds would not allow it. Pretty soon after I bought the case my funding was pulled completely by the wife due my estimate of the actual final cost being a lot more than the original cost I had given. My re-build went on hold but this did allow me to have more negotiation time with the accountant (Wife) and a couple of months or so later (April ! do you know how annoying it was looking at the case empty for 2 months + ?!!!!!) I decided to go ahead get the additional radiator and mod the bottom of the case. Yes I know that the equipment I'm re housing is probably getting a bit dated however, It gives some of the newer processors a run for their money. Some things I should point out before I begin.... I have not done anything with metal or wood since GCSE Resistant Materials when I was about 16. Considering I'm now 31 I was crapping getting hold of a Dremel or any other power tool for that matter and potentially ruining a rather nice and expensive to replace case. I don't have a clue how to use sketch up or any other rendering program so all my planning was done using crappy sketches on A4 paper ! (I have attached them for your amusement). My catalogue of tools is poor. I own a drill but I had to borrow a Aldi Dremel Wannabe from a friend. I have no access to fancy workshop facilities but in hindsight now I wish I had. At this point I would also like to give a big shout out to BIGELF ! That chap is an absolute legend for watercooling knowledge. I have asked him lots and lots of questions whilst I was planning the build, and continue to ask him more as the build progresses. Its never to much trouble for him to bounce back a PM no matter how stupid some of my questions are. I have said it once before and I will say it again..... cheers buddy !!!
HARDWARE Case : Corsair 800D Motherboard : Asus P6TD Deluxe V2 CPU : Intel i7 920 D0 1366 RAM : 6gb Corsair Dominator PSU : BeQuiet 750w Modular Sound : Asus Xonar D2X PCie Graphics : MSI Radeon R9 290 WATERCOOLING GEAR XSPC RX240 v3 XSPC RX360 v3 XSPC D5 Vario Bay res combo EK Waterblocks 290x Block + Backplate EK Supremacy CPU Block Various Barrow Watercooling Fittings
INITIAL PLANNING OK I was not joking when I said that I did my planning with crappy sketches. Above is the original plan that I had for my build. As you can see I did intend to use Bitspower fittings however, the fittings I wanted were nigh on impossible to source not to mention stupidly expensive. I wanted to go with a black and white theme so the Matt Black Bitspower fittings would have been perfect. During one of my many PM conversations with Bigelf he said I should look for Barrow fittings on Ebay. A bit of Googling later It seems that the Barrow fittings are OEM Bitspower albeit slight colour differences to the matt finish and the O-rings. Took the plunge and I was not disappointed !!! Worth mentioning that Barrow appear not to do 45 and 90 degree fittings as standard. You have to buy a 45 Deg and then a compression to attach to it. Either way they look boss and are perfect for the black and white theme. Oh and they are half the price of what all the Bitspower fittings would have been in total ! I also spent some time googling around at other 800D mods looking in particular at Mr_Armageddons bottom rad mod : http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81698 And at Lazyman's @ WestCoastMods Skull Crusher mod : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc6Cr7G4S6E&list=PLfuhhQKM9T_E0c3Z0nANrCTZ5IO69NynS
PREPERATION Part 1 In preparation for the build I spent some time removing and cataloguing all the parts from the 800D. There was no way that I wanted to be that guy who when re-assembling went WTF !!! I'm missing a screw (Although this may happen yet !) Some piccies attached of the disassemble : Due to my crappy photo skills... and forgetting to take them I have not included photos of the feet removal. The 800D feet are screwed to the base with tiny screws that are hidden under rubber feet. Looking around the web there seem to be many different ways to get the rubber feet off including soaking etc. I found it far easier to slip a Stanley blade down the side of the feet and gently prize the rubber out exposing the screw. This allowed me to remove the foot and means I don't have to mess around re-attaching the rubber part later. With the case disassembled I then had to remove the lower hard drive cage. Looking through Mr_Armageddons log it appears that there are 6 rivets in total to remove. Once the HDD cage was removed I riveted the top two back in with a crappy Wilko hand riveter : http://www.wilko.com/hand-tools/wilko-heavy-duty-hand-riveter-kit/invt/0209112?VBMST=Rivet Gun No apparently once these rivets are removed the lower HDD case 'should' just slide out.... wrong !!!!! I ended up scratching the inside of the case and then snapping off the internal lugs with pliers before I could get it out! With the lower HDD cage removed the PSU midplate does droop a little. Not to worry though as I have a cunning plan to remedy this later.
PREPERATION Part 2 With the lower HDD cage removed It was time to mask up and mark up the area to be cut. I used a couple of layers of Harris general purpose masking tape in a futile attempt to protect the area that I would be cutting. At this point I faced a problem. Being a n00beh I had no idea where to get a template to attach to the bottom of the case to cut the rad hole too. In the Skull Crusher mod by LazyMan he uses a pencil to rub the outline of the radiator out onto Plain paper and then xfer it to card. I tried this several times but was just getting annoyed as I could not generate the desired result.... I blame the pencil. I googled around a bit and stumbled across a rad template from MNPC Tech : http://mnpctech.com/pc-cooling-fan-templates.html This was printed directly to card and then cut carefully out with a craft knife. I set up the template on the case with the far right radiator holes lining up with the holes in the PSU grill. This meant I would need to drill 2 less holes and also I hoped would aid in cutting the hole straight to the case. Ideally I could have done with using a square but In the absence of one I improvised measuring and drawing a straight line 2cm from the edge of the case. Once happy with the alignment and a quick rad test fit to the rear screws I went ahead and drilled the 6 holes that would form the attachment points for the rad. No in my opinion this is where I made my first mistake. The drill I was using was not a great one and I don't think that I was using the correct drill bits. I did my best to tap the holes first (Improvising with a Phillips head driver) and also pilot them with a smaller bit. But for some reason whilst drilling one of the holes the drill grabbed and the hole was drilled slightly off from where I wanted it. Luckly because I made the holes slightly smaller than the screw head I have a bit of play in the screw position. When I test fit the rad after drilling whilst the screws on the back were a bit skew internally the rad looked straight. Coming up next.... the Dremel Aldi Wannabe goes to work!!!!
THE DREMEL Ok this was the bit I was really dreading ... the Dremel. If there was a time I was going to really screw up this beautiful case it was now... Having never used a rotary tool before I took time out to look at a few videos on Youtube. obtain a clean set of underwear just incase and set too. Well.... once I had made the initial cut I have to say it was fairly easy going. Just took my time and let the tool do the work. The whole process took around 2 hours. This was due to me stopping every 5 mins or so to make sure I was in the right place and also to sweep off debris from the dremel. Worth mentioning (Common sense I know) FOR GODS SAKE WEAR EYE PROTECTION. I got some fancy glasses from work and boy am I glad I did! I got covered in metal filings with the occasional one bouncing off the specs. ! Considering the thickness of the metal I was really surprised how many disks I ate through. 5 in total. I do think that this may have something to do with the discs being from the Aldi special range !!! LOL ! Completed cut below : Now again I failed to get a picture of the case once the masking tape was removed. Needless to say it was not pretty. The dremel had done a good job of cutting the metal but left behind burrs galore. The dremel also caught in one place and gouged a good 2cm of metal into the area under the masking tape. I cleaned the burrs up with a metal file and also used the grinding attachment on the rotary tool to remove some burrs from the screw holes inside. With the tape off and the burrs cleaned up I was pretty chuffed on how straight I had managed to make my cuts. With the exception of one drill hole it looked like the case had always been like that from manufacture making me one chuffed n00beh modder Whilst you would not be able to see the underside of the case I was conscious that I had made a mess off the metal and wanted to clean it up. I had some spare Airfix model matt black model paint lying around so took a brush to the exposed areas. The final result is below, I really wish I had got you a before picture. I'm really pleased with this finish... only under direct light can you see the difference in paint colour. As your not going to see this area It is not going to matter but I knew it was something that was going to bug me. The screw hole in the top right corner is the one that went a bit wrong .. just incase your wondering? I also mentioned in my preparation posts that once the lower HDD cage was removed it caused the PSU mid-plate to droop slightly. Having looked around the web there are a few solutions to this. Once again as I'm not amazing at metal work I popped to B&Q and bought a small length of wooden dowel for about £2.00. I cut this to just under 5" and painted it with the same matt black paint I used on the case touch ups. With this wedged under the midplate the droop was fixed and it looked pretty good too. Well that's it for a couple of days. Waiting for a bunch of stuff to arrive from Special Tech and also need a good day to flush my radiators and strip down my old system. Keep you all posted
UPDATE 25/07/14 So my box of tricks has arrived from Special Tech containing cables Etc so will be flushing rads shortly. I did also order a Demiflex Dust Filter set for the 800D...... Avoid this kit. Considering it's supposed to be a premium product the top filter does not take into account radiator screws (unless they're flat) and the 140mm grills internal and external barely fit with quite a lot of overhang ! AVOID ! At £40 its going back ! Keep you all posted ! Ric
ASSEMBLY Ok so there are a lot less picture here than I would like but the assembly process took over 2 days and I kept forgetting to take photos. On a plus note I really think you want photos of me going... this is the I/O shield installation. This is how I installed the front connections.... blah blah... With out further adoo.............. First things first was to strip down my old rig (Carefully) which was housed in a 600T. Been a good case but just not good enough for the kit inside it. Powerflush my old and new rads ! Thanks again for tip Bigelf I decided to install the 1366 Jetplate on my Supremacy block.. a rather straightforward process... Ready for transplant Motherboard and CPU block fitted to new case 240 Rad ready for fitting. I have to say this rad was a complete arse to fit. I had to install the rear fitting. Then tube it... push it into the case and then screw through fans and into the rad It was tight but I wanted everything to look neat when finished. Graphics card in installed. You can just see the tubing from the lower rad which at this point was attached to the res inlet. Bottom view of the 240 rad installed How the hell do I sort this mess? Really rubbish piccy of the final build. That's it for now... Still got tissue inside the machine from leak testing so once that's removed I will get some better pictures of the inside of the case etc. Lassar out !
you seem to forget them Aldi budget discs are free to you )) looking tidy, and I know you will have zipped up them wired behind (because i will annoy you if they are messy). Will have to see it in the flesh shortly.
COMPLETED BUILD Well this little project is now completed and I have attached a few piccies for you viewing pleasure. Internal showing CPU Block Bottom 240 and ingenious mid-plate support. Showing bottom fittings and how tight it is. Top 260 rad complete with Gentle Typhoon 1850s dialled to around 1550 RPM. Wanted to mount these as push but motherboard clearance would not allow it. Pull it is Front shot... Side on Really pleased with the final outcome and the resulting temps. My old system could never have produced these temps considering the ambient. Going to do some overnight prime 95 testing just to see what the system can handle but considering the ambient is 25 my computer is sat here idling at 40c. Not bad considering the CPU an i7 920 D0 has 1.375v going though it. So far only played BF4 which on my previous rig was reaching a toasty 73c+ and that was with a lower v Core and 20c ambient. Not seen the CPU over 63c so far Happy happy happy
PRIME 95 TESTING Ok I decided to see what my new cooling was really made of by running a prime 95 test. Previously under my old cooling setup with an Ambient temp of 18c the peak blend P95 temp was 84c with crunching normally working around the 75-77c Mark. Under the new cooling with an Ambient of 25 - 27c I had a peak of 65c with crunching normally working around 60-63c. This is a massive drop in temps ! With a higher ambient also ! Once again a happy boy Thanks everyone for reading. Ric
