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Project fireFLY

Discussion in 'Watercooling' started by blackwatch, 3 Jan 2013.

  1. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    Welcome to the build log of my latest project.

    My daughter has had a pretty rough time of things lately, with trying to find a job, caring for me and my disabilities and the GCSE's fiasco. So in a bid to give her something to smile about I'm hoping to build her a fairly nice rig.

    I am hoping to be able to scavenge a few parts that are laying around the house get a lot from ST and maybe if I'm lucky a few sponsor donations. If anyone is selling any old radiators during an upgrade please PM me as I may be very interested if the prices are right.

    I will be basing this build around a Coolermaster Staker 832 Nvidia Edition that was donated to me by Stuart over at Wabsys in Wakefield, W Yorks.

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    Also a big thanks to the kind folks over at Aqua Tunning who have offered a nice discount on all AlphaCool and Phobya products in this build :)

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    Well here we go the starting case pics..... as soon as I have more info and some ideas have been drwan up I will post them here for to all laugh about ermmm I mean read.

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    Last edited: 16 Feb 2013
  2. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    well the case is now stripped down and im trying to figure out how and what im going to cool

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    Im considering a 360 rad at the bottom and a 240 thick rad at the top

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    Where the orginal fan would sit, Im considering putting the two SSD drives in.. under a perspex " lid " with lighting.

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    Then I will mount the resevoirs at the edge of the motherboard, im unsure as to go with the cylindical res of lanig tops.

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    Any advice would be greatly appreciated on this from people that have much more knowledge than me. I am trying to map out the flow etc as I would like to run two loops

    Loop one would cool the CPU and chipset ( not sure about the RAM yet. ) The other Would cool the GPU.
     
  3. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    The top of the case where the power button and top USB ports go was damaged on the case. From what I could make out the previous owner had used it as an ash tray ...even to the point of actually putting cigs out on the thing :culpability:.

    I had a few options being

    1. Try and buy replacment parts...no hope couldnt find them anywhere.
    2. Repair and repaint.
    3. Repair and replace with Carbon fibre look alike

    I choose option 3 as it gave me other ideas.

    So I set about repairing the damage next to the power button which involved sanding and scraping the damaged area then mixing the shavings with superglue and then filling the holes.

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    After that it was more sanding and then time to apply the carbon fibre film.

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    I then moved onto the actual surrond for the front panel as this was damaged around the edges and needed the same sort of treatment

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    Then came the time to make the Acrylic HDD holder which im going to locate in the top of the case where the green mesh is currently. Ill replace the mesh with an acrylic window which I will form out of 3mm acrylic. Im will also we adding LEDs to the HDD caddy so they light up and shine through the acrylic and defuse the light a little.

    First of all I had to cut the acrylic down to a rough size then mark it up where I needed to bend it to get the flat " U " shape i wanted.

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    Then I clamped it between two pieces of wood and heated it up using my mini blowtorch. WARNING if using a mini blowtorch be careful and dont get the flame too close or the air will get in and bubbles will form in the acrylic VERY easily

    After a few trial runs to get everything right I made the first bend....

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    Then the second bend....

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    In the end it came out quite well...

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    Now I have to cut and shape the front of the HDD caddy so it will fit in fine, plus I have to shave the top a little so the HDD caddy and the window fit together properly. Also I have to finish the Front panel trimming....so hopefully ill get more pics up soon.
     
    siliconfanatic likes this.
  4. siliconfanatic

    siliconfanatic Johny-come-Lately

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    :eeek: that mobo scared me... ancient AND ugly... AND the blasphemer kept the stock cooler :eeek:
    Either way... nvidia themed case+carbon fiber= no bad ending. Cant go wrong. Sub+rep:thumb:
     
  5. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    The anicent and old mobo is just there so I can get an idea of positioning of things.

    Im currently using cardboard radiators ( basically Ive made exact replicas of the ones I want to use while I save up for them ) so with thoose and the mobo etc I can roughly plan every thing.
     
  6. siliconfanatic

    siliconfanatic Johny-come-Lately

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    Wasnt blaming you, thought it had come with the case, knew it wasnt gonna stay. That being said kudos to you. Id take week with cardboard. Im just too meticulus. Thus why i like sw. Can make it perfect, render, if its not good take out certain parts and redo. And i can get the parts pre modeled. Weeeeeee!
     
  7. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    I tried to use Sketch up but couldnt figure it out so I went down the make the rads etc route. It usually takes me around 3 hours to make an exact replica of a radiator im going to use as I like to get them to the exact size.
     
  8. siliconfanatic

    siliconfanatic Johny-come-Lately

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    eh. try out the tutorials, they actually helped me out. but what ever you do, don't go straight from sketchup to a high-end one. learning curve? hah! more like rip out the sketchup knowledge and start over. sketchup is so bad if you use the "basics" of it you keep running in circles in inventor, SW etc. but for free, just use the tutorials. its actually easier than cardboard if you start with components and try different ways of assembling them... if you do it from scratch... well... god have mercy on anyone around you :rolleyes:
     
  9. jon

    jon Chief Phrenologist

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    +1 to that. The online library of already-created items is dead useful. Makes assembling a case in sketchup extremely easy.

    -J
     
  10. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    Ive searched everywhere for a sketchup and all I could find was the 830 not the 832 that im using :(
     
  11. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    It's mini update time again :)

    My little tool kit as it is at the moment...

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    As I've got the caddy sorted out I moved on to the new roof fan location.

    So I removed the cross member where the PSU sits

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    and at the same time I took out the runner at the bottom.

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    it was then a simple case of measuring and cutting some 3mm acrylic to fit

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    then locating the best place for the fan

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    and then came the painful part lol cutting the acrylic and then the amazingly hard alloy ( I honestly didn't think my tool was going to go through it ...but in the end I won...yes finally me 1 case 0 )

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    After that episode it was time to cover the acrylic with the carbon fibre ....

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    All in all im quite happy with it and I have got the small end piece made as well.....I also checked for clearance with the PSU and phew just right lol....

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    Next up came the hard part...making the window for above the HDD caddy I have made in the roof of the case. The first job was to mark where the roof of the case bent.

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    After that went to crap I did what any sane person would do...... I chucked in in the oven at gas mark 6 for 4 minutes then slid it into a mould I had rigged then clamped like hell. I don't have any pictures of that thoug...if the wife found out she would KILL me :mad-new:

    The end result was bingo......

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    All in all im pretty please, however I might get another piece of acrylic and give it another go just to see if i can get it perfect lol.......thanks to thoose that are reading and stay tuned folks. :)
     
  12. sixfootsideburns

    sixfootsideburns modeteer

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    I don't mean to jack your thread, but where do you get pre-modeled components for SW?

    Also awesome progress mate, its cool to see mods in cases that aren't used often!
     
  13. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    Thanks :)

    I found some here :

    http://scc.jezmckean.com/home

    and also over here

    http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

    One day I WILL have an entry in the mod of the year section lol.....
     
  14. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    Its mini update time again. This is mainly to test fit the roof panel, window and hard drive bay
    First of all I had to clean the roof of the pc then fit the Carbon fibre.

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    Then came the hard part to trim every single air hole ( over 120 of the bloody things ) and then test fit the acrylic HDD caddy I have made....

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    the next job will be to paint the airholes black so they are more " stealthy "

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    all in all Im pretty pleased with it so far

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    I am still considering a full exterior paint job or maybe a full carbon fibre wrap....or if I can I will make replacement panels from actual carbon Fibre.
     
  15. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Oh, you shouldn't say stuff like that around here...:worried:
     
  16. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    why not lol?
     
  17. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    Well Ive been under the weather lately but ive managed to get some of the lower rad cover bent and test fitted, plus the motherboard tray is all done

    Doing the lower rad cover was a lot harder than i first thought due to the cuts etc and making sure I got the right height for it, but here is the finished prototype

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    After I have made the full cover, covered it, fitted the rad grill and also got the pipe holes drilled Ill post some more pics up as to how things are coming along.
     
  18. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Your first post makes me miss my DFI NF4 Ultra-D :waah:
     
  19. siliconfanatic

    siliconfanatic Johny-come-Lately

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    Doh! I missed an update! I never miss updates!:p

    But:baby: this is looking good!
     
  20. blackwatch

    blackwatch Minimodder

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    Well here we go its peaniut butter update time. The first rad has turned up a nice shiney Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 240mm which will be fitted into the bottom of the case.

    So first came the marking up for the tubing holes

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    and then making sure the rad was seating right in the prefered place :)

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    and after some time ( many swear words ) I had this

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    And when fitted to the case its self it looks better :)

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    Then came the Carbon Fibre time ....which is where it starts to come together i think

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    Ill be sorting the rad grill to tidy everything up then it will be time to fit the 120mm rad on the rear of the case and also the front 360mm rad with grill. I am hoping to be able to do this over the next few weeks, money permitting.

    I hope folks like what they've seen so far as im still new to this modding lark and learning everyday.
     

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