Ok folks, time to get back in the modding saddle! Having completed all my commissioned obligations for the time being, I thought it would be a good time to start my next personal project. This time I'll be taking on the gargantuan "Ultra Tower", the Cosmos II. I've always wanted to do a hotrod-themed build, and I think the Cosmos II lends itself well to this theme with its sleek, aerodynamic lines, and beefy roll-bar type handles. I'll be playing off these features, moving some things around, and generally wreaking havoc on this poor case, but in the end you'll still be able to distinguish it as a Cosmos II. The first thing you'll notice is the open-air design. I actually hated to get rid of those cool doors, but I wanted that open engine compartment feel. And with pretty much everything watercooled, there would be no reason to worry about airflow. Next is the watercooling manifold. I spent the most of my design time on this part, as it has to be functional, as well as look like an actual automotive component for fuel delivery. It will accommodate two separate loops: One for the video cards, and one for CPU, memory, and motherboard. As far as hardware, there are still some items up in the air, but here's a short list of what I have already: EVGA X79 Cheesecake motherboard EVGA GTX680 HC X2 Intel i7 3960X CPU Cooler Master SPH 1050w PSU I'll be updating this as I get stuff in. Ok, I guess that is enough of an intro, I'll be posting my first progress update shortly. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll be joining me on what promises to be another wild modding ride!
Oh, man. That panel will be tricky. I'll assume you have a way to remove it without dismantling the loop. -You gonna get bugs in your memory if you roll like that, ese.
Thanks CMos. I've been working on the design off and on for the last couple months. It's been through quite a few changes too! I plan to use quick disconnects on the four lines going through the panel. And as for the bugs, I'm having a bra custom made for it.
Let's take care of the bottom bars first shall we? In order to make the headers, I need four ends per side which means I need another set of bars. And Cooler Master were kind enough to send me an extra set. Here's a shot of all four ends lined up. After marking where I needed to cut, I hacked off the ends. These bars are solid cast aluminum. CM does not cut corners when it comes to supporting their Ultra Tower! Positioning the piece and rechecking my cut angle. The rest will need to be filed away. One set of header pieces cut! Now for the other side. Both sides cut. I want the headers to come even with the back of the case, which is why I made the fourth piece longer. It will make for a trickier weld to the first piece tho. Filing one of the middle header pieces. I clamped all the pieces upside down to a flat board to aid in the positioning. Once everything is filed down and fitted perfectly, this will be how it will get welded back together. And finally a close up shot of how its fitting to the main bar. It's getting there! I'll be doing a lot of filing over the weekend, but the aluminum is fairly soft so it should go quickly. I can bring out my die grinder to get the bulk of it if need be. I just don't want to remove too much material. For attaching the pieces, I was eyeballing those Alumiweld brazing sticks at Harbor Freight. Anyone have any experience with them? I have seen the demo vids on Youtube, and it seems easy, but there's gotta be some kind of learning curve. I'll probably grab some and just experiment first and see how it goes.
I just tried some similar stuff called 'Technoweld'. I had to strengthen some areas on a large assembly of parts. The problem I had was getting the area hot enough to use the material. The temp needs to be 350C to melt the rod but the large work piece acted like a heat sink and I just couldn't get it hot enough with a propane torch. The part would not fit into the oven so I put it into the barbecue. I ended up being too afraid to take the temp up past 300C as I didn't want the part deforming (thirty or so hours invested in this part). So I gave up and used another solution. The parts you need to join here are thick and robust so it should work. The alu needs to be very clean, so that black finish will need to be removed around the weld area. The only problem I can see that you may encounter is that once you make one of the joins, heating the next one may cause the first to melt and fail. I say 'give it a shot', I'll be interested to see how you go. Good luck.
I would be very worried, this is one heavy case and there is gonna be a lot of stress on the backside of that bracket. Cross my fingers you can pull it off though.
Just take those bars in and have them welded up. It will be strong, and will look like the real deal so it's a win-win.
Thanks for your input Attila, I'll do some experimenting with the stuff first and see how it goes. Thanks guys! Sure, I could just have someone else weld them for me, but what's the fun in that? Gotta at least fail five or six times before resorting to outside assistance. Muy loco!
If they're the same size as the bars from a regular Cosmos, I just scrapped one today and still have the bars. If you need them let me know.
Thanks for the offer Kayin, but the Cosmos II has much larger bars than the 1000 or the S, so they won't fit. Thanks mindful one, glad to have you aboard!
i think that you should try with the techno weld, it isnt sure that it can be welded if it's molded alu =/ have some bad experience with yhat, just melted away when the tig heated it up =/
Subbed, looks good. Cheesecake motherboard for the cheesecake edit: saying it looks good is too weak, looks flipping awesome.