Hi, I have been thinking about starting a project log for a while now, and after reading G-gnomes fantastic guide on "How to write a project log"(If any of you guys are in the same position as me, this is worth a read!), I decided to go for it, especially as this is my first scratchbuild, and my novice skills from a couple of mods need all the help they can get. So, what do I plan to build? Well, the main aspect of this case for me is the fact that throughout nearly 3 years of building PC's, I have not yet owned a case (apart from an old Dell dimension that I have been using upside down as a testbench) And now I have splashed out on a shiny new x79 board and PCI-3 card, I just cant bring my self to spend £100+ on a case such as a Silverstone TJ-11 (hmmm sweet dreams) This leaves me with one option..... scratch build!!! I have spent a fair amount of time in awe at the incredible work of other users on this forum, and the features of manufacturers cases, and made CAD models, to end up with something of a hybrid of the TJ-11, and the Thermaltake Level 10. Here are some pics, to try and get my ideas across (i'm not too great with words) I have tried to include the 'modularity' of the level 10 This one shows the 90 degree motherboard tray and removable lid similar to the TJ-11 I plan on putting all radiators (3x 240mm) and the PSU in the basement (getting the compression fittings and hose to fit between the radiators is going to need some warranty voiding Here is one of the ideas I may use to solve that problem (braze the copper pipe to the radiator) The last pic of this first post, a shot of the hardware I'm working with: Rampage IV extreme, i7 3820, GTX 670, 8GB corsair vengeance Ooh those fingerprints on that waterblock!! Well that's all for now, I am certainly very exited about this project, and being able to try some new skills (ill be working with mostly acrylic) and I am open to hear any advice/criticism all you guys on bit-tech are great at doing!!
Wanted to order materials and other components I will need along the way today, but sadly not been able to as I'm off on holiday on sunday!! So instead just been messing around with cardboard mockups, to try and iron out any problems that may arise, and also get some templates to mark on the acrylic. Just checking I can fit the rads, hose, and PSU in the basement Made a motherboard tray from cardboard to cut the acrylic from I also plan to re route the I/O to the side of the case, as I will not be able to access the back or top rather, so easily. Something else I plan to do to try and keep this build nice and tidy, is to make a cover for the motherboard similar to those on the ASUS TUF shield motherboards. That is going to be it for just over two weeks whilst I am away, but after that I cant wait to really get this under way.
Hey, What sort of efficiency loss are you going to see bolting 3 rads together. I was reading up on it a few days ago and the consensus seemed to be the first one did ok but the following ones were as efficient as passive radiators as the air they received was getting warmer ? PS if you want to get rid of the lines that go over your curved surfaces in the sketchup models highlight the model so all surfaces are selected, right click and select soften/smooth edges and click on about 20 on the slider. That should make most vanish Regards Ed
Hi, thanks for your advice on sketchup, It was a quick import from 3DS MAX which I'm more accustomed to, just so I could do the screenshots on my laptop. Curves are nice and smooth now I too was wondering about the drawbacks of having multiple rads attatched, so did run a few tests myself, not too many though as it is a real pain re doing a loop!! and did see as you said a higher temperature on the loop with the end radiator in. I did also experiment with having a gap between the fan and the previous rad, which seemed to minimize the problem a fair bit, however I'm not sure how this will pay off in an enclosed area when its in the case. Still, all components with blocks (only mobo and cpu so far) seem to be running sub 20 at idle, and sub 45 under load so I guess is ok at the moment. I'm sure with the addition of new heat sources in the loop (once a gtx 670 block actually comes out) it will become more noticeable though. Regards
Right, got back home now, so I can finally get going with this build. So yesterday, I started to strip an old mobo of its i/o, so that I can make a front panel (or in this case side panel i/o To get all the parts of, using a heat gun seemed to work, spreading the heat over all the solder joins at once. Here's what I got. I also pulled some SATA ports, USB headers, and the 24 & 4 pin power connectors. Now I need to get pinouts for the connectors, and wire them up That's all for now, but I will be making some jigs for acrylic bending later today, as that should arrive by Wednesday next week, so maybe an update on that by the end of the day.
[ot]he... i've ask friend (work at the computer repair shop) to give me unneeded ATX MOBO for scratch-building... he sent me asus s754 MB nforce4-4 MB... without i/o!!! :\ [/ot]
The "Old Motherboard" that you removed parts from must not have been that old. The light Blue 24pin Power plug came after my Asus P6T Motherboard. So no more then 3 years.
Ok, so in order to bend my acrylic in a neat uniformed curve, I dug out some flexible MDF, which happened to be exactly the right width. This stuff: Cut to size Some more wood to hold it in place (normal MDF and plyboard) Here it is all cut and sanded Done! Tomorrow I plan on starting the epic soldering job as SilveR_172 mentioned But for now that's it so far. Also, thanks to those of you who sub'd, and the general supportive nature of the community at Bit-Tech, it is surprisingly motivating when you know someone is appreciative of your work and ideas!
Yeah, unfortunately this board (M4A87TD EVO) is only just over a year old, it was one of my friends, and he frazzled it when some metal shavings blew into it from where he was filling something so he kindly donated it to quench my thirst for modding for a while
Wild slammed together in the fly teleportation style of 2 cases you like to make 1 with best of both & cannibalising parts off a motherboard for extensions, how the heck could I not sub to this awesome idea & effort. Keenly subbed, mod on. It's really early days but stars & rep.
Can you tell me if any other components around that ATX connector fell off when you removed it? I've got a project coming where I may want to remove the ATX connector completely but still need the board to function.