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Case Mod - Complete ⭐ L3p - SteigerWood - Liquidcooled Gaming HTPC - Finished!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by l3p, 19 Jul 2015.

  1. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    [​IMG]


    Here a new 'little' project which I wanted to do quite a while.
    My wife wanted to get rid of the black Ikea home cinema cabinet, preferred something new with scaffolding wood.
    And I .. wanted a new HTPC :)

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    So why not combine with a cabinet which meets my demands..
    And off course a liquid cooled HTPC / Steam Machine ;)

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    This was going to be an 'off the record' build but decided to show you guys what I'm going to do :)

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    Hardware:

    Steiger Dynamics ERA
    Intel i5 4690K
    Asus Maximus VII Impact
    Asus GTX970 DirectCU Mini
    Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB
    Corsair Neutron XT 480GB
    EKWB Waterblocks
    EKWB Pump & Rads
    Bitspower Fittings
    LiHeat Pci-e Extender

    Made possible by:

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    Last edited: 31 Dec 2016
  2. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    At first this wasn't going to be a build + buildlog but just 'a little job' at house and an aircooled htpc in a clean case.
    Well that turned out differently .. and now I've got to catch up :)

    First the cabinet. Longer then a year ago we had plans for a new home cinema cabinet.
    A few months ago my wife came with the idea to do something with scaffolding wood as a relative creates furniture with it.

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    Together with my friend Mark who's really good and specially fast with sketchup we sat down a few nights.
    It took quite some time before we implemented my wife her wishes and my own.
    Thanks Mark!

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    And finally:
    (Did some keyshot)

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    So we started on the cabinet.

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    Exploded view:

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    And the 36 parts where I had to add all measurements to make building it much easier.

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    All of a sudden it was in the living room :)
    (Sawn sides and table will be finished later)

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    Old Ikea cabinet ready for dump.

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    Lets swap.

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    Under the hood.

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    Temporary up and running!

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    Relaxing after a long evening :)

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  3. Icelander

    Icelander Minimodder

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    subbed
     
  4. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Reminds me of my grandma's garage, built sometime in the 1930's and home to many splinters. -Very homy.
    So, you realize that unsealed wood is absorbing cat odor even as we speak, right?:lol:
     
  5. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    Yep I know lol, it absorbes my daughters drinks too :p
    However my wife has some cleaning stuff which works like brake cleaner for that.
    If it really gets smelly or too much stains I'll just build a new one. Maybe with different wood.
    The price for just the wood was around $50.
     
  6. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    First some pics from the ERA and the hardware.


    Mau has been waiting all day for me :)

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    Love it!

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    And a wonderful present hidden inside the case.
    Thanks Martin!!

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    And the hardware I will be using.

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    Thanks again Asus & Corsair!

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    Lets check the hardware first.

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    And a bios update from 0020 to 2702 :D

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    Like a charm!

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    Next update .. the liquid cooling .. and stripping the case.

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  7. montymole

    montymole Rigid Tubist

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    That case is just sexual
     
  8. Noob?

    Noob? What's a Dremel?

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    Them Steiger cases are what dreams are made of. :p

    Shame they don't sell them on their own?

    Lovely gems, remind me of the now impossible to source Omaura/Aumro HTPC cases but also quite alike to the OrigenAE ones. All them are beauts! :drool:

    @l3p:
    That was cheap for the wood, expensive in Blighty unless of course I'm looking in the wrong places! Mention it as the cabinet looks sturdy first of all and thwe wood is nice and chunky with a nice finish to it, well you know what I mean. Looking great as ever!
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2015
  9. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    I love for these kind of cases is even from before I started modding :thumb:


    They actually do ;)

    As I said above, I always loved these cases, even before modding.
    So happy I was able to do the Origen AE S21T after L3p D3sk.
    Now time to do something smaller :dremel:

    For the wood, just look for people who really want to get rid of it. prices are going up because more and more people start to make furniture of it.
     
  10. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    This update some more reading.
    For this build I really needed all the material because of the space inside.
    The height on the sides is 64mm and in the middle 76mm.
    Lots of measuring and fitting!

    First the Pci-e extenders from Li-Heat.
    These do work with Gen3 and even on a 65cm length :)

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    Off course I had to see for myself with a 50cm extender :)

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    And with the 25cm extender. This is how I want to show the GPU.

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    And 2 other nice packages from EKWB and Corsair.

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    Memory where you can easily take off the heatspreaders.

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    Corsair Link to control the fans and lighting.

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    And the EK package!

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    Several radiators (also something for the future) to measure and fit.
    (Did you know a single 180mm rad has more surface then 2x120mm? ;) )

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    I often use Clear blocks but this time Acetal.

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    The kitchen table is ready!

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    Naked Nvidia GPU

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    And done!

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    Now the puzzling can start.
    This way I wouldn't need to change much on the case.
    (Bit scared to saw in the thick anodized brushed aluminum front panel)

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    Maybe do saw in frontpanel and use 50cm extender?

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    Still not sure about it all, I need every millimeter.
    Lets strip the case even more.

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    There you go.

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    About 2mm space on all sides, products and blocks .... I think this will be it :)

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    Borrowed fittings from other project to see how the loop could go.

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    My first idea was, because of the height of the case, to have the loop come out of the top of the case.
    But it seems that I can keep it all inside (1mm space above fittings) just not the memory block.
    Looks like a challenge .. maybe skip the memory block?

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    Until 'somebody' offered me a solution on facebook ... more about that next time :D

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    Vacation started! :)
    Now first further on project 'L3pipe'!
     
  11. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Nice. horizontal mount. I would have shaved the original down and made a manifold that bolted to the top.
    Let's see...GPU power collision and an upside down pump. You're still not out of the woods yet.

    Also- Holy cow! that's a big gear. -Gimmie!
     
    l3p likes this.
  12. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    I even thought about 2 separate memory blocks mounted to the sides of the heatspreaders :)
    But think this will do.

    About the pump upside down, I heard it before (Same goes for D5's)
    I also got the same mention about this res/pump combo by someone else.
    So I asked EK about it, but according to them they've been selling it since 2013 and never had a complaint.

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    Made a photo specially for you :p
    Maybe it wasn't so clear in the above photos, but also the GPU power shouldn't be a problem. (Shouldn't have been 1-2mm more though)

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    The enormous gear .. I'll ask the guy if he could ship it from the UK over to Texas :D
     
  13. Icelander

    Icelander Minimodder

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    absolute Awesomeness once again from Peter :)
     
  14. DanielSandsFTW

    DanielSandsFTW What's a Dremel?

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    Amazing planning managing to fit everything into such a tight case! Subbed :)
     
  15. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    And 2 nice packages arrived.
    First up .. Bitspower!

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    A lovely night of cutting bags :)

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    Nickel plated pipes .. just not sure yet if I will use them this build.

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    Thanks again Vincent!

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    And then something really nice from Parvum and JR23.

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    Thanks Joe, Justin en Shaun!

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  16. Bartacus

    Bartacus Minimodder

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    Damn, almost missed this one! Very interesting solution for the memory!
     
  17. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    First of all a happy 2016 everyone!

    It has been quiet here for a while, I'll try to explain :)

    First I had to make a start on an other project.

    Then .... my Bose Acoustimass set died ... :(
    Because of that I was able to find an other set I wanted for a long time.

    5x Bower & Wilkins M1 (2015)

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    SVS SB-2000

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    After that Richard 'kier' Keirsgieter and I were invited to do a build on an Nvidia event in Istanbul - Turkye.
    Quite an honor and experience!




    After all that I decided to give myself a little treat.

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    But because the Pioneer VSX-S510, which I chose specially for this project, doesn't support 4k 60hz I decided to start 2016 broke :)

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    So a lot happened .. but hopefully soon more updates!
     
  18. Impatience

    Impatience Minimodder

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    Does the B&W M1 fully support Atmos? (You can get deflection speakers nowadays to add to your Home Theater setup so that you don't need to install ceiling speakers!) Just asking as if you're upgrading speakers, you should seriously consider an Atmos-compatible system! :thumb:
     
  19. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    I have read people using the M1's for Atmos setups.
    However I'm not going for an Atmos setup, I only needed the receiver for the 4k 60hz capability to work with my Nvidia Shield which I'm using till this build is finished.
    For now 5.1, maybe 7.1 in the future.
     
  20. Derick

    Derick Senpai Studios

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    Moar updates!
     

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