Project: FrozenFire (OMG Update Jan 12 06, Aquaero VFD!)

Ok, well thought I'd move this over to the new logs area. For the sake of continuity, here's the latest update (Sep 9th). All future updates will occur in this thread, and I'll post a link to the discussion thread shortly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discussion thread:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=1070966#post1070966

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This space reserved for my first round of pics that are having hosting issues. They'll be back. I'm in the process of moving over my log to the new PL forum. Ignore the red Xs in this post for now, they'll be gone soon enough. I'm rather sore from relocating some 326 pictures (not quite that many, but almost all on my photobucket are frozenfire)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************************************
* Editing the title for the millionth time, I'm realizing how out-of
* date the specs are :/ The post will remain intact but the current
* specs are as follows (and will continue to change)
* Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe | AMD64 Athlon X2 3800+ Dual Core (@2500MHz right now)
* 1GB OCZ PC4000 | 36GB WD Raptor x2 | Maxtor 300GB/16MB SATA
* Chaintech AV-710 7.1 sound w/ optical out | Lite On DVD+/-RW DL 16x
* Lian Li 6-in-1 media card reader | LL v2000
*
* All watercooling by Aqua Computer, except the C-systems pumps
* Cuplex XT | Modded AquagraFX6800 | Twinplex | 2x Airplex Evo 120mm
* Plug+Cool 6/8mm tubing | Aquatube Titan. | CSP-MAG | CSP-750 Mk2
***************************************************

My v2000B mod, about a year in planning with many changes and new ideas, has finally commenced!

As there are almost 100 pics for just this first section (in the photogallery, not nearly that many below) I'll let you add your own commentary. It's not nearly done - I have lots of ideas that I don't wanna give away yet, and need to do a lot with the PSU and watercooling.

The goals for the mod are to keep the elegance of a Lian Li intact, while maintaining and increasing functionality and looks. I'm not going for something incredibly flashy although the WC loop will be UV based. A lot of my lighting ideas are based around that - I have a really cool way that I plan to do fan and light control thanks to a page I found on cpemma's site.

However here's the hardware that'll be eventually going into it (the *'d stuff I still need)

Asus A8N-SLI
AMD Socket 939 3000+ "Winchester"
*2x 6800GT in SLI
1GB OCZ PC4000 Gold (2.5-4-4-7) 2x512MB
WD Raptor, 36GB
2x 80GB SATA drives
*250-300GB SATA drive w/ NCQ and 16MB Cache
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Antec True550 EPS12v PSU
Dual Lite On DVD burners (I kinda accidentally upgraded one, but no complaints)
4x20 Character LCD by CrystalFontz
Lian Li 6-in-1 reader

Probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of.

Anyways, this mod will feature my new(ish) German watercooling parts, and a set of converted American pumps:
2x CSP-750 Pumps
1x Cuplex Pro
3x Twinplex (2x GPU, 1x Chipset)
1x Aquatube w/ mounting bracket, Aquajet and LED mod
2x Airplex Evo 120's
All Plug&cool tubing (6mmID 8mmOD)
For more info on the WC stuff, check out SNT-systems.com which is my main supplier and AFAIK the only one in the US for most of that stuff.

For all of the pictures that I took, check out the gallery courtesy of the Photoshop automater:
------
http://www.1sweetpc.com/firehed/v2000/feb13/index.html
------
And for the lazy, just check out a few pics. Not nearly all of them but enough to get the idea across a bit. The thought of getting almost 100 pics in the order I want them *again* pains me a bit.





















Questions? Comments? And before you ask (if you were going to) - I don't have that much financing for the mod, in fact I don't even have a job right now (lazy 17yr old...), I just don't have other expenses to worry about right now. Not to menton I've been saving since planning began so long ago.

And of course, thanks so far to... well... everyone at Bit-tech really. You're such a supportive community and are always encouraging new mods. A huge thanks to Modsquad whose Black Narcissus project has provided a lot of ideas and inspiration (although I'll end up taking ideas from a lot of the v1000/v2000 mods that are around here, quite a few now!). Sorry to keep you begging for me to start my log for so long MS - I love the modding but all the formatting work pains me (hence the use of the automater)

 

Project: FrozenFire

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=98614

That's the pic log. Discuss away here.


Mmm, carbon fibre and copper. New update Oct 18 05

 

That Baybus kind of interrupts the smooth lines of the case, though it does look pretty cool. I suddenly crave a gargantuan cylindrical lit plexiglass reservoir filling up the space between the 5.25" bays and the motherboard

 

I only have one problem with this case, sorry.
Because its a full tower case, and your using small bore tubing, it looks too scatty (messy).
I think, if you clamped the tubing together, or onto the case, in a more controlled way, it'd look MUCH better.

 

Well the tubing layout definately isn't final, and will end up being much neater when all is finalized. I have the (hopefully) last chunk of my watercooling parts arriving on Monday. As it is, it's definately too all-over-the-place. I just wanted to get it running as best I could and didn't have enough tubing or the right fittings onhand to do what I wanted to do. Also, just the angle of the shot makes it look a little wierd, and I've got a few extra things just dangling in there that don't belong.

I may or may not keep the fanbus as it stands, but definately want SOMETHING for fan control. Although right now it's my CSP-MAG making the most noise... something is definately wrong internally. If I can't get it figured out I'll just swap it out for my other 750 again which has no issues. May do that regardless as they're not quite the same size and would probably look a little better being identical.

I have a couple ideas for what to do with the space between the drive bays and the mobo. When I took out that plexi piece it looks a lot more barren for sure. I highly doubt that it'll end up a huge reservoir for a number of reasons (HUGE weight, and plexi cylinders are very expensive everywhere I've looked)

Hopefully over the next couple weeks I can get some decent work done again as I'll have more parts. About the last of what I'll need. Certainly not everything else that's going in though, I've got a few things I've just neglected to do.

I definately like this new log style though, something that should have been done a while ago. It seems like sorting between feedback and updates should be MUCH easier.

 

Mind porting your entire log over mate? Would be nice to see it all in one place. Kinda interested in hole you did the tube management.

 

So your MAG isn't all that quiet either? Mine goes loud and quiet, but i'm running it off a molex.
Are you running it with the Fanbus?

 

bloodcar - I can and probably will at some point, however due to some server issues I've... erm... misplaced... some of the first batch of pics. Well, they're on a server that's being less than friendly to me at the moment. I've got them locally but renaming the thirty-someodd links is a bit irritating.

Shadowed_fury - it was when I first got it... it sounds like something may have come loose. It's been getting continually louder. Either something is stuck inside it or similar. It was very quiet when I first recieved it. Like I said, I'll open it up when I'm replumbing with my new parts due to arrive. Mine's run off a mobo header at full power (as is the 750, off the chipset header). What I'll probably end up doing in the end is splitting it so the +12v/G lines go to a molex or my fanbus and have the yellow RPM lead to a fan header as normal.

The fanbus is just sitting there at the moment. I haven't had a chance to desolder the screw-down terminals and attach actual molex/fan plugs, and I don't have the LEDs for it either. And I'm really just waiting to decide how I'll finalize the wiring (will I need four fan-types, three fans and a molex, etc)

 

Doesn't sound as bad as my MAG, but hmm, hopefully mine doesn't do that...

 

I like the black-on-black sleeving, although I just came up with a great idea that I may play around with more later...


Crystalfontz 4x20 character. Yellow on black.


Newegg is killing me with boxes... they sent a pack of DVDs and a pack of batteries both from Cali in two different boxes... well when I sell old stuff it may come in handy



The pumps will go somewhere around there... they don't have their new fittings yet. I ordered new housings with G1/4 thread They'll get P&C fittings like they should.


Rear fans have been all sleeved up.



The system speaker came in a bad location - I moved it and sleeved it as well.

 

Feb 20, 2005

Over the weekend I didn't get a whole lot accomplished, mostly due to a lack of parts

However I did get around to dying the hard drive racks black, which IMO looks a lot better than the stock grey. I'm honestly not sure that what I used was actual vinyl dye, but it got the job done fairly well.

I also decided to stick most of the hardware in the case. I just couldn't plan things out as well as I needed to with the poorly made paper template I had been playing around with. It'll mean that I have to take everything out again but I'd rather be arsed with that than have it come out like crap. I found that the clearance on the graphics card to the rear rad is about 2mm but it DOES fit Also the +12v power plug gets hidden nicely behind it which is a plus. There's a small heatsink in that same area of the board, presumably over the MOSFETs which probably won't get as much airflow as it ideally should, so I hope it won't be a problem. I don't have any way of knowhing whether or not it will until I have all the parts in and the system running but I doubt it will be.

On to what you want, the pics!



A shot of the case open and closed with not much in it... I just used these to plan out ideas for windows.


The dual-pump mounting bracket that was missing quite a bit of hardware. Hopefully what I need will come later this week and I can get the pumps installed. Unfortunately the new fittings aren't looking to come until the end of the first week of march



Just the bases of the waterblocks. They look a lot better, especially the graphics block, in real life, but both are very smooth which is what actually matters.


The dyed hard drive racks. Again, they look better IRL.



Another set of shots of the racks, with a couple drive installed.


A vague idea of what the front of the case will be like. I'm considering relocating the LCD, but not sure about that yet. There is another optical that will go with the stealther under the existing one and my Audigy drive will be in the bottom. I may try my hand again at stealthing that too, but it depends how it looks when it's done.


The A8N-SLI Deluxe installed, with *shudder* stock cooling for the moment and my Gig of OCZ PC4000 Gold. You can see the test fit hard drives. The pumps are in the small boxes in the PSU area.


Mobo closeup.


No comments on the wire management, this is a TEST FIT! With luck the only stuff you'll see is the watercooling tubing, and maybe a bit of the leads going to the graphics cards when I get them.


My three (for the moment, it could end up being as many as five!) hard drives installed. The SATA cables are a VERY tight fit... I'll probably end up either getting longer ones or putting the external SATA bracket that came with the board to some more practical use.

More in next post...

 

Feb 20, 2005


That's a lotta wires coming out of that PSU!


More wiring hell. The thing coming right down the middle is my temportary front panel setup (power led, etc). As it turns out, the FPIO cabling is a hair too short the way I have it routed, and the USB and 1394 are out of the question. I have plans to deal with that though.


You can see that I hacked up an IDE cable for the optical drives to try and clean up the slack. Not perfect but a marked improvement over the six inches or so between the connectors as they were placed.


Case front with the other optical drive (need a second stealther) and Audigy drive in place.


Just a tiny bit too short. I can just squeeze on the system speaker but that's it. The multicolored stuff is my temp solution.


The +12v ("P4" power) line is hidded fairly nicely back there. If you look very closely you can see the MOSFET sink (looks like an extension of the stock heatsink). It looks like the SLI "EasyPlug" wiring should be hidden fairly well too!


The back of the case... nothing too special.


Just to get across how painful the cable management will be...

I also came up with a couple window ideas that I like... here they are. I'm leaning towards the three smaller windows because I don't wanna have to see or deal with that rather ugly metal of the hard drive rack.





Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

 

Feb 21 2005

I took Modsquad's advice and gave the waterblocks a quick polishing. The results are great!


The blocks after a bit of work


Northbridge goodness


Is that a mirror or a CPU block?


The GPU, which had didn't get any treatment today, just some work beforehand.

This was quick work since the bases were already quite flat - just a bit of 600 grit, followed right by 2000 (yes, normally I'd have gone to 1000, 1500 and then 2000 but it wasn't really necessary and I didn't have the paper anyways), then the bases were attacked by some dremel polishing compound. All the excess is wiped off so there shouldn't be an issue with heat transfer.

And although I could easily see the camera in the reflection, the flash from it just wouldn't allow me to take that picture. If you care though, it's a Canon Powershot A75 (3.2MP). I never print pics so I don't need even that high of a MP rating, when they're being posted online it's almost all just knowing how to take the picture. You could have a 4GP camera and still have your pictures look like crap if you don't know how to take them. The 1Gig CF card that I picked up is nice though... I've got about 700 pics on it with room for over 1000 more at my quality setting. Nice improvement over the stock 32MB card

 

Feb 25, 2005

Did a bit of sleeving today. Not the entire PSU as there's still some parts I need but at least a bit of it. I also fitted on the blue Zalman passive chipset cooler for the moment - the fan on the mobo already started dying. I knew it would fairly quickly, but I was hoping I could get the watercooling setup before it did. Oh well, it seems to work, but it gets mighty hot!

I decided to go for modular action on this thing. I'll probably need all three of the leads but it still looks cooler, and on the offchance I don't need the extra cabling I'm set.


Naked nForce4 SLI chipset!


Just to show clearance for the waterblock - this was how I fried my first mobo. The mounting bracket (the thin metal bit) was sitting ON that capacitor so the block wasn't making full contact. Warning to all of you, don't do that! I'm using an ATI mounting screen on the Twinplex block and will just rotate it so it doesn't interfere. You can also cut a bit off of the NF4 screen and it'll be OK but it's thin enough that that would leave me a bit uncomfortable.


The Zalman thing mounted for now


The PSU open complete with ugly top fan (but it won't ever be seen so it'll stay)



A couple ideas I had for internalizing the modular bits, I decided over doing it though - not enough clearance really.


Wiring nightmare! Not one of those is labelled. That's the EATX, 4-pin +12v and 8-pin +12v wiring in there... The 8pin +12v will be converted to dual PCIE power plugs with a bit of help from the AUX line as well.


Oh, so that's how it goes back together!


More wiring


I did the 24pin EATX plug divided into three lines. They're smaller and a bit easier to manuver and you can get the heatshrink closer to the plug that way. I almost split it into four but decided not to for no good reason.


Starting to come together a bit.


Basically the same as the last pic but on my desk. The 4pin 12v line might have gotten done in there too, don't remember. You can see the chipset fan I removed as well.


Another EATX shot


The wires that will go to the dual PCIE power lines. I just stuck them like that for now until I get the plugs themselves.


Some sleeved 4pin action. Hopefully it won't be seen AT ALL when it's done.


The PSU back in, in it's temporary state.


Wiring going to the drives. That's not final at all, I'll be using right-angle plugs, I just had that line free from my P4's modular PSU.


EATX plug on the mobo


Wiring to the hard drives


It's looking a little bit better in there, but still needs work.


The fan only and soon-to-be PCIE power lines just stuck out of sight and out of mind for now.


It still works!

I forgot to get a pic of some other PSU mod stuff - not a real closeup of the modular bits. I also removed the gold grill on the bottom fan entirely and chanced the gold one on the back to chrome. It'll be the only chrome thing in the case probably but the gold didn't fit at all. I mangaed to get the thing open without even breaking the warrantee sticker, but as I've cut wires (g'bye AUX!) that doesn't do me much good.

Hopefully I can get more parts ordered this weekend... the rest of the PSU stuff especially. As I don't have my bulkheads, LEDs or acrylic in yet I can't do too much more physical modding, really just planning things out more. I was orignally going to have at least forty LEDs in the case with a pair of cathodes, but figured that's more than overboard. It'll probably be just ten LEDs and either a pair of cathodes or maybe just a single.

 

Feb 28, 2005

Just a few pics of where I mounted the pumps. Those fittings are just to give an idea, the G1/4 threaded ones I need haven't arrived yet





I'm thinking I'll use straight fittings on both sides (less inlet restriction), have the pumps mounted the other direction closer to the PSU (rotated 180 degrees) and take out that center plate so there's no problems routing the tubing without the right-angle fittings.

 

Mar 6, 2005

Did some work during the week including relocating the pumps and taking out the bottom divider plate. Most of what I need is now ordered aside from hardware... I've talked to CuttingEdgeCaseMods about acrylic already and just need about $30 worth of stuff from boltdepot.


I cut some holes in the mobo tray for wire management. None of them will be visible with the mobo installed. I may do some more, it depends how things work out.


New pump location. They're now facing away from the PSU. This should work out better for routing the tubing, and luckily they block almost no airflow from the PSU.


I cut a small hole behind where the rear rad will be to accomidate the P4 and Eazyplug wires. They shouldn't be visible at all when the rad is in place.


The system temporily reinstalled. Note that all the SATA cables are now the same color and the hard drive wiring is now facing the PSU. Also note that the IDE ribbon cable to the optical drives is run UNDER the mobo tray


This wiring will be improved upon at some point... I'll end up doing a custom SATA power lead. Hopefully I won't melt wires... I could end up with as much as six drives on that single chain, two of which are raptors. I'll use right-angle plugs for MUCH improved neatness.


Just to get a spacing idea with the rad in place. Note that the area is MUCH cleaner without the wiring of the hard drives coming out that side. Should reduce temps of both coolant and drives a bit.


That's all the wiring that I need. HUGE improvement! Ziptying the SATA cables together really helped. I'm planning to get some 1m long ones and see if I can route them better. If not, I'll at least dye them black. Same for the audigy cable. The wiring to the USB devices (LCD and 6-in-1 reader) will be extended and then routed similarly to the IDE cable.


Closeup of the cutout for the P4 and Eazyplug lines. I haven't made the cable for the Easyplug yet but they should be hidden very well.


Honestly I'm not sure what I was thinking when I took this pic so make what you want out of it.


That IDE cable gets hidden nicely It'll be even better when all is said and done.

Anyone have suggestions as to where to put the bulkheads? I'm thinking mounting them in a piece of acrylic in the large hole where SATA/IDE cables to hard drives would normally pass through, or where the EATX wiring comes through.

 

Mar 13, 2005 (omg, over two THOUSAND posts since this one just some six months ago. Something like 11 PPD)

Well for my 3000th post, I thought I'd give you all an update on FrozenFire!

Yeah, holy crap, that's a lot of typing.


The pair of PCI Express +12v power connectors I got from Performance PCs. These will hook up to the dual 6800GTs I'll get.


And the back of the connectors. They use the same pins as the ATX connector. It's hard to see in the picture but there are some very small numbers showing what is what (same on ATX and "P4" connectors as well)


Stupidly enough, I never grabbed a great pic of the "finished" cable, but it's not sleeved yet anyways. It's in that pile of wire under the bottom hard drive at the moment. Not really shown in this pic is that I did a tiny bit of work on the SATA power line, adding in a right-angle power plug for one of the drives. I plan to stick a total of six(!) on there so I'll be ready for as many hard drives as I can throw in there. I just hope that wouldn't overload the wiring...


Here's what you might find in a $5.00 molex grab bag. I got about 25 right-angle molexes (white, but still useful), two ATX, one EATX, a few sata power and some other misc stuff. Obviously the gloves and binders weren't included. Yes I need to clean my room. Again.


And now for some DVD burner modding action. The drive pictured here is a Lite On 16x Dual layer +/- burner. I like the Lite-on drives because they're about 3/4" shorter than most drives and very well priced. This one was only about $60... even not that long ago my 4x Lite On burner had just dropped below the $100 mark when I got it.

Yes, this was inspired entirely by Modsquad and his project Black Narcissus. He decided to chrome his drive instead but I loved the look.

The victim...


The carbon fibre vinyl sheet I picked up from MNPCtech. As I mentioned earler, a mishap in shipping them resulted in me only getting one of the four I ordered, but I talked to Bill and he was very helpful about it, the remaining sheets will ship out on monday so I can be sure of having more to do next weekend...


My heat gun, the drive and vinyl sheet. As it turns out the heat gun wasn't really that necessary, but I don't really care, it's better to have it and not need it than the other way around.


And a razor blade and old student ID. The ID is my "credit card" to act as a squegee (sp?) and keep the vinyl pressed down evenly and without air bubbles. The blade is to poke tiny holes in it if necessary to get out air bubbles if the turn up. It came in very handy for the stupid indentations around the drive, which serve no purpose but came out fairly well considering this was my first time trying something like this.


Sorry for the lack of progress pics on the drive itself, but I cared more about the result being good than getting a pic of doing it. It came out fairly well, and anywhere that seemed a bit off shouldn't really be visible anyways considering the placement of the drive.




Some more finished shots.




And the drive installed in the case. I honestly thought it would have been a much tighter fit but it wasn't that hard to get back in. After I remembered to poke holes in the vinyl for the screw holes... my Audigy drive however really doesn't want to go in the case at all and can be held in by friction alone easily. I figured it would have been more like that. Whatever, it works and came out moderately well. When I do the other stuff (second burner, PSU, HDD rack perhaps and the 5.25" rack) it'll probably come out better since I have a better idea of how to work with the material.

 

Mar 22, 2005 - SLI day

Well, I didn't do much on the weekend (busy with other stuff) but some parts came in and I spent last night doing more carbon fibre work. The PSU was just horrible to do but came out pretty nicely - not only were the 200 someodd hexagons I had to cut out but all the stuff on the back (misc plugs and sockets) had to be worked around as well.

Anyways, onto the pics!


My new babies - a pair of eVGA 6800 GT PCI Express cards!


Just the junk they came with... I've now got plenty of DVI adaptors


And more..


Some purdy cards


Ten 100cm SATA cables. Cheaper than buying the six I needed so I can't go wrong. I'm not totally sure how I'll route them yet but I've got ideas.


The reason I couldn't do anything this weekend... feel free to visit me in July if you're in VA but I won't have the comp with me.


The cards installed.... SLI baby!


Lots of acrylic!




A decent view of the radiant material. Looks better in real life and you can't get a great pic with a flash. Oh well... it's still cool and if you're looking for a really interesting window material, head over to The Cutting Edge and pick some up!


A quartet of 120mm vantec stealths. I got them cheap off a fellow Bit member, but they probably won't go in this comp. I'll likely be using the much more powerful 120mm's from CECM that'll be controlled.


Some misc tools and whatnot... the other 120mm fans that CECM sent are in there too.

Here's some carbon fibre'd PSU action! And yes, it still works. I kinda cheated on how I cut out all the little hexagons so in person it's not quite perfect but the flash makes any imperfections show up more than you'd notice in real life. I'm not even sure if the PSU will be visible when the mod is done so it may not matter anyways.






I did the other DVD drive, it looks the same as the other one so just look at the back of it.


The PSU in it's home.


Just an overall shot. People always seem to forget these! That ziptied 120mm is just temporary of course.... with the dual graphics cards the passively-cooled chipset was getting less airflow than ever and that was scaring me as I've already fried one nForce4-SLI.


Another shot of the cards installed. My homemade PCIE power plugs work and both cards still live.


Just another shot of the top of the case.

Enjoy it! I've got more carbon fibre vinyl left over than I anticipated (a good thing) and I'll get around to using it. The audigy drive seems to stick out a bit but it may move anyways. I've got plenty of ideas. I just hope the rest of my damned watercooling stuff comes before July!

 

Apr 2, 2005

Lemme show you what I've done (no more CF yet):

Add your own commentary, I'm lazy. Please ignore the dust on the fans, it's supposed to be showing the button-head socket cap bolts. It'll all get cleaned up. And like I said, that cable wrap is only temporary.













Oh yeah, forgot to mention (I think anyways) that I changed the chipset cooler... again. It's now a Vantec Iceberq that I modded to fit. I wanted to get this thing overclocked again and the passive scared me to do that. It'll see a waterblock eventually, don't worry.

In case you're wondering, the handle screws are "Boltdepot #6631 stainless steel button head M5x8mm" and the aquatube screws are #6622 and #6624 M4 8mm and 12mm respectively. The longer ones go thru the plexi.

I've got M3 40mm socket head bolts for the radiator/fan setups and a few different things to try for the chipset (the stock plastic things look like crap imo). I'm now a huge fan of Boltdepot.. especially since my cheapest-they-have-UPS-ground was overnight since I'm only 150miles away from them or so. I spent a bit more there than I'd have liked to but I got extra of everything, just for whatever. I'm kinda wishing I got more of the fender washers (they're extra wide, they'll provide extra support on the rubber gromets in the fan/rad mounts) but oh well.

 

Apr 10, 2005

Sunday nite update for all of ya:

This is how I plan to do the radiator mounting. Those are 40mm socket cap bolts holding it together. I've since played around with making an acrylic shroud, see later.



I've re-routed the SATA wires for a much cleaner look. Still not final, but a lot closer to where they'll end up. I may have a piece of smoked plexi they end up behind. Those are also the 39"/1M long ones, not the 18"/50cm ones.



I finally did the carbon fibre on the HDD rack. It came out pretty nice if you ask me. Any imperfections you might notice in pics are totally invisible in real life, only picked up by the flash.


You can see I've since re-flipped the direction of the hard drives. The cabling is now once again facing the rad. I only have one space (out of six!) free, and all of those are real drives that will be in there. In order: 36GB raptor, WD 80GB, Seagate 80GB, Seagate 80GB, free, 36GB Raptor. The free will probably see a 300GB 16MB cache Maxtor at some point. If you care, it's like 298GB after formatting. About 194 of that is used.


More SATA cable routing. I was happy to find out that I can run drives JBOD on the SI3114 controller (the one with only one cable) so I'm not FORCED to RAID any drives. I just hope it accepts multiple arrays... or else a sixth drive could be problematic.


My Allelectronics.com order came in (packed in a frozen meat box, lol). I got a Helping Hands tool.


Closeup of the Aquatool for those who care. For five bucks at AE, the thing will be invaluable for my upcoming soldering work.


How my fans will probably be mounted. Those are M5 button head bolts, similar to what I used to remount the Aquatube. I really like the button heads over the more modding-traditional socket cap - smoother look IMO.


Wiring from AE. 100' of each 18 and 22ga.


More AE stuff. 50 cent cable management kits, a $5 10-pc file set, a $5 dremel filing set thing, speaker wire (for if/when I get z5500's, since at least some of them seem to be coming with the terminals rather than the hardwired connections), and some extra high header bits. I'll use those with my soon-to-come FPIO wiring, once my Futurlec stuff comes.


My collection of nuts and bolts from Boltdepot in $1 organizers from AE. Dunno why I got a picture really... but AE seems to have a lot of really useful stuff on the cheap.


I finally attached the power and HDD LEDs. It's barely distinguishable that the blue power LED is on. I'm not sure if I'll change that color, and if so what to, but I'm glad to finally know they work.


The back of the case. Note that I've attached the fans with more of the M5 bolts. Don't mind my foot, I was taking the pic at a really akward angle.


Where the SATA cables are passing thru to the bottom at the moment. It went to the FPIO wiring initially, but it has enough room for five to six SATA cables on top of that stuff.


You can see how I did the SATA power with the right-angles for a couple of the drives. All of them will be done that way when it's finalized.


I used the small but thick piece of acrylic from The Cutting Edge (thanks Chris!) for a shroud. Sorry, no pics of it in the making but if I remember I'll snap a few when I do the other. I countersunk holes around the screws since the threads on the radiator stick out a tiny bit. The 40mm bolts are just barely long enough! I'm not sure if I'll keep it, but if I do, it may be backlit with LEDs.


That's all for now, enjoy it! I'm still not sure about the rest of my AC stuff, hopefully soon............. I want to get a lot done over spring break (week after this for me).

For those who are intested and haven't heard, I may be opening my own AC reselling store in the US, and will actually STOCK items so you won't have long backorders. If you're the type interested in AC parts in the US, I'd appreciate it if you could email ac @ 1sweetpc . com with stuff you'd be interested in, or place a mock order at 1sweetpc.com/firehed/oscomtest/catalog so I can get ideas on how much of what to stock (yes I know that site's very incomplete, but it's just for mock orders).