Case Mod - In Progress Project Thief -Completed 11-2014 -2 CPUs,8 GPUs,4 Loops,6 Pumps,50 Fans,2TB SSD

Haha yes - that is what keeps me up at night, I keep redesigning it in my head

Haha just wait for the real modding to start

The case is aluminum so it's not unreasonable, however it's built like a tank so my guess is 50lbs or so. No more than 70, but that's without anything in it.



So you modders might like this update:

So I got the opportunity to tour this new workshop close to downtown that just opened. It has all the workshop tools you could never afford to buy yourself, and you can buy day passes or month passes depending on how long you need. So this resolves all my issues with manufacturing the waterfall reservoirs myself, as well as opening up possibilities like custom waterblocks...

It was the launch weekend so there was a free bbq (there were plenty more people later on)



Wood shop room, saw stop tablesaw, planer, chop saw etc. bunch of other stuff that isn't shown:



Large CNC Mill for wood:



Sand Blaster:



Vinyl cutter so you can print your own stickers:



Forgot to take a photo of the 3D printer, but here's an 150W laser that cut through some hefty steel plate:



There's two other lasers good enough for acrylic/wood, and a third one is apparently on the way:



Spray paint booth, they have an oven for powder coating, but not all the rest of the powder coating tools yet:



Metal press and folding machines:



Other metal machines, bandsaw, grinders and a lathe:



Metal lathe:



Old school mills:



CNC mill - can you say custom waterblocks!



Electronics room - not much here, bunch of soldering irons, power supplies and scopes:



So what do you all think I should do with this opportunity?

I definitely want to:
- make the custom metal backplates for GPUs
- make the waterfall reservoir
- make some custom waterblocks for parts that aren't ultra high performance e.g. raid card, memory blocks etc.

 

BTW anyone know how I edit a thread title?

 

That place looks awesome! guess it was hard to leave

Edit your first post and then go advanced, you now have the option to change your title

 

Oh this place is just so wrong. Why can't someone open up something like this near me? I have to order practically everything online as I usually can't find a stupid thing that I need locally, much less can get anything made locally. How much do they charge daily/monthly?

 

I know, every modder needs one of these places locally lol- price is 30/day or 150 for unlimited access/month. Classes for teaching some of the tools are extra. For the laser and cnc stuff though I can draw up stuff at home and just get a day pass, reserve the machine and churn parts out

 

all the modding tools you can think of AND food? that's just cruel, man I've been looking for a place like this forever in/around london, but no luck so far happy for you, though looking forward to seeing what you with it btw, if anyone knows of a place like this on side of the pond, please give us a shout.

 

I know seriously lol. Hopefully it'll take off and more will open

Alright here's another update. Can you say gentle typhoooooooooooooooooooons?



Don't worry they're not all for me. I only have 14 of those plus the 10 I already own.

My waterblocks also came in, thanks again to DT Waterblocks, here they are next to my spare rasa (both my raystorms are still in systems)



You can see there's plenty of room for fittings. On the back you can see the copper base plate is pretty chunky - this should mean it should distribute heat better laterally through the plate but worse directly through it. Not sure the right trade off, but this copper block is the largest I've seen both in terms of area and thickness.



Here's some results from Martin's testing:

Temps in comparison to the raystorm:



Restriction:

It should be noted that the mounting mechanism now has thumb screws. Next update I'll show you a pic of it mounted.

Anyway the other big news on this update is the exterior panels. Here's some close up shots of the color, it's a dark metallic grey flake with a smooth finish to the touch:



Even closer:



And as much as I can loosely hang on the case without it being clipped on. You can see one motherboard has also been mounted. The TX10 makes EATX look like a MITX lol.



Working with Smasher and Jim on this has been a delight and I highly recommend them

 

That collor is sweet man! What a difference between the bare metal case!

 

looking good mate keep up the good work

 

Thats like over $900 in fans.....

 

Now I know why they are all sold out at most suppliers in the US!!! I've been waiting to buy some for 3 weeks now. No one supplier has 8 in stock for me to order!!

 

So, many, fans! And so much awesomeness! Loving all of this build, keep up the great work!

 

Glad you like it, I was nervous at first

Thanks again peteski

Haha yeah I wish they were all mine!

These are the discontinued 2150rpm version. But yeah quite why there's always a shortage of AP15s I'm not sure lol.

 

The case is looking really good now, good progress.

 

Hahahaha,and I thought I have a lot of fans. XD

This is great project.

 

Case looks insanely huge like a nice big cupboard of tech the project name of thief is excellent, man I don't even want to know what this would cost with or without sponsorship scary but man would I love to do a budget less project, would be through the roof awesome, clearly no expense has been spared on this.

1 Thing that really does puzzle me on if you need to change a part, how do you do it with such perfect fitting loops, it's always puzzled me with this style, looks awesome but can only picture it being an absolute nightmare changing parts.

That maker place is a sweet idea, looks like a modders heaven & need one local, they'd have to drag me kicking & screaming out.

Man 150 a month I'd sooooo be super excited to pay that, gutted there isn't anything like that here, hopefully it will prove to be a highly successful business & it spreads all over the world.

Monster project.

stars & rep for making my eyes boom wide open.

 

Thanks

Yeah if only they were all mine - now that would be a mod haha a case made of fans.

Thanks Waynio - it's nice to have this opportunity although even with sponsors it hurts my wallet lol. Yeah when you change a part it's a bit of a pain, you almost end up taking everything apart. The more commonly changed components (CPU and gaming GPU will be made pretty easy to swap with quick disconnects and their own loops (it'll have 4 loops in the end).

Yeah seriously 150 is a bargain if you have the time to spend. Sadly my work is too busy to keep me from living there lol. Thanks for the kind words

 

So while I was waiting for the screws, I decided to mount a reservoir to the motherboard tray. As the motherboard tray is HPTX there is a lot of spare space. Initially I wanted to also fit an RX360 on there, so that the motherboard/gpu/ram loop was self contained on the tray so that I could just pull it out and swap CPUs without disturbing that loop. Now I have another plan for the radiator instead. Here I am drilling the tray:



With the res mounted (it's a 250 EK multires if anyone cares and there's just enough room for a D5 underneath):



From the back with the reservoir mounted. You can see the two nuts holding it on:



Now with the motherboard tray back stiffening and tiding plate added:



Here's another shot of the front also showing the new cpu block. BTW any barbs are just place holders.



A quick test inside the case:



I also did a test run with the gtx560 radiator and the fan adapters with my new shiny 2150 rpm gentle typhoons!



That was it for the night, then the next morning I found an extra fitting and connected the res to the ram block. Almost a straight line lol.



No one had photographed the new thumbscrews on the cpu block - so I took a couple of that also:



Again ignore the barbs, I haven't quite decided how to route the tube out of there yet.

 

You could always hook the CPU up from above by cutting 2 holes in the roof above it for the tubing to go through but I am not sure where your rads/res are for that loop.

 

Hey Fuganater - yes the radiator is above, the pump is below and the reservoir is the 18 bay one in the front (yet to be made - I have to get on that laser class).

I could use the cable routing hole above, however I'd like to have quick disconnects close by so I can remove the motherboard tray without much work.