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

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by stren, 20 Dec 2011.

  1. theoeyeo

    theoeyeo What's a Dremel?

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    best idea ever. They need to open more everywhere, immediately. I forsee some cool things coming for your mod now you've got access to this goodness.
     
  2. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    LOVE this! Just amazing! Can't wait to see more pics, keep em coming! Subbed!
     
  3. dream1

    dream1 What's a Dremel?

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    Lot of good stuff :D I like huge cases ':)
     
  4. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks John I appreciate it - I'm going to call them up and see what they can do

    Thanks :):)


    Yeah I think they're spreading - techshop has a bunch more opening around the US at least

    Thanks :) Some more pics in a couple of mins

    Me too- so easy to work with!
     
  5. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    Got some more today seeing as I got done with my deadline yesterday. I wanted to get the 120 rad painted to match the fan to see how it looks and what fittings to go with. So I started sanding down the brand new gt stealth:

    [​IMG]

    Masked it off and applied primer:

    [​IMG]

    Then painted a matching cover to dress up the fan a little:

    [​IMG]

    While I was waiting for paint to dry, I put together the quick disconnect pairs, some will mount to panels with a g1/4 fitting on the other side, while some screw directly into radiators:

    [​IMG]

    Then I realized I need two more pairs...

    I also did some work on the pump mounting. I added a drain port to the inlet tube and mapped out the cuts I wanted to make to the base panel. Air has to flow through the base panel, so there has to be some cut outs. Because the pump will vibrate, I'm worried about making the noise worse with a floppy piece of metal, so I was thinking to stiffen it with two 1" by 1/4" steel bars screwed underneath the base plate (these are the two dark shaded strips. I'll have to add some rubber strips to try and isolate the baseplate from the frame also.

    [​IMG]

    Here's a quick look at the painted rad from earlier with the fan on top:

    [​IMG]

    And here's a piece of acrylic that was laser cut and then painted to match. The dimensions aren't quite right though:

    [​IMG]

    Not sure whether to do something like this or not. I don't think I should use the zerg symbol anyway as it doesn't match the theme, but it's fun to play around.

    Originally I had wanted to paint all the fans, then I got lazy and thought, well I'm more likely to screw them up by painting them (imbalanced rotors and all), plus they won't be seen so who cares. So I took a look to see if I could justify lazy or not - here are the stock typhoons showing:

    [​IMG]

    Here's one painted typhoon just rested up in there. Obviously the space around the fan (fan adapter) would be painted silver too so it would blend better. The red can't be seen too well though:

    [​IMG]

    So I figure I have four options:

    A) leave the GTs stock (lazy and quieter but looks ugly)
    B) paint the GTs housing only and leave the rotor grey (quiet but stands out less
    C) paint the GT fully (risks noise from a now unbalanced rotor and doesn't look much better than option b)
    D) paint the GT fully and add some white LEDs to actually show the metallic red rotor off a little bit

    What do you all think?
     
  6. peteski

    peteski long live the pc

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  7. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    The results are in:
    A - 2
    B - 7
    C - 0
    D - 6
    Other suggesions:
    - not paint and add leds - 2
    - paint the housing and add leds -1
    - paint hubs only and add leds -1

    I liked some of the suggestions - I think what I'll do is actually not paint, and use red LED's to light the blades. I'm going to do a test run in the next couple of days. I'll also create a plate to attach the fans too that will cover some of the ugliness so only the blades will be seen. I can then create some back lit patterns. I need to check how much room is left in between the fans and the metal panel though.

    Meanwhile I mounted the 140x9 radiator (without fans as I'm waiting on delivery), and checked the QDC's:

    [​IMG]

    Unfortunately there is not enough room - only about 3/4" to make the 90 degree turn:

    [​IMG]

    Luckily I had a non rotary 90 spare that could help out:

    [​IMG]

    A rotary there would inevitably leak due to the weight of the QDC. I don't like the restriction of that tight 90 though so I may end up taking the QDC off of the radiator and putting it in line instead. I decided to leave it for a bit though and work on tapping the reservoir. The parts I need came in, so now it's time to build a makeshift tap handle lol.

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Toxvaerd

    Toxvaerd What's a Dremel?

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    If you are going to use fan covers, keep in mind that they produce a LOT of noise, depending on the design.

    Back in the days when laser cuts were the top thing, I played around with some and I quickly went for the plain old circle ones. The noise generated by the air rushing around those sharp and restricted edges, was just to much.
     
  9. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah they'll just be holes cut out for the fans, nothing will be in the way of the airflow :)
     
  10. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    So I received some more primochill LRT tubing that is definitely a different color than the previous stuff I have. It's not aging or the supplier because the existing stuff I have is of different dates and different suppliers. I contacts ppc's and they said to email primochill (although I do wonder if they shipped me feser by mistake). Either way we'll see what primochill says.

    [​IMG]

    The difference looks 3-4x worse than the photo shows.

    Also got some parts that were correctly manufactured (EK D5 top and lots of drain ports):

    [​IMG]

    Bunch of fill ports:

    [​IMG]

    I also got done with the clearcoat on the radiator so I could finally take the masking tape off:

    [​IMG]

    Then I built a quick and dirty tap handle:

    [​IMG]

    We'll see how it works, I may have to buy one but thought I'd try this first.

    I attached the D5 top to the res with a rotary male to male connector. There was about 3/8" gap between the mounting plate and the motherboard tray though, so I picked up a rubber table leg weight distributor that felt like it would be good for damping vibrations. It's just the right size to hide behind the mounting plate. I had to shave it down a bit though as it was more like 1/2":

    [​IMG]

    Here it is hiding:

    [​IMG]

    If it's visible from the window, I'll have to replace it, but I think it's good. Here it is with the plate bolted down lightly (the barb is temporary):

    [​IMG]

    Here it is mounted from the front:

    [​IMG]
     
  11. peteski

    peteski long live the pc

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    looking good mate :rock: :rock: :rock:
     
  12. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks!
     
  13. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    First thanks to Primochill for stepping up and taking care of the tubing - a box has been shipped so hopefully that's the end of that. PPC's should have been the ones to take charge of the situation in my opinion, so I know where I won't be shopping in future. I was able to use some of the pink stuff for the fill ports as I ran out of good tube.

    Anyway here's a video update as I'm short on time to edit the photos. The house is full of parts everywhere and I need to tidy up before my wife kills me. This is about halfway through what's been done. One thing I've found with this case is that it's so large, that every wire needs to be lengthened:

    Skip to the end to see the case next to a mid atx tower:

     
    Last edited: 23 Apr 2012
  14. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

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    There. 5 damn stars like it deserves.

    john
     
  15. Mosquito

    Mosquito Just 'Plane' Crazy

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    Looking great! keep up the good work :):dremel:
     
    Last edited: 24 Apr 2012
  16. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks John :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

    Thanks :) and thanks for embedding the vid. I get confused because every forum handles videos differently lol
     
  17. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    So I finally tidied up the house. For some reason the wife was unhappy with every available surface being covered with stuff. This means I can start processing some photos.

    So I started off by putting together the workstation upgrade. My gaming rig can be down, but I still have to work, so that's the first priority. The workstation consists of two loops:

    1. i7-3930K - Mora3 140x9 - Dual PMP450S (D5 Strong)

    2. EK R4E full cover block - 2 EK ram blocks - EK 8800GT block - D5 Vario - EK 250 cylinder res

    As most of loop 2 was done, I started work on loop 1. So I started off mounting the fans to the mora3. Here it is with the CaseLabs "Super Mount". There are four dedicated mounting points independent of the fans which is nice:

    [​IMG]

    This means you can just mount the fans to the supermount and not the radiator:

    [​IMG]

    This is useful for cleaning because you can just undo the four mounting screws between the supermount and the rad. I.E. You don't have to remove every single fan for cleaning. FYI the fans are low speed 140mm yates (700rpm). I chose these because I wanted something cheap and quiet, and yates are both of those when at 700rpm.

    Here's the super mount with fans mounted placed on top of the rad:

    [​IMG]

    Then I attached the rad to the super mount:

    [​IMG]

    The only downside to this is a tiny gap between the fan and the rad. However it's small enough that I don't think it will cause a problem:

    [​IMG]

    Here it is mounted in the top of the case:

    [​IMG]

    I then attached the quick disconnects to the CPU block for loop 1. Originally they were going to attach to the case and then have compression fittings on the cpu block. However there wasn't enough room to make the 90 degree turn, so i think this works better:

    [​IMG]

    In the final setup I'll have some bitspower pass throughs that go to the top chamber. For now the tubing curves around to the drive bay area where the temporary reservoir and pumps are:

    [​IMG]

    Again you can see the pink vs red tube. Primochill have shipped me some replacement tube - so props to them for taking care of it.
     
    Mosquito likes this.
  18. Mosquito

    Mosquito Just 'Plane' Crazy

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    Not a problem, if you edit your post to embed the video I'll remove mine (pm me if I don't notice by the next post after you do it, if you do). All you need between the tags is the ID of the video (string after http://youtu.be/ )


    I think it's easier to see it in that last picture than the outside picture earlier... I didn't think it was that big of a deal/difference until I saw that last pic...

    So many fans :lol: Should be fairly quiet though, I've used those 700rpm yates and they are almost inaudible. I also liked the pseudo walk through of the super mount too :thumb:
     
  19. stren

    stren What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks dude - yes I fixed it :) Yeah photos don't show color always that well. It almost seems like a different diameter too the way it stretches over the barb is different. Yeah the loudest thing right now are the pumps if they get dialed up to 24V. I have to find a way to dampen them better.


    So here's another update:


    So to build the workstation loop I also needed a rx360 rad from my gaming rig. So this meant that it was time to take the gaming rig apart. Here you can see it minus one fan that was clicking and had been removed. Yes you can cool 3 480's, a 920 and motherboard block with 5xAP15s but yes your water gets pretty warm lol.

    [​IMG]

    So once the radiators were removed, I could take some side by side pics with the new case:

    [​IMG]

    Yes the TX10 is huge!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    So enough posing, it's time to take the guts apart:

    [​IMG]

    You can see how the window was hiding some messy wiring. I hadn't bothered to tidy and sleeve much after putting in the Koolance res and STX because the TX10 was already on the way.

    Lots of dust to be cleaned, here you can see the "saddlebag" setup of the external rads

    [​IMG]

    About to take the fans and reservoir out:

    [​IMG]

    Top fan and PSU removed:

    [​IMG]

    Parts on the ground, parts on the ground looking like a fool with my parts on the ground!

    [​IMG]

    The STX is a sexy card:

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Mosquito

    Mosquito Just 'Plane' Crazy

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    That is quite large... I do believe I've looked at apartments that are approximately that big...
     

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