Hello, this is my first project log on BitTech to mark the first scratch build I've ever attempted and my second attempt at water cooling. I don’t generally post on forums much but I've been lurking around Bit Tech for quite some time as my daily source of industry news and to check out all the great mods and builds on here which have been a major source of inspiration. Having never posted a project log anywhere before I'm following the sticky guide so I'm hoping to end up with a well documented log of my build from design to completion. The specs i5 2500K Asus P8Z68 V Pro 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP MSI Twin Frozr II 580 1TB WD HDD I'm on the look out for a couple of SSD's too. The Design The plan was to create a case which could easily house a couple of 360 rads and comfortably fit the rest of my hardware. I was toying with the idea of CaseLabs M8 or Mountain mods as I love the aesthetics of double-wide/cube cases however for the cost of getting one built to spec and then shipped over to the UK I figured I could make my own, so here I am. A mock up and a couple of basic 3D renders to give me a starting point, The tools at hand The frame is made from 3mm thick aluminium angle (30x30mm) requiring 12 lengths to make a basic cube frame. The joints are all 45 degree angles lovingly measured, cut and filed by hand and then joined via a bracket made from smaller 25x25mm aluminium angle. So at this point I have the basic frame complete and I have some parts on order such as radiator brackets so I can start getting everything in the right position. I've also been searching Ebay a lot recently and managed to pick up some goodies... Theres a few bent fins and scratches but its just cosmetic I'll probably repaint it. The rest of the watercooling will be on order soon. Thanks for reading!
good start, nice touch with the the brackewts =) tho i have to say im no big fan of the monstercubes... =P this i looking good, specially with the "enormus" amount of tools you have! =P
Thanks Kelmannen, I've never worked with metal before so I dont have a huge amount of tools beyond whats needed for some basic home DIY, maybe I'll have a full workshop one day
For ssd's check out OCZ's 240gb Agility3 or San Disks 240gb Extreme They have both in recent weeks had big price drops double them up and raid 0 = performance bargin Build looks great so far
Thanks Mizugetsu! Yeh they seem to have dropped in price quite heavily since the start of the year. I was planning on picking up a 120 for my OS and software and a 240 for my games. Not really sure of manufacturer yet, I heard good things about Crucial's support and firmware updates etc. I'll keep looking.
