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

So Primochill came through on delivering me the replacement tube. They also sent some extras in order to sponsor the build and I guess future builds because there are multiple colors:



two dual gigabit cards came in for the network upgrades:



Fitted one to this box:



Then mounted that box in our rack in the office:



Thought you might like to see our main server - it's a supermicro barebones 4u box that's capable of fitting two gulftown xeons, however we only have one hex cpu fitted right now:



You can see they built a plastic shroud around the ram and cpu to force the air through the heatsinks. Anyway back to the real project. Sanded down another radiator:



Masked it up:



Ready to go:



Primed:

 

Thanks - sadly though the case can feature a rack mount server, it won't actually. The rack cases are for my office network system

Haha yeah, well for now there isn't one going inside, only the two main rigs, maybe next year I'll add a 4P folding rig in a 2nd pedestal

Lol, who "needs" any of the builds on here

Thanks it's going to be a while yet but I'm excited!

 

lookin good! and nice diy paint booth

 

Thanks it's coming in very handy!

 

While I've been busy working on this, my sponsors have been busy with new products. Detroit Thermo has come out with a new block called the "sniper", it's a tiny bit more restrictive but is supposed to have better temps:



I'm hoping to do an apples to apples comparison with the rasa/raystorm/ek hf supreme/5Noz/Sniper

Also Monsoon Free came out with some sexy new rotary fittings:



Including a special version with optional end plugs:

Excited to use these, but it gives me more decisions to make as to which color to use lol.


Quick update on my project:

While I was procrastinating sleeving/custom wire harnesses for the power supply I figured I'd work on getting the radiators up and running for the gaming rig - I mounted the AP16s to the 140mm adapters:



Then got ready to resolder and sleve:



First time sleeving so did a pretty uneven job:



Decided to move that to the back side of the radiator and now that I had my system down, did a much better job on the front side:



Both sides done, but still awaitng fan headers:



Mounted back in the case:

 

I think you did an excellent job at the sleeving. Both attempts look great, especially for a first go at it.

 

Thanks


Been slow on the updates because work has been kicking my behind. Anyway the 580 3gb cards came in. I know some of you may say why not get 680's (or even 670's), well these were a lot cheaper (awesome 2nd hand deal) and will perform plenty well enough to max out 2560x1600 @ 60Hz. With my 480's I never had a problem running out of processing power, but I did run out of vram, so I think these will be plenty until I upgrade the monitors Once I upgrade then I'm sure I can justify a few GK110s



As you can see two of the backplates are 480 ones:



So I had to switch the cards around so that the 580 one was at the bottom of the stack. I had to take them apart anyway to check for nickel problems and gunk. I'd be more concerned if I wasn't suspecting that I'll change GPUs again before the build is finished. Here they are rearranged and plugged in:



The 120 radiator is for the motherboard only loop:



I'm still working out how to route the tubing for optimal performance without making it look like a mess - should I come out the side or go out the top?





Although the board has two loops on it, it will really look like it has three as there will be a 560 rad in between the cpu and gpu:



Motherboard loop routed with temporary fittings - I thought this would look better. I don't really like the way it looks - too busy and crowded, I need to work out a way to keep the tube out the way more. Maybe a memory block would help:

 

I'm a big fan of the expression "Because he can".

Cooling JUST a mobo with a 250 mm tank and a DDC with aftermarket top fits that expression very well. The rest of the project is "Because he can" aswell and just waaaaaay beyond reason and necessity, so here ya go: +1 rep for you.

 

i still can't get over how massive the thing is gonna be. O_O where do you put such a beast.

 

Stop me if I'm wrong but isn't your reservoir upside down? With your pump at the top you'll be risking sucking in a lot of air.

 

amazing HW ! Keep going !

 

This is the gaming side, it's reverse ATX, the pump is below the res

 

NICE! it's really taking shape now

 

The case is so big it gives me an excuse to go nuts because otherwise it will look empty lol

Yeah it dwarfs my desk lol

This tray is reverse atx, so the motherboard will be the wrong way up as opposed to "normal" cases, i.e. the pump is the right way up

Thanks - still a *long* way to go, the waterfalls are going to take a while to make

Thanks

 

thank you for showing me these

 

I'm loving the cards

I think straightening the long run from the radiator to the res would help. Using something rigid maybe, with an additional 90 that lines up with the res connector, that creates a sort of L shape...

 

I've been holding off reading for a while... and then forgot about this. Just caught up, and I'm absolutely blown away with what you've done so far. This is a true dream machine, and the attention to detail... well, I just want to say Kudos to you.... the cabling and hosing look like they could be a nightmare, but I get the impression it'll look damned stylish.

I doth tip my hat to you sir. Nice to see the the DT5NOZ waterblock. I'd not heard of it so am looking forward to seeing how that performs in the wild.

 

Glad you like them

Agreed - though I may solve some of it because I just bought a 2nd 3930K and Rampage IV Extreme lol..

Oh and Corsair may be sponsoring some dominators

Thanks dude, glad you read the whole thing - takes dedication as it's getting long lol! I better hurry up and finish it!

 

Ok so a quick recap -not much had been done the last few weeks as I was busy with work and then went on a brief vacation. Now I'm back the build will continue, however I'll also be doing various things in between including a review of Rich Chomiczewski aka Spotswood's new tech station. I'll also be doing a CPU waterblock round up which will include:

DT Sniper
DT 5Noz
EK Supremacy
EK Supreme HF
XSPC Raystorm
XSPC Rasa
MIPS Iceforce HF

Thanks to DT, EK and Indigo Xtreme for sponsoring the blocks and TIM, thanks to Rich for sponsoring the tech station which will be used as the test bench

So without further ado, let's get back to some pictures

The tech station arrived from Rich in a fairly small box:



However there was still plenty of room for packing:



The case comes "mostly" assembled, here's the motherboard tray:



that mounts above the base which includes mounts for DVD drives, HDs and SSDs:



Here's the rest of the frame:



And all the screws and accessories, interestingly Rich includes an allen driver, as well as an allen key, and a torx key also



The frame makes use of extruded aluminum with a pattern that makes it easy to use screws and bolts/nuts to easily customize the setup. Here's one vertical strut getting slid onto the base:



There is then a hole allowing that screw to be tightened. Before you know it all 4 are up:



You can then add some feet:



Then attach the PCI card support to the motherboard tray and then attach both to the frame:



Then the PSU can be attached with two small plates:



Although this is solid enough for benching (and the PSU does not move), a 4 screw mount would be more solid if you were moving the case as there is potential for the PSU to bend those small plates. The hard drives, dvd and SSDs use small rubber grommets that get screwed into the base of each device:



You can then slide these on the same extruded frames which have pre drilled access holes to make it easy to swap them in and out:



More to come tomorrow!