Hi guys, I didn't post this in the project logs section, as I didn't even finish my first mod, It drives me mad but I didn't manage to spare time for modding since...almost a year , and now, I must delay the work on the NanoTV for 2 reasons: 1- I want to finish and watercool my main computer before, the hardware is kinda outdated (2014) and that's why I mentioned "from the past", and it will be a monster in terms of size. 2- I will need the NanoTV hardware during the build to have a rather powerful "everyday computer" to use until it's finished. ...why Datamaster? well, I have a lot of datas...some people would advice me to use a server, I have one, and I used it until now, but It's an oldie (Dell Powerage 2600), it's super noisy, consumption is insane, so it wasn't working 24/h and I had to start it every time I needed to access my datas, and finally, I reached the limit of the disks. I will keep the server as a backup machine, but I decided to build this unconventional computer, using the 12 Sata ports of my motherboard. This hardware was mounted inside a Fractal design define XL case, but it turns out it's really too small for the build, so I dismounted it and kept only the bottom and top plates. I bought alu bars to increase the height... I started by this simple frame, as of now it's 1 meter high, I will certainly not need 1 meter, (80 cm I think) but I don't know yet exactly..., I will cut what is unecessary, but I decided to start from the bottom "floor", and see how it's going step by step, floor after floor . The first floor is the hard drives bay, I bought 4 of those wonderful backplane modules from Icy Dock, and it's already 15 centimeters high... that's all for today, but before I leave, let me tell you a tad more about this build... This is the hardware I will use I7 4930K Asrock X79 extreme 9 XFX R9 290 Bequiet Dark pro 1200w 32Go Corsair Dominator platinum SSD plextor M6 pro 500go (system) 11 hard drives of 3 or 4 to watercooling parts: waterblock heatkiller (CPU) waterblock Aquagraphics (GPU) reservoirs, pumps, radiators and various accessories from Barrowich _____________________________ I wish I could master 3d renders or plans, but I don't , I just drew my idea with "paint" , to have an overall vision of the result, it's ridiculous compared to what I see here, the perspective is wrong, but it gives an idea of what I am trying to build, it will not be difficult as the NanoTV, straight lines only, so I hope it won't take months to be completed. to be continued...
well, of course, this looks like a tad excessive, first of all, I thought about an Aquaero and some power ajdjust to manage the 2 loops and all fans, but in addition to pumps, it needs also pressure sensors, temperature sensors, flow meters, in the end, the invoice is heavy, more if you have 2 loops...I want to try those Barrowich WC parts, they look great, fit nicely the build, they are cheap, and all have oled displays, I wanted to have an overall vision of each loop measures, and the 2 Lamptron fan controllers are for the whole set of fans; but this draw is not a definitive plan, I might calm down my hardware addiction and lessen the number of displays
okay...anyway, don't worry, there will be a bunch of oled displays, seems like it's a trend in China ;...like I said in another post, if you put aside the overweening waiting of your orders, I think that Brands like Barrow and Bykski are seriously working on quality products, cheaper than what we can find generally...I found those pumps amazing and they cost 76.20US $ those flow sensors displays are only 30US$ anyway, many great items from the FormulaMod shop in Aliexpres, I must try that
Today is the day to start, I received my Lamptrons fan controllers and I have enough parts to start, I dismounted the Bequiet Dark rock, I do that every year to remove dust and change the thermal paste but for the first time since 2014, I didn't mount it back! I put the waterblock instead, and I couldn't resist to use my new camera and an unexpected sunlight to take a few pictures of this moment, such long time since I started dreaming about watercool it, I'm excited to see the temps of my I7 under water, the Dark rock was really efficient, and I was seldom up to 30 in idle, so let' s see This was a high end motherboard in 2014, 40 PCI 3.0 lines, USB 3.0, 12 sata ports, powerful enough to OC an I7 4930K, only the sound card sucked...some have heard about my mishaps here ... I bought 12 sata 6gb cables from Akasa, the only round sata cables availiable in 1 meter lengh I finally found 90 degrees USB 3.0 cables, the sleeved wires are not the definitive ones, I ordered a new pack at MDPCX as all lenghs are changing with the new case...
Thank you very much Cheaps for this kind coment, you're right, it's scary to have all the drives under a WC with potential leaks, a "solid barrier" is important, besides, on the floor up to the drives, will set also the touchscreen display, the fan controllers, all wires, another PSU and many other electric stuff, so the barrier must be just under the WC floor, I thought about using a part of the Fractal design case, a large plate of plastic that was behind the front door, and whose dimentions are similar to the inner part of the case, cover the whole floor with it, and seal with bathroom silicon, anyway, I wont start the computer or place the drives before several hours of tests, I'm still a newbe in WC so I won't take no chances
I am still waiting for my 5 inchs display, whose dimentions will set the height of the second floor, but I tried to figure out what it would look like, with a tablet as substitute of the screen, some boxes and a few clamps, and this shows the placement of everything like I pictured it PSU is on the front, and I found a grill almost similar for the radiator, and finally, the height of the case will be 92 cms without the feets I still need a radiator for the CPU loop, the one I have is a Barrowch 360mm full copper and it's for the GPU loop, I really want something efficient for the CPU, and I think I will purchase the Hardware labs Black ice Nemesis 280 gtx.
Hmm.. Stack the bay lcds, move the psu into the partition under the mobo, Lower everything in the upper partition and radiator.
I spend some time working on aluminium parts, my first ones, with some alu pieces I picked up in a metal skip, I try to use recycled materials as much possible, first ones are brackets for the PSU then this one is my first cable comb,for the sata cables, that are a tad rigid and need to be flattened...I have many more cable combs to do...
Aside from the build, I'd like to mention a few things about the hardware used here...I mean, it's an old chipset right, a high end one, but old if not "obsolete" yet, but since I bought this X79 motherboard and I7 4th series processor in 2014, more powerful CPUs have been launched, new hardware evolutions came such as M2 SSDs and particulary NVME ones...I have been very disappointed to miss this extraordinary tenchnology on my MB, and I also had issues with the sound card, so I was mad of my purchase, but on the other hand, I was vvvvery happy of the possibilities of my I7, and booting on a Plextor M6 pro SSD was already really fast, even with several hard drives plugged on it, less than 10 seconds to run Windows 8.1 pro, then, I had already spent a lot of money, and I have other computers here so I gave up on the idea to upgrade...and I finally still use it with the same satisfactions 6 years later, but now while I am building it , watercooling it, I start to think about trying to add a PCI card to boot on a M2 ssd, and I even saw a way to implement nvme instructions on UEFI to boot on nvme ssd with old chipsets, and it starts to tickle me seriously to try...it would also allows me to free the last HDD rack from the system disk and add a 12th datas disk , and if it works, to satisfy my hardware addiction with a Samsung 970 pro and the Aquacomputer Kryo M2 card...
Now that I managed to insert NVME instrustions into my Bios, I have to wait for new parts to come before I can try it, I'm impatient, but I can't be idle when it's such a fight to save time for modding with our modern busy lifes... So I am still working on the case, with a lot of thinking about how to obtain a super clean cable managment, one of my goals in this build. The 4 fat-cages must be firmly attached to the case to avoid vibrations and I didn't find anything else more practicle than alu profiles to screw it together... Harder than I thought was to drill 24 holes straight lined but I managed and I made the 74th one already, there are only 24 left on the last profile, hard also to find 96 similar HDD screws in my hoards of screw boxes, they are not really all similar BTW, so I will order packs of new ones, black ones, but it's solid though... The HDD cage on the right is a bit damaged around screw holes, I bought this first one 4 years ago, and I made many trys with it but the front part is clean, the one on the left is a 4 months new one, the last one of this kind I could find online, it has invisible slight differences that I will explain later, but I rushed to buy it... scared not to find anymore; like it's often the case with hardware parts I want...
last holes drilled and the HDD cages firmly attached to the structure Some little negative points about those data cages, there aren't many but, stock fans were super noisy, I removed them and used 3 Be-quiet Shadow wings 80mm instead, but the last one I bought has a different fan, a silent one, I think a Noiseblocker one, but I want only Bequiet fans. Thing is, the 3 Shadow wings have been used 5 years, they are still silent but they are old and dusty, I could wash and repaint them but, I recently bought a brand new BEquiet pure wings 2 fan 80mm, the one on the left, and I think I will buy 3 new other ones for the build. Last bad thing about HDD cages, the position of the sata ports: Okay, there is not a lot of free space on the PCB, so they are stuck right under the Molex ones, but if only they have been welded on the other side, we could use 90 degrees connectors to save space, and have something more secure for those fragile Sata connectors, so easilly breaking... it happens believe me , but on the side they're weld on, 90 deg connectors are raising up front of the Molex area... My Sata cables are strong but the connectors are long, that's why I must make some cable combs to twist them without breaking more Sata connectors
On that picture above, the stock fans in their cages are removed, but it's obvious that the space between the fans and the Sata cables is particulary thin, and my different trials to make some clean Molex cables with normal PSU wire, failed ... I mean in terms of cleanliness and straightness. What I forgot to mention is, I want to be able to cut off the power from each of the 4 HDD cages, I am aware that this might look totally odd and unusual, but the fact is, with those cages, adding or removing disks during, before, or after the start of Windows becomes easy because these cages provides a total hot swap disk system, and Windows never bugs if ever it starts with different disks than it's last start , and I love it, because I don't always need all the drives, and those I don't need, I can just turn off power and let them quiet instead of letting them turn and heat for nothing. So I had a crazy idea, and I don't think it can be so dangerous but I tried to make some wiring with rigid copper wire, used for domestic electricity... It's a first try, and it's still not very clean but I think I will follow that direction ignore the ugly cable ties, i's just a look of how I can manage with this hard wire
...finally, I spent some time persisting on this rigid wire, but I am not at all satisfied of the result !!! it's sloppy, I thought I could make something straighter and cleaner but no I will find another method finally
a bit better but not clean yet the wires have been damaged with many trys, and it's still twisted here and there, gotta improve my bendings as well...
