Scratch Build – Complete Project CryoPC

Hey there,

This is my newest project taking up all my free time. It will house my main PC that I use for 3D modeling, video editing, and some gaming. So although I love minimalistic builds, that wouldn't work here, as amongst other things I do need space for multiple hard drives. The inspiration for this design came from various sci-fi laboratory equipment, but mostly from different takes on cryogenic chambers.

I started off by modeling everything in Fusion360 and then 3d printed almost all parts. In total there were around 50 parts, taking almost 200h to print. Anyone that has worked with 3d printers before will know that 200h of printing are followed by 2 Million hours of sanding. I also had to glue together a bunch of parts to make up the larger pieces.

The final build will be wall-mounted, vertical with the I/O on the bottom. While not included in the render, there will be a separate radiator box off to the side (you can see it in some pics).

This project is still very much a work in progress, but I thought I'd share what I've got so far:

 

waow, original

 

Man, the 3d print squad are really bringing out the creative potential.
I've done my research, though. I'm not getting one.
Looking really neat. Is the radiator going to be a separate module?
Welcome to Bit.

 

Hi, very nice project and like the shape you done! Nice idea for the tunnel airflow!

I have just one suggestion, if you plan to upgrade the hardware in the future, be carreful with your pump and the lenght of you graphic card.

Following your thread!!

 

This is insanely cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It for sure makes me wish I had space for a 3d printer...

 

Interesting render, it reminds me a Mac Pro "trash-can"
I am curious to see the making of the plexi cover

 

Thanks for all the kind replies!

Yea, it will be separate with soft tubing connecting the two modules.

Airflow is actually what I'm most worried about, as it only has space for a single 80mm intake fan and a single 140 exhaust (plus PSU). I'm hoping that taking the CPU heat out to a separate box reduces the heat enough to not be an issue.
As for the GPU, the one I have right now is quite long already, so I don't think that'll be an issue, plus once some new ones are actually available I'll probably add it to the water loop as well, so the length is even less of an issue.

I'm also curious how the plexi is gonna go, been putting it off for a while now
The radius is not too bad, but getting it even... Might have to build a form to bend it around, hoping to avoid that though as it's huge.

 

Can the un-bent sheet you need fit in an oven? That's the best option for getting it even. You have to work fast once you get it out, though.
-That's a sharp bend, but you might try 1/8" polycarbonate. You can bend it pretty well without heating. 1/16" would be better to bend.

 

Accompanying your project ... I like to project in this style, it leaves a little bit of the traditional ... this half capsule reminds me a lot in resident evil films, among others.

 

Yep, you shape the form and put plexi on, in oven

 

Very very cool

 

Whoa. Dude, that is awesome.
I am looking forward to see how this turns out...

 

It's too large for any oven I have access to. The material I have is 3mm Plexi (like 650x550mm), I did a test on a small piece with a heat gun, which worked quite well, I didn't need much heat, as the radius is fairly large (like 200mm). It'll likely be a bit more difficult though to heat a 550mm wide part evenly to get an even bend.

 

It sounds like you need a heating bed like used in a vacuum forming setup.

 

Finally made some good progress this weekend. All the sanding is done now (and I have a big bister on my thumb to prove it) and I put a basecoat on everything to finally get rid of all the fun colors. Thanks to the mobo finally arriving, I was also able to finalize the mobo tray and positioning of the bottom panel.
Here are some pictures:



As you can see, the back of the mobo doesn't quite align yet, but that is easily fixed by adjusting the position of the bottom panel, which has some room to play with.




On a complete side note, as most of you probably know, the Ryzen 9 3900X comes with AMD's fancy RGB stock cooler. I was very surprised by the size and quality, with my only comparison being an old Intel stock cooler. But holy crap that underside! I guess all the money went to the RGB, and they forgot to make the bottom at least somewhat flat. The heat pipes are so convex that after mounting to the CPU for testing, most of the thermal paste still had the original pattern, leading me to believe that only about 20% of the heat pipe bottom surface actually made any contact with the heat spreader.



After this little rant, it was finally time to tackle the acrylic window. I debated trying to do it the right way, building a plug to bend it around, to get it nice and even, but then quickly got way too lazy and just started going at it freehand with a heat gun. While I would certainly not recommend this to anyone and instead recommend all the great info you guys provided above, I was surprised how well it did work. By only heating it just barely enough (an easy thing to do as it takes forever with just a single heat gun) I was able to get a relatively even bend. It won't win any prizes and there was quite a bit of back and forth tweaking required, but in the end, it fit the frame and as long as the light doesn't hit it at the wrong angle, it looks quite good. I might try to even out some bumps in the future, but for now, I'll take it.









The next steps will be painting and weathering everything, installing the water cooling, and finally the wiring. I'm still hoping I'll have enough room to hide the PSU wires behind the mobo tray and use the extensions I already have, but I have a feeling that I might have to do custom cables to make it look neat.

 

Really cool design! It's my favourite styles of mods!
The bended plexi look great!

 

I love it !

Instead of having a separate rad somewhere visible next to it, especially on a wall, I would have probably tried to fit it under the whole thing, out of sight.
But the overall concept is phantastic.

And well done with the free bending of that thick and huge panel

 

You nailed the bend first time. You LUCKY B... um. Congratulations.
I'm looking at the res/rad placement on the table, and I'm worried about your pump placement. If it's going in the middle in that open area in the case, you will have major issues getting it bled. I'd suggest a 3rd 'unit' with a pump and long reservoir combo attached to those low radiator lines.

 

Wouldn't exactly say I nailed it, sitting without the frame it looks quite rough, but the deep groove going all around it, forcing it into position helps a lot to get it to look even
As for your other point, you are likely right. I thought about this while designing and then just kinda went, I'll figure it out somehow. I do have quite some experience making badly planned loops work, on my first water-cooled pc (Project Duality, the big desk pc) I had confused the inlet and outlet of the pump, but instead of redoing all the bends, I just rolled with it. Took forever to bleed, especially since I couldn't exactly turn the desk upside down to help, but I digress. Your suggestion of doing a separate unit with the pump and res actually sounds very appealing. I even have larger reservoirs already, it's the smaller one that I had to go out and buy. I guess I'll have to come up with a design to fill the empty center spot now. Maybe some overly complicated flow meter... I wish I had that idea in the planning phase, then I could have just made the whole thing shorter.

 

While I am designing all the new parts on the side, I made some more progress on the other parts this weekend. It all started off with a massacre of my current PC, getting all the water cooling stuff out to reuse. This is what normal people use their bathtubs for, right?




Then it was time to start putting things together. And while in CAD there was plenty of room everywhere, it turns out that cables also require space, so it was quite a tight squeeze. It also turned out that the only 6-32 screws I had to mount the radiator were a few millimeters too short since they're meant for a thin steel case and not the thick 3d print. As it's impossible to get imperial hardware around here, my only choice was to make the 3d print a bit thinner. As it is supported from both sides, it should still be strong enough though.






Yes, this radiator has definitely seen better days! Good thing I'm hiding it away in a box







A rough overview of how it will go together. It'll all be wall-mounted in the end, of course.



Yet another victim of imperial vs metric. My old system (X99) was using M4 for the CPU cooler backplate. AM4 apparently uses 6-32, making my fancy spring-loaded mounting hardware useless. I debated drilling out and rethreading the backplate, but the M4 mount was also a bit too short. So I guess I'll hard mount it with screws. I made sure not to overtighten them and used some calipers to make sure all 4 corners are tightened equally.
That's it for this week, I'm hoping to get some designing time in during the week, so I can start on the new parts next weekend!
Also, do you guys prefer the smaller images in this post or the full resolution ones I posted previously?