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Case Mod - In Progress [PEXON] Parvum LAN. Me and Reservoirs dont get along

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by shrop, 12 Jun 2013.

  1. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    Project: PEXON’s Parvum LAN

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    Start Date: Monday 10th June 2012

    Target Date: Insomnia LAN (i49)

    www.fb.com/pexonpcs

    www.twitter.com/pexonpcs

    to find more updates and pictures of the build. ​


    This project will be my 2nd major mod. I look forward to taking on board what I have learnt and what I can improve on from my previous build, Project Evo http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=219887


    This build will be done in time for the Insomnia Lan in August in Telford.


    My last rig took nearly 18 months to finish, this one will be a fraction of that, barely 2! There will be a little mid of modding, however not as much as Evo, it will mostly be a case of popping the watercooling gear in the case, wrestling with the tubing etc. however, who knows what will pop up. I have stopped working for my father and started up on my own, hence the lack of money for this build, so it wont be as extravagant as the last, I will be watching the pennies with this one and wont be spending money on crap I don’t need, however, I endeavour this to be every bit as nice as my last project.


    Parts List:

    CPU: Intel i5 2500K
    Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3
    GPU: ATi 7970 (Asus reference edition)
    RAM: 8GB (4x2GB) of Corsair Dominator GT 1866Mhz
    HDD: Samsung F3 1TB
    SSD: OCZ Agility 3
    PSU: Silverstone Strider Gold Plus 750W
    Case: Parvum Systems S1.0 Rotated µATX in green and black acrylic

    Watercooling Parts:

    Fans: Nanoxia Deep Silence 120mm for rads and 80mm for exhaust
    Rads: Alphacool 240m (1x 30mm and 1x 45mm)
    CPU block: Dimastech Nethens
    GPU block: Alphacool v.1 7970 (copper)
    Fittings: Aplhacool black 11mm/ 7/16" barbs and 45/90 angled fittings
    Tubing: 11/16mm Masterkleer
    Res: Alphacool Cape Corp 150mm Acetel black
    Fluid: Mayhems Oil Black
    Pump: Laing D5 and Acool top (DEAD! :( ) Now using a DDC w/ EK top

    Righty ho, thanks the parts list accounted for, next up, the people and companies that made this build possible. As always a massive thanks to all those who are associated, this build is on a shoe string budget and the help provided is massive.

    Thanks to Shaun and Justin at the marvellous Parvum Systems. I helped out their build, Onwards and Upwards with a custom sleeved Silverstone PSU in MDPC, so they helped me out with the superb S1.0 case.

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    Thanks to Pascal at Aquatuning, for yet again coming on board and helping my builds. This time Pascal has provided a lovely Alphacool RAM block and tube res.

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    Thanks to Chris at OverclockersTech for his continued support, advice, friendship and supplying a tube of IC Diamond TIM

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    Thanks to Dimastech for the CPU block. I actually won this on the EastCoastMods facebook page, so shout out to them too!

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    Thanks to the guys at Nanoxia for the truly beautifully engineered Deep Silence fans, they really are nice. Everything from the packaging to the accessories and the product itself is German (read world class lol). Cheers dudes!

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    Right, that is all the regular stuff sorted, lets get into it and show some pics, thats what you have all come to see, isn’t it?! ;)

    First off is the case.... WOW! What a piece of art, I don’t get this excited about stuff really, apart from new headphones or some new tools, but this case really is awesome. I LOVED my old Lian Li case, and having worked in mechanical engineering with my father, I can appreciate a nice array of riveted and anodized aluminium. I was a little dubious of how well the acrylic would piece together, but upon delivery and popping the panels together, my initial thoughts were quelled. The case can hold a fully blocked up µATX board and GPU, which, is some serious hunks of copper, 2x rads and fans, fully laden res without any issues. All the panels fit flush and the little touches such as tube and wire routing cut through-s are a god-send.

    I watched the dudes at Parvum’s video on how to piece the bad-boy together, but being impatient and loving tinkering, I jumped straight in and got to grips by learning on the job. I took the top and front panels of numerous (at least 10 times each) and there was 0 damage, bowing, chipping of any panel and all the machined, bevelled screw holes stood up to multiple tightens and removal with no issues whatsoever, really, really good stuff.

    The initial assembly took a few hours and this entailed me faffing a fair amount, getting to grips with how to tube up and where to route the wires and so on. I am confident I could piece up this case and get a system installed pretty quickly now.
    First off, the case came flat pack, very well packed and everything came in one piece with no damage to any piece, always a risk involved with couriers and acrylic!

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    Everything was well bubble wrapped and it all unravelled like a pass- the-parcel gift.

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    All the fasteners on show are Japanned, so they match the finish well, the fastener blocks are steel, the mobo and accessory fasteners are also standard plated steel finish. Everything was marked to keep them separate and there is a small allen key for the panel fasteners, if you have not already got one.

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    There is even a power switch.... Mine did not come with the cables as they are on back order, no issues, will be with me soon.

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    Little letter, very nice touch....

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    All the parts, ready for assembly, really enjoyed this part! :D

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    Mounting the front radiator. A very nice touch here was the way of hiding the fasteners under the green panel. The black front panel will cover all the fasteners and the Japanned fasteners will blend in nicely...

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    Managed to fit a nice 45mm thick 2x 120mm rad in there.... should be fine for the 2500K and 7970 in conjunction with the other 30mm 2x 120.

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    The hand bent mid panel adds a lot of rigidity to the overall structure.
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    Mobo and blocks are in....

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    Blocks are all in.... (yes shout at me for having carbon on there, but you wont see it as the top rad is snug against it, it was MEANT to be matt black vinyl but it came as carbon so YOLOL)

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    Looking goooood, even if I say so myself!

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    Top rad in, with little copper touches...

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    1st attempt (of many) at tubing up, my own fault for being stupid. I have had a lot on my mind at the moment and some crap going on in my personal life, yadda yadda but tubing up was a nightmare, which is my own fault!

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    All was going swimmingly, until a leaky, dead pump reared its ugly head

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    I have a VERY generous friend who is donating a DDC to the project to get the ball rolling again, it should be here tomorrow so we can get cracking!

    Next on the agenda is to create some LED strips, good job I had some spare and can solder!

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    Lovely and neat!

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    dem suckers be bright yo!

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    Laying the first set in the bottom panel to illuminate the front green accent panel, fingers crossed will create a lovely gradient.

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    I needed to make a dinky little one in order to get some light on the left hand side of the case. This is the smallest length I could make, unfortunately these LED strips cannot be cut shorter.

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    My solder and crimp work is all good, illumination on plug in, no issues there! :)

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    Little bit of green paracord to keep everything neat

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    Lovellyyyyyy

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    Right, now to make a dinky PSU to Molex cable....

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    Testing it all before sleeving....

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    All is good!

    Cider time ;)

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    2 individual GRND wire and 1, split yellow/ 5v, the adhesive shrink is all that would grip, hence the massive girth :O

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    Now to ensure there is no undue pressure on the sticky back, we dont want those LED strips lifting off.

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    Skip forward an hour, at this point I had been making cables for customers and had been working for 12 hours, so some food was in order. After some munchies, I got some tubing in...

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    In order to save spam etc, I will post the rest of the photos tomorrow, even though there is plenty more work that needs to be shown. I know what it is like scrolling through a ton of photos and it is not fun.

    Thanks so much for looking dudes and dudettes, till the ‘morrow!
     
    Last edited: 23 Jul 2013
  2. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    PLACEHOLDER
     
    imersa likes this.
  3. imersa

    imersa Parvum Princess

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    Mate what a great start. TBH you've almost finished it haven't you?
    Nice to see the flat pack system working and going together smoothly.
    Can't wait to see this one at iSeries!
     
  4. Baguette

    Baguette What's a Dremel?

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    WOW, I'm imrpessed at how clean Parvum builds look. Also, I'm interested in seeing how you managed that tubing management wizardry, it looks impressively well hidden in so little space....
     
  5. Overminde

    Overminde What's a Dremel?

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    love it.
     
  6. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    I had fun putting it together mate, was fun!

    Yes, it is pretty much done, I have got all the parts in today, pump in and the loop filled and at this moment in time I am leak testing. Fingers crossed I will post some more pics this evening.

    Tubing was a bit of a pain, mainly cus of the lack of fittings I have, as they are leftovers from my prevoius project. If I had some different fittings and more angled adapters and manifolds, it would have been a breeze!

    Short and simple! Thank you kind sir!
     
  7. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    Right, back to it. I've been very busy with work, lots of cable orders so I have not had time to update the build log, I apologize.

    The project has taken a little bit of a jump cut; I've been a little lax in terms of taking photos, which is totally unlike me. I have had some bad times in regards to the GPU, the 7970 is completely ruined. I spent a few hours trying to get it working, new install of Windows, new drivers etc, nothing will work. I now have a 300 quid coffee coaster.

    I also had a very leaky pump that nearly wiped out my PSU. A lot of the cables got wet and the paracord soaked a lot of liquid up, so I need to re-sleeve all the green wire as they have been stained with the black Mayhems dye.

    Here is a few pics of the damage/ leak. I will be emailing Aquatuning as it may be an issue with the Alphacool reservoirs. The res was locked up VERY tight, I am a big boy and I ensured the caps were done up as tight as possible. There were no signs of stress, cracking or any damage to the res body and the threads were not crossed. The o-rings sealed well, yet the res continued to leak from the thread itself. A little PTFE tape may fix it, but it should not have too, plus it will ruin the aesthetics. Never mind, got a new res.... but thats for later.

    In the first pic, you can see that all the threads are nice and tight, the tubing is flush and so is the hose tail and blanking plugs. The liquid is seeping through the thread of the res itself

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    Next up the damage to the cables....

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    Thank god any of the terminal pins did not get wet, the PSU would have fried the system.

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    Right, I am VERY happy to announce that Specialtech have come onboard again and a MASSIVE thanks to Adrian for getting the new pump top out to me within a few days of asking. I also have a load of new fittings from them too as I was using the old Alphacool hose tails from Evo.

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    Some pics...

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    LOVELY new Bitspower DDC pump top

    Been full of liquid for a few days and no signs of any leakage... good :) The UV Feser fluid looks delicious in it.

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    From Specialtech I got:

    EK 10/13mm Compression fittings
    EK 45 angles
    EK 90 angles
    Pass throughs
    Blanking plugs
    Tube
    Feser UV Green liquid

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    I drilled some holes in the bottom of the case and mounted the DDC with some nice, sturdy M5 bolts and spring washers to dampen the noise generated by the whiny little buggers.

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    LOADS OF BOLTS AND WASHERS ( <3 RS Components )

    I also needed to lop off the edges of the HDD mounting plate, due to the case being R-mATX

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    BEFORE

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    AFTER

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    Mounted and lovely and flush

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    Thats it for today dudes, till next time, TALLY HO!

    Oh, and as always, thanks for looking
     
  8. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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  9. KidMod-Southpaw

    KidMod-Southpaw Super Spamming Saiyan

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    Looks awesome! Love the sleeving! :thumb:
     
  10. imersa

    imersa Parvum Princess

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    Nice choice with the res. We've had 3 with leaks now... I'd like to think they have changed the top or something now as that makes 4 I've experienced alone!

    Looks great with that fluid mate!
     
  11. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    Thanks for the kind comments dudes! Really appreciate it.

    Just need to get a new GPU and I can wrap it up.
     
  12. Furball Zen

    Furball Zen Shut up and Mod

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    On the res, over tightening it can distort the o-rings as well.
     
  13. imersa

    imersa Parvum Princess

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    Yeah had this problem, but with a second o-ring or original still leaked. Too tight it leaked due to distortion.. if we loosened it it leaked because it was too lose. Nightmare :/
     
  14. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    I know that, the res was leak tested and not over tightened at all, yet it still leaked a week after use.
     
  15. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    Time to wrap this baby up! This is more than likely the penultimate build log update, before iSeries. I have a little bit of sleeving to replace and flush the rads again (properly this time lol). Enough talk, here is some pics...

    First up, I managed to get a 560Ti cheap and a universal block for it, so at least I have a GPU to game on at LAN, when I can afford it, I will be upgrading to a 780 or similar.

    Mounting the block...

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    I also had to do some proper modding as I needed to mount the rad on the floor as the roof was a little tight.

    I LOVE HOLE SAWS!

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    My cuts were BANG on, I am very pleased! :D

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    Time to hose up, here is a pic of getting the new tubing in, much easier to deal with than barbs and thick tubing. I will be using the skinny tubing from now on, looks better and handles MUCH easier IMO.

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    As the rads was in the bottom, I had to mount the pump on a fan grill I knocked up in 30 mins...

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    Excuse the carbon film, the acrylic was a little beaten up so I needed something to clean it up. I will be replacing it with a nice new one soon.

    All the tubing installed

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    Fillin' her up! Dat coolant :O

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    NOM!

    Final photos soon, I need to flush the rads as the left over coolant was not removed properly and the coolant has been tinted a grass green rather than a nice bright UV green.

    Thanks for looking as always, more pics soon!
     
  16. shrop

    shrop El Jefe of Sleeving

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    Any ideas? The bitspower top is causing a lot of disturbance, the inlet is close to the well that sucks down into the pump chamber.


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  17. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    I don't know what it is or what has caused it but it looks quite pretty.
     
  18. AverageNinja

    AverageNinja Almost an EpicNinja

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    Might be because the reservoir is so empty (so there's loads of room for air to get in that res, and in the loop therefore)?
     
  19. Raiden

    Raiden Portuguese reviewer

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    Bubbles in the res ar caused by air in the system--

    What liquid are you using?
    It seems to me that it´s mayhems aurora,and if im correct it does that effect by itself,and the reservoir is empty as hell,you should first cut down those huge tubes,for better flow,you dont need that kind of hosing,and it could be done a better lopping as well...;D

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcGc6zM8txk
     
  20. Mizugetsu

    Mizugetsu What's a Dremel?

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    RAIDEN - it's Feaser UV it's not aurora

    Shrop - with Pump mounted RES chambers/TOPs I've found being able to manipulate the Pump while filling the loop not to an extreme but being able to keep liquid over the whole leading to the pump is pretty key I also use kitchen towel to suck up any excess fluid if it looks to full.
     

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