So firstly, hello everyone. Stoked to be joining the ranks of some kick ass modders/fellow nerds. This is my first official build thread, and honestly the first official build I think I will see through to completion. Compared to some of the others on this forum, mine is just not that interesting. Your standard Black/Red color way (RoG boards to thank for this), with a few not so standard firsts for me. The basic premise is to build a rig that can run Maya and Unity (along with adobe suit) for my full time gig of designing video games. A quick rundown on the history; moved into new house, house had no desk, built desk, wanted computer mounted in desk... As you will see, I got a bit creative after that. I decided to put the entire thing under 3/4th" plate glass, but the CPU cooler I had wouldn't fit... The solution, let's water cool the whole damn thing. I have done my best to keep pictures of the entire process. I will just upload some basic images until I have time to sort further and get some more detailed posts. Cheers and hope you enjoy. Oh and the abbreviation stands for First Attempt at Modding First image, upside down box, thought I had a "loot" photo... Guess not. (ignore the link in the watermark site is a mess of code right now). Desk coming together, super interesting stuff! Jump ahead a day or so, drafting board set up with my reference rig (mac mini). Got the 27" for the main rig in place as well. Got super high tech here, just took 4 90 degree brackets and bent them to my needs with some pliers. The case slide right in, I will be making much more proper aluminum support bands when the case goes back on though. Glam shot of the GPUs, didn't think they could get sexier... I was wrong EK plates on em :: ) Photos to come. Test fit, had to do some adjustments to get it snug. Shot of the set up well before I was able to order the proper glass, turns out it is very hard to get 3/4th" plate in the size I needed. Will keep adding photos, need to pull a ton from the cell phone. The current state of the project is I am waiting on mounting parts from EK (they never came in the box for my Dual Parallel CSQ). Hopefully they can get back to me soon as that is the only hurdle right meow.
Very nice, mate! Question: Is the glass just going to be going in the slot where the wood is missing from, or is it going to become your new desk surface? (I ask because I've dealt with a glass desk before, and while it is gorgeous, keeping that thing clean is a crazy nightmare.) Also, just to sate the curiosity of myself and, I'm sure, others... MOAR PLANS! What are you going to be doing to this thing to spiff it up? (I'm hoping a chair-mod is next, for your sake - I get sore just looking at that thing. )
the chair isn't to bad :: ) and the glass is actually very high quality and easy to clean. It is also strong enough to act as desk space with the computer under it. I will be posting more pics and plans today.
Ok forgive the delay, lots of cell phone shots to sort through... This project has been on and off for about 8 months lol. With that said apologies for any crappy photos, or anything that is out of place. I promise my next project will be in order and updated as I work haha. Anyway here is another post showing some of the stages. I thought I had some photos of the case before I took basically EVERYTHING out of it (in retrospect I should have just bent some alu myself and had it anodized instead of just gutting a nice ass lian li, but oh well). So here is the glass plate... It's HEAVY The next logical place to go would be the wiring I guess? These have become my best friends. MDPC-X Crimper and Knipex Clipper (don't both spending money on anything else if you ask me). More MDPC-X love, you all know the drill here. Again sorry for the mix of cell phone shots and normal shots, realizing how hideous it is. I drilled out some holes, which I didn't end up using at all, but this is how "I was" going to route it. Wasn't sure what to do with that stupid two cables going into one, so I did this. Turns out that's what everyone does haha. All sleeved up, went heatshrinkless and wasted a ton of super nice heatshrink in the process (lesson learned). End result, not completely done cable management. I am happy with the end, could be a ton cleaner but it doesn't make my eyes bleed so I am gonna stick with it. Apologies to anyone with OCD
ok so where did I leave off? I guess the cabling, exciting, yadayada... Ok more pictures. I guess the next stage I moved onto was setting up the waterblocks, and then did some more wiring. Again my next build will be much more interesting. As I mentioned before this build took over 6 months, just due to time issues. When I got back to it I couldn't find the bridge hardware to save my life. Turns out the cats had taken the bag and hidden it. Found it finally WHEWWW I am using XSPX, Monsoon, and EK parts for this build. I over ordered because I am an idiot and didn't plan properly, oh well cool parts to play with for other projects :: ) My classy a f*ck light modifier, just got the remotes and flash in waiting on new lights for my actual studio (photography is another hobby which I am no good at but makes me smile). And yeah the flash is just sitting in a cardboard box lol. Waterblocks installed on the GPU's, I had an issue with one of them bowing which it seemed was caused by me not paying attention to the thickness of the supplied thermal pads. WINNING, issue was fixed super easily and did not seam to cause any damage. Went with some of that fancy indigo x stuff just because I have never used something like it before and it seemed fun. Worth mentioning, I will only be doing minor OC on this rig, I am building it for sustainability over the next 2 years to run maya and unity.
Might have gotten the name wrong, but I believe indego extreme is what it's called. It's a silver solder based thermal compound. I guess the idea is that it melts pretty much pure silver over your cpu's heatspreader :: )
Okay, that's some cool stuff. Definitely going on my wish list now. I've always been leery of liquid metals because they're corrosive, conductive, get everywhere, and dry up after a year, but it looks like this stuff fixes, or at least manages, all those problems. I'd be very curious to see your review after use.
indeed, I am just waiting on 1 part, then I have to remake the pci-e cables, and then she gets POWA. More pics to come later today I am sure.
Apologies for no updates, my res/pump combo shat itself 4 days into leak test :: ( Nothing against XSPC, they make stellar products, but for anyone considering the cheaper NON D5 pump, don't bother. Thing is a piece of crappola. Def a reason why almost all res/pump combos are $100+ Just put in an order through xoxide via amazon, should have the new res with a D5 tomorrow. More pics soon. On a side note my raspberry pi's came in :: ) can't wait to finish this build and get into the media builds for my studio/house.
Ok new D5 pump is in and doing another round of leak tests. I had to cut new tube length and didn't check it very closely, it seems my cats had at it and left teeth holes LOL fml. Good thing is I have some insanely good tabe, basically could be used to patch a boat hull so I think the pressure of the D5 vs that will be ok :: ) Will get some more pictures soon of some of the other stuff I have done inside the case. As mentioned it is basically just a husk at this point that says Lian Li ahahaha.
Ok so some more pictures, I think I have a few that need to be pulled off the SD card still. Er I guess a lot of them are, so here is what I have for now. Made some SATA pwr cables for the 2 ssd's. 1 SSD for the OS (Windows 7) and 1 for all my software (adobe creative suite, maya, unity, my steam library, and other misc). I store all my files on my NAS which also doubles as my entire homes media network (will be doing a build thread for that next month). The SSD's are mounted through the holes in the side of the case where the 120mm fan used to sit. It works amazingly well, and I created a support on the inside screw holes of the HDDs using some 12awg wire from one of the cables I didn't need (pic coming tomorrow), ghetto rigged by it works super well and was a big time saver until I can cut some alu to replace it. What other photos can I find, ahhh yes, the ram pins where forced closed by the EK back plate on my primary GPU, this worried me at first, but the ram was able to seat itself just fine without any dangerous force having to be applied. Ohh here is a fun one, the first tube I got set up with the Monsoon Machine Gun Compression Fittings (these things are the TITS btw, HIGHLY recommend them and no I was not sponsored I paid in full). Found a pic of the SSD's from the outside and I liked it so here it is. Um so until tomorrow here are two fun ones that don't really have much to do with the build, although the kitty def made sleeving hell as she was obsessed with thrashing the sleeve. And the lady, well she is just my shop lady. No big Deal Cheers until tomorrow y'all the gnl
