Hi, first project log ever. I'm finished with this project at this time. I might add other things, but for now it is complete. I hope that this will be informative to people who want to pursue something similar and entertaining to others. Goals My goal was to build the smallest, fully water cooled Crossfire/SLI box without compromise. These are the goals for this build: 1. Use a full-sized PSU. No SFX form factor power supplies. 2. Have a recognizable reservoir. Long fill tubes do not count. 3. Use 38mm thick fans. The high amperage ones that keep you up at night. 4. Use at least three high density/thickness 120mm radiators. 5. House at least two 3.5" hard drives. 6. Everything must fit in the box. This excludes wireless antennae. I initially thought of working with the Bitfenix Phenom M. I had a Prodigy M that I could take measurements from. I tried working with the default layout but could not get everything to fit without downsizing to thinner radiators and 25mm thick fan. I changed some things around and moved the PSU to behind the motherboard. This let me move the radiators to the front while allowing full length GPUs. I really liked this layout since it made everything accessible. The problem with this is that the motherboard extends into the air space between the radiators. There were lots of other problems with this layout that ultimately sent me searching for another case.
Corsair Carbide Air 240 I can't find the pictures I took of the case beforehand, but bit-tech did a fantastic job taking photos of it in their review. I bought the white one. A few days later, I had the case and measured the interior. I only modeled the important bits. I filled it up with parts and the layout seems pretty good. I have enough space to route all my cables and tubing. I'm sticking with this. Proposals and Sponsorships I sent out sponsorship proposals to various companies. Here are the places I contacted and their responses. I wrote a proposal containing a cover page, project summary, project plan, timeline, and credentials. These are some renderings I included in the proposal. That was the end of October. I'm on my own on this one. Whatever.
Project Start Black November rolls up. Perfect timing. Asrock Z97M OC Formula Intel Core i7-4790K Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR3-1866 16GB AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB (used) AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB (used) Antec High Current Pro Platinum 1000W Intel 730 Series 480GB I stuck it in the case to see if everything is alive and well. Turned out everything was good. I ran the Bioshock Infinite benchmark to just to make sure. Near the end, I smelled something. It smelled like a hair dryer that had been on for a while. I look down at the case and a wave of hot air hits me in the face like I just peeked into an oven. The benchmark closes and I check HWMonitor: 94 degrees Celsius for the gpu. I didn't know that AMD "intended" for the card to run at 95C so I freaked out a little. Here comes the upgraded cooling parts. These should help temps a bit:
Case Modding Now into actual modding. First step is cutting into the chassis to make room for things. I cut out the area beside the motherboard to make room for the radiators. With this, I no longer have support for the 2.5" cage. I wonder how many people even find that cage useful. Working on this part made me really want a Dremel. Using a drill and hacksaw took ten times longer than it should have. The case is made of thin steel that flexes on every stroke. I was using a 32 teeth-per-inch blade for this. It was the highest TPI I could find. Removing the rivets, cutting the tray, and reassembling the case would also be a smart move, but I didn't have a rivet gun. I cut a slot by the indent behind the motherboard to route header cables. There is plenty of space behind here to route cables. I wish this case came with a hole there already. This last cut is so that I have space to access the top of my reservoir. It was made much later in the build when I had problems with the reservoir height. Blanking Plates Now for blanking plates. I'm glad that there are lots of mounting options for this case. It makes mounting blanking plates easier. I used a sheet of 0.05" (1.27 mm) thick 5052 aluminum I got off Amazon for this. I read on some machinist forums that ideally there should be 1.5 teeth on the object being cut at all times. This is why I was using a 32 TPI blade. Jeweler forums say to have 3 teeth on at all times, but a 64 TPI jeweler's saw did not seem like a wise investment. It might have been worth it if I planned on doing a lot of complex cuts. I was debating between 5025 and 3003 aluminum. Various machining forums claim that aluminum alloys that are easier to bend are harder to machine, and vice versa. For example, 6061 aluminum machines really well, but fractures when put in a bender. Working with 5052, I can say that I made the right choice. This is my work bench. I wish I had a real work bench, but it got the job done. I was prepared to cut the sheet using the hacksaw, but it turns out that 5052 aluminum is brittle enough to be broken off like a soda can tab. I scored the sheet a few times using a carbon steel box cutter before bending it back and forth using a metal roofing hand bender. I used a crescent wrench for more leverage. 5052 aluminum is super easy to clean up with a file. The side that fractured had a slight curl, but that was to be expected with this cutting method. I had trouble drilling holes where I wanted even though I punched the sheet beforehand. Turns out that I wasn't holding the drill level. It also helps to start with a really small drill bit. For mounting the blanks and everything else, I bought a bag of one hundred 50mm long, 18-8 stainless steel, M4-0.7 threaded bolts, nuts, and washers from amazon. I cut them short with bolt cutters and then filed down the rough end.
Radiator Bracket The 120mm bracket was easy to make. I broke off a strip of aluminum, made a 90 degree bend, and cut off the excess length. I drilled holes for the radiator using MNPC's radiator guide. I masked off the area with blue tape and then adhered the guide using double-sided tape. Starting with the smallest bit and holding the drill level seems to eliminate any kind of drifting. Once I finished that, I attached the radiator to the bracket to get a better idea of how it fits. I lined up the radiator and marked the blanking plate. Then I clamped the blanking plate and bracket together with double-sided tape in between and drilled through them. I started these holes with a middle sized bit and wasn't too concerned about their position. These holes will line up as long as the clamp holds. I stuck a bolt into each hole as I went. The 240mm one was much harder to make. It needed to clear the lip for the side panel to close and it needed a cutout for the front panel bulge. Also, if it stuck out too far from the front panel, the radiator will take up the space needed for the power supply wires. I eventually got to the desired shape using a crescent wrench to bend the smaller tabs freehanded. The top one was my first attempt. The bottom one is the one I wanted. Bracket installed: Everything installed:
Power Cables I needed custom length power cables to fit everything inside. There isn't a place to hide all the slack like in a larger case. I was going to sleeve my power cables, but decided against it. Paracord for each wire might add too much thickness to the bundle. I needed it to be tight. I decided that the best arrangement for this would be a hexagon pattern. The 24-pin cable turns into a 2*10 and 2*4 on the PSU side with 31 wires in between. As to why there are so many connection jumps is a mystery to me, but I trust Antec knows what they are doing. The other cables are straightforward and without extra splits. To organize them, I sorted the wires out by rows and held them together temporarily with blue tape. Then I lined up the rows and held them together using the velcro wraps Antec included with this power supply. The velcro wrap slides across the wires and lets me secure the bundle using zip ties along the way. I wish Antec included a lot more of these velcro wraps. They are slick. This took me several days. The 24-pin alone took me an entire day. I started bundling the wires on the motherboard side since that is where the window is. Then I moved along towards the desired end point. I kept the psu end as is so that I didn't have to label them, but as I got closer, the wires turned into something that resembled a rubberband ball. I gave in and labeled the 2*10 connector wires 1-20. I removed the pins using the FrozenCPU ATX pin tool. I installed the motherboard and PSU to get an idea of how long the individual wires should be. Then I cut, crimped, and attached each wire to the connector. I did this for all the power cables. I bought the ATX and molex terminals from ebay, the cheapest source for these kinds of things as far as I know. I used the HT-225 crimper from Amazon. There was an extra molex connector on the motherboard close to the pcie slots. The manual says it is for extra power delivery to the pcie slots. I don't think it is necessary to connect it, but I did for the sake of completion. There was not enough clearance between the connected molex and the case bottom for wires to come out. I had to cut slots into the connector to allow the wires to make a sharp 90 degree bend. This was easier than cutting into the case and let me route the wires through the hole I cut earlier. I did the same for the aquaero 6 power connector just in case it wouldn't fit. I routed both of the molex cables underneath the PSU. They aren't daisy chained together and each have their own connecter at the PSU end. This was good for debugging especially since I messed up and switched the 12v and 5v on the Aquaero. I didn't label the wires that time. Aquaero I only wanted the Aquaero 6 for its high amp fan controller. It sucks that it only came bundled with the display. I didn't have much use for it, but I decided to put it in anyway. I tried fitting it in the front, but it was too thick and would interfere with the radiator. There was no room to display it on the windowed side either. The only way it would fit without looking silly would be if I separated the display from the controller. It is occasions like these that I keep IDE cables around for. Wires are soldered directly to the connector pins on the controller side. They are all individually covered with heat shrink to prevent shorting. I was going to connect the wires directly into the connector on the display side, but the wires were too thin. I had to solder them directly to the contacts on the board. After this was done, I turned on the power to check my work. The wires did their job. I cut a slot for the display cable to pass through the front blanking plate since the controller board would be mounted on the inside of the case. You can see it in the previous pictures also. I enlarged the mounting holes on the display board and controller board so that I could run M4 bolts through them. I was pretty nervous about drilling into the PCB, but everything turned out fine. Now that I mounted the display, I had to cut a hole for it in the front panel. The plastic was easy to manage. I used bolt cutters to get through most of it and then finished the edges using a file. The mesh was extremely hard to get through without a pair of side cutters. I couldn't find mine, so I had to get through it by bending off little pieces with my needle nose pliers. At first, I was not going to make the buttons available from the front since the display was useless to me. But I saw that the front panel was at the perfect height to house the buttons. I just had to drill holes. And so I did. The buttons are recessed a bit, but they can be pressed with a fingernail.
Reservoir and Pump I went with the Laing DDC pump (Koolance PMP-400) because it was small and reasonably powerful. Flow rate has less influence on loop temps than radiator space and airflow do. Koolance was the only brand with short reservoir tubes, but their reservoir tops selection was lacking. Their tops only had one inlet. It was threaded all the way through so that you can screw in a tube to keep the coolant from bubbling, but it's too bad they don't sell such a tube. I could have purchased that top, but then I would have a hard time filling and bleeding the loop. I could attach the inlet to the pump top, but I was afraid that the coolant in the reservoir wouldn't circulate. I assumed this would cause problems and wanted to avoid it. I eventually figured that the best solution to this would be to use the reservoir bottom as the top. The reservoir bottom has two side outlets and two bottom outlets. The problem was that they weren't threaded on the inside. In order to use this as a top, I would have to expand and tap one of the side outlets to use as an inlet. After I got the bit, I went to my college campus machine lab. With the help of some friends, I had access to a drill press, a 15/32" drill bit, and tap handles. There is no imperial equivalent for a 11.8mm drill bit, but 15/32" is close enough for the G1/4 tap. Delrin (POM) machines really well. It just feels good to drill through it. With that tapped, the acrylic tube fits perfectly. I just need to trim it down. I had the idea of bending it to the side to keep bubbles from recirculating. I used a candle flame to bend it to the side. Acrylic tube bending is hard. With this installed, there's no room for the default anti-cyclone walls that came with the pump top. I foresaw this and bought the Bitspower anti-cyclone bit to put on the pump inlet. It doesn't seem to affect the flowrate a noticeable amount. When I purchased the reservoir parts, I assumed that everything would line up accordingly even if I repurposed the reservoir bottom. Turns out I made a terrible assumption. This is how I expected it to line up: This is how it actually lines up: When the reservoir top (I will refer to it as the top from here on out) is tightened, the inlets are facing away from the rest of the loop. To fix this, I bought a 60mm reservoir swivel adapter to go in between the reservoir and pump. So from this configuration: Reservoir Bottom (80mm) Reservoir Body (50mm length, 80mm diameter) Reservoir Adapter 80mm to 60mm Pump Top Pump Pump Heat sink To this configuration: Reservoir Bottom (80mm) Reservoir Body (50mm length, 80mm diameter) Reservoir Adapter 80mm to 60mm Reservoir Swivel adapter 60mm (Female to Female) Reservoir Connector 60mm (Male to Male) Pump Top Pump Pump Heat sink This added a few centimeters to the entire assembly and got me really nervous when the thought of not being able to fit everything inside the case crossed my mind. Everything has to fit inside or else I lose. I was able to lower the assembly until it was right up against the top graphics card. Just enough space.
Tubing and Loop Order I read many things regarding loop maintenance, algae growth, plasticizer leeching, and coolant fouling. In the end, I only learned one thing: there is way too much misinformation out there. I would just have to trust myself. Saint Gobain recommends Tygon 2275 for a mix of water and propylene glycol, which is what most coolants are. Their 2275 line has been replaced with the Tygon 2375 and Tygon 2475. They are both the same in terms of reactivity, but Tygon 2475 is fiber reinforced. I learned that the hard way when I bought 10' of Tygon 2475 and saw the braids on arrival. Performance-PCs sells Tygon 2475 and FrozenCPU sells Tygon 2375. Not the best looking tubing, but if does what it's supposed to do, I don't have to worry about it for two years. 1/4" (6mm) is restrictive while 1/2" (13mm) yields minimal benefits over 3/8" (10mm). I went with 3/8". I like thick tubing walls. 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD it is. I assumed it would be best to get heat out of the system as quick as possible. This was my original idea for a loop order: Pump GPU (Parallel) Radiator (240) CPU Radiator (120) Res However, since I lowered the pump assembly, I could no longer make the bend from pump to GPU. So I changed the order to this: Pump CPU Radiator (120) GPU (Parallel) Radiator (240) Res In hindsight, I shouldn't even worry about loop order. Wireless and Top Panel I needed a wireless solution for this machine, so I reused an Intel 7260 for desktop card from my old build. It wouldn't fit in the slots without modification. I could either cut out a DVI port on one of the graphics cards or shorten the desktop adapter PCB. I went for the PCB. There were a few traces that lead into the part that I want to remove, but they were just activity LEDs. I cut it out, put it in, and it worked. I routed the external antenna cable along the groove in the chassis, and it was just long enough to reach the top of the case. I need to cut two holes in the top panel. One for the antenna and one for the reservoir. Stuff I already did for the front panel. I still hate working with mesh without the proper tools. Final Assembly It's time to put everything together before adding water. Here is where I got stuck. The power cables are all perfect length and just short enough to make it hard to get the PSU inside. I thought I had to redo the PCIe cables. After undoing some cable ties, I was able to bring it closer the PSU. The tight bundle I had earlier got caught underneath the Aquaero controller board.
Filling the loop I performed a leak test with tap water for about an hour. I didn't find any wet spots, so I drained it and filled it with coolant. I used an entire bottle of Koolance clear High-Performance coolant but still didn’t have enough for the loop. I just added distilled water to top it off. I'm guessing the entire loop is about 1L in capacity. It runs. I just need to close it up. Side Panel A.C.Ryan. Haven't heard that name since during high school some 6-7 years ago. I wonder if it would have been cheaper to find a place to laser cut the extra sheet aluminum I had. I should have thought of that earlier. Maybe next time. This was my first time cutting through acrylic. I understand why modders love working with this stuff. It's very easy to cut through with a 24 TPI saw blade. The 32 TPI blade just gets stuck with gunk. Drilling through it is easy, but even though I used increasingly larger drill bits I still managed to crack it. I seems like I will never learn my lesson. I made the mistake of not taping the entire window before cutting. My hand slipped and the grill spun around creating the circular scratches here. I put double sided tape underneath the grills so that dust doesn't get trapped in between. I put the panels in and called it the end. That's the end for modding. I will add more to this build later if I feel the urge, but I call it complete for now. I'm moving on to the software side of things after a few photos. I will add more to this tomorrow when the sun is up.
Really interesting build, I liking the effort you've gone to. It's gonna look sweet! any plans to strip down and paint? J.
I don't have any plans at the moment to put any more work into the hardware side of things. Right now I'm just focusing on software setup and overclocking. If I do something for this build in the future, it would be to paint over most of the boring black parts.
