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Case Mod - In Progress ⭐ Project Complete Stupidity

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by wmandra, 3 May 2017.

  1. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    It's been years since I've posted anything on the forum, but felt this project would make for a good build log thread. I'm actually about 2 weeks into the build so far and finally decided to sit down and get the log going.

    My current desktop has served me well - a water cooled Inwin 909 which everyone who sees it absolutely loves. There was always a little more I wanted to do to it over the past year and originally the plan was to just update some components and the water loop in this case and be done with it. Well, that quickly snowballed into an entire new project. As much as I like the Inwin, it just takes up too much space on my desk. Also, I have a Fractal Node functioning as a NAS box taking up some space as well and started to think about doing something with both of them.

    Here's a few pics of my current desktop (before it was completely finished):
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    After a while I decided to just build a new chassis with both the NAS and my desktop combined into one (water cooled of course), and if I was going to do this it had to be as over-the-top as possible. Looking around at cases, I was intrigued by the Caselabs TX10D which is absolutely massive and could easily house both systems. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to order the case, Caselabs had discontinued the TX10.

    A bit more searching and I stumbled on the Thermaltake W200. Now I know that Thermaltake basically copied Caselabs design and a bunch of people got upset about the whole thing, but I'm really not bothered by it...

    First deliveries begin to arrive:
    [​IMG]
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    The packaging on the W200 is adequate with all the parts well protected. (and it's a lot of parts).
    [​IMG]

    In addition to the W200 I also purchased 2 of the P200 pedestals.
    [​IMG]

    Here's the fully assembled chassis:
    [​IMG]

    With both pedestals installed, this thing is massive and completely dwarfs the Inwin 909! More than enough space for what I'm planning :)

    Here's one more pic from the front:
    [​IMG]

    For those of you familiar with the W200, you'll notice that the main chassis itself is mounted upside down unto the pedestal. This was done on purpose and IMO the way Thermaltake should have actually designed the case. The left side will house the main desktop and have the large side window, while the right side will house the NAS and have the vented door.

    Some initial thoughts on the Thermaltake W200 - overall I'm pretty happy with it. The assembly instructions were clear and putting the parts together went without issue. Because of the way the parts are designed there are actually multiple ways the chassis can be assembled. Originally I had thought about just flipping the front panel and leaving the rest of the main case in the original orientation which would have worked fine (I've actually now done just this on the top pedestal for symmetry). Ultimately I flipped the entire W200 so that I could also get the removable motherboard tray on the left side of the case as well. A few things about the W200 I don't like:

    - There is only a single center divider between the 2 sides. It would have been nice to have a channel in the middle to route cables.
    - Speaking of the center divider, it looks like swiss cheese with all the holes in it. Given who the audience for this case is it would have been better for this to just be completely solid.
    - The cover panels are pretty thin steel and flex easily. (The main chassis itself is very sturdy)
    - All of the internal top and bottom panels have 140mm holes in them and either fan grilles or pass-through covers installed. Again a completely solid panel would have been nice even if it had to be purchased as an extra.
    - Only 3 sets of brackets for 5.25" devices were included. Given the number of bays available they could have thrown in a few extra.
    - This one is a bit nit-picky, but the screw heads for the chassis and pedestal are different.

    In the next post will start filling up the inside of this beast along with some of the modifications I have planned.
     
  2. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    Some new parts arrived:

    ASUS X99-E WS Motherboard:
    [​IMG]

    Icy Dock 3.5" HDD hot-swap drive bays:
    [​IMG]
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    APC 1500 kVA UPS and dual EVGA 850W G3 power supplies:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
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    Nothing like voiding the warranty on a brand new APC UPS within minutes of taking it out of the packaging :)
    [​IMG]

    The UPS and power supplies will be housed in the bottom pedestal, while the main W200 chassis will hold the systems and water cooling equipment while the top pedestal holds the radiators.

    The front of the UPS has a nice LCD display on it that happens to be roughly the same size as the Thermaltake logo that is right in the center of the front panel. Let the cutting begin!

    Back side of LCD module mounted on UPS front cover:
    [​IMG]

    LCD assembly removed:
    [​IMG]

    Marking out cuts on front panel of W200:
    [​IMG]

    Getting ready to cut the plexi from the front cover of the UPS:
    [​IMG]

    Thermaltake logo replaced with smoked plexi LCD cover from UPS:
    [​IMG]
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    The plexi cover is held in with a little bit of black RTV.

    Extending the ribbon cable that connects the LCD to the UPS:
    [​IMG]

    LCD secured in place with some 3M double sided tape:
    [​IMG]

    Shroud made for LCD and fitted in place. Front LED holder also cut to make room and re-installed:
    [​IMG]
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    Because the floor of the pedestal is so thin and the UPS with batteries is very heavy, had to make some support brackets from tube steel to handle the weight:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  3. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    Fabrication - take 1

    Made up a new center divider from sheet metal to cover all the holes in the back panel:
    [​IMG]

    It actually came out pretty good, but getting it in and out of the case was a complete nightmare and the metal was too thin to be able to support the reservoirs that are going to be mounted to it. Time for plan b...

    Some support brackets from angle aluminum riveted in place:
    [​IMG]

    And then some 6mm plexi set in place to create the new floor:
    [​IMG]

    Wrapped in matte black vinyl it looks just like part of the case:
    [​IMG]

    Test fitting the next plexi cover (this one ultimately had to be re-cut):
    [​IMG]
     
  4. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    Some more parts deliveries...

    Intel Core i7-6900K and 128 GB of G.Skill DDR4 3200 memory:
    [​IMG]

    Fans, fans and more fans (actually ordered all that were available from Newegg):
    [​IMG]

    A full supply of Aquacomputer components:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    and the Aquaero 6 that will control all the water loops:
    [​IMG]

    Full list of Aquacomputer parts:
    Aquaero 6 XT with black front plate
    4 x MPS flow 400 sensors
    5 x PowerAdjust 3 modules
    1 x Fabwerk LED controller
    1 x Realtime clock module
    3 x Splitty 9
    2 x Hubby 7

    Time to start making up some of the cables that I need:
    [​IMG]

    Aquabus and power cables completed:
    [​IMG]

    Not much for clearance between Aquacomputer and radiator, but It'll do:
    [​IMG]

    Radiator bank 1 fan wiring:
    [​IMG]

    With this many wires, going to need to label a few of them:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Next up, more chassis mods...
     
  5. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    Vertical PCI slot openings cut and fitted into chassis:
    [​IMG]
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    With one of the GTX 970's mounted:
    [​IMG]

    Stock heatsinks removed from DDR4 memory:
    [​IMG]
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    Motherboard heatsinks removed:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD:
    [​IMG]

    Laying out mounting holes for reservoirs on plexi backplate:
    [​IMG]

    All 4 Monsoon MMRS reservoirs mounted and all water blocks installed on 1st motherboard:
    [​IMG]

    The top and bottom reservoirs are actually offset by 50mm to give the build a little more depth:
    [​IMG]
     
  6. HandMadeAndroid

    HandMadeAndroid That's handy.

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    wow nice kit and build
     
  7. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    Now that I have this thread basically caught up with progress so far, a bit more on the plan for the build.

    First the NAS side of the chassis:

    Supermicro MDB-X10SLL-F-O motherboard
    Intel Xeon E3-1220v3 Haswell CPU
    32GB Kingston DDR3 2133 RAM
    Adaptec RAID 680SE controller card
    4 x Western Digital Red 3TB NAS drives (with room for up to 9 drives total)
    SolarFlare SFC6122F dual port 10Gbps NIC

    On the workstation side:

    ASUS X99-E WS motherboard
    Intel i7-6900k Broadwell-E CPU
    128GB G.Skill DDR4 3200 RAM
    Samsung 500GB 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
    2 x Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming GPU's
    SolarFlare SFC6122F dual port 10Gbps NIC

    To keep everything cool will be 4 water loops with 12mm hardline tubing.

    Loop 1 workstation CPU:

    EK Supremacy EVO X99 -> EK XE 360 radiator -> Monsoon MMRS 100mm reservoir -> EK DDC 3.2 PWM pump

    Loop 2 workstation GPUs:

    EK GTX 970 full cover waterblock (x2 parallel) -> EK XE 360 radiator -> Monsoon MMRS 100mm reservoir -> EK DDC 3.2 PWM pump

    Loop 3 workstation motherboard:

    EK Monarch X4 RAM waterblock 1 -> EK Monarch X4 RAM waterblock 2 -> Bitspower Thor AIX99 waterblock (chipset) -> Bitspower Thor AIX99 waterblock (mosfets) -> EK XE 120 radiator -> Monsoon MMRS 100mm reservoir -> EK DDC 3.2 PWM pump

    Loop 4 NAS CPU:

    EK Supremacy EVO -> EK XE 120 radiator -> Monsoon MMRS 100mm reservoir -> EK DDC 3.2 PWM pump

    Each pump will be controlled by one of the PWM fan channels on the Aquaero, while all the fans on each radiator will be powered and controlled by their own PowerAdjust module with a 5th PowerAdjust for the remaining case fans. The one exception to this will be one of the fans for the NAS loop radiator which will be connected to the Supermicro motherboard, this way even if the Aquaero is turned off the loop will still function.

    Both power supplies will be tied together so that they both turn on from a single power button, but the NAS power supply will have an "override" switch that allows it to stay on even if the primary PSU is turned off.

    Yes, I could have done this in fewer loops. Why did I choose to go with 4?

    1. Because I could. Seriously the most important part of the decision making process on the design.
    2. Since there will be a lot of long tubing runs and 90 degree bends needed I wanted to ensure pressure in each loop would be sufficient without resorting to dual pumps per loop.
    3. Symmetry. With this layout I'm able to install an XE 360 and XE 120 on each side of the top pedestal and the look of 4 reservoirs on the center panel looked much better than with just 2 or 3.

    As an aside, I'm considering a slight change to the design for the NAS side where both radiator fans are controlled via a PowerAdjust module and have just that module powered by the secondary power supply. Need to do some testing to make sure there won't be any issues with Aquabus communications between the Aquaero and that power adjust since they would then have different grounds.
     
  8. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    I've made some good progress since the last update!

    First batch of fittings have arrived:
    [​IMG]
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    Started plumbing in the radiator compartment (upper pedestal):
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Hard tubing in main compartment coming along nicely:
    [​IMG]

    I'm not happy with the bends on 2 of the tubes and will end up replacing them in the next day or so.

    All USB connections to the Aquaero is also completed, along with power supplies being installed into the lower pedestal.
     
  9. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    Just a quick update on progress... I've decided to use soft tubing on the back side and in the radiator pedestal. Although I could have made it work with hard tubing, the bends needed are just way too complex and the 500mm length of the hard tubes is too short to be able to do some of the connections with a single tube. Order placed for new parts today and should arrive by end of week. In the meantime, I'll probably work on cleaning up the 2 hardline bends that I'm not currently happy with.
     
  10. wmandra

    wmandra What's a Dremel?

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    after getting the pass-throughs installed for the upper pedestal, it turned out to be quite easy to stick with hard tubing for the rest of the return lines coming out of the radiators
    [​IMG]

    I did end up using soft tubing on the runs from the underside of pass through fittings to the reservoirs
    [​IMG]

    Some more pumps from EK:
    [​IMG]

    All 4 pumps are mounted onto a 140mm x 280mm piece of steel which is completely hidden under the reservoirs. The pump mounting plate also has sound damping material on the bottom to provide a bit more isolation from the chassis:
    [​IMG]

    Plumbing in this area is a really tight fit but was able to get everything connected. Each of the 3 loops for the workstation has it's drain valve fitted. There is an opening in the back of the chassis that I can route a hose through to connect to the drains whenever necessary.

    Here's another picture showing just how tight this area is (ignore the unsleeved cable for now, that will be cleaned up this week).
    [​IMG]

    Also finished up the relay and bypass switch to control the second power supply:
    [​IMG]

    The way this is wired up causes the NAS PSU to turn on whenever the workstation PSU is powered on. Additionally, I wired in a switch to bypass the relay and keep the NAS PSU on even when the workstation is turned off.

    Leak testing on the 3 workstation loops is underway and everything looks good so far. Hoping to get final cleanup and cable management done this week.
     
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