I've decided to embark on a new project and possibly my first serious casemod: a sub-zero In Win H-Frame 2.0 mod. Effectively this will be a Blue/White H-Frame 2.0 bolted to the top of an LD-Cooling PC-V2, with some lighting effects and a secondary Hardline liquid cooling loop for the GPU. I already have most of the parts I plan to use for this build which are actively in use in my current build; pic of the current state will be attached. Here's my parts list: Case: In Win H-Frame 2.0 Blue/White Cooling Unit: LD Cooling PC-V2 White Mainboard: Asus ROG Strix Z370-E CPU: I7-8700k, delidded Paste: Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut on both sides of the lid Conformal coating required, I'll post the vendor later in the build log as I don't remember the name off hand. PSU: The one that comes with the H-Frame 2.0. I have a Rosewill Lighting-1300 for test and as backup. GPU: EVGA GTX 1080Ti FTW3 RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum Boot SSD: Samsung 970 512GB m.2 Storage HDD: 10TB WD Gold with 64GB Optane acceleration OS: Win10 Pro Backup cooling unit for testing etc: Noctua NH-D15 All fans are Noctua models for now, though I might change over to something else to fit the planned aesthetic better. Noctua's grey mid-range fans actually would likely look better then the brown high-end ones but I have a full set of the brown fans so will be using those to start out. Custom sleeved cables currently by Cablemod although for this build I may make my own as I'm using a somewhat unusual PSU. Some considerations: Noise will not be a big concern with this build, but I may swap the fans in the cooling unit for quieter ones. The compressor is by all accounts quite noisy; I intend to add some sound-dampening to the LD Cooling unit. I've talked to them and they've assured me that there should be sufficient clearance for 2-4mm foam. The main concern with this build will be mounting the V2 without interfering with the compressor unit or the stock power supply. I may need to fabricate an intermediate bracket but I won't be able to tell until I have both in my possession. As with all sub-zero builds, condensation management will be an issue, especially in a high humidity environment (AL/GA). To help combat this I'll be running a beefy dehumidifier unit during all testing phases until I've confirmed that the close temperature/dew point spread of the ambient air won't post an issue. That's it for now. Here's a picture of my current build; most of these parts will be moved over for this one. IMG_20180708_114754_892 by rieh posted 4 Oct 2018 at 22:13 Custom loop blocks will likely be EKWB but I'm not totally sold yet. I won't know exactly what I'll need as far as loop routing until I've successfully fitted the cooling unit.
Major update today! The case came. The In Win H-Frame 2.0 is a VERY expensive case, definitely my grail for a while now. Virtually nobody has one of these, and basically no one has the blue/white version, and as far as I can tell only one person has modified theirs in any way -- and that was a lighting mod. Interestingly, my initial disassembly shows that this is actually a supremely moddable case by anyone with some basic tools. Since this is a rare bird, the full unboxing experience is included as well. Let's go! Since it seems Bit-Tech is having difficulty with my file upload, I'm going to upload an imgur album and link the individual photos.
Dude, if you put (without spaces) [ i m g ] before and [ / i m g ] after the image links they will show up in post
Thanks! I keep getting an "unexpected error" while trying to edit on mobile so will correct as soon as able. You can tell I haven't been on the forum in a while!
We begin with some gratuitous shots of the box. Since this is a fairly rare case due to both limited edition and price, I figured I'd better include as much of the experience as possible. Ah, the box is open! What have we here? Slotted into the left is an In Win VIP Membership card, which looks kind of silly in all that foam by itself. On the right is the box of screws and other assorted hardware. Here's the membership card in detail. Here are that hardware and the card laid out. Zip ties, a PSU bracket, extra thumbscrews and rubber grommets for the tempered glass side panels, screws for all the various things, and a microfiber cloth to clean the glass with. With the foam removed, we see three suspicious bags! What could they be? The small bags are really nice. Velcro closure, and an In Win logo. Unsurprising considering this is a $1000 case. Also in this shot we have a gratuitous pic of the manual, which is actually textured with the pattern printed on it. Wax printing maybe? Cool nonetheless. Inside the first bag: A ton of cables! Seriously. They included 8 VGA power cables. Serious power supply! I plan to replace all of these with custom-sleeved ones later, but I'll be using these for this part of the build. The very fancy power supply that comes with the case. Scissors for scale. Unfortunately on my test run the fan on the PSU clicks like hell, so I'm going to have to RMA it. Really hoping they don't make me send the whole case back to RMA the PSU. It's a really beefy one! Plug end of the PSU with scissors for scale. Looks like they don't have too many proprietary connectors, luckily. The switch on the left keeps the ports marked "extra power" on for a selectable amount of time after the PC is shut off. Here I have it set to 30 seconds; choices are instant-off, 30s, 120s, and always on. The other end of the PSU. It has a built in USB 3A charging port, a light switch (the PSU's side is clear and lights up the same color as the case), and the ubiquitous power switch. It's really nice, shame I have to RMA this one. Hopefully they send me the correct color back! Now we start with the money shots: the case itself. Here's the back view where we see the Signature Series plate. Note the wires coming out of the front panel -- turns out there's a secret that's not in the manual to getting the lights working. There's a spot to plug in a molex connector back there -- if you don't plug both that and the 24-pin ATX breakout in, the case lighting will not work! Found this out the hard way. Front view of the case. On the panel on the right, the + and - buttons turn the lighting intensity up and down. Yes, that's a USB-C port. The power LED and lightstrips are blue; for some reason the HDD light is orange, which is OK because I attend Auburn. The business end of the case; where the magic happens. Nearly everything in here is modular and removable, which is good since with the design of this case I can't just cut a hole in the bottom to provide space to pass the LD-PC V2's evaporator pipe through; I actually need to remove a couple of those metal slats. I started by removing pretty much anything that was easily removable, beginning with the drive trays and water pump tray. Here it is with those parts removed. Next I removed the radiator mounting bracket and grate, the rear fan bracket, and the expansion slot covers. Back view of the case with that stuff out. The slats along the bottom are all one piece including part of the drive cage. To get them out, I had to remove the PSU rear and bottom brackets. All of these are small Phillips screws. Before removing the PSU brackets, I disassembled one of the mounting points for the slats to see how they're held together. The blue aluminum comb holds them a set distance apart; the metal pin goes through the case, comb, and holes in the slats, and then the blue caps screw on the ends. They have to be tightened at the same time. For best results, use two nut drivers the correct size (same as motherboard screws). Since I only had one, I gently used a pair of pliers to hold one end in place while loosening (or tightening) the other. Now I've got the brackets, the combs, and all the bottom slats out. Once the combs are off the slats pull towards the back of the case, then lift out. More shots with the slats out of the bottom of the case. PSU and hard drive brackets back in; PSU test fit (fan down). Turns out on this case it's designed to have the PSU mounted fan up for looks, but they did provide a hole in the bracket for those who want to mount it fan down. Here it is with the fan up. There's another bracket that has to be screwed to the end of the PSU and to the white bracket. The space I left between the slats should be enough room for the evaporator hose on the sub-zero unit, but that's for a future part as I haven't received it yet. Here's the hardware that's going in; Noctua cooler for the test fit while I wait for the cooling unit. This is going to be a silver themed build. Most of the parts came out of my previous case. Test fit -- before cabling. Cable management is HECK in this case, since both side panels are clear! I'm not going to worry overmuch about it right now as I'll be replacing many of the cables and trying to bolt a cooling unit to the bottom in a later post. Test run success! (Except for the clicky PSU). I didn't bother installing any fans beyond the bare minimum for now as I'm doing some pretty interesting stuff with the cooling later -- the plan is sub-zero on the CPU and a water loop for the GPU. Another shot of the test run, with flash. The RGB LEDs will be set to a blue color later, but it's nice to have options! I posted this from this machine. I'll be running it off my backup power supply while the one that came with the case is RMA'd.
While my big post awaits moderation, I have a minor update: I fixed the click in the power supply. It appears one of the fan motor's wires had come free from its guide and was interfering with the fan blades. I was able to tuck it in using a plastic tool without opening the PSU.
I finally heard from LD Cooling. Their unit is in manufacturing for me and will be ready in 3-4 weeks. I found the bottle of conformal coating I will be using, it's made by a company called "MG Chemicals." It was fairly cheap on Amazon. This build can't really progress further until I have the cooling unit in hand, so I'm going to have to wait until it shows up
Yeah, to be honest neither did I until I actually had the case in hand and tried it. I was thinking I'd have to do something involving a Dremel and a lot of swearing. This has good implications for repaintability, too, if someone wanted to they could probably take most of the rest of the case apart with basic hand tools also.
Lads and lasses, we're out of warranty and so it's time to kick this project back on! I waited for the case to come out of warranty so I would have no compunctions about performing the mod. The first thing I did is move all slats as close to the front of the case as possible leaving two at the back out (using the above procedure); this leaves room for the cooling hose from the LD-V2 to come in through the bottom of the HDD bay. Doing it this way has benefits and drawbacks; the benefit is not having to move the PSU to the front of the case; the drawback is that the PC-V2 is technically mounted backwards - its power plug will be on the front, opposite from all the other cables, and its power button will be at the back of the case. This was the best solution I could come up with to avoid having to CNC machine a custom PSU bracket (the other option would be to put the PSU where a watercooling pump might otherwise go. I was pleased to note that the hard drive sleds for the hot-swap bays can in fact both fit without pinching the hose too badly. The bottom sled introduces a slight pinch and if functionality is affected it can be easily removed. This layout will also necessitate a vertical GPU bracket to give the hose room to clear behind the GPU. When I first started this thread, I had already delidded the CPU and re-pasted it with Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut; since it's been over a year I'm going to redo that again. The other major issue this mod causes is that the case can not be laid on its side now that the hose is routed. There is nothing holding the case onto the cooler except for its own weight right now, as it has not been permanently fastened at this time. Therefore all removing and inserting of parts, including the motherboard, will need to be done with the case on its side. This is aggravating, but not impossible; if someone wants to try to replicate this a helper would make a lot of sense when holding the board in place. The next steps are to prepare the motherboard and CPU for sub-zero levels of cooling. This process is best laid out in the Linus Tech Tips video where he does a build in the LD PC-V10 case, which is basically a boxy case with the cooler already built into it. I'm a weirdo and want my computer to look more like a jet engine or motorcycle than a box (and as far as my test run goes, it'll sound like one too! Might have to do something about those fans; the built in ones in the LD are Noctua IndustrialPPC, so I may see if they're compatible with the Noctual Low Noise adapters, provided that doesn't drop the fan speed too much. Adequate airflow over the condenser must be maintained.) The next post will be a guide to the motherboard and CPU prep (based on the LTT video and my own experience with the prep work), followed by a post with some pictures of the process. (Edit: Clarity)
Oh, another thing I noticed on this reattack - the PSU bracket does not in fact need to be removed to remove and reposition the slats. You'll probably want to pull it out anyway depending on what you're doing, but it doesn't have to happen. I also found that it's easier to leave the blue caps on one end of the rods - they can slide out in that direction and it makes tightening easier. Your mileage may vary on that but I found on the second disassembly that I didn't need two tools, a single one was sufficient. Also, note that the nut driver needs to be sized for motherboard / PSU screws, NOT for standoffs. The standoff driver is too small. I believe the size is 1/4 inch but don't quote me on that.
OK, this is paraphrased from Linus's video which can be found here: To prep the CPU and motherboard for the extremely low temperatures of sub-zero cooling, it's best to start with the mobo OUT of the case, as expected. It'd be really hard to work vertically. Furthermore, if anyone ever tries this I would very much recommend not threading the hose through the HDD bay until the motherboard and CPU are already prepped; please note that the hose will NOT fit through the HDD bay unless the two combs at the rear of the HDD bay are left off completely; once it's threaded through they can be reinstalled. This is due to the size of the evaporator head on the LD-PCV2. Remember, the primary goal of all this is controlling condensation. When running at these temperatures, condensation can form on and around the evaporator and cooled components in seconds. (On my unloaded test run of the cooler, condensation formed in 15 seconds and by 40 there was a thick layer of frost on the head). If you live in a desert perhaps you won't have to worry about condensation so much, but I live in Alabama and 80% humidity is not uncommon. Even if one lives in a perfectly dry and controlled environment, I think it prudent to take care to avoid condensation damage to components, especially since any warranties left are pretty much entirely voided by sub-zero cooling. Using a T20 bit (assuming Intel), the retention arm and bracket must be removed from the motherboard completely, and the area around the socket packed with kneaded eraser / art eraser. Some comes with the cooler from LD and it should be enough. Ensure not to damage the motherboard pins (PC Builder's Duh); the CPU can be temporarily placed in the socket to protect them. The retention arm and bracket are reinstalled on top of the eraser; the metal backplate can be covered with it as well. Linus does not cover delidding but it is highly recommended to delid the CPU and replace the stock paste with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut or a similar sub-zero capable thermal compound; I used Kryonaut. The CPU can be resealed using a standard gasket maker; for this job I used Permatex Ultra Black due to it's good temperature resistance. The delidding kit I used was made by Rockit Cool. Once the CPU's internal thermal compound has been replaced and it's been re-lidded, it can be installed into the motherboard bracket as normal. I have seen it recommended to paint the back and exposed areas of the front of the motherboard with a conformal compound before continuing; at the temps the LD hits (think the freezer in your kitchen, so colder than freezing but not liquid N2 cold) it's probably unnecessary. Dielectric grease in the socket is also an option, but again probably not necessary (and there's a risk of bending pins when putting the grease in!). The LD comes with some pre-cut neoprene and metal plates, as well as bolts; one of the neoprene and a metal plate go under the board (bolts go in from the bottom); each bolt gets a plastic washer, then a steel one, then a nut, and can be tightened from there. This will provide the needed stability while insulating the metal of the bracket from the motherboard. Build up the art eraser to about even with the top of the heatspreader, ensuring to cover the area between the bolts. Try not to get any air in there. Another layer of neoprene can go on now, this can be the thinner stuff that comes with the cooler as well; it'll need to be cut to size so it doesn't cover the heatspreader. At this point the motherboard and CPU are prepped and the motherboard can be installed in the case.
Ok! Through some trials and tribulations I now have a WORKING, STABLE build!!! Photos forthcoming. Cable management is next now that my test build is working. The cooler has two cables that need to be connected from headers on the internal control board to the motherboard. These headers are labeled fairly clearly. One cable goes to the POWER_SWITCH header on the motherboard, and the other, CHECK_12V goes to a fan header as shown in Linus's video (these are 2 pin cables so plug into the side of the header what has the little plastic bit that sticks out. I'll upload a photo shortly; I took the pictures with my phone so it will be a bit. The cooler comes with a big neoprene tube; a small (1.5"ish) section fits nicely as a boot around the cooling head. I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on the heatspreader and attached the cooling head using a washer and attached thumbscrew on each bolt. I felt like I was tightening it quite a bit; this is ok because the half-inch of neoprene on the backside of the board compresses slightly when tightening. Finger tight is fine, ideally in a cross-pattern. Do not use pliers or wrenches! Remember, there's still a plain old silicon motherboard somewhere under all that stuff. As I expected, a vertical GPU bracket is necessary with the 1080Ti FTW3 to get it out of the way of the hose; even mounted vertically it's a tight fit though. I used the Phanteks bracket due to low price. I ran into a couple of headaches: apparently I wore out the top PCI-E slot on my motherboard somehow so had to connect the GPU riser to the second slot; this means it's running at x8 speed, unfortunately. I suspect that the weight of having such a heavy card in there the normal way for a couple years may have damaged the socket. The bracket takes up seven slots. I left one empty slot above and below (since the case has 9); I found this gave me the best clearance on the hose both above and below the card, as well as on the PSU since ithe PSU on this case is designed to be appreciated in the fan-up position. The other issue I ran into was a failure on boot with no display. After some fiddling I determined that this was due to a fan not being connected to the CPU_FAN header. (Whoops!) I plugged a random NF-A15 fan I had lying around into there and all was well; the system booted properly and into Windows as well. ASUS's BIOS does have the option to ignore the CPU fan. Please note that at this time there's no good way for the system to tell the function state of the phase change cooler, so if the cooler fails expect bad stuff to happen. I noticed the cooler's control board appears to have a USB header, so am curious to see what happens if I hook it up.. maybe if I get bored Initial temperatures looked fantastic. -10C on the CPU die, -41C in the evaporator head. I pushed it to a stable 5.2GHz overclock last night and it passed Prime95 with a die temp of 0C under load. I got a good boot at 5.3, 1.4V but it crashed after 5 minutes of Prime95 so reverted to 5.2 for now.
The next project is cable management, after which I will be looking into adding a GPU cooling loop. The initial plan was to have it be a hardline loop, but due to the proximity of the evaporator hose to the GPU I suspect a soft loop will be the better way to go.
Most of the pics are on my phone and I'm not able to upload them until Sunday, but here's one to hold y'all over:
There's a lot of room in front of the video card. I suspect someone with better bracket-fu (and a second working PCI slot, grr) could rig up a vertical SLI setup in this case... It would be easier without the evaporator hose. It isn't touching the fan though it is touching the card - actually providing slight support on the back end. I considered adding some neoprene to the point where the hose meets the card but haven't noticed any condensation there in testing. The cables are a rat's nest right now, I have nice cablemod ones coming.. but the designers of the case made some interesting choices with the front panel wiring. It's going to be... fun...
