Project: Rat Rod/ Hell Crew mod -- June 21st -- Assembly Completed

If the silicone sealant does not work I'll be very surprised. You'll probably just have to keep a eye on the silicone if it does end up working because I have run into past issues where the silicone would start to break down. Otherwise I like your mesh job with the front of the case. JB Weld works very well in many situations.

 

Problems with the silicon breaking down? Really? How so? I guess I've never had that happen with the other things I've used it on like valve covers and water pumps (car).

I hope it works and I will definitely be keeping an eye on it if it does.

Thanks

MatrixOps

 

this res may be a good choice.

http://www.svc.com/mcres-525-28.html

Those look to be solidly built.

Hope it helps

 

The funny thing is, that is the res I have. Only mine has dtek stamped on it. Swiftech has a branded version of it as well.

The construction appears to be of high quality, it just has the one problem.

Thanks for the link jaguarking.

MatrixOps

 

Looks amazing, i like the window design, aswell as the fan/shroud setup youve got going!

 

i thought the mesh front looked messy at first but the black paint makes it look pretty dam nice

 

Thx MrMan...

 

With the leaky reservoir fixed, the final assembly has been completed. I have to admit, I was very excited to find that the res wasn't leaking anymore. probably took me only another hour to finish the assembly.

Well, let me walk through the rest of the build since the last update. The case, interestingly enough appeared to have been built with a cable routing "hole" in the bottom of the 5.25" drive mount area. So, I used this to route the cables. It allowed me to keep them bundled together as necessary and tucked them out of the way for air/flow and clutter reduction. It worked out well for what I wanted. Please excuse the tape in the first image, it was put in place to protect the paint while I put the cables and connectors through the hole.





After getting the cables in place, I figured it was time to route the water cooling loop tubing. Since this was my first WC setup, the routing was a bit of an adventure. A little experimentation taught some things about how the
tubing responds and ways to get it to do what you want it to do. The loop consists of a DTek Whitewater CPU block, a Swiftech MCW20 chipset block and MCW50 gpu block. The pump is an MCP350 with tach sensor wire. The reservoir and radiator are from DTEK.

Here is an image of it sans coolant...



with coolant...



This is a close-up of the gpu waterblock installed on the card. The fact that it was angled towards the rear of the case actually caused very little problem. Which was a relief given the other problems I had with the loop...I'll get to that in a moment.



As I mentioned in a previous post, I ended up having problems with the barb threads on the reservoir leaking. In a last ditch effort to get it to stop leaking, I coated the threads of the barbs with permatex rtv silicon. This stuff is automotive grade, used for creating gaskets. Pretty stout stuff. I had a tube of the high temp red on hand, so that is what I used. Actually, given the automotive inspiration of the case, it actually seemed appropriate to use it.



The water pump installation was straight forward enough, I mounted it in the bottom of the 5.25" drive bay to the left of the cable routing hole.



Next to it, I placed the power distribution block and resistor circuitry



The dtek bay reservoir installed over the pump



That just about completed the assembly of the interior components, minus hooking up power connectors after the leak test and sliding the dvd burner into place. So, I riveted the top panel back and installed the left and right panels.

The following images show the completed project. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions given by those who posted in this project log. I hope you like the finished product. I know that I do. Keep your eyes out for my next project log, it will be a scratch built case.









And two showing the case lighting.





Thanks again to all who stopped by.

MatrixOps

 

Very nice... The intake is probably one of the most ingenious and awesome things about the case.

 

Very good mod. I really like the simple look of the whole thing, and the whole look is very uniform.

MatrixOps: Does the THC backside cutout look like the last picture in your last post or previous ones? i.e. with the individual LEDs showing.

 

First, thanks for the compliments, I wanted to carry the theme throughout the case.

The led's do show a bit, but not quite as much as the picture indicates. The lighting for that panel is very subdued.

I have been thinking about how to even out the light, but couldn't come up with anything yet. I have very little room between the plexi and motherboard tray, just enough for the leds. I have been looking at EL wire, but a couple of other modders here have suggested I look at something else. I don't want it to be bright, just smoothly lit.

I am open to suggestions.

Thanks kickarse. I have to admit I am very proud of that intake. It was fun to figure out how to make it.

MatrixOps

 

looks really clean

 

Thansk exavier412, I appreciate it.

 

Great looking mod, the matte black really ties everything together quite well!

 

i like the mod ..tip.. the screws are to long.

 

Thanks, I hate to say it, but matte black is also probably one of the easiest colors to paint with. It is very easy to make it look uniform and even. That, and the rat rod inspiration, is why I chose it. I knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time for paint.

I was wondering why the ends were sticking out like that....

Thanks.

MatrixOps

 

Well if you realy want a solid seal on your barbs you can use some of the pvc barbs that come with the res and use pvc cement on the threads of the fittings. I have used pvc cement before and after fully cured it is rock solid and bonds plastics realy well and not to mention water proof.

Hope this helps.

 

Shhhhhh, about the secret of the matt black, or everyone will want to do it

 

like hte looks of it, very clean, nicely done mate

 

Thanks for the compliments, and the suggestion for future use jaguarking.

After two days, I haven't had an issue with any of the WC hardware. The leaks have not returned. Now if the really poor HP printer drivers would stop corrupting my XP pro boot process....I would be a much happier camper.

MatrixOps