Scratch Build – In Progress FFF: slow restart, voiding warranties

Thats just insane. Cramming that much hardware in such a small case

I like it

 

Do those PCI-E risers really work at those lengths ?

 

yup ^^
They will work for the very good reason that i say they will!

Also:

Source

They wouldn't be selling the cables if they wouldn't work, now would they?

 

Cant argue with that!

What about interference then ?

 

i'm 1.90m tall, nobody interferes with me!

Umm ... oh... you mean... well... uhm... dunno?

I wont know till i try, wont i? There's more nay-sayers on other forums suggesting the high voltages in the PSU will mess up my HDDs though magnetic interference, theres peopel saying i wont be able to replace any parts (i will), or get the loop working, there's people saying the pump is too high and will get air trapped in it, there's talk of those fans going to be VERY noisy because they have no effective intake, and the DVD drive rattling up a godawful racket. I say to hell with all that, it'll work for reasons stated above!

Edit: all in jest, thanks for commenting

 

Holy hell... an update! Lol.

 

I know.. scary, innit?
I'm going tro try to make sure this thing keeps moving. First, i'm working on the whole construction part of the case itself, and after that i'm going to wigure out cable abd tube routing. When all that stuff is sorted, i can start thinking about building the thing and ordering the last parts. If all goes well, i'll finish even before you do craig

 

Good for you! Nay-sayers are most often people that are afraid to try it for themselves! Cant wait to see what you make of it!

 

Looks.. So.. Cool..

 

oh man i'm so glad i'm doing a meticulous sketchup model before i move to production!

I downloaded the excellent sketchup model of the 5870 on the SCC, which saved my ass! Turned out the placeholder card i drew and gave measurements from info found in various sites, i had graphics cards that were 16mm too short.

I'm furiously redesigning the case now, testris is NOTHING compared to what i'm doing now...

I gave the HDDs a new placement so the fans and rads could move 23mm downwards, so the cards would be able to be placed above the fan, sticking in between the two barbs on the rad... The dome is now 8mm longer, the front plateau is 16mm shorter and 23mm lower, the motherboard is mover upwards 2mm to compensate for the HDD that now sticks under it.

new screens soon(ish)

 

so... trying to figure out the ramifications of the new rehash... will this loop work?

Res -> GPU block 1 -> GPU block 2 -> Rad 1 -> pump -> Rad 2 -> CPU block -> res.

I could also make it work the exact other way around, which seems like a better plan to me, since the pump will be doing less sucking and more pushing that way. I understand it's not going to be optimal for flow, but will it still work?

 

Nice to see Fresh Fusion alive again. Looks great!

 

Pffft, no sleep for me tonight! I had a Sketchup epiphany, and the design has now eveolved to a level that i'm so satisfied with that i can honestly say i'm moving to production soon. MDPC, here i come!
I added waterblocks and tubing for the whole case, which went suprisingly easy. Follow me tool cheescake!
Another thing i managed to do was add the screen in fotos below to the case. That's right, 7" touchscreen in a case that's hardly any bigger to start with
Another thing i did was make the whole thing a little smaller... yes, indeed. If less is more, this case is approaching infinity soon!
Apart from that i spent a lot of time doing boring stuff, planning wiring and such. Tedious, but absolutely nessicary if you concider the margin for error that i have: 0.

I'm going to stop posting the designs here though. Let's raise the suspense a bit
Instead, here's some pictures that are worth posting. First, i upgraded my current build with a Lian-Li HDD-case that i purchased off Joren @ highflow forums. The picture is a good reflection of my current case: pimped-out A-grade parts with duct-tape


And here's some fresh treatment for the Mimo 7" touchscreen that is going to go into FFF. It needs to lose some weight if it is going to make it in there!







No worries, it still works, see:



Oh, and did i mention i decided on a definitive name? It's going to be FFF from now on, which can either stand for "Fresh Form Factor" or "Fery Fast Forward"

Until the next one, keep commenting, it really keeps me going!

 

Quick addendum: Designs WILL be submitted in the MNPCTech Case Design Contest-thread here on Bit-tech when the deadline is up.

 

No love huh?

Ok, here's another preview!

 

zie ik daar een watercooling loop?

 

verrek, ja!

 

I like the water loop, very compact.

 

Looking good man! Love the Mimo...

 

Ok, so today i need to get my mind off something, i started modding again. Unfortunately it's 5 in the morning now, so i cant bust out the dremel and start my cutting, so i'll just post what i have now and what i'm doing for now, my cutting & building update will arrive later when i dont wake up 25 people with the dremel

The more perceptive of you have already seen the final design in the [thread=179117]MNPCTech case building competition[/thread], but for those that missed it, here's what i'm attempting to build.

Two overview shots, first the front:


And then the back:


Inside, the components are incredibly jammed together, here's a pic that might explain a bit:


And here you see just the cooling components:


I'm going to finish strong, with a nice gloryshot that includes a goodlooking part of the loop, the double-helix reservoir, the DVD loading slot, and the graphics cards:


This design is pretty much final apart from some minor details like button locations and i might move the screen back or forwards a bit. I've also got some more ideas up my sleeve for added cheesecake, which are not in the design. The case is final though, so let's start on that, shall we?

Eventually, i'll fabricate the thing out of carbon fibre, but for now i'm going to make a cheap and ugly version from alu sheet. If the shape turns out to any good, i'll use this as a mould, otherwise it'll be a nice way for me to build up some skill.

First though, i need some strength! Midnight Modding Munchies:


Ok, all powered up, ready to go. I have two alu sheets, both 100x50cm, one too thin but easy to work with, and the other nice and thick. The thin one is the first victim. I used some standard kitchen scissors to make all the cuts, and it worked a lot better then i expected:


I proceeded to practice some bending. I used two glueing clasps (?) and my own weight to hold down the alu on my desk and then simply bent by hand. The larger radius is done with a round piece of wood held between the desk and the material, the small radius is simply bent on the edge of the desk itself.


Not bad, let's do that again, but bigger!


For a very first try, i'm quite pleased with that. I messed up quite badly on the measuring though, so this piece is completely unusable. just for the practice, i proceeded by completing the shape:


Notice how atrocious the scissors work when i have to make even the slightest of bends. They work very well on a straight line, but i'll have to find alternative means, which in my case means busting out the Cant do that now though, so this is where this particular piece stops evolving tonight.

Before slaughtering the better material like i did the thin stuff, i actually sat down and thought about it for a second. It was pretty scary, but after some thinking i had a sketch that allowed me to get almost the whole body from a single sheet:


I tried setting the scissors to this sheet, but the results are so horrible i decided to wait a few hours so i can use the dremel.


So, all i could do for now was to draw out all the cuts. I made a picture of it just for the sake of it. You may not see it, but this was all of 2 hours work, and the sheet still looks the same as it did when i bought it


I'm afraid that's it for now on the modding part. Now for the part where i make you all jealous with the hardware shipments i got
First, and most importantly, i decided to cancel my order for the 5870 for now. I got an Asus 4890 That'll do 1000 on the core and 1200 (4800) on the memory, and put the thing under water after a first testrun. Here it is:


It may not be a 5870, but it packs an awful lot of oumpf for the price i payed for it, and it's a very good-looking thing, so i dont mind at all putting it in the build for now. Besides, i started feeling worse and worse about paying 2009 prices for the 5870 while only receving it in 2010.

Another major step towards realising the plan is getting the right motherboard. As soon as i saw the board at the AXGS event i knew that this was the board i was going to use. And what a coincidence, somebody rang my doorbel and gave me this:




This also presents me with a great way of illustrating how i typically go about any operation that requires careful planning and a delicate touch.

1) Asess:


2) Destruct:


3) Construct:


Who said watercooling makes it hard to change components?

Speaking of watercooling, there's one last bit of kit i want to show you. It might actually be relevant to somebody someday. As you can see above, i'm using a rather unsophisticated method of mounting the 775 block i have to the 1156 socket on the motherboard. Luckily, Watercool sells a conversion kit that lets you convert the block to the socket you'd like it to fit on. Pictures will explain beter then words, so here goes:

This is the frankenstein solution i devised from 20cts worth of plexi:


And this is how bad the mount was:


The kit as sold:


The block disassembled:

For those of you considering to do the same thing, the critical part of the photo here are those four little pins. they are holding the 'arms' in place. The trouble is they sit loosely inside the block, so if you handle it uncarefully, you'll spend the better part of an afternoon desparately patting the floor to find them all back. I may or may not have experienced this first hand.

Here's the block in place and sitting pretty. I really think the block and this board layout are a gorgeous match, this will look brilliant in the final product!


There. I'm out of stuff to talk about for now. I hope your modem is still running, there will be more this afternoon!