Case Mod - In Progress HEX GEAR R40 Engineering Station

Haha It is time!

Thanks a lot man! Appreciate it

Last week was very busy! But I manage to take a picture of something I have been working on for the back of the case

Don´t mind the blue color. That was the only fluid I had around at the time.



The milling on this thing is just perfect. I am even tempted to not even polish it, as it is not really needed.

More will come soon!

 

NO! POLISH!
POLISH A LOT!

 

So damn beautiful!

 

Maybe I will!

Thanks Timpelay! I hope you enjoy this then:

Sooo... I know that I started this project by saying that it was going to be a "simple workstation"... I do not know if I actually believed that myself as my projects has a tendency to get complicated as I get ideas for them.

So, I present the distributing plate for this build. Every component inside the case will lead to this plate. There is 4 chambers that routes the fluid around, and I am so looking forward to filling this up with fluid!

I still need to sand, and polish the part, but the machining done by Peter Uhrskov Berg is just perfect, so should be very easy!

Milling time including programming and setup = 5 hours.



It all started out like this. When working with acrylic, fixing it in the mill is key, since it can start vibrating, and you will not get a smooth finish. The mill we used is about as old as me, but still does the trick!



Finished part with the 6 mm lasercut plate that holds the fittings, and closes it up. The 6 mm plate is not the same size as the distributing plate itself, but is made as an inlay so that there is no visible lines from the outside (as there would be if it where two plates of the same size bolted to each other)



From the business end



And mounted on the case. The bolts will be swapped out with some better looking ones. I might even do the same as Martin "MaTo" Jespersen did in his R40 with red washers and black bolts, as it just looks so damn good!



Last money shot. Imagine this with red fluid I think it will end up looking quite nice!

Next up is mounting o-rings and closing it up. I already bought some o-rings, but one of them was glued together which I am not a big fan of, so I ordered a new one that should be here Wednesday!

 

I saw the res on Daniel his build and now your routing-res. I can see this become an accessory for the case.

 

nice piece of acrylic you got there!
seems like a shame to put it on the @ss of the case - unless you want it flashing it's rear at you on the table ?

 

Work of art , cant wait to see what you have thought of for tubing inside and connected to this...will you add this as an option on hex-gear.com addons?

 

An expensive one

I actually like it better on the rear, than on the front if I have to be honest. I like to keep the front simple, but still have suprises hidden all around the case itself that is subtle enough to not be dominating the looks, but still cool enough to give an impression

This exact piece is very configuration locked, so you would have to use the exact same parts as I am using, and get a new back metal panel + accent pack cut, so it would be a very limited, and expensive solution. We might offer a rear reservoir in the style of this so that it is not as locked as it is now. Although it would be somewhat expensive, so it will most likely just be something that will be made to order.

 

Ew. I was excited too, but not like that.

Looks FRIGGEN fantastic. I don't see you making them for the public with a 5 hour mill time either.

 

looks totally mindblowing.

 

Well, the 5 hours was with all the setup and programming as I wrote - basically from I walked in the door to the finished part was taken out. If we where to mass produce them I think milling time could be reduced to 1-1.5 hours top. But I do not see stuff like this being produced in big quantities anytime soon as it is simply to expensive for most.

Thanks Icelander!

 

A few people has asked about how I made the lit up front panel for the R40 ROG edition. On this one, I have made something a bit similar, and will show exactly how it was done.

This will make sure that the front panel is completely lit up nicely, and evenly.



The entire thing is cut from a standard accent pack in chili red frosted acrylic. In the sides are cut two slots that perfectly fits Darkside Computer Modding ridgid led strips. They are expensive as hell, but since they are only slightly above 5 mm wide, they are the ones that fits best with the 5 mm sheet of acrylic.



The wires for the led strip goes trough this channal, and out on the other side.



Right now the wires are hidden under the aquaero, but will be connected to the two 12v ports on the aquaero, so that they can be controlled via it.



How the front looks with the metal panel put on. All the cuts are of course hidden, so nothing will be visible once mounted.

More to come soon!

 

Well i can guess that mass production is not possible, but giving an option for the devoted to make a custom order for one is making your awesome product even more amasing...

Great Work on the led lit front panel as well.

 

OK, now it may be viable. Remember when MNPCTech did a run of 3 x 120 overkill grills? He sold them as fast as he could make them.

 

Thanks!

You can put grills on any case in the world. This thing is made for a specific configuration of hardware, and a single case

Update!

Finally done with this thing! Got the last o-ring home today, along with some industrial grade screws.

Nice to finally be able to mount this one. Next up is to see if it leaks or nor (of course it does not)



Center piece that will connect the GPU´s and CPU.



And a closeup of the o-ring inside. There should be enough screws to safely hold the 6 mm acrylic "top" in place. In this picture you can also see how the 6 mm plate is made to lay "flush" with the main block, so that when viewed from the side you will not see several plates bolted together.





More shots of the block.



The 3 plates that will go on the back.



First the metal plate with the PCI bracket is mounted on top of the distributing plate. The hardline fittings fits exactly trough 8 holes in this, and the acrylic plate behind it. The thought is that all components inside the case are routed to these fittings, and then the plate itself transfers the fluid around to the next component.



Mounted! Stiill waiting on other bolts though!



Also got the graphic cards blocked up, and ready to be mounted so that I can get started on the hard tube setup.





Really love the look of an terminal block connecting cards like this.



Last shot of the rear side. Not that the GPU´s has been mounted

 

Wonderful stuff Pope, really enjoying this one and jelly of the parts

 

Thanks man! I can also not wait to get it up running to harness the power

Alright, I am now done with the cables for this thing, and not a second too soon! This has to be one of the hardest cable jobs I have ever done.

I still need to do some final tweaking with the cables, but this is the overall look that I wanted to achieve.

Also tried to quickly turn it on and everything actually works, and it boots!



Only watercooling left to do now, and then a power button!



Here you can see in detail how the multi GPU comb actually works. Every wire in this build is TIGHT, and just exactly the length it needs to be. No spare length anywhere grin-humørikon



Also painted the aquaero heatsink black, as the original silver color was a standing out a bit to much.



Might put another 6 tb drive in, and swap the ssd out for a bigger one, but this will have to do for now.



Closeup of the cable plate and harddrive plate.

Not much more to do now, other than the watercooling!

 

you win cable management

 

Management is too low. I think he just elevated himself past cable CEO and straight into...
Cable Pope.

 

Thanks guys!

Time for some final pics to round off this project. This has been a fun trip down modding lane with a project that started out as "just being a simple workstation build" and ended up being one of my most challenging builds to date.

Spec list:
Case: HEX GEAR R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-gaming5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
Power supply: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240 gb
HDD: Western Digital red 6 tb
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 lt

Watercooling:
EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump
Bitspower fittings

Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs.

I will let the pictures do the talking.



























































A big thank you goes out to Bitspower, Corsair, EK Waterblocks & Nvidia for helping me out with components for this build. Furthermore I would like to thank Peter Berg, a good friend of mine for helping me machine the rear distributing block.

Some info about the cooling loop, after a 2 hour gta 5 gaming session, the gpu´s where hitting 42 degrees, while water temperature was at a steady 38 degrees with fans spinning at 1100 rpm. Safe to say that this thing will not overheat anytime soon as the fans can spin all the way up to 1500 RPM.