Case Mod - In Progress HP Blackbird 002

For storage density (800/1600GB) and data longevity (30 years) tapes are still the only way to go.

 

Hello Guys,
Thanx for feedback

Yep, for offline data-storage, a decent tape-drive is still the best.....plus, I had it available, so, had to make use of it....hehe

 

Ok, a few pictures of yesterdays work.

I will not bore you with countless photos of sleeving, wiring et al, just a few quick ones.

Some of my 'spaghetti Noodle' wires have arrived, and, the most important one just in time for the weekend -> the 24AWG Superflexible Silicone, which will do the fans, sensors et al. Let me start of by saying that this 'Turnigy' brand is an absolute pleasure to work with, easy to strip, easy to crimp onto the correct Molex lugs, and pretty easy to sleeve. The end-result was fantabulous, soft, easy to route, et al.

Of course, I had to measure exact lengths, and re-wire all my fans, all the TMS-200 100kOhm temp sensors, et al. Here are a few shots of the temp-sensors, with original 'hard' wiring next to the prepped noodles......



and here are 3x temp-sensors ready to go, these ones will be for the FB-Dimm-, Chipset- and SAS Controller temperatures.



I don't have any photos of work done on the fans, I had to totally strip them, remove pcb, resolder et al - I have one more to do, and I will take plenty pics to show those uncertain how to rewire a NoiseBlocker Fan Next few days I will get to that....

Here is one shot of the shortened wires, sleeved and ready to go, on the 2x DDC3.25's on the Koolance RP-401X2 reservoir - remember, the pumps/reservoir will be mounted vertically, directly above the TMS-200 controller, which is located where the previous dual-pump setup use to live, in the space just above the SAS drive-cage.



Then, as mentioned a few days ago, the RP-401X2 comes with an aluminium bezel, which is slightly wider than the plexi-window on the front of the reservoir - similar to how the bezel of say, a ROM drive is wider than the metal body of the drive. What this means is, that, you cannot fit the reservoir from inside the case, pushing from the back of the 5.25" drive-bay, to the front.....

You have to push it through from the front -> this I could not do, as I have already fitted the Koolance heatsinks to the pumps, and there is no way you can mount these after installing the reservoir in the case, it has to be done prior - like I did.

So, a catch 22, as I could not get my reservoir in place. Oh well, that's why we are modders -> so, I removed the aluminium bezel from the front, and no, I did not do the unthinkable, by filing away, as I may want to resuse this later, who knows. So, I left it off, and while I was at that, I modded the plexi front window to become a fill-port -> this will be hidden behind the ROM cover in the front of the BB case, it has a little access door there....

Because my reservoir is mounted vertical, and no easy way to access the original fill-ports machined by Koolance, I did my own. Much easier, and actually, a lot better than the original, at least for my application -- plus, the pumps prime a lot easier than if the reservoir was installed in the intended orientation. Of course, I had the correct 1/4" BSP TAP too, so it made life easy. Enough talk, this is what I did:



and here



and here



giving us the end result, after installation, and in the running system, with BP stop-plug fitted after filling the system, and bleeding



Came pretty nice, I reckon, and a very practical, and neat solution to a major obstacle in getting this reservoir/pump combo to work. Yes, the plexi is thick enough, doesn't need the aluminium support, I firmly believe it was added for aesthetics only. Not needed in my case, pun intended.

Anyway, all the fans and temp-sensors wiring are now running immediately above in front of the radiator, close to the roof of the case. It cleaned out the back of the motherboard tray a lot, and this is where I will run the PSU cables soon.

Please do not look at the temporary fan, cooling the ram/chipset, and the unsleeved Koolance FMS-18 flowmeter cables, this will be fixed/routed soon. Also visible here is the Ambient Air Temp sensor, I will affix it with a proper holder. But, it is working anyhow



And a quick shot showing the new tubing-routing to the reservoir/rad, as well as the new Flowmeter. Again, ignore cables hanging loose, those unsleeved ones, et al - all in good time - this is merely to show new tubing-routing exercise....



And here, proof that the setup is working -> ok, a little trick here, as the TMS-200m software is not running on myBlackbird OS, Server 2008 - so I have the controller connected to my laptop, via USB, to do the setup, as it is running WinXP. I hope Koolance will fix this issue soon. Nevertheless, I managed to run a pump-flow test, which adjust from highest to lowest RPM, and measures flow via TMS-18 flowmeter.

Pretty nice, I can run pump at a quiet level, and still have about 4.5Lpm flow. Lovely.



and a final shot, showing what I have currently connected, and in auto-control......

 

Very nice sleeving work but I am interested in seeing your PSU re-sleeve, I need to do something similar to my new Corsair AX850.

 

Hello Mate,
Thanx for the feedback - yep, I did a relatively quick job on the sleeving, not really going for absolute perfection, but it came pretty decent.

Wrt the PSU, I will rewire this unit starting the coming weekend - I have picked up a nice Corsair AX1200 to do duties as a temporary PSU while rewiring the Wintech-based PC Power and Cooling. I will fit the Corsair this week one evening, and then tackle the Wintech unit.

Going to be fun, especially fitting the 16AWG wire to the ATX-pins....I a sure the ones I have is for 18AWG wire, but I will make it work anyway. The pins are good quality gold-plated......

Will keep you posted

ps: Please be very careful opening/working around PSU's, especially considering the rather beefy caps in them. It can be hazardous to your health, and environment if you're not qualified for this

 

Hello Everyone,
Ok, some real progress this last few nights, not to much, but the end is in sight

On normal systems, running any DDR3 Ram, memory coolers are a waste, and not needed - waterblocks, like for example the MIPS, are added for aesthetics only.

Running FB-DIMMS though, is a totally different kettle of fish -> this memory uses an AMB chip - Advanced Memroy Buffer,controlling data-flow in/out the various ram-chips on any specific FB-DIMM. These boys get real toasty, and even on servers, with some good airflow, it is not uncommon to see them at 70-85 deg C.

With that in mind, I decided to use a nice big 120mm fan to cool my FB-DIMMs as well as 5400 Chipset. Two birds with one stone, so to speak.

So I grabbed some angled aluminium, and hacked at it for a while, followed buy some filing, and a bit of TLC, and I came up with this:



A while back I decided the ideal fan for this would be the 120mmx10mm Scythe Slipstream.....



and



Well, fitted all together, mounted it in the PC, and set TMS-200 to 100% for that channel. All good, fan is working as expected. But, these specific fans don't at all like the TMS-200 PWM output, as soon as you switch to auto-control, and output drops to below 80%, the fan simply stops.

That won't work, damn.

Ah well, I still had 1x NoiseBlocker multi-frame, and this is anyway a better fan, much better flow/pressure than the Scythe Slimline.

Of course, I rewired all the new fans, thermistors et al with the Superflex Silicone 24AWG wire, and this fan was no exception. Just 2 photos to show what this entails, should you wish to try it....



and totally naked....



I desoldered the old wires, solderd in new ones, assembled, and sleeved, mounted to the system etc.....with this result....



and another one



and another



Starting to look real fresh and clean, this all for a dual Xeon, and 5970 ATI, all watercooled.....of course, don't forget the 8x SAS drives, TMDS-200 controller, 5 thermistors, 4x 120mm fans.....so, not to bad

Here's another shot with some text to highlight where I've routed the Superflex cables for the fans/thermistors, and also pointing which wiring you should ignore for now - I still need to rewire the PSU, so those cables will be cleaned up.



Comments welcome.

 

For anyone that needs the HP 2.5" SFF SAS Drive-cage part number:
401415-B21

Hope this helps!

 

MrBean thanks a lot...

 

You're welcome

Let me know if I can be of further assistance! And post me a link to your thread, please....

 

Will do...

Havent started yet... it is all only in the planning at the moment. and now i got a move to a bigger place with fiber to think about also.. But as soon that is done i have to get started..

 

What about Millenniata disks?

 

No worries, I will keep an eye out for your post/link

You know how things go with modding, pretty slow sometimes ...

 

Hello Guys,
Happy Festive Season to everyone, hope you're all enjoying it.

Not so much an update, as much as putting my thoughts together on where to go with this mod.

A while ago, I got the (pretty decent) TMS-200 from Koolance - for those that don't know, the TMS-200 is simlar to the Aquaero5/mCubed bigNG, where you can install a few temp sensors, and fans, and use curves/graphs/setpoints to automatically control said fans and/or pump(s) to specific measured variables or manual setpoints, or a combination of both.

The problem is, I am running Windows 2008 R2 on this setup, which is a must for the process simulator I have installed on here, and, the TMS-200 doesn't run under Server 2008 R2 I only realised this after I have installed it, made up cables, rewired temp-sensors, et al.

It would have been pretty easy to dump this, and refit an Aquaero5, for example, the only problem is the TMS-200 doesn't use std thermistors - only the later TMS-205 use the same ones as the bigNG and Aquaero5. So it means I will have to replace all custom thermistors-, fans- and pumps cables with new ones....a pretty time-consuming exercise, considering these were all made up of Turnigy silicone wire.

So, to cut a long story short, I need to do something - the system is supposed to be on auto-control, but cannot make changes if the OS is not running the GUI/USB connection is not present.

This in my opinion is a very lame effort by Koolance (sorry boys, had to say it), as one would expect that once you update parameters to the TMS-200, and disconnect the USB cable from the host system, it would function autonomously. Coming from a process-control background, this is essential.

Second issue is your lack of support for Server 2008, and unwillingness to rectify the situation, and paying what we do for these devices, well, let's just say it falls way short from realistic expectations, and designers/manufacturers in this watercooling world gets away with murder.

So, anyway, realising Server 2008 R2 won't allow this software to run -> I have decided on a different tact.

I have left over from my carputer projects, a very nice and small 3.5" Commell LS-373 SBC, sporting 2GB Ram, and running a very powerful (Mac) E8435 @ 3.06Ghz Core2Duo processor.

This little board is the size of a 3.5" harddrive, and blazingly fast. With it, there is also an OCZ Agility 2 40GB SSD, and combined, this will form the basis of a 2nd small computer, hosting the GUI and USB interface to the TMS-200.

I also have left over a very nifty Xenarc 7" Touchscreen TFT LCD. So, you can see where I am going with this.....

I was hoping to get my hands on a Kontron pITX-SP Atom-based board, which will be better for this application, as this particular 3.5" SBC setup is waaayyy overkill, but, such is life.

So, in the next few weeks, I will be manufacturing a new internal hinged side-panel, to replace the existing plastic one in place just above the PSU cover - this panel will be made of a regular aluminium heatsink, and I will bolt the 3.5" SBC, with 7" LCD, directly to it from behind.

I have designed (and a friend CNC'ed) a lovely heatblock, covering both the NB and CPU, and will use some of my Coolermaster Heatpipes to connect this to the aluminium heatsink.

Will work really well, passively cooled, touchscreen LCD, and the only connections to the main rig will be a 12V DC line, as well as the USB connection back to the TMS-200.

Of course, the touchscreen will be the input device on this...

I will design the new side-cover in AutoCAD, and post a rendering here in the next couple of days.

Soz for the long post, without pics, but excited enough to at least share my ideas

Take care, and talk soon.

 

Bumping this to give rep for the recommendation on the wire-I'm ordering some for my next project. My wife even thinks it's awesome stuff.

 

updates?

 

So, I am not getting any positive reply wrt Server 2008 R2 support for the Aquaero LT, neither was it confirmed that LT Master-slave-mode, which was touted more than a year ago, is supported - so, what to do?

I am really tired of forking out monies for devices that are dumped on the unsuspecting watercooling fraternity, so, until we get a product that is properly supported by it's software, I have to hang onto the Koolance TMS-200 for a while longer.

In all honesty, it is a pretty decent device, the only let-down is its lack of Server 2008 support.

So, as I have intimated a while back, I have a nifty little Xenarc 7" LCD lying about doing nothing, and I decided that I will retrofit this into the existing BB sidepanel.

I was going to use my old trusty 3.5" Commell LS-373 to interface to the TMS-200, and running standard windows 7 on the setup, which would enable proper control and functionality of the TMS-200.

Well, I am pretty impulsive sometimes when it comes to hardware, and last night on Ebay, I grabbed a nice Axiomtek pico820 board for a very decent price - this should arrive during the next week, as it was expedited from Spain.

It will come with a nice 16gb CF card, but I will probably replace that with a 32GB SLC version I have lying around, and trim Windows 7 down with nLite - this will make a nice little stand-alone PC that would control the TMS-200.

Check back for more in a few short weeks

 

to bad support of koolance :/ hope u get that board soon! can you please post som pictures of the case, a little zoomed out so we can see it in all it's glory, i cant really get a image in my head how it looks?

 

Will do, waiting for the Axiomtek board to arrive, and will post pics after - probably this coming weekend

 

Great case, have loved the look of one of these since seeing it at a mates!

Nice log mate!

 

Thanx Noob Appreciate your feedback.

Check back next weekend, I see my Axiomtek pico-itx is sitting in customs, so I should get it out early next week. On the road again till Friday night, but all good, will start with the 7" LCD and pico-itx to get the TMS-200 running on it.