Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Accelerated Fear

Oh by the way, if you guys spot anthing wrong with the update (broken links, missing jpg's ect, pm me, copying this from my plog so its hard to spot everything!

Cheers.

j5

 

Power supply is very well done! It blew my mind so much that I'm going to go wander around the back yard for a while. Looking forward to more!

 

Wow. Amazing work on the whole thing, but especially that PSU! It came out incredible. I have the same exact RAM, I LOVE it. I love it so much I'm thinking of picking up another 2 gigs.

I'm definitely looking forward to more updates on this one

 

Thanks guys, i cant wait to use the ram, iv got 2 gig in my current system at the moment so i might pull one of the sticks and use 3gb for this setup, the ramsinks look tasty though! Cheers for the comments.

j5

 

Hey guys, got another small update for you. Really good news for the project! After a few emails back and forth QuietPC.com have decided to sponsor the project and have sent me some really nice Zalman water cooling gear! This will help immensely with the project so i want to say a really big thank you to Glenn over at QPC for all his help and efforts over the past couple of weeks.

Here is the gear they have sent:

And a lovely little CPU Block


A very sexy 8800GTS Water Block


One Heatpipe HDD Cooler/Silencer, i cant wait to have this next to the trans blue plex, its gonna look so nice!


All the barbs on the block are 3/8 (10mm)

Kinda puts pressure on me to get the case ready for all this new gear iv been sent but i cant wait to get it all up and running!

back to the case, iv been working on the back panel where the I/O plate will be fitted, i went to B&Q today and got some 10mmx15mm angle aluminium and some more 10mmx10mm (below)



I also bought some M3 nylon standoffs from maplins.


I could of used the 3/32's threaded brass standoff's but they were 10x's the price and totally unnecessary as the board is being mounted on plex anyway.

Someone said to me earlier that they thought my little black cat was lucky, iv had quite a shi*y past few years and things are finally going really well, so although im one of the most un-superstitious people i know id say he might have a point!

Update soon, gonna get working on the I/O panel and fit the mobo standoffs. Cheers for reading, comments/questions always appreciated

j5

 

Awesome! PSU looks great. Makes me wish I hadn't sold my Dell.

 

very sexy gear. Well done my buddy. Keep it going

 

I'm sure your delivery guy hated you pretty well after having to cart that to your door.

 

Thanks a lot mate, If you need one they like to live in skips!

Cheers mate

Haha yea he didnt look to pleased after lugging that box up the pathway!

j5

 

I've seen a lot of PSU get modded,, & the work you've done on yours has to be right up there with the best.

 

that is funny and true. i have found a total of 6 compaqs in the trash. always the older little case with the rounded top... wish i had a pic

 

Thanks man, thats a really nice thing to say, hopefully the same will happen to the rest of the case.

Hahaha yea i know the ones, if im thinking of the same one (below). The little beast has some potential though, a massive fan at the front taking up the whole facia would be awesome!

 

indeed that is the one. i have six of his kind hostage. i call them Storm Trooper cases

 

Ewch... that has to be the ugliest looking Pc case ever. Compaq stinks.

 

Update 6​

Hey Guys, time for an update! Its been ages, and i have a lot to tell you about so sit back and relax coz this update is gonna be pretty BIG

After a lot of attempts to talk to the right department at AMD i finally managed to speak to a lady called Julia, she said she couldn't help BUT she would put me in touch with her Tech Specialist Ron who might be able to sort something out for the project. Anyway i spoke with Ron for a while beating around the bush about what i actually wanted (i didn't want to take the piss and start demanding stuff you know?). Eventually i told him if he could send the the best he could spare id be very grateful. He took my address and telephone number for the courier and said he would have a look around to see what he could find for me but he couldn't promise anything...two days later...




BOOOOM!!! an ASUS M32-MVP Deluxe!! I nearly wet myself when i opened the box and saw all that copper!! Totally wasnt expecting it!

Ohhh.. wait a tick.. whats that little silver thing laying on top there?


BOOOOOOM!!!! An AMD 9950 QUAD CORE!!! 2.6Ghz!!!

After i had changed my underwear and recovered from the shock that the project just went up about 15 levels i sent Ron a very big thank you email, he just shrugged it off saying it would just go out of date if he kept it! But man, it means a lot. Thanks Ron you made my year.

Now with a spring in my step and renewed enthusiasm i got to work, for some reason i was really paranoid about the Power Supply, iv had mother boards go bang before because of improper wiring, ATX Connectors populated backwards ect, i wasnt go to be taking any risks with all this lovely new stuff.

I looked on quite a few websites to get the pinouts of an ATX connector, once i had four seperate sources i compared them to check they were all the same, they were! (joy) so i wrote them all down in a rough chart and wrote down what voltages i should get from each pin.


Then set about about testing it with a multimeter.


Some of the voltages seemed quite low, 3.3v was sitting at 2.8v, 5v was sitting at around 4.5v and 12v was 11.7v, i looked up the tolerances on the web for ATX power supplies, hmmm +/-5% on the above so it shouldnt be that low, then i read a little thing saying NEVER TEST A PSU WITHOUT A LOAD.

I added 3 fans to the loop and all the voltages pulled up to pretty much dead on! :banana: According to a mate the PSU was switching into "Soft On" (eww) mode as it didnt detect a load, i dont know how accurate this is as he often talks rubbish but having a load on it seemed to sort things out.

Im now fairly happy with the PSU, im not sure if it will be able to handle everything, but it has overload protection so if it dosnt work ill just have to mod another one, a lot of work but if needs be ill do it.

Onto the frame, i bought some more angle ally from B&Q, this time 15mm x 10mm for the top and bottom of the rear of the case, drilled 9 holes, tapped them and added some m4 countersunk socket head screws to secure the back panel.




I really wasn't happy about having screws tapped into ally, its too soft and prone to getting stripped if the screws over tighten, i took it to work and used a Riv nut tool to put m4 riv nuts in the frame.


There really clever, there just like a rivet, except they have a thread inside them, trouble is you need a special tool to insert them that costs quite a bit of cash.

Ignore the dirty looking tape, its very very shiny and clean underneath The back panel is now very secure and solid, the whole case strengh was exponentially improved just by adding the back panel. Time to add the PSU mounting holes and the PSU exhaust hole to the back panel.

I offered it up to the frame, the case is a LOT smaller than i thought before. im used to working on a TT Shark which is a full tower but we should have just enough room.



Had a hard time marking the holes as the darkness of the plex didnt really let me see them. Anyway i marked them, drilled them, then remasked around them and drilled 4 corner holes of the exhaust hole

Then dremeled it out up to the holes


Some Filing (yes those are my legs covered in swarf, there was a lot)

More filing and a quick tidy up, need to polish the whole panel still.

Next was the I/O panel. Didnt know which to do first, the motherboard standoffs or the I/O panel, decided to go with the I/O panel and then use adjustable mobo standoffs to take up the slack.

Marked it up.

Cut a hole.

Made it bigger.

Used an old I/O panel to check the fit.


Fits good!

Fitted the ASUS one, its niiiice




Polished it up.

I managed to get a really nice finish on the edges, thats the dimples on the edges of the I/O frame you can see through the edge of the plex.


Next i fitted the standoffs for the motherboard, getting all the holes lined up perfectly was a lot harder than it sounds, i used some 8mm standoffs and adjusted there height with washers so it lined up nicely with the I/O frame.

See what i mean about the size of this case? Its tiny, there was literally 2mm between the bottom of the board and the bottom of the case.


Still, at least it all fits. Phew.

I added the same to the front, blue plex, rivnuts ect, same as the back except less holes (will be soon though ) so i wont bore you with that, just a few snaps.



More in a sec..

 

Iv been talking to a guy called John Hung after emailing Giga-Byte asking for some hardware sponsorship a few weeks ago, its typical, the day Ron sends me the Asus board John mails me to say i can have a sample of a GA-MA78GPM-DS2H Crossfire Hybrid board, i didnt know what to do, if i accepted the board from John and Ron saw the log he would think im a lying little ****, if i took the Giga-byte board but used the ASUS, Giga-Byte would be pissed. Man i had to email John and explain the situation, i knew Giga-byte do versions of graphics cards with there branding which got good reviews so i dropped a small hint to John about the possibility of getting one instead of the motherboard. I thought id blew it but he replied a few hours later that day saying i could have a NX86T256D!

Couldn't believe my luck, whats more is that the main office for Giga-byte where John works was 10 minutes from my house in MK! So i drove of to meet John at his office, he was a really nice guy, he was asking all sorts of questions about the project, was great to meet him.
Got home with this baby.



Ok so my ATi blocks wont fit, but its a silent pipe! Just need to make sure my Airflow is up to scratch then in a few months when i upgrade ill add the blocks to my new card.

The card looks really nice, the heatsink is kickass!


I put in an order with a UK based water cooling company, im not going to Hotlink them because they totally screwed up the order, it took over a week to arrive first class and it was damaged when it got here due to just being slung in a jiffy bag. After another week and a half my new cooling gear turned up. I used XSPC gear because my budget is low and they got good reviews, if it turns out to be crap ill get better stuff later on, i got a 120mm rad and some 3/8 ID - 1/2OD tubing.



And this nice little compact pump/res.


Hmm the pump has no feasible way of being secured into place, have to mod something

I got the lovely blocks from QuietPC.com, i was a bit worried about the Barbs fitting the tubing but they fit perfectly. I got some distilled water from work and decided to do a little test run, ill add dye later, this is my first ever water cooling setup!


hahaah i got water EVERYWHERE! But that little pump is really good, its so quiet i had to put my ear up to it to check it was on! But it didnt leak :banana: after about 5 minutes i ran my finger across the CPU block, it was ICE cold! Id definatly recommend those Zalman blocks from Quietpc, there made for a reserator but work perfectly with 3/8 tubing. I left it overnight, still no leaks so all good.

Now i can test my hardware!


The Zalman block mmm



Hahah look at that setup, it looks like a mad scientists lab! I fired it up and got POST :banana::banana::banana:

Still cant believe im rolling a 4x2.6Ghz Phenom cpu

Got BIOS!


AHHH BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH FLASHED UP!!!
Then it rebooted :think:

Checked on the net, hmm maybe flash the BIOS, nope still BSOD, changed the RAM, still BSOD, i was convinced the PSU wasnt generating enough juice until i realized...windows :down: Had to go buy a crappy old drive and load on XP to check and it worked perfectly! YAY!

Thats it for update 6 guys, hope you enjoyed reading, comments appreciated.

j5

 

What's the difference between that board and the M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe? other than not being on the ASUS site. Does it sport superior overclocking potential most of all.

Nice project...and CPU, I'm stuck back here in the dark ages with the 9850.

 

Just had a quick look, the M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe has a nVidia chipset (SLI) and 3xPCE-E x 16 slots, it also has Hybrid SLI meaning it has onboard graphics, when you combine the onboard GPU with another card(s) you can use Hybrid SLI, the M32-MVP is Crossfire with 4xPCI-E x 16 slots. Im not sure about how well they overclock as i have no experience with either boards so far (exept the small play i had with mine earlier)

Hope this helps, glad you enjoyed reading

j5

 

I actually have one of those sitting in my workshop. I got it with a pile of other old cases from a friend of my wife's. I took one look at it and said, "Yep, that needs to be modded."


...Of course, it's now looking like the last one of that bunch I will get to...

 

I say go for it man, id love to see one of those modded, that there is a piece of history! Time to bring it up to date! Mod on!