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Project AluCase: Update 27/8/06: Its Alive!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by BjD, 18 Feb 2006.

  1. JAxen

    JAxen What's a Dremel?

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    [​IMG]

    Love the shroud! Amazing :thumb:
    "You can do it!"
     
  2. BjD

    BjD What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks JAxen :thumb:

    Good news is Im now typing this from the system installed in the case. It wasn't all plain sailing when I transferred the hardware last night and theres still a few things left to do, so the log isn't quite done yet. CPU temp is hovering around 35C with the fans off as Im typing this, I was compiling some updates earlier and it got up to 45C at 100% CPU with the fans on low.

    I will be adding some pictures of last nights adventures later on this evening, watch this space...
     
  3. BjD

    BjD What's a Dremel?

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    The big move of hardware from the old case to the new started on Saturday afternoon. First the dead NF7 was removed from AluCase leaving the bare motherboard tray.

    [​IMG]

    The wires flapping around to the right are for the temperature sensors. The CPU block mounting hardware was moved to the working NF7 and this was installed into the tray. The CPU temperature sensor was then taped into place where it is just touching the core.

    [​IMG]
    Temp sensor and the Mobile Barton

    Before screwing the block down I used some Brasso to clean the layer of oxidisation of the face of the block; needed as its been sitting around waiting for this since October. This was mounted then attention moved to the graphics cooler.

    [​IMG]
    Shiny water block

    The original cooling fan and sink was removed from the 6800. To fit the NV68 cooler I had to take off the cool looking support strip from the side of the card.

    [​IMG]

    The cooler was fitted and the card installed to the motheboard. The graphics temperature sensor was postioned near the GPU core and the wiring for this and the CPU sensor was soldered to the header.

    [​IMG]
    Motherboard tray ready for installation to the case.

    The tray was installed and all the water tubing and wiring hooked up. I then mixed up some Zerex into deionised water to fill the system. First problem was I didn't have enough Zerex; I aimed for a 5% mix but only had enough for 2%. For the time being it'll be ok (I hope). I then filled the system and turned the pump on to prime all the tubing. The next problem was a leak from the CPU block outlet. I didn't spot this quickly enough and a few drops made it all the way across the graphics card, down to the TV tuner then ended up in the PSU.

    Oh crap I thought.

    Tightening the hose clamp fixed the leak and a towel cleaned most of the water off the cards. I was worried some may have worked its way under the neopropene mounting on the NV68 so thought it best to take it off and have a look. This is where I got REALLY lucky; there was a short length of wire stuck between the neopropene and the card. Looks like it got picked up off my desk when I installed the cooler, lucky it did leak otherwise I'd have never have found it (until the card started smoking...)

    The PSU was a concern as I had no idea how much water had ended up down there. To be on the safe side I voided the warranty (I laugh in the face of warranties...) and cracked it open.

    [​IMG]
    Wet PSU

    The couple of drops that got down there landed on a heatsink, so I dried them off and left the PSU to dry out overnight. In the meantime the leak test continued with no other serious leaks occuring.

    The next morning the PSU was dry and it powered up fine when testing it using the green-wire trick. I installed it back in the case, crossed my fingers and switched on the system. It powered up successfully and everything seems ok as I'm using it to type this. CPU temp is hovering around 35C with the fans off, I was compiling some updates earlier and it got up to 45C at 100% CPU with the fans on low. Not exactly a stress test but promising.

    With the system operational I got started on a couple of smaller jobs. To finish off the radiator I cut and fitted some aluminium mesh over the fins to cover up the rust and the large dent...

    [​IMG]
    Much tidier

    [​IMG]
    The mesh used, choice of the professional...

    I then finished off the side panelling. I hadn't touched it since it was cut up and drilled, so today I cleaned up the surface with some sandpaper, before finishing off with some Brasso. This got rid of most of the scratches and fingermarks that had appeared. I then cut out some air vents in the two top panels to give some airflow to the top case fan. These were then covered with some more aluminium mesh; I've found in the past it does a good job of filtering dust out.

    To finish off heres some shots of the case as it stands

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    After using the sytem there are a few more teething problems that will need to be addressed. First off the USB CF reader doesn't work, seems to be a lack of power. The LED in the reset switch is noticeable weaker than the power switch, the wiring looks good so it may be the switch itself. The fan controller wiring is back to front so the left switch and right knob control one fan; a simple fix though, just swap the wires over. At some point the graphics temp sensor has fallen out and is now measuring the air temperature near the PCI slots. I also forgot to fit the data cable for the LCD, thats just a 5 minute job with some cable ties, once I find the cable...

    One nice thing is its much quieter than I thought it would be, I'm not sure I need to soundproof the hard drive as its not much louder than the PSU fan.
     
  4. LuitvD

    LuitvD What's a Dremel?

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    yes, YES!! very, VERY nice!!

    What kind of harddrive do you have? IMHO the Samsung (SpinPoint) harddrive is one of the better harddrives for a silent system... Those harddrives only produce about 26dB against 35dB coming out of most Maxtor (DiamondMax) drives
     
  5. BjD

    BjD What's a Dremel?

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    Ahh, just realised with the change in sig the specs aren't there anymore. Here's what hardware I popped in there.

    • Abit NF7
    • AMD Mobile Barton, 1.8GHz
    • XFX 6800 AGP
    • 1Gig of TwinMOS 3200
    • Hauppauge TV tuner
    • WD Raptor 74G

    The CPU is at the same clock settings as in the old case, on air, I'll be bumping the speeds up some.
    I've heard good things about the Spinpoints but silence wasn't the main aim when building this rig. When I bought it the Rpator was the best around :)
     
  6. LuitvD

    LuitvD What's a Dremel?

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    ah, yes, didn't see you had a Raptor in there

    that explains the noise :duh:
     
  7. JAxen

    JAxen What's a Dremel?

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    :clap: :clap:
    You did it!! :D
     
  8. ssR

    ssR Carbon God

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    man that looks friggin awesome. i love the looks of bare aluminium.
     
  9. BjD

    BjD What's a Dremel?

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    Ahoy folks. Its been a while since I last posted in this thread :) Methinks an update would be nice to round things off.

    The teething problems mentioned have mostly been solved. The CF reader was plugged in incorrectly, that now works fine, even under Linux. The LED in the reset switch has now died completely, its the switch unit itself which is broken. Rapid don't stock that model anymore so replacing it would be tricky, Im just going to live with it for now. I haven't got around to swapping the fan controls around the right way either. However, I'm thinking of re-arranging the front panel at some point so I can sort that out then.

    I did sort out the LCD however:

    [​IMG]

    The main thing has been the pump. It started making some very bad noises and soon after tripped the mains out. I then spent a few days wondering if any other hardware had been taken down with it whilst I sorted out a new pump.

    This little episode put me off AC pumps so didn't just drop in a replacement 1048. The alternative was a 12V pump which wouldn't mount in the res, so that had to go. The res had been leaking a little around the seal (which I hadn't noticed til removing it) and considering the packaging issues it causes it was no great loss to dump it.

    I bought a Laing D4 and an Alphacool shuttle reservoir. The res has had a barb screwed in the fill port giving me three connections into it; my thinking was this would work better than a T-line when filling up. The pump and res have been duct taped in place where the old res lived.

    [​IMG]

    A proper mounting for this will be sorted out :)
    The barb on the top of the res is from the DD fillport; theres another barb on the back which is the retun from the system.

    The tubing from the T-line on the left runs into some 10mm tubing which is then plugged, this should make a handy drain point. Or at least I hope it will when I come to do so.

    As I have more room to manoeuvre the tubing I could switch the layout back to my original plan
    ie
    PUMP > RAD > CPU > GPU > HDD > RES

    [​IMG]

    This has been working quite well so far. The Laing is certainly more powerful and some of the clips required a little tightening to cure some leaks which sprang up. The high flow rate has also reduced the system efficiency slightly, as Im seeing higher CPU temps than before.

    To combat this, and reduce noise, I fitted some power diodes in the feed to the pump to drop the voltage. I also wired in a moving-coil voltmeter to show exactly how much voltage the pump is getting.

    [​IMG]

    As you can see its currently reading 11V, not the 8.5V it should. I've tried the Tagan in both split and combined rail modes but the pump voltage stays at a similar level. The back of the meter was wrapped with tape to prevent shorts and its just sat on the case side. It will be mounted to the case side panel properly once the pump mountings are sorted.

    Finally the hard drives have been wrapped up.

    [​IMG]

    This is packing foam that came with some hardware I ordered. The duct tape doesn't stick to it very well though. It hasn't made a huge difference to noise level but has taken the edge off.
     
  10. koola

    koola Minimodder

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    Wow, awesome work! :thumb:

    Can't wit to see this finished now.
     
  11. JAxen

    JAxen What's a Dremel?

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    Wondersome!


    (authorized to make up my own words)
    :worried:
     

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