Scratch Build – In Progress Project Arctic, [The making of my first scratch-build] World record?! DONE!

Introduction, Concept and Goals of the project.

Hello! I am Lucas, a 17 year old guy from Sweden. Some of you might have seen my latest finished project Slenderbox (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=3608127&postcount=37)

You can read more at my website (http://www.auxiliumdesign.com/)

This time, I step up my game, and will make a scratchbuild!
But what is so special with this one? Well, probably that it will be the smallest of it's kind.
Housing two watercooled full length GPUs, and a watercooled CPU on a mATX motherboard.
In less than 19 Liter!

The concept

I have done a couple of projects, one mid-sized and one really big (Read SMH10). So I decided that before I take a break from modding, it would be nice with something small, but still powerful.
I want something quiet, and portable to take with me to different places. As my parents are divorced I move everything in my room between the houses 6 times per year, something small would be better.

TL;DR Small, Quiet, Powerful, Portable

This was my first prototype, altough it is pretty big, 23 Liters, and ATX PSU.....


I just had to go smaller, this is the final design, 19 liter only!



Designing the case
This is more in depth behind the scenes, for those who are interested!

As my experience with Creo (former Pro.Engineer, CAD program) and knowledge about materials grew, I decided I wanted to design and make my own 100% aluminum case.
First I wanted it to be below 20 Liters, but when I fell in love with XSPCs white radiators, I had to make it 22 Liters.

I started of with some basic forms and tried to find out solutions to make it possible to bend and cut out the case.

Steps of modeling the front of the case


I wanted double 240 rads (40mm) to be able to cool SLI+CPU. On the front, only the vandal-switch and the fangrill will be visible. On the base there is space for double SSDs


The rear side of the case will have 4 PCI-e slots, a nice PSU cutout and holes for PSU air.




For those who wonder how something looks before it is bent, this is how it looks. It is about 1 meter long



Contributers:



Specifications
Weight: >2kg
Volume (ID): 18,3 Liter
SLI/CF
2x240 Radiators
Full length GPUs (270mm)


Hardware
As you can see im still in the planning state, all green are bought, all yellow are decided, all red are unknown yet.

Case: Arctic, Special edition!
Motherboard: MSI Gaming G5 m-atx
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K
GPU: 970 SLI Gigabyte Gaming G1
PSU: Silverstone 600W SFX
Harddrives: Two HyperX 240GB SSDs
Fans: White E-loops
Memory: HyperX Fury white 1866MHz 4x4

Watercooling

Radiators: XSPC AX240 Dual Fan Radiator - White
Pump: Laing DDC-1T Plus
Reservoir: Watercool DDC-Tank LT
Coolant: Mayhems Pastel blue

Timelplan

Case designed 04/10-14
Watercooling ordered 07/10-14
Hardware Partily ordered 08/10-14
Case produced - 22/10-14

Case powdercoated 06/11-14
All hardware ready 07/11-14
Mounting 14/11-14
Final touches 17/11-14
Studio rigged, photo and video 18/11-14
Showcase at Dreamhack!

 

Scratch Build Project Arctic, [The making of my first scratch-build] World record?

Here is the pump! But what is that, I think it is a sticker
 

 
Fixed it, and mounted the Reservoir, it got some machine marks, but it looks like frost to me 
 

 
Did a fast mockup to see if I am pleased with the dimensions e.t.c (This is with ATX PSU tho)
 

 
 
Also the feet for my case came by mail today! 100% aluminium of course!
 



________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, do you remember me telling you that Arctic is not only the computer but my whole interior? 
Well, let's do some transformation!

This is what I had, it looks alright, but does not match the power of Arctic 
 


Let's put on a better monitorstand, let's give the monitorstand some wings!
This is what you get!
 



That was everything for today! Oh, almost forgot, the cliffhanger!


 
Who can figure out what this means? You'll get a cookie

 

with what do you model?

 

AutoCAD? New mod inc?

 

I model in Creo (Former ProEngineer), for the renderings, I use Google Sketchup

Creo But I can model in autocad too tho

 

Cutting templates for the alu to be cut & bent to?

 

Thanks right! Ready for some lazer and bending

 

After cutting this out,



(The plastic seems to have screamed for help during the laserpenatration



in this awesome lasercanon



My father and I inspected the drawings to make sure the bending was done properly.



We though this bad boy would make a great job.



First bends are coming out nicely



At this time I was shivering because I just wished everything would fit right, as this is the first time I design my own case, and the first time I have made everything myself :eh:

But wait, what might this be?



You might be able to guess with this picture




Any guesses?

 

Compact power system, nice.

 

Pretty sweet. You should do a few extra. I'm sure someone will want them.

 

This is something extra for my "Project Arctic room"
I also designed a headsetstand as you might have seen on my homepage



I assembled the case fast when I got home, with all hardware I got at the moment, not so much to look at right now, but it will be



With insperation from the Compact Splash case (which I got a lot of insperation from)
This technique for SSD mounting is to be able to change the drives without draining the loop and take away the GPU.



Finally a picture with the Project name on the rear side




Everything for me for this time, what do you think?
As this is Family-Only at the moment, you are my only input for criticism :rofl:

 

The watercooling

This time I will try to post some more pictures, as some people tells me I post pretty few haha

Some of you figured out what todays update will be about!



I need two tho



But what is a radiator without any fittings to pair them together with?
This time I kept using some trusty Bitspower but tried Monsoon which I am new to



Really nice tools came with it, one to tighten the inner.



and the other one to tighten around the tube!



I really love the match with the radiator and fittings!




Next update will be sometimes next week, by then I will mount the hardware, such as watercooling and probably motherboard and more! anic:

 

looks good lucas

 

Looking good.

 

Go on Lucas, show us more!

 

Indeed, thanks!

Thanks Cheapskate!

THanks!

More you say? More it is!

 

Putting it all together

After getting the motherboard I just had to put it all together, first I had to sleep tho, and I promise you it was hard....

But something is missing?!!



Don't worry guys, I took it off to be able to demount the "claws". You will see what will be done with this later!



Warranty.... What a joke :rofl:



Meanwhile I took apart the PSU, for the same reason as for the North bridge.



There was a design-flaw which I found out. The PCI-e cutouts is about 3-4mm to high, therefore the GPU wont be able to fit in the motherboard.



The motherboard is also 1 mm off, therefore the I/O plate wont be able to be there in this version. Will be fixed for 2.0!

The front with the vandal switch!



This is the side you wont look at much hopefully haha



How to corners look more close up!



This is probably the picture you have all been waiting for. Everything is mounted! (Except watercooling and one fan)

 

Damn, the order of installation will be key in this little thing! Nice work!

 

wow, looks impressive! Love the white and blue colour scheme!

 

looks really cool!
love the colorscheme

*edit*
subbed!