Project C.M.O.S. (Cooler Master Optimized System)

New year update:

Well I finally having a working set-up for this project now - it's alive! Went back to the Asus board and used an Adaptec SATA controller card. Everything seems to be working just fine now.

Here's a couple of shots to show how she looks with the new blue CCFL's powered up. Nothing original but looks pretty good I think:





Now I gotta get cracking and wire up that aerogate controller. Need to do some cable management at the same time too, it's a right mess in there at the moment. I have a nifty idea for that, all will be revealed soon. The thermal probe for the CPU is in place anyway.

 

Ooh shiny!

Just a couple of piccies to show you my newly attached ramsinks. Got these from eBuyer dirt cheap. Not sure how well they'll actually work yet but they look damn shiny - coppery coloured goodness.

 

Nice case, mods and everything...
ps. I have those same Ram heatspeaders

 

Looking good mate. I wish I could get a windowed side panel for my 210. I don't feel confident about cutting one myself.

 

Hrm, I'm still trying to muster the courage to take the dremel to this thing again. I have a bit of an airflow problem in that I can't have front intake fans. To get round this I reckon I am gonna cut two 80mm holes in the R/H side panel, near the front. If I install two fans there, it should give me some sort of front-to-back airflow.

Not too worried about actually cutting the holes - just scared I might accidentally scratch another part of the panel. Gonna have to stick some thick card to it with masking tape wherever I'm not cutting I reckon.

P.S. - Coolermaster side panels here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Coolermaster_Accessories_127.html
Doesn't look like they have a 210 one though.

 

just flip the panel over so you are cutting from the back side.... that way if you scratch it who cares it will be on the inside of the computer and no one will be able to tell..

 

Apparently the 210 side panels are the same as the Wavemaster's. There will be a new line of panels released shortly so I have my fingers crossed

 

Dammit that's a bloody good idea! Thanks mate - I'd rather not scratch it at all but at least if I do what you suggest and I do slip up, it won't be the end of the world.

Thanks again mate, I'm do feel stoopid for not thinkin' of that myself!

 

Cable management - part 1:

Time to tidy up that tangle of cables then: I decided to wire the aerogate up at the same time so had to prepare for that first.

I started by taping the thermal sensor for the HDD into the cooldrive3, I also tidied up the other wiring for this unit a bit at the same time:





The thermal sensor for the video card was just slipped in under the cards heatsink. It seems happy enough to stay there by itself which is good.

Due to an unhealthy obsession with ridiculously noisy fans, the original plan to make this system as quiet as possible seems to have gone out of the window. Enter one 92mm Vantec Tornado:



I had to rewire this baby as I want to connect it to the aerogate; it is gonna be the CPU fan. Vantec, in their wisdom, had already seperated the speed sensor cable from the power to enable this fan to be connected directly to a PSU. Smart thinking but no good for me. I chopped off the connectors and spiced on a 3-pin extension cable. I had to stick it in my fan heater to shrink the heat-shrink! Not very professional but when you don't have the right tools you have to improvise.

Onto the actual cable management. I had an idea for this and promptly took a trip down to B&Q to pick up a length of U-shaped aluminium box-section. This will form my cable conduit.



Results coming soon . . .

 

Cable management - part 2:

This is how things are looking after this afternoons work. The cable conduit is in place and all the wiring that runs across the motherboard is mostly concealed now. I'm pretty pleased with how things are looking so far . . .





I may try and think of an alternative to blue cable-ties for securing all the wiring into the conduit at some time - for now, it works and it looks ok.

Things certainly look a whole lot neater when the cathodes are on.





Quite pleased with the CPU temp that's being reported by the aerogate controller - it's showing 37.5 degrees C at the moment, only half a degree more than what motherboard monitor is reporting. The only problem so far is that I seem to have lost the blue colour option for the control knob, it was there when I first switched it on, now it's gone. It cycles through every other colour ok though - just typical that I should lose the blue! Grr.

BFN:

 

It's looking very cool so far. That cable management is a nice idea.

 

what he said

 

very nice.

Those RAM 'coolers' - are they the same as these ? I like the look fo them and am considering getting some for my system.

 

Yeah, they are the same I would think; except for the colour of course - I got mine from Ebuyer anyway.

Edit: see Lord's link below - he found the ones I have

 

No I think they're these . I just got the black ones for my shuttle though and they look pretty sweet.

 

Ah right. thx i think i'llk stick with the ones i flagged up though, theyre the only black ones i can find (unless you also mean them) and i really want black ones to go with my setup.

Thanks

 

Yeah those black ones are the ones I have, I don't have a clue whether they affect performance but they look very cool indeed. Plus ebuyer have reduced their delivery rates for this weekend.

 

Couple more window shots for ya - I've yet to tidy up the wiring around the top of the case, near the drives - wating for my DVD/RW drive to turn up before I tackle that area.

 

djrusty are you gonna braid the PSU wires too? I reckon it would be the finishing touch

 

Yeah, but for some reason 2 sets of RAM heatsinks and a box of dvd cases weigh over 10 kilo's obviously its below £30 so deleivery skyrockets to nearly £7 P&P so its not covered on that offer and so for kit costing less than £15 it will cost over £20