Project: FrozenFire (MORE!! Watercooling changes Sep 8 05)

Very nice mate. I like your attention to detail.

Stu

 

Didn't think of CFing the hard drive racks... good idea. It would go with the painted rails better too.
Like I said I've been planning this out for over a year and slowly accumulating parts.... it's just when I see my SNT order history for about $500 (and another $120 ish to scopEDog for the rads and one of the blocks) and think I could have spent a tenth of that and gotten some very nice and quiet air cooled stuff it scares me.
As for polishing... the GPU block is near-mirror as it is, the camera didn't come close to capturing it. I have it some high-grit sandpaper and then just to see what happens went at it with the dremel polishing stuff. I'm giving the other two (and possibly the other GPU block when it gets here) a 600->2000->dremel treatment, it's great after just 2000.

I'm pretty sure that I'll use clear, smoked and yellow acrylic in the mod. I'm considering a smallish window (probably about the size and shape of the AT bracket) over the audigy as well, which would probably be yellow. The sides, or at least the mobo compartment side window, would almost certainly be clear. The lower window(s) would probably be smoked or possibly clear, not sure about that. I'll be using some smoked inside the case to hide a lot of wiring - something that'll run around the edge of the mobo (but leaving most of the mobo exposed, just covering an inch or so in so it goes over the cabling) allowing me to run the wires through most likely a cut in the mobo tray for them.
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=search&item=RCSC-20&type=store
For anyone wondering how I plan to deal with the various connectors on the case being too short, I'm going to use something like the above connector with a bit of ribbon cable. Not only will it lengthen the needed connections, I get the added bonus of a quick-disconnect from the mobo without having to go thru the fuss of plugging in four tiny headers into a cramped area again afterwards. The same will happen for the USB and 1394 headers, except a 10-pin plug of course. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to "make a male end" on it... I'm thinking I'll need to play around with some double-height pins just stuck in there.

Heh, well it'll be a while till I get the cards, I need car too!


Anyone have any suggestions as to how to route that Audigy breakout box cable (big ugly grey one)? I'm at a bit of a loss to it right now. My original idea of somehow routing it into the HDD area and then cutting a small slit in the divider plate may not work out... I'm not sure if the cable will be long enough. The real problem isn't so much that as that it seems as if I can't use the top (typically bottom) PCI slot due to some sort of odd IRQ conflict with it (really odd pops and clicks, although still present in the middle slot, FAR fewer it seems, although it may just be remedied by a reformat), and as you can guess having it that way makes it harder to route along the top of the case or whatever. I may go ahead and do some rounding surgery on it

 

Polishing update

I took Modsquad's advice and gave the waterblocks a quick polishing. The results are great!

http://www.1sweetpc.com/firehed/v2000/feb21/index.html
Or just the four below:


The blocks after a bit of work


Northbridge goodness


Is that a mirror or a CPU block?


The GPU, which had didn't get any treatment today, just some work beforehand.

This was quick work since the bases were already quite flat - just a bit of 600 grit, followed right by 2000 (yes, normally I'd have gone to 1000, 1500 and then 2000 but it wasn't really necessary and I didn't have the paper anyways), then the bases were attacked by some dremel polishing compound. All the excess is wiped off so there shouldn't be an issue with heat transfer.

And although I could easily see the camera in the reflection, the flash from it just wouldn't allow me to take that picture. If you care though, it's a Canon Powershot A75 (3.2MP). I never print pics so I don't need even that high of a MP rating, when they're being posted online it's almost all just knowing how to take the picture. You could have a 4GP camera and still have your pictures look like crap if you don't know how to take them. The 1Gig CF card that I picked up is nice though... I've got about 700 pics on it with room for over 1000 more at my quality setting. Nice improvement over the stock 32MB card

 

are you going to use 3/8 or 1/4 tubing? I found that my csp-750 mark II growled when using 1/4 tubing. Cant wait for C-Systems Mag pump.

Cool case/mod!
*subscribed*

 

Now those Aqua-Computer blocks look wonderful
EVRE:
Those fittings are AC's plug/cool. They are 8/6mm. By the way (from what I understand) the ones pictured with the ribbed stainless body are made by Aqua-Computer. AC will be switching over to these instead of using the Legris models. Aqua-Computer only has G1/8"-straight models at this point.

 

hi firehed....

i love the way youve shortened the IDE cable... how do you do that? as id like to do the same thing as it would reduce a bit of clutter in the case

loving the looks so far... i personally vote for a window only on the top part of the case... as it means you dont see the "ugly" underneath (not that its ugly)

just my 2c worth

take care bud... good looking mod

 

Yep, 6mm ID ~ 1/4"
I didn't notice any extra noise from the CSPs using a 1/4" barb, and I doubt I'll notice anything else using the G1/4 P&C fittings. They have approx the same ID as a 3/8" fitting does at the narrowest point so it should be even better. That said I never tried them with 3/8 or 1/2 ID tubing so I don't have any comparison, but they're very quiet relative to a Laing D4.

To shorten the IDE cable, I simply pulled off the topmost connector (which wasn't easy), stuck it in the drive while it was in place, and pushed in a few of the 40 wires into the connector's pin things. Once I got it aligned well enough I kinda ran down the back of it with a screwdriver which worked a lot better and painlessly than my fingernail which I had been using.

I'm probably going to end up redoing it though, I like having a space between the drives - if they're both open it's harder to get discs in/out of the bottom drive.

Hopefully I can get most of the parts I need ordered this week/end. It sucks that I couldn't get more done this week as it was my Feb. break from school solely because of what I needed and didn't have. The rest (I think) of my watercooling stuff is on order and I'm placing together a list of stuff I need from everywhere else. Of course it's like another almost $300 worth [hoping for a sponsor....I've got a small chance anyways]

I've mostly been planning out the lighting and cabling... getting some ideas. It's hard to do with out the actual parts!

I'm waiting till the VERY end of the mod to do the window, just so I can plan it out better. I want it to be more or less perfect, and I can do another new photoshop window test thing to get a better idea of what I will/want to see. It's fairly dependant on what I can do with the cable management and whatnot, and how the pumps look, etc.

 

Did a bit of sleeving today. Not the entire PSU as there's still some parts I need but at least a bit of it. I also fitted on the blue Zalman passive chipset cooler for the moment - the fan on the mobo already started dying. I knew it would fairly quickly, but I was hoping I could get the watercooling setup before it did. Oh well, it seems to work, but it gets mighty hot!

I decided to go for modular action on this thing. I'll probably need all three of the leads but it still looks cooler, and on the offchance I don't need the extra cabling I'm set.


Naked nForce4 SLI chipset!


Just to show clearance for the waterblock - this was how I fried my first mobo. The mounting bracket (the thin metal bit) was sitting ON that capacitor so the block wasn't making full contact. Warning to all of you, don't do that! I'm using an ATI mounting screen on the Twinplex block and will just rotate it so it doesn't interfere. You can also cut a bit off of the NF4 screen and it'll be OK but it's thin enough that that would leave me a bit uncomfortable.


The Zalman thing mounted for now


The PSU open complete with ugly top fan (but it won't ever be seen so it'll stay)



A couple ideas I had for internalizing the modular bits, I decided over doing it though - not enough clearance really.


Wiring nightmare! Not one of those is labelled. That's the EATX, 4-pin +12v and 8-pin +12v wiring in there... The 8pin +12v will be converted to dual PCIE power plugs with a bit of help from the AUX line as well.


Oh, so that's how it goes back together!


More wiring


I did the 24pin EATX plug divided into three lines. They're smaller and a bit easier to manuver and you can get the heatshrink closer to the plug that way. I almost split it into four but decided not to for no good reason.


Starting to come together a bit.


Basically the same as the last pic but on my desk. The 4pin 12v line might have gotten done in there too, don't remember. You can see the chipset fan I removed as well.


Another EATX shot


The wires that will go to the dual PCIE power lines. I just stuck them like that for now until I get the plugs themselves.


Some sleeved 4pin action. Hopefully it won't be seen AT ALL when it's done.


The PSU back in, in it's temporary state.


Wiring going to the drives. That's not final at all, I'll be using right-angle plugs, I just had that line free from my P4's modular PSU.


EATX plug on the mobo


Wiring to the hard drives


It's looking a little bit better in there, but still needs work.


The fan only and soon-to-be PCIE power lines just stuck out of sight and out of mind for now.


It still works!

I forgot to get a pic of some other PSU mod stuff - not a real closeup of the modular bits. I also removed the gold grill on the bottom fan entirely and chanced the gold one on the back to chrome. It'll be the only chrome thing in the case probably but the gold didn't fit at all. I mangaed to get the thing open without even breaking the warrantee sticker, but as I've cut wires (g'bye AUX!) that doesn't do me much good.

Hopefully I can get more parts ordered this weekend... the rest of the PSU stuff especially. As I don't have my bulkheads, LEDs or acrylic in yet I can't do too much more physical modding, really just planning things out more. I was orignally going to have at least forty LEDs in the case with a pair of cathodes, but figured that's more than overboard. It'll probably be just ten LEDs and either a pair of cathodes or maybe just a single.

 

Love the mod especially the sleeving. Looks really good

 

Is that a fUnc 1030 sUrfce I see tucked in under there? Thank God someone has the right taste in mousepads!

 

Nice work! Looking very Good!
I wish I had as much room for wiring in my v1000.

 

Yeah I've got a few more ideas for how to deal with wiring as well. I've got a pic of the mess up one one monitor and a printoff of if that I'm just sketching out ideas on. As you can guess it's a lot harder to plan it out when I need all the wiring in there during the planning stages so I can use the computer. I bought an XP-120 off of someone here pretty cheap so I can slap that on my P4 for a while and use that so I can keep a system running.

I plan to use quite a bit of smoked acrylic in this just to hide all the wiring. If I can't remove it might as well hide it. And except for that power harness sitting around in there, none of it can go really. I even get to add in more for the video cards once I get those. Gotta test out my acrylic bending skills Glad I spent $30 on that heat gun... considering how much PSU work I've done and will do (not just on this project) combined with it's other uses, it beats a lighter no question. Of course my zippo putting off a 6-inch or so flame doesn't make using it easier for heatshrink!

I've gotta get a new Nibbler tool...it would make a lot of this misc cutting a lot easier and quicker than a dremel. I tried to use my old one on a thermaltake bracket thing and I dunno what metal that thing's made of but it snapped the head right off the tool. Glad they're cheap! I should try and get my hands on an M3 tap too... stupid home depot doesn't carry any metric stuff (or anywhere else locally)

Just a random question - anyone know what threads are on the screws for Aquatube stuff? I think M4 but I don't have a great way to be totally sure about that.

/edit:
I've been playing around a bit more in photoshop after doing a bit of cable reorganizing. Fill + Opacity = virtual tinted acrylic It doesn't give the full effect of course but a very good idea nonetheless. The cable management came out pretty nicely from what I did (of course I'll need to redo it all), but I did take out the Audigy drive's cable and moved the drives around a bit as well. The LCD placement could be a bit better IMO but that's something to play with later. I've really got to figure out a good way to deal with the SATA cables - they stick out far enough (height from the mobo) that I'd need the "cable-acrylic" to be pretty far off the case to deal with them, but that's still certainly an option. I may make a cutout for the plugs themselves and just vinyl-dye what's not going under the acrylic.

I love getting ideas

 

the cable for the audigy breakout box (if its like the one for my old live breakout box) is a standard ide cable, so you could buy your own connectors and cable and make it as long as needed to route mostly out of the way. you'll never completely hide it since you can't drill a hole in the mobo to run it through

 

Yeah, I'm probably going to run it up around the top and then behind the mobo somehow. I'm probably going to cut a little slit just where the cable goes on the box so I can run it under the divider plate thing and back behind the mobo tray. The only thing is that most normal IDE cables have pin 20(ish) blocked off for alignment so they won't fit on the audigy pins. If all else fails I could just get some plain 40-conductor ribbon wire and extend it as necessary

I can't seem to find a 40-pin socket piece thing though. I only checked allelectronics where I need to get a bunch of other stuff from, but they don't have any 40pin ones (I'm getting some 10s and 20s from them for my USB things and front panel switches and whatnot)

Thanks for the tip

 

the pin is still connected to the wire, so you could just use a drill bit to drill it out (i've done that). as for where to buy the connectors, i know radio shack used to have them but i don't know if they still do.

 

Not locally they don't, I know that :/

Thanks for the idea though.

 

they aren't listed on their website either

i tried the molex website to see if you could get some samples (thats how i get my rj-45 connectors right now), but couldn't find them. i think mouser sells them though. it would also help if they were always called the same thing. on the molex site they are listed as IDC, IDF, and IDT connectors

 

Luckily, I think I found a way to route the cable so it should just reach and stay fairly well out of site. It'll probably need some vinyl due and rely a bit on that wire-hiding acrylic plan but should come out nicely.

 

ok, i did try to find the ends for you online, but i gave up after a few hours

now i just gotta get my gun stock modified so i can start on my computer case (and be stuck using a 1ghz p3 'till my main system is done again)

 

If you used a 3mm Allen wrench on the bolts, wouldn't the thread be M3?
http://www.carbidedepot.com/formulas-tap-metric.htm