Project Metaversa: LCD goodness (small update 17/07/05)

It is. Coolermeister (who had the idea and showed off his polished Maze4GPU first --how could I resist?) has the impression that the aluminium is in fact a nickel-aluminium mix and therefore it polishes well and keeps its shine; no protective layer of acrylic varnish is needed.

All you have to remember is to leave the anosysing on the underside of the block untouched. I just taped the whole area (inc. copper plate) over with a double layer of masking tape to protect it during processing.

The next problem is to find a sandblaster. Jewellery designers (shops that actually make the stuff, rather than just sell it) often will sandblast and polish stuff at a reasonable fee. They have the fine metal working expertise to handle your blocks. In my case, a friend of a friend obliged with the sandblasting (thanks go to Jo Bromley, Jewellery Designer extraordinaire ), and I polished the thing myself. Loads of elbow grease involved... If people are interested, I took pics of the process and can put together a guide-- perhaps in collaboration with Coolermeister?

Anyway, more updates. Now the GPU block is finished I could test-fit it and give people a first impression of the completed WC loop in my machine. Here are the pics!

The block fitted:



Who's a shiny block then?



As you can see, if required the block can be taken off the graphics card and just folded away for easy card swapping...

In fact, disconnect the CPU blocks as well, and you can simply pull the whole mobo tray out. Alternatively, leave the tray in place and unscrew the res instead, and you can lift the whole cooling circuit out of the case in one piece, pump, rad, fan, blocks, res, tubes and all.

(In double fact, if I want to go dual Athlon 64 in the future, all I have to do is swap the mobo and swap the CPU block clamps, and leave the rest of the system untouched. Upgradability is key.)

The block installed on the Graphics card (ATi Radeon 9800 256Mb). Note (as I'm sure you will) the nice polished billet aluminium wire plug separator keeping the tubing tidy, and the Cardkeeper supporting the graphics card.



Another close up:



And the whole loop (excuse the crappy pic, it gets dark early here in the UK in winter...):



As you can see (hopefully) the air stream passes neatly over all the warm components: in through the front, through the rad, past the pump (which gets fairly warm in normal use), past the RAM sinks of the GPU card and the NB sink, exiting the back fans and PSU.

And a flash photograph to show off the details better. Again quick and dirty; I'll do some eye candy shots later... Please note that the pump is not yet connected to the res, hence that tube looks a bit out of alignment.



Also note how much empty space is left in the case. You can cram dual CPU watercooling in a standard midi tower and have plenty of room left, if you plan things properly...

Anyway, now to the PSU braiding and the flow sensor module... after that: case prettyfication! Yeah!

 

Absolutely gorgeous Nexxo! There's not really anything more to say

 

I dont know how you resist just hooking it all up and firing up that bad boy I can't imagine having so much unused hardware sitting around for so long!

Really nice job though. at all looks super sweet

 

that truly is amazing - /me shows much envy.

I didn't see you say whether you will colour the water - sorry if you did. (I would vote for deep red if you do)

and you said there was case prettification next - i can't imagine what you'd need to do!?

love your work - keep us posted.

 

Really nice work Nexxo!! Very clean. Nothing wose than spending all kinds of time to mod a case an then just stuff all the wiring in the case going every which way. Some beautiful mods there bro…

 

Looks nice, but aren't you going to water cool that northbridge?

 

I must admit I am getting rather impatient. my old PII 266 (which is what I'm using now) is getting really old and slow and full of sleep (or it would be full of sleep if there weren't compatibility issues bacause the mobo's Stand By/Power Saving features are woefully out of date with those of W98...).

I have to upgrade soon... but the reality is that I can't hook it all up yet: the PSU is lying here with its bowels exposed (it's a gruesome sight. Antec make very good PSUs but they leave the wiring in a mess. I've got to sort it all out, braid it, and splice in a special connector to access the always-on 5V line), all those special WC tweaks and circuits require wiring up properly, and I still have to test run the WC loop.

I've run all the fans (practically noiseless -perfect), tested the PSU (also very quiet), and the 5" LCD screen (survived installation without problems).

You win first prize --sort of. I'll be going for Zerex Racing coolant which tints the water a kind of purplish red. I'm no sure about the UV die yet.

Nope. (Hence the Zalman sink!). There is no need, really, all you do is add another constriction/complication to the system for no appreciable gain.

I should remark here that I've kicked some watercooling conventions out the door in this project (hint: just look at the sequence in which I'm cooling the blocks). But this is not based on whimsy, but on a lot of research and this setup actually has been proven to work well.

Thanks for the compliment. But I feel it needs a bit more... more... well, more. I'm still exploring options (Jewellery designer to the rescue) but I'm thinking: EL backlit jewellery designed case badge (I got the kit --ages ago), chrome polished panel with lasercut logo, backlit with EL sheet, possibly some textured silver plated accents/details, and some original way to fit the window, involving big-ass stainless steel hex bolt stuff like you see on modern buildings... And then the window etch is going to be, well, a bit... different.

Of course it's all done in the best possible taste!

 

unbelieveable nexxo. This project has come so far. It would look cool to have a polished aluminum/chrome metaversa logo on the front bezel somewhere, and then put acrylic behind it and an led behind the acrylic to light it all up.

Looks great!

Can i ask where you got the billet hose seperators and those wire seperators?

Thanks,
Fyberwire

 

They are made by Billet Specialties, who do car customising stuff. You can get them for most combinations of hose sizes (e.g. mine is a 0.625" x 0.625" for 3/8" ID, 3mm wall thickness Tygon). unfortunately they only do two hole separators...

 

hey nexxo do you have AIM or msn or ICQ?

Contact me:

AIM:Fyberwire
MSN:Fyberwire@hotmail.com
ICQ:221029428

Seems billet specialties is having some server problems right now

Thanks,

Fyberwire

 

A man after my own heart (while I'm after his rig )

It did for me.

I love it but it's criminal that it can't be running yet.

I'm with G-gnome - I keep quietly reading this thread and taking note here & there.
There's a few things I notice we've done similarly here and there in our own way (although my hose clips are only plastic ).

Good luck with the rest of it.

 

I have exactly the same hardware as you. I am currently running 2 1600 MPs, with a vague plan to upgrade them when some new game comes out such as doom3 or something. Trouble is there always seems to be a reason to delay the purchase =) Nice case work. I havent modded anything much on mine, other than a window, using the logic that only fools rush in. However, your case has inspired me to perhaps start drawing a plan.

good work.

 

It's always good when a thread on this site inspires others. Just because I promised some better shots, and to bump up my thread here's some more shots in better light:





A nice one of the GPU block:



Look at that shine:



And I connected the Res to the pump:





So that's the state of the beast. I will now concentrate on actually having something new to show. I'm brading my PSU. I ordered some Zerex Racing coolant so I can start testing the watercooling loop.

Im redesigning the logo to work better with the case and some ideas I have for the case side... This will involve a stainless steel chrome polished square, with the logo laser-cut in it, some more details etched on the metal. The logo is backlit with an EL sheet. Some detailing may involve semi-precious gemstone, like white quartz, but in a modern, techy sort of way...

All has been worked out... except the feet. I want some awesome feet. Can't find any good feet. Except those ultra-hi-fi ones which cost a bomb. Which is no good.

 

Amazing. Good to see some pimp shots once in awhile. I cant wait to see this thing finished

Great work nexxo!

 

Its a complete beaut

I saw some hemi-spheres like stuff in Singapore that you attach to the base of laptops to raise there height off the table (with velcro action)...They might work..but I think you will need to get your feet chromed as well, what ever you end up using...

 

Wicked stylings man!

Man! If I didn't have a kid on the way (within the next 2~3 weeks), I would be putting a little more money into the psycho modding I want to do to my humble 1.4 w/ 1 gig pc133 ram.. (humble but still switching)
I am taking notes though!!!!
All your Ideas are awesome! I will be trying to mill my own cpu waterblocks for my system... (I have a friend with a nice little mill)
And then the true fury of modding madness will overcome!

 

Always nice to see an update from you Nexxo, even if it's just a few money-shots

 

Great work nexo, im abit confused though, on the 5th page you said you bought some of these:



and then on page 14 you are installing these:






Maybe i missed something, any reason for the change? Is one better then the other? Also where did you get the innovatek ones from? and how much do they cost (both)?

Thanks
Seal

 

It's all in the thread. Basically they are comparable in performance but the first ones, I found out need mounting holes that do not correspond to the mounting holes in a Lian-Li case (in the 5.25" bays anyway), although they will fit in a Chieftec or any other rail-mount system, I gather.... So I went for the Innovateks instead, which can only be obtained from Germany or the US... I think both may have been about £15,-- to £20,-- a pair, but I can't remember for sure.

Meanwhile, I have found a neat solution for connecting the audio cables of both my DVD/CD-RWs to the single audio connector on my mobo: the "CD-Audio Adder".



What this £5,-- gizmo does is automatically switch between both audio signals (I guess it senses which one is playing back). It also protects from reciprocal signal interference and keeps your mobo or soundcard from getting messed up. Which is nice.

 

Why use audio cables when you can simply enable digital audio extraction within windows?