it's been a while since i've posted, thought i'd show my face again. however i like this way this is going keep up the hard work, and don't forget to polish. Boom.
Now that I had approximate locations for the components inside the case, I started finalising the radiator mounting. The original plan was to rest the radiator upside down across the centre brace and drill holes for the barbs to go through the drive bay cage. Once I had the Aquadrive and its bracket installed, I realised the bend was just too tight for the tubing. Instead I switched the orientation so the barbs faced upwards at the rear of the case. I cut a few spare lengths of tubing to make sure the method would work. The tubing connected to the barb on the left side bends down to attach to the GPU block, the one on the right side connects straight to the reservoir at the front of the case The tubing clears the PSU without any problems, the only issue I can forsee is when I come to drain the loop, some of the water will remain in the radiator. The fans on the radiator were slightly restricted by the large centre brace; also, the first fan was completely blocked by the drive bay cage. To allow them to freely move air, several slices had to be made to be made. I started by marking the end section of the radiator onto the cage. I then marked the cuts to be made along the brace. The cuts were made to the drive bay cage by using my trusty key hole saw. I then de-riveted the brace and set away cutting with the jigsaw, here’s the result before filing and finishing the edges off with wet and dry. Installed back into the case. From another angle. Here you can see the centre brace is pretty much level with the lip above the motherboard tray. The plan now is to have some orange UV plexi cut to deck out the entire area of the centre brace and drive bay cage to provide a ‘floor’ for the radiator. I will then cut the outline of the radiator shroud into the plexi and will secure it by screwing it into the shroud mounting holes. Sorry if my wording is crap, I’m sure you’ll understand when I start work on it Here you can see the (semi-painted) radiator in place, the ruler is just to balance it until I make the floor out of plexi A shot from the bottom of the case, you can see the fans are free to draw in air and all the fan mounting holes are accessible. Taking a break from the radiator for a bit… I got the pump mounted. I popped the motherboard into the case just to make sure it wasn’t going to obstruct anything. The M5 mounting holes marked. The pump mount was also drilled and the holes then countersunk for the M5 bolts. Sorry for the long winded update, hope I haven’t bored anyone More soon!
advanced alot since project mooon dust, how are you funding this ? the selection of conponents is kool !
After picking up a Cascade SS along with its very own custom A64 mounting plate (cheers Paul!) I decided to go for an old revision Maze4 GPU block. That way I could give it the shiny treatment so the Cascade didn’t look out of place in all its silver glory Here’s the Maze4-1 in its standard form. I started by marking the mounting holes for the base of the block into some scrap Perspex. Here’s the top of the block mounted to the Perspex. This stops any sand touching the bottom of the top which comes into contact with the water. I then took it to the school workshops for a (light) sandblast, I say light as the compressor wasn’t up to much Then the elbow grease starts, sanding with 400, 800, 1200 and 1500 grit followed by a little polishing and voila! The hard work is all worth it in the end. The original plan was to use an ATI card which would be supported by the block, this changed somewhere down the line. After picking up a 6800GS I was faced with the choice of swapping the block for the acetel Maze4 or attempting some kind of modification to allow it to fit 6/7xxx series cards. I used the backplate from the 6800 mounting kit to mark the holes for the 4 mounting rods. I then drilled and tapped the 2mm holes; you can see how tight the fit is due to the existing mounting holes. A test fit with the mounting rods and the backplate Just need to get the non-TEC base fitted to the block and make sure the contact is ok with the card. More soon as I’m aiming to fire the rig up over easter!
havn't been on in a while just checked out your update, it's looking pretty nice. let's just not try and brake anything
