Scratch Build – In Progress Reality Bytes

Welcome To My Project Log
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I am currently working on a new custom case to house my gaming PC. The main feature of the case will be the watercooling system. In the following log I hope to show the progress of the build from beginning to end and hopefully get a little help and advice along the way.

I will begin with the specification I am using:

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (overclocked to 3.0Ghz)
Motherboard - Asus Croshair nForce 590 SLi
Memory - 2Gb (2x1Gb) OCZ Platinum DDR2
GPU - Nvidia BFG Geforce 8800 GTS OC2 320Mb
PSU - 700watt Jeantech Modular
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 160Gb SataII & Freecom 400Gb External
Optical - Liteon Lightscribe DVDR/RW
Monitor - 22' HP Widescreen 1650x1050
Mouse - Razor Deathadder

The system as it is performs very well. The CPU is watercooled but the GPU has standard Air cooling so I am quite limited when it comes to overclocking it. However I have still been able to reach a 3DMark06 score of 10190.

But with the new system I am going to be watercooling the GPU as well as the CPU so hopefully will be able to push that score a little higher still.

Project Aims
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(1) To watercool at least both CPU & GPU.
(2) To see an improvement to my current best 3dMark06 score solely buy increased overclocking as a result of better cooling.
(3) To hide all wires from view when looking into the case.
(4) To keep to a Green/Black/Silver colour scheme.

The Case
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I have chosen to use a smaller case than I currently use to add abit more of a challenge to the build. It is also a very plain 'standard looking' case, which cost under £20. I have opted for a plain case so that I can modify it from the ground up the way I want it to look.

Here are a couple of pictures of the case as brought, the Antec NSK4000

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The Cooling
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I will be using a 1/2' loop to cool the CPU / GPU / HDD. The loop will include a BlackIce II GT Stealth 240 with 2x A.C Ryan 120mm Blackfire fans, a 250ml EK Multioption reservoir and an XSPC X20 HDD waterblock. However I haven't yet decided on which pump and waterblocks to use, there are so many new products about at the moment I am having a hard time choosing which ones will work best in my setup.

I have been working on a sketchup version of roughly what I hope the finished case will look like. Its the first time I have used the program so its not perfect but you get the general idea.

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So thats the plan. First on the todo list is to get the case inner frame cut where needed and then to get it sprayed matt black. I hope to get this done in the next week so will be posting an update as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to make comments good or bad along the way, Cheers.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the parts I have brought so far:

Black Ice Radiator with AC Ryan 120mm Fans


Reservoir


Radiator grill, AC Ryan


Memory Cooler, Before


After, Branding removed

 

cant wate to see this mod, amazing sketchups!

 

Please tell me that is used with a bunch of scratches and dents for that price.....LOL. Nice components. Good luck and enjoy.

 

amazing sketchups. love the layout of the entire case. is the side panel going to fit with the res placed where it is or is the panel going to be cut out so it gives space for the res to stick out of the case?
love the ACryan hardware

 

impressive layout. what's the paint gonna be like?

 

@ wlbarto241- Yes there will be a cutout in the side panel, so the res is half in half out. Also a cutout for a window over the motherboard.

@ OtakuHawk - Not 100% decided yet, but the innards will be matt black, maybe with a glossy black on the outside.

 

Made some progress today with the cutting of the case. Need to get all the holes, cutouts done as soon as possible really so I can begin the painting.

So first todo was to removed the mesh from the rear 120mm fan bracket. You can see in the pictures of the original case that the mesh grill just looks cheap and nasty.

To help keep the wires from the motherboard out of view I have cut several holes to feed the wires (Sata, Mobo power etc) behind the motherboard tray.

Good old dremel:


I also cut the hole for the radiator in the bottom of the case.
Some pictures below of it temporarily mounted with the AC Ryan fans on Vantec anti-vibration surrounds and also the AC Ryan Rad Grill underneath. I will also have one of these grills on the inside onto of the fans but will be doing this at a later date.







My PSU came standard with a white 120mm fan on the underside (not quite in keeping with the green theme. So I removed this and replaced it with a matching AC Ryan UV green one. I think it looks alot better now and should help light up the UV Dye in the watercooling loop aswel.

Before


After


Lastly for today here is the memory cooler in place above my 2gb OCZ Platinum, how much of a difference to the temperature it will make, I am not sure but it does look quite nice.

 

oooo is that a stryker? never seen a mosfet cooler liek that!

Cool fans! man i gotta check some more acryan stuff out!

keep up the good work

 

Its the Asus Croshair - The heatpipe has got to be my fav part of the board, as you say its very different to most others.

 

Ah, still some AMD fans out there. I don't feel so alone. Looking very nice.

 

Well my AMD has done me proud since I have had it, but Intel is looking more tempting all the time. Next hardware upgrade will, it think, be to Intel.

Love the Av btw - House of 1000 corpses I believe.

 

Yup, Captain Spalding....also in the sequel 'The Devils Rejects'. Love horror films.
I've decided to hold off for a bit longer on switching to Intel. My previous rig was Intel and it was great, but someones gotta keep the spirit alive in AMD.
Have you looked at the OCZ memory cooler? Pretty nice and not too expensive.

 

They are both quality films.
My intention was to go with 64bit OS etc hence the AMD but that just seems more trouble than its worth lol.
No dont think I have seen that cooler, do you have a link atall?

 

OCZ XTC Memory Cooler.

 

At Last: An Update

About time I made an update really seeing as the build is now in the very final stages. My apologies for the lack of updates, its been a hell of a month.

Ok so first off the inner case got a respray in matt black:


I brought a D-Tec Fusion CPU block, which so far has been IMO by far the highest quality waterblock I have used in terms of design and build quality:








I have mounted my 2 zalman fan controllers to give me full control over all fan speeds and also all fan/case lighting:


I brought the EK Full cover block for my 8800GTS, very frustrating to fit but hopefully I will see a large increase in cooling performance:


Another little mod to the memory cooler:




As the air is pulled from under the case through the radiator I needed to have the case raised off the ground by more than normal case feet would allow. So I made a very simple stand from some perspex and a green cathode tube:





Now with everything inside the case and some perspex cutouts to add detail the build is almost complete. The biggest job to do is the side panel. I did make one but wasn't happy with it in the end so am going to retry, hopefully learning from the mistakes on the first one.

Current state of play pictured below:














But as I type the w/c loop is being leak tested (going well so far fingers crossed):




Sorry for such a short to the point update, but hopefully the pictures do most of the talking.

Would love to know what you guys think, comments suggestions criticisms etc.

Cheers
BigJUnit

 

Love the lighting effects keep it up

 

how strong is the stand as having the cathode joining the two ends together may not be the best plan or is it holding up well

 

I love the uv green! Looks very clean despite the brightness. Thats a hard trick to pull off, so great job. How thick are the fans in the Corsair RAM cooler? Think these might fit? - http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=372&products_id=22092

 

Black and fluorescent green/yellow always works. Good work adding those green details there.