Case Mod - In Progress Riff Tamson, just a simple loop :)

I just saw, that you are using a T-Balancer. Did you get it running? What software and drivers did you use?
I have one myself, which i bought 10 years ago and its beern working just fine ever since, but i cant get into the configuration, because i cant find the software anywhere. Im thinking about using it for my current project.

 

On phone ATM so will be a short reply..

Yes I'm using a Tbalancer. It does work and I have the software but it will only work using the external USB with an A-B cable. So I disconnected it and just leave it as a fan/pump distributor.

If I connect it to my mobo internally it shuts the PC down. Don't know it that's a Win 10 thing or if it's faulty.

 

Im not sure about the shutdown thing, but i think thats how the T-Balancer is supposed to be used. Once you get the configuration done, it doesnt need to be plugged in anymore, but still controlls the fans and pump. thats how i have mine running ever since. For config i always plugged it in the back USB ports.

Where did you get the software? I cant find a download anywhere and im not sure, if i still have the CD that came with it.

 

PMed.

 

Took the bay res and pump apart. Tested and braided the pump, took apart the bay after an overnight soak in vinegar. Reassembled.



And what would you know? the XSPC holes line up with the Alpha's.



Now whether or not they will still line up when both reservoirs are pushed together I have no idea. Sure I can come up with something, though. In the part between the two res (where you can see the glue lines for example) I will simply put a piece of vinyl. The aim is to see both res's fluid levels. As long as I can see that I will be happy

 

Spent some time earlier preparing wires.



Will make up some GPU extensions (new ones to replace the tatty ones) over the weekend

 

Done. Will get onto braiding them this afternoon

 

Finished.



They will be fitted to the PC on the fly one at a time when I get access to it. I am going to wait until tomorrow before I start moving stuff around, or I won't be able to watch the footy today.

 

More done today. The first thing I did was take out the GPU and gut some of the wiring. It all needed to be moved in order to move the Tbalancer out of the way.



I then had loads of problems with the res/pump. The entire back comes off (which is ace for cleaning) but it has a jet plate that sits in the sandwich. Turns out when I cleaned the res I put it back wrong, cue loads of messing around. Eventually I got it pumping/looping water though.



I will leave it pumping over night to make sure it's good

Here is the rig looking rather sorry for itself.



But at least work is under way

I also had a bit of a result. I ordered two of these.



But I got this.



One is the correct part, the other is some sort of extension piece. No good to me, and I really needed a pair that match. So I posted on OCUK's customer service area and I have a pair of these winging their way to me



Which I am chuffed with. Thankfully when I sold off all of my left over water cooling gear I kept the Orings which I have a selection of in black and white which should look nice

Thank you Bailey. OCUK really are the best when it comes to making their customers happy.

 

One annoying thing about a case not designed to do what you want it to do is that usually nothing works first time.

I started out at around 9am this morning and the first plan was to basically fit the rad, and the grille for the rad. Sadly the rad did not fit due to the drain plug on the bottom (it was hitting the case as it went in) and neither did the grille. I kinda had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.

So the first thing I did was cut the top off of the rad carrier. This allowed the rad (and the fan inside it) to shift upward to clear the drain plug. Sadly to do that took around an hour, and then I had to cut the fan holes so it too could slide upward.

OK so it fits now right? no. Because I had cut off the top of the rad carrier there was nowhere to screw it in, so it was tipping into the case. Bloody annoying that !!

The fix in the end was a slotted bracket (see in the close up).



So rad in time to start work.



Note the red PCIE cables? watch...







Plumbing should commence tomorrow...

 

OK well I had it plumbed in but was not happy with it at all. When I pushed the second res bay back in the hoses kinked. Apparently it did not affect the flow as it was more than happy (38c max after an hour of Valley on the GPU) but I was not happy with it. Once the hoses get warm they become more malleable, and I had doom thoughts in the back of my mind. Any way, the day I set it up the temp LCD screen melted (that smell...) the volt meter died and the Tbalancer also went for a burton. I had no idea why it had happened I just put it down to them being on the same Molex chain and one of them shorting out.

Fast forward a few days. I took everything out and when I did the pump's power cable literally fell off. It had been hanging on a single thread of the red wire (the live) and had finally fallen off. When I inspected the back of the pump it had been soldered really badly in an obvious attempt to bodge it. Then it all made sense. Basically that live wire had arched and touched one of the others burning out my gear. No idea why the PC did not shut down but hey, what can you do? I got out my solder sucker, removed all of the pigeon poop solder and repaired the pump properly. Amazingly it still worked. I've started a dispute on Ebay, whether I will get anywhere because I repaired the pump who knows?

Time to think positive... The pump has now been properly repaired. I decided to pre fit the res bay (so no kinked hoses, proper length hoses etc) and then fit a fill port.



I apologise for the awful pic. I took it in the dark with an old camera, full flash. If you look at the 5.25 bay side you will see a white piece of acrylic (6mm, two sandwiched 3mm shaped and made etc) with a fill port in it. It has a red cap.. The loop is now all ready to fill and I have ordered some coolant from Amazon with Prime that is coming tomorrow (Sat). However, just to throw me a final curve ball my flow meter I ordered forever ago landed on the door mat this morning. Thanks to the fill port though I was down to one silver fitting (the fill port gobbled up four fittings FFS) so I have ordered another silver rotary fitting for £2.40. That literally should be it then, and I can fill the loop and boot the PC again.

Now I know why I put off WCing the GPU for so long !

There is more good news though. The Tbalancer wasn't doing anything at all (software doesn't work properly in Win 10, had to connect external USB etc) so was just running everything at full pelt. I will replace it with a nice simple molex - 5/12v fan sockets to run the pumps and fan and the temp sensor was set to come out any way because I want easier access to the fill cap on the top res.

So hopefully all will end well

 

I have slowly been chugging along with this for a bit now. I've not updated the log here because of the photo situation. Bit needs different size images to every other site I use meaning I had to sit down and manually resize them all. Some may have slipped through, I don't know..

Any way let's update. So since the last time I posted I have fitted the flow meter and filled/burped the loop.



One of the fittings had a rotten Oring on (it came loose not in a plastic baggy) and it peed all over the floor of the rig. Worst clean up I have had to do so far but hey, sorted now I guess. It was incredibly difficult to fill as like a donger I ran the fill port into the outlet of the pump. Meaning I had to pour in a small amount, lean the rig forward and then run the pump and pump the pathetic amount I had managed to get in there into the loop. It took about two hours all told to get enough coolant in there and it flowing correctly on 5v. However, I then bought this so I could run at 7v.



Which seemed to give it a better trade off of flow/noise.

It is now all tidied at the side and I have made a few distros to feed the pumps/fan as well as some braided extensions etc so it looks tidy.

The next job is making a new cover panel for that area. The old one no longer fits, so I ordered an A3 sheet of acrylic.



I could not draw around the old panel as it is all sorts of thicknesses/levels etc so I mapped it out into Photoshop in scale.



And then masked it so they were identical.



Then comes the EL wire.



Now what I am going to do is flip over the acrylic (before I cut the panel out to make it easier to machine) and then I am going to basically take this.



And then machine a 2mm channel into the 5mm acrylic around the edge of the letters and the logo at the bottom. What I am going to machine out will look like a thermometer in shape. Then on the top side I will either use this.



Or this.



Or a combo of both. I have started to map out the channels I am going to route with my rotary tool as per -



I just have to do the circle but will do that once I have cut a test panel out of vinyl to get placement perfect. This is what I will be using for machining the channels into the acrylic



I have also taken the power box for the EL wire apart and found the solder points for the on/off/effect cycle. I will be wiring this to that.



So that everything can be hidden. If it goes well I will be making a full cover for my sound card too