Scratch Build – In Progress Scratch Build: The Ivory Tower

If it's a straight line, don't cut it - snap it. Put a ruler along the desired line, make a deep scratch where you want to snap it, snap it over a table edge (eventually put some weight on top of the part not being snapped).

This works with UP to 5 mm. acrylic, depending on how deep you make the scratch.

 

I'll probably tryi it first on a small piece.

 

Very good idea

 

Looks very nice so far, keep it up!

 

I clamp it down and use a jigsaw. If you tape both sides of the plexi it will stop it chipping.

 

Goodies!!

A couple of days ago my package from It-Service.be arrived.
Thanks to Eddy from It-Service.be!!


This is the package:



The box dwarfs my HAF932 which is already massive...

The goods are very well protected by the filling materials.


Into the box there was a smaller box which contains most of the goodies:


In the coming updates you'll see more and more from this.

First up is the mounting of the reservoir.


Instead of using the clamps from the reservoir, I'll be using some Bulkheadconnectors for mounting the reservoir to the case. On the top there is also an plexi fitting for LED installment.


That's it for now!!That's it for now!!

 

Brilliant idea! Have some rep.

 

Nice done dude !

Me want rep too :'(

 

Update

Last time I showed how the reservoir would be mounted.
Well today I realized how it had to be.

First it must be determined where the holes have to be. This is very simple as the bulkhead fittings are already mounted on the reservoir. Then it is simply marking the perimeter of the hole.



Once all the holes drilled, filed and sanded the reservoir can be mounted.
In the following pictures I mounted the tank opposite without realizing it ...




Besides the holes for the reservoir, there are two holes for connecting the CPU block.


Lamptron FCT: Review
Since my build: The Ivory Tower will be use quite a lot of fans there was a problem to come. My current fan controller: Scythe Kaze Master, has only 1A per channel. In my build I have planned to have four fans per channel. The Kaze Master would probably not have coped so I choose a stronger fan controller. There are few 30W Fan controllers that offer a reasonable amount of channels. The choice was simple: Lamptron FCT.


The FCT comes in a pretty simplistic black box with a plastic sheet for its protection.
On the front are obviously the product name and a picture of the product. In addition, a few highlights of the controller listed:
- 6 channels
- CNC faceplate
- 30W per channel
- Automatic and manual control
And did I mention it's a touchscreen?


At the back we find some more information about the FCT as well as specifications and contents of the package.
Specifications:
- Dimensions: 148.5mm x 42.5mm x 64.5mm
- Screen Size: 118mm x 31.5mm
- Power: 30W per channel
- Number of channels: 6





If we open the box we find the fan controller with the associated stuff.


- 6x 3 Pin fan cables
It are the fan cables familiar to everyone. Unfortunately these are not sleeved black. One downside is that I had is that one of fan cables was smeared with oil or something. That is not very nice since they don’t use oil to fabricate the cables…



- 6x Temperature probe
Here the same disadvantage as the fan cables: not sleeved. But at least the white is better than the usual black, red and yellow


- 1x Jumper
This jumper is for the alarm. If the alarm is activated with the jumper installed then there is an audible warning signal when the temperature exceeds 70 ° C or when one or more fans do not rotate when voltage is supplied.


- 4x black screws
It's nice that Lamptron gave attention to providing black screws. Metallic color would otherwise stick out against the black controller.


- 1 x black cloth
Touchscreen results in fingerprints but Lamptron has also found a remedy. With this you will easily wipe the fingerprints from the screen.




- 1x Lamptron FCT
The front is the CNC-cut from brushed aluminum. In this case, I chose the black version because it best suits the current build. On the front is: "Lamptron Touch" in white letters.
The front is of very high quality as shown in the pictures.
Behind the front are the two PCBs that control the LCD and the fans.


At the rear, the six channels can be seen as the Molex connector and the connector for the temperature sensors. The PCB looks very neat with no sloppy soldering etc ... Since I'm no electronics expert I will not speak at length about the electronics.


The interface:
When starting fan controller the screen remains bare except for two things: an on / off button and a button to adjust brightness. Once the on / off button pushed, we get an overview of the 6 channels from which we can continue to adjust the channels. If we select a channel by pushing 3 FAN for example we enter the next menu.


In this menu there are several things to find. An RPM indicator, temperature, etc ... With the power-percentage bar at the bottom the fan speed can be adjusted. The operation works relatively well for inaccurate values. Not that it’s really necessary to choose between 51% and 52%, but I had some difficulty selecting 100% or 0%. Instead, it is sometimes 97% and 8%. This does not change the operation because the fan is still in full power or does not work in both cases respectively.
Besides sliding bar are arrows that you can use to switch the channel. Far right is a button to go back to the main menu. In the right top corner can the temperature corresponding with the channel be found. By briefly pushing the temperature it can be switched between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
In the top left corner is the RPM. The RPM can be switched to supplies voltage by pressing it. Bottom left you can see an M and A which stands for Manual and Automatic. This indicates how the current channel is managed. In the automatic mode you can set a limit temperature and a fan speed. In normal operation the channel remains on the set-fan speed. Once the temperature is above the limit set for the channel the fans will go up to 100% until the temperature is again below the limit. I did not have the opportunity to test this extensively.

In the video below you can see how the fan controller is operating. Note: Since the fan controller isn’t mounted, it moved away if I wanted to select something. This results in a few tries to select something.
[video=youtube;ouK0_m6hqII]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouK0_m6hqII[/video]

Competition?
There are relatively few fan controllers with much power. Lamptron has the largest share in it with. Other brands such as Sunbeam also have a fan controller with similar specifications, but not with the same looks. The FCT has more features than the average fan controller without a huge additional cost. Other controllers such as the Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 have more options but the cheapest model would cost about the same as the FCT (~ 60EUR) but doesn’t have a screen and lacks the power. Do you want a screen then you can roughly double that cost and pay even more for extra power. For some people this is worth it, for others it is not.

Summary
Lamptron the FCT is in my opinion a very good fan controller. It has many channels with enough power so you have many options. The advantage is that it has no buttons sticking out that can block some doors from the case. The screen is very readable in different directions. The interface works properly except for some specific situations. Another negative point is that the supplied cables are not sleeved.
All in all, this Lamptron FCT is a very good buy if you want a fan controller with lots of power and channels for limited price.

 

I might SO be stealing that res mounting idea for my next build

 

No way this is copyrighted pattented registered ****
Hell this look way better than clamps

 

Update: Yes, I'm f*cked

Well I started on finding out where I should place the pumps.
The easiest way would be this:

This would result in low number of 45° and 90° couplings.

But from another angle:

Beware: the second rad + fans aren't placed yet.
Pump is to large in this direction to place in between the rads. No problem: I have enough 90° fittings.

But the this comes up: connecting the main part of the PC to the "cellar".
The bulkhead-fitting is sticking out a lot. But more worse is the length of the PSU.
I miscalculated the length of the PSU or something but I thought it would be 16cm long and not the 18 cm in reality. You can see the measurement of the PSU.


So Yes, I'm f*cked.

At the moment I see no other way to route the tubes to the cellar.

A possibility I thought about was buying a new PSU like the AX750 since it is 2cm shorter, quieter and fully modular. My CM M850 is relatively loud.

If anyone has a suggestion that doesn't involve buying a new PSU is always welcome!!!

 

There does look to be more thread than necessary on the bulkhead fittings, you could cut, or file them down shorter, not sure if it'd give you enough clearance even then but it would be my first thing to try...

 

Yeah wouldn't help much

 

I once had a similar problem...





Doesn't get much tighter than that, again PSU length problem

 

Small update:

Solution for the lack of space for the PSU:


Playing with the pump-setup:


Slightly improved lay-out:

This way I have a little bit more room for other stuff.

Massive flow!!


Movie!!!

 

Glad you got a solution for the PSU, and hey, that's quite a good spot!

+rep

 

Yes, it's too much flow right now, but you didn't include the radiators and waterblocks yet, did you?

 

one radiator

 

Well, you might have to either turn down the pump, or find some way to limit the turbulence in the res. You can get some stuff to remedy that...sponges, and such.

But let's see if it's going to be necessary once all components have been added to the loop.