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XARIG AQUA-SLI MKII - CPU Update

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Xarig, 30 Jan 2005.

?

Which hard drive housing?

Poll closed 11 Feb 2005.
  1. Silentmaxx

    6 vote(s)
    14.6%
  2. Aqua computer

    35 vote(s)
    85.4%
  1. Leeum

    Leeum What's a Dremel?

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    Nice to see no hardware is DOA, it's always a bonus :D
     
  2. Pitbull

    Pitbull What's a Dremel?

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    nice work man keep on going!! :rock:
     
  3. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    sure... they get bumped down, but you can over-ride them back to full speed (pc3200, or pc4400 in your case :D)

    i love the way that mirrow looks! and all that AQ gear will look lovely :D
     
  4. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    I've found a little time today to work on the switch bay, I hope to post tomorrow.

    Also the keen eyed :eeek: will have spotted that the PSU leads aren't the same ones I modded ........ different PSU. More on that tomorrow too :D
     
  5. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    As promised, here's the latest installment. I didn't get time to finish off the PSU sleaving (got bored if the truth be known :hehe: ) but I did make some progress on the switch bay.

    I started by drilling the holes in the 3.5" faceplate I made earlier from alaminium, using my recently aquired step drill bit - very nice it is too :D . I measured twice and cut once - turned out I measured twice incorrectly :wallbash: :wallbash: . So back to the drawing board, a few hourse later the following components were ready for assembly (I made 4 of the switches):
    [​IMG]
    I used the switches from Maplins which Stickeh has uncannily identified at the same time as me, though to give due credit the reminder helped make up my mind :hehe:

    So put the peices together and:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Don't forget the front plate has yet to visit the chrome meister. The sockets in the rear plate are 2.5 mm stereo sockets to carry the switched circuit, an idea I've 'borrowed' from the great G-nome and Orac3.

    I'm waiting on a couple of angled fittings for my radiator before I can get into the cooling loop installation, so I decided to crack on with the hard drive bay.

    Here's a taster of what I've done so far:

    [​IMG]

    Cutting and bending the steel sheet was not easy! :rolleyes: To get the bend, without the use of any special is tools I used my dremel :dremel: to score the fold line on the innerside and then bent it in a vice - followed by significant use of a mallet and a block of wood to avoid dimpling - came out nice :D

    Due to the room restrictions of a smaller case I'm not going to be able to 'copy' Franklin's design - sorry mate - but my design was obviously inspired by yours. There isn't enough room to add the planned blue plexi plates but I wanted to add some interest, hence the rough cut round plexi.
    [​IMG]
    Once attached to the trusty Dremel and sanded to give a buff effect, which I hope will diffuse light better, the result wasn't bad at all:
    [​IMG]

    My plan is to attach this to the side of the hard drive bay, illuninate it and put my logo on it. This is the logo at the moment:
    [​IMG]
    Note the 'omage to Aqua Computer :rock: Sorry about the size, I can't be bothered to make it smaller at the moment. I'd welcome any designers out there who'd like to design me something better - have your work showcased on the super mod.... bah, blah, blah - you've got to try :duh:

    Well that's the story so far......... I'm off to my bed now :D :rock:
     
  6. nick[x1]

    nick[x1] What's a Dremel?

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    Cool, i love the blue plastic, keep up the good work :)
     
  7. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    Oh dear, almost a month and no updates. Sorry folks :worried:

    I've got all the parts needed now and a bit of time on my hands..... so updates will be coming soon.

    I had to rethink the whole hard disk stituation - things were getting too cramped and it was losing the aesthetics. Hopefully I'll be able to report some progress this weekend. :D
     
  8. dahl

    dahl What's a Dremel?

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    U know that u can give plextor a cal and they send the black beezle to U =)
     
  9. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks for the tip dahl :thumb: I've already gone to the trouble of painting it myself though, so no real gain there. :wallbash:
     
  10. modsquad

    modsquad Grease Monkey Undergraduate..

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    Very nice work..That is a good looking "deep-blue" acrylic, I dont remember seeing any that dark. :thumb:
     
  11. HilRam

    HilRam What's a Dremel?

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    I must say I am really impressed by the cleanness of this mod, Xarig. :thumb: Very pure style. Please resist the temptation to "overdo it".

    Your logo I only partly like, however. I like the symbol and the name for the case. But I am not so sure about the font you have used. I feel it conflicts to much with the pure, clean lines you have in your mod. (Forgive me if I sound too critical.) Perhaps a "sans serif" font would do you better. For example: Optima.

    Otherwise, keep up the fine, fine work. It is projects, like this that made me sign up for the forum! :rock:
     
  12. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    Whoah....with your approval I must be doing something right, cheers - BN rox btw :hehe: As for the acrylic I ordered by phone and that's what turned up..... lucky break :D

    Totally agree, I'm going to rethink it. I'll try your suggestion.

    Just managed to get some serious modding time and I'm just downloading all the photos from my camera. Just had a shoulder operation which means I have to take it really slowly, can't believe how much a general anaesthetic leaves you knackered for days :yawn: Hopefully I'll get something uploaded tomorrow.

    Thanks for all the encouragement.
     
  13. VirusZero

    VirusZero What's a Dremel?

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  14. HilRam

    HilRam What's a Dremel?

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    Just to be pushy :p

    [​IMG]

    -HilRam
     
  15. DLoney

    DLoney What's a Dremel?

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    Good Job on the project so far. Can’t wait to see more!
    Sorry I couldn’t help but to give a try at the logo just for fun.
    Here it is:
    [​IMG]
     
  16. Stickeh

    Stickeh Help me , Help you.

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    Nice to see this project is back alive Xarig!
    Good work, nice buttons too :thumb:
     
  17. mondriaan

    mondriaan What's a Dremel?

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    Looks good. :thumb:
    Love that purple color combined with the black.

    Keep up the good work.:rock:
     
  18. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    This is awesome, I'm not sure how I can use it at the moment but I'll certainly be putting my thinking cap on!

    It never ceases to impress me the generosity you see on this forum, people from all over the world helping eachother............ OK I'm going soft in the head :worried: Seriously though thanks for the encouragement :thumb:

    Many thanks for all the logo offers and suggestions. I'll definately follow up the offers. But now I'm going to concentrate on the updates I keep promising!
     
  19. Leeum

    Leeum What's a Dremel?

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    I look forward to it :D
     
  20. Xarig

    Xarig What's a Dremel?

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    At last some progress has been made :D Does everything always take you much longer than expected.... often due to unforeseen challenges - like mounting bolts for the AquagrFX that are too short :confused:.

    First up a bit of leak testing:

    [​IMG]

    All working very nicely, phew :rock:

    Then I started with two of these:

    [​IMG]

    and two of these:

    [​IMG]

    a little bit of this:

    [​IMG]

    and with a wave of the modding wand ended up with two of these:
    [​IMG]

    This was not as simple as you might think (well to many of you it probably was :hehe:, but not for me ). The challenge was the lack of destructions provided by AC and the shortness of the fixing bolts. The metal bolts provided in the fixing kit, which secure the main heatsink area of the Aquagrfx to the chip just weren't long enough to fit the plastic washer and/or the nut. Lucky for me the bolts, and x shaped fixing (see picture below)that secured the original cooling assembly did the trick. Good thing too - I didn't fancy yet another delay!

    So without further ado on go the blocks and in go the cards:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Now it's starting to get good - I was really fed up with all the cable sleeving I'd been doing. You'll notice I've been at the MB tray :dremel: and added some rubber edging, it will help kee cabling ehind the MB tray as much as possible. Must admit the cabling has become a bit more of a feature than I had anticipated, I don't think it's too bad and will be better when it's tidied up, but it's a lesson learnt for next time :duh:

    Finally into the case with you:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Sorry about the dodgey photos - not enough time to do it properly :wallbash:

    Well as you can see there's still more to do; finnish off the plumbing, leak test in situ, complete the lighting (I've done quite a bit but haven't taken the photos yet) and rigging up the sensors etc for the aquero (suggested locations for these very welcome btw)

    You'll also notice that the hard drive mounting has changed, the Aqua drives were just tooo big, they would fit (just :worried: ) but looked real bad. So I went for the less is more approach :p

    Right I'm away for some fodder, thanks for your patience. :) Comments and suggestions always welcome :thumb:
     

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