My First Case Mod "Prototype" - Cablessss

I would get them from a fastener company like Vancouver nut and bolt or fastenal grainger also has a good selection

http://www.grainger.com/Graing.....alog/N-8mg

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Rod
http://www.RodRosenberg.com

I got some from a guy on Ebay that were pretty good. The black ones are usually painted with epoxy and it holds pretty good until you mash it down. Then some of them crack the paint a little so you just need to take a Q-tip and dab some black paint on them.

Here is all the stuff he has on Ebay -

http://www.ebay.com/sch/petera.....1439.l2654

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Good Karma good - Bad Karma bad

Thanks for the help finding rivets guys I ordered some and they are shipping USPS and should be here no later than tomorrow Today I received my coolant, dye, top rad fans, tubing (both red and clear I need to decide which is going to look better), GPU blocks and back plates, and lastly my MCP655 pump. Now I am waiting for the CPU, mobo, reservoir + pump top/mount, and the fittings. I will update with more pictures once I have everything here.

Ok I have the rivets and they fit both diameter and depth wise but before I start on this tonight I was hoping to get a little help looking for pointers keeping the case "square" as in sturdy and the body panels straight where they should sit once the rivets have been installed. Also, if there is a special technique to make sure that the rivets are "squeezed" enough as in both sides make contact with the panels well.

Here is a picture of the rivet gun I am using:

Second thing:
I have the rivets but now I am looking at a few issues in the DVD drive area:

1) The tool-less mechanisms that came from the factory don't hold the drives or the reservoir in place worth a damn so I have to remove those mechanisms

2) The reservoir is shallow enough that it can't use standard drive mounts for it's screws so I have to manufacture something small to fasten it to the drive cage

3) The front and back sides of the DVD and Blu-ray drives look like crap so I am basically going to "ghost" both sides so only 1 single panel is on the back and the front of the case you can't tell that there are even drives installed

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated with ghosting the front panel for the drives and with the rivets!

I will add some pictures later to show a little of what I am talking about concerning the drive bay area. Thanks.

OK! All the rivets went in with very minute damage in unseen places thanks to the help of strategic tape placement.

Now I need to clean all the extra debris from this whole process out of the case and test fit the all the non H2O related hardware so I can do an initial start up for all the parts using air cooling. This will also let me figure out about where each component's cables are going to be routed and if there are going to be any issues elsewhere.

I will then start on the ghosting of the top and bottom drive cages as well as some other little details. Wish me luck!

In this picture we have(top down):
Hardware Labs Black Ice GT Stealth double 140mm radiator
EK Supreme HF CPU block
Intel Core i7-3930K
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 (LEGIT)
2 Prolimatech 140mm Aluminum vortex fans
CM Hyper 212 Plus CPU heatsink
2 Feser Red UV dye
G.skill 4x4GB DDR3-2400 ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6820231505
pump mount in box on top of FrozenQ Fusion reservoir
2 EK backplates for the XFX cards
2 Cooler Master megaflow 200mm fans
Swiftech MCP655 pump
Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste
Samsung 830 series 256GB SSD
2 WD Caviar Black 1.5TB sata III HDDs
Antec HCP-1200 power supply
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme mobo
2 EK full cover GPU blocks
2 XFX reference HD 6970 graphics cards
2 liters Alphacool distilled water
Red UV Phobya tubing
Phobya 200mm radiator with protective insert still in it
Tygon clear tubing
LG Blu-ray burner
ASUS DVD burner
lastly we have all Bitspower compression fittings on the bottom.

Not in the picture is the already mentioned and Pictured case = Corsair Obsidian 650D

You make me sad Sad

So much awesome in one place!

Also, I see that you are going with 6970's instead of the 5850s,
would you be looking to get rid of those? I need a mate for my current 5850.

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Desktop:Intel i7-3770K, 16GB G.Skill @ 1600, Intel 240GB SSD - 3TB total HDD, ATI RADEON 5870, ANTEC 300
18, 18.5, 20

This gave me a chub. Sad to see now DD water cooling supplies. Awesome amount of gear to say the least.

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Danger Den Lan Tower 450, GIGABYTE GA-Z77N, Intel i3 2100, 8gb Corsair Vengeance, Crucial M4 60GB, Western Digital 1tb Black, ZOTAC GTX 560ti, Silverstone 450W SFX.

Make sure you check your frozenq impeller housing. Mine had issues. They drill pretty far in on the outlet. So just make sure they didn't drill into the intake. also, mine was not deep enough and the impeller was bottoming out. I would run and test it before installing it and filling with coolant. Cant wait to see some more pics.

PennyWise wrote:

Make sure you check your frozenq impeller housing. Mine had issues. They drill pretty far in on the outlet. So just make sure they didn't drill into the intake. also, mine was not deep enough and the impeller was bottoming out. I would run and test it before installing it and filling with coolant. Cant wait to see some more pics.

Where on the reservoir is this physically or are you talking about the MCP655 mount/top/adapter thing? Did you have to make any physical modifications to either of them to make them function properly?

NightFox45 wrote:

You make me sad Sad

So much awesome in one place!

Also, I see that you are going with 6970's instead of the 5850s,
would you be looking to get rid of those? I need a mate for my current 5850.

Sorry I already pawned off the 2nd reference one to a buddy of mine so that he could use his rig and I am using the other in this computer as it will become my backup/LAN rig down the road.

Also, where would I purchase a "kill coil" (made of silver??) and where should it be installed in the loop I assume it is in the reservoir?

I had to do some modifications to the I/O shield area luckily there is enough extra space to get away with it for it to still be sturdy. I did a dremel cut and I am probably going to have to cut it some more tonight so that I can arrange the mobo side fitting perfectly so that with tubing in it it won't interfere as badly with cable management and other organizational hazards.

This and a couple spots are going to get touched up with some matte black paint applied with cotton swabs once I have the arrangement of the top radiator + fans + fittings and the ghosting of the drive cages done this weekend.

First thing I did today was "enhancing a mistake I didn't realize was going to be a problem. I was cutting up my I/O panel for a fitting that was gonna go on the other side of the case. So instead of posting those photos I will put up some showing the case with most of the parts inside even though only some are in their final positions.

Something to note here is the front radiator and fans are actually sitting about 1/2" below where they will end up because where they are sitting right now they don't mtach up with the stock screw holes and so they are just attached to the front hex mesh. Also, the ba on the PSU is not only to protect it but so that it gives a better idea of how the colors are going to look once I paint it's casing black from the current navyish blue.

Another ugly thing you see here is that the side panel is actually bowing out from the massive amount of cables behind it which you see in the next picture. Again this is literally a mock up of a dry run. I have a sleeving kit and small round hole black mesh for the ghosting of the drives on the way from frozencpu.com

Cables

OK so the first Start up with just 1 video card, Asus DVD drive, SSD, and on air cooling went pretty good. No error codes or extra beeps. Health monitor in BIOS showed 37C idle on the CPU but once I had done some observations I could go more on tension for the heatsink. I put on way too much TIM because the HDT cooler made it hard to determine how much was enough TIM. Also, other temperatures were in order and this temp was in a room of 24C and fans running nearly inaudibly (seems HSF was running around 500 RPM comparing to other slow speed fans).

A death in the family over the weekend slowed progress but with death comes new meaning to life and some extra fervor going in to my efforts.

This week I have to order a third SATA III cable and start figuring out the drive ghosting and a few other form factor issues getting the reservoir and bottom radiator to fit properly.

More pictures and updates to come as I make more progress this week.

2-8-2012: Big time update in terms of information not so much in physical activity.

The build looks like this right now:

Today I started sort of re-prioritizing the build. I was focusing on aesthetics way too much and not enough on getting the function part down.

My Plan of attack and big push for this next few days

Tonight:
1. Setting up SSD and HDDs (SSD boot then RAID 0 on the HDDs) and try to get Windows installed (may require ASUS Tech Support)
2. SOOOO much programming homework! At least it's Visual basic
3. If I have the energy I will do some additional driver software installs and stability testing overnight so it is closer to being "Ready for Water"
Tomorrow:
1. Two medium papers for school + more programs
2. If everything goes exceptionally well tonight and I have windows installed and the drives all cooperating then tomorrow night I will setup Crossfire drivers and other not so necessary software so I can do the more realistic stock settings stability tests.
3. In the afternoon I am enlisting the engineering expertise of my Dad and possibly my half brother to do some simple metal work inside the case (bottom radiator mount + "ghost" panels for drive cages) mostly involving how to obtain precise measurements and what method to properly fold/bend 90 degree corners into my old case side panel and metal mesh panel so I only have to do it once!
Friday:
1. Early Morning: Reduce my computer from it's current messy, barbarian, air-cooled state to some sexy, clean, bare silicon to prepare for water block installation and some metal cutting related "drawrin's" (as the old folks call it) for a bottom radiator fan mount thing and the drive "ghost" panels Possibly reservoir mount too....
2. 11AM-6PM = Daily grind
3. After work: Install Graphics card blocks
4. Cut out new Radiator mount plate so it can actually be mounted securely + mount pump to reservoir and make necessary changes to DVD drive cage so the reservoir can be secure but easy enough to "bleed" air bubbles + set which compression fittings go where in stone
5. SLEEEEEP
Saturday:
1. Wake up bright and early. This will be enough of a challenge....
2. Mount up the parts in their final positions with H2O blocks installed
3. Start cutting tubes and installing them
4. Somewhere in here figure out how I am going to test this all out without frying my thousands of dollars of parts (HELP PLZ)!!!
5. 1:30PM - 9:30PM = More work, yay!
6. Possibly do an actual system test that night and if it goes well I would then run some HEAVY stress testing for some high load/thermal/stability testing
Sunday:
1. Work
2. Homework (These two may switch around depending on my schedule
3. Any extra time is going to be spent ensuring the system's safety through Heavy, Heavy load testing and searching the mobo's built in sensors for hot spots because of the strange arrangement and possibly inadequate amount of air cooling which may cause me to purchase the optional Corsair side mesh panel
4. Definitely going to have a last list of parts to buy for detail stuff I want starting with lighting and sound dampening
5. Paint the radiator plate and the PSU enclosure (Maybe on the PSU if I can the perfoect ghost panel to cover it I will leave it stock so I can keep the warranty)
5. Maybe some cable management if I get lucky

Stay tuned! Or go back to your life because you just spent way too much time reading this enormous status update/mini blog.

OK So yesterday I had a huge problem I could have avoided should I have read a little more when ordering the parts and I had some compatibility issues with the EK GPU blocks fitting. The problem was that they were for version 1 reference cards and my cards are obviously not from the first run of HD 6970s built. So I found that out just in time to phone in and order the only 2 blocks from Frozencpu.com before they even came back in stock!

Thanks to the awesome guys over there! They answered my call almost an hour after their listed closing time and stayed with me patiently until the end.

I now have to wait until tomorrow night to finish the water cooling setup but more likely Thursday because of work and school constraints.

HOWEVER!

Now I get to do some other aesthetic and organizational stuff like ghosting the drive cages and DVD doors.

Here is an icky phone pic of a tubing mockup I did last night to try to get an idea of where I would route my tubing.

NEED HELP:

In the repeated fitting tests I was doing with my reservoir it seems I tore the soft insulation on the cathode wires in 2 places:
Can I fix this issue by just sleeving the wires? (the metal wire is completely intact)

Water Cooling questions I have which I will post elsewhere, too
Please give advice:

1) Loop layout (pump -> CPU->??? etc.) for cooling efficiency
I was thinking the loop direction should go like this:
RES -> Pump -> Top rad -> CPU -> bottom rad -> Bottom GPU -> top GPU -> Return to Reservoir

2) Pump reliability: What speed should I run the pump for a balance in longevity vs performance

3) Any specific place that is best to put my kill coil(s) (should I use both?

4) How do you know too tight vs too loose on the fittings

5) Easiest way to get clean cuts on the tubing (I have an X-acto knife?)

6) Filling/bleeding the system (I already know how I am going to slide the res out to fill it)

7) Testing the system for leaks (I am already planning on hooking up all fans/pumps to a separate power supply out of harms way)

Thanks in advance for any help and tips you can give a newb like me! Please help me get this done before (maybe even at) PDX LAN

Got my new GPU blocks in and I am doing an all nighter tonight will not update this until probably tomorrow night with how well things went I need every moment I can get to finish this thing up.

To Do List:
1) Make sure water blocks fit on GPUs and mount them
2) Mod front of case to properly accommodate front radiator
3) Either modify 5.25" tray covers so that they "ghost" the DVD drives or return DVD drives back to stock form
4) Create rear shroud to "ghost" 5.25 inch cage
5) Clean out cuttings and shavings, blow out, vacuum case, and wipe down with microfiber fuzzy glove
6) Install all hard parts
7) Mount CPU block
8 ) Check fittings
9) Cut tubing
10) "Install" kill coils so they will not hurt pump
11) Double check fittings and tubing all around
12) Fill res and begin leak testing through out the day

Hopefully I get at least this far during the next 9 hours so I can have time to do some finishing touches Tomorrow night and actually make it look clean.

Wish me luck!

Two things.

Super clean cuts on tubing don't matter, I use a skinning knife and it works great/you can't tell.

On the cathode wire just make sure you wrap them in a thin aplication of electrical tape, if both conductors are bare make sure to wrap each in it's own electrical tape so they are not allowed to short.

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@ PDXLAN: 5,7,8,9,10,10.5,11,12,12.5,13,14,14.5,15,16.5,17,18,18.5,19,20.5,21,[22]

DAYO wrote:

Two things.

Super clean cuts on tubing don't matter, I use a skinning knife and it works great/you can't tell.

On the cathode wire just make sure you wrap them in a thin aplication of electrical tape, if both conductors are bare make sure to wrap each in it's own electrical tape so they are not allowed to short.

Sounds good to me that's basically in line with my "wing it" strategy.

So after a long academic retreat from this mod I am back to do some cable management.

I have ordered UV red + black sleeving kits that will arrive Monday, but tonight I am going to get ready for the sleeving by disconnecting every cable in there and removing the PSU so it can go under for surgery. Wish me luck on my first sleeving attempt! I will try to keep this updated.