Worklog: Project Thief - Fully Watercooled Dual PC

[stren]

The results are in:
A - 2
B - 7
C - 0
D - 6
Other suggesions:
- not paint and add leds - 2
- paint the housing and add leds -1
- paint hubs only and add leds -1

I liked some of the suggestions - I think what I'll do is actually not paint, and use red LED's to light the blades. I'm going to do a test run in the next couple of days. I'll also create a plate to attach the fans too that will cover some of the ugliness so only the blades will be seen. I can then create some back lit patterns. I need to check how much room is left in between the fans and the metal panel though.

Meanwhile I mounted the 140x9 radiator (without fans as I'm waiting on delivery), and checked the QDC's:

Unfortunately there is not enough room - only about 3/4" to make the 90 degree turn:

Luckily I had a non rotary 90 spare that could help out:

A rotary there would inevitably leak due to the weight of the QDC. I don't like the restriction of that tight 90 though so I may end up taking the QDC off of the radiator and putting it in line instead. I decided to leave it for a bit though and work on tapping the reservoir. The parts I need came in, so now it's time to build a makeshift tap handle lol.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Looking good. Not sure why you'd need a QDC that close to the radiator anyways. Unless you plan on needing to remove that radiator from time to time, but I can't imagine that being necessary.

Also your plate idea to cover some fan ugliness is a solid one.

I'm curious what GPU setup you are planning on having. Also what radiators for what hardware? Have I missed it earlier in the thread?

 

[Rubycon]

That's going to be quite restrictive.

 

[stren]

Looking good. Not sure why you'd need a QDC that close to the radiator anyways. Unless you plan on needing to remove that radiator from time to time, but I can't imagine that being necessary.

Also your plate idea to cover some fan ugliness is a solid one.

I'm curious what GPU setup you are planning on having. Also what radiators for what hardware? Have I missed it earlier in the thread?

That's exactly what I'm doing - dust cleaning on the rads

GPU setup - workstation - 2x8800gt, gaming rigs 3xgtx480

Workstation rads:

140x9 - workstation cpu
rx360 - 2x8800gt, motherboard, ram

Gaming rads:
gt stealth 120 - motherboard
gtx560 + gtx360 + ex560 - cpu + 3xgtx480

 

[stren]

That's going to be quite restrictive.

Yeah don't worry I'm not actually doing that. The real fan cover for the side panels will not be restrictive at all It'll just have holes for the fans

 

[stren]

So I received some more primochill LRT tubing that is definitely a different color than the previous stuff I have. It's not aging or the supplier because the existing stuff I have is of different dates and different suppliers. I contacts ppc's and they said to email primochill (although I do wonder if they shipped me feser by mistake). Either way we'll see what primochill says.

The difference looks 3-4x worse than the photo shows.

Also got some parts that were correctly manufactured (EK D5 top and lots of drain ports):

Bunch of fill ports:

I also got done with the clearcoat on the radiator so I could finally take the masking tape off:

Then I built a quick and dirty tap handle:

We'll see how it works, I may have to buy one but thought I'd try this first.

I attached the D5 top to the res with a rotary male to male connector. There was about 3/8" gap between the mounting plate and the motherboard tray though, so I picked up a rubber table leg weight distributor that felt like it would be good for damping vibrations. It's just the right size to hide behind the mounting plate. I had to shave it down a bit though as it was more like 1/2":

Here it is hiding:

If it's visible from the window, I'll have to replace it, but I think it's good. Here it is with the plate bolted down lightly (the barb is temporary):

Here it is mounted from the front:

 

[T_Yamamoto]

in the last image, the card looks like its bending a little

 

[stren]

Yeah it does bend a little, although due to the angle of the motherboard tray itself it looks worse than it is, it will get a back plate that should help a little though.

 

[MustangSVT]

love seeing these over the top , crazy builds xD.

 

[RavenSEAL]

What's the estimated cost so far?

 

[Jman13]

I have to say...after all this work, I sure hope it works off the bat. I'm always hoping I didn't leave a loose wire or a plug undone, or have a faulty motherboard or such, and my builds are "slam it in the case and worry about the cables later." (it took about 35 minutes total for my last build. Hehe.)

 

[Rubycon]

in the last image, the card looks like its bending a little

This is why horizontal trays are a must for me.
Nothing lasts very long with all the extra weight pulling down on it. Plus given my conditions aboard a moving ship - many dynamic loads at play - wreck a system rather quickly.

It's also far easier to work on with the system in the operating location. Again when the chassis is bolted down, more of a convenient thing but still...

:biggrin:

 

[stren]

What's the estimated cost so far?

Lol I don't want to know!

I have to say...after all this work, I sure hope it works off the bat. I'm always hoping I didn't leave a loose wire or a plug undone, or have a faulty motherboard or such, and my builds are "slam it in the case and worry about the cables later." (it took about 35 minutes total for my last build. Hehe.)

Yeah no kidding - I'm nervous, particularly as its been more than 30 days since I bought it which means I can't RMA to the egg and have to go through the manufacturer.

This is why horizontal trays are a must for me.
Nothing lasts very long with all the extra weight pulling down on it. Plus given my conditions aboard a moving ship - many dynamic loads at play - wreck a system rather quickly.

It's also far easier to work on with the system in the operating location. Again when the chassis is bolted down, more of a convenient thing but still...

:biggrin:

Lol yeah - you have some rather unique challenges. I'd love to see some photos.

I keep getting the urge to upgrade my 480's. 1.5gb vram runs out fast, I'm trying to be patient though and wait for GK110.

 

[stren]

I made a review of the TX10. I hope it's helpful and that people like it. It's not exactly professional (iphone ftw) but I tried to do my best with what I had. To give you an idea of the scale of the case - I'm 6ft 5, so it's pretty big.

http://youtu.be/3a7kKKPs6J8

Let me know any feedback you have to improve it (or future videos). This case is a tough subject to review, simply because there are so many things to cover. I don't particularly like the ending, I'm thinking of adding on a real conclusion, but for all being one take I think it's decent :thumb:
Stren!

 

[stren]

First thanks to Primochill for stepping up and taking care of the tubing - a box has been shipped so hopefully that's the end of that. PPC's should have been the ones to take charge of the situation in my opinion, so I know where I won't be shopping in future. I was able to use some of the pink stuff for the fill ports as I ran out of good tube.

Anyway here's a video update as I'm short on time to edit the photos. The house is full of parts everywhere and I need to tidy up before my wife kills me. This is about halfway through what's been done. One thing I've found with this case is that it's so large, that every wire needs to be lengthened:

Skip to the end to see the case next to a mid atx tower:

http://youtu.be/PjUD_uLTS9U

 

[OVerLoRDI]

WOOOOOOWW. You know the case is big, but once you see it next to an object whose size you are familiar with... dear lord that thing is huge.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

WOOOOOOWW. You know the case is big, but once you see it next to an object whose size you are familiar with... dear lord that thing is huge.

Tell me about it

 

[jay2nice000]

Nice job

 

[stren]

WOOOOOOWW. You know the case is big, but once you see it next to an object whose size you are familiar with... dear lord that thing is huge.

Haha yeah - I was thinking of upgrading my monitors, but now I'm not sure I'll have room anymore. Need to get a bigger house haha.

Tell me about it

Nice job

Thanks dude )

 

[stren]

So I finally tidied up the house. For some reason the wife was unhappy with every available surface being covered with stuff. This means I can start processing some photos.

So I started off by putting together the workstation upgrade. My gaming rig can be down, but I still have to work, so that's the first priority. The workstation consists of two loops:

1. i7-3930K - Mora3 140x9 - Dual PMP450S (D5 Strong)

2. EK R4E full cover block - 2 EK ram blocks - EK 8800GT block - D5 Vario - EK 250 cylinder res

As most of loop 2 was done, I started work on loop 1. So I started off mounting the fans to the mora3. Here it is with the CaseLabs "Super Mount". There are four dedicated mounting points independent of the fans which is nice:

This means you can just mount the fans to the supermount and not the radiator:

This is useful for cleaning because you can just undo the four mounting screws between the supermount and the rad. I.E. You don't have to remove every single fan for cleaning. FYI the fans are low speed 140mm yates (700rpm). I chose these because I wanted something cheap and quiet, and yates are both of those when at 700rpm.

Here's the super mount with fans mounted placed on top of the rad:

Then I attached the rad to the super mount:

The only downside to this is a tiny gap between the fan and the rad. However it's small enough that I don't think it will cause a problem:

Here it is mounted in the top of the case:

I then attached the quick disconnects to the CPU block for loop 1. Originally they were going to attach to the case and then have compression fittings on the cpu block. However there wasn't enough room to make the 90 degree turn, so i think this works better:

In the final setup I'll have some bitspower pass throughs that go to the top chamber. For now the tubing curves around to the drive bay area where the temporary reservoir and pumps are:

Again you can see the pink vs red tube. Primochill have shipped me some replacement tube - so props to them for taking care of it.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Bad ass iron please

 

[stren]

Bad ass iron please

Indeed!


So to build the workstation loop I also needed a rx360 rad from my gaming rig. So this meant that it was time to take the gaming rig apart. Here you can see it minus one fan that was clicking and had been removed. Yes you can cool 3 480's, a 920 and motherboard block with 5xAP15s but yes your water gets pretty warm lol.

So once the radiators were removed, I could take some side by side pics with the new case:

Yes the TX10 is huge!

So enough posing, it's time to take the guts apart:

You can see how the window was hiding some messy wiring. I hadn't bothered to tidy and sleeve much after putting in the Koolance res and STX because the TX10 was already on the way.

Lots of dust to be cleaned, here you can see the "saddlebag" setup of the external rads

About to take the fans and reservoir out:

Top fan and PSU removed:

Parts on the ground, parts on the ground looking like a fool with my parts on the ground!

The STX is a sexy card:

 

[zuffy]

Wow, that is HUGE. Is that similar to a 24U rack?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Mmm Xonar STX, love that card as well

 

[stren]

Wow, that is HUGE. Is that similar to a 24U rack?

Yeah it's about the same size, deeper than most racks though

Mmm Xonar STX, love that card as well