Project Thief - CaseLabs TX10-D Dual Workstation/Gaming Build - Gulftown and SB-E

[stren]

First off - thanks to my sponsors - CaseLabs (http://caselabs-store.com/), Monsoon Cooling (http://www.monsooncooling.com/), DT Waterblocks (http://www.dtwaterblocks.com/), Primochill (http://www.primochill.com/), Corsair (http://www.corsair.com/), EK Waterblocks (http://www.ekwb.com), Lutro0 Customs (http://lutro0-customs.com/) and Alphacool (http://www.alphacool.com)

http://caselabs.net/CaseLabsStoreLogo.png
http://cdn.overclock.net/3/3e/600x211px-LL-3e08235d_lcbanner.jpeg
http://i1251.photobucket.com/albums/hh545/goatsongoats/monsoon.png
http://i.imgur.com/X6yoR.jpg
http://www.primochill.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/primochill_logo_no_background-e1349637938415.png
http://www.corsair.com/us/skin/frontend/enterprise/corsair/images/logoCorsair.png
http://www.ekwb.com/images/ekwb_logo.png
http://unique-pcs.net/banner3.jpg

The full build log will be posted on here and on my website - however it may get fractured into multiple posts here, so if you want an easy read go here (http://www.extremerigs.net/), you can also subscribe to my youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/extremerigsdotnet) if you so wish.

Mods if I'm breaking any rules please let me know - I'm new here so not sure how ROG works.

Current Status

Case:
http://i.imgur.com/B91tEh.jpg

Random cool photo of the week:
http://i.imgur.com/mqct6l.jpg

Index

To be done when I'm less lazy ;)


And so it begins

The project name is not finalized so suggestions are welcome - I thought of thief because it dual wields and it steals all my money!

I am working on a huge monster build that will showcase CaseLabs newest case - the monster TX10. This monster case can fit two SR-2 (HPTX) systems with full water cooling. As shown it could fit multiple Mo-Ra 140x9 raditors, or 6 140.4 radiators. It can even fit front mounted 140.5 radiators.

The main feature will be two giant custom waterfall reservoirs that will occupy the front bays.

Here is the current hardware that I have to go in:

http://i.imgur.com/uvDvl.jpg

Unboxing Videos and Pics

I picked up the case directly from Jim - so the packing was reduced in order to fit in my car. If you buy one of these it will come in two boxes as it's packed a lot more securely.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqwGFFfPLQ4&context=C3322918ADOEgsToPDskI2H2Nz8m3_IbQaLgVUrd0R


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqPqH7rvIZA&context=C3953b0bADOEgsToPDskI8m9W8hEnOrEc9aEr83gWw

http://i.imgur.com/CV6ZOh.jpg
Lots of Parts

http://i.imgur.com/bBJIAh.jpg

Building the case

As Jim knew the case was going to be powder coated by FTWPC he saved FTW the hassle of sandblasting it by skipping the CaseLabs normal black/white powder coat. Because of this the case is not only in it's raw bare aluminum state, but it also is less assembled than normal in order to save on time taking everything apart.

http://i.imgur.com/T6Kz7h.jpg
The Pedestal frame consist of top, bottom, front and back that are screwed together with countersunk screws

[stren]

http://i.imgur.com/x6zV3h.jpg
Screwing the casters in

http://i.imgur.com/r2JOth.jpg
These are the spring clips that hold the panels on - they hold the panels tight, while still be pretty easy to remove for changing your loop up

http://i.imgur.com/BwtRZh.jpg
Pedestal frame with one of the clipped side panel and the back plate screwed on

http://i.imgur.com/cdN99h.jpg
Pedestal with all panels attached except the top/bottom cover

http://i.imgur.com/lTvUNh.jpg
Main case frame coming together, this is the view from the back showing the holes for the dual vertical motherboard trays

http://i.imgur.com/T0NZ3h.jpg
Case + Pedestal with XXL window fitted on one side

Here's a quick video of the partially assembled case


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwrso0sehdo&context=C3773919ADOEgsToPDskJgx8bloxEVpne2XhAzGKgU

[stren]

Choosing colors for the powder coat

To make sure I was making the right choice on the color I decided to get some card and tape it to the frame. I removed the acrylic window and used a grey piece of card to model the motherboard:

http://i.imgur.com/ZviRNh.jpg
Metallic Charcoal Grey and Metallic Crimson Red

http://i.imgur.com/dGzCFh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OTFFLh.jpg
Metallic Charcoal Grey, Pearl White and Crimson Red

http://i.imgur.com/bNZerh.jpg
Metallic Charcoal Grey with Metallic Pearl White

http://i.imgur.com/XS0rQh.jpg

These are the colors I think I've decided on:

Outside:
http://www.prismaticpowders.com/uploaded/thumbnails/db_file_img_5313_325xauto.jpg

Inside:
http://www.prismaticpowders.com/uploaded/thumbnails/db_file_img_4471_325xauto.jpg

[stren]

Samples finally came in:

http://i.imgur.com/Yshfe.jpg

I'm thinking the galaxy grey 2 (#5) and the silver/white (#2)

[stren]

2nd AX1200 also arrived - time for a group shot:

http://i.imgur.com/TwL48l.jpg

Picked up another D5 and a bitspower dual d5 top, they should be shipped on friday

[stren]

Thought you guys might want to see some pics of the existing hardware that will be *partly* reused as well as some of the new pieces. Apologies that the photos aren't that great, my wife took the camera with her tonight so I had to use my phone.

Here's my modded Antec 300 that contains my gaming rig (i7-920, Rampage III Extreme, 3xGTX480, Xonar STX, AX1200). When the workstation gets SB-E this will get the 990x. Note that one gentle typhoon is stopped - I unsoldered the power wire because it's out of balance so the noise is annoying.

http://i.imgur.com/J1vIc.jpg

Here's the front of the case with the space efficient but bubbly Koolance dual D5 reservoir as well as the dual 24V controller. I'll be using this reservoir until the 18 bay FTW reservoirs come in. No dvd drive, I removed it after installing windows and a couple of games. Most other games I have are on origin/steam.

http://i.imgur.com/y4DNR.jpg

Here's the interior - cable routing isn't perfect because I knew I was moving to the TX10 soon. I'll also be replacing all the blue LEDs with reds to match the ROG theme a bit better:

http://i.imgur.com/Hcn6a.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EdyJj.jpg

Here's the workstation in it's current temporary incarnation in a DD torture rack. i7-990x on an asus p6t. LSI raid card, 3 ssds and 3 hard drives and a 8800gt to drive the monitors. It has the H100 cooler temporarily and as you can see it needs some sleeving work:

http://i.imgur.com/EdyJj.jpg

Here's a front shot showing the push/pull AP15's on the H100, they perform about as well as the stock 2600rpm corsair fans at max, but with a *lot* less noise

http://i.imgur.com/E8Xi3.jpg

Trident + turbulence memory - back in the day this was sweet stuff 3x4gb @ 2000-8-9-8, now of course you can get better for a lot less money haha such is progress!

And now for some parts waiting to be installed - vintage EK gpu block:

http://i.imgur.com/QY1i5.jpg

My old rasa block - I'm hoping to not use this and instead get a second raystorm soon - note the o-rings on the barbs seem to be dying:

http://i.imgur.com/UZzmd.jpg

EK 250 res and DDC-1 for the worksation gpu and motherboard loop that will be self contained on the motherboard tray.

http://i.imgur.com/Tn0tn.jpg

That's about all the fun stuff I can show for now!

[stren]

sneak peak of powder coat

http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx315/Smasherbasher/Mods%20for%20customers/276b3a43.jpg

[stren]

http://i.imgur.com/PAKCsl.jpg

and that brings us up to date!

[chrsplmr]

Incredible...
...it was like seeing black&red..built for real...almost.
with the exception of the board and the size of the case...

what a beast...cudos...looking forward to this thread...thnx.c.

[stren]

Incredible...
...it was like seeing black&red..built for real...almost.
with the exception of the board and the size of the case...

what a beast...cudos...looking forward to this thread...thnx.c.

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it too haha. What do you mean by seeing black and red?

[xeromist]

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it too haha. What do you mean by seeing black and red?

It's an art project he's working on. Linked in his sig.

[stren]

It's an art project he's working on. Linked in his sig.

D'oh - checking it out now :)

[DaemonCantor]

Great Case I need one!

[stren]

My testpack of monsoon fittings arrived today, these are the 3/8 ID 5/8 OD

http://i.imgur.com/I8O6rl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OHMnNl.jpg

With primochill tube:

http://i.imgur.com/CuVNrl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cJptWl.jpg

[WhitePaw]

Great thread, superb work...

[stren]

Thanks! Seeing as my boss gave me the week off (why not a raise?) for having to work like crazy the last month I decided to test out some of the components that came in on my workstation. for the last few months it's been running the H100 cooler, now it's time to switch it to partial watercooling.

In the end the workstation will have two loops:
1 - CPU (raystorm) - mora 140.9 - dual D5 varios
2- GPU (8800gt) - GPU (9800gt) - motherboard - DDC-1 - RX360

The GPU's only do 2D, so there's very little heat on loop2. Both loops will eventually run with low speed yates and I'm hoping it should be close to silent while giving excellent overclocking performance on the cpu.

As I don't have 4 D5's yet (still one short) I'll be temporarily running this loop with a DDC. I picked up one of the NOS ones from bmaverick, they're not that powerful but this won't be driving a critical loop. I picked up an xspc acrylic top (later I'll run some dye for the money shots):

http://i.imgur.com/UGvWQl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/vE1xQl.jpg

However the XSPC screws don't fit the old DDC's so I had to drill out the holes a bit larger

http://i.imgur.com/Y8jD4l.jpg

Done:

http://i.imgur.com/A7PZGl.jpg

Then with the EK 250 res fitted. I used a bitspower shining silver male to male rotary fitting to attach them:

http://i.imgur.com/o4uhXl.jpg

Also remember that talk about the acyrylic vs delrin 8800gt blocks, well I ordered the acrylics and they arrived the other day:

http://i.imgur.com/M0Fa6l.jpg

They do look sexier!

http://i.imgur.com/LorbIl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/awZe0l.jpg

Taking apart the 8800gt:

http://i.imgur.com/vEp7ml.jpg

[stren]

Then I realized I didn't have any non-conductive TIM left, so I put it to the side and put the 9800gt in for now. Built up the temporary cpu loop in the torture rack

http://i.imgur.com/rkWyXl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DWBlhl.jpg

Kind of a funky radiator setup - the torture rack only supports 240 rads, so I ran 2 fans in push and 2 fans in pull. I have 12 more gentle typhoons coming from the ocn group buy:

http://i.imgur.com/rrwssl.jpg

Then more stuff came:

http://i.imgur.com/hzGPwl.jpg

Fan adapters for the gtx 560, plus rubber fan isolators. Not sure if they'll do much but they were cheap if I bought the adapters, so I picked some up:

http://i.imgur.com/OlFdol.jpg

[stren]

So I'd been suffering wrist pain after pulling 20 hour days working on CAD stuff. This isn't unusual when I'm forced to use a bad mouse or a bad setup, but my trusty G5 on a bare desk wasn't cutting it. I decided to try a "gaming" mousepad and thought I'd check out a razer deathadder while I was doing it. After a few weeks of it I actually prefer the feel of it despite the construction feeling less sturdy and having less features than my trusty G5. The G5 now gets relegated to the gaming rig as I game less than I work :(

http://i.imgur.com/Y507rl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KCbi5l.jpg

Also parts for my lightsabre came in ;)

http://i.imgur.com/cjtCXl.jpg

[kb0sdq]

Very cool, I also have the death adder I use it for wow. Anyhow I have the right hand version. I like how you can go into the mouse and program the buttons and make macros for the mouse.
Happy ROG_n
Doug

[stren]

Very cool, I also have the death adder I use it for wow. Anyhow I have the right hand version. I like how you can go into the mouse and program the buttons and make macros for the mouse.
Happy ROG_n
Doug

Nice- I haven't tried any of the fancy stuff yet, just straight up out of the box though it's working better for me than my G5 after a lot of tweaking.

[stren]

Seeing as we're all a bit bored waiting for the case to come home, here's some more hardware:

http://i.imgur.com/Fdqbul.jpg

[kz9]

Awesome so far!

[CjGemini]

Stren you are everywhere :p

[stren]

Stren you are everywhere :p

Lol so it seems are you :)

[stren]

Tease mode activated

A box arrived

http://i.imgur.com/eyRMRl.jpg

You said flap :rolleyes:

http://i.imgur.com/B84Ajl.jpg

The largest usb flash drives known to man and some awesome sauce:

http://i.imgur.com/6HFzbl.jpg

Sometimes the front view is better than the back:

http://i.imgur.com/W3ITTl.jpg

Opening a door:

http://i.imgur.com/Q2jeDl.jpg

Socket 2011 is bigger than I thought:

http://i.imgur.com/9o66Ol.jpg

Inside the box is two more boxes:

http://i.imgur.com/mbaW7l.jpg

- Curiously only a 2x CFX cable, but yet 2/3/4x SLI cables
- The sata 6gbps cables are black with partly white connectors as opposed to full black for the rest of the cables.
- The OC key that plugs inline with your monitor doesn't support high res monitors - bit of a fail there Asus. Shouldn't affect me as I can use the USB cable from my other rig anyway
- It would be nice if the back of the backplate was also black rather than the shiny tin foil like other boards

http://i.imgur.com/HIoGLl.jpg

And the last tease for the night:

http://i.imgur.com/QwMfNl.jpg

[stren]

Had some time for another photo session seeing as the cpu doesn't get here for a few days:

Took the board out:

http://i.imgur.com/xwl5Ol.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0Dfj6l.jpg

Took the ram out, seems to be the fastest I've seen at 1.5V with 4GB sticks.

http://i.imgur.com/8Lkv1l.jpg

Installed the ram, note that the polarity is reversed on each side, which makes sense if they flipped the pinout on the chip.

http://i.imgur.com/Kv7HMl.jpg

The paint job on the fins wasn't that even - some sticks definitely got more coverage:

http://i.imgur.com/AQE1Vl.jpg

Time to take off the heatsink in preperation for the EK full cover block:

http://i.imgur.com/FLpRnl.jpg

Only the VRM area had thermal pads on the back and front of the heatsink:

http://i.imgur.com/FYzj0l.jpg

Looks like Asus have moved away from that horrible yellow TIM they had on the R3E:

http://i.imgur.com/CZceNl.jpg

The VRM area with heatsink removed:

http://i.imgur.com/hp6yQl.jpg

[stren]

Chip arrived, motherboard and ram blocks don't come until tomorrow though.

SSD is actually for my wife's rig. I don't have an ssd on my gaming rig. I only use it for games so I wouldn't see that much benefit from a boot drive. I use my workstation for web browsing etc as it's on all the time. I'd need a 512gb drive or so to cover my games, so I'm waiting for prices to come down more

http://i.imgur.com/jqNlXl.jpg

Batch on the 3930K is 3152B448, we'll see how it clocks soon :)

[Hillguy]

Nice build , man that case is Huge , I want one :cool:

[stren]

Nice build , man that case is Huge , I want one :cool:

Thanks dude - you can get em from caselabs.net, this case isn't in the webstore yet but if you call Jim he can hook you up. They have a forum on overclock.net where you can see more photos etc :)

Another update:


Suddenly a wild EK party!

http://i.imgur.com/UQOsIl.jpg

Nickel plexi because I want to run some red dye (on special occasions only for all you dye haters out there)

http://i.imgur.com/eSbFQl.jpg

Finished cleaning the TIM off the south bridge only to find a piece of tin foil with more TIM underneath. Weird.

http://i.imgur.com/dsfURl.jpg

Pretty easy to install when the block is in two parts, the single piece blocks are much harder:

http://i.imgur.com/SeqTAl.jpg

VRM area:

http://i.imgur.com/lMeafl.jpg

Full board:

http://i.imgur.com/Kt9rKl.jpg

and one more:

http://i.imgur.com/idFEml.jpg

That's all for now

[stren]

No comments? ROG peeps don't like water? Then you may not like this ;)


With ram blocks, the fittings aren't the final ones, just more for planning. I'm working with Monsoon free to see if something special will make the tube routing super clean ;)

http://i.imgur.com/D7x2Wl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TVsUAl.jpg

the ram blocks remind me of battersea power station:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Battersea.power.station.london.arp.jpg/592px-Battersea.power.station.london.arp.jpg

Now adding in the gpu makes it look ugly and busy :( The copper and green pcb really don't match. I called a nickel plating company to get a quote on plating both copper GPU blocks and it was $175 for both! So that's not going to happen. I may switch to the other acetal/copper block and paint the edge of the copper silver. I have another idea for the PCB ;)

http://i.imgur.com/xT4Kvl.jpg

Much better with the gpu off again

http://i.imgur.com/lf16ml.jpg

[Gore]

Danm

Can I be your friend?

Danm

[Clopyright]

Nice work comrade, although i was never a fan of "RAMs in the water" game....

[stren]

Danm

Can I be your friend?

Danm

Sure haha, this friendship may come without benefits though lol


Nice work comrade, although i was never a fan of "RAMs in the water" game....

Yeah me neither, but I thought I'd give it ago this time




Soo like I mentioned before I really didn't like the green/copper look clashing with the black/red R4E theme:

http://i.imgur.com/xT4Kvl.jpg

So I started to paint the GPU with liquid tape - first coat:

http://i.imgur.com/Y7AOtl.jpg

So here's how it looks now after two coats on both sides:

http://i.imgur.com/HFo5wl.jpg

You can see some of the texture here, liquid tape is hard to work with - either annoyingly thick, or very thin and see through:

http://i.imgur.com/1xGQhl.jpg

From this angle the texture isn't as bad:

http://i.imgur.com/zCcwAl.jpg

However it would look a lot better with a backplate, I'm thinking something like this, smoked acrylic with an etch and a couple of LEDs to light it from the side:

http://i.imgur.com/yBnuyl.jpg

What do you guys think? Feel free to photoshop up your own suggestions :)

[stren]

The temporary parts came in to see if I could get some clean routing for the motherboard/ram/gpu loop:

http://i.imgur.com/rh2orl.jpg

However it didn't quite work as expected- I couldn't get the 40mm extensions to work with the 5 way rotary snake, however a SLI connector did fit.

http://i.imgur.com/odVJJl.jpg

Now I'm not sure whether to:
- get two more sli connectors (I need this one)
- use two compression fittings instead
- get two of the bitspower crystal sli links to match better

What do you guys think?

I should probably go with the cheapest as I'm hoping monsoon free's new design will solve the problem for me.

[DaemonCantor]

Looking Fantastic, My opinion is why not just go for what looks the best as well as performs the best for your application.

[stren]

Looking Fantastic, My opinion is why not just go for what looks the best as well as performs the best for your application.

True - I went with the bitspower crystal SLI links for now, hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow. Here's an alternative crossover tubing style that looks too busy:

http://i.imgur.com/2Dfoal.jpg

Thanks ROG for making me #1 on your mods roundup for feb. Now I'll try and make it awesome enough to be on there every month :)


http://i.imgur.com/l7q6ml.jpg

[stren]

Got some more parts today:

http://i.imgur.com/8V4MWl.jpg

3 ssds and a bunch of fittings:

http://i.imgur.com/SvwuDl.jpg

This meant I could do some leak testing with the gpu/motherboard/ram loop. Still missing the other gpu for now though, but the important thing was to see if the ram block connections were good:

http://i.imgur.com/svbBll.jpg

You can see water on the bottom right of the board. The GPU didnt' have it's spare ports sealed tightened down properly. Didnt' see that leak for a few minutes as it was dripping down the back of the block and was mainly hidden by the card and the block. You can see it coming out and filling up the pci-e socket:

http://i.imgur.com/Kb7qrl.jpg

The bitspower crystal linke sli fittings were part of the order too. The closest one in this photo leaked initially as it had fallen out of the o-ring. They're not that sturdy so it's a bit concerning that they might fall out. We'll have to see how it goes.

http://i.imgur.com/RWC9ql.jpg

The top view is much nicer now though:

http://i.imgur.com/bg9xYl.jpg

With red dye the crystal links won't look so out of place.

That's all for now. Case should be back from powder coating with another 14 gentle typhoons on tuesday, so expect a big update then :) Until then the board can dry out a bit ;) I need more time for working on the backplates and the reservoirs.

[DaemonCantor]

Now that looks really good! I think you chose very well! I can't wait to see it with the red dye now!

[stren]

Now that looks really good! I think you chose very well! I can't wait to see it with the red dye now!

Me too :) I'm so impatient for this bulid haha. Gotta practice patient to get it perfect though.

I'd also like to welcome my newest sponsor - DT Waterblocks (http://www.dtwaterblocks.com/). I'll be using and reviewing their new cpu waterblock the "5Noz".

http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/web-dt5noz-withbackplate.jpg

This is the lowest restriction block out there - from Martin's Preview: (http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/02/27/dt-5-noz-cpu-block-preview/)

http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/dt5noz-pressuredrop2b.png

It'll be interesting to see how it does vs the raystorm which is one of the top blocks out there.

[stren]

Alright boys and girls, you haven't had an update in some time cause the forums have been down so much, so here's a few at once:

[stren]

Unboxing pics:

http://i.imgur.com/CHJ1Ul.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QwjBAl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yb3R8l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/77R1Rl.jpg

2 motherboard trays are better than one:

http://i.imgur.com/HwSRPl.jpg

Some accessories:

http://i.imgur.com/yidLSl.jpg

These are only the frame parts - the exterior skin is still at smasher's place:

http://i.imgur.com/P7Yj4l.jpg

"Super Mounts" - From top: 120x4, 140x4, 180x3 and 5 way hard drive flex bay mount (120x5)

http://i.imgur.com/P1Prjl.jpg

Pedestal front and back:

http://i.imgur.com/l1dg3l.jpg

Frame top and bottoms for case and pedestal:

http://i.imgur.com/beMbRl.jpg

[stren]

I have a video that I'm trying to put together of building the case. Here's a shot of assembling the pedestal pieces:

http://i.imgur.com/Bx8mBl.jpg

- Unfortunately no more photos of the pedestal, but essentially there's a front and back and a top and bottom, each of the four joins look like the pic above.
- They get screwed together with 7 screws along the top and one on each corner (side).
- Screw the top and bottom to the front, and then add the back on.
- Then start work on the main case. Start with the center and work outward. Here's the motherboard compartment - the two inner vertical sheets and the top and bottom sheets.

http://i.imgur.com/RIB0Ml.jpg

- Assemble the two vertical sheets to the top sheet (8 screws):

http://i.imgur.com/gg8qEl.jpg

- Then add the other bottom sheet (8 screws):

http://i.imgur.com/imVTHl.jpg

- Then put the case down on it's front and add the back (34 screws)

http://i.imgur.com/dNm7nl.jpg

- Then put the case back on it's side so you're ready to easily add the front panel:

http://i.imgur.com/R8lx2l.jpg

- Screw in the front panel to all the other pieces (36 screws) and put the case on top of the pedestal.
- Screw the case to the pedestal (4 screws) and it should look like this:
- Screw in any flex bay mounts and accessories

http://i.imgur.com/fxgWsl.jpg

- Add the motherboard trays to the motherboard back plates and attach the handles (6 screws total)
- Add the hinges for the doors
- Rearrange any back panels
- test your super mounts fit
- Clip on the exterior frame panels
- start building or clip on the frame

[stren]

Here's mine without the exterior panels, don't worry the black plate covers will dissapear by the end of the build (18 bay waterfall reservoir to come)

http://i.imgur.com/B8xadl.jpg

[stren]

So I got the opportunity to tour this new workshop close to downtown that just opened. It has all the workshop tools you could never afford to buy yourself, and you can buy day passes or month passes depending on how long you need. So this resolves all my issues with manufacturing the waterfall reservoirs myself, as well as opening up possibilities like custom waterblocks...

It was the launch weekend so there was a free bbq (there were plenty more people later on)

http://i.imgur.com/0vK2gl.jpg

Wood shop room, saw stop tablesaw, planer, chop saw etc. bunch of other stuff that isn't shown:

http://i.imgur.com/jZdqrl.jpg

Large CNC Mill for wood:

http://i.imgur.com/fpxZml.jpg

Sand Blaster:

http://i.imgur.com/uXT7gl.jpg

Vinyl cutter so you can print your own stickers:

http://i.imgur.com/uXSe8l.jpg

Forgot to take a photo of the 3D printer, but here's an 150W laser that cut through some hefty steel plate:

http://i.imgur.com/uJLy7l.jpg

There's two other lasers good enough for acrylic/wood, and a third one is apparently on the way:

http://i.imgur.com/tOMlel.jpg

Spray paint booth, they have an oven for powder coating, but not all the rest of the powder coating tools yet:

http://i.imgur.com/XDPB8l.jpg

Metal press and folding machiens:

http://i.imgur.com/ly2Eol.jpg

[stren]

Other metal machines, bandsaw, grinders and a lathe:

http://i.imgur.com/QPmjEl.jpg

Metal lathe:

http://i.imgur.com/zVTf0l.jpg

Old school mills:

http://i.imgur.com/GHpdVl.jpg

CNC mill - can you say custom waterblocks!

http://i.imgur.com/5zIgDl.jpg

Electronics room - not much here, bunch of soldering irons, power supplies and scopes:

http://i.imgur.com/WMYtgl.jpg

So what do you all think I should do with this opportunity?

I definitely want to:
- make the custom metal backplates for GPUs
- make the waterfall reservoir
- make some custom waterblocks for parts that aren't ultra high performance e.g. raid card, memory blocks etc.

[stren]

Alright here's an update. Can you say gentle typhoooooooooooooooooooons?

http://i.imgur.com/mqct6h.jpg

Don't worry they're not all for me. I only have 14 of those plus the 10 I already own.

My waterblocks also came in, thanks again to DT Waterblocks, here they are next to my spare rasa (both my raystorms are still in systems)

http://i.imgur.com/gZNWGh.jpg

You can see there's plenty of room for fittings. On the back you can see the copper base plate is pretty chunky - this should mean it should distribute heat better laterally through the plate but worse directly through it. Not sure the right trade off, but this copper block is the largest I've seen both in terms of area and thickness.

http://i.imgur.com/vOiR2h.jpg

Here's some results from Martin's testing: (http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/03/12/i7-3930k-dt-5noz-cpu-block-review/)

Temps in comparison to the raystorm:

http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dt5noz-th4.png

Restriction:

http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/dt5noz-pressuredrop2b.png?w=578&h=724


Performance is about as good as it gets, but there is some refinement in the mounting system needed. Considering this is their first block produced and it’s not only keeping up but lower in restriction than the other blocks says a lot! Overall, I see it as a block with a ton of work and emphasis put into the design and quality of the block itself. That 5Noz is something very special and it’s very refreshing to see a design done very differently from the norm that also performs extremely well.

It should be noted that the mounting mechanism now has thumb screws. Next update I'll show you a pic of it mounted.

Anyway the other big news on this update is the exterior panels. Here's some close up shots of the color, it's a dark metallic grey flake with a smooth finish to the touch:

http://i.imgur.com/XdYP3h.jpg

Even closer:

http://i.imgur.com/mN0cuh.jpg

And as much as I can loosely hang on the case without it being clipped on. You can see one motherboard has also been mounted. The TX10 makes EATX look like a MITX lol.

http://i.imgur.com/BrRpsh.jpg

Working with Smasher and Jim on this has been a delight and I highly recommend them :)

[stren]

So while I was waiting for the screws, I decided to mount a reservoir to the motherboard tray. As the motherboard tray is HPTX there is a lot of spare space. Initially I wanted to also fit an RX360 on there, so that the motherboard/gpu/ram loop was self contained on the tray so that I could just pull it out and swap CPUs without disturbing that loop. Now I have another plan for the radiator instead. Here I am drilling the tray:

http://i.imgur.com/WWq62h.jpg

With the res mounted (it's a 250 EK multires if anyone cares and there's just enough room for a D5 underneath):

http://i.imgur.com/X8Jaxh.jpg

From the back with the reservoir mounted. You can see the two nuts holding it on:

http://i.imgur.com/YNepph.jpg

Now with the motherboard tray back stiffening and tiding plate added:

http://i.imgur.com/C0X12h.jpg

Here's another shot of the front also showing the new cpu block. BTW any barbs are just place holders.

http://i.imgur.com/vPwZkh.jpg

A quick test inside the case:

http://i.imgur.com/K8LhMh.jpg

I also did a test run with the gtx560 radiator and the fan adapters with my new shiny 2150 rpm gentle typhoons!

http://i.imgur.com/rMksih.jpg

That was it for the night, then the next morning I found an extra fitting and connected the res to the ram block. Almost a straight line lol.

http://i.imgur.com/DqGSKh.jpg

No one had photographed the new thumbscrews on the cpu block - so I took a couple of that also:

http://i.imgur.com/mlrQEh.jpg

Again ignore the barbs, I haven't quite decided how to route the tube out of there yet.

http://i.imgur.com/VnCeWh.jpg

[stren]

Here's a pic of the iwaki next to a D5

http://i.imgur.com/jQQyth.jpg

Then I put the dvd drives in. These will eventually be hidden :)

http://i.imgur.com/Lh3AWh.jpg

Then I starting putting in the new ssds into the hdd side mount:

http://i.imgur.com/ej11Lh.jpg

I have another 3 ssds and 5 hard drives to put in later on, when I really transplant everything over:

http://i.imgur.com/3NfmOh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/57NxOh.jpg

And now a tease of the case with the panels:

http://i.imgur.com/heGD5h.jpg

More to come soon :)

[stren]

double post

[Area 66]

More to come ???? wait I have to digest all of this.... this case is sick, it's far better than a Montain Mod.... I have to check more and more..... more comments to come......

[Giannis996]

i love this!! can you make me 1 also :P kidding :p

[frisianbear2002]

Wow thats a massive and impressive rig you build there , but what fans are you gone use :p

[stren]

More to come ???? wait I have to digest all of this.... this case is sick, it's far better than a Montain Mod.... I have to check more and more..... more comments to come......

:) Yeah the update might be a little slow this week as work is killing me, but big updates soon after that I promise!

[stren]

i love this!! can you make me 1 also :P kidding :p

Sure, send me a check for 20K and I'll start ordering the parts :cool:


Wow thats a massive and impressive rig you build there , but what fans are you gone use :p

These ones :D

http://i.imgur.com/mqct6h.jpg

[frisianbear2002]

Hahahaha yes i know it was just a joke because you orderd a so many of them 1 box of fans LOL:p

[Cygnitr0n]

Amazing build! That's one big machine! Are you going to fly with these typhoon's?

Good question for "Mythbusters". How many GT do i need to fly? :P

[stren]

Hahahaha yes i know it was just a joke because you orderd a so many of them 1 box of fans LOL:p

I thought so but wasn't sure you'd seen it lol, most people don't read the whole thread ;)


Amazing build! That's one big machine! Are you going to fly with these typhoon's?

Good question for "Mythbusters". How many GT do i need to fly? :P

lol

[stren]

So the only thing I got done this week was changing the switch plate to one that matched the exterior color. Here's the original:

http://i.imgur.com/PhZt6h.jpg

The cover is held on with two nuts:

http://i.imgur.com/XGjMfh.jpg

Put the new one on:

http://i.imgur.com/B9cAmh.jpg

Reattach the switches:

http://i.imgur.com/Rt1bOh.jpg

Install it:

http://i.imgur.com/IBuaAh.jpg

And put the panels back one:

http://i.imgur.com/B91tEh.jpg

That's probably it for the next week at which point a large order of parts should be coming in :thumb:

[Giannis996]

wow incredible ...after i make my personal pc im up to build a server pc..and you inspired me possitive!!

[frisianbear2002]

Massive case you can combine 4 computers in there LOL:p

[stren]

wow incredible ...after i make my personal pc im up to build a server pc..and you inspired me possitive!!

:)


Massive case you can combine 4 computers in there LOL:p

Yeah easily - I reckon it's about 6x the size of a midtower, maybe up to 20 mITX builds lol.

[stren]

Alrighty the fedex guy came, so here's some unboxing action:

http://i.imgur.com/TS5anh.jpg

Woooh packing

http://i.imgur.com/hNe1uh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZScUbh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AjqNeh.jpg

Opened some boxes - the front rad is an ex560 - not quite sure why this was the first 560 rad that XSPC made.

http://i.imgur.com/jUyech.jpg

Mora 140.9 revealed - way thicker than the EX of course

http://i.imgur.com/ZdMi3h.jpg

Can you say quick disconnects?

http://i.imgur.com/NrNiHh.jpg

[stren]

2nd update of the day:-

So I played around with my own version of the big slappy mod for the Iwaki - the idea is you tap the cylinder res for a much larger feed for the pump. The pump can't be on it's back so you need a nice slow 90 degree bend. The tough part is then getting down to the 5/8 OD pipe that is the inlet to the Iwaki. Here I used 1" pipe going to a 1/2" female converter fitted with a 5/8" brass barb. I butted the barb up right against the inlet and stretched some 0.5" tube over it:

http://i.imgur.com/XwlvOh.jpg

The feed may not be quite as good as the original big slappy as that only had a bout 3/4" of 5/8 inlet tube, vs this 2.5" on this version. However the downpipe is 1" instead of the 3/4" that was used. So hopefully the extra width balances it out a bit. Here's a photo of the original big slappy:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/4270331234_ccd8bcfac4_o.jpg

and amuseme's version:

http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i448/AllStop42/IMG_1608copy.jpg

We'll see I might change to what they did, I feel like it might have better performance.

Also started spray painting test colors on a dead GT. I made a quick spray booth:

http://i.imgur.com/P4B7Zh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SKTlWh.jpg

Done - there's some metallic flake in the paint, the color isn't quite as orange as the tube though:

http://i.imgur.com/punuJh.jpg

Reassembled (kinda)

http://i.imgur.com/goRMmh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ms7H2h.jpg

Then a final comparison with it mounted on the 120 rad (this rad is just for the motherboard block loop). The rad will be painted silver to match:

http://i.imgur.com/0y5Fnh.jpg

So what do you think? Are the colors close enough? Both are slightly off. I wonder if I can get a color match from the powder coat supplier. I think I'll look for a different red at the least tomorrow. The match does depend on the lighting though.

[stren]

Got some more today seeing as I got done with my deadline yesterday. I wanted to get the 120 rad painted to match the fan to see how it looks and what fittings to go with. So I started sanding down the brand new gt stealth:

http://i.imgur.com/ec0teh.jpg

Masked it off and applied primer:

http://i.imgur.com/aIDLlh.jpg

Then painted a matching cover to dress up the fan a little:

http://i.imgur.com/bRMFyh.jpg

While I was waiting for paint to dry, I put together the quick disconnect pairs, some will mount to panels with a g1/4 fitting on the other side, while some screw directly into radiators:

http://i.imgur.com/KU2A5h.jpg

Then I realized I need two more pairs...

I also did some work on the pump mounting. I added a drain port to the inlet tube and mapped out the cuts I wanted to make to the base panel. Air has to flow through the base panel, so there has to be some cut outs. Because the pump will vibrate, I'm worried about making the noise worse with a floppy piece of metal, so I was thinking to stiffen it with two 1" by 1/4" steel bars screwed underneath the base plate (these are the two dark shaded strips. I'll have to add some rubber strips to try and isolate the baseplate from the frame also.

http://i.imgur.com/a6y3Xh.jpg

Here's a quick look at the painted rad from earlier with the fan on top:

http://i.imgur.com/1Lcwyh.jpg

And here's a piece of acrylic that was laser cut and then painted to match. The dimensions aren't quite right though:

http://i.imgur.com/yE8Uth.jpg

Not sure whether to do something like this or not. I don't think I should use the zerg symbol anyway as it doesn't match the theme, but it's fun to play around.

Originally I had wanted to paint all the fans, then I got lazy and thought, well I'm more likely to screw them up by painting them (imbalanced rotors and all), plus they won't be seen so who cares. So I took a look to see if I could justify lazy or not - here are the stock typhoons showing:

http://i.imgur.com/R5T0jh.jpg

Here's one painted typhoon just rested up in there. Obviously the space around the fan (fan adapter) would be painted silver too so it would blend better. The red can't be seen too well though:

http://i.imgur.com/4ZOFzh.jpg

So I figure I have four options:

A) leave the GTs stock (lazy and quieter but looks ugly)
B) paint the GTs housing only and leave the rotor grey (quiet but stands out less
C) paint the GT fully (risks noise from a now unbalanced rotor and doesn't look much better than option b)
D) paint the GT fully and add some white LEDs to actually show the metallic red rotor off a little bit

What do you all think?

[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:

http://i.imgur.com/o5X61h.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/dDI6Jh.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/LquyLh.jpg

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.

http://i.imgur.com/W8AsLh.jpg

[frisianbear2002]

Very nice setup :cool:

[stren]

Very nice setup :cool:

Thanks Dude!

[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.

http://i.imgur.com/ydlEwh.jpg

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):

http://i.imgur.com/FDESTh.jpg

Bunch of fill ports:

http://i.imgur.com/fk9VSh.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/6dCJFh.jpg

Then I built a quick and dirty tap handle:

http://i.imgur.com/IIaxgh.jpg

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":

http://i.imgur.com/bPTgGh.jpg

Here it is hiding:

http://i.imgur.com/TmNuFh.jpg

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):

http://i.imgur.com/nnmVMh.jpg

Here it is mounted from the front:

http://i.imgur.com/ieEkTh.jpg

[frisianbear2002]

Hmmmm santa claus is comming to town hahahaha :p getting better and better. :cool:

[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!

[Menthol]

You need therapy, your sick. Very nice build, amazing really. Caselab make some amazing cases.

[stren]

Thanks dude - yes they do!

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

[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:

http://i.imgur.com/BpHDuh.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/uhfHLh.jpg

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:

http://i.imgur.com/9ksQ3h.jpg

Then I attached the rad to the super mount:

http://i.imgur.com/WCHx8h.jpg

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:

http://i.imgur.com/tzfwch.jpg

Here it is mounted in the top of the case:

http://i.imgur.com/LoWguh.jpg

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:

http://i.imgur.com/R0yOCh.jpg

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:

http://i.imgur.com/CnrRUh.jpg

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.

[stren]

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.

http://i.imgur.com/V2Wtah.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/Dq6Bqh.jpg

Yes the TX10 is huge!

http://i.imgur.com/abn1fh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lHMX5h.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/r6396h.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/d9RDih.jpg

About to take the fans and reservoir out:

http://i.imgur.com/ullW6h.jpg

Top fan and PSU removed:

http://i.imgur.com/2LWuih.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/jFaqyh.jpg

The STX is a sexy card:

http://i.imgur.com/PFk5Vh.jpg

[stren]

Alright so more photos taking the old rig apart - we left off by removing the pci cards and the power supply:

http://i.imgur.com/KD1JYh.jpg

So now let's remove the cpu block and check the tim spread:

http://i.imgur.com/KYC1Ah.jpg

Not the best but not awful. Now time to take the motherboard out:

http://i.imgur.com/2C6F8h.jpg

Out it comes:

http://i.imgur.com/Z5G2Wh.jpg

Which leaves a sad empty and dusty case!

http://i.imgur.com/eLd0fh.jpg

Now it's time to take apart the rad setup:

http://i.imgur.com/DKsQ5h.jpg

Remove the steel bars:

http://i.imgur.com/ctYtGh.jpg

Then the fans:

http://i.imgur.com/nCT7uh.jpg

I noticed one side of the rads now had white stains on them, these were the sides on the top:

http://i.imgur.com/ZfTjGh.jpg

Compared side by side to the underside (bottom rad):

http://i.imgur.com/J3CxCh.jpg

Anyone know what that is?

[Zka17]

My guess: it's just dust...
Nice work, btw!

[stren]

My guess: it's just dust...
Nice work, btw!

Thanks - I'd already blown the dust off, it looks like chemical stains almost. I'll have to get a close up of it

[Zka17]

Well, my first guess was wrong... :cool:

But here is my second guess: As I'm looking better on the pictures - specially on that with the green table with rads and fans (3rd from your last) - it seems to me that the blades of the fans touched the radiator fins. You have that white thing on the side where the fans were mounted and the fans has white blades... Check the intake side edge of the blades! Also, try: hold the frame of the fans with one hand, and try to move the blades along the axis - it may explain how the blades touched the radiator fins.

[stren]

Well, my first guess was wrong... :cool:

But here is my second guess: As I'm looking better on the pictures - specially on that with the green table with rads and fans (3rd from your last) - it seems to me that the blades of the fans touched the radiator fins. You have that white thing on the side where the fans were mounted and the fans has white blades... Check the intake side edge of the blades! Also, try: hold the frame of the fans with one hand, and try to move the blades along the axis - it may explain how the blades touched the radiator fins.

Thanks - the RX360 has a pretty good gap between the fan and the fins though (8mm or so), so I don't think it's that :)

[stren]

Well I haven't done any more on it yet. Still working through the photos from the last two weeks. So here's another update...

So we left off with the antec 300 emptied out, here's another shot of it next to the TX10 now that it's empty:

http://i.imgur.com/IS38ph.jpg

I was also now left with a big stack of fans. This is without the 15 fans that have already been used in the TX10:

http://i.imgur.com/50lkqh.jpg

Now I could start rebuilding the gaming rig into the TX10:

http://i.imgur.com/2aLGDh.jpg

Adding the 120 rad for the motherboard loop:

http://i.imgur.com/N20r0h.jpg

Testing that it still fits in the case:

http://i.imgur.com/ZXCnyh.jpg

Soon it must be time to start tidying up before I get slapped!

http://i.imgur.com/RnfOJh.jpg

However first I need to get my work computer up. The free 360 is being used for the workstation motherboard/ram/gpu loop and will sit approximately here:

http://i.imgur.com/BHicJh.jpg

So now to take apart the loop that was leak testing in order to add the rad:

http://i.imgur.com/xCUhih.jpg

I changed out the 45 degree bitspower compression on the GPU as it felt like it had a slight leak in in that position, so it has a temporary barb, I also removed the pump sticker. It's much cleaner now, and who needs an overpriced dress kit ;)

http://i.imgur.com/vboMEh.jpg

That's all for now!

[stren]

Alright I have a question about sleeving, I'm getting grey, titanium grey, black and red from mdpc and wondering the best pattern to do, what do you think?

http://i.imgur.com/YtgUp.jpg

[stren]

No preference ROG?

Here's a quick update - time to start drilling!

http://i.imgur.com/7hRDXh.jpg

Adding some fill ports:

http://i.imgur.com/68dJ5h.jpg

2 done:

http://i.imgur.com/gdvelh.jpg

All done:

http://i.imgur.com/GzOH6h.jpg

Not as messy now:

http://i.imgur.com/D27JTh.jpg

Time to get the workstation up and running so I can get back to work (once I've cleaned up of course). I'll be using the Koolance dual bay dual D5 reservoir for now. It's a real pain to use because it doesn't bleed well, however if you add on some tube from the fill ports on the res up to the fill ports on the case you can keep the water level above the reservoir and it really helps.

http://i.imgur.com/ruLwdh.jpg

Now we've freed up a 360 rad for the workstation gpu/motherboard/ram loop, we can put the loop together:

http://i.imgur.com/ANcC5h.jpg

I'm using AP15's temporarily until I'm done painting the low speed yates. Also that one barb is temporary too:

http://i.imgur.com/YpzPZh.jpg

The wiring is temporary too. So for loop testing, I disconnected the QDC's pulled the motherboard tray out of the case and the 360 out seperately, then I reconnected and filled the loop and left it to bleed/leak test on the counter for a few hours.

http://i.imgur.com/sE2ehh.jpg

[stren]

Alright time for another update. Here's the loop testing for the workstation. Bear in mind this is not the final loop - it will be tidier with nicer fittings, for now I need to get my workstation up and running, I can pretty it up later.

http://i.imgur.com/sHpxvh.jpg

Some of the tube is the pink tube that I had mentioned before, that will be replaced. Bleeding of the annoying koolance reservoir was made easier by the dedicated fill ports and by the QDC's. The D5's struggle to push that much air out of the system, so it was much easier to bleed the cpu section and the radiator seperately and then connect them up as a whole:

http://i.imgur.com/53ezph.jpg

Now that it had passed leak testing it was time to take it to the office:

http://i.imgur.com/zag1Xh.jpg

It was now heavy (and bulky) and I didn't trust the BP crystal links not to loosen up if I didn't take it down the step smoothly, so I found a piece of plywood in the shed to help:

http://i.imgur.com/g9zE0h.jpg

First boot! Yay! It wasn't just the kitchen that was covered in parts, so was the office, it's a real mess as I still had my old workstation running while I tweaked the clocks on this one.

http://i.imgur.com/XMrAO.jpg

I temporarily put the power supply in the top chamber while I did the overclocking tweaking:

http://i.imgur.com/lOixxh.jpg

Did a quick bench to see the limit of the chip, I couldn't get past 5.22GHz on water. I tried up to 1.66V, but nothing past 1.56 really helped. 5.22 means it's a pretty average 3930K, certainly no golden chip :( I tried to settle for a 24/7 clock of 4.95, but I didn't like the volts, so settled down for 4.9 instead, I'll see if I can tweak the memory faster than 2133 CL9 later, here's a SS of the 5.22:

http://i.imgur.com/8NpqS.jpg

Next I installed the power supplies properly, here you can see the optional PSU support bracket for long power supplies. It's probably not necessary, but why not? It comes with some rubber tape to damp any vibrations:

http://i.imgur.com/Xh7sih.jpg

Here's the first PSU installed:

http://i.imgur.com/Wp2SVh.jpg

[Menthol]

I bet the wife is glad it's out of the kitchen, she must be a special lady to live with that.

[Xtreme-Performance]

Why is it Project Thief? You aint stealing parts from other PC? lol like civic... (sorry for the quirky charistma... btw..)

[stren]

I bet the wife is glad it's out of the kitchen, she must be a special lady to live with that.

No kidding - but I just made another mess in there today!


Why is it Project Thief? You aint stealing parts from other PC? lol like civic... (sorry for the quirky charistma... btw..)

Lol thief because it steals from my wallet, and savings and anything where there was money

[stren]

Took a break to put together an ivy rig for a co-worker:

A board!

http://i.imgur.com/ZfwJEh.jpg

blah blah blah marketing - where's the window that the extreme boards have?

http://i.imgur.com/FEXZsh.jpg

Now there's a board

http://i.imgur.com/oSGTnh.jpg

I liked the door hanger - unfortunately this is for an overclocked workstation so not too useful here:

http://i.imgur.com/73g0jh.jpg

A large box for some memory (32giggles):

http://i.imgur.com/sAS12h.jpg

Matching:

http://i.imgur.com/5E9pQh.jpg

Oh and a cpu:

http://i.imgur.com/wxHafh.jpg

Best put that in the socket then:

http://i.imgur.com/qga2Nh.jpg

We should remove that plastic cover too:

http://i.imgur.com/n6sjah.jpg

[stren]

Putting in that H100:

http://i.imgur.com/A09cbh.jpg

Yeah I know no custom water loop, but this is going to someone who can't be trusted with such things ;)

miniThief is getting there:

http://i.imgur.com/PSq1lh.jpg

miniThief- now with 100% more PSU:

http://i.imgur.com/EK7o9h.jpg

Don't forget a GPU (9800GT ftw!)

http://i.imgur.com/OW1jhh.jpg

Close up:

http://i.imgur.com/9TVbIh.jpg

ISO:

http://i.imgur.com/GjTZWh.jpg

[stren]

So back to the *real* project. Now that my workstation was up and running, I could take the old one down:

http://i.imgur.com/CAWtEh.jpg

OMG dust! This is three months worth:

http://i.imgur.com/h7hT3h.jpg

Still yucky:

http://i.imgur.com/CnUwQh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FM6Lvh.jpg

Got out the duster and started taking it apart:

http://i.imgur.com/GLMpqh.jpg

Nearly done

http://i.imgur.com/S5nUjh.jpg

Now I've gone and made the kitchen messy again:

http://i.imgur.com/Xfe37h.jpg

[Lilkka]

i cannot wait to see the finished build, I don't see how you can have such a large PC case and such.. i get tired of even seening one on my desk let alone looking at something that could walk with you next to your full body length hah..


Keep up the good work!

[ganji]

that case is MaHOOOOOOOSIVE. tis gonna be a killer rig tho :D nice work

[stren]

that case is MaHOOOOOOOSIVE. tis gonna be a killer rig tho :D nice work

Thanks :D:D

[stren]

So as it's the weekend you get bonus updates :)

This is how I initially wanted the PSU's to give maximum air intake:

http://i.imgur.com/Swvxoh.jpg

However the left PSU once it had cables would conflict with the 360 rad mounted in front of it, so I decided to move it:

http://i.imgur.com/0CHWfh.jpg

Done, you can see there's still a good amount of space in between:

http://i.imgur.com/dkEw6h.jpg

Now to mount them - they're going in the second to bottom compartment:

http://i.imgur.com/f6Q65h.jpg

and mounted:

http://i.imgur.com/cnGNhh.jpg

Now time to mount all the hard drives - here are the gaming rig drives:

http://i.imgur.com/rCuHlh.jpg

Now let's add in the workstation drives:

http://i.imgur.com/1wpUbh.jpg

old skool x25e:

http://i.imgur.com/AJ1z2h.jpg

All done:

http://i.imgur.com/p8ZOwh.jpg

[stren]

Now to cable it - I hate how asus only give you sata cables with right angles at one end and straights at the other. For this build I really need straight to straights, so I had to order some more from the egg, this is the temporary rats nest:

http://i.imgur.com/YNoEbh.jpg

Yikes!

[stren]

Alright a quick update as I got some more time to process photos (on a side note the first mdpc package came woot!)

I got the workstation back up and running:

http://i.imgur.com/zZYwih.jpg

But I had to use the gaming side for location of the power supply as the cables were not long enough to reach the real location. As you can see it makes a good storage room also:

http://i.imgur.com/Ta8tSh.jpg

Workstation in action - no 2nd 8800gt yet because I'm only driving two screens, the card is being used as a test card for now for some other rigs I'm building.

http://i.imgur.com/lvHJyh.jpg

Again a lot of fittings are temporary. So now back to the gaming rig. I transferred the sweet trident ram from my worksation to the gaming rig (I think it maybe hypers), it can do 2130 CL 8 and probably more but that's the limit of my 990x IMC. Should have tried two sticks in the 3770K rig I slapped together to see what it could really do! The ugly p6t board that was being used for the workstation is now going into a generic network maintenance use and will be put in a rack.

http://i.imgur.com/ulxT5h.jpg

A shot of that sexy ram:

http://i.imgur.com/XeB8Bh.jpg

And the motherboard tray:

http://i.imgur.com/M2FlNh.jpg

Here you can see I had soldered on an extra molex connector to the board (just to the bottom of the STX). My old case didn't have room to connect a power cable to the real connector, so this helped me give the gpus enough power.

http://i.imgur.com/BA9VTh.jpg

And now time to swap the 920 for that sweet 990x:

http://i.imgur.com/aar5Nh.jpg

[stren]

Alright time to swap those cpus - out with the 920:

http://i.imgur.com/VzW2eh.jpg

And in with the 990x:

http://i.imgur.com/IusH3h.jpg

Close it up:

http://i.imgur.com/XIqgKh.jpg

Mount the CPU block and add the g3/8 adapters - luckily the 5Noz has a very wide port spacing:

http://i.imgur.com/jEYbbh.jpg

Which means you can mount the high flow VL4N quick disconnects - unfortunately they are g 3/8 and don't come with right angle options, so I have to have adapters both ends and then a g1/4 female to female before I can add in the 90 degree rotary fitting:

http://i.imgur.com/ntHsOh.jpg

Here we are with the old GPUs mounted too:

http://i.imgur.com/32S5Dh.jpg

And here's how it will look as this will be the reverse ATX side:

http://i.imgur.com/GswCxh.jpg

Now it's time to repurpose that clown board:

http://i.imgur.com/CrIyeh.jpg

And done til the case comes:

http://i.imgur.com/PNA0Gh.jpg

[stren]

Second update of the day - sleeving came in:

http://i.imgur.com/m1IyZh.jpg

Always interesting to see stamps from a foreign land ;) And of course the obligatory nils drawing

http://i.imgur.com/VCvPJh.jpg

The results from the last survery were clear:

http://i.imgur.com/67dBxh.jpg

So now I made them with real sleeve (24 pin left and 8 + 6 pin right) (only one row of course) (photographed outside under cloud, the background is the pedestal back plate which is powdercoated the same color as all internal parts):

http://i.imgur.com/J1GNyh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IKTFhh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VEyf0h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0c2h2h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8Fum1h.jpg

[stren]

http://i.imgur.com/AnOqyh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YvDsBh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZrIvsh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bXPxCh.jpg

I'm leaning towards D or F. However there's one last complication there is red or the "x" color that is basically a deep red-brown kind of color. As far as I can tell, the x looks better when next to white, the red otherwise:

http://i.imgur.com/khTish.jpg

Let me know what you think!

[Menthol]

I have been enjoying watching your build, one one hand I really want to see it finished, one the other I will miss watching this thread.
I think the color scheme is a personal touch and am sure which ever you decide on will be awesome. I could sure use some instructions on how to cut cables to length and sleeve myself, that is defiantly a week point in my build, at least with the Case Labs TH10 i have bundles of cables on the backside with the power supply, just don't open that door and it looks ok. Oh and used to love those giant flower heat sinks

[stren]

Thanks to everyone - results are in:

http://i.imgur.com/piJ35.jpg

So now we can eliminate the less popular and simulate these with the motherboard tray - yes it's a walk off! Jeppzer's suggestion is now also included:

http://gifsoup.com/imager.php?id=1527126&t=o

Option C

http://i.imgur.com/NfxVXh.jpg

Option D

http://i.imgur.com/9MMYfh.jpg

Option G

http://i.imgur.com/bnu5sh.jpg

Option Jeppzer

http://i.imgur.com/lKg6mh.jpg

Let me know what you think - and please keep it to these four only!

[stren]

Alright - another diversion to clean up the odds and ends - well I got some packages to help with that:

http://i.imgur.com/wpvZbh.jpg

Inside a box..... is another box:

http://i.imgur.com/KtwTTh.jpg

And inside - the opposite of a CaseLabs case - cheap design, cheap steel, cheap manufacturing:

http://i.imgur.com/lV8EKh.jpg

Despite knowing how badly the edges were finished I still managed to cut myself!

http://i.imgur.com/C5jVzh.jpg

Mounting the old workstation board:

http://i.imgur.com/Yuslqh.jpg

Now let's see what's come in from the egg:

http://i.imgur.com/2iiy5h.jpg

The PSU for that mATX build I did (those photos were slightly out of order), another ssd (because 7 isn't enough) and a cheapo gpu for the 4u case:

http://i.imgur.com/YMQsDh.jpg

Passive GPU is passive, crappy sas card is crappy:

http://i.imgur.com/6XoAPh.jpg

Got those straight to straight sata cables too:

http://i.imgur.com/P3rt8h.jpg

BTW if you haven't voted on sleeve design - please do!

[stren]

So Primochill came through on delivering me the replacement tube. They also sent some extras in order to sponsor the build and I guess future builds because there are multiple colors:

http://i.imgur.com/KoJynh.jpg

two dual gigabit cards came in for the network upgrades:

http://i.imgur.com/bXbcmh.jpg

Fitted one to this box:

http://i.imgur.com/CYyvJ.jpg

Then mounted that box in our rack in the office:

http://i.imgur.com/dQS3wh.jpg

Thought you might like to see our main server - it's a supermicro barebones 4u box that's capable of fitting two gulftown xeons, however we only have one hex cpu fitted right now:

http://i.imgur.com/bj0y5h.jpg

You can see they built a plastic shroud around the ram and cpu to force the air through the heatsinks. Anyway back to the real project. Sanded down another radiator:

http://i.imgur.com/Z9etuh.jpg

Masked it up:

http://i.imgur.com/FiKSlh.jpg

Ready to go:

http://i.imgur.com/Wxx8Dh.jpg

Primed:

http://i.imgur.com/6gxM0h.jpg

[sate200]

top rig!!! beautiful project

[stren]

top rig!!! beautiful project

Thanks :):)

[stren]

While I've been busy working on this, my sponsors have been busy with new products. Detroit Thermo has come out with a new block called the "sniper", it's a tiny bit more restrictive but is supposed to have better temps:

http://www.dtwaterblocks.com/product_images/m/916/IMG_1851__97689_zoom.JPG

I'm hoping to do an apples to apples comparison with the rasa/raystorm/ek hf supreme/5Noz/Sniper :)

Also Monsoon Free came out with some sexy new rotary fittings:

http://geno.boxgods.com/this_is_my_boomstick.jpg

Including a special version with optional end plugs:


Yes the other version has Light Ports that let you install several different types of plugs. An LED plug that has super bright 15 degree LED's that make your tube glow sort of like a fiber optic cable or neon tube. A temp probe plug. A shorty version of the silver bullets, and of course our standard Monsoon plug. The plugs are available in all 10 Monsoon colors. The Light Port Rotaries will sell for a buck or two more depending on where resellers price them.

Actually the LED plugs don't come in the two color form shown below, but you get the idea.

http://geno.boxgods.com/monsoon_light_port.JPG

Excited to use these, but it gives me more decisions to make as to which color to use lol.


Quick update on my project:

While I was procrastinating sleeving/custom wire harnesses for the power supply I figured I'd work on getting the radiators up and running for the gaming rig - I mounted the AP16s to the 140mm adapters:

http://i.imgur.com/RQZnLh.jpg

Then got ready to resolder and sleve:

http://i.imgur.com/GC5Xph.jpg

First time sleeving so did a pretty uneven job:

http://i.imgur.com/Txzmgh.jpg

Decided to move that to the back side of the radiator and now that I had my system down, did a much better job on the front side:

http://i.imgur.com/lNrDTh.jpg

Both sides done, but still awaitng fan headers:

http://i.imgur.com/j3x8uh.jpg

Mounted back in the case:

http://i.imgur.com/FkeXVh.jpg

[stren]

double post

[stren]

Been slow on the updates because work has been kicking my behind. Anyway the 580 3gb cards came in. I know some of you may say why not get 680's (or even 670's), well these were a lot cheaper (awesome 2nd hand deal) and will perform plenty well enough to max out 2560x1600 @ 60Hz. With my 480's I never had a problem running out of processing power, but I did run out of vram, so I think these will be plenty until I upgrade the monitors ;) Once I upgrade then I'm sure I can justify a few GK110s ;)

http://i.imgur.com/TnubOh.jpg

As you can see two of the backplates are 480 ones:

http://i.imgur.com/uyMF1h.jpg

So I had to switch the cards around so that the 580 one was at the bottom of the stack. I had to take them apart anyway to check for nickel problems and gunk. I'd be more concerned if I wasn't suspecting that I'll change GPUs again before the build is finished. Here they are rearranged and plugged in:

http://i.imgur.com/W39TNh.jpg

The 120 radiator is for the motherboard only loop:

http://i.imgur.com/qwrqNh.jpg

I'm still working out how to route the tubing for optimal performance without making it look like a mess - should I come out the side or go out the top?

http://i.imgur.com/DvvKhh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0qGtVh.jpg

Although the board has two loops on it, it will really look like it has three as there will be a 560 rad in between the cpu and gpu:

http://i.imgur.com/DFfXOh.jpg

Motherboard loop routed with temporary fittings - I thought this would look better. I don't really like the way it looks - too busy and crowded, I need to work out a way to keep the tube out the way more. Maybe a memory block would help:

http://i.imgur.com/cO5ARh.jpg

[Menthol]

Where did you go, got any update on your progress?

[stren]

Where did you go, got any update on your progress?

Yes sorry, I'd been super busy with work and then went on vacation, but I'll be making an update in one min (quite literally cause I've already written it ;))

[stren]

Ok so a quick recap -not much had been done the last few weeks as I was busy with work and then went on a brief vacation. Now I'm back the build will continue, however I'll also be doing various things in between including a review of Rich Chomiczewski (http://richchomiczewski.wordpress.com/) aka Spotswood's new tech station. I'll also be doing a CPU waterblock round up which will include:

DT Sniper
DT 5Noz
EK Supremacy
EK Supreme HF
XSPC Raystorm
XSPC Rasa
MIPS Iceforce HF

Thanks to DT, EK and Indigo Xtreme for sponsoring the blocks and TIM, thanks to Rich for sponsoring the tech station which will be used as the test bench :thumb::thumb:

So without further ado, let's get back to some pictures :D

The tech station arrived from Rich in a fairly small box:

http://i.imgur.com/b3Aoqh.jpg

However there was still plenty of room for packing:

http://i.imgur.com/JPwPah.jpg

The case comes "mostly" assembled, here's the motherboard tray:

http://i.imgur.com/JZodXh.jpg

that mounts above the base which includes mounts for DVD drives, HDs and SSDs:

http://i.imgur.com/OS2fQh.jpg

Here's the rest of the frame:

http://i.imgur.com/mQT2Oh.jpg

And all the screws and accessories, interestingly Rich includes an allen driver, as well as an allen key, and a torx key also

http://i.imgur.com/DoLzPh.jpg

The frame makes use of extruded aluminum with a pattern that makes it easy to use screws and bolts/nuts to easily customize the setup. Here's one vertical strut getting slid onto the base:

http://i.imgur.com/7BFhSh.jpg

There is then a hole allowing that screw to be tightened. Before you know it all 4 are up:

http://i.imgur.com/MEl5Dh.jpg

[stren]

You can then add some feet:

http://i.imgur.com/xbVvjh.jpg

Then attach the PCI card support to the motherboard tray and then attach both to the frame:

http://i.imgur.com/rRgV7h.jpg

Then the PSU can be attached with two small plates:

http://i.imgur.com/O3HO1h.jpg

Although this is solid enough for benching (and the PSU does not move), a 4 screw mount would be more solid if you were moving the case as there is potential for the PSU to bend those small plates. The hard drives, dvd and SSDs use small rubber grommets that get screwed into the base of each device:

http://i.imgur.com/2M1iDh.jpg

You can then slide these on the same extruded frames which have pre drilled access holes to make it easy to swap them in and out:

http://i.imgur.com/xClRTh.jpg

More to come tomorrow!

[Zygomorphic]

@Stren, your build is awesome! I have been following it for months now, and it makes me want to build a computer myself too. Mostly I hang around the laptop forums, since that is what I run, but your system is amazing. How on earth do you get the wife to agree to that monster in the house??? How much heat does it generate? In any event, keep those posts--and pictures--coming! I look forward to much more!

[stren]

@Stren, your build is awesome! I have been following it for months now, and it makes me want to build a computer myself too. Mostly I hang around the laptop forums, since that is what I run, but your system is amazing. How on earth do you get the wife to agree to that monster in the house??? How much heat does it generate? In any event, keep those posts--and pictures--coming! I look forward to much more!

Thanks dude - Yes I'm a laptop-phobe and my wife has got used to that, and now sees how much faster her computer is compared to her laptop, so now she understands my madness a bit more haha. Honestly if the case wasn't sponsored though I don't think I could have got it past her haha. She's very understanding though so that helps :) Here's another update:

I also had ordered a crystalfontz setup so that I could monitor temps accurately, although the aquaero is more of a system, it doesn't support the dallas temp probes that can be calibrated to <0.1C accuracy. This setup should let me do that. The package arrived while I was away:

http://i.imgur.com/hKh9ph.jpg

More packaging:

http://i.imgur.com/zb74Dh.jpg

Taking it out of the bag - it's the 635 module with the 4 line LCD:

http://i.imgur.com/WDy4yh.jpg

They'd pre fitted the SCAB module which enables the temp sensors to be hooked up:

http://i.imgur.com/wQzIIh.jpg

Not quite sure what was with the stray spray paint:

http://i.imgur.com/f7njNh.jpg

Decided to mount it on the top of the test bench:

http://i.imgur.com/OcmfOh.jpg

However the right side couldn't be screwed down so I added some support so I could at least push the buttons if needed:

http://i.imgur.com/kdVGgh.jpg

The test bench came with extra extrusion pieces so you can add on extra devices, I decided to use my RD30 pump for the cpu block test:

http://i.imgur.com/BTihSh.jpg

[stren]

I'd also ordered a King Instruments flow meter (similar to the one Martin uses):

http://i.imgur.com/BbSJSh.jpg

It's more accurate and less restrictive than the impeller types. However it's large - here it is zip tied to the case next to the 400mm EK res:

http://i.imgur.com/uKpHvh.jpg

And now the final setup waiting for the 2nd R4E/3930K to arrive:

http://i.imgur.com/KIhXwh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KPg5Ih.jpg

[R.O.G1]

so nice huge project and hugeeeeeee moneyyyyyyyy :rolleyes:

[Zygomorphic]

Shhhh! Don't the government, @stren is stimulating the economy. hehehehe ;) Now if only I could sell him those products--I could retire.

[stren]

Time for a belated update:

I used the nice quick release thumb screws to remove the EX 560 radiator from the TX10. I used two extra pieces from the tech station to build a support beam for it:

http://i.imgur.com/20xZih.jpg

Then used some of the accessories to grip it either side so it was stable, but yet also quick to remove:

http://i.imgur.com/LHtdyh.jpg

Then the 2nd R4E board came in:

http://i.imgur.com/Y7lwxh.jpg

And a 2nd cpu:

http://i.imgur.com/KDOHdh.jpg

[stren]

Installed the motherboard - I learned I should loosen the standoffs from the tray a little as they holes have enough movement that the standoffs may be mispositioned. After screwing everything in I want back and tightened it. Then added the cpu:

http://i.imgur.com/Liy8Lh.jpg

Then some ram:

http://i.imgur.com/5dNfFh.jpg

Then removed the ram in order to fit the DT 5Noz using the Sniper thumbnuts:

http://i.imgur.com/JhV8sh.jpg

Then put the ram back in:

http://i.imgur.com/RcQAdh.jpg

Added a gpu (9800 gt is enough for the cpu test) and that's it for now!

[stren]

Photo update:

http://i.imgur.com/LBIooh.jpg

Box was huge, almost as wide as a 560 rad! The dac/amp is large too, much bigger than it seemed from photos:

http://i.imgur.com/mrfxXh.jpg

Deep too:

http://i.imgur.com/F9BRFh.jpg

Time to get the test bench up and running:

http://i.imgur.com/6c8y3h.jpg

The flow meter needed some barbs, I got these 1/2" brass barbs from home depot:

http://i.imgur.com/JZc8lh.jpg

I forgot that with no o-ring, you need teflon tape, that would bite me later. Clamped it down:

http://i.imgur.com/3qv0Jh.jpg

Matching one for the bottom input port:

http://i.imgur.com/EZS8ch.jpg

Hooked up the Iwaki RD30 pump fed directly from the 400mm reservoir:

http://i.imgur.com/vBxpfh.jpg

I had the return come in the bottom and used the longest internal tube to direct the flow to the top of the res in order to help bleeding. Then connected the CPU:

[stren]

http://i.imgur.com/R5pkYh.jpg

Hooked up the rad, and ran out of clear tube, had to use some of the leftover pink:

http://i.imgur.com/0svEZh.jpg

Time to fill it up:

http://i.imgur.com/jrsgbh.jpg

2.55GPM while bleeding with the Iwaki at 19V, at 29V it was pushing a smidge over 3.5GPM:

http://i.imgur.com/JRwBbh.jpg

Ready to start overclocking:

http://i.imgur.com/6fRp2h.jpg

[dave123]

Impressive build my friend but I have question's.

What's this for? I mean its purposes are there three of you in the house one games and the other two work, like for a server room.
Or are you building it just because you can.

Either way kudos.

[stren]

Haha no it's all for me. There are some side projects going on in here that aren't necessarily in the final rig. The final rig will consist of the following in the huge TX10 case:

workstation: 3930K, R4E, 32gb ram, 8800gt, super quiet (700rpm fans max)
gaming rig: 3930K, R4E, 16gb ram, 3 x gtx 580 3gb (unquiet 2150rpm fans max)

+ possibly a mitx windows home file server/web browser/media player that will be fully passive cooling

I work from home and the workstation runs linux, it sometimes has to run long simulations so I then need a second rig for gaming while I wait for the first one to get it's thinking done.

[Zygomorphic]

Haha no it's all for me. There are some side projects going on in here that aren't necessarily in the final rig. The final rig will consist of the following in the huge TX10 case:

workstation: 3930K, R4E, 32gb ram, 8800gt, super quiet (700rpm fans max)
gaming rig: 3930K, R4E, 16gb ram, 3 x gtx 580 3gb (unquiet 2150rpm fans max)

+ possibly a mitx windows home file server/web browser/media player that will be fully passive cooling

I work from home and the workstation runs linux, it sometimes has to run long simulations so I then need a second rig for gaming while I wait for the first one to get it's thinking done.

Dude! What is your secret?! :) You get paid to game while your workstation thinks! That is what I call an awesome job. Got any openings? :p You'll be able to game while the one thinks, but you won't be able think while the other games--those fans will be loud. Still, what is the wife going to use. Some low-end 990X system for Facebook? :) Then again, if the wife allows you to build comps in the kitchen, she might be a formidable gamer in her own right...:cool:

[stren]

Dude! What is your secret?! :) You get paid to game while your workstation thinks! That is what I call an awesome job. Got any openings? :p You'll be able to game while the one thinks, but you won't be able think while the other games--those fans will be loud. Still, what is the wife going to use. Some low-end 990X system for Facebook? :) Then again, if the wife allows you to build comps in the kitchen, she might be a formidable gamer in her own right...:cool:

Haha well I work from home and sometimes there's nothing I can while it thinks, so I may as well have fun. Haha well the wife currently has an e8500/gtx460 for her web/gaming needs, but yes she may get a 990x hand me down haha.

Alright - while I haven't made progress on the project, I have made progress on the CPU water block review. Here's how I did the temperature sensors (some of these photos are repeats but are included for completeness as a how-to guide):

For this I was following Rubidium's excellent guide (http://www.realredraider.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=169) with some modifications. His guide is a must read if you're planning to copy this.

Dallas one wire temperature sensors are much more accurate than the standard 2 wire thermistor type sensors that are used in current water temperature probes. However they need to be water proofed and mounted in the loop which means some work on my part.

So here's what I ordered - the temperature sensors and the crystalfontz USB interface- there are many options here, the one I chose was not the cheapest but gives a good amount of screen space:

http://i.imgur.com/NPHHyh.jpg

The package came in:

http://i.imgur.com/hZ5jzh.jpg

In addition to the main screen display, you'll need a SCAB module that enables the sensor monitoring, plus a USB cable, plus the temperature sensors too.

http://i.imgur.com/Rwvjhh.jpg

Here's the break down of how to plug it in

http://i.imgur.com/kH9Olh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tUcPzh.jpg

[stren]

We also needed some other parts to build the temperature sensors into, the bitspower rotary q fitting is very flexible but has more ports than you'll probably need so you'll need to order some stop fittings or a different t adapter:

http://i.imgur.com/9NRU9h.jpg

Here's what I ordered from mcmaster-carr at the top and at the bottom is a sample order for enough parts for one temp sensor from sidewinder (I had some parts already so only ordered what I needed). If you clean the stainless steel syringe well you may be able to reuse it, I ordered two just in case. The parts arrived:

http://i.imgur.com/3TVrph.jpg

I ordered the brass metal brush, I probably should have ordered something else though - maybe a steel one? Eitherway it seems to have worked for me. Brass barbs make life easier because otherwise you have to remove the nickel plating from the fitting.

http://i.imgur.com/AJbpHh.jpg

First off rough up the surface of the temperature sensor, I used 220 grit regular sand paper:

http://i.imgur.com/0snyrh.jpg

Then rough up the interior surface of the barb using the metal brush (fit it in a drill and spend a few minutes doing the old in and out). I also sanded the end of the barb and it's chamfer with 220 grit. I then cut some small neoprene washers to fit around the temp sensors and hold it centered in the barb:

http://i.imgur.com/LVc4fh.jpg

I bought the smallest I could find from home depot. If you can find something that's a perfect fit (any rubber grommet or washer that fits would be fine) then it would be better. You want to make the fit as perfect as possible otherwise the glue will leak past and it could ruin all your efforts. Fit a 2nd washer to keep the wire centered at the back of the barb. Now we're going to mix up the glue. Get your glue mats together:

http://i.imgur.com/iy4clh.jpg

I found about a quarter of the 1.7oz size would fill 2-3 3cc syringes. One 3cc syringe's worth is probably enough for 2 fittings. I mixed it in a disposable plastic shot glass that I had laying around.

http://i.imgur.com/MU5oRh.jpg

[stren]

Then take the plastic syringe, dip the end in and start sucking up the glue:

http://i.imgur.com/b0eldh.jpg

Stop when you have enough and wipe off the tip:

http://i.imgur.com/ZwefEh.jpg

Attach the needle by screwing it on while pushing it in. Be careful to catch the glue that comes out while you do this:

http://i.imgur.com/JV4fQh.jpg

Fill up around the temperature sensor slowly avoiding making any bubbles. You will want to fill up just above the edge of the fitting as the glue will shrink down a bit. As the glue will run you need to secure it so that it doesn't run out. I put mine loosely in a vice:

http://i.imgur.com/CWzcDh.jpg

Here they are after drying for 24 hours:

http://i.imgur.com/p3nrCh.jpg

You can see the glue is lower than the edge of the fitting. If your washer/grommet wasn't a good fit, a good amount of glue may have leaked past. If it's too low you can always top off later.

http://i.imgur.com/H2rlZh.jpg

[stren]

Now you're going to remove the grommet/washer and fill the other side of the fitting all the way to the top. Again take it slowly and avoid bubbles, keep going around and around the wires and try and keep the wires centered. Leave to dry in an upright position so that it doesn't run out the side:

http://i.imgur.com/zAgJQh.jpg

All done:

http://i.imgur.com/Pwhegh.jpg

You can then mount them in the bitspower q fitting:

http://i.imgur.com/1pCxkh.jpg

I then added on my VL4N QDC's (along with g1/4 g3/8 adapters):

http://i.imgur.com/Pn3Q8h.jpg

You can then add stop fittings and mount to your favorite waterblock and then leak test:

http://i.imgur.com/zunbbh.jpg

Looks kinda frankenstein, but hopefully the performance will be worthwhile :thumb:

I also made a video of the test setup here:

http://youtu.be/eO0ec6NLfa8

[DaemonCantor]

Pretty smart to build your Sensors! Good Call!

[stock12to32]

Wow!! these are all pictures of a dream. Very nice

[DaemonCantor]

stren, when are you going to show more Pics of the Case? I want to see what all you have done to that since you've first showed it off...What Graphics have you done? Color Scheme? and such....

[stren]

stren, when are you going to show more Pics of the Case? I want to see what all you have done to that since you've first showed it off...What Graphics have you done? Color Scheme? and such....

Ah I've been so busy and distract with this that I haven't made the custom wiring harnesses yet that will allow me to move the PSU to it's proper location. This means the gaming rig has been sitting on it's removable motherboard tray on the shelf looking sad :(

This cpu waterblock review sadly has to take precedence for now as some of the sponsors are antsy for review results. After that I'll be focusing back on the build full time. No more product reviews til I'm done with this build!

[stren]

I did get a little bit of time to work on the main build:

http://i.imgur.com/v5qgwh.jpg

I decided to simplify my linux disk system. I had bene using a raid card, 4 ssds and 4 HDDs and now that large SSD prices were coming down it seemed like a good time to consolidate.

So I picked up a 512gb SSD to replace my 300 gigs worth made up of 4 drives:

http://i.imgur.com/idATSh.jpg

As well as a 3TB drive to replace my 3x1TB drives

http://i.imgur.com/WvFaVh.jpg

With linux drive if you're atuomatically mounting the drives then the order they get plugged in can matter. Going down to only 2 + an occasional backup makes life a lot easier when changing out motherboards.

http://i.imgur.com/wkljHh.jpg

I normally buy WD drives, but as they hadn't released a 7200rpm 3TB sata drive I went with Seagate

http://i.imgur.com/aKzijh.jpg

So I took out the side mount HDD system:

http://i.imgur.com/po6oUh.jpg

And started taking out drives:

http://i.imgur.com/0Q4y9h.jpg

The 512gb is actually smaller - 7mm tall while the older 128gb is 9mm:

http://i.imgur.com/eTkXMh.jpg

[stren]

Spare drives:

http://i.imgur.com/tsXAhh.jpg

Nearly done:

http://i.imgur.com/LCqFLh.jpg

And done - the right drives will be for the gaming rig - 128gb boot, 2x128gb raid 0 for games, 32gb SLC for swap. The left drives are 512gb for boot/home of linux workstation, 128 temporary ssd that was left hooked up to transfer files, 3TB backup drive and 1TB old file storage.

http://i.imgur.com/MEwBEh.jpg

Now to sell the old stuff:

http://i.imgur.com/XfdJvh.jpg

[stren]

Coming soon:

http://www.evga.com/images/forum/supernova/120-PG-1500-XR_XL_4.jpg

Oh and just to prove I'm still working on this project:

http://i.imgur.com/muPSQh.jpg

Meanwhile I've also been busy working on this:

http://i.imgur.com/AN7z9h.jpg

[stren]

So when the inlaws came I moved the water cooling test rig off of the floor. The TX10 makes a convenient stand and also protected it from my niece.

http://i.imgur.com/vYqkYh.jpg

The whole thing makes the 30" monitor look small

Now that the august weather is here though I may have to move it to a different room - the extra heat is making it intolerable in here!

[Menthol]

It is also warm in Orange County today, 2 earthquakes today, got woke up in the middle of the night.

[xXx]

Thats a monster..

[stren]

Finished up the gtx 560 - here are some pics. Getting ready to start:

http://i.imgur.com/a7CTYh.jpg

Chopping some heatshrink:

http://i.imgur.com/bKajMh.jpg

2 fans done - ignore the yellow wire - I'm not actually hooking up the tach wire to the 12V, I just reused the yellow wire for the 12V line:

http://i.imgur.com/4tU7kh.jpg

One thing I learned is that you don't have to join the wires all in the same place, in fact it's easier and less bulky if you join the 12V wires at one point, the 0V wires at another point and do the sleeving join at another point. This way you don't get one big lump. So don't do it like this is what I'm saying:

http://i.imgur.com/Q1uGth.jpg

One side done - you can see the difference between the lumpy connection on the 3rd and 4th fan from the left, and the cleaner one on the 2nd/3rd:

http://i.imgur.com/HBKy4h.jpg

Now we have to move those fans on to the other (push) side of the radiator. So we have to add the 140mm adapters to the other side of the fan, and remove the adapters from the original side:

http://i.imgur.com/zqmDDh.jpg

[stren]

All done with that side, now let's go do the same thing again for the pull side:

http://i.imgur.com/1rjwCh.jpg

Attaching the fans for the pull side:

http://i.imgur.com/qYpvOh.jpg

Nearly done - but the last piece of sleeve pulled out of the heatshrink:

http://i.imgur.com/n0tmIh.jpg

Replaced that section and all done:

http://i.imgur.com/zIdiYh.jpg

Installed - as you might be able to see, the section above with the low speed yates/HDDs still needs to be done:

http://i.imgur.com/NJ2p3h.jpg

As you can see there's still a ton to do in the bottom compartment:

http://i.imgur.com/3o31vh.jpg

This side that's open right now will house the ex560 that's currently being used for testing waterblocks, and the gtx 360 that I'm going to go wire up and sleeve right now :)

I have some ideas for lighting too that I'm going to test out also :)

[Zygomorphic]

Sort of the way vines grow, you say? One-maybe two-branches at any one point. Looks great! "with the low-speed yates/HDDs..." can you explain that term, please? :confused:

[stren]

Sort of the way vines grow, you say? One-maybe two-branches at any one point. Looks great! "with the low-speed yates/HDDs..." can you explain that term, please? :confused:

The side mounted quick release tray on the chamber above the GTX560 radiator is a hard drive mount with cooling provided by low speed yate loon fans :)

Here's the link to the side mount: http://www.caselabs-store.com/hdd-side-mount-tx10/

and here's a shot of mine:

http://i.imgur.com/po6oUh.jpg

[Zygomorphic]

OK, so "Yates" is a brand of fan. That makes more sense. I was a bit confused there. :) Thanks! great build, your thread is one of the ones I actually go looking for to check for updates. Otherwise, I usually just use "New Posts".

[stren]

Did a quick edit on the photos from yesterday's competition prize that came in:

http://i.imgur.com/co4qRh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9ENveh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KUlumh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1jyk0h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3N0uYh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dOcLch.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lA9zDh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VSLAwh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QS6cRh.jpg

More to come later of it going in...

[Menthol]

Fantastic please let us know how this power supply is as I am looking at it with drool dripping down my face.

[Imm0rtal]

Very nice build and setup :)

[stren]

Thanks :)

Some of the pics from the last week's adventures:

Fitted the sniper to the 990x and installed some of the samsung superOC ram. Corsair promised to sponsor me some ram, but it never showed up and after 3 months of my emails being ignored I've officially given up on them :rolleyes:

http://i.imgur.com/ClPXZh.jpg

I want to make a custom waterblock for the RAM anyway, but that's still a gleam in my eye right now :thumb: Time to get to leak testing on the motherboard loop:

http://i.imgur.com/ziSOqh.jpg

After leak testing got done, I swapped the painted fan for one that worked and installed the motherboard tray into the *empty* chamber.

http://i.imgur.com/BFLy9h.jpg

I need to swap out the circuit board from the broken GT fan for a good one and then swap back in the painted one. Now it's time to start hooking everything back up:

http://i.imgur.com/3I9xzh.jpg

Plugged in the PSU cables, but the PSU is not yet there:

http://i.imgur.com/VZ7xJh.jpg

The sleeving is the stuff that came with the evga psu, that will be replaced with mdpc-x later:

http://i.imgur.com/XJMWvh.jpg

Finally with a PSU:

http://i.imgur.com/n7HNOh.jpg

Those extra 6 pin headers are annoying but the nice thing is that most of the PSU cables can be flipped so you can hide some of the extra unwarted parts by plugging them in the other way round :)

http://i.imgur.com/3eK9yh.jpg

Tidying up a bit:

http://i.imgur.com/8b3vbh.jpg

There's still so much to be done, and so much of this is still temporary e.g. fittings/sleeve/loop layout etc etc. But for now I'm just glad to be finally getting this rig up and working after 8 months!

[LeviathanPT]

Man you could fit a minifridge inside that thing :| looks great.

[RoG]

To awesome m8, keep it up!:cool:

[Zygomorphic]

Awesome, I have been waiting for this for nearly eight months! :) Is it fast? lol :p

[Nackers]

I'm blown away, the Cooling, pluming and fittings are totally awesome as is the hole project..

[stren]

To awesome m8, keep it up!:cool:

Thanks :)


Awesome, I have been waiting for this for nearly eight months! :) Is it fast? lol :p

Haha yes and I haven't started overclocking the gaming side yet. Need more pixels than 2560x1600 to really push this to it's limits.


I'm blown away, the Cooling, pluming and fittings are totally awesome as is the hole project..

Thanks :)


Another update - big one too!

So this is where we were last time - gaming rig trying to get up and working in a temporary state. Main loop not yet connected:

http://i.imgur.com/O9qO1h.jpg

To finish the main loop we needed to connect the EK400 reservoir with the custom 1" NPT tap to the Iwaki RD-30 pump. First we need to build a T section for the drain port:

http://i.imgur.com/tKfImh.jpg

These are standard schedule 40 pieces of PVC that I'm gluing together. I took a T junction and two 1/2" NPT reducers as well as a piece of 1" grey electrical conduit for making the 90 degree turn:

http://i.imgur.com/fwUqwh.jpg

This is all based on amuseme's idea except that I'm using 1" pipe instead of 0.75" and I connect to the pump slightly differently. So now we have to connect to the pump:

http://i.imgur.com/2641hh.jpg

So we take a 5/8" brass barb from your local hardware store and tape it up with teflon tape:

http://i.imgur.com/wxyXwh.jpg

1/2" tube can be warmed up and stretched over the barb. The idea is that the barb lines up right next to the 5/8" input to the Iwaki giving less restriction to the input feed of the RD30 unlike regular 1/2" tube would. I also added a 2nd barb for the drain tube. This reservoir coupled with the 1" pipe means there is a lot of water that needs draining easily:

[stren]

http://i.imgur.com/TQcVqh.jpg

Both barbs in:

http://i.imgur.com/GnRHDh.jpg

Now let's hook up the pump:

http://i.imgur.com/WOSxhh.jpg

Add some worm clamps so that nothing flies free when you turn the pump up to 29V:

http://i.imgur.com/PnZOWh.jpg

Now let's add the drain tube, the tube color is temporary for now:

http://i.imgur.com/wxxn4h.jpg

Add the drain port:

http://i.imgur.com/8DNGfh.jpg

Add a worm clamp and we're done for now:

http://i.imgur.com/fV3tkh.jpg

Now it's time to put it in the case. As the reservoir was temporarily mounted we need to fix it first. There's a convenient metal plate in the case that you can unscrew and drill holes in:

http://i.imgur.com/aqokjh.jpg

[stren]

Now let's reinstall that in the case:

http://i.imgur.com/M2lPih.jpg

And done:

http://i.imgur.com/pKIsph.jpg

The reservoir is fed by two drain ports. When feeding a larger amount of water it's useful to have one for water coming in and another for air coming out:

http://i.imgur.com/GFFdgh.jpg

Now here's the Iwaki Plus feed tube situated in the base. The cardboard box will be replaced with anti-vibration gel soon enough:

http://i.imgur.com/lVzWYh.jpg

Here you see the gap between the Iwaki feeding tube and the tapped base of the EK reservoir:

http://i.imgur.com/M9vBzh.jpg

I cut a piece of schedule 40 tube to size to glue in here:

http://i.imgur.com/JeTZgh.jpg

[stren]

Later I will paint all of the tubes so it doesn't look so bad :p The cardboard box doesn't quite raise the Iwaki high enough so we'll need to swap that out:

http://i.imgur.com/fnOUrh.jpg

But here it is fully connected:

http://i.imgur.com/04WIch.jpg

And here's the whole side of the gaming case in it's temporary state:

http://i.imgur.com/MK6Jah.jpg

Now we can add the 360 radiator back in quickly (30 seconds) due to the Koolance quick disconnect fittings and the CaseLabs side mount design:

http://i.imgur.com/fVrEeh.jpg

I can't fit a 480 in because of the placement of the radiator and the feed tube. I may move it later, but for now this works. So it's time to fill up with water:

http://i.imgur.com/NhHTWh.jpg

[Zygomorphic]

No photos in operation...:( Wow! That is one impressive build...love the low-tech motor damper. :D

[stren]

No photos in operation...:( Wow! That is one impressive build...love the low-tech motor damper. :D

Lol yes I have to get some of petra's gel to fix that up properly, meanwhile:

Well time for a bit of an update! A big thanks to Corsair for sponsoring the build :)

http://i.imgur.com/6XkBDh.jpg

My original dominators (same part number) came in a much more boring box than this one:

http://i.imgur.com/GlLH6h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9etFMh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SWnUsh.jpg

And if you're wondering just how small those overclockable low profile sammy dimms are:

http://i.imgur.com/vADomh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dPgWgh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TyACHh.jpg

BTW just wanted to add that I started a facebook page so that if you're into that kind of thing you can keep updated on my reviews and other stuff!

https://www.facebook.com/ExtremeRigs

[Zygomorphic]

Nice system! Those RAMs look really nice! What's with the small-form-factor?

[stren]

Nice system! Those RAMs look really nice! What's with the small-form-factor?

You mean the low profile samsung dimms?

[Zygomorphic]

You mean the low profile samsung dimms?
Yes. That is what I am referring to. I guess that would allow for more space for a CPU cooler.

[kkn]

Yes. That is what I am referring to. I guess that would allow for more space for a CPU cooler.
its on water ;)

[stren]

Yes. That is what I am referring to. I guess that would allow for more space for a CPU cooler.


its on water ;)

Haha yeah - the sammys are cheap but overclock like beasts, I need something temporarily while I waited for the Corsairs, they'll eventually go in my wife's 3570K build :)

Update:



Morpheus from OCN stopped by and gave me some fan splitters which come in very useful for the quick disconnect of the radiators. Each radiator has two 3 pin headers that come from each side. This little PCB is then attached to the backplate of the pedestal:

http://i.imgur.com/fkyN9h.jpg

One for each side of the case. The distance between the two is conveniently sized to feed from a single molex

http://i.imgur.com/LggQ2h.jpg

I also got done painting the 24V Power supply for the Iwaki pump. I don't think I showed a pic of it before, but it looked like a very beat up version of this:

http://imgc.classistatic.com/cps/blnc/120427/766r1/4743lnl_20.jpeg

Except that the mesh part was painted black on mine and had been worn off over time.

So I thought I'd paint the whole thing red and then mod a PSU support from the bottom heat chamber so that it can be mounted next to a fan from the HDD rack. I also need to hook up a relay so that it only turns on when the computer is on. Here are the pieces after painting and clear coating:

http://i.imgur.com/QkvCEh.jpg

With the PSU back in and the heatsinks retimmed:

http://i.imgur.com/LdOfSh.jpg

All sealed up:

http://i.imgur.com/gik8hQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BkJUPh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/W20Aih.jpg

That's it for now. Now that I have my windows PC up and running I can finally get sketch-up back and running and start playing with ideas for custom blocks and reservoirs!

Don't forget to like my facebook (www.facebook.com/extremerigs) if you want previews of updates, giveaways and also my watercooling reviews (17 cpu block roundup in progress)!

[stren]

11/20/2012

Well it's been a while - I was busy working on my new website, the CaseLabs Merlin Preview, Spotswood Tech Station Review, the EK X3 Reservoir Preview, figuring out my new Nikon D5100 as well as finishing off the CPU Water Block roundup. I need a break but I'm almost done with all of that! Anyway - to celebrate not being fired yet I thought I'd work (finally) on the waterfall reservoir. This was originally inspired by Cyberdruid, however as he's retired I figured I'd have to make my own, and I suppose that's more fun anyway. I knew I would need a few attempts at this to get it right so I figured I'd make the prototypes out of MDF as it's cheap and easy to work with. So I went to the hardware and picked up a small board of MDF:

http://i.imgur.com/hfFKjh.jpg

Dragged out my lonely tablesaw from the shed and got to work. I cut some 3x 3" strips of the 4ft side of the board:

http://i.imgur.com/Xw4efh.jpg

I then measured the height of the 18 bays in the case and made the cut on one strip:

http://i.imgur.com/AkHA3h.jpg

Then I test fitted in the case which meant undressing the drive bays!

http://i.imgur.com/WWvWgh.jpg

Alright let's take that cover off:

http://i.imgur.com/peTI3h.jpg

Well that was fast, ok, drive bays next:

http://i.imgur.com/hOBQYh.jpg

Resting the wood on the bottom of the drive bay gives me this much clearance which is about perfect:

http://i.imgur.com/kmUjDh.jpg

So I cut the other side to the same size. Then measured and cut the top piece:

http://i.imgur.com/mm1dQh.jpg

It's ok for both these pieces to be flush because they'll be some kind of joinery action going down. For now I'm thinking a finger joint. Maintaining strength while being able to knock it out on the table saw. I then cut a matching piece for the base so that all the frame pieces were cut:

http://i.imgur.com/7Bohwh.jpg

I then started cutting the pieces that would form the waterfall itself:

http://i.imgur.com/llg43h.jpg

Seven down:

http://i.imgur.com/9cChwh.jpg

Tablesaws make this quick. All done, sitting on the uncut acrylic sheet that will make up the front and back:

http://i.imgur.com/ljMFEh.jpg


That's it for now!

[Menthol]

Stren,
You one busy man, appreciate your block review, great work. And love the weather here in So Cal winters are great

[Zygomorphic]

Nice waterfall! Is that really wood, because wood swells when wet as you know, and it might split/leak? Still, if it works, its going to be purty...

[stren]

Nice waterfall! Is that really wood, because wood swells when wet as you know, and it might split/leak? Still, if it works, its going to be purty...

Just the prototype, it doesn't need to last. I'll coat it with something like polyurethane so it doesn't swell immediately. The final version will be acetal/delrin type stuff.


Stren,
You one busy man, appreciate your block review, great work. And love the weather here in So Cal winters are great

Haha yeah it makes it easy to keep working on this stuff :)

[Zygomorphic]

Just the prototype, it doesn't need to last. I'll coat it with something like polyurethane so it doesn't swell immediately. The final version will be acetal/delrin type stuff.



Haha yeah it makes it easy to keep working on this stuff :)

I hope you can find clear urethane, because the wood is really pretty! At least, I think so. :)

[stren]

It was raining a good bit this week so I didn't work on that, instead I put some painted parts back together:

I got done with spray painting the fans finally and reassembled the rotors into the housing:

http://i.imgur.com/jvcbWl.jpg

The paint was standard automotive stuff and came out quite nicely the red is metallic:

http://i.imgur.com/8jgMol.jpg

So it was time to sleeve:

http://i.imgur.com/bYbAkl.jpg

I started with the push fans and mounted them on the pull side of the radiator so that the spacing would be correct. Most of the time sleeving these is really spent soldering wire extensions on:


http://i.imgur.com/YvX6ll.jpg

Slow progress:

http://i.imgur.com/wgfOyl.jpg

Done with the first set of 3:

http://i.imgur.com/FI9cbl.jpg

Mounted the push fans on the push side:

http://i.imgur.com/jA50el.jpg

Now it's time to work on the pull fans:

http://i.imgur.com/ssBAjl.jpg

Ran out of red wire so I used yellow:

http://i.imgur.com/J70bml.jpg

Done with the pull side:

http://i.imgur.com/ddVvnl.jpg

Now it's time to join both sets of three into one. This is the 360 that will be replaced with the painted one:

http://i.imgur.com/iRkAgl.jpg

All put together on the push side:

http://i.imgur.com/IpSECl.jpg

And the pull side - which will need some custom stickers to pretty it up:

http://i.imgur.com/5hFC7l.jpg

I also sleeved a matching fan to go on the motherboard tray:

http://i.imgur.com/32QYCl.jpg

And there it is running:

http://i.imgur.com/wyyorl.jpg

:thumb:

[ganji]

You must have a serious amount of patience, Still looking really good :D

[Zygomorphic]

@stren, love that last picture, looks like your fan has 1/3 blade. :D

[stren]

You must have a serious amount of patience, Still looking really good :D

Thanks ganji - progress is slow but we'll get there, hopefully before a Rampage V Extreme is released :)


@stren, love that last picture, looks like your fan has 1/3 blade. :D

Haha yeah funny trick of the light there :)

[stren]

Hey everyone - it's been a while. Moving house soon so all I've really done is assemble some parts and do some sleeving. Here's the 24 pin extension. Eventually the PSU will get full sleeeve, but extensions can be trained better, so let's do those first.

Getting ready - cut the wire last night:

http://i.imgur.com/5ep6Nh.jpg

Getting my crimp on...

http://i.imgur.com/bQN27h.jpg

Males done:

http://i.imgur.com/Wm2Zph.jpg

Stripping:

http://i.imgur.com/1cR5Ph.jpg

Females done so now we our crimping is double-ended:

http://i.imgur.com/CNj9gh.jpg

Heatshrinkless FTW:

http://i.imgur.com/x16m9h.jpg

Details:

http://i.imgur.com/YhCRKh.jpg

Should have cut the outer run longer than the inner wire otherwise this happens:

http://i.imgur.com/KSnwuh.jpg

I'll either redo or just train the extension to have a hidden double kink that should take it out.

http://i.imgur.com/BT46th.jpg

Making progress:

http://i.imgur.com/wi2n2h.jpg

My fingers are definitely burned now:

http://i.imgur.com/MVn0lh.jpg

And done:

http://i.imgur.com/AW31lh.jpg

Daylight pics:

http://i.imgur.com/8IJaoh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/aAXpVh.jpg

[Nackers]

Very nice wiring there mate..

[ronmolina]

Incredible!

[ganji]

Nice job chap

[Zygomorphic]

Nice work! Those power cables must have as much burnt finger holding them together as solder! :p

[stren]

Very nice wiring there mate..

:D


Incredible!

Thanks it was my first sleeving haha, I was pretty happy with how it turned out!


Nice job chap

Well thanks old chap!


Nice work! Those power cables must have as much burnt finger holding them together as solder! :p

Haha yeah I've had to take a break because the skin on my thumb split open a little after doing the first pair of gpu cables lol. Speaking of which:

Here's some more after finishing up a 6 pin and 8 pin extension, mostly taken at the same time:

http://i.imgur.com/2qRyIe3h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/csypkfXh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/C9EE47Qh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TwuDsIZh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IUSxXRph.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pu6W2TQh.jpg

Also today I finally put the right memory in the gaming rig:

http://i.imgur.com/BnJ9Mpfh.jpg

This case now has 14 sticks Dominator GTs running... still needs the memory block and the right fittings though!

Then I messed about with the camera:

http://i.imgur.com/9b4h918h.jpg

Didn't quite work out, but thought I'd share anyway :)

[Zygomorphic]

Nice system! :) I think it looks really nice. The sleeving looks good.

[Dinnr]

Very very nice build!
Love the two systems.

[n113]

after seeing this, i feel like im gonna mod my radiator like yours.. thanks senpai

[stren]

MEGA POST!

So it's been a while. Not much progress on the build because I've been busy moving house, securing more sponsors for this build (see below) and getting review samples for future reviews as well as finishing existing reviews. I finally wrapped up my 17 cpu water block roundup which is posted on my website(extremerigs.net) and XS. Next I'm working on a pump/top/res roundup and a Titan water block roundup. In between I'll be slowly finishing this build. So here's everything that's happened in the last two months, some of which is relevant to the build and some of it isn't, but I figured I'd include all of it anyway.

Koolance sent some stuff - this is all for review though rather than this build:

http://i.imgur.com/NeHtID2h.jpg

PMP500, a D5 top and integerated 120mmx70mm (fat) reservoir and a bunch of the new QD style QDCs:

http://i.imgur.com/OikbnRsh.jpg

Let's start with the D5 Top:

http://i.imgur.com/50mk9oth.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TMLHpsVh.jpg

This is a full cover top that completely encloses the pump unlike the EK one that is just a top. A cylinder reservoir can also be mounted directly to the top if you want. With Bitspower you can buy a top and a seperate dress kit but the Koolance has all of it included:

http://i.imgur.com/dzDsDuDh.jpg

It comes with mounting brackets and plastic thing that I'm not sure yet as to the purpose!

The top is pretty serious and bulky like most D5 tops. If you want small, stick with a DDC style pump:

http://i.imgur.com/IzhRtczh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TUHXJNwh.jpg

The reservoir that Koolance sent is their "fat" 70mm ID variety which needs adapters to fit to the pump top:

http://i.imgur.com/HvLWuAuh.jpg

This should not be used for a frosty beverage:

http://i.imgur.com/CQoRN3vh.jpg

You can see the threaded adpater which will screw into the pump top. The pump top comes with a base adapter for a "normal" size reservoir.

http://i.imgur.com/vEav08Jh.jpg

Here it is fitted - the size actually works because the D5 top is so bulky:

http://i.imgur.com/urm8xHAh.jpg

Obviously the ftting at the top of the pump top would need to be removed and moved to the side inlet port. One thing I don't like is that this means you have to use the top port of the reservoir as your return line. I prefer to have that as the fill port.

http://i.imgur.com/n1kasceh.jpg

They also sent a PMP500 for review. This is their all new design that is much more powerful than a D5 or DDC pump:

http://i.imgur.com/uiEMtS6h.jpg

Came with no instructions:

http://i.imgur.com/yvknJsWh.jpg

A mounting bracket and some screws but nothing else:

http://i.imgur.com/pmmAxj1h.jpg

Integrated heatsink and nice looking top, but the two halves do clash a little in style:

http://i.imgur.com/6dz78ulh.jpg

It is however very compact for a more powerful pump. A D5 with a top is considerably larger:

http://i.imgur.com/E4Ldr6uh.jpg

I'll also be reviewing the new QDC's. I'd used the VL4N and VL3N's for a while and my main complaint was that the female connectors were sensitive to being bent out of shape when dropped. The new design should be more robust:

http://i.imgur.com/AX4loush.jpg

The QD4 series is the larger size that is more designed for industry than us guys. It is marketed as a direct replacement to the VL4N. It's larger and lower restriction than the QD3 and has fewer useful connection options. They do however come better packed:

http://i.imgur.com/irLqaDTh.jpg

No way these things will be damaged in transport. The business ends:

http://i.imgur.com/RejtMGRh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/E8RIY8Fh.jpg

Connected - you simply push the two together:

http://i.imgur.com/VJH7Wczh.jpg

Disconnected - you simply pull the ring labelled pull:

http://i.imgur.com/sPIlQvth.jpg

I have to admit I prefer the new mechanism - there's less time in the zone of being partially open, these really snap on and snap off quickly. No rotation is also a good thing as it lowers the risk of the other end of the tube becoming unscrewed.

The QD4 comes with two options for the other end - either 1/2" ID 3/4" OD compression fitting or a male g 3/8" fitting. Note that this is not a standard g 1/4 like 99% of computer water cooling components.

However Koolance have an adapter ready for you if you do wish to use these:

http://i.imgur.com/Swu7aChh.jpg

It barely adds anything to the length unlike the alphacool adapters that I've used in the past. I also like that they've included wrench flats on the threaded version:

http://i.imgur.com/16Y3vwph.jpg

Because these are lower restriction they are more bulky and will not fit on a block even with widely spaced ports like their own CPU-380:

http://i.imgur.com/LnuOHQZh.jpg

The QD3 series on the other hand is designed for computer enthusiasts. It's smaller and replaces the VL3N line up. These instead get packaged like normal fittings but with a protective rubber.... sheath on the quick disconnect end:

http://i.imgur.com/PbLrQLZh.jpg

Those were the 1/2" ID 3/4" OD compression fitting ends. These are the male g1/4 threaded:

http://i.imgur.com/JAcRQS8h.jpg

One of each with their rubber... booties on:

http://i.imgur.com/48dPwDeh.jpg

The quick disconnect part is much smaller:

http://i.imgur.com/oDQ7bxZh.jpg

[stren]

Unlike the QD4's these can be directly mounted on most blocks that can fit 3/4" OD compression fittings as the compression fitting lock ring is the widest part of the QDC:

http://i.imgur.com/EXheK8Gh.jpg

QDD3 vs QD4:

http://i.imgur.com/YfXW6BLh.jpg

EK are sponsoring the build so a big thanks to them but also sent some stuff for review in the upcoming pump/res/top roundup:

http://i.imgur.com/lWWLtJyh.jpg

The RP452x2 I have will actually be removed and replaced with the 400mm reservoirs that EK already sent me earlier in the year:

http://i.imgur.com/Qk2uqqkh.jpg

That RP452x2 will be part of the roundup though lol. EK sent me lots of coolant:

http://i.imgur.com/fEhWUxih.jpg

I was trying to take a cooler shot - but it kinda looks like I'm bragging about my car so :shrug:

http://i.imgur.com/srj65j4h.jpg

DDC top - this replaced the XSPC acrylic one that I have so that all my pumps/reservoirs are consistently EK:

http://i.imgur.com/KEjxNqBh.jpg

Unboxing -

http://i.imgur.com/3vuMLVZh.jpg

I do love EK's packaging, the best out there to be honest and it makes you feel like you bought a quality product:

http://i.imgur.com/3vuMLVZh.jpg

Individual baggies:

http://i.imgur.com/PM5QuXEh.jpg

Sealed with a logo:

http://i.imgur.com/HDrtkrih.jpg

There's been a lot of hate on those circles, but EK are changing their designs now thanks to the thinkcell voting:

http://i.imgur.com/MtEOQYPh.jpg

I have to admit I'm a sucker for the details though:

http://i.imgur.com/1qH1R2Sh.jpg

Not much detail on the inside:

http://i.imgur.com/E68asUGh.jpg

You can see the slight angle upwards to the port:

http://i.imgur.com/iYuQQAPh.jpg

White D5 top - this replaces my old style EK Black D5 top:

http://i.imgur.com/uA6w3urh.jpg

Taking it's shirt off:

http://i.imgur.com/VFQW5Vlh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/6rwFiO5h.jpg

[stren]

White on white is hard to see:

http://i.imgur.com/iVOGicRh.jpg

So let's see it on a metallic grey background:

http://i.imgur.com/biPEFeih.jpg

I think this one unlike the DDC has a few too many circles

http://i.imgur.com/IkHZOynh.jpg

Do you spot the white theme:

http://i.imgur.com/mPvuS1yh.jpg

These will be on the workstation side representing the public "light" image of the thief, vs the gaming side representing the hidden "dark" side of the thief. There is some variation in the white acetal color but it's pretty minor. Hopefully it won't be noticeable:

http://i.imgur.com/F22F6syh.jpg

Lovely detail on the inside though it's hard to see:

http://i.imgur.com/U9MW7r0h.jpg

Now for that white reservoir that I posted an unedited version of this pic:

http://i.imgur.com/BmCdOVIh.jpg

Well let's do it properly now:

http://i.imgur.com/3NKKbs6h.jpg

Comes bubble wrapped and with an optional filter

http://i.imgur.com/LY80ofOh.jpg

All the accessories - sadly the mounting clips are still black:

http://i.imgur.com/nJQYRrqh.jpg

The base has 5 ports on all versions. The difference between the basic and advanced is instead the top. On the basic it only has one port. That's ok for me. I like to use the top as a fill port only and have the return in the base:

http://i.imgur.com/Un2YAQxh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DplaR2Rh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/U3LDbDWh.jpg

The anti cyclone works, however bleeding is slightly faster if you use a long tube instead to prevent the bubbles getting back in the outlet:

http://i.imgur.com/Rumpbu6h.jpg

Dual D5 top - this replaces the bitspower one that I have, but never got to put in build. This will actually replace the Koolance RP452x2 that I'm using right now. Anything pump/top/reservoir will be reviewed in the upcoming roundup lol:

http://i.imgur.com/EfBpb63h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZekXuYth.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/94hihY7h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rR2ByREh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/glkxmfyh.jpg

Underside of the top:

http://i.imgur.com/QqoBhPbh.jpg

Top of the top, only a few circles:

http://i.imgur.com/YWmgPRsh.jpg

With the clamp plate that holds the D5 on added:

http://i.imgur.com/1IV5vIbh.jpg

This one is just for review not the build:

http://i.imgur.com/DNL793Vh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fUt0ciDh.jpg

2 bay res with integrated DCP 2.2 pump:

http://i.imgur.com/Mxsw4l6h.jpg

Lots of circles:

http://i.imgur.com/v3OnORnh.jpg

[stren]

The bottom bay of the res is actually pretty useless, it's really just filling up the space around the pump:

http://i.imgur.com/OQgaKC6h.jpg

Lutro0's sponsorship package arrived so that I can finish my sleeving. Got a fancy wire stripper:

http://i.imgur.com/NtW3diXh.jpg

It was a bit dusty in the box but who cares about that:

http://i.imgur.com/zRL7VpSh.jpg

Lutro0's crimper. Supposedly the same as MDPC's but with a bit of milling to make it usable with AWG16. I need to get my MDPC one out to compare:

http://i.imgur.com/7WYlySrh.jpg

Comes with two example crimps just like Nils sends:

http://i.imgur.com/8Uvfs1uh.jpg

Flush edge cutters for cutting sleeve *not* wire:

http://i.imgur.com/ciRB7ALh.jpg

though you can use them for wire, you'll want a 2nd pair for that so they stay sharp:

http://i.imgur.com/vYcFClFh.jpg

Molex pin extractor:

http://i.imgur.com/V91pHgIh.jpg

Crimps and connectors:

http://i.imgur.com/I5oamZph.jpg

Lots of wire!

http://i.imgur.com/ncFpn2Hh.jpg

Also picked up this fan as a test to see how quiet it can go. I'm thinking of changing out all the fans now and running uber silent now that my long term plan is to use the front bays for 4x360 rads

http://i.imgur.com/YiLIBiih.jpg

Goes down to ~400rpm and Martin recommended it as being very quiet:

http://i.imgur.com/IQAsk0qh.jpg

Also got this as a tester because to be honest LED fans are cooler than white ones:

http://i.imgur.com/PCZzqgTh.jpg

PWM but only goes to 600rpm and is allegedly a bit buzzy

http://i.imgur.com/V0vIMoGh.jpg

Has a switch for the LEDs

http://i.imgur.com/nkkQCbKh.jpg

Also figured I should try PWM control of the existing gentle typhoons and yates in case it's the same volume and I can make my life easier, so I got one of these. Also recommended by Martin:

http://i.imgur.com/XPJEMHmh.jpg

I got the smallest one that fits in a 3.5 bay but there is a 6 channel one that takes up one 5 1/4" bay:

http://i.imgur.com/3tFNavah.jpg

If I end up using it I will be hiding it because it is pretty ugly:

http://i.imgur.com/ctepmgyh.jpg

Welcome to Alphacool also who are sponsoring the build. They sent me some rads as well as other stuff for review:

http://i.imgur.com/sCrURX1h.jpg

The monsta'st monsta:

http://i.imgur.com/76P0Y2rh.jpg

[stren]

Hard to photo because it's so big:

http://i.imgur.com/9AMR4Irh.jpg

It's big. Next to an XSPC RX360 with push pull fans:

http://i.imgur.com/1tUBZJ5h.jpg

Comes with copper accessories which sadly don't match my build:

http://i.imgur.com/0lOttcdh.jpg

Also the sexy full copper UT60 in white:

http://i.imgur.com/cP3qSwKh.jpg

Get ready:

http://i.imgur.com/LnS2sxmh.jpg

Cause it's hot:

http://i.imgur.com/l32QtBmh.jpg

And it makes me want to take off all my clothes:

http://i.imgur.com/gJxe8Ehh.jpg

Also the full copper 45mm thick 560 known as the XT45:

http://i.imgur.com/J1yGfZph.jpg

Still bubble wrapped - I spot a pattern:

http://i.imgur.com/7maIEEeh.jpg

A 45mm rad doesn't normally look thin, but 560's are so big that it does:

http://i.imgur.com/8xWLppmh.jpg

Next to the monsta:

http://i.imgur.com/byUvaW5h.jpg

Also a thin 360mm, thin is useful for the side mount next to the PSUs where I don't have much room:

http://i.imgur.com/OvcLXXPh.jpg

This puppy is 30mm thick:

http://i.imgur.com/1F0xHP1h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/T0knII2h.jpg

Looks skinny next to a 60mm UT60 which itself is skinny compared to the monsta...

http://i.imgur.com/Z1y2PbNh.jpg

They also sent some stuff for review in the pump roundup:

http://i.imgur.com/BVBxgI4h.jpg

This is a single bay res with dual pumps:

http://i.imgur.com/Qzr9RZTh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Qszxyhfh.jpg

It takes these tiny DC-LT pumps from alphacool also, they're not included with the res:

http://i.imgur.com/lwWRVFvh.jpg

But they sent me some too:

http://i.imgur.com/amH1v5wh.jpg

Box not up to the usual alphacool standard:

http://i.imgur.com/UpyFy1Lh.jpg

Tiny DC-LT pumps, we'll have to see what they can do:

http://i.imgur.com/BYTX4ikh.jpg

[stren]

No kidding they sent me more stuff for review:

http://i.imgur.com/P13xuS3h.jpg

Well we know it's a pump/res of some kind:

http://i.imgur.com/MdzfCfkh.jpg

It's a 2 bay res that can mount 2 D5s. It's a similar setup to the RP452x2 that I have:

http://i.imgur.com/O9SwnPAh.jpg

Alphacool's black/copper theme is very consistent:

http://i.imgur.com/QabbNOTh.jpg

This one won't go in the build:

http://i.imgur.com/XK3smEAh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cQBYp1bh.jpg

But it did come with 2 D5's which I may end up using to replace the DDC or Iwaki:

http://i.imgur.com/m5dl9Keh.jpg

Alphacool's VPP655 is just a bare D5 vario with tach wire:

http://i.imgur.com/GPL5gtqh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/kaM7XMsh.jpg

Spotswood had also sent me an update for the tech bench after I had some feedback for him:

http://i.imgur.com/0CU3K5Ih.jpg

A new "open" top tray:

http://i.imgur.com/UCpNXvDh.jpg

Taller posts so that the PSU can be mounted vertically, enabling a 2nd PSU to be fitted:

http://i.imgur.com/sJY4PDYh.jpg

And a HDD rack:

http://i.imgur.com/KcaQ0eMh.jpg

This is the old one:

http://i.imgur.com/FJdcrpdh.jpg

Getting taken apart:

http://i.imgur.com/TMZ98PRh.jpg

Now with more rotation:

http://i.imgur.com/jxrC5IHh.jpg

I tried the HDD rack at the back:

http://i.imgur.com/nPXeHfsh.jpg

(I have the case rotated on my bench so that the back is easily accessible). The HDDs slide in on rubber grommets:

http://i.imgur.com/cnOqYKph.jpg

Adding the new top:

http://i.imgur.com/Ld017Nbh.jpg

With boards and gpu:

http://i.imgur.com/Y855N9vh.jpg

Nearly done:

http://i.imgur.com/1SXlkg4h.jpg

In the end I moved the HDDs to the front and mounted the crystalfontz data logger in the back:

http://i.imgur.com/jHdSEOGh.jpg

This gives me space to get my hands under the motherboard for fitting backplates. I tried mounting a 360 to the side, but had to offset it a little for easy tube routing:

http://i.imgur.com/s8HXC7Mh.jpg

Now you can see the datalogger next to the PSU:

http://i.imgur.com/X3bqTjsh.jpg

You can also see the GT that I mounted on a sliding arm under the CPU. This cools the VRM's on the back of the board that will cause CPU throttling if they over heat. The sliding makes it easy to move out the way if needed:

http://i.imgur.com/TvwFnhfh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bdTBLHGh.jpg

Move views:

http://i.imgur.com/EoUvyVoh.jpg

I'll be using this just for controlling PWM in the upcoming pump testing lol. Talk about overkill. I have a couple of new cpu blocks to test though and then a titan waterblock roundup to do afterwards so it'll be more useful for that:

http://i.imgur.com/f3ahXjFh.jpg

The schmexies:

http://i.imgur.com/wXKx1t7h.jpg

Close up of how Spotswood builds up the frame from all the extrusion pieces:

http://i.imgur.com/1ZuFeEDh.jpg

THat's it for now!

[stren]

Been a while, so here's kind of a dump of what I've been up to.

http://i.imgur.com/kLCSSHUh.gif

LIES:

http://i.imgur.com/vu8RtJfh.jpg

Also

http://i.imgur.com/uzk1mGGh.jpg

Also

http://i.imgur.com/0ihNDY6h.jpg

...

So the 9500GT in mini thief died last night, thinking about swapping out my 8800GT from the project thief workstation into that rig and getting a low end kepler for the workstation can drive three screens. The workstation uses linux and I'm thinking to switch my U3011 for 3 1080p lightboost monitors in portrait. When I've run multiple screens across multiple GPUs in linux before with Xinerama then X gets a bit laggy, so this would help with that as twinview on a single card works great, and I've read that twinview can have three screens with Kepler. The cheapest kepler with a block would be a 650 ti boost, but the block is a CSQ while the rest of the workstation uses non-csq blocks. Any thoughts? I'm reluctant to try AMD for a workstation GPU because even with nouveau drivers my tools become way more laggy than the official nvidia drivers.

I'm also debating paint and fittings for the 990x/R3E motherboard/RAM loop on the gaming rig. The idea is that the workstation half would be "white" (e.g. white blocks, dt sniper white, EK white D5 top, EK white reservoir, nickel/plexi memory block and copper/plexi gpu painted white and maybe even the motherboard nickel plexi block painted white too). The gaming rig would be the "dark side" acetal cpu and gpu blocks (although I just sold the GPUs). However the motherboard is nickel/plexi and the ram block is copper/plexi (not shown here):

http://i.imgur.com/z1SU3Xuh.jpg

Originally I thought to paint these black, but then you won't even see the dye in that loop. So I was thinking maybe a black chrome finish instead just for the memory block? I could paint the motherboard block stainless steel cover plate in the middle of that block black to fit the theme. Should I then use black chrome fittings or just straight black? Also that 120 radiator is getting swapped for a black one and that fan is getting swapped for a black/red fan. Also those QDCs will be hidden away.

So to summarize I want your thoughts on these questions:

Stick with light/dark theme?

Workstation

Paint the metal parts of the workstation plexi blocks white?

Use 2x8800GTs and suck up any lag if present or switch to a 650 Ti Boost with a CSQ block (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/18039/ex-blc-1393/EK_GeForce_660_GTX_VGA_Liquid_Cooling_Block_-_Nickel_CSQ_EK-FC660_GTX_-_Nickel_CSQ.html?tl=g30c311s1851)?

Stick with the plan for white fittings?

Use a silver painted radiator with a silver/red fan?

Gaming Rig

Paint the RAM block black or black chrome to hide dat copper?

Paint the Motherboard block fully or only the cover plate and if so black or black chrome?

Use black fittings or black chrome?

End of questions - did this any of this make sense?

Current hardware plan (very subject to change) is to eventually add two titans or titan LEs and if I upgrade the workstation to the 4930K then the gaming rig will get the 3930K from the workstation and an X79 Dark board :thumb:

Also random shot from the mini-thief build - one thing i love about the M5Gene board is that glowing LED strip they put into the board - super cool:

http://i.imgur.com/cga1KqWh.jpg

I'd love to see them do something similar on a real R4E BE board not that promotional 3 board run crap they did ;)

...

http://i.imgur.com/XlkWsvZh.jpg

I upgraded the bios to avoid throttling and increased the power limit of the card so that I could try and seperate the results from the error as much as possible. I'm running Naennon's 145% Max Power bios. My max clocks were around 1150-1175 @1.212V (not the best card), so I downclocked to 1123MHz and tried a few benchmarks/stress tests to see what power levels I could get. Furmark was giving me a nice solid 120% level so I decided to go with that. I'm logging card temps with precision-x and the water/ambient temps with WinTest. I took some baseline measurements on air, with the fan at max (85%) the card was running about 50C over ambient which is not bad at all even if the fan is super noisy. First block on the testing rig is EK:

http://i.imgur.com/PjBi23mh.jpg

I also had time to unbox the hydrocopper card. The packaging is much less fancy than the Titan:

The matt block contrasts with the shine of the EVGA sticker:

http://i.imgur.com/X3MUayRh.jpg

I feel like the sticker takes away from the classyness. I would have preferred it to be cut out of the plastic just like the swiftech logo is:

http://i.imgur.com/dsIgdyUh.jpg

Maybe even make it consistent with the style of the top and maybe even light up some text there too:

http://i.imgur.com/X7DSyAih.jpg

The base is nickel plated:

http://i.imgur.com/O1YFl8ah.jpg

And it's kind of nice that they preattach the thermal pads for you:

http://i.imgur.com/9xomrbih.jpg

[stren]

Had the hydrocopper on the testing bench. Results can be found on the interwebz.

http://i.imgur.com/zJgLe38h.jpg

Also spent the whole of saturday running flow/restriction curves on 17 waterblocks :rolleyes:

http://i.imgur.com/QdBdFI5h.jpg

I'd planned to disassemble the TX10 today because I'd found that if you rely on your rig that you're currently building for your day job and need a high percentage of uptime on that same rig, then it becomes very hard to get anything done. So I'd planning to run a bench setup for a while until I finish Thief. However on saturday just before I was about to process the restriction curves, my D5 on the motherboard loop started making horrible noises. I shut down the rig, but my gaming rig still wasn't functioning as the PSU died last week and the warranty replacement wasn't here yet. So it was time to strip them both out and make a frankenstein rig out of working parts. Hopefully parts that I wouldn't use in the final thief build. So here's the dissasembling which was very quick due to the TX10 design (quick release side mounts and motherboard trays FTW) as well as many QDCs. Photos aren't that great because I wasn't spending time to setup the tripod. I needed my workstation running for monday morning. I used the "bench mount" kit for the CL tray and used an old fan cut into a shroud to mount the radiator to the back of the tray. To support the weight of the rad on the far end I also have a piece of wood lulz

http://i.imgur.com/S8yuWTGh.jpg

Yuck dust!

http://i.imgur.com/ug3WkORh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ug3WkORh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qeRU35Ih.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Z8JKUJyh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Pd7mTdMh.jpg

Parts:

http://i.imgur.com/VHh2S5Ah.jpg

Draining the windows rig - this will become the linux workstation temporarily, I was rolling with the old 460 after selling my 580s and before the titan/780 transition:

http://i.imgur.com/eIqrJfzh.jpg

Stripping

http://i.imgur.com/ySakZ3Lh.jpg

Nearly naked:

http://i.imgur.com/j0Aedhth.jpg

I painted this RX360 for the build before I decided to change to a light/dark theme and before I got sponsored by alphacool:

http://i.imgur.com/6GEgoeah.jpg

Still rocking the sniper:

http://i.imgur.com/hNeQCODh.jpg

And of course EK still sponsor many other parts:

http://i.imgur.com/n0eMSYhh.jpg

Now if only ROG would sponsor me too :rolleyes:

http://i.imgur.com/buRhb37h.jpg

I love nickel plexi

http://i.imgur.com/JP7bc82h.jpg

Luckily Corsair does sponsor me too, I love GTs, who wants anything else:

http://i.imgur.com/BQ5gKHAh.jpg

And I still choose GTs over platinums because I love those red tops. And they're waterblock compatible. You know if I ever get around to that....

http://i.imgur.com/dWUoOp7h.jpg

Decided to run the monsoon lightports. I might switch to the carbon fiber ones though in the final build:

http://i.imgur.com/Z8PwG3sh.jpg

And it's about time to use some of that dye:

http://i.imgur.com/n0f4AHlh.jpg

Ready to fill up:

http://i.imgur.com/VyHrcKGh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HjxPCsOh.jpg

XSPC don't sponsor so this one's a freebie :rolleyes:

[stren]

http://i.imgur.com/PbeXi6kh.jpg

Get that dye in there!

http://i.imgur.com/kYMtOzBh.jpg

Masterkleer tubing hooked up, I was out of primochill clear so I was going to use this up, already turning a bit yellow after 6months of sitting in a dark box :/ :

http://i.imgur.com/inwOV3Hh.jpg

Forgot to tighten that middle compression, luckily it didn't leak:

http://i.imgur.com/1SreSHVh.jpg

sexy:

http://i.imgur.com/9PODwY9h.jpg

fill her up:

http://i.imgur.com/ttUptvvh.jpg

Leak testing:

http://i.imgur.com/yRSyDA4h.jpg

No leaks:

http://i.imgur.com/LahfviDh.jpg

Yummy:

http://i.imgur.com/2iiNoN7h.jpg

I WANT TO EAT IT

http://i.imgur.com/7sGkmdfh.jpg

NICKEL PLEXI AND DYE IS SO SCHMEXY

http://i.imgur.com/mIfR0AKh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LWRQAgPh.jpg

Done with the overnight leak testing and setting up:

http://i.imgur.com/FB01iEdh.jpg

Added an LED to the pump top:

http://i.imgur.com/GO7qMi4h.jpg

Light ports are weak during the day, hopefully I'll get some dark shots later on:

http://i.imgur.com/8SyfCFMh.jpg

I rotated the tray onto a spare desk and sat the PSU and HDD cage on the desk too. I put the PSU on some bubble wrap because it was having some weird resonance with the desk:

http://i.imgur.com/kLJyXmhh.jpg

I kinda wish I had a 2nd spotswood tech bench to be honest, but this'll have to do, the "tech bench" feet that CL have for it work well and I can afford the desk space for the rest of it.

http://i.imgur.com/cW3aBnQh.jpg

So the extension wasn't supposed to have this much bend so the inner wires are pushing through the outer :(

http://i.imgur.com/RR9xnFeh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LoEJG3Vh.jpg

Stripping down the old R4E, the nickel is stained because I ran pure distilled without a corrosion inhibitant...

http://i.imgur.com/Q46Mmy9h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WplKpBLh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9qm3CZ3h.jpg

I do prefer this to csq though

http://i.imgur.com/tRAKJxuh.jpg

beautiful condition one mount only :)

http://i.imgur.com/LbybbkXh.jpg

One mint always under water combo

http://i.imgur.com/YsNdlXIh.jpg

Say farewell to these:

http://i.imgur.com/P9E7h2mh.jpg

Got the hydrocopper block tested (results on the website)

http://i.imgur.com/Qd4mldlh.jpg

[stren]

Got a new lens :)

http://i.imgur.com/WU8eKpnh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bkqYRB2h.jpg

Dust:

http://i.imgur.com/y1yvnlsh.jpg

Mo' Dust:

http://i.imgur.com/lZaZXIzh.jpg

Replacement NEX1500 PSU came in to replace the dead one:

http://i.imgur.com/hbR4hteh.jpg

I wish I had two of these beauties:

http://i.imgur.com/iwa5Pfqh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QrfHy7Fh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RsDCghLh.jpg

Oh wait I do, well temporarily:

http://i.imgur.com/aa1zsIRh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/udt9dBlh.jpg

Also got a GPU in for the workstation, now I can do three monitors with one card. Can you guess:

http://i.imgur.com/n83jN3lh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0UZvyz8h.jpg

This one gives it away a bit:

http://i.imgur.com/CbRJ2Oqh.jpg

The nice thing is that the 650 ti boost with the blower cooler like this still is compatible with a 600 block.

http://i.imgur.com/7SdZk0Fh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RIPOei2h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3YKoDC4h.jpg

So as part of the "getting stuff done" theme, I'd moved thief downstairs to the garage and setup the temporary test bench. The garage was still a mess as I was waiting for new benches and shelving units to come in so I could actually do something.

http://i.imgur.com/yoLMmOOh.jpg

I also forgot to bring home my liquid tape from work to add in the bazillion new thermal probes I got so titan testing was on hold:

http://i.imgur.com/WGI0kh7h.jpg

However I could continue some of the sleeving work:

http://i.imgur.com/Xi9VRyKh.jpg

I'd previously done one 24 pin, an 8 pin and a 6 pin. Since then Lutro0 had sent me some shiny tools and I'd started working on another 24 pin extension. I wasn't happy with the length of the inner run though as it wasn't giving me enough curvature, so I removed those wires leaving me only the outer layer:

http://i.imgur.com/Xi9VRyKh.jpg

I used lutro0's 16 AWG wire, which is pretty easy for a relative nub like me. By the end I was wishing for something stiffer though, but combined with the MDPC-X sleeve the resultant extension is pretty stiff. It still needs a good amount of training, so I seperated the two layers with some thin plywood:

http://i.imgur.com/NgLxzN1h.jpg

and clamped it in position:

http://i.imgur.com/mBunEMbh.jpg

The look is just about perfect, and hopefully it'll hold after a bit of time sitting like that:

http://i.imgur.com/FikMQkNh.jpg

I'd also seen some staining on my nickel blocks which looked similar to EK's testing of distilled only with no anti-corrosion additive:

http://i.imgur.com/Y0KGOevh.jpg

The acrylic isn't stained of course, but it's good to check:

http://i.imgur.com/Zsxi7emh.jpg

Giving the block a good scrub with detergent did nothing.

http://i.imgur.com/wOOCOM9h.jpg

EK used a metal polish to clean their blocks up and couldn't get it out of every recess, but I'm lazier than that and wanted better results so I did some research. Most people say don't use ketchup because you'll eat through the plating. So I thought I would try it on the underside to see how long it takes:

http://i.imgur.com/0QFzpZSh.jpg

After one hour:

http://i.imgur.com/1aIViFuh.jpg

The dark marks were not there before, the underside was actually clean. Not sure if the dark marks are staining or where the acid etched through the nickel faster. I'm going to continue the experiment to see how long it takes...


So that's it for now, hopefully future updates will be more frequent!