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[cools]

First real case mod here, and while it won't be anything special I hope someone likes it :lol:

System currently consists of:

Dual Opteron 246's
Tyan Tiger K8W
2Gb Corsair DDR400 Low Latency Registered ECC
NVidia GeForce 6800GT
Antec NeoPower 480
2x Western Digital Raptor 74Gb
Samsung Spinpoint 160Gb
Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96
SoundBlaster Audigy 2

All housed in an uber-rare Lian-Li PC-6277A (shipped directly from Denmark. No expense spared :( £220 altogether :eek: )

http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/emptychassis.jpg
http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/boxside.jpg

I'm going to watercool it with a full AquaComputer setup consisting of:

Airplex Evo 360
Cuplex Pro's
Aquagrafx
Aquastream
Aquaero
Aquatube

The case itself is going to remain fairly stock - I like the look of it and don't go in for flashy mods. But I do have some custom work in mind, based on a theme (some UK residents may have an inkling based on it's title), that in my minds eye is going to look nicely fancy, stylish and unique (I'm sure the main feature won't have been done before but I'm sure it'll be copied :)).

Here's a couple of shots for your perusal for now - can anyone recommend a waterjet/laser cutting place in the UK as I'm going to need some stuff done?

http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/testbuild1.jpg
Current system built up so I can use it :rolleyes:

http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/toporiginal.jpg
PC6277 with its top filter/grill removed.

http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/frontgrillsnipped.jpg
Lian-Li EX-23 HDD module having its airflow improved
http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/moddedfrontgrill.jpg
My dremel skills are improving!

And my favourite part:
http://www.filtered.me.uk/images/ukhardcorev3/frontleds.jpg
Whoever said LEDs had to be white or blue on a silver case? Super bright green's in different shades > * :) (The HDD led is described as bluish-green and is gorgeous!)

[mnpctech]

Lookin good!


Here's a couple of shots for your perusal for now - can anyone recommend a waterjet/laser cutting place in the UK as I'm going to need some stuff done?

I haven't seen any recommendations here yet... You guys really ought to find somebody to service the UK Modders. Check phone book

[toby]

http://www.laserprofiles.co.uk/ is what one of my friends recommends but i am going to have a phone around my local area and a bit of a nose about for some fan grills im getting done

[BuffaloBoy]

Dual Opteron 246's
Tyan Tiger K8W
2Gb Corsair DDR400 Low Latency Registered ECC
NVidia GeForce 6800GT
Antec NeoPower 480
2x Western Digital Raptor 74Gb
Samsung Spinpoint 160Gb
Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96
SoundBlaster Audigy 2
Wow :eek: nice system. I :wub: Raptors...I want one almost as bad as I want a 6800GT.

I hope your case turns out awesome, cause you already got the speed to back up the looks.

[cools]

toby: Those guys certainly give off a decent image :)

I'm loving the crystals :D Fortunately for my wallet I can't think of any way of incorporating one :lol:

New DVD writer arrived today (NEC 3500) along with a £3 pair of UV cathodes. I wasn't expecting much from them, but the light they give off is more than enough to activate everything in my room both directly and reflectively. I'm well impressed for the money!

[BuffaloBoy]

a £3 pair of UV cathodes. I wasn't expecting much from them, but the light they give off is more than enough to activate everything in my room both directly and reflectively. I'm well impressed for the money!
Wow, I'm impressed. I bought a pair of UV cathodes, I think I spent $20 on them, one broke and the other one barely works anymore. :rant:

[cools]

Quick update, spent most of yesterday in SketchUp (thanks dutchcedar!).

Did a quick mockup of the case parts I'm going to have custom work done for, and almost completed the design for one part :)

After scanning a logo, I did some major cleanup in PSP and converted it to mono, and more cleanup. I vectorised this and dropped it into SU. LOTS more cleanup and edge removal. Scaling, measuring and even more cleanup ensued. More cleanup (I'm very, very fussy).

Ended up having the logo laid out very nicely - not exactly how I'd imagined it, but my imagination can produce something that wouldn't have been particularly stable :D

I'll be doing some more work in SU this weekend I expect (got some PCs to upgrade/fix in the week), to finish off this part and do some other bits.

It's a superb program if you've not tried it, I'm a total CAD lamer and even I got to grips with it after a couple of hours playing about. It's really hard to futz things up so badly they can't be fixed :) Delusions of grandeur and an entirely custom case come to mind but that won't be happening this time!

[Starbuck3733T]

I don't see the fascination with WD raptors... Yeah, they're 10K rpm.

*Huggles 146GB 15K RPM 16MB buffer U320 Scsi disk*

Get it?

[cools]

SCSI = far more money than I need to spend on quick storage. I'm perfectly happy with these Raptors, I can unrar a DVD size file in around a minute, or a normal CD in around 10, which is vastly quick enough for me and didn't cost me the earth. They're really quiet too.

I'd be thinking of moving to SCSI if the system wasn't "transparent" to me, which it is and has been since it was specced and bought back in February (which is the longest time I've ever been 100% happy with the core speed of my machine). It's totally smooth even under multiple loads, which was all I needed to sort out. The £550 spent on processors was a better buy than going with cheaper ones and making the switch to SCSI. Maybe in a few years when this is struggling with newer apps :)

[cools]

I've had some help today to finalise my parts list 100%. The following is going to shoved into the case:

Fittings:

5x 1/8 Plug&Cool straight (90002)
5x 1/8 Plug&Cool bent (90004)
1x Plug & Cool Tie Clips (63010)
1x Elbow (63002)
1x 3m Clear Tubing (61003)
1x Plug (63006)
1x T-Piece (63003)
1x End Cap (63020)
2x Cuplex Pro A64 (21248)
1x aquagrafx 6800 (23355)
1x Aquatube 1.1 Titanium Anodized Plug&Cool Bent (34203)
1x aquabay RK rev 1.5 (34902)
1x Front screen for aquabay aluminum silver (93101)
1x Lighting module UV for aquatube (34912)
1x airplex evo 360 Plug & Cool Straight (31032)
1x aquastream pump 12 V Rev. 3,0 (41043)
1x FMJ Housing for 1046 (41022)
1x Uncoupling set for aquastream, Eheim and Hydor pumps (41021)
1x Aquaero 3.07 VFD (53035)
1x Flow Sensor (53021)
1x Flow sensor connection set Plug&Cool Bent (90029)
1x Lead for flow sensor (53027)
1x Plug&cool Temperatursensor (53025)
1x aquaero aquastream starting from Rev. of 1,5 cable connections 10 cm (53028)
1x Internal USB lead 70 cm (for aquaero) (53034)
1x Papst 8412 N/2GL (51021)
5x Papst 4412 F/2GL (51020)
5x 3Pin Extension cable 30cm (51033)
4x Rubber fan Decoupler Set (51034)
1x AC Multilayer 6x Mats Set (54225)
1x Front screen for aquaero aluminum silver (53040)
1x UV Cold Cathode Twinset (54155)
1x Glowmotion Dye (71001)
1x Tubing cutter (63017)
1x Allen Keys (51043)
1x AC Multitool (51051)
1x Arctic Silver 5 (51030)
1x AC Fluid (53101)

Loop layout:

AQUABAY [Res outlet (bent), pump inlet (bent), Pump outlet (straight)] CPUs [cpu block inlet (bent), cpu block outlet (bent), cpu block inlet (bent), cpu block outlet (straight)] GFX [gfx block inlet (bent), gfx block outlet (bent)] RAD [rad inlet (straight), rad outlet (straight)] - possibly awkward bend back into AQUABAY [res inlet (bent)]

Apologies that the pics are down, I'll get some back up when things get more interesting :) I should have the gear above by next week, and then the fun really begins!

[Kickass]

nice list, btw pics broke!

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Apologies that the pics are down, I'll get some back up when things get more interesting :) I should have the gear above by next week, and then the fun really begins!
:rolleyes::p

[Kickass]

:rolleyes::p
OOOps

[FastRedPonyCar]

sounds like it's going to be a really sweet system. Big chunk of change you're dropping on this projet eh? :lol:

Oh yeah, all your pics are red X's <_<

[cools]

At last, some progress!

All of my AC gear arrived, in one decent sized box.

First things first, built up the Aquabay & Pump & Res. I should point out - the FMJ for the Eheim/Aquastream does not fit onto an aquabay with the standard mounts (you require them because the aquastream needs them to fit inside the FMJ - you can't have both with this type of mount). It's also butt ugly in real life, so it'll be sold on somewhere.

Then, see if the 120.3 rad will fit. My measurements were spot on :) It'll just squeeze in, and the PSU doesn't intrude on it. I do lose one of the power cable plugs, but that's of no consequence - I only want to be using one once it's all together.

[cools]

Next up I masked the top, did copious amounts of measuring, remeasuring, and checking. The whole top is going to have a lot of work done, so even though it looks pretty crappy at the moment, it will be totally transformed eventually.

Drilled out mounting holes for all the fans. I only used 4 eventually :) Still need to find some decent threaded poles and capping nuts as it's a total pain to mount using reversed screws & nuts. I have not cut the top at all yet - that is last on my list of things to do.

As you can see, rad went in perfectly straight, and sitting right where it needs to be.

I had hoped to have the fans on the bottom of the rad, pushing up through it. No luck with this - the evo rads don't have mounting holes on both sides! I would've had the Aquaero sitting beneath the rad then, and the card reader at the bottom of the case. Not a chance though, and if you look at the clearance the rad has from the card reader, it's extremely lucky that fitted in there. The card reader is playing up anyway so it'll probably go sometime soon and be replaced somehow.

[FastRedPonyCar]

Woo those are some tight squeezes you got there!

[cools]

After some more hours, fitting various bits, I ended up with the attached.

It's not finished yet, theres a few days work left in it, but the watercooling works (I'm extremely impressed with the Aquaero & Aquastream combination - very well thought out, itll be even better when I have flashed it to english :)) and there's no leaks.

The Aquagrafx was a complete bitch to fit. The supplied screws weren't long enough to fit around the core. I ended up going around everywhere I could think of looking for longer ones (smaller than M3 - I think the supplied where M2!) and eventually found some. 12 in a box of 110. Still, for 2 quid I wasn't complaining. I also found if I wasn't careful with any of the screws, the card warps like a bitch.

One of the cuplexes needs to be inverted (it's gathering bubbles it can't shift), and all of the wiring needs to be done, but I'm pleased with the ease it all went together - a far cry from the 1/2" stuff that I fitted before. Wouldn't even contemplate going there again :)

I should have some more done tonight, so I'll post back tomorrow if I manage it :)

[Sinner]

it would have seemed more....practical to have the one pump push two flows. like this:


Pump:split:processor 1---rad 1:un-split---gpu---rad 2---pump
processor 2---rad 1:un-split

then again what do i know. it looks like you should have split the flow at the pump and not the cpu blocks is what I'm saying.

[Bradley]

looking nice cools...

glad you had no leaks...

I hope my install goes as smoothly...!!! :wacko:

Bradley

[cools]

Sinner: theres no split of flow! All serial :) We'll see how efficient it is once it's up and running. Can't really be bothered to mess around trying to eke off the degree's - as long as it's stable at a sensible temperature and quiet!

[Sinner]

it looks like its running over both procs and then to the rad and then to the gpu back to a rad and then to a pump. just thought that would kill the cooling on the second proc thats all.

[cools]

Res - pump - cpu1 - cpu2 - gfx - rad - flowmeter - back to res. Dead simple :)

I ran the 1/2" system with an identical layout (but more & smaller rads) and the cpu's were never more than half a degree apart.

Performed some wire tidy up last night, depending on what I get up to tonight (got an xbox to chip and possibly some company to keep) I may get the system back up and running. No more pics until the wiring is done 100% though - it's going to be something special!

[Sinner]

jeez that's alot of heat for only one rad to disipate. then again i dont know if your OC'ing anything.

[mnpctech]

cools, fix your photos on page 1.

[Fibbles]

It's looking really organized in there :)

looking nice cools...

glad you had no leaks...

I hope my install goes as smoothly...!!! :wacko:

Bradley
Plug and Cools rarely leak ^_^ , and if they do, chances are the tubing isn't pushed into the fitting all the way. Your install will go fine.

[Bradley]

It's looking really organized in there :)


Plug and Cools rarely leak ^_^ , and if they do, chances are the tubing isn't pushed into the fitting all the way. Your install will go fine.I use the same sort of fittings at work (festo fittings) so i know they are reliable...

Im just a bit unlucky when it comes to my own projects...;)

[Fibbles]

I use the same sort of fittings at work (festo fittings) so i know they are reliable...

Im just a bit unlucky when it comes to my own projects...;)LOL! :huh: As long you leak test you'll be fine. I had a leak at my video card block and I couldn't figure out why it was leaking. The hose was in all the way, but every so often there was a drop of water on my Radeon. Using green glowmotion and a UV light, I was able to see that the hose pieced I had used had a hole in it. Before I used it for that stretch, I was going to cut it to use elsewhere, but decided not too. Only after I cut it with hose cutters only slightly, did I remember that. <--- Confusing eh? :confused:

[Bradley]

Yeah im deffinately going to do a leak test first... Otherwise i could be installing now really... but i only want to have to do it all once as i cant afford to lose my pc for longer than a day or two when transfering over to the new case...!

Hope you Gfx card was ok m8!!

[Pug]

it looks like its running over both procs and then to the rad and then to the gpu back to a rad and then to a pump. just thought that would kill the cooling on the second proc thats all.
Don't sweat a serial loop. There really isn't that much difference on the second CPU (like there would be on both if you split the flow ;) ).

Nice going Brad. Sounds like the same loop order I'd have used :)
Good luck with the leak testin'.

[cools]

Just to keep everyone up to date, the build is 99% hardware done (just need to extend one more cable, and figure out why one firewire port isn't working when the pinout is fine), and approximately 95% cosmetically done. I may get pictures done soon - I've had a lot of other stuff going on (2005 is going to be my year of many changes).

There is one slight problem - I can't find a 120mm fan that likes running vertically without any bearing rattle! None of the Papsts I've got do, the original Adda one doesn't, the Panaflo I've fitted doesn't (but it's the best of the bunch). I encounter this problem a lot - it took me ages to find an 80mm fan that had silent bearings, eventually settling on a tacho-less one pulled from a PSU a few years back.

The cosmetic work that needs to be done is the laser cutting. To describe it accurately, I'm going to be having a grill made that is approximately the size of the whole top panel :) I'm unsure as to whether I can be bothered theming the case properly anymore though, or having any custom fan grills for the rear made up. We'll see.