JR404's Cube project

[Leeghoofd]

lo all , I was posting on another log of an extremer who also build his rig from scratch. Instead of hijacking his log I will start my own. Never mind my bad typing (it's normal I'm from belgium).

I wanted to build a cube, with great cooling inside for some stable rocksolid 24/7 overclocks. First idea was to create a cube with loads of 120mm fans but I wanted more. So I opted for a watercooling setup comprising of the following :

thermochill PA120.3 radiator with 3 Scythe 12cm Flex fans
Swiftech Apogee CPU block
Swiftech MC30 Northbridge Chipset Block (maybe installed at a later date)
EK 8800GTX waterbock with Delrin top
Swiftech Micro reservoir
Swiftech MCP655 Pump

Plan is to put one rear fan to exhaust any hot air near the PWM of the mobo (already done) , 2 front fans ( 120mm to suck in fresh air) one on the left one on the right and 2 x 80mm fans above the mobo to cool the northbridge and ram. I opterd first for a commando board but this wasn't in stock and my P5W was dying I wanted a replacement asap so I went for the overexpensive Striker Extreme. Cooling the northbridge will be difficult due to al those heatpipes, I'll leave them on and cool them then via the 2 fans

At the time all my hardware is still in my thermaltake armor case and needs to get stuffed in the cube soon. The armor is a nice case but the black version is so bulletproof you can drop it from the top floor and crack the road open and the case wouldn't budge. If only it wasn't so heavy ... and killing my back



The UFO case and the Scan Black Rhino pc inspired me but since it's my first H2O build I wanted to seperate as much as possible the watercooling equipment from the hardware. I go to several lans a year and I transport my rig all the time and want to exclude leaks as much as possible. Hence the Cube idea with on one side mobo gfx card, Hd's and on the other the rad, PSU and optical drives.

Here are some piccies that tell more than a 1000 words :

Case structure is build up from L profile Alu 2mm in thickness with several widths bolted together by countersunk 4mm 12mm screws , providing me with a lightweight (case fully covered with panels but no hardware at around 5.650kg's) that's easy to work in ( plenty of space )
I opted to stay with the size of the AC Ryan Acryl panels of 47cm at 47cm so I didn't need to cut a lot, but after some minor disagreements with my jigsaw I reduced some panels.

Initial frame :



I took all the same size ALU profiles but after putting on some weights (stress test it for the radiator ) it seemd some profiles had the tendancy to bend, so I replaced them with slightly thicker and wider profiles. Plus the wider allowed me to reinforce the structure with some extra screws. It's fully rigid now my cats sleep on top of it sometimes



Added the panels, 2 small ones for the front (thx freaking jigsaw) , one solid for the top and rear. Panels are screwed in via Ac Ryan 3mm golden plated screws into the Alu which I threaded ofcourse. Note that the top also holds the optical and floppy drive, so I can dismantle those quickly if I ever need to replace one. And those screws look fab with the black acryl. Also note that all the alu has to be painted black 2



The harddrives are mounted on a piece of plexi which can be quickly removed via unscrewing 3 tiny selftapping 3mm screws. The vibrations are took away by some rubber grommets from my old Antec P160 case. Plus leaving the harddrives on the bottom enables me to tidy up the wiring as much as possible on the mobo side. Bottom plate is off 5mm thick Nylon which is light but firm. I will place a damping mat on it to reduce vibrations



Next I placed the mobo tray, which is also quickly removable due to being held in place by 4 screws in the 2 L profiles. I 'm still thinking of placing one 8cm fan behind it to blow cold air onto the mobo itself from the back to help the Asus Stack cool, these N680I chipsets get extremely hot and any help is favourable to ensure longer life...



Due to my fright of water and electricity I opted to place a midpanel too to help and hide the wires and allow for the tubing to remain put plus keeping it tidy and clean. Extra holes will be required in case I opt for the rear blowing mobo fan and I have to see how the tubing will have to be placed once I get all my watercooling gear.



Cube from the rear, note the error of cutting lol near the mobo tray, Acryl is very fragile ..., PSU is foreseen to be placed on the bottom to reduce load on the structure, and to favour cable management., the Radiator will come on topleft and a piece of acryl between them



that's it for now, I have to wait till my stuff arrives pls let it be this week I still have vacation !!!

[Solarfall]

looks really cool project. keep the pics comming.
btw are you going to paint the frame of the case, you really should, whould look even nicer.

[Leeghoofd]

Indeed all black is the theme but first gonna install everything , measure things out, then rip it all apart , and off to the painter (my mate's an airbrusher)...

fingers crossed for the H2O stuff

[Solarfall]

fingers crossed for the H2O stuff

nah you'll do fine, just take your time when installing your WC gear.

[Drag]

that looks so well

[JPeitzman]

If it was a mistake or not I really like the split front panels. I have thought about building a cube and I like the idea of having split panels so you could open one side without taking the whole thing apart. You could open the whole motherboard side while benching to get some air while keeping the other side closed off. I think this thing would look awesome powder coated black, or painted in your case, with the smoke plexi. I can't wait to see it when it is finished. I have slowly started to warm up to UFO's, and cubes in general.

[Vice]

Give us more updates !

[Vullf]

Why dont you paint the mobo tray black?

[Solarfall]

Why dont you paint the mobo tray black?

or with some other colour, why keep such a nice case all black, dont make this a just a nother black boring case
make it really stand out.

[Leeghoofd]

Got a new present wednesday morning which will delay my project for some time lol.

Name is Tibo, 3kg400 and 49cm tall



The ugly bearded dad is yours truly.

Maybe indeed give it some dark blue/black concept. Ordered some Blue acryl panels for the interior. EK waterblock arrived on same day , watercooling kit is on the way, radiator sadly is still not in stock ...

Keep you posted !!

[Vullf]

or with some other colour, why keep such a nice case all black, dont make this a just a nother black boring case
make it really stand out.

Yeah just dont the standard.

Gratz with the lil baby

[Leeghoofd]

Pieces are slowing arriving on my doorstep, first up the EK waterblock with black delrin top 1/2 fittings



This is one heavy waterblock , copper is a good conductor but damn heavy. maybe will try to make a support for it to help the card from bending...



Hopefully the Swiftech kit arrives tomorrow, sadly the thermochill pa120/3 is delayed no estimate on delivery yet.

Did some mild overclocking on the E6600 with the 8800GTX at stock

[Leeghoofd]

Swiftech kit just arrived woohoo i'm a happy dad today

[Leeghoofd]

EK waterblock mounted, put my 7900GTX back into the rig.
took more time to dissamble the original card then to fit this beauty.



Only thing is to not overtighten the screws, keep a ruler by hand , being to quick can seriously bend and damage the pcb if you tighten some screws too hard. Nice work Eddy let's hope the temps are as amasing now ( some say even 40°C off the stock heatsink under load )

[Sparky]

I take it you got a little older kit, that is an Apogee and not the GT right?

Sometimes I envy those who have the money to do this stuff. But then I remember I'm in college and hopefully afterwards I'll have money

Can't wait to see the final product!

[Leeghoofd]

Well I ordered from a Dutch online shop and the agreement there is once it has been ordered and reserved for the customer you cannot alter the command.
After 10 years in the hardwarescene it's pretty normal with pc's you buy top stuff a week later there's something new or improved.
Hey man I just planned this make-over half a year ago, put some cash aside ( as much as possible ) and then went for it overall this build will be around 2200 euros so for a top end rig that ain't so much ( and I got a good deal when selling my AMD x2 4400 rig). Plus I wanted a final upgrade before the kiddo arrived and a system that would last me a few years ( lol yeah right hehhee )

[Leeghoofd]

Got some work done today, installed my old P5W mobo just to get a feel for the tubing and stuff. I didn't think the pump would be this big, I'll need to relocate the HD platter more towards the rear of the case. Pump placement will be done like on the picture. Got some cool ides for the micro reservoir but more on that later this week



Also installed the PSU (meantime my spare 500 watt Liberty ) placed it on a damping mat and an UB blue reactive seal helps to reduce vibrations.



Batteries of the camera are almost dead will need a recharge hehehe. Normally once the radiator arrives (it's in stock woohoo) it will be placed on the sidepanel above the PSU in the length not standing up... would make the tubing easier (I think)

Tommorrow if I have the time I'll make a small acryl panel for the two 5cm fans that will blow air onto the Swiftech copper heatsinks on the power regulators and install front damping kit and redo the HD mounting platter

[Ghostwind]

Awesome modding great job. Thank you for sharing.
I too really like the look of the cube and I am considering trying my hand at building something like it, although I dont have any experience.

Like you, I am also watercooling for the first time and had similar desires for large cube case both for functionality and cool aesthetic appeal.
Could you possibly share the measurements on the cube's compartments so I can start getting some idea of what to start planning?



Congrats on newborn as well

[4Qman]

Keep up the great work dude. Congrats on the kid also man, wish you all the best mate.

subscribed

[_TheMaster_]

Congratulations your case is very good

[Leeghoofd]

For the Cube dimensions I went straight for 48 on 48cm , why because the AC Ryan acryl panels are 47 on 47cm so I had some spacing left plus didn't need a lot of cutting. Also this allowed me to place one or two triple fan rads on the watercooling side without any worries. Initially gonna keep it with one, if the cooling isn't sufficient gonna add a second rad to keep it cool(er).

http://www.thermochill.com/guides/PA120-3.pdf

But initial setup is one rad placed horizontally, in case I need a 2nd rad I have the option to place it on the mobo's side front panel or replace the dvd rom and floppy/cardreader to the mobo's frontpanel of the cube and place the 2nd rad on top of the other one.
But the guys at Thermochill forum said that one rad was more than sufficient for my specs (E6600@3600mhz, NB and 8800GTX cooling. Maybe in worst case scenario they told me to add a 120 between the NB and GPU but I'll have to wait to see how it all performs. Thing I want that it's dead silent since the pc is in my living room temps will be sure as good as it's now on air and even better. Also weight was important, still below 8kg's with PSU, GPU and mobo added.

For the dimensions as mentioned 48 at 48 cm. Mobo's side is 26cm in width watercooling side 20cm. I did this because I wanted to place the HD's at the bottom to keep cables etc neat plus the mob and stuff still easy to remove or exchange. I really want good cooling but even more an easy cube/case to work on and I wanted something original not some case you buy in a shop although those UFO mods look tempting....

On monday I will continue to work on the mobo tray, gonna put a 12cm fan behind the mobo ( behind the cpu , PWM) to aid it in cooling, do some holes for clever cable management and if time permits start the small fan cooling acryl panel to place over the PWM's and ram. I decided to go with 5cm fans to blow air over the MC14 copper heatsinks from Swiftech....

Case looks good but it isn't the best build, mostly the builder is too blame but also lacking some good tools and patience :p

[Cpt Twitchy]

Subscribed. Great looking case and congrats on the little guy.

[Frank M]

I didn't think the pump would be this big

Lol you don't even have an asetek pump. It's over twice as big!
Nice! Congrats for both the timewaster projects

[Leeghoofd]

Got soem work today ( yesterday too many visits couldn't ge tout and hide in my favourite workspace " ze garage"



As mentioned before needed to relocate the Harddrives to the largeness of the pump, I choose to move them more to the rear of the case , but keeping them quickly accessible. I placed the dampening mat on the bottom where the harddrives will be placed, due to the thickness I had to think about another way to mount them, my previous construction looked good but afer a few removals the threads were gone on the plastic bushings. I used longer screws that go all the way through the mat a nut on top to fix it ,then the acryl panel that holds the 2 harddrives , a rubber grommet and then finally a nut on top to secure it all in place. Picture says it all :





those mats will cover the entire floor of the harddware side...
Only thing that worries me might be the heat the harddrives create , not much air going through at the moment, but that will be verified once the rig runs...

Due to the fact I was cooling the northbridge via water too I had two options cut the heatpipes ( bye bye warranty) and keep the PWM heatsinks in place or remove it all and use heatsinks and an aftermarket southbridge cooler.

I followed EVA2000 on this and got some Swiftech copper heatsinks, for the southbridge I opted for the still popular Evercool copper fan, which is silent and deadly efficient...

To get some air blowing over the heatsinks I made a small acryl plate that can hold 2 x 6cm fan both positioned over the heatsinks, the fans will be connected straight to the mobo as they only deliver 14dba at max speed...



The fan shroud isn't yet attached to the mobo's plate (2 screws ), that's why there's a small piece of wood behind it , also the location on the P5W differs from the Striker board, so it should be aligned properly.

Well that's it for today, more work tomorrow....

[Leeghoofd]

Got the mobo tray finished, need to pick up the pace, found an excellent airbrusher that wants to paint my case for a fair price. His name is Ribi and the dutch speaking peeps will know him cause he always attends lan parties and you can ask him to mod ya case sidepanels etc there, if you want he even pody paints ya girlie !!

K so for the mobotray, I took it apart and put the striker onto it, I marked where I needed holes to route the powersupply/IDE toward the other chamber of the cube. I also had thought of the idea to put a slow spinning 12cm fan , blowing fresh air onto the mobo's back. This might be a zero thought or pointless but I will test the PC with and without the fan spinning...

Some piccies to add to the already large collection :



Now with the 12cm fan added :



and finally with the 6cm fan shroud :



Tomorrow I'll try to make the supports for the radiator ( still not in my possession bu tI missed the guy from TNT today ), so the cube can go to moddingmaster...

http://www.moddingmasters.be/