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 !!!