[build log] Water & Wood

[MadHacker]

voted for ya

[miahallen]

Thanks

I've been having a bit of fun with the new DCS A-10C Warthog game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2GrHcZUO0o

[OC Maximus]

Voted for you Mia

[Church]

miahallen: with using Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog joystick per chance?
I have to admit, that head tracking gadget seems really cool must have device in flight sims.

[miahallen]

No...I've got a Saitek "Cyborg EVO Force"...their cheapest FFB stick. Not bad, but nothing special.
The headtracking is awesome...but it would be tough to dogfight with guns....I tried it with "Birds of Prey" and it was pretty difficult to line stuff up with the crosshairs and fire accurately....but I didn't mess much with the curves in that game. Maybe I could improve it with some effort A-10C works fine since its mostly air to ground fighting with bombs and guided missles.

[miahallen]

So, a bit earlier I mentioned that I was working on a frame to surround the fan wall. I finally got a chance to finish it up today. I started by putting the frame together.



Notice the small burn mark. When you use a router, you have to ensure the bearing is loose so the guide will lead you without spinning. The bit I was using was a bit older, and the guide got stuck and was spinning, which burned the entire length of the board. I sanded most of it off. But this spot got a bit deeper.....thank goodness one of the edges has to face the rear :p



A quick test fit shows my measurements were just about right.



Now the hard part. You may recall near the beginning of this project, I cut the holes on the fans extra wide to allow the screws to pass through the outer opening and mount the fans from the inner part of the frame. No big deal at the time, but then I received these beautiful dust filters from Team ColdZero, and they would normally mount to the fans with said holes. So now I needed to come up with a solution, when I mounted them the first time, it was a bit of a rushed job with zip ties. But I wanted something a bit more flush and secure.

Then I came up with an idea. I'd glue a washer to the back side of the holes, then use rivets to secure the filters into place. Here are the washers glued into place (this was a major PITA).







Next, I got to rivetin'....after I was finished I realized I had forgotten to put the frame back on before riveting. Which has to be done first :banghead:



So, I'll fast forward a bit to after drilling out all the original rivets...recovering all my washers...gluing the washers back into place (AGAIN!)...and then re-riveting all 48 spots.



Next I removed the protective film from the inner grill for the filter.



Next I removed the protective film for the outer filter grill...



...and got the filters all remounted.



Here are some semi-final shots. The rig is 99% finished at this point. I'm still toying with the idea of swapping the PSU with an AX1200. But this thing seems to be holding up to the heavy load. I'm just not sure if pushing it this hard is a good idea for the long run. I'm regularly seeing 1300-1500W draw on my kill-o-watt while gaming.

I'll also replace the Koolance QDC fittings when I get my replacements from RMA. Until then, I'm calling this finished I'll get my blog written up soon. I'd like to say thank you once again to Swiftech for their support, and to Team ColdZero for these beautiful additions....and I'd also like to thank the community as a whole for watching, commenting, and supporting me through this build.

I've already started work on my next project (MAX11Lv3), please make sure you check it out

[fr0wn3r]

I love it! Nice work on that frame!

[Radeon92]

:O Awesome work!!! Congrats

[miahallen]

Well, I knew this was coming sooner or later. I broke the rig down today to install my new Koolance QDCs I got back from RMA. And I figured I'd use the opportunity to check the nickle plating on my EK water blocks. Sure enough, it's RMA time

[Furball Zen]

Not to discount the ugliness, but there was one guy i saw that had that build up, and it just wiped off more or less. But, one thing ive noticed on your GPU's, looks like you could use something to hold the back end up as they are clearly sagging from the weight of the wires.

[miahallen]

Not to discount the ugliness, but there was one guy i saw that had that build up, and it just wiped off more or less. But, one thing ive noticed on your GPU's, looks like you could use something to hold the back end up as they are clearly sagging from the weight of the wires.

I saw that thread as well, and took the advice and attempted to clean them (after the photos were taken), a lot of it cleaned off....but other parts are clearly missing nickle, but thanks for the suggestion

The GPUs are suprizingly level, I'm not sure which picture is leading you to believe they are sagging, but they do not

[Church]

mia: your blocks were old plated or EN plated ones?

[miahallen]

Old....I bought them about a month before the big EK thread here....so I knew this was coming :-/

[miahallen]

Well, I finally got around to putting things back together after getting GPU blocks, Koolance QDCs, and the mobo replaced:







This is how it should have been from the beginning.

[Church]

Looks neat. Imho heatspreaders on mosfets / on ram and gpu backplates play well together here
I'd paint black that white-grey-ish external connector/cable above top gpu though, for all to look uniform.

[miahallen]

Good call churchy

[defect9]

That's hot right there. In the sexy way, not in the melty sort of way.

[fr0wn3r]

Whoohoo! New HW! I like the choice you've made. Gratz!