Project "Little Angel": My return to water cooling!

[SoMBrA]

I thought that I had no 3 pin connectors but I managed to find some so I could link the Aquabus lines from the PA2



Pins and connectors



My tools for my custom length wires... really need to get some good wire stripper to have all with exactly the same length, that could improve the results even more. Knipex maybe?

BEFORE



AFTER!





Aquaero 5 XT is on it's way as I said yesterday, still need to make 1 more custom connector that will link all the PA2 with AQ5 and make them work as one pice of hardware.

[SoMBrA]

I just recieved some goodies from one of my sponsors.
Thank you very much ProSilentPC (specially to David)







Some custom stickers, very high quality vinyl, very strong!





40mm Fractal fans... they do look very nice...



30mm M3 screws to replace the bronze screws from the Alphacool radiators





Nothing beats German engineering....



These are custom made by David, you will see what are they used for in the future.
No painting, chemical treatment so it wont peel





Dimastech thermal compound... will test it and see what results do I get



Finally some masterkleer tube to do some tests before final assembly with coloured tubing.

Until the next update!

[LeandroJVarini]

Nice work and beautiful photos! ^ ^

[SoMBrA]

Nice work and beautiful photos! ^ ^

Thank you very much Leandro

Yesterday I could do some work to better handle the cable management:



As you can see there are some cables that need to come through the midplate to reach the Aquaero 5 (fans, sensors, etc).
I didn't want to use the already drilled holes in the Little Devil since the wiring would look strange, I really wanted to have "straight lines" so I decided to mark an area to drill a hole and let the cables pass the midplate.

PSU 24pin connectors and other will be routed just behind the motherboard tray so I'm ok with that





I will try to follow the same pattern as the other drilled holes in the Little Devil so they don't look strange.
I did some measurements and you have 22mm and 20mm holes, so I will go for 20mm size


I just need to finish it with my step drill but I ran out of time, need to earn some money so I can finish this

Will update tonight after the surgery!

[SoMBrA]

Hello everyone!

Update time... finally I had to remove rivets to get the midplate out so I could drill the hole I needed for the cable management purpose





As you can see I need to find some countersunk rivets since the one I have don't look that great compared to the original rivets used!



Without the midplate and the rivets the case lost all its rigidity



Don't think it twice and just do it!



The "raw" finish...



Final result



I used 20mm step drill bit so I could add bitspower pass through if needed or just will fit some gomets, will see!

[SoMBrA]

I have good and bad news!

Good news first... The Aquaero 5 XT is at home!
Bad news... I don't have my countersunk rivets yet so can't continue working without assembling the case

Next step would be to finish the sleeving of the fans and for that I need to place the Aquaero and take final measurements to know exactly what length wire I need until I reach the desired output of the Aquearo...

I did some work with the AQ5, changed the front plate and replaced the original heatsink with a waterblock instead!







And the after:

[SoMBrA]

I did some work last night but it's not quite finished yet but still wanted to tease you and show the final result with the hole I made to improve the wire management.



The washer used here is from the lot that Manolo from ProSilentPC custom made for me, so all the credit goes for him!
More wires are going to go through there so it will look much better when finished

[SoMBrA]

I had to rewire the Power Adjust 2 (the molex really) because I didn't like the end result as much as I did with the small 3-pin bridge...

This was V1 of the "power-link"





I think the wires were too short and hard to pull off... also I realized that Power Adjust 2 don't require 5V so I could simplify everything even more

So, back to work!



"Power-link" V2 done!





Much better!

I also had to re-do some radiators fan because I used some isulation tape to hide some of the black wires but the sleeving was too thick that the top radiator wouldn't fit the 30mm screws :duh:

So just took the isulation off and everything was good after that!
Just some pictures I took while working on the fix...





I've planned all the wiring route for all the radiators to the Aquaero 5, just need to cut the splitter to the desired length and sleeve

Will try to update later!

[nigelke]

sweet

[SoMBrA]

sweet

Thank you


I just finished with the wiring of the 12 fans coming from the radiators! (from rad to AQ5)
I took some pictures with the end steps of the work to show how I did them:

First off cutting the wires to the desired length...



Crimp the connectors!



On goes the sleeving...



Because of the diameter change between different size sleeve used I decided to use some zip ties along with heatshrink to have the best possible grip and still have some good looking results.

Bigger size sleeve was used to build up the splitter up to where all the cables were soldered together, after that just 3 wires will go to the AQ5 connector.







Sleeving "locked!"



Cable with the 3 pin connector and heathrink ready to do its job...



Done!



Final result!

There you see the 3 radiators connected to the AQ5.

Right now I'm trying to solve some problems I'm having with the Aquaero 5 beeing too sensitive that makes it impossible to use (screen or remote control).

If i remove the front plate then it's ok but as soon as I put front plate back in the AQ5 registers key presses because of the sensitivity... I will try to add some custom washers tonight and see if adding more clearance solves the issue otherwise I'm not sure what else to do...

[LittleDevil]

It is awesome build. It will also be nice if you have front plate of AQ5 in white

[SoMBrA]

Hello Ales, thanks for the nice comments!
Someone already suggested the white front panel, but I was thinking going full black for the front panel to have contrast between Black and white (DVD, Power Adjust 2, Aquaero 5 and custom bracket, all black)

You will see...

[RCG_Bex]

Om nom nom!!!

[Tile]

You can use countersunk M3 screws and nuts to assemble the case until the countersunk rivets come in. Find a cheap psu and take the screws that hold its cover in place.

[SoMBrA]

Om nom nom!!!

You can use countersunk M3 screws and nuts to assemble the case until the countersunk rivets come in. Find a cheap psu and take the screws that hold its cover in place.

Yes Tile I did that already... It's enough so I can keep working on the case
The rivets are already in my city, it's just they are beeing lazy and it's taking a lot of time to bring them home

[SoMBrA]

Update night!

Been sleeving the temperature sensors and did some wiring for ligthing, etc...
For the sensors I decided to use "Vanilla Sands". I really wanted to change the color so I don't get confused in the future with all the wiring following the same color pattern.. (black and white!)

Some unboxing of my sleeving!






And now the before and after pics... enjoy!












I really want to start with the system assembly to see how good or bad the sleeving color matching is!

[SoMBrA]

* Knock Knock!! *
- Who is?
- Countserunk rivets
-



Because one is not enough... 500 will do!



Now I have my rivets, but still have to wait before I "seal" everything!
I think I might need to drill an extra hole... you will see!

[SoMBrA]

Don't think im on vacation, I'm doing some work...
Here a little something I've been working on.. not finished yet!

[SoMBrA]

Yesterday I left the my drain line like this...



Needed to find the best way to connect that to the floor.
After some tests I decided to use some of my older fittings instead of ordering new ones because the end result would be the same, maybe less fittings involved but then I would never use my other fittings If I keep ordering more hehe

As posted months ago I want to change all the O-Rings to black ones...





Now all together...



And the end result would be something like this!



If you check last picture I didn't want to mess the original holes that were on the Little Devil because that is the placeholder for the PSU and I wanted to keep that...

Too late here to start drilling holes so I would finish this tomorrow and will post results again...

[SoMBrA]

Update!






I use this center punch to mark where to place the drill

For this task I had to call Messi. He will never let you down on a important day!!





I used a step drill bit.. I love it!





Trying to accomplish the perfect finish!



Time to fit the pass through...



Installed the washer made by Manolo (ProSilentPC)

Final result:



Now is 100% functional and fixed to the case



In this picture you can see that is quite straight line directly from the radiator to the bottom!

[LeandroJVarini]

meticulous in every detail! congratulations!

[SoMBrA]

meticulous in every detail! congratulations!

Thank you Leandro!
Today I'm doing some planing for the pump placement... I need to sleeve it also and route the wires to the Power Adjust 2

[nigelke]

It keeps getting better

[trans am]

i love that drain idea.

[SoMBrA]

It keeps getting better

i love that drain idea.

Thank you guys!
Yesterday I spent good 2-3 hours taking measurements... hopefully Will be able to show something more in the next days