i-Prodigy - for i-Wife - watercooled mini-ITX gaming (mini) monster

[Kayin]

I do so love seeing your builds-cabling can be an art, and you prove it. I've got the same job coming up in the same case for my wife and I both. Let's hope I can come somewhere in the same galaxy as that.

[MrBean]

Heya Guys, thanx for the feedback always appreciated! And yeah, I make an excuse to play with toyz, if I cannot find a good enugh one - after 21 years of married life, I keep telling myself I 'deserve' certain things, or that I can get away with some 'minor' transgressions...

@ Kayin: Sound like you're going to have fun too, and I am sure yours will blow mine to the edge of the 46 billion years observable Universe! Just a bit of patience, lots of swearing, mental breakdown, but we usually get there....

Enjoy, and keep us posted on what you're up to!

[phantomferrari]

very excellent build. you have inspired me to go mini for my next one. i was wondering when you get a chance if you could post a little guide on crimping maybe in the mod section. i can crimp but i screw up quite a bit. im sure you have a few little tricks to share

[LeoAndrade]

Awesome facebook-machine! I mean, AMAZING facebook-machine! Impressive work

[MrBean]

Heya Gents,
Ta for the feedback, as always, all feedback and critisism appreciated!

@ Phantomferrari: I could try and do a mini-guide, but the end-result is always dependant on the quality of the tools you have at your disposal. Travelling this week, but let's see how it goes once I am back home on the weekend

[MrBean]

Back from 3 days in Townsville, and off to Sydney for 2 days tomorrow, but decided to post a quick Wednesday evening update. I actually completed this part late Sunday arvo, but could not post to pics due to upcoming trips.

Anyway, here we go - a small, but important one

My new kittycat, Milla, which is one of two additions to our household...she's doing inspection on the case and watercooling setup - this was taken a while back though....



of course, she's pretty pedantic, have to find fault somewhere



Back to current affairs at hand...had to rewire the GT's to fit in with the theme, and feed wiring through a hole I drilled earlier, which was fitted with a small rubber grommet. This I did when making the new fan mounting-plate for the top.

Here are the candicates, before reworking them:



Will be rewiring them with 24AWG Turnigy wire...



Here is the first one finished, pretty quick and easy...



and a close-up of the soldering...

[MrBean]

Busy fitting the newly wired pair here, going smooth as butter...



a close-upof wherethe wiring pass through to the other side ->



Tidied up...



and a couple of shots of the finished product - ok, not 100% finished, a small surprise coming later, right at the end though:



and



and of course, here you can see how the cables have been tidied off on the inside - again, I could have done a fair bit more here to hide things, but for this mod, it needs to be neat, but stillpractical,and easily moddable if I want to change a few things.

[MrBean]

A quick few shots how things are looking before the next important step...Guys, what you see below is a fullly working computer, with all wiring done, exceptthe FP-connector - this willcome soon, but will blend in with the rest, it will hardly be noticed...



and



and a last one....nice and clean...

[MrBean]

Now,the next step required some thinking,on what I really wanted to achieve, and what would be pratical.

This boy here had to go somewhere, and admittedly, I could've fitted it to the top, in the original 5.25" optical bay area, and making custom brackets. It would just touch the radiator, and protrude 1mm at the front - nope, did not want that, you would hardly notice, but I would know...



a few more shots of it in its orginal clothes...



and



and



So, on with the thinking-cap....decided to remove the original mounting-brackets, and came up with a new mounting-plate....see the black bezel-like part in the middle,surrounding the 5.25" brackets...



and bolted to the AAE5, it will look like this...



to be mounted here....



-> having it in this location, allows for nice and easy cable-routing to/from the device,and in the following pic, it is powered up, and controlling water-temp - fans and pump are on auto control, and working like a charm.



Now, I have 2 options here: LEave this as the AAE5 Pro, and cut a window that will allow myself or the Missus to observe/adjust settings if necessary....

Or, simply replace this with the AAE5 LT, and have it controlled by the software GUI only - I need one of these for the NAS anyway....I am leaning towards replacing this one with the LT, it will be mounting in the same place, with the same bracket....

What do you guys reckon?

[CrazyNutz]

Nice touch!

Paint the fan grills!

[MrBean]

Nice touch!

Paint the fan grills!

Ah, I am planning another surprise for the top... will see how it goes by the weekend

[CrazyNutz]

Can't wait to see what its

[lowfat]

That is a lot of hardware for such a small case. Really jealous of your crimpers too.

[MrBean]

Thanx for feedback, Guys, appreciated

@ Lowfat: If you hunt around on Ebay, you will find a few at affordable pricing - probably the best investment I have ever made!

No modding updates this weekend, I enrolled with iRacing, getting back into Racing Sims after a break. Time to dust of my old Nixim Frame and ECCI Trackstar 6000 wheel and pedals....

For those that have been wondering about the temperatures - I have been racing the whole weekend, some practice-sessions lasting 5-6 hours, and with ambient at 24, the GPU never exceeded 32 deg C, and the CPU not once over 44 deg C (1 of the 4 cores only, the other were idling at low 30's). The single 240mm rad is doing exactly what I expected it to, and never even broke a sweat.

[Elder]

Wait,wait...I feel something does not fit.
Pump in Apogee Drive II can properly operate horizontally?

[MrBean]

Heya Mate, no problem with that orientation, as long as you have a proper liquid-head to keep pump filled, so as to prevent it from running dry, and subsequent bearing-failure.

All good, and I am very sure the likes of Swiftech and Koolance have done their homework on this, as the Koolance RP-series reservoir/pump combos are in the same orientation.

[paulbagz]

Beany! Why were you up in the Ville? Do you come up often?

-PB

[MrBean]

Heya Paul, soz for the late reply - don't go that often, but from time to time- when I am up there next, let's meet PM me your phone0no.

I usually pop up to visit Sucrogen....

[Movieman]

Just looking and wish I could get you over here for a week and learn from you.
Very nice work..

[MrBean]

Just looking and wish I could get you over here for a week and learn from you.
Very nice work..

Thanx Uncle Dave! You're always welcome, you know

Merry Christmas, everyone, and a Blessed New Year to you all!