Jadawgis's Golem

[recent]

So sad that can't see the pictures

[jadawgis732]

So today I got my mounting hardware from EK. I found the parts 24 hours after I had sent the first email. Unfortunately, it was already on its way to the US and there was nothing that could be done. (Sorry guys) but great customer service always endears customer loyalty! Anyway, I was thinking about the link between the reservoir and pump and I thought this might look good. What do you guys think?


It’ll mounted in this fashion:

Also this could be good fodder for a caption contest. She's scrutinizing the camera man quite hard!

[cubemaster27]

that is a sick setup with the tri monitors, one question though: where did you get that insanely huge "mouse-pad" ???

[jadawgis732]

UPDATE: Sleeving, Mounting Rads, Cable Routing, Hammond Boxes
This will be a big update, for me at least. I’ve been doing a lot of planning lately, and I’ve come to like the Hammond Box idea for hiding cables and connections. Here you can see my idea and diagrams:




But to be able to use the boxes for cable routing, I needed to come up with an idea for letting cables go through the boxes, and I figured the thin piece would be mounted to the case with the box part of the Hammond Boxes used as a cap. I taped the boxes with blue painters tape, marked off where holes would go and used grooves for allowing the cables to go through. In retrospect this wasn’t the best idea but the boxes are cheap so I’ll test out the idea of using the box part mounted to the case, with the thin piece as a cover tomorrow. Here’s an example of what I had in mind. The terminal block will be mounted to the case, but the cover cannot have cables going through it, because I’ll need to have access to the blocks.




I also mounted the radiator and fans to the case, and attached a rocker switch for the CCFLs. I also have an idea to hide the CCFLS so that only ambient light can be seen. Check back tomorrow or Sunday for that idea. Meanwhile I’ve sleeved the SATA and Molex to modular connections and some CCFLs. I have the one inverter I need to use besides the Lamptron 4 way for a Liquid Neon CCFL in the garage drying. I painted it black to match the rest of the stuff. I also ordered a BFG EX-1000w as a backup and also to use while I’m sleeving the EX1200. But mostly I got it because Geeks.com had it for $54.99 shipped. Check back soon.

[jadawgis732]

I've redone the 360 rad paint (sanding first) and rewired the fans on that rad. I found some snap caps like on the back of murdermod trays for the bottom 240 rad grille. I was going to buy a dslr for better pics but someone suggested buying a halogen work light like carpenters use and bouncing the light off of whiteboard. I tried that and got much better pics. More pics to follow. A lot of people complained about the size of the pics discouraging them from wanting to read my thread so if I don't hear any complaints I'll be posting these clickable thumbnails from now on. The pseudo studio I made and the bottom rad grille pics:

[jadawgis732]

I need opinions. I can't mount the pump under the GPU because it's too tall. I will see when the components go into the case, but I'm pretty sure on this issue. If it can it will be using a very thin male to male fitting connecting the MCP-655 with X-TOP V2 and the lower GPU. I have mounted the reservoir brackets and tried this out:


What do you guys think?

The other option is mounting on the side of the midplate which is only 8.5mm thick and will send the tube the wrong way from the GPUs. Maybe I could go from pump to rad rather than pump to GPUs. The problem with the above picture is the cover for the hotswap bays. That would have to be routed out to allow the pump to fit there.

Also here is the DVD drive after painting:

[jadawgis732]

I've moved all the components over to the 800D now. I received a 1000W BFG EX series PSU for $55 to hold me over until I've modded the EX1200, also by BFG. So the internal components aren't ready for display. I also am using my H50 as there were problems finding a mounting location for the D5, so I ordered some 90 degree barbs which should be here soon. Unfortunately I will use the XSPC bayres with the GPU loop since the D5's only mounting location is in the PSU compartment right before the 240 rad which will be used to cool the CPU. I thought the 360 in the 800D wouldn't be as cool (temp wise) as the same components on a 240 in the Raven 2 because it has a lot more vertical space to cover in this case. But, keeping my fingers crossed, it has. I'm going to shave some depth off the Lian Li DVD bezel before mounting it to the front cover with double sided tape.

Finally, a lot of people advise against 90 degree fittings. But, I realized that most of the watercooled systems have a lot of 90 degree bends in the loop. Where? In the blocks! In my EK GPU blocks there are at least 2 90 degree bends per block. In CPU blocks there is a 180 degree bend over a very small area. So I don't think it'll be so bad.... Anyway here are the pics I can show now. After I have the CPU loop, lighting, and 1200W PSU modded, sleeved and installed I'll show the rest.

[slotrod]

Im looking at your DVD drive with the clean front. Is this a mod or something that can be purchased.

[jadawgis732]

Im looking at your DVD drive with the clean front. Is this a mod or something that can be purchased.

What picture? I don't understand what you mean? I haven't installed the Lian Li Bezel yet if that's what you are talking about.

[jadawgis732]

[Pupo]

Nice setup.

Why all sleve 24pin cable in a lot of small cables instead one bigger(in desired color ofc)?

Updates
So first I did some leak testing. Because I didn't want to cut up my Primochill Black any more than was necessary I used a small piece of clear. It was showing a lot of bubbles even after bleeding as best I could. Do you guys know how to get rid of that?

Bubbles will disappear after some time (2-3days)

[jadawgis732]

BIG UPDATE

First big update in a while. I think I wasn't getting enough responses in my threads because I didn't have good enough pics, or too much commentary or not enough good pics, or pics on things people have already seen or that weren't important enough. I have been looking at the worklogs that get a lot of comments, and granted they're usually the best modders/mods. Though mine won't be as good (not nearly) there are a couple steps I can take to make this a better worklog for everyone.

So I got a new DSLR to take better pics, and because it was only $250 for a Sony A200 which is a good deal. I've been working on the case for a while and have enough content that I think I can make a good update now. I may have tarnished my image by the posts up until now, but what's done is done, and I'm not going to open a new thread just because I revised my posting style.

Here's where the case stands now:


The first thing I'll talk about is the DVD/Lian Li Bezel painting and installation. I messed up the last one because the little panel that acts as a front piece for the sliding part of the drive wouldn't stay on. So I superglued it to the tray, and the glue must have gotten on the main part of the drive because it wouldn't open afterwards. Plus I messed up the paint job on it. So I started from scratch with a new drive. I sanded with 400 grit and applied primer. Then applied two coats of Satin Black Rustoleum and a thin coat of matte clearcoat. I pressed some vinyl onto the back of the drive and the part that acts as a front for the tray. Here are the pics and sorry about the lighting in the last two. I was in a rush to restore my OS because setpoint got uninstalled and the backups of profiles you export don't contain the paths to the exes for the application switcher. That's a pain in the ass to do and since WHS backs up the OS every night I was able to just restore the image.



Next I wanted to cut heatshrink the same length every time and quickly, without having to measure to ensure it. So I began searching for a way to do this, and saw Oliver's method in the Polarity thread. I tried it, but found it difficult to cut the shrink without using a ginsu knife. Crys1s GaMer (or some such iteration of the name) who is one of THE best sleevers mentioned using a piece of styrafoam. I found some of the hard styrafoam in my lcd packaging and began widdling my way towards heatshrink precision. This is what I came up with:


The last thing I'll talk about is the passthroughs. The midplate on the 800D is fine and all, but the room underneath isn't so easy to work with, and to make it look better I'll use the Bitspower Fill Port as passthroughs. I wanted some washers but the OD of the passthroughs is .75" and the hole in the midplate is 1" I didn't extending from the hole too much so I used some 1.125 OD .5 ID washers and widened the inner hole to .8" with a stepping bit. I filed, sanded and primed them, and finally applied a coat of satin and a thin coat of matte clearcoat. Here are the pics.



This shows the before and after:


And I final glamour shot before I tear it all down and rebuild with the CPU loop, pass throughs and everything else I need to do.

[ScottALot]

Nice setup.

Why all sleve 24pin cable in a lot of small cables instead one bigger(in desired color ofc)?




Bubbles will disappear after some time (2-3days)

Because the sleeving will never reach the end of the cable. They always end in a sort of V-shape that people don't like.

[jadawgis732]

So I brought in the D5 and Multioption 250, and a trucolor light bar. Tried to loop everything up, as I had gotten the UN D5 Mount and Bitspower fill port fittings I needed, but the 240 Rad was leaking. So I hooked everything but the XSPC pump up to the same loop (with Apogee XT on a i7 930 @ 4.2Ghz, 2 GTX470s with EK Blocks, and a 360 Swiftech Rad) and though my idle temps were 7c higher there isn't much of a difference at load. Here are some pics that show the build as it is for now. The trucolor light bar really shines well! And I have something in the garage, well actually 2 things, that will add to this effect.


The first one shows Vantage with old temps (old loop- h50 on CPU in push/XSPC bay res/pump to GPU1 to GPU0 to 360 to res/pump) and the second shows Vantage with new temps (multioption 250 to MCP-655b to 360 to Apogee XT to GPU0 to GPU1 back to multioption 250). Also does anyone know if I am using my multioption incorrectly? I think I have the input thread being used as an output, but I changed over to the EK branded cyclone adapter and removed the insert holding the 12mm tubes.

[jadawgis732]

So I've been super lax about keeping this up, and posting questions in new threads (since mine doesn't have such a large readership) but I'm going to transfer some of the posts over here now. I realize this is double posting but they do relate to the worklog and it's progress.

So the first question was whether you can change fan wires by desoldering the old and soldering the new ones directly to the pcb. Here you can see what I mean:



You can, and I did. Here's what that allowed for:

[jadawgis732]

Here's the next part of the story. Problem has since been semi-solved. I was able to get things in working order, and the goal was essentially to have the reservoir lie flat on the midplate with the intention of putting a UV CCFL behind to illuminate the coolant branded as uv reactive (that phrase is suspect). As I was saying I was able to get things running, but the reservoir essentially is just a big fitting as it is being used. And it was a PAIN to fill and bleed. I ran into some issues one of which caused a puddle (of non conductive fluid which was to my amazement non conductive) to form on my motherboard right in a spot between the two graphics cards where i couldn't reach quickly and just had to stare at my hopes and dreams being pissed on by Primochill coolant. I think some even got in the PCI slot between the two PCI-e slots, it's amazing that the thing still works (to my knowledge, and knock on wood.) So here's that story and the next post will catch you all up to date.


Hello guys- need help again.


SHORT VERSION
Any advice for avoiding cyclones using a EK Multioption 250 Advanced Rev 2 in a horizontal position and bleeding? Do you guys know if this is even possible to do for the setup in the final pic?


LONG VERSION: The misadventures of stubbornness, how I got pissed on by my reservoir, HARD


So I've been trying and trying to get my multioption 250 advanced rev 2 working in a horizontal orientation. First try had problems with the return run from GPU 2 to the res.





The problem there was that my 90 degree adapter was causing the Bitspower crystallink to leak. Funny thing (well not really so funny when the coolant was spilling all over the bottom GPU as soon as the pump was started) was that it looked solid.


See?

So I resolved to switch to parallel flow on the next attempt(mostly as a way to get some wiggle room as space is getting tight) and reorient the reservoir in and out plugs.

Second try was a complete disaster, with coolant winding up in my eye from the bottom of the res unscrewing from the tube and pressure being high from a d5. Let me tell you those things spray hard if the restriction is high enough. So my motherboard was soaked (wet really, but between the two gpus so there was no way to gain quick access with some paper towels) but nothing was plugged in so after tilting the case to get move the flood AWAY from the expensive hardware, removing the gpus, going to town with some paper towel, and using a heatgun on low from about 5 feet away (kept it moving and only used for about 15 seconds in all) I sat down to regroup. (Sorry didn't have pics of the setup during the big mishap).

I came up with a T Line and some anticyclone inserts, but the longer insert is supposed to be used on the in port I take it. They were backwards, and it was a frothy brew in there, and LOUD.





Filling the thing is a pest too, I already installed a fillport up top to be used on the normal res placement in my case, and I'm not drilling anymore holes in the case damnit. I'm not liking the idea of running tubing from the current horizontal placement of the res to the top for the handy dandy useless fillport. A small T Line will have to do.

Any advice for avoiding cyclones (have all parts that came with the 250 multioption advanced rev 2) and bleeding with a multioption in a horizontal orientation? Do you guys know if this is even possible for the setup in the final pic?

I am hoping the hardware will still be alive but the way it looks I won't find out soon. And sorry for prattling on with my misadventures, it's been troublling to say the least.

[jadawgis732]

Okay and the final post for the time being. Still have that old cable management deal but aside from that I like how things are looking internally.

Guess I was wrong again. The problem wasn't with the board, but the X-Fi drivers that were trouble from day one. In fact the guy I bought it off of told me I should do a clean install. I absolutely dread doing that so I found a way around it but it took hours out of my life. Anyway, booted into safe mode, removed the driver for the sound card and tada, triple screen action.... Also removed the T Line in hopes of removing a bit of da bubblay but no go there. Here's a few pics. Also, the reason that I wanted to do the reservoir in that spot can be seen in the pics below, a 12" (should probably go with a 8") UV CCFL is right behind the res lighting it up.

[Creekin]

Guess I was wrong again. The problem wasn't with the board, but the X-Fi drivers that were trouble from day one. In fact the guy I bought it off of told me I should do a clean install. I absolutely dread doing that so I found a way around it but it took hours out of my life. Anyway, booted into safe mode, removed the driver for the sound card and tada, triple screen action....

wait...what?
clean install?
of what the OS? or are you just talking about the sound card drivers?
if just sound drivers? what do u call a clean install and why do u dread it?
especially if ur way takes hours??

sorry to ask so many Qs, but your post made my head hurt

love the pics, purple and white in black is a great combo
8in would look a bit cleaner, if u cant move the res to be centred over the 12in.

[jadawgis732]

Of the OS. Like you said why would I dread doing a clean install of the drivers? That's what eventually happened after the PC wouldn't boot in normal mode and I had to restore from my WHS system image backups.

[Johnny87au]

subb'd! cant see pics as my nets capped

[jadawgis732]

I have a question for people. What do you think of buying one or two of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811995058 to use a paneling for interior?

[jadawgis732]

Another question, and a minor update:
I'm making a backplate for my 2 gpus, and have something in the mail from EK. Needless to say it's going to be awesome, but I don't want to spoil a surprise until it's installed.

My question is do you guys think I can dremel off 1 of the connections on a 3 slot SLI bridge? I'm trying to make my own but so far attemps to print something adhesive have been failures.

[Creekin]

I have a question for people. What do you think of buying one or two of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811995058 to use a paneling for interior?

good idea

I bought a windowed side panel for my case and used the original side panel as stock for making faceplates and mounts etc
only really worth it if your buying a LiLi alu panel

dont really understand your sli q...u have a 3 slot sli bridge and need a 2?

[shazza]

re using the side panels for interior panels - not sure how easy that would be to do. Seems like it might be a lot of work for not much impact, but I probably just can't visualize what you want to accomplish

[Creekin]

I assume he plans to them up to make a panel to hide cable behind
similar to this

all props to Diesel83 whose was the first relevant pic i could find in case gallery

sounds like a good, cheap easy way to source appropriate black alu metal sheet.