[ Project ] : Altair | A Lian-Li PC-P80, dual loop, all internal build

[eponymous]

Hi guys,

So much work been done over the past few weeks so let me get started..

First task: fitting the radiator brackets, radiator gasket & fans to the rads.



I put the radiator in place to see how it will all line up.



As only one of the brackets has any real adjustability I had to make sure everything was lined up perfectly.





Next I mark the holes for drilling.



I then measure the marked holes so I can duplicate it on the other side.



A bit of good old masking tape...




Everything can then be clamped in place ready for drilling. it's always a good idea to use cardboard to prevent the clamps from marking the soft aluminium.



A bit of filing to get rid of any loose material and we're done. In total I drilled four holes, two on each side to support each bracket.




Next task is to fit the gasket and the fans.





Now to do this I started at the top and gradually removed the backing paper as I stretched the gasket across the radiator. I made sure that the gasket was lined up with the edge of the mounting plate on the radiator.





Once in place the gasket can be pressed firmly to ensure it stays in place.



Now the fans are added.



A quick check by spinning the blades of the fan is a good idea to see if they are hitting any part of the gasket as it has a tendency to bulge out when you tighten the fan screws. The screws needed to be fully tight for me as I'm relying on them for holding the radiator in place on both radiators.

If any material is interfering it can be carefully pushed out of the way by using a small flat screwdriver.



Next, the rads can be installed.

Floor first:




The bottom radiator is secured using bolts and washers (M4).




Now onto the front bay radiator:






Next task: fitting my motherboard blocks :




Bitspower Black Freezer AIX58NS NB/SB



Black Freezer MOS AMOSII POM Version (MOSFET 1)



Bitspower Black Freezer MOS AMOSIII POM Version (MOSFET 2)





The instruction manual :P



So, while the blocks are drying out after their rinse and blast with compressed air I can be getting on with removing that stock heatpipe/heatsink combo from the board:



The parts covering the Southbridge and the MOSFETS are held on with clips.



I find it best to use just my fingernails to remove these. If you use something like needle-nose pliers you risk scratching the motherboard tracks which isn't good. If this does happen, simply use some plastic seal spray which you can buy from electronics stores. This stuff will provide a transparent seal to prevent shorting or corrosion.



Remove the Northbridge section with a screwdriver.



The whole unit can then be carefully pried away so that the seals caused by the TIM break.





Nasty thermal pads - aka bubble gum.



Now to clean the chips and the MOSFETS.





Also remember to clean the MOSFETS underneath the DIMM slots as they are cooled by the NB/SB block also.



I like to clean the base of the blocks as well.




I started by fitting the AMOSIII MOSFET block with goes at the very top of the board.



The thermal pad you get with the block isn't cut to size so this needs to be done first.



Now the thermal pad can be marked out.






At this point I did not realize that one end of the block has two holes drilled for the bolts to go through and the one I needed to use was actually the innermost one. I had to trim the thermal pad down slightly.



The block was then put in place and the bolts/washers were installed.

I found that it was best to finger-tighten the bolts so as to avoid bending the motherboard. There are no backplates on these blocks which is a shame really as I found it was very easy to bow the motherboard as shown. The pictures below show what happened when I tightened it with the Allen key on the long end which meant I had more control and less leverage and hence there was less chance of over-tightening.





Again, I just finger tightened the block as this seems to hold it very well without bending the motherboard too much.

So I assumed I had finished the mounting process until I noticed this:



Oh dear dear, this will not do Bitspower.

They've obviously mis-measured the block and had to re-drill another hole for mounting (that explains to the two mounting holes at one end).

If you look closely you can see that the metal end bit that's sticking out and is totally redundant is actually resting on top of a surface mount component and is shorting it!!!

This is really poor design and you don't expect this after the kind of money you pay for these things.

Luckily I noticed before I powered on and I remedied the problem with some electricians tape cut to size:






I needed to replace the thermal pad as well as I don't like unmounting and then remounting with a used thermal pad. Luckily I had some left over from my Koolance GPU kits. After remounting I put the block back on and proceeded to install the AMOSII block on the other set of MOSFETS. This went much more smoothly as shown:



Oh, don't forget to press any major air bubbles out of the pad!




Now, on to the NB/SB/Memory MOSFET block!

The first step is to measure the thermal pad that will be used for those MOSFETS.



I always like to allow a little bit extra either side.




Next I applied the MX-2 thermal compound. This was really messy for some reason and I kept putting too little on so it left gaps. I managed to get it in the end however. I just used a cut-up credit card for spreading and the block mounting process will spread it out further.



Since I was dealing with many bolts/washers here I had to tape them in place using our good friend: masking tape.




The block bolted in place:



And we're done!

I've included some shots of the finished board:










With barbs:






And that's it for now!

The next thing I'll be going over is the sleeving of the cables, but since this is an ongoing process I may leave it until the end and I may detail the fitting of the tubing next.

Thanks for reading.

[shazza]

Whew! Big update ... you're making great progress. Please keep the pics coming.

[eponymous]

Whew! Big update ... you're making great progress. Please keep the pics coming.

Hehe, thanks shazza

I'm regretting not splitting this out into two posts :P

[aka_GK]

glad to see that you're making the progress with this build
nice shiny mobo blocks, keep it up

[eponymous]

glad to see that you're making the progress with this build
nice shiny mobo blocks, keep it up

Thanks

I still wish I had a better camera, my phone doesn't do justice sometimes.

[punkrockpolak]

Great job. I really like how the board looks with all of the blocks mounted

[Linuxfan]

Looking great! Thanks for the photos!
Could you get a photo of the front when you get the bay drives installed with the radiator that is installed there?

[WinstonSthlm]

Great update eponymous!
Keep em coming

[eponymous]

Great job. I really like how the board looks with all of the blocks mounted

Cheers

Looking great! Thanks for the photos!
Could you get a photo of the front when you get the bay drives installed with the radiator that is installed there?

Thanks. Yeah I can do that, shouldn't be much longer before I can do that.

Great update eponymous!
Keep em coming

Thanks a lot man!

[eponymous]

I'm going to be sleeving cables soon guys, so I thought I'd share this link with you. They carry a huge amount of really good quality braided sleeving and it's really cheap. I've just bought 20m of the 4mm stuff!

This is mainly of use to people in the UK but I think it may be available in the US also. They seem to have a website for the US, Aus etc..

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/level5/mod...=en/449802.xml

[br4d]

you are very precise man, and i love your pictures. it's gonna be great pc!

[eponymous]

you are very precise man, and i love your pictures. it's gonna be great pc!

Thanks

It's taken too long so I'm really looking forward to the day it's finished.

[eponymous]

Just while we wait for another update, here's a cheeky swan :P :



and an angry goose:

[WinstonSthlm]

Thanks

It's taken too long so I'm really looking forward to the day it's finished.

I feel the same with my build, you just want it to be finished and try it out but on other hand you don't want to rush something you put countless hours of work into

[Darkstar782]

Are you only using SSDs for storage?

I'm in the process of building a dual loop PC-P80 system and I have yet to figure out where my hard disks are going! I am currently using two Raptors (3.5" ones from my old build) and then drives for storage....

I was thinking I could hide a velociraptor or two in the raised bit between the top fan and the external USB connectors, but then with a BD-RE drive I still only have one 5.25" bay free and would need somewhere to put 2-3 2TB drives to equal my current storage capacity....

My only option at present seems to be sat on top of the PSU but that would seem to be without airflow...

[eponymous]

Are you only using SSDs for storage?

I'm in the process of building a dual loop PC-P80 system and I have yet to figure out where my hard disks are going! I am currently using two Raptors (3.5" ones from my old build) and then drives for storage....

I was thinking I could hide a velociraptor or two in the raised bit between the top fan and the external USB connectors, but then with a BD-RE drive I still only have one 5.25" bay free and would need somewhere to put 2-3 2TB drives to equal my current storage capacity....

My only option at present seems to be sat on top of the PSU but that would seem to be without airflow...

Hi there.

Yeah, for this system I'm only using SSD's. I have another PC with about 2.5TB of disk space that I will use as a file server.

In terms of mounting your disks, why not do what D0BRO did and use the drivebay sides for mounting your disks? (clicksey)

[Darkstar782]

Excellent idea that I would never have considered, thanks! I'm tempted by SSDs for my system drive but the degredation issues still worry me, and I don't think I can justify the price of 4 X25-Ms for the capacity of two Velociraptors...

Now if only I could learn to be as patient and neat as your build; its looking amazing so far!

[eponymous]

Hi guys.

It's been a while since I've posted stuff, because I've been in the process of moving, but I've still been doing work on Altair

First things first, I'll go through the sleeving I did.

I initially thought I could sleeve the wires using nothing but heat shrink but I then changed my mind as you will see...

I started off with the pumps:

Removing the Molex pins wasn't too bad and I just used a pointed piece of metal to push the fins in.




Next, the individual wires are heatshrinked:



and the two wires are then heathshrinked together:



Always make sure that the pins are level before you do the shrinking.



I put the heat gun on a medium setting for this and used the endpiece mainly to protect the table :P



The pins are then placed back in the housing:



I used the same tool for the PWM wire:



and we're done:




Ok so as soon as I saw this I thought it looked immensely crappy.
The term "Epic fail" came to mind and so I decided to do this properly and buy the braided sleeving and some good quality 3:1 and 4:1 glue-lined heatshrink.

I found this guide on sleeving by Dangals very informative and I'd recommend it to anyone just starting out.






Lol, looks like liquorice wheels



I also bought this set of tools and then wished I hadn't as the ATX tool broke straight away. I ended up just using size 16 staples, although I did find use for the floppy drive/fan removal tool as well as the "Molex" removal tool.



So, first off I used the 4mm braiding to do the PWM wires on the pump:

Measuring:





I found it helpful to use a blow torch to singe the ends of the braiding after cutting which stops them fraying when you put them over the wire.



I used two methods to get the braiding on the wires:

1. Attach a piece of thin wire on the end of the molex pin and use this to feed the sleeving on.

2. Just bunch the sleeving up to get it to fit over the wire.

I used option 1 for a bit then decided to switch to option 2.




When it came to heatshrinking the ends of the wire closest to the pump I wanted to protect the pump from the heat of the gun, so I cut out some foil to act as a shield.




Yup, that will do nicely:



I also used the reducer nozzle on the heat gun to concentrate the heat on one small area.




Next the other end is done:




The same method is followed for the power lines. Don't forget to fold out the fins on the molex connectors!





Ah yes, this looks way better than that nasty grey heatshrink.

Ok, so next up is the fans!



I just used the pointed tool for this..




Same procedure as above really:




It was important to leave a little "flex" in the wires at the end of the connector as these will connect into a hub and may have to bend 90 degrees.

Trying to bend wire that has glue-lined heatshrink on it is impossible!



One down, five to go!


There we go:


Next on to the SATA connectors (again, thanks go to Dangals for advice on how to do these):









Now the LED lines for the case:






I sleeved the fan controller next.

This unit had a nasty pass through Molex on it which had to go :P









There, much better!




And then the rest of the case

















Ok, so now that that was all done, I moved on to doing the PSU.



Some photos just for reference in case things get mixed up :P (which they did :P).





I made a sheet of labels on some masking tape for each of the wires to make it easier to put them back in the right place when re-assembling.



This isn't strictly necessary as you can use diagrams like this:



I first removed the old sleeving which had been badly applied. The wires are visible through the sleeving meaning they've probably used too small a gauge of braiding.







I used the ATX removal tool to remove the pins while it lasted and then just used a size 16 staple after it broke.






All the wires are removed and labelled:




Next the lines are sleeved:






Getting the right position for the heatshrink was tricky. I didn't want too much wire on show yet I didn't want to prevent the pin from being inserted into the housing.



All done (or so I thought):





After I'd done all this I decided I wasn't happy with both the stupidly long length of the 24-pin connector and also the wire that was still on show at the connector end.

I did something drastic:

Argghhhhh..chop!



Hmmm, was this a mistake, was I drunk? Who knows. But it turned out for the best as we'll see It was at this point when I lost my stickers
As I'd removed the pins I had to transfer the numbered labels onto the sleeving and they just didn't hold.



Lol...The more I look at that the more I can't believe what I did.

I did cut it at the exact length that would fit nicely in the case however, without any excess and it gave me a chance to use my favourite crimping tool :P



I re-crimped all 23 wires:




Ahhh the trusty guide....



All done!




Even after all that, I still wasn't happy with the connector end, so I took al lthe connector-end heat shrink off and slid new pieces on the wire.

I found that the best method was to attach the ATX connector, and then slide the heatshrink in place and heat gun all 23 wires at once.





Well I got there in the end. Oh, and I decided to get rid of that nasty 20+4 pin ATX connector..



and use a proper all-in-one 24 pin housing instead:



I did the ATX EPS 12V connector the same way as above.

The PCI-E connectors weren't sleeved individually but rather all together as the additional (modular) PCI-E connectors have an in-line fuse in them which prevents you from separating the wires out.

The two PCI-E power lines that are hard wired to the PSU don't have this and could've been individually sleeved, but I wanted them to all look the same. I did however, sleeve them as a 6+2 pair rather than an 8 single as the GTX 285's need two 6-pin connectors and don't use the full 8-pins.

I made sure that the ends were bent 90 degrees so that they weren't going to stick out when fitted onto the cards.




The finished article:





I next went on to making the sleeved Molex connectors.



I effectively made two double Molex wires for the fans and pumps and one single Molex wire for the SSD backplane:



For the SSD power line, I just cut the wire to the length I needed and then re-crimped it with new Molex pins:





The next step was to make a Floppy Disk power connector for my sound card - yup I said sound card. Way to go ASUS, you win the prize for using the most dumbass connector to power a card...

I just stole some connectors from my Corsair cable kit:



Then cut some 20AWG wire to a decent length:



Crimped it:



Important: Always do a pull-test on crimps to make sure they're gonna hold ok!

Then I put the pins in the correct place in the housing.



..using an existing connector to double check they're in the right place..



And there we go:



All ready to power my sound card. Lol, still sounds silly.


To finish, I made a SATA power connector to go between the PSU and the DVD-Writer.

This was also cut to the correct length and I simply recycled a T-SATA Female punchdown connector for the end.



I'm not happy about those wires showing so I'm going to wait until PPCS has this connector in stock and I'll stick a proper End-Cap on it.





And that's it done for now. I tested all the wires with my trusty PSU tester and all the voltages were fine.

Hope you've enjoyed this instalment. I'll have more soon, but for now I need a drink

[Saltire]

Very nice m8...

Love the huge updates

[aka_GK]

nice to see update here friend

[callen_1]

i like the fact your pedantic, always making sure things are exactly how you want them. Nice job mate

[eponymous]

Very nice m8...

Love the huge updates

Cheers man. I wish they weren't so long personally because I don't think people can be bothered to run through them all. lol.

nice to see update here friend

Thanks man

i like the fact your pedantic, always making sure things are exactly how you want them. Nice job mate

Lol. Cheers :P

[Warbird]

Man you scared the outta me there.. just going around cutting wrist size cable strings.

glad it turned out for the best...

[eponymous]

Man you scared the outta me there.. just going around cutting wrist size cable strings.

glad it turned out for the best...

:p I scared myself too, hehe

[fusionmkx]

Wow, I like your detailed log and the way u used your tools, keep it up!