--- r e f l e X i o n ---

[millertime359]

Thanks, miller.

I'm not concerned at all. This is just my opinion, but I think a lot of times that guys go overboard on their radiator setups. Two 240s, along with dual DDCs and high-flow blocks, should be plenty to cool what I have with a high overclock.

I agree that some people love the xtreme in xtreme systems. The way I see it though, if you got the room, why not. Especailly considering that there is only a 10 dollar difference between a MCR220 and MCR320.

If anything, you would be able to turn your fans down if you have too much cooling.

I understand you don't have the room though. It would be nice to see your temps when it all done.

[Xion X2]

No problem, those kind words are well deserved! I throw up some pics of temps and the waterblock early next week when I get home so you can see the blocks in action.

Great, looking forward to it.

I agree that some people love the xtreme in xtreme systems. The way I see it though, if you got the room, why not. Especailly considering that there is only a 10 dollar difference between a MCR220 and MCR320.

If anything, you would be able to turn your fans down if you have too much cooling.

I understand you don't have the room though. It would be nice to see your temps when it all done.

Yeah, I simply don't have the room. The Zero-G chamber is 9.5 inches in length from the front panel and will be just a few inches over from the motherboard.

[Anemic]

Oooh, sweet Jebus! Alot of hardware pr0n here... ; )

[Xion X2]

Oooh, sweet Jebus! Alot of hardware pr0n here... ; )

Thanks. There's much more to come. I'm hoping to have the zero-G chamber and drive mounts completed by the weekend so that I can test fit everything and have it ready for powdercoating some time next week.

[Xion X2]

HD5870 #1 of 2 showed up today.



They showed up in stock on newegg for about half an hour, and I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on one while my 275s are on auction. The only ones they had in stock were the PowerColor variety. It comes with a two year manufacturer warranty, which is more than enough. I'll never keep the card for that long.

Came with a free copy of DIRT 2!



I can't wait to play this on my Eyefinity setup.

Let's take a look at the fastest single GPU out on the market...





I really like the new design that ATI went with this round. It was time for them to ditch the old school look of the exposed PCB in favor of full length cooler.










Now.. time to stretch her legs with a few games tonight before I head back to my dad's tomorrow to do more work on that Zero-G chamber...

[Mabyboi]

HD5870 #1 of 2 showed up today.



Now.. time to stretch her legs with a few games tonight before I head back to my dad's tomorrow to do more work on that Zero-G chamber...

NO! i for one, will not let you play on that card until you give us a ridiculous amount of updates and pictures! get back to work!!


in all seriousness. nice card, have fun with it! just dont forget about us drooling over your computer!

[Weevil]

I really like the new design that ATI went with this round. It was time for them to ditch the old school look of the exposed PCB in favor of full length cooler.

Not gonna matter what kind of cooler they put on it when its laying in a drawer in your desk. I have a collection of air coolers in mine ; )

[Touge180SX]

Not gonna matter what kind of cooler they put on it when its laying in a drawer in your desk. I have a collection of air coolers in mine ; )

So true! My XFX 5870 never even saw air, had an EK Block on it before it was even powered on!

[Linuxfan]

HD5870 #1 of 2 showed up today.
They showed up in stock on newegg for about half an hour, and I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on one while my 275s are on auction. The only ones they had in stock were the PowerColor variety. It comes with a two year manufacturer warranty, which is more than enough. I'll never keep the card for that long.
Came with a free copy of DIRT 2!
I can't wait to play this on my Eyefinity setup.
Let's take a look at the fastest single GPU out on the market...
She's out of the box, and now let's take her out of the anti-static bag..
I really like the new design that ATI went with this round. It was time for them to ditch the old school look of the exposed PCB in favor of full length cooler.
Now.. time to stretch her legs with a few games tonight before I head back to my dad's tomorrow to do more work on that Zero-G chamber...

Neat pictures of the 5870! The colors look great!
The 5870s are very good choices for your graphics solution, they are amazing performers!
Keep up the pictures!

[Xion X2]

NO! i for one, will not let you play on that card until you give us a ridiculous amount of updates and pictures! get back to work!!

Hey, I have to break away for a few minutes.

Not gonna matter what kind of cooler they put on it when its laying in a drawer in your desk. I have a collection of air coolers in mine ; )

This is true.

So true! My XFX 5870 never even saw air, had an EK Block on it before it was even powered on!

Hopefully, I will have EK blocks soon as well.

Neat pictures of the 5870! The colors look great!
The 5870s are very good choices for your graphics solution, they are amazing performers!
Keep up the pictures!

Thanks man.

Viva la 5870!

[millertime359]

Nice grab there. Should be fun running those in crossfire.

[Touge180SX]

Hopefully, I will have EK blocks soon as well.

You won't be disappointed, trust me! I'll get you a pic with it mounted with red fluid running through it and some temp screenshots when I get home tomorrow! Did you decide on what EK Block you are going to get?

[Xion X2]

Nice grab there. Should be fun running those in crossfire.

And it'll be even more fun running Eyefinity.

Thanks!

You won't be disappointed, trust me! I'll get you a pic with it mounted with red fluid running through it and some temp screenshots when I get home tomorrow! Did you decide on what EK Block you are going to get?

Cool. As for the blocks, I'm still working out the details but hope to have an update soon.

[kgtiger]

NO! i for one, will not let you play on that card until you give us a ridiculous amount of updates and pictures! get back to work!! :

Man I agree, get back to work right now!

Well Ok then, stretch her legs a bit, but just around the block and back, ok, hay do you hear me, hay ,hay where's he gone, dam that boy, no tea for him tonight!.

Have fun mate guess I will see you when you get back.

[Xion X2]

Still around, guys. Thanks for the continued interest.

I know that things have been moving a little slower than usual, so I'd like to provide a brief update on where things stand.

The Zero-G chamber is not an easy thing to build, because to pull the effect off for both the pumps and the drives, the shelf inserts on which both the pumps and drives sit must be perfectly level. Otherwise, it detracts from the effect, because you don't want either the pumps or the zero-G drives to sit crooked and be viewed as such through the windows (floating crooked drives would look really cool, huh?) In my experimenting thus far, I've found that even 1/16" variance in shelf height is very visible from the outside. Given that I'm chasing perfection with this build, this is not good enough.

Now mounting shelves perfectly level may not seem like such a daunting task, but when you've cut all the pieces by hand, including the chamber shell, and also bent every piece by hand, there are slight imperfections along the way in the cutting and bending that can cause variations, so it's a lot.. a LOT of trial and error until you can get it right. For future works like this that require such exactness, I'll likely let a machine shop sheer the pieces since they could get them more precise than I ever could with a jig.

So I've been experimenting with some different ways to ensure the shelves are perfectly level while also a nice, snug fit and believe that, with the help of a friend, I may have figured out an improved way to do this that has an added effect that will be extremely cool in the end.

I'll be working on this throughout the week and will do my best to have something tangible by the middle of the week and into the weekend. Thanks!

[kgtiger]

Hay Xion, I am glad you found your way home.

I do understand the challenges of trying to fab something at home or even at a workshop for that matter and trying to get it Bang On! is no simple task.

I have seen how you where going to mount the drives, and if I am right there on a angle that is conected to the self below.
So if I am right, then the challenge is getting the shelf square?

Do you have any photo of how you are conecting your shelf?

I have lots of ideas to try and help but I would only be wasting your time until I know how you intend to mount the shelf and if it is in fact the shelf the is the real challenge.

I know you set out to do as much as you could by your self, (not commercial fabricaters) so let me know if I can help, PM me if you feel this is best.

Hang in there champ

[Xion X2]

Hay Xion, I am glad you found your way home.

I do understand the challenges of trying to fab something at home or even at a workshop for that matter and trying to get it Bang On! is no simple task.

I have seen how you where going to mount the drives, and if I am right there on a angle that is conected to the self below.
So if I am right, then the challenge is getting the shelf square?

Do you have any photo of how you are conecting your shelf?

I have lots of ideas to try and help but I would only be wasting your time until I know how you intend to mount the shelf and if it is in fact the shelf the is the real challenge.

I know you set out to do as much as you could by your self, (not commercial fabricaters) so let me know if I can help, PM me if you feel this is best.

Hang in there champ

Thanks, kg.

You're correct.. the difficult part is getting the shelves square so that the pumps and drives mount level and show so through the window. I've found that if the shelves are off even 1/16" of an inch that it's very obvious through the window.

Here are some shots--






Because the shelves were hand-cut and bent, they came out to slightly different sizes. This first posed a problem when trying to fit them both snug inside the outer shell because one was larger than the other. So to compensate, I re-bent one of the shelves which caused it to warp slightly as you can see here below. The far back left corner of the shelf doesn't align with the rest of the corners:



The shelves are held in place by two rivets on each side. You can see here the effect through the window when the shelf isn't perfectly level:



Given that there will be duplicates of the same items (a top/bottom pump, top/bottom SSDs) it will be even more noticeable if they aren't sitting level or parallel to each other.

So my next thought was to have both shelves cut by a shop to get them exact. Then I thought to myself, well, if you're going to start over with the shelves anyway, is there a way to make them even better than they are in their current form?

Then I came up with the idea of using 1/4" plexi (a lot more study than 1/8")for the shelves. By doing this, it will carry the "Zero Gravity" theme even further because when viewing from the top you will be able to look down through the entire inner chamber and both the pumps and drives will appear to be floating.

Here's the effect on a very short piece of plexi:




What I have in mind to do is to cut two square pieces of plexi the size of the current shelves to fit snugly inside the chamber and then cut two L mounting brackets, slide them in the drill holes where the current shelf sits, and then mount the square plexi pieces to them. So it will almost be like a tabletop mounting job. I can screw down through the plexi into the L mounting brackets, like this:

T_ _ _ _ _ _ _T
[- - - - - - - -]



What do you think?

[kgtiger]

The idea of perspex as a floor/shelf and the L shaped angle is a good one.
The L could be made out of Perspex by either having a flat piece bent to 90 degrees or 2 flat pieces welded to the "Floor/shelf" with solvent cement so you have a u shape.
Trying to bend perspex to a "U" shape the right size is just as hard as bending steel or aluminium.
To cut each piece to size and solvent cement together is heaps easier.

The trick to getting the floor square, is to drill only one hole at a time.
Start with a small self tapping screw (smaller than the pop-rivits you plan to use) in one corner at the hight you need the shelf.
Once drilled and screwed in tight, you can then cut 3 small pieces of scrap wood to the exact size you need (measure from the bottom of the ali up to the under side of the shelf),
use the wood to hold the floor square. Clamp each piece of wood in place and then adjust them if you need, until you get it bang on.
Now all the wood is clamped in place the perspex will be sitting square.
Having over laped the L or the side of the U with the wood will help keep it square and locked down when clamped, want move when you drill either.
Now all in place, drill a hole the opposite corner to the first screw you drilled in, once screwed in tight you can now still make any fine adjustments you need.
Once right, (square) drill the holes in the other corners and screw the self tapper screws in.
It will pay to do the top shelf first so you can get to the underneath part.
One you have done this with both shelves and you are happy with it then you can remove one screw at a time re-drill to the right size and pop-rivit each one

I hope you can follow this long winded way of doing it.
The bottom line is to have the shelves clamped in the exact place you need, before you try to drill them.
Take your time, do one hole at a time in opposite corners and you will be sweet.

Have another go mate, you have got this far and you are nealy there.

To build this on your own terms would be a massive boost to your modding skills and ego.
If you had sent this all out to be fabricated by others at the start, you would have never thought of half of the thing that you are now trying.
The fun is always in the making, trust me, when shi$t happens along the way, and it will, you can quit (Not) or find a better way around(I like this one better).

The idea of the perspex for a floor/shelf is a perfect example of hitting a brick wall, not being happy with the results and finding a better way around a crapy situation.
Belive in yourself, you can and will do more than you think you can, Trust me(again), and have fun with it.

Looking forward to your next update mate.

[Xion X2]

Thanks, kg! Your encouraging words go a long way, and your idea about using legs (wood pieces cut to size) to prop the shelf level is a great one!

So I'm thinking it would be easier to go ahead and make the L brackets and mount them to the underneath side of the plexi before trying to line everything up for drilling. That way, when the shelf is held in place by the legs, all I have to do is self-tap the holes through the outer shell into the L brackets and I should be good to go (fingers crossed.)

I wasn't about to give up. Was going to fight this one until I came up with a resolution, but your problem solving skills have sped up the process and are greatly helpful and appreciated, my friend!

[Xion X2]

Just a quick update.

I may be announcing another BIG sponsor soon. This would be an important partnership that will pay huge dividends for r e f l e X i o n if we're able to work out the few remaining details.

More to come soon.

[DarthBeavis]

Just a quick update.

I may be announcing another BIG sponsor soon. This would be an important partnership that will pay huge dividends for r e f l e X i o n if we're able to work out the few remaining details.

More to come soon.

what kind of sponsor?

[Weevil]

what kind of sponsor?

I think its from Hooters.

[millertime359]

Just a quick update.

I may be announcing another BIG sponsor soon. This would be an important partnership that will pay huge dividends for r e f l e X i o n if we're able to work out the few remaining details.

More to come soon.

looking forward to hearing more on this.

[Vinas]

It's finally coming together! Now is the time for the final push! Resist the urge to rush. Breath!!! Take your time figuring out the final mile design issues.

It's looking good!!!

[kgtiger]

Excellent to hear your not a quiter, after all you wouldn't be posting work log on XS if you where.

Either an L or U bracket will look sweet in the end.
Just remember when using L brackets you will be playing with 3 pieces not 1, as quoted above, take your time.

I too are interested to know your new sponsor.

I think its from Hooters.

Ah Damm that made me laugh.