ABS/Tagan Black Pearl - evolution of a water-cooled rig

[ohms]

Impressive use of those spare parts Sharon.

I do see where you used those Lian Li parts but what did you/are you going to use the MM hard drive brackets for?

[shazza]

A simple and clean front !

Thanks, Oli4v - that's what I was aiming for. (It was harder to do simple, than simply cramming a bunch of stuff into the bays)

Dreams do come true!

lol - just so you know, I have the Xbox 360 reserved from 7-10am

Impressive use of those spare parts Sharon.

I do see where you used those Lian Li parts but what did you/are you going to use the MM hard drive brackets for?

Again, thanks ohms. Oops, my fault, should have taken a photo. The MM plates attach to a fan (in this case, the ones in the LL holders), then you can attach up to 3 HDs - either horizontal or vertical configs.

[voigts]

This keeps looking better and better Sharon. i really like the color scheme on the hard drive bay.

[RCG_Bex]

I want a 3rd grandma.

She aint THAT old! Are you auntie Shazza?

~Bex

[ScottALot]

lol - just so you know, I have the Xbox 360 reserved from 7-10am

Do you have Xbox Live? I need to add you!

[Elpy]

Good to see that your fans came out well . Just ed up my GT's . Oh well might sand and try repainting them someday if I feel like.. For now I'll just wait for new ones from chilledpc. All in all actually my whole painting experience inside my tiny apartment ended up being an epic failure ... Which I'll never repeat again heh.

[SiGfever]

Whoa, shazza's a girl?! Jesus, I'm slow.

No, shazza is a Classy LADY!

[Ogge_swe]

what tubes are you using? feser red UV?

[shazza]

This keeps looking better and better Sharon. i really like the color scheme on the hard drive bay.

Thank you voigts. Means a lot, coming from you.

She aint THAT old! Are you auntie Shazza?

~Bex

Alright! Hmmm, Bex just made the Christmas list

Do you have Xbox Live? I need to add you!

lol - yeah, but I only play golf online, and I'll be gone for a few months.

Good to see that your fans came out well . Just ed up my GT's . Oh well might sand and try repainting them someday if I feel like.. For now I'll just wait for new ones from chilledpc. All in all actually my whole painting experience inside my tiny apartment ended up being an epic failure ... Which I'll never repeat again heh.

Thanks, Elpy. Sorry about your fans. Secret is to do several very light coats - but that's really hard for me.

No, shazza is a Classy LADY!

Hey! The Doctor is in the house! So nice of you to drop by I've told you this before, but your encouragement in my very first build really kept me going.

what tubes are you using? feser red UV?

Hi Ogge - that's Primochill Pro LRT UV Red (guess it's UV, I haven't tried UV since Build No. 1)


Thanks guys and gals. You'll be surprised to hear me say this, but the end is actually in sight - no promises, just saying it's better than a longshot.

And, cause we can't have all words - here's a practice shot I took with the new Macro lens today:

[SiGfever]

Hey! The Doctor is in the house! So nice of you to drop by I've told you this before, but your encouragement in my very first build really kept me going.

shazza your talent could not be held back, it was was just waiting to blossom. And your work IS a constant inspiration to myself and to so many others here. Bravo!

[CptDreadFlint]

shazza your talent could not be held back, it was was just waiting to blossom. And your work IS a constant inspiration to myself and to so many others here. Bravo!

+1

Couldn't have said it any better.

[RCG_Bex]

Alright! Hmmm, Bex just made the Christmas list

YAY! *sends flowers and choccies*

~Bex

[malkiewicz]

WOW... That’s about all I can say... This is an excellent build.

[shazza]

SiG and Cpt - you are too kind

Will do, Bex (although I usually send motherboards and RAM for Christmas, choccies & flowers it is).

Thanks much, malkiewicz - I'm looking forward to seeing that monster you're building!


Latest update - doesn't look like it took hours to do this, does it?





The gol-danged modified mid-plate is finally painted. Will wonders never cease. I just might throw up a pic of a sleeved PSU in the next few days.

[ipuoL]

but it looks like it took hours to do it with love Nice work shazza i am a big fan of your project! lovely done looking forward for updates

[voigts]

yes, it does look like it took hours. I've spent hours fiddling with stuff a lot smaller and seemingly insignificant than that piece.

[shazza]

Thx, voigts. It seems to take me a long time to do each of the steps I'm going through. Finally - almost finished with the PSU sleeving. Some shots of work in progress:


My messy work table (took over the dining room again):





8-pin and PCI-E cables done:





24-pin in progress (now done):





Plugged it in to test ---- nothing but a weak +5v signal. Yikes! Checked all my wire placements (again), opened up the PSU and checked all wires still connected. One of the plugs to something or other had come undone - plugged it back in. Whew, all seems to be working. So, no excuses to quit now - more later.

[vistageek92]

Beautiful work Sharron! Nice, even heatshrinks.

Whats with the maps of Florida?

[Wezly]

Whats with the maps of Florida?

Searching for the Legion of Doom... Swamps attract super villains, duh!

[shazza]

Ha ... those are scrap charts I'm using for my workspace. I've always had a fondness for Lake Okeechobee. We leave May 1st for Maine by boat.

Another exciting update: Something I've been avoiding, because if it's wrong, I'm in trouble: drilled the hole for the drain on the bottom of the case:





Only thing left to do is install everything back in the case, route all the cables and plug 'er in. Oh yeah, I gotta drill the fan holes in the side panels - but can't do that til everything is set in place. I think it might be a good idea to do some more leak testing outside the case as well - cause once it's all in, it's not coming out easily.

[Raiden]

Its coming along nicely Shazza ;D

Im ansious to see the final build:d

[shazza]

Thanks Raiden - slowly but surely. Only had a few hours to work on it today, but did start putting stuff back together. It's a pain for the installation - first the midplate, then the cages for the drive bay (leaving the midplate about 1/2-1 inch below where it will finally sit. Then the motherboard - then the res / pump module on the bottom. Oh yeah, I guess the PSU has to go in there at some point


After the first couple steps of installation:






Oops - what are these little things? I painted these so long ago, almost forgot them - they go in the top to help hold the side panel locking mechanisms:





And, here's a shot of the other pieces that go on the side panels. These were originally going to be red, but I changed my mind:





Next step is putting the motherboard back together again. The almost naked board:




The motherboard is installed now as well, but it's too dark to take a photo. So, tomorrow is cable management day and sorting out odds and ends. IF all goes well, I may be able to cut the fan holes in the side panel on Tuesday.

[shazza]

Another bits and pieces update:


The motherboard fits (I wasn't sure, given all the abuse the mobo tray has taken):





Another view of the mobo. Made some minor changes:






Also had the PSU in place - cables all seem to go where I expected them to go. Experimenting with a custom right angle SATA power cable for the optical drive, and also extended and sleeved the Pwr Switch and cousins.





Going to use the Bitspower extender in the front of the case ... problem is, it's a tight fit where I want to put it, since the silly molex for power-in is sideways. So, experimented with a "no-connector" molex connection. The female pins were heat shrinked and than connected directly to the connector on the board:



Everything fits nice and snug, so hopefully it will work, and I won't blow anything up. I could have made a right angle molex connector with the push-in connectors, but those haven't worked well for me before.



I had an extra SATA power cable coming out of the PSU that was hardwired in - planned to cut it, but then decided to turn it into another molex cable - my first try at crimping molex pins:




After heatshrinking and sleeving:






It's always nice when the Power Supply still appears to work after all this fiddling:






Power Supply all closed up, and ready to go:

[Wezly]

Oooooooh....

[ScottALot]

Beautiful job so far! Subscribed! (Wish I could get some of those Typhoons in red... :/ )