Build log: Project Budgie Smuggler

[PiLsY]

So, i'm finally going to lay it all on the line and attempt a buildlog after 8 years of membership. Utterly terrified of failure, but I figure if it goes wrong it'll at least be spectacular. I'm nowhere near as creative as the majority of people here and am approaching my build from a cooling first aesthetics second approach. I don't have the skills to be able to make the looks of the case the focal point.


I have to admit to some cheating going on here as well. This part of this build log is retrospective. I already have the loop fitted and the pc up and working. Its nowhere near finished - more a test fit that went so well it stayed
together. There's plenty left to do and few extra bits I need to mod that I missed first time and spotted during use. More on this later though. For now the build is approx 50% complete. It will need a full tear down and rebuild (with a bit of dremelling), extra sleeving, a little soldering and of course the painting.


Apologies for the lack of pics during the modding process, managed to snap the camera SD card in half somehow. To be fair modding is minimal, some very basic cuts and that's it. I've snapped what I've done after the fact anyway and that should be plenty clear enough to see what's been done.



Current parts from I7 build:


360mm PA360 15mm
240mm PA240 15mm
Jingway DP-1200
EK Supreme HF Full nickel
EK GTX470 Acetal/Nickel + Nickel backplate x 2
Bitspower Z Multi 80mm res
Masterkleer 10/16mm Black/Uv Blue tubing


I7 950
Foxconn Bloodrage
6gb Crucial Ballistix
2 x GTX470
Asus Xonar D2 PCI
G.Skill Falcon 64gb SSD
Seagate 250gb 2.5" HDD
OCZ Silencer 910w




Original Brief:



Current case has an external 360 and internal 240. Midi tower standard atx. Not much space left inside, external rad is fed hot air from the psu exhaust and rear system fan. 240mm rad at front of case heats up system temps. Using 10x Zalman F3 at full power - no fan controller. Its noisy! TBH it's really beaten up as well after years of impromptu mods as the water loop has been added to and changed.

Aside from that the standard concerns are price, capability of fitting rads with minimal cutting (lack of talent ) and price must be below £150. Size wise front to back is a concern - MUST be below 550mm to fit on the desk. Also cannot be wider than 300mm (so no cubes or double wide). I'm not a fan of lots of angles and moulding on the outside of a case so the HAF series and every NZXT case ever is off the list. Painted interior is a must. Current scheme of
components is black, chrome and red with a little blue lighting.

The core of the build must be cooling. I at least want to retain my current 360 + 240 but both in an exhaust capacity - no hot intake air. If possible adding another rad would be nice but not a necessity. Must be easy to access all parts when fitted and refillable without having to strip it down.

I'd also like to have something a bit different. That means none of the usual Coolermaster, Lian-Li and Silverstone models. Hell I don't even care if its borderline ugly .

I'd like to have a crack at painting - my last custom builds have been from old server chassis and the painting hasnt gone well. Can't get a good environment to paint in - I either get particle contamination or humidity/heat issues. This is kind of making me lean towards something with plastic fittings - pretty much all of them are just plain ugly though, let alone borderline!

Finally I can afford no appreciable downtime. This is my main pc and it'll annoy me beyond belief if im without it for days. I've given myself 36 hours to go from empty case to working pc (finished or not is a different matter).






Picking the right case...



Anyway, I eventually got a shortlist down to the Xigmatek Utgard and Midgard, Thermaltake V3 (cheap thrills?), Thermaltake Element V, T and S, Thermaltake Spedo Advance, Lian-Li K62R and P50R and finally the Silverstone FT-02R. Everything else was either over £150 or just plain fugly/useless for watercooling.

After a bit of consideration I eliminated the Thermaltake V3 and Element cases - just too much work to mod with plenty of possibilities for just ruining the case. The Lian-Li and Silverstone cases I know I couldnt bring myself to cut - just out of fear of messing up! That left me with the 2 Xigmatek cases and the Thermaltake Spedo.

The Midgard is tricky to fit a 360 up top and 240 on the bottom (the only config that fits my brief) as there isnt a top piece to cover the roof fitting (and my poor modding skills). That crossed that one off. So down to a choice of two - the Utgard or the Spedo. Now being a hater of all things TT I found myself in the odd predicament of having to seriously consider a TT case. My main concern tbh was how plasticky the clip on fittings would look. All that internal junk for airflow would go straight in the bin along with having a few choice case cuts, but that aside the black finish was by all standards good inside and out, the case spacious and well laid out plus it offered me the oppurtunity to add my loop with minimal cutting. Add to the fact that until I did a forum search here i'd never seen a real world picture of one my choice was made. I was going to take on a Thermaltake Plastic Palace and attempt to make it into something you dont want to hide inside so nobody knows you own it. Plus if it all goes horribly wrong, well its a TT case anyway - what better excuse do you need?

Here's a couple of promo pics nicked from bit-tech to replace the unpacking shots lost on the sd card.









Loop design.



Weighing up how my loop would fit I took a look at the bit-tech review which has some pretty good pics. I had three sides to work with - top, rear and floor. The whole front section I wanted as an air intake (no fans, just filtered and
meshed via drive bay covers). The only sacrifice to this I was prepared to make was for the fan controller (chose an FC-2) and dvd-rw (though im highly tempted to get rid of this for an external Bluray drive). The top section was pre-cut for a 240mm fan plus an extra grill part extended forwards. By eye it looked like it would take a 360 easily. The rear 2 x 240mm case fans again by eye looked like theyd take a standard 15mm spacing 240 with enough room between the back of the 360 and the top of the rad. Theorectically I could then cut a 240mm hole in the floor and fit that 240mm matte black ally rad grill I bought for a couple of pounds on sale about 3 years ago...

This would leave me with the following loop (pump direct attached to rad):

Jingway DP1200 > 240mm floor rad > 360mm roof rad > cpu > chipset > 240mm rear rad > 2 x parallel gpu > Res

It'll be interesting to see what I can come up with for routing the tubes down the front of the case. I've got an FC-2 and a DVD-RW to accomodate somehow.

While I was pondering this it then struck me that I could get rid of my res and combine it with the rear mounted 240 if I used a Swiftech MCR220Res. This would need a small hole cutting in the case roof for filling which should be comfortably covered by the plastic roof panel. It looked like it'd fit from the pics. Tight but it'd fit.

Pic from Hardware Canucks.







It has a name!


This tight fit theme combined with Thermaltake's poor choice of name then inspired me to call this build - Project Budgie Smuggler . Just hoped it would all fit as none of this is measured, just purely by eye from pictures on the web. The dremel is the backup the plan. Sadly its also the primary plan but this should at least be fun for you guys to watch.


Every pair of Speedo's should have red trim...


As for aesthetics - I really dont mind the overall lines of the case at all, Thermaltake have managed to not go too overboard. I'm not a fan of the colour of the plastics - that grey is just pointless. My plan is to repaint all the grey plastic black and to paint the silver/chrome plastic and the top panel fan grills cherry red to match the component scheme. Should be quite easy - especially as I have access to someone who paints RC models so hopefully can do some arm twisting there over xmas.

Pics from Bit-Tech.


Not sure what im going to do about the window side panel yet but I've gotta do something. Looks cheap and nasty.

Pic from Bit-Tech.


This case has the added advantage that I can do the painting after the build is complete as all parts that will need painting are detachable from the case. This can literally be the final finishing touch to the build and its useable the whole time.




So, a few new parts needed:

Thermaltake Spedo Advance
Lamptron FC2
Swiftech MCR220Res

Will also be trying out some new Sunon ball bearing 38mm depth fans I got. Max 2350rpm, min 750rpm and cheap too at £3.50 each. I'll be using these on the top 360mm. The rest will be trusty Zalman F3's controlled via the FC-2 for a bit of noise control.





A plan?



[27/12/2010 9pm] So, where do you start? You have a brand new case in front of you, many hundreds of pounds of PC parts and a good litre or so of water you want to cool it with without getting it wet. Potential for disaster is certainly there if you don't take care. I unboxed everything, removed the junk TT fans and all the extra craptastic plastic I didnt need.

[27/12/2010 10pm] I figured I'd begin the build stage with the rear rad - bolt it in place and mark up with masking tape and pencil a location for the res fill cap. Hold breath while fitting to see if the res chamber will actually fit. The answer? Yes, just. I could just about get a piece of paper between the top of the rad and the roof of the case.










Next question - would the 360 now fit in the roof front to back? Again, yes - perfect snug fit. A bit of play left for adjustment but I opted to have as much space as possible between the rear 240 and the top 360. I had to sacrifice the esata, usb and sound panel on the top and will need to replace the gap its left in the roof panel moulding with something. Not sure what yet - it kind of lends itself to being filled, flattened and having a logo painted/stuck on it.

That'd certainly be the simplest way to clean up the space. I'm not overly bothered - I wouldnt have used the audio or esata ports anyway, and the usb would only be handy for pendrives and such which I have a hub for anyway...






My tape measure says you can fit a small 480 up there or any 420 and still retain the rear rad. The 480 may require the rear 240 rad fans to be externally mounted. But yeah, a perfect fit I'd say. I marked up the few cuts in the case roof required for the fill cap and to clear some airflow for the 360mm rad fans and then off to the shed and the dremel.










[28/12/2010 12:30am] I'm going to revisit this on a later rebuild and cut away much more of the original grill as I'm getting a slight sympathetic vibration every now and then (temporarily stopped with a bit of folded paper between each fan motor and the case/grill).








Now comes the other tricky bit - getting that floor 240mm in with the pump direct mounted to the rad. Add in the slightly oversize OCZ Silencer 910w and the lack of modular cables and this could get interesting. Much jiggling and
jostling was needed before I managed to get it to drop into place. Had to cut some plastic grill from the inside of the front panel so the pump could recess itself snugly within the drive bay covers. Also the rad is at a slight angle to allow clearance for the non modular spaghetti of cables pouring out the back of it. Again it does just fit though - approx 1mm of clearance each way. Also cut the grill off the mobo tray fan to reduce air noise.
















[28/12/2010 2:30am] As you can see I could get away with push pull fans on every rad. I have the fans to add if I want to and the space, I just need to get all the sleeving and stuff done on them. I figure I can run it as is for a while and just evaluate whether its worth the effort.










Here's where I found my first mistake - missed a bit (top of 140mm fan mount) I'd marked for cutting when I did the dremelling. Annoying as I had to route the tube over the outside of the case to make up for it (was intending it to follow the pump power lead rather than going between the case and front panel). Time constraints meant no time for a tear down and a new appointment in the shed with the dremel. I'll have to just go with it for now and correct it at the next oppurtunity. I wanted everything installed and leak testing overnight ready for building in the morning.

Installing the main pc components went fine. Or at least I thought it did. I made a complete and total concentration fail balls up and didnt notice til right at the end. I meant to invert the Supreme HF when installing it to make sure the inlet and outlet were the right way round....and forgot to do so. Yup, i'm running the flow backwards through the block (and injection plate). What a complete dumbass - I'm blaming the late hour and the long day before it but still, can't believe I didnt notice til it was filled and bled.

[28/12/2010 4:45am] Having said that I had no leaks, everything fired up first time perfectly. I went to bed blissfully unaware of the balls up I had made and slept like a log while it leak tested overnight.






[28/12/2010 11am] Woke up, checked pc, ate and showered. All set for fitting hard disks, fan controller and hard disks. Had come up with the cunning plan overnight of inverting the fan controller so the dials were on the inside of the case. I could then junk my DVDRW for an external and solve the problem of the front of the case being taken up by tubing - its no longer an issue. Personally im happy with this solution - I intend to make a mesh cover for the FC2 to neaten it up a bit but aside from that its a good compromise. Settled on modding a 3.5" to 5.25" mount for the SSD and laptop HDD - will need to be painted black but with a couple of cuts it fitted both drives fine. Will reverse it so the cables arent visible from looking in the window panel.

[28/12/2010 1pm] All parts fitted, just cable management to do now til I can power it on. Should look nice and neat when finished due to the much touted cable management system this case has. I have to say it certainly looks top notch.










[28/12/2010 2:30pm] First power on - success. Fired up first time at the sdame settings as I was running in the old rig. By this point I had noticed the backwards supreme HF and was very nervous about temps. I fired up linx and was amazed. This case swap and rebuild has so far gained me 10-12c under load across all cpu cores, 10c on both gpu cores and 4c on both pcb temps. I had no idea I was losing so much performance to reheated air in my old loop. Bear in mind I was happy with my previous loop for the most part - I certainly didnt think there was that much temperature to be clawed back.

old: 19c ambient, 4 core average idle 29c / 4 core average load 70c / GPU 48c max PCB 38c max 4.4ghz HT off 1.3v
new: 17c ambient, 4 core average idle 21c / 4 core average load 58c / GPU 38c max PCB 34c max 4.4ghz HT off 1.3v


[28/12/2010 6pm] Definitely stable. Having issues with trapped air in the top 360. Reversed cpu block inlet and outlet arent helping it bleed. Its entirely useable, but getting large res level increase as pump power decreases.

Must be some compression going on somewhere. Decided that given I still have to do the dremel cut I missed and swap the cpu block inlet and outlet over I should live with the trapped air for now and move on. This is based on being resigned to doing another rebuild before xmas for snagging purposes. I'll be using it as is and proceeding under the pretense that the build part is finished - until I can spend half a day rebuilding it. The constant pursuit of a "perfect" loop is tiring some days .


[28/12/2010 8:30pm] Made and sleeved enough cables to get all the fans and pump working through the FC2. Connected it all up and dropped fan rpms across the board by over 50% adding around 3c at load. Also then reduced the pump to approx 2/3 power. This seemingly had no effect on temps (poss 1c at the very most) but massively reduced noise as I was getting a certain amount of hum from the pump with it being hard mounted. Snipped off that horrible 230mm side panel fan. Decided to try sleeving the snipped wire and "wireless" power connection up to a cathode - worked great!








Gallery of various pics below.








































Full hi res album here...


To sum up the experience so far I'd have to say its gone very well. I've had no disasters with the build, everything fitted perfectly. The only bits I messed up are minor and easily fixed, but best of all dont need to be fixed until the next rebuild. Im very happy with the case, the only complaints are that the plastic bits that hold the drive cages in are poorly made and weak and that the case weighs a damned ton. I'll reserve opinion on looks until I've dont the painting and sorted the side window. That window panel is a travesty and ruins the look of the case as is. Best of all total time from PC to PC was just under 24 hours, giving me a good 12 hours to get some BC2 in .


Hope you enjoyed reading, again apologies for the lack of pics of the build progress. Still don't know how the SD card managed to snap itself in half while inside the camera? The next update will most likely be a rebuild and improved bleed. Im off for 2 weeks from Xmas eve so that's when im aiming to get the build mostly finished.





Still to do:


1) Complete front cut missed
2) Reverse cpu block flow
3) Bleed loop again
4) Either make sleeved extensions or sleeve existing 24pin, 8pin and 6pin connectors
5) Sleeve cathode wiring
6) Replace side panel window
7) Cover missing esata/audio/usb from top panel
8) Paint grills
9) Paint top panel
10) Paint front panel
11) Detail top panel
12) Detail front panel

[PiLsY]

Retrospective updates time again. Damn I'm bad at keeping this up to date .


Anyway, at least theres going to be lots to see. Here's the first update




January 12th Update


This first update is basically to catch everything I'm not happy with before things progress too far, so don't expect a huge change here.

The main items I want to knock off my catch list are:


1) Remove missed 140mm fan mount from original install.

2) Reverse CPU Block flow to correct inlet and outlet back to front.

3) Bleed loop again.




In addition I will be fitting a new pump - my first DDC . Decided to pick up an MCP355 to replace my faithful CPX-Pro. Nothing wrong with the CPX-Pro, I just think the smaller size should fit better without rubbing up against the front of the case (this causes slight vibration throughout the front panel and drive bay covers). The extra power cant do any harm either .



Up first is removing the lip from the front panel cross brace that acts as a 140mm fan mount that I missed first time round. It reduces the clearance between the drive bays and the front of the case and forced me to route the 360>240 tube out the front of the case and into the facia. 2 minutes with the dremel and a cutting disc and its history. Next its time to get to work on the top panel - just a bit of minor positional adjustment and the removal of the bits of grill that were vibrating before. Still looks horrific, but i'll finish it all off at the end when I know its in the right place. Until then I'm not fitting the rad grill.

Here's a couple of shots to show the mods done. You can see how roughly cut the 360mm mount is in the top - frankly I can't wait to get it covered up, but that will have to wait until the loop order and position of components is finalised.


















So, it takes 2 hours to take apart to do less than 10 mins of cutting. The big question is will it all go back together?














GTX470's with pump fitted. Looked like some weird club tailed transformer thing so I snapped a pic. Blame the late night!





New pump at home - loads more space. Will get plenty of cooling from the rad fan too.





Loop now fully installed.








I've managed to get the loop order rearranged in an attempt to reduce bleeding problems (airlocks); hopefully with the assistance of a bit of gravity and some extra pump power it should bleed a whole lot easier. To avoid problems with trapped air in the top rad I drop it out while it fills and bleeds. Its a bit tricky but way better than spending hours and hours bleeding the loop. Large single loops are all about filling technique, it takes you a while to perfect it, and every loops different but when you do its remarkably easy. Im getting there now - total fill and bleed time is now under 30 mins.











Thats a good omen - totally leak free at the first attempt . I found bleeding the loop much easier this time around with the loop order changed. Can't run the pump over 2/3 power or it turns the "res" into a maelstrom. Full power makes bubble froth.


The top rad is bothering me. Not so much the rad as the fans. Theyre 38mm ball bearing fans, and tbh they make more noise than air movement. I'm very unimpressed. By eye it looks like I can get push pull 25mm on there so out come the Zalman F3's.

Before...




After...




I much prefer that - airflow seems way higher and noise is also way lower. Those 38mm fans were crap...


And last but not least its cable management. I must say this is a really strong point of the Spedo case. You have ample room behind the mobo tray and some nice nooks and crannys to hide cables in too. Even though my PSU is not modular (no room between psu and rad for modular connectors) I have no problem hiding all my cables with room to spare.






Id call that progress - baby steps maybe but progress . I need to get it right first time but use it along the way as well so a slow and steady approach is the order of the day here.





The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed the NB block change there. The Foxconn one failed on me and thats an emergency replacement. Its an old i845 chipset block if memory serves. Incoming replacement soonwhich will be added in the next update. For now its actually working really well - heatpipe temps are down about 4c .



Hope you enjoyed the update, next one along as soon as I've written it. Pics done and upped already if you don't want to wait for the write-ups .






Still to do:


1) Either make sleeved extensions or sleeve existing 24pin, 8pin and 6pin connectors
2) Sleeve cathode wiring
3) Replace side panel window
4) Cover missing esata/audio/usb from top panel
5) Paint grills
6) Paint top panel
7) Paint front panel
8) Detail top panel
9) Detail front panel

[coolhandluke41]

Good to see another TT, looks good bud

[PiLsY]

February 14th update

Aim of update :

Change NB block over for new Heatkiller SB SLI and fit new Koolance PMP-300 Res.


Not much in the way of words for this update really, no changes to the case. Res upgrade is purely to make use of the space between the grills in the side of the case. I wanted a showpiece to go in there essentially. What makes it tricky is the routing of the tube - I dont want to change it. For that I need a top and res combo that gives an inlet and outlet opposite each other and at 90 degrees to the pump inlet. The Koolance PMP300 Res top is the only one I could find to do this. Its a very impressive piece of kit and is solidly made. My only complaint is the res base/collar could be a little better looking. Whilst the ridges allow for excellent grip to tighten it they dont really fit in with the look of the rest of the res.


Anyway, straight into the walkthrough!


First of all the temporary NB block was replaced with the Heatkiller SB SLI. It gives a wide adjustment range (the hole spacing is large on the Bloodrage) and its cheap. I reckon I can paint it too so it will fit in a little better.





Next up is a test fit of the pump/res combo. I really like it, fills that void perfectly.











Now I've just got to get the graphics cards back in and I'm good to go.





Done!








And on with yet another fill and bleed. Im curious to see how this goes - its my first time using a combination pump and res. Im willing to bet this time will be a lot easier (as I can use the MCR220Res port to aid filling).





Much easier!








Couple of quick shots of the new res filled and in place...








And a couple more loop shots...








Its a damn close fit for that FC2 in the bay directly below the top rad, but it goes.





Cable management yet again - but it gets neater each time though .





And a few shots of the finished article:





















And if you're wondering why I never show any shots of the side panel here's your answer...





Fugliest case window EVER.



Anyway, only a minor update there, next update is some mods to the plastic top panel and facia and replacing that side window. Stay tuned!



Still to do:


1) Either make sleeved extensions or sleeve existing 24pin, 8pin and 6pin connectors
2) Sleeve cathode wiring
3) Replace side panel window
4) Cover missing esata/audio/usb from top panel
5) Paint grills
6) Paint top panel
7) Paint front panel
8) Detail top panel
9) Detail front panel

[PiLsY]

June 23rd Update


Aim of update this time is twofold. I want to improve airflow through the front and top panels to reduce air noise and try to improve the look of the top panel somewhat - it looks too cluttered with the mesh, plastic, fans (and a rad grill later too). Also that window just has to go. I've run with the side panel off for a good 5 months now and I have carpets in my radiators. I simply cant bear to look at the case with the window panel on.



Theres even less to say this time - out came the dremel (fine saw HSS disc at low speed) and it was choppy choppy time. Sanding wheel to finish it off.


Top panel before...





And after...




















And removed the weird frame from behind the front panel too. All it ever did was rattle against the drive bay covers, dunno what the hell it was for?









Next up its the window panel. The original window was held in with pushpins so it popped out very easily. My plan is to use the existing window holes and replace the pushpins with M4 allen head bolts. The window itself will be a plain smoked plexi, no shape change. With the white neon inside I should be able to get some nice lighting effects going on. I had also never cut plexi before, so I was pretty nervous. I had one sheet of plexi - the last one in stock at the shop so no mistakes! I used the dremel again as before It was actually easier than cutting the TT plastic as it didnt melt. I got the shape roughly right then finished it off with a milling bit and a small sanding bit. Took roughly 15 minutes. The transformation was near total and im utterly thrilled with how much of an improvement it has made. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

























































I hope the rest of it goes as well as that. That was around 60 minutes work in total and probably gives the biggest improvement in terms of looks so far. The next question is can I get that top mounted IO in afterall. I've been looking at the distance between the MCR220Res and the back of the PA120.3 and I reckon I can move it back far enough so I can fit the top IO in. Itll be damned tight, but thats the next step. I need a full teardown to check the nickel in my blocks, so its all got to come apart anyway. Planning to do that over the weekend (Retrospective note - done! Update will follow tomorrow). Im really dreading it, but seeing it with the new sidepanel has really motivated me to get going again.

Major downer though - I've lost the power/reset assembly and the fitting clips from the front panel. I took them off a couple of months ago and I can't find them now. Put them somewhere so safe they'll be found by archaeologists in several hundred years. I've no idea how I'm going to go about getting replacements. I guess I'll start by talking to specialtech and see if they can arrange anything through the supplier. Gutted!


Still to do:


1) Either make sleeved extensions or sleeve existing 24pin, 8pin and 6pin connectors
2) Finalise lighting and sleeve as necessary
3) Move top rad so esata/audio/usb on top panel fits
4) Fit fan gaskets to rads
5) Fit rad grill to top panel
6) Paint top panel
7) Paint front panel
8) Paint Detail strip on top panel
9) Paint Detail strips on front panel

[PiLsY]

Good to see another TT, looks good bud

Cheers dude. Its getting there slowly .

[PiLsY]

June 24th Update


I need to get those EK nickel blocks out and examined, so its time to get on and finish the case cutting. I've decided I'm going to try and get the esata/usb ports to fit back in the top of the case. I've measured several times and its just too close to be able to tell. Theres nothing for it then but to try. Hopefully by the end of this update the top rad grill will be fitted, and the only work remaining on the case will be painting the plastic parts.


The most important thing about any project is a clean, tidy and spacious workspace. Hmm...





After some rough freehand dremelling and using the card template on the back of the radgrill pack to line up the holes I was left with a big rectangular hole to fill. The good news was it looked like I could get the io panel, rad grill and rear rad in. The lines are a little wonky and theres a few scratches to the paint, but its all covered by the grill.








Looks nice with the grill fitted I reckon...





And it's vastly improved the look with the top panel fitted too.





Cleaned the rads thoroughly (6 months of no side panel meant dust carpets) and fitted Thermochill gaskets.





Now comes the difficult bit - getting the io panel, top rad and rear rad in. I knew it was going to be close, what I didnt know was that it was too close. The problem was caused because the rear fans on the Spedo chassis have countersunk heads. This actually makes the fan stand proud of the chassis by a few mm. This of course turned my close fit into a no fit. Additionally I had to move the top rad back another 2mm to allow clearance for the lip of the IO box. All in all I needed to find about 7mm.

I managed to solve this by getting some 1350rpm 20mm Yates and drilling a countersink into each of the 4 corners. This meant I could get the fan to but up flush against the case and gained me the extra few mm needed to move the rad back.








In the far right of this picture you can see where I had to extend the fillport hole backwards to accomodate the thinner fans moving the rad closer to the rear panel of the case. Its all covered by the plastic top piece so can't be seen once the case is together. It gives you an idea of how far back ive moved everything though.





And a full side view before the PA120.2 floor rad is fitted...





The bottom 240mm rad took some work to get mounted right. The lowest 2 drive bays are blocked for anything except VFD's and Aquaero's, theres only about 60mm depth to play with from the drive bay mounts. Its a close fit between the drives anyway as the "wings" on the 5.25" bays limit your room to maneuvre. You can see from the grill it is off centre to help avoid the PSU wire harness.





You also have to have the rad at a slight angle to clear the cable harness coming out the psu. Modular PSU's are too long to fit and keep space for the bottom rad.









The next set of pictures are really poor - my camera is rubbish indoors and rubbish at night - put the two together and it doesnt come out well.


Motherboard in...





Starting to put the loop together. You can see I have the same problem at the top as the bottom - no room for opticals, only VFD's / Aquaero could fit in those bays. The top to bottom tube run sits right where the opticals would need to go too. I could move it, but frankly I quite like having the front of the case as all mesh. USB DVD-RW is a god send. Had to really tighten the top rad fans down as well as the Thermochill Gaskests made it an even tighter fit to get that FC2 controller in there.








Loop fitted (gfx section missing due to EK rma, cpu block survived fine though?). Will have to dig some tube out to go from the pump to the rear rad, the Masterkleer stuff is all cut to length and I have nothing long enough. That's enough for tonight though, don't fancy repeating earlier mistakes by trying to finish it tired.












So, there's a few more bits crossed off the to-do list. Tomorrow i'll be doing a fill and bleed and cable management - everything is now sleeved and its helped the interior look no end. Until tomorrow though, here's what's left to do...


Still to do:


1) Either make sleeved extensions or sleeve existing 24pin, 8pin and 6pin connectors
2) Finalise lighting and sleeve as necessary
3) Paint top panel
4) Paint front panel
5) Paint Detail strip on top panel
6) Paint Detail strips on front panel

[PiLsY]

June 25th Update


Aim of this update - fill, bleed and cable manage. Fit newly sleeved extensions. Should be a quicky!



First of all need to get that gfx card bypass fitted. Fond some old XSPC UV Orange 7/16 ID that's plenty long enough. Couple of quick pics in the daylight to make up for last night's fiasco. Seriously if anyone has any tips on getting good photo's of PC's I'd love to hear them. My camera isnt great, but should be good enough (fuji S1500fd). I've a feeling it's the operator that has run out of talent .









So, I've pretty much got this filling and bleeding technique nailed now. Lets go through it one step at a time...


First of all I fill it from the port on top of the res to get the bottom half of the loop full.





Once i've got as much in as possible that way I cap off the res. I then unscrew the downpipe from 360 > 240 rad. I then fit a capped fillport to the downpipe and a fitting and tube to the 360mm rad.





The next step is to fill as much as possible from the rad cap at the back. I slowly let air out via the fillport so it fills the downpipe. This fills the loop up as far as the top rad - infact some water actually makes it through to the top rad too.





The rad fillport is then capped back off and the case is then tilted onto its back (being careful not to break the plastic screwless expansion card clips) and filled through the top rad.





The next bit requires some speedy finger work and some kitchen towel. I unscrew the fillport from the downpipe and hold my finger over the end. Then I unscrew the other fitting from the rad and quickly screw on the downpipe. I've got this down to an art and I probably spill around 20-30ml each time now.





Then I tilt the case back 45 degrees towards its roof so any air that got in during the connection goes to the floor rad. A quick tilt to the right and the air moves across to the PA120.2 outlet. Lean it slowly back to its feet and all the air bubbles up into the res. A quick top off in the res and its pretty much done. All without even powering the pump on . That is actually running in the pic - as you can see not even any microbubbles - got the technique nailed and total fill and bleed time is around 10 mins .






Next up cable management. This will be noticeably harder this time as Ive got a lot more cables. Theres 4 x 6pin pcie extensions, 1 x 8 pin eps extension and a 24 pin atx extension all sleeved using the pin clamp technique and using rubberised braiding I get for 20p a metre from my local auto factors. Result!









So, it was kinda anticlimactic really. Everything went together pretty well, and aside from having to jiggle around the rear rad it was all good. Few shots here before I leave it leak testing overnight. I realise you cant really see the sleeved cables due to my poor photography - hopefully correct that with the next update.




















Overnight leak test required, but it all seems good to be honest. Only painting of plastics left to do now (until I think of something else anyway lol). I'll grab some daylight pics tomorrow after the leak test (hopefully should see the sleeved cables then too).


I really want to show what it looks like lit up, but just cannot get decent pictures. Will keep trying.




Still to do:


1) Paint top panel
2) Paint front panel
3) Paint Detail strip on top panel
4) Paint Detail strips on front panel

[PiLsY]

June 26th Update


So, this is the final update for now. The only thing outstanding off my list is painting the plastic front and top panels, but obviously theres quite a bit more than that to do. On the subject of the paint - I really don't know what to do here. I'm leaning towards simply painting all the grey plastic black and trying the plastic inserts as they are in silver. That would certainly be the quickest and easiest way. I do have various thoughts of painting the mesh and the inserts the same colour, I dunno. Really need some ideas on this front, hopeful of a few suggestions from anyone reading. Top panel pic, Facia pic.





























So that's where it's up to. I'm actually nearly there, hope you enjoyed the updates .





Still to do

1) Painting!




Gripe list



Im not entirely happy with the Zalman fans. Although they've served me really well theyre inevitably going to die in horizontal mount positions. Although you can get as much blow out of them as a GT its at the cost of noise. Theyre also not as good low down as GTs. The eventual plan then is to buy 10 AP15 GTs. When I have the money burning a hole in my pocket i'll go for it (or when the zalmans start to die).


Im also toying with the idea of getting rid of the white cathodes and replacing them with LED's instead. I think it'd give me the ability to better tune the look using 10 or so LEDs instead of 2 cathodes.


The GPU blocks have been approved for RMA and will be sent off tomorrow. I've decided to go with a plain copper base replacement. When the GPU's get upgraded further down the line I think i'll go with an HK or AC block next time.


Once I get an 1155 backplate for my XT ill put that on the benchtable and move the Rasa to this rig. I can't help but not trust the nickel on the cpu block even though its looking fine as of now.


I'm tempted to get some UV Brightener from Mayhem. Need new water too. Weighing it up.


Having seen the XSPC orange tubing in the case I really like it. I'll wait until its finished before I change anything though.


Im debating replacing the grill on each side panel with clear plexi instead. That will be done after any painting though as again I want to see the full effect of the case before I make any changes.

[schoolslave]

Looks nice
Haha and I thought working in a micro-atx case is difficult, seems like your setup is even more cramped

As far as the paint, I would just paint the whole outside black.

[thegcpu]

+1

Nice work!

[PiLsY]

Cheers guys, appreciated . Black votes noted too. It'd definitely be the easiest option and the least prone to messing up.


When I got this case out the box I never imagined for one second I would be able to fill it. Its an odd case really, its got all that space up top and twin 120s on the back for rads, yet its marketed for aircooling. And then they go and slap a window on it that looks like a toilet extractor fan. The fans they include with it are nothing more than noise makers, so out the box you need to work on it. Having said all that its genuinely not taken much work or skill to get everything in as you see here, just time and planning. All I've used in the way of tools is a dremel and beer

[PiLsY]

EK rma is now well underway. Scan have immeadiately refunded me the full purchase amount. Major props for amazing customer service. Guaranteed return customer here. OCUK have decided to send the blocks back to EK in Slovenia for testing. Apparently their techs dont have eyes and cant see the nickel is worn out, so I've completely wasted all my time between receiving the rma confirmation and them sending the blocks back. What a complete shower of twats.

Given Scan decided to refund me I've decided to replace the blocks with AquaComputer 470 blocks. Theyre more expensive, but I decided that half the problem with the EK blocks is theyre too damn cheap. Got my first AC block yesterday and the second is due today. The difference in quality is simply staggering. Pictures of the AC blocks do not do them justice, you can definitely tell where the extra money goes. I did have to clean the block inside and out though - it had some sort of greasy film on it (wiped off very easily).

Think I'll probably swap the HF Full Nickel back to the Swiftech XT to increase flow resistance too (and to get that EK crap out my loop). Can't run the pump over 2/3 power at the moment or the res goes mental. May even go serial on the GPUs instead of parallel.

EK 470 backplates do not fit with the AC blocks. Theyll need the 3 central spacers grinding off. Not sure I can be bothered, may just sell them with the EK blocks.

Pictures of block fitting later, will try and get the loop re-done this afternoon/evening.


Also I found my power switch and the facia clips - woohoo!!!! I was getting nowhere trying to order replacements, so a major relief there. All that now remains is a bit of sanding and a spray and finish to the facia and top panel, realistically less than a mornings work.

I've already started to plan my next build (Caselabs MH10 I think, every build has to be bigger than the last!)...

[RCG_Bex]

Scan = win

Build looks amazing - would like it more if the orange hose was a little shorter (less hosing length) but very well done

[PiLsY]

Cheers Bex .

Orange hose was temporary while the problem with the EK blocks was sorted. However its now given me a bit of a decision to make. I really like it .

Ill have to rebuild with the Black/UV Blue tube, but I may well find myself buying some more of the XSPC 7/16". Bend radius is excellent and plasticiser leeching is very low. The UV effect is also very pronounced, the Orange really pops even behind the smoked window. The only problem I have really is there are a few blue lights dotted about that I have so far been too lazy to change. The fans in the ocz ram cooler need swapping but I cant find replacements and the FC2 looks like id have to do a major operation on to change the LEDs. Decisions, decisions!

OCUK block bought 28/10/10


Scan block bought 17/08/10




Second Aquacomputer block arrived - its taken a beating on the way though and one of the standoffs is sticking through the jiffy bag it was sent in. Should really have been boxed for postage. Hopefully its ok and not bent/twisted or anything. Its a really solid block so Im hopeful everything is ok. Thumbs down www.Kustompcs.co.uk. for poor packaging.

[RCG_Bex]

Yeah KPC isnt as good as it used to be. That was not far from where I used to live.

Being a business up there is pretty ahrsh right now so wouldn't surprise me that they're trying to save on costs...

[PiLsY]

Block fitted, good contact and no damage . Taking a quick break before draining and refilling.

ST have stock again of the 5litre mayhems water if anyones wondering. Just in time!

Have taken a few pics of the block fitted but cant post as the rigs got no gfx cards. Tried photo editing on a single core atom netbook before and it was uber fail, so big pic update coming later tonight hopefully .

[PiLsY]

First round of pictures. Few shots of the blocks during fitting.






































More to come, may be tomorrow though...

[PiLsY]

So, follow up with a few pics of the rebuild...

First off filling and bleeding. Same method as described a few posts above.










Leak test now underway. Liking the look with the new blocks in .








First power on...





Not much in the way of microbubbles - this is with the DDC at full speed too!








Havent really showed off my sleeving yet so here's a couple of bragging shots...












Time for a bit of furmark testing to see how the new blocks are doing. Temps are great with the gpu/pcb temps on the cards @ 725mhz 975mv maxing at 44/32 and 43/33.






The UV effect of the tubing is hard to get on camera. It really needs to be seen by the naked eye. The closest pics I could get to the true colour are these:










And finally some artsy kinda pics to finish off with. Im slowly improving with the camera, decided to try playing with macro mode and manual focus. For the 3 good pics I got there's about 50 bad ones. I do like how these turned out tho!


Focal point @ top card outlet :




Through the grill shot - focal point manually set @ 50cm :




And finally my favorite shot, similar but not the same as the first. Focal point set to the SLI bridge and a slightly different angle. Really like the focus on the cards and the swiftech rad in the background.






Took a couple of pics of temps but forgot to up them last night. Will add them tonight.

Didnt manage to swap the cpu blocks due to my lack of a 3/32" allen key. I had a 2.5mm key where the 3/32" should be (and another 2.5mm in the metric set too?!). Need to open the top of the Xpogee XT to check the internals and clean it out.


Still to do...

1) Painting of top panel and front facia.
2) Finalise lighting.
3) Swap fans for GTs?
4) Swap cpu block.

[>D4L70N<]

An incredible work you've done in the Spedo. It seems impossible that you could put all those radiators on the case!
I am currently working on a Thermaltake Spedo also:



I will follow your progress as it is rare to see jobs Spedo's

[PiLsY]

Amazing job on the inverted ATX dude - I never even considered taking that on! I'd love to see how you did that - have you got a build log or any more pics?

Part of the reason why I went with the Spedo is that its rare - I've only seen 5 or 6 build logs on the net. The case has a lot going for it in terms of space, price and ease of modding. Its also very sturdy and well braced - theres no chassis flex at all. The downside to all this is the weight - mine is rocking at about 50lbs fully loaded.

In terms of rads - I oculd actually fit more in :P. Theres enough room in the front for an MCR420 or MCR 480 as well - I just dont fancy recirculating the hot air from an intake rad so everything is set to exhaust.

My only issue really is with the PSU. Its bloody noisy, silencer certainly wasnt an appropriate name (unless its by causing deafness). When it spins up while gaming its the loudest fan in the system by a long way - even 10 Zalman F3's at 1900rpm are drowned out by it. Quite insane! I cant find anything as powerful in as small a package though - as you can see I have literally 2mm clearance between PSU and the floor rad.

Painting should be happening some time over the next 3 weeks, stay tuned to see if I can make a pigs ear out of the whole thing right at the end .