Project: Which way is up? Lian li v1000

[Henry8601]

This is my first water cooled build, and it is inspired by the Silverstone Raven and all of the fantastic work by Charles and his murderboxes.

When I first saw the Silverstone raven the whole 90 degree rotation made perfect sense to me, and as I am after a silent build the stack effect is just what I was looking for. At the same time I became fascinanted with Charles' superb builds I became obsessed with the clean build look. I was due for an upgrade anyway, and this is what I got:



I think this must have been one of the first bloodrages in the UK as it arrived from Overclockers UK the day before they officially came in stock! The i7 920 is batch 3839A and there is not much info on these, so fingers crossed! The Corsair RAM is the 6GB 1600mhz kit.

I am still deciding on my tubing and cpu block, and my thermochill PA120.3 has not arrived yet, but here are my water cooling bits:



In the bottom of the ek reservoir is a temp probe, and the pump top is the XSPC version, and the fittings are TFC. The mcubed bigNG will control all the fans and the pump - The idea is that the only fans in the system will be the three S-Flex F's on the radiator - more will become clear when you see the case layout.

I still need to decide on a graphics card... although I will probably be going with a single GTX 295 with the koolance block - I just want to see the results from tests. I am probably going to get the Fuzion v2 for the CPU, but ideally want to use the proper mounting kit, and well, there isn't one... (yet)

[Henry8601]

There are other reasons why I have decided for the 90 degree rotation, and one of these is the extremely clean front that it gives the case:



I will be using a slot loading blu ray drive, so the front will have very little on it - just the effect I wanted. I am undecided about the power button, but I am thinking of something touch sensitive like on the ps3.

To get the radiator to fit (there will only be about 5mm to spare) I have had to modify the interior rather a bit, and so I ripped it out, and cut it up





This will eventually all be powder coated black.

And this is how things look at the moment:



I really like the way that the Quantum Force and Bloodrage text are now the right way up

The standoffs to lower the motherboard tray are something I am playing with to give the top exit cables some room, and so things like the wireless stick for my mouse will not stick up too far. The shroud shows where the radiator will go, and with the fans on the shroud in pull configuration you can see how the whole case will be cooled. Cool air will be sucked in the bottom, and then blasted straight up through the top of the case.

I also need to start looking at case feet. I was thinking about maybe ones like those from the TJ07 (does anybody have a spare pair?) or something more like the feet on the mac G5 - and if so, where can I get some?

I am also going to have fun packaging the hard drives - there basically isn't any space for them... I will probably end up suspending them from somewhere.

[armeniandave]

This should be a very interesting build.
I always like seeing people do things a
little out of the box.
Look forward to seeing some progress.

[Henry8601]

One thing I want to try with this build is some form of iPhone integration. I hate having to constantly find the cable to plug in my phone when I want to charge and sync it. I have a couple of ideas of ways to do this, and I want peoples opinions on it. Bare in mind that this does sit under a desk, and the phone would not be used while in the dock.

These are the three basic concepts:

Phone dock in the middle on the motherboard tray:



Phone in the middle of the case:



Phone slid in flat to dock:



I am possibly leaning towards having the phone sliding in flat on top of the case as it should look the cleanest, and it looks the least pretentious, but what do you guys think?

[N3it1]

Sliding in flat no other way if looks are the "thing" we are lookin for. This build is definetly worth to keep my eye on.

[BlueAqua]

A very interesting build with the V1000. I'm looking forward to a super clean build with a bit of character.

Subscribed!

[charles_h]

I'm honored you would mention me Henry.

This is going to be an awesome build!

I'm really looking forward to following your progress. For the iPhone dock, I'll need the concept taken a bit further before I can add my 2 cents. I do like the idea of it being flush with the case but something on an angle could also be interesting - it all comes down to execution.

[Henry8601]

Thanks for all the comments so far. I am not satisfied with the whole iphone thing, so I am going to put that bit of the project on hold for now.

I set about mounting the pump today, and also finding somewhere to put the bigNG. I took quite a bit of measuring, but I got there in the end!

To make life a little easier I measured things on the outside of the case:



The pump is mounted on two rubber feet with a third to stop it drooping - hopefully the panel will not drum, otherwise I might have to rethink this. The pump outlet is positioned almost directly above where the radiator inlet will be, although the angle is not quite right - why do they angle the outlet of the XSPC top???





The bigNG will sit on the back of the dividing panel:



And using the supplied standoffs there is enough space underneath to route the cables which should make it tidier.



This then shows things in place with my PSU. I am using a Zalman 1000W heat pipe unit as it is one of the quietest I have ever heard (or not if you get me ) It is however about the least modular modular PSU I have ever seen - in fact I don't think I will actually need any of the modular cables! The cables curve out of the way to miss the pump:



I need to start thinking about the feet. TJ07 feet, or something more like those on the G5, and if so, from where?

.

[Zw_Roodbaard]

Ahh that's where you are going to mount your PSU

I wondered where you wanted to put that beast, is that the original place for the PSU? I'm completely lost my orientation with this build :P

[theseeker]

I like your approach, no holes barred! Looking forward to your progress and you will love that memory.

[lyl]

Here's some good lookin feet: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=22797

[Jiangxue]

maybe u can consider the EK acrylic top for the 355 instead... that one's not angled...

this build is really interesting.... and I do like the clean look! can't wait to see more!

[Henry8601]

Here is a shot that better shows how the PSU fits in:



The case would normally sit rotated by 90 degrees clockwise in this picture. This is actually the normal place for the PSU.

I could get the ek pump top, but I already have the XSPC one now and tests show that it performs a bit better really - although hopefully I might just be able to use rotary bitspower 45 degree fittings.

I also did some work on trimming the motherboard tray to clear various bits. I did take some pictures but they are a bit boring really...

Thanks for the link to the feet Lyl - those were the ones I was actually looking at, but do you think they are the best option, or should I do something like the feet on the mac G5?

[downforce]

Thanks for the link Henry .. subscribed too!! I'll keep an eye on what you do so I can get some inspiration for my V1000!

I like the idea of rotating it 90deg, although personally not so sure about cables poking out the top and empty USB/sockets on the 'rear' IO filling with dust.

If your PSU was shorter you could cut a hole in the side/bottom of the case and use something like this with a mini extension cable. Dunno, just some brainstorming [That's an Aussie plug, just knew they would have a picture of what I was trying to at].

But looks wicked anyway

[jollyjoker]

Looking good . I want to see how this turns out.

[exe163]

Bloodrage is sexy! Keep updating, looks like a very interesting build.

[Henry8601]

Dust getting into the usb ports was something that worried me at first, but it lives under my desk, and I am thinking of making some sort of hinged cover to go over the top of the motherboard, this way the cables would be hidden too.

[Henry8601]

Finally time for a bit of an update. One problem that I found was that my compression fittings did not fit on my EK reservoir:



So I put them on the lathe and this is what I was left with (shown with a single standard one to show the difference



And this shows the improved version on the res:



Much better

[shazza]

That's a nice mod ... and fits in well with your attention to detail. Nice work.

[Henry8601]

I also now have to choose which way round to put the reservoir. Which do you guys recon looks better?





I turned my attention to the PA120.3 rad next. As the focus of this bulid is silence I decided to soft mount the fans on the rad with a gasket there as well.



To get the rubber things to go in I had to drill the rad holes out to 4mm which required a careful hand so I did not punch through into the radiator core. Originally I was going to mount the fans on top of the shroud in the normal fashion, but after seeing a few other builds I picked up some AC Ryan mesh, and this is the end result:



Which I am really pleased with

[Mr.Guvernment]

res on the left side looks best and cleanest.

[Henry8601]

res on the left side looks best and cleanest.

Thanks for the comment I agree and have therefore chosen that design.

It has been a while since I last posted so I have a fairly big update here. First thing I did was to relocate the pump.





I realised that the way I had tried to mount the pump is the one way that the pump manual says not to! You can also see how I have blocked up the hole in the case dividing plate. I have also added an anti-cyclone plate to the EK reservoir.

I also decided to lower the PSU - this way I can get the power cable in without it sticking out of the top. To do this I had to make up a spacer. The scrappy material is the aluminium covering material:





I also decided to make some custom feet for the case as all the decent looking feet I could find are really expensive. I machined these on a lathe from billet aluminium, and they have AcoustiFeet Medium stuck on the bottom. This way they really should cut down on any noise being transmitted to my desk, and they will also stop it damaging any surfaces. And they look really well proportioned for the case



Next was to get all the internal parts sent off for black powdercoating:



Tom at Chilled PC did an excellent job with getting them done quickly and to a very high quality - and most importantly at an excellent price

[xaxis]

Freaking sweet man! Different ideas always are. ... I know you're not thinking about the iphone right now, but as a side note I once converted an iphone into a digital live video wall projector... It took a number of inexpensive fensel lenses, an array of really expensive super bright (talkin 3500 lumens worth) of white LEDs, and the end after a lot of fun involving projecting friends heads onto movie theatre screens before the movies began ... well it resulted in a broken iphone... errr.. where was I going with this? ...... oh, yeah, maybe you could mod a custom case mounted digital projector... har, I don't know.
Keep up with the updates!

[Henry8601]

I once converted an iphone into a digital live video wall projector...

Wow! - That sounds fairly extreme

On with the updates I started putting things together again:#









I also made an airfilter to go in the bottom of the case to trap any unwanted dust/crap/small children:



I also picked up a new PSU plate as the original one (on the left) was quite restrictive to the vents on the back of the PSU.:



I then flushed the rad, and fitted it properly in place. You can also see my drain tap in place :

[Henry8601]

This is a neat little trick that you can do to make things easier to plug the LED/Switch/etc. into the motherboard. Normally they look like this:



But you can use the header from an old USB cable, and by swapping the pins over you are then left with this (The pins are the same so they go straight into the new housing. And I know I have not pushed them in properly - I still need to sleeve it ):



I then started to plat around with the piping - and annoyingly found that I will need to use some anti-kink coils, which I don't like the look of







Here you can see where I have hidden one of the no-vibes hard drive cages. A second smaller red one will go above it for my velociraptor:





And the mess of PSU wires still to be sorted out (you can also see where I had to relocated the bigNG as the PSU is now mounted lower):



And the view from the front, although I am not convinced by the switch...