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[Build Log] Nephilim + Lots of questions!

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  • Overclocking
  • Water Cooling
  • build log
  • Nephilim
  • Systems
  • Customization
  • mini-itx
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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 2:49:41 AM

Alright, here we go. I've gotten the itch again.

So here's the deal. A while back, I took my old rig, which was using a bitfenix prodigy with a whole bunch of mods, and split it into two. Many of the parts, including the AsRock z77-itx, went into an HTPC rig. The rest of the parts went into an mATX rig using a CaseLabs M5 and a Asus ROG board.

Well, I severely misjudged a couple things - first, just how freaking large CaseLabs cases are, even when they're trying to do small form factor, and second, how much I absolutely love small form factor builds. :p 

So that brings me to what my plan is. First, I'm going to buy a cheapo mATX B75 motherboard for the HTPC and mount the thing on the wall - the case its in is horribly designed and has no airflow on top of vibrating like a drum.

Second, I'm changing how I'm building my new gaming rig. Here are the priorities and such:

1) Small, portable form factor. This means that it has to be small, preferably have handles or other such easy points from which to carry it, and have some way of protecting itself during transport. (Yeah, that sounds like it's an rpg character, but hey.)

2) Open construction. I want this thing to be as much of a test bench as possible, even though it's going to be watercooled. That means quick disconnects at the back of the case so the cpu and graphics card can be drained easily to swap out parts, and it means I unfortunately can't crack open my PSU for fear of, you know, killing someone. The reason I want this is threefold: To get a little airflow over the motherboard, since it won't have any fans, to be able to swap parts around easily, and because it's going to look freaking awesome and people are going to want to ogle it.

3) Silence. The CPU and GPU are going to be watercooled, the hard drives are (hopefully) going to be mounted on rubber straps. The reservoir and pump are going to be enclosed inside the (SFF) radbox, decoupled on memory foam and surrounded by sound-dampening foam to mitigate the highs and vibration noises.

More about : build log nephilim lots questions

a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 2:59:32 AM

So. Here's what I'm thinking for the radbox. It's going to have two 2x140mm radiators in it - I'm using Black Ice GT Stealth radiators because I already own one and they have comparable performance to thick radiators - and size matters here. It'll have six fans, all Noctua 140mm PWM fans. This setup will be arraigned in a triangle tower design, with the pump on the bottom and the reservoir mounted in the lid for easy refilling.

This entire tower is going to be made out of wood - consisting of the base, and three corner poles - the triangle will be shaved off, so it'll be more of a hexagon with three long sides and three short sides. The short flat wood sides will have wood inlays, and the sides with the radiators will be slots - so to install the radiators, I simply slide them in and out of the slots in between the pillars. The fans will be on the inside of the tower, pulling air in through the radiators (so that I can easily clean them from the outside, and they'll look better), and the two fans which aren't attached to the radiators will be blowing air out the radbox. That way I have positive pressure, large, quiet fans, and four 140mm rad spaces, which should be more than enough for a future upgrade to a GTX 890.

As for how I'm wiring this thing up, I'm going to be using some powered PWM splitters - they'll take a pwm signal and two molex connections from the case, and split it to all the fans. That PWM connection will be controlled either by the graphics card or the motherboard case fan header - it depends on if the graphics card header is accessible after having a full cover block put on it.

The pump, on the other hand, is a Swiftech D5 vario that takes PWM control. (Remember, I'm going for silence, and it's SFF so I don't need a lot of head pressure.) It will take the CPU header from the motherboard, and a third molex connection. (All five power/control cables will come out from roughly the same point on the back of the case, and will be setup so they are all extensions that meet there and go into a cable housing to keep things tidy.)

Here are some images, because what I'm describing is kinda hard to put into words.
Spoiler




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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 2:59:45 AM

Alright. So, that I've made the radbox clear, here's what I'm going to be doing with the rig itself. This, well... I'm still trying to figure out what the best option out of four is, so please, give me comments on these!

Here's the first one, which is just about as basic as it gets for small form factor:

Spoiler

Easy Cube
Okay, so this one is pretty simple. It's really just a cube, with the power supply under the motherboard and everything else pretty standard. What it's got going for it is that it isn't going to take anything super-fancy, I could take an old mini-ITX case and scrap it to make a motherboard tray / PCI slot area (securing the graphics card is the part that I'm most unsure about in all this), and cable management will be relatively easy. [I'm really going to teach myself how to sleeve cables though, so I have ones that are short enough.]

The biggest point of concern for this rig are going to be those hard drives - how in the world am I going to mount hard drives vertically so that they don't make a whole bunch of noise?






Here's the second, which is a permutation on the first.
Spoiler

Flat and Quiet
This one is more complicated, but to be honest, I like it a lot better than the previous design. It would use a backwards PCIe x16 right-angle riser to mount the graphics card over the motherboard, which would let me have a slightly flatter rig, which is a plus. Another big plus is that the hard drives are mounted flat, making it easy to decouple them.

The challenges of this rig, though, possibly outweigh its benefits. Cable management is going to be hell with the hard drives being right there, and worse than that, water-tube management is going to be hell. I'll have to use right-angle adapters from the CPU block to the GPU block, and I think that's going to be rather finicky. The other two issues I have with it should be able to be solved pretty easily - first, with a waterblock, the GPU will be heavy (which I can fix with a support on the corner over the hard drives), and second, the PCIe riser is going to be both noticeable and butt-ugly. No clue how to fix that. xP






Here's the third one, styled after the likes of the Falcon NW Tiki, Alienware x51, and such.
Spoiler

Skinny and Tall
I actually think this one would be pretty easy to pull off - it would simply use an easy-to-find PCIe right angle extender to set the graphics card next to the motherboard, with the power supply in the front. The only issues would be cable management (as always), trying to keep it as slim as possible, and the biggie... how in the world am I actually going to mount those hard drives the way I have them oriented right now? xP

I think this would would absolutely require me to fabricate a case, not just a support structure. I don't know how much of a pain that's going to be, though - I don't live in a huge town, and although I could get CNC work done here, it might well be expensive. (I also have zero experience programming for CnC or even making detailed models, so that's a lot of work I'm looking at.)







Aaannnd... last one!
Spoiler

Skinny and Long
I like this one, I really do. It reminds me a lot of the incredible Velociraptor mod a few years ago over on overclock.net, adapted to fit a non-opened power supply and four hard drives.

It would be pretty dang tricky to do well, though - in order to mount the graphics card there, I would have to use a flexible PCIe cable - now, as far as I've read, that's not going to affect performance, but it would be a pain to deal with, I think. Trying to decouple the hard drives would, again, be an incredible challenge, that I don't know the solution to. Routing the watercooling wouldn't be an issue, but routing the cables would - note that the power supply is vertical. I'm imagining using a flat 90 degree power extender to run from the PSU to the back of the rig, with the modular connections facing up towards the ceiling.

Unfortunately, I think this rig is another one that would require a case in order to look even halfway decent - opinions?






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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 3:17:54 AM

Alright, so now that's out of the way... here are the difficulties that I'm going to be facing.

1) Overclocking. That should be easy to do with the graphics card and processor, but I'm a little worried about the motherboard. I was considering getting the Asus z77 mini itx motherboard, that has a daughterboard for VRMs, but the trouble is that it apparently heats up enough that it would HAVE to have airflow directly on or around it... and I'm kind of loving the idea of a computer that doesn't have any fans... and yet doesn't have ginormous heatsinks or lackluster performance. (yeah yeah yeah, I know, it really has six fans, but they're going to be really quiet fans, and they're in another case, so I can pretend I don't see them. ;P)

2) Hard drives. This is actually the bit that's been causing me the most grief - how in the world am I going to mount those hard drives? I'm hoping I can take advantage of this solution that's apparently one of the best out there with a little tweaks, but adjusted for small form factor. You can buy a replacement pack that's just the rubber bits, which I think is perfect - it'll let me make my own posts to connect the bands to. Figuring out how to make it work with vertical drives, however, is perplexing me.

3) Tools. This is the bit that's GOING to cause me the most grief as soon as I start building. Unfortunately, I'm a college student (read: broke as hell), and when my dad walked out on us a long time ago, he took every single tool in the house with him, including something like twenty-three screwdrivers. Now, I have since begun to build up an arsenal of my own, including a rivet gun that I just got. (that only works half the time - what did I expect for $10?) The pride of my collection is a top-of-the-line dremel which I saved up for forever to get; I never regretted the purchase for a moment, as it's versatile enough that, combined with patience, it can stand in for a LOT of other tools.

However, I'm thinking I'm still going to be in trouble here. At some point I'm going to have to save up and get a PSU resleeving setup, including heat gun and all the materials and wire to shorten my cables - but that can come later. For now, I'm going to need, what?
- A tap and die? I have no idea how these things work or what to get where, but I know they're used to thread holes, which is definitely going to be necessary with a homemade case and radbox.
- The biggest trouble that I forsee myself getting into is the fact that my radbox design relies so heavily on grooves (at least nine of them, wide ones), and I don't have a router and I don't have a way of getting at a router until, possibly, over the july 4th weekend. Is there a way I can brute-force the issue with a dremel, or is that just going to end up looking awful?

What other tools might I end up needing, do you think? This is the first time I've done a project with anywhere near this sort of scale and detail, so I'm in unfamiliar territory.

...Oh, and as another note - I'm teaching myself woodworking as we go along - so I have no idea what kind of wood I should be looking at to build this radbox. I want something that's going to look good. What I was thinking was to go with a light, soft wood for the structure, and then try to... I don't know. How do you protect a soft wood from getting dinged up? I want something soft so it's easier to work with, but I want to then protect it. I'd also like some suggestions for a good looking dark wood to make inserts out of to have as strips up the sheared corners of the box. I would love to work with some Koa, but seeing as it's upwards of $40 / square foot, and not even remotely heard of in my town, it's out of the question. I was thinking black walnut, as it has a very nice colour, isn't too expensive, and has interesting visuals. Anyone worked with it before?

Thanks for all your help, guys - I'll be updating this thread with pictures and such as things get rolling!
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a c 178 K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 6:15:38 AM

Dis gunna be gud :D 

RadBox.
I would have the tubing coming from the top of the box rather than the bottom. Means that the rad ports can be at the top, so air wont get trapped there. That and it just seems to make more sense to have water be fed to the reservoir from above rather than below. If the pumps downstream port is at the bottom, you could get a crossflow rad to bring that water up. Otherwise, the design looks good to me.

Different case concepts.
I'm liking the 2nd one. The problem with the riser you mentioned can be solved by getting a flexible one. Which also means you can be more... flexible... in its placement as the GPU isn't anchored to the slot.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA297...

1. This might solve your problem , this as well .
Saves you buying a CPU waterblock at least. :D 

2. Mount one however you can, velcro one to the other. I think you can buy rolls of industrial strength velcro at hardware stores.

3. Nuts and bolts could be an easier if inelegant solution to threading holes. Superglue a nut to the hole, instant threading :p 

Heat gun = Zippo, I think MDPC has some kind of cable sleeving starter kit.

Router, you could get handy with a hammer and chisel and achieve the same pathway. Use the dremel (can it be used on wood? I guess so) to cut the edges of the channel you want and then dice up the wood inside. Hammer and chisel to get it out, sand paper to make it smooth. You'l end up with a square channel rather than a groove, but if its internal its looks shouldn't matter.
Types of wood to use, of no help here (Ask Lutfij, he has been working with wood for one of his projects). Though I do know that you don't have to get a dark wood, get whatever works and you can stain it too the colour you want.
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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 7:00:16 AM

...damn. I feel stupid now. :p 

Sometime today, a box is going to appear on my porch. The box that's going to have my second radiator, my pump, by GPU block, and a number of new fittings. (I treated myself to a full upgrade from these cheap-o worm drives, which saw half of them bend/fail the first time I used them, to the high end kit, alternating between silver and black for intake and output.)

I wish I had thought about the x-flow radiators before - that would have been perfect, since I already have one 2x140 normal rad. Ahh well, too late now. Lemme see... The trouble with having the tubing coming from the top of the radbox is that it isn't going to look as good - especially with the wiring still coming from the bottom of the box.

Which is worse, the tubing going into the bottom of the radbox and using a 90 degree angle connector to send it up to the flipped radiators, or keeping the radiator ports on the bottom and using the angle connectors to go from the radiator up to the reservoir? I'm leaning towards using the first option, simply because you're right - it's going to make bleeding air from the loop a lot easier. (Though bleeding that section is still going to be hellish - I'm thinking I make liberal use of the quick disconnects when filling the thing and fill the radiators first, put the loop together, and then start bleeding. It would help a little at least. Erm... if I can figure out a way to make the quick disconnects stay open while filling, since I only bought matching pairs.)

The flexible riser might well be the way to go there, yeah. Only trouble is that for the life of me, I can't find one that's not the hideous gray and blue. (That and I don't know how to tell which ones are reliable and which aren't.) The only reason I don't like that setup is that I don't know that it's going to have the same sort of "flash" as the other setups do. (After all, a large part of modding computers is to show off your work.) I was reading your build log, though - we have the same GPU waterblock. :D 

As for the full-motherboard waterblock, I saw those, and reallllly want them... but I really can't justify buying a more-expensive waterblock AND buying a new motherboard when I already have the z77-itx just sitting there not being realized to its full potential. I get suckered into spending a lot of money on computers, but not when it's that wasteful.

If I do go with the second option, mounting the hard drives is going to be a cinch - classy rubber bands to the rescue! I like that idea with nuts and bolts, though - I don't know that I would trust superglue, but a traditional setup could certainly work.

Alright, question time. If I have that setup, and the radbox is made of wood... do you think it would be weird if the housing and motherboard platform of the computer is made of wood as well? I can't decide if it would or not - on one hand, it would be the same material it was already tied to, but on the other hand, there would be a lot less wood to metal as compared to the radbox.

(And now I'm realizing I missed a freaking amazing opportunity - I should have gotten one of the GPU blocks that lets you see the flow, used a little bit of blue coloring, and with the wood, the blue water, and some clever paint and foliage, turned the radbox into a skyscraper that was being taken over by trees and vines, and the computer into a jungle fighting against the electronics. How cool would THAT have been.)

I like that idea of a hammer and chisel - certainly buying a chisel is going to be a LOT cheaper than trying to find a workshop with a router that I can use. And yeah, my dremel at least will work great on wood - it's got a very easily adjustable speed. (And that setup is actually going to be perfect, since I'm looking for a square channel to slide the radiators into anyways!)

Hmm, I don't believe I've run into Lutfij yet - I'll see if I can hunt him down and get his advice. I don't have to get a dark wood, no, but I want to have something to use as an accent color, and I like dark woods a lot better.


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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 7:01:27 AM

Just had a brilliant idea regarding the layout. I'll be back in a little bit here with updated design plans for both the radbox and the computer.
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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 7:58:53 AM

Okey doke, here are updated designed - I'm getting closer to what I'm looking for, I think.

The radbox should be pretty self-explanatory - I just did it up with the radiators flipped and the tubing (very roughly) done up. The computer itself stayed much the same, but I took the idea from the fourth rig of using a flexible PCIe extender to go down the back of the card and connect at the bottom.

I only have two concerns with this setup, both minor. First of all, trying to figure out how much clearance the PCIe extender is going to require, in both the Z and X dimensions. Second of all, the tube that goes straight from the GPU to the case port worries me a little, simply because it's got that curve in it. I either need to figure out a way of propping the tubing up so it doesn't sag (zip-tying it to the other tubing?), or to go from the inner case port straight to the inner GPU port, and have the outer line connect to the CPU. I'll have to check, but I think I only got four 90 degree angle connectors - I'm going to want at least two in here, and at least two in the radbox, I think. I might have to buy more.

Spoiler


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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 8:01:29 AM

toolmaker_03 said:
there are several people here at tom's that have done a radbox, including myself, here is a look at what I came up with, after some time, and several reconfigurations of the system.

https://imageshack.com/i/nq12xcj
https://imageshack.com/i/j6j1srj
https://imageshack.com/i/b50k5lj


That is a ridiculously powerful cooling system you have there. :) 

But yeah, I've seen a lot of the radboxes that folk around here have - and a few of them gave me ideas. The trouble is that watercooling doesn't often overlap with small form factor. (Hey, it counts as small form factor as long as neither case is more than 20 liters, doesn't it? :p 

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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 10:32:27 AM

it is a old swiftech CPU water block
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a b K Overclocking
February 8, 2014 11:09:27 AM

Yeah, figured that. :) 
I've just never seen a CPU block that's got angled connectors on it.

Good news - the first of the boxes came in today - When I'm done doing work around the house, I'm going to home depot, picking up some cheap wood to at least start figuring out my layout with, and then I'll come back and upload photos of boxes and things and the computers I'm going to be scrapping to make this happen.
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a b K Overclocking
February 9, 2014 3:28:53 AM

This is getting exciting, ladies and gentlemen. I just did some calculations, and the volume of the radbox is going to be just between 13 and 14 liters. Combine that with the computer itself, with a volume of just between 9 and 10 liters... and now we have a puzzle for the small form factor enthusiasts. :p 

The original definition of a SFF (small/shuttle form factor) computer was that it was roughly the size of a shoebox. My main computer absolutely achieves that - a shoebox's volume is just over nine liters. However, when you get into what SFF has evolved into, things get even more complicated. Generally, a "sff" case, such as the ever-popular CM Elite 120, overs right about 20 liters. With a combined volume of between 22 and 24 liters, I'm just barely over. However, if you then consider the fact that cases such as the 36 liter Bitfenix Prodigy are still commonly accepted as small form factor cases...

What do you guys think - do you think I can get away with calling it a diehard small form factor computer? I'm leaning on the fact that you can split it into two tiny parts - surely that mitigates things a little, for transport and for size complaints.

Anyways, yes, I know that this post was probably realllly boring for most of you... but hey, why does it matter to me? Because I want to brag about the fact that I got a full liquid cooled computer with two hard drives, two SSDs, a full-length graphics card, and TWO 2x140mm radiators into a small form factor rig. Gotta admit, that's a hell of an accomplishment.

Anyways, pictures are forthcoming from my rather, erm interesting day.
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a b K Overclocking
February 9, 2014 4:12:05 AM

Okay, so... let's see. I suppose that the first big news is that the first wave of parts got here! It's got the radiator, gpu block, pump, quick disconnects, and some of the other miscellaneous things. Oh, and a whole bunch of brown paper. I feel like I should be incorporating this into my mod somehow - I mean they're sending me quite a lot of it. :p 

Spoiler


I got all that yesterday, but didn't open it up till this morning. Then later on in the day, I went out to the hardware store. Unfortunately, my favorite power-tool dictator, home despot, was on the other side of town from all the other errands I had to run, so I ended up going to Lowe's. Boy, the looks on those guy's faces when I tried explaining what the project I was doing was and asking for a little help with what sort of wood to go with. It was hard to try to describe what I'm doing with it, but I got a setup that's going to work:

Spoiler



That's a 1/2 inch thick finished oak plywood board, along with a plain old redwood 4x4. I'm not really thrilled with either option, because they're going to stain differently (and I question how the finished plywood is going to stain at all.) I think what I'm going to do is make the diagonal facades be strips of that very same oak, so that there's at least a little continuity in the design.

Anyways, I figured out what I'm going to be doing with the cuts on the 4x4. I picked up an attachment for my dremel that turns it into a router, which is going to be invaluable for the work I'm doing. Basically I'm going to be taking the thing and turning it into a squashed pentagon, with grooves for the radiators to sit in. The following model is with the radiator in perfect scale, but I forgot to adjust the triangle baseboard correctly, so it's too small.



Lemme see, what else, what else... Oh yeah, the sacrificial computers!

Spoiler
This first computer here is the poor little HTPC. It was originally built in a cheap aluminium case (DIYpc, I think? I don't know - I was just looking for a cheap mini-itx case that I could hide, at the time.) It was, unfortunately absolutely horribly designed. It was sharp, it was horribly machined, so nothing fit together right, it vibrated, and the only place to mount a hard drive was covering the only air intake in the entire case.

After a while of being pissy at that thing, I eventually took the case apart, and modified it - it's now a fair bit shorter than the original and has way better airflow... but is regrettably messy looking - using a grinding wheel and rivets on a case that you detest for a rig that only needs to function really ends up with sub-par work.

However, it's got the motherboard that I'm going to be using in the new rig - an AsRock z77-ITX. It's quite a good motherboard, and a strong overclocker - its only fault is the awkward placement of the CPU socket, but with watercooling or an updraft CPU cooler that's not an issue at all.






The second rig here is my actual gaming rig. It's considerably larger than it has to be, regrettably, and the mATX motherboard really isn't that much a better overclocker, though it is much much nicer to work with. I upgraded to the CaseLabs S5 from a bitfenix prodigy because I wanted more room for large radiators and figured another expansion slot would be nice... what I failed to realize is that what the prodigy is to mini-ITX cases, the S5 is to mATX cases. It's far and above the nicest case that I've ever gotten the pleasure of working with, and I would be an absolute CaseLabs convert... but I love small form factor rigs too much.







So that second computer is getting largely scrapped. The Apogee Drive II and 2x120mm radiator in the front will be turned into a watercooling kit; I'm hoping there will be enough interest for me to be able to sell it along with all the tubing, fittiings, reservoir, and t-line needed to have a very luxurious watercooling setup.

I'm also going to be selling the motherboard, case, 1440p Iiyama monitor, and 256GB Samsung EVO - while they're wonderful parts, I'm a little tight on money, and doing this mod is stretching it a fair bit, so I'd like to get some of the money back. What I'm hoping to do with these is either put up a post on Tom's and Creigslist and try to get them sold. I have another idea, though, that I'd like to throw at you guys.

The town that I'm in has a decent market for secondhand computers - there's one well-reputed shop that does refurbs of older machines, and another that does refurbs of industrial throwaways after businesses get rid of their fleets after a few years. What I'm hoping to do is go pitch a deal to them - I'll do a mod for them for absolutely free, and they get it. They'll have a very cool looking computer that they can have on display as an eye-catcher that will get people to say "but what can it do?" I would optimize its setup, mostly through used parts, and would mod both its externals and its internal operating system, so that a user exploring it knew that it was still windows, but a "fancier" version of windows.

Again, the only thing that this would cost the repair place would be the parts and materials for the mod - what I would get out of it is the pleasure of doing another mod, and a deal with them that they buy the parts that I'm selling off of me to use in it ahead of buying other parts. What I was thinking of doing was using foam to make the rig into either a Cerberus or Hydra, because I have a unused three-user licence to SoftXpand... and a gaming computer that lets someone have their friends over and all play on max settings on three keyboard/monitor setups on the same computer is a pretty unique shtick.

What do you guys think - do any of you have any experience with doing sponsored mods like this? It's not quite typical, since they aren't actually losing anything out of their advertising budget, but rather gaining a unique product, but... I don't know. I'd definitely like to hear your guys' ideas on the subject.
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a c 178 K Overclocking
February 9, 2014 4:20:20 AM

Definitions are flexible, I would consider a Prodigy SFF because its smaller than a mid-tower. Even though you can fit the same (computing) hardware into something like a Node 304 which is way smaller. Diehard you probably couldn't get away with, because things like this exist.


http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/windowsxpbox/
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a b K Overclocking
February 9, 2014 4:42:17 AM

manofchalk said:
Definitions are flexible, I would consider a Prodigy SFF because its smaller than a mid-tower. Even though you can fit the same (computing) hardware into something like a Node 304 which is way smaller. Diehard you probably couldn't get away with, because things like this exist.


...ouch. That's a bit of a blow to my ego. xP
(Ahh well, I'll still manage to find superiority in the fact that I'll be able to overclock the heck out of my parts.)

That being said, I would still say a small form factor rig with that much stuff crammed into it is a pretty good achievement.

My biggest concern now is going to be, well... the woodworking, really. I realized today that I don't have a powersaw. Of any sort. Which means I'm going to be trying to get precise 30 degree cuts down the length of a foot-long section of 4x4 with a handsaw and a lot of sandpaper. This is going to be fun. :p 

The other thing that I've been thinking about is the computer rig itself and how to mount everything. I think I'm settled on how I'm going to mount the motherboard and such - the part that's driving me batty is how in the world to mount the graphics card, both its i/o panel and the weight of the card itself, so that it's stable. Any ideas?
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a b K Overclocking
February 11, 2014 6:25:01 PM

Hey guys!

Short update - I'm still trying to hunt down someone with a table saw that I can borrow. Trying to do these cuts with a hand saw was going to be a no-go.

Anyways, I have two questions for you. First, I picked these up on clearance today:

Spoiler


They're a strand of RGB leds - the kind that have been popping up everywhere. These ones, though, are the budget kind, and are kinda sucky - the controller has some loose connections, and the power isn't trustworthy in my mind.

Anyone have experience wiring these things individually? What I would love to do is have them piggybacking on a PWM connection, powered by molex, so that they change color as the pwm signal increases or decreases. (Except that would take some form of converting an on-off signal into a curve, wouldn't it.) Any thoughts? Would it be possible to wire them into an in-line temperature sensor in the water loop?



My second question is a kinda big issue. I have no idea where to get a PCIe 3.0 extender cable from. Yeah, I know it doesn't have to be 3.0, but I also know that the wiring is different for 1.1/2.0/3.0 than from 1.0, isn't it? How do I tell which a cable is?

Also. In the velociraptor build log, there's a SEXY black pcie riser that's apparently made by Asus? I can't find this thing anywhere, but I WANT IT. Anyone have any ideas?

Failing that, does anyone have a reliable place to buy a riser from? Cablesaurus is out, and other places seem to be very hit-and-miss on quality. Also, do I need a powered one? I don't THINK I do, but...

Would it be possible for me to make an extender cable myself? What goes into that?
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a b K Overclocking
February 12, 2014 6:13:55 AM

ok can I ask why you need to extend the PICe slot to somewhere else?

can you show a pic of what you would like to do with the PCIe extension cable?
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a b K Overclocking
February 12, 2014 12:06:39 PM

toolmaker_03 said:
ok can I ask why you need to extend the PICe slot to somewhere else?

can you show a pic of what you would like to do with the PCIe extension cable?


Sure. It's to run from the PCIe slot down the back of the graphics card to connect to the bottom of the graphics card, rather than have the graphics card sticking up and making the computer a lot taller.

As for pics, you should be able to figure it out from the design models I've already put up - basically it's going to take a 180 degree turn over the edge of the motherboard, go down to the bottom of the rig, and do another 180 degree turn to connect to the graphics card.
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a b K Overclocking
February 16, 2014 11:34:55 AM

Blech. Just a quick post to apologize for the lack of updates, guys.

Have a couple things holding me back - first, the lack of a tablesaw and trying to find someone who has the tools I can use. (The handsaw failed miserableness as I was afraid it would.) Second, the sticker shock on certain other people's parts when they failed to factor in that I'm going to be selling enough to make back a large part of the cost.
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a b K Overclocking
February 26, 2014 12:16:49 PM

I believe I finally have a lead on a good tablesaw and someone to teach me how to make the cuts I need.

After talking extensively with my grandfather and realizing that I'm in way over my head, trying my college's workshop and striking out, I found a local woodcarving club that meets regularly - I'm thinking if I attend a meeting and explain that I'm trying to learn how to do these things, I'll get some help.
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a c 249 K Overclocking
February 27, 2014 12:16:57 PM

A table saw is a serious piece of hardware, get checked out on one by someone that knows what they're doing before putting your hands to use one!

It will cut your fingers off so quick you won't know what happened, so get safety checked out first!

I am a master carpenter with all 10 fingers, but I've met a lot in my day that don't have 10 fingers anymore, be careful!

Any tool can hurt you!

Respect what it does and do not abuse it or get in a hurry!

Moto actually made his RadBox out of wood, I butchered a steel case to make mine! :)  Ryan
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a b K Overclocking
February 27, 2014 1:02:58 PM

Yep, I think I've found a guy who's willing to work with me and teach me how to make these cuts safely. :) 

I've worked construction before, and seen tablesaws throw lumber beams across a build site like lincoln logs, so there's no worry on the respect end.
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a c 249 K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 2:33:01 AM

Have you considered getting a second case, gutting it, and turning it into a RadBox?

It is actually the simplest solution to the problem and looks good when completed as well?

I personally would never use wood as a case construction medium, because wood and water just don't get along well, and you will more than likely have a leak pop up you may have to resolve, and that's why wood would be my last choice to house water cooling.

If steel or aluminum gets wet, no problem, wipe it up and all's well, when wood gets wet it absorbs the water and swells, the longer the leak the worse it gets, even if you completely seal inside and out, additives can affect the finish.

You could always build it out of Teak, which is some of the most durable wood on the planet, which is used mostly for trim work on sea going vessels and has become very popular being used as outdoor furniture.

It's not the easiest wood to work with though as it is an oily wood that's why it's good for sea going vessels, but it's extremely hard wood, and loves to destroy saw blades because of it's inherent oily nature.

What do you take away from a master carpenter advising you to stick to steel or aluminum cases for a RadBox?

The entire case below houses my water cooling, the side hung radiator cools my GPU loop, the case internals house my peltier cooling system, you could easily use the same ideas and go all radiator cooling if you wanted to make a total RadBox out of it.

And any case can be modded to be a RadBox you are only limited by your imagination, you run tubes to the main computer, you can even use quick disconnects if you choose, you get your power from the main computer to power the RadBox, (unless of course you're running peltiers as I am!).

Water wise only the tubes enter the main computers case going to the water blocks, with the greatest chance of a leak occurring in the RadBox itself?

Food for thought! :) 



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a c 78 K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 3:08:44 AM

Teak is the most expensive wood available in my country. However some things like ply wood and press boards are also available on my end but from what I've studied the manufacturing process isn't different only the glue that they use varies from country to country from availability. Pine wood is also pliable and really soft - you can dent it with your finger nails by slight amount of force but it too secretes oil.

What Ryan has advised is spot on, and if you're going to work with press boards, due to the way they are manufactured, they end up being thrown into the trash chute the moment they swell as the aica bond between the ply's disintegrate the moment water comes into contact with the bar surface.
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a c 249 K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 4:10:22 AM

IMO the only thing press board is good for is making speaker cabinets, PERIOD!

When press board or particle board was first introduced they thought it was the perfect build all, even put it in homes as floor under layment for carpet but they also ran it into kitchens and bathrooms!

Well you know what happens in kitchens and bathrooms when water overflows onto the floor, the particle board failed, the glue gave up as the wood swelled from absorbing the water and it lifted cabinets and toilets off the floor, and became a construction nightmare that was eventually banned from use in a kitchen or bathroom.
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a c 78 K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 4:47:22 AM

Yeah I learnt it the hard way, I also learned that rotting wood is a good habitat for wood lice and centipedes - :eek: 
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a c 249 K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 4:53:46 AM

Lutfij said:
Yeah I learnt it the hard way, I also learned that rotting wood is a good habitat for wood lice and centipedes - :eek: 


And black mold, mildew, and a host of other bad things! As well! :pfff: 

@ DarkSable, Are We There Yet? :) 

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a b K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 11:11:26 PM

Alright, lemme see, updates.

1) Tomorrow morning, at a very hellish hour, I'll be loading lumber into a truck and going out to spend the day with a master carpenter who is ecstatic to be spending the day doing "boy stuff" - permanently he has a little girl and could use a break from all that entails.

2) I live in very high, very dry desert. The only bugs that survive out here are a few beetles and a few spiders - and there isn't any worry about mold and mildew. (Trust me, I learned all about those fun things when I was living in seattle.) Ideas on how to treat the wood though, just in case?

3) I won't be using pine, mostly because of exactly how soft it is. Ideally I would be able to afford to have these milled out of acrylic, but that's simply not an option. I'm going to be using oak press-board for the base and top. Currently my pillars will be redwood, but I'm thinking of finding a more suitable option for this.

4) I'm really not that worried about leaks, because none of the watercooling loops that I've had, which are way more convoluted than these, have failed like that... I know there's a first time for everything, but I'm always careful. The inside surfaces will be covered in sound-dampening foam. Is there anything else I can do to help mitigate damage in case something does leak? (Besides, of course, using towels when filling the loop just in case there are leaks.)

5) Ryan, I do absolutely know that making a radbox out of a preexisting case is by far my best option, except that I'm trying to get this thing as tiny and minimalistically pleasing as possible. Combine that with the vision I have of it, and wood or acrylic done in a custom manner really are my only options.

I'm actually doing basically exactly what you and many others including Moto have going on, which is a setup including the reservoir, pump, and radiators in a separate housing from the computer, with seperate power lines running to it, and I've already got the quick disconnects and disconnecting power lines - that's all covered. :) 

I would love to use teak, but unfortunately, I don't know that I can afford it. I'll be talking to the architect / woodworker that I'm spending the day with tomorrow about his ideas and what he thinks about this, but I think it should work just fine. :) 
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a b K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 11:19:34 PM

I do have a couple more picture updates too, though!

The first is a layout of all the shiny shiny loot. :3 This is about 60% of what I've got going for me. Basically it's everything that I'm not going to be stealing from other computers, and I'm loathe to take down my gaming computer till the last minute. (I have been working on the HTPC, however, and building it a new stand so that I can steal the mini-itx motherboard I need from it.)

Spoiler


This next picture is of the lights.
Spoiler

I'm still stuck on what in the world to do with these things, since I don't have enough of an electrical background. I want to either be one of two things:
1) White with a fluctuating brightness based on the fan speed, either using the PWM signal or one of the fan's RPM return signals. How would I go about wiring that? (I would steal the little amount of power needed from one of the molex connections I already have running to the radbox.)
2) Similar to the above setup, but changing color based off the RPM signal. I'm presuming this one would require a PCB of some sort. Is there something already out there, or am I out of luck?
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a b K Overclocking
February 28, 2014 11:31:46 PM

And finally, I have the really, really big news! I got a sponsor!

The absolutely wonderful people over at

gave me a ~ $100 for my rig!

The unfortunate part of this is that when I asked about it, I kinda messed up. After a whole bunch of measuring, I thought I had exactly what I needed. Turns out, I had exactly what I needed if the cables just ended in the connections. Unfortunately, I forgot to factor in the height of the PCBs on the cable, so now I have to mull over whether I should go out and buy a new cable that's the right length, or live with having my graphics card seated a little higher than I might prefer.

That, however, was entirely my fault, and the cable works beautifully! There is basically zero difference between having the cable in there and having an uninterrupted connection. I would totally consider that worth the $100 as opposed to a cheap, ugly, $30 connector that has a 30% DOA rate and a chance of frying your motherboard or graphics card.

Here are some glamour shots of the cable - that last one is in the configuration I'm going to be using it in my rig.
Spoiler




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a c 249 K Overclocking
March 1, 2014 4:48:26 AM

DarkSable said:
Alright, lemme see, updates.

1) Tomorrow morning, at a very hellish hour, I'll be loading lumber into a truck and going out to spend the day with a master carpenter who is ecstatic to be spending the day doing "boy stuff" - permanently he has a little girl and could use a break from all that entails.

2) I live in very high, very dry desert. The only bugs that survive out here are a few beetles and a few spiders - and there isn't any worry about mold and mildew. (Trust me, I learned all about those fun things when I was living in seattle.) Ideas on how to treat the wood though, just in case?

3) I won't be using pine, mostly because of exactly how soft it is. Ideally I would be able to afford to have these milled out of acrylic, but that's simply not an option. I'm going to be using oak press-board for the base and top. Currently my pillars will be redwood, but I'm thinking of finding a more suitable option for this.

4) I'm really not that worried about leaks, because none of the watercooling loops that I've had, which are way more convoluted than these, have failed like that... I know there's a first time for everything, but I'm always careful. The inside surfaces will be covered in sound-dampening foam. Is there anything else I can do to help mitigate damage in case something does leak? (Besides, of course, using towels when filling the loop just in case there are leaks.)

5) Ryan, I do absolutely know that making a radbox out of a preexisting case is by far my best option, except that I'm trying to get this thing as tiny and minimalistically pleasing as possible. Combine that with the vision I have of it, and wood or acrylic done in a custom manner really are my only options.

I'm actually doing basically exactly what you and many others including Moto have going on, which is a setup including the reservoir, pump, and radiators in a separate housing from the computer, with seperate power lines running to it, and I've already got the quick disconnects and disconnecting power lines - that's all covered. :) 

I would love to use teak, but unfortunately, I don't know that I can afford it. I'll be talking to the architect / woodworker that I'm spending the day with tomorrow about his ideas and what he thinks about this, but I think it should work just fine. :) 


OK I got Ya!

Just adding a little caution, however you seem 100% positive in the direction you're going so here's a few finishing suggestions that will water proof as well and can be used inside and out, they are a quick time saver negating the need to sand between coats, all you need to decide is the end finish you want, Gloss, Semi-Gloss, or Satin.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_45869-24-33050000_4294684395__?productId=3033783&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

http://www.lowes.com/pd_45873-24-33055000_4294684395__?productId=3033786&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

http://www.lowes.com/pd_45863-24-33060000_4294684395__?productId=3098861&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

I think I know the oak you're referring to if it is oak laminate both sides on a solid press core, it sucks!

If it is the oak laminate both sides with a ply layer under each laminate with a thin press core that's much better stuff to work with!

However the real thing would IMO be the best alternative, oak plywood finished both sides!

There is another alternative Dark Sable, Marine grade plywood, even unfinished water would never damage it and the finish is excellent.

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a c 249 K Overclocking
March 1, 2014 4:58:21 AM

Many have asked me over the years why with my skills have I not already constructed a wooden computer case?

To me the answer is simply that technology changes so fast what works today will not tomorrow, and I do not want to invest the construction time in a relic that ends in a conversation piece!

Even though that is definitely one way I could get all my setup into one case!

If I invest the time I would want it to be future versatile, and that's like a finish line in a race that keeps moving further away, or a mirage! :) 

I do understand your drive and desire, so good luck in your endeavor!
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a b K Overclocking
March 1, 2014 7:18:32 AM

Hey Ryan, thanks for the tips!

Those sprays can be used after staining, right? If so, that's definitely something I'll be using - they seem incredibly useful. I think that what I've got is exactly the stuff you're talking about - the cheap stuff. However, I got a little bit more money in and might buy some wood that suits my needs better today. Where would I find that marine grade plywood?

Also, just to explain why I'm doing things the way I am, is that I wanted to avoid exactly the issue you're talking about with changing technology. I figure if I have dual 2x140mm radiators in their own housing along with a reservoir and good d5 pump, then I'm not going to have to worry about any of those parts as I'm upgrading my rig in the future.

It also gives me the added benefit of having a good way of having an open case, which I've always had a fondness for, and the only part of it that wouldn't be versatile would be having three or fewer hard drives and a mini-itx motherboard... but I don't forsee either of those issues being a big deal for me, since I love the small form factor rigs, and can build a NAS if my 5TB of internal storage ever ends up being too little.
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a c 249 K Overclocking
March 1, 2014 10:44:28 AM

Yes the spray can be used after staining but be sure to use an oil based stain and allow 24 hours drying time before finish coating with the spray.

You usually only find marine grade plywood at major lumber companies and to forewarn you a 1/2" thick sheet runs about $60.00+ it is not cheap.
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a b K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 2:01:23 AM

Holy $#!@, guys, I've actually done stuff!

Okay, so here's what's new. First the stuff that I've been doing. I woke up at a horrible (for me, that is!) early hour this morning, in order to get some work done. I had done some jewelry work for my mother's boss as a favor to her, and her husband just happened to be a field architect, so he brought over his skill saw, portable tablesaw, other miscellaneous tools, and most importantly, his ever-so-vast knowledge.

We measured. And them measured some more:
Spoiler




After we measured, we started doing some cuts. That's where things got a little... interesting. Do you guys remember my pretty little diagrams way up at the beginning of this post? Yeah, so I plotted out the cuts I wanted to make - a couple 30 degree cuts off the diagonal, which allowed me to make ninety degree cuts off of those. See the image below for clarification of this brilliant plan.
Spoiler


Yeah, that plan lasted all of, oh, say, thirty seconds. See, my niave little self didn't stop to consider that there ain't a tool in the world that's easily going to make a cut at a thirty degree angle lengthwise through a 4x4. Even an industrial tablesaw would take some finagling to get it to behave. And we had this:
Spoiler


Yeah, that poor little baby saw was struggling so hard it wasn't even funny. My plan got thrown out the window, and we ended up lopping off the tips of the 4x4 and then cutting it diagonally - the plan was to then cut shims to take the 45 degree angle to a 30 degree angle and thus still end up with a face perpendicular to the base.

THAT plan lasted just about until the first moment we tried to cut a 4x4 straight down the diagonal. The blade itself could only barely make it past halfway, but that wasn't the problem... we were asking so much of this poor little $100 tablesaw that it choked and died... twice... on the first cut. I'm really glad that we didn't burn out the motor, since the tool wasn't mine, but for the entire duration of this thing, the motor was inches away from it - it was pouring heavy acrid smoke.

However, by going a couple inches and then waiting a minute for the thing to cool off before cutting again, we eventually made our way through cutting down all three triangles. At that point we looked at our plan for shims and realized that it would be easier to just cut the damn things to the 30 degree angles we needed, so we asked a little bit more of the tablesaw, and ended up with a beautiful design that I couldn't possibly be happier with!

Here are a few glamour shots - ignore the wood under the motherboard tray - that's just there to put it in place for a sense of perspective. On the left is the radiator box, and on the right is the base of the computer with the motherboard tray sitting in place - the graphics card will be sitting on its side in front of it.

Spoiler




So yeah, I'm getting really excited! This was the hold-up, so now all I have to do is sand these beasties down, finish them, and I'll be nearly done with the radbox. The computer itself is going to take some more work, but that's all stuff that me and my dremel can handle.
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a b K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 2:16:09 AM

Okay, so. Questions and answers to questions that have been asked:

1) Ryan, thank you so much for your help - I think I have the answer. Do you remember that stuff that just exploded in the modding scene back in, oh, 2009, and then disappeared entirely? It's called Plasti-Dip, and it's basically a spray-on rubber. What I'm thinking is after I sand my wood down to a rough finish, I use the primer for that stuff, which will act like a sealant, and then use the plasti-dip.

That'll completely take care of the issue if I have a leak, it'll make the wood WAY more resistant to light damage, it'll give me a nice surface (think the soft-touch material on bitfenix cases), and it'll tie into the build way better than finished wood will.

2) As for versatility, since it had been brought up as an issue before, I think I'm actually better off than in any other case. My watercooling will be a self-contained unit, so when I'm messing with my computer, I basically won't have to worry about those parts being in the way, and can just disattach the little computer to work on it. It'll be a totally open computer, so that I won't have any worries about replacing parts or messing with things, plus it'll look awesome.

So. Here come the hard parts, the questions:

1) Those dang lights. They're just sitting there, taunting me, and I still haven't figured out a way to wire them. Any ideas?

2) Grounding. One of the issues is that since I'm not going to have a metal case, I won't have grounding. Is that correct? What can / should I do about this... or is it not really going to be an issue? I've tried to research it and found nothing either way.

3) Color scheme. So far I'm thinking the main colors are silver and black. The SATA cables that I'm going to be using, however, are a kind of metallic light blue. I can also get Plasti-Dip in what I believe should be this exact color, that I can do little accents here and there in, and I can use a little bit of blue die in my loop just to get that beautiful glass marble effect. What do you guys think? I know it's not a particularly inspired color scheme, but I think that with a functionalist design like this that it'll work.

4) Bit-tech. Now that I've got work done on the main piece, and will be able to do updates on a regular basis, I think I'm ready to start a build log on bit-tech. I might very well be stretching it here, but I'm hoping that a soundproofed, tiny, dual-chassis computer like this might be interesting enough to merit some interest, and between my writing skills and trying to remember to take enough pictures, I think I could make a good log. I'm mostly doing this because I would go crazy if I even got nominated for mod of the month, plus I feel like I should do it for Samtec, since they were such a pleasure to work with and donated a rather pricey, rather specialized cable to my cause. If this is a horrible idea and you guys are bored out of your skulls, tell me - I'm a little worried since this thread hasn't caught much interest. (Though I know tom's doesn't do that side of things much.) [And no, I wouldn't abandon this thread, no worries.]
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a c 249 K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 2:55:12 AM

Looks like you guys did a torture number on that poor little table saw, it's days are numbered for sure after that!

At least when it reaches the Table Saw graveyard it can brag about what it did! :lol: 

Thankfully that part is done and out of the way! :) 

That RBG LED light string is a complete setup isn't it, everything was there in the picture you posted for their setup, wasn't it?

Grounding shouldn't be a problem in the RadBox there's not going to be anything ground critical as the black negative wires from the main computer will ground back to the source power supply, the rads, the pump, the fans, will all be grounded through the power wiring.

As far as Plasti-Dip, I'm sorry I've never used it so I don't have any experience to share there?

Thumbs up on a blue color scheme! :) 

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a b K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 3:17:43 AM

Haha, you can say that again! I'm really impressed that a cheap little portable tablesaw managed to make basically a 5-inch cut diagonally through a plank without just giving up and committing seppoku. :p 

The trouble with the lights is that they're REALLY budget. The lights themselves are the same as every other kit, but the controller and such are, erm... cheap quality. I was playing around with the remote and about half the buttons aren't even soldered correctly. So I'd really like to find a way to just make it automatic - they come on when the computer turns on and either adjust color or brightness or such according to temperature or the PWM signal. That way I don't have to worry about the remote, the converter, an extra power line, ect...

Good that grounding won't be an issue for the radbox, but how 'bout for the computer itself with sensitive PCB's? That's going to be on wood as well... can I just trust the power supply cables to ground the motherboard and graphics card properly?

I've never used it either, but it's cheap, so I'm going to grab a can and experiment on some scrap wood I have left over. Hopefully it turns out good! :) 
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a c 249 K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 4:15:04 AM

DarkSable said:
Haha, you can say that again! I'm really impressed that a cheap little portable tablesaw managed to make basically a 5-inch cut diagonally through a plank without just giving up and committing seppoku. :p 

The trouble with the lights is that they're REALLY budget. The lights themselves are the same as every other kit, but the controller and such are, erm... cheap quality. I was playing around with the remote and about half the buttons aren't even soldered correctly. So I'd really like to find a way to just make it automatic - they come on when the computer turns on and either adjust color or brightness or such according to temperature or the PWM signal. That way I don't have to worry about the remote, the converter, an extra power line, ect...

Good that grounding won't be an issue for the radbox, but how 'bout for the computer itself with sensitive PCB's? That's going to be on wood as well... can I just trust the power supply cables to ground the motherboard and graphics card properly?

I've never used it either, but it's cheap, so I'm going to grab a can and experiment on some scrap wood I have left over. Hopefully it turns out good! :) 


To run the lights independently the first step is discovering what voltage they're actually running off of after the transformer steps it down, it should be listed on the power supply the input and output voltage and it's probably converting from 120v AC wall current to hopefully a DC output?

The computer actual individual components on wood is going to require grounding straps or grounding wires connecting between all the hardware back to the power supply, it would be best to use about a 16 gauge stranded copper wire you can snag the grounding wire from an auto parts store.

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a b K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 4:37:33 AM

Okay - I'll check on the guts of the stuff in the morning when I'm not so fuzzy-headed.

I'll also do a little more research into grounding wire and that that's going to involve. Thank you so much for your help, by the way!
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a c 249 K Overclocking
March 2, 2014 5:24:49 AM

DarkSable said:
Okay - I'll check on the guts of the stuff in the morning when I'm not so fuzzy-headed.

I'll also do a little more research into grounding wire and that that's going to involve. Thank you so much for your help, by the way!


You're Welcome!

When you get to the grounding of everything I have extensive experience in those areas so posting pictures of your ground wiring layout plans will help tremendously, if you need more help.

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a b K Overclocking
March 9, 2014 10:25:06 PM

Alright, huge updates with lots of pretty pictures, here we go!

It's been a busy week, both in real life and in modder's life. I've started going to a couple meetings, I've had classes, I've gotten a lot of work done outside and breathed in more sawdust than I thought I had lung space.

Anyways, what you guys want are the pictures! Now, I have some unfortunate news. The first thing I started with this week was cable modification - cutting everything to size, sleeving it, praying that it all works. The cabling is going to be what holds the black and silver theme together, but I'm not sure how exactly to make it behave in terms of keeping its pattern straight. Any of you guys have thoughts on this?

Here are some glam pics. First, the 24 pin power, the 8 pin CPU power, and the back end of the PCI connectors:

Spoiler






It's not amazing, but I'm hoping that it will look pretty good once everything is up and finished. :worried:

Anyways, I'd like to take a second to apologize to you guys. I don't have any photos of the cable work in progress, because my... helper... decided to commit suicide.

That's right. This mod had casualties.

Spoiler





My dear Nexus 5 took one for the team and is now down for the running until I can get a new screen set and figure out what's preventing it from turning on. (Side note? It's really hard to take a photo of cracks in black mirrored glass. xP )
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a b K Overclocking
March 9, 2014 10:27:50 PM

Anyways, moving on, I'm now using a cheap little DSLR camera to take my photos. The resolution is far better and I would almost argue that the color is better, but there's something to be said for the image stabilization in the Nexus's camera - that thing does an incredible job of giving a clear photo.

But anyways, after doing up all the power cables, I took the plunge (pun intended) and took my graphics card out of the computer to throw a waterblock on it. This is the first time I've included a graphics card in the loop, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I've got an EVGA GTX 670 FTW, though, so I knew compatibility would be easy - just buy a GTX 680 waterblock! xP

(I'm wishing now I had also bought a backplate. At the time I didn't because I wanted as few things saying '680' as possible, but I wasn't really able to remove the stickers as easily as I was hoping, and I don't want to take sticker remover to the PCB just in case...)

Anyways, here's what took me a couple hours. If I were to try it again, I'm sure it would be a lot faster, but... heck, just the sheer number of screws involved is a pain.

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So I get all the ones on the back unscrewed, go to lift up the shroud... wait no, I forgot that one in the upper right corner that's holding the PCI slot on. Take that off, and let's try again. Damn, missed those tiny black guys on the side of the shroud.

After a couple more rounds of that, I finally get the shroud off, and take a look at how the heatsink is made. It's quite interesting, actually - that top half is just the plastic cover and the GPU heatsink. The bottom half is a metal cover... apparently that provides enough dissipation with the airflow of the fan that there don't even need to be fins or ridges over the voltage regulators and such. Then I get the shroud off, and then it's time to clean!

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I'd say that's pretty clean, what do you guys think?

Now it comes time to get it ready for the waterblock with thermal paste and thermal pads. Again, first time dealing with a GPU block, so it was my first encounter with thermal pads as such. Their texture and consistency is nothing like what I was expecting!

The stock pads on the air cooler were almost rubbery, and these thermal pads were a lot more sticky... and thin enough that getting the plastic off one side was easy (just bend the thing and the pad will go with the bent strip letting you snag the closer side), but then getting the second plastic strip off was absolute hell! I eventually ended up cheating and bending both strips before removing either one:

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I also noticed that the thermal pad picked up dust and trace oils pretty quickly. (Even though I had doused my fingertips in 99% isopropyl alcohol to help keep that from happening.) It seemed pretty much unavoidable, so I'm assuming that's factored into things?

I also ran up against another issue - in order to screw the waterblock on, you have to turn the card upside down, but as soon as you do, the DVI and power connectors raise the card off level, and the block just falls to the tabletop. That was solved after a few minutes of frustration by creative use of the hard foam that the waterblock came shipped on to protect it.

Finally, everything was finished and I had a water-ready graphics card! (Though I forgot to flush the waterblock first - I'm hoping that it's machined well and not going to be full of gunk like radiators are. Rads are usually the problem anyways.)

Isn't it purdy? :) 

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a b K Overclocking
March 9, 2014 10:29:16 PM

A few days ago, I began to work on the wood again - this is getting exciting! Aside from one or two pieces, it's now ready for the plasti dip and final assembly!

The same guy who let me borrow his tools and skills to do the original cuts also let me borrow his sander - a funny little thing that you'll get to see in "action" later. It's a pretty inexpensive tool, and I was preparing to buy one for myself, but it ended up being pretty underwhelming. I'm used to working with a standing belt sander, and with a fraction of the power of that and a fraction of the mobility of a dremel attachment, well...

It's still a useful tool, but it fills a middle ground I don't know I have much need for. If it's something you need, for pretty much anything that a belt sander wouldn't work for, it's lovely. I dedicated a day that I had free from work to just go outside and work on this thing, so I set things up pretty nicely, with all my tools laid out to bear:

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The dremel is hung up safely with an extension tip, just like they tell you to. Safety is important, folks! No out-of-control dremels lopping of fingertips allowed!

...tripping hazards, possible electric fires, and brutal murders of phones, however, are an absolute possibility. I kind of failed when it came to safe wiring. In case you can't tell, that's hanging off the ground at about waist height. :p 
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing that caused me issues during that day - take a look at this thing. That's kinda not supposed to be on the outside of this extension:

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Yeah, that's what I found when I wondered why my dremel was running but the bit wasn't spinning. I take off the extension to have a look at it, and this thing just falls right out. I made do without it, but it means that my work was a lot less clean than it should have been.

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, the bit I have on my dremel there is a specific wood cutting bit. I cannot be enthusiastic enough about this dang thing; it lasts forever and chews through wood like it were mildly firm brie.

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a b K Overclocking
March 9, 2014 10:30:48 PM

So, now we get to the actual, you know, modding. First thing that I did was take the vibrating sander to the wood pillars that I had cut out last update. Remember these guys?

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Also, it turns out that this was not a rotating sander like I was expecting, it's an oscillatory sander. That makes it rather hard to catch in action, as vibrating bits aren't very exciting. (Well, at least not when wood and power tools are involved.)

That reminds me of the other reason why I really don't care for the sander - in order to use it, the power button has to be held down the entire time; it has no toggle. It was obviously meant to be used two handed, but when dealing with something like this, without any clamps, I was kind of doomed.

After an interminable 20 minutes and very well vibrated arms, however, the result isn't half bad:

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Everything went smoothly for all three pillars, except one of them gave me an issue. I think this was the first one we cut, and the tablesaw slipped significantly halfway through the cut, which gave me a rather awful ridge to try to deal with. I attempted to sand it down as well as I could, and I'll use hole-filler to fix it if it needs it and isn't just hidden by the plastidip. (I don't know what that goop's actual name is - it's what you use to fill the holes left by nails in the wall when you're painting.)

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So, after I took care of that, I went to town with the top of the radbox. Remember how I was going to have the reservoir stick up out of the top for far easier filling? And how it's an 80mm diameter circle exactly? Yeah, I should have waited and done the smart thing and bought a hole saw to make it work exactly.

Unfortunately, I tried to do it with a pilot hole and a dremel, which turned out... poorly.

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a b K Overclocking
March 9, 2014 10:32:21 PM

But wait, there's more! This was a busy day for me. The next thing that I started on was the motherboard tray - this is the piece that's going to sit above the power supply and support the motherboard / provide half the support for the graphics card.

Here's what the poor thing looked like before I let my dremel get at it. Note that this is all freeform, as I'm going entirely without tools, so I was just trying to get as close to right angles as I could with nothing but a straight edge. I figured that sanding was going to mess it up a little anyways, and hoping that it was all going to be taken care of when it was coated in rubber and in place.

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Unfortunately, this 'hole' process was just about the most frustrating I had that day. Because of a combination of a thick center drill, small hole drill, and the pressboard, the holesaw would get clogged after going but halfway through the wood, and when it made it through, would be nearly impossible to unclog.

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I ended up having to wait for the drill to cool down again, unscrew the hole bit, and then take a few minutes pushing and prying and leveraging the plug of wood out of there, then taking a sharp blade to scrape out the inside so that the particulate that was stuck there would come free. And I had to do that every hole I drilled. :wallbash:

Eventually, though, I got a nice cut-out and sanded it down so that it's pretty decent looking, if I do say so myself:

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After that, I got started on a small, but important part - the insert that will go under the fans on the exhaust side and provide ports for the water and power lines. It should have been an incredibly easy piece - just cut it down to size, drill the water line holes, and cut out a slot for the cables. Unfortunately, it turned into an absolute cluster... and did so after I invested a lot of time in making it work.

The first issue was that the pressboard I'm using is too thick. I'm using Swiftech quick disconnects, which are incredibly modular - I removed the female G 1/4 heads and replaced them with bulkheads. The problem is that they're not very thick bulkheads, so I have to make the wood thinner. With a dremel. That was a bit of a process:

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Eventually, though, it worked perfectly! I'm really happy with how this turned out, and think it's going to look great after painting - it's going to slide into the bottom of the radbox and just disappear.

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Anyways, I'm incredibly happy with this bit, except for one thing. When I went to make the cutout for the wires on the other side of the holes, I wasn't sure if I just wanted to have the wires run under a slot in the wood, or (which I would prefer) have the molex and PWM connectors actually mounted in the wood somehow. I was going to go with the slot method because it was easier, and would only require the sacrifice of being able to remove the cables from both the radbox AND the computer, but I messed up and made the slot WAY too thick:

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I'm brainstorming about ways to fix this, and I'm thinking since I'm already going to be using air drying foam clay, I'll expand this hole and use the clay and hot glue to actually mount the molex and pwm connections flush with the plate.
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a b K Overclocking
March 9, 2014 10:36:44 PM

Anyways, I'm going to finish up this update with some news about what I'm going to be doing in the future and a couple questions. Hopefully I've given you guys a little entertainment for a boring monday!

First, I've ordered a bunch of plasti dip, which is set to get here on thursday. Can't wait to play around with this stuff. :) 

Second, I ran to the hardware store yesterday. I picked up a lot of what I needed at Lowe's, and then as it turned out, Harbor Freight was having a blowout sale, so I picked up a lot more. A lot of it wasn't needed, but I think I now have all the bits and pieces I needed in order to make everything work; especially the mounting of the hard drives and GPU.

Anyways, that's what my plans are so far, so lemme ask you guys some questions.

1) Still looking for some answers on that dang RGB light strip. At some point here I'll be dismantling my current computer in its entirety. (which I'm loathe to do because even though I can't game on it, I'm still writing my updates with it, and would have to switch to using the netbook that only exists for taking notes at school.) When I do that, however, I'm going to play around with how to power this dang thing... but any pointers in the right direction would be absolutely valuable.

2) 4Ryan6, I've done some research, and from everything I can tell, the power supply is more than sufficient to ground components. It would have to be, or else things like test benches wouldn't exist and ESD would be a far worse issue than it is. My only concern now is for electrostatic emission shielding - some people are saying that you should have at the very least wire mesh around your computer to prevent, say, your cellphone from causing a short in the power reset line or something like that. If that were true, wouldn't we know about it for sure from reviewers who use test benches?


Oh, and you know how the cable guys sponsored me, Samtech? I have to give another, even HUGER thanks to them. When I emailed them and told thme that I had been a dummy who forgot that PCBs add length and I needed a cable that was 4mm longer, I asked them if I could send my cable back and pay the difference, and if that was a no-go after already giving me a free cable, if I could just buy the correct one.

They replied within a few hours and said that since it was friday and they were in a good mood, as soon as I sent the wrong cable to them, they would send me the right one... for free still. :o 
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