[Project Log] "Lightning" (Air 540, H20, Tri-fire 290x, 7680x1440)

[m.standish]

After a LONG wait another parcel of parts have arrived from china. So its about time to let you all know what i have been up to. I got another pump which as i understand is a Apple G5 pump and requires some modding, but is essentially an 18w laing pump in a custom housing

 

Heres the donor...

 

 

It has a custom plug and a "volume compensator" which is essentially a diaphragm that takes the place of a traditional reservoir

You can see the extra block on the bottom

 

 

Opened up you can see the springs that push the diaphragm back up, this will not be needed

 

 

Further broken down there is a small home that allows the water from the pump side, down through and under the pump to allow the extra head pressure to be directed into the volume compensator. This needs to be sealed so i used some JB Weld to seal this up. as you can see in the centre of the pump

 

 

The wires will need to be rewired into a fan header as its a pwm pump and the pinouts can be found online, this hasnt been done yet.

 

I will need to replace the original casing so i have 2 blue barrow heatsinks on order from china

 

http://gw.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i3/TB11RyoIXXXXXaPaXXXXXXXXXXX_!!0-item_pic.jpg

 

Yes 2, why you may ask have i ordered 2, did i get greedy?

 

No, i went dual :)

 

Without delay heres the next order thats just arrived :)

 

 

Yay, dual pump :)

 

Im still going single loop but because of the manifold thats in the planning for the rear panel and the number of 90 degree bends that it will introduce I decided i should improve the head pressure, also a bit of redundancy certainly wont harm.

 

This will also allow me to add more radiators to the rear of the case which i already have but am still in the planning process, these may/may not get used, but the build will allow for these to be removed out of the loop quite easily so i will need to do some testing at a later stage with these.

 

This also arrived with a couple of other parts

 

 

Im going full plexi :)

 

I have also got a couple of other parts:

 

An exhaust:

 

Also a flow meter that i have modded and added silver to the rear for better visibility

 

I have also made a IO cover for the rear which still needs finnishing

 

Im also halfway through getting the hardline fittings and hopefully some other changes which im looking forward to

 

So yeah, busy times :) Its now turning into a rather lengthy to do list

[Extreme MODS]

Slow And Steady wins the rase...allways...good work dude..subbed

[m.standish]

Thanks. Its nice to almost see a finishing line

[m.standish]

Having a few little problems with the BigNG, It has a passive heatsink that gets rather warm. I don't think mounting it over the cpu rear retention plate is helping much as it gets rather warm. Aida64 show the motherboard temp as 50 degrees which i wouldn't be at all surprised if that reading is taken from near the socket,

I have been pondering about trying to cool the rear plate using an old southbridge waterblock but struggling to work out how to mount the block to it.

Yesterday I found an old X shaped retention bracket so i am going to use liquid metal to glue the waterblock to that, then use thermal pads to join both the original and new brackets back to back while using the existing screws to pull it tight. and therefore watercool the back of the cpu too.

This will mean the BigNG wont fit, so i plan to move that so the top 2 screws mount to the bottom of the BigNG effectively moving it up 3 inch out of the way.

I have no idea if it will help but i cant see it hindering. Results will be posted, wish me luck

[m.standish]

Built the frankenstein waterblock, still to redrill mounting holes as the X bracket is 775

 

Ingredients: 1x EK NB/SB Block from the 2000's, 1x Socket 775 CPU Retention Plate, Left over thermal pads

 

Gently layer the base of the block

 

 

Carefully position the top layer

 

Apply pressure and coat with icing (liquid metal) around the edges DONT EAT ICING

 

Leave to bake overnight

[m.standish]

While baking prepare the tin

 

Nommm

[m.standish]

The last of the china parts arrived finally, so i get make a decent start on neasuring up for the back manifold and planning the routing. Sadly i ordered the wrong plexi triple bridge so back to the planning with that.

 

 

 

 

Id like to try and mount the dual pumps before I redo the loop so i can compare the performance difference, im not expecting much at all but it will be the only time ill be able to before the major switch and then there wont be a direct comparison.

 

The BIG news has gained some momentum and my announcement is getting closer... Cant wait!!

[m.standish]

Quick update, test fitted the dual pump housing. Really happy with it :)

 

And made a start on the the rear water panel. Not much so far, just a template to do some planning, now i can start laying out the components and get a better feel for the looks

 

My BIG news is hours away, im a little bit excited. I mean really exited :) :)

[m.standish]

Well, the day has come that I can finally reveal the the BIG news, It may not be big for some on here but it means a lot to me. After years of following build logs and being amazed by their hard work and receiving sponsorship.

 

 

The day has come that Corsair believe in this project enough to sponsor it. Im so stoked to have such a top sponsor on board and I just want to say a huge thank you to Jon who has been a fantastic help, not in just arranging this, but also for hunting down some important data that i simply couldn't have done without him... Thank Jon :)

 

Now comes a LOT of work to do, i can count at least 2 full loop drains before i finish the tower.

Time to make a new to do list to tick off

• Rear water manifold
  
• Hardline switch
  
• Custom Original GPU power
  
• Remake the lower shroud to make space for ?????
  
• GPU Backplate redesign
  
• Full RGB Leds
  
• Convert 3.5" Bay res to from g1/8 > g1/4
  
• Fan Mod & Lighting
  
• Triple Monitor Stand with debezeled screens
  
• PSU Shroud
  
• Dual Pump Upgrade
  

 

Heres a couple of planning pics of the manifold and GPU power

 

 

And least but not last a couple of teaser pictures taken on a potato for now of one of the care packages from Corsair :).... And a curious cat called Oxi

 

[m.standish]

The first of 3 deliveries....

Thank You Corsair for your support!, now lets see what these badboys do :)

 

A staple diet of High Performance SP120's to replace the Thermaltakes & A Corsair Link Commander to control all the fans & Lighting. This will also use the Digital link to interface with another component that is shipping direct from china giving me full digital control over the system. The BigNG did similar but after a quick test over the weekend, the Corsair Link is MUCH friendlier to use, doesn't require cooling and runs an extra 2 channels as i had maxxed out all of the channels and amperage on the BigNG once I added a second pump.

 

 

I am planning to try switch out the ring for a clear one and LED lighting it, I was hoping i could fabricate a replacement ring from acrylic but the ring is too shaped & moulded to do this to a good finnish with a strip of acrylic so its back to the drawing board. I have an idea but im not sure if it will work by making a silicone mold and making replacement resin rings

 

In the meantime, The blue shade, while nice, dosen't fit with my colour scheme so ive given them a blast of silver while I get the rest of the jobs done.

 

And a quick test fit

Stay Classy Corsair :)

 

I also tried to dye the Vibration mountings blue, but as i suspected, the fabric Dye did not take to the rubber so Ill have to rethink this.

 

 

PERFORMANCE

Tonight I will test the temps of the system against the Thermaltake which I noted over the weekend before the switch.

I have already seen that at max RPM my idle cpu temps have dropped by 3-5 degrees 32>27 at full speed, I know that during a gaming session over the weekend the gpus at max speed were at 56 degrees so it should be interesting to see if the same drops continue to the gpus due to the extra RPM the SP120s offer.

 

Because I will be losing the rear exhaust fan, The airflow of the case has now changed considerably. Once I have done a side-by-side comparison and know the readings for the SP120 in this configuration, I will flip the air fan direction and test this way.

 

And yet again, A huge thank you to Corsair for providing the fans & controller for Project Lightning. Really looking forward to the other deliveries from Taiwan & China, More on that later ;). Cheers guys :dremel: :thumb:

 

 

 

Gonna have a good play with this beauty next day or so, but from first looks, I like it a lot, Very simple, but also really powerful, my only gripe so far and its not really a gripe as its designed like that is that it would have been better for my specific setup if there were 2 lighting channels so i could have one main colour lighting, and a separate one for the thermal changing. BUT, thats what the Link Lighting modules for. So still 10/10. And the fact it has 6 fan channels overrides this minor gripe

[m.standish]

Made some progress on the laser files. Tried with 45 degree turns but it looks scruffy I think http://forums.bit-tech.net/picture.php?albumid=2626&pictureid=45305

So I tried 90 degrees

http://forums.bit-tech.net/picture.php?albumid=2626&pictureid=45308

No competition I don't think.

 

Need to get the tubing and fittings before I can get the final positions but I think this will be the layout I'm going for.

 

I'm going to try making a silicone mold for the sp120 rings and making new with clear resin. No idea if its going to work or be too brittle

And finally, the performance of the sp120s. They knocked off about 2 degrees while being 1 fan down. That was 1650 vs 2100 rpm though, so maybe not much in it, they do seem quieter at sub 1000rpm. I think I will need more bench's before I can make a definitive ruling, but on first impressions they seem better :)

 

Preliminary routing planning

 

or single gpu

[m.standish]

Ordered some clear cast resin and I have a mould being made over the weekend for the replacement fan rings so im looking forward to getting my hands dirty with this experiment.

 

Still in planning for the backplate, i keep getting different ideas so I havnt yet ordered the acrylic as dimensions keep changing slightly.

 

Should be ordering the fittings soon i think. At the last count on the current plan, theyres 42x Hardline fittings and 15x 90 degrees, so its a good job i upgraded to a dual pump. I think im going to be using these http://gd4.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i4/TB1Jlg7GpXXXXc7XXXXXXXXXXXX_!!0-item_pic.jpg_600x600.jpg

As i simply cannot afford to buy a full set of Primochill revolver dual tone which i think would look amazing, nor can i afford to use monsoon fittings which i already have some of.

 

Recieved the 2nd delivery from Corsair :clap::clap::clap: Thank you yet again, and a MASSIVE thanks to Jon, who helped me find out the details of the internals as the first Force GT i modded has been changed, along with the rest of the range, they have all switched to a thinner, lighter 7mm shell and the PCBs have changed as the technology has evolved. I specifically wanted a large pcb and Jon helped enormously to find out the info for me

 

So thank you to Corsair and Jon for providing 2 Force LS 240 SSD's

 

Aww, a warranty card, thats nice :)

 

And now useless :dremel::dremel::dremel: But the thought was there :)

 

The plan for these was to raid 0 them. I had some difficulties with this at first on X79-UD3 as i simply wasnt getting the performance. 380mb single drive 400mb raided. Until i found that the intel ports are 6gb/s along with the marvell ports. BUT it seems that the marvell controller simply cant handle these at full speed so having 2 controllers i switched one to the other controller and low and behold, the speed doubled :)

 

I think this is still wrong as i realised today the specs are 560 read 320 write which is perfect for my purposes which will see these 2 used for games installations which will not really benefit from super high write speeds. (they will still be double that, but its the 1gb/s read speed that gets me excited.

 

I think in my haste & testing I have left the Sata controller for these as Raid instead of AHCI, so im going to switch this and test again.

 

Thats me for the weekend I think as its off to the seaside for fish and chips, but maybe I can get a few things done.

[m.standish]

Bit of testing done and it turns out the low speeds are due to the marvell controller on the X79 UD3 being a bit poor and they simply wont get the most out of the drives.

 

Upgraded to a 4930k too but it will only hit 4.3ghz, and its not too happy at that. Im starting to see the setbacks of this motherboard now im saturating it. Maybe an upgrade at some point??

 

Managed to get the SSD Twins ALMOST done.

 

Started witha rough sand to remove the black paint

 

Before & After:

 

Planning out the window size:

 

Marked up and cutting:

 

Chopped, No going back now :)

 

Then Worked up through 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 grit wet and dry sand paper, about 15 minutes each drive on each paper!!

 

And Before and after polishing with Peek polish!! Love this stuff, it always amazes me

 

Test Fit:

 

Turns out that the shrink to 7mm drives left me next to nothing for the plexi window, but I managed to use some 1mm stuff. And a Little placeholder sticker FOR NOW....... :)

 

[m.standish]

Materials should arrive today for the fan ring mod, just need to get a syringe and "hopefully" the curing times should mean i have a prototype clear ring by the end of this weekend.. Ive never worked with either of the materials ive bought so this should be interesting. My colleague came up with a fantastic suggestion regarding the lighting so ill also try to try that as its a bit less invasive than my original idea

 

Wish me luck!!

[m.standish]

I made a start with the rings and learnt a few lessons on the way with the first attempt (note "attempt" :( )

Heres what I used:

 

• RTV Silicone
  
• Activator
  
• Bucket 1cm larger than the ouside of the ring
  
• Syringe for measuring
  
• Plastic cup for making a void
  

 

I rolled out a strip of silly putty to make a seal around the cup so i could make a void and waste less silicone and stuck this central so it made a 3 cm dognut

 

 

Measured out 175ml of water, marked the top point and replaced the water with silicone as the mrs would have been happy me using her measuring jug :jawdrop:

 

Mixed at a 100:4 ratio = 7ml of activator

 

Placed the ring centraly and glued to the base with 2 tiny drips of superglue so it didnt float up and filled

 

6 hours and it was ready to be removed & filled, I mixed up some of the resin and using the syringe overfilled the mold and scraped off the excess

 

**MISTAKE** Left the rest of the resin in the mixing pot to judge when it set without disturbing the mold - and the mrs's legs for good show lol

 

SO.... this set solid after a about 4 hours - still a tiny bit rubbery so i left it overnight and next day while we went to Skipton. Assuming this would have over cooked it i removed it from the mold - It was like toffee! and had a very tacky edge which i was aware mat happen but i intended to sand it down, sadly it had shrunk below the mold and made it too small to do this, I left in a warmer place out of the mold for 48 hours and it stiffened up a lot. The edges ended up with a melting look which i assume is due to it being demolded too early and the lip is a mess because of the shrinkage.

 

Test fitted last night and realised the shrinka e had caused more problems than i fore thought, it is now not a 120mm ring, more like a 117/118 making it catch and not fit

 

I have found out that the smaller the part, the longer curing is required as it cant build enough heat in itself to cure which is where i made my first mistake

 

Im trying again currently and will leave in the mold until thursday/friday, I have also covered the exposed lip with cling film as this should stop the surface becoming tacky when its exposed to air

 

Heres the first test failure. Hopefully they will get better but theyre going to take quite a while!

 

[m.standish]

Today I received another parcel from Corsair... A PSU, Not any psu, but a huge monstrous, Nuclear power station of a PSU, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't weigh more than a couple of computers i've had over the years. Sadly i'm at work and I cant do this thing justice on my Note 3 camera here

 

Its an AX1500i :) - Thanks Corsair for providing, without doubt the best PSU on the market! :)

 

 

(The coke is for size comparison, I dint get a drink with the psu, hint hint ;) )

 

 

This should now put me back into the green zone with regards to % load.

 

The system was built around a 3820 and 3x 290x's and if you read back in the beginning you'll remember I was a little bit unsure about the 1300W Superflower I chose as I was unsure if it was enough but decided to go for it because of a black friday offer and the fact it peaked at 1600W alleviated my concern about lack of power, That was before i switched to the end goal 6 core 4930k and that bumped my readings at the wall to about 1350W, while im aware due to efficiency that i wasnt breaching 1300W load (1246w i calculated), It was still runnning at 95% capacity which isnt very good, ideally i would like to run a psu at no more than 80% load, this monster, by my calculations should put me at 83% load which im very happy with. Goddam AMD and their eco unfriendly 290x's LOL (lets not mention theyre actually ok until you OC em to wall)

 

Im looking forward to getting this wired into the Link system so i can monitor loads during stress, Ive missed this feature since i had a Gigabyte Odin 800w that allowed it. That, if i remember didnt have a silent mode, this AX1500i will run fanless up to about 500W and i would suspect thats quite a large percentage of this machines uptime so I should be able to now tie in some of the fans to the PSU load and get a semi silent pc until gaming is involved.

 

So while the SP120 fan rings cure for another few days I can get the psu swopped out, maybe drain the loop, add in the Dual pump and work out some measurements for the rear mounting. Its starting to get difficult to work around a live system but i'm trying to minimise the down time by stacking up all the little jobs that I can do during 1 full rebuild.

 

Once again, A HUGE thank you to Corsair for having belief in me it makes me very proud to have some one as big these guys behind me and for my first ever sponsor. It means so much personally that such a well respected company are happy for my pc to showcase their gear, it means to me that the hard works worth it and i'm doing things right! And a massive thank you to Jon, You've been a complete superstar! and Corsair, Give that man a bonus, hes been a perfect example of helpfulness and going above & beyond to help :thumb:

[m.standish]

Now its all arrived I took a quick pic of the components provided by Corsair

 

And a few unboxing of the psu:

Inside I would a very heavy plush velvet bag, a wash bag, a weird cable that dosen't fit my TV and a couple of magazines

 

Further inspection found hidden in the wash bag and (i presume) a make up bag a very large PSU and enough cabling to rewire the house

 

more than enough connections!!

 

And more than enough cables! Glad im not sleeving all these!. Ill be using the bottom row of cables, the top row are surplus (for now) Fair to say theres enough here to connect a minimum of 5 GPUs and god knows how many drives!!!, best part of 30!!! :o

 

Enough length to reach nearly any case i can think of, probably too much if space is an issue, thankfully ive got spare in the rear of the Air 540 that i can hide the excess

 

Side by side from the old Leadex 1300

 

and a quick test fit for measuring and visuallising

 

Next is the fitting and redoing loop, I started 2 days ago and am still in the progress, ill try get some pics tomorrow

[m.standish]

Im trying to work out how to make it larger heres whats happened

Came out quite well, (the rim needs sanding)

 

But once fitted, you can see its quite a bit smaller

 

Anyway i left it on for a couple of days and it seems it shrunk further pulled too tight and split in 3 pieces, ill play with splicing a couple of mm into the ring and remaking the mold in the next few weeks but I suspect this idea may be a failure

[m.standish]

Some weekend progress pics, theyre not much im afraid just little niggly jobs I needed to get done to prep for the the rear panel and get some measurements

 

Before I started - AQ bit of a temporary mess:

 

Stripped down the rear

 

Res out - Apologies for the mess of tubing & connections - Ill get that fixed

 

Old pumps out

 

And its new home along with its brother, This 2nd pump was an interesting project its a laing pump from ebay, new but it was originally designed for a mac g5, the wiring had to be redone as it had a proprietary connector and a pressure relief port through the centre needed to be filled.

Centre port filled with JB Weld

 

Started stripping out the main section

 

All built and a quick leak test

 

Stripped out the lower panel, LCD & Bottom res for a panel rebuild

 

Old and new ready to be cut in, Much easier the second time :)

 

Test fit - Note fan orientation switch, for 2 reasons, I want to do some clear lit rings and them be visible ans also Im going to try switching the airflow to see if it helps with the temps, im hoping this direction should, with some help (later ;) ) pull cool air over the gpus rather than warming them up, downside is that im now open to dust bunnies in the rad and im still trying to work out how to combat that

 

Checking the res still fits and i made a dummy back panel to help with the rear manifold planning and to clean it up in the meantime, The res has been moved back and now has only a couple of mm clearance for the GPUs

 

Test fitting SSDS and measuring for the LCD placement, decided to switch the direction of the Res ports

 

THIS feels like a cop out to me but Ive had to cover it with vinyl rather that hydrodipping as due to the weather i need to hydrodip inside and i need to time this very carefully so it may stay like this for a while until i get some clear space to be able to fumigate the flat

 

Under the panel & and res drainage solution

 

Fitting:

 

Back to the back

-------------------

Couple of things of note here:

 

Res: I retapped the res to g1/4 from g1/8 and retubed it a bit more elegantly. Yes there are still 2 input ports, the res it built this way to allow a waterfall effect over the front glass and i quite like it so i didnt want to close it off, Also due to the positioning of the 2 input ports i thought it may make filling easier as air can escape easier. I has planned to make the fillport enter directly from the top but due to the size of the res this isnt possible as it runs into the corner of the case

 

I mounted the rear cpu block and pulled tight sandwiching some thermal pads. Here i needed to notch out the edges of the 775 heatsink for the screws to fit, not the most elegant soloution but im hoping to cover this with an acrylic panel that will also house some type of heatsink for the rear naked VRMS pictured above the block, I have an old block im considering using but im strugging with the mounting, so maybe this will happen, maybe it wont?

 

And some tubing placement planning, im really struggling with this as im going to switch to hardline soon and cant bring myself to buy more fittings so im trying to work with what i have spare which isnt right much now.

 

I am considering adding a 140 rad into this side, however it will use almost all the available space here so im not sure if i can fit it which is a shame but it looks like ive reached the limits of an Air 540. which is

• Triple GPU
  
• 2x Reservoirs
  
• 4x SSDS
  
• 1x HDD
  
• 10x fans
  
• Dual Pump
  
• Dual CPU Coolers
  
• 2x Fan controllers
  
• 240 Rad
  
• 360 Rad
  
• 140 Rad
  
• Oversized 1500w PSU
  
• 1x DVD Drive
  
• 2x Lighting controllers
  
• 1x LCD
  

 

Quite impressive for the case! Corsair did well with this one.

 

Thats me up to date for now, im still working out the rear space routing and ive no doubt the next update will be it finished until I get the planning together for the water manifold then it "should" be the last teardown before I complete the build. I want to be 100% sure about the panel so it may take some time and checking/double/triple checking before this gets built, in the meantime i think ill get the steel work ordered for the debezeled triple monitor mount as thats getting annoying now

[m.standish]

Another order just in for the next few mods, So I should be able to wire up the GPUs and the 90 degrees will hopefully fit between the GPUs so I can run tubes to the manifold for each of the 6 ports removing the triple block, I had to get some alphacool 90 degrees as the barrow ones are just slightly too long and they wont fit correctly, these are supposedly 2mm shorter in total so im really hoping that will give me enough clearance. Also picked up some new thermal paste as im out and some heatsinks for the rear VRMs, thought i suspect it wont help overclocking any.

 

Downside is that ill now need to wait fro this to arrive before i can rebuild the system so i can test fit these, then its time to order the hardline stuff

 

 

SKU Product Item price Quantity Total

17056 Alphacool Angled Adaptor 90° Rotary G1/4 Outer Thread To G1/4 Inner Thread - Chrome £2.99 6 £17.94

17156 Alphacool GPU Heatsinks 7x7mm Black - 10 Pack £2.99 1 £2.99

12099 Alphacool Double-Sided Thermal Adhesive Pad 120x20x0.5mm £1.69 1 £1.69

31052 GELID Solutions GC Extreme Thermal Compound £5.99 1 £5.99

82066 mod/smart VGA Power Connector 6Pin Socket (Square) - Black £0.59 3 £1.77

82161 mod/smart VGA Power Connector 8Pin Socket - Black £0.79 3 £2.37

[m.standish]

Brilliantly quick delivery from C&C Central, Even shipped the same day after i missed the 2:00 cutoff, so fingers crossed these will let me fit the GPU's seperatley cooled, I like the terminal block BUT i think that each card hardline tubes will look so much better. Fingers crossed, Ive only got a couple of mm to spare :/

 

 

Passed by my local GAME store and notice some drives on sale, spotted a 2.5" 500gb for a ridiculus price so i had to buy it. I have no use for it but at that price i couldn't not! Im sure ill need it at some point

 

[m.standish]

Its been being rebuilt for nearly a week doe to planning and things so heres a couple of progress pics and planning ideas/measurements

 

First up, I cooled the rear VRMs, Not very pretty but they wont be seen

With these:

Ill probably have a go with a black marker so theyr'e not so obvious as it annoys me, I hope they hold as if they fall off they could cause a short, They may be altered to make sure this cant happen

 

A test fit proved the alphacool fittings + low profile g1/4 plugs do fit, theyre goddam tight though so theyres a possibility i may file down the very top if the fitting to release some play when i fit them fully later once the manifold is completed, I would like to get some super low profile g1/4 plugs if anyone knows where to get some

 

0 space but not i can run tubes singly to each card

 

I have also found that with a bit of redesigning the rear I can fit a 140mm rad and single fan in the rear which as well as extra rad area will also help cool the VRM sinks and the BigNG which is going to be used to power the 2x WC pumps and monitor the flow rate meter. The Corsair Link Mini will be used to run the rad fans in pairs on the 6 channels

CH1 - 360 Top 2 fans

CH2 - 360 Mid 2 fans

CH3 - 360 Bot 2 fans

CH4 - 240 LH 2 fans

CH5 - 240 RH 2 fans

CH6 - 140 Rear fan

 

I was originally going to wire it as

 

CH1 - 360 Front External 3 fans

CH2 - 360 Internal top fan

CH3 - 360 Internal mid fan

CH4 - 360 Internal bot fan

CH5 - 240 top 2 fans

CH6 - 240 bot 2 fans

This config would allow me to always run the front 360 fans in pull for silent running

then the top fans for midrange and then to ramp up the rest for high performance but this dosent work well once i add another rad in the rear plus i would rather split to load over all 6 channels evenly.

 

It should fit in the space in front of the Big NG here:

 

Ive played about with setups and im almost there, i just need to do some final mountings and i should hopefully get it all filled for the weekend.

 

I can almost see the end in sight now :) - Updated the jobs to do

[m.standish]

Finally got the mid way rebuild finished so its going to stay this config for a few weeks until i get the rear manifold built.

Fabbed a very rough mount for the 140, drilled the roof of the case and bolted it in place

 

Just some of the mass of wires that are hidden in the rear, I thought is take a quick pic as without this pic i dont think anyone would believe how much wiring its in the back of this thing

 

Leak testing

Found on leak at the front inline filter, Hopefully ive managed to tighten it up in situ otherwise theyres a drain and fill coming v soon

 

And a quick shot to the rear, Still have a few bits to do back here but im happy with it so far.

 

It was pretty close to be able to get the 140 in there and above the pump where i wanted it.

On the front i have reversed the 240 rad but the old hydrodipping didnt work well on this side so i've covered it for now. Once I get a window, ill be hydrodipping the rad,bottom plate & I/O cover back to how their meant to be.

 

In other news, I may be getting a triple monitor stand tonight so I may need to buy the aluminium to be able to debezel them v soon.

[m.standish]

Couple of really really badly taken - semi finnished shots

Still need to make a cabling cover and mount the HDDs

 

and the front side for the last time with soft tubing

 

The new Monitor stand in use - First thoughts......... This needs debezeling - QUICK

 

And a quick play in portrait - Its interesting to say the least

 

So next large jobs are to debezel the screens and then to require the gpu power. Then im onto the manifold & hard tubing, then finishing up this year long project. Fingers crossed itll all be done before my birthday

[m.standish]

Finally got around to debezeling, I have seen a few "destructive" methods, I wanted to keep the screens as close to original as possible so they could either be warranied and mainly put back to normal & resold if required. I had originally found a method of using U bracket to hold the screen but this could have been problematic when using them vertical.

I deciced to use m6 roofing bolts, using JB weld and fixing 10 of these to the rear of the screen and bolting the control panel to these in the same original position

 

Screen stripped and bolts glued

 

screens stripped of the front bezels

 

All sprayed matt black

 

Finished

 

1st screen hung and 2nd in progress

 

Rear of the mounted screen, you can see the mounting method, not the cleanest method i could find but it does leave the screen fully functional and able to be put back into the housing should the need arise

 

And all mounted

 

Note the bracket above, This is a broken bracket, Gibbo @ Overclockers very kindly sent a replacement that is holding the screen but this one will be used to secure the centre speaker angled down.

I found a pioneer 5.1 xbox setup which were a bargain, but the wrong colour and these will be used for the external sound

http://www.pioneer.eu/images/products/homecinemasystems/pioneer/htpgs1_detailpage.jpg

Maybe these will be painted matt black to match