Project Goliath - 70+ pounds of H2O goodness!

[starbuck3733t]

Thanks killernoodle!

Hoping for some time on the bridgeport here at work in the (far?) future. No coolant pump on it though, so copper could be tricky. I'm thinking custom backside VRM blocks.

[starbuck3733t]

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1115/ is something I remembered from way back. My voltages are a little wiggly and that's something I probably need to fix to get any higher in my oc. I may build one of these for my IC7, but not using the water chamber design... just a copper pipe with barstock 'pads' stuck to the back of the FETs. I'd like to get some baseline readings on my VRM FET temps before I install it, but it looks like an easy couple-hour project to build. I hope to have LOTS of stuff to do next weekend, because I'll have the whole thing to myself - the wife and child are visiting someone in philadelphia... and I'm an antisocial modder

[starbuck3733t]

Here's a little preview as to what I've been fiddling with before the acrylic pieces got here (which it did today!).

If you want the gritty details, hop on over to the procooling thread

Pics:

[starbuck3733t]

Door Mounting
Remember when I broke the base plate for the door a few updates ago? Well, I got the new door and marked out lines on either end to align my straight edge for the flat side of the router to ride against. I'm using a 1/2" carbide tipped slot cutting bit on low speed. First step was to cut the deeper portion of the indent for the knuckle of the hinge to sit in.


Then cut the more shallow, wide porition for the leaf of the hinge to mount in.



Closeup shot of both indents cut. Its a little ugly from the router, but it matters not. Also, don't sweat the fact that the protective paper covering is still there. It'll stay as long as possible.


Mounted with tape, as it's not yet screwed into the hinge.


Bottom hole for relief of the bolt that holds the hinge to the main chassis.


Top hole - and yes, I measured 13.7mm when I meant 12.7mm. Measure twice, drill once, darnit! (doesn't matter, you won't see it behind the smoked plexi front up top)


Front plexi's taped on to check alignment of the optical drive hole (for burner) and slot (for DVD reader)


Oh yeah, slides out with just enough clearence.


Badda bing


Badda boom


It's a...


...Beautiful thing

[starbuck3733t]

Next step: mount the face plates to the base

Mark holes for set screws


Drill hole, tap it, then insert set screw.


Presto, mounted! Since the bottom part of the face plate will be painted to match the rest of the case, the mounting hardware had to be flush. It will be glued (probably with goop) along with the screws, but the screws had to be fitted to maintain the alignment between the face plate and the base plate, so the optical drives lined up properly. The holes will be filled, and then the whole thing painted. Strong, stealth mount!


Untape the whole thing, and the base plate is held on... Look ma, no tape!


Mark the base plate location for a hole that will be tapped for a screw to join the hinge to the base plate.


Back side of said hole, with aluminum hardware screwed into base plate, plus a relief hole in the hinge so that it'll close up flat.


Base plate mounted to hinge.


Open...


...Sesame!


Nice fit and finish (lines up real well)


Woooo


ooooT! (yeah, it does look a bit off - the black plexi is so black that it looks like there's a gap but its so dark that you don't see the plexi itself. This stuff is a pain to photograph.

[starbuck3733t]

Reattach bottom face plate to base plate, photograph with fingerprints and all (will be remedied, of course)


Opening...


...Open!


VFD Mounting

The headcap screws I have are just a shade larger than the holes in the VFD, but no problem. Busted out the round file (yes, a round file, not the garbage can!) and enlarged them all. Hint: chucking the round file in your drill makes things go reaaaaaaaal fast Be careful not to go too far!


Now I couldn't mount the screen flat to the back of the base plate, as its too thick. So I needed spacers. Hrmm... The old pen casing trick!


Moments later after a date with my bandsaw...


And mounted.


Hiding behind the top face plate.


Animation + flash = bad.


Temporary install of 2 layers of blue filter.


A few snapshots while I'm on the phone with the wife -- "what are you doing??"

[starbuck3733t]

Money shot - oooh baby!

(And you can see all the wiring because the side of the case is open - that'll be taken care of once I put all the stuff back in).

Font test on the display (well, by fonttest.bmp from my custom VFD software)


And the same thing without flash. The color here is more true to life, but its a bit blurry minus the flash)


Now... how to keep that door closed.
Magnets! The wife was kind enough to donate some of that magnet-on-a-roll to my project. It's not in one continuous piece because it would interfere with the cages/rails for the drive mounts, so it has to be cut up into evenly spaced pieces.

On the side.


On the top (I can have a big piece there since there's no drive or cage in that spot)


So that's that for this update. I haven't mounted the touch keys (as I'm sure its obvious what those round holes below the VFD are for) because I can't permanently attach the top face plate yet. That would make painting the bottom more difficult, so I'll hold off on them for now. So my next immediate step is to glue to the bottom in place after getting everything nice and clean. Then, I suppose, its off to paint. I take forever doing paint, because I finally HAVE to commit to my window design (which still ain't cut!)

Feedback, please. Even if it's just "wow" or "that's ugly"...

[MadHacker]

I have been following this thread for a while...
all I can say is.. I'm impressed
Look realy sweet...

[starbuck3733t]

Thanks madhacker... I've been meaning to ask... are you the same dude who did the max1668 project? aka www.madhacker.org?

[MadHacker]

Originally Posted by starbuck3733t

Thanks madhacker... I've been meaning to ask... are you the same dude who did the max1668 project? aka www.madhacker.org?

Nope i guess a diffrent MadHacker...

[starbuck3733t]

Oh. my mistake then.

*Now returning you to your regularly scheduled project log!*

[El]v[0IsEv1L]

I must admit... that's a nice project you're doing.. and it seems it's taken you a LONG time...lol.. since 2K4...wow.

[starbuck3733t]

"Movement!"
Yeah, like in the alien movies... just when you think there's nothing around, there looks like there's nothing around, and all is calm, a blip on the tactical scanner appears. In this case, the blip is this meager update.

Front Panel Glue-Up

After thinking about it for a good long while, I decided that using goop to glue the bottom outer plate to the base frame (to augment the set screw fasteners) wasn't such a bad idea. Off I went...

Off the front of the box, set screws removed.


Wiping down the surface with a tack-cloth



Goop! (Plumbers and all the other varieties, it's basically all the same.) This stuff is nice and sticky and should bond the front together no-problem.


Goop Applied


Parts mated together... at which point I put the set screws back in so that everything lines up A-OK.


Cover in a rag, wood blocks to distrubte the weight, and weights plus some extra 'liquid' weight.


The whole thing stuck together just fine, but you'll have to wait till I get the set screw holes bondo'd shut and the whole thing shot with automotive (lacquer) primer before I show it again.


Front Ports

Before when I sleeved and extended the front panel firewire and USB I never dyed the parts. Zittware's "Dye Everything" attitudte motivated me to go back and dye it black.

Taped up and ready for dye


All dyed up


Edit: Fixed Image tag locations... doah!

[starbuck3733t]

This part got scrapped
Basically, I messed up. I milled the slots for the front port holder too big, and it ended up looking like butt. I tried to put some of mnpctech's famous rubber moulding around it to clean it up, but the bend radius was too tight. The part got scrapped, and I'm also scrapping the front panel headphone jacks... I never work on this beast with headphones, nor do I ever plug a microphone in. I originally put it in there for completeness' sake, but I've decided to scrap that idea.








To put a long story short as to the lack of progress, I've been extremely busy at work on several fronts (replacing our wired infrtastructure, rolling out wireless, moving to a different backup software, and training new workstudy) and haven't felt like doing much once I get home. hopefully that'll change.

Till next time...

[starbuck3733t]

Originally Posted by mnpctech on WizD

Stars not "doing over" or "redoing", hes refining it.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Part I: Refinement

Pilot holes drilled prior to dremel action


Front panel I/O fitted - ditched the headphone/mic jack. Useless for me. Trust me, as I

don't say this often, it looks better than it looks. Powdercoating will remedy a lot of the uneven-ness in the color.

[starbuck3733t]

Part II: Bezel paint prep

Before everything can get painted with toyota carbon blue metallic, it has to get primered,

and something has to be done about the holes created by the setscrews holding the front

bezel plate together with the rear bezel plate. First things first, sanded with 400 grit so

the plastikote high-build flexible primer sticks... what can I say, the stuff rocks!


A bit hazy, but it's a good thing -- the primer needs to stick.


Bondo'd set screw holes - soon to disappear.


Closeup, as well as bondo on the seam between the front and back plate.


Hanging for easy access to paint everything. Tip: don't paint outside after dark,

the bugs like the light, which is near your work, and get their dumb asses stuck in the

primer. they can be plucked out with a fine set of tweezers, and the mark they leave can be

sanded out easily in the primer. Still, avoid it if you can. PS: Tiki torches don't work

on them.


All dry, 2nd coat of high build.


Orange peel anyone? -- easily taken care of.


A bit of a drip, can be sanded out.


Smoooth...


...and just barely reflective after a 400 grit wetsand (I can't tell you how long this took,

jeeze!). Primer, wetsand, primer, wetsand, primer....


Part DCLXVI: Don't anger the bandsaw

Oops!

Done while cuting a new pump mount from 3/4" 6061 Aluminum. Crap! Fortunately, it didn't

whack me in the face, hands, or other parts of my body when it snapped.

Part III: Radeon 9800 Pro + AC Twinplex

Since I'm going over to small-bore stuff to cool my additional components, I ditched the

danger den VGA block in favor of an AquaComputer Twinplex. The mounting hardware is

non-standard, primarly due to the fact that AC's supplied (well, I bought it used -- Thanks

Dr. Fibbles!) was a bit small for my taste. The mount is standard operating procedure:

threaded rod with a bolt on one end and a thumbscrew on the other, and a few washers here

and there to prevent the PCB from shorting out. Sexy, aint it?


Mounting close-up.

[starbuck3733t]

Part IV: Hybrid System 4-way splitter, part 1.

With me taking the direction I decided to go, which is a hybrid system with a

Storm/G5 waterblock at the core (requires high flow)... I couldn't use the small-bore stuff without

causing a lot of pressure drop. The solution: 4 parallel loops split off after the CPU,

with the knowledge that each sub-loop is roughly equally restrictive, and flow balance

shouldn't be much of an issue (and I have a solution if it is) And how would I know about

flow imbalance? You'd have to ask

Zittware about that. On to the

show!

This unassuming, freshly cut (by bloody hacksaw, thank you - see DCLXVI above) and freshly

sanded on the belt sander with 220 grit to true up the edges, will serve as a splitter.

1/2" tubing in, 4x6mm ID tubing (Plug and cool for you AC folks) out. Once again, thanks to

Dr. Fibbles for hooking me up with the fittings.


The bit used to pilot the plug-and-cool holes.


judging out the spacing a bit...


The block drilled out, 1/2" in the top, 4x1/2 (for G1/4 thread) for the plug and cools (aka

instant tube fittings)


Threading the end with 1/4 NPT. The key here is to go in a bit, then back out to clear the

tap's teeth of debris. All in all it took me half an hour to get the NPT tap in. the taper

is what makes it a bitch, it keeps getting tighter and there for harder to turn the tap as

you go in. But, my ratchet with a 5/16" socket holding the tap did the trick.


And w\ fitting (stolen off my maze 4 waterblock, hehe!)


Same thing, but G1/4 thread this time... aka BSPP. Much, much thanks to scopEDog for

splitting an order of these.


Rigged for the old blow-hard test - passed with flying colors, no leaks.


And partially polished - just the end (it was 12:02 last night, had to stop, esp since I had

network gear swap to do at 8AM the next morning -- You ever think you could get $180K of

gear into a $2000 car? you can.)


That's it for now. The splitter needs to be polished, the pump mount finished, parts and

tubing ordered from www.mcmaster.com. I can't wait to unleash the Storm!

[starbuck3733t]

Goodies ordered from McMaster-Carr

Can you spot the problem?

.

.

.

Yup. I ordered 1/16" wall 1/2 tubing. It could bite me in the ass, or maybe it's not so bad. We'll find out.

[IndianaCouple]

Originally Posted by starbuck3733t

Goodies ordered from McMaster-Carr

Can you spot the problem?

.

.

.

Yup. I ordered 1/16" wall 1/2 tubing. It could bite me in the ass, or maybe it's not so bad. We'll find out.

I son't think the 1/16 tygon will hurt... have you measured the pump stall pressure? Than would be data interesting to know...

[starbuck3733t]

can't say as I have and I don't think I have the equipment to do so with. max head out of an eheim 1250 is spec'd on their site as 6 ft. 7 in or 2.0m. could probably go to PSI from that but I don't know the math to do so off the top of my head.

[starbuck3733t]

With all this new stuff going on, I need a (another!) reservior. My first one was custom, but I pretty much did not know what I was doing. Now that I am older and wiser... I will do the custom thing again. Most of this to be cut from 1/4" gloss black plexi (same stuff as the base plate of the bezel).

A few hours in SketchUp (yes, a few HOURS - I must get better at this silly program) and this is what we have. I then exported the perspectiveless drawings to DXF and pulled them into Qcad to remove the unneccessary parts and layers and to set the dimensions. I've got to load illustrator on to this machine so I can slap them all on the same sheet, then its off to ben to have them cut.

The res sits vertically despite what the images may have you thinking, the side with the 4 small holes faces inward towards the rest of teh chassis. the long hole is an inspection port and will be backed with 1/8" smoked gray plexi, and backlit from the inside with white LEDs. (ooooh..)

The 4 small holes are for the plug-and-cool G1/4s. The large hole is a 1/2" NPT (3/4") hole for the output to the pump.




Ahhh! an X-Ray!



I've still gotta knock together the mounting rails, but that'll be easy.

[starbuck3733t]

here's the whole thing, in the proper orientation (up is up, the fittings face the rear of the case, etc.)

[CYberDruid]

Enjoyed the log! Everybody needs a monster project. Great photos--got some good insight into your build. I will definitely run water wetter!

[starbuck3733t]

WW is the devil = don't use it. most of the white buildup in my tubing was due to calcites from cheap distilled water. it's non-organic for sure. we're going to run it through the XRD at the lab and figure out what it really is, though. sometime... the lady who runs the xray diffraction facility owes me a favor.

[CYberDruid]

Any suggestions for the ideal coolant (AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12, G4, Black Ice Micro Le in a Single CPU loop)?