Project Goliath - 70+ pounds of H2O goodness!

[starbuck3733t]

Note: the following is a log transfer. I thought you guys would enjoy it. there for there may be quotes in the updates that have no root references. don't worry about it. I probably also used emoticons there aren't versions for... so if you see :wacko: or something like it, disregard.

Goliath: 70+ pounds of computer
Project Goliath began in my head nearly a year ago. I'd been wanting to get into watercooling, because its quiet, and because it usually yields a fairly good OC. My current Tbird 850/256MB/40GB/Voodoo3 3500 was in desperate need of upgrading. I began browsing for the perfect case, I just was not up to constructing one from scratch. The case needed to be big, but I'm not really too fond of full towers. Using an SX1000 type chassis from antec wasn't an option as i didn't want to loose the HDD bays to the radiator. One of the servers at my workplace at the time seemed like it would work perfectly. It was a rackmount/pedestal mount case w\ a front door, but it was a gateway computer so the manufacturer of the case was a big question mark. I posted on Ars about the case, and one thing led to another and eventually i ended up finding the Intel SC5000 "hudson" chassis @ centronix ltd. I dont have a picture of it virgin, but the box it came in was HUGE! My friend kyle bought the case for me after I did some programming for his website (http://www.uncelebrity.com probably not safe for work) here's a premod picture.



Its an extremely well made case, and also very heavy. With just the sheet metal and the frame it weighs in at a whopping 40 pounds. Mine did not come with the dual redudant PSUs or the SCA hotswap bays. It came with 9 5.25" drive carriers and 4 sets of drive rails, and a 300W delta ATX12V PSU... A few days after I got the case, I got the heatercore. Redleader, $deity bless him, has been a HUGE help on IM in terms of consultation. Our WC loops are very similar. He recommended a 1985 ford econoline van heatercore, it has 5/8" inlets and outlets, and is roughly 25cm x 15cm active area, plus another 3cm or so for the where the fittings stick out.



The 5/8" fittings it came with were cut off, as I simply couldn't get my 1/2" ID Clearflex from DangerDen over the darned things. I'll address what the hell that black stuff is on the end later.

So with the heatercore, I was able to begin figuring out mounting schemes for the heatercore. First I tried zipties, but they didn't permit the system to be disassembled easily. I let my head percolate for a few days, and finally caught redleader on IM. He informed me that you can safely run screws through the HC and break up the small wires without breaking the waterjacket. I trip to lowes took care of the problem... 3" 5/32 screws, bolts, and washers to evenly distribute the pressure on the bottom of the core. I didn't have a digicam at this stage of the project.. so imagine screws and washers where you see the zip ties



Then a problem. A rather big problem. The heatercore placement came very, very, very close to not letting the PSU wires exit correctly. I decided to see if backing the PSU out the back of the case and fabricating a custom bracket would take care of the problem, it would have... But it just looked too ghetto. Some of you may remember the "Is this ghetto? is there a better way" post. Indeed, there was a better way. Sure, the delta 300W EPS12V psu would be plenty to power the guts of this machine, but where the wires came out just wouldnt' work. So I converted the ATX12V psu into a regular ATX PSU... by cutting the end of the 24Pin plug off.



Out came my Antec (Channel Well) 400W PSU from my Tbird 850 box. It had already been converted to use a panaflo L1A instead of the 80mm it came with. But it was a standard ugly PSU, so I ordered some sleeving from FrozenCPU (not the best prices, but thats where the how-to at VirtualHideout led me). 1/4" Black flexo with blue shrink loom, as well as 1/4" blue flexo. The blue flexo is a lot thinner, and I ended up only using it on the ATX12V cable. Also, as you can see below, the PSU's primary air intake (the PSU in the pic is the Delta, not the Antec) is severly choked off by the radiator. My solution to this was to add a panel of MNPCtech's modder's mesh on the side of the PSU. While I was at it, I painted the PSU mirror black, and added some interior ilumination.






(damn quick cam, still, that's just how shiny that thing is)




PSU lit up with 2 white LEDs from that guy who was selling them for $0.50 piece. Im glad I got 20 white, 20 blue, and 10 UV

There is also a blue behind the fan, but there's no good picture of that. The PSU runs cool as a cucumber now. And for those who remember the "I lost a piece of my PSU" thread, I put in an insulator piece :-D

With a heatercore, you need a shroud. If you put the fans directly on top of the HC, there are dead spots and more noise. So.. a shroud. easier said than done. I tried to make one out of fiber glass w\ a form made out of coke-box cardboard, duct tape, and modelling clay. Not a good idea:

[starbuck3733t]

THE DISASTER:



Awful. crap. my first time with fiberglass, what else would you expect? I decided it would still be best to make it out of fiberglass after talkign with the great Spiv for a while. So my second attempt was much, much better. still not perfect, but not the wobbly mess my first try was.



That is a pretty good picture, it doesn't show the surface variations too much. The surface was quite rough, due to not being completely saturated with fiberglass resin or something like that... at least that's what Spiv said I tried evening out the surface with bondo spot filler. it was working, but my bondo skills suck. After 3 weeks of trying to work the surface down to perfection for a nice mirror paint job, i thought i was pretty well off. I started spraying with high-build primer and RAGE TOOK OVER MY BODY :devious:. There were things i couldn't see that the primer was showing me, lots of tiny, tiny bubbles holes in the surface. I got on AIM (StarbuckNTX if you want to babble to me) and blew off some steam to Spiv. The conversation went something like "I'm going to throw this ****ing thing out the window!" to Spiv saying that if i mailed it to him, he'd make it good. So i did!

And then there was a great hiatus in the project. I moved from 17701 to 16823 (just a few minutes from Penn State, GO LIONS!). During this time I bought a DEAD Abit IT7 max off of The Agora, a dead one. The northbridge was in seveal pieces because the seller never told me it had an aftermarket HSF EPOXYIED to hit,and it must have been damaged in shipping. I also got a P4 2.66 that the seller ran in an IT7 at 3.0GHz at default Vcore, air cooled. Also bought some clear PVC pipe for my reservior, as well as a dangerden maze 4 and radeon 9700 block, as well as 15 feet of clearflex.

When Spiv recieved the shroud he said the construction was good, and that he'd cleaned all my bondo work off and gone down to the raw fiberglass. Spiv RULES, the man of http://www.pc-workshop.net does incredible work.

[starbuck3733t]

THE SHROUD ARRIVES!





My GOD! When spiv sent me the first picture I almost spooged. I took the second picture when it arrived back to me in perfect condition. Look at the coppers reflection in that gorgeous black paint!

ahh, the fans.. A pair of uber-rare 120mm aluminum frame panaflo L1As which I got off of flea-bay for a mere $30 for both!

They came looking very dull, and the only thing I could do was to polish them. It took roughly 4 hours per fan and was done primarily by hand, with the exception of 220 grit on the 2nd fan being done with a random orbital sander. 220 grit, 400,600,1000,1500,rubbing compound,polishing compound, mothers aluminum polish. Beautiful. I'm glad my technique worked out so well for you mnpctech!



While spiv was taking care of the shroud, I built the reservior. you've seen it before in anoterh post


Unfortuneatly, the tops made out of 1/8" plexi didn't survive my STUPIDITY! :devious:
Sidetrack: Plastic is an organic compound. Alcohol is an organic solvent. What do you think happens when you run 97% isopropyl alcohol through a WC loop to clean out the crap your HC deposited in it because you were too stupid to flush it out before installing the loop???? Yup, they crack. OOps. The res was rebuilt with 1/4" caps and plumbers goop/ge silicon II. I wish i'd used plumbers goop the whole time, but the silicon II is working fine so far.

Also in the mean time of waiting for the reservior, and just afer receiving the IC7 from newegg, and other goodies from SVC... one of which was a Zalman passive northbridge cooler. But how to attach it? Simple, dremel 3 pins off of the 4 corners and grind the base down to the same thickness as the original NB HSF. The mod performs beatifully, keeping the northbridge warm but not hot too the touch, with minimal airflow (wash from the 120s on the radiator) There will be a seperate how-to for this at a later date (EG: Starbuck has more pix)



Now the biggest pain in the butt in a watercooling system besides the loop itself has got to be attach the blocks. The DD maze4 I bought uses 4 threaded rods and a host of nylon parts, 4 springs, and 4 brass thumbscrews. In other words, one would normally have to take the mobo out to get the block off. This was not a viable option in my case simply because taking the mobo out means moving the pump, the res, disconnecting a buttload of cabling, etc.

So I cut a hole in the back of the motherboard plate so I could access the back of the socket 478. The first hole was cut for the IT7, when I thought i was going to get another one, and the second (very ugly un-cleaned up) hole will work for both. Now I can use pretty much any P4 board and be able to easily access the holes in the mobo.


Brad pitt's coat from fightclub... no! it's an access hole!



The hole has be cleaned up greatly since I took that picture. I bought a set of files @ Grizzly and they are wonnnnderful!

[starbuck3733t]

And finally things START coming together

Its like I've been doing all these tiny mods and nothing has really come together yet. Patience is not really one of my virtues but I've been forcing myself to take my time on this project so things come out the way I'd like them to.

So first, a combination of the modded PSU and some clever wire routing that takes all the PSU wiring behind the mobo tray, including the 20pin ATX cable!


My 2" bimetal holesaw and I had a date for this one


Dremel/hacksaw action for a hole big enough to get the ATX connector through. I'd love to sleeve the bugger but I can't justify spending $15 on a molex tool that "Might" will do these pins...


Over all shot. Very clean even with eddie norton's shirt peaking through by my drives.

[starbuck3733t]

Lets get wet!

The time had come to where I was ready to fill the system "for real" and run it for a while just to test everything out. The system was filled with distilled water and nothing else... no other prep. Why the frown? Because I never flushed out the heatercore becuase I figured it was brand new, why should I? Well, you'll see later on.


Radiator in place, a little close to the PSU don't you think? 1/2 ID clearflex run from pump to rad, rad to block. I have a Radeon 9700 block ready, but I don't have a radeon 9700 yet


shroud in place, fingerprints and all :P Do you see the problem that almost bit me in the arse**?


Told you it was close to the PSU. Blue thinger is the ATX12V line coming back in from the hole to the backside of the mobo tray.


I HAD to drill a hole through the shroud in 3 of the 4 corners to allow my mounting bolts through

[starbuck3733t]

Revisited
The black stuff is industrial strength velcro, the "hook" side attached to my heatercore. There is another strip, similar size, on the other end of the heatercore. I swear I took pictures of it but maybe I didn't. I'll try to remember to do so. Matching pieces of "hook" side were attached to the heatercore. The heatercore pops on w\ a slight pressure fit, and then pieces of "loop" side of the velcro are pushed on and hold everything in place! Undoing the shroud for fan or HC cleaning is as easy as removing the top clamshell (not pictured yet) and pulling the "loop" pieces off. Industrial strength velcro is just what it says it is.. VERY strong!

A nice big pic now!


120mm panaflos attached to the shroud w\ more flexo installed over their wires. Connected to my 1 touch bay-bus circuit (more details coming!). bay-bus circuit is sitting on top of my knight electronics minilab (8 logic switches, 8 indicators, 4 way function generator, variable DC supply, +/-12V supply, 5V supply and prototyping area). The white stuff sitting in front of the pump is pax.mate foam to deaden the pumps vibration (does any okay job, still gotta get something better). The reason it isn't attached yet is because I am going to paint the chassis once all the holes for the "mods to come" are taken care of. Leaktested for 3 days (over a weekend) and then fired up

TEMPS!
Ambient: 26.6*C
Idle: 37.0*C (bios sensor, thermal diode uncalibrated)
Load: ??? No OS loaded!!

I couldn't do load testing since I lacked a video card and ram for the board. I eventually stole the XMS2400 corsair and GF2MX from my main box (the voodoo3 was on vacation)

MORE DISASTER!

This is why you should always run some sort of additive, even for short amounts of time (4 days). This crap built up in my block and the rest of my system (light green haze on tubing walls) after ONLY 4 days. I have come to the conclusion that it is some sort of galvanic corosion because even AirSpirt's *SOL mix (from pro/forums) didn't clean it out, so it had to be inorganic.

I disassembled teh block and scrubbed it out with alcohol, but the copper was still dark. I scrubbed it out with some ketchup and it was good as new. The acids in the ketchup ate the crap right off of it. Flushed it out throughly with alcohol and distilled water.

When I originally pulled the block off because of the corosion, I noticed that the surface hadn't mated as well as it should, approximately 40% of the thermal paste had none of the characteristic ridging on it that is indicative of a good fit. This probably had something to do with me not putting the block on correctly in terms of tightening down all the springs. None the less, I decided to lap the block. After 3 hours of block lapping on a monday night (3 monster garages down) with wet/dry 220, 400,600, 1000, 1500 and brasso, here is what we have...



Ooohh. shiny. It probably would have gone a bit quicker, but I only had 1 sheet of 220 wetdry and I think i really got all the use out of it I could have. The block was HIGHLY concave (curving inwards towards the water carrying area. I needed only a 1/4 of the thermal paste I did pre-lapping when I reapplied it. Some have reported that lapping their P4 IHS also dropped their temps by an average of 4 degrees, but I'm not feeling that crazy.

After hunting around, I finally found a place locally that carried Water Wetter. The 12 Oz bottle was only $7, so if you can get it locally, do so. 'Net prices for it are simply wallet rape!

I filled the system again: this time with distilled water and 2 capfulls of WW. The ideal concentration of WW is 5%, and my system takes a little under a half gallon to fill, so 2 cap fulls is about right. Also added a few drops of the blue UV dye that I got from SVC on sale ($4.99)***


Oooooh pretty!

[starbuck3733t]

... Oh yeah, the lighting...
The single UV CC at the bottom of the case lights things up nicely. When I figure out the power distribution system for the fans and lighting system there will be a 2nd UV CC in the top of the case, as well as a pair of white UV CCs somewhere else.

The Lighting will be another channel of 1-touch bay bus that cycles White+UV, White only, UV only, off. I am debating doing under-case lighting, keep an eye on this thread and we'll see if I do or if I don't.

The one-touch baybus: Please dunna steal my ideas!
Preliminary schematic here.
The one-touch baybus currently cycles through 12V,10V(adjustable),5V(adjustable),0ff(or adjustable) by way of a 7400 series counter IC who's clock line is attached to a normally open SPST swtich (NO-SPST). When the switch is pressed, the clock line to the counter IC (74HCT393) goes to 5V, when its released it drops back to 0V. The 74HCT393 detects clock on the falling edge (5V to 0V transisition) and increments its outputs (in binary) by one. So the QA through QD outputs count like so (assuming start from 0)

IN BINARY:
0000
0001
0010
0011

Past that the cycle repeats itself, but I'm only using QA and QB so I don't care what happens to the other outputs.
QA and QB are then fed into A and B of the 74HCT193 IC (dual 2 bit demux) which takes the binary value on the output of the counter IC and translates it into a decimal value which shows up on Y0 through Y3.

COUNTER     DEMUX OUTPUT
0000        All off
0001        Y1 on
0010        Y2 on
0011        Y3 on

The Y1-Y3 outputs of the demux (74HCT193) currently drive the coil inputs of 3 reed relays. This is probably not how the circuit will stay as 3 reed relays are rather bulky. I am going to redesign this system so that the output of the demux controls a 555 timer's output duty cycle and use PWM to control the fans.

The NOSPST switch that currently acts as an input will be replaced by a touch sensor from Qprox. No visiible switches, jsut a glowing indicator

You may have noticed that the 393 and 193 chips have a 2nd channel that is not used yet? The 2nd channel of the 393 will be used to drive MOSFETS to control the cold cathodes. since it counts in binary, cycleing through Off (00b) White CC (01b), UV CC (10b), and both (11b) will be easy. The 2nd channel of the 193 doesn't serve any purpose. yet.

:dremel: Coming soon to a mod near you... :dremel: (Aka the TODO list)
Integrate modders mesh into intake hole for the radiator
1 Touch fan-bus
1 touch light-bus
power distribution system for mods
lighting mods
custom stainless steel feet?
window designs? (Spiv... you know what I mean )
Convert pump plug
Custom front bezel involing
*stealthed slotload
*stealthed CDRW
*see-through to 10K RPM HDDs
*lighting mods for activity lights
*system health
*VFD

Phew! A lot done but a lot to go! That's it for now! More updates tonite when I get home.

[starbuck3733t]

System specs & Overclocking, or the lack thereof...

Now that those 2 rather huge posts have us caught up to the current state of affair with Goliath, I'll get to overclocking/system specs.

Specs:
Abit IC7
P4 2.66GHz
256MB XMS2400 borrowed from my Tbird 850 (to be replaced w\ 2x256 kingston hyperX PC3500)
PNY GF2MX (to be replaced by Sapphire radeon 9700 pro if I can find one w\ a black PCB)
Netgear 10/100 card (blue PCB,Realtek based)
Adaptec 29160 U160 card
Quantum atlas 10K III 18.2GB U160 x 2
Pioneer DVD-303S slotload SCSI dvdrom
HP 8x4x32 SCSI cdrw
92mm Panaflo L1BX x 2(coming soon)
---WC---
Dangerden maze4 P4 block
Dangerden radeon 9700 block
1/2" ID tygon tubing
brass/poly fittings
Eheim 1250
1985 ford econoline van HC
120mm polished Panaflo aluminum frame L1As x 2

And the OC. CPU temps (from bios, uncalibrated thermal diode)
Ambient 74-78*F (26.6*C-??)
Idle: 36-37.5*C
Load: 40.5*C @ 2.66GHz
Load: 42.5*C @ 3.00GHz/1.575 Vcore

And that's all I got for an OC. A meazly 340MHz OC. waHHHHHHH!!!
I tried upping vcore to 1.650 tops, but couldn't stabilize at 3.1GHz even with the ram (which is rated up to 150MHz) running at CAS3 (which it is stable up to 187MHz, 4:5 divider, 150MHz CPU FSB)

BWAHHHHHHHH!!!! I want more of an OC!

Anyway... that's the up to the current, and at 3.00 I can run prime95 for as long as I want with the radiator fans at a voltage where they are damn near silent!

... back to the moddin...
The top metal of my case comes off just like a normal side panel, 1 screw holds it on the back and several tabs engage on either side. The radiator is top mounted, but there is about a 1/4" space between the top of the rad and the top clamshell b/c of the chassis structure. So what to do? a regular hole would be ugly because of the gap...

Que the modders mesh of course!

Against my better ideas I ended up cutting a piece to fit the hole approximately instead of folding the edges out to sit under the sheetmetal ala Infidel's mesh mod. I tried for about 3 hours to do it but I just dont have the right tools to do so.

I cut the mesh to approximate size, put tape down on the top of the sheet metal, and filled the back with JB Weld, and placed 2 gallons worth of distilled water (handy weights!) on top at let it cure. Here's what it looks like with just the 2 ends in place:





I've got to jbweld the other sides in place and then file out the holes so they're pretty on the edges, followed by some bondo action (using the real stuff this time not the crap spot filler) to get it all nice and even in preperation for automotive grade paint

Comments please!

[starbuck3733t]

All righty, update on integrating the top mesh (albeit a boring one)

I needed some way to have a lot of weight on the mesh to hold the edges in flat against the book under them. spray cans + old text books + distilled water fits the bill.


JB Weld is a lot like peanut butter, easy to work with, sticky, but dries like a damned rock!

The technique this time worked better than when I did the end panels. I bought myself a righteous spreader (only $0.89) and layed down a strip of tape behind the mesh (top of the lid) and another strip of tape about 1cm from the edge of teh mesh, so that stray JBWeld goop wouldn't get into the mesh like it did on the ends. Once I spread the jbweld nicely into the crack along the edge, the tape on the inside (side in the pic) was removed. That left a pretty straight edge! I wish I had thought of it when I did the ends. After the protective tape strip was removed, another strip was added directly over the jbwelded area so that things flatten out nicely. The tape comes off the JBweld really easily.

Next victim please

Name: AOpen AON-325D PCI 10/100 Realtek based nic


The parts I'm interested in. Green LEDs! ICK!


Some technical stuff for my fellow soldermonkeys, or those who wish to mod a $8 blue PCB'd NIC


Some desoldering later (about 5 minutes)


Scuff up a 2600mcd blue LED so that it doesn't project obnoxiously into the rest of the case, but still acts as a NON GREEN indicator


You can barely make out the header I added for NIC ACT led, but you can see the big white blur that is the LED in the previous picture. Flash + Macro = bad Too bad my batteries died shortly after this...


Yup, the link light still works

That's all for now, keep the comments coming!:clap:

[starbuck3733t]

All righty, update time.

I just finished filing out all the little holes that got partially or fully filled with jbweld that shouldn't have. Owww.. my arm hurts. This is 2 law-and-orders to do. I have no perception of time, but I do know how much TV I watched



Top view, the areas with marker on them are for stage II of the topmesh integration which involves blending the edges properly with bondo. Also, ignore all the scratches, stains, stray jbweld on the rest of the case as it hasn't met with MR. Orbital sander yet.


Eye candy. Should look sweet when its back lit by 3 superbright white LEDs per end (in diffuser blocks) any boobos (partially filled holes around the edges) will be taken care of when the bondo is used to smooth the edges.

Feedback time people! :dremel:
Anyone have a better idea of how to get this whole thing flat short of having to re-file out all the holes on the edges after the bondo job?

[starbuck3733t]

An idea, cheap molex pin extractor: :idea:
I'll take a pair of cheapo flat-tip tweezers (~1.5cm of metal sits flush when they are squeezed) and grind them down small enough to fit inside the connector... That should get the pins out.

SURPRISE! TIZ UPDATE TIME!

Applied the bondo, then ripped up the tape so it wouldn't go into the mesh too far. I only did one side as this was a test of me working with real bondo... My bondo cherry is now popped :lol:


After I sanded everything down and did a bit of edge feathering.


It came out pretty smooth! woot!

quicky thru on some high build primer to see how things were doing... it'll be sanded off again before I do the other sides. ME = Impatient.


Looking good.. :hip:


But the devil is in the details: didn't come out too bad, but my feathering left a little to be desired (red arrows pointing to the transition). Far from perfect, but not bad.


Almost perfect! The side is nice and flat, and after the 2nd coat of high-build primer any of the defects in the surface should vanish. Ignore the bondo specs in the bottom of the picture, they're going to be ground off once I sand down one of my minor repairs... the bondo is so thin and not very wide sitting on top of the mesh, so in the process of filing out the holes (with the file chucked in my drill this time) I cracked/flaked it off in a few places.


Wide shot, I paint with a broad brush when it comes to bondo. The stuff you see unsanded are repairs of the above mentioned mishaps.


I haven't been in the shop much to do the the mesh-backlight mod that I wanted to do because the single 40W lightbulb (upper right hand corner of the pic) had its fixture malfunction. Normally, being the EE that I am I'd replace the fixture (bad contacts).. But since I am under a lease in an apartment building I didn't do it. I could have had the landlord fix it (who is an old-skool EE), but I've got wires running places where they shouldn't (eg: satellite down from the top floor, ethernet in the walls). Lease says don't do some of that stuff, so even though its just the basement and the actual places where the stuff was done haven't changed in appearence, I didn't want to catch hell from him. So I hit walmart tonite and picked up 2x shop light fixtures for ~$7 each, and 4x 48" 40W cool white bulbs. They were a cinch to put up, came with chains and screw-eyes, and were already corded w\ a 3 prong plug. If you need more light in your shop you can get it VERY easily with these. The bill, for both, was about $23. :clap:

Sorry the bondo is taking so long, but perfection isn't immediate!

Feed back please! :thumb:

[starbuck3733t]

Okay boys and goyum, time for a nice eye-candy update! The pieces to do the radiator intake hole (mesh integration) backlight are done. I haven't attached a connector for the power yet as im not sure how my touch-bus is going to accept its connections quite yet.


The plexi + 4 white LEDs, staggered placement. Mmmm, sleeving!

And now the eyecandy:





I think it looks ubersweet. If the pix look a bit blue, i think its just my camera shifting the hue a bit. They are a very pure white with just a tiny hint of blue to them. Too bad I smoked 2 of them by accidentally having them get +12V (wrong setting in the fan-touchbus circuit, didn't pulse it down to the variable voltage..oops.)

What do you all think?

[starbuck3733t]

It's that time again: Update!

I guess you could call this PSU mod part II, or "Accidental Rice". I ordered blue heatshrink from frozenCPU (pricey, but good service), as well as some black female molexes to replace the icky white ones that my PSU came with.



Well, they sent blue heatshrink and BLUE molexes. Blue ULTRAVIOLET REACTIVE none the less... At first i was kinda peaved, but i decided to give them a go under the UV. Well, they didn't react that much. and the blue color is pleasant with my heatshrink.

(I can hear you, "Shut the fsck() up, show me some pix!") Okay, okay..


Zee connectors + new female molex pins (you'll see why shortly)


This is why I got new pins. I hacked off a length of cable from the PSU later on in this post and added 2 extra molexes to the chain I was putting the connectors on. Screw Y adapters, just add more plugs!


Where there were just 2 before, there are now 4! Lookin good!

After:

[starbuck3733t]

Part I.5: :miffed:<font color="red">I HATE THIS PART!</font>:miffed:
Before any chassis metal work can be done, the machine must be stripped of all the components. it's the most disheartening thing in the world to see my project naked, nothing in place, and a case thats starting to look a tad swiss cheesed it's downright depressing!

Part II! "PSU Necrophilia & Sadism"
Here lies the body of a dead PSU. We're going to stick things where don't belong (Necrophilia) and cut parts out (Sadism).

Victim:



Oh the horror! My IDC plug has been yanked? WHYYY!!!


Well, so I can use it plug the pump in... that's why. Almost forgot to take pictures of it, so you have a 'part way modded' one


Plate (made out of the steel from cutting the hole in the top clamshell of the case for the mesh mod) w\ IDC connector. It wont be beige forever, have faith.


Plate out of the hole, blue holes for mounting screws. I bought a 4-40 tap, but its the wrong one!! You metric guys have all the good stuff when it comes to threading. I can barely think in inches anymore.


Disaster strikes!... well, maybe just bad luck. The bit I was using to drill the holes b4 I tapped them broke. So the plate isn't mountable, yet. No problem, I've been wanting carbide bits for a while

[starbuck3733t]

Part III: General metal modding.

Noise is bad, rubber grommets are good. Clutter is bad, cable organization is good.
so 2 modifications to allow this.


That's the back of my mobo plate. I cut a slit in the front part of the lip so that the molexes can pass through to the drives in the front of the case. I can now get the side of the case back on. Only problem is that I didn't realize how much structural integrity that provided for the tray... oops! it's not a big deal, just more flexing that I expected. Probably should have cut another square hole in the tray rather than notching the lip.


Holes are now plenty big for the rear exhausts to be grommet mounted.


Where's wallace though?

Part III.5: Sticker removal.

Since i'm trying to prep the chassis for paint... or powdercoat (I haven't decided), obviously any foreign matter, stickers, miscellaneous crap needs to come off of the case. So bye-bye went the FCC stickers. I think the last case I had that had FCC stickers on it was my 486-66DX2 from middle school.





That's all. Let me refresh the todo list:
Integrate modders mesh into intake hole for the radiator (~90% complete, needs to be primed)
1 Touch fan-bus
1 touch light-bus
power distribution system for mode
lighting mods (Radiator lighting done)
custom stainless steel feet?
window designs? (Spiv... you know what I mean ) (slowly solidifying, need to get my tripod out, virtual "modding" by way of photoshop)
Convert pump plug (~95%)
Custom front bezel involing
*stealthed slotload
*stealthed CDRW
*see-through to 10K RPM HDDs
*lighting mods for activity lights
*system health
*VFD

All right, your turn, tiz feedback time!

[starbuck3733t]

Hello all! Sorry it's been so long between updates!

Rest assured, the mesh grill is still being worked on. Perfection is required, perfection takes time.
I've gone backward a few steps, and forward again, and backward and so forth trying to get things perfect before the top clamshell, bottom clamshell, and non-mobo side go off to the painter. The mobo side still has to have the design (when finalized) waterjetted into it, and the custom cut plexi still needs to be done too. Too bad no finalists from Ars for that mod contest eh? we coulda really used that versalaser!

Part I: Presents!


Mmmm. A box from SVC, goodies await!


10 feet of flexo "carbon", they were out of black, and this stuff is neat. its gray and black woven together.


2 device u160 cable. Uhmm SVC DONT YOU REALIZE THERES SUPPOSED TO BE A 3RD CONNECTOR FOR THE TERMINATOR??? GRR :miffed: Well, this was for my opticals anyway, which terminate internally. I still need a 2nd 68 pin (cable side) to 50 pin (drive side) adapter. Someone sent me one from the Agora for free! I thanked them profusely, but I have forgotten their name. /tangent.


10 3-to-4 pin adapters. since they were $0.49 each, I got them more for the connectors than anything else. 3 x 92mm "Yate Loon" cheap fans... this is when I thought the 92s would still fit in the rear of the case. oops, but for $3/each, whatever. the 3rd is for the 80>92mm adapter that mnpctech sent me so long ago, but I guess now one of them will be going in my current box's PSU as well. Gotta shut them both up!!


Mmmm DRILL BITS! Carbide! Easy Start! Anti-spin spindle! I just used them tonite and they are like butter even through goliath's 1.3mm sheet steel.


6-32 Tap and #36 drill bit. For making/threading holes for use w\ standard case screws.

[starbuck3733t]

Part II: Removal of rear fan grill


Almost forgot to take a picture


OUT FOUL DEMONS! The gray gook you see on the far side of the hole is what I like to call Starbuck's anti-screwup cream. Aka "Devcon Metal Patch". When my dremel walks a bit to far, I fix it with this stuff. Works very well.


Aluminum L1A sitting on the OUTSIDE (it will be inside), on top of a piece of coated sheet steel I cut to fit the hole.

I messed up and when I was drilling out the rivents seen 1 and 2 pics above, I didn't clamp what they were holding together. So when my drill popped the rivet out, the bit slid down, smacked the other piece of metal the rivet was holding together and bent the crap out of it. Luckily, it bends right back into place, but needs a screw to hold it properly. The plate I fabricated does this as well as providing a home for the 120mm L1A to mount to. Problem solved.

Comments? Recommendations?

PS: I'm thinking about going to a very, very dark gray matte on the chassis.

[starbuck3733t]

Thanks for the props guys! I'm glad im living up to your and my own expectations.

rear exhaust cutting finished. chassis is getting kinda week at this point so i am going to ditch using screws to attach it and rivet it in directly when the frame comes back from the powder coating process. this should also take care of a metal thickness problem i'm having since the part of the plate nearest to the IO ports is sitting on an additional layer of metal w\ respect to the rest of the back of the case. enough talking...





I'm looking forward to receiving a third aluminum L1A from mnpctech favors are a good thing, and he's an awesome guy to do that for me.

[starbuck3733t]

I'll get to the point this update. Here's the beef!

Rear plate for pump power plug jbwelded into place. This thing needs a cleaning, badly. But then again, I may have to have it sandblasted, so I'm not worried about residual jbweld and general 'yuck' on it.


Somebody ripped goliath's butt off! I think its gonna come apart completely so it can be cleaned throughly before making a visit to the powder coater who I still haven't called. WHY AM I PROCRASTINATING SO BAD!!!???


PAINting.. Emphasis on PAIN

Flattering shot...


Not flattering shot...

...back to the stopper on the edges I guess. God this is tedious and obnoxious to do, I dunno how infidel and mnpctech stand it. I'm SERIOUSLY contemplating shipping it off to mnpctech since I know it'll come back perfect. I did that with the shroud and spiv, and that's exactly what happened. And I dont feel like any less of a modder for doing it, because its still my creation, ya know? just a bit guilty.

I guess im in a bit of a tizzy.

[starbuck3733t]

Zee updates!

Some of these are more for my/the powdercoaters reference (plugging holes) than actual interesting shots, but here's what goliath starts to look like when you really rip it apart.

Showing the orientation of the drive cage pieces, has a P/N (Left being the near piece looking into the mobo side) and an arrow indicating "Down" Direction.


Looking down onto the top of the case, noting which holes to plug so that the case can be riveted back together when the time comes.


Noting hole plug locations in the motherboard tray.


Nothing hole/rivet locations in the front panel/drive cage access.


Since I can now fill/smooth the rear of the case with jbweld (aka powdercoatable bondo), I fabricated a new plate that goes all the way to the right edge. The old one didnt. No fan hole created yet as I still have to determine the fan mounting scheme, and go to an octagonal hole to show off as much of the aluminum L1A's frame as possible. I've decided against a finger guard.


Speaking of fingers... (No the fan didn't do this to me)... I think the blood sacrifice was my payment for such good luck w\ the powdercoater and the case in general as of late. This is actually the first time I've sliced myself working on goliath.


That's all... once the back panel is filled/smooth, the whole shabang goes off to the powdercoaters for a nice coat of black. The only things that are getting a gloss black are going to be the mobo I/O port & card area, and the bracket that holds the PSU. everything else is getting a flat black.

[starbuck3733t]

Okay, update.

A little JB-as-body-filler goodness for you this time. I'm going to have to sand and do a 2nd coat, obviously. But since jbweld takes powdercoat, I'm using it as I would bondo to make the backside of Goliath a bit prettier.

Before (all sanded and cleaned off)


After (gunk in place)


The nice thing about jbweld is that you dont have to be too careful about creating voids or putting it on too thick. Its strong as hell one way or another, and it has a tendancy to 'slump'. The slumping lets trapped bubbles escape, something that does not happen with bondo.

[starbuck3733t]

Well, the update will suck b/c jbweld is A.) so damn hard and B.) takes forever to dry.

This is the second coat, sanded.


And now with the third coat on. I still have to sand this one.

[starbuck3733t]

Patience. Something I lack. I'm going to make this quick because I'd like to get back to work, you'll see why at the end of the update.

First up, back plate with 120mm plate installed with jbweld.


And with the first of (probably many) coat(s) of jb-weld. I should buy their stock.


My res, updated. I got some nylon #4-40 threaded screws to replace the galvanized ones currently holding it together. I think that's half the problem I'm having with crap building up in the system, that the screws are actually touching the water and i'm getting galvanic corrosion. The last time I had it up and running I had 'glitter' running through my tubes. And that was with distlled + WW. Also, the WW left some white gunk on the tubing, but not the res. Also replacing the brass barbs with nylon ones.


Some powdered glitter that settled on the bottom of the res


Disaster strikes. I guess I was trying to put the fitting in a bit too tightly. I now have to pull out the hack saw and cut the end off, redrill, and reinstall the end cap. That sucks.


I was going to demo the anti-HDD vibration spacers I got, but this has set me back a bit for the day. I guess I'll just keep working, this isn't a huge setback, just really annoying.

[starbuck3733t]

So I did have to hack the end off, I cut off about 4cm of pipe, so I'm 4cm shorter in the res department. I reattached the bottom plate, and am now working on getting the screw holes to stop leaking . The nylon screws don't provide as much mechanical force as the other ones. In the mean time, I figured out a way to make filling the res and sealing it much easier. The gift comes in the form of a 2 liter cocacola bottle

You'll see.

New top for the res to accomodate the 2 liter bottle's neck and cap.


Cap and neck in place, and epoxied (5 minute variety, also water tight)


Reservior Redux: the new shorter version w\ the top just sitting in place. I still have to cut the top to size and goop it on.


heatercore ready to be painted. The rustoleum protetive enamal doesn't need primer, just a clean surface. But its too cold out (50* minimum for the rust oleum) to paint. If i had done this earlier in the day it would have been a better temperature for painting.




I'm going to clean the shop a bit, and play with my HDD mounts.

[starbuck3733t]

Finished reservior redux. Much easier to fill and drain now as i can use just a funnel and not have to wait for the bubbles to make their way up my fill tube the way i did when i had a barb on the top of the res. I got the blue top from something else (i forget) and i've got another (black) top so i have one to put my temperature probe through.