Rise of the triad, The 2014 Area 51
- Thread starter ALXAndy
- Start date
Looks great
Do you run the system with the side panel permanently off, or do you have a windowed side panel?
For now it's off. Not going to cut it though.
I will get this finished over the weekend and get some final pics
I have everything I need now 
Now with added cableage.
Sadly it's still not 100% finished because I haven't painted or fitted the cooling shroud.
Sadly it's still not 100% finished because I haven't painted or fitted the cooling shroud.
Soldato
Looks excellent! Have you thought about making a clear side panel for it?
Soldato
How does the original stay on? Could you do a sheet of acrylic the shape of the gap and glue strips to the edge as locators. Maybe a sandwich of twork strips glued on if you need one to go over and round the metal to hold it in?
The original stays on with a lever thingy. I've not looked into getting a window made for it tbh. Not sure I can be bothered either
Soldato
Fair enough. Just seems a shame to hide all your fine work. You might be able to just transfer the lever into a flat sheet of clear acrylic (cut to shape) and do it fairly easily.
I couldn't quite think of the word I was looking for earlier but it's a lever and a catch. On the side panel there is a metal bar that comes out from the side panel and goes into a latch hidden away in the top. It would be impossible to replicate it really.
The worst part though is that the side panel is not flat. If you look at each corner of the triangle (so the very top, front bottom and back bottom) you will see the case bends inward. The side panel is shaped like a claw and sort of hugs those areas, covering them.
Maybe I could take it apart if the inner metal skin is flat (I'm not sure it is though) and draw around that? not sure. I would definitely want it smoked though as I have gone right off clear acrylic, looks tacky.
The worst part though is that the side panel is not flat. If you look at each corner of the triangle (so the very top, front bottom and back bottom) you will see the case bends inward. The side panel is shaped like a claw and sort of hugs those areas, covering them.
Maybe I could take it apart if the inner metal skin is flat (I'm not sure it is though) and draw around that? not sure. I would definitely want it smoked though as I have gone right off clear acrylic, looks tacky.
Soldato
If there's a section that's vaguely flat and you don't mind cutting the panel, you could mount it like B NEGATIVE did his res in Mil Spec. Depends if you like the look, mind cutting your only panel....and can be arsbothered 
Yeah not cutting the panel dude. When you figure out what this costs when all is said and done you've paid around £500 for the case. Normally Dell sell off their leftover stock and it ends up on Ebay so panels are usually easily had for older models. However, because this one is made by MSI I would imagine that Alienware are not even assembling them they're just getting them directly from MSI who obviously don't send Dell damaged/slightly marked etc stock.
In all the time I have had it (well over a year) I have never seen either an empty one or parts for one on the auction site. That worries me..
Just after I posted yesterday I realised how it fits. If you look at the top middle part of the rig outside the opening you can see a slot. A square C shaped bar goes in there..
However, if I am right and the metal part on the side panel is flat I should be able to remove it and put it in like that. I would have to cut it myself though, and it will probably be quite spenny given it's large (meaning higher material and postage costs).
TBH I am happy with the side off. It gives me a chance to clean it regularly and keep an eye on things. The case does not have dust protection so I'm not sure having a side panel on there would be good any way.
Right now my head is firmly with the stereo project. After that I might just dip my toes into water cooling*
* My old AM2+ rig with a 1055T in it is prime candidate for playing with water cooling. However, I would basically use nothing but cheap Chinese stuff (so £9 for a CPU block, £14 for a GPU block, £8 each for the rads) and so on. It wouldn't be a waste of money either because I have seen people use the parts and they function perfectly well, plus it may finally get me over my phobia of water and PCs.
In all the time I have had it (well over a year) I have never seen either an empty one or parts for one on the auction site. That worries me..
Just after I posted yesterday I realised how it fits. If you look at the top middle part of the rig outside the opening you can see a slot. A square C shaped bar goes in there..
However, if I am right and the metal part on the side panel is flat I should be able to remove it and put it in like that. I would have to cut it myself though, and it will probably be quite spenny given it's large (meaning higher material and postage costs).
TBH I am happy with the side off. It gives me a chance to clean it regularly and keep an eye on things. The case does not have dust protection so I'm not sure having a side panel on there would be good any way.
Right now my head is firmly with the stereo project. After that I might just dip my toes into water cooling*
* My old AM2+ rig with a 1055T in it is prime candidate for playing with water cooling. However, I would basically use nothing but cheap Chinese stuff (so £9 for a CPU block, £14 for a GPU block, £8 each for the rads) and so on. It wouldn't be a waste of money either because I have seen people use the parts and they function perfectly well, plus it may finally get me over my phobia of water and PCs.
Soldato
That's fair enough mate.
Cheap water cooling parts I'd have thought are more likely to add to your phobia if they give you grief. I'd take it as a given that you're guaranteed to have some sweary moments with coolant where it shouldn't be As long as you mop it up and there's no power at the time, you usually get away with it. Non-conducting coolants - while not perfect - help too. I like the clear, colourless EC6 myself....and so does my carpet!
I've just ordered an Aqua Computer Dr Drop which is a pressure tester so you can check it's not going to leak before you add coolant. I think without the pump (you just need a car or bike pump with the car style connector) it's £13 plus a few quid carriage. Worth it for the peace of mind - I'll let you know on my thread if it's any good when it arrives.
Cheap water cooling parts I'd have thought are more likely to add to your phobia if they give you grief. I'd take it as a given that you're guaranteed to have some sweary moments with coolant where it shouldn't be
As long as you mop it up and there's no power at the time, you usually get away with it. Non-conducting coolants - while not perfect - help too. I like the clear, colourless EC6 myself....and so does my carpet! I've just ordered an Aqua Computer Dr Drop which is a pressure tester so you can check it's not going to leak before you add coolant. I think without the pump (you just need a car or bike pump with the car style connector) it's £13 plus a few quid carriage. Worth it for the peace of mind - I'll let you know on my thread if it's any good when it arrives.
Thanks Dave
sorry for the belated reply, brain is too busy lol.I'm hoping that the next one will beat this. Not in power terms or computing terms but I'm probably going to go to a complete skeleton which will give me more flexibility in choosing what I want and where I want it
Apologies for the missing photos. I will do a little to catch up guys. OK, so the last time you guys all saw the Triad it looked like this.
I had not touched it for over a year. I decided to strip and clean it all recently, and then do some upgrades. Upgrade 1, 14 core 28 thread Broadwell E Xeon
It clocks to 3.1ghz on up to four cores (and selects the best) and then clocks to 2.8ghz on all 14. It's pretty bloody impressive for £360. I could have probably ran it in the board I had, but I decided to buy a new MSI X99 SLi Plus for £117.
Far better and much more befitting of the build tbh. I bought this 180gb M.2 drive for another build, but decided to use it on the upgrade.
It's nothing too fancy, cost £30 does about 550 R/W. Any way, then I got this.
And sold the Maxwell Titan X. Here is how the rig looked then, and still does now.
And it was all sort of going OK. Fallout 4 makes the fan spin up every so often, but nothing terrible. So my plan was to basically make my own Hybrid doodah for it and have the GPU AIO cooled. However, last night I met this lovely young woman.
And my GPU went ballistic. Not sure if you guys have played this yet but due to the *incredible* graphics and total lack of cut scenes my Titan XP just went mental and the fan immediately jumped to 100% and stayed there for twenty minutes. Then I touched the back of the card behind the GPU and bugger me, I wish I hadn't. I had to do something drastic and quick.
So it was OCUK to the rescue again.
I'm not quite sure how this is going to look. I want to make it look like a heart with blood and veins, but not sure how well it is going to drop into the blue. However, at the prices I paid I could not help it. I can not afford to spend £18 on each fitting, these were £2.99 each.
10/8. I have ordered 12. Why not at that price eh? OK, so I also ordered this. You'll see why shortly.
As well as this.
And then this.
OK, so that rounded up the OCUK order and it has been sorted and will be here soon. Then I wanted a block. So I decided on this.
And then I looked at back plates. They are £23 for an AC one. However, for £34 you can have this.
And TBH? I have never had a GPU get so hot on the back. So I figured that was a bargain and ordered that too. What you do is remove the edge connector from the block and bolt on the back plate one which then cools both. Pretty sweet.
For the pump I decided to use this again @ £10.
I've already got one cooling my other rig and it's excellent. Ceramic bearing and shaft etc, very strong motor. No point spending £100. Any way, that is what the coupler fitting is for, so I can fit it directly to the bottom of the tank. I also ordered the tubing.
And had two fittings left over from before. I have one of these.
And one of these in white that I need to paint (it's also BP)
I am going to replace any green Orings with black ones (I've got tons because Monsoon give you two in different colours).
Any way, yeah, not sure how the red will fit in but I wasn't spending over double to find out. I will paint the white coupler black with matt model paint and I need to make a weird bracket to hold the pump and tank to the 120 mount.
I had not touched it for over a year. I decided to strip and clean it all recently, and then do some upgrades. Upgrade 1, 14 core 28 thread Broadwell E Xeon
It clocks to 3.1ghz on up to four cores (and selects the best) and then clocks to 2.8ghz on all 14. It's pretty bloody impressive for £360. I could have probably ran it in the board I had, but I decided to buy a new MSI X99 SLi Plus for £117.
Far better and much more befitting of the build tbh. I bought this 180gb M.2 drive for another build, but decided to use it on the upgrade.
It's nothing too fancy, cost £30 does about 550 R/W. Any way, then I got this.
And sold the Maxwell Titan X. Here is how the rig looked then, and still does now.
And it was all sort of going OK. Fallout 4 makes the fan spin up every so often, but nothing terrible. So my plan was to basically make my own Hybrid doodah for it and have the GPU AIO cooled. However, last night I met this lovely young woman.
And my GPU went ballistic. Not sure if you guys have played this yet but due to the *incredible* graphics and total lack of cut scenes my Titan XP just went mental and the fan immediately jumped to 100% and stayed there for twenty minutes. Then I touched the back of the card behind the GPU and bugger me, I wish I hadn't. I had to do something drastic and quick.
So it was OCUK to the rescue again.
I'm not quite sure how this is going to look. I want to make it look like a heart with blood and veins, but not sure how well it is going to drop into the blue. However, at the prices I paid I could not help it. I can not afford to spend £18 on each fitting, these were £2.99 each.
10/8. I have ordered 12. Why not at that price eh? OK, so I also ordered this. You'll see why shortly.
As well as this.
And then this.
OK, so that rounded up the OCUK order and it has been sorted and will be here soon. Then I wanted a block. So I decided on this.
And then I looked at back plates. They are £23 for an AC one. However, for £34 you can have this.
And TBH? I have never had a GPU get so hot on the back. So I figured that was a bargain and ordered that too. What you do is remove the edge connector from the block and bolt on the back plate one which then cools both. Pretty sweet.
For the pump I decided to use this again @ £10.
I've already got one cooling my other rig and it's excellent. Ceramic bearing and shaft etc, very strong motor. No point spending £100. Any way, that is what the coupler fitting is for, so I can fit it directly to the bottom of the tank. I also ordered the tubing.
And had two fittings left over from before. I have one of these.
And one of these in white that I need to paint (it's also BP)
I am going to replace any green Orings with black ones (I've got tons because Monsoon give you two in different colours).
Any way, yeah, not sure how the red will fit in but I wasn't spending over double to find out. I will paint the white coupler black with matt model paint and I need to make a weird bracket to hold the pump and tank to the 120 mount.
OK progress. Had a lovely day out yesterday and started planning this afternoon. I hit a couple of problems, though. I originally planned to have the rad in the middle fan location. However, what I forgot to plan in was the total depth of the res and pump once fitted together. The pump would have hit the nose cone on the bottom fan and I was loathe to take it off. So, I decided to fit it here.
First I needed to know the offset of the case as obviously it's not straight. So I used an overlaid protractor.
OK so now I had my angle I could design to scale.
White = res width
Green = proposed res width with clamps fitted
Red = rad
Blue = tabs. These will be part of the black main body eventually, but for now I need them to move.
Yellow = fan/rad screw space.
The blue parts will be bent with a heat gun backwards. The res will sit about 40mm into the rad. If that makes any sense, of course.
First I needed to know the offset of the case as obviously it's not straight. So I used an overlaid protractor.
OK so now I had my angle I could design to scale.
White = res width
Green = proposed res width with clamps fitted
Red = rad
Blue = tabs. These will be part of the black main body eventually, but for now I need them to move.
Yellow = fan/rad screw space.
The blue parts will be bent with a heat gun backwards. The res will sit about 40mm into the rad. If that makes any sense, of course.
Morning update.
OK so the night before last I made a cardboard template of the pump holder/carrier. I offered it up and immediately there was a problem. It hit the hoses on my AIO. I tried clamping the hoses to move them away, but due to the design (to fit this case one way only) one of the hoses was still very much in the way. So I removed the AIO, turned it around 180' and moved the hoses down. This means the pump is now upside down and so is the rad. And it worked, hurrah. The alien head is now upside down though, but that is easily remedied with some matt black vinyl.
The rad will fit, but in the stock orientation the G 1/4 would be inaccessible. So I am going to have to drop the rad by about 30mm or so. This means I need to mod the rad carrier.
Good news. The Bitspower Z Multi 80 tank I ordered arrived in clear. Wasn't happy at first, but eventually came around. It looks like this (this is the 100mm though)
I have refined the mount a little too, though this may be subject to change when I get the time to measure the res etc (I was building flat packed furniture all day yesterday)
The rad and fittings arrived too, but I have two other fittings coming also. A 45' and a couple of other bits and bob fittings I may or may not need. I've also decided to change things up a little this time and instead of using XSPC EC6 I have been a bit more daring.
Which is part of the reason why I was happier with the clear res. I may change the hosing to clear too (I should have that kicking around already).
Just want to say an enormous thanks to Overclockers. Every time I do water cooling I always order from them, but their customer service guys are the stuff of legend. They really are awesome.
OK so the night before last I made a cardboard template of the pump holder/carrier. I offered it up and immediately there was a problem. It hit the hoses on my AIO. I tried clamping the hoses to move them away, but due to the design (to fit this case one way only) one of the hoses was still very much in the way. So I removed the AIO, turned it around 180' and moved the hoses down. This means the pump is now upside down and so is the rad. And it worked, hurrah. The alien head is now upside down though, but that is easily remedied with some matt black vinyl.
The rad will fit, but in the stock orientation the G 1/4 would be inaccessible. So I am going to have to drop the rad by about 30mm or so. This means I need to mod the rad carrier.
Good news. The Bitspower Z Multi 80 tank I ordered arrived in clear. Wasn't happy at first, but eventually came around. It looks like this (this is the 100mm though)
I have refined the mount a little too, though this may be subject to change when I get the time to measure the res etc (I was building flat packed furniture all day yesterday)
The rad and fittings arrived too, but I have two other fittings coming also. A 45' and a couple of other bits and bob fittings I may or may not need. I've also decided to change things up a little this time and instead of using XSPC EC6 I have been a bit more daring.
Which is part of the reason why I was happier with the clear res. I may change the hosing to clear too (I should have that kicking around already).
Just want to say an enormous thanks to Overclockers. Every time I do water cooling I always order from them, but their customer service guys are the stuff of legend. They really are awesome.
Quick update. Not much done really because I am working on the flat. Any way, here is the 90 deg fitting with the extender (that was white). It's (the extender) been painted black and clear coated.
And I began mapping out the area where I want the rad to fit to the bracket.
Nothing terribly exciting to see, but something
And I began mapping out the area where I want the rad to fit to the bracket.
Nothing terribly exciting to see, but something
OK so I finalised the design for the res and pump bracket.
Dug out some leftover vinyl and cut my template. I use my plotter more for that than cutting actual graphics lol.
That will meet the rotary tool this evening (got deliveries coming so can't make noise).
The rad and fan I am using (red LED) are now mounted.
It needs some tidying/refining but the important part is it works and it fits. And I can access the ports.
Dug out some leftover vinyl and cut my template. I use my plotter more for that than cutting actual graphics lol.
That will meet the rotary tool this evening (got deliveries coming so can't make noise).
The rad and fan I am using (red LED) are now mounted.
It needs some tidying/refining but the important part is it works and it fits. And I can access the ports.