Project turtle blite

White leather chair: £69.99


Table top: £20 table top
x4 Legs: £10 each
desk hub: £9.23
toolbox: £19.99


Circular saw / grommet drill bits


putting the desk together was simple enough.

I decided that as the majority of all things will be in the center of the desk (keyboard, mouse, phone charger) I decided that the whole should be in the centre too.

I measured the centre point of the table (with the tape measure from the toolbox ), the place my keyboard would be placed and where the monitors would eventually go for optimal placement.

I placed the grommet bit over the grommet cover, and chose the size closest to the cover (first mistake of the project).



I borrowed my gfs drill and combined with the grommet (circular saw) bits, drilled into the table markings.

now I think the above mistake isn't too big a deal as I will explain in a minute, the issue with having the drill bit bigger than the grommet holder is that even though it's tight together, you are still effectively drilling a hole bigger than your holder, which means the grommet won't fit in **tight**. in my case, it sits on top, but is loose. The grommet holder I purchased has a removable USB hub, which is nice but now if I was to try and pull a cable out, the entire holder goes with it - not very sturdy
Not only this but as you can see in the picture below, the table is actually made of cardboard I will never buy from Ikea again but lesson learned.



now this isn't such a big deal, all I need to do is fasten another grommet underneath and I can attach the 2 with cable ties as the table itself is hollow enough to let me attach 2 cable ties to the holders, locking them in place.

so I've finished this bit, put some stuff on it and now go onto the next step, buying some peripherals!

UK Filco Majestouch-2, Tenkeyless, NKR (MX blue): £95
105 PBT Black on white side printed keycaps for Cherry MX: £54 (from ebay china)
Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse: £69
black mouse mat (same dimensions as keyboard): £2
Astro A30 White headphones with mixAmp (MLG Plates): £125

initially I wanted a white keyboard with black keys, this would mean I could use the filco black keys (I love the font).



I have searched high and low for a decent ten key-less MX Blue keyboard, initially settling on 2 KBT Race mx browns (one black, one white, and switch the keys) but not only was the PCB spacing the keys too far apart, but the LED under the lights were dim on some lights or not working on others and it didn't feel solid.

So I sent back and bought the filco. If anyone can find a proper white keyboard, pls let me know, I was even considering the thermal take Meka G1 but it looks more gimmicky and bulky than I want for my minimalist design.

another reason for getting a black board with white keys is that the table is (although not designed to be glossy) doesn't do well with the mouse and as a result required a mouse mat. this would mean a white keyboard next to a predominantly black area. so more incentive for the black keyboard. I think it looks nice







the amplifier is pretty bulky and initially had it next to the grommet hole, but not only do I not touch the dials as audio is correctly set for PS3, having it sitting there means I need both hands to disconnect the headset, as I use the headset for my mobile phone also. So I decided to put it some where more securely. The table leg!



this fitted nicely, and as the dial is so chunky, my headset can actually rest on it quite comfortably.



with the addition of the amplifier, the desk hub, ps3 and tv wires, it's gotten a bit messy.



I could get a cable tray to house it all but it still has potential to crossed, so I've made a track for the wires to follow. this means they are out of sight, will never cross and will never fall off.



yes... I used sticky tape, don't hate, this is the pinnicle of my DIY skills... and to think I'm getting a dremel next week! >_<



that's it for step 2 and remember, if you do see a white tenkeyless, mx blue keyboard - let me know!

Corsair 600T: £129
Acrylic side panel: £79
Dremel 4000: £71

Got the case today delivered to work


getting the thing home was a nightmare, carrying it from oxford street central london 10 minutes to tube, then a 10 minute walk home was pretty hard on my arms but I prevailed!



no cutting tools yet (due some time next week)
side panel is due to be delivered january 2nd

[Pics to come]

will update my plan of action tonight with regards to cutting what, sizes I need for rad(s).
once I have my measurements, I'll make my post for suggestions on the best rads as I am currently unable to find good comparrisons for 2012 kit.

Update

so it looks like I have around 1 inch to play with for a radiator



initially I thought I had a bit more but the holding for the fan seems to protrude (sorry for the low light, my phone isn't a very good camera!)

I'm guessing I should make some extra space incase the motherboard goes a little bit higher than I expect, I think I may need to mix up next months purchase as buying a radiator now, leaving it for a month only to find out it's the wrong size might not be a good idea unless I'm sure it will fit I'll need to speak with the seller when I buy to see if I can get an exchange or something.

below is the current flow I was thinking of taking, would love it if anyone reading could give me advice on this....



as you can tell from the above diagram, some hacking is going to be required but that's for step 4

1. The front fans bring in cool air to a dual (hopefully triple) rad, I'm unsure if I go push or pull here but have a feeling I'm going to be told I can only pull as the fans need to be on the other side of the case? (again would love advice on this!)

2. I am assuming with the cold air being blown in here, air will also be blown onto the reservoir which in theory should cool it down even more? (am I right in thinking that or would it blow hot air from the rad?)

3. Pump pushes cooled water to the 3 gpus, which then heat the liquid

4. hot liquid goes to treble rad for cooling down before being passed to CPU

5. hot liquid from CPU then goes to intake rad for cooling

I figured this would be the best approach as the hot air will rise out the top of the case while being pushed out

my main questions at the moment is:

the push / pull methods I am able to use as unsure - pushing out the top would mean the rad goes on the top side of the case while the fans are sitting on the inside (I guess if that's possible it would give me more room inside the case)

Answer: I'm pushing Cool air into the case, and pulling cool air out, this will keep the natural flow of the case intact while pulling the rising hot air out of the case

again any advice welcome!

so now I'm waiting on the side panel and dremel.

Update:
Now have the dremel


and side panel


Getting the locks out of the original side panel was easy, but I was worried when I tried putting them on the new panel and they didn't fit! I was considering taking the panel back but because it was so close to actually fitting, I decided to keep it and peel off the covering of the glass and then..... *POP* They fitted! good work who ever made them! I was concerned but no more.



now I have 2 panels with windows.... both fit my case very well... so I think I will leave the other panel as a side project once I've completed this but I'll save that little one for the end - but I think you guys will say I shouldn't keep such wizardry on the floor. But for now here is how the other side looks with the window panel.



So before I do any cutting, I'm waiting on my motherboard and radiator to test fittings and finally moving to stage 4! half way there!
in the mean time this is what my desk area will eventually look like

Motherboard: £334.99
x1 120x360mm Radiator: £64.00
x1 240x720mm Radiator: £117.00

notes: discussion on push v pull

current idea is to pull cool air in, apparently preserving the "natural air flow" of the case. In the above thread, the op finds pulling results in air gives 10 degrees lower, although there's no evidence to support the claim other users have found pulling yields a better result. Must look into this.

pushing out can be good but when using speeds above 1800rpm the air flow can be disturbed. Apparently this natural flow is important but not seen much coverage on this yet either.

Update
So I'm finally at step 4 the half way mark (and now where serious money is being spent!) Originally, the motherboard was going to be purchased in step 5, but because of concerns with the radiator fitting next to the motherboard, I've decided to get this first and hope that the concerns aren't called for.... Tonight I will install the mobo, check the remaining space to see if it will fit... I can only hope.
The rest of the kit will be purchased at the end of the month as intended so I can check items work after delivery

So I just received the motherboard, the box looks like it's been compromised though...


Looks like somebody forgot to add my haribo!


Here is the mobo in the case - it's so close I can't say! Note that it is not including the rubber grommets in the measurement!


Update 1: I just got the radiator!


I won't be able to check if it fits until monday but better than end of the month!

Update 2: I've cut out the holes in the case, not 100% completed, smoothed and painted, but I'll do this when I fit the magicool radiator. the koolance radiator fits nicely (pics to come) so happy with that.


Update 3: The Magicool radiator has arrived.... Now I'm a lill nervous about this - I've seen people do a treble radiator, I've seen people do a 200/240mm radiator.... so I think it's possible to get the equivelant of 2 treble radiators here are some of my measurements:

Radiator:


Side by side to frame:


how it will fit in (case tilted on back) - note the poking out of side!


Width of radiator:


width of inside case to edge - note that the glass panel (around 5cm thick) is already installed on one side,and the radiator will go against the plastic frame so the metal frame isn't the boundary we are concerned with... still - it's a tight fit! If it doesn't fit, I have to remove the glass panel, giving me plenty of room to fit it in


So rather than cut into 5.25 bay, I've decided to remove the entire enclosure, this will give me more room to play with as well as increase the airflow. I won't ever need these bays, and if I do need to insert a cd, I'll use an external drive, then put it back in a draw to gather dust.

To remove the enclosure, and not mark the case, I'm going to remove these screws holding it together:



annoyingly these aren't really screws, as they are welded to the case, I have no idea why Corsair did this because it removes customisation. sure it may stop vibrations but then rubber grommets would do that too



Cutting out last pieces, removing 5.25 bay caddy

update
Ok I took a day off work today so I could get the last bits out of the way, I've not bothered smoothing the metal yet as I have to buy the fans etc (ordering tomorrow).

So as I said in the previous post, the majority of the metal is cut in the top, bar some refinements when I get the fans to check:


after checking the dimensions of the inside of the case with the 5.25 caddy, my initial reaction was to cut out a large segment at the back and keep the front of the bays for small hardware tat might need it.... but this just wasn't workable due to the depth of the magicool radiator, it would have required a lot of space for both that AND the fans depth that would be attached to it. I decided to remove it completely.



This now frees up a TON of room in the case, I can have the magicool at the front, the fans pulling in air behind it, and a ton of space for harddrives on the floor (note picture is upside down - sorry for poor quality).



To remove the bay, there are (what look like) screws welded onto the chassis that look like this from the front:



and this from the back:



At first I thought I could just dremel these off. They are VERY flimsy and any gripping tool can twist it away, but the opposide side stays in. So I took a small screw driver and a hammer and knocked them off. This is quite possibly the best thing to do in this case. the screw is unusable as it was already welded to the case, but knocking it off as such leaves a clean circular hole as you can see at the top of the picture below:



At this point I was so nervous about the magicool fitting I had to check if it would work:



IT FITS! It fits so tight, that I can turn it on it's side without it screwed in and it won't move! it's that close! The reason why it's so tight is because the glass side panel is 10cm thick compared to the borderline 2cm's of the metal case, all in all I think this has worked out really well

The next problem I have to face is fixing the radiator to case. I the problem with the magicool is that it only has fan fittings for 1 side (the metal plate you seen earlier) and as I want the fans on pull instead of push (apparently more effective cooling) this means I have no sure way to fix the radiator onto the case. I'll take photos of this when I work on this problem but for the moment I'm just going to order the rest of the cooling components. My current idea is to drill some holes into the front of the case, or I could use cable ties if that doesn't work out.

update:
finally got my phone back so can start posting pics again. I also got a load of my watercooling from OCUK today, with my mobo blocks coming tomorrow - will update then when I get it installed.



Grill I cut out and spray painted



2nd grill shot



the front radiator hinges - note that there is 1 hole because the screw would go into the outer chassis clip and I want to keep that in place. The hinges fit perfectly but this is the only way it can go in and fit. *phew*!



close look - I can spray paint the scratches but maybe another time.



other side of radiator - the radiator can swing open or closed (good for cleaning) but locks in place when the back panel is attached



Final look of the case.

tonight I will put the fans on and attach the top radiator and res, tomorrow the motherboard and the motherboard blocks (delivered tomorrow)

Update: 27/04/2013
So now the radiator is done, I've ordered the rest of the watercooling components, I've deliberately missed out the connectors, I'll get them in the next batch, I did however buy 2 sample connectors to ensure they connect how I want it to:



a few of these items are currently partially or completely out of stock at OCUK, but they let me purchase them so I guess I'll have to wait for them to get all items before they send it out hopefully it won't be too long!

Update:
so some more pics today



I had to install the fans first which went fine on the front rad, but the top 3 - I had to cut a bit more plastic off as it was a bit too close to the fans and they didn't fit.




There's a fair bit of wiring behind the panel, so I need to tidy it up as I will probably put the fan controller there...

I have to be wary though as not only do the fan pins not have much wire, forcing the fan controller to be closer than I want, I also have think about the screws that go in for the 2 reservoirs I'm going to be fitting.

In the above picture I suppose I could have the reservoirs either on top of each other, or to the side of each other.... I think I want them on top as gravity will help the top pump push the water, where as the bottom pump will help push the water back up to the main radiator.

This leaves the question as to where does the fan controller go? the wires are not very long (can I get pin extensions? I have no idea.) so my initial reaction would be to put at the back out of sight... or I could make a box. and have it hidden in there (with SSDs?) I have 2 HDD cages I can use, the controller can go in 1 with the SSDs. This would take up a bit of room in the front of the case and I'm a lill concerned about how much clutter it will add (I hate wires and want to keep as little wires on show as possible!

update 26/05/2013
Just ordered the CPU and RAM, I will buy the PSU later in the week and add it to this order:


One month on, and I am still waiting on my x2 RAM blocks, the CPU block, my fan controller cooling block, and my x4 ram modules for the RAM blocks

There is no ETA on the waterblock for my fan controller.... which worries me and I am told it will take another 2 weeks! for the EK gear, I don't think this is OCUKs fault as the manufacturers shop is also out of stock so I think I have to wait on EK to bring in stock. Trust me to order in a bad time! So frustrating as it is now going to hold me up!

Update: 06/06/2013
I got a delivery today so now I can finally install the following



putting on the thermal paste on my CPU, I used prolimatech PL-1 as this seemed to give better results than the most... Can you guys tell me if I am supposed to put thermal paste over the hole you see in the top?
[EDIT - Thanks to the guys for telling me I put on too much, I have since removed a lot of the below thermal paste ]



I'm finally putting the blocks first time for everything!




The black thing is my treble rad, the koolance radiator really does fit in well here, and to be honest is my first proper check to see how it fits

After I did the CPU block, I did the chipset, and then the north bridge



And then final shot with blocks in place



I will install the pump/res over the weekend as it will require some drilling into the case again. >D

I won't bother putting the ram in yet as I am STILL waiting on the ram blocks and header modules

I just got my braiding cable kit today so I will be switching from black to white cables this weekend too

End of this month I'll be buying the PSU, rest of my plugs and GPU so it will finally be up and running, but in no way complete!

Update 19/06/2013

So over the weekend I braided some of my cables - 5 meters worth, but sadly today is more of a tale of sorrow than... today we say goodbye to 2 fans, Corsair SP120 1 and Corsair SP120 2, their pin cables cut from lack of attention (even when I thought I was being careful.



but on a more positive note, the cable feels and looks great, I cheated and bought the cord pre-braided, then simply put it over my existing cable



some of the headers were too big to fit through (the Front port connectors for example) so I disconnected them with my new connector tools (also purchased with the braid)

the end result was this



must thank cablemodders for making amazing cable braid and think OCUK should seriously think about ordering from them, the braid is thick and can't be seen through, and feels almost like metal braid I am very satisfied with it!

Next up I have to install the res/pump combos (x2)



as you can see there's a bit of overhang, but the holding plate screws do fit onto the metal and so will hold it in place, but my only problem is that the pump outlet is VERY close to the motherboard, too close for me to be confident in it fitting, so I am going to wait for my parts to arrive so I can check before I start any sort of drilling into the case.

how it will look with both pumps

update 29/07/2013:
ok so this weekend I had time to fit in the 2nd res and pump combo they work pretty well, you'll have to excuse the messy cables, I'll sort that out when I have the fittings and loop setup and everything connected. In the mean time here are some photos I took with my phone






The res isn't as tight to the fans as it looks lots of space for some fittings there in fact but I am going to put an acrylic tube from the bottom pump to the top pump and then into the rad which will lead to the ram etc

update 15/08/2013:
ok so I got some of the fittings installed, some connections with the crystal link tubing, but as you can see in the photos, one of the tubes isn't long enough, so I'm going to purchase a custom acrylic tube to fit the length, and an even longer acrylic tube to connect the 2 pumps together as you can see, 2 of the fittings need to be extended to their proper heights so the tubing can connect but that shouldn't be a problem

so current fitting requirement list:
x1 90 degree non-rotation
x4 90 degree rotation (1 for pump, 2 for phobya, 1 for left ram)

I'll get these at the end of the month along with the psu and SSDs, my heat shrink order said it will be with me on september 6th (crazy!) so I'm just going to twiddle my thumbs until end of the month

Update: 30/08/2013
So I got my delivery yesterday and spent most of the afternoon / evening installing, braiding and tidying cables (still not happy with it though)

below are some photos, I'll braid the power cables when I get the chance, but for the mean time, I am pretty tired of cable braiding (even though I've not done much compared to most)

I'm quite happy with the current setup, from the back of the case, you can see my (pitiful) attempt at cable tidying and the PVC tube leading to the main rad. When my QDCs arrive, this is where I will cut the tube for easy drainage, no valves required, just disconnect and drain.

I'm glad it's gone around the back, I am going for minimalism so I want as little tube and cables on display as possible. I think once I've got it all working I'm going to take the stickers off the corsair PSU as it is hindering the colour scheme (I don't want red in my case but mobo makers think it's fancy to add colour!?)

once my 3 fittings arrive (2 compression, 1 extender) I can close the loop and start filling... although I may just wait until my quick disconnects arrive as trying to drain this could turn into a nasty piece of work...

anyway - here are some pics











Next up is to buy the graphics cards and water blocks (eek) any suggestions on if I should wait it out until next year? I could buy 1 780 now and then sell it when the new set come out next year?

Update: 17/09/2013

just a small update today

I got my fittings a lill while ago, but I realized that the fitting was 16/10mm but the tube was 16/11mm... this wasn't good as a 1mm gap meant I could pull the tube out with a little force, not good enough! so I made a thread on the forums and someone suggested I use neoprene this stuff is pretty good for this usage and quite cheap too, I fitted the tube on the hose and fixed the neoprene over it followed by the compression screw and voilà! it now fits tight, I don't think liquid will get through but only one way to find out

I also got the extender to my north bridge block so now the fittings align and I can close that part of the loop. I noticed that the crystaline tubes were too big for it - to the point where it was bending the ram! So I shaved off 5mm and it looks much more snug now.

I also noticed that there is now a kink in my tube on the top pump, so I will need to look at adding a 30/60 degree fitting or just going with more acrylic tube... I do like acrylic...

Here are some more pics, note I fully intend to braid the power cables, but I have no time or money to do that just yet and want to get this running first to test the loop








That's it for now until end of the month

Update: 04/10/2013
So nice update today,
I managed to borrow a graphics card from my office to get the PC up and running, in that time I tested the loop, connected the components and installed windows 8.


Here is a video of my loop test, it was very clumsy what with it being my first test, what's not in there is that for 1 evening, the mobo was connected to the psu during testing and it wasn't bridged, not only this, but my 2 pump molex connections were reconnected (after braiding) upside down..... So yeah, always test with a bridge (because the pumps won't start with a mobo connection) and if you remove any cables, treble check they are rewired correctly. I even found out I had rewired 2 of my fans incorrectly!

All sorted now though, I used asus's fan xpert for fan control and now the computer is completely silent when idle, initial temps for the cpu was 23 degrees with mobo sitting at 28 degrees Celsius. I clocked the cpu to 4.2 and it raised to 30 degrees max with the mobo sitting at 39 degrees Celsius, fans are still barely audible. I'll do proper overclocking when I get my own graphics card, doing a proper overclock now is pointless with a temporary graphics card and 1 monitor.

Update: 10/10/2013
only got time for one photo today, off to a stag weekend so will get more on monday:



The bottom res seems to have taken most of the bubbles, so I need to fill it a little.

I'll be getting the 780 at the end of the month, think I'll buy some PCI-E covers too as there is way too much red on this motherboard than I want.