Switch 810- my first watercooling build

muffles

muffles

muffles

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21 Jun 2012
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Thought folks might be interested. I'm afraid the pics aren't that great but it'll take some re-arranging to get natural light now!

Just prior to leak testing:
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Finished article:
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I saw some people discussing the lack of floppy connectors these days (especially braided), and the fact the Xonar D2X requires one. I was in this situation and decided to try my hand at braiding cables...
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I got carried away and also braided some other cables - USB cables that connect to the motherboard, the power/RPM wires from my D5. Was going to do the motherboard switch connections but decided that it would put too much pressure on them as they are individual plugs. Do like braiding now though :D

One thing I noted from my first watercooling experience is that bleeding the system is actually quite difficult - can't just rock the case side to side as one radiator is at the top - all I'll get is the air collecting in that. So I had to do some really funky manoeuvres to get the air out, chasing it round the loop. I also note for next time some of the things I need to be careful with, such as removing clips so they don't break off when I'm turning the case all about, and doing it on carpet and not my desk, so I avoid marking the case :(
 
excellent job, might have been nice to see a coloured liquid, maybe an opaque white to match the rear fan. Thats also some serious radage.

PS I do like the braided floppy, can I place an order for a 30cm 1 pls ;)
 
Nice, that the 80mm thick rads?

I'll be trying out braiding myself soon for the same reason, though I'll be making the cable around 45cm long :)
 
I'm thinking of using some of the Mayhem's blue dye: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-024-MH&groupid=962&catid=1531&subcat=

Not quite as dark as they show on there, but it's a dropper so it's possible to vary it :)

The white fans came with the case hence the colour, I'd probably change the fans if anything as they wouldn't match the fluid. Something black would suit...

xtremedetailz - yeah, pretty similar huh! Funny thing is, I think I have seen yours plus another similar build on here. But I swear, I had ordered all the parts months ago and was waiting on delivery/build, haha! Guess the parts just make sense together.

They're the 80mm thick Alphacool Monsta rads, yep.

RE: braiding, sorry I forgot to mention but I braided an existing cable that came with my Corsair AX850, hence the length was fixed. I think orders should be placed through pgi947 for that reason ;-)

I did search for just the plug ends but no luck finding them in black (at least for the floppy connector end). Would be interested if anyone can find the parts...shouldn't be difficult to make!

FYI if anyone is first-time braiding, I had to buy some especially small braid + heatshrink for it to fit comfortably in the floppy connector. I needed 2.5mm braid (though compared to some 3mm braid I have, it seems there's a bigger difference than 0.5mm - don't know which one is off though!) and 3.5mm 2:1 heatshrink. I also bought some 3.2mm 3:1 heatshrink in case the first heatshrink didn't go small enough, however it's also adhesive lined which seemed to thicken up the heatshrink (I've used 4.8mm 3:1 adhesive heatshrink on the 4-pin Molex side).
 
Is Ebay a competitor? (if not, I can post links)

I just searched for a cable braiding kit - comes with a variety of sizes of braid and heatshrink, although for individual braiding like I was doing I only used the smallest size. I also searched for a tool removal kit, very useful rather than using screwdrivers etc! I think the removal kit was ~£12 and the braiding kit was around the same.

It should be pretty straightforward to do but basically you just use the removal kit to get all the metal pins out of each connector, and then cut a bit of braid to length (a little shorter than the cable), slide it over and heatshrink each end to stop it moving.

Couple of tips:
1. Double check exactly where the heatshrink ends on each cable before shrinking it - I found that on some plugs, the heatshrink would fit inside the plug, but others it wouldn't, so you had to be careful exactly where you placed the heatshrink otherwise you might find yourself having to remove/reapply it!
2. If you've got a tight piece of braid, not much bigger than the wire you're braiding, then it might not slide over too easily. To get round that you can squeeze two ends of the braid together - that makes it wider. This is hard to describe so I hope this makes sense:
* Left hand holding the wire
* Right hand holding the braid
* Get an initial bit of braid onto the wire
* Hold this tight with your left hand, so you are holding a bit of braid and also the wire inside - this needs to stay tight
* Using your right hand, push the braid towards your left hand - you'll notice the braid expands and gets wider as it is pushed together
* Push the braid together enough so that your right hand can grab a piece of the wire, through the braid
* Release your left hand and the braid will ping back over the wire
* Repeat until braid is on!

Btw if you are braiding the standard cables on an AX850 (presume individual braiding) you are probably going to want to buy a ton more cable than you would get in a kit. Perhaps if this is all you'll ever do, just ignore the kit entirely and buy braid/heatshrink. I think you'd want 2.5mm or 3mm braid (3mm seems common, 2.5mm was rarer and as small as I could get without getting it from Hong Kong!). I would also double check the tools required to get the pins out of the PSU plugs, to make sure the kit includes them (I don't think it covers every type of plug, but you might be able to get it to work still).
 
Yer nice set up matey thanks for the pictures it has answered quite a few questions I had running round in my head as this is more or less the set up I'm going to be going with. Though I might have to put Aurora in it, either blue or red not sure yet.
 
Thanks guys, yeah it's been fun to build, only thing was that I didn't build it from the start with the plan of watercooling it. Would like to try that next time :) and making my own cables sounds like a plan! (gotta watch the self control then... ;))
 
Paracord works well to braid with, just bought 200 foot from the bay, think I paid about £12 and comes in loads of colours.

Nice looking build btw
 
Can I ask what is you mobo? I'm thinking of going for the ASRock Fatality Pro but I'm trying to find out if the EK bridge will fit or if the two pci brackets are to far apart?
 
It's an Asus P8Z68-V Pro. I had the same question when buying my bridge, because I heard some mobos don't have standard PCI spacing? But to be honest I'm not sure how they can have non-standard spacing as then the cards wouldn't line up with the back panel in any cases.

In terms of how many PCI slots between cards, yup as pgi947 said you can get a variety of EK bridges to fit.

I heard about this paracord stuff the other day actually, sounds interesting. What's the benefit of it over normal sleeve? I heard it is floppier (like shoelaces, I read) but guess that could be a positive or a negative!
 
muffles said:
It's an Asus P8Z68-V Pro. I had the same question when buying my bridge, because I heard some mobos don't have standard PCI spacing? But to be honest I'm not sure how they can have non-standard spacing as then the cards wouldn't line up with the back panel in any cases.

In terms of how many PCI slots between cards, yup as pgi947 said you can get a variety of EK bridges to fit.

I heard about this paracord stuff the other day actually, sounds interesting. What's the benefit of it over normal sleeve? I heard it is floppier (like shoelaces, I read) but guess that could be a positive or a negative!
Click to expand...

mainly floppier and cheaper
 
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