Project: Little Bit Big.

Soldato
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Still in awe on just how good it looks with the powder coating. Cannot wait to see it with every in and working. You keeping it for yourself afterwards or selling on?

It’s all mine :)

I’ve been waiting for an over the top case which I really like to work with for a long time, it’s planned to be the case and cooling for a long while! Been fun to learn how to design in CAD and looking forward to getting everything made and fitting it, modded the top stealth mount for the radiators today so get those in and crimp up the top fans then it’s time to plan and route the design. Existing massive case is now taken apart and on the test bench so this should be easier to measure things ;)

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Front rad is in place with fans, the rest are soldered and braided just need pairing I think I’m to 4’s for the top row... The fans will have laser cut aluminium discs on the rear to tidy the solder job off when I get other parts made.
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Associate
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I'd love to know what you think of the 1000d, I'm looking to try and undertake my first water-cooling loop set up and want plenty of space and options for the rads.

I cannot wait to see the finished article mate.
 
Soldato
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I'd love to know what you think of the 1000d, I'm looking to try and undertake my first water-cooling loop set up and want plenty of space and options for the rads.

I cannot wait to see the finished article mate.

So for starters I would probably not recommend it for a first loop - it’s huge and I mean you know it’s big but be prepared for extreme. What’s really missing from the Corsair line is a new 900D Obsidian, would be a great addition if you imagine my case above with fantastic space for dual 480s and about 10-15cm shorter. I’ve seen some builds in the 1000D with minimal kit and although it’s clean to build in it really looks odd, you would be amazed how small a motherboard looks inside.

My other thoughts:

I like the main chassis and panels, it’s a quality piece but there are also a lot of things picky people like me won’t like and as always (even on very pricey cases) things that should have been better. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good bit of kit but my list of gripes:

1. It’s annoying some key bits like the drive cage are riveted in - why? Many people remove it as who wants tons of HDDs up front, you have to drill it out.

2. Internal tray is flimsy and should have been much more quality - I’m replacing mine with thick aluminium one

3. Rear panel is in a shed load of bits for not a lot of reason... it’s only when you take it apart you realise how many little vented parts

4. Rear exhaust fans, cannot fit dual 140mm - looks like you can but it’s a tiny bit out and the strangely mounted IO shield blocks it

5. The plastic bits... they shouldn’t exist on something like this - you don’t really notice but the front IO panel is plastic and it’s like having a plastic dash on an Aston Martin. Would it really have been so hard to make a more solid metal one

6. One Corsair commander included, so 6 fans in this case yeah? Nice one... I’ve got a second and still not enough if you don’t use splitters

That’s it for now, I’m picky I know. I would probably suggest you get something like a 500D for the first go, or Evolve X - plenty of space to perfect the art... of course you can always go big if you want, just know it comes on a pallet and just fits in your door.
 
Soldato
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Hello strangers :)

I did say it would be a bit slow right but its been a struggle to get time to crack on with this. I'm now at a point where I need to get the new tray made and in the rig so I can start mapping out the distro routes. As previously planned there will be one in the base and one on the space next to the motherboard, the top rads after much messing about I have settled on using a pass through which will pop out the top of the board tray to route the back rad to the plate - there is no easy route for this its quite annoying really. If i'm honest I almost want to leave the top rads, this would make a superb case if about 10cm shorter with just two mega front rads.

Designs as they are, getting all these slots right to fit the existing back and IO tray was a lot of fun...........

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PSU shroud is designed to fit this new toy which I pulled the trigger on, you will be able to see the readout and some of the lit areas:
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While i'm busy measuring a thousand times and printing 1:1 scaled drawings for test fits this kit is all out but all ready to be put it, do I have enough cooling?
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Fingers crossed I can finalise the mounting holes to the case and then its about ready to get made and put in place! In other news i've got a hell of a lot of XSPC fittings which I'm probably not going to use, I'm almost sold on going with some 12mm Barrows and then i'll be bending 12mm copper for the runs to the distro. Its not going back to copper though, once all sections are completed i'll have them out and then send them to be nickel coated locally - possibly even black Nickel for a different look - what do you think?

Cheers!
 
Soldato
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+ Few more advanced designs, white parts are where the distro panels will be and the black are some inserts which will cover the old floor full of old mounting slots and holes:

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Soldato
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wish i had the time (and energy) to do something like this, going to look so good.

It’s more about finding the time when you can, I’ve not been able to do this anywhere near as quick as I’d like but over about 5 months but by bit.

Now it’s just about sitting down the odd day when I can design, measure and repeat for 6 hours like today. Rare but it’s progress ;)
 
Soldato
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Damn son :D, nice design on the tray + covers, i can see a lot of thought and detail gone into it so far!. Will look amazing, they make a massive difference asthetics/cleanliness wise to any build.

And yeah i think you could keep those fans at 400rpm and still have no problem cooling the entire system :p.
 
Soldato
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Oh hello.

What you thought this was over? :D

So this has dragged on due to life etc etc etc blah blah. But, finally after a bit of back and forth my metal parts (see designs above) have been lasered, returned, redesigned, lasered again, finished AND now anodised! Phew. First round of parts from the laser were amazingly almost 100%, I had some cable combs lasered at the same time and the quality was absolute crap which fair play they refunded my entire job. Just as well really, the tray I could have done we 4mm off one end so decided to get it made again, with a few design tweaks worked in. So finally at long last some more snaps for you all... Enjoy:

Reminder of the design I worked up:
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Left is the raw aluminium (first round of laser) and right is my finished piece which was hand finished to a great standard and then anodised locally with the rest of the bits in natural silver:
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Close up:
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Rivet back in to place:
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Install the new Asus Formula X570:
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Showing the colour later at night, the goal was a really flat finish and it certainly looks that.

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Shoved a (spare :D) 2080Ti in with its EK block to see how it looks, tasty. I will need to redesign my bridge though as of course the board is 60mm not 80mm slot gap fml.

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Other things I had anodised to match the tray include the 8pack RAM spreaders, I had a front logo plate lasered in 1mm aAlu, 24 30mm discs to tidy up the rewired eLoops and they look spot on even if I do say so myself..

Logo is still backed by the addressable RGB which shows through the center shape:
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See one fan has the temp disc to tidy the finish:
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New sexy matching RAM:
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Could put the 8Pack shrouds back on but probably wont...
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And that is it for now, feels great to get some stuff in there and now I can finallise the distro plate designs and get those made to finish off this long long LONG project. I did warn you it was a slow one ;)

Love the look so far so well worth the attention to detail!
 
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