Scratch Build: Blu & Red Aluminium - Sponsored by Gelid

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So this is a fun one...

Firstly enjoy the beautiful Gelid Radiant D fans.
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In my enthusiasm for the RGB Radiant D fans I may have been hot swapping them on the COD16 controller and touched the data line of the RGB controls on the 12V line for the fans motor. As you may have already concluded this did not end well. Some of the LEDs immediately turned off and then none of them turned back on when the connector was re-seated. This required some investigative work to find the issue.

Prepped for surgery:
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There was a really awkward retention washer. Took a lot of patients and some good tweezer work to remove.
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We're in!
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Well there's your problem sir...
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Four of the LEDs were burned out. And because they are in series. like Christmas tree lights, none work if the first one's duff. So by shorting the dead ones I managed to prove the good ones were fully operational.
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So now I'm waiting on some replacement WS2812B's to arrive and I'll pop the bad ones off and throw the new ones on. Should be good as new.

Thanks again to Gelid for supplying the goodies!
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Big update time:

Here's a mock up of the rear of the case with the PSU panel and PCI & I/O panel in place. A few extra USB ports on the lower left, because I use a LOT of USB apparently. Along with a 140mm exhaust fan. Gelid Silent 14 of course.
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Another mock up of the reservoirs in place using the mounting bracket made earlier. Just imagine these twice as tall as some 300mm reservoirs are on the way! These two smaller ones may find their way somewhere else in the case when the big ones arrive.
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Both of the radiators were pretty bashed up so I felt they deserved a new coat of paint. Here you can see the damage to the 420mm EK rad.
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All taped up and ready to go.
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Looking a hell of a lot better.
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The 360mm rad was also gloss black so it needed painting anyway.
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Planning out the rest of the loop using old tubing got a bit busy so some 90 degree angles are on the way, which should make it a lot better.
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Who wants a screen on their case! An old tablet I've not used in years will be used to show temps and fans speeds etc.
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The tablet was white, so like everything else, had to be painted!
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Here's a mock up with a lot of the panel in place. Still not sure which paint scheme to use in the end. Will see what inspires me on the day.
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Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Update:
Done a little priming today and put all the panels in the case to get a feel for how it's going to look. Also glued on the magnets for the GPU window.

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Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Wow your'e flying along on this one, look epic... keep up the good work that man!

Yeah, really trying to make the most of my furlough! Thank you very much for the kind words.

Only came in here because i saw Gelid...

i really miss using Gelid GC extreme it was such a fantastic paste such a shame ocuk no longer stock it. Leagues ahead of this grizzly tosh we get thrown in our faces now.

I'm genuinely excited to use the GC extreme. No one seems to talk about it but everything I've read puts it right up there with the best.
 
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Good work here! it's interesting the tablet for temps, i want to see how you connect to the computer!
Also good choose the 140mm fan for PSU

Hopefully via USB cable using wiredxdisplay andriod app.

Update time:
The Gelid Radiant-D fan repair conclusion. The replacement LEDs arrived.
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Removed and cleaned up all the broken LEDs.
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Fitted the new ones. Pretty cool to see the internal controller using the macro lens.
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All up and working first time!
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Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Update on the VEGA56 watercooling.

This has been a bit of a saga unfortunately. So I decided to make a custom shroud to be able to re-use the stock fan alongside the water block on the GPU. This would also allow for some nice RGB to be mounted around the GPU. Here's how it went.

Cut the acrylic to size:
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Add some heat and bend it into shape.
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Cut a hole for the water block. At this point I totally forgot that the mounting hardware would interfere with the shroud so had not cut holes.
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Cut a rough hole for the fan.
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Tidy everything up and it's looking quite nice.
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The most satisfying part. Sanding to create the satin finish. Went with 400 grit to get a really smooth finish.
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At this point I realised the mounting hardware had not been accounted for so had to make adjustments.
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The final result:
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I think it looks awesome and with some RGB behind it will glow beautifully.

Only one problem. When I went to put this ex-mining (most likely the cause) card back on the motherboard to leak test it... error 43 (something went wrong), the most generic of them all. There is an output to one screen but not multiple monitors and nothing 3D can be done. Okay I thought, this can be solved. After spending 16 hours over 2 days trying absolutely everything on any forum or article I could find about removing drivers and fresh windows installs, even trying Ubuntu at one point, I gave up and declared it RIP. All this work and nothing to show :(.

So the hunt is on for a new GPU. For which I will plan to make a similar shroud depending on what cooling is already installed. This time I'll be well practiced and better at it!

Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Got a few fittings in a couple of days ago. Mostly right angles along with two temperature probes, which will connect to the motherboard and be used to control the fan speeds on the push/pull radiator fans.

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Also took delivery of two 300mm reservoirs! They look amazing, and huge next to the 150mm ones I already had.

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Here's them sitting in the mounting brackets.
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Also wired up the power button.
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And yet to make up the headphone jack for the front panel.
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Speaking of the push pull fans on the radiators. The motherboard doesn't have enough fan headers to control 17 fans that will be in the case so I made up some distro headers for the radiator fans. Takes six fans and connects them to a single header on the motherboard. One distro board for each radiator fan set so they can be controlled independently. I had the taco feedback connected to the fan connected closest to the input so the motherboard has some feedback, and all the fans are running from the same PWM output source.
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These will me mounted in the back corner of the case so no need to spray them or anything as they will never be seen.

Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Time for an update. Decided to learn a new skill in developing the water cooling for this build. Never used hardline before so this was fun.

All bending done freehand. None of these fancy custom tools!

4 x 1m of tube.
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The first bend on the left did not go very well, however the second on the right was a big improvement.
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Lined up.
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A few adjustments later:
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It fits!
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The tube from the pump to the CPU block was a real fun one!
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A wild third reservoir appears! Two big ones left a huge gap so I thought I'd fill it with a smaller res. What do you think?

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Then to the drainage port. This was what I came up with from all the parts I had available. It's quite bulky though so I'd like to make it smaller by using a male to male threaded part instead of the fitting + tubing + fitting.

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Also you get a sneaky peak of the new (to me) GPU after the Vega56 died. 1070 TI is the replacement.

Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Here's the latest. I was testing the RGB distribution PCB's compatibility with the Aorus motherboard RBG output. Removing the arduino controller and running the MOSFETs directly from the motherboard seemed to work, but the colours were all coming out as the opposite! This is because the signals were being inverted by the MOSFETs, so I tried driving the LEDs directly from the motherboard and it fixed the issue although the red was a little on the orange side.
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Looking at the scope signal and taking a very low exposure picture of the LED I could tell the green LED was still slightly on when the motherboard thought it was off.
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An additional pull up to the green LED driver line fixed the problem and the red was looking red again. If you compare the two pictures of the LED you can see in this one there is only one die illuminated, the red. As opposed to above where the green is very slightly on as well.
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Also added a side mounted connector for the motherboard cable.
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Thanks again to Gelid for the support!
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Looks awesome! do you have enough wires/resistors/transistors ect ect? i have a big box of "breadboard" stuff if you need any?

Wow that's incredibly kind of you! I think I have enough to get me to the end of this project though, finally getting to use some of the stuff I've been holding on to for the past decade.
 
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Wow that's incredibly kind of you! I think I have enough to get me to the end of this project though, finally getting to use some of the stuff I've been holding on to for the past decade.


No problem :) Same problem here haha i try to be careful with my bits so they are usually usable for many projects!

If you do find your missing something don't hesitate to ask!
 
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Looking good!

Would love to have a crack at a scratch build one day, but for the foreseeable at least i have neither the skills, nor the tools to learn the skills!

Love the triple res setup, i must admit it took me a second to get my head around it, i see dual or triple res and instantly think dual loop, and given the red/blue theme i kinda assumed that's what you would do here! Should look great all filled though!
 
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Looking good!

Would love to have a crack at a scratch build one day, but for the foreseeable at least i have neither the skills, nor the tools to learn the skills!

Love the triple res setup, i must admit it took me a second to get my head around it, i see dual or triple res and instantly think dual loop, and given the red/blue theme i kinda assumed that's what you would do here! Should look great all filled though!

Thanks :).

Two loops is indeed the plan. Blue for GPU and red for CPU.

I had never done a scratch case before this one. Lots of learning and mistakes. That's what it's all about!
 
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Thanks :).

Two loops is indeed the plan. Blue for GPU and red for CPU.

I had never done a scratch case before this one. Lots of learning and mistakes. That's what it's all about!

When i have moved house, got my garage set up as a workshop, bought my dream motor, and have time...... THEN ill be able to haha

So which loop is getting 2 res? Red or Blue? decisions decisions!

Love the panel work, looks spot on that fella.
 
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