An Akasa Eclipse slow build ZZZAC

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 15:37

Right. Lets start of with a bit of background... because i can, and ive been away from the forums a while

I got an akasa for my first build a couple of crimbo's ago
Ended up with 8 cores of xeon for a stupidly good price, and ended getting a drip of electrically conductive thermal paste in LGA 771 cpu socket pins. Never snapped a piccy of this build but id still be using it now if i didn't bork the board
So i set of and sold the cpu's and went to an amd setup Got a Phenom II Zosma 970T quad core and an msi board (witch i must mention i was advised not to get). So by April i had a rig working again, i installed windows 7 and the proceeded to the bios. I hastly unlocked it to a 6 core, and shoved it up to 4ghz without any need of a voltage bump... Temps were good as well, or they seemed good for the 10 minutes i prime95'ed it before the board exploded, being a rookie i sent the cpu back to the ebayer to test and it never found its way back to me, though the board was replaced by a asus (found out when i got a cpu how splodgey this board was)

Anyway, My akasa with the best cpu ive ever owned (6 cores 4ghz no extra voltage) in its early days (before getting a good gpu and heatsink)

So im actually very proud of that rig for a first attempt though i do see why i shouldn't have been so ignorant and got a motherboard with better power phases. because then most likely id still be using that zosma chip.

So with no cpu i scrounged for ages and picked up a phenom II x3 during that summer and found my board had a lot of chipset issues (bga solder and overheating, causing lots of issues)
At this point i also gave my akasa to a mate and used a CM stacker (horrible case)

eventually early this year i got the money to drop on over to intell.
I got a sandybridge I5 (2310, as i got it half the price of a 2500k) and got a brand new gigabyte z68xud5 B3 motherboard, And soon after picked up a DCII 7950 (desing fualted so asus have kindly offered to replace it.....after i showed them how many trading standards they were breaching with this single card and threatened to take legal action)
and had a Solar eclipse donated to me by one very kind gent (setter on OCUK forums)
and dropped my system in and gave the stacker to another friend.

and here it is

Anyway, as you notice its sort of a solar eclipse and sort of not... its had half of it replaced with a normal eclipse, and eventually i managed to source a black chassis (ironicaly the one from my first akasa) after we took the motherboard tray and put it in an xps 700 case.
So.. Here i go again, im doing some modding to the akasa and another project log for you guys, and remember, its sure to disappointing and be slow moving...

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 15:51

So.... Here is my rig at the moment, and this is how its been for the past 2 months (dont ask)

So.... here it goes again, i have to strip my rig, tidy my components from dust, and rebuild it into my akasa again.. but first... some modding.
but guys... dont worry
i have fuel

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:04

So... in the corner of my room i has these

Ones missing a motherboard tray so its mainly just spares.
So, im going with the black one and the black panels (may well get carbon wrapped or white carbon wrapped after christmas)

But due to my 2006 enermax galaxy being massive the akasa didnt really give it the airflow it needed (no ventilation atall in the eclipse for the galaxy. Due to the psu's size the stock akasa cuts of about 60% of the fan.)
the top panned had already been modded by a previous owner (the one that had it before i had it the first time round) and it was very jagged. So i set out sizing things up and decided it would be well covered by a 120.2rad grill and will allow the psu to get a intake of cool air.
So i got down to marking things up

I also decided to mod the motherboard tray in it for proper cable management, so i marked that up for cutting too, although the marking was pretty skewed.

There were also a couple of cuts marked for the chassis as well to make cable management easier and give me the option to have the psu fan side down. But i forgot to take a picture of these.

BuZ · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:08

Nice project

Haha, nice fuel xD

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:10

So yesterday i made an attempt to get some cuts done!
i got everything set up in the hope id get allot done before dark.
But as id taken everything out into the porch and set it up, before i even got a cutting disk on the dremel it started badly raining.

Attempt number 2 happened today, i went out in the hope it wouldn't happen again.
I got this far

It started drizzling so i took everything back in, within 10 more minutes it was thundering and heavily raining.... so i decided to give up for the day in the guess it was going to persist with awful weather.

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:11

BuZ said:
Nice project Haha, nice fuel xD

<3 macro

cheers, its going to be updated frequently untill tonight and then slow right up!

setter · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:12

Look forward to seeing how this pans out. One thing i love about the 62 is the excellent slide out mobo tray.

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:19

So.. after giving up it sundenly became sunny again! and i gave it one last shot!
It maintained enough to get the cuts done!
So here is the motherboard tray, It was Very frustrating to cut being very strong steel. and the cuts arnt tidy but again as mentioned before the cuts may get u channeled and at least neatened out allot when im doing the finishing touches!

so there are the cuts, and yes one is very skew!
So the purpose?

and the motherboard tray will be properly polished nearing the end of the project.
its an old case, it needs polishing to its former glory... then youll be able to get a better view of my face

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:20

setter said:
Look forward to seeing how this pans out. One thing i love about the 62 is the excellent slide out mobo tray.

Cheers setter, this wouldnt be happening without your help!
so your imput and ideas are always welcome!!

Means allot from you!

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:30

So... i also got the top panel second 120mm hole cut, though this was challenging to someone with little dremel experience it will be covered properly by a grill and filter so, the results after the magic happened

again, it needs tidying but i don't have a rounded hand file and it will get properly tidied when i get one.
The quality of the cut seemed to get worse as i went round, witch is odd!.
I also got the cuts to the chassis done, so yeah, within a break in the rain i got all the cuts i need done!

again, pretty bad cuts, but nothing a file cant sort out
And finely the biggun!

surprisingly this came out aright, though i did use a small angle grinder for this rather than a dremel.

I dont think my cat was to impressed by the cuts made though :confused:

And that's where im leaving it till the late evening guys! cuts made and will be tidied later to finishing.
Now i think its time to get the move done!

juno12 · 16 Dec 2012 at 18:21

ZZZAC said:

I think i should try something like that soon

Skeese · 16 Dec 2012 at 19:55

Will be following

Still using my Eclipse

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 20:31

There will be a nice long update shortly

And yes Juno! as long as you dont have the three hole board tray
Also the tray is allota work to get through being steel so takes a few discs

T345 · 16 Dec 2012 at 20:43

A ZZZAC win???

d_brennen · 16 Dec 2012 at 20:46

What kind of cutting disks are you using ZZZAC?

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 20:58

Right, so, i tore down my old build in record time, amazed at how i got everything in that case!
Size comparison shot

The akasa is a good amount taller and possibly double the width of the beige case i was using

Temporary means of internetings

So if the case is empty.. where's all the hardware :confused:

angled shot?

And you know its been a while when your old thermal paste has set

TTL sized MX2 Tube to the rescue!

ever wonder what the second hole under the motherboard was for?

AND SUPER TIDY!

all of a sudden, a wild cat appears! Dam she is nosy!

Ram, GPU, Wifi, Sound card

Tray goes in

Cables get messy

Temporary means of hard drive cage? :confused:

Fully built?

Cabling shot

And i forgot to drill holes

new there was sumink i was missing, Rad grill to be purchased after crimbo i guess, should cover the mess a bit!

Excuse the fingerprints!

Powered on shot

and finely here she sits and purrs (Cat reference!, see what i did there?

)
Thats all for now, ill probably writeup my future plans in a bit and post them!
Any thoughts ideas or things you think i should do?
Hope you enjoy the pics

ZZZAC · 16 Dec 2012 at 21:01

d_brennen said:
What kind of cutting disks are you using ZZZAC?

1/2 inch aluminium oxide reinforced cutting discs, whyd you ask? were pretty cheap though, got hit in the face by a couple of explosive ones :mad:

T345 said:
A ZZZAC win???

Thanks, Call it that if you will

T345 · 16 Dec 2012 at 21:09

ZZZAC said:
1/2 inch aluminium oxide reinforced cutting discs, whyd you ask? were pretty cheap though, got hit in the face by a couple of explosive ones

Thanks, Call it that if you will

Did you sleeve the cables? Or buy extensions?

juno12 · 16 Dec 2012 at 21:12

now i would definitely go with a fan like the one in the link to match with the cable extensions. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-002-CS

d_brennen · 16 Dec 2012 at 21:19

ZZZAC said:
1/2 inch aluminium oxide reinforced cutting discs, whyd you ask? were pretty cheap though, got hit in the face by a couple of explosive ones

Thanks, Call it that if you will

I've always found fibreglass reinforced disks to be better suited to metal sheet. Less bang bang eye loss too