ALUMIA by JR23

[JR23]

@JR23

Looking SWEET!

with the heatsinks, might go against the either or colour scheme but painted black with the top of the fins brushed/sanded to reveal the silver underneath?
Have some sort of Grill effect. If they had a higher fin array would have matched the ram perfectly, but just looks a bit chunky

I did do that first actually, it looked amazing but just way too Harley for this. I'll see soon how visible they are with the cards in place and figure it out from there, I think it will need to be something subtle not trying to steal attention when it's half hidden.

JR

 

[orbitalwalsh]

im guessing if left silver/metal maybe chromed/nickeled to give it a bit more shine ?

 

[JR23]

I said something about a case soon I know but I had to see how the cards looked on the board, just because all that brushed black aluminium together.

Ok, now maybe just a little look at the case too, USA! The third major part to be sent from California, well not to me, I got it from Romania.

I don't plan to keep the powder coat, so I thought it most appropriate that it should start off white just like the silver arrows.

Now time to start thinking what to do with it, most urgently I need to find space for rads and there just so happens to be a huge well ventilated and isolated chamber ready to go. Even a little extra width for some other stuff next to the PSU.

The E-ATX Classified drops in no problem, sort of.

In front of the motherboard tray there was an extra little cable tidy which fitted back in the wrong way around quite neatly.

The first placement i'm 100% set on! The Aquaero's have definitely got to go up here at the back.

And the second 240mm radiator quite logically placed in the front.

Some things that definitely won't be positioned as anyone anticipated are the USB3.0 and auxiliary PCIe power, because i'm pretty sure they won't fit inside the case. Starting to make 7-slot seem weird, but i'm all about saving space and not having USB headers.

RAD > CPU > GPU

Missed until now, EK's very stealthy backplates.

So, I think that's all the things

Yeah, definitely no chance of front fans while using standard length cards, i'd say getting a flat front bracket cut and countersinking the rad screws might just net enough space for slim fans.

Definitely do need all 4 memory heatsinks, the hierarchy is just right.

So a lot of things i'm starting to figure out, pump/reservoir placement not so much, maybe infront of the PSU. To actually fit front fans and have room to route tubing i'm definitely going to need to extend the case just a bit. I knew that all along and I do desperately want to get rid of the windows and hideous holes for handles that ruin the look of the case. Thanks handle people, you killed it for everyone. But then do I make it significantly longer to fit a 360 and start putting parts inbetween the motherboard and the radiator. Many decisions to go...

JR​

 

[orbitalwalsh]

looks really good!

not to sure how you ordered up the BH7 but are you able to install a 240 at the top end of the mobo ( CPU Power cables might be a pain) or on the top panel (but does cover view from above of the CPU/RAM) ?

Seen some stunners with windows replaced for Custom Acrylic Reservoirs

 

[LePhuronn]

Awesome as always. Personally I'd keep the M.2 sinks in raw aluminium. Not for the aesthetic quality (because you can't see them), but for a thought process in keeping with your design inspiration: would a designer in the 30's put an unnecessary layer on a heat-dissipating component?

 

[ubersonic]

How did you convince EK to sell you a separate/second GPU block? I've been asking them for weeks but nothing lol.

 

[JR23]

looks really good!

not to sure how you ordered up the BH7 but are you able to install a 240 at the top end of the mobo ( CPU Power cables might be a pain) or on the top panel (but does cover view from above of the CPU/RAM) ?

Seen some stunners with windows replaced for Custom Acrylic Reservoirs

It's just a standard BH7, the only style bestcase has. The only place actually intended to mount rads is straight above the motherboard so it's too short overall to have one at the front. It would be tall enough to fit one on the side above the EPS connectors however that would clash with the front and top mounts. Although I don't want to have any windows at all I also don't want to cover the CPU area so it can be displayed and photographed without the top part of the clam shell.

Awesome as always. Personally I'd keep the M.2 sinks in raw aluminium. Not for the aesthetic quality (because you can't see them), but for a thought process in keeping with your design inspiration: would a designer in the 30's put an unnecessary layer on a heat-dissipating component?

You can see them a little bit and the bright aluminium throws some light back up across the blocks. Definitely not black or painted but there are still many options. They do look pretty good right now though. Also plan to remove the terminal covers from the cards to show the cast part of the GPU blocks.

How did you convince EK to sell you a separate/second GPU block? I've been asking them for weeks but nothing lol.

I didn't, I have two entire kits check page 1 separate things will come soon. I've been asking for months

JR

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Mmm, would you be able to stack the two rads at the bottom one on top of the other ?

No fittings are a bit limited having to be aluminium or acetal but would solve space issues and leave upstairs clean .
Plus would make for some cool engineering to get a rig mount for it

 

[JR23]

Time for a very peculiar installment, I was hoping to have a little more design work done but i've been relentlessly busy with work away from home. Sooo instead just lots of weird stuff. Last weekend Dave from bit-tech came over to nosey around my place and chat modding (go find the article on my social media). Anyway he was desperate to play with my lathe so I set him up doing something useful!

For now the ACF style 10/13mm fittings are EK's only aluminium offering, 13mm OD was a limitation I really didn't want on this project as EK don't have a ZMT that small and it's just too thin walled for my liking. So my plan was to turn off the compression ring threads and use them as simple barbs.

Off to the shed me and Dave went! Using an old pass through fitting to easily hold them true in the chuck without risk of damaging the 1/4" threads.

With and without threads removed. I didn't take off all the material purposefully to make sure the tubing didn't flare over the taper and bunch back in.

It's me! Doing a concentrate.

Mine and Dave's completed EK Aluminum 10mm barbs!

Conveniently enough to try out one tubing run.

Right, now the weirdness of me appearing in my own project log is over lets move on to my equally odd mail.

If memory heatsinks weren't a significant throwback today we are going way further to a style of hose clamp popular 50 or more years ago. I was inspecting the hose clamps of the Auto Unions best I could in photographs and noticed they were far from the screw/gear/srping types typically used today. The closest ones I stumbled across belonged to early Mercedes W113 SL's moments before contacting Mercedes classic parts I found these on a website in the Netherlands.

Surprisingly simple they consist of a small buckle, a cotter pin and a roll of thin steel ribbon which can be cut to any length.
​

With a scrap of 10/16mm ZMT I tried one out, first the ribbon is folded over the buckle. then wrapped around the tube once and under the cotter pin with the cut edge facing out.

After completing a second loop the ribbon passes back out through the split of the cotter pin ready to be trimmed down.

Trimmed....

Then simply tightened by coiling the loose end around the cotter pin.

With the method nailed down it actually proved far less fiddly than I expected on such small diameter tubing. So I unraveled my test piece and cut off two strips the correct length.

And there we have it.

I'm really enjoying this project! <3 The combination of minimalistic fittings, oversize ZMT and old school hose clamps strike the perfect balance between elegant PC hardware and the automotive inspiration. Hopefully I can tear myself away from building PC's long enough to work on building this PC a little more next week but if it all goes this well then i'm not too worried. Thanks to Dave for your work on the project and some of the shed pics.

JR​

 

[OJ46]

Really love the attention to detail in this build (as per usual!) JR, coming along very nicely

 

[LePhuronn]

Saw the lathe work on Dave's bit-tech article and I was a gibbering fangirl then, but holy f-bomb those hose clamps are lush!

 

[mods1965]

I never thought I will see a build with barbs and clamps that I liked. Excellent work.

 

[JR23]

Just a fast written update to let you all know that the project is still going strong, I just had to slow down and get some other builds done before LAN but I will be taking this with me, just air cooled with the stock case. It was a fair few parts short of being a full build so today I set that all straight and bought all the outstanding gear. Inbound is an EVGA Supernova 1000T2, 4x8GB 4133MHz C18 Team Group Xtreem '8 Pack Edition', a 5.2GHz bin 7700k and another HyperX Predator 960GB. (OP updated) Hopefully the Noctua parts are arriving just in time too!

I was hoping to use a Silverstone PSU as usual however supply of 1000W+ units seems to be extremely limited at this moment so I deviated a little to EVGA. Much like the tubing the cables will be of a more purposeful style, not the flat parallel affair that's fashionable so the pinout wasn't super critical.

Pretty sure that's everything! It's going to be a mad rush to insomnia now but i'll try to sneak some pics in as I get everything together.

JR

 

[Dicehunter]

Damn JR, Those memory heatsinks look amazing !!!

 

[Aneskimo]

Damn JR, Those memory heatsinks look amazing !!!

+1 on the heatsinks, they look very cool and very different!

 

[ubersonic]

Hey man, awesome thread and build

Just wanted to ask, do you think converting the compression fittings into barbs is something any metalwork shop could do? And how much would you expect them to charge for it?

The lack of barbs is currently the one thing holding me off going in with the EK alu gear.

 

[JR23]

The good news since the last update is that I made it to LAN with ALUMIA, the bad news is I had to take my studio area apart to build PC's for a few weeks. Builds which I can't take photographs of, not only because I have no backdrop and lighting but also because I have no time whatsoever, because i'm building them.

Slight catch 22 but hopefully at the end of it all I can improve my photography setup and have some extra funds to frivolously squander on the outstanding parts for this project. So far i've completed 8 of the builds and there are 10 more to go, so probably another 3-4 weeks before my space can return to relative normality.

Oh and PARVUM APIS dropped by again, sadly in need of a new PSU as the original 1200P2 wouldn't turn on, so I let TJ borrow ALUMIA. I think it must've been pretty good as he ordered a replacement PSU on the slowest possible delivery service, still APIS is back running with no dramatic failures.

LAN (insomnia61) already seems like a distant memory although it was an awesome weekend filled with almost no game time at all, lots of chicken was eaten, films watched and probably more time was spent battling in 3dmark than any other virtual universe.

www.3dmark.com/fs/13478193

Even in air cooled spec ALUMIA decimated, hitting 5.0ghz on a retail 7700k without delid under a Noctua NH-L12. Cards peaked at 2063/3002mhz with the FE blowers. Still a couple thousand points to get with the right CPU and water but sufficient for a weekends 'gaming' nevertheless.

So I really can't say when the next update will be, some more Fluid Gaming parts are landing from EK any day now. When they do i'll start to draft case changes but it will probably be a little while before serious photos resume.

JR​

 

[8 Pack]

Looking good Joe.

 

[JR23]

Well the build is still together on air going out to LAN's and ripping some serious frames, it will stay like that until i've finished R1.0 INDUSTRIAL, a couple weeks hopefully. But I do have a little cache of parts that i've yet to post in the thread, namely these Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-24V-3000 Q100 IP67 PWM. Catchy name, take note it's all important!

Now if you've scrolled through 3 fan pics and are starting to get a little bored, itching to find another thread or open facebook again in your 27th chrome tab. Please do, because you don't deserve the next part...

...what's dis...

...ahhh yee!

See I wasn't just ignoring ALUMIA! I'd been busy creating the artwork for these acid etched aluminum plates, not stickers, nor are the original Noctua plates incidentally.

Google translate as well as my German and Dutch friend tell me they make some grammatical sense, but most importantly to me they are visually just right! I went with Rascom (Noctua's parent company) because Rascom Computerdistribution was much longer!

Anyway, mounted in their Doppel configuration to the EK-AluStream 240.

I'm loving ALUMIA, can't wait to tear down the air config and play with all the Fluid Gaming kit. See you all soon on one thread or anther

JR​

 

[8 Pack]

Good work mate. Looking really solid.