Build Gallery for Cy

nightkhaos

nightkhaos

nightkhaos

Associate
Joined
6 May 2009
Posts
78
Location
Glasgow
Yes, Cy. I like to give my computers names, I'm one of those people, posting this from my MacBook Pro, Voyager, while uploading various documents for backup to my server, Deep Space 9.

Anyway, the point. I, and my friend, Andi, are in the process of building me a gaming rig. For the moment we are waiting for various components to arrive so that construction may begin.

What we currently have is the heatsink, which I had to order from overseas because I got it before it became available on OCUK, (and by before, I mean six hours) and a B-Grade RC-1100 Cosmos S.

Without further ado, I Present the Build Gallery.

Me and Andi will of course update this thread when changes are made, i.e., when the various boxes of goodies arrive on Monday and pictures are posted on the gallery.

As discussed in the thread by Andi about the two cases we bought, there are a few things we needed to do the case, that is buy some sound proofing, extra fans, and most importantly, modify the left panel so that the damned heat-sink would actually fit in the case.

I ordered a piece of polycarbonate off the internets, 2 mm thick, to replace the fan mount, and then spray painted it black. This was required so that 1) when you looked into the case you won't see the backside of the sound proofing, and 2) because the side panel has a insert that is held down by the fan mount.

It came out quite well, as you can see, however the polycarbonate edges are a bit rough. But that doesn't matter because they will be covered up by the sound proofing later on.

Well here is the components we have ordered.

nightkhaosbuildv1.png


There is also an order for some replacement parts for the case (we got it B-grade) as well as sound proofing. I'm also getting a Logitech T6100 speaker set and a Coolermaster 4 in 3 hard drive bay.
 
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The case side looks good, m8. That case side should fit perfectly and be nice and quiet when we are done with it.

With any luck we should have it a built early next week, it really depends if we wait for the coolermaster parts. Hopefully we should have some more pictures soon.

PS I suggested "Fluffykins" as the name, I have no idea why he didn't go with it.

*Update 1* - Case exterior Complete

dscf1088f.jpg


*Update 2* - Components Arrived

dscf1097v.jpg


*Update 3* - Its built :)

dscf1140a.jpg
 
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You're fortunate to have Andi advising you. I built my first one based on guesswork and a motherboard manual, it could have gone so much better with help :). The words sound proofing in the OP got my attention

What do you have in mind so far? You're probably aware that sound proofing is one of the last steps in making a computer quiet really. If you have high speed fans and hard drives vibrating all over the place no amount of foam will save it.

Here's a sadly dead thread I started about mass loading a case. It lowers the frequency it vibrates at, making noises less annoying and pushing a fair few of them off the bottom of the audible spectrum. I'm still playing with this, the top panel is never going to vibrate again. I have to use a screwdriver to lever it off. I think this is interesting, not sure people here knew what to make of it though. Still to locate some foam for absorbing airborne sound.

Look forward to what you do with this. A solid side panel is a good start. Any hope you're putting water in it?

p.s. I name my computers too. I have jon-nas, jon-svr and used to have jon-eee and jon-nc10. I'm less imaginative than you it seems :(
 
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Hi Jon, I think nighkhaos may be away so i'm happy to answer.

Aye, the sound proofing is not going to help too much at the moment (its going to have 7 stock coolermaster fans, 2 noctuas and a gtx 295 single pcb) so it will be quite loud and the foam won't be needed. But the plan is to replace all the case fans with noctuas (a mix of P12s and S12Bs and add a 3rd party cooler onto the gtx295 if/when they are released). With that kind of system, the sound proofing should help keep noise to a minimum.

I currently have a standard cosmos (comes with foam on the sides) with only noctua fans and it is lovely and quiet - much quieter than my old stacker 831 with exactly the same system.

I had a look at that thread, there is a lot of good stuff there. I will look to it in future if i want to drop the decibels :) BTW, mass loading sounds awesome.

At the moment the PC will be running on high end air (Megahalems + noctua), but the case is certainly suited for water, so it is a definite future possibility.
 
Hey man. Exciting reply. It's not going to be subtle to start with then, running a 295 quietly will be quite a challenge. 7 stock coolermaster fans will be quite something at 12V as well. I'm assuming a P12 on the cooler, S12s on the case, fan controller of some sort?

What about the hard drives? If they're few in number, suspending seems to be the best solution. They don't make much noise directly, but make the case vibrate otherwise. This might be displaying ignorance about your case, but there are worse sins. Mass loading helps a lot with this (cheers for the compliment :) ), but it does make carrying the case around rather harder. The water cooling doesn't help with this either, but probably does make the case less prone to vibrations.

How about water for the graphics card, air for the processor? Fewer radiators, removes the loudest thing in the system. Water on the processor is perhaps excessive if theres a Megahalem around. Probably isn't a 295 water block out though. Perhaps a 285 instead? Or two 275s?
 
TBH its going to be a hoover in the beginning, i'll have to be careful not to get sucked into it. But yea, initially it will have two noctua P12s on the CPU cooler, then in a month or so all the case fans will be changed out for noctuas.

I was wondering which ones; I heard P12s for intake and S12(B) for exhaust would be a good idea to create positive pressure in the case (which I think could help with dust). Have you heard anything about this, or am I speaking rubbish?

The HDDs are going to be two 1TB WD caviar Blacks. Right now they are going in a coolermaster 4 in 3 bay, which should hold them and keep them cool (not exactly required but I hear it helps). I am intrigued about suspending the drives, is it particularly hard to do and can you safely move the case about?

I think a graphics loop may be a good idea - I think EVGA have released a single PCB 295 water block, so it should be reasonably simple to do (if somewhat expensive).

Thanks very much for your input, you have given me and Nightkhoas (when he gets back) a lot to think about.
 
Hi thanks for your replies. Water cooling tends to be a bit expense, and my budget is already stretched quite far (when I initially starting saving and planning for this build, about two months ago, I budgeted £1000. As you can see, that budget has been exceeded a tiny fraction). However, I may seriously consider it if I can find some extra monies.

In a few moments I will be updating the first post with a OCUK shopping cart containing the proposed internals.

I am aware that on it's initial state the likelihood the sound proofing will make any difference is well, negligible, but we have ordered it anyway, and will probably mount it as well, because, as Andi said, we intend to replace the fans better ones later on.

I waited specifically for the Single PCB 295 because finding AM coolers for it will be easier than the dual PCB. I am considering under-clocking it slightly until I get a new cooler for it. It all depends on how loud it is.

Fortunately over-clocking the CPU is very possible, even when we consider the crappy case fans. Of course I wouldn't be able to get a cool and stable 4.0 GHz until the update, but 3.6 to 3.8 will be more than enough to start.

Any recommendations for fan controllers for my cooling upgrade?
 
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Got to smile at the word hoover. When aircooled, my girlfriend complained that it was going to eat her and her dog hated it. Wonderful. Positive pressure is quite a good idea. It makes more sense than negative pressure. The reasoning of stronger fans on the intake makes sense at first glance, but I suspect it to be flawed. Back shortly: see edit

I'm in the camp of 'block off all the vent holes' myself, going for directed airflow rather than blowing it all over the place. As long as I set this up sensibly it should be better, but it is very prone to user error.

Suspending isn't too hard. Don't use elastic bands, they fail in the heat. Silentpcreview have really extensive guides on this. The most sensible way Ive seen is screwing noraml 6mm hard drive screws partway into all 8 mounting holes and weaving elastic cord through the holes of a 5.25" bay and between the protruding screws. Then tighten the screws down on the elastic, washers would significantly improve this. If you go down this route, you'll be able to shake the case and it wont matter. Definietely worth a play, oenp driver per 5.25" bay works well. A fan in front is also good, cooler drives last longer and make less noise.

I'm fond of evga. Wish Id registered my 8800gt for the lifetime warranty, but sadly forgot to. They seem to charge over the odds for cards with water blocks though, perhaps wait for Ek to release one? I doubt it would take much in terms of radiators to conclusively beat the stock cooler, and the 5.25" bay res/pump would probably do. Would make for a very clean and fairly cheap loop after the cost of the card.

edit: Yep, flawed. The P fan has higher pressure but lower airflow. The S ones have higher airflow. You would actually want the S ones on the front, and the P ones on the back to attempt positive pressure. Even then it's not going to be significant, you'll do better with all S for case fans and one or two P ones for the cpu cooler. Positive pressure through more intake fans than exhaust is likely to work better than trying to balance the fans against each other anyway.

I'm using scythe s-flex instead. As far as I can tell, the P12 is better than them for a cpu cooler, the S12 is better than them for a case fan. But the S-flex can be used for either. mine used to be on a true and as case fans, now they're all on radiators. In fairness, the P12 can also be used for either. It's just the idea of a dedicated case fan that I dislike

I recommend using no fan controller, save yourself the drive bay and the hassle of turning dials. The computer is quite capable of controlling fan speed precisely through software or roughly through the bios, or you can just run them all at 7V and have done with it. Sometime I'll make a switch that goes between 7V and 12V, but Id run many fans off it and probably leave it inside the case
 
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Thanks Jon. We may not mount the 4 in 3 and just suspend the drives directly in this case. I'll talk to Andi, and we'll see how much the amendment will cost me.

edit: I noticed you said only S fans for the case fans. This is quite interesting, I'll make a note of it. We are already using P fans for the cooler.

Would you be able to price out a single loop for the graphics card for me? I want to know much it is going to cost me?
 
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Cheers for the response. As I mentioned, I'm not sure about the fan arrangement, the p12s shouldn't have a faster flowrate than the S12B, just a higher pressure at the exhaust, but if its not going to help then I guess S12Bs throughout would be a better plan. I think I will make a good airflow plan before we get the noctuas - as I agree that blowing it anywhere is not a good idea. Better to have fewer fans and a wind tunnel that a crazy hurricane.

The suspending idea sound great now you describe it. When nightkhaos adds all the "silent kit", suspending the drives is going to have to be on the list.

I just had a quick search for GTX 295 single PCB waterblocks - there seem to be a few about already. They are quite expensive, but it is certainly a viable option. Add in a reasonable watercooling loop, it should make for a sweet system - Nighkhaos just needs to get the monies :D

Thanks again for the help :)
 
Changing to elastic will cost you a few screws which you almost certainly already have, and about £ of elastic from a fabric shop. Suspending drives costs no money, but some space.

It depends a bit on how cold you want the card to be.
Pump at 25
Radiator at 55ish
Tubing is a couple of quid. 6 barbs at about 2 quid each. 90p for a litre of coolant. Probably just over 15 quid, easily under 20 for fittings, tubes and coolant.

So I think somewhere shy of a hundred for the loop, except for the graphics block. That depends on graphics card, and whether you buy the evga prefitted one. The above loop will do just fine for the graphics card, but the pump wont do multiple blocks and radiators. The laing ddc is much better, but comes in at around 50 quid more as a result. There are intermediates also. So yeah, cost goes up Im afraid.

Its no problem at all, I'm fond of quiet computers. Everyone solves problems differently, I'm definitely interested in how you arrange airflow in the case.

edit: the fan question is a tricky one, I had to check noctuas website to be sure. The S series definitely pushes more air at lower pressure. It occurs you were depending on the pressure difference between the fans to create the postive pressure. I think the fans are too far apart, with too much mass of air inbetween for the pressure difference to mean anything. They're both essentially pushing into no resistance, so raw airflow will win out. The pressure difference will follow from this I think. The pressure of a fan is almost negligible compared to atmospheric, I feel I should be able to produce maths to back this up but I'm failing to. Perhaps someone will educate/correct me on this. Matching case fans throughout is definitely a safer bet, though you could always test different combinations. I'd like to see the results if you do
 
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JonJ678 said:
Changing to elastic will cost you a few screws which you almost certainly already have, and about £ of elastic from a fabric shop. Suspending drives costs no money, but some space.

It depends a bit on how cold you want the card to be.
Pump at 25
Radiator at 55ish
Tubing is a couple of quid. 6 barbs at about 2 quid each. 90p for a litre of coolant. Probably just over 15 quid, easily under 20 for fittings, tubes and coolant.

So I think somewhere shy of a hundred for the loop, except for the graphics block. That depends on graphics card, and whether you buy the evga prefitted one. The above loop will do just fine for the graphics card, but the pump wont do multiple blocks and radiators. The laing ddc is much better, but comes in at around 50 quid more as a result. There are intermediates also. So yeah, cost goes up Im afraid.

Its no problem at all, I'm fond of quiet computers. Everyone solves problems differently, I'm definitely interested in how you arrange airflow in the case.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we have already order the GPU and it is en-route, so it can't be the BFG/EVGA pre-fitted ones. It will have to be an aftermarket one. So we're looking at about £150-£200 for a loop, which is about what I expected. I think I can budget for it, it just means my cooling update may have to wait a month longer than I originally intended. (End of August was my goal).

How hard is to suspend the drives for someone who has never done it before? Space isn't a problem, we were intending to use 3 slots for the the 4 in 3 anyway, so this actually results in a space saving!
 
I just had a quick look for prices of GTX 295 single PCB waterblocks. They seem to be costing between 130 - 160 US dollars, which will probably mean £90-£120 when they get over here. Still - for cooling a super powerful dual GPU chip with water, it is likely worth the expense in the long run.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I just had a quick look for prices of GTX 295 single PCB waterblocks. They seem to be costing between 130 - 160 US dollars, which will probably mean £90-£120 when they get over here. Still - for cooling a super powerful dual GPU chip with water, it is likely worth the expense in the long run.
Click to expand...

*sigh* If I'd know and I had monies I would have got one with the water block straight off, they only cost about £20 than the air cooling ones!

edit: and I misread the price... make that £200 more.
 
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Buying a card and then fitting an aftermarket block is very likely to be cheaper than the presassembled ones, you're onto a winner there. Is it an evga one? Other groups are less keen on you taking the heatsink off.

Perhaps assemble, then 7V the case fans, and see to what extent the gfx card dominates the noise of the computer. If fans are louder, do those. If card louder, do that first instead. Be warned that repeatedly silencing the loudest component is a hobby that can last forever though

A fiver on a few cable ties is a bit odd, similarly a usb network adapter. Id have much preferred an internal one myself. Still, those are the biggest holes I can pick on your chosen spec. Good call guys.

Suspending? Depends. How technically minded are you? I wouldn't think twice, the missus wouldn't have a hope. If it's intuitively obvious how to wind the elastic around the drive you'll be absolutely fine. Otherwise, silentpcreview have many pictures, and I can probably draw you something on paint. Using the mounting screws is a bit unusual. There are four on the base, thread in a =x=x=x= fashion will do very well with these, two cords crossing before and after the drive, and between the screws.If you tighten the screws onto the elastic that is probably very secure by itself, it would work very well if you used washers as well. If that looks unstable, use the side mounting threads too. The ideal is probably heatsink on the sides and elastic holding it up as above.

You can buy about 40 silicone washers from a high street electronics chain for about a pound. These work very well with all the screws you might find in a computer, Ive gone through about 3 packs of them. Steel ones are good too of course :)
 
Thanks again Jon.

I know that cable tidy kit seems expensive, but what you get with is well, insane. You get cable wrappers, cable ties, cable tie mounters, and lots of other goodies, for cable management I live by them.

Unfortunately my motherboard doesn't have many free (i.e. that won't be obstructed by a graphics card) PCI slots, and PCIe wireless cards tend to be rare. The ones that do exist are not as good as that dongle we chose considering the extra you have to pay for them. I wanted an internal one as well at first, but the price, and the quality, changed my mind.

Thanks for the advice about suspension. Seems pretty easy, we should have no trouble. Do you recommend rubber bands or would a string work better? I think rubber bands would be better, but they don't respond well to heat, and I know from experience the drives we're getting get quite hot.
 
JonJ678 said:
Be warned that repeatedly silencing the loudest component is a hobby that can last forever though
Click to expand...

Lol, thanks for the warning. I'm sure when the HDDs are suspended, the case fans chocked down and the GPU under water - we'll find the PSU "unbearable" or the keyboard "too clicky". I am getting a bit like that now with my newly quiet cosmos, I'll probably never stop until all surfaces in my flat are covered in foam and all noise is banished.

As for the cable ties - £5 is quite a bit, but we don't have any, and the plastic conduit and adhesive anchors look extremely useful. As for the

The USB adapter may not be the ideal interface, but it should be plenty fast enough and frees up space on the motherboard. Anyway, the primary network connection will be through one of the gigabit ethernet ports on the motherboard, so speed shouldn't be an issue most of the time.

As for suspending, I think we should be able to muddle through. We are both engineering students, so if all else fails we'll hit it with a hammer until it complies.

Silicone washers sound like a top tip, I'll have to go get some before we put it together.

Edit: Aye, the gtx 295 is an EVGA one - so there shouldn't be any problem with after-market cooling and warranty.
 
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Fair enough. I'm quite happy with a large bag of standard cable ties, cant deal with having to stick the mounting brackets to things. I'm not sure what cable wrappers are, they sound suspiciously like less effort than stuffing wires down the inside of watercooling tubes though. Might be worth a look

Rubber bands will perish, your drives will fall to the floor of the case, and you will be sad. Not good stuff. String would work, but not be that good at stopping vibration. Id take a hard drive screw to a fabric shop, and buy whatever diameter elastic seems appropriate. The thicker the better within reason, I'm unsure what thicknesses it comes in. 1.5 mm is probably right, but I wouldn't be sure unless I saw a screw next to some, and I don't have any.

PCIe wireless cards are rare. I'm annoyed by this, as I don't really want to use pci. Good rational behind the usb one, no further argument here. I'll mention that a watercooled graphics card tends to be single slot though :)

You're both so polite. Very nice to see on a forum, thank you



Its the psu that gets me every time. Its really hard to find a silent high wattage one, and I'm just not brave enough to braze waterblocks onto it yet. I'm starting to think the only sensible answer is to make a chiller and put it far from my computer, but this is stretching the word sensible to its limits.

Glasgow engineering. I believe one of my friends is going there for a masters in solid state next year, unsure if its with physics or engineering. I'm quite jealous of her for it. I'm engineering too, I'm pretty confident you'll be just fine. Do you get to use the labs at uni? I'm allowed to mill waterblocks once I find the copper bar somewhere, hoping to have time to do so this summer
 
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