HTPC Project [Build Log]

[davido_labido]

hmmm, looks like your either over heating the acrylic, or not evenly heating it buddy, (its why your getting the ripples)

hold the acrylic around 6cm away from the heatgun, then rotate it for a while, once it starts to bend on its own, then start to bend it whilst still using the heatgun on it all. you should see better results

 

[Deathjester]

Thanks I'll give it a shot tomorrow.
I had some better results on the last one I did, but there was still some creasing in the bend.
It's probably not heating evenly.
I will try with a lower heat tomorrow!

 

[Deathjester]

Started sleeving up some of the cables for the pump and the front panel last night...

However I've decided that all of them are WAAAAAAAAYYY to long.

So instead of that I'm going to choose a path for all of them, and trim them to the correct length.
One of the other things I had issues with was the fact that the Impact VII has a custom pinout for the FPIO connections; and as such has it's own little USB type header on the motherboard to allow this connection, but this extension is only about 2" long and I'm really not sure how I'd sleeve it to make it look good.
So in trimming down the cables I'll take out all of the 2 pin connectors and solder the wires together instead then sleeve the whole loom as one; which should tidy the whole structure up.

Anyone got advice on sleeving USB connections?

Also I'm considering doing a side window mod on this case (replacing the fan grill) which thickness acrylic should I be using for this? 3mm?

And no.... that's not on the radiator side of the case!

 

[Deathjester]

Technically from the sides the bends look good...

However from the top they are bulging...

Any ideas?

Window mod is coming on well... just need to sand it and install the acrylic!

And the fittings look good!!

 

[Deathjester]

Apologies for the lack of updates on this recently, but I haven't really done very much in the last few days.

I have ordered the sleeving, heat shrink, cable combs, fan splitter, exhaust fans, acrylic sheets and the rubber U channel to go around the window.

Unfortunately this is totally holding me up since one of the sheets of acrylic will sit behind the pump which means that I can only do one of the pieces of tubing.
There's no point doing any of the cabling until I have the fans / sleeves and I can't do the window until the channel and the acrylic turn up...

*sigh*

I have however done a few more test fits of the rest of the components and also run prime 95 for 15 mins.
The results of this worried me somewhat.
Now I'm only running one fan on the radiator (since I don't have the splitter yet) and the case was open.

Prime 95 on full blend for 15 mins gave me a top CPU temp of 31c and a top VRM temp of 32. That's with just one radiator fan running...
Ambient temps were around 19-20c.
I guess I'm just not used to a chip with a TDP of 65W; rather a 130W overclocked 4960K...

On the other hand I need to replace the power supply because the fan is noisy.

I'm looking at this one: Nightjar 520w PSU PSU
Anyone know anything about it?

 

[Deathjester]

The fans, acrylic, and cabling turned up yesterday but I had a lot going on so I'm hoping that measuring and cutting the acrylic sheets should be this evenings task.

I've spent some time resoldering and shortening the front panel cables so that it uses a single USB header to connect to the motherboard.

I then shortened the pump cables and wired it direct into the PSU rather than using both cables, this is partly down to aesthetics and partly down to practical reasons around space and cable management.
These were then sleeved

Testing that the whole build is working using some spare fittings; also needed to test the loop after re-soldering the pump straight into the PSU rather than using a molex connector.

 

[Deathjester]

I've been really busy lately and I'm still waiting on the sleeving arriving and the cable combs and stuff...

But I did spend last night playing with some acrylic and a dremel ohhhh and the case a little bit too...

All ready to mark up the acrylic sheets:

Window mod completed and case assembled:

The reservoir and pump in it's final resting place:

Acrylic fitted:

Test fitting the fan into it's new home:

Once this was completed ii spent some time rewiring the fans:

Then I discovered a small issue (with no plugs I can't sleeve them) so I'm going to have a rethink tonight.

 

[Divine Pain]

Good job on the side window mod. Looks very cleanly done!

But man, I'm not trying to bad mouth about your project in any way but, this acrylic business just seems like a big pita to me :/

 

[Deathjester]

Thanks

Haha, I haven't retried it since I took a lot of advice.

Since I needed to get the acrylic sheet in the front of the case (pushing the pump an additional 3mm into the case) I haven't done anything with the acrylic tubing.
I have taken a lot of advice over the last week or so, so hopefully the next attempt will look perfect

The black acrylic sheet in the front shouldn't be seen from any angle it's only really a fan / pump / res mount.

In other news my sleeving and everything else has arrived at home... so that's my next few evenings sorted!!

 

[TechMinerUK]

SAW`Q\`

 

[Deathjester]

SAW`Q\`

I know, it needs tidying up...

I will be sanding it down to get some better edges on everything!

I wanted to test fit and I was very aware I hadn't got any posted photos /updates for a while so felt I should get something up.

Tonight is likely to be the ATX cabling since it has all now arrived; which I'm pretty excited about.

There's still a lot to do and I kind of feel like I'm leaping around the build a little trying to do what's interesting next all the time rather than what logically should come next!

 

[Deathjester]

I always like to start work on a cable I'm not using yet; and I thought I'd go into a little more frequency with my photos over the rest of the build.

The first wire (and my first attempt at heatshrinkless braiding) has just been completed...

Getting ready to melt the sleeving onto the contact:

The completed PCIe Cable (I'm going to be using a 970 I think so I have only done a 6 min PCIe cable for now.

The cables do swap sides into the second connector:

PCIe Card connector
12
34
56
78

Power Supply connector
78 or 21
56 43
34 65
12 87

Which made it really awkward so I had to do the above for the connector into the powersupply (which shouldn't be seen anyway) but I couldn't come up with a better way to handle this...

 

[Deathjester]

After much deliberation the following was ordered this morning:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Superclock 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (04G-P4-1972-KR) £299.99
1 x SilverStone NightJar 520W Zero dBA "80+ Plus Platinum" Fanless Power Supply (SST-NJ520) £109.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC970 GTX - Nickel £79.99
1 x Silverstone SST-SOD02 Slimline Slot Loading 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - Retail £54.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC970 GTX Backplate - Nickel £20.99
1 x Silverstone 5.25" Slim ODD Bay with Internal 2.5" Bay - Black (SST-FP58B) £12.49
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - Blue £5.45 (£10.90)
Total : £598.90 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Which has been dispatched and will arrive tomorrow morning!!

Other than the PCIe SSD that's everything ordered for this build, but since I have the SSD's to support it I can't really warrant over £200 for the additional speed it will offer.

I also ordered some Aquaero RGB LED strips for my main build. Which means I should be able to pull my BitFenix strips out of it.

With the impending arrival of a new PSU I have paused sleeving until I can confirm that the pin out is the same.

 

[Deathjester]

There will be a photo update later on this evening; however...

Everything arrived to day and the waterblock for the 970 GTX Superclocked is installed.

The Nightjar pin out is totally different to the standard Silverstone power supplies and contains multiple dual wires from one to another...
For ......... Sake!
Why do they make these things so challenging.

So out of the power supply there is a 9x2 ATX connector (where did you get that from) and a 5x2 (again wth?) which BOTH connect to the 24pin Motherboard ATX connecter.... Seriously!
So there's more soldering / heatshrinking / dual cabling and slightly messy sleeving which I'm going to try to make look tidy... I'm REALLY not sure how...

Also it turns out that I managed to order the DVD slot loader not the Blu-ray (this will be corrected soon)

So all in all a very annoying day...

 

[Deathjester]

Picture update:

(all be it 12 hours later than planned)

Waterblock on, with a comparison to the stock cooler:

It won't be covered in fingerprints later...

PCIe Cables sleeved and installed along with the GPU:

I'll remove the little blue stickers over the EK logos once all of the components are installed.

Front panel with the slot loading drive:

 

[Deathjester]

So I went back to the acrylic tubing over the weekend...

Heated up my first tube; and made my first bend with lower temps / longer heating times.

This acrylic bending has turned in to much less of a pita...

Very pleased with this; So now I just need to resolder the fan cables on the SP120's so I can refit the radiator and then I can finish off all the acrylic tubing!

 

[ED209]

looking good!

I look at water cooling and I always wonder how do you know when to bend the tube to get it to line up with the other whole or connecting the tubing too! lol

 

[Deathjester]

looking good!

I look at water cooling and I always wonder how do you know when to bend the tube to get it to line up with the other whole or connecting the tubing too! lol

Thanks

I bent it way too long and cut it down from each side to the correct length (in this instance)

 

[Deathjester]

I finished up shortening the fan wiring last night.

Then created the following:

This should allow 3 fans which are powered by the ATX connector to be controlled by PWM to the same level.
Also this allows RPM monitoring on one of the fan channels. (I have chosen to connect this to the front case fan rather than one of the radiator fans.

Which will be completed with sleeving tonight.

I have also decided to try my hand at full custom cabling; so I've ordered a Molex ratchet crimper, wire and some connectors.

 

[flame696]

Looking really nice!