Soldato
Hey everyone. Over the past few years I have let my modding slip. The reason for this is that it always took my rig out of commission. This was OK when I wasn't gaming much, but I am now. It is just too much of a ballache, so I could not do anything even approaching extreme. Just vanilla builds and upgrades.
So, I am going to enter the arena once more.
I have had this mad idea now for years about doing a scratch build. Every time I have started designing it though it has made me realise that I don't have the tools and machines in order to achieve what I would want to do. Maybe I was biting off more than I could chew? IDK.
The last build I did that was even slightly extreme was the Stryker build last winter. I like to do PC stuff in that time, as most of it can be done in the warm. Sadly again I needed the rig working whilst I was doing this, and as such a custom paint job was about the best I could do.
TBH? it was pretty cool. The paint came out really well. The only problem was that it wasn't cool. The temps on it were bad. Like, really bad. I never quite worked out why, but I think it was the radiator loaded in the side.
It just couldn't breathe, and was not cooling. It also blew all of that hot air into the board, which made the CPU really hot even at idle. As such the GPU suffered. The thing is, I have had these rads and pump in another build and it was proper cucumber.
The GPU never went over 46c. In the ITX build? it was struggling to stay under 70. So something was very wrong in there. Like I say, I think it was simply the rad in the side turning into a heater rather than a heat exchanger.
So, once again you can always count on your friends to give you bad ideas. Cheers, Cenedd ! you git
A couple of weeks ago Gareth asked me if I wanted his old crap. Usually I would say no, but he had a 2600k and I have a NAS with a 3470 in. That needs more threads. So I said "sure !". What I didn't realise was this old crap had a really nice CPU block on it. In absolutely pristine condition.
Like seriously, you would never even know it was used. I took apart the above ITX build and put it into a way better case (see the Mini Me thread). The 2080Ti was removed and drained and dried, and then stashed away along with all of the equipment. But I was getting nagged by my conscience. "Come on man, now is the time !".
And so I came up with the idea of Modular. A name that basically says it all.
I know that stuffing water cooling into a hot box is a really bad idea. You live and learn. So what if I kept the cooling separate? So I started designing rad boxes, etc. I then found a Phobya dual 240 rad box on the bay, but he wants too much for it (about £70). Thing is? it is not enclosed either. I then struck upon the idea of looking for an ITX case. And I found one.
"Does it hold a 240 top and bottom?" check.
"Is is very well vented?" check.
And so that will become my cooling box. In there will be two Bitspower 240 Leviathin thin rads, a DDC pump and top, a small res and obviously fans. I then hit upon the realisation that of course this box would have no power in it. And I don't want to fix a hulking great PSU just to run a pump and some fans. So I thought "what would be the easiest and most affordable way to power this contraption?" and then it hit me.
No controller needed, full voltage control from 12 down to 0. No fans on it either, so no extra noise. And it was cheap, £12.
So, the idea here is to build that first. That will be the first part of Modular. Once that is done? I can start looking into what I want the second unit to look like. Obviously it will have my 2080Ti "McDodgy Edition" in it, that has dodgy VRAM. However, I am sure if I can wind the temps down on it it still has much more life left in it. It was just in that specific application it wasn't happy.
Of course box two will be ITX. I want to make that as small as humanly possible. The main box (above) will have the DDC in it. With a top and res. However, just to make sure the flow stays steady I have this that will be in the hardware box.
Along with this diddy little top.
I then utilised Black Friday to buy some hardware for the second box. I chose this board specifically because it has Thunderbolt. Meaning if in the future I want to add on more? I can grab an external GPU box.
Of course I needed a CPU too. Grabbed a 11400F also.
I have plenty of DDR4. I even have some in white.
At home I have a 850w Dell PSU. It works perfectly. Only thing is the cables are crap, so I have been using it as a test unit. However, I recently bought a SF kit for my EVGA PSU and here is what was left. Seriously, there are about 12 8 pin PCIE power cables in there.
Cenedd showed me the best depinning tool ever, so I am going to take those home with me and pin the Dell PSU with all of the spare cables. I will paint the body of it at some point, as it is stainless silver.
Obviously for right now the plan is to just build and mod the cooling box first.
So, I am going to enter the arena once more.
I have had this mad idea now for years about doing a scratch build. Every time I have started designing it though it has made me realise that I don't have the tools and machines in order to achieve what I would want to do. Maybe I was biting off more than I could chew? IDK.
The last build I did that was even slightly extreme was the Stryker build last winter. I like to do PC stuff in that time, as most of it can be done in the warm. Sadly again I needed the rig working whilst I was doing this, and as such a custom paint job was about the best I could do.
TBH? it was pretty cool. The paint came out really well. The only problem was that it wasn't cool. The temps on it were bad. Like, really bad. I never quite worked out why, but I think it was the radiator loaded in the side.
It just couldn't breathe, and was not cooling. It also blew all of that hot air into the board, which made the CPU really hot even at idle. As such the GPU suffered. The thing is, I have had these rads and pump in another build and it was proper cucumber.
The GPU never went over 46c. In the ITX build? it was struggling to stay under 70. So something was very wrong in there. Like I say, I think it was simply the rad in the side turning into a heater rather than a heat exchanger.
So, once again you can always count on your friends to give you bad ideas. Cheers, Cenedd ! you git
A couple of weeks ago Gareth asked me if I wanted his old crap. Usually I would say no, but he had a 2600k and I have a NAS with a 3470 in. That needs more threads. So I said "sure !". What I didn't realise was this old crap had a really nice CPU block on it. In absolutely pristine condition.
Like seriously, you would never even know it was used. I took apart the above ITX build and put it into a way better case (see the Mini Me thread). The 2080Ti was removed and drained and dried, and then stashed away along with all of the equipment. But I was getting nagged by my conscience. "Come on man, now is the time !".
And so I came up with the idea of Modular. A name that basically says it all.
I know that stuffing water cooling into a hot box is a really bad idea. You live and learn. So what if I kept the cooling separate? So I started designing rad boxes, etc. I then found a Phobya dual 240 rad box on the bay, but he wants too much for it (about £70). Thing is? it is not enclosed either. I then struck upon the idea of looking for an ITX case. And I found one.
"Does it hold a 240 top and bottom?" check.
"Is is very well vented?" check.
And so that will become my cooling box. In there will be two Bitspower 240 Leviathin thin rads, a DDC pump and top, a small res and obviously fans. I then hit upon the realisation that of course this box would have no power in it. And I don't want to fix a hulking great PSU just to run a pump and some fans. So I thought "what would be the easiest and most affordable way to power this contraption?" and then it hit me.
No controller needed, full voltage control from 12 down to 0. No fans on it either, so no extra noise. And it was cheap, £12.
So, the idea here is to build that first. That will be the first part of Modular. Once that is done? I can start looking into what I want the second unit to look like. Obviously it will have my 2080Ti "McDodgy Edition" in it, that has dodgy VRAM. However, I am sure if I can wind the temps down on it it still has much more life left in it. It was just in that specific application it wasn't happy.
Of course box two will be ITX. I want to make that as small as humanly possible. The main box (above) will have the DDC in it. With a top and res. However, just to make sure the flow stays steady I have this that will be in the hardware box.
Along with this diddy little top.
I then utilised Black Friday to buy some hardware for the second box. I chose this board specifically because it has Thunderbolt. Meaning if in the future I want to add on more? I can grab an external GPU box.
Of course I needed a CPU too. Grabbed a 11400F also.
I have plenty of DDR4. I even have some in white.
At home I have a 850w Dell PSU. It works perfectly. Only thing is the cables are crap, so I have been using it as a test unit. However, I recently bought a SF kit for my EVGA PSU and here is what was left. Seriously, there are about 12 8 pin PCIE power cables in there.
Cenedd showed me the best depinning tool ever, so I am going to take those home with me and pin the Dell PSU with all of the spare cables. I will paint the body of it at some point, as it is stainless silver.
Obviously for right now the plan is to just build and mod the cooling box first.
