Project: 972 Rebuild

Tattysnuc · 22 Jan 2013 at 13:49

I've just got off the phone with Parcel Farce - Apparently I paid my customs charges too soon!

I was told that I can pay the customs charges as soon as the item is showing in the local depot. On the morning of the 19th, the status of the parcel showed as:

18-01-2013 22:29 - Received at delivery depot

so, at 9:18 I paid the fees... and waited for a confirmation email. Email arrived shortly afterwards confirming delivery for 22nd.

Fast forward to 21st the package status changed AGAIN:

21-01-2013 12:54 - Awaiting payment of charges

A quick telephone call this morning and all becomes clear - the payment charges have not been associated with the parcel until the status is changed to Awaiting payment of charges. Customer services have said that they will contact the local depot, and get the parcel cleared for delivery on the 23rd... Sheesh!

Next time I'm going to let the blighters fail to deliver and then go and pick it up - I'd have had it by now!

Tattysnuc · 23 Jan 2013 at 13:49

Package delivered... Can't wait to get home from work!!!

Hukkel · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:58

Buy your neighbours some earcovers and get on with the modding already!

Tattysnuc · 26 Jan 2013 at 10:34

14. Final planned arrival...

A very small update before I start work today butchering my case beyond all repair. The CPU FINALLY arrived from the states this week.... Let's share my moment...

On opening the International cardboard envelope, inside I found a big brown envelope...

What's this inside....

Hmmm. When someone writes tested on the case of packaging, it always troubles me....

Well there she is.... No scrub that. There HE is. No woman I know is going to work as hard as this little fella!

Wish I had better lighting in here... Hardly MDPC material....

In you pop....

and after a pro-longed bios boot up....

Yay!

A sigh of relief is very much breathed.... Hold on.... it's at 4Ghz! Ooops. I didn;t mean to accidentally overclock it. It's not quite a stable overclock as prime95/Windows kept on locking, but at least I know it'll get there. I'm REALLY looking forward to testing with this bad boy. I'm hoping for 4.4Ghz with all 12 threads active, but I don;t want to rush this build and compromise the quality. With amount of cuts I'm making on this case, I could REALLY mess up the visuals, which defeats the purpose of this whole thread - a thread about me learning so I, and any others who might also fancy a foray into modding, can read and learn from my goofs, while garnering tips from you - the good readers

Tattysnuc · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:40

No progress this weekend. Man-flu has taken it's toll...

Tattysnuc · 6 Feb 2013 at 07:50

Apologies for lack of updates. Been ill, now working away, and when I get back I've got a kitchen to fit. Booooooo

Tattysnuc · 11 Feb 2013 at 22:19

Back in good old blighty, so I had a bit of a sesh tonight.
Tonight was accompanied by the wonderful Sister of Mercy...

First, I have to get that try to fit.

There's a ridge/flap that runs along the read edge of the shelf, and above where the "shelf" mounts to the rear of the case.

so, out comes "Dremel" and the sisters...

and after an hour of trimming with 1.5" rotary disk, both edges are trimmed...

My rooms going to be an absolute tip if I keep having to use this rotary tool to make all the cuts.

Tomorrow - I'll mark the position where to cut the motherboard tray and then remove it ready for cutting. I'm thinking that a jig saw may be a better tool to cut this steel stuff though...

BuZ · 12 Feb 2013 at 01:50

Looking nice.

Bubo · 12 Feb 2013 at 08:29

Dude, I recommend you invest in some masking tape to cover the entire outside of the case before you go much further, the 700D scratches like theres no tomorrow. Unless you are planning on a total respray that is.

Tattysnuc · 12 Feb 2013 at 14:24

Bubo said:
Dude, I recommend you invest in some masking tape to cover the entire outside of the case before you go much further, the 700D scratches like theres no tomorrow. Unless you are planning on a total respray that is.

Thanks - I've bought masking tape, but I'm going down the route of a respray. The black looks great when you first buy the case, but I'd like it in a deeper black, with a shiny finish, highlighted with orange.

Do you have any tips on painting?

Bubo · 12 Feb 2013 at 19:05

No experience of painting sorry, though I imagine it is all about taking your time and being careful. I imagine with DIY painting it will be the insides which will the be the hardest to get a good finish, given all the nooks and crannies and the difficulty in sanding down between coats. This is probably why most of the best custom paint jobs I've seen are infact powder coating efforts.

Tattysnuc · 25 Feb 2013 at 22:07

Update - New Dremel arrived

so I've been chopping up the "shelf" in the case to try to get it to fit...

First was to add the end strip to the recently cut "shelf" to screw into. The pictures explain so much better than my words...

OK, so I want to re-cycle and mount one of the U sections already cut from the shelf, thus:

First we cut to size, then we drill some 2 mm holes

a hole...

then the other end...

Then in goes the tap...

Half turn forward, quarter turn back....

Then after a quick rummage in my "this might come in useful one day" box of mobo screws.... VOILA!

My first tapped hole since 1990 - SUCCESS! I wish I'd had a PC case to build when I was at school. Somehow making a fuse/continuity tester for my GCSE in Technology didn't ignite my imagination...

The screws protrude but nothing that will be visibly. I'll find shorter screws, or cut them back once I've got it all ready for final assembly.

Ooops. Over-exposed the next pic - rushing. Now to mark up where the shelf needs to sit now

About there....

Blast! The screw holes now sit in thin air! Am going to have to make some more holes in the shelf and tap them

This is a mock up of roughly how it will sit. Shelf will have to be screw attached to allow removal of PSU if needed, otherwise the lip on the shelf and the case will prevent removal as the PSU cannot be angled to remove.

And the PSU will also not sit fluch up against the cases "lip" otherwise the side wont go back on...

yeah - about there.

A bit tight for the fans?

Don't be daft! The whole purpose of lifting the shelf up is to allow me to also cut back the lower edge of the motherboard tray to allow the rad to sit beneath.

Loads of room back there - another 20mm for sure!

Zoomed out a bit...

OK - need to get the PSU accessible through the back of the case. No idea why Corsair made their design so rigid, but hey ho. Dremel time...

I do hope that holes in the right place - I can;t go back now...
Marking up the next cut....

then after cutting out, and then drilling 3 more holes...

phew - psu sits in the right place. All this was done by eye as I can;t see through steel!

Next - remove the motherboard tray.
Drill out the rivets...

ends up only 3 were holding the mobo tray in place

and out she pops!

The case, now bereft of a mobo tray is starting to resemble so many of the builds that you boys do all the time. How can I possibly screw this up?

Note to self - Dremels are good for smaller cuts - use the electric jig saw next time and save a few of the expensive cutting disks...

OK - next was to trim down the off cut to make a new lower edge to the motherboard tray. I'd like it to remain rigid and not have a sharp edge.

Black hashed area shows what I chopped...

And that will now sit on the base like so...

That's it for now. I've got a busy week or so, so it'll be a couple more weeks before I can get Dremel out again

Next time I shall be prepping then braizing the "new lower edge" onto the motherboard tray, and making the cuts into the last hanging piece.

The next steps as I see them are:

Site rad stand to base of case
lay out the PC, water loops
drill hole in roof for fill port.
decide where and how to mount 1.120mm g-changer rad in lower
compartment.
Re-attach mobo tray
Re-attach "shelf"

Then I can move to assemble. I'm planning to break it down again in the summer, stripping it back to the bare metal, and then painting it up properly. The paints "OK" but ultimately I'd like a rig up and running sooner rather than later, and I'm fast running out of time. I miss my games, and being able to work from home on my 2560x1600 monitor too much :|

Thanks for reading - see you all back soon hopefully!

Tattysnuc · 3 Mar 2013 at 17:31

I managed to get some time on the "build" today.

First thing was to mix up a batch of araldite and attach the ridge to the bottom of the motherboard tray. I decided against welding it as there was too much prep involved, and I've never done it before - at least with Epoxy resin I can sand it back when I come to touch up the case in the summer. Priorities in place - I NEED my rig back up and running. I've got LOADS of work that I need to get done, and I'm stuggling to do it on my works PC - using visual studio on anything less than an 1080p screen gets terribly frustrating - especially when you have OCD regarding tidying windows up

Ridge attached...

My dog is now officially going to be part of my rig forever more now -

that'll teach me not to vacuum my room in ages....

Stick it away under the desk, weighted down and bound so that the tray sets flat

Next - trim off the now excess case that was just above where the partition sat...

lower yellow line represents the bottom of the shelf, and the point beneath which I'm removing.

chop chop chop, and it's gone!

Good old dremel. Now you can see that my rad will fit nicely underneath it...

Rad to be held in place by rad mounts, which in turn are held via nuts and bolts through the grid in the case

and

So now the shelf sits above the rad/psu - all I need to do is drill holes into the "shelf" and then tap those holes so that screws can hold it in place rigidly.

There's one at the back....

...measuring up - how the hell does this not sit absolutely flush vs the front mounting point - ah well close enough...

Blast! While cutting I've gone wonky...
http://forums.bit-tech.net/album.php?albumid=2298&pictureid=32329

At least it all fits. I don't think that my poor cutting skills are going to be too bad - they're going to be perpendicular to the viewing angle...

Ta Dah! Holes drilled (I broke my 2mm bit

Now stand back and admire my handywork

It's starting to look like a case again!

so, out of the outstanding actions:

Site rad stand to base of case
lay out the PC, water loops
drill hole in roof for fill port.
decide where and how to mount 1.120mm g-changer rad in lower compartment.
Re-attach mobo tray
Re-attach "shelf"

I reckon that's the first one crossed off, and 5 and 6 are but a formality!

T345 · 12 Mar 2013 at 19:01

More please

Tattysnuc · 14 Mar 2013 at 07:45

It's coming. Absolutely manic at the moment at work - on holiday from next friday for 2 weeks, so hopeful to complete it then.

I'll put some teasers up tonight as some bits have been trickling in from fleabay etc...

IncognitoX · 14 Mar 2013 at 11:00

This project looks great, I really want my next build to include watercooling but some education is required first to even begin to understand what I would need haha.

Keep up the good work, can't wait to see the finished result!

Tattysnuc · 14 Mar 2013 at 19:22

No building progress - been working lots

Holidays are coming though

so I've been ordering bits and bobs for the build. It's annoying how £60+ worth of components looks so unimpressive....

Today's purchases arrived...

I picked up some 3mm ali sheet off fleabay, and raided OCUK's site for 2 off bitspower 90 deg snake fittings. a competitor provided the 2 x Koolance male VL3N barb fittings, 2 x Koolance female barb fittings, 1 x Koolance 1/4 bsp to male vl3n and finally 1 x Koolance 1/4 bsp to female vl3n fittings. Sorry OCUK - you didn't have the ones I needed in stock

All this means I can:

1. Patch the hole at the back by the PSU
2. Disconnect the GPU's without spilling.

I have a set of barb to male/females which I'm going to keep to plum in additional cooling* projects around the GPU's. I'd like to do the same up by the CPU but cost is a factor also.

*I have a TEC unit I'm working on which I'd like to incorporate, as well as a vapochill - the intention is that I can put a "heat exchanger" unit in the loop as and when I want to use it, and then connect up the TEC/vapochill units as my fancy takes me, until I've finished prototyping. That's a project fro later though

The Koolance fittings which I so love. DON'T buy cheap quick release fittings - thry contrict flow SO MUCH. Let's say that when you try to blow through an engaged Koolance fitting, it's like blowing through a normal barb. Try it with the Phobya ones.... well let's just say you'll struggle...

Tattysnuc · 13 Apr 2013 at 10:50

Hi Folks. Sorry for the lack of updates - I've been on holiday and actually built the rig so that I could game on it. It took a bit of time, and I've now observed hot it operates so there's going to be a bit of a re-design in the works.

I'll upload what I've done so far in order to get the rig up and running so that you can see where I'm up to.

I've been playing with the overclocking capabilities of the board and my goodness - I'm delighted with the frequencies I'm hitting. The lack of watercooling for the chipset and mosfet is what is driving my quest for coolness - I need to re-route my tubing as it is currently in contact with the heatsink.

All will become clear - promise.

So far 4.4 Ghz on the CPU on all 12 threads and folding like a good 'en on all the bits. Top temp - CPU is up to 60C according to CPUID hardware monitor - I'm happy with that.

Who needs a sandy/Ivy bridge or 2011 socket based rig anyway!

Pictures to follow later this weekend...

Hukkel · 13 Apr 2013 at 20:51

Nice work on the bottom part. Makes good room for a nice rad.

Tattysnuc · 15 Apr 2013 at 21:27

Holiday update

Ok - Piccys now uploaded, Hopefully this'll give you some ideas of where I'm going with this build.

First I need to select the choons for the work

GTA Vice city soundtrack. If you haven't heard it, it's worth it just for the joke adverts.

So, this is what the case looks like before we start:

First I'm going to fit a phobya rad over the hole I've already cut in the base of the case.

Draw round the rad, and mark the holes...

Tape into position...

Mark where to cut the case...

Black lines indicate where I will be removing more case...

then it's cut cut cut. Apologies - I've lost the image with the cut made. Rest assured it's just like before but slightly bigger...

Next, to cut a hole in the roof for the fill port. First drill a pilot hole, then get out my cutter. Not sure of the EXACT size, it was just big enough to put the thread of the bulkhead fitting into.

et voila!