Project Bloodfang - Case Labs Black and Red Build

[kindai]

So, first update for a few weeks, I had a problem sourcing enough bitspower fittings in the UK, so had to order them in from the US, unfortunately due to UK customs being absolutely crap, by the time they got through I was on my way to Sweden.

To this is the first weekend since getting back ive had time to progress.

On with the show!

Holy bitspower batman! (This isnt even all of them).

Unfortunately the pump mounts I made up were made of aluminium, so once i started to work on them and added any weight, they bend. No good.

So, in the meantime, big shoutout to my main man Power for sorting a steel backplate, much more secure and sturdy, no issues with wobble/bending now!

time to start measuring up the pipe, add some tape either side of where your cutting incase of any accidents...

Created a little mini rig to deal with cutting

First pipes in place...

Second one measured to length, unfortunately light was fading so called it a day here

And a shot of the tubing waiting to be used. I sourced a great deal of 10 lengths for about half the price of what youd normally pay.

 

[kindai]

Slow and steady is the name of the game at the moment, making sure everything fits and lines up correctly!

 

[kindai]

Busy busy busy with work and XenForo imports at the moment...

Anyway a delayed update but none the less.


Started the second loop, getting the radiator in place (this actual design of this case only allows for a 120.4 radiator in top, however if you move some bits around, you can fit a 140.4 in there as you can see!) at the top. Also added a drain into the first loop (the T peice near the pump) to allow for quick draining if needs be.

Top view:

More goodies arrived:

In every build I see, people ruin it with the piping around the cpu / memory modules. They often use diagonal pipes which just look naff if you ask me.

I can see why they do it, getting them done at 90 degree angles takes some work and is very difficult, I had to remove the second set of ram blocks to get this bit done:

However totally worth it imho when you end up with it looking like this

For example here is the same board, and same waterblocks as my build, but on diagonals, imho, it just ruins all the otherwise amazing work done elsewhere in the case.

 

[kindai]

Worked today on finishing and tidying up a lot of stuff, the remaining "todo" for the watercooling loops:
Top loop: Install a drain pipe
Bottom loop: Install the second radiator.

Anyway some pics of how its looking.

Re-worked the top section to give some more room for cabling / other assorted things.

Down below:

Added a lampron touch controller. Frankly I don't need or want anything more complex, and this seemed to fit a nice bill between quality and price. Very nicely built!

Perfect.

Probably should have done this before installing the pumps... oops.... anyway time to sleeve those cables!

 

[kindai]

So ive been humming and thinking and I cant make my mind up on what color of coolants to use.

Both the same? Pastel or not? Black or red coolants? UV?

Any suggestions?!

 

[kindai]

And so the cable work begins....

And behind... not so tidy, but functional.

Still haven't decided on coolant color yet, though leaning towards having them both as mayhems pastel red, or do I go for something more, out there like a UV clear blue?



Same for lighting, haven't decided on red / white / uv lighting.


Suggestions on either of these problems welcome

 

[kindai]

Some possitional problems in the CPU loop meant I couldnt place the drain where I wanted. Instead linked the loops together so all drainage can be done via 1 pipe, ended up looking much better than I hoped!

 

[kindai]

Where's all the gpu tubing going ?

Pump > GPU > Radiator > Radiator > GPU > Repeat

 

[kindai]

Can I ask have you put that foamy stuff in the res's or just the ek symbol?

Just EK. The cycloning isn't really an issue with the taller resses.


Big day today! Fill up and leak test day.


First, soundcard:

Loops are now complete, second bottom radiator in place:

Paper towls in place to catch any leaks just in case...

Filling the loops... yes... that is me urghh...

Just covering the top for the blowback caused when the air is pushed out the system:

Both loops filled...

My air trap and bleed valve worked perectly.

Testing the fans, you can see a PSU on the table in the background, not sure how true it is or not, but I was advised that when doing the leak testing to not use the main PSU from the system, considering how many thousands in hardware there is, for the sake of a 20 quid PSU I did it anyway.

Anyway so far no leaks, just waiting for the air to find its way out the system. Will leave it running overnight and hopefully tomorrow morning, it will still be full of water!

 

[kindai]

No colour?
What did u use for your air trap and bleed
Taps?

No color yet, havent decided on what, if any and the lighting setup.

T block with a run of pipe just before the highest radiator:

 

[kindai]

Wow.

How many builds before you got to this level?

This is my first watercooled build.

 

[kindai]

So a problem occured yesterday in my planning I never thought about the speed controller on the pumps... put simply there was so easy way to access them. So a fix was needed.

First using a tool fassioned from a pair of tweasers, filed down and bent into a very tight 90 degrees, stuck my phone with front camera underneith to see what I was doing and turned the pumps upto max speed:

Now that was done I could then re-wire the molex and RPM signal wire into a single standard 3 pin fan cable which would allow me to control the pump speed via the lamptron touch controller!

 

[kindai]

Lovely, well worth the effort you've put in.

What tubes are you using and types of fitting? Probably going to use tubes instead of hose in my next build.

Bitspower fittings, the tube is shakmods tubing 10mm inner 12mm outer, the same stuff as EK tubing, but a fraction of the price, if you buy it in bulk it works out 50% cheaper.

 

[kindai]

Color ideas yet?

No idea, however one of the pumps has picked up a high pitch whining noise when its running, so will need to drain it out and replace it regardless

 

[kindai]

I think it looks great as is, clear distilled looks real clean. Perhaps one loop clear, 2nd loop red.

Yea im kinda in agreement, I may just keep the water clear in both loops.

 

[kindai]

I'd just like to thank Mick at Mayhems for releasing a long-term aurora product.

Time for a deconstruct to change the pipework to accomodate the new liquid.

Damn you Mick!!!!

 

[kindai]

That is a stunning build. I can see me investing in some acrylic tubing in the future. Hows the rig run, or are you still waiting on bits?

It flies

But while i've got it opened up, going to be doing some, upgrades

 

[kindai]

How long will this aurora last ?
What tubing u changing to?

Quite a long time!

Still acrylic, just re-working it to eliminate any dead spots where it can settle.

 

[kindai]

Good job so far
And this case is a monster, one of main reasons I like CL so much
How tall is it? My S8 with pedestal is around 80cm including casters.

This is ~82 with the feet and not the casters

 

[kindai]

So when putting in the bottom radiators the first time around there were some problems with getting them into possition with the acrylic tubing.

So decided to take the time to re-work this part.

Also found out, it was very hard to drain the radiators, so took the time also to add a drain port into the bottom.

Drilling into a £700 case is not the most pleasent of things to do!!

This setup allows for a few things.

It is the lowest part in the loops, so will allow for near complete drainage. The valve is used to keep the 2 loops seperate, and the large compression fitting is there as I will be connecting the second radiator by flexi-tube so I can pull it out if required without having to disconnect a while bunch of acrylic fittings.

The current "state of affairs"