Project: Deuterium

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Yesterday I took part in a joint investment for a blade saw, so I thought it would be silly not to have a go and what better way to cut out my mid-plate :)

This require some assistance in configuring the blade saw and cutting out the panel but I'm rather impressed. In order to give it a finished look I'm going to sand blast the panel and round the edges to install some u-channel so there's less risk of scratching the radiator when fitting the panel and to give a more refined look :)
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Speaking of sand blasting I had a go with the shot blaster on a spare piece of acrylic to see how I could take the glossy edge of the panel. I think the long shot blast looks the best as opposed the shorter blast on the line below.
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Also I assembled the case with the new USB panel, 240mm radiator mount and the blanking plate.
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I also had installed the motherboard and D5 to help plan out the loop. Unfortunately the EK D5 pump top has a line of action of weight which acts outside it's base and the pump decoupler it is fitted to keeps being detached as it overcomes the double sided sticky tape. Hopefully when the tube is fitted it should help fix the pump in position, I hope :(
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Another bit of progress is that I finished the D5 pump sleeving (after the third time) and I'm rather impressed. The sleeving is tighter on the cable now so they are easier to train for when I do the cable management later.
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After setting up the case I began to plan out the pipe runs which has led to another dilemma. Unfortunately my original plan to run the 360mm radiator connection down can't happen as it would hit the 240 radiator which leaves using two 45° fittings to take it across the system or a combination of drilling into the case and 90° fittings.

So another big update for the time being, unfortunately now I have a long wait as my fans were supposed to be dispatched this weekend which didn't happen and the GPU is not set to arrive until July 1st :(
 
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Another update, today I went to get the glass cut at my local store. Unfortunately I had to have 6mm holes drilled as opposed to 3mm so I'll need to use some sort of padding to protect the glass. Luckily I'll have a week to find something to do this :)

Onto the good stuff now though, I cut out some more acrylic for the mid panel to get flusher finish with the front and I bought some u-channel to give a a finished look. It's not fitted yet as I just wanted to get the size right as I need to drill the holes and shotblast it first. :D
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I have also ordered some soft tubing and acrylic for under neath the connections underneath the midplate and to get the sizes I need when I cut the glass tubing. :)
 
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Cenedd said:
Sounds good. Would something like wire wool (I've recently been introduced to something called zero wool which is very fine) take off the sheen without making it go grey? Could just be the photos but where the shot blast hits it, it goes white and the effect seems to be greying rather than than just de-glossing.
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It does go slightly grey from the shot-blasting (I assume it's due to how the light refracts) so the wool might be a good alternative as long as I can still get the uniform finish. I don't suppose you have a link to or know where I can get this zero wool from? :)
 
Cenedd said:
Search for 0000 wire wool and you'll find it. Less zeroes is course. Seems to be available at ScrewFix and the rainforest. Could be too fine but you can always go course if necessary. I used it on the varnished surface of a kitchen worktop to take the sheen off after it had dried without knackering the surface.
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That looks like it will do the job nicely, I'll have trip up to my local screw fix this weekend :)

Thanks for the recommendation :)
 
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So after ordering some more parts I'm almost ready to start however I've had to have a "re-jig" of the system loop due to the case not being able to hold the radiator in my desired position.

Plan No. 3
Run the tubes in parallel like previously planned but have a straight run on each length before the 45 angle fittings.
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Plan No. 4
Run the tubes in parallel like previously planned but have only vertical and horizontal runs with 90 fittings.
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I would just buy all the fittings but what with prices my pocket cant cope :D

In other news, my glass tubing, Hue+, waterblock and glass panel for the side of the case (I'll get photos next week) :)
 
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So without possessing the fitting this is the best I can do for a comparison, luckily someone from another forum took a picture of the EK-HDC 12 fitting and option 1 and but they didn't have the other fitting I'm looking at so I only have a generic photo for the (AC fitting) other option. I'm still not sure :)
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Cenedd said:
Not sure if it's any help but if you want photos of measurements of fittings or combinations, I've got (spare):
EK-HDC 12 Black and Elox Black
EK-ACF 13 Black
EK-HDC 16 Elox black
EK M-M 20mm extension
Alphacool M-M and M-F 90 degree rotary fittings black
Koolance 30 degree black
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Thank you for the offer but to be honest I have all the measurements I need at the moment as it's mainly the EK HDC fittings and the 90 angles that are likely to have different diameters :)

What do you think of the different 90 fittings? :)
 
Cenedd said:
That's why I'm going RGB with my lighting - purely so I can change the colour if I wish. Not to have it dancing, cycling or breathing. May go as far as to have colour determined by temperature though. Have to widen my 3mm LED holes out to 5mm though :eek:
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Exactly, its means that if you do want to change colour you don't have to remove all the cables and fixtures. Although some of the breathing effects can look rather impressive if your making a show system :)
 
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This update is quite a big one, I'm hoping to get moving on the assembly of the system next week now that most of the parts have arrived.:D

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All the fans have arrived along with the rest of my glass tubing, the Hue+ and my glorious waterblocks. Another bit of good news is that thanks to rIcK I now have a Palit GTX 1080 for the waterblock to go on which is quite useful :)

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I also finally decided on a colour scheme for the cables, since the coolant will be a dark blue/deep purple colour I chose the gradient blue for the cables. As for constructing the cables that will be done by PexonPCs (Thanks guys) :)

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Finally for this update the cherry on the top of the whole system will be a custom cut glass window for the CaseLabs S5. This was from my local glass cutters :)

So that's all for this update and I will be testing the system tonight to make sure it all works ;)
 
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Another update, hopefully they should start to flow faster now that everything excluding the reservoir has arrived :D
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So first port of call is my first tubing cuts, these are two templates that have been cut out of acylic so I can cut the glass tube to the correct lengths. I'm very pleased with the overall look of the tubing and mid plate together.
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Now for the best news, the GPU arrived (Thank you to rIcK). Obviously I had to test the GPU out by playing some BF4 on the new monitor. I was very impressed (Ultrawide definitely beats 4K hands down :D)
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And here is where things went pear shaped. I removed the stock cooler and attempted to install the waterblock. Issue one was the thermal pads not adhering to the waterblock and falling off meaning/moving everywhere so I had to order more. Second issue was during the test fit the thermal pads appeared to not make contact with the VRMs and RAM chips :( Hopefully this should be solved when the new pads arrived tomorrow :)
 
Cenedd said:
The thermal pads aren't particularly sticky; just squishy. They should make contact though. On the 980Ti some are 1mm and some 0.5mm thick.
You can get them to stay in place by using a dab of the thermal paste like glue. My OCD/pickiness/perfectionism required a thin, even, all-over coating :D
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In the end the others I ordered were too large (1.5 to 2.5mm thick :eek:) so I had to use a mix match of the new and old fittings. Luckily it all looks as if it's nicely sandwiched together now :D
 
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This is the last update for a few weeks (Holiday time :D) however I've made quite a large amount of progress :)
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As can be seen from the photos I finally sorted out the graphics card, fitted the waterblock and installed the card into the system along with some 90° fittings to help plan and measure my tubing runs. I must admit that the nickel GPU and CPU waterblocks do look very suave.
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The next port of call was to measure some test tube using acrylic as a template for my glass cuts. I actually cut 3 pieces however one of them was for another run which ended up changing and being too small, the other cut smashed due to an imperfection where the score had run over so when a small amount of force was applied is smashed in the fitting :(
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Finally the mid plate is almost finished with all the pass through ports in line with each other and the cable holes cut out, the cable holes are going to have combs fixed on the top to cover where they are as originally I wanted the cables to use the plate as a comb however this didn't work due to the holes merging with each other.

That is all for now, I'm hoping to have the system finished when I get back but for now I need to pack my bags :)
 
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Well I'm back off my holidays and ready to start on the PC again (Well, sort of :D).
I've also just started a new job so updates may be a little touch and go for the first few weeks as I get settled however I intend to crack on ASAP so I've ordered some acrylic tubing so I can get the correct sized templates for the glass tubing.

Second point is that I may also need to change out the EK D5 pump top as I don't think the case will have enough room for a top and separate reservoir so it may mean ordering the XSPC pump/res top and drilling a hole through the mid plate for the fill port.

More to come soon though :D
 
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Hi everyone, this is less of an update and more of an announcement on the project as a whole.

Unfortunately this system will not be appearing in it's final form due to numerous constraints such as:
  • The cases capacity not allowing for adequate access to check for leaks and generally being a pain in my side during the project
  • Starting a new job and other life changes reducing my time to work on the system and make sure it is all leak tested and working safely
  • The above meaning my PC will need to be simple and quick to maintenance to allow me to concentrate on other things in life
  • Glass tube being one of many banes of my existence

This is disappointing but is certainly better than getting to the last hurdle and realising I rushed the system and it leaking over the components and creating a black hole where my bank once was.

So the build will still be the same name but will be nothing like the original idea. Now I'm working more on the line of soft tubing and QDC to make this system into a more modular and serviceable machine. Not as impressive as a glass tubing beast but something that will do what I need it to :)

However it doesn't stop there as since I have purchased many components/parts for the build that won't be used I will be selling them on the MM to generate money for some soft tubing and a new panel for my CS case (I drilled through the other :()
 
Cenedd said:
Good to hear you've got a new job (assume that's a good thing!) but sad to hear the project derailing. Hope you end up with something you're happy with at the end of it though.
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Thank you, it is a shame about the project however once I'm settled down in the new job and have completed my qualifications/training I'm planning (Fingers crossed) to start another project however it won't be for a while yet :)

Main task currently is just to get this system working :D
 
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So no pictures for this update however my QDC fittings have arrived along with some new cables for the PSU/Reset vandal switches. Hopefully the system should be up and running by the weekend. :)

Also I realise I forgot to put a link to the sale thread for the parts I'm no longer using :)
Linky:)
 
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