Project Irony "Glutton For Punishment".

Hmm. As I sat and thought what a pee-er they would be to solder I thought about maybe using my CNC to make teeny wee custom LED PCBs with solder tracks at each end (to solder onto) and then a hole for the LEDs. That sounds less fiddly. Let the machine do the work !
 
Transparent definitely better for your use than the frosted I've got.

AquaComputer don't insist on being paid for the software BTW. You have to buy a year's upgrades if you want to install the current version but if you start to install, it'll check the serial number and offer to install the last version you were entitled to without paying extra.

Definitely an option to mill if you get some copper clad board but to be honest, have a look at places like JLCPCB or PCBWay. If you go for non-urgent shipping, it's something like a five for five boards and they're really nicely made. You get the mask and the silkscreen you won't get with milling it yourself. You can design them in Fusion but it's fiddly to set up. I can (when I'm not up North for New Year) point you in the direction of a Clough42 video that walks you through the setup.
 
LED - indeed. Thanks though dude I really appreciate the offer. I did think about PCB way but tbh these boards will need to be so tiny there will be pretty much nothing to appreciate lol. As for making them? I can do the design in photoshop. Then throw it into easel, set the depth of where I want to remove and etc, and then add holes.

I am off home on Friday for some much needed rest from the projects. Housework and hoovering seems somewhat nice to me right now. I will email you at some point. Would be nice to see you around my Bday at the end of the month. I can then finally make use of the Pihole and get that CNC motor off you. I may, just may, rebuild the old machine using that if I can ever muster up enough F-edness.
 
FanControl is excellent for all your fan control needs https://getfancontrol.com/

Plenty of options and control at stock, but has extensive plug-in support if you want to go bananas. HWInfo in sensors-only mod plugged into FanControl opens up insane levels of monitoring and control.
 
I love a project like this; reverse engineering, making it worth without spending silly money for off the shelf, soldering wiring, pin outs, dremels - bit of everything!

Really looking forward to seeing the end result, nice one chap.
 
It would appear so yes. It's built on LibreHardwareMonitorLib which uses Winring. I always thought it was based on WMI given the number of times the dev has said "I can't support X hardware because there's no WMI API for it".

But honestly I've never seen it as an issue because I'm not an idiot who blindly downloads any old crap from the internet to get malware and viruses in the first place.
 
Oh it is not a virus dude. Well, it can be should you want to exploit it. And that is the issue. Because of that Microsoft banned it and now it flags as a virus. Over and over again :/ I did manage to shut it up on the new 5090 rig eventually though.

OK so I am about to play BL4 with my pal across the pond but before I do a quick update. I noticed something was missing in the pics from Ebay.



It lives in the roof, but is absent. This led to much head scratching. You can't buy it from Dell and there are none in the UK. Problem is too what would it even be called? well, it turns out it is a "heatsink fastener". Doh.

Got a voucher on Ali so it cost me fifteen quid. Less than the aggro of even trying to design around it.





I would imagine it is part of the cooler assembly itself, thus Dell add it to the case when the customer picks whether they want to burn their CPU and board up, or, give it a fighting chance. Either way you are a bit Donald Ducked without it, so I have ordered one. Amazon owed me £35 for an order I placed that never arrived (coffee syrups) and I am going home tomorrow so don't need it now.
 
LePhuronn said:
Oh I know, it's an attack vector. I've just told Windows Defender to ignore it.
Click to expand...

I tried that before. Unfortunately there were far more than one instance. It is a good thing I know this now though... My Intel NUC is going to be the stand in for this PC whilst I am doing the Alienware (I need the board out to work out where it needs to go etc) and yeah, whilst away on holiday I got the false positive so many times I shut it down.

I was meaning to wipe it, as at that time (last Sept) there was no info on just letting it through. So I thought I would have to wipe and reinstall. Glad I didn't because it would have just persisted. I am pretty sure one of the Intel drivers had Winring in.
 
Last time I checked the AquaComputer suite had WinRing0 in it but they are working on a version that won't require it. That would require license renewal though.
 
TBH for water cooling their boards are superb. Just set it all to around 7v and leave it. Problem is in an air cooled (sort of) build I would have no idea how to even create profiles etc. What I *do* remember is it was really complicated.
 
ALXAndy said:
TBH for water cooling their boards are superb. Just set it all to around 7v and leave it. Problem is in an air cooled (sort of) build I would have no idea how to even create profiles etc. What I *do* remember is it was really complicated.
Click to expand...
Nah, t'is easy....like all things when you know how! :D You just need an input, an output and a contoller. Your input is a temperature - ideally measured by the hardware itself (like a stick-on sensor on your heatsink) as then it is independent of Windows (ie works if Windows doesn't) but could be a software sensor direct-reading the die temp....or some combination of these if you want to get fancy. Then, your output is the fan connector in either voltage or PWM mode (controller and fan dependent). Your controller is just config in Aquasuite. You set a curve so that at some specific temperature the fan goes this fast. Could be a curve, could be stepped, could be just a flat line - up to you.
If you're after just an equivalent of a 7V mod, can do it without the temperature input. If it's a PA3, you need the ultimate version to take a temp input but that's just a license key upgrade from the standard edition. Full-on Aquaero can do it out the box. I think the Quadro and Octo can too but I don't have either and they're PWM only IIRC.
 
Well I would stack it for you when you come but tbh I think we already have more than enough to do lmao. I think I want to use PWM tbh. I mean, I may as well. Besides I have a use for the PA3. I need to get this pump in the water cooled rig off 12v. But 7v is not enough to kick it started.... So aye, that will for sure be going in here (I am on this now).
 
Just a quick update. Things will start arriving today. Apparently the RGB LEDs overtook everything else (envelope maybe) and will be delivered later. In the mean time I have been thinking about stuff and I don't think the cooler is going to fit. Not the rad, that ought to be fine but the pump. In the photo -



That it appears AI has had its way with the pump looks quite low profile and flat. Problem being? it isn't. It looks more like this -





And as thus I am not sure if I have enough space. Obviously it is really hard to know right now, but you know how the brain works..... In reality this is how much space there will be I think.



The only good news if it does not fit is that I am using a SFX PSU which I could then offset closer to the side panel giving me about 1.5cm extra room. Problem is? the back side of the PSU housing is solid.



Again the good news is I have a 100mm hole saw and a jigsaw etc. So in the worst case scenario I can cut it out.

I am also considering getting a small 3d printer. Though whether that will come to fruition? I doubt it. It's having the space for it.

Edit in. Just ordered some fibreglass PCB copper clad.



So when it arrives and the time comes I can machine the PCBs for the LEDs.
 
Last edited:
I'd say that pump body was 55-60mm tall, 3mm mounting plate. That will sit about 8mm above the surface of the motherboard, which is a 1.6mm PCB. Assuming 6mm standard standoff height. Worst case I'd estimate motherboard tray surface to top of the pump body is 73mm.

IO shield aperture is a smidge under 45mm, which sits a little under the underside of the motherboard, so from the tray surface to top of IO shield aperture is just about 49mm.

So looking at the back of the case you posted, I'd say you have room to get that AIO in with about 10mm to spare.
 
Well that is reassuring. I mean, I have metalwork to do but yeah. Not its biggest fan and never have been lol.
 
ALXAndy said:
I am also considering getting a small 3d printer. Though whether that will come to fruition? I doubt it. It's having the space for it.
Click to expand...

A1 Mini for 150 notes? That'd get you a build volume of 180x180x180mm and not take up much space. You could even move it about as it's not that heavy. Slap a hardened nozzle in and you're good for PLA, PETG, PETG-GF, PLA-CF, PETG-CF etc. No good for ABS or ASA but you don't really need them.
A1 for £20 would give you 256x256x256 and still be fairly small.
 
Yeah sounds about right. Problem is if I do get one it’s probably going to be more aggro for you than just doing it for me.

At least now I have an nvidia gpu so Fusion should work properly.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom