Project: LavaStone Nimitz-03 (04-08-06)

[gr1mey]

Back by (popular?) demand? lol!

Well, what a difference a day makes, the radbox is all painted, in the end it got 5 coats of black, and 4 coats of clear, and considering my painting skills arent much to write home about, I dont think it came out TOO bad!

Today in the post I recieved:

120.2 Neoprene Gasket
120.3 Neoprene Gasket
PowerPlant II Pump Relay
90' 1/2" Barb

So on with the gaskets, and on with the fans, I then went ahead and mounted the rad into the box, only placed the pump for the time being, and I hooked all the fans to the modded rheobus and turned it all on to check all the new fans were working fine, which they are.

heres a quick sneak peak of whats to come when Im nearer the end, firstly the case on top with no sidepanel, notice I also got round to drilling a nice big hole to take cables behind the motherboard - thankfully the TJ-03 came with XL risers as standard.
I also fitted the case feet from the TJ-03 to the bottom of the radbox.

and secondly with the black side panel on

not too bad at all I dont think! cant wait to get the rest of the heavy work done so I can mount those tasty grills and put the front bezel back on!!

 

[gr1mey]

Ive ordered the FINAL parts that I need to complete the rig today, they are:

Repack Res Black
Alphacool NeXxXoS NB-SLi
5mm Red LED (for res)
25 Red Cable ties
4 x G1/4" to 1/2" Barbs
1/2" Y Splitter
6ft 1/2" ID Tygon
Water Wetter

Might try and get the day off tomorrow and head off to the merchant to get the last load of bits I need from there, that will be:

Some self-tapping screws to mount 120.2 in the case top
3.6m 15mm OD Copper Pipe
20 x 90' Copper Solder Elbows

My good friend is a plumber, so hopefully I can bribe him with a few beers to let me borrow his Blowtorch along with some flux and solder

If everything goes to that plan ( sure ) I will have time tomorrow to make up a blanking plate for the upper 80mm exhaust so that the CPU_IN feed can come from the back of the case and into the CPU block.

Then over the weekend I can crack on and knock the main amount of pipework out, it will take some time getting it all nice and neat, and a bit of planning, and a few crucial holes to be drilled, then I should be well on my way

Comments, as always are welcome

 

[gr1mey]

yeah, thanks guys, its not the easiest to paint at all, its sucks the paint like its going out of fashion lol - next time I build sommet for the PC it will be out of aluminium lol.

 

[gr1mey]

I didnt prime the MDF as such, I just gave a real heavy coat of the Black spray then sanded it back, did the job to seal the MDF.

Most primers are a water/acryllic based paint anyway, which is what the spray Ive been using is

Sandmaster500: No there will not be a grill on the other side, it will have the sidepanel put back on, but that panel has a large section cut out of it to give better airflow, and allow me to see in if needs be. wont really affect the looks of the system because it will be against the wall, comme ca:

as for the fans - they are Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000's they are absolutley silent, and on that test last night the air being pushed through the rad is more than adequate on the denser fins of the HE120 rad

thanks for the comments though, more to come over the weekend I hope

 

[gr1mey]

well the delivery guy turned up thi morning, but it required a signature and I was asleep, so I wont be able to pick the rest of my gear up until monday

have made a start with the copper tho, will post an update later...

 

[gr1mey]

Well yesterday I didnt get very much done on my project, but I did help my friend build his very first PC, a nice little system he picked up for £300 was stripped and tranferred into my old Antec P180...

 

[gr1mey]

Back onto the main project, and I did manage to get a bit of pipework done, here you can see 4 elbows that I soldered, those tails are too long at the moment and will be shortened when I go for the main installation, also the two blocks I already have, the NeXxXoS XP and Swiftech MCW60 - the NB Block was in the parcel that I missed collection of

here you can see a shot of the tower and the radbox together, the pump is now firmly secured in the box, and the box and tower and now bolted together - its already damn heavy lol.

this is a shot of the mounted PA120.2 Rad, I changed the side on which the fans were mounted, before they were on the exterior side, but I think I ike this way a bit better

Notice that I drilled a hole in the offside of the 5.25" rack for easier cable management.

 

[gr1mey]

Here are pics of a quick but necessary mod I had to make to my Eudemon fan controller; in my previous setup the top two 5.25" bays were rendered useless by the big radiator in the top of the case, however the Eudemon unit would only JUST not fit, so the mod to make it fit was quite easily done.

before that board with the memory battery on was mounted horizontally, so the mod was simple, drill out the standoffs that it was screwed to, then drill 2 new holes and bolt the thing on further towards the front, and with some new bolts - easy

here you can see that it now fits nicely:

it will look much nicer in the top slot, then in the third like it was before, and of course it frees up another 5.25" bay for my new Repack Res.

lastly here is a rough working diagram I drew out as my proposed loop; the pink line is the dedicated CPU loop running off the HE120.3/Ehiem1250 and the yellow is the VGA/NB loop running off the PA120.2/DDC-Plexi.

thats it for now, Im gonna start to move the bits from the ATCs 110 back into the TJ-03, fit the blocks and generally get prepared for the final push early next week.

 

[gr1mey]

thnks

yeah its a bit more work than it looks, I just thought that having hard-plumbed pipe rather than tubing would add something a bit different to the whole thing

 

[gr1mey]

Well I went to pick up my bits from the Sorting Office this morning, and all was well except the barbs I ordered were missing

This is about the worst thing that could be missing, as it means I cannot cut any pipe to length until I have them mounted on the block/res.

They also missed the 2nd bottle of Water Wetter I orderd

But on the positive side, I have got the NB SLi Block and the repack res mounted, and the final holes in the case drilled; so hopefully tomorrow evening I can really push forward close to completion of this project.

Stay Tuned

 

[gr1mey]

Little progress update...

Well thankfully the bits that were missing from my order turned up today, so I fitted the barbs and got on with it.

First I installed the motherboard onto the tray, and put the GFX card in place.

Ive decided against running the copper through one of the 80mm fan holes, and I will actually put 2 x 80mm fans there (even if I dont use them) I just think it will help with the whole look of the interior.

anyway Ive cut most of the pipe for the CPU loop, and here it is at about 70% done stage, few more joints to solder, and as you can see a bit of cleaning to do on the pipes

Im still not decided on whether I should paint the pipes - maybe black with the fittings red? or vice versa? or I could even do them UV red and buy some UV cathodes, IM just not sure, anyway on with pics:

^^ notice here that Ive also got the PowerPlant II installed, and all wired up, and most of all, working.

^^ theres the lovely repack res, Ive got a super bright 5mm red LED that will illuminate the water in there - I just need to wire it up...it will be connected into the spare port on the Rheobus in the radbox - the wires will be secured to the res outlet and down through that hole in the bottom of the case.

Thats about it for now, I will post some pics later on when hopefully the CPU loop will be complete.

 

[gr1mey]

Im not 100% decided on that yet, I may still run through the bottom of the case, but what I do want is a place where I can easily drain the system, and by installing a valve and a T-Coupler on the exterior of the case there - would be the very easy to just push a bit of hose on and pump the system dry.

Will see how it goes.

But I do take your point and I will have a good think about it

 

[gr1mey]

DISASTER STRIKES!!

Well I went with you two on the decision of tube routing, and so I finished the CPU loop.

I thought that because of the use of copper, when soldering with flux etc etc I ought to flush the system through...

only to find that the pump I bought doesnt work properly

Ive never used one of these eheim pumps before, but on closer inspection it appears that the impeler doesnt spin quite right in the chamber - it will work for a few seconds, it vibrates like mad and then it stops spinning and just "trembles" in the middle of the chamber, Ive had to drain and disassemble the loop twice, to no avail.

any suggestions as to whats causing that? maybe its just a duff pump, but tbh I did think I'd bought it in working condition, even from the MM

 

[gr1mey]

BLEERRRRGRRRRRRRRRHHH MORE PUMP PROBLEMS!

F_F_S!!

well I got my loop all set up, Ive changed my plans dramatically BTW - but I will get to that another time...

so I went to fill the loop up, sorted out my Eheim pump problems, fixed the DDCw/Plexi to the base of the case, and proceeded to fill the system.

Let me tell you this was bubble CITY there was loads of air in the system, and after a long slog of tube squeezing to get the air to the res, and topping up I was nearly there - then suddenly my DDC stops!...

omg Im thinking what now? is this project completeley cursed when it comes to pumps? well maybe...

Whats happened is, I was running the DDC from a seperate PSU, using the paper-clip method, and it was running fine, but on filling the res that the DDC feeds off of (in the drive bays) a bit of water spilt onto the top of the pump which sits below (my fault shakey hands) I thought I had mopped most of it up fairly quickly, but it appears I hadnt, and the DDC was sat in a puddle of water for a while! DOH!

Now every time I plug it in to the running PSU it cuts the PSU out dead, and the pump wont start - so my guess is that the water has gotten into the DDC and caused it to short out, because I can use other devices on the PSU (I tried an old CDROM drive).

So Im in a bit of a situation here now - what do you think I should do?

1 - Drain the whole system, remove the pump and let it dry in a warm place?
(if I do this I will have to go buy more water, and order some more Water Wetter, this wont arrive until Monday at the earliest)

2 - just leave the pump in situ - I have unsecured it and mopped the water up now (and its temporarily raised about an inch off the bottom of the case now) and hope that by tomorrow it should be dry enough to carry on the bleeding?

Ive tried to pinch the tubing with a jubilee clip just in front of the inlet and outlet, but to no avail, the clips I have dont shrink down enough

This is a real bummer, and a silly mistake of mine, all I hope is that Ive not mullered the pump, as the flow rate in the loop is barely anything at all without its help. I had also hoped not to be spending any more money on this project - just to add to the mess there is only one of my regular suppliers that have the Water Wetter in stock and thats only a pathetic 12ml bottle

grrr....

 

[gr1mey]

OK, so I removed the faulty pump without having to fully drain the loop, and for the mean time Ive put a coupler where it was.

TBH the flow isnt as bad as I had thought without it, and I might just leave the DDC out all together and just run the whole loop off the main pump.

I will post an update either late tonight or early tomorrow, like I said before theres been some major changes in the way Im running the system now - lets just say the Copper pipe didnt work out as I had planned, and Ive done away with that idea and just gone with ordinary 1/2" tygon.

I still plan to make a fully Copper-Based loop in the future, just not at the moment; I'm in talks with an engineer I know who I hope will make some fully custom fittings for me that will consist of a 1/4" thread to a compression fitting, thus doing away with the need for small couplers made from the 1/2" rubber tubing.

stay tuned for a big update in the VERY near future

 

[gr1mey]

UPDATE 19 AUG 06

Well, Ive not had a hugely productive day, Ive been helping a friend get some bits together for a mod on his P180.

But anyway here is the product of the last few days work on my rig - as I said before, the copper pipe idea has been scrapped for the moment until I can get a better way of fitting the pipe to the blocks (its a work in progress). So here are some pics of the rig as it stands:

^^ Here you can see where the tubing now comes up in the corner of the case, notice it is connected via a small piece of copper - this is for the future for when I do the piping proper, I can just sweat an in-line coupler on to there.

^^ My nice new 700w FSP PSU.

^^ Repack res all sorted and nice amount of flow going through it - water looks kinda cool and blue in the photo, but really its not coloured at all, only water wetter added.

^^ Radbox innards and PSU cables - I remounted the pump, this time with a section of Acoustic Foam underneath, nice and quiet now, only a vauge humm in the background but nothing noticeable.

^^ Got the mounting sorted for the Rheobus, those two pieces of batten allow it to just sit snuggly in the side of the radbox.

Notice in the Fourth picture that there is a small blue and white braided wire going by the drive bays - this is the red LED for the back of the Rheobus, it works great, but Im saving pics of that for tomorrow!

I did have one problem today though (grrr) when I was doing some work inside the drive bays, I was having to fight the tubing a bit to get the angle on the screw I needed to put in, and for some reason I'd forgot to put a hose clip onto the right hand barb of the NB block - DOH!, so on knocking the pipework, a little bit, and I mean a LITTLE bit of water dripped onto the top of the GFX card, I'm hopeful that overnight it should be OK to power on the sytem. Ive now rectified the problem, not with a hoseclip, as that would mean having to drain the loop and put a clip on, but Ive secured it with a nice big cable tie, and no matter how much I wiggle that tube now no water escapes so I think problem solved!

On another note, Ive left my DDC in the airing cupboard overnight and given it a try not so long ago, and its still dead, so Im gonna leave it til Monday, and if it doesnt work then I will have to RMA it to Alphacool.

Thats it for now, I hope tomorrow to get the front bezel back on and start installing the rest of the components back in, the Eudemon unit is going to take a while, but all being well I should be able to power up around this time tomorrow evening (hopefully it wont blow up due to that bit of water on the GFX card!)

 

[gr1mey]

Yeah sadly I didnt ever get round to finishing this project, I got side tracked with another one, simillar in style; radbox etc, you can see the results of that one here

Its funny though that this thread has been revived, as yesterday I started work on the TJ-03 again, Ive a different idea for it this time, but be assured there will be a tastefully modded TJ-03 coming out at the end of it all!