Project:- Liquid Skeleton

[G-Dubs]

Finally dry and warm enough in the garage to do some more painting.

Undercoat on. Should be able to get a few coats on today with an overnight dry and top coats tomorrow

Meanwhile, guess what i'm going to be doing with my day??? I actually find braiding really relaxing to be honest so after a stressful week i'm really looking forward to this.

 

[G-Dubs]

A busy day on the mod, and a few parts in the post also.

Braiding of the fans done. I braided each fan separately then loomed the lot together to make it a bit tidier. The ends will be tidied up and the plugs put back on later.

Treated myself to some decent paste

And a bit of bling for the loop to keep out the green stuff

 

[G-Dubs]

awesome build, i have the same case and am thinking about watercooling it!

Go for it matey. This case is a pleasure to work with as you already know. Plus how many other cases can you continue to use whilst installing the water loop?

@Duesix. It is indeed a silver kill coil. I've thought long and hard about what fluids to use, and as you'll see earlier in the thread was going for Black primochill. However after reading up and researching countless threads i've decided that distilled water and a simple silver kill coil are the way to go.

 

[G-Dubs]

Really cracking on with things now.

managed to get hold of some purified water so have drained out my Halfords De-ionised that I was using for 1st out of case leak testing and have flushed through and re filled with the Purified.

I have also taken this opportunity to install the Kill coil and have commenced 3rd leak testing. So far so good. Wish me luck guys as this is it I hope.


Draining out the deionized

The 2 waters I have been using

Installation of Kill coil

Quite a few bubbles but these will disperse.

Still got the fan controller to finish, and a bit more braiding then it'll be time to put it all together and see if I can get my i7 920 any higher than the 4.2 on air i'm at at present.

 

[G-Dubs]

what does the coil thing do??

It keeps away algae. I did know how but I can't remember.

Anyone???

 

[G-Dubs]

Try this for starters

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17803239

In essence you need a pump a reservoir a radiator 9with fans to cool it) and a block to go over the CPU and/or GPU.

All that is connected together with tubing using either compression fittings as I have or barbs. There are a variety of different tube and barb sizes to choose from.

This is my first dip into the dark art of water-cooling, and I have to say at first the language used to describe the parts involved seemed very confusing, but then I guess learning any new language is difficult.

 

[G-Dubs]

I've been making reasonable progress with the fan controller over the last few days. it's really hard to get paint to dry now that the temps have dropped a bit, so have to wait longer between coats. Anyway the controller is now sprayed up, with a test fit of the fascia. I'm pretty happy with the fit so next job is to install the PCB and wiring for the fans to be linked into.

As a bit of a braiding freak I actually gave serious consideration to braiding the wires that would be inside the controller and never seen. Fortunately the wife asked me what I was thinking and when I told her she told me in that "special" way that only a woman can "don't be ridiculous"

Here's the work on the controller housing so far. having originally planned to keep it all black I couldn't resist a little yellow accenting to tie it in with the colouring of the build. All comments good or bad appreciated.

 

[G-Dubs]

Hoping to get a bit of work done this weekend. I've been made aware that the box i'm using to house the fan controller may well cause over heating of the controller so will need to put a fan into it.

Boy am I glad I haven't painted it up already

 

[G-Dubs]

It was actually our old chum Waynio who identified the potential issue. I'd thought of using the case as part of the sink also, so nice to know I was on the right track.

Not too bothered about having to put a fan in, but would rather not if I don't need to.

May put it underneath so as to keep the look of the top of the box, but a bit of me says chop a hole in the top paint the blades yellow and drop in in there.

So top or bottom? Push or pull. Bearing in mind the box will be open at the rear with regards to pull creating a negative pressure inside.

If I do use a fan I'll probably go for one of the slimline Scythes

 

[G-Dubs]

hi Tealc

each of the 3 fans for the rad will be conected seperately. I will also connect the 2 fans on the corsair ram cooler to it (these are 60mm fans and are already spliced together. Also planning to connect the fan on rhe front of the skelly that cools the hdds.

so what do you reckon?

 

[G-Dubs]

Cheers Tealc

if your understanding of electronics is basic then by comparison I'm in a cave banging rocks together.

Think I might suck it and see.

If it gets hot it's no major job to pop a fan in afterwards.

 

[G-Dubs]

Got a fair bit done today, but not as much as I'd hoped as Mrs Dubs wanted to go shopping for a cocktail dress for a "do" were off to at the end of November. That and me being full of cold (me and half the country)

Anyway, got to grips with wiring the fan controller. I've shortened all the internal leads and will be attaching them to the rear edge of the controller effectively to make fixed sockets.

Test fit of the PCB and face plate into the box. Should be able to pack the small space between the sinks and the box with a thermal coupler to aid heat transfer.

Also made a Molex extension to give power to the unit. Didn't have the same colour wires, but as long as you remember what colour = what new colour you're ok as it all gets braided anyway.

 

[G-Dubs]

The fan controller is now essentially finished, just got to source some little feet for it. Sockets mounted in rear using the very handy 3m extra strong bond double sided tape. How strong is this stuff? Well if you stick something down with it you'd better be sure you want it there forever as you can't get it off even if you want to.

Also braided the cables coming from the pump.

Mrs Dubs is getting a bit fed up with the state of the kitchen table now as it's been like this for a few weeks.

 

[G-Dubs]

Cheers Tealc

Braiding is a bit of a fetish of mine as you probably know. I find it very therapeutic to just sit and braid wires.

Egg boxes are a bit of a red herring in that they just happened to be on the table. We live very rural and have a chap down the road who keeps chickens so we save our boxes for when we go and get some free rangers.

only 5 channels for 2 reasons. Firstly I only happen to need five, which is fortunate as the second reason is that they only supply 4 direct connections with the other 2 being the sort with a leg off to the mobo fan headers. I happened to have a spare direct from the car boot build which made up the 5 I needed.

Skelly is all in bits now with the arch section removed and all the front connectors off. Beauty of this case though is that I can still use the main base section. Using it now in fact.

Got some good pictures of 2 years worth of dust build up.

Hope to post a few pictures later.

And oh yes the table. I guess the greatest thing a man can have in his life is an understanding wife. (it has to be said taking her to posh "do's" does help her be more understanding though)

 

[G-Dubs]

If I were you I'd use a voltmeter to check if the little heatsinks on the fan controller are at 0V or 12V. The transistors which the sinks are attached to can either be npn or pnp, one of which will have the heatsink at the same potential as the supply. Given that you have them near your metal case you may run the risk of creating a short if they are pnp.

cheers Bubo

If I had the slightest clue how to use a voltmeter that would probably be a good idea.

Seriouly though, would a manufacturer make something which was essentially live on the heatsink. I know 12z isn't a lot but it's enough to start a fire.

Little bit worried now!!!

 

[G-Dubs]

If by the shroud you mean the black case, then it's not anything that came with the fan controller, its a box i've made to house it from an old Optical drive. So I guess the concern is still there.

I'm going to see if I can bottow a multimeter and see if it's live or not.

Should have a few more pics up of Sundays activity later tonight.

 

[G-Dubs]

I've taken the arch section off of the Skelly in order to prepare for the installation of the CPU block and to enable me to access some of the other fans in the system to braid them and link to the new fan controller.

It just happens to be exactly a year since I finished the original Skeleton build so what does a year of dust look like on this case??? I deliberately haven't gone near it with anything to remove dust before now, wanting to see what the build up would be, bearing in mind that we've had builders in for 3 months knocking walls down and plastering and sawing and drilling and the like

So what does it look like.... Pretty much the same as any case really.

The PCB is pretty good, as is the GPU as they are directly under the big top fan.

Dust has gathered in "dead areas " as it would in any case, but was particularly bad behind the RAM cooler fans and the HDD fans.

Fortunately I've found this great stuff that is excellent for getting rid of dust, It molds into all the nooks and crannies, doesn't leave a residue and does not generate static. You just dab it on and it picks up the dust, fold it over and dab it on again and repeat etc. it also feels really disgusting, but in a Goooood way!!!! The feel reminds me a bit of silly putty.

RAM de dusted 9the white you can see is from the flash.

All is fine, de dusted and working well.

Please excuse the wall paper. I took this picture while my wife was logged in to her desktop, so it's showing her wall paper. I'll have a word with her and make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[G-Dubs]

ahhhh.....*drooling* over that picture of megan fox on your screen

i think its her anyway lol

That is indeed the delightful Miss Fox, and not Mrs Dubs. Although i do have to say I'm very lucky to have Mrs Dubs as she is most definitely out of my league.

She came down the stairs the other day in a little black number with high heels and stockings. She brought me cold beer sat me down and told me to relax. With a wink she said that when she came back she would give me "what she did best".

Brilliant I thought

I Flippin love Shepherd's Pie.


Right back to business

The braiding continues (I did say I had a bit of a thing for it didn't I)

Taking apart and cleaning up the RAM fan and HDD fan ready for re braiding in Black

 

[G-Dubs]

Been busy testing all the fans following the epic re wiring session. Glad to say that all are running well and in the same direction (always a plus) and no burning smells (bigger plus)

Very close to bringing this to fruition now just got to grasp the nettle and get the cpu block fitted.

after that it's just a matter of getting the fans hooked up and the arch back on.

 

[G-Dubs]

I've been away at my sisters for the weekend, but did manage to get a bit of work done before I went and left it to dry in the garage (the colder it gets the longer it takes).

Originally bought chrome allen head bolts, but decided they'd look better colour coded to the rest of the job so decided to spray them matt black.

I could have bought some more, as they're not too expensive, but thought i'd see how this went. If the paint comes away when I tighten them I can always pop an order in.


Place sanded and prepped items to be painted on a strip of tape

Add another layer of tape and sandwich between two blocks of wood.

Undercoat and then top coat, then remove from the tape and wood. It's quite important the paint doesn't go down the threads as it will make a mess as the bolts are screwed in.