[Project] orange³

[SinaiSound]

I've been doing this for a while now, but haven't posted a log here, so I thought some people might be interested. You might have an idea about the project from the header

The case will be powder coated internally and externally

I posted the project on another forum, so if the writing is speaking in the past tense every so often - that's why!

So lets begin

My PC was in this state for about a year and half with no real changes.

Hardware spec back then was

E6600
P5K-Deluxe
4GB Crucial Ballistix PC5300
8800GTX

Final spec
QX9650
Blackops
Patriot Viper PC3-16000
4870x2

Was originally going to have triple loops, but went down to two in the end

The case itself when I started all this

Stripped down and looks something like this

The radiator and fans are a bit of a mess - something that I sorted out

finally a teaser of things to come...

 

[SinaiSound]

Some drilling on the case; got rid of the feet, never liked them. Need to decide if I want some hifi style feet, or some rubber ones to reduce vibration

All taped up

Then using Woolworths (rip) finest drill

All done!

 

[SinaiSound]

The "new" motherboard that I'll be using.

Took the fans off the rad that I've been using for over 12months

It's not that bad tbh

 

[SinaiSound]

I got a delivery of some bits and this is what I got. Not everything would will be used eventually

Got a GTZ waterblock and some other bits.

 

[SinaiSound]

The next step was to start on the braiding of fans. I hate having exposed fan wires - looks messy

Tower of fans

Managed to get a few done

The other fans will be mounted on the radiators, but these need the closed corners cutting, which I did on a few fans. But the edges need filing down as the screws don't fit.

Braided the wire on the pump aswell as you can see here

Before

After - with black molex

 

[SinaiSound]

I decided to join up the power cables on the 120mm fans used on the radiators

The fans on each side will be chained together to cut down on the amount of wires. They will also be 7volted to cut down on noise

I used 4mm braid throughout, with a mix of 4mm & 6mm heatshrink.

So here we go

Sleeving up the first fan - turns out I didn't need that bottom piece of heatshrink.

Just the right length

Didn't really need to braid the second fan, so just put some heatshrink on

Then put some larger shrink over the two cables (unshrunk in the picture)

Only needed a short amount of braid for the last fan

Then again used a bigger piece of shrink over the top

Done

The ends currently look like this, just unstripped wire atm; waited on the molex pins.

Quite pleased with the job, looks a lot cleaner than before.

 

[SinaiSound]

Got some files from Wilkos

It's a bit rough, but it works

Braided up the fans on the PA120.2

 

[SinaiSound]

Hopefully going to send it off this week for powdercoating goodness

I've tested the new bits and it all seems to work - the 4870x2 cooler is insanely loud!

 

[VFR_KID]

This may sound like a daft question but what case was that? i always like it when someone goes DIY on a case.

 

[SinaiSound]

When I sent the case off I setup my PC on my desk

The noise from the 4870x2 @ 100% was daft

 

[SinaiSound]

Made some braided Y splitters

Then I made up the LED lights which will be plugged into the XSPC reservoirs

 

[SinaiSound]

This is what the reservoirs will look like when lit up

It's more orange in person than it looks. I'm not going to bother with dyes, just de-ionised water with PT Nuke.

 

[SinaiSound]

I replaced the thermal paste on the stock heatsink with some MX-2. Before applying the paste I used ArctiClean on the blocks to get them as clean as possible.

Stock paste

The NB block screws onto the heat pipe assembly

Not much paste eh?

I re-assembled and it still worked

 

[SinaiSound]

After being away for a couple of weeks in Wales, I got my case back

 

[SinaiSound]

Got some other bits coated aswell

Swiftech hold down bracket

Scythe Karma bay thing

 

[SinaiSound]

Some more pictures

Got the PA120.2 in the roof

Some badman ebay pipe cutters

Pumps roughly in situ, need to get some bolts tomorrow from B&Q along with some de-ionized water.

I wanted the tubing on the gpu/nb loop to come from the rad into the res, but the tubing will bend a little, so I'm going to be having the order like so

pump/res - rad - gpu - nb - pump/res

then on the cpu loop it will be

pump/res - rad - cpu - pump/res

 

[SinaiSound]

Got the pump bracket mounted (had to do some drilling on mobo tray) used some neoprene foam between the tray and the bracket to cut down on vibrations.

Testing the lighting

The fans on the PA120.3 are pretty close to the grills

Just enough room

This is pretty much how the HDDs will be mounted

 

[SinaiSound]

Due to the fact I've got 4 Raptors mounted like so the power cables are fairly close to each other

and due to the fact that the power cable is upside down (!)

and the fact they are too far apart

meant I had to create some form of custom cable

et voila!

yes I know some of the little braiding it a little shady, but you won't see it anyway

this is t'other end where it plugs into the psu, each little cable is braided :001_cool:

 

[EvilOne]

What case is that please? looks very big, just what im after lol.

 

[SinaiSound]

Stealth Yates

After mounting the 120mm fans in the back of the case I thought that it looked a little cluttered. Don't like the stickers, wires or silver screws.

Well here's a fan!

Stealthing up the fan cable was really easy, the little clip needs to be broken off

Then some heatshrink added to the cables

Yey!

(I have got some black fan grills and screws, but I've not got a photo........doh)