Project: RE-Define XL (with 2 x 480 rads)

[wissel]

Ahh I see so the last pic on post 35 is where the psu will be along the side of the mobo sidewards?

That's correct, in fact here it is in place

A Little Update

All the panels are now painted so I can start assembling tomorrow. I'll set up proper lighting then and take some decent pictures but I'm really pleased with how this bit turned out so couldn't resist posting a quick pic:

The paint has come out great, just needs polishing now.

 

[wissel]

Beautiful

Thanks

Looking awesome so far m8. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Cheers and me to

Very quick update

Had a hell of a day putting bits of this together today, one of those ones where if it can go wrong it will

Anyway, overcome most problems and will post more pics probably tomorrow once I have lighting again (both white light bulbs blew today).

The motherboard is all plumbed in now, with a bit of luck tomorrow the loop will be finished and I can test it.

If that goes well I can start fitting fans/switches/front DVD connection/wiring/etc/etc..........
(will be finished one day)

 

[wissel]

wow. just wow. best rig I've seen in a while. stunning actually.

send pics to fractal too.

keep it up.

Thanks very much.

Truly epic! I love it.

Are you going to stealth that SLI bridge?

Cheers and yes, SLI will be black aluminium as well.

Great Job dude. Excellent work

Again, thank you.

Hit a bit of a hold up at the moment as needed to redesign the drain port assembly. The bits for it wont be here until next week unfortunatly.

 

[wissel]

Small case and Kickass components!

Wonderful Wissel, just wonderful! I bet your soooo pleased.

Nothing short of amazing... like a boss

Thanks for the great comments.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've had a small delay due to a change in living arrangements. We now have much more space but the house needed modding

Most rooms are now finished apart from my new office/video studio for which the parts will be here for later this week. This PC is being built for this purpose (need it for work).

I also have a new DSLR arriving this week (went for a Canon 600d due to its great video capability's) so should be able to get some good shots once the studio is finished as it has permanent photo lighting set up.

With a bit of luck I should be updating this thread in around 10 days. I'll probably try the new video studio out at the same time and post a video update although it will be unedited as the editing will be done on this build.

 

[wissel]

Update 30/10/2012 - Water Loop Finished

I've had a little time the past few days to get on with this build and at last the water loop is complete. The thing is there are so many joins in this loop I thought I'd better take some photos and get this update posted before I fill it with water

This is the view in the top bay with the front off:

The T piece coming from the top of the rad is a bleed port to make filling and draining easier. This sits nicely on the top next to the fill port:

coming down from the T is the return pipe back to the res:

The res is an Alphacool and below is a Lamptron FC6 fan controller. Below the FC6 and barely visible in this pic are the backs of the two LCD temperature displays, one showing the air temp and the other the water.

The pipe on the left leads down to the pump in the bottom of the case:

The pump is hardly visible in the pic, the two fittings in the middle are the inlet and outlet though. From the pump the loop attaches to the bottom rad then out the top and into another T fitting. The right side of this fitting houses the water temperature sensor, the other outlet to the bottom of the motherboard. There is also a drain port at the bottom.

The loop starts in the bottom right of the picture going to the first motherboard block, then to the CPU, then the second M/B block and finally the GPU's. I originally had the GPU's in serial but swapped it over to parallel to make the loop a little less restrictive. Actually I just preferred the look of it this way.

The loop then leaves the GPU's and travels into the top chamber and back to the rad.

That's it for now - time to fill it up

 

[wissel]

That's looking great!

Cheers
Quick Update - First Boot

After filling the loop two nights ago and testing it for a day I decided to wire it up to see if it actually works. Thankfully it does and I'm really pleased with it.

Its only running at stock speeds at the moment but these are the temps so far:

The rig has been on for a few hours and I've run Prime95 for an hour where the CPU temperature peaked at 45 degrees (as you can see in the pic) so pretty happy with the temps so far. This was with the rad fans on as low as they will run and completely silent.

For ease I wired it up using the stock corsair cables but I like the way they look with this build so may keep it this way. I'm waiting for some LED's to arrive for the lighting, once these are here and fitted I'll fit the case fans and shrouds.

Then its just ordering the side panels and a few finishing touches. I held of ordering the sides until it was all together to make sure my measurements from drawings were exact.

I'll update again once the LED's and fans are fitted - hopefully within a week

 

[wissel]

Love the plexi tubes - good idea!

Wow, at first I didn't think it looked to great but now I see the finishing pics I think it looks great. Good work!

thats gotta be one of the cleanest installs iver ever seen

/jelous

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[wissel]

Wonderful example of pro-plumbing. Very tidy job indeed. Love the clean lines of the build.

Very nice, I wish case manufacturers would take note and start spicing up the case's they make as I find them really dull, not much has changed in the last 15 years.

Brilliant use of space. I love the balance! None of the volume inside the case has been wasted. I want it!

Again thanks guys, nice to get great comments

I woke up this morning to find I've been nominated for "Mod of the Month" on Bit-Tech (am I allowed to mention this site?) so made up at the moment

 

[wissel]

This is one of the best builds I've seen in a long time. I admire your creativity.

Cheers.

Small Update - Lighting

I was originally going to make the LED's from scratch and plug them into a Mod Smart board but I decided to just buy the Mod Smart LED's as well.

The Mod Smart board is a cracking little thing that can take up to 20 LED's and powers from a single molex. It also has a 2 pin switch connector if needed.

Before instating the lights I did a quick check to make sure they all work

Then installed them and added a Bitfenix LED strip to the bottom of the case to up-light the board

Not the greatest pic I know but I'll take some better ones once the sides are fitted.

Also, the studio/office is taking shape now, here's a couple of pics

I've also sent the side panels of to Pulse Modding today

and here is how they should look once they return

I'll update again once the panels are here.

 

[wissel]

this looks amazing... VERY well done, cant wait to see what your panels look like when they have been modded, also very nice studio/office space, looks the mutts nuts! !

Lol, you and me both. I'm hoping it will look really clean once finished.

WOW!!!

What some stunning craftsmenship. I would love to have the creativity as you do. I'm blowen away!!!

LED's are really effective

Thanks very much.

Looking really slick there buddy. A refreshing idea. One question: are the fan controls going to sit behind the window of the side panel? As in you would have to take the side panel off to make adjustments?

Cheers. Yeah the fan controller will be behind the window. I'm only using the controller to make the fans silent though, with the two big rads is doesn't ever get very hot.

 

[wissel]

I use this case on my main rig its very nice.

Such a nice mod done utilising it.

So clean cant wait to see the whole thing done.

gratz

Yeah I love the Fractal cases, have another Define XL as my media rig.

 

[wissel]

Amazing looking build and I love the originality of it! Looks great on the desk in your studio too

Thanks

Just need to sort that sli bridge out looks a tad out of place

Yeah its on the list - does look bad now.

i dont know what i love best the computer or the office.

Awesome build thread!

Thanks, must admit I'm happy with how the office turned out. Just need a few more bits to turn up and it will be finished.

 

[wissel]

FYI - All you people who never seem to notice, I am bumping a 2012 thread. This happened near 2 years ago.

I've seen this build log on a few forums now, elsewhere first, and now I've found it here as well. So I thought I'd necro the thread on my home forum and ask if the side panel(s) ever got done?!

There don't seem to be any pictures anywhere!

Yep it got finished but I had a few issues with the side panels and lost interest so never updated the thread

Anyway, here are a couple of pics I've just taken with the side on. They're not the best shots as the machine is a little dusty at the moment - but then it is nearly 2 years old now.

In the end the system did what it was supposed to, nice and fast without high temperatures. Also the fluid is the same as two years ago and the loop has never been cleaned so I guess the solid tubing did it's job. It's still crystal clear and the water temperature is usually within a degree or so of ambient.

Thanks for asking, David.

 

[wissel]

Thanks

I was going to add perspex but lost interest as I said. Tbh I quite like it without anyway and it must help with air flow.

I think the sides cost £35 each (the back one is the same without the window cut out) and £8 postage.

The back was cut upside-down by mistake which is what originally lost my interest. I think the company involved were going to get a new panel and cut it correctly but in the end we settled on a part refund as I was fed up with waiting.

 

[wissel]

Thanks Guys