Project: Self-Inflicted

Cenedd

Cenedd

Cenedd

Soldato
Joined
4 Jun 2007
Posts
2,704
Location
Watford, UK
Well, I've just about got the latest round of changes to Silent Overkill done, tidied up and regained some sanity.....not much, mind! So, the sane thing to do now is launch into a project for/with my son :eek:
He's getting into gaming and currently he's on the cobbled-together cast-offs that served as my wife's work PC. The motherboard is older than pictured and the PSU is different but you get the gist:





It's functional but it's not what you'd call pretty! For Christmas he got a Corsair 5000D case so the intention is to make this something a lot nicer without breaking the bank.

Motherboard will be that Gigabyte Z170 G1 Gaming with a de-lidded i7-6700K under a monoblock - actually the one that's pictured above.
GPU will be a 980Ti also pictured above.
Disks will be a pair of 256MB Samung 980 Pro M.2 drives with custom heatsinks stuck on and running in RAID0. Any additional storage (and backup) can be supplied via iSCSI from my home server. Hmmm, I wonder if it's worth planning a 10Gbe card for this build. That definitely speeds up an iSCSI connection provided you increase the MTU to 9k

The case was a Black Friday special and actually quite a bit bigger when it arrived than I'd realised. That should just mean more room for rads and building etc.





Lots of options for layout and it's all going to go nicely.....oh, the rad doesn't fit in the top (too long and too thick at 39mm), only if you mount it inside and the fans outside in a pull setup. Well, that's got to be the least efficient way of doing it. Also, the rad interferes with the removable side plate (that hides the cables) so you'd have to remove that....which isn't particularly easy, or desirable.

Remove the plate and mount it on the side....the front-to-back airflow is gone, all your motherboard cables are going to be on show and you can't mount a rad on the front too as the two will interfere.

Mount it on the front....the plate is set up for 3x140mm fans so there's a lot of gapping for 3x120. But, if you mount 140s only two fit and the third is out of line. The side plate to hide the cables is also positioned so that it's impossible to get ATX or USB headers through the gap, round and up without kinking the wires horribly. Really odd design choices here by a company that's been around long enough to know better. Ah well, too late to change that so on we go.

Measuring up, I think that an

EK SE 360 slim will fit in the top section and still allow the top grill to be fitted. Although I wasn't planning to buy another rad, I'm thinking this might be the best option as it will allow top-vented heat with fans mounted internally in push. Open to opinions I've not thought of though - nothing's ordered yet! I could also go 140s and I would if 3x140 fitted...but it doesn't and I think that 3x120 is going to be more rad than 2x140.

The other 360 rad can then go in the front and we should get some some sort of front to back/top flow then.

Next issue that I'm over-thinking - you'll get accustomed to that before the end of this! On this board, all the ATX and USB3 headers are pointing straight up. That means they're going to look ugly if just plugged in. I've ordered some USB3 ribbon cable header extensions which should sort that easily.
The ATX cable is more of an issue. There isn't enough room to install the nice low-profile 90° adaptor I found and the bend all the way back on itself and then 90° to go under the panel is just too much for a stiff cable like the pre-sleeved extensions I have. I was thinking of just making up a custom cable using silicone-insulated wire that's really flexible and sleeved in 550 paracord. Trouble is, the SuperFlower Leadex Gold that's available uses really oddball connector shells that I can't (easily) find and also uses a bunch of sense wires to make life difficult in that department. It's also white - it was cheaper at the time by a significant amount and going in a case without a window. So my theory at the moment is a

BeQuiet Straight Power 11 650W Gold as it seems - as far as I can tell - to be a standard ATX connector and hopefully straight-through wiring. This part, it would be very helpful if people can share any experience they have or suggestions of better choices of PSU (without a silly pricetag though).

The plan at the moment is for RGB lighting. There are 5mm holes drilled in the monoblock for individual RGB LEDs that I can make up. The 980Ti either has the same or can do quite easily - have drill, will cause trouble! :eek: There might be a Farbwerk being donated to this build so that'll control the lighting as the motherboard doesn't have any. Should be able to hide that away in the bottom of the case easily enough. I may also pull the Aquaero off the old case and maybe mount that in something 3D printed as there aren't any 5.25" bays in this case.
 
Cheers. I was looking at Silverstone ET700 and that's the closest I could find. Only thing I could see of concern was that the sense pin header is now on a 6-pin but it's not compatible with the 6-pin shells I can find....although they may be optional/recommended rather than required; I'm not sure.
Their Strider series seem to have gone for the 20+10 layout that SuperFlower, Corsair, BeQuiet and others have gone for - not necessarily all pin-compatible, of course.
 
Cool, cheers. That's about the only reason I'd ruled out the Silverstone to be honest. I picked up a 6-pin PSU previously but I think it turned out to be the same as 6-pin PCI-E and the two were compatible (they fit) but not identical - pattern was different though rounded pins fit into square slots but not vice versa.
 
Cheers guys, appreciate the input. Basically I'm overthinking it and its less of an issue than it is in my head....so situation normal then!
Planning? Yeah, I rarely do that because it involves so much overthinking that nothing actually gets done!

If there's no load on the sense wire, can they be as small as the nice spool of 26AWG that I've got from LEDs and fans?

@BudgetMODz I'd thought of removing existing shells but was trying to have the option as I've been bitten before there when my current PSU seems to have the pins glued in or something) and it's just not possible to remove them without trashing both. I can get the pins out of normal shells but not those.

@LePhuronn Have you tried 3D printed combs with an allowance for the extra wire?
 
LePhuronn said:
Doubtful you could crimp an ATX pin onto 26AWG.
Click to expand...

Challenge accepted! :p:D
I was actually thinking for the double wire in one pin but now I think a little more there's a PSU end with just the one. A dab of solder ought to make sure it doesn't come back out though. I've got some 24 and 22 in a nice flexible silicone in a selection of colours....but it's very thick. The 26 I've got is mPPE and only 1mm OD...which is great for 4-wire RGB LEDs down one piece of paracord.
 
Yeah, I'd missed that initially but as I was typing it dawned on me. I suspect a spot of solder either before or after crimping ought to handle it though - worth a play.

So if the sense wiring isn't as much of an issue, any reason I shouldn't go with the best bang for buck (ruling out the brands that catch fire!) and get the Corsair that's on offer? ie are you aware of any painful complications with their wiring that I'm not. It seems to be the previous gen so shouldn't have inline capacitor complications that im aware of:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...lar-power-supply-cp-9020195-uk-ca-24s-cs.html

Was looking at 650W but an extra 100W for a fiver seems daft to turn down. SuperFlower would probably have been my go-to but seem to be out of stock everywhere.
 
Ok, I think I might roll the dice on the Silverstone then. As far as I can tell, similar models have a 1 to 1 connection plus the 4 sense. I could probably hide the crossovers after traversing the bottom chamber (mesh, so visible) where it then wraps round the edge to ascend....but I'd prefer an easy life if it's an option! :D
Paracord is out for delivery with a really helpful 09:00 to 22:00 delivery window. I already have a selection of colours...but obviously the wrong colours! It's like I regularly say about cables: they only come in two lengths.....too long or too short!
 
Ok, we have a rad and a PSU in the post :D I might have gone for the Alphacool all-copper rad as it's clearly going to be more efficient I clearly fell for the marketing schpiel.
So as part of rad selection, I've mocked some of it up to make sure things will fit. I know that a poor workman blames his tools but the more I work with the case, the more I'm disliking it. Had to find a smaller 360 rad to fit in the cavity in the roof. That'll take some chopping of the case to pass-through the inlet and outlet but it should fit quite nicely. Fans then on the inside blowing outwards and not hitting the motherboard. I wanted the other 360 in the front and I wanted the fittings at the top so the run from rad to rad could be at the top and then from the front rad drop down into the res. Nothing unusual there....except the front rad didn't fit. First the front panel cables (right in the top right corner above the top of the rad) were in the way and when I moved them, the fittings on the rad were occluded by the roof fans. I've managed to drop the front rad down by moving it down one screw hole (the very top won't be screwed in) and the holes suited for 140mm fans as they sort of are, should take up the slack. A very poorly thought-out case as far as I can see....or perhaps you're intended only to build in it they way they intended. I've stuck a some green paracord in the piece of hardline just to make it stand out in the pic:



We've also settled on a colour scheme now too:



Thanks again for the pointers guys, very much appreciated :D
 
Rad ans PSU have arrived. Ordered from OCUK on Saturday, was pleasantly surprised to see it shipped half an hour later and stunned to have DPD deliver it on Sunday. Looks like the lockdown blues are over then up in Staffordshire...which is good to hear.
Checked the rad fits! Then washed it out with white vinegar and rinsed with deionised. Looks great but I'm thinking about giving it (just the fins) a quick spray with a black rattle can. From one direction, the fins are perfectly coated but look from the other and a lot are not....and of course, this is the direction you'll see. There will be a grill over the top but I'm mainly thinking about corrosion prevention to be honest.





I'll need to cut some partial circles for the fittings to pass through. At the moment I'm waiting for a reply on whether a hole punch would work for an incomplete circle. I reckon it probably will and will do a much neater job than a carbide burr in a Dremel....as well as leave 100% fewer bits of swarf lying about.

Parts are ordered for the PSU cables. There's one wire absent from the ATX cable. I'm wondering whether I might get away with running all four three sense wires down a single paracord sleeve in that slot. That sleeve could be anchored to a pin in the hole with no wire crimped into it. It would mean trying to run them neatly across the top of the ATX plug but I reckon it might be possible and also solve the issue of ovalised (it's a word now!) cables not fitting combs. There may, however, be lots of swearing ahead....we shall see :D
 
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Nope. Checked with Ross (just for comedy) a while back and he said it didn't come from him. :D Few flattened fins but it pressure tests just fine.
I've got the mounts in the case for vertical mounting but it's at the end of the normal PCIE slots and the board only has x16 on the very top slot - so it would need the longer extension cable than I have. To be honest, nice though it would be, I don't think I'm going to throw £50-odd quid at it.
I was originally thinking of painting the white as it was going to clash...and then the colour scheme changed so it has white in it. So I might just paint the writing purple where it's currently red. It's all embossed so shouldn't be too hard to do.
The one thing I have just discovered is that all the silver fans light up green. Will have to see how much that clashes (my money's on "Horribly"!) when we get a bit further down the line. Only ones that I have as much as a set of three identicals in though. It irks to buy a set when I have a literal box full though :-/
 
The one I've got currently is a 15cm Phanteks 90° and that would fit with just a tweak to where (both :rolleyes:) the mounting holes are. I reckon their 22cm (next size up) would fit but it would need to be the 90° version not the straight. Top one of your pics wouldn't fit but the bottom would if it's the 22cm length. Swap ya? :D
 
Cheers guys, that's really appreciated. Having said he didn't want vertical (and me posted it) he then said he might :rolleyes::mad: but then decided he didn't after looking at some more pics.....mostly yours Andy, so it's clearly your fault! :p:D

I was looking at the one-to-one layout of the ATX lead and it does have one issue. You either lay your connectors the same way up and every single wire has to cross over side to side, or (like Silverstone have done) you flip it and then the top and bottom have to flip. Silverstone have done it in flat ribbon cable in groups of five. I was thinking of a PCB to do that swap - I do like to overthink things after all! - but I reckon (hope!) that with single wires, I ought to be able to cross-weave the top and bottom one after another as a crossover immediately after the PSU and then comb it as straight-through from there. I just can't buy something off-the-shelf and make my life simple, can I!? *facepalm*
 
That's pretty much where I was at on both topics Good to know I'm not way out on either! I reckon the interleaving will be what I do....but it'd be interesting to do a PCB! Must....resist :D
 
Alrighty, it's apparently now not windy enough for Parcel Farce to deliver the consignments in between loading and unloading the van :rolleyes:
This is the new toy I'd been waiting for. It punches a 20.4mm hole through sheet steel up to 1.6mm thick. Just drill a 10mm pilot hole and screw the two halves together. Why 20.4mm? Well the fitting needs just under 19mm so a bit of tolerance for bozo'ing the locations and also it's a size that might come in useful for wiring glands into cases. As you can see, the 10mm pilot hole cut through the edge; which made things....interesting. The hole punch also overlapped the edge but that cause any issues at all.



Trim the sharp corners off, a spot of deburring, a touch of filing, a dab of black paint marker (it's the gloss of the still-wet paint that looks like a raised rim) and here we are!




There was also the issue of the red bits on the motherboard clashing with the colour scheme. Who do I know that regularly puts paint on plastic successfully? Ah, my neighbour who's into Airfix! Turns out that purple doesn't go on many vintage war planes/boats etc but a mix came out alright. It's not as vibrant as the paracord but at least it won't clash. RAM sockets will be hidden once RAM is installed and trying to paint the actual PCIE slots just seemed like a terrible idea....but the latches, those were fair game! :D



Also, these arrived (sorry @LePhuronn !) :



The PA-09's do smaller crimps (fans and really tiny 1mm pitch) excellently but were struggling with the ATX pins - especially the longer rear wings and 18AWG silicone-insulated wire coming in at 2.3mm OD. Just mushed them unless I carefully trimmed down the rear wings and stopped a bit early. These on the 2.2mm jaw do a lovely job (click for larger pic). Front wings need a bit more work but this was just a quick test.
 
Image is missing in your post. Pics or it didn't happen! :p [Edit]Actually it shows up on a PC but not on a mobile. Odd[/edit]
That's exactly what I did with the EPS cable I had to make recently (board selfishly wanted two of them!) but not ideal if you have a full set of the things planned. That's what, 95 of the delightful things! The 21's boast they handle longer wings and that's exactly the issue I had. I'll try to get a decent close-up once I've got a really good crimp done :D
 
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Said I'd be back with a picture of a nice crimp.....I didn't promise that it'd be a nice picture of a crimp though! :D



That's the 1.6mm die for the front wings and 2.2 for the rear. Very happy with that!

Decided that the rad needed to be sprayed. Partly for OCD (alright, quite a bit!), partly because I thought it would show through the top grill and partly because I was concerned that it might corrode. The wind and rain finally subsided in my 'spray booth' so I had at it:

Before:


After:


This was just a rattle can of Wilko's satin black as recommended quite some time back by someone on the forums. Have to say it was a good recommendation as the can is still going strong and hasn't blocked like more expensive brands have.

Last thing I've been up to (apart from cutting wire and crimping) was an idea I had to cover the red in the unused PCIE slots. Have 3D printer, will churn out random ideas :D



Lower two slots covered:



The RAM slots will be almost entirely covered by the actual RAM once it's in.
Have also cut a tube for the rad to rad link. Going to do the 90 bend for that in fittings because I can....and because at the very top of the case, it's unlikely to be seen anyway. Obviously this turned out to require the one size of extension that I haven't got in stock. So that's in the post and so is the 18AWG wire for the ATX cable as I ran out :rolleyes: Should be 27m of the stuff in there by the time I'm done! :eek:
 
Got as far as completing one of the cable runs. This is the PCI-E 8-pin and you can see the rather helpful double-wire....because the pinout of the 8-pin PCI-E is stupid. Now that I've melted paracord into the ends of the pins, I've also discovered that the purple paracord (the major colour in this set of wiring) is of delightful quality. It doesn't so much melt as burn; it's the only one I've ever had trouble with letting go of the pin when you stretch the other end. Still, I wasn't expecting this to be easy or anything! :D

 
What do you think of them sense wires?! :D Three of 'em hiding in there :eek:



The other end isn't as neat because of the interleave. I'll get a pic of that once I have the sense plug on that end; currently it's a ATX plug with three wires hanging out the side.....and I've (temporarily) run out of enthusiasm to finish it off :p
 
I'll add this one to show what I did:



Cut the end of the sense wire at an angle and trimmed out the metal so it didn't snag. Made it sort of like a needle. Already tested that I can get an AWG26 wire crimped into a pin. Added a sleeve of the insulation from some AWG18 so the rear wings could grip but the front wings were no trouble at all.
 
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