Project: The Elephant in the Room

foop · 29 Jan 2017 at 11:15

Project: The Elephant in the Room

We recently moved house. I've been using a little water-cooled mini-ITX build for a while. I felt the need for a little more space, though.

It was around then that I had a sudden rush of blood to the head. I wasn't helped by my wife, who said that she didn't object at all.

As a result of all this, it was Thursday lunchtime when my cheery local DPD driver, Cosmin, wheeled his trolley up to the door. "Is heavy," he said with a smile as we man-handled the box through the door into the hall. Then the cat started complaining that she couldn't get past the box.

Ruh roh.

So, yeah, it seems that I bought this:

I've got no idea what I'm going to put in it. I guess it will have to be SLI and double loops, at least, with all that space. I've spent a week staring at it dolefully.

This is definitely going to be a slow burn project. Don't expect rapid action. First off, I'll try to disassemble it and get some photos together.

foop · 30 Jan 2017 at 15:05

Cenedd said:
Custom acrylic reservoir taking up the entire front panel with 50mm depth and then add robo-fish?

That was the first thing I thought of, weirdly.

In fact, it's so big I think you could put a real fish tank in there. Tropical fish, heated by the cooling loop maybe, with Prime95 running as required when the water gets too cool?

I might not try custom reservoirs quite yet though...

foop · 31 Jan 2017 at 11:58

I really ought to stop staring at this case and actually do something, but it's a bit overwhelming. Here are some pictures of it out of the box. Getting it out of the box is not a simple matter. This thing weighs a ton.

Here we are, tempered glass protected by lovely plastic. All the fish tank suggestions are pretty apt at this stage. It's a big, empty fridge-sized box. I could probably fit my nine year old son inside.

So, the top is... Well, it's ventilated. And covered in mesh.

And, eurgh, a bit plasticky.

It doesn't show up well in this photo, but that USB and button panel has the sort of finish that white plastic PC cases used to have back in the 90s. It's also a slightly different finish from the rest of the top of the case which rather highlights the ickiness.

I'm not a big fan of this part of the case.

When you look directly down from the top of the case, you can see that the vented top is a nice idea but the grille doesn't really hide the rather random placement of vents and holes.

The vents and holes are there, of course, to allow airflow from the fans in the top of the case. I'm not sure I'm going to be needing the vent fan in the compartment at the back, because that's probably going to have at least 7 fans venting out of radiators in the sides.

The cable management under the top panel is rather nice. There's plenty of headroom, and gaps at the rear to allow you to run monitor cables and the like.

Turning now to the back of the case we have... more fan mounting points. Because the one thing the rear compartment of this behemoth needs is more fans. I'm guessing it's to help maintain positive pressure if you have big radiators venting out of the back of the case.

Once you take the back panel off (with captive thumbscrews - a nice idea but a little fiddly) you can see that you probably ought to be watercooling in here. Without the drive cages you can get two 560mm radiators in, no problem. With the drive cages, one side is down to (I think) 360mm max and people who love symmetry start twitching slightly.

There's a spare radiator/fan mount panel in the back of the case to use if you don't need the rear drive cages. These panels are a bit weird. The openings in them don't match either 120mm or 140mm fan spacing. Whatever you do, you're going to have a metal bar across the airflow from your fans.

The fan panels on the rear compartment come off easily with a spring loaded latch under the lid. The case comes with two spare springs for these latches. The panels have the usual magnetically attached mesh. Apparently we don't worry about magnetic strips next to our HDD cages these days.

Next post... the front of the case. Can you contain your excitement?

foop · 31 Jan 2017 at 15:56

Cenedd said:
Can he make noises like the sound-effects in Crysis though?!

Bribe him with enough bags of Monster Munch and he'll give it a good shot.

Spray paint it?

Quite possibly. I was wondering about vinyl wrap, but I have absolutely zero experience. I don't know how easy it would be with buttons, USB ports, LEDs, and headphone ports to deal with.

*cough* Dremel *cough*

I've got a few Dremel candidates in the front, too.

foop · 1 Feb 2017 at 11:26

ALXAndy said:
It's not that hard really. Just ***** the centre (ooer) and then gently take the blade of a pointed scalpel around the edge.

My mind is boggling as to what just got censored there.

Sounds like it might be worth giving a try. I suspect I'll have lots of badly cut acrylic sheet lying around half way through the project to practice on.

Mind you, vinyl comes in lots of colours which adds another bunch of decisions to the process.

foop · 1 Feb 2017 at 15:53

LePhuronn said:
I'm a total noob with vinyl and my heatsinks came out really nice, although the power board was fiddly because of the shape and having stuff under and around it.

It was seeing your build that put the idea in my head, but then I couldn't remember which project it was in.

foop · 1 Feb 2017 at 16:50

Contain your enthusiasm, I'm about to move onto the front of the case.

We have a removable motherboard tray the orientation of which gives you vertically mounted GPUS. No GPU sag, although I can't say I've ever suffered from that <cough>. Another removable panel below, with lots of grommets for cable management. And finally, presumably because they ended up with a lot of empty space that they couldn't work out what to do with, a weird plinth that sits in the bottom. This has two slide-out 3.5" HDD trays, a fan mount on top (more of which later), and the 5.25" drive tray in the bottom.

The Thermaltake logo pops off easily enough. The 5.25" drive space is pretty much designed for fan or pump controllers, and that is what I'll be using it for.

Either side of the plinth is an oddly shaped cage thing with no obvious purpose. More obviously, there is a 2.5" SSD tray which can slide onto mounting slots at the back of the cage or the side of the plinth. In the front of this space, just visible, is a removable pump/reservoir mounting plate. I've no idea what the hole spacing is, but from previous experience I'd be willing to bet that it doesn't match the mounting screws on whatever pump I end up buying.

On the subject of holes...

...this case is full of them. Count them in that picture. Some of them have an obvious purpose, like standoff mounting holes for E_ATX. Others are just mysterious holes. Some of them are small and threaded. Some of them are large and not threaded.

Frankly, I'm baffled. I'm sure some of them are for doing cunning things, but I've no idea what.

Look at the top of the plinth thing, for example.

Ok, fair enough, we have 120mm and 140mm fan screw holes. We also have some mysterious threaded holes and some mysterious unthreaded holes. Any ideas?

The whole hole- and grommet-strewn area looks a bit meh to me. I'm thinking about maybe having some standoffs on it holding acrylic sheet with custom tube and cable holes drilled though. This will probably cause me endless pain.

Finally, fittings.

All the usual M3 and 6-32 screws, thumbscrews, standoffs, cable ties, etc. A couple of spare springs for the side panel release toggles. Some USB extension cables. And weirdly, some 14mm black M5 thread standoffs. The only other M5 threaded things are the screws that hold the tempered glass in place. I can't see what you'd use the standoffs for, unless you wanted the glass have a gap all the way around it. You can't use them to mount the glass and hold something away from the glass, because the threaded portion isn't long enough to hold the glass in place.

foop · 3 Feb 2017 at 22:03

I still have no concrete idea of what I'm going to put in this case. Fortunately I've managed to find a great procrastination tool. Drawing bits of the case should keep me busy for hours.

(That's the mostly decorative cage that goes in the front around the pump mount. The slots at the rear are one of the possible positions for the 2.5" SSD sleds.)

foop · 4 Feb 2017 at 19:52

Cenedd said:
Just wait til you get to a mesh panel!

I see what you mean.

foop · 19 Feb 2017 at 19:33

Ok, so the procrastination is probably over. I now have to think what I'm going to put in here.

I'll start with the cooling, because - as always - there's new tech just over the horizon. I'm wondering whether it's worth waiting for Ryzen and the 1080 Ti.

foop · 19 Feb 2017 at 21:11

So, cooling. First things first. What radiator? I'll think first about the GPU side of things. This side of the case has space for a 4 x 140mm (560mm) radiator. It would be rude not to. I'll think about the other side next, because there's the issue of whether I want to keep the drive cages. This would reduce the space available for a radiator.

Criteria for choosing a radiator:

Nice and fat
Inlet and/or outlet at the bottom of the radiator. There is no way I'm turning this case upside-down to drain things. I don't think I can turn it upside-down. It weighs as much as my son.
Some sort of port at the top (either inlet or outlet in a crossflow radiator, or an extra drain/vent port).
Good performance over a range of RPM in push/pull.
Not a stupid name.

Looking at Thermalbench reviews, the Alphacool NexXxos UT60 meets all the criteria apart from the last one.

I have a look at how it will fit.

Hmm, not great. With the ports at the bottom there's only 37mm gap between the ports and the side of the PSU. With fans on the back in push/pull, I can't take cooling tubing up over the PSU - it would have to go straight towards the front of the case and I don't think there's space for two runs of tubing in there. I can't use the ports on the bottom (facing down), or back (facing out of the case) because there's not enough space.

Hmm.

Choices?

Use a thinner rad. Maybe the UT45.
Use a shorter rad, either a 4x120mm 480mm, or a 3x140mm 420mm and mount it at the top to give more space underneath. Take the tubing out of the bottom of the radiator. Or over the top of the PSU if the rad is short enough.
Mount it the other way up and use the extra port in the rad as a drain at the bottom.
Something else I haven't thought of yet.

foop · 25 Feb 2017 at 19:07

I've been double-checking the fit for a 560mm RAD with push-pull fans. With the ports at the bottom, it fits but there's nowhere to put the pipework.

(That's a 90 degree fitting on the outlet port for size)

If I'm going to keep a 60mm thick, 560mm radiator, I have a few options

Abandon push-pull and just have fans on one side :: The way the fan/radiator mounting plates are inset into the sides of the case, if you want fans on only one side of the radiator it has to be the outside. This would mean a choice of having the fans running in pull, or having them pushing hot air into the case. Neither sounds great.

Also, the pipework will inevitably run past the back of the radiator and disrupt airflow a little.

Turn the radiator the other way up :: There's a bit more room at the top of the case, but it's not helped by there being a 140mm fan in the way. I can ditch that because there'll be enough air leaving the case - in face, I really need more air coming in to balance the radiator fans.

I'd have to put a drain on the bottom of the radiator. That's ok, the Alphacool UT60 has a port there. I think I can just fit a right angle fitting and a tap or a quick release there.

Alternatively, I can always

Use a 45mm radiator
Use a shorter radiator (4x120mm or 3x140mm, or 57,600 mm2 vs 58,800 mm2 cooling area)
Buy a cheap wet/dry vacuum cleaner

I wonder what's better, a 60mm thick 420mm radiator or a 45mm thick 560mm radiator?

foop · 7 May 2017 at 19:26

It's been a couple of months and I've managed to achieve almost nothing, at least as far as the build is concerned. Mostly because we've had builders in covering everything with a fine layer of dust. But also because I've been building five water-cooled quad-Titan machines for work (more of which later, if I get round to it).

At least that's allowed plenty of time for AMD to release the Ryzen line. And for nVidia to release another two top-end versions of the 1080.

Anyway... my original plan was to have a separate pump and res because there's so much space in the case. I bought a couple of Monsoon MMRS pump housings and Aquabus-fitted D5 pumps. Then I discovered that the pump/res space in the front of the case isn't as big as I thought.

My current idea is to have an MMRS modular reservoir and pump next to each other on each side at the front of the case.

It'll be a tight fit, though.

foop · 18 Sep 2017 at 12:10

No progress at all for four months. Unexpectedly being dragged off to hospital at the end of May did kind of get in the way of things.

That aside, I'm now the owner of two Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper 420mm radiators. They have a billion G1/4 ports on each radiator, which is what I wanted - I can mount them with the inlet/outlet at the bottom and they still have a port on the top I can use to bleed air out. This is important, because the final machine is going to weigh a ton and I don't want to have to be rocking it about to get rid of bubbles.

A little boring as received...

Masked up and ready for abuse.

That's better.

I'm going for a "white and unpleasantly bright orange" colour scheme, with notes of bright yellow. It should be striking, at least.

The fan is a Corsair ML140 Pro LED White 140mm Premium Magnetic Levitation Fan. I tried them on one of the quad-GPU water cooled machines I built for work, and I liked the airflow and noise. It's just balanced on the radiator there. When I tried to attach it, I discovered that the jig Alphacool use to make their screw holes bears only a passing resemblance to the spacing on 140mm fans. Ho hum.

foop · 3 Nov 2017 at 15:16

Reservoirs

With so much space I decided to go for separate pumps and reservoirs. I quite like the look of the Monsoon modular system, so I thought I'd give that a go.

These are the parts for the bottom part of a reservoir. I'm going for an asymmetrical look, with a 50mm tube at the bottom and a 100mm tube at the top.

The bits mostly look nice, although the finish on one of the end pieces was disappointingly not the same crisp white as on the other.

It all fits together nice and intuitively. I then had to wait for the 100mm tension bars to come in stock at OcUK before I could assemble it completely and mount it on the side of the central plinth in the case.

The plan is to have inlet and outlet at the bottom of the reservoir and the other four holes blanked off. There's no baffle in the bottom of the thing to stop bubbles recirculating, so I guess I'll find out if baffles do anything useful or not.

Mounting involved drilling yet more holes in the plinth. Of course, the mounting bolts interfered with the plastic slides that hold the hard drive cages. I took a Dremel and Stanley Knife to these to carve some space and allow everything to fit together without fouling.

With two independent cooling circuits, I repeated the whole thing on the other side of the plinth.

Meanwhile, I set the actual components up on a bench table and installed Windows. I plugged the Aquaero 6XT in, and tested the two D5 pumps I bought. One was fine, but the other had a completely borked USB interface and ran uncontrollably at high speed while the PC beeped "USB device connected ... USB device disconnected ... USB device connected ... USB device ... " Thank you once again, OcUK customer support, for a speedy and efficient RMA.

foop · 3 Nov 2017 at 16:27

Cenedd said:
If there's enough, you could screw in a clear tube to make the inlet come out nearer the top - maybe at the middle ring if you want it more hidden.
You can either thread your own tube (if you have acrylic tube and a G1/4 die) or OCUK have some.

Ah, that's worth knowing, thanks.

I'm not at home at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that there's enough thread left on the inside to do that.

foop · 5 Nov 2017 at 12:52

Pumps

So, those weird side bits in the pump bays get in the way. With them removed, however, you get a better look at the ugly floor of the case.

Some of that would normally be obscured by the pump mounting plate, but as predicted the holes in it don't match any pump I've ever used and certainly don't match the slightly odd pattern for the Monsoon MMRS D5 standalone pump housing.

My plan is to cut a slightly smaller platform from white acrylic and mount that to the base of the case using hexagonal standoffs and M3 bolts.

It still has the protective paper on it here while I piddle about with things. I can then mount the pump onto the platform. Yet again, the pump mounting hardware interferes with something in the case. This time it's the plastic locating lugs on the feet that protrude through the case just below the platform. I carve these away with a Stanley knife and the feet still fit securely.

You can just about see the Monsoon cold cathode lights that fit into the reservoir mounting bits. I've no idea how good they are, but I thought I'd get them because they're designed to go with the reservoir. Their cables are sleeved with black plastic though, so that has to be changed.

Now I just have to get a decent right-angle bend in the PETG tubing to fit between the reservoir and the pump inlet.

foop · 6 Nov 2017 at 13:42

I had some help this weekend.

Everything is now covered in a thin coating of cat hair.

foop · 9 Nov 2017 at 14:58

Waterblocks

I've not done a full cover motherboard block before, so this is a bit of a novelty. I thought I might as well get one as in the early days of Ryzen there seemed to be a lot of talk about the mosfets needing to be well cooled if you're overclocking.

It's all pretty straightforward. The stock heatsinks come off easily, and the cover with its super-high-performance RGB LED nonsense goes back on ok.

The biggest issue was the stock backplate, which is attached to the motherboard with very sticky double-sided tape. This required a lot of gentle(ish) persuasion with some flexible plastic spudgers to free it.

GPU waterblocks are a different matter. I've built six quad-GPU watercooled machines so far this year, so it's getting a bit routine.

I've gone with EKWB blocks and backplates. The EVGA GeForce GTX 1080Ti SC Black Edition GAMING ICX actually has more themal pads on the backplate than the replacement EKWB one, which is something I'm not used to. Hopefully the fact that the backplate is metal will help cooling.

I've also sprayed the backplates orange to go with the rest of the colour scheme.

foop · 11 Nov 2017 at 13:11

Components actually in the case

It's taken months, but I've finally got pieces of computer inside the case.

The GPUs haven't got the terminal block linking them yet in this shot.

It's not looking bad, but I'm worried that the GPUs are a bit close to the reservoir on that side of the case. It's not a physical problem, but it does make it look a little crowded over there. I could make that reservoir shorter, but then the two reservoirs will be different sizes. Hmm.

The other thing I've discovered is that the case doesn't really have a proper way of getting the case leads (switch, reset etc.) or the USB-3 connector over to that side of the board. There's a small hole on that side, but it's not really in the right place. They're not long enough to go down the bottom through the grommets and back up again. At the moment I'm thinking of removing a PCI blanking plate and putting them through the resulting hole. I'll need to build some sort of cable management arrangement to keep them neat and out of sight. The massive, inflexible USB-3 cable is, as usual, a pain in the bum.