Project turtle blite

IF the competitor is a WC specialist shop then you should be ok, provided its not the one that sounds like OCUK (O=W) as the shipping options they offer is nothing short of pathetic. When they say 'in stock' they usually mean 'someone, somewhere, has one of these' :p
 
pgi947 said:
IF the competitor is a WC specialist shop then you should be ok, provided its not the one that sounds like OCUK (O=W) as the shipping options they offer is nothing short of pathetic. When they say 'in stock' they usually mean 'someone, somewhere, has one of these' :p
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ha! well read a thread about someone getting a late delivery and the account manager said it's a family business, it doesn't bother me, it's a welsh based company and I'm welsh.
 
Ahh the place I was on about is based in Manchester. The place in wales (solva?) has usually been really good for me.
 
Can a mod move this to the project logs forum? I realised after posting that this was in the wrong place so would like to move it there...

also rename the project to "Codecs first liquidcool" - not gonna give it a name :)
 
Sorry for the long gap, I've literally had no time to do anything with the project - winter nights during the week and at my gfs on weekends....

but I managed to get a weekend off just gone! and managed to cut out all parts necessary bar the plastic on the case. I'll add pics tonight and pics of the plastic cutting tomorrow :) but all going good.

I've also decided to 1up the blue dragon build and gone for the Magicool Hexa Radiator 720mm, it's basically 2 treble rads but as it's 1 unit, it keeps the all important < 250mm width to get in the case.

all I will need to do is cut out some of the drive bays, and stick it in :)
 
Cutting out last pieces, removing 5.25 bay caddy
Ok I took a day off work today so I could get the last bits out of the way, I've not bothered smoothing the metal yet as I have to buy the fans etc (ordering tomorrow).

So as I said in the previous post, the majority of the metal is cut in the top, bar some refinements when I get the fans to check:
topsy.jpg


after checking the dimensions of the inside of the case with the 5.25 caddy, my initial reaction was to cut out a large segment at the back and keep the front of the bays for small hardware tat might need it.... but this just wasn't workable due to the depth of the magicool radiator, it would have required a lot of space for both that AND the fans depth that would be attached to it. I decided to remove it completely.

525bays.jpg


This now frees up a TON of room in the case, I can have the magicool at the front, the fans pulling in air behind it, and a ton of space for harddrives on the floor (note picture is upside down - sorry for poor quality).

upsidedowny.jpg


To remove the bay, there are (what look like) screws welded onto the chassis that look like this from the front:

screwback.jpg


and this from the back:

welded.jpg


At first I thought I could just dremel these off. They are VERY flimsy and any gripping tool can twist it away, but the opposide side stays in. So I took a small screw driver and a hammer and knocked them off. This is quite possibly the best thing to do in this case. the screw is unusable as it was already welded to the case, but knocking it off as such leaves a clean circular hole as you can see at the top of the picture below:

frontpfe.jpg


At this point I was so nervous about the magicool fitting I hat to check if it would work:

yeyk.jpg


IT FITS! It fits so tight, that I can turn it on it's side without it screwed in and it won't move! it's that close! The reason why it's so tight is because the glass side panel is 10cm thick compared to the borderline 2cm's of the metal case, all in all I think this has worked out really well :)

The next problem I have to face is fixing the radiator to case. I the problem with the magicool is that it only has fan fittings for 1 side (the metal plate you seen earlier) and as I want the fans on pull instead of push (apparently more effective cooling) this means I have no sure way to fix the radiator onto the case. I'll take photos of this when I work on this problem but for the moment I'm just going to order the rest of the cooling components. My current idea is to drill some holes into the front of the case, or I could use cable ties if that doesn't work out.
 
well over the weekend I got the hinges put in, my windows phone is in for repair at the moment so no photos until I get that back (should be this week)

so I had to cut out 3cm of the frame to put the hinges onto the case, and then attach the radiator to the hinges, I've ordered some M4 screws (10mm long) so I can add some sound dampeners to the joint, this will also push the further out so it will fit nicely into the case.

I also had to cut out a little area of the back side panel so the hinges can fit through as they block the panel from closing, but that works fine now. I'll take photos when I get my phone back

Then friday I'm ordering the connectors, pipes, 2 pumps, reservoir, blocks, liquid
 
So I just ordered my items, I've deliberately missed out the connectors, I'll get them in the next batch, I did however buy 2 sample connectors to ensure they connect how I want it to.

listp.png


a few of these items are currently partially or completely out of stock at OCUK, but they let me purchase them so I guess I'll have to wait for them to get all items before they send it out :p hopefully it won't be too long!
 
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same, it's really fun, once I get my camera (I mean phone) back I'll take photos of the hinges for the magicool.

OCUK said it will be between 1-2 weeks before I the out of stock items come in, but I'm ok with that as still have stuff to do, I ordered spray paint for the chassis yesterday, so next week I'll spray that to make it decent.

It's slow process but I think I'm really past the worst of it now. No more modding, just spray paint and install! Just noticed though that my previous diagram about the loop isn't up to date as since I have added ram and mobo cooling, so working on that as I type this heh.
 
Just to update,
Currently on holiday in turkey! Phone is STİLL in for repair but at the same time my items from OCUK still haven't come in stock - I will be home monday but will my stuff? and will my camera phone be back in from repair!?

On a further note, I have finished the spray paint - really happy with it, I've also tidied up the plastic cover around the cutout so it looks more natural.

all İ need to do is install everything now (when it gets here) expect photos galore the day İ get everything!
 
finally got my phone back so can start posting pics again. I also got a load of my watercooling from OCUK today, with my mobo blocks coming tomorrow - will update then when I get it installed.

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Grill I cut out and spray painted :)

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2nd grill shot

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the front radiator hinges - note that there is 1 hole because the screw would go into the outer chassis clip and I want to keep that in place.

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other side of radiator - the radiator can swing open or closed (good for cleaning) but locks in place when the back panel is closed :)

wp20130520064.jpg


Final look of the case. Decided not to use the window side panel as this looks much cleaner.

tonight I will put the fans on and attach the top radiator and res, tomorrow the motherboard and the motherboard blocks (delivered tomorrow)
 
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so some more pics today
I had to install the fans first which went fine on the front rad, but the top 3 - I had to cut a bit more plastic off as it was a bit too close to the fans and they didn't fit.

wp20130524018.jpg


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There's a fair bit of wiring behind the panel, so I need to tidy it up as I will probably put the fan controller there...

I have to be wary though as not only do the fan pins not have much wire, forcing the fan controller to be closer than I want, I also have think about the screws that go in for the 2 reservoirs I'm going to be fitting.

In the above picture I suppose I could have the reservoirs either on top of each other, or to the side of each other.... I think I want them on top as gravity will help the top pump push the water, where as the bottom pump will help push the water back up to the main radiator.

This leaves the question as to where does the fan controller go? the wires are not very long (can I get pin extensions? I have no idea.) so my initial reaction would be to put at the back out of sight... or I could make a box. and have it hidden in there (with SSDs?) I have 2 HDD cages I can use, the controller can go in 1 with the SSDs. This would take up a bit of room in the front of the case and I'm a lill concerned about how much clutter it will add (I hate wires and want to keep as little wires on show as possible!
 
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If you organise the fans, you can get all the cables to pass 2 fan sides before leaving. this will get all the cables in the same position and the same length which will help tidy them. You can easily get extensions for fans and they are quite cheap too.

In terms of fan control, i would set them up to be static voltage. I fiddled about with controllers and regulators but it was too much of a pain in the end. Just set them quiet and leave it. you have more than enough rad volume to make them very quiet ( i am very jealous of that 6x120 rad, its awesome.) Personally i have 3 ssds and no HDDs so i keep them all stuffed behind the motherboard. Little packed, but keeps the front clear.
 
at the moment with the fans (to the right) - the wires are passing over their partner fans (to the left) to get to the back of the case, so there are 3 sets of 2 coming out of the left hand side of the radiator - they are pretty flat so not obstructive of the case side panel, is that what you mean?

I don't mind with fiddling with the fan speeds once, but I would like it to be auto regulated so I don't have to keep doing it... I know my mobo comes with fan controller software, but I have no idea what will work better - mobo extra features tend to be a bit of a gimmick compared to dedicated fan controllers. But this looks tempting to buy and then I could just use the motherboard software (if that's possible).... but we'll see.

This weekend I have to buy the PSU, CPU and the first set of ram (32GB) along with thermal paste (a lot) and koolance quick disconnects.

Thinking back about the fan controller, if I do use it over the motherboard, it might HAVE TO be in the front of the case as it will be watercooled, which means the pipes going into it, and it won't fit behind the case, so I am pretty sure I will need to make a box for it... motherboard controller is getting more and more tempting :p

I'll look tonight at what I can do with this conundrum, didn't have time last night as was out drinking :p
 
codec said:
at the moment with the fans (to the right) - the wires are passing over their partner fans (to the left) to get to the back of the case, so there are 3 sets of 2 coming out of the left hand side of the radiator - they are pretty flat so not obstructive of the case side panel, is that what you mean?

I don't mind with fiddling with the fan speeds once, but I would like it to be auto regulated so I don't have to keep doing it... I know my mobo comes with fan controller software, but I have no idea what will work better - mobo extra features tend to be a bit of a gimmick compared to dedicated fan controllers. But this looks tempting to buy and then I could just use the motherboard software (if that's possible).... but we'll see.

This weekend I have to buy the PSU, CPU and the first set of ram (32GB) along with thermal paste (a lot) and koolance quick disconnects.

Thinking back about the fan controller, if I do use it over the motherboard, it might HAVE TO be in the front of the case as it will be watercooled, which means the pipes going into it, and it won't fit behind the case, so I am pretty sure I will need to make a box for it... motherboard controller is getting more and more tempting :p

I'll look tonight at what I can do with this conundrum, didn't have time last night as was out drinking :p
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You might want to buy the aqua euro then...
 
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