Project Understated

skyripper · 25 Sep 2011 at 15:14

Done a bit of tidying on the PC.

Stripped down the waterloop and rinsed all the loop with fresh distilled water. I forgot to rinse the rads after I first flushed em, so the liquid still had a faint vinegar smell to it.

Thought about what Kibet85 suggested and after a couple of new holes drilled in the base... voila.

Radiator is right up against those front fans now.

Its definately given more room inside, which should make it easier to do cables, maintain and bleed etc. Cheers for that.

Also stripped down the gfx card and glued some of the heatsinks back on with thermal adhesive. Used a bit too much of the stuff - I probably used a small pea size, and should have gone for a pinhead size blob! But those heatsinks arent coming off now without dynamite.

Loops all back together and leak checked. Replaced the dodgy drive, and that just leaves the caddie experiments (thanks to DirtyJester for his efforts) and I'll sort out the SATA cables which look all messy in the back there. I have 4 black ones to put in.

skyripper · 25 Sep 2011 at 22:13

Jony27 said:
could you not have made the tube from res>top rad shorter?

I wanted the tube to snake around the edge rather than all across the middle. If I put a window in, no one will be able to see that tube as it will be behind the panel.

I thought of moving the pump to on top of the PSU, but that would be in the way of a 2nd gfx card if I go that way.

Jony27 said:
nice build btw.

Cheers

skyripper · 8 Oct 2011 at 12:18

Before I get started - DirtyJester - you are a star. Caddies arrived yesterday, and I've spent this morning finishing off this build thanks to your crafting.

The fractal has two sets of holes in the bottom bay, and only one set of holes in the top bay. Although both caddies would have physically fit in a single 5.25in bay, I dont reckon all the cables would have fitted - two separate runs from the PSU for the SATA power, plus all the SATA cables as well. Think that would have been a nightmare.

This time I fitted the drives with the connectors to the front. Made it much easier to connect up, and zeroed the chance of me snapping a connector.

[Note: All four drives and both caddies would have fitted in one drivebay with the cables if I put the connectors to the back - I would have to remove the radiator to get any chance of fitting the cables though.]

Looking good.

Tada.

The black cables I bought were too short.. so back to the red ones.. but to be honest, I dont care.

Booted up fine, and IRST is rebuilding its array to the new drive.

May try sending my busted one to Samsung with a letter and see what they can do.

Accidentally ran the rig almost passively for a week, set the fan controller to 0 with the case fans being the only forced air and that being temperature controlled. I was averaging temperatures of 40-45 degrees while gaming.

With the rad fans set at about 600rpm, I'm idling at 30 degrees!
I'm well chuffed with that. (The 3879 rpm is my pump.)

Once again, my thanks to DJ.

skyripper · 8 Oct 2011 at 12:38

Oh and just to celebrate finishing the build...
Tidy desk!

Click for the truth.

skyripper · 10 Oct 2011 at 10:59

: )

You can fit a 120.2 as stock on the existing fan grilles and holes.

You *could* fit a 120.3 with one of two options - drill out some new holes to fit in line with the 3rd fan grille, or cut out the third fan grille to match the other two.

This really bad paint picture should show what I mean. (bodged on my laptop at work

)

If you go the easy route, and mod some additional 120mm fan holes (purple circles), then you are going to have 15-30mm (thats a guess) of room, which may or may not leave enough room for heatsinks and RAM. If you have a thick radiator then I would say there will not be room. My RAM sits behind my radiator and its not got huge heatsinks or anything.

The more difficult route would be to expand the third 120mm fan grille (red box) which should give you enough room. You'll still have to pop the top and front off your case and measure it up to be sure - don't forget rads have bits on each end which stick out past the fan grills. This gives you 65mm or more between your motherboard tray and the side of the radiator.

Pop the top off, grab a torch, and test fit a 120.3 (or a cardboard cutout) for sure.

skyripper · 10 Oct 2011 at 21:03

Sat here next to my rig, and to fit a 120.3 in the red box position, you'd have to remove both the 5.25in drive bays. (Or chop the side out of them).

After taking the lid off I think fitting one in the purple holes will clash with your motherboard heatsinks and ram. I think the CPU block itself will be fine. You'd also lose one of the two 5.25in drivebays.

Blue box is the limits of my 120.2 radiator. Single red line is where my heatsinks and ram etc. come to.

Parallel red lines are the 5.25in drivebay sides.

skyripper · 8 Sep 2012 at 15:15

The holes for mounting the Rad in that position were as the manufacturer put them. It left a pretty massive gap between the motherboard and the radiator meaning that big fat heatsinks on the mosfets weren't a problem.

Just check the height of your RAM if it has heatsinks on.

The drivebays were dead easy - a small drillbit and the rivets were out. If I put the drivebays back, I'll need some small M3 bolts and nuts - buyable in any Homebase.

EDIT: Whereabouts in Surrey are ya? I've just moved to near Guildford - you can have a look at the PC if it helps.

skyripper · 8 Sep 2012 at 15:16

nm. duff post.

skyripper · 8 Apr 2013 at 16:01

Check out Post #50. I redid the radiator stands and its a lot more upright. The original tilt was because of rivet holes pushing up the radiator.

Also the fans can be screwed in the same side as the radiator mounts, there just isnt much bite for the screws so will take a bit of effort.