Project Understated

Ok skyripper had a chance today to try and come up with something to help you out mate. I reckon this should be close but once you feedback to me what needs changed I'm sure we can sort it :) BTW I'm pretty sure one of your measurements is off ( the 71.5mm pitch I reckon should be 76.5mm, and thats what I've made it) so you can let me know.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18129714&page=4
 
Caddie arrived after I went to work, so been playing about with it tonight.

Drive holes are spot on, the recessed holes are a nice touch. Needed to dig about for some smaller headed screws than came with the case but found some the right length and thread and voila...

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Screws with wide fixed er.. flange (!?!?).. traditionally used for hard drives are just too wide across to fit in the recess.

Both drives lined up ok with the mounting holes leaving a gap of less than a mm between them. Nicely done.

Once two drives were screwed into the plate, did a test slide into the drive bay. I felt it probably could fit in the bay lined up with the screwholes, but it kept popping out and resting above the recess in the bays.

The sides of the drivebays (in a Fractal) are shaped like ] and [ so the caddie wanted to rest on top of the indents. I dug out a DVD drive and compared.

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The photo angle here is deceptive, its about 3mm wider than the DVD drive. The faceplate of the DVD drive is also wider than the chassis.

I also checked in a Cosmos S which has flat sides to the drivebays, and the caddie is just over 2mm too wide to fit.

So the caddie ended up resting like this in the drivebay

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As it is, there is room to mount 4 drives - one caddie facing up, one caddie facing down - in a single 5.25 drivebay. If the caddie width was reduced by 4mm, this wouldnt be possible - but it could then be screwed into position.

I figured I'd try and fire the drives up on the caddie but due to hamfistedness (is that a word?) or the samsung drive being especially fragile I managed to break the SATA connector off the drive, leaving it wedged in the end of the SATA cable.

Now I've played about with hard drives for years both at work and home, in fact I have about 8 of the damn things kicking around spare in the house here and never had a drive connector break before - disk crashes, cable breaks, motherboard failure - all of those have conspired to deprive me of my data, but this is the first connector I've had snap off.

Fortunately the metal was all still in place and hopefully with a bit of luck and my lads warhammer glue I can repair it. I'll find out tomorrow when the glue is cured.

If I cant I'm not totally gutted, I have the data protected RAID5 plus its all still on the old PC (the one I'm typing on) as well.

Anyhow mister Jester, cheers for making the caddie and hope the feedback is useful.
 
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Cheers Skyripper, the one size I was worried about is indeed the one that is wrong lol sods law BUT not all is lost if I forward my postage details do you think you could mail it back and I'll mod this one to suit?
 
Caddie packaged for the post tomorrow.

Glue worked, cabled up fine, powered up and working fine... I suspect I'll still replace it rather than run the risk of it snapping again.
 
Been thinking about what you said, mounting both caddies in the one drive bay but reversing them ie. one upside down. I could drill and tap two opposite corners with countersunk screws which would allow you to fit the H/D's then place both caddies together to lock in place with the screws. This way you would only need one caddy with the side threaded holes for location (can do both plates anyway just incase). Worth a shot ? Oh and any chance could you try and measure the width of that drive bay, location side to location side. Cheers mate.
 
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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.
P1020492.jpg

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 said:
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.
P1020492.jpg

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.
Click to expand...

U welcome....Sir..:)
 
Jony27 said:
could you not have made the tube from res>top rad shorter?
Click to expand...

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.
Click to expand...


Cheers :)
 
Ok sorry about the delay but at long last I got these made matey and I'll stick them in the post tomorrow to see how they fit :)
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Posted this morning, sorry for delay but nightshift took it's toll :)
 
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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.

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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.]

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Looking good.

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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.
IRST.png

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.

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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.
 
hey dirty..i have a few questions for you....i jus got that case last week and m planning on doing a water cooling setup on it...i want to use a 120.3 rad on top and a 120.2 infront....

nw.my question is....for the top....can i put a 120.3 rad....(slim one of course)...on the middle part of the top and still get enuff clearance for the motherboard heatsinks and ram...
 
kibet85 said:
hey dirty..i have a few questions for you....i jus got that case last week and m planning on doing a water cooling setup on it...i want to use a 120.3 rad on top and a 120.2 infront....

nw.my question is....for the top....can i put a 120.3 rad....(slim one of course)...on the middle part of the top and still get enuff clearance for the motherboard heatsinks and ram...
Click to expand...

Sorry matey can't answer them as the case isnt mine :) You would need to ask skyripper as he is the owner, I only made him the two caddies for his hard drives.
 
: )

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 :P )

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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.
 
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