Project: Water Cooled Apple Cube Case

Laser · 17 Jun 2013 at 23:32

I know you shouldn't take photos at night, with a flash, a bad camera etc. (so apologies) but thought I'd do a micro update.

This one is showing the back part after bonding and with the compression seal applied.

Also I made a small retaining piece from thin ABS sheet that holds my 500GB SSD in place against the side of the rad bracket (i.e. what used to be the drive holder before I butchered it). This thin ABS sheet is enough to hold the 2.5" drive in place and also to act as a trim piece to tidy cables out of sight.

Next post won't be for a few days. I am now though getting seriously close to being able to add the last bits and pieces and do a switch on.

Laser · 18 Jun 2013 at 19:54

Okay.....I lied.

Had to spend a little time today and so I cut a new top sheet for the Cube from 0.25mm plasticard.

Essentially this is the same as the original top sheet, but where there would have been a space for the plastic grill insert I have instead filled the space with a honeycomb pattern to give a false top grill.

I could only find this plasticard in white, but as it is a material used a lot by modellers I gather it should be easy to spray paint.

Laser · 18 Jun 2013 at 21:52

goodl said:
God I'm so jealous it burns, would you ever think of offering your skills for hire?

I am always for hire! I run a little laser operation called "the laser hive" - so while I do this for fun I like to call it R & D.

Laser · 15 Jul 2013 at 22:51

So, I have taken a few steps back to move a few more forward.

I've actually been using the Cube in the form you saw above for a couple of weeks or so and quite happy with it, but still knowing I need to finish it off.

In the meantime though I was thinking that perhaps there was a little more room in there to do something with. And that maybe I should look at the graphics side to match that a little more evenly to the power of the CPU.

Inspired by another build that put a Sapphire 7750 low profile into the Cube (albeit an aircooled Cube) I thought that it would be a nice thing to do the same thing in my build, but in keeping with the cooling scheme to watercool it.

Here is the virgin card:

and here it is being transformed:

I couldn't find a universal block that was low enough and had side outputs and was specifically for the 7750 so I took a gamble and modified an XSPC universal Rasa block. I basically ditched the mount bracket and removed the screws holding the heat transfer plate to the block and then used studding and nuts to secure the plate. This studding is on a 43mm x 43mm square which fits through the GPU holes....

The original rubber blocks from the aluminium air cooled heatsink are re-used to provide a cushioned contact for the GPU die and nuts are used on the reverse of the card to attach it.

To mount this card I made a new support piece that provides a route for a rigid PCI-e x 16 extender to come up through it and also to take a supplementary DC-DC converter board (photos to follow) and fix this all to the side supports of the Cube.

I lowered the motherboard another 7mm over where it was before - to give more space - and here is a trial fit using an old 775 ITX board:

Finally here is a first trial fit in the Cube base with single 120mm Noctua fan on the Alphacool radiator.

Obviously next things to do are now a bit more complicated....new panel, more water fittings, more things to figure out. Still, I am pretty sure one way or another it is all going to fit in there.

Laser · 16 Jul 2013 at 19:49

spoffle said:
This looks really fun, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this!

Just out of curiosity, how come you say "mod.s" with a full stop? What does it mean?

Hmmm, an english lesson. Well, in my little world abbreviating "modifications" (or moderators I guess) comes down to "mod.s" like shortening "specifications" to "spec.s". I could easily be wrong but I have been writing like that for years so probably won't change now.

Laser · 12 Aug 2013 at 10:54

Sorry for the lack of update on this thread for a while.

There is progress on the horizon though as I have had a new bottom plate made up - this time from steel. I am hoping that I can braze or weld the new plate to the Cube chassis and would then ideally like to assemble it all up, make any adjustments needed and then rip it down to paint it - possibly powder coat.

I'll upload some pic.s of the new plates in the next few days.