Project YinYang

[Solemn]

YinYang Project Log

Background
I first looked into water cooling about 8 months back and spent a small fortune on a SilverStone Raven V02 + 320 Black ice stleath build. My log can be seen HERE

Then decided to go dual loop and the Raven was really starting to look small, I then found the Cool Breeze project and had been inspired to create something similar.


As I have been working on a bit of a budget so saved some cash where I could

List of Components I ahve so far.

Components
Mobo:...........................Asus Rampage ii Extreme
CPU:.............................i7 950
RAM:.............................Corsair 1600 6g
PSU:.............................BeQuiet 1200w PSU
GFX:.............................MSI GTX470 Twin Frozr II x 2 SLI
Fan Controller:................NesteQ NES-MAXZERO MaxZero Fan Controller
Optical:.........................DVD-R\RW Sata black
HDD:.............................Kingston 64GB SSD V100
HDD:.............................Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SataII
Case:............................Corsair Obsidian 800D

WaterCooling

--Radiators--
.........360 GT Black Ice Stealth
.........240 EK XT
--Pumps--
.........Swifttech MCP350
.........Swifttech MCP355
--Reservoirs--
.........XSPC Single bay res Black
.........XSPC Single bay res Silver
--Water Blocks--
CPU:..................Swiftech Apogee XT Extreme
GFX:..................2 x EK 470GTX Nickel Acetal
GFX:..................2 x EK 470 Backplate
MOBO:...............EK Mosfet Asus X58 Kit - 2 Pack
MOBO:...............EK-FB Rampage II Copper Acetal
--Pipe/Fittings/Links--
.........OCUK Nickel 1/2 Compression fittings x24
.........XSPC 7/16 Clear Tubing x 4meters
.........EK-FC Dual Sli Bridge
.........EK FC Link GeForce
--Fans--
.........F12 Atric 120mm fans (white) x 8
.........Sharkoon Silent Eagle 120mm (1)
.........NZXT 140mm Rifle Bearing Fan x 3

Extras
--Lighting--
.........80xWhite LEDS prewired
.........20x2pin LED headers
.........mod/smart LED Station 20 Black PCB
--Braiding--
.........Black 3.2mm braid 200 meters
.........3mm black adhesive heatshrink 5 metres
--Custom--
.........120mm YinYang Fan Covers x 3
.........140mm YinYang Fan Cover(1)
.........Top Custom 320mm (3x120mm fan) Shroud
--Other--
.........30 x YinYang fan stickers
.........Arctic Cooling MX-4 4g

I am still missing the chipset block for my Rampage, possible white braiding and a conector for my SLI cards as well as some 45/90 degree compressions.
I am also considering another fan controler (as i have 12 fans and my controller only supports 8) and possibly black and white tubbing instead of clear, what do you think? (personally i think coloured tubbing looks cheap but I will just be running clear water (dont wanna mess up my blocks!).

So the Plan is to have two loops. One for the Mobo and blocks with the 360 rad mounted at the top of the case, and the other for the two GPUS and to have the rad mounted length ways at the bottom of the case (see cool beeze for more details).

Case Mods
At the moment, I have have just shipped my case off to the metal worker (dont have any facilities here to do it myself). He will be cutting 4 fan blow holes into the case. 3 x 120mm blow holes at the bottom as done with cool beeze project, and then one 140mm hole for the hdd fan on the windowed panel. All these will then have the YinYang fan grills on the outside of the panels.
I am also having a cutom YinYang/Dragon design in the centre of the solid panel being cut (plan to have forsted white perpexs attached to the back of the design, or you will just see messy cables :/
Getting some text cut here and there as well with the same forsted perspex backing it.
Because I plan to use push pull on the top rad, three of my 120mm fans will be on the top of the case, So I am also getting a custom (similar to Koolance's one) 320m shroud which will hide the fans, this will have the same grill design as all other fans grills on the top.

After all metal work is done, I will also having the case powder coated. Mobo and OI tray (including the PCI tray bit) will be white, the rest of the case black and the side panels.. well either black or maybe a additional third colour, Thoughts?

Thats pretty much it for the case.

Braiding
I intend to use single cable braiding for either, I have 100 meters of 3.2mm black braiding, but am also (possibly) getting some white as well... (this is purely based on money =P) I will be using black adhesive 3mm heatshrink.
Any advice or tips would be great! =)

Lighting
For lighting I have the 20 LED station, I intent to connect four leds seriel to each port, (probably not wise but they light up so it works ) I am going to have four LEDS on each fan, as well as placed else where within the case. They will be controled via a switch so lighting wont have to be on all the time =) Not sure where the switch will be....


Ok So, I have some pictures for you guys, of most the components less the case rads and mobo block (radiators are being powder coated white, and the case is being lazer cut, and i haven't bought the mobo block yet =P)

Hmmm So that is it for now, Will update with Pictures etc when I get the chance =)

 

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Images

These are the YinYang 120mm Fan grills =)

So far I have added leds to the fans and braided them (12 fans in total). The reason I didnt buy led fans is that this way the lights will get their power from another source thus allowing me to have them on an on/off switch so that i dont always way to have light on in the case, which usually gets quite annoying sometimes! =) Anyways let me know what you guys think!! Thanks

Done some more braiding today, got my first fan controller done, not sure if im going to bother with a second controller yet

 

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haha, cheers guys =)

I shall take some pictures this weekend of the gear I have to date, can't begin to explain how much will power it is taking to not build the system in a temp case for now LoL


Also sub? what does that mean? sorry for the newb question =P

 

[Solemn]

Morning guys,

Thats for all the support =) I ca't wait to get really stuck into it. I'm waiting on my cable braid at the moment so I can start on that, with 12 fans possibly two fan controllers and my PSU... thats going to be a lot of single cable braiding!!!

Yea, sorry about no pictures at the moment, will take some this weekend the components and then hopefully if my braid gets here today..... some of the braiding=)

Ta for looking!

 

[Solemn]

dude get some pics up asap!!

Take a look =) Fans all done.

Braiding takes forever. FACT.

tell me about it... I've just done the 12 fans, Need to get started on the fan controller(possible Controllers as I'm thinking about getting a second so all fans will be hooked up to a controller of some kind) And ofc the big killer... the PSU.... =(

but I am happy with what I ahve got done so far!

 

[Solemn]

Nice mod on the fans. Much quicker than my 16 LED per fan mod I'd imagine.

It's not really clear from the images how you've done it though, specifically wiring. I'm interested to see how.

What do they look like when spinning?

16 LEDS ??!???! Seriously.... where did you put them all!!!? heh.


First fan took me about an hour or 2 with lots of messing about. but then from then on about an hour to half an hour per fan.


I serieled (i think thats the right word =P) the LEDs to each other and then covered the wire with insulation tape. It doesnt look perfect but doesnt look too bad either =) I have them then braided on a 2pin connector which will go on my 20 port LED station which will be connected to a switch. This will allow me to turn the lights on and off easily =)

Added a picture of the fans on =)

 

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I needed to use one per LED or they didnt work. most of it for me was trail and error and no so much I knew what I was doing lol!

The LEDS I got all came with resistors so I just used those. =)

 

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Um the resistors are blue with red and blue stripes on them..... one resitor per fan would have made things allot easier.

Yea I bought them all off ebay with resitors for 2quid for 20 =)

 

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You don't really need to use a resistor at all as the typical voltage of White LEDs is around 3v anyway.

cheers mate =)

might think about redoing them, I'll see how bright they are in the case first I think =)

 

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Hey Solemn don't worry about it, it's a so simple job to modify it now.

As you do this to each resistor you will see the brightness increase on all the LEDs as the overall resistance drops and the current available to the LEDs increases.

Try it out and see, you don't even need to solder a wire in place to see the result, a bent paperclip will do.

Wow, Awesome =) I shall give that a try then.

But I am using Mod/smart 20 Station LED Power Board for 2 Pin LED's,

mod/smart proudly introduces a new LED lighting device with 20 individual outlets for tailed LEDs.

LEDs have become very popular in computer/car/home lighting and an easy to use, easy to install LED power station is a necessity.

Each two pin set supplies 3.3 vdc for powering tailed LEDs.

Powered via a single 12V molex connection, with this handy device you can power up to 20 LED lights.

Would that be ok to have 4 of my LEDS attached to one resistor to one of the 20 ports? I won't blow the station will i?

Thanks!!!!! =D

 

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Just a quick update on things.

Case is still with the Metal work dude, and no progress has been made as of yet, so nothing new to report yet.

I've started braiding the PSU, done 4 fan power, the CPU and 2 PCI=E cables. Still need to do another 2 PCI-E, the Mobo 24 pin(dreading it!) and molex and sata. It really does take forever to single braid! and im already running low on the braid after buying 100 meters!!! haha.

As for the LEDs, I haven't changes anything on them yet, but I am still seriously considering it =) depending on time constraints ect.

 

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Nice job on the fans, but out of interest, mostly probably to Teal, if you install LED's in fans would it change the volume of the fans by disrupting airflow or something?

Was considering trying something like this to get some quite fans with LED's...

kd

Thanks =)

As for the question, I'm not 100% sure =P but there are no holes drilled into the fan that aren't near on airtight (the LED fits in the hole drilled extactly, so not to allow air to escape.

I'm sure Teal will be able to give you a more accurate/technically reply though =P

 

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I've been thinking about putting spaces between the grills and the case to maybe let alittle more air in/out. As you can see my grills aren't the best designed with regards to air flow =P they just look awesome hah.

So what do you guys think, a 15mm/20mm spacer between grill and case, might also give the case some more shape with the grills being pushed out? Dunno... just a though.

Also if i do go through with it, any idea where I could get the spacers (black) and where i could get extended tapping fan screws as the normal ones wont be able to support the added spacers!


Agian, thanks for all advice etc.

 

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Case Mods

So I have had some respondse from the people doing the lazer cutting =)

So far I have has the flange removed from the side panels to allow the fans to be mounted nearly at the bottom of the panels. This is to get the side panel fans to line up nicely with the bottom radiator! More to follow hopefully later today.

Design for Solid panel cutouts

Design for Windowed Panel cutouts

Panels have been cut and look AWESOME =D

Middle Panel design

Panel has been cut =)

Idea of grills on the window panel

 

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awsome, shall be following this, any updates?

Thanks =)

Well the side panels were only cut on Friday. Waiting for the designs now on the top and middle panels.

as for the rest, I have mobo block and bridges coming my way today some time, I still need to carry on with braiding... (sooo much still to do!)

 

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All the laser cutting has been done and powder coating to be completed by the end of the day.

I will have to wait until next week to get my hands on the top custom shroud and the 140mm fan grill, but I will be picking up everything else this weekend and hopefuly will have the build complete by Monday. YaY

 

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Build Log

So I finally got to pick up most of my case yesterday!!

Over the weekend I built the system to test all the components work, had a few bumps along the way but think finally everything is working!

Anyways here's what I have done so far!

Temp Build to test components

Case bits =)

Started on putting the water blocks on

Plan to do the rest of the waterblocks tonight =)

 

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get better camera I demand

HaHa, im broke from spending stupid money on my PC =P can only afford my borrowed camera hehe.

 

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Woot, more progress! although I am really having hassles tightening the stupid compression fittings!!!

So I have fitted all the waterblocks now (sorry forgot to take a picture of the gfx cards, will do that tonight.
I have also put the mobo in the case as well as the top rad. I'm still having a shroud made that will cover the top three fans, but am waiting for it to get finished powered coated black!

 

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After a very long weekend I have finally got a working PC =D

There are few things that still need doing however
The front side panel still needs to be finished.. Awaiting grill for one of the fans.
The top shroud will need to be added as well... Again im waiting on that to get posted =)
Got some porblems with air in the loop... not quite sure what to do here because of the way i have the resivoirs setup... I cant move them, so any other suggestions would be great, thanks =)


Problems I encounted...

Well the biggest one with this wa the fact that due to the thickness of the poweder coat, the side panels dont seem to fit on snugly anymore... So at the end of the day, I had to drill some holes in the top and attach with self tapping screws... not glamorous... but it works!

Also have problems with my LED connections on my fans.. they kept breaking...

Anyways, let me show you what it looks like =)

Graphics Card,

So I forgot to add some pictures of the graphics card and blocks last time so just took a few before i installed it.

Side Panel fans.

Because the grills are quite constricting with regards to air flow i decided to have the grills raised from the panel by 5mm. Adds some more body to the case too =)

Radiators =)

The bottom Rad was a tight fit which is probably a good thing, becase its holding up the middle panel =P

Resivoirs & Pumps

They are drilled into the motherboard tray.. Big issue with this is if i want to move them, then i would need to drain the loop because the res will be come detached from the pump.

Loops and internals.

The loops were a bit tricky to setup.. lots of kinkin so had to use come coil in places unfortunately..

Work in Progress.

I took a few random pictues during the build , thought i would share

Adding Coolant

Overall

Lights!!!

These arent very bright... actaully they are rather dim.. but I still think they look OK

Thats about it for now.