Rise of the triad, The 2014 Area 51

OK so it was time to start thinking about the mirrored back plate for the sound card.

If you remember how I did Dianoga (a build I did a couple of years back now) you will remember how I created a proper back plate for the GTX 950. What I mean by proper is perfectly fitted, covering everything. IE - not just cutting out a rectangle of plastic and putting it on the back of the card.

So first I needed to scan the sound card in. You will see why shortly.

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And I need to create templates to send to the plotter. So first we have a full cover plate.

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Which is perfect in size. OK, this is where it gets a little more complicated. What we then do is take that perfect template and lay it over the sound card (or GPU). Then change the colour to green (very bright) and blend the layer to 50% opacity so you can see through it. Then you basically remove any offending material to clear screws, solder points and so on and you end up with this, basically.

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I then cut both as templates, lay them on some acrylic sheet and cut. As it happens the cutting is all finished and I am just letting the frame dry (believe me it is fragile. Even touch it wrong and it will snap it is .5mm in places !) and then I will sandwich it to the mirrored top.
 
OK so here is the almost finished fan/pump etc controller. I've made a host board and shortened the connector cable from 70cm down to 4cm.

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Work continues on the back plate today :)
 
The back plate is going well. Here it is here, and please, don't be too jealous of my meerkat PJs.

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And the polished edge. Not the best, but then I don't have the sandpaper to polish it out properly.

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However, I have learned a trick I picked up when doing the nose cone for this build. If your polishing isn't good enough or you have marks that show up when it's dry (but not wet) then a decent clear coat/ lacquer is what you want.

Here is my new secret weapon.

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Et Voila.

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I have also scanned it for producing the graphics etc. Obviously as it has been sanded quite thoroughly it now isn't exactly the same size it was before..

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That's about it for now :)
 
Finished.

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I think that ought to do it. I should be able to see my GPU WB now ;)

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I like how the frame goes 3D when viewed from certain angles. I wasn't expecting that tbh.

Just to show how much aggro the bottom frame was to make.

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Very nice. $6M question.....does it fit?! :D

haha it indeed does, like the proverbial hand covering cloth.

Tomorrow I will start looking at mounting the AC. I need to create a 5mm mount that fixes to the case properly. Last thing I want is it coming off after a few days and dangling there full of wires.
 
Today I hooked up everything on the desk to test, running from an external PSU (not the pump obs)

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And then started the very slow and tedious task of creating my own AS page.

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Still need to learn that, but thankfully it is very similar to AIDA 64 and a emulator I used to work with.

The PA is now fitted after I made a bracket for it.
 
OK my best attempt at a "daylight" pic. Unfortunately there is pretty much none today.

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And a better pic of the AC

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Still lots to do (get some lighting for the back plate, make a USB cable etc) but it's getting there
 
As per Skype I do have a flow meter.. Problem is it's kinda big. It would look terrible if I could even fit it tbh. I also gave away the last two spare fittings (doh) and finding them would be impossible now (11/8 BP). I could pillage The Old Skool build but I would rather not.

I thought about it last night, and as I said to you I could not believe that the enormous pile of stuff I had sat on my desk at one point all actually fits in there. It has to be on the same sort of level 'o' frustration with my ITX air build I did a couple of years back.

But end of the day? in for a penny. The water cooling loop with blocks etc in there has cost me a lot of money now. And that is taking into account the £25 res on sale for about 1/3 of the original RRP and the fittings at £2.99 each rather than around £14. Plus just the BP fittings to turn a couple of corners would cost you about £45. So I've done well. Oh yeah forgot to tell you dude, I *can* just about get to the release catch. So I could get it out push come to shove hehe.

And temps? ah yes, a subject I forgot all about. Now as I explained when I first WC the Titan XP I was not very happy with it. I was seeing max temps of 88c when mining (just to see how hot it would get) and around 86c looped in Valley or Heaven. Both do the same thing really. Any way, I was beginning to think that I had forgotten to peel off the protective crap on the block. It really was *that* bad. Instead I lowered the power limit and temp limit (temp limit was set at 64c so the pump didn't die) and applied a 200mhz OC to the boost. Was getting between 1800 and 2000mhz depending on scene, temps etc.

Now? idle is 21c and the highest temp I have seen after five runs of Firestrike was 41c. Something was really badly wrong with it before, I just don't know what. The only thing I can really think of was that the rad I bought (Koolance) was very old , and was not designed for modern WC. It was big enough, but the fin density etc.. I showed how much coolant came out of the system before. Practically nothing. Now? it took over twice that much and then settled with the res 2/3 full so I still need to top it up.

Now what I would like to do next is get one of those BP hex res. And add it in there somewhere. Oh back to the subject of overclocking? I can now get 2000 solid and 2100. Obviously I am no longer temp bound.
 
Could be you had a bubble or an air-lock.
If you get stuck and can't find any, I've got some old-school 11/8 fittings in straight, 90 and pass-through. No fancy colours, just metal with a compression nut on 'em.
 
Yeah something wasn't right before. I also noticed last night that the pump would not prime because it was running at 12v (literally so fast it refuses to swallow coolant) so I had to tip the rig backward. But yeah, that paltry amount of coolant just wasn't right tbh. I would guess there was some sort of air lock preventing the rad from completely filling up. You sent me some fittings before but I chucked them out. What a dill hole. I guess I always have a reason for things and that is usually "Abstain, get rid, then no temptation". It never works lmao.
 
So I finally found something to light up the GPU with so that you can see it in the mirror.

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It's LED, not a cathode (so no big lump to hide) and it has a milky shell. So you can't see the LEDs. Perfect really. Will need to be altered and so on but it's mainly the shell I was after.
 
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