♠.Scarlet Spade.♠ - watercooled + modded lian li build.

Looking great so far, love the way that aluminum and black mesh clash! Nice video card l love mine! Too bad they never dropped in price so I had to settle for a sapphire 2gb for cfc. Keep up the good work!
 
LePhuronn said:
That's why I reckon - pretty obvious indication on who the competitor retailer is, and you can't link (or cite) competitors.
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Twas for 'thread trashing' in MM! Not sure what I did or which thread but there you go :).

But that's a good point and I'm going to go ahead and redact that before I get suspended again :p.
 
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Water Cooling
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Obligatory water-cooling component shot :). It's not going to be a massive WC set up as I change GPUs all the time, and the primary aim is to get a high CPU overclock.



Everything roughly set-up with routed tubing. First time I've used 'flex' tubing - my god it's flexible lol! You can almost bend it back on itself without it kinking. It's also really light so plenty of room for cfx or triple cfx.

Original plan was for two phobya PWMs running off a splitter connected to the mobo, but I couldn't get a profile running that meant they were quiet enough. I'm going to go for push pull (phobya nano-Gs pulling, GTs pushing) but this means the front case fans will be pushing into the GTs. Which is probably massive overkill but I need something to put on the 8-channel fan controller I'm getting :). Can't wait to bench some temps on this mofo :D.



And leak testing!! I bloody electrocuted myself while I was jump-starting the psu by touching the exposed bridging wire. Had a numb finger for an hour :mad:. It was really easy to bleed this loop, all done in 30mins and left it running for 12 hours.

Having put the watercooling stuff in the case, it feels awfully small (compared to working in a Lian Li full tower for example). Cable routing is going to be FUN :).

Note to self: do some really cliched macro shots of the braiding.
 
Loving the interior, really like the combo of the bare metal along with the red and black theme. Am hoping to buy your old x900 project but it is out of my range at the moment, but it looks absolutely fantastic.

This mod is a massive improvement over the original case, although I prefer a clearer view through the window. Keep up the good work!
 
great job joxang, i agree regarding the front mesh design of this case and youve made it look really nice. i like the contrasting black mesh with the silver finish never been a fan of windows myself though.
 
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Fan Controller
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Been waiting for this since I was born!! (actually, since it was announced a few months ago).







Lamptron FC8. 30W per channel, and wants you to hook three molex connectors to it (I'm on two at the moment and it's running fine). Probably only needs three if you're running 8 Delta fans on full blast :p.

Took these on Sunday, and I'm afraid it was a case of 'there's no ******* way I'm braiding 8 fan controller cables today'. Bunched the cables into two groups of four (four for the rad, four for case fans) and braided them with SATA sleeve which will probably make cable organisation a lot easier. May rebraid them in the future (as if ;)).



This thing is beautiful. The dials have nice resistance too, it's not like you're turning against air. Oh, and you can individually adjust the leds on each channel to whatever colour your want :). Pics in next update.
 
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Thanks ryu!

Gundog48 said:
Loving the interior, really like the combo of the bare metal along with the red and black theme. Am hoping to buy your old x900 project but it is out of my range at the moment, but it looks absolutely fantastic.
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Cheers :). I've closed the x900 thread so keeping the case for now, maybe for a future build but it's still on sale to any buyers. Just trust mail me in the future if you fancy putting a nice build in it (which I have no doubt you would do looking at your worklog ;)).
 
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Pre-Easter Update
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More pics.





Trying out a 140mm Prolimatech 'Red Vortex' fan in the roof. The fan controller colour scheme will be the one I'm sticking with - red = rad fans, white = case fans.



Finally another 'teaser'. Have a nice Easter :). I've got a new macro lens arriving after easter (Miranda 28mm OM mount + 4/3 adapter :D).

 
youve given me the inspiration to maybe try and mod my case a little, ive still got a lian li pc61, a little outdated with the inner design but still a great looking case imo. ive stripped everything out (hd cages/wires/fans etc) ive made 2 cuts (1 nr the psu at the top and 1 on the mobo tray) for cable management purposes, ive purchased all black braided psu cables, and changed the 2 front 80mm fans to a 120mm (the one you sold me), theres not enuff space at the back for a 120mm (unless i perhaps cut away some of the frame which may possibly work not sure how messy it would look) otherwise its 2x80mm or a 92mm. i intend on getting a h50/coolit eco/antec h20 and attaching the 120mm fan/rad at the top of the case, so would need to make a squarish cut and put some of that meshing there + screw holes for a 120mm fan. id love to do what youve done with this case at the front with the meshing too, as i dont use the 3x 3.5" slots, and i only have the power button conected, but this would have to be relocated somewhere (not sure of this yet but definately want to do the h50 cooler mod). where is the best place to get the meshing from?

and id love to buy this case, but im happy with my all black case and want to attempt to modify it myself!
 
@ryu
Well glad to hear that :). The PC61 is a lovely case, old school but pretty timeless (like most LL!). You mod sounds great - you should def put a worklog up here as you're working on the case! Also check this place out: http://www.million-dollar-pc.com/ - it's like the museum of crazy amazing computer builds :).
 
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Cables and Sleeving
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PSU was braided for my previous build so didn't need to do much work there - just re-did a couple of cables and evened out the heatshrink as much as I could (first time round I did a horrible job!). As HX850 is only partially modular and I didn't fancy taking the PSU to bits, the exit point of the bundle was a mess. Ghetto ninja-ed with some black foamy stuff that I use for lots of mod jobs.





PCIe power cables here (also braided power cable to WC pump).



Couple of SATAs...



Hacked up a molex power cable for this project to supply two molex connections to the fan controller only.



And another space saving hacked up cable which will lie flat against the back of the case, and supply power to pump, hard drives (molex to Lian Li hotswap cage) and any case leds I might use. One day I will cut and crimp my cables properly, but not quite there yet :).



And here's just a few sleeving tips that might come in handy:

A few tips
There's plenty of sleeving guides on the internet, and you get given a comprehensive guide if you buy MDPC sleeving. I think there's one on OCUK forums floating around too. Thought I'd just post some tips though that might help a couple of people who might stumble across this :). I am in no way an expert on sleeving (I'm fairly atrocious in fact!) but these are just some things which I've picked up which have made my life a lot, lot easier.

ATX pin removal (and avoiding breakages)
Familarise yourself with how the pin is structured, and the two 'prongs' which hold the pins in place. Don't bother with staples or paperclips - in my experience they only work on certain psus.
Two of the best ATX tools I've used are the ones you get from MDPC, and the Frozen CPU branded atx tool. It's not a problem removing pins, but technique is extremely important.
1) You must hold the tool completely parallel to the pin.
2) Insert the ATX tool into the right position, making sure it's still parallel.
3) With the ATX tool in place, pull on the cable really hard, then push it all the way in again. As you push it all the way in, also push the ATX tool in as far as it will go (but KEEP IT PARALLEL!).
4) Now with the ATX tool pushed all the way in, give the cable a massive tug. It should come flying out.
5) If it doesn't work the first time, take the tool out and repeat from step one.
It will take some practice to get your hands right such that you're holding the tool in the right position. I've found the best way to do this is to wind the relevant cable in a loop around a finger. If you use the tool properly, there's zero chance it will break. Breakages occur because you're bending the tool or wiggling it from side to side.
If all else fails, the Frozen CPU tool has a single attachment at one end you can use to insert into one side of a pin and force the 'prong' into its hole. You'll need a scapel to get the prong out again though.

A few sleeving tips
(1) If you're sleeving lots of wires of the same length, cut your first length of braid out, pop it on the wire to check it's the right length, then cut the rest of the braiding you need using the first piece as a template. It's a lot faster, and end result is a lot neater.
(2) When you cut any length of braiding, use a lighter to burn the ends until all the plastic bits are melted into each other. Don't be afraid to melt a lot of it, it really needs to be totally fused. Reasons for this are a) so that it doesn't fray, even when you open the braid up for big bunches of cables and b) so the heatshrink stays on the braid and won't slip off. Biggest reason for heatshrink slipping off your braiding is that it's started to fray on the inside. Make sure all your ends are melted :p.
(3) Before you manipulated sleeved wires let the heatshrink cool down. When it's still warm the braiding will still be able to move a bit inside it. Nothing worse than rush sleeving a SATA cable, then bending it round to connect to a HD, and having the braiding pop out of the heatshrink.
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Hopefully some of these might be helpful to some people :).
 
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Cable Management
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Nearly finished :).

Cable management was a pain in the ***. Very limited clearance behind the back panelt - the MDPC small clips just about fit.





Below: see the two slightly hacked molex PSU cables I used in my last post. Molex 1 needed to supply two connections to power the fan controller. Molex 2 supplies the HDDs - 2a to a sata adaptor powering the SSD, and 2b to a molex extension cable powering the Lian Li hotswap cage.



One day I will cut and re-solder all of these fan cables so they're all the right length :).


Hard drives:





60GB SSD for OS, and applications + my dropbox folder. 500GB photo storage and games installation - will replace this with a large enough SSD when I have enough monies. 2TB media storage drive.
 
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Waiting on one last item from abroad - will take 9-10 days to arrive. It's something quite special :).

Final pictures will follow after that. Thanks to everyone who's taken time out to have a look!
 
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