SSUPD MeshLicious (from the makers of the FormD T1)

[HoneyBadger]

Very much a work in progress, but slowly getting there. I'm enjoying taking my time with it.

It's a black and white themed build, after my late GSD, Mia (MinkyMoo) who I had to put to sleep just under two weeks ago.

White, PCIE4 glass variant.

IceMan res which arrived today

Also note the 3D printed feet from the SSUPD website, I went with the square, 25mm ones. Screwed on, yet to be painted.

Also the 3D printed GPU bracket, also mocked up and need to be painted.

Cable ties to train the cables so they go easier into position.

Has a 280mm X-Flow rad, so one entry at the top, one at the bottom - see below. Note I moved the PSU further in, I also flipped it. The fan will now pick up air from the other side, this is because I've decided to mount an iPad Mini in front of the PSU to give me live readouts of temps, clocks and any other info I see fit.

X-Flow top

X-Flow bottom.

The bottom rad port lines up perfectly with 'In' on the IceMan res, so that's good.

I have another bracket which will replace the 3 PCIE slots and allow the fitment of 2x 40x10mm fans as a small exhaust too.

I will also get the tinted tempered glass panel to replace the clear one once they sell it. Might even change some of the panels to black, to compliment the black and white theme.

iPad Mini 4 I had lying around, with a special right angle short USB cable

Balanced in side (Just for the purposes of the pic) but will be fixed in place. No cables showing.

Will use Aida64 for read out as I've done with my other PC and an iPad Mini.

The eagle eyed among you will not I've used the option to move the mobo forward, to give a spine gap to route cables. I've also added 20+6mm black mobo spacers as suggested earlier in this thread.

More to come soon. Cheers.

 

[***F1ZZY***]

@HoneyBadger nice. Are you aircooling the GPU?

 

[HoneyBadger]

@HoneyBadger nice. Are you aircooling the GPU?

No, watercooling.

 

[***F1ZZY***]

What hardware is going in? I'm intrigued to see what temps you will get as aesthetically it looks stunning so far. Bravo

 

[HoneyBadger]

What hardware is going in? I'm intrigued to see what temps you will get as aesthetically it looks stunning so far. Bravo

Cheers.

I'll be using my 11700K and I'm not sure whether to use my EVGA 2080 Super XC Gaming which is in another system (On water), or buy a 3080Ti/3090.

I'd be pushing the thermal limit if I went with a 30 series card using only a 280mm rad but we'll see. If thermals do become an issue, I will potentially add two quick disconnects and run a hidden external radiator under my desk.

 

[DatV8]

What are general opinions on nvidia FE cooled cards mounted vertically in these cases? Are aftermarket coolers preferred over what looks like a blow through cooler on FE cards, do they exhaust air out through the display connections?

 

[***F1ZZY***]

FE cards not ideal for this case. Yes they blow hot air out past the connections which would be directly down and probably back into the case and back into the card.

They also vent out through the backplate which would be directly at the back of the mobo. Again not ideal.

 

[DatV8]

FE cards not ideal for this case. Yes they blow hot air out past the connections which would be directly down and probably back into the case and back into the card.

They also vent out through the backplate which would be directly at the back of the mobo. Again not ideal.

Thanks, yes I thought as much. Looking at an airflow diagram for the FE cards on nvidia's site it doesn't look ideal for being mounted upside down. Would very likely heat soak the card a bit too much. I'll wait for aftermarket cooler options prices to return to earth! (A long time)

 

[HoneyBadger]

Some more updates today, but ones I'm really happy about it.

Thought I'd start by playing with some tubing, just mocks up using spare parts.

Iceman res to X-Flow rad, plus the other feed coming out of res.

Some EK fittings on an old EK CPU block going to the other port. The plan was to use white coolant due to the clear tubes, but wasn't fully happy with this.

Time to raid my bigger parts bin in the garage to see what I have.

Space is at a premium and despite using 10/13mm fittings, they can still be quite big and the flexible tubing still squashes easily.

I found some 5/10mm pipe and some reducers, so experimented with 2 different bits of pipe and quickly heat=shrink wrapped it - nope, that looked pony.

Back to the garage.

I then found a load of brand new, packaged alpha cool 8/11 fittings, in all shapes and sizes and meters of 8/11 tubing, in white! Result!

Re-mock using new fittings and tubing:

Much better, and the tubing matches the case which is brilliant.

New fittings coming from the res, as you can imagine these are tight, imagine using 10/13 or bigger!!

I've printed some more feet too (The same shape, style, and size) and am currently spraying them black in the Garage, just to see how they look.

Over the moon I found these fittings and tubing, the tubing is a lot more flexible as well.

 

[***F1ZZY***]

@HoneyBadger - that looks epic. Those fittings and tubing are perfect. I cant believe you "forgot" about them. What a find!

With the in/out of the reservoir directly beneath where the graphics cards cable ports will be won't that make it tricky to plug in the DP lead? I guess with the thinner 8/11 tubing (with a bit of slack) you could squeeze it through. Is that what the taller feet are for? So you don't use the right angle DP connectors and come out the bottom of the case instead?

You should really start a build log too, this looks like it will be fantastic and may get lost in this thread.

Cheers

 

[Bossman]

This looks awesome. I'm seriously tempted to do something similar now.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks guys

A small change today. I installed 2x 40mmx10mm PWM fans to aid exhaust flow.

These are tiny!!

I bought a bracket from Etsy for £18 delivered, from the USA.

Fits nicely and isnt too flimsy, reasonable colour match so I'm happy with it.

2 fans fitted

Other side

Cables tucked behind the PCIE4.0 Riser - I've got a 2->1 splitter so I'll swap it over when I have a bit more time to minimise cable clutter.

We're getting there, slowly!

 

[Bossman]

Looks good, although the brown Noctua fans would drive me mad.

Mine arrived today and in the flesh I can't believe how small this thing is. It's bloody nice though. I need to tear down my old system and order the correct radiator as I mistakenly ordered a 240mm when I wanted 280mm. I'm not sure what resevoir I'm going to need yet though until I test fit everything. I think I might need to stand the motherboard off the tray using longer stand offs too where these can be bought that are of the correct size?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I got a pack from Amazon, but the size you’d be looking for is 20+6mm.

I will have mesh panel on GPU side, so you won’t see the Noctuas

 

[Bossman]

So my 1080Ti is quite a bit longer than what I worked out when measuring up before the case arrived. Not sure how I've screwed that up. I might be forced into using a CPU block/pump combo unit now which I didn't really want to use.

I was hoping to use of of the EK FLT reservoirs above/slightly in front of the graphics card.

 

[PurePickage]

So my 1080Ti is quite a bit longer than what I worked out when measuring up before the case arrived. Not sure how I've screwed that up. I might be forced into using a CPU block/pump combo unit now which I didn't really want to use.

I was hoping to use of of the EK FLT reservoirs above/slightly in front of the graphics card.

Could use an Alphacool Eisstation 40 DC-LT pump res

 

[Bossman]

Could use an Alphacool Eisstation 40 DC-LT pump res

Cheers, I'll have a look.

I decided to see how much extra room I'd gain by shifting the motherboard tray over and I might be able to squeeze the pump/res in. I'll have to mock it up, especially with the reduced room on the other side. If that works I'll have to buy an SFX PSU which is a bit of a shame as the ATX PSU I was planning on using is white which would have looked much better.

 

[Bossman]

Some messing about I've been doing while still trying to determine where everything should go. The black box on the right at the back of the case is probably where I expect to put the pump unless I mount it to the res, that's if there's room. I think I can squeeze a drain tap at the bottom of the loop, mocked up on the screwdriver to check clearances.

The radiator I'm using here is a 140 but it'll be a 280 that's going in. The 140 is in for the time being just to gauge the location of the fittings.



The room above the graphics card is too small for any tubular res, so I'd like to put in one of the EK FLT resevoirs, probably facing out but I'll be limited with the pump and the outlet locations, so this is the next thing I need to properly mock up. It's a shame I've had to move the motherboard tray over as I was really hoping to get my white ATX PSU in this case but I'm almost resigned to it having to be an SFX PSU now.



This is the motherboard side, I've tried my best to work with the horrible USB cables. At the moment these are held in place with zip ties and the like but this is probably what I'm going to have to go with. I can't understand why no one has manufactured some much more workable internal USB cabling, the header plug has always been a nightmare.

Plenty of room for the hoses on the CPU block, even above the RAM and over the top of the motherboard.

 

[Bossman]

Been having a bit more of a play with my case over the past few days now that some more bits have turned up.

There's going to be quite a bit of custom wiring involved in this if I want everything done right and nicely managed. The power switch/led and HDD activity cable was a bit short for how I wanted to route it so this needed extending.



I've not soldered any wires for quite some time and realised after I'd started that I don't have any wire strippers so I need to order some of those.



I forgot how hard it was to get wires of this size all to match the same length.



The white cable braid/sleeving I've got isn't the best either but this will do for now especially as this is going behind the motherboard anyway. The zip ties are just to hold it down for the time being, they won't be staying.



I really need some white heatshrink because this looks awful. I might also see if I can source an 8 pin block and replace this, since plugging in the individual pins is a nightmare, especially with the M.2 heatsink in the way.



My 280mm radiator turned up so I test fit it with the fans. I plan on pulling the air in from the front directly over the radiator but I'm not sure if I'd be better with the fans pulling air out of the case acting as an exhaust. Anyone offer any advice here? I've always thought the differences were small anyway?

I managed to get a brand new B-Grade FLT resevoir as I was really keen to see if this was workable. There is space for this with the 90 degree fittings coming out of the front however the location of the pump is still likely to cause me a headache. This resevoir looks ace here though and will be on full display with the window on this side of the case.



I'm glad I've got room for the fittings and hoses where I'd envisaged them to go. Drain port will go at the very bottom here too. There's about 1mm clearance between the radiator and the collar of the fitting.



I then decided to move the motherboard tray back to it's original position and test fit the ATX PSU now with cables plugged in while the radiator and fittings were in place. There's enough room, even when using this full size bulky 24-pin cable. I even tested with some 10/16 tubing I had lying around to gauge spacing etc. and even if I stand the motherboard off the tray there's still enough room to make this work.



The problem I've got now is the location of the pump.

The DDC pump I've got should fit between the back of the case and the PCI-E side of the graphics card but I think it'll touch, perhaps even interfere with the graphics card. I need to get a pump top and be 100% certain. Failing that my next step would be to use the pump mounted version of the same resevoir. Doing this would open up the opportunity to connect tubing up to the bottom of the res as well as the front - this one I currently have only allows fittings on the front. The other alternative would be to change to a pump/CPU waterblock combo which I've never really been a big fan of, the choice isn't great either.

I may yet still have to buy an SFX PSU but I'm not giving up on the ATX PSU just yet. Ideally a 3070 FE would mean I'd have more room above the graphics card to better mount everything and would negate the need to shift everything over. Does anyone have one I could borrow?

It's times like this you just wish you had a handful of various components to hand to try and test with before actually using.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Some minor changes as I've been on holiday in Devon.

I've decided to wait and get Alder Lake S rather than spend £310-330 on an ITX mobo for my 11700K. Conscious of the fact I have no idea on how hot this chip runs, I'm not sure how well a single 280mm rad will cool this CPU and any GPU I add, so I decided that the case may need a little help, so decided I wanted the ability to add some external cooling, but still be able to 'unplug' the external cooling and take the PC with me if needed.

Looked at where I could add 2 bulkhead fittings:

At the back, above the Iceman res. Marked out two Alphacool fittings I had (24~25mm external)

I ordered a drill bit from Amazon, it arrived but didn't fit my drill so had to use tools I already had.

Holes created, 2 bulkhead fittings tested

One is a shallow one, one is a deep and one is just a mm bigger, but enough to trigger my OCD. Here's the inside.

Had a look at offerings, EK, Alphacool etc. Ended up going onto AliExpress and getting 2 slightly smaller (External 18mm) no brand fittings, touched up a bit of the paint and here we go, with Iceman res re-fitted.

One looks darker as I've got a 90 degree fitting on the other side, and refitted the riser, routing fan cables behind:

See how close the fitting is! But it fits, thank god for the smaller fittings!

A wider view, showing the rear so far

With some test fittings.

The idea being that outside the chassis, there will be some tubing which connects to quick release fittings, which will go into an external rad, but also connect to each other to complete the loop if I need to take the PC away from the desk.

Cheers.