Time.Sync.

ALXAndy · 3 Sep 2018 at 12:39

Hello chaps and ladies. Been a while ! This is mostly because I was happy with how my rigs were and how they had turned out. Some of you will remember the Triad build?

Which is basically a 14 core CPU with a Titan XP. The CPU is on a 120 AIO and the GPU is running on a 240 BP rad with BP res etc. The GPU is fine, but now that things are becoming more threaded the CPU is getting very hot. Once all 14/28 are loaded up it smells like when you turn the radiators on for the first time in winter. Not good, and it throttles when all 14 cores are fully loaded. Given this is going to happen more now rather than less I needed to upgrade the cooling on the CPU. Just one problem, where the heck do I put more cooling in this case? Bottom line? I don't. It is already absolutely stuffed to the gills.

So no problem, buy a bigger case right? yeah but that leads me away from the cases I like and gives me a box. I've done this before (strayed from AW) and I have always gone back.

Then I remembered this thing had been sitting empty since last December.

I also knew that whilst it was indeed very large it was quite useless for big systems. Mostly because of all of this crap.

So I knew that like Dianoga if I ever wanted to drag this case kicking and screaming into 2018 I needed to gut it quite severely. This is Dianoga, if you don't recall.

360 + fat 120. More than enough cooling for the hardware (10 core BE Xeon and Fury X now..)

The only thing scaring me was the case. You will see why as this log progresses. Phase one, intro, complete.

ALXAndy · 3 Sep 2018 at 12:45

Phase two - stripping the rig down.

This case is made up of hundreds of small pieces. It is why it cost £800 over a regular build. It has motors, sensors, mechanical parts, its own motherboard (seriously) and an absolutely massive loom connecting it all together. This is what I was up against.

A lot.

Over the years many people have asked me why Alienware are so expensive. It's fitting they would ask me, given I have had loads. Let me show you an example. Here you can see the hard drive bays. See the plastic cover thing standing in front of the case?

This is how many screws there are holding it in.

And that is just one simple plastic cover.

Removable mobo tray, roof vent panel and side cover panels out.

Front out (took over two hours)

And finally, after a full 8 hour day...

ALXAndy · 3 Sep 2018 at 12:50

Parts ordered. Bear in mind I already have a res, 240 BP rad (I have a second now so two) as well as a GPU block, CPU block, BP fittings etc. Fans. 6 120s, one 92.

ALXAndy · 3 Sep 2018 at 14:46

Front rad mount made.

Case completely gutted out.

ALXAndy · 3 Sep 2018 at 19:06

Been doing some thinking, and I think I am going to scrap the 6 drive bays in the back in part X for lots of cable management space. I should still have some grommets somewhere. I think that will work out much better, as I only have two HDDs and two SSDs which won't take that entire space.

ALXAndy · 4 Sep 2018 at 12:08

Today I ordered some stuff. Not all of it, because I need to do it in stages (water cooling requires much spending over many months). I just got all of the things that I need to work on the structure of the case so that I can move on. So most of it was just supplies as they have depleted..

100 3mm pops

This.

Self explanatory.. 1" and .5"

Decided on black

And these, which I usually always forget.

This.

To reduce the stink (hammerite absolutely pongs)

So if you are still following and did not fall asleep..

Tadaaaaaaaaaa.

LePhuronn · 5 Sep 2018 at 21:42

ALXAndy...now that is a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time.

NEW BUILD, MOTHER TRUCKER! So very subbed.

Interested to see how the Hammerite turns out actually. My cack-handed self has probably used a bit too much JB Weld on Asteria's new internals to be effectively powder coated now (the original plan), so I'm now looking at just painting myself.

Distracted · 5 Sep 2018 at 23:47

I'm looking forward to this!

Vapo Reaper · 6 Sep 2018 at 09:50

Distracted said:
I'm looking forward to this!

Me too, love these sort of builds

clone · 7 Sep 2018 at 10:18

Why not spray paint the inside any enamel paint will do the job and will be hard wearing.

ALXAndy · 7 Sep 2018 at 15:59

clone said:
Why not spray paint the inside any enamel paint will do the job and will be hard wearing.

The problem with spray painting is getting the proper coverage. I would need an outside space to do it, or the over spray destroys my kitchen (as I know from experience sadly). I do have plenty of time to do it right

I had a bit of a conundrum, as in one build I have a EKWB GPU block and a AC block.

And for this build I have a AC GPU block and BP.

And sod's law this was the only CPU block I have spare that will fit.

Which is ironically annoying. It would require a drain of the green rig, then a swap out, which would no doubt result in me needing more fittings (as the EK block is about half as deep as the AC one). Then a whole day of taking the green rig apart (very messy and annoying) and then buying a bottle of coolant for £13 and potentially ruining my clothes (EC6 stains). So I was poking around on the bay of fleas and saw this.

Brand new, £18. So I obviously bought it

I've also bought these. (X6)

And this.

And will be doing something like this.

The green parts are going to be custom made to bolt onto the fans to hold it nice and strong

I will also be scrapping down the triad rig, so will have loads of these fittings (will be using this res too)

There are tons of goodies in there to come out. This for example.

The advanced version of the PA3 with the heatsink

I also have a splitty and a hubby too, so lots of AC gear combined with Bitspower.

ALXAndy · 7 Sep 2018 at 16:11

Goodehs.

And a "before" pic.

Nevye · 11 Sep 2018 at 11:32

Really interested to see how this turns out. I have the exact same case which I am looking to mod.

ALXAndy · 11 Sep 2018 at 15:55

Nevye said:
Really interested to see how this turns out. I have the exact same case which I am looking to mod.

I would spend a few hours on Youtube looking at how to get it apart. Some of it will have to be worked out alone, but there are guides on there on getting most of it apart. The bottom is the biggest sod tbh.

Few more parts ordered. Firstly a pressure membrane that allows pressure to release from the loop. I got this because there was some historic leaking in the case I never even knew about.

Needed this too.

And parts for the new fan bit in the bottom of the case.

Of course then the case needs lifting so it can get air in.

And that ought to about do that mod.

ALXAndy · 11 Sep 2018 at 17:20

Well that sucked. It was time to cut a hole for the PSU. There are only certain areas you can cut, or things won't stay on. So I decided on this.

Not ideal, but at least the PSU should be able to breathe. It sucked because of this.

Most of it was double walled ffs. Not fun !

Distracted · 11 Sep 2018 at 17:43

The case had auto opening and closing vents at the top?

What was the cooling like prior to all the modding?

That looks like the sort of awesome craziness i would have loved to get my hands on. Time to get my google on i think.

I still cant wait to see where this goes!

ALXAndy · 11 Sep 2018 at 17:54

The venting and the front panel are active. So you can either set them open/half open/closed or you can set a fan and heat curve so they open up when temps get to certain levels etc.

It's all controlled by a computer, which then has software.

The case has full RGB too. However, do note the connector on that board is a 10 pin. Which of course, on a standard PSU does not exist. This means you are stuck with the noisy, inefficient Alienware PSU until it dies like mine did. Then you need to make a custom loom to connect to a regular PSU, so you need the schematic.

Do note you will need a good understanding of electronics and electricity to do this. And soldering, as there will be plenty. I have the pinout somewhere. Also, make sure it all works. IO boards are almost impossible to find now and finding one dent/scratch free is close to impossible given they weigh so much and are skinned in 1mm alu.

ALXAndy · 11 Sep 2018 at 19:22

OK more cutting done. Now it has more modern manners.

The hex on this blends in so well it's scary :O

Much better. This needs painting before properly fitting but it's where it should be

LuckyBenski · 11 Sep 2018 at 19:52

This is looking amazing. That chassis/lighting control board is mental!

ALXAndy · 11 Sep 2018 at 21:43

Couple of old vids. This is how the front panel works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv3qMT0S69I

And the roof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veyaGUbwbFg

OK cool I found the pics. This is the 10 pin harness needed to power the board up here.

And this is the pin out. Ignore any other pin out diagram you find, as they are all incorrect.

You need to connect the 5VSB up to the pink 5VSB wire on the PSU. If you don't the board will not function correctly. Here you can see how I did it. I bought a cheap (but correctly coloured) 24 pin (note the correct colours are kinda important) and I wired it to the 10 pin, with it used as a pass through (so PSU into extension, splits power into the IO board then goes off to the mobo.)