Bulldogge Builds - Amphibious

[Bulldogge Builds]

 

Hello there my fellow modders...

 

I visited Dreamhack earlier this summer with my previous project, I met lots of awesome people in the same "business" and had a successful participation in the open casemod competition. All this combined gave me a real taste for this stuff! After Dreamhack my contact at be quiet! who helped me with fans wrote to me and asked if I might be interested in doing a project with one of their cases. I thought it would be a great opportunity and a nice project to get going with straight away, so of course I said yes! Through my contact at be quiet! I got in touch with Alphacool who will be helping me with everything related to water cooling. Gigabyte decided to once more help me out with a motherboard. And I've also received help from one of the best sites for hardware here in Sweden, Inet will be helping out as well.

 

So now we have this project, which I've decided to name "Amphibious", which most of you know means "works both on land as in water". My plans with this project is to do a clean build but still having a competent machine and using as much as possible of the space that the case offers.

 

• No SSD or HDD. Just an m2 which means less cables and a cleaner look.
• A vertically mounted graphics card.
• Straight tubing with adapters, no bent tubing anywhere.
• Custom sleeving done from scratch, which means no extra cables and less clutter.
• Then of course I'll be drilling, filing and sawing here and there in the case to get rid of excess parts that I wont use. I'll be creating panels and covers in acrylic. I've got a pretty clear plan in my head, but things will probably change along the way.

 

Hardware

 

This is the stuff I'll be using in this project:

• CPU - Intel i7 7700K
• Mobo - Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 5
• RAM - G-skill 4x8GB 3000Mhz
• M2 - WD 1TB
• GPU - Nvidia Geforce 1080Ti FE
• PSU - be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 Platinum 750W
• Case - be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900

 

Water cooling parts

 

I'll be doing on loop for both cpu and gpu since the case allows quite large radiators and I'll be taking advantage of this all the way. A 420 Monsta in the front and a 45mm 280 in the top. Both radiators will have 140mm be quiet! Silent Wings 3 in push/pull. The blocks I'll be using for CPU and GPU are Alphacool Eisblock XPX and Watercool Heatkiller IV...

Alphacool have been incredible and sent me everything I need for this project, both the watercooling parts and the sleeving. I'll be showing pictures of all the stuff as I go along with this project and do some more detailed descriptions of each part.

 

Check my next post for some quick pictures of various parts I'll be using in this project. I've already made a small live video on some minor casemods and shared some thoughts on my project.
 

[Zando_]

Following. Sounds like a cool build, can't wait to see what you cook up!

[Bulldogge Builds]

Here's some quick pics of various parts I'll be using for this project...

[Damascus]

Wow, followed.

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Wow, followed.

Same here. All those shiny components!

[Bananasplit_00]

From what I have heard, you should probably clean the rads, lot of gunk in Alphacool stuff AFAIK. Neat to see a Swedish case moder though, have fun with all the pingvin stångar Inet will throw your way

[Bulldogge Builds]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

From what I have heard, you should probably clean the rads, lot of gunk in Alphacool stuff AFAIK. Neat to see a Swedish case moder though, have fun with all the pingvin stångar Inet will throw your way

I'll be cleaning both of them, of course!

Don't ever underestimate the power of pingvinstänger!! 

[Bulldogge Builds]

My wifey was kind today... I got some time for myself and I spent it doing some modifications to the case. So I said bye bye to the possibility to add 120mm fans... as I said, I'll get rid of all excessive parts. And since I'm going 140mm those parts are excessive 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Damascus]

Looks good!

[Bulldogge Builds]

30 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Looks good!

Thanks mate

[Bulldogge Builds]

No more warranty for you mister!

 

[Bulldogge Builds]

Started modifying the front of the case today... more airflow for the fans on the 420 in the front. And a place for my aquaero as well

I plan to play som with acrylic as well around all that...

This is tedious work... so enough for today. There's another day tomorrow

[Zeuligan]

Looks awesome m8. Really impressive work. A must follow

[Bulldogge Builds]

19 minutes ago, Zeuligan said:

Looks awesome m8. Really impressive work. A must follow

Thanks a lot my friend! <3

[Not_Sean]

@Zeuligan sent me here and very happy He did, really enjoying both these projects, some actual work going into these builds. Keep them coming ! ! 

[Bulldogge Builds]

@Not_Sean You're more than welcome!  Thanks for providing me with followers @Zeuligan

[Bulldogge Builds]

I took a trip to the hardware store to buy some new drills since my old ones are way past their expiry date. While there I decided to buy a small cabinet for all my adapters, fittings, extensions and other small stuff that's lying around.

 

 

 

 

Quite the improvement. Lots of space to work and some order among all the stuff... Since my vacation ended and I started with a tough week at work and the lack of acrylic and drills I haven't been able to make any progress with the project. But in the coming week I've got lots of spare time and I'll move forward with this project!

 

[Bulldogge Builds]

I wasnt satisfied with what I achieved with the door. So I've changed my plans and decided to go with a piece of acrylic with cut out holes for ventilation and my aquaero in the middle of it. Similar to the door, but not a door...

 

I started cutting out a piece of acrylic for the aquaero. Cutting and drilling doesn't take much time at all... it's the filing and trying your best to get things straight that takes time. Tomorrow I'll start working on the piece that'll replace the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zeuligan]

This is very interesting and brave. Love where you are going with this and I don't think I have seen anyone replace the door on this case yet. Very very interesting, cant wait to see next update...

[Bulldogge Builds]

Havent happened much lately for me. I've had loads of stuff to do at work and on my spare time my family have stolen the little time I've had left.. I've spent loads of hours in two occasions where I achieved exactly nada since I managed to break the plexi that I had planned to use for the front... so ~8 hours down the drain

 

 

The other day I gave it a third go and decided to drill holes instead of sawing patterns, which was the cause for me breaking the plexi...

 

 

I used the front of the aquaero to get the holes lined up as straight as possible and to be the same distance from one another...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now all that's left for the front is to file the edges and get them straight...

[Bulldogge Builds]

 

[Zeuligan]

I love what you have done. Also think that this last part of your project summarize everything about being a modder. Never give up, never stop trying. Something amazing will arise. 

 

This is going to be a great project.

[Bulldogge Builds]

When you've spent many hours and achieved absolutely nothing you feel like just throwing it out of the window and stop. But you gotta rise up and keep the flag flying high

[Bulldogge Builds]

Today I took the time to sleeve the cables on the pump... it was sort of a quick job since it's like 3% that's going to be visible  Only gotta paint or remove the white thingie that's going on the motherboard...

 

 

 

Then I made a piece for the cover in the bottom, the piece that's going above the psu and the pump. I'm going to drill holes when I know the exakt position for the pump. My thought is that the remaining piece is going to cover the side of the pump, the psu and then go up and cover the entire front radiator.

 

 

 

[Bulldogge Builds]

Hi again my friends...

 

Been kind of off lately since I took my computer apart. I've painted parts of the motherboard to fit the theme better, delided my cpu since it was extremely hot even at stock. I've also cut out panels that I'm going to use to cover the psu, pump and other parts of the case... While at it I also sleeved the cables for the pump. Dreamhack Winter is not so far away now... so I better get this show on the road now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delid was much easier than I thought and gave me an incredible result. IBT at very high gave me temps of 99-100 degrees on all cores after the first pass... after the delid the exact same test with the same components gave me temps of 65-70 degrees. So if anyone are having temperature issues... delid that sucker