[Updated] The Barcelona

[bowrilla]

So, maybe I should have started this log earlier since it's pretty much in progress but it's not one of those builds that's going to be finished within a week. There's a lot of stuff going into it, side projects related to this build that will take several weeks if not months to finish … Anyway, let's get to the introduction.

 

Introduction

If was thinking about upgrading my desktop system for quite a while (4790k mITX build with a mere 8GB of DDR3 memory and a 1060 6GB in a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv mITX case). At first I had the NZXT H400 in mind because I like the cable and reservoir mounting shroud and thought it might be great to replace that thing with a custom one that could be fully illuminated. The issue was though that I was pretty sure I'd go with a Ryzen build because of the way better price point and I really wanted more 8 cares because of the fact that I often use one to two VMs in parallel. The issue with the H400 is: it's µATX and there's barely any good µATX AM4 board out there. The H200 was too small for my taste to look good (the GPU would partly cover that vertical shroud which would kind of destroy the whole look). Then came black friday (weirdly that's a thing for a few years in Europe/Germany now) and I got a good deal on a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift X - lovely looking case I must say but an absolute pain to work in. More on it later on. In early December I finally made the purchase of the base system, I salvaged my trusty Corsair SF600 PSU and assembled everything with the GTX 1060 and shortly after christmas I got a good deal on a Zotac 1080Ti Mini fully aware that there wasn't an EK full cover for it, that Zotac doesn't sell the water block they made for it seperately but it is visually the best fit - anything longer would reach too far into the bottom/radiator compartment and look bad. To the specsheet now.

 

Specsheet

CPU: AMD Ryzen 2700

Mainboard: Asus ROG Strix B450-I

Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4-3200 2x16GB

GPU: Zotac GTX 1080Ti Mini

Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB NVMe, 2x 500GB SATA SSD

PSU: Corsair SF600 80-Plus Gold

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift X

Cooler: EKWB Supremacy Evo Nickel+Acetal

Radiator: Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTX 280, 2x Noctua NF-A14 Industrial PWM

Pump: EKWB EK-XRES 100 SPC-60 MX PWM

Fans: 2x BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM 140mm

 

The Visual Idea

I'm a big fan of mid century design and architecture: clear lines, strong materials. After a long night on youtube I stumbled upon Primochill's Vue and fell in love with the effect that reminded me strongly of marble - well, love's a strong word, it was probably just a big crush and we quickly realized we were just at different points in life and it wasn't meant to be. I got Vue sort of out of my mind (my system sometimes runs for days straight, especially when there's a raytracing job to be finished, so it's just not suitable) but the marble/stone idea stuck. The front cover could be modded with Hydrographics or Vinyl, the fluid should be white or a brighter grey, cables ranging from sandy-beige over grey to anthracite. When Vue was still an option I actually thought of those RGB hardline fittings by Thermaltake or Raijintek - horribly expensive, kind of flimsy cables and a terrible job to hide them. Now that Vue is off the table I probably stick to Phanteks Halos fan covers or just two strips (I have two magnetic strips mounted right now for testing purposes, not entirely sure about it). 

Source: Wikipedia, Barcelona Pavilion

 

Source: Wikipedia, Braun SK 4

 

Inital Testing 

First assembly (with stock cooler) was semi quickly done (that case is really tricky to build in, not to mention to route cables within, you will need custom cables in order for it to look good and the back panel not bulging), everything fired up, temps were horrible. I quickly realized how tricky this case was due to a fundamental lack of ventilation. Having the case horizontally didn't help either. While gaming I had to remove the top glass panel in order for it not to overheat. At the beginning of January I received a package from a friend of mine with a set of soft tubing fittings from EK he had lying around as spares so I was good to go to fix the initial temp issues. This loop wouldn't stay this way and definitely not with soft tubing so I wasn't really keen on buying a whole set of fittings just to throw them into a corner after like 2 months. This turned out to be a little bit of an issue because at some point I realized I was missing at least 2 90° rotary fittings for the loop to work in any way. A quick run on a Saturday evening saved the weekend and I reached Caseking's Outlet here in Berlin 45min before closing time - I should have bought 2 more of those rotaries though as it turned out. I just wanted to get the whole system to finally be done so I opted for the most ugly way of routing those soft tubes (you will see later on when I've added pictures).

 

Assessment

At least the CPU was now fine though temps were still a bit disappointing, heat would build up in the case which leads to toasty temps for the GPU and rising water temperature as well. I quickly realized that the front- and back panel were way too restrictive. A quick test without the front panel resulted in a drop of 10°K on the CPU, a 4°K drop in water temperature, about 15°K lower system temps and GPU temps to drop by about 15°K as well. That's just insane and it just can't stay like that. So front and back panels won't just be modded with Hydrographics but will be cut open as well. This was actually the reason for ditching the vinyl wrapping route since the Hydrographics method can wrap around some corners (or at least nicer than vinyl). I'm thinking of a speaker like grill design like Braun's famous SK4/SK5 or the additional speaker L1. The back will receive cutouts as well so the PSU can get more air and I can add an 120mm exhaust fan between the back panel and the inner skeleton where the 2.5" drive mounting plate is or was. Removing that plate reveals quite a big opening that's perfectly suited to get some nice airflow over the VRMs. The only condition is that the fan needs to be slimmer than 20mm. I'm not fully sure which exact stone desgn I'll be using but I have narrowed it down to 3: CS46, CS37-2 or CS66. I have a tendency towards CS46, CS66 is a strong second place that would also fit nicely with the vanilla-sand sleeves.

 

As mentioned earlier: if there's one case out there that really needs custom cables (or at least extensions) then it's the Shift X. The layout is kind of weird, there're barely any ways to hide cablesand regular extensions will cause issues with the panel on the back due to the size of the Molex ATX housings and plugs. If those cables aren't a good fit in length you will run into space issues to tuck the excess into. There's a big package on the way from MDPC-X so custom sleeving is very high on my list. Due to the weird pin out of the SF series some cable twists are necessary and I just wante to avoid that. I'm making a set of extensions that stays with the case and a set of "shorties" that adapts those extensions to the psu. It's going to be quite a lot of work but there are so many fans in that case and CableMod adds quite some fees and shipping costs that doing it myself seems like a very viable option. It is a bit shocing though to how much this on its own is adding up to. Let's just say the mainboard was cheaper. Sleeve colours are: 

MDPC-X Vanilla-Sands 

MDPC-X Platinum Grey 

MDPC-X Titanium Grey

 

By the way, the mainboard. This board is kind of a bummer. I mean, it looks nice, has a great set of features and quite some beefy VRMs, the BIOS is nicely made - BUT the new firmware version lead to crashes that rendered the power button useless (sic!) so I had to unplug the system and then there's this very annoying "feature" of fans (and pump) going crazy at random. The CPU sits at very relaxed 30°C and suddenly the cpu fans just jump to full speed and won't slow down unless I reboot the system. Or they would just switch off which is especially worrying in case of the pump. After deleting Asus' AI Suite I fortunately haven't experienced any sudden pump stops but the fans going crazy is still an issue. Asus' RGB control software AURA is also anything but stellar, in fact it's pretty annyoing because it randomly crashes when I have Corsair iCue running. Which I have to run in order to control my mouse. Cool. Both Asus and Corsair published their SDK - many months ago. I have no idea why none of them managed to support the other. Luckily Asus, Corsair and basically most other manufacturers use WS2812b LEDs that are easy to control with either a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino. Which leads to the next sub-project: a custom fan/pump/drgb controller that can run on its own, has the option to read system information (mainly temperatures), can take mainboard PWM information as an input as well as mainboard (D)RGB information and that can be controlled, supervised and programmed with a custom app running on Win, Linux and macOS (so it's going to be an Electron app). I made some tests and the Raspberry Pi Zero can natively run in USB Slave mode so it's a nice and easy fit (for those interested: see here). There'll be a custom shield on top of it with a microcontroller that controls the fans. Since I'm in this with a friend of mine who's absolutely annoyed by the controllers around we're in this together. If we come to the conclusion, that our solution is good enough to be release we'll probably put it out there as Open Source. Might take a while. 

 

But back to the cooling: that case is just not made for high end gpus being air cooled, especially not when the case is oriented horizontally. So there is a dire need for a water block. I found a full cover on Alibaba made by Barrows that apparently doesn't suck. The iss ue is that it still costs ~130$. Add shipping, VAT and probably customs fees and that block would probably cost me over 200€. I don't want an acrylic top because of potential micro fractures over time and the overall look so I was kind of screwed. I thought about contacting Zotac and asking very nicely if there was potentially some stock of spare parts in case some of the Arctic Storm version of the 1080Ti Mini but ultimately I'll just make my own block. The inner layout will mostly be copied off common block designs though I won't add the ports for the fitting block straight at the metal base block but on top of the acetal top cover. Two seals will be implemented for added security. Sounds pretty stupid/crazy but basically, material costs will be ~100-140€ for potentially 2 blocks, add another 50€ for tools and (ignoring time) I can end up with a custom water block to my liking. I really don't care if the block might perform 5°K worse. This sub-project might take the longest time since most maker spaces aren't too happy about people routing copper blocks on ther CNC machines - it's a tricky material and 0.5mm routes are very delicate to do. So unlike the Aluminium covers the waterblock needs me to work together with a friend of mine who has access to an industrial level machine shop. Once the block is done and leak tested, I'll switch out the soft tubing and go for hard tubing.

 

Not enough to do?

You know, when you're already going over the top with your build and the DIY parts then you really don't want to settle with something that's bothering you for years. Why on bloody earth is there no mechanical 60-68% bluetooth keyboard with ISO-Layout and RGB or at least white (!) backlight, ideally with interchangable switches. Yes, I thought about the Corsair K63 wireless, I even thought about modding one by desoldering the blue leds and adding white ones. But you know what? Call me crazy, I'm giving the DIY approach a go. Not sure if BLE or classic Bluetooth, one of each modules is on its way, base will be an Atmega32U4 so it's QMK compatible. The Atmega32U4 should be just enough to feature both USB and Bluetooth along with a 15x5 keyboard matrix and one DRGB port - like just enough. We'll see how this project will develops, I'm trying to be reasonable and giving this project a very low priority. 

 

Front and Back Panel Mod

Update February 9th, 2019:

Finally took the time to measure the front panel, remodel it and place the venting holes. I went for a pattern similar to those on the sides and aligned according to those (or top and bottom metal panels if you have your case upright). The panel is pretty thick (3mm) so I'm not entirely sure if a lasercutter is actually working, Aluminium is quite a b***h to lasercutters. I need to find a good shop with a powerful laser or I'm forced to use a CNC machine - which is a bit more complicated since you need to have your panel fixed well to the groundplate and that panel is bend and has cutouts. I've made two version and am not entirely sure with which one to go. Version A comes with the vent cutouts only while version B connects the cutouts with a ridge (see picture 2 of version B). Leaning towards version B right now as it looks a bit … I don't know, lacking the right word in all languages I know to describe it.

 

I attached the DWG files in case anyone might want to use that design. There's also a cutout pattern over there at reddit/r/Phanteks with a more contemporary pattern. 

 

TheBarcelona-Frontpanel_vA.dwg

TheBarcelona-Frontpanel_vB.dwg

 

Version A:

 

Version B:

 

 

 

Custom Cable Sleeving

Update February 9th, 2019:

Package from MDPC-X just arrived after about 3 days. Very quick handling I must say. So this is 40m of AWG17 and 20m of AWG23, 20m of each Vanilla-Sands and Titanium-Grey sleeving, 30m of Platinum-Grey, 250 female crimp terminals and 150 male ones, not to mention all the connectors, cable combs and cable clips. Won't be able to get to work on it til mid next week or maybe even next weekend though.

 

 

BFC (Big F-ing Controler)

*more info to follow*

 

GPU Block

*more info to follow*

 

Wireless Keyboard a.k.a. "Project Unicorn"

Update February 9th, 2019:

I've decided on a layout for the keyboard, the dimensions and key layout is done. Since I'm looking for the weird unicorn amongst the mechanical keyboards I went for a mix of ANSI and ISO. The colors are more or less just a placeholder until I manage to finde a manufacturer that offers the right key caps in Europe - which seems to be harder than I thought. Thanks to the Keyboard-Layout-Editor you'll end up with a dataset that's easily converted into a matching faceplate with the Plate & Case Builder by swillkb. Frontplate will be made from 1.5mm aluminium on a lasercutter. I've managed to find some nice online services in Germany that really come cheaper as I've expected: 2 faceplates for ~70€ incl. VAT and shipping, done in 2 weeks. The rest of the case will be made from black acetal, those blocks aren't that expensive and can easily be routed on basically any CNC machine your local maker space can come up with. Two blocks of 340mmx155mm cost ~50€.

 

Switches are already on their way. I opted for Kailh Box switches for less key wobble and a greater choice of variability. The main switches are Kailh Box Royal tactile switches (3.6mm travel, 40g Actuation, 70g Bottom Out), Kailh Box Jade clicky switches for Esc, Space, Backspace and Return (3.6mm travel, 50g Actuation, 60g Bottom Out), Kailh Box Pale Blue clicky switches for all the other modifiers and function keys (3.6mm travel, 60g Actuation, 80g Bottom Out) and Kailh Box Black linear switches for the arrow keys (3.6mm travel, 60g Actuation, 70g Bottom Out).

 

All keys will be hot swappable plate mounted so there won't be any issues with changing switches in the future. The PCB for the switch matrix and the controller board will be seperated due to space constraints and it will be easier to just reuse the faceplate and matrix PCB for any other keyboard, connection will be made via a ribbon cable. Most DIY keyboards come with a matrix of 5x15, 6x15, 5x16 or similar by just using the physical keyboard columns and rows. In my case the Atmega32u4 doesn't offer enough I/O pins for USB, Bluetooth, DRGB and 21 (16x5) matrix pins. I've connected two rows and am now on a 8x10 (ish) matrix though I'm wasting another pin here because I tried to avoid mixing columns. I might just go for 8x9 and have the least amount of pins used. I'm currently working on the schematics and the board design. I'm adding WS2812b SMD DRGB leds to every switch, so the whole thing will be DRGB. I just have to see how much power that's going to drain.

 

 

Unicorn-Faceplate.dxf

 

Photos

The System in Feb 2019 pre mods. Yes, the cable routing is ugly, that's why I made a big oder at MDPC-X, custom cables with better routing comes. And yes, that soft tubing is terrible, see above, will be changed for proper hardline within the next 1 or 2 months and I wanted to get the system up and running, it was Saturday night and I lacked a few fittings. This will be fixed soon.

 

 

So, if you're interested in this over the top collection of ideas, projects and mods, stay tuned, this journey will take a while.

[bowrilla]

*blocked for future pictures*

[bowrilla]

Update from February 26th

So, after around 15hrs of cutting cables, crimping ATX connectors, fitting sleeves, fitting heatshrink, burning my fingers from time to time, more cutting and crimping and burning I finished the extension part of the sleeving sub project. I really underestimated the amount of time going into sleeving. Since I forgot to order fan crimp connectors I couldn't finish those yet, the SATA power cables are work in progress and I still have to create the short PSU specific cables. I estimate that it's going to take another 15hrs to finish this part up but for now my fingers need a few days of rest so the blisters can heal a bit - and I have to refill my small torch (which works way better than a regular lighter).

 

I could have added more cable combs but I decided against those and only added them where cable routing is visible, behind the back panel I'll use MDPC-X's cable management clips so that the cables won't take up so much space.

 

The reason why I make both universal extensions and short psu-specific cables is simple: this way the extensions can stay in the case (they're made for this case after all) and I can switch around hardware as I please.

 

Now I'm tired as hell as it's early in the morning and I'm going to get some sleep.