Project Mellifera - PC-O11D XL Casemod

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More Parts!

 

Gave up waiting for Overclockers at ~45-odd days of waiting for stock, and ordered the Phanteks G40 block from Newegg in the US instead.

This was INCREDIBLY smooth- so smooth. in fact, that I can see myself buying PC parts direct from them a lot more in the future.

 

Ordered on the 8th. Arrived on the 12th. Basically the same price as from Overclockers (item inc tax and duty slightly more expensive, but free postage) and was faster delivery than OC advertised despite coming all the way from California.

 

 

 

I've not had chance to spin up Fusion 360 yet, let alone get down to actually designing any of the other lightboxes. 

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Progress(ish)!

 

I've done absolutely nothing on Mellifera for a few months now as real life has been getting in the way. However I managed to grab an hour this afternoon to work on modifying the 5v RGB cable that comes with the G40 waterblocks.

 

They supply an ugly grey and black daisy -chainable micro-3-pin to 3POL cable with their blocks to key into their RGB ecosystem (thankfully using the standard pinout though). If you want a standard 3 pin 5v RGB connector, you have to use supplied adapters. See what I mean?

 

 

Now this just don't do; not only is it ugly it's also clutter I could do without. So I decided to sleeve the cable and replace the connector with a more traditional 5v RGB one.

 

The process is pretty straightforward but very fiddly. First, pop off the nasty 3POL daisy chain.

 

 

I then threw the sleeve on; I used some leftover MDPC-X from doing my PSU and pump cables as it was the longest piece I had. At the micro 3 pin end I've heatshrunk it, it's not the greatest job but it's alright. 

 

 

3/4 pin RGB connector body over the cable, 3-pin ready for soldering.

 

 

Getting stuff lined up for soldering. I don't solder very often (this is the first time in about 2 years) but I really should invest in some helper gear as EVERYTHING I solder is incredibly tiny and finicky. I certainly didn't mis my calling as a career brain surgeon. 

 

• Top (Grey) = 5v
• Middle (Black) = Data
• Bottom (Black) = Ground

 

 

I took one practice run with the spares before soldering and boy am I glad I did. None are going to win any awards and frankly the data cable is a horror show but they're well adhered and nothing has bridged. I threw some tiny strips of electrical tape around the 5v and ground as extra insurance, slapped the connector housing on and we're done (and looking pretty fine too).

 

 

Now we wait until I can tear my system down again to see if it works....

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Time for my regular six weekly update, which is mostly to say "nothing has happened". 

 

Well, that's not entirely true. I did paint my ColdZero rear case cover. 

 

 

Not perfect, but pretty decent and the tiny bits of overspray I can clear up with a razorblade and acetone if I need to.

 

I also had one of my top rad NF-P12 redux shit it's bearing, so I've got a replacement for when  I tear it down. Which will probably be just after new year. 

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Mostly finished my teardown and rebuild. Managed to damage one of my fan control cables so won't be able to finish off until tomorrow.

 

Strip down and light clean. Surprisingly very little muck.

 

 

Rear cover from ColdZero. Pain in the arse to fit.

 

 

Reran some of my cables Inc 12vHPWR

 

 

Nothing like pulling apart a £1200 GPU. And holy shit is is the 4080 Strix a pain in the arse to disassemble. My EVGA 2080 was a piece of piss but this was a nightmare, including three screws driven in so hard they tried to strip on removal. Not happy, ASUS. 

 

 

ASUS also seem to use a really nasty thermal goop in place of pads on the memory modules. Cleaned off okay with a bit of isopropyl to leave a pretty tidy board. 

 

 

The Phanteks G40 block is also a right pain in the arse. The instructions are terrible and quite obviously wrong in some places, the thermal pads are not especially well cut which means they gum together. They also put them in loose with other bits so they get a bit mullered.

 

Maybe I was spoiled by the Watercool block I had on my 2080 but for £250 I really expect better quality. Anyway, looks nice enough. 

 

 

In and wiring tidied

 

 

And tubing done. 

 

 

I don't like the aesthetics as much as I did with the 2080, the 4080 feels a bit unbalanced as the ports are so far back. But equally the other blocks are tiny and this has a decent industrial look to it that compliments the fittings.

 

Will have to see how I get on, if I'm not happy I'll pick up the Watercool block instead. 

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Spent some time properly cable managing the rear:

 

 

Still need to sort the rear covers for above and below the PSU plus something to cover up the space behind the light box. 

 

Other than that and a few other cosmetic tweaks I'm not in a massive rush with, all done. 

 

[DrkNinja]

Jesus that is so clean. I'd kill to have a build like this, but honestly I'm too scared of doing hard tubing... Great job 10/10

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On 2/14/2024 at 9:31 PM, DrkNinja said:

Jesus that is so clean. I'd kill to have a build like this, but honestly I'm too scared of doing hard tubing... Great job 10/10

Honestly, hard tubing is pretty easy IME.

 

You need to be reasonably accurate with your marking up (within about 3-5mm, there's usually a bit of wiggle room in the fittings), be careful to deburr the tubing inside and out, and I found you have to build a lot of your runs including fittings out of the case which makes tightening them down a bit of a pain...but it's more time consuming than anything else really. 

 

Bends are a bit nerve wracking the first time you do them but there's only 2 in this whole system and they're simple 90s. Jigs are cheap and even as a newbie it's reasonably easy to just feel when Acrylic is ready. You could always get pre-bent tubing too. 

 

 

 

I actually found dealing with the insanely stiff EK-ZMT black soft tubing much harder than the Acrylic hardlines 

[zombiepunk10]

Cool PC!