Project Viridis - Water cooled HAF 912+

[jd2195]

 

Welcome to my second build log on this forum. The aim of this build is not to improve the hardware, in fact the hardware will not change at all, the main aim of this build log is to update my water cooling loop and change to acrylic tubing, and change to a smaller case the HAF 912+. I have not seen many water cooling builds in this case and I had one sitting around next to my desk from an old build so I thought I would give it a go.

The name of this build log is build log is Project Viridis because it is the Latin word for green. So from that you may be able to guess that the colour scheme for this build is going to be emerald/green. This is mainly because I managed to get a free bottle of Mayhems X1 UV Emerald which I managed to get for free when a Mayhem's representative gave away a few bottles about a year ago on another forum. The parts list for this build log are down in my sig.

As the HAF 912+ does not lend itself to water cooling in its original form I will be modding the case. I am going to try and fit in one 280mm/240mm rad in the front and then another 240mm up top. This will mean removing all of the front hard drive cages and the 5.25" bays; however, I want one of the 5.25" bays to install a fan controller in so I am going to cut down the 5.25" so there is only one slot to put that in. To fit the rad up top I am most likely going to have to have to get a shroud as there is not much room up there once the motherboard is in. Another mod that I am going to be doing is cutting a new side panel window. The side panel with a window that you can order from Cooler Master is not a great shape in my opinion and they put a stupid space for a fan which means you cannot see most of the internals of your system. I am going to take the original side panel and cut a window into it. Now the original side panel is not perfect either because it has the ugly HAF logo on it. In order to get rid of this I will sand it down and repaint the side panel. I am also going to paint the mesh on the front panel emerald colour. I am also going to be repainting the heat sinks on motherboard and on my RAM to emerald instead of blue. As I said earlier I do not want to buy any new hardware and the hardware I have got currently was picked for a blue colour scheme so I need to change it. There are a few other blue parts on the motherboard which I would like to change but I do not want to ruin the motherboard trying to paint parts such as the PCI lanes and the RAM slots. The final mod I will be doing is one that most do these days and that is sleeving. I will be using Lutro0's Telios sleeving to sleeve all of my cables using the green and black sleeving.

Now I am going to be adventuring into acrylic tubing for the first time in this build after having built my first loop out of conventional tubing. This will be where all of my money is going to be spent, on new fittings, and tubing. I am going to try and avoid using angled fittings as much as possible and go for bends in the tubing as that is what I think looks best and it is the way I want to do it. Obviously I am going to have to use some angled fittings but I want to keep it down to a minimum.

This build log will most likely carry on over summer as I am away quite a lot of the summer and I do not have a lot of money so I will have to save up money for the few things I will have to buy. I have already started some of the mods and I will upload pictures with what I have done tomorrow.

 

Thank you to Rumikarimu for making the awesome banner for this build.

[Tearass]

Banner? 

 

Banner.

 

Also, you have no idea how much I love Acrylic tubing, so I'm looking forward to this.

[ericlee30]

Banner? 

 

Banner.

 

Also, you have no idea how much I love Acrylic tubing, so I'm looking forward to this.

Good recommendation this guy. He is very good at what he does

[jd2195]

So I have started some of the mods in some of my spare time. The first thing that I did was remove all of the hard drive cages and 5.25" bays. This was a fairly simple process which just involved removing a few screws and quite a lot of rivets:

The second mod that I started but have been able to finish is cutting the 5.25" drive bays so that only one remains. This is the size that each side will be:

and that is before sanding. I have started the sanding process and nearly finished but unfortunately my Dremel suddenly stopped working and so I cannot finish it until I can get a new Dremel which may be a while as my bank statement does not make for good reading at the moment.

I have also started the painting process and I have finished the front mesh and I am pretty happy with the result. This is what it look like after being sanding down:

and then this is it after two coats of primer and two coats of paint:

I am part way through painting the side panel and I will finish that today later on. I will also most likely paint the 5.25" drive bay covers when I get some as I lost them at some point.

 

 

[Tearass]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/158196-rumikarimus-unofficial-avatar-banner-shop/?p=2212736

[jd2195]

Sorry, been pretty busy. The side panel was painted on Saturday and Sunday but I have not had time to post this. After Thursday I have a lot more free time but I will still have no money so things will still be moving quite slowly probably.
 

 

I am pretty bad at taking pictures so the quality is not great. I need to get better at it. There were three stripes on the side panel so I thought that i would paint that part green. The picture does not show the colour well at all but it is the same colour as the front mesh panel. Also because of the way the photo has been taken you can see a few imperfections in the paint but when you are just looking at it in person you cannot see them at all. Also the I did not bother painting the middle paint which you can see. I decided that I did not want to bother painting parts that would definitely be cut out. The side panel window will almost certainly be larger than the unpainted area but I have not decided on the final shape yet. Tell me what you think of the paint job and any potential ideas for the side panel window shape.

Another mod that I have planned that I have not started yet which is taken from another build log on this forum which I thought was a very cool idea. Around the motherboard and the rest of the case I will place an acrylic sheet to cover all of the holes in the motherboard tray and where the hard drive bays were. I want to do this because there are currently large holes there which will look pretty ugly if uncovered because all you see will be cables. I will then also be able to cut cable management holes where I want them which should improve my cable management a bit.

Are there any other mods that I could do with this case?  I would like to do some more but I am struggling to think of any others that I could while keeping the build looking clean.

 

[Tearass]

 

Tell me what you think of the paint job and any potential ideas for the side panel window shape.

Another mod that I have planned that I have not started yet which is taken from another build log on this forum which I thought was a very cool idea. Around the motherboard and the rest of the case I will place an acrylic sheet to cover all of the holes in the motherboard tray and where the hard drive bays were. I want to do this because there are currently large holes there which will look pretty ugly if uncovered because all you see will be cables. 

 

 

 

Please, accept my quality render.

 

[jd2195]

Please, accept my quality

Like that but I plan to make it go right up against the motherboard amd closer to the power supply I think.

[jd2195]

Just a small update. I am now done for summer so I have nothing to do over the next 3 months pretty much, apart from travelling for a bit of it. I managed to find a Draper, a mulitool thing pretty much the same as a Dremel, in my garage so I have been able to get back into the modding. I finished sanding down the edges of the 5.25" bays and have re-painted them as I got a few scratches on them.

I am happy with the sanding and the paint. I got the lines straight enough and because they will not be in sight it does not matter too much. I realised after I started cutting it this way that there was a much easier way of doing it and that was just to cut the bottom plate of the 5.25" bays and that woud have meant that I could have kept all of the drive bays but it does not matter too much as I will only ever need one.

I am still unsure of what shape to go for with the side panel window and the fact that the centre of the side panel actually sticks out makes it harder to work with because I either have to cut all of the part that sticks out, out, or stay within the part that sticks out because if I do not mounting the window will be impossible.

[jd2195]

I just went and got the paint that I am going to be using to paint the motherboard heatsinks, RAM heatsinks, and maybe the pci-e slots and RAM slots. The paint is Humbrol Enamel Matt 33 and Humbrol Enamel Met 50, I also bought some thinner to mix it in with if necessary. I will be using the green to paint the RAM and maybe the heatsinks on the motherboard, I am not sure yet, if not I will paint the motherboard heatsinks black, and then the pci-e slots and RAM slots black if I paint them. What colour do you think I should paint the motherboard heatsinks, black or green?

I may start painting the RAM soon but painting the motherboard will be one of the last things that I do once I have taken my computer apart because while I am painting it it will be unusable for a few days.

[jd2195]

I have also been thinking about the shape of the side panel window today. I have come up with 3 ideas.

The first and second one are very similar however the second one goes a bit wider on the left hand side. The third one is similar to the design of the side panel window that they do. The main reason that I would go with the third is because I plan on mounting the pump/res config onto the radiator at the front using some kind of mounting mechanism. In the first two pictures I would not be able to see the reservoir but in the third one I would be able to. I am open to any suggestions on which one you think would be the best or if you have any other ideas I would love to hear them. 

[nick99n]

i would do the 3rd 

[jd2195]

i would do the 3rd 

Ye I think I will.

I also just ordered some minor stuff, m4 screws and nuts to hold the 5.25" bay in place, and some duct tape for when I start cutting the window into the side panel.

I am also going to need a shroud for the top of the case to fit the 240mm rad, is this is a good shroud or has anyone got any better suggestions:

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/Koolance-2-x-140mm-Fan-Radiator-Shroud-Black--SHR-0820-pid-13814.html

[jd2195]

I started trying to paint my RAM but the paint was too thin. Is there anyway of making the paint thicker or am I going to have to find an alternative paint. This is the exact paint that was used in someone elses build on another forum and they said that they had to mix it with thinner as the paint was too thick so I may have got a bad batch or something.

[nick99n]

I started trying to paint my RAM but the paint was too thin. Is there anyway of making the paint thicker or am I going to have to find an alternative paint. This is the exact paint that was used in someone elses build on another forum and they said that they had to mix it with thinner as the paint was too thick so I may have got a bad batch or something.

too much thinner ? i think you can't make it thick again

[jd2195]

too much thinner ? i think you can't make it thick again

That's the thing though, I haven't added any thinner yet to the paint.

[jd2195]

Well there have not been any updates for a while and there are two reasons for this: 1) I ran out of re-enforced dremel cutting discs, and 2) I am an idiot. A while ago when I was originally planning to do the mods I was measuring the size screws that I would I need to mount the 5.25" drive bays and I wrote on the front of the case what size screws I would need:

It is pretty faint but I wrote M3 screws. When I was ordering the screws I forgot that I had done this and went and ordered M4 screws and bolts. Of course they did not fit and so I had to drill the holes slightly larger so that the screws would fit through. I then went and brought the wrong type of nut as it will only screw a certain amount of the way along the screw and so I cannot use them and I am waiting for new ones.

I also started cutting the side panel window last Thursday but I ran out of re-enforced dremel cutting discs and so I had to order some new ones. They only came today and I have now finished cutting the side panel window and I just need to sand the edges down to get them smooth and along the line I want.

I will begin sanding the edges down tomorrow afternoon most likely and hopefully the nuts will arrive tomorrow so I can fix the 5.25" drive bay in place.

 

[jd2195]

I am now thinking about making a psu shroud for this build. I have two questions if I were to do this:

1) Which metal should I use, steel or aluminium?

2) What thickness of metal should I get, bearing in mind I will be bending it by hand?

[jd2195]

Ok so once again there have not been any updates for about a week again. The reason for it this time is that i have been painting my RAM so I have not been able to use my computer. I was worried that I might damage the RAM while doing this but I have had no problems so far, however I do want to check to see if the thermals are ok so does anyone know any stress test programs for RAM that I could use to see if I have effected it? I have done quite a few coats just to try and get the colour as good as I can and I am still not sure about so tell me what you think about.

This is after just the first coat so as you can see I had to do quite a few coats just so that you could not see any of the blue:

And this is what it looks like now (went for an artsy shot with the second pic):

From the pictures you can probably see that there are some lumps and bumps on the surface of the RAM and I don't know if that was from the paint or the brushes that I used but it is quite annoying, luckily when the RAM is in the system you cannot see them so it is not a huge problem. As I said I am not sure about the colour, do you guys like the colour or do you reckon I should just go all black on the RAM?.

 

I also started on the PSU shroud but unfortunately I mucked it up. I had the piece of steel bent but I thought I needed to cut some of it off to make it fit in my case. It turns out I did not and so I just wasted £13 and have had to spend another £13 on another piece of steel. Luckily that should be here later this week and I will try again.

[jd2195]

The new piece of steel came today and so I worked on the psu cover all day and I have finished it. I am very happy with the result and now just need to find a way of attaching it to the case, any one have any ideas? I was thinking of using some of the screws I had left over from 5.25" drive bay mod and using them in certain places but they were not long enough to use in the places I wanted to so I am open to any ideas. So this is what it looked after I had bent it but not painted it, the top was a little bit bent but I fixed that:

And then this is what it looked like after I had painted it:

As I said I am very happy with the results. I also plan on getting another steel sheet and placing it over the area under the 5.25" bays and where the current cable management holes are. I want to do this because if I were just to leave it you would be able to see all of the cables running behind there, it allows me to create new cable routing holes where I want them, and it gives me something to mount the reservoir/pump onto.

Also as no-one said anything about the paint on the RAM I am just going to leave it as it is for the moment.

[jd2195]

Ive been thinking about the loop order for this build and I have come up with an order, I do not think that this will be the final order but this is what I have got now:

First thing to mention is that the lines I have drawn are obviously not going to be the way the tubing will be, it is just to show which components will connect together.

The loop starts at the res/pump config and then goes:

gpu --> cpu --> 360mm rad --> 240mm rad --> pump/res

You cannot see the line between the 360mm rad and the 240mm rad as it is going to go behind the motherboard tray and under the psu cover. There will also be a drain port under there. Has anyone got any better ideas? I am not 100% happy with the order at the moment but I am struggling to come up with anything better.

[nick99n]

how much better you want it to be ? there are only 2 components you need to cool ,it seems fine to me

[jd2195]

how much better you want it to be ? there are only 2 components you need to cool ,it seems fine to me

It is not the cooling capability that I am worried about. I was just wondering if there were any other loop orders which would give a better aesthetic.

[Panda689]

Can you fit the tubing behind the mobo tray? I have a HAF 912, non-plus, and I remember not having much room to play with behind the mobo tray.

 

Ive been thinking about the loop order for this build and I have come up with an order, I do not think that this will be the final order but this is what I have got now:

First thing to mention is that the lines I have drawn are obviously not going to be the way the tubing will be, it is just to show which components will connect together.

The loop starts at the res/pump config and then goes:

gpu --> cpu --> 360mm rad --> 240mm rad --> pump/res

You cannot see the line between the 360mm rad and the 240mm rad as it is going to go behind the motherboard tray and under the psu cover. There will also be a drain port under there. Has anyone got any better ideas? I am not 100% happy with the order at the moment but I am struggling to come up with anything better.

[jd2195]

Can you fit the tubing behind the mobo tray? I have a HAF 912, non-plus, and I remember not having much room to play with behind the mobo tray.

That is a good point that I had not thought about. I just went and tested it and there is just enough room in there for the tubing but that is without any other cables back there so I may have to re-think the loop order now because of that.