(build log) Killer Panda PC - Z370 X Code

[AT0MAC]

I have been cutting some more in the case today, no pics of that now, you will see in time.
And I am yet again spending money on tiny little parts that will make a big difference, have ordered an assortment of white and black rivets for when the case is being assembled and some other small parts.

Also, I'm working on a deal with my Barrow seller to get some 90 degree fittings and pass trough bulk heads for a good price, they are for now the only fittings I'm sure of as the rest rely on the size of these when fitted.

 

My new tools, specially the digital caliper, made it possible for me to fine tune my 3D drawing, its really nice to be able to make exact plans

 

 

Now I am totally sure of that I have to mod my graphics card, its too big....
And the res is a really snug fit in the spot I found

 

 

I might not even need soft tubing, but can make the whole basement potion with extension pieces of varying types, also not super sure were to place my temp sensor and flow sensor but it looks like there is space for the flow meter right on top of the pump, so its the slowest flowing speed and also to make sure the pump is working, if no flow in that part then there is for sure something wrong.
The plexi on my flow sensor is not crystal clear so I would prefer to keep it in the basement and only use software to check flow rate.
(flow meter is the square on top of the pump)

 

 

This pump placement have a big benefit also in terms of IO, the front IO is in the right side, and like this its totally free to have cables and stuff in the space under the tubes.
Also, I think of getting a drain valve to put in the area around here, juts not sure how. Was looking at this one that looks absolute amazing.

 

Here is a better view of the fittings I will order today, 3x soft 90degree bends for maximum flow rate.

 

 

stay tuned for more real world updates

[AT0MAC]

I honestly don't know how other people plan a loop, but other people have way more ordinary cases than I do...
I think I have spend about 7 hours or so drawing since yesterday and finally I came up with an actual doable plan!
Also, already ordered the fittings in the drawing so now I'm committed to stick with it, 'cos damn fittings are expensive!

 

 

It kind of reminds me of 3D drawings of humans intestine system....

The plan is a little more clear when you see it from behind were the PSU sits

 

 

I am currently reconsidering If I should just go for it and have some Cable Mod cables build, because if I'm going to use the extenders I originally thought then there will be a lot of unnecessary cables...
That's to be undetermined until more assembly have been going on and I can better access the situation.

By the way, the blank areas in the plan is to be determined later, as they rely on how the planned parts fit together, i'm not exactly sure of distances on those and don't want to order something wrong.

 

 

to be continued...................

[AT0MAC]

I have a plan of finishing this build by Easter time, so better do all I can.

So here is the final form of the plan for tubes on the upper level:

 

 

It don't look like much in 3D, but I am convinced its going to look really nice in real, brass tubes and all.
Speaking of brass tubes, I have ordered a long list of parts...

 

• Mayhems Blitz Pro
• Magnets and glue
• Sorting tray, black/white rivets and washers
• Mouldable putty
• Mini dual male fittings
• Adjustable fittings, drain valve, extensions and more coolant
• Barrow fittings from Mizucooling
• Alphacool parts, brass tubes, compression fittings
  

 

I can not really do much more until packages start to arrive.

 

Here is the state the build was in when I was 3D drawing it, just to get a feel for how it will be, parts were not very well places, just a rough "sketch".

Hope to see you again soon when more real world work have been done.

[AT0MAC]

A minor update (mainly for myself) to keep track on all the parts I have coming in:

• Mayhems Blitz Basic (arrived 12/3)
• Magnets and glue (arrived 13/3)
• Adjustable fittings, drain valve, extensions and more coolant (arrived 14/3)
• Mini dual male fittings (arrived 15/3)
• Barrow fittings from Mizucooling (arrived 15/3)
• Alphacool parts, brass tubes, compression fittings (arrived 15/3)
• Mouldable glue (sugru) (arrived 16/3)
  
  .
  
• Sorting tray, black/white rivets and washers
• Mini gpu PWM cable (so I can use other fans on the graphics card)
• PWM splitters (there is going to be somewhere between 10-12 fans in total in this build, because I can and because I need the airflow as it sits inside a closet)
• Special end fitting for my fill port on reservoir (this is going to look rather good I hope, stay tuned to see)
• Fan brackets for mounting fans in PCI slots (I have 3 separate orders on the way I think, because these things a little harder to find than you might think)
• Kapton tape, high heat resistant tape for my GPU when I put liquid metal on it
  

There is probably something I have forgotten...
My email inbox and my home office is both a big mess right now until everything can actually be assembled....

On top of these parts I know I need one of the new Cable Mod Pro cable kits, will look so much better. But I'm trying to sell some things before I order that, as now I'm really starting to stretch the budget. Wish I was sponsored but no.

Will see you guys when I have more to actually show.

[AT0MAC]

I received all my fittings I have ordered so far. It all looks amazing! So now I just need all the more random parts to make the build come together.
Will put many more sexy pictures later, but just a few teasers for now:

 

 

My Barrow parts from eBay Seller Mizocooling, thanks Mark these things look just stunning! (seriously check out his store for incredible looking parts at very reasonable prices)

 

 

Test fit, it actually looks like my Sketchup drawings were correct... In this pic its not in the totally right position, because I have not yet figured out were to make a hole for the bulk head fittings.
The Thermaltake valve is really really nice quality, has a good heft and looks super serious, actually looking forward till the first time I need to drain the system

Also, decided to strip down the front mount as there were a few imperfections in the white paint (see one of them in the picture), will redo it from the ground up with sanding, primer and then paint in more ideal heated conditions this time (thought I could do without but no), I have to make it look good.
You know what they say, 3rd time is a charm (and yes this is the 3rd time i'm painting that part...)

 

 

Stay tuned, its getting close now...

[AT0MAC]

 

For once, a real update with actual progress there have a resemblance to the 3D mock ups.

 

Today I dismantled the last pieces of my case:

 

 

I can use the same type of fuzzy sticks I used earlier on to reassemble the case into a mock, to make sure everything fits were it needs to be, before I put it together with rivets (whenever they arrive)

 

 

If you go back and see, these looks very similar to the SketchUp drawings....
Like this once to give an example:

 

 

As you can maybe see, I will need to push the front assemble little to the left side, to make the piping work both ways, in and out trough the basement.
I will not imagine that's going to make a big deal in terms of cooling degrade because the fans are shifted little to one side, actually more concerned about how the LED frames will look little to one side.... Lets wait and see

 

 

The pump and valve looks amazing I think.....

By the way, I tried painting the fan mount again (3rd time) and it again went into total disaster. I kind of blame the weather, these temperatures we have here now are not ideal for any kind of paint job, even with a heated can of paint the drying screws up a little and it looked not ideal.
I took a good look on the whole assembly when I cleaned it and its actually made of 1 piece of bend steel... I can vinyl wrap this instead! X-acto knife and all. Just need to order the vinyl

 

Stay tuned, my easter deadline is coming soon and I sure hope the last packages arrive before that, I surely miss to play games.

[AT0MAC]

Today I test fitted more of the case, here you see it with one side and the roof/front combo "attached" (hinges was not on)

 

 

It actually made it clear to me, that even when I move the fan assembly slight to one side, it will not impact airflow, as the perforated holes are wider than the assembly itself
See here I tried outlining the fans with green, and the free space next to fans were the rad is with pink.

 

 

Also, made a bunch of new holes in the motherboard tray, for the last bulk head pass troughs, for easy cable routing, and for the rivets in the fan mount.
Only need to cut out the remaining space there in one side, were a bunch of fan cables, front panel audio and other things have to route trough, plus I need to tap 2 holes into the res, to secure it in the case.

 

 

You might think it looks rather simple the mod I make, but there is super limited space for a full watercooled ATX setup in this case and it is definitely not build with water cooling or cable management in mind originally, that's what I'm trying to achieve, its pretty much a Mission Impossible.
By combining parts from 3 separate computer cases and a lot of specialty pieces this will in the end be a highly unique PC that don't look like much on the outside (almost a sleeper PC), but really shines on the inside when you pull off the top/front which will be magnetically attached.

I'm actually thinking of getting some addressable LED strips to make it even more 2018....

 

Just ordered my Cable Mod cables, am about to order vinyl wrap and almost sold some of my older pieces of hardware.
Things are going in the right direction so stay tuned

[AT0MAC]

Plans are starting to align with reality.

 

Today  I cut out what I wanted there in the side, and I drilled holes to mount the res properly

 

 

Speaking of drilling hole in the res, I have never drilled in brass before, and that dust it damn fine, looks almost like gold dust!
Not like aluminium that comes off in long threads or iron that makes small hard pointy pieces.
Also, I think I found out why the res is a B-grade, it's not totally painted inside, there is a strange blob were the brass shines trough. Very difficult to see when its assembled and it actually looks kind of cool imo anyway.
I have threaded it with two M4 holes, because I think I can re-use some of the rad screws im not going to use on the rad.

 

In other news, I have received the rivets, a wide assortment of sizes in black and white
I actually ordered the rivets and the box in the same place, but apparently they don't fit each other so had to mod the box and make the rooms wider, by combining two compartments at a time, then it fits nicely.

 

 

Still waiting for a few parts

 

• Mini gpu PWM cable (so I can use other fans on the graphics card)
• PWM splitters (there is going to be somewhere between 10-12 fans in total in this build, because I can and because I need the airflow as it sits inside a closet)
• Special end fitting for my fill port on reservoir (this is going to look rather good I hope, stay tuned to see)
• Fan brackets for mounting fans in PCI slots (I have 3 separate orders on the way I think, because these things a little harder to find than you might think)
• Kapton tape, high heat resistant tape for my GPU when I put liquid metal on it
• Cable Mod cables
  

 

My vinyl also arrived, so I had time to fit some of it on the motherboard tray today

I'm very happy with I went this route instead of struggling more with painting. Now its white and black, the whole intention of this build.

 

 

 

I'm hoping it will go as well too when I fit it on the fan mount.... the vinyl is thicker than I wanted, so it dont bends so well, but lets see, still sure it will end better than my paint job did.

 

Stay tuned for more assembly

[AT0MAC]

I'm watching the "Live: #RIPLTT Taking The OC Crown from LinusTechTips" over at YT and came to think about I actually never measured the lengths on the pipes in the build..... can see I actually need about 10cm....

Doh!

 

Also, I don't have a good way of cutting brass tubes and a reamer....

 

So I headed over to aquatuning once more and ordered all that, plus I decided to get a white Eislicht LED panel, not sure where to apply it, but it looks awesome.

I have to stop buying things, the budget is running out by now. Wish I was sponsored or anything but sadly no.

 

stay tuned

[AT0MAC]

The list of parts I wait for is getting shorter and shorter, now we are left with things from China that seems to take forever to reach my destination here in Denmark

• Mini gpu PWM cable (so I can use other fans on the graphics card)
• PWM splitters (there is going to be somewhere between 10-12 fans in total in this build, because I can and because I need the airflow as it sits inside a closet)
• Special end fitting for my fill port on reservoir (this is going to look rather good I hope, stay tuned to see)
• Fan brackets for mounting fans in PCI slots (I have 3 separate orders on the way I think, because these things a little harder to find than you might think)
• Kapton tape, high heat resistant tape for my GPU when I put liquid metal on it
  

 

In the meantime I try to do as much as I can.

My Alphacool parts arrived, extra tubing (that looks amazing by the way), heavy duty reamer, high quality cutter, led panel and extension for it

 

 

Over the weekend I tried in 3 different ways to put vinyl on the front fan mount

 

 

Let me say it simple, it did not go well.....

So instead I used vinyl on getting the lower legs, that hold up the motherboard tray, done in black (normally they are metallic silver, aluminum or steel, not sure).
The original color is still on the inside were no one will see it after its mounted

 

 

That turned out just perfect!

 

Today I have been home alone most of the day, because of Easter, no kids and no wife.
So I headed out and bought new cans of plasti dip knock off and did ever trick in the book: I put the cans in warm water. I shook it for over a minute before use, I heated the metal that was going to be painted, I used a table as my work bench, so the angle and work height is more natural, I used a big piece of cardboard on top of a blanket, so I could move the cardboard around and hit it from all directions.
I waited about 1 hour between every layer of paint. Painted from 10:00-15:00, so in my match that equals 5 layers and the result is damn near perfect!

 

 

Picture on the cardboard is the 2nd layer when it started to fill it out, picture on the left is the finished result.
Now the fan holder is here in the house over night to fully dry and the tomorrow I will figure out how to paint the more crucial front side.
Stupid part is the whole assembly is not going to be seen much when everything is mounted on it, it's more because some parts are visible and those parts have to look nice, else it all falls to the ground.

It's starting to take shape now and come to life as I envisioned it but good God there are many little pieces and parts that need to be done in a specific order.

Tomorrow I hope I will have time to fit the PSU extension mount, as I wait for paint to dry.
One of my headaches there is that I need to fabricate some kind of metal plate, as one of the holes dont line up with anything on the case, so I need it to be clamped in from both sides with the rivet that supposed to sit there, can not really explain it but it's an annoying little detail, will show in a picture after it's done to spare you my pain.

Stay tuned for more actual case mods!

btw, the Cable Mod cables have also arrived, I just have not unpacked it yet because I want to do the PSU mount before trying things with the PSU.

[AT0MAC]

"Whats on the menu today Dad" - Casemod!

 

First order of business, painting the front fan mount on the front side - but when I was waiting for coats to dry and re-coat, I did a lot of other things.

 

 

Like riveting in the hard drive rack from an Aerocool case, I used before I bought this one, very similar internal design, but terrible outside and even worse quality or lack there off.
Found out something was wrong with my riveting gun, it left nasty scratches on my nice white rivets.

 

Test fitted the PSU, and it is sure a tight space!

 

 

I had totally forgotten, but I have removed the spacers the PSU used to lay down on, so now I have this much more space above it until it reaches the motherboard level.

 

 

And that space is going to come in handy, because I can see now I have to turn the PSU around so the intake fan is inside the case.
Not ideal but can't imagine its a big deal, the fan in it used to rarely spin in my last system with the same PSU, it's 750 Watt and the system should be nowhere near reaching that much power use.

 

As I have move the PSU back, I also forgot I am blocking some of the vent holes below it.

 

 

It's about 3 cm or so that I'm extending the case, have not measured it today. Its a part from a Coolermaster Elite 110 case I never got to use, I just bought it because it was dirt cheap and some of the parts in it have become mods in my various builds, including this now.

 

 

It's going to give me room in front of the PSU for all the tons of cables and also because the whole pump assembly is there taking up space I really needed to do something, this is a perfect solution with a cut out and some rivets and hey presto, Lian Li PC-V33 Extended Ltd. Ed.

 

Speaking about cutout, as I lowered the PSU level, there is a nasty edge there now from the Dremel work. It's files down so it's actually nicely smooth to the touch, I would just hate if it somehow ended up scratching anything.
So I still have some vinyl left over and bam, that's also fixed. Never going to be seen, but here you go:

 

 

Lower one is before, upper one is after.

 

I found out, the distance I have lowered the PSU is almost dead on the same distance the rubber dampers height is, used to be on top of the silvery thing I was holding in a picture a little up from here.
So, a little Gorilla glue later and they are re-positioned in the case yet again helping the PSU being level and give less vibration.
Even the Gorilla glue have excellent vibration dampener probabilities, so it should work as intended.

 

 

If this is not a casemod by now, then I don't know what....

I received a new delivery today, my mini 4 pin to PWM splitter, so I can use normal 120mm fans on my GPU.
Still nothing from my china orders, it's today 13 days since ordered and Im about to give up and spend a ton of money on essentially the same things here closer to home.
Well there is more to do as I wait, so stay tuned for a little bit more tomorrow, I know I will not have as much time but I will squeeze some in.
For once, I know I'm going to mount the dried front mount, it looks soo good in white!

Stay tuned for more

(funny how all the random pictures I have taken today actually tells the days work nicely, was not sure they would but hey, it worked)

[AT0MAC]

Im still surprised how passive the people who come to see my work here is, not many comments.
It's not like no one have seen it, close to 8.000 people, but less than 50 comments in total.
Anyway, it's not going to stop me, hope I can inspire some of you.

 

Today it's going to be a early update, I don't have much time today.
Sorry for the quality of the pictures, my camera have run out of battery so was forced to use the phone.

 

It's snowing again

 

 

I have mounted the now white front fan mount (this is just test fitting the fans and rad, but the mount is permanently on now).
Fun fact, I can not mount the rad without un-mounting the glass tube from the res, that's how little space there is in this machine.

 

 

Actually had some little trouble with my rivet gun again, I ended up scratching the otherwise perfect black vinyl I have put on the legs

 

 

So had to re-vinyl it

 

 

Not as 100% perfect as first time, but 99% of the way is ok.

I went back to my original plan of having the flow meter up at the rad, first of all, it gives me more space below, secondly, its plastic, so rather have it in the end of the loop were the pressure is not super strong and I can better see if it one day decides to crack.

 

 

It's going to look something like this

 

 

You might wonder what the thing in front of the case is, that's because I was inspired by Linus tech tips latest video of cleaning a loop, and have been tinkering all morning with how to make it much easier to empty the loop properly.

I'm going to use two ball valves and a hose as a kind of chimney when needed, so I can blow into the hose and fill the loop with air, as the liquid runs out my drain valve right in front of the pump.

 

 

So one ball valve is right after the drain valve, so I can close the loop off in one end there.
The second ball valve is on my T connector right under the motherboard tray, so I can unscrew a cap, screw on a hose, open the valve and blow air in.

 

 

Blue is drain valve, red is stop valve for closing off the loop, pink is air valve for blowing trough.

It looks a little like this

 

 

The tiny little valve I currently have is going to be used as air valve, as it's very restrictive!

So I have ordered the parts I need and pretty much given up on my china orders now.
I want to finish this build....

 

 

Oh yes, as you can see there is going to be even more light inside.
So both RGB LED, white LED panel, white LED single light and digital addressable LEDs.

 

Point is, the RGB LED fan frames I already have is going in front of the front fans.
The white LED panel is going somewhere under the motherboard tray, kind of like a work light, so I can better see whats going on there when needed, like checking for leaks and whatnot.
The single white LED is going to subtle light the res from inside, wonder how well it will work, but only one way to find out.
The digital adressable LEDs are going on the GPU fans, want it to show temp, maybe one showing CPU temp the other GPU temp or something like that, not sure yet.

 

I can start feeling it, im getting close to finishing.
A few more packages and like a week or two more of work and this machine is ready for battle.

 

 

Stay tuned (I promise better pictures next time).

[AT0MAC]

Just trying out a way to better visualize the flow.

 

 

GIF!

 

Not the best quality, but I have to start from somewhere...

 

As I wait for the fittings to make it happen, I will soon start focusing on the GPU, because it is by all accounts too big for this case.

 

Will update when there is new developments.

[AT0MAC]

The past week I have not done much on the build as I'm waiting for the last few parts to arrive.
It was Easter time so during most of last week nothing arrived, but I managed to get my fan brackets today and my g1/4" sealing caps - both from china.

 

Problem with the caps is they are actually the wrong color, had ordered chrome but black arrived, and there is no o-rings on them...

 

 

Well I will see what to do when my highflow.nl order comes as there is also a sealing cap in there and i have some old ones laying around.

So to sum it up, I'm now waiting for:

 

• PWM splitters (there is going to be somewhere between 10-12 fans in total in this build, because I can and because I need the airflow as it sits inside a closet)
• Kapton tape, high heat resistant tape for my GPU when I put liquid metal on it
• highflow.nl order of various parts
• amazon order of various parts
  

 

Need to disassemble my graphics card cooler and take a look on how to shorten the whole thing, would also now when I take it off anyway like to replace thermal pads, so need some better pads to do so, will not order them until I know the needed size.

Despite taking it slow on the build I have other related projects I have been working on, soon going to build 2 machines for colleagues (off the shelf parts), need to fix my wife's laptop for a rising heat issue and have had some trouble with my data server which i'm currently fixing. If I have not mentioned it I have 3 laptops and 6 desktop computers here at home at the moment, so there is always something to work on, almost like running a small IT department despite I don't work in any IT related field as my daily job.

 

Also it was Easter Break, so have taking some family time and also some game time

 

 

PUBG mobile is pretty cool (manged to be 4th in a few games, no chicken dinner yet)

 

 

...and also FarCry 5 on GeForce Now, as this project is my gaming PC I had to use my daily driver PC that have only a small 1050Ti in it and wanted something better, so with the power of GeForce now I could play on a Tesla P40 machine!

 

 

Anyway, stay tuned, soon some real progress will be made.

[AT0MAC]

Ended up not having as much time as I initially wanted today, but anyway, got some things done after all.

 

Firstly, disassembled my graphics card.

 

 

After removing the cooler and backplate I discovered a few things.

 

First, the plate that connects to the heatpipes is rather large and pure cobber!
But it was dirty and needed a good clean.

 

After the cleaning I noticed the cobber have some small scratches, I guess it's from the manufacturing, because it's not visible they don't care.
That means I will not use liquid metal and will rather go for a high quality paste, to fill out the little air pockets in the scratches.

 

 

Then it was time to measure the thermal pads, so I can order some better ones and improve cooling a little.

 

 

About 1.5mm.
God I love this digital caliper!

 

After that I took a look at the backplate...

 

 

I really don't like the design, the whole space look with writing all over and the yellow lines, looks like a prop for the movie The Fifth Element...

So I thought, hey, I wrapped the legs in vinyl, so still have a black un-used plastidip!

 

 

So shot the backplate 4 layers of flat black,  currently drying but looks much much better!
Sorry for the bad pictures, only had my phone on me that time and paint drying is very very reflective so it screws up autofocus.

 

By the way, before I painted the backplate, I test fitted the "new" graphic card, aka same card, without coolers on.

 

Everything only fits in one way in this case, no room for anything. Specially the graphics cards size was an issue, but now it will just fit! A really really tight fit. Almost touches the rad.

 

 

So the idea is in front of the heatsink there will be 2x Corsair ML120s on a bracket, controlled by the Zotac cards PWM controller, with some rubber dampers and digital LED frames from Phanteks, bassically I just designed my own card

 

And also on the other side, I will mount 2x Corsair ML120s on a bracket, both to cool the GPU but also to help cool the VRM on the motherboard, controlled by the motherboard fan header. There is a PCI space before the 16x PCI on my motherboard, so with a little mod to the case it should just about fit.

 

 

When I wait for paint to dry I tried out a few other things, I have some bamboo I want to incorporate somewhere in the build, because - pandas eat bamboo.
Not sure where to put it yet, but wanted to see how good the glue is when glued to painted metal.

Had a piece of my scrap Aerocool case laying around and damn, it's now stuck there!

 

That glue is good!

 

 

Let's see what will get the bamboo treatment later on...

 

Lastly, unpacked my CableMod cables, and I'm so happy I went for it, they are soo nice!
Ended up costing me about the same for cables as I originally payed for the PSU, but even if I had switched PSU it would not come with cables this nice.

 

 

For some strange reason they are un-named when they come and you have to figure out what is what. I know that as soon as I have all parts I will assemble this thing quickly, so I sorted them and labeled them...

I can see now this is not only a casemod, this is a full PC mod, not much I don't modify in some way...

 

 

Stay tuned for more exciting stuff!

[AT0MAC]

I have fans!

 

 

(that joke never gets old, even though that my tower of ML120s is getting shorter the more I use)

 

I received the last fitting i'm supposed to need for finishing the build, so the path from the pump to the top side of my motherboard tray will be assembled something like this, were the 3 pieces in the left corner is the ones going from the radiator and back down trough the motherboard plate:

 

 

The black valve is my high end ceramic drain valve, the big bulky valve is my loop close off ball valve and the smaller way more restrictive valve above is for blowing air trough a tube, to easier push the liquid out of the loop, im confident this design is going to work a charm when finished for a really easy to maintain system.

So this is also why I ended up needing to use proper fittings instead of soft tubing under, because all these bits and bobs would be impossible to attach to each other and hold its own weight up, if it could sag down on a soft tube somewhere.

 

This ended up costing like 4x as much as intended just this little area, but that's the price for less maintenance hassle I'm ok with paying for.
Really wish I was sponsored, these parts are from both Barrow, Thermaltake, Alphacool and one from Watercool, but no, only "sponsor" is me.

Was toying around with the radiator and found out it needs to be mounted when the reservoir is not yet mounted behind it.
For now I had only mounted 4 of the total 8 fan mount posts, and the rest of them is impossible to get in unless I mount them on the rad first and insert the whole thing into the bracket, but can only do that when the res is away, else there is too little clearance and res and rad will hit each other.

 

So one of the coming days I will clean the radiator and get it mounted properly, just not today, its a little too much work.

 

So instead, cleaned up the home office and sorted parts so its basically ready for assembly

 

 

Also, need the last few mods to the case, like fixing where to mount the pump, rivet in the motherboard tray, do something to fit the ekstra fan pci bracket behind the gpu (else its little too wide), make a special extra foot under the pump else the case is sagging down due to being made from rather thin aluminum because my pump is pretty heavy and other small mods.

 

Gosh this is way more work than I original intended. Going to take a while before I will mod again.

 

 

It's soon over, stay tuned for the grand finally coming very close.

[AT0MAC]

I estimate there will be something new to show the next week or so every single day, so stay tuned and get inspired or leave a comment on how you think I do.

 

Todays update, I did different small things and now im quite tired, its already past midnight, pictures say more than words.

 

Packages arrived (again)

 

 

Yay, my high quality thermal pads for upgrading the graphics card and fixing my wifes laptop heating issue
Also, some rubber o rings for the black stop fittings that were unusable (because they lacked o rings and was supposed to be chrome) - actually the seller agreed to refund their value.

 

The last one is a 80mm pci fan bracket i ordered way way back, actually the seller have told me she could not longer supply it and it was also refunded long ago, so was pretty surprised to see that it actually arrived.

 

 

I have also been assembling some of the parts I teased yesterday, but ended up actually breaking one of them!
The alphacool high flow ball valve is terrible quality, the handle is pure plastic and rather soft (or i'm stronger than most?) - it snapped when I tried using it. Completely snapped into multiple pieces.

 

Yes there is probably warranty, its under a week old or so, but who cares, it's in the system now and I can use a mini wrench to adjust when I need to, the plastic looked rather cheap anyway so now its little more unintended steam punk.

 

 

About unintended steam punk, see my hand tightening stop fitting for the other valve, I want a stop fitting in case it don't hold the pressure 100%, but that valve end is in a really awkward spot, so best if its a hand tightening one.

 

Could basically choose between this one from barrow or the fancy very expensive bitspower ones.

 

 

The whole assembly ended up looking rather sweet - a few hardware porn pictures, but I assure you, it looks even better in real.

 

 

Closeup from above

 

Further away

 

Even further away, actually if you spot a Q tip then thats what I have assembled it with so far, not riveted the two halves together yet.
Also, if anyone notice a difference at the far left cutout for cables, I was trying to mask off the round ends with Sugru mold able glue and it kind of worked, also used the same to fix a few very sharp edges on the cut out for the PSU extension on the back (not shown here)

 

 

And then it was time to do something about this

 

 

and this

 

 

"I have a plan, we need: Rubber gloves, acid, syringes, googles, measuring cup, measuring jar, glass bottle, microfiber cloths - one yellow, one blue, a BLUE marker, funnel and stop fittings, 2 pieces G1/4 black"
(reference to a Danish trio of thieves in some rather old movies about heists that always include the most obscure combinations of things, Olsen Banden)

 

 

Im blitzing my radiator with part 1 solution from Mayhems for 9-10 hours or so, before I go to work tomorrow (technically thats today as its past midnight)

 

 

also running a proof test with the remainder of solution I mixed (65ml solution 1 to 185ml of distilled water), no clue how it will work on old coins, but my guess is i can see a difference in the morning before I open the rad.

 

 

I expect the last package to arrive tomorrow, also soon starting a 2 day build for a friend (so for 2 days I can not work on my own stuff but will make a separate thread for that machine) and can also at any time I find free time now fix my wifes laptop (the sooner the better, she is soo nice to me).

 

Hope to catch you later.... /out

[AT0MAC]

It's morning, about 9 hours later since I started blitzing the rad and I have some little time to update you guys before I rush to work.

The coin control test have done something over night

 

 

 

They turned more shinny, but not the grey coin, it started dissolving - proof that it at least works (not sure what metals the coins are but it at least did something)

 

 

Its freaking difficult to show in the rad, but I can see that the bottom of it is way smoother than before, also some of the threading looks nicer

 

 

Tested the Ph of the rad, and at the bottom its about 6, little higher on my gloves were the top of the paper touched

 

 

Better get to my actually day job to afford more of such things.

 

 

Catch you later!

[vegaspimp22]

heyyyyy i know you

[AT0MAC]

3 hours ago, vegaspimp22 said:

heyyyyy i know you

yea man, welcome here - are you posting your build process here too?

[AT0MAC]

Sorry for the few days of total silence, I have been building a friends computer and will make a separate post about that, it turned out pretty sweet!

Lets get going with my own project.

Have now finalized mounting the pump:

 

 

Mounted the radiator, fans and fan frames

 

 

Mounted the res, and mounted both light and temp sensor in it, temp sensor is just about the right size to not interfere with flow

The banged up res will not be seen, as that's below it and sits totally flush with the motherboard tray

 

 

Mounted some other parts, like the harddrives/ssd, PSU and a few cables that will be almost impossible to do later on (dont look forward till when I have to swap anything out)

 

 

So right now the machine looks like this.
I know these pictures are not top quality grade, but its progress pictures, just wait for the finished product.

 

 

Stay tuned for more!

[AT0MAC]

As I said, been working on a friends PC the past few days and it's now online so you can see what I been tinkering with on the sideline.

So no update on this one today, as it really takes a while writing up a new thread and make the pictures the best I can do.

 

Stay tuned for more Panda Power!

 

[AT0MAC]

I make small progress all the time and try my best not to screw up too much, im so close now to be done so better go easy.

 

Did some little more cable routing, and put grommets on the holes I have made, to avoid either cutting fingers and cutting cables, the aluminum is rather sharp when drilled trough

 

 

I have riveted the last bits and pieces in and put feet under again, plus I made a extra support foot in the middle of the case, else its sagging down due to weight of pump and hdds

 

Actually the bottom is one of the best places to see that things have changed, almost none of the cutouts match their original purpose anymore

 

 

Speaking of cables and modding, I am currently waiting for my black/white front panel connectors to be done drying (i have glued them to the original special connector cable)
Even a small thing like that is getting a small mod...

 

 

So for now the build is looking like this, can very soon mount the motherboard!

 

 

oh yes I also test fitted a tube and have installed my flow meter. Found out I need some little ekstra adapter fittings to make all happen as intended, so yet again I'm waiting for a package.

 

Catch you soon when I have more things to show

[AT0MAC]

I had not intended to work on this friday, but instead of going to bed I decided to work.
And when I finished the time was 3am... So just woke up now (saturday at 10).

 

Test fitted many of the wires and components, its way more difficult than it looks.

 

 

The front looks the same

 

 

But from the side a few things are changed

 

 

There is less space in the case than I remembered, so will have to limit the amount of fans I originally wanted to use.

 

Im little excited to see how my graphics card will turn out with a total makeover. But thats a project for a different day.

Here you also see my m.2 cooler, with this and a fan directly behind it, then I can't imagine it would ever throttle.

 

 

In case you did not know, my case is extremely compact for this amount of tech.
This shot kind of show what I mean, a picture say more than a 1.000 words.

 

I know the pictures are pretty bad and little confusing, but then imagine working on this after a 9 hour long work day, working at midnight and almost sleeping, only willpower pushing it trough.
It's getting closer by the day.

Stay tuned for more, hopefully I will have time to do some work today.

[Mnpctech]

This is a very well done project log.