Build log: [The Grid] A Year Long Project

[Alchemi]

Introduction

 

Hello internet people. So I am doing my fist build log for, what I think, is a rather big project. As the name title says the name of the project is [The Grid], where I'll be taking an old Antec Lanboy Air Blue, heavily modifying it to bring it up to modern standards while keeping it's style and function in tact, and giving it a Tron/Cyberpunk theme.

 

Pictures of the Case

 

 

This is the case. At this point it still has it's fully original looks, though I admit I've already removed the usb and audio ports at this time, along with front fans that were hard wired to the case.

 

Build Components

 

Processor: Intel Core i7 8700k

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7

Memory: 64GB Team T-Force Night Hawk RGB DDR4-3200

Storage: 1TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2

               1TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2

               250GB Samsung 860 Evo M.2

               1TB Western Digital Velociraptor 10000 RPM

               1TB Western Digital Velociraptor 10000 RPM

               8TB Seagate Ironwolf 7200 rpm

Video Card: 2-way SLI: MSI GTX 1080 Ti Armor x2

Power Supply: Corsair 1200W 80+ Platinum Fully Modular

Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-211UBK (4k Blu Ray) (now a maybe)

Case Fans: 6 120mm be quiet! SilentWing 3 PWM

Monitor: 2 Acer XB281HK 28" 3840x2160 60Hz

Additional Items: Vantec 4-channel 6 Port Sata PCIe RAID Host card

                            ORICO Monster USB 3.0 PCI - Express Card with 5 Rear USB 3.0 Ports and 1x Internal USB 3.0 20-PIN Connector Controller Adapter Card (PVU3-502I)

 

Liquid Cooling Components

Radiators: 2 EK-CoolStream SE 240

                 2 EK-CoolStream SE 120

Processor Waterblock: NCore V1D

GPU Waterblock: 2 EK-FC1080 GTX Ti TF6 - Acetal+Nickel / 2 V1 Tech Blank Backplate w/ RGB

Reservoir: EK-RES X3 250 RGB

Pump: EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 PWM Serial

Pipes: Acrylic

Additional: Aquacomputer G1/4" Filter with Stainless Steel Mesh, Ball Valves and Mounting Plate

 

Parts to be Modded In

Silverstone Tek Aluminum 3.5-Inch Drive Bay with USB 3.0X4 and HD Audio Ports (FP32B-E)

Lian-Li PW-ICO1NH45 450mm USB3.1 Type-C Gen2/10G Internal Power Cables

CableMod WideBeam Hybrid LED Kit - RGB / UV

 

Parts Explanation

So some of the parts aren't the final choice, this is a year long build after all, and technology constantly advances. The Graphics cards might get swapped out for the GTX 1180/2080, whatever they decide to call it, which last I heard has been pushed back til the fall though, my understanding is, there is no official confirmation on when it's going to get released. I'm also keeping an eye out for Intel's 9th generation i7, that could cause me to have to swap out the processor and motherboard, if it's compatible with the NCore V1D.

 

Some of the parts were chosen, because I already own them, such as all of the storage drives, except the 960 Pro, and I've already backed the Kickstarter for the V1D.

 

Lighting

For lighting I'm going to be mostly using El-wire, El-Tape, and El-pads. I'm kind of surprised I don't see this stuff used more often in case modding, as it does have some advantages over LEDs. Now some people will notice I have a WideBeam Hybrid LED Kit on my list of parts, that's mostly for the UV lighting.

 

Additional Thoughts

I'm currently trying to figure out what to do about the areas where you would mount the front fans. See the case had 2 fans that were hardwired to the case, which connect them to these little nobs that you could use to control the speed. At this point I'm just not sure what to do with them, as they are completely useless.

 

 

 

That should be it for now. I'll be reserving the next 6 or 7 posts for future updates.

 

Edit: Thought I should mention, I did get my hands on a second Lanboy Air Blue. Both cases were a little beaten up, one much more so than the other, and missing parts. However, together they made one perfect case. So for that one fan case with the broken off nob, I do have a replacement for that, should I decide to just ignore the nobs and leave them as is.

 

[Alchemi]

Reserved for future updates

Case Modification

The Radiators, Drive Bay, Type-C USB cord, and fans have been ordered. They should be here early next week.

 

The case was designed to only fit a 240mm radiator externally, on the top of the case. While this would be fine if I was only overclocking the CPU, it is not ideal for Overclocking the CPU and 2 GPUs. So I'll be modifying the case in order to fit an additional 240mm radiator and 2 120mm radiators.

 

So, I have managed to internally mount a 240mm radiator inside this case before. It is, at best, a questionable mount. So looking through the case I found that the bottom mesh of back side panel has a 1 1/4" (inch) clearance between it and the power supply. So my thinking on this is, if I'm gonna have a questionable mount, at least I can make this one look kind of good. So I removed the mesh metal, and next week when the radiators arrive I'll get exact measurements, and work out what needs to be cut out then.

As you can see in the pictures I've removed the mesh metal from the two front fan bays as well. I'll be modifying those to house the two 120mm radiators. I thought it'd be a good place for them. As you can see in the picture one the nobs has broken on one of the fan bays, it apparently happened while it was in storage and I just didn't notice. Still not sure what I'm gonna do about those nobs.

 

Update: So last night I picked up a Dremel, and today I've been working on the cutting for the front fan housing units to fit the 120mm radiators... Round 1 did not go well.

Round 2 went slightly better

 

A little scuff to one of the corners, and a tad uneven....

At this point I have 2 of these fan covers remaining. The best 2, that are completely unscuffed and undamaged. So, yea, I'm gonna start looking for some professional help on this.

Specially with the big cut-out needing to be done, and I only get 2 attempts with that one.

A few days later.

So I'm taking a different approach to mounting these.

(Definitely didn't forget to take a picture of the whole thing not mounted to the case)

So pretty much what's going on here is that I mounted the radiator to the fan, then put the fan inside of the fan housing for the case. The way the housing works is that it clips to the right and left side of the fan to hold it in place. With the radiator mounted to the fan, the clips can't properly clip around the fan, which had me concerned however they seem to be holding well.

 

As for the side mounted radiator, I actually found a simpler solution. That also has the added benefit of giving me a little more space for airflow.

So to mount this I lined up the radiator fins, with the 240mm hole, where you were originally suppose to mount 2 120mm fans, and used 2 sided industrial tape. The tape is suppose to hold up to, at least, 50 lbs of weight. So I put the tape on either back side of the radiator, making sure it didn't block the fins, and sealed it too the side panel. This stuff really holds too. I tried taking it off, in order to try and straighten the radiator a bit, and it would not budge at all.

After getting it in place, I mounted the fans, and thought that the fans looked a little dangerous all out in the open like that. So I grabbed the 240mm wide Aluminum Mesh Metal that was originally on the side of the case, and re-purposed it into a safety grate for the fans. Don't want the cats to get hurt after all.

Finally I mounted the last radiator on top of the case.

So, I'm not sure if this was poor planning on Antec's part, or if radiators have drastically changed, but the radiator couldn't fit properly. I did, however, manage to get it screwed in, in the elevated section, but I couldn't find any screws that could fit for the rest of other 6 screw holes. I'm still looking, pretty sure I got something around here that'll do the job.

 

Currently appearance of the case.

 

[Alchemi]

Reserved for future Updates

Lighting

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Reserved for future Updates

Window Installation

 

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Reserved for future Updates

Parts Installation

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Reserved for future Updates

Liquid Cooling

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Reserved for future Updates

Completion

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Reserved for Future Updates

Extra

Just in case.

[Alchemi]

Update on the current attempts to mount the Radiators....

[Alchemi]

Update: I have mounted the Radiators.  I still need to see the custom plastics and acrylics people, about some cutting. I kind of like the idea of mounting the radiators inside of the housing for the fans, and setting the fans to pull... Would make the radiators super easy to clean that way.  Though more importantly I have to talk to them about cutting out 3.5" area of the front I/O, in order to fit the new front I/O. If they can't, then my only other option is to have an entirely new front I/O made, most likely 3D printed. Though I do admit that would probably make things much easier on me.

[Alchemi]

Update: No new pictures this month. The motherboard and reservoir have been ordered and are on their way. I might post pictures of them, but probably not. So originally I was planning on getting the new front panel 3D printed this month, however that's been pushed back might try for next month. Though August would probably be a better bet. I am moving, and with the move it looks like I'm gonna get a real workshop, so yay.

 

Now for the bad news. I had the case in the living room one day, and it got particularly hot. This caused the adhesive for the mounting to melt, and it stopped holding the side radiator. Luckily it came off cleanly, so there wasn't a real mess to clean up, but I am now looking for a better solution to mounting that radiator now. Maybe using a hot glue gun or something.