watercooling Copperwood - A unique idea come to life

[Xickle]

Hello! This is only my second ever watercooled build that I've done, but I worked extra hard on it with hopes that one day I can become a professional custom PC builder, which has been my wish for a long time. I have taken pictures every now and then to document my building process, so you can see some of the things I went through to get this build from an idea to the power up!
This PC will be my everyday driver that I will use for playing games on triple monitor resolutions and for 3D drawing/modelling.

Anyways let's get to it!

 

My Specs:
CPU: Intel i7 8700k (OC'd to 5.0GHz)
Graphics card: MSI AERO GTX 1080Ti (OC)
Mobo: Asus Maximus Hero X
RAM: G.Skill TridentZ RGB DDR4 16GB 3200MHz
Hard drives: 500GB Samsung 960 Evo M.2 SSD, 3TB HDD
PSU: 750W Seasonic Titanium 80+

 

The Pictures:

 

 

I started with drawing the 3D model in Creo Parametric 2.0.
Getting the right measurements was tricky, and I only had one shot, so I had to make it right!

 

 

3D drawing has become a reality!
The wooden panel is 8cm thick, made from pine wood, and finished with a clear shiny varnish.
The back has much more action going on. Most of the grooves and spaces are for the cable management in the future.

 

 

These are the boxed in components.
Most of the watercooling parts are missing, because I didn't have them yet when I took this picture haha!

 

I also got the cables sleeved!
I ordered these from South Africa, as I do not have the tools to sleeve them myself, and had enough work as it was anyways.
The colors are supposed to represent blue liquid in copper tubing, which is a sign of things to come!

[Xickle]

Onto the actual building part!

 

I started by mounting the reservoir onto the wooden panel.
There is a groove under it, in which I fitted a UV LED strip.
The pump is located in the bottom of the reservoir, nicely tucked away inside the silver casing.

 

I then mounted the motherboard, and was relieved to see the cable holes on the wood are positioned correctly!
I used metal standoffs so the mobo doesn't touch the wood.

 

I've also then mounted the radiator on the right. Looking good so far!

 

The back of the radiator has 4 hidden Noctua Industrial fans, that will cool the computer nicely and more important, quietly.
At first I planned on having the fans in the front, but the rad was so bulky I've decided to hide them. And they actually fit right away!

[Xickle]

I wanted to mount my graphics card vertically, so I had to find a holder for it.
Problem was, the holders I could buy are only made for specific cases and I had a case made all by myself and no standard measurements!
So I made one.

 

I've measured the graphics card and went to my workshop.
I make chrome chimneys for a living, so there's plenty of material to work with!

 

I had to change the design two times.
It turned out the first one had a measurement that I totally missed(look at the port hole position on the left one).
The second one had measurements all correct, but it was all "wonky", and I did not trust it to hold my card in position.
The third one was the charm! It held the card firmly in place.

 

I then painted it black, so it looks badass!

 

It took me a few days before I had the stands made.
I had to measure out the graphics card precisely, and realized it has a ton of measurements that I need. Then it took about 2 hours for each stand to be made, only to find out it sucks two times. Finally the black is powder coated paint, and I had to wait a day to get it from the paint workshop.

Time to strip the graphics card!

 

Polished the hell out of the GPU, and then noticed that it was posing for a photo!

I've put on the thermal pads, and a drop of thermal paste in the middle

 

And voila! The graphics card how has it's water block ready to go.

[Xickle]

Next it was time to mount the CPU water block.
I've decided to go for the copper look, well, because everything else is also copper and it looks sexy!

 

And here I had mounted the graphics card aswell. You can see the stand doing it's job!

 

Time for the first copper tube connection!
I needed to go to a professional pipe bending workshop to get the nice curves, as I could not find a tool that bends 16mm tubes without squishing the bend.
Turns out 16mm copper pipes are completely non-standard for anything other than watercooled PCs!

 

Put some sexy fittings in there too!

 

I've decided to make one bend from transparent acrylic hard tube, because f*ck it, why not!
I like how it turned out in the end!

 

This was definitely the most difficult bend to get right.
Here you can still see the copper tube markings, if you're into that kind of stuff.
Progress is going well!

[Xickle]

Next I had to think of a way to mount the side panels onto the main wood board. I thought of a simple concept, which has worked very well. This part was completely custom made from start to finish too!

 

I got a raw chunk of aluminum from which I made 8 cubes and trimmed them down to exact measurements with this NC machine.
Each cube measures 4x4x4cm.

 

Using another machine, I've chamfered the edges of every cube to give them that nice detail.
This took way longer than I am willing to admit.

But the result was definitely worth it!
You can see the difference between an unfinished cube(left) and a finished cube(right)

 

Here they are! All 8 of them!
The surface scratches that are visible here have been later polished away with a brush.

I then cut the rods down to precise measurements with a band saw.

 

And here they are in their final form!
The rods have been nickled to match the aluminum by look.
I've then glued two cubes at each end of the rod with a high grade glue used for motorcycles.

I then went on to create the back panel to hide all the cables, and I also wanted wall mounts on it. I also had to make holes for the air to reach the fans, and the HDD in the back!

 

I first had to check that the holes match the screws.
I also drew the positions of the wall mounts, and where the holes for the air are going to be.
I've used a 1.2mm thick chrome plate, which will be more than enough to hold the computer on the wall.

 

And here is how it looks like when I finished it!

 

I've also painted it with badass black!
On this picture you can also see the panel mounts, aswell as the front panel where I will be able to power on the machine once it's done!
Those are 3.0 USB ports.

[Xickle]

The polished copper tubes came back!!
I fell in love with the shiny copper right away.

 

The cable management was quite tricky, but I managed to pull it off.
I used metal hooks with a wood screw to hold my cables in place. Found them at the workshop store!

 

Now even the back looks good!
The hard drive has also found it's place.

Nothing else left but to fill up the loop!

 

This was definitely my favorite part!

 

I've also added some blue and UV dye.
One for the day, one for the night!

 

I am already loving the look here.
But wait till I turn it on!

[Xickle]

Time for some porn!
The build is finished and here are some of my close up shots

 

 

The cables have aluminum combs now, because the plastic ones that came with them originally mostly broke.
And the new combs are fu*king sexy!

 

I've then mounted on the side wood panels, which are maple wood with a hint of red in the varnish with which I wanted to match the copper look.
I was very happy with how it turned out!

 

Here's how it looks like in the dark!

 

And this is the finished product! All my blood, sweat and tears put together to make this unique looking computer, and I can't say that I am not proud of it. :')

Thank you for looking at my build log!

[xDanielxOossiex]

2 hours ago, Xickle said:

reserved

Who reserved what???

 

EDIT: Nvm, I get it now.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Beautiful , Great job .

[Imbellis]

Very nicely done. This type of stuff can be a total pain due to how precise the standards have become (In addition to some form factors that have changed over the years).

 

What CNC did you use on the wood? I'm looking at getting one and would like to hear your thoughts on yours.

[Professor Dingledore]

Very Steampunk. I love it.

[flibberdipper]

*click* noice

[RollTime]

Amazing! How did you make the wood panel that holds everything? Was it CNC or did you do it yourself?

[Xickle]

Thanks for the cool comments guys!

 

2 hours ago, Imbellis said:

Very nicely done. This type of stuff can be a total pain due to how precise the standards have become (In addition to some form factors that have changed over the years).

 

What CNC did you use on the wood? I'm looking at getting one and would like to hear your thoughts on yours.

I am really happy to see it working now, because it was a pain in the ass sometimes! I went to a workshop where I know someone who made me the wooden block with a CNC used for milling ship hulls and such. I'm not sure what it's called but it's huge.

 

24 minutes ago, RollTime said:

Amazing! How did you make the wood panel that holds everything? Was it CNC or did you do it yourself?

I drew the model in 3D then it was CNC all the way!

[RollTime]

21 minutes ago, Xickle said:

I drew the model in 3D then it was CNC all the way!

Ah, gotcha!

[8uhbbhu8]

2 hours ago, Xickle said:

milling ship hulls

Holy ship!  

 

 

That's a great build. Love the finished pics  

[HotDiggityDaffodil]

Amazing build!

 

If you don't mind me asking, what cost more, the computer parts or the machinery to do the wood and metal work?

Edited May 27, 2018 by HotDiggityDaffodil

[Xickle]

37 minutes ago, HotDiggityDaffodil said:

Amazing build!

 

If you don't mind me asking, what cost more, the computer parts or the machinery to do the work and metal work?

The computer parts definitely, if you count all the watercooling equipment needed for them in there!

[Xickle]

Took some pics without the lights, only UV!