[Work in Progress] - Project HYDRON

[kazuma]

Hey Guys! Been a while since I posted a new worklog. I guess time really flies when you are that busy. But anyway, I've got another project, and I wanted to give a huge shout out to EVGA, Thermaltake and Zadak for supporting this project again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a huge fan of Mini ITX systems, it's about time for me to start a new mITX project. Been a while since I did one, I think the last time that I did was a scratch build 4 years ago. Back then, when I built my very first mini ITX system, I was using a Bitfenix prodigy computer case. I was happy at first when I completed the build, but then I still wanted something smaller or slimmer than the prodigy. A few months after I finished my build, EVGA released they very first mITX case,  the Hadron Air. After seeing a teaser video of it, I immediately grabbed one thinking that I'll try to chop it off and do a full, custom water loop system inside of it. I did started the project but ended up shoving it under the carpet for a little bit since my brain changed and wanted to do a scratch build first. So I had the Hadron Air computer case for quite a while now. The poor thing was collecting dust for years, so I decided it's time to get it done.

 

First off, EVGA was kind enough to send me some awesome goodies that I will be using in this project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A year or two ago, EVGA sent me one of their Hadron Hydro computer case. When I got the case, that was the time when I remembered I still have my Hadron Air in the basement. I then decided to keep the Hydro and continue the work on the 

Air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the main reasons why I grabbed this computer case before was that it had a different power supply form factor included. My curiosity got tickled more since I was only used to seeing atx and sfx power supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, this was the Hadron Air computer case that I was talking about. I kinda dismantled it years ago and just left it like that.

 

 

So after taking some dimensions for the case, I then proceeded on making a render drawing for it. I ended up coming up with an of tearing the front and back panel out, make a new one and completely changer the internal layout of the case to accommodate a full custom water loop inside. Original plan was to use the included power supply but it'll not work as I have originally thought. So I went back to the drawing board and altered some parts of the back panel to fit a sfx power supply. 

 

 

 

 

 

So after taking the dimensions, making a drawing out of it, time to throw some aluminum sheet and my not-so-leveled-bed CNC. Wasted a lot of sheet on this one, but it was all worth it in the end.

 

 

 

 

Top (left) and bottom (right) panel. 

 

Front and back panel.

 

 

Sometimes, since the bed is not leveled correctly, i'll end up murdering a cutting bit in the middle of the cutting job. Which means, i'll end up with a broken cutting bit and a wasted portion of the aluminum sheet. Sometimes, when the machine only needs to do 2 more passes to finish the cut, the cutting bit will break. Which means i'll need to cut out whatever I was cutting manually and hand filing the edges. Which is not that bad.

 

 

Aaaaand, time to chop the Hadron Air off a little bit more.

 

 

 

 

Test Fit time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for this update for me right now. Next update, MORE chopping! See you on the next update! Ciao! 

 

 

P.S

 

Here's a few of the photos that I was able to find when I was attempting to do a case mod for the Hadron Air years ago.

Sleeved power supply

 

Bending a piece of sheet metal to become the front panel

 

 

Was trying to bend the metal sheet using a bed frame. Don't ask me why because I don't know either. 

 

Top panel attempt

 

 

 

 

And for some reason, I ended up doing the top panel in acrylic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that was the time when I stopped and decided to shove the Hadron air somewhere in our basement. 

[Shreyas1]

Nice build, though I would have waited until the next gen nvidia graphics cards

[Origami Cactus]

27 minutes ago, Shreyas1 said:

Nice build, though I would have waited until the next gen nvidia graphics cards

Well he got the gpu for free from EVGA, so really there is no difference

[kazuma]

On 8/12/2018 at 2:46 PM, Shreyas1 said:

Nice build, though I would have waited until the next gen nvidia graphics cards

That would be nice to have, but I don't think that will do anything on a case mod. 1080Ti is still a beast of a card and I specifically designed the project to fit a 1080 or 1080Ti card in it. But yeah, thanks for going through the work log. 

[kazuma]

On 8/12/2018 at 3:14 PM, Origami Cactus said:

Well he got the gpu for free from EVGA, so really there is no difference

Yes, technically it's "Free", but I need to spend some amount of money for materials and throw in a lot of time to get it done. 

[kazuma]

Update time!

 

This update is basically going to be "butchering" the hadron air case. 

 

So my plan was to use a SFX Power supply on the bottom and have a 120mm radiator on the bottom too. But the hadron air has rails for the Flex ATX power supply (not sure if the included power supply is Flex ATX size, but looks like it). So I needed to clean that up a little bit.

 

 

 

And while i'm at it, took out my good friend, Mr. Dremel rotary tool and..... 

 

 

 

Now I have a flat surface to work on.

 

 

 

Next was the motherboard tray. 

 

 

 

 

Having a 3D printer, even if it's just a cheap-o one, really helps a lot when it comes to this stuff. 

 

 

 

 

The bracket that I 3D printed will hold the motherboard tray like this.

 

 

 

And I know, the motherboard stand off length looks too long, but I designed it like this so I could route the power supply cables behind the motherboard and the PCIE Riser cable. This will make the inside a little bit cleaner. There is not much space inside to run cables around and hiding the cables between the motherboard tray and the motherboard is the cleanest way I could think of to hide the cables.

 

 

 

 

And of course, I forgot to cut out the motherboard tray of the case when I did trimmed off the top panel of the case.

 

After spending some more quality time with Mr. Dremel, did some assembly and test fit of the components that I will be using.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that's all for today. Everything seems to fit perfectly.... Or do they?