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PROJECT LOG Project Storm (All in one HTPC/Gaming/Router/H20)

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m.standish

Registered
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Well, after reading so many project logs and taking so much from these in ideas, i thought id start my own. This has no end date, i started last year and decided to get my PC up to scratch, pretty much all of the pc has come from ebay bargains and has saved me about 50% thank god, ive still racked up about £800 quid on it so far and ive been doing it on the cheap!
I started taking pics when i installed my 2nd watercooling system but unfortunatley didnt get that many at the beginning so ill start it off part built as well as i can. This is still very much a work in progress as i have a list on my phone of things to do

Bit of backround:
I at one point had a media centre, a scaleo-E and a PC, when the MB went in the HTPC, i started using the pc, this went into wanting it as a gaming machine. when i came across a "hybrid" motherboard, basically a full blown pc on one side and on the other a atom pc (2 in one) which got me thinking....
As this was on 24/7 downloading tv shows i started looking about for a mini board that i could run low power and then when needed power up the main pc for gaming and everything else. i found a LE-564 http://www.commell-sys.com/Product/SBC/LE-564.htm which fit my needs. taking me to wanting to rid my router and use this to power the network at home and give me more control over bandwidth ect, i bought it and wired it in, installed server 2003..... and thats as far as i got (project for a rainy day)

any how pics say it all so ill start from the oldest i have
 
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So pretty much just installed the water cooling. The CPU waterblock is actually a ASUS NB block as i bought a zalman wb3 gold, which turned up leaky and i was too far into the installation to let that stop me (that makes an appearance later btw)
 

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By this point the Micro board was installed behing the HDD bays, hardly visable, but from the back....
You can see how much of a perfect fit it went in, the power and network activity lights for the 4 ports had to be drilled through the from panel, and currently hide behind the removable front panel.

You can see my amazing wiring skills LOL and the cut out i made for the psu wires to feed through. 1 st time ive ever cut a case and i was scared, its such a nice case.

At this point I was still trying to work out where the wires would go and how they would all fit. PS the board in the back, that is the full size of it, it met flush with the mobo tray and i had to use washers either side to pin it into the mobo tray, couldnt have asked for a better fit
 

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Here you can see the radiator fans, i decided to push the air out as i realise this will be warm air but i decided that was better than blowing warm air into the pc and then back up through the psu
 

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Next came the graphics card an 8800GTX. I bought this from ebay for £8 as it was said to be damaged, i was going to try baking it as this worked on my previous test 6600 perfectly.
It turned up perfect!!!! absoloute bargain (but not for long lol)
With the intentions of overclocing the whole machine and having a spare cpu cooler from before i went water, i decided to strap it on and see how it fared against the stock cooler. A bit of hunting for some suitable bolts and washers later....
 

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Next question, will it fit or will the pci slots under it be too tight and call for some tinsnips to shorten the rear fins????
 

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Nope it goes, JUST, and i mean tighter than the micro board. hmmm. now does it work???
 

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It worked, this was me a very happy boy right there, fully functioning overclockable watercooled pc. and i was happy with it, i even like that light down there on the fan. Never been one for lights and flashy stuff in pcs, thats why i went for the Lian-Li (apart form it being an absolout bargain) £13, 2 miles from where i live, Thats what you get mr ebayer when you refuse to post!.
Actually that light looks so good........ Let get a couple of cold cathodes in there and some pics of it in its home
 

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OK that takes us up to september last year, about 2 months in the making, as you can see the radiator is still strapped into the top while i decide if thats where its staying or whatever as i just cant bring myself to chop a massive hole out of the top of the case... yet. used it like this for a month or so playing games, trying to OC it as far as it will go, till i decided to dig out the waterblock that leaked, strippped it cleaned it and reseated it, it worked like a dream... in it went, also gave me chance to move the tubing through the ram and possibly take away a small amount of that heat.

You may notice a small box next to the HDDs, thats a usb2 to nas adapter, which in turn connects to a stripped down 2.5" hdd caddy just above the top HDD in the 3.5" bays, That gives me a hot-swoppable Networked 2.5" sata connector in the front of my pc, which has proved more than worthwhile since i installed it and will prove itself even more once i get the micro board up and running as its meant for
 

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Guess what, ive now got a NB block thats doing nothing as it wont fit my NB, it will fit the SB, but its in the way of the card... hmmm, it worked on the CPU, now ive got a graphics card thats air cooled and a loop that was designed for a VGA/CPU... I wonder....
 

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Did it work??? ............... Yes, for a very short time, i think it may have been a day or 2 until i started messing about inside and moving tubing, i got the dreaded atrefacts on booting. no problem, Ill bake it, once, nope, twice, nope, three times, nope, at this point i realised i chipped the core a tiny bit. DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT. and im skint, cant afford another card. that was about november.
I was really annoyed, id finally got a pc good enough to play good games and a decent watercooled system and it was no bloody good. not happy at all.
Christmas is round the corner and the missus asks:
- do you want a ps3 or a kinex for xmas
- nope a graphics card
- really?
- yes
- oh well if thats what you want...
BINGO.

Lots of searching later and a few missed bids, i win a 4870x2 with EK full block cooler. i decided theyres no point getting a card and a block, ill watch the ones with coolers pre installed, not everyones got watercooling, theyll go cheap!
It turns up, box battered, bubblewrap popped, an hour and half later, plumbed in.... its screwed. No happy, xmas pressie is knackered.
This turns into a rather lengthy paypal dispute before my money is finally refunded and goes to pay for, yeah youve gussed it if youve seen my sig, a GTX 470 with nickel EK Block from someone called Daz Boots, a bit of a OC enthusist by all accounts, and its been looked after. Yay
 

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GTX 470 plumbed in, gave me a chance to retube the loop to take account for the new block, I changed flow direction to pump > rad > cpu > tline > gpu > pump. i know i should have the res/tline before pump, but i had to get as close as i could with my current fittings, until i get content with my hardware, i cant bring myself to pay a fortune for all the 45 degree bends and things until i know the system will be stopping like that
 

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As you can see the cabling has started to improve, ive shorted the 3 sata power leads, tidied a few more up, but with the second motherboard in there and the rest of the bits, im going to need to strip the pc to do much more so its like that for now.

I did decide to bite the bullet and take a jigsaw to the sexy side of my case. sadly i dont have the pics of this and can only show you this, the grill is temporary, until i can afford a proper brushed ally one, and i have more important needs just yet, that will have to wait for a while
 

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Thats bought it up to about a week ago when i decided to start asking on here about cooling and was told im underradded, i amassed a few spares in the process of planning this project, namely a leaky EK coolstream 360 whick i repaired with epoxy and dardnt still have it anywhere it can leak onto, and a lovely little thermaltake rad ( i know, im sorry)
So in the pusuit of being curios, how underradded i am, this GTX pushes a lot of heat, i installed it into the loop. drilled one hole in the case and ran the other part through the pci slot.

I was concerned about the heat from the HDD if i moved the fan to the rear and used it on the radiator, unfounded, as long as i keep the side on the machine, then the negative pressure caused by 4 fans blowing out sucks air in through the empty front 120 mm, over the HDDS and keeps then about 2/3 degrees cooler than actually blowing air at them directly.

Id like to take these temps down futher if possible and im looking for a heatsink that will stick to the top of hard drive and dissipate more heat, id like something like this http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Accessories_for_Xtreamer.html or similar that i can fit to all the drives between them, so it would need to be no taller than 15mm and ideally cover the whole of the hard drive top. can anyoyne suggest something??

Actually turns out despite being only 6mm pipe ans restricting my flow A LOT, it still improved temps by about 3 degrees. now im on the hunt for a RX 120 under advise from here to replace that POS with

The more astute will notive the ram also changed from 667 - 2GB 667 + 2GB 800 so i could pull the 667 out and OC the (previous) e2160 past 3.15GHz as i thought the ram was blocking me. i was wrong, it was a waste of time. Hmm what could it be thats stopping me, cpu, nah, refuse to believe it.

Anyway, while doing this i had a wise idea as id run out of distilled water to add de-icer (read about it somewhere) to keep out any bugs as a short term soloution, this frothed!, it took me almost 4 hours to bleed the froth out of it, usually takes an hour to bleed 90% of the air, then i leave the T-line to get the rest (takes about 2 days), thats why the tubings white NOT GOOD
 

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2 weeks ago, i decide that 3.2 ghz cpu isnt enough oomph to feed the GTX 470 and splash out on a q6600 with the full expectation of taking it to 3.6Ghz. I did lots of graphs to work out how my cpu would fare with the quad as there arnt any comparisons that show a stock e2160 vs OC e2160 vs stock q6600 vs OC q6600. anyhow i pretty much worked out that at stock, there was no point upgrading my highly oc`ed e2160 to a q6600, but if i can get the q6600 from 2.4 > 3.3 ish then theyre was point.
I did loads of research and found the sweet spot for the q6600 was about 3.6/3.7 so aiming as that as being my target i hunted for a G0 stepping.
I found one stuck it in, ramped it up, 3.2 - no, 3.0 no, 2.8 yes(ish) ... Long story short, i settled at 2750 WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not happy, did some more research, MY BOARDS CRAP!!!!!!! (for the second time DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT), noones managed to get one of these at more then 2.9 on an abit AB9, and no mention is that was stable looks like the 945 chipset is not a good overclocker for quads, but it did so well with my duo i didnt see it coming, maybe thats why i couldnt get the duo higher, the boards not up to it.
Just to make sure, i went to buy some ddr 1066 to check i was within the ram limits. while i was there i found some tracer going cheap.
If youve been reading from the beginning, then youll remember i said i wasnt into flashy lights for no point, but.... erm... well... these show you what the rams doing, so theyre not pointless (now completely justified in my head) and my god theyre pretty!!!
in went 2 sticks.
 

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Awesome, im hooked, it didnt help me overclock my effectively nil point upgrade q6600, but it did take my mind off while watching the led`s chase themselves, but theyres only 2, soooo, theyres another 2 in the post as we speak

Along with a Aquabay Reservoir, as its the only thing that will fit into the top bay of my case and im getting pretty tight for space, especially as id like to get a raid array in there sometime soon!!
 
Thats, you all up to speed by now but i think i should mention my list of things buy which ill put my old one so you can see my progress, some have been done, some wont be done and some will when i can find either the time or the money!!
soooo:

Wanted List:
=-=-=-=-=
4GB 1066 DDR
Q6600
Blu-ray Writer
Multi-card reader (3.5")
120GB SSD
Wireless keyboard / mouse
Temp Displays
Reservoir
2x 2TB HD204UI - (im aiming at 3x2TB raid 5 *EXPANDABLE* (Media), 1TB Games, 120GB SSD Boot
Perc 5
Inline thermometer
6 s-flex fans
Rad Grill
Powdercoat
Watercool HDDs
Watercool VIA cpu
Lian Li - PSU Backplate
Plexi window
UV CCFL
UV Dye

Since that list was made, Ive now added a P35 motherboard, a 20x4 LCD to replace the uGuru Clock
and looking at watercooling the hdds, thats never gonna happen! (see my other post for the reason)


So currently im just waiting for a P35 board to come up when i get paid and then its all go again with retubing, reservoir in, UV CCFLS, Cable Management, and a display or 2.
And once thats all in and fixed and theyre is no more drilling and chopping and im decided, its off to be powdercoated, then ill know im almost complete. Yeah Right.

And when im rich, ill add another GTX 470 & another 2 screens, but that will mean a SLI board unless i get one now hmmmmm. if anything i have learnt is by now to plan ahead and leave yourself options.

So its a P35 board with SLI, Any Suggestions????
 
The cost::::

Main PC
Lian-li 13 ebay
Windowed Side 20 Kustom Pc`s
BFG Psu 10 ebay
P5K Premium 50 ebay (actually cost me -12 as i paid 68 inc. cpu and sold the CPU for 80
Msi GTX 470 155 ebay
Inno GTX 470 102 ebay
470 Single Slot PCI 3.5 Kustom Pcs
Compro DVB-t 23 ebay
SB Live! 24bit 9 ebay
Sata dvdrw 14 ebay
2x 16x2 LCD 14 ebay
Aerogate II 6 ebay
Black Floppy 11 Maplins (that was the single worst purchase, and i only used it for 20 mins to flash a bad bios)
120gb GT Force 84 92 -8 (sold the bracket)
1TB HD103SJ 25 ebay
1.5 TB 72 ccl
2 TB 50 ebay
2 TB 65 aria
500GB Temp 7 ebay (bad blocks but i takes the load off the 2tb for dl/ing)
3GB 667 30 ebay
4GB Tracer 45 ebay

Ramsinks 4 amazon
CCFL 6 ebay
q6600 80 CEX
------
734

Server PC (Micro)
LE-564 15 ebay
VIA Ram 8 ebay
VIA DVDRW 10 ebay
VIA 80GB 10 ebay
NAS 2 USB 15 ebay
2.5" 120GB 15 ebay

------
73


Cooling
NB Block 10 ebay
NB Fan 2 Ebay
Cuplex XT di 18 ebay
EK Backplate 3 ebay
MCP350 34 ebay
Eheim 600 14 ebay
Tubing & barb 10 ebay
Compression 3.50
45 Barbs 5 speciatech
3x Hiper Chrome Fans 13 ebay
120 Rad 8 ebay
240 Rad 23 ebay
360 Rad 10 ebay
Aquabay 9 ebay

TIM 5 ebay
------
164


Peripherals
22" Monitor 80 aria Discount from 140 (1 bad pixel) Now replaced with:
24" G2400W 97.50
LX710 Keyboard Mouse 14 ebay
Saitec EVO 15 ebay
Evo Keyboard 15 ebay
x10 Remote 10 ebay
KVM Switch 0 dad
Wingman 10 ebay
Wingman 2 40 pcw

-----
186.50

=================
Total = 1155
I dread to imagine what it would have cost ive id paid for it without the stupid bargains off ebay 1500?? i recon just the case & psu saved me £150. god that hurts to think.
Too late, just did quick maths on adding the extras id like in the end and stuck another £400 on top

Just done another update on here - was 800 up till this point in the build, now stands me at £976 as 22/03/11
Another update, new 24" monitor + couple of other bits now pushed me over the £1000 mark as of 21/12/11
Couple of peripherals (keyboard, Joystick, 1.5tb > 2tb, 120 SSD) now at 1150 as of 28/5/12

Come the new year I need to do a full ripout and clean of the coolin and will be putting the final finished to the cooling including fan grills & mayhems pearl water & clear tubing along with some switching for any lights ect so that will be the next update

Why didnt i go core i5 (slaps head) by end of the month because im trying to keep up with the VGA card ill have swopped the motherboard,cpu & ram = £175, i could have got a new board and i5 with 4gb of ram for that i think????


Anyway, thats me for the night, a years worth of build log in a night. Please feel free to comment
 
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Micro Details

Couple more pics, firstly of the front of the case showing the Activity lights for the Microboard. Power & HDD at the bottom, then the incomming ougoing traffic lights for each lan port. The writing below shows the speeds of each ports as only port 1 is gigabit, the other three max out at 10/100. Guess which one will be feeding my PC?
Basically the intention is:
Port 1 will feed my PC at 1000mbps
Port 2 will be wired to the NAS adapter > Hotswop 2.5" which will generally just be a temp download drive, ill move them from there once complete onto the 2TB via LAN
Port 3 extended to a female socket at the front of the pc for quick access for short term wired connection, Its so easy to pull the front off and can hide a multitude of things :attn:
Port 4 extended to the rear as a female socket which will generally be connected to a modem
PCI wifi card will need ariel extending to the rear of the case and provide wifi to any other devices.

I already have a KVM between them, at some point id like to tackle shortening the cables, stripping the casing and hard wiring this into the case so its all internal and you plug the display and peripherals into the rear of the case like standard and hiding the whole lot, but thats for another day

Pic 2 shows the micro installed, hidden behind the HDD caddy and 2 RJ45s going out and under the mobo
Pic 3, ive moved the top HDDs out so you can see closer, Ive used a 90 degree riser for the wifi card, thats the ariel socket bare, underneat that you can see the ports 1 & 2 with rj45s and ports 3 & 4 are empty.
Unfortunatley, i couldt pull the lower cage out as the pc is on and i cant get to the screw without touching something i shouldnt so thatll be an edit later, but all that below that you cant see is a passive cpu block, the molex for the power and one end of the KVM swich plugged in to the VGA port
 

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Whoo, Reservior arrived today. Booo, not enough attachments for me to plumb in ( i knew that already but i was hoping one parcel would meet up the other and turn up together, yeah right)

Good thing - I didnt realise that the incomming water was channeled through the top and cascades down the front of the plexi. cant wait to see that in action, leds in the spare holes hmmm...

Bad thing - when measuring i didnt account for the fittings at the rear and unless i forgoe the top input then it wont fit in the top 5 1/4 bay, if i do that, no cascading water.
Looks like ill have to mount it in the second bay down, that fits a treat and wont interfere with the fan above its airflow too much. Leaves me with the top bay free to mount a 20x4 lcd i suppose.

Day off work tomorrow, so hopefully the other joint will turn up and i can get it plumbed in. Going to be quite a bit of a tubing chance, just checking now as i type, I have a bad feeling i dont have enough tubing to add this in. ebay it is. its too close to call and by the time ive chopped bits out, if it dosent fit im going to be without a pc for a few days.
DAMNIT
 

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