- Thread Starter
- #141
Next up was the motherboard block:
Some of you may remember I had the original non csq blocks, but they suffered from nickel flake so I RMA'd (succesfully unlike Asus) and received these in return as the old design is end of life now. Still at least the motherboard/cpu/memory blocks will match now! Frozen csq can look nice when done right, but often it can look too busy. Polishing really helps to break that busyness up:
disassembled:
Polished:
Reassembled:
Again not perfect but good enough. If you really want to perfect it you're going to want to also take machining marks out of the nickel, but you'll probably burn through the nickel, so I would buy the copper version and then custom plate with chrome if you really are OCD and care. But that's also pricey!
Time to take off the OEM heatsinks:
I love that Asus use a gloop of TIM on the southbridge, then cover it with thick aluminum foil, then more tim:
- - - Updated - - -
It reminds me of my R3E a bit where some worker had left the wax paper on the TIM so the south bridge woudl constantly overheat. Dat quality control....
Anyway block fitted:
The astute might notice the EK badges are upside down because this one is going reverse atx.
Next up VRM block:
Then add the RAM - these are the older Corsair Dominator GTs - the last and possibly the best. Platinums look sexy for air cooling but these were so much more compatible with water cooling and air cooling is for wusses...
Symmetrical product placement:
GTs do look ugly without their red hats:
Time for new shiny hats:
- - - Updated - - -
Polished up:
Reassembled:
Mounted:
Polished enough to get reflections of the circles from the other side of the plexi:
Time to figure out the tube routing:
- - - Updated - - -
So I did try and make a custom bend curve for tighter 180's:
As you can see it worked - though I found that 180s are just harder to get perfect than 2 separate 90s. The hard part is getting the sizing right. I was stupid and measured center to centre as you should for the monsoon kit, while my custom one needed to be measured inside to inside. So in the end it was a waste of tube. So I figured out a new strategy that used less tight bends and started with the easiest section with the widest apart bends. Set up the mandrels ready to bend:
The kit really makes this easy when the mandrels fit the bends you want to do. Two quick bends later and this looked ready:
Looking good so far:
Except....
The mitre box wasn't giving me particularly good cuts as the hacksaw blade was so small in both thickness and height that it was easily able to go at an angle. As the seal mates to the end of the tube then the cut needs to be perpendicular, chances are that the glue joint and end caps will hide this but I didn't want to chance it. Overall this was disappointing so I got out my big hacksaw with a much bigger blade and it was much more consistent. So after that I redid that section again:
Here I've also used q-tips to mark the other sections I would be attempting to make. The second attempt though had me getting cocky with the heat gun and so I ended up blistering the tube around the bend area:
I also experimented with some silicon oven mitts I had but they left dimples on the tube also:
- - - Updated - - -
Third attempt however was looking promising:
And so when it checked out I decided to practice the glue on this piece before doing any more:
This was glued up and you can see how transparent the end result should be - bubbles are definitely bad! Always remember to tape up your lockrings before glueing the end caps on though. Finished:
Woohoo - all of that for one bent piece of tube! One thing I realized though was that section of tube was not quite horizontal. While the Monsoon measuring devices make measuring easy you want to check that any horizontal sections are actually horizontal as even with perfect 90 degree bends you can end up being off. First I took the spirit level:
And then shored up the south end of the board with paper until the memory block was horizontal:
Good enough! Now let's check that section of tube we already did:
Yikes! Not really good enough - however after doing three of the same I decided to move on and possibly replace this one later!
Moving on to the next section I discovered that it was already too short a link to use the mandrels in the way I already had. I could set them up so as to do each bend individually without firmly fixing the other bend. This felt against the whole point of the mandrel kit which was to get perfect repeatable bends. The real problem was that the extra material around the mandrels which ensured good straight lines after the bend also stopped the next mandrel from getting close. My solution was to chop the 180 degree mandrel in half - I now had a 90 degree mandrel with zero straight edge meaning I could now do much tighter u bends than the two individual mandrels would allow.
You can see my cutting was a bit jagged because I was cutting from the far side with a jigsaw which are notorious for not cutting straight. Still it was good enough for my purposes:
That was the setup for the 2nd bend, and this was the one for the third bend with the tube post bend:
Now the last shot of the day with those two extra pieces in place double checking alignment. I'm a little nervous that the final piece may rub against the other tube coming out of the cpu block, It looks but I may add in a third bend on that section just to kink it over. That's it for now!
- - - Updated - - -
So I never covered the measuring sticks that you get with the full monsoon kit:
Initially when I saw them I was like really... they seem kinda lame. Then I used them and honestly for a simple idea they work very well. Here you can see a pretty complex 3/4 bend setup that you can measure easily. The harder part is then bending it. With compound bends like this you're never going to be able to setup quite as you'd like with the mandrels. I did the 45 degree bend first, of course you have to start with an end, I'm not sure if this was smart or not. The 2nd bend was the trickiest, because it was a 90 degree bend in one dimension but had to be 45 degrees in another. My first attempt to lay the mandrels out was incorrect:
Luckily I realized this before bending. In the end I had to bend by pushing into a corner rather than around the mandrel itself:
It took a couple of reheats to get this better. Sadly I didn't take a shot of the setup for the last bend, but basically I had to prop strips of thin MDF under a mandrel that supported the 45 degree bent leg until it was parallel to the floor, then I could do the last 90 degree bend such that they were parallel. This again needed some rebending but I got there in the end without kinks though there was a bit of a twist which you can see in some of the photos. So now that the bends were done it was time to prep to glue. Managed to remember to put the lock rings on before glueing so that was good:
Here they are after glueing and fitting:
Then the next project was to get the 7990s upgraded. They had been mining at work on an x58 board. Returns are so low now that even with free power it's almost not worth the effort, so it seemed like a good time to pull them and take that rig home for stripping:
Drained the loop - I had used the EKoolant which left quite a bit of residue sadly, This doesn't totally surprise me as I used it in another rig and the red has totally gone. Pretty disappointing as I have another 8 litres to use lol:
I should take them apart and clean them properly but today is not that day:
- - - Updated - - -
The dye even stained the clear primochill lrt advanced a surprising amount:
So it was now time to change the backplate:
Elmy had upgraded to dual 295x2's like a boss and sold me his custom chrome plated backplates for the 7990s so it was time to swap out the originals:
This is nice because I can keep warranty intact while getting a cleaner and much sexier look. The shot here doesn't show just how mirrored they are - you'll see that in a bit. I ordered replacement screws as the EK ones are black and I wanted to match the backplate better than that. I ordered two different types from mcmaster with the same head type and thread but different finish:
The left one matches the mirrored finish better even though the color isn't perfect:
Sadly I forgot that two of the screws are longer so as to attach to a nut on the far side of the PCB - I'll have to order some longer matching ones:
Time to replace the thermal pads:
All done:
Some of you may remember I had the original non csq blocks, but they suffered from nickel flake so I RMA'd (succesfully unlike Asus) and received these in return as the old design is end of life now. Still at least the motherboard/cpu/memory blocks will match now! Frozen csq can look nice when done right, but often it can look too busy. Polishing really helps to break that busyness up:
disassembled:
Polished:
Reassembled:
Again not perfect but good enough. If you really want to perfect it you're going to want to also take machining marks out of the nickel, but you'll probably burn through the nickel, so I would buy the copper version and then custom plate with chrome if you really are OCD and care. But that's also pricey!
Time to take off the OEM heatsinks:
I love that Asus use a gloop of TIM on the southbridge, then cover it with thick aluminum foil, then more tim:
- - - Updated - - -
It reminds me of my R3E a bit where some worker had left the wax paper on the TIM so the south bridge woudl constantly overheat. Dat quality control....
Anyway block fitted:
The astute might notice the EK badges are upside down because this one is going reverse atx.
Next up VRM block:
Then add the RAM - these are the older Corsair Dominator GTs - the last and possibly the best. Platinums look sexy for air cooling but these were so much more compatible with water cooling and air cooling is for wusses...
Symmetrical product placement:
GTs do look ugly without their red hats:
Time for new shiny hats:
- - - Updated - - -
Polished up:
Reassembled:
Mounted:
Polished enough to get reflections of the circles from the other side of the plexi:
Time to figure out the tube routing:
- - - Updated - - -
So I did try and make a custom bend curve for tighter 180's:
As you can see it worked - though I found that 180s are just harder to get perfect than 2 separate 90s. The hard part is getting the sizing right. I was stupid and measured center to centre as you should for the monsoon kit, while my custom one needed to be measured inside to inside. So in the end it was a waste of tube. So I figured out a new strategy that used less tight bends and started with the easiest section with the widest apart bends. Set up the mandrels ready to bend:
The kit really makes this easy when the mandrels fit the bends you want to do. Two quick bends later and this looked ready:
Looking good so far:
Except....
The mitre box wasn't giving me particularly good cuts as the hacksaw blade was so small in both thickness and height that it was easily able to go at an angle. As the seal mates to the end of the tube then the cut needs to be perpendicular, chances are that the glue joint and end caps will hide this but I didn't want to chance it. Overall this was disappointing so I got out my big hacksaw with a much bigger blade and it was much more consistent. So after that I redid that section again:
Here I've also used q-tips to mark the other sections I would be attempting to make. The second attempt though had me getting cocky with the heat gun and so I ended up blistering the tube around the bend area:
I also experimented with some silicon oven mitts I had but they left dimples on the tube also:
- - - Updated - - -
Third attempt however was looking promising:
And so when it checked out I decided to practice the glue on this piece before doing any more:
This was glued up and you can see how transparent the end result should be - bubbles are definitely bad! Always remember to tape up your lockrings before glueing the end caps on though. Finished:
Woohoo - all of that for one bent piece of tube! One thing I realized though was that section of tube was not quite horizontal. While the Monsoon measuring devices make measuring easy you want to check that any horizontal sections are actually horizontal as even with perfect 90 degree bends you can end up being off. First I took the spirit level:
And then shored up the south end of the board with paper until the memory block was horizontal:
Good enough! Now let's check that section of tube we already did:
Yikes! Not really good enough - however after doing three of the same I decided to move on and possibly replace this one later!
Moving on to the next section I discovered that it was already too short a link to use the mandrels in the way I already had. I could set them up so as to do each bend individually without firmly fixing the other bend. This felt against the whole point of the mandrel kit which was to get perfect repeatable bends. The real problem was that the extra material around the mandrels which ensured good straight lines after the bend also stopped the next mandrel from getting close. My solution was to chop the 180 degree mandrel in half - I now had a 90 degree mandrel with zero straight edge meaning I could now do much tighter u bends than the two individual mandrels would allow.
You can see my cutting was a bit jagged because I was cutting from the far side with a jigsaw which are notorious for not cutting straight. Still it was good enough for my purposes:
That was the setup for the 2nd bend, and this was the one for the third bend with the tube post bend:
Now the last shot of the day with those two extra pieces in place double checking alignment. I'm a little nervous that the final piece may rub against the other tube coming out of the cpu block, It looks but I may add in a third bend on that section just to kink it over. That's it for now!
- - - Updated - - -
So I never covered the measuring sticks that you get with the full monsoon kit:
Initially when I saw them I was like really... they seem kinda lame. Then I used them and honestly for a simple idea they work very well. Here you can see a pretty complex 3/4 bend setup that you can measure easily. The harder part is then bending it. With compound bends like this you're never going to be able to setup quite as you'd like with the mandrels. I did the 45 degree bend first, of course you have to start with an end, I'm not sure if this was smart or not. The 2nd bend was the trickiest, because it was a 90 degree bend in one dimension but had to be 45 degrees in another. My first attempt to lay the mandrels out was incorrect:
Luckily I realized this before bending. In the end I had to bend by pushing into a corner rather than around the mandrel itself:
It took a couple of reheats to get this better. Sadly I didn't take a shot of the setup for the last bend, but basically I had to prop strips of thin MDF under a mandrel that supported the 45 degree bent leg until it was parallel to the floor, then I could do the last 90 degree bend such that they were parallel. This again needed some rebending but I got there in the end without kinks though there was a bit of a twist which you can see in some of the photos. So now that the bends were done it was time to prep to glue. Managed to remember to put the lock rings on before glueing so that was good:
Here they are after glueing and fitting:
Then the next project was to get the 7990s upgraded. They had been mining at work on an x58 board. Returns are so low now that even with free power it's almost not worth the effort, so it seemed like a good time to pull them and take that rig home for stripping:
Drained the loop - I had used the EKoolant which left quite a bit of residue sadly, This doesn't totally surprise me as I used it in another rig and the red has totally gone. Pretty disappointing as I have another 8 litres to use lol:
I should take them apart and clean them properly but today is not that day:
- - - Updated - - -
The dye even stained the clear primochill lrt advanced a surprising amount:
So it was now time to change the backplate:
Elmy had upgraded to dual 295x2's like a boss and sold me his custom chrome plated backplates for the 7990s so it was time to swap out the originals:
This is nice because I can keep warranty intact while getting a cleaner and much sexier look. The shot here doesn't show just how mirrored they are - you'll see that in a bit. I ordered replacement screws as the EK ones are black and I wanted to match the backplate better than that. I ordered two different types from mcmaster with the same head type and thread but different finish:
The left one matches the mirrored finish better even though the color isn't perfect:
Sadly I forgot that two of the screws are longer so as to attach to a nut on the far side of the PCB - I'll have to order some longer matching ones:
Time to replace the thermal pads:
All done: