Air 540 WC Build Log

Thanks for fixing that up. That is some nice gear coming your way.

The whole thread should be fixed now, I went back and edited all the images.

Pretty interesting to see how my plans have changed over the last few months...

I'm hoping to do some acrylic work to add some more "tron" to the case rather than just white lighting and uv orange tubing. I purchased an NZXT Hue as well, in hopes that it will help me get the right amount of white/blue to wash out the purple haze from the UV.

I purchased an NZXT Hue as well

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Pretty cool I didn't know they made something like that.

Mandrake4565 said:

Pretty cool I didn't know they made something like that.

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I actually use one but have trouble figuring out the controls. It's actually pretty nice and for the length of the strip of LEDs + Control panel is not a bad price at all. Its wrapped around my window housing of the 900D to give you an idea and had a little strip left. haha

I plan on removing the front cover and stashing it in the back of my case, as I don't want it taking up a bay nor do I want to see the lights on the front of the control panel.

UPS is delivering the goods today. Had I not been committed to helping with our distribution center's inventory tomorrow, I'd be "working" from home.

The UPS man came. Sorry for the blurry photos. I have bad shoulders and it's hard for me to steady a camera without a little jitter.































I can't believe I'm going to take a dremel to that gorgeous GPU block

Like a kid in a candy store

Got some work done today.


Clean GPU


Rough shaving.


Fits!











Had to relocate one of my platters.






I have to wait for some more parts for the CPU block because the ebay member kind of screwed me. But it's coming along smoothly.

Turns out the mesh panel above the SSD cage is a perfect spot to mount the controller for the HUE lighting. I have to remove the side panel to adjust the lighting, but I don't see myself making adjustments all too often.

I also discovered that the LED's will fluoresce the orange UV tubing almost as well as the UV cathodes I purchased. So I may not even need to install them. The only color that didn't have any effect on the tubing was red (as it's furthest down the spectrum). I do wish the HUE had more LED's per inch, as I don't really like the "spotting" effect that the tape has, but for the price and convenience it was the best solution.

The GPU block modification was incredibly tedious. I used a dremel and tungsten carbide bit to do most of the rough work, then reduced to hand filing after I was within a mm or two of the water passage. The area where the two capacitors that impede the block required the most work, while the area that needed opening near the power section of the card was relatively painless and easy to open up. I slipped once with the carbide bit and nipped a section of the water passage seal lip and about dropped a load in my pants, but after finishing I ran a vacuum test on the block and it passed with flying colors (thank god).

The best part of all is that none of the modifications are visible after the block is reassembled.

The combination of the radiator thickness's and the reservoir mounting location certainly limited my options for push/pull setups and where to run the tubing. I ended up mounting the 140mm exhaust fan on the outside of the case (may still remove it and fill the hole) and ended up losing a drive tray due to the length and thickness of the radiator (easily remedied by mounting the HDD in my spare drive bay). I also can only mount 5 fans on the 360 as I had to orient the 240 where the ports were on the front side of the case and with a fan in place on the top of the 360, the fittings wouldn't fit.

The power and pwm connection for the pump I ran out one of the openings in the pci slot cover and I'm not sure I like the way it looks on the outside of the case. But the lack of wiring on the inside seems worth it.

It's coming along as well as I had hoped, with only a few changes/sacrifices here and there. But the reward should be more than worth it.

More updates to follow as the remaining necessary parts arrive this week.

Damn Bamato that Capacitor is sure close to the water passage, nice work on not wrecking the whole block. Will ya build it faster please!

It is extremely close. I knew that going in, and was well aware of my risk of turning the block into a CU paperweight, but I was certainly up for the challenge.

I hear ya, sometimes it takes a little gumption to do things like that.

More progress. Remarkably, I've not wasted any tubing. I bought eight two foot pieces thinking I'd need it... turns out I'll be returning some...

I really like the look of the tubing, what are you using to bend it with?

Mandrake4565 said:

I really like the look of the tubing, what are you using to bend it with?

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My eyes and a heat gun. I used a short piece of copper pipe to help with making sure the bends had a good radius as well.

Me likey, I may have to go with the rigid tubing on my new build. I have a mountain mods U2-UFO Duality on it's way, considering the case painted is burnt orange, the amber tubing may look nice in it.

I was just thinking too bad the pcb on the Gpu is blue, it would look nice if it were black.

Mandrake4565 said:

Me likey, I may have to go with the rigid tubing on my new build. I have a mountain mods U2-UFO Duality on it's way, considering the case painted is burnt orange, the amber tubing may look nice in it.

I was just thinking too bad the pcb on the Gpu is blue, it would look nice if it were black.

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I highly recommend giving it a shot. I've really enjoyed it so far. And it would look seksy in that case.

I haven't lit the tubing up yet, but I'm very excited to see what it looks like under UV.

I will eventually be purchasing a back-plate for the GPU. It's too bad the matching heatkiller plate is chrome (blech). Could always paint it though.

Oh, and to anyone thinking about doing rigid tubing, USE OLIVE OIL. I made my first bend without it, and wasn't sure I was ever going to get the silicone tubing back out of the acrylic.

bamato said:

Oh, and to anyone thinking about doing rigid tubing, USE OLIVE OIL. I made my first bend without it, and wasn't sure I was ever going to get the silicone tubing back out of the acrylic.

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Good idea!