[Drew@PSU]

So, if you couldn't tell, I'm a big fan of 28 Days Later ( imdb ). That's what my avatar is ( still need to fix it some more ), and its also my background ( see the attached pic ).

Now try to imagine that background, only as the theme for my computer. I absolutely love the saying, and its in the movie at some point ( Edit: 13:42-14ish ). I have the unedited version if someone wants it, although it's probably still on the site.

ANYWAY! Computer stuffs!
So I'll be taking the first rig in my sig ( R.I.M.S.? ) and putting it all in a Lian-Li PC-G70B. Then I'll add in a water cooling loop consisting of a Thermochill PA 120.3, MCP-655B, Apogee GT, MCW-60, MicroRES, tubing, and a bunch of panaflos! The one connected to the TV will go into my current case ( a TT Swing, not too bad, but a little small for the current project ). The case will have a window so a couple of CCFLs ( red ) are in order, along with a UV one.

Why UV you ask? To kill the infected of course...ok, so I'll be using Fluid XP -EXT SuperWhizbang or whatever the latest incarnation is, since they have a "Blood Red" UV reactive flavor. I'll dilute it with some DI water. I'll also be putting a biohazard etching type sticker on the window, then the message from the background on the window with UV paint, so that you can only see it with the UV CCFL on. I'm hoping that you won't be able to see the bio symbol quite as much with the UV on only, but we shall see ( or not, depending ).

The rest of the case gets a black spray painting ( flat me-thinks, although a better artist can probably convince me otherwise ), and black cables for the most part. I'll attend to the sleeving of the squid PSU at a later point. The rad will go into the bottom of the case, along with the pump, with the res above the pump and rad ( alongside the HDD rack kinda ).

And towards the end of this I'll throw in an 8800 GTsomething ( still deciding, although leaning towards the GTX with a step-up )

Here's a quick part list:
Lian-Li PC-G70B
Thermochill PA 120.3
MCP-655B
4x Panaflo Ultras
Sunbeam Rheostat
Apogee GT
MicroRES
Tubing ( Tygon for the final build, some cheap stuff to figure out the bends and such )
Fluid-XP
MCW-60
DI Water
Worm Drive Clamps
DD Fill port ( tube to the top so I can fill it without taking the case apart, this unnecessary? )

I'll post some pics of the rig to go into the wonderful case as soon as I post this and then I'll edit them in ( gotta finish writing this or it won't get done! ).
Rig 1 is the one in the case, and the HTPC is obviously the other one ( a shame the PCP&C wouldn't fit in the Swing )

Also, how do you get the line lengths slightly smaller? It looks so ugly written this way. Same with the pics, this is an ugly post

[EmAn]

sounds like it is gonna be a great project!

[Drew@PSU]

Well, I just ordered the majority of the parts, the case from Performance PCs and the loop equipment from JT. I'm going out to Home Depot/Lowe's tomorrow and picking up a dremel, along with some worm drive clamps and cheap tubing to do the layout. I can't wait for this stuff to come in

[firejunior88]

Finish it. I really want to see it.

Side note: do you know when 28 Weeks Later will come out on DVD? I wanted to see it so bad, but it disappeared from the theatres before I could.

[Drew@PSU]

First, to firejunior88, October 9th!

Second, Update!

Yes, believe it or not, I actually purchased my parts. I'm surrounded by expensive things I barely know how to use! Sweet!

I'm going to clean the parts and prep the bottom of the case today hopefully, then I suppose I'll do assembly tomorrow, and leak test.

For now, take a gander. When I'm done mutilating the case, I'll post up some more pics of how the mutilation turned out.
Drew

Edit: Is it easier to use the cut-off wheel to remove rivets or drill them out? I've been drilling for about 5 minutes now ( oil and a dremel bit ) and it doesn't seem to be doing the job. I'm going to remove the head of the rivet inside the case, I guess I'll see if that does the job...wish me luck!

[halo_2_rocks]

i like more please

[Drew@PSU]

That's a can do Halo 2 ( I know, I'm lame, that's why I don't write novels )
So, I finished part of the mutilation, got the bottom all prepped. It's ready to get the radiator, uh....area?...all cut out so I can pull air in the bottom. I also flipped around the LEDs on the Sunbeam Rheobus, *takes picture*, yeah, they were a pain to do, especially the ones on the sides, BUT! I persevered and I got that ready, so, on to the Pics!

Here's where I work ( wish I had a workshop )


Safety first!


And always lube up


Before:


And after:


It boggles the mind as to why they put that neat little PC Speaker holder on with an adhesive pad, but its the only dark spot I've found in a wonderful case.

Here's the sunbeam ( macros are annoying with this camera ):


Those LEDs were a pain to pull out and switch around.

Next up in the list of things to do is to is to cut out the area for the rad, figure out precisely where I'm going to put the res and how to attach it, and manage something to get the pump slightly higher than the rad itself.

Shame I have to work, can't they just give me the money anyway?
Laterz,
Drew

[Moto7451]

Originally Posted by Drew@PSU

Shame I have to work, can't they just give me the money anyway?
Laterz,
Drew

Hehe, you and me both. Better yet, why can't they just pay us to tinker with computers .

[Sam__]

Originally Posted by Moto7451

Hehe, you and me both. Better yet, why can't they just pay us to tinker with computers .

I WANT THAT JOB!!!!lol

good luck with the project dude..looks like its gunna ba a goodn

[Drew@PSU]

Ok, so I think I'm going to have to re-arrange and put the Rad at the top of the case, as during layout, I realized there's really no room for the pump on the same level as the rad. This rather precludes my choice of setup, as pumps tend not to work best upside down : /. Attached is a picture of the "oh crap..." moment, or at least a recreation....one would have thought I could think ahead better.



I'm thinking that I could remove that front fan and pass the tubing through the 3.5 cage....somehow....then I have to figure out where to put the rez, this was all so much easier in my head : /.

I may windup doing the SuperDave idea and placing at the top, although that's not what I really want, I'm not super creative unfortunately...

Edit: Wooo!!! Four stars!

[Twigglish]

Could you mount the pump behind the case and just put the tube through PCI slots or something?

[Drew@PSU]

That's not a bad idea, obviously this thing will weigh far too much to move that often, so I suppose I could grab some screws and find one of the 8 million extra pieces to put on the back as a holder, or something, I'll have to look into that, thanks.

[firejunior88]

I hope this comes out well. Pretty sweet concept.

[Twigglish]

Originally Posted by firejunior88

I hope this comes out well. Pretty sweet concept.

Yea definitely cool idea.

[Drew@PSU]

At the moment its on hold till I can grab a hole saw bit this weekend, but after that, I'll get it all together and bled, finally..

Edit: Check that, gotta grab a working proc AND/OR mobo first, but I swear, sunday, I will cut holes, I promise! Gotta man up to cutting a $300 case first though...: /

[Drew@PSU]

Ok, back from the dead, I have actually completed some work, met and overcame some challenges and got some new ideas.

I put in a switch to control both of the CCFLs I'm putting in. I'm still trying to figure out the macro setting on my camera evidently...

It remains to be seen whether or not I'll use both the UV and the Red, depends how they look. Some might say UV/Red and Black is overdone, but they ain't seen nothing yet

I finally manned up to cutting my case. If you have a Lian-Li, you should not look at the next two pictures.





This is at the very last "readjustment" with the dremel and drill bit. Next time I'm taping a template on, or making one out of an old case.


Ok, so it really didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would, but there are much nicer versions of the same thing elsewhere. If I took a better pic, you'd see the holes to the left side are more like slots, its terrible.


I put the res in and got it hung up. In fact you might say its well hung. Nuck nuck nuck.....


Next up is cutting the tubing for each run and nailing down the placement of the pump, obviously there aren't many places for it to go at the moment, but I'm going to drill some holes in the floor to bolt it down.


I decided that I wanted to get the applique and the UV saying on the window sooner rather than later, so I set about making a template the right size. I blew up the requisite section of the wallpaper and preceded to cut out the letters. Also, at the top of the pic you can see the 2 UV CCFLs and the inverter for them. There is an switch that fits in a PCI bracket which I'll use to control whether I want both the UV and the red spots on, or either or.


That took HOURS. I played through 2 or 3 movies while I cut the letters out with a utility knife. If there is an easier way to do this, please don't tell me until I finish. It will preserve the "hard work well done" factor of my sanity.

I've also gotten to really enjoy the feeling of taking something, looking at it and going, "Huh, I could use this for something". Then cutting, chopping, drilling, etc. until its doing something somewhere or someway other than intended. Like putting in that switch? Yeah, I giggled at how cool I thought that was for at least 15 minutes. Probably why I don't get a lot of work done on this.

As for what's next, the UV stuff needs to get tested and refined, I need to throw my system back together and make sure it all works now that the mobo is back, cut out the outlet for the rad on the top of the case, and grab some modder's mesh to cover the top with. That's quite a list I've got for myself, so we shall see how much I actually accomplish in the meantime.
-Drew

[jjdog711]

Originally Posted by Drew@PSU

That took HOURS. I played through 2 or 3 movies while I cut the letters out with a utility knife. If there is an easier way to do this, please don't tell me until I finish. It will preserve the "hard work well done" factor of my sanity.

I know you said not to tell ya if there was an easier way, but i'm gonna. Two words Vinyl Cutter, takes an image on the pc, traces its path, then cuts it out on the vinyl to give you a perfect stencil. Check out a few vinyl stencils from my recent project: designs - cutouts, took about 4 movies to cut and weed (weed means to take out all of the excess vinyl from the stencil) all of the pieces. PM me if you have any other letters or designs you need cut, maybe i could help you out. The case looks great so far tho, keep it up!

[Drew@PSU]

Ok, some progress has been made...

Cutting out the area for the radiator:


Then after that was done, masking out the cut out besides the screw holes:

There will be another cut out over the last fan as well, I just want to cut the additional bit out near the end first.

And getting to work cutting those out:


I've gone through about 8 different cutting wheels, and blew up one ( that was kinda scary, made me re-think getting real close to the wheel while I cut...). I'm typing this while I let my dremel cool, it gets awful toasty during these cutting sessions.

It's coming along, although I don't think I'll get to painting until it gets warmer out, so like april or so. But I figure I can do the UV stuff in here anyway, no way someones going to notice UV reactive overspray on the utility room walls anywho. My goal is to get the loop installed this weekend, then leave it running over the week. That way next weekend I can throw all the stuff into it and actually have a workstation again, yay! I've gotten so much more done now that I've got the urge to play some serious video games again, there's only so much stick fighter can do for such a problem.

Next up: Rad installed, loop in, letting it run/leaktest, UV paint on the window. Should be fun...
-Drew

[EmAn]

its coming along

[Jolly-Swagman]

Yeah looking good so far,

[LucifurFox]

I was thinking of mounting my rad to the top of my case, but I didnt want to lose my top 2 drive bays.

[Drew@PSU]

I'll post up a pic probably tomorrow, but I still have enough room to put my Sunbeam Rheobus in the top bay. As for the next one below that, it looks to be a pretty close shave, I'll throw my CD drive in there for the pic for you.

As for project, I've made quite a bit of progress. I've mounted both the VGA and CPU blocks, tested the pump, radiator, UV lights and red spots, and the UV spray paint. It should have a good effect, I can't wait to do the window tomorrow. The only problem so far is that the ramsinks have very little adhesion to the memory chips at the moment. The MCW-60 needs more clearance beneath the two barbs, so I cut those down. Unfortunately, those two are very weak. I'm going to try and keep them on the chips simply by having the tubing pushing them onto the chip. We shall see how that works out. I've got some more coming in, along with fan grills for the top and a Compu-Nurse thermometer, so I can monitor ambient temps/water temps.
I'll post some pics up tomorrow, hope you can wait.
-Drew

[Crazy Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by Drew@PSU

-Drew

I'm guessing that you blurred out a few letters for the sake of forums decency and in actuality all the letters are there, yes?

[Drew@PSU]

Lucifur Fox: Here are a couple of photos showing the clearance at the top two slots of the case. As you can tell, I can stick both of them in, but getting a fan on the last part of the rad there won't happen, nor will sticking cables into the rheobus. I plan on sticking the CD drive at the bottom anyway, as a personal preference.




Crazy Jayhawk: Yeah, they are all there, just some blurring ( although I wish I could find the right paintshop filter for the first blur I had, it was so much better... ). I sometimes wonder if I would do better by using a PG rated saying instead ( there's this one: "Be thankful for everything for soon there will be nothing" ), but IMO it doesn't have the immediacy and wry humor that my chosen saying does. Worst case scenario, I have to get a new-side panel or replace the glass, but I don't think it will come to that.

So I got some work done...
Removed the stock VGA heatsink, those thermal tape pads suck BAD:


Mounted the new one, those two cut down ramsinks under the barbs are the problem children, particularly the right one. It always had a shifty look anyway...I'm wondering whether that larger chip on the right side there needs a sink, I don't think so, but can anyone shed some light? It's the VIVO controller, I think it should be ok, I'm not using VIVO atm....


The CPU underneath my Apogee:


And the Apogee its under:


Testing out the UV paint that will be used for the saying on the window:


Testing out the Fluid XP and the UV paint has revealed both to be slightly less "blood" and more "pink" than really red, but it's not exactly hot pink. The Fluid XP doesn't really react very much, but it does look very blood like when its a little deeper. Just not as thick, I suppose.

As for the ramsinks, I'm debating using the crazy glue/AS5 cocktail just so I can get this thing running. My only concern is that it would be quite permenant. I suppose none of the Superglue solvents are really safe for video cards, yes? In the end I'll probably wait for the new ones to come in, but I'm not sure yet, any suggestions?

So for today, cutting the tubing to plumb it out, probably leak-testing, painting the window and applying the biohazard applique, and after that, I'll see how much of this "acoustic-dampening material" I can get onto the case parts. It's left-over from my TT Swing ( now my HTPC ) and it does absolutely nothing anyway, but it's black and I'm down with that. Let me know if you have comments, suggestions, insults, criticisms, encouragement, etc. Nothing is more fun that having people comment on my build, so don't hold back. I've got a thick skin
-Drew

PS. Reading through my previous posts, it seems like I keep finding other things to do besides leaktest, lol. I said I was going to do that in September, jeez....it's been quite an adventure anyway, let's hope I don't fry my gear, that would suck.

[LucifurFox]

ah thanks, maybe I will do that in the future, right now its not wanting to hack up a brand new case XD

[Drew@PSU]

Ok, I'm at my wit's end with these Ramsinks. I've had to replace 4 so far just because I brushed them with a finger. Are these supposed to stay on like this???? You've got to be kidding me, I find these things to be absolute garbage. They look nice, but they don't stick on the ram worth garbage. This is AFTER I've cleaned the ram chips with Arctic Clean and applied BRAND NEW SINKS. WTF? I'm never doing this again, full-cover blocks all the way. I'll post up some pics in a couple of hours, trying to get these sinks fixed is driving me insane.

[Th3 F4ll3n P1mp]

Cool. Cant wait to see the finished project.

[=ACID RAIN=]

Frys -> artic silver adhesive

I usually mix mine with equal parts of A + B + AS5, but that doesn't guarantee they will come off, hehe. In it to win it baby, void that warranty! LOL

[Drew@PSU]

Ok, FINALLY, I got to leaktesting. Yay!!!
Still have to glue/AS5 the sinks on. Booo!!

Thanks Acid Rain, unfortunately in the Carolina's, we have a conspicuous lack of Fry's. So what my plan is to put AS5 in the center with small amounts of super glue on each corner. That seems like the best plan at the moment.

Next up, time to play some BF2!!!! Freaking finally....but as for the project, gluing the ramsinks , placing the PSU back in ( I may need some extensions, even with a PCPC, go figure ), applique on the outside of the window ( too cold for the paint at the moment ), gotta attach the neat little stickers onto the 5.25 rack, and place the thermometer near the rez ( gotta paint it black, terribly clashes with the black/red scheme ), also gotta check the mounts of the blocks, I pray I got them on well. Also gotta put in the UV lights, as well as the red spots. Gonna try and put some black sound matting on the bottom of the case after I find the best place for pump on the bottom of the case. Whew, that's a lot to do. Here are the pictures:

My homemade jumper for my TP3-550:


The fluid that's going in:


Prepared for filling:


Halfway full:


All full ( I hope ):


Leak testing, and yes, I am paranoid about it leaking:


Question for the experts out there: If there are still air pockets in the rad ( I'm thinking yes ), will they come out by running the pump or is inverting the case my only option? Also, if there is a little bit of air in the rad, will that matter?

[Crazy Jayhawk]

I wouldn't think that small air bubbles in the radiator would do much of anything. As for getting bubbles out, the best method I've seen involves having a reservoir of some kind. The water goes in and the velocity goes down. When that happens, it's much easier for air bubbles to leave the flow. This doesn't affect gpm at all, though. It's just a change from narrow and fast to wide and slow. The amount of water moving through remains the same.

I have no idea if this is at all practical for your setup, but it has some advantages. If the reservoir is up top it also makes it easy to add water to the system.