Just got back the 2nd version of my 3d printed pump stand this evening! This print had some warping issues on the bottom. It's not too bad. I'll take some pictures of it as-is....and then I"ll see what I can do about maybe applying a little heat and trying to flatten the bottom some. Also, we learned that the 8 inch build height limit of the printer.....is actually closer to 7.8 inches. It totally garbled the letters I put on top of the pump stand because they ran outside of the build area. I can probably sand those off.
If I can't get this one to sit flat and look presentable....I'll tweak the design one more time and do a final print. Pictures tomorrow!
Im loving the build so far. i made a budget build a while ago all pink. Still need to get more parts and sleeved connectors to make it more pink. Here is what i did. Just need to upgrade it but i wouldn't trade that fx-6300 for anything. i love is as much as my 2500k. but im watching you and getting ideas for mine. Taking notes. i wanna see more pink brother.
Way too nice a day here today to take pictures inside....so outside we go. Overall....it came out pretty nice. You can see in this picture how the letters on top are garbled, since they were out of the top of the print space by just a little bit.
The lettering on the back and bottom came out very nice though.....
This one was printed with 100% fill rate, and it is a solid piece of equipment. Very sturdy. The vertical plate is much thicker than last time also. Very pleased with how sturdy it seems to be. Won't know for sure until I get some pumps mounted and running in it though.....
The pumps and reservoir mounted perfectly. Exactly as I had pictured it.
And the fit inside the case was pretty good also. A few nits....which I'll mention after the pictures....
In the picture below, you can see how the legs on the front of the pump stand leave just enough space to put two of the modSmart cold cathode inverter boxes between the legs. They are fairly hidden because they are below the window level of the front of the case, and since they are black they blend right into the interior....
...and the legs on the back of the pump stand allow the existing cable management cutout on the S8 to still be utilized....
Overall.....I'm pleased.
Now...for the nits. I didn't plan on how much space the fittings on the front of the pumps were going to take up. It makes me slide the whole pump stand further to the right of the case than I was planning on. Not a big deal...but it leaves the reservoir not perfectly centered in the front window. So...I either need to make a tighter bend with acrylic than this 90 degree fitting gives me...or I need to tweak the positioning for the holes for the reservoir mounts a little bit on a future version of the pump stand.
I still don't know for sure how much the slight warping will effect things. I was already planning on lining the bottom of it with some dense foam material. This alone may give it enough padding where the slight warping doesn't impact anything. We'll see...
More soon! Been spending some out of town time for family trips a lot lately...and haven't been around to work on the build as much as I had been. But it should kick back up into gear again now. Got one more trip planned in August....but that is it.
You know what cpachris?, you should submit one or both of your build to CPU magazine, you may win $1000 and get your build feature in their magazine
I have seen some other less impressive build got feature in their magazine.
Picture update! Too much traveling lately...but we are almost done. One more trip next weekend and then we will settle back down into school schedule, and I should have some more time to finish this thing up!
Last week, I was working on some more wiring. Decided to start with a fan power harness for one of the rads. After several starts/stops, changing of mind, etc., I finally settled in on the style of harness that I think will work the best for these rads. I think these take me the longest of all the wiring because of the soldering. I'm really just not that talented with a soldering iron. So it sometimes takes a few re-do's before I'm happy with the finished product. Here is what I ended up with.....
A strange looking cable, indeed. On the bottom of the picture above, you'll see a typical female fan connector....which then branches into 5 separate male fan connectors. Close up of the female end below. This will plug into the Aquaero for control of all 5 fans on one channel....
And below is a closeup of one of the male ends. These connectors and pins I got from Lutro0, and they were of excellent quality. Much nicer than the pins/connectors I got from FrozenCPU for my last build. These pins go in nicely with a satisfying click. The hooded portion of the connector keeps the pins from making contact with the case at any time, and helps prevents shorts.
And below is a close-up of one the branches of the wiring where I had to solder. Some of the Lutro0 heatshink covers any indiscretions nicely....
Since this cable was going up next to the radiator, I really didn't have a way to screw in these cable clips that I had sitting around...
My sweetie Jen suggested I just use a touch of superglue and put the clips directly on the fans....
I'm very happy with the end result. The cable clips keep the wiring close to the black part of the fan frame, and the wires don't hide any of the pink accent rings. The cable clips are securely on the fan, and still allow the cable to slide back and forth inside the ring, so if I ever need to remove the cable or a fan for any reason, it shouldn't be an issue.
The pictures above are from the side of the radiator that will be in the middle of the case...not up against a window. The black cables almost disappear into the black fan frame and black case.
Below are a couple of pictures from the side of the radiator that will be against the window. You can't see any cables at all on this side. Very clean look.....
...and, a few more parting beauty shots. I love the look of these Corsair fans on the thick EK XTX radiators.
I'm working on the wiring for powering up the Aquaero and the Lamptron now. More soon!
You know my love for assembly line production. The following steps were done over a two night period while catching up on all of our DVR'd Big Brother episodes in the living room with my sweetie.
Step One -- Cut 32 pieces of wire, long enough to cover any of the routing ideas that are lingering around in your head. Proceed to torture the dogs with the wires for at least 15 minutes....
Step Two -- Use your awesome Lutro0 wire strippers and take off the insulation on one end of all 32 wires. Proceed with calling Jen's name over and over while she's watching TV....and then showing her the wires. Try to remember than Jen won't appreciate it if you leave all the little wire bits on the living room carpet.
Step Three -- Use your awesome Luto0 crimper to put a female ATX pin on one end of all 32 wires. Proceed to repeat Jen's name until she finally gives up and stares at you.
Step 4 -- Cut sleeve long enough to cover wire, and then go ahead and melt one end onto the ATX pin you did in the previous step. Proceed to announce loudly and repeatedly...."Look at my colored spaghetti!!!"
Step 5 -- Insert the end of the wire with the pin into a connector. Proceed to insist that Jen come back into the living room to serve as a background image for my wire shot.
What I'll do next is plug the connector end into the GPU's and do some test routing of the cables using different options....and decide which one I like best. Then I'll cut the cable down to size, and start putting pins on the other end of the cable also. The part that takes the longest is melting the sleeve on the pins. You do anything 32 times and it just takes awhile to do. For each of the 32 wires,
-- I'm cutting the sleeve to the right length,
-- stretching it tight,
-- adjusting the cut if necessary,
-- putting on heatshrink,
-- melting it till it's gooey,
-- risking the flesh on my fingers to press it down onto the pin while it's hot,
-- and then cutting off the heatshrink.
When you combine doing each of these steps 32 times....while trying to watch a TV show....it takes awhile. But I'll keep you posted on progress.
Alas, no progress this weekend because we are leaving on a little family trip tonight and will be gone through Monday.
Some more TV time with my sweetie while doing some cabling work....
The same way I did the short cable for my 24 pin that handled the double wires and cross overs.....
....I'm doing the same thing for my GPU cables. All of the 8 pin connectors on the Corsair have a double wire in one slot and several cross-overs. I want all that to be handled in a short patch cable down by the GPU, and then have a 1 to 1 extension that is sewn and tight. So......I took some of the connectors that came with the PSU and snipped off the wires with a couple of inches to spare. Then I stripped and crimped.
The above two pictures were actually a goof. I put female pins on the end, and I really needed male pins. So I had to redo those. But in the end, I had male pins on them and put a male to female connector on here.
The extensions that are sleeved and pretty have female connectors on both sides. They will plug into the extensions like this, and then plug into the PSU.
With hindsight, it might make more sense to make the extensions with a female connector on one end and a male on the other. This would make them usable with any PSU standard cable as the patch cable. I'll always make custom sized cables....so it really doesn't impact me. But it is probably wiser.
I've played around with several different cable paths from the GPU to the PSU....and I think I've settled on one. I really like the way my 24 pin and motherboard power connectors have the GPU side of the cable doing a tight and immediate loop up and out of the PSU section. Like this....
So the same way that the motherboard power connector goes up and underneath the motherboard......that's how I'm going to do the GPU cables also. They will track immediately back under the motherboard tray just like the motherboard connector, and then go through a cut-out (probably need to expand one) in the divider plate, and then up through the midplate to the GPU's. I think it will look pretty clean this way. But it will really need a lot of cable stitching to keep it nice and tight.
I started in on that.....and decided I needed to stop and get my next powder coating batch ready to go first. I'm sure it will take a week or two to get the powdercoat batch back....so I can be working on stitching and cabling while the pieces are off to be powdercoated. So....next up is pictures of my PSU window cut-out work......
So since this case I selected had a lot to do with all of the windows.....why not make some more in the components themselves? Right? Got some ideas for both the PSU and the SSD's. Here is the start of what I've done to the Corsair AX1500i.
Void the warranty....and take the top off. Hehe.....
Remove that fan from the top of the PSU cover......
Tape up the PSU cover where the cuts will be made....
Rock that Dremel....
7 cutting blades later (gasp), success!!!
Get out the file and start working those rough edges....
Starting to look better....
Test fit. I'm having to pull down the plastic insert that usually protects the circuitry from touching the metal sides of the PSU. Before I"m done, I'll need to cut it down below the window panel....
Different angle view....
That's where I got so far....but I'm pretty pumped about how it's going to look. Next steps.....I'm going to send the PSU cover to be powder coated in CaseLabs black. This will make it match perfectly with the interior of the case....and will help hide some of the nicks and scratches that happened while cutting it out. I'm going to have the top fan grill powder coated pink to match the outside of the case.
While these parts are off to be powder coated, I'll cut some acrylic out for the window, and then have a local shop etch it with a Corsair logo and maybe a PPPP mention. I'm planning on running a LED into the inside of the PSU and lighting up the etched acrylic window. It will be very cool.....
May even find a little bitty pink panther or something to leave inside the PSU....looking out through the window. :thumbsups
So since this case I selected had a lot to do with all of the windows.....why not make some more in the components themselves? Right? Got some ideas for both the PSU and the SSD's. Here is the start of what I've done to the Corsair AX1500i.
That's where I got so far....but I'm pretty pumped about how it's going to look. Next steps.....I'm going to send the PSU cover to be powder coated in CaseLabs black. This will make it match perfectly with the interior of the case....and will help hide some of the nicks and scratches that happened while cutting it out. I'm going to have the top fan grill powder coated pink to match the outside of the case.
While these parts are off to be powder coated, I'll cut some acrylic out for the window, and then have a local shop etch it with a Corsair logo and maybe a PPPP mention. I'm planning on running a LED into the inside of the PSU and lighting up the etched acrylic window. It will be very cool.....
May even find a little bitty pink panther or something to leave inside the PSU....looking out through the window. :thumbsups
Based on all the other WONDERFUL pictures of the new EK Supremacy EVO, you've probably concluded correctly that the black van was there to ensure not a word was breathed of it before it was ready. The waterblock is beautiful, and the new insert really makes the insides even more attractive than before. Not to mention the performance has been improved. I'll be posting my own pictures of it with some beautiful pink coolant after I get it polished up.
In the meantime....I'm still prepping items to go for another batch of powdercoat items. Got the memory ready a few days ago. For those following, you will remember that I've already done a custom dye job of the light bar to make it glow pink instead of white. The one on the left has the normal light bar, and the one on the right has lightbar upgrade kit and the custom dyed pink light bar....
But I want to do even more with the memory to personalize it for this build. So I took off the light bar cover....
...and then removed the heatsink.
The heatsink just took a little bit of wiggle to remove it.
Then I repeated for all 4 sticks of memory....
The plan here is to powercoat the light bar covers matte black to match the inside of the case, and then powdercoat the heatsinks pink to match the outside of the case. I think it's safe to say I'll have the only set of Dominator Platinums like this.
Corsair tells you to personalize it right there on the package.....who am I to say no?
Can't wait to see how these look when they get back from CaseLabs! More powdercoat prepping tomorrow!
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