Archers custom chassis work log

[Archer]

Ok, I am up and running again!

The red/black wiring you see at the top was the hotwiring I mentioned earlier, which has now been replaced by a delicious power button. Once I've got the buttons in the right place I'll snap a couple more pics. I really like how the reservoir turned out. The cylinder already distorts the hexes a little bit, and when water is flowing through it should distort it even more. Add in some green backlighting and hopefully it'll look pretty cool. And yes, the reservoir is in the middle of the hexes, in one pic the camera is just at the wrong angle

Here you can check out the pump and how I used my space pretty efficiently (even if I say so myself). The motherboard is a few mm to the top, drive bays about 10mm to the left, and the PSU on the right. I also went ahead and plumbed in the first piece of tubing. Its actually much darker in real life, will try get pics next time to better reflect reality. What I did learn however is that compression fittings are tough! If I had to do my whole system at once I'd probably have no skin left on my fingers!

Continued in next post...

 

[Archer]

And then I got itchy fingers Mostly because the LEDs I was planning on using for the fans were the wrong colour :/ No idea how that happened. So I went ahead and fixed the fans onto the radiator. The nice thing about the design at this point is that I could take the front panel completely off and install the rad + fans much easier. When it was all done, I just had to slide it back into place and bolts it on with 4 bolts. Simple as that.

Thats all I have for you guys today. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have a working water loop next weekend... I'll see how things go

 

[ponder]

Cool!

 

[nakedpeanut]

Very sexy! Nice work!

 

[Ono'rach]

Its really starting to come together very nicely!

It looks super hot, can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[Archer]

Cool!

Very sexy! Nice work!

Its really starting to come together very nicely!

It looks super hot, can't wait to see the finished product!

Thanks thanks
Forgot to mention, in one of the pics you can see the side panel is all wonky. Thats because its not fastened on properly yet since the V8 cooler is too big. Luckily the CPU block I will be using is around, oh I dont know, 150mm shorter, so it wont be a problem

 

[Archer]

Update time!

Disclaimer - I havent done much since last time
Haha, I think I've been enjoying not having to be super careful with my PC lying on top of a box too much. And this weekend is my birthday, so not much is gonna happen then either! So what have I done?...

Basically I wired and soldered one of the buttons, and thats it No pictures of it actually on, you'll only get to see that when I'm closer to finished. It will also look much tidier once I sleeve the wires. Those few pieces of heatshrink will be covered up nicely and it should look pretty dam hot!

PSU sleeving should also arrive next week, look out for that update. Very keen to get started on that since its the one thing I can actually do from home, no need to drive all the way to my in-laws little workshop.

Its getting close to the end!!

But thats not all that I managed to do in the last few days......

 

[Archer]

I got some new hardware!!

I had mauled open the packaging of the lights, so they are missing in the first pic So whats here is

• 120GB OCZ Agility SSD
• 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
• NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller - 5 channels, with manual and automatic mode.
• NZXT Sleeved White LED Kit (2m!!) - 3 brightness levels, and a on/off switch

Then some nice close ups...

I'll have to see which fan controller will work and look better in the final case. The LEDs are also going to get some modding done to them. The controller for it currently sits on a PCI bracket, but I'd rather have the circuitry out of sight and hidden, probably near the radiator. The SSD is already installed and yes, its amazing! And last but not least, the RAM will have to wait a bit since my air cooler is in the way of the RAM slots. Luckily water blocks dont ever get in the way!

I did a quick test with the lighting inside the case, and it is perfect. Literally. I cant wait to show it to you guys but there is other stuff I need to finish first otherwise I'll end up doing work over. Getting really excited about the build now, the finish line is in sight!

A big thank you goes out to Landmark Computers who gave me the LEDs and the fan controller, and also helped out with the rest of the gear. I was genuinely surprised at how excited and keen they were to help out, they really are a friendly bunch. Big thumbs up from my side! They'll be at rAge this weekend as well, be sure to check them out.

Until next time, cheers!

 

[Ono'rach]

Oh man, that is some really nice hardware you have there! I can't wait to see it all come together!

And well done to Landmark for coming on board! Its great to see South African companies supporting local modders like they do overseas.

That fan controller is the shiz, I want one!

 

[nakedpeanut]

I got the exact same led strips and fan controller they pretty awesome!

 

[czc]

Nice Archer, do want a SSD.

Also Grats to Landmark Computers for their help, gonna check them out.

 

[Pada]

LandmarkPC is definitely one of the places in SA to go to for case mods.

 

[PostmanPot]

Mooi.

 

[Archer]

Updates, woohoo!!

Cable sleeving arrived last week, and since then I've been trying to get those darned pins out of the connectors. Finally I got the method down - two staples and a little finesse. If anyone wants a more in depth guide I'll happily make one.

So here is what arrived, some black and green sleeving along with heatshrink, and some black washers.

Even unstretched, you can see the weave on the sleeve is pretty tight, meaning you wont see the colour of the wires within, most delicious!

So here is the first set of wires I sleeved up, 8 pin CPU power. It was definately a learning curve, getting everything just right. So hopefully the next connector will look better! Lighting isnt great again and the flash bounces horribly off the sleeve, but rest assured, when I've sleeved up the whole thing I'll make sure to take some quality pictures. I must also remember to clean that dust off my PSU!

Thats all for now... Dont forget to check out LandMarkPCs

 

[Ono'rach]

That looks awesome! I like the green on black thing, looks hot!

What is your ETA until you are completely finished?

 

[Archer]

That looks awesome! I like the green on black thing, looks hot!

What is your ETA until you are completely finished?

Hopefully.... 4-6 weeks... Biggest concern right now is how the SSD mount is going to look, and whether or not I'll have to redo it. But I can finally decide on the hardware (2500k or 2600k or [-]FX-8150[/-]) which means I can lay some more tubing and maybe even fire up the loop for the first time

 

[Archer]

Maor updates!

I finally got round to finishing off the case feet. Nothing fancy here, they are made for funtion only. So its some spare square bar with a hole drilled through. Countersink the hole so that the screw can sit flush, and then some sponge to finish it off so that it wont scratch my desk. You'll see the sponge compresses quite a bit, which is perfect. Give the case the illusion of resting on the angular sections of the side panels. Those panels end up resting about 0.5mm off the ground, so you really cant tell its actually resting on the square bar thats hidden away.

And then I've been filing away... and more filing... and some more filing... This piece of perspex is going to be the SSD mount. Its 10mm thick, and I'll apply frosting to it, and then light it up as well. So where does the filing come in? I need the front bit angled the same way as the 5.25 bay panels, otherwise the case window wont fit. So I got about a third of the way in one go, will do some more today... file file file file....

Thats all for today, thanks for watching, and thanks again to my sponsor Landmark. Go check em out

 

[Y'all Qaeda]

Any updates? It's been 10 days man... You should'v finished filing by now?! btw, awesome build!

 

[Archer]

Lol
The update is that I measured wrong, and so the filing would've taken forever. Waiting on a sale to go through and then I'm going to buy a dremel. Then I can "file" it chop chop! Also done a little more sleeving, going onto the smaller items now, like fan cables.
In other news, the new motherboard + CPU should be in my hands by Monday latest Will test for a day with the stock heatsink, but after that I am keen to plumb up everything and get that puppy running under water!

 

[Archer]

Real update time!

I've done some more sleeving... So thats CPU power, and 24pin mobo all done, finally!

And then... if anyone has been paying attention to my sig, you'd see I have new hardware too! Say hello to a 2500k paired with a P67 Sabertooth

Continued in next post...