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That's A Doozy

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Posts posted by That's A Doozy

  1. UPDATE:

    So I decided to purchase another part! Figured my HDD's are getting pretty old (Purchased between 2007 and 2011) and decided to get a new storage SSD for my games.
    The performance differences between the Evo and the Pro are negligible, so I opted for the Evo. Getting an SSD cover for it anyway, so no one will know it's not the blisteringly fast one.
    [IMG]

    Also, my mod kits arrived.
    Now I love Bitspower to death, but $75 for a single mod kit? Too much. Barrow has them for $25 each. 
    So I opted for Barrow, since they're identical.
    [IMG]

    Or so I thought.
    [IMG]

    Being the perfectionist I am I can't deal with this. So I decided to flip them over and cover them up.

    [IMG]

    Looks better than before, but I needed something to cover the other one.
    [IMG]

    I ordered some black vinyl and this neat little sticker. I'll be covering the other one with this (The Ryzen sticker, that is).
    [IMG]

    I also learnt that my TT Premium Riing fans were not Asus Aura Sync compatible, which sucks.
    But as it so happens, there is a module you can fit which corrects this. Only cost me $30, so why not?
    [IMG]

    Speaking of my TT fans, I unpacked them and found they had an unsightly coloured cable before the heatshrink which will be exposed due to the open nature of the Core P5. Ew.
    [IMG]

    So I fixed it.
    [IMG]

    Ah, bliss.
    [IMG]

    Now I've been conflicted about the colour of my case for a little while. It's a metallic matt black, which is the colour Thermaltake uses for all of their cases. I decided I wanted to change this. Nothing too extreme, just a nice satin black with a touch of gloss. I figured this would match my hardware a bit better, particularly the mod kits and radiator.

    Before sanding:
    [IMG]

    First coat of primer:
    [IMG]

    Second coat of primer:
    [IMG]

    Had to give it a light wet sand with some 600grit sandpaper in between every coat after this to avoid bubbling or uneven layers.
    I'll speed things up a bit here.
    Second or third coat of satin black here, not sure which.
    [IMG]

    Fifth: Nearly done. Had some severe bubbling so I had to do some significant wet sanding.
    [IMG]

    And curing after the final coat:
    [IMG]

    Not too shabby.
    [IMG]

    The feet were a #### nightmare to paint, but I got there eventually.
    I had to sand them back so many #### times.
    [IMG]

    And that's it for now. Got some new cable sleeving on the way for my pumps which should be arriving soon. Decided to cut it back and make them shorter. My first time messing with wires. Pray for me.UPDATE:

    So I decided to purchase another part! Figured my HDD's are getting pretty old (Purchased between 2007 and 2011) and decided to get a new storage SSD for my games.
    The performance differences between the Evo and the Pro are negligible, so I opted for the Evo. Getting an SSD cover for it anyway, so no one will know it's not the blisteringly fast one.
    [IMG]

    Also, my mod kits arrived.
    Now I love Bitspower to death, but $75 for a single mod kit? Too much. Barrow has them for $25 each. 
    So I opted for Barrow, since they're identical.
    [IMG]

    Or so I thought.
    [IMG]

    Being the perfectionist I am I can't deal with this. So I decided to flip them over and cover them up.

    [IMG]

    Looks better than before, but I needed something to cover the other one.
    [IMG]

    I ordered some black vinyl and this neat little sticker. I'll be covering the other one with this (The Ryzen sticker, that is).
    [IMG]

    I also learnt that my TT Premium Riing fans were not Asus Aura Sync compatible, which sucks.
    But as it so happens, there is a module you can fit which corrects this. Only cost me $30, so why not?
    [IMG]

    Speaking of my TT fans, I unpacked them and found they had an unsightly coloured cable before the heatshrink which will be exposed due to the open nature of the Core P5. Ew.
    [IMG]

    So I fixed it.
    [IMG]

    Ah, bliss.
    [IMG]

    Now I've been conflicted about the colour of my case for a little while. It's a metallic matt black, which is the colour Thermaltake uses for all of their cases. I decided I wanted to change this. Nothing too extreme, just a nice satin black with a touch of gloss. I figured this would match my hardware a bit better, particularly the mod kits and radiator.

    Before sanding:
    [IMG]

    First coat of primer:
    [IMG]

    Second coat of primer:
    [IMG]

    Had to give it a light wet sand with some 600grit sandpaper in between every coat after this to avoid bubbling or uneven layers.
    I'll speed things up a bit here.
    Second or third coat of satin black here, not sure which.
    [IMG]

    Fifth: Nearly done. Had some severe bubbling so I had to do some significant wet sanding.
    [IMG]

    And curing after the final coat:
    [IMG]

    Not too shabby.
    [IMG]

    The feet were a #### nightmare to paint, but I got there eventually.
    I had to sand them back so many #### times.
    [IMG]

    And that's it for now. Got some new cable sleeving on the way for my pumps which should be arriving soon. Decided to cut it back and make them shorter. My first time messing with wires. Pray for me.Update:

    The biggest issue I faced next was fitting the GPU into the case without striking the reservoir. It's easy enough to just move it back since Thermaltake includes a pretty versatile vertical GPU mount, but I felt that it would leave a great deal of unused space. So I decided to cut the GPU bracket.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    Cutting it with my knock-off dremel was particularly difficult. I went through over 20 disks before I had to make a trip to Bunnings and get something stronger. 
    [IMG]

    I didn't do a good job keeping the cuts smooth and even, so I had to hit it with the belt sander at work afterwards. 
    [IMG]

    And I needed to drill a new set of holes to hold it together with a bolt since I'd cut off one. 
    [IMG]

    Next came colour matching. I wish I'd known at the time that this was wildly inaccurate.
    [IMG]

    Got it all primed and painted.
    [IMG]

    It wasn't the match I'd hoped for. Way too glossy. The picture doesn't show just how shiny it was. 
    [IMG]

    Second attempt with a matt black paint and a matt clear.
    [IMG]

    Not perfect, but much closer. Please don't mind Papadum in the background. 
    [IMG]

    Installed the pump top to see what kind of clearance I was dealing with. The reservoir is covered by a microfibre towel to keep it protected (Hence why it's not obvious what I'm doing. 
    It's way too close together. I'll have to mount it side on to get the bends done. 
    [IMG]

    I had to do some drilling to make it fit. It's always nerve racking cutting into your case. 
    [IMG]

    Installed it side on with some rubber underneath to prevent vibrations. Not overly happy with the rubber I've used, so I've got something better on the way. 
    [IMG]

    Installed the ram next, followed by the ram blocks.
    [IMG]
    [IMG]

    That's it for now. 

    I feel like Bitspower don't get the recognition they deserve. Look how beautiful that is. 

  2. UPDATE:

    So I decided to purchase another part! Figured my HDD's are getting pretty old (Purchased between 2007 and 2011) and decided to get a new storage SSD for my games.
    The performance differences between the Evo and the Pro are negligible, so I opted for the Evo. Getting an SSD cover for it anyway, so no one will know it's not the blisteringly fast one.
    [IMG]

    Also, my mod kits arrived.
    Now I love Bitspower to death, but $75 for a single mod kit? Too much. Barrow has them for $25 each. 
    So I opted for Barrow, since they're identical.
    [IMG]

    Or so I thought.
    [IMG]

    Being the perfectionist I am I can't deal with this. So I decided to flip them over and cover them up.

    [IMG]

    Looks better than before, but I needed something to cover the other one.
    [IMG]

    I ordered some black vinyl and this neat little sticker. I'll be covering the other one with this (The Ryzen sticker, that is).
    [IMG]

    I also learnt that my TT Premium Riing fans were not Asus Aura Sync compatible, which sucks.
    But as it so happens, there is a module you can fit which corrects this. Only cost me $30, so why not?
    [IMG]

    Speaking of my TT fans, I unpacked them and found they had an unsightly coloured cable before the heatshrink which will be exposed due to the open nature of the Core P5. Ew.
    [IMG]

    So I fixed it.
    [IMG]

    Ah, bliss.
    [IMG]

    Now I've been conflicted about the colour of my case for a little while. It's a metallic matt black, which is the colour Thermaltake uses for all of their cases. I decided I wanted to change this. Nothing too extreme, just a nice satin black with a touch of gloss. I figured this would match my hardware a bit better, particularly the mod kits and radiator.

    Before sanding:
    [IMG]

    First coat of primer:
    [IMG]

    Second coat of primer:
    [IMG]

    Had to give it a light wet sand with some 600grit sandpaper in between every coat after this to avoid bubbling or uneven layers.
    I'll speed things up a bit here.
    Second or third coat of satin black here, not sure which.
    [IMG]

    Fifth: Nearly done. Had some severe bubbling so I had to do some significant wet sanding.
    [IMG]

    And curing after the final coat:
    [IMG]

    Not too shabby.
    [IMG]

    The feet were a #### nightmare to paint, but I got there eventually.
    I had to sand them back so many #### times.
    [IMG]

    And that's it for now. Got some new cable sleeving on the way for my pumps which should be arriving soon. Decided to cut it back and make them shorter. My first time messing with wires. Pray for me.Update:

    The biggest issue I faced next was fitting the GPU into the case without striking the reservoir. It's easy enough to just move it back since Thermaltake includes a pretty versatile vertical GPU mount, but I felt that it would leave a great deal of unused space. So I decided to cut the GPU bracket.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    Cutting it with my knock-off dremel was particularly difficult. I went through over 20 disks before I had to make a trip to Bunnings and get something stronger. 
    [IMG]

    I didn't do a good job keeping the cuts smooth and even, so I had to hit it with the belt sander at work afterwards. 
    [IMG]

    And I needed to drill a new set of holes to hold it together with a bolt since I'd cut off one. 
    [IMG]

    Next came colour matching. I wish I'd known at the time that this was wildly inaccurate.
    [IMG]

    Got it all primed and painted.
    [IMG]

    It wasn't the match I'd hoped for. Way too glossy. The picture doesn't show just how shiny it was. 
    [IMG]

    Second attempt with a matt black paint and a matt clear.
    [IMG]

    Not perfect, but much closer. Please don't mind Papadum in the background. 
    [IMG]

    Installed the pump top to see what kind of clearance I was dealing with. The reservoir is covered by a microfibre towel to keep it protected (Hence why it's not obvious what I'm doing. 
    It's way too close together. I'll have to mount it side on to get the bends done. 
    [IMG]

    I had to do some drilling to make it fit. It's always nerve racking cutting into your case. 
    [IMG]

    Installed it side on with some rubber underneath to prevent vibrations. Not overly happy with the rubber I've used, so I've got something better on the way. 
    [IMG]

    Installed the ram next, followed by the ram blocks.
    [IMG]
    [IMG]

    That's it for now. 

    I feel like Bitspower don't get the recognition they deserve. Look how beautiful that is. 

  3. Update:

    The biggest issue I faced next was fitting the GPU into the case without striking the reservoir. It's easy enough to just move it back since Thermaltake includes a pretty versatile vertical GPU mount, but I felt that it would leave a great deal of unused space. So I decided to cut the GPU bracket.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    Cutting it with my knock-off dremel was particularly difficult. I went through over 20 disks before I had to make a trip to Bunnings and get something stronger. 
    [IMG]

    I didn't do a good job keeping the cuts smooth and even, so I had to hit it with the belt sander at work afterwards. 
    [IMG]

    And I needed to drill a new set of holes to hold it together with a bolt since I'd cut off one. 
    [IMG]

    Next came colour matching. I wish I'd known at the time that this was wildly inaccurate.
    [IMG]

    Got it all primed and painted.
    [IMG]

    It wasn't the match I'd hoped for. Way too glossy. The picture doesn't show just how shiny it was. 
    [IMG]

    Second attempt with a matt black paint and a matt clear.
    [IMG]

    Not perfect, but much closer. Please don't mind Papadum in the background. 
    [IMG]

    Installed the pump top to see what kind of clearance I was dealing with. The reservoir is covered by a microfibre towel to keep it protected (Hence why it's not obvious what I'm doing. 
    It's way too close together. I'll have to mount it side on to get the bends done. 
    [IMG]

    I had to do some drilling to make it fit. It's always nerve racking cutting into your case. 
    [IMG]

    Installed it side on with some rubber underneath to prevent vibrations. Not overly happy with the rubber I've used, so I've got something better on the way. 
    [IMG]

    Installed the ram next, followed by the ram blocks.
    [IMG]
    [IMG]
     

    That's it for now. 

    I feel like Bitspower don't get the recognition they deserve. Look how beautiful that is. 

  4. Hey guys.
    This is something I've been planning to do for nearly two years now, and it's finally coming to a head.
    As some of you may have seen, I recently put together a custom reservoir to sit in the window of a Thermaltake Core P5.
    You can find the thread detailing how that all happened here .

    So after much debate between choosing X299 or X399, I eventually opted for Threadripper. I wanted a build I was sure would continue to be supported for years to come, and I didn't feel that I could get that out of Intel (Plus I didn't want to delid).
    So here are the parts! I ordered these during one of Ebay's 20% off sales, so most of them were a pretty good deal.
    [IMG]

    The parts are as follows:
    Threadripper 1950x
    Asus ROG Zenith Extreme
    Strix GTX 1080ti Gaming
    TeamGroup Vulcan ram (64gb 3000mhz)
    Samsung 250gb Evo M.2 SSD
    Thermaltake 850w DPS Titanium (Only PSU with theRiing fan and two EPS outlets)
    Some Riing fans for the radiator
    And of course, the Core P5.
    I'll be using some HDD's from my current computer when it's time to migrate to this one.

    The first thing I did was put everything together and test the system. I decided to shove the 1080ti straight into my current build and pull the R9 290x out of that one so I could enjoy those high refresh rates straight away.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    We have ignition!
    [IMG]

    Windows was successfully installed! It was time to focus on the more aesthetic side of things.

    I figured, if I was going to put this much effort into this build, I may as well have a symbol/logo done up to match the PC's name.

    I contacted a graphic designer located in Queensland called Sam Johnston (He has a business page if anyone's interested. Would recommend). Within a week I had a fully-fledged logo!

    I'm lucky that at work we have a laser cutter on hand. Here I am testing a few different power levels before etching the window.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    And here's the real deal. I decided to etch it backwards so that it would retain the gloss from the front side of the window.
    [IMG]

    And not long after.
    [IMG]

    Here it is after a quick cleanup.
    [IMG]

    And finally after a polish.
    [IMG]

    Not long after this, my water cooling equipment arrived from Bitspower. All bar the pump mount, which I unfortunately forgot. Hello extra $35 shipping.
    [IMG]

    I tell you what, I feel that Bitspowerdon't get the recognition they deserve. Look at the quality of these blocks.
    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    Opps, forgot to take a photo of these ones with the wrapping off.
    [IMG]

    While the waterblocks were great, I did have an issue with the radiator.
    I find it unfortunate that Bitspower stopped producing the single-sided version of the 480 radiator, and have opted for a double-sided model only. This produced a problem when mounting it to the P5 as I'm sure you can clearly see here.
    [IMG]

    The Core P5 is flat on the side I need to mount the radiator to. But I had a solution in mind.
    [IMG]

    Little bit of silicone and they were sitting pretty.
    [IMG]

    Just shove em in.
    [IMG]

    And wipe the excess away!
    [IMG]


    Now I do love Bitspower, but one thing that irks me about them is the fact that all their plexi products have a frosted finish. I much prefer how EK does this with their crystal clear blocks.
    Thankfully, polishing acrylic isn't something that's particularly difficult.

    Before:
    [IMG]

    And after:
    [IMG]

    Before:
    [IMG]

    And after:
    [IMG]

    Before:
    [IMG]

    And after:
    [IMG]

    This was by far the worst part.
    [IMG]

    I forgot to take photos of the ram blocks, but I did get a few before and after shots of the ram sticks themselves.
    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    At this stage, I ordered some cables fromCablemod. I quite like the scheme I came up with.
    [IMG]

    They arrived not long after.
    [IMG]

    Shortly thereafter, my pumps and liquid metal arrived.
    [IMG]

    Naan Bread always looks at me like I've just asked her to hang out the washing.
    [IMG]

    Unfortunately I didn't order enough sleeving. I sleeved up one of the pumps, but had to order more sleeving for the other.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

    I couldn't find anyone selling Alphacord in Australia, so I opted for a knock-off vinyl sleeve from eBay. It was not good. I'll post photos of that later, but it looks like I'll have to order more Alphacord from overseas. Money money :(

     

    Next up was attaching the monoblock to the motherboard. 
    [IMG]

    Not a bad idea, Asus.
    [IMG]

    Liquid metal is awfully pretty.
    [IMG]

    And hard to figure out how to apply 
    for someone who's never used it before.
    [IMG]

    I got there eventually.
    [IMG]

    And that's where I'm up to for now!
    [IMG]

    Looks pretty good I reckon.
    [IMG]

    I've got a few more parts on the way. Not much more I can do for now until they arrive.

  5. Hi guys. My first post here so I thought I'd make it a good one. 

    It's been a dream of mine to build a reservoir and integrate it into the window of a case for some time. I initially went down the path of having someone else (A very well known custom PC builder with a huge Youtube presence) do all of the design work and production for me, but after waiting nine months with no communication from them except to sometimes reply to an email giving me excuses as to why we'd blown out the initial six-week timeframe, I decided to do it myself. 

     

    Here is where it all started. This was done up in paint hastily as a way to try and visualise what I was going for. 

    OYE61cs.png

     

    Now, I have some design experience and could have done the next step myself, but as a high school teacher I rarely find the time and since we were in the middle of marking season, I decided to outsource the designing to a fantastic case modder in Italy, FlowMods. 

    He was absolutely fantastic, and offered me a more than reasonable price.

    VgQ6VPK.jpg

    Dv7XFP5.jpg

     

    From top to bottom it measures at 570mm. Go measure that.

    YOU SEE THAT?! That's absolutely huge!

     

    So, now I had to source the case and acrylic block for machining. 

    The block itself was actually quite cheap, but the shipping. Good lord. It was more than the #### block!

    And yet, it was still the cheapest option I had. 

    From Sydney to Canberra it cost me $57 to ship it. The block itself was only $45. 

    Here it is, and where it'll be sitting on the case window. 

    IMG_20170607_195710.jpg

    IMG_20170608_165555.jpg

     

    My next job was to find a CNC shop with the equipment to machine acrylic this size. 

    I eventually came across a shop called "Devilish Racing", who despite the name mostly built custom equipment for the Australian Defence Force. 

    Naturally, Defence work took priority, so after about two and a half months I dropped by and picked up the freshly machined reservoir, threaded for M4 bolts to hold it to the window and G1/4 for the water cooling connections. He even cut the holes in the window for me, which was nice of him. 

    pdurg6p.jpg

    IMG_20171001_120542_1.jpg

     

    So that was the easy part. Next came the polishing. This stage took about six hours in total.

    I needed a few things. 

    600 and 1200 grit sandpaper.
    Kerosene.
    Most people wet sand acrylic with water, but kerosene is more viscous than water, so I drowned my sandpaper in that instead.
    A drill and polishing attachments (Reasonably cheap).
    Brasso.
    WD-40.
    Plastx headlight polish.
    FW1 cleaning wax.

     

    As you can see, the reservoir was quite cloudy from the CNC process. So my first step was to hit it with my kerosene drenched 600 grit sandpaper. This took about an hour.

    D0Guizv.jpg

     

    As you can see, it looks much clearer already. Next step, 1200 grit sandpaper and even more kerosene. Another hour :'(

    NhrFl8g.jpg

     

    The improvement was a bit harder to see this time, but it felt MUCH smoother.

    PDG18AQ.jpg

     

    After this came the brasso and drill polishing kit. Thankfully this was nowhere near as physically taxing as the sanding and significantly faster. s1ig5UH.jpg

     

    So it looks much clearer now. Brasso is fantastic stuff and was recommended to me by Ross at Devilish Racing (the CNC shop that produced the reservoir). The only problem was that it gunked up the threads. This was something I would have to deal with a little later on. 

    wT4142j.jpg

     

    So, this is where I used the Plastx. The reservoir was much clearer already, but still cloudy in some areas, especially those the polishing attachments couldn't reach. 

    vPgfzM1.jpg

    f2FWeCJ.jpg

     

    I neglected to take a photo of the reservoir immediately after hitting it with the Plastx, but you can see the impact it had in this photo where I'm cleaning out the threads with WD-40.

    wrpGO3Y.jpg

     

    So I found that even though I was doing this part by hand, I couldn't quite clear up the internal corners. I grabbed my Dremel kit and attached the small polishing tools to finish that job. Something I once again forgot to take a photo of. 

    But here is the reservoir after, about to get another hit from some Plastx. As you can see, it's already very clean at this point. 

    Sok5tap.jpg

     

    Following this, I gave it a final polish with some FW1 cleaning wax. Naturally, I only applied this to the outside. You don't want wax residue flowing through your loop. 

    Here she is, looking crystal clean. Polishing is now complete, thank ####. 

    gcwOOqs.jpg

     

    So with the polishing out of the way I now had to measure and cut the O-Ring cord to fit. Please ignore my pyjamas.

    T9VZUx0.jpg

     

    You can usually use superglue for this bit, but I opted for an O-Ring connecting specific glue (Sureloc SL406 Cyanoacrylate). Here it is fused together. 

    atNyNLb.jpg

     

    Looks good, hey?

    Uj9Bs34.jpg

     

    Nearly done now. The first step of sealing it up was to bolt down a select few of the screws so that everything was lined up. This is the part where I had to be most careful. If I overtightened a single bolt, the entire thing would be ruined. I set my electric screwdriver to its lowest torque setting so that at the slightest touch of resistance it would automatically stop. I lightly tightened each bolt three times after they had been fully inserted so ensure that there would be no leaks. I cannot stress enough how careful you have to be here. As soon as you feel resistance, move on and come back around to it. After tightening every single bolt in the first pass I found that the bolts I'd first done now needed additional tightening. 

    xTOmxK9.jpg

     

    Here it is all fastened and ready to begin filling for the leak test.

    paJnUzp.jpg

     

    SUCCESS!

    giphy.gif

    xOivS15.jpg

     

    Here she is! Finished at last. 

    u9MGibU.jpg

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