Project Thief - CaseLabs TX10-D Dual Workstation/Gaming Build - Gulftown and SB-E

[stren]

So while I was waiting for the screws, I decided to mount a reservoir to the motherboard tray. As the motherboard tray is HPTX there is a lot of spare space. Initially I wanted to also fit an RX360 on there, so that the motherboard/gpu/ram loop was self contained on the tray so that I could just pull it out and swap CPUs without disturbing that loop. Now I have another plan for the radiator instead. Here I am drilling the tray:

With the res mounted (it's a 250 EK multires if anyone cares and there's just enough room for a D5 underneath):

From the back with the reservoir mounted. You can see the two nuts holding it on:

Now with the motherboard tray back stiffening and tiding plate added:

Here's another shot of the front also showing the new cpu block. BTW any barbs are just place holders.

A quick test inside the case:

I also did a test run with the gtx560 radiator and the fan adapters with my new shiny 2150 rpm gentle typhoons!

That was it for the night, then the next morning I found an extra fitting and connected the res to the ram block. Almost a straight line lol.

No one had photographed the new thumbscrews on the cpu block - so I took a couple of that also:

Again ignore the barbs, I haven't quite decided how to route the tube out of there yet.

 

[MT Alex]

I must admit, the liquid tape on the backside of the GPU looks much nicer in those pics than the originals, and looks really sharp.

 

[stren]

I must admit, the liquid tape on the backside of the GPU looks much nicer in those pics than the originals, and looks really sharp.

Thanks I agree - maybe it needed some time to age lol. I'll still be making a custom backplate for it though, plus I found a place that does cheaper nickel plating so that copper will match finally lol.

 

[Aquinus]

Is the CPU going to be on a different loop than the rest of that system keeping the CPU segregated from memory, motherboard, and GPU? If not, I would route it from the MCH to the CPU, then to the GPU. Looks great so far!

 

[cadaveca]

Sick. looks awesome.

 

[stren]

Is the CPU going to be on a different loop than the rest of that system keeping the CPU segregated from memory, motherboard, and GPU? If not, I would route it from the MCH to the CPU, then to the GPU. Looks great so far!

Yeah - the cpu is on a separate loop with two D5 strongs and a mora 140x9. The pumps will be in the basement and the radiator is in the roof.

Sick. looks awesome.

 

[stren]

Here's a pic of the iwaki next to a D5

Then I put the dvd drives in. These will eventually be hidden

Then I starting putting in the new ssds into the hdd side mount:

I have another 3 ssds and 5 hard drives to put in later on, when I really transplant everything over:

And now a tease of the case with the panels:

More to come soon

 

[stren]

So the only thing I got done this week was changing the switch plate to one that matched the exterior color. Here's the original:

The cover is held on with two nuts:

Put the new one on:

Reattach the switches:

Install it:

And put the panels back one:

That's probably it for the next week at which point a large order of parts should be coming in :thumb:

 

[badtaylorx]

nice ....

one thing ive wanted to see someone try with these 2011s is an "sandwich" vrm water setup,,, since rooms no issue you ought to try putting another vrm wb on instead of the backplate???

 

[Aquinus]

nice ....

one thing ive wanted to see someone try with these 2011s is an "sandwich" vrm water setup,,, since rooms no issue you ought to try putting another vrm wb on instead of the backplate???

I don't think cooling the backplate would help, a PCB isn't exactly known for heat conduction.

 

[stren]

I don't think cooling the backplate would help, a PCB isn't exactly known for heat conduction.

I think he means that there are VRMs on the back of the motherboard, and that the backplate for the vrm waterblock cools those poorly.

 

[stren]

Alrighty the fedex guy came, so here's some unboxing action:

Woooh packing

Opened some boxes - the front rad is an ex560 - not quite sure why this was the first 560 rad that XSPC made.

Mora 140.9 revealed - way thicker than the EX of course

Can you say quick disconnects?

 

[johnnyfiive]

Wow wow wow, sooo much awesome.....!

 

[Aquinus]

I'm digging the 3x3 120mm radiator. Will that be shared between the two rigs?

 

[stren]

I'm digging the 3x3 120mm radiator. Will that be shared between the two rigs?

3x3 140mm - that rad is purely for the 3930K to hit maximum clocks lol

 

[radrok]

Man you'll have some work with the watercooling loop
Friggin' awesome build, can't wait to see your progress
You'll love that MO-RA3, I recently purchased a couple and couldn't be more happy with the results, mine are for 120mm fans though.

 

[badtaylorx]

I think he means that there are VRMs on the back of the motherboard, and that the backplate for the vrm waterblock cools those poorly.

exactly...

 

[stren]

2nd update of the day:-

So I played around with my own version of the big slappy mod for the Iwaki - the idea is you tap the cylinder res for a much larger feed for the pump. The pump can't be on it's back so you need a nice slow 90 degree bend. The tough part is then getting down to the 5/8 OD pipe that is the inlet to the Iwaki. Here I used 1" pipe going to a 1/2" female converter fitted with a 5/8" brass barb. I butted the barb up right against the inlet and stretched some 0.5" tube over it:

The feed may not be quite as good as the original big slappy as that only had a bout 3/4" of 5/8 inlet tube, vs this 2.5" on this version. However the downpipe is 1" instead of the 3/4" that was used. So hopefully the extra width balances it out a bit. Here's a photo of the original big slappy:

and amuseme's version:

We'll see I might change to what they did, I feel like it might have better performance.

Also started spray painting test colors on a dead GT. I made a quick spray booth:

Done - there's some metallic flake in the paint, the color isn't quite as orange as the tube though:

Reassembled (kinda)

Then a final comparison with it mounted on the 120 rad (this rad is just for the motherboard block loop). The rad will be painted silver to match:

So what do you think? Are the colors close enough? Both are slightly off. I wonder if I can get a color match from the powder coat supplier. I think I'll look for a different red at the least tomorrow. The match does depend on the lighting though.

 

[stren]

Got some more today seeing as I got done with my deadline yesterday. I wanted to get the 120 rad painted to match the fan to see how it looks and what fittings to go with. So I started sanding down the brand new gt stealth:

Masked it off and applied primer:

Then painted a matching cover to dress up the fan a little:

While I was waiting for paint to dry, I put together the quick disconnect pairs, some will mount to panels with a g1/4 fitting on the other side, while some screw directly into radiators:

Then I realized I need two more pairs...

I also did some work on the pump mounting. I added a drain port to the inlet tube and mapped out the cuts I wanted to make to the base panel. Air has to flow through the base panel, so there has to be some cut outs. Because the pump will vibrate, I'm worried about making the noise worse with a floppy piece of metal, so I was thinking to stiffen it with two 1" by 1/4" steel bars screwed underneath the base plate (these are the two dark shaded strips. I'll have to add some rubber strips to try and isolate the baseplate from the frame also.

Here's a quick look at the painted rad from earlier with the fan on top:

And here's a piece of acrylic that was laser cut and then painted to match. The dimensions aren't quite right though:

Not sure whether to do something like this or not. I don't think I should use the zerg symbol anyway as it doesn't match the theme, but it's fun to play around.

Originally I had wanted to paint all the fans, then I got lazy and thought, well I'm more likely to screw them up by painting them (imbalanced rotors and all), plus they won't be seen so who cares. So I took a look to see if I could justify lazy or not - here are the stock typhoons showing:

Here's one painted typhoon just rested up in there. Obviously the space around the fan (fan adapter) would be painted silver too so it would blend better. The red can't be seen too well though:

So I figure I have four options:

A) leave the GTs stock (lazy and quieter but looks ugly)
B) paint the GTs housing only and leave the rotor grey (quiet but stands out less
C) paint the GT fully (risks noise from a now unbalanced rotor and doesn't look much better than option b)
D) paint the GT fully and add some white LEDs to actually show the metallic red rotor off a little bit

What do you all think?

 

[MT Alex]

I vote for option B. I don't think the grey will look too out of place with the silver. I don't mind the stock black housing, either, it's the sticker that is the ugly part. Nice work so far

 

[HammerON]

I like option B as well.

 

[illli]

nice work

 

[Clubber_Lang]

Holy crap Stren!! I've seen some of your other stuff on other forums but I vanished for a while and had no idea about this project.......It's friggin' sweet!! Hope to finally get busy on my TH10 sometime this summer and have it ready to play with this fall. My TH10 is huge.....but that case of yours makes it look like a match box! Good job on the build so far man.....looking great!

 

[stren]

Holy crap Stren!! I've seen some of your other stuff on other forums but I vanished for a while and had no idea about this project.......It's friggin' sweet!! Hope to finally get busy on my TH10 sometime this summer and have it ready to play with this fall. My TH10 is huge.....but that case of yours makes it look like a match box! Good job on the build so far man.....looking great!

Thanks dude - I remember your TH10 Yeah the TX10 is a best, sometimes I think it'll eat me for breakfast.

 

[stren]

The results are in:
A - 2
B - 7
C - 0
D - 6
Other suggesions:
- not paint and add leds - 2
- paint the housing and add leds -1
- paint hubs only and add leds -1

I liked some of the suggestions - I think what I'll do is actually not paint, and use red LED's to light the blades. I'm going to do a test run in the next couple of days. I'll also create a plate to attach the fans too that will cover some of the ugliness so only the blades will be seen. I can then create some back lit patterns. I need to check how much room is left in between the fans and the metal panel though.

Meanwhile I mounted the 140x9 radiator (without fans as I'm waiting on delivery), and checked the QDC's:

Unfortunately there is not enough room - only about 3/4" to make the 90 degree turn:

Luckily I had a non rotary 90 spare that could help out:

A rotary there would inevitably leak due to the weight of the QDC. I don't like the restriction of that tight 90 though so I may end up taking the QDC off of the radiator and putting it in line instead. I decided to leave it for a bit though and work on tapping the reservoir. The parts I need came in, so now it's time to build a makeshift tap handle lol.