Project "Impossible Modding"

[RigoRMorteM]

I didn't like that much the idea of the memory reader in that position, so i've decided to leave it away from there... So now i've to place there the usb-hub instead of it, but there are some modifies to be done too...

In the meanwhile i've bought some pin-strip with a double lenght than the traditional, and by compriming them i've obtained a strip with standard lenght from a side and on the opposite a longer one, thing that will make ironing simplier...

Then i've ironed all the pin-strip to the wires that come from the mobo by signing with a bend the red pin of all the connectors.

And i've made the same thing with the internal usb-hub, and this is the wiring i'm thinking about...
Four usb on the mobo, ok?
Two will be placed on the fron ports, onw to the internal usb-hub and one free.
The four internal usb-hub ports will link the four ports of the ali.
The one that will remain free may be will be used for a bluetooth-key, but it's still all to be decided...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Let's test if everything still works:

Everything has gone well, now i will isolate it:

Strip of adesive neoprene 15mm thick ( i think i won't risk shortcircuits :-] )

And here is where it will be placed. It's more logical than having the usb-hub external...
But the ferrite dongle on the connector is boring me...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Let's take apart the ferrite...
After cutting the plastic here it is the ferrite:

Light shot with an hammer:

And now the cable is free, but i've to change the screws to the 4 ports because they touch a bit...

And here we go...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Mmm, let's see...

I'd say perfect!

Note the reflection of the stainless steel ... btw now everything is ok and i just have to prolong it under the mobo to the rear..

 

[zero_vertical]

yeah. this is definitely my favorite mod ever on the [H]. AWESOME!

 

[Adidas4275]

agreed great workmanship

 

[xc_runner713]

ive been following this project for a long time it just keeps getting better i agree as well good craftsmanship

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Let's work on this piece...

For first thing i've signed on a paper tape the shape that the piece will have, it will be placed between the base and the front of the Cabe. One side will be on the motherboard rack, and the other on the extractible rack of the periferics.

I hope you've understood thanks to the picture... Btw after cutting the piece that i've designed before with the pencil, with a diamond disk, i've reduced the lenght like you can see here:

Now it's time to make the hole for the female Usb...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Here it is where the usb port will be placed:

After a bit of work with the driller and a thin file here's the partial result:

And now i'm gonna finish it to the perfection and polish all the borders, here's the result:

For now it's all... Next we will see something different...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Now let's take a closer look to the wc setup :

At this time, the vid card will be this X550, pull out the original heat spreader and pull in the waterblock :

Sorry, shaked picture...

But... A little trouble with the K5, it touch on the capacitor...
Solutions?

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Belt sanding the angle :

Now, let's go on :

This is the free space between the vid card and the sat card...
Now let's go with the tubing!!!

Tygon R3400, 8mm ID , 5 meters, and some stainless stell springs. I've buy Tygon in France at 5.75 euro/meter , here in Italy cost near 15 euros at meter...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Little by little , everything goes in his place...
Tygon isn't easy to fit, but I've found a method :

First I place the connector, leave in place for 15 seconds, then I put the tube on his connector. It works really well!

Here you have a quick shot of the delirium area : wb, chipset, rad, too much items...

Here is the near-final shot, it's missing only the link to the hard disk, but I'll do later... Now I have to pull out everything from the motherboard and test all to the bech.

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Before unmounting all, I nedd to testfit the usb cable :

And now I place even the button cable I don't want to discover some trouble here :

Ok, mockup perfect!

Final shot, now let's take apart all and place all the water loop to the table!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Here we are... I'm really happy to finally test the wc loop!

As I told you, here is the video (italian speaking):

Filling process

And here I try to pull out all the air :
shake the rad!

Other videos on next post!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Quick vidz about the pump in action

pumps

And the final vid, with the fans and the pump in action

fans whisper

Comments?

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Now that the wc loop is ok, I want to fix the wb screws better...Lest's start with smoked plexy :

I draw 10 squares 1cmx1cm then I cut all with the diamond disk from Dremel:

Making a hole and tap to M4 :

Boring....

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Then I put all together:

And now, vertical drill, abrasive of 60 grit and go!

I've used a lot of paper... Before the final shot, a little polish with Iosso :

Two pieces are oval, but the other 8 are ok!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

The final placement :

Ok, a washer go down to the tray side, one on the top and the screw is fastened! Perfect for me!
Now I need to do the same work for the chipset screw, and che gpu screws, but tapped M3 :

Ok, now the muonting phase :

Shaked picture... Sorry... The bit PITA was the mess of capacitors and small smd components around the chipset, I filed down near all the washers, but now they fit perfectly!

 

[zero_vertical]

AWESOME!

Keep up the great work. I love this mod!

zv

 

[RigoRMorteM]

This is the final look of the wb setup :

Sat cable connectors and black tubing. Tnx to _eEnmaSs_ to suggest me this solution.
If you take a closer look, you'll see that all the holes on the mb near the cpu are closed with four screws, I can't resist to use that!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Let's go back to the hard disk ...
As someone have supposed, I don't stop to only liquid cooling...
Now take a look to what is arrived to my home today :

A big amount of old p2 dissipator :-]

Only 113 pieces, big amount, little price : 27 euros shipping included, less than 24ct each one!
But I need to say a big tnx to Tursas with his HedgeBox project fot the inspiration!

I was thinking to use 3 of this and to fix with two sided thermal tape.
Mmm, I wil try to use the Chomerics Thermattach® T411, or do you suggest the 412 model?

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Or in this way is better?

I don't know what solution I'll use, but the dissipator is 4mm highter ...

A quick belt sanding with an unusable dissipator :

Ok, the dimension is correct, now let's work on the other :-]

 

[RigoRMorteM]

After a lot of waiting, the crucial pieces of this mod are arrived :

Now I have a little trouble, I need an adaptor! Let's take a look at this comparision :

Some centimeter less in width :-]

This is the ideal position, but now I need to cut a little bit the hard disk cage...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

After a quick pass with Dremel and 409 disk here is the lightened cage :

As you can see, I've also cutted one of the flip from the 5,25 hole, I want to take out easy the hard disk tray!

A little test to see if everythings fit, I suppose that this will work....
But from the front?

Ok, and now let's go with the rear side...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Here is the free space that I have :

Mmm, this is really tight fit, and I need to mount even the adaptor, the ide cable and the power cable...

Finally even the adaptor are arrived, they cost a lot! Drive with adapter mounted :

Mmm, s*it... I must change the power plug!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Final test :

All the cable are in place, now let's do the final mockup with the two drives :

After changing place to a connector, everything is ok, but I have less space thet I've imaginated... But now I have a big PITA....

The optical drives are only MASTER , no chanche to configure as slave...
So I need to use two ide channel, and I don't want to set the tow optical device as master and the two hard disk as slave. I must change my hard disk, searching for a SATA drives.

 

[Collin973]

where did you buy the adapters for the slim optical drives?

 

[RigoRMorteM]

The store mini-itx.it have this kind of adapter, but they're not cheap...
As usual, i've do a quick search on ebay, and I found two of this adaptor for half the price of one from mini-itx...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Now I must wait to gain some money to change the hard disk...
In the meantime I've decided to change some little items in psu :

I want to change the original fan with a chromed fan... But , I want to make a little test, let's take a look on how to bring out the VDE and the switch :

Looking to the internal cable :

I need to to do a little soldering/desoldering work, let's start!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

My idea is to create some prolongue between VDE and the switch, so I can put in place everything without soldering...

I've choose to use the faston connector :

Here is the first faston on place, now let's go with the other pieces :

Here is the first piece, between VDE and switch, now I have to do the other end of VDE.

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Here is the final (blur) pics :

Now I can extract the VDE and the switch without solder or desolder anytrhing...
But the next step is to chrome the psu chassis...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

It's the time to show some new hardware that I want to use :

Four slim optical drives to test, tnx a lot to gattonero that was so kind to send me all for free!o!

Two stick of ram from Corsair, model XMS2-6400 1024mb 800Mhz, timing 4-4-4-12 , I soppose I'll have some trouble to fit all inside, the modules are so hight that will touch on the rad, but I hope to find some solutions...

Videocard MSI NX8500GT with 256 mb ram, not so bad, al least better than my X550

 

[RigoRMorteM]

More little items :

Two pieces of Thermattach T411 from www.Microcool.it, I'll use to join the passive P2 heat spreader to the hard disk. This tape consists of a high bond strength pressure-sensitive adhesive with an expanded aluminum mesh carrier layer. The mesh carrier allows the tape to conform to curved surfaces of plastic molded IC packages, continued providing a high adhesive strength attachment for heat sinks. The high per-formance silicone PSA allows adhesion to silicone-contaminated plastics and other low energy surfaces.

This is the board that I'm in love with! DFI Infinity P965 Dark, a real good looking board! This board is bigger than my old one, so I need to change the pump position. Finally, I must change my plans for the optical drive because I have only one ide connector...

Now I'm planning to move the pump near the reservoir, but I neet this new top from OCLabs.This pics it to show the difference between my top and the new one, it's smaller and this will give me the chanche to try some different place...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Last items :

Ide to SATA converter directly from Hong Kong, I'll use for one optical drive. Or I hope so

New keyboard, Aurora from Enermax! I'm really happy with this item, and I'm planning to mod even the keyboard! A little feature that is really important to me :

Usb, with tho usb replicator, but with mic and headphone plug, I hate to see a lot of cables on my desk, so this feature will help me to keep the desk clean.
Now, what do you say for my new hardware?

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Here is the bare psu on my desk :

Now I need to change the original fan with a chromed one , but the original connector is smaller than the one that I have...

Quick solutino : cut the receptacle that is on board

In the meantime I've pulled out the four blue led on the fan, and I suppose to don't put any light inside the PSU... And now, what more? Exchange the grill!

 

[RigoRMorteM]

But, first of all, let's cover the Sunbeam logo with some adhesive mirror :

Here is the completed fan, and now, a little news :

The chromed PSU chassis
It's not perfect, but it's the best that the chrome guys can do...

Rear view, not so bad... And 20 more euros to the chrome guys...

 

[RigoRMorteM]

Re.assebling the psu, and changing the grill with a stainless steel one :

The fan is mounted with hex head screws, like all the the other little items in this case

PSU in place, i have to say that's ok for me, but it's not true... I would like to have a real mirror psu, but this is the best that I can obtain, but now I'm planning some solution to cover all...

Complete view, comments?

 

[Sicario]

sei un mito!

 

[zero_vertical]

While I agree that it'd look great with a true mirror PSU, Enermax is a good brand, and it looks real good as is.

I think you're too close to the project! Can you maybe just polish the PSU case with some chrome polish? That might get you the mirror shine you're looking for.

zv

 

[RigoRMorteM]

I've tried to do that, but without remarkable result...
So now I'm planning to use some copper sheet to cover the psu and to chrome the copper...
The psu, finally , MUST shine like a mirror, trust in me!

Reply in italian : Grazie Sicario!