Project: MDPC WannaBe

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks Murder and Smasher! Comments like this keep me from just giving up modding for things like being a good student, and doing household chores

Here is the latest update:

So, how about some watercooling...

And the test fit...

Cutting it really close to the PSU. Routing cable might be difficult. I don't like the PSU hanging out the back either...

Speaking of taking my time, I managed to scratch up my HX1000 pretty bad :shakes: I'm pretty ticked about it. I should've taped the case off so it wouldn't scratch anything.

I've purchased a CM ATCS 840, as I wanted more cooling capacity. Should be here Tuesday!

-TadZilla

 

[Petrucci_M3]

Looking forward to your next update! I'm in love with the attention to detail you display, great job

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Looking forward to your next update! I'm in love with the attention to detail you display, great job

Thanks Petrucci! That means a lot considering this is my second attempt at a case mod, and first real attempt at an exceptionally clean build.

The Feser 360 rad and EK 250 res will be here today. However, I won't be able to do anything with them until the case gets here. Should be here on Wednesday.

For now, here are some other sleeving pics I forgot to post a few weeks ago. I like these!

-TadZilla

 

[Kenjiwing]

Might want to consider redoing some of the heatshrink on the 24 it doesnt look very uniform. And ya that PSU looks horrible sticking out like that lol.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Yeah, already thought about redoing the sleeving on the 24 pin. The other connectors are fine by me, but the 24 pin varies too much.

ATCS 840 should be here tomorrow. I received the Feser 360 rad and the EK 250 res today. Nothing special really, but I took a pic anyways.

A little overexposed, but was in a hurry.

-TadZilla

 

[FrEaKy]

actually, still a clean pic there Tad.

Very nice setup and the equiptment is alot of what we want to see, so nice!

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks FrEaKy!

Quick update... NEW CASE!!! This thing is MASSIVE!!! (insert mandatory, 'head-in-gutter' remark here) I had no idea I would be able to live out of this thing if I had to. And it is sturdy, too. The Lian-li looks nicer I think, but it is flimsy (except for the side panels... built like tanks). I could use this thing as a tornado shelter, or catapult ammo, or anti-tank armor, or... or... a COMPUTER CASE!!! :shocked:

Okay, picture time. I didn't have natural light this morning as it was dark outside, and my geek room lighting isn't great. So some I used the flash, and others I tried room lighting. I'll take some pics of the back of the mobo later, as I really like how it looks using the clips and screws from Nils!

Stuff from the case...

Horray sleeved wires!!!

I need to get some better lighting for taking photos. Any cheap solutions anyone can recommend would be great!

Thanks for watching!

-TadZilla

 

[FrEaKy]

awww, I miss the PC-1000v already, nice case though here with the TT.

Looks nice...... MOAR PICS!

 

[shawnoen]

Why did you get rid of the PC-V1000?

Much sexier case.....nothing MDPC about a Coolmaster case

If you needed a bigger case why not PC-V1200? Same case as PC-V1000 but bigger...

 

[Kenjiwing]

I am very sad that you replaced a Lian Li with a Coolermaster.

 

[shawnoen]

If the case works for you thats all that matters I guess. Your build! I'm sure it will turn out great.

 

[GigantoR]

Nothing wrong at all with the Cooler Master. If it fits what you need better, then you made the right choice. That 840 is a beast.

Also, I love the dark blue sleeving. Its a great accent with the motherboard and I've never seen that color used before. Still looks nice and clean. Keep up the good work.

 

[Pkirk618]

Ken, you're way too critical. I guess I'm being too critical of you lol.

OP, the CM is nice.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks all for the constructive criticisms and kind words!

I understand that Coolermaster cases are not looked at to be on the same level of quality as Lian-Li cases. However, I assure you that the ATCS, from what I've seen, is of very high quality. It really is a nice case, and it will serve my purposes better than my Lian-Li. I understand that Lian-Li sells large cases as well, but as a personal preference, I preferred the look of the ATCS. I also believe that an MDPC can be made out of any case (well, maybe not a Rosewill.. not without a complete rebuild) and any hardware, air cooled or water cooled. We'll see though. At the end I will most likely not make it, but this mod will be the most thorough and best I've done.

I hope I didn't turn people against my project. I really do appreciate all of your opinions and suggestions and I will be keeping the Lian-Li to be used in this build if I have a good idea, or it will be used in another build.

Thanks for visiting!

-TadZilla

 

[MurderCityDevil]

The case looks fine, just for the love of god make sure you powdercoat the inside.

 

[FrEaKy]

hey thaddeus....... dont hate me..... im stealing your idea!

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Hate you? I'm honored that one of my ideas could be stolen! What are you doing with your project?

 

[FrEaKy]

Lian Li PC-65B, black and blue sleeving.... all your fault.

 

[TeeJay88]

Alright, lets see some more. I dont want this to be another Promethues.

 

[DeFex]

Very nice work especially all that sleeving!

you might want to remove those red things from the asus heat sinks. they perform no function except block about 30% of the heatsink convection.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Well, for all the coolermaster haters out there, I'm modding the lian-li. I think I can get enough cooling in it to do what I want. Not much overclocking, just quiet and cool looking cooling. I'll have some pics up soon. I've been busy with my new born! Born Dec. 8th! She has been taking up my time, but I get a little mod time in as well. It'll be slow going, but I'll keep workin'

@DeFex: Yeah, I hate the red things. The cooling on the mobo is coming off at some point. I'm watercooling the board.

Thanks all for your continued interest. Like I said, this'll be slow going for awhile, but I'm not going to stop modding!

-Tad

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Images of things to come...

-TadZilla

 

[Kenjiwing]

good luck with water cooling.. i will take that leap one day.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks Kenjiwing! I've done watercooling once before, but not on this scale.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Well, I finally have some pictures of an almost finished case:

The 2x120 rad will sit higher than the picture shows. I believe I will then be able to mount another rad under it .

The fans I'm using now are the NB Multiframe fans. Don't worry, I will be re-sleeving them. The quality of the sleeving is a little better than usual, but they still don't sleeve into the frame of the fan. So, I will have to MDPC it soon. I should my other parts here on Wednesday Then I will mount the mobo blocks to the mobo, and take some good pictures. I will also put the case completely back together, clean it up, and mount the rad. Then I will test fit the other rad.

Thanks for looking,

-TadZilla

 

[FrEaKy]

Awesome dude....... continually an inspiration for my case as well.

Wanna do my sleeving LOL!

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks FrEaKy!

Not much of an update, but I have some pretty pictures taken from my WIP light box:

Not in the WIP light box:

Now in WIP light box

Much better I think. Now I just need a tall tripod.

I still need some parts, but right now I need to focus on getting the case finished.

-TadZilla

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Another small update. These will come in smaller doses now that school has started up and I have a kid, but I feel like I've come pretty far over the past few weeks. Anyways, just a mock up of the layout:

Overall view. Wires are routed roughly the way they will be routed in the final build. I still have to find a spot for the SSDs, res, and pump. Jeez, I'm screwed

I also would like to find a better way to mount the radiator in the front. Maybe some UN brackets are in order. The rad is just hanging there my the Lian-li rad brackets. They are just so bulky and kinda get in the way.

Getting fittings down here will be tricky I think. I have some BP passthrough fittings. I was going to put them on the angled part of the midplate, but I don't think there will be enough room because of the front rad. So I might put fitting going straight down through the midplate into the bottom rad. Oh... maybe two d-plugs will fit down there.

This should provide a decent amount of cooling. I'm looking to do a mild overclock, but this is mostly for quiet and awesome-looking operation.

Is it just me, does the lighting seem too warm? I can take photographs of smaller components with ease... its the full case that I have trouble with. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

So, things still to do:

1. Cut hole for bottom rad
2. Stop sucking at photography
3. find better way to mount front rad
4. Stop sucking at photography
5. Finish sleeving stuff (fans, SATA cables, more PSU cables)
6. Stop sucking at photography
7. Figure out where to and make holes for fittings for the bottom rad in the midplate
8. Yep, you guessed it...
9. Wow, this list is getting long... this will be my first stage in finishing the project.
10. Another list will be made after getting all this done...

-TadZilla

 

[charlesshoults]

I really like the Grand Bleu used in the cable sleeving. I'm really not a fan of having wires permanently attached to anything. My Mozart TX came with a large bundle of cables attached to the front panel connections, firewire, four USB, headphones, mic, power and an extraordinarily long sata cable. When swapping hardware, or removing the front panel to clean fan filters, I got so annoyed by all of the wires that I just removed them from the case and have never put them back on.

I'm looking at building a quick-connect block toward the bottom of the case and replacing the wires for the power switch, reset switch, power LED and HDD LED, connecting them to a network cable end, then shortening all of the top front panel wires with quick connects appropriate to the wire type, all connecting to my quick-connect block. From there, I'm looking to sleeve all wires from the block to their respective attachment points on the motherboard. For all of the front panel connectors, I want to build a block to contain all of the wires so that instead of sticking my down next to the motherboard to figure out which is which, I simply line up the block and plug it in.

 

[EndersShadow]

Throwing out a suggestion for the front rad. I haven’t seen this done yet, but perhaps you could try modifying the elastic band mounting method for hard drives to secure it. That way all the vibrations from both the rad and the fans wouldn’t be passed to the case at all. Also Petra's has a gel vibration pad that you could use under the pump to help isolate any vibrations is puts off from the case. Hopefully that made sense to you, if not let me know and I will try to dig up some example links.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks for the suggestions!
The rubber band method would be cool, but I don't think I could get it to look nice, and with the rad w/ water being so heavy I'm not sure it would hold.

As for vibrations from the pump, I'm going to come up with my own shoggy sandwich However, I might still use the gel stuff... we shall see.

-Tad

 

[EndersShadow]

Thanks for the suggestions!
The rubber band method would be cool, but I don't think I could get it to look nice, and with the rad w/ water being so heavy I'm not sure it would hold.

As for vibrations from the pump, I'm going to come up with my own shoggy sandwich However, I might still use the gel stuff... we shall see.

-Tad

You might want to give it a try. Worst case your out a couple bucks. I used it on my HDD's at one point by using the elastic hairbands girls put in their hair and to be honest it was holding on to them like a glove. I put one above and one below the hdd and then used a zip tie as close to the hdd as I could which kept the tension nice and tight. As you stated however while it would keep it in place horizontally I am not sure how you would keep it from falling down on top of the other radiator vertically, but you might be able to drill a couple holes on either side to be able to string them vertically across the bottom of the case. Based on the other things you have done with this build and are planning to do I doubt its out of your skillset

Here is a pic of what it looked like in my system (I didnt take the time to make it look pretty by any means....

 

[Devolve]

Wow, gotta love that Razer packaging. Looks great

 

[shawnoen]

I made a new midplate for mine to get rid of the big hole. You could do the same thing but extend the angled part and box it out if you need more room?

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Nice shawnoen! I'll have to look into getting the tools for fabrication. Oh, sorry for the shipping delay. I finally found the parts you asked for and they are all boxed up. I'll ship it out tomorrow.

I'm back! Well, I never left, but it feels like I've been out of this for awhile.

Anyways, I installed the mobo block yesterday and this morning, and received some other parts yesterday. Sorry for the bad pics... I was just trying to get out an update, and I didn't have a lot of lighting. I'll take some better shots later.

Motherboard and blocks:

Starting the surgery:

This stuff is amazing:

All clean!

Blocks installed:

And new stuff:

D5 top with res attached... might not use though, as after I ordered this I decided to try a DDC:

I have the (hopefully) last orders on the way (fittings, tubing, pump, EK Supreme, other...). I've finally started to get myself out of bed early enough to work on this while wife and daughter are sleeping. So I'm hoping to finish this within the next month.

Well, thanks for checking in!

-TadZilla

 

[fochkoph]

That pump/res combo looks awesome. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Thanks fochkoph! (sounds odd saying that in my head... I wonder why)

Another update!

No true progress, but I did receive some more goodies. I still need things like matchings BP plugs and maybe some rotary 45 degree fittings, but for the most part this is it... oh, except I didn't notice that I ordered an EK Supreme HF without nickel plating from performances pcs. So, I ordered a nickel plated one from EK directly. Not sure when it will be here, but I really like the nickel plate better than the copper, so it is worth it. I'm going to sell off the copper EK, along with some other things I don't need after I'm finished with the build.

Oh, and I don't have sponsors, but I'd like to thank Sidewinder Computers and Performance-PCs for being great suppliers to buy from. I've had issues with Performance-PCs packing of goods, but they always have the parts I can't find anywhere else. And Sidewinder Computers is actually located in the city in which I live, so shipping takes no time, and they are all around good to their customers.

Okay, time for pics.

Ek Supreme-ly awesome!

My desk is being invaded:

More bars in more places...

The water mover:

This image contains nudity...

New clothes:

Some bling...

The coolant vat attached:

...some more bling

Not only will the silver fittings act as a biocide, they will also keep werewolves from steeling my compy:

Bling on the block:

Hang over:

And bling on the board:

Thats all for now. I'm thinking about moving the bottom 120.1 rad to the top to make for the SSDs. I might even move the pump down there. I'll get more into placement next week. Man, I still have some sleeving to do...

-TadZilla

 

[HeavensCloud]

Outstanding! You have given me many ideas and inspirations.

 

[EndersShadow]

Thanks fochkoph! (sounds odd saying that in my head... I wonder why)
And Sidewinder Computers is actually located in the city in which I live, so shipping takes no time, and they are all around good to their customers.

-TadZilla

You live in Franklin, IN? That sweet, I am in Indy, and I agree with you on Sidewinder Computers, they ROCK!

 

[thaddeus.cto]

Close, I live in Greenwood. Sweet! I've always wondered if there were any people on here in Indiana. We should start setting up LAN parties in this area!

-Tad