Project Sulaco

[tobyak]

One of my fave activities today..... Chassis cutting

The NZXT Tempest Evo can accomodate a 240 this rad in the roof although you wouldnt know until you take the 140mm fans out.

So i was about to make some templates for some rad holders when as i took the 2 140mm fans out of the roof i found a set of mounting holes, now if these are for a rad im not sure but they match up to the middle set of mounting holes perfectly with 120x15mm spacing and apart from mounting i can see no reason for them to be there. The airflow is very restricted though due to the centre plate so without further ado.... LET THE CUTTING BEGIN

First up, marking out the areas to remove with extreme prejudice and a dremel....... HINT... dynamite is not accurate enough do not use.. although i doubt it would scratch this case, rugged is not the word

All marked up, now for the fun.... erm i mean "now to cut out the areas with supreme precision"

ok thats the top cut out, now for the side.. when making the side wondow i completly forgot to make sure that the fan would fit next to the drive bays..... whoops it didnt.... and so..... MORE DREMEL

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By a massive stroke of luck the removed bays make a great area to install my PSU hood and new drive holders..... and now if you will excuise me i have work to do and i plan to pretend i intended to remove the bays all along......

coming up..... Cereal boxes and there many uses

 

[tobyak]

Fear not Guys and Gals i have not abandoned you all, i am waiting on a ton of deliveried for supplies and several sponsors including

Enermax
ASUS
SpecialTech

Lots of updates on the way as soon as i get my shipments

 

[daedal]

Very nice project; I'm looking forward to seeing the rest!

 

[tobyak]

Supply Drop

It is that time again and another supply drop has arrived, this time it is my much anticipated EK Watercooling

So lets see what we have on the box........

Fittings, Res, CPU waterblock, MB waterblock, Pump, and Some EK UV blue coolant

First up for a closer look, the MB waterblock for the ASUS Crosshair V formula

The Crosshair V only has space fo a small MB waterblock but it looks great non the less

I am happy to report this comes with all the fixtures you will need and the thermal pads too


Next up... CPU waterblock (Supreme LTX AMD)

Ahhhh a thing of beauty, chunky and very heavy for its size, always reasuring

This also comes with all fixing you will need, and the AMD LTX blocks do not require a dedicated backplate


Next... EK multioption res 250basic

I am mystified as to why this res is called the basic, the options are just great, whilst it lacks the 2 front facing ports of the advanced model it gains a top port ideal for filling

Inclided... 2 port caps, bolts for mounting, mounts and threaded internal tube


Fixings, not a lot needs to be said here exept they are all of great quality. In a break from the norm i will be using barbs as i like the look. Same goes for the UC blue fluid, i simply cannot resist UV blue and EK has some of the best UV dye around

Last up, from EK, the pump, as i am using a cross flow rad that will be roof mounted i wont need a hugely powerful pump to move the head of fluid so i went with the nice compact DCP 2.2

Again there is plenty supplied including 3 to 4 pin converter and mounting brackets


And my radiator the Hardwarelabs GT Gen2, this is a cross flow with ports on either end rather then the traditional PC watercooling of a twin layer return flow, and perfect for my requirements, great flowrate and perfect for clearing board architecture that may get in the way of a more conventional rad

A MASSIVE THANKS TO EK FOR TAKING A CHANCE ON SPONSORING THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
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[tobyak]

UPDATE TIME!!!!!!!

So this week its been all about the PSU cover and res holder combo
BUT.. there was a problem, when i could have ordered some nice smoked (very easy to cut and bond) Acrylic, i messed up and ordered the nightmare to cut and bond that is Perspex (plexiglass) so there was some serious outside the box thinking to get around it

First up getting all the pieces together (couldnt get pics of cutting wayyyyy to much airborne dust) )

First off i tacked all the pieces with superglue that i gelled with a little water...... it fell apart 3 times resulting in a LOT of swearing, finaly the main shell was tacked

The task began of finding a way to bond the perspex in a way that could take the stresses as obviously superglue will fracture if subjected to a shock....... so..... an hour of wandering around the house searching for old stockpiles of tools and misc decorating odds and ends when an idea struck me..... why not use the car body filler that i used on the side panel...

SUCESS!!!!!!! It aint pretty but it sure is strong

and the starting of the res holder an front plate

more later when the glue and filler fully cures and i can go mental with a sander


IN THE MEANTIME...... another....... SUPPLY DROP

This time Enermax who have been good enough to assist me with this project with some amazing Vegas Duo fans

And here they are

so whats in the box i hear you cry... well ok i dont but here it is just incase you did cry it

side by side 120mm and 140mm Vegas Duo fans, and the accessories from the the packs

Each fan comes with an attacked micro speed control and mode button

each fan also included rubber mounts and a 3pin to moles adapter

Now on to the 2 main features, the first is the brilliant click blades, a simple puch of the back of the blades and the blades unclip from the body of the fan, brilliant for cleaning and modding

at this point i need to point out that the blades are clear with a silver stripe to reflect the led arrays around the housing

and the second main feature of these amazing fans... the LED array, with the Vegas Due this is a twin array (blue red), the big brother to these the Vegas Trio have triple arrays of red, blue, green and more then 11 modes on the Duo alone

the Vegas range in action

And to finish off this supply drop the back of the box

and i simply had to add this as it just caught my eye.. there is a tab on the top to make it easier to open the fan packaging so you dont destroy the package... kinda cute

A massive thanks to Enermax for the fans






MORE COMING SOON.......................

 

[tobyak]

Big update in the works, another supply drop ASUS this time and more work on the PSU shroud

 

[Nightrainsrt4]

You can get acrylic cement at your local hardware store for a few bucks that will bond the plexi/perspex together.

Keep up on the build. It looks nice!

 

[tobyak]

You can get acrylic cement at your local hardware store for a few bucks that will bond the plexi/perspex together.

Keep up on the build. It looks nice!

I tried that, ive got the stuff laying around by the bucket full, its a very specific type of plexi, not exactly sure, but i have found exactly ZERO colvent, glue that will work all it does is frost it

 

[tobyak]

Just before the festivities i managed to get a rare nugget of time to finish the PSU shroud

First up a monor admission...... the mk1 broke a bit.. a child of mine who shall remain nameless knocked it on the floor causing the most frantic game of jenga in the history of the universe so the repairs commenced

Once it was all reglued and reinforced it was time for some frantic filling and sanding

Once the majority of the sanding and filling was done all i needed to do before undercoating was cut a hole for

OK i will state the obvious... UNDERCOATING

After a painfully large amount of painting and sanding and waiting for cure times i could finaly text fit it... seen here with my georgious EK multioption 250x2 res Basic his res will be the corner stone of my all EK watercooling in this system

and yes i know its not lateral to the line of the case its a test fit

Next post later today the installing of my beloved water cooling

Massive thanks to EK for all there help i could not have don't this without them and there amazing products and assistance. more coming soon
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[tobyak]

As a little aside i decided to get a table saw or a bandsaw, BUT i cant afford one and my wife will kill me if i do buy one

So whats the solution..... MAKE ONE

Heres a quick guide

You will need....

• Cheap workbench
• Old Shelves
• Spare wood (must be perfectly straight)
• Wood Screws
• G or speed Clamps (optional)
• Cheap jigsaw

You dont need to build big in this case the final surface area is 18inch square but use your own size it can be modified

Take your shelf or left over wood and mark out your cuts to make the working surface in my version as the shelf is 9 inches wide i need to make 2 planks 9x18

To make your joined work surface you need to use some more spare wood to make the rails on the underside, just cut your spare to match the length of the work surface and mark up a number of holes to screw the frame together

Clamp everything together tight, your final surface mush be perfectly flat

And here is how it all looks fixed together

With a set square mark up some lines so you can make sure you mount your saw perfectly in line with the sides

Drill holes for the saw blade to pass through you can have as many or as few as you want

Remove the base plate from your cheap jig saw ans drill some holes in it for your screw/bolt holes

Once you have that all put back together and have remounted your saw to its base and then to the work surface you can flip it over and mount it to your cheap work bench... this is where the split top in the bench comes in really handy to put the body of the jigsaw through, then just tighten your bench up it will grip the base of the saw and you are good to test it

i tried both free hand and with a guide i made later, i must admit free hand is a little scary you are afterall working with an upside down jigsaw but using a guide it is realy easy and the cuts are perfect. you will be able to see on the pic below which cut is free and which is with a guide

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Enjoy

 

[tobyak]

Supply Drop

As the project reaches its close and the next project is waiting in the wings I was delighted to hear that Bitfenix wanted to share some of there products with me

I am usually dubious when it comes to pre-sleeved cables you never quite know what to expect in terms of quality but i was very very pleasantly surprised

So first things first, whats in the box...

Bitfenix Alchemy Cables

As you can see we have a substantial drop here, including, 24pin, 3pin fan, internal IO, USB and 6pin PCIe. And an added bonus or some LED flex strips (chainable)

The 24pin connectors are very neat indeed and available in several coulurs, peronialy i like black and blue, an even sleeker look is achieved with a no heat shrink design

The same no shrink is also true of the 6pin PCIe

Some of the other cables in the range due to there design have some heat shirink but are presented very neat and precise

All pins and connectors are high qualty with well deffined pins some are plated for better contact

The sleeving realy is excelent, unfortunatly i dont have the time or resources to sleeve my HAF90 PSU but thankfully now i wont haft to, the sleeving is both dense and attractive

Finaly we have some Bitfenix Alchemy LED Flexstrips
I have seen and owned many different types of these over the years but Bitfenix have gone the extra mile and made them chain able, several connectors are included to allow you to daisy chain many strips in to one super long strip

Each flex strip is supplied with molex connector, power lead, 1inch chain connector and a pair of micro chain connectors

Available in a variety of colors and lengths when the description read "Super Bright" they were not kidding, 4 of these can light a large living room, and the LEDs are top notch for quality

It is a massive thanks to Bitfenix for sharing some of there brilliant Alchemy series products with me
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[Taldren]

Any update on this?

 

[tobyak]

Update coming soon. the joys of being a father all your free time goes down the toilet

 

[jarhead]

Good god man, let the child starve! The internet needs you!

 

[tobyak]

Good god man, let the child starve! The internet needs you!

Lol, tempting, although i am currently in talks with a company looking at acquiring a 3d printer, so possibly some very exciting content to come

 

[pwrusr]

sweet build so far!
in for updates

 

[Taldren]

btw, saftey tip ... wear shoes in your workshop
Think of the children!

 

[mannyman]

btw, saftey tip ... wear shoes in your workshop
Think of the children!

[H]awk eyed.