[Scratch build] Lignum Cube - FINISHED

[Modyfikator]

Hi

 

I finally started new project, I hope you'll like it

This time I think I'm going to write a little more, since I have quite a lot of thoughts about this build.

I'm going to do something I have never seen in any worklog - I'm gonna post animated gifs

 

Introduction

My previous build ReactorMod was cool, but what looks nice isn't always practical and it doesn't really suit my desk. This time I wanted to make a case that would be neat so I could put it on my desk.

 

Structure

I wanted this case to be as small as possible, but it has to fit ATX motherboards. It's not a big deal to build a tiny case for a tiny motherboard:). After many excogitations and considering avaible for me tools and materials I've decided that the best dimensions would be 360 x 270 x 190 mm. 

I divided the case into two 'floors'. The upper one will be basically only for motherboard, lower floor would hold PSU, pump, 240mmm radiator, reservoir and hdds. 

 

Materials

Since I want the case to be neat I decided that aluminium and wood would do the job. So the front and rear of the case will be made out of plywood. Sides and the top of the case will be bent from one piece of 2mm thick aluminium sheet.

 

Decided to make the cover first, so I coud adjust front and rear panels to fit it perfectly.

I needed to nicely cut 910mm of aluminium and I only own a 20cm long guillotine. So I headed over to a workshop of a friend of mine.

 

That's my 2 mm thick aluminium sheet.

 

That's what I call awesome machine! It was made in 1957 and still runs perfect. And I bet it will run smoothly for next 60 years. 

 

Once I got the sheet cut it was time to fold it. 160 tons pressure, made in 1971.

 

On the left side of the pic you can see the folded cover. Now I cut sheet for the bottom of the case, which doesn't need folding. 

 

Back at home. That's how the cover went out.

 

Having the cover made I could got down to the front and rear of the case. I ordered plywood cut in correct dimensions. It's 9mm thick

 

Wanted the case and plywood to fit nicely so I had to mill it a little. My milling machine doesn't have so big range of motion so I had to improvise. That's mine WS15 bench drill.

 

Filled out the edges.

 

I think it went out pretty well.

 

That's how it looks like temporarily assembled with a beer can to see the dimensions.

 

 

Sponsors

I'd like to thank the following companies:

 

 

EK Water Blocks for providing awesome water cooling gear. List of the items I got from them is really long. It's i.a. video card full-cover, mosfet block, radiators, reservoir, tubing, fittings and so on. You will see it all in the worklog. 

 

 

for providing DEUS M1 550W power supply unit 

 

for providing SSD Premier Pro SP900 128GB 

and XPG 2x4Gb PC3-12800

 

That's all for now, stay tuned!

[Modyfikator]

Then it was time to make some kind of fastenings that will be attached to the front and rear of the case.

Firstly I cut it from a 10mm square aluminium rod and evened it out on a lathe. Then just some drilling and M4 rifling. 

 

 

 

 

 

Now needed to make the rods that will go along the case.

 

Evening out.

 

Here goes a gif where I make a countersink for ISO912 bolt.

 

Rifling. 

 

That's my cats reaction... Think he was not impressed.

 

Decided to buy: i5 3570k, asus p8p67 evo and msi 7970 .

 

Wanted to introduce you the first sponsor:

 

 

Silentium PC provided DEUS M1 550W psu.

 

 

 

 

 

Motherboard.

I was going to buy a p8p67 PRO, but I picked up a great bargain and bought EVO version quite cheap. 

 

Those boards are almost the same, the most visible difference is that third heat sink beside pci-e socket. 

 

I was curious if it actually cools something, since I didn't notice anything under it while looking on the back of the board.

 

It turned out there's only one tiny part underneath. I don't know what it does but I'm pretty sure that it's in the same place in PRO version without a heat sink.

 

So I think that additional heat sink is only for the thrill of it  Well played Asus, well played...

 

3570k in da house Seller says it made 4,6Ghz @1,3V and he didn't want to go further because of his lame cooler. We'll see what I can do with it. 

 

Just received delivery from ADATA, which kindly decided to support me with SSD and RAM.

SSD Premier Pro SP900 128GB 

 

XPG 2x4Gb PC3-12800

 

 

EK Water Blocks decided to sponsor me again with their awesome water cooling gear. List of the items I got from them is really long. It's i.a. video card full-cover, mosfet block, radiators, reservoir , tubing, fittings and so on.

 

Here's a quick unboxing of EKWB stuff. It's in Polish. I can only wonder how strange that language might sound for you.

 

 

The last sponsor is a bit-tech.pl which provided sweet sleveed cables.

 

 

 

 

OK so when I finally collected everything I needed I could get to work.

 

I have spent a whole day passionately bending the acrylic pipes. As I expected it's not a piece of cake. The bending itself is not that hard, but it's getting more interesting when a pipe has to bend in like four different directions.

 

 

 

Video card will be mounted horizontally by using a pci-e riser. Before I could bend the pipes to connect it, I had to attach it to the case. Drilled holes in a backplate.

 

 

 

And made a fixing from a aluminium channel bar.

 

 

While mounting the water blocks I used Cooler Master thermal compound. I always use this kit, because it has a grease cleanser and the thermal compound is the best in price/quality category, I think.

 

of course I will change the screws, I just had them at hand at the moment.

 

The channel will be mounted to the front of the case.

 

 

Video card mounted

 

Please note that the cutout in the rear panel of the case is just temporary so I can measure and try how stuff fits before I make a final version. 

 

The mainboard is also temporarily mounted. I quickly bent a steel sheet so I can mount everything and see how to make the pipes. When the pipes are done I will make a new mobo tray from aluminium.

 

 

Two EKWB Xt 240mm rads are mounted on the sides of the case. Between them I'll put a D5 pump and a power supply. I'm also going to put there three 2,5" HDDs and a slot-in dvd.

 

The rads are connected in parallel.

[Modyfikator]

The loop will be connected as below:

pump -> rads (in parallel) ->res-> mosfet block -> video card-> cpu -> pump

 

I have never seen a water cooling loop connected as mine. I will not use three-way adapters. A pump top that I got from EKWB has two outlets and I decided to use both of them. The coolant will flow from those 2 outlets to rads, and then from rads to

reservoir where it will mix. Then to water blocks and to the pump.

 

I do realise that there might be different flow in both radiators, but I don't think that's a problem at all.

 

I was looking for a credible test rads in series vs in parallel but I didn't find any.

 

While I was mounting the water block on the mainboard I thought to myself that it looks kinda...naked without that third heat sink. So I cut the heatpipe and mounted it.

 

The case is so small that I'll probably have to make custom cables, so I started with a pump.

 

And that's how I connected 2 ssd's and a hdd.

 

Here's new version of the lower part of the loop, used a 3-way bronze adapter I made earlier.

 

All tubes are bent and ready for mounting.

 

After a long while I finally connected the whole loop, but I need to finish few things in the case before I fill it.

 

 

 

 

 

That's the front panel, on the right hand side you can see mounted power and reset buttons, the holes on the left side will be described later. As you can see the burl is glued on the sides of the front panel, but it's not cut to size yet.

 

Here it looks like something went wrong, but it's a pic taken in the middle of cutting the burl to size.

 

Aaand it's cut. This stripe is about 3mm wide, but it's doing the job.

 

Burl looks interesting with glue on it. Wonder how it's gonna look like with a varnish or wax. Haven't decide yet if and which one I'll use here.

 

Vaneer glued to the front panel, back view.

 

Front view.

 

After a couple of hours burl is glued and cut to size. Also mounted the buttons and LEDs to see how it looks like.

Yeah, that yellowish dot on the left side of the panel is a power led. I really didn't want to put there some ordinary leds. 

 

Here the led is off.

 

I really like the effect, so I can't help but posting more pics.

 

 

On this pic the burl colour is the most accurate, at least on my screen. 

 

View on the pwr and reset leds.

 

That's all for today, hope you like it, next update should be tomorrow, I've been really eager beaver lately.

 

I couldn't make up my mind how to paint the veneer, after a couple days of thinking I decided to go with half-matt clear varnish. Must say that effect is awesome, the veneer looks just like I imagined. Sadly, the veneer on the front of the case fell off, it

seems I didn't glue it properly, I'm gonna have to try this again. 

 

So I'm waiting for a packge with veener, and in the meantime I got down to cables and other stuff. There's pretty much work to do, mainly with the cables. I needed to shorten the 8pin and 24pin atx cables from the psu, make cables for LEDs, buttons, a

internal USB cable to connect Aquaero and much more. 

 

I cut the mobo tray and mounted standoffs. Pic was taken before cutting holes for cables.

 

Finally I could get down to extension cables provided by bit-tech.pl. 

 

Had to drill 50 holes so I printed tamplates and sticked them on a 10x20mm aluminium flat bar. 

 

Punched the holes

 

and started drilling. I wanted to make a nice gif and set my camera on a tripod but it run out of battery... so there isn't many photos. 

 

Nope, it's not blood, just paint.

 

I'm pretty glad with the outcome, but im not a CNC machine:) They're quite big but I had this flat bar at hand. 

 

Just a bunch of pics to enjoy:)

 

 

Extensions look good on the background of painted veneer. 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now, stay tuned!

[Modyfikator]

Back of the case with PSU mounting and cover for motherboard I/O ports and VC. That 4 holes are where the Aquaero will be mounted.

 

Front of the case. Had some problems with the veneer but after 3rd try it's perfect

 

Mesh that I'm going to put into side of the case.

 

 

Main part of the case, before anodizing (black). On the top will be graphite pmma. 

 

 

Bottom of the case. I cut a large hole, I'm also going to put mesh here. I'm trying to make the air flow as good as possible in such a small case.

 

Don't now if Aquaero is popular among you, but for me it's the best controll panel for water cooling. Wanted to use a relay integrated in it to switch cold cathodes. Sadly it was too weak with max switching current 0.5A since my cathodes draw not less

than 1A. So it was time for some AquaModding ;P

 

Soldered out the relay.

 

And soldered a 3pin fan socket instead. I will connect there new external relay.

 

Luckily I managed to put the relay in the cold cathodes converter casing.

 

Closed converter case . Black and green - relay control (from Aquaero). Black and red - cathodes power (12V from psu ). White - cathodes.

 

Powered it up, works brilliant!

 

I used HF3FF relay, but you can use whatever relay you want just make sure that its coil doesn't draw to much current , I think that 500mA maximum is safe.

[Modyfikator]

This project is finished!

 

Specs:

Motherboard: Asus P8p67 EVO

CPU: Intel i5-3570k

RAM: ADATA Pc3-12800 2x 4Gb

PSU: Silentium PC Deus M1 550W

SSDs: ADATA Premier Pro 128Gb i Kingston SsdNow V300 120Gb in RAID 0

HDD: WD Blue 750Gb

 

I'd like to thank the following companies for supporting me in this project. Without you it woudn't be the same!

 

EK Water Blocks for providing water cooling gear and for help in choosing the parts.

 

Adata for providing Premier Pro SSD and XPG Ram module

 

Silentium PC for providing Deus M1 550W power supply.

 

Bit-Tech.pl for providing awesome sleeved cables.

 

Time for pics! 

 

Naked case without the cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover is made from anodized aluminium. 

 

 

 

Cathodes on, they light a little weaker then I expected:( 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wanted to post some pics of my desk, but it's messy as so it has to wait 

 

In summary, I'd like to say I'm pretty happy with the final effect, despite there are few things to improve. Work with rigid tubing was really hard, I hope it was worth the effort. 

That's all in this project, see you soon!