AcryCon

[Vona]

 

Hello Folks, 

 

I wanted to introduce you to my project and take my small chances on this contest. Any project i've seen so far, is pretty awesome. Good luck to anyone participation and enjoy the contest. It's also my first scratch build and contest. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Sylvain from Coolermaster for a nice V1000 PSU.

Thanks to Mundi Valur from Icemodz, for providing me with high quality cables, LEDS, cable management and other stuff.

Thanks to Andreas Klassen from Aquatuning, for providing me with watercooling parts that make the dual loop happen. 

Thanks to Lily and Vincent from Bitspower for making blocks and fittings affordable to me.

Thanks to Matthias Brömel from Moddingstylez for providing me with awesome films and decals. You were always a person of contact who is there if you need a little help.

Thanks to Peter from EK Waterblocks for providing me with coolant, ddc housings and an hd tubing kit. 

Thanks to Bundymania for interfering a lots of contacts and providing me with a lot of your knowledge about watercooling.

 

 

Please click the Banners to get transfered to the respective pages. I'd really appreciate it for the people that helped me making such a project possible to me.

 

Index:

 

1. Foreword.

2. Little introduction

3. The ideas and concept.

4. Hardware planned

5. And its realization

 

1.Foreward:

 

Please be tolerant if i do any mistakes in language, its not my native one. Im already sorry for the first very large post. If you cba to read all the stuff, just look at pictures . The log is already published to other forums but i did want to show it to you guys too. Thats why this post is huge! Next updates are smaller of course.

 

Ill answer any questions in German too. 

 

2. A little introduction:

 

Some words about myself: Im Thomas, 24, from the centre of Germany and studying

business economics right now. Since i got all the tools and skills i need for a

casecon, besides a laser, i wanted to give it a try. Ive modded some classic

Cases from Lian Li and Thermaltake before, but the idea to build a case on my

own, is in my head for a long time.

 

3. The ideas and concept:

 

The idea was to create a case, which fits to my furniture without having to spare on any feature a

premium case has. That means in particular, it should be of high quality, with

a good cable management and lots of space for my watercooling. I was looking

for a case on the common market, but there weren't any cases that are simple in

design, with a good cooling and as angular and slim as i’d like to have it. Sounds

like Caselabs, but it wasn't an option for me, even though superior

watercooling solutions, the appearance is not what i am looking for. I also

wanted it to be fitting straight to my needs without any more or less.

 

Some keyfacts/ideas:

 

-Using only acrylic and aluminium to keep it lightweight. 

-Inverted HPTX/ATX Layout.

-Three seperate chambers for the radiators. Every rad gets fresh air from

the outside, and will exhaust it out oft he case without supply the others with

warm air.

-Cooling as quiet and low in temperature as possible, with the option for

quad SLI. Ill be able to cool my Dual Titan Setup, Dual CPU, Board and Rams

with less than 35° Watertemperatur under load while remaining whisper quiet. 

-Having no more cable(s) visible than needed. 

-Keep everything as edged and minimalist as possible.

-Dual Loop Acrylic Tubing

 

When checking other modding forums, i got in touch with someone selling an EVGA SR-2 including two

Xeon hexa-cores. Whoever has seen this motherboard, its literally a monster,

knows that the case had to be appropriate. 

 

To cut a long story short, i had to create something unique. 

 

4. The hardware planned:

 

-EVGA SR-2

-2x Xeon 5649

-3x 780 Ti Matrix Platinum

-Corsair Dominator GT (2000 MHZ, CL6, 2xTripple Channel Kits)

-A 480, 420 and 360 ST30 Radiator.

-Custom Reservoir.

-Two Laings DDC1-T with Phobya Tops.

-A lot of E-Loops and 3 PK2 by Noiseblocker

-2xAquaero 5 LT to control my fans and pump.

-Coolermaster V1000 PSU

-Currently using an Intel M320 SSD, a bid outdated, problably heading for

Samsungs Evo. I'm open to suggestions. 

 

5. The realization:

 

How did i get started?

Good question. The initial idea, even before i wanted to build a one of a kind

case, was to modify my old Lian LI 2110A to make it fit HPTX. I ordered a Lian

LI D8000-3 Mainboard tray which is also the basic for this case. 

 

And thats how things started, from the drawing board. There werent any

standards given but the size oft he tray. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately i got twice of this kind of „special version“ tray.

 

 

Damaged/bent while shipping from UK to Germany :/ 

 

Since this trays arent made of thicker metal, it was quite easy to get it straight again though.

 

Back to computer work, i had to draw the parts in a standard, that could be used for laser cutting. I

knew that the fan grid would be to complex do it with common tools. 

 

The first drawings followed... No Screws should be visible on front and window

side. A decorative screen was needed and first was also the last brainchild. 

 

 

Some samples ordered and after first inspection i was sure, it will be themed

in a combination of glossy and matt „satinice“ acrylic. Last one is pretty

impressive, awesome haptic and beeing opaque. 

 

 

It felt like there are spreading 300 new Corsair 900d with an ROG Board kept in

all dark/red every month. Easy decision to use another color

 

Other parts followed the same way. Draw in Illustrator, get them to lasercut in highgloss 6mm acrylic.

 

 

Fillport on top(20 MM to fit the Bitspower Fillport) and holes for a 420 Radiator. To keep everything flush-mount,

the top got lasered twice. The bottom is made to fit a 360 Radiator, and a 150

mm hole that the power supply gets the needed fresh air.

 

 

The back was rather complex. Using 8.5 cm for the top radiator, getting his

fresh air from the rear, and about 16 cm for power supply and bot radiator

exhaust. Addin’ holes for standard atx supply too.

 

A forced little pause again...

 

 

The other parts came fine.

 

 

 

To keep the case angular and solid, i decided to use 10 mm aluminium profiles

as a frame for the top and bottom parts. On miter as good as possible.

 

 

 

Twice the fun for top and bottom. Drilling the holes, and countersink the 4 mm holes.

 

 

 

Removing the film and thats it, shiny glossy top part. 

 

I could start to combine the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by preparing the tray. Had to add a cable lead-through to have an easier connection of front

panel connectors and graficcards power.

 

 

 

I was using the same profiles to keep the tray horizontal, even with at least 5kg in coolers on it. 

 

 

A first test with the acrylic.

 

 

Perfect fit...

 

 

Adding holes and connect

the parts. 

 

 

 

 

Ill go for shorter screws

here probably later. 

 

 

Same story for link. Using a 6mm sample to have the right distance.

 

 

Two more L-angles to fixate the trayholders.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile the first sleeves arrived, i think it will fit quite well.

 

 

...and Mundis LEDs. Two 60 CM with 15 LEDs each for illumination top and bottom area.

 

 

 

Update 1 : Casefeets

 

Stainless Steel Casefeets, beautiful and very massive. Thanks to Markus at this Point!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update 2:

 

Acrylic Sidepanels.

 

Used 6mm Smoked Glass with only 20 ± % Transmission. The case will be nearly looking black, if the PC is turned on, its getting transparent.

 

Have a look from another project...

 

Turned off:

 

 

 

Turned on: 

 

 

Ive only added one LED Stripe so far, and the pc is very temporary right now, but i need it to work with illustrator since i got only a license to one computer.

 

 

Last picture sucked, excuse me pls.

[Vona]

Update 3:

 

Since the exterior is nearly finished, besides from a way to fix the panels without any visible screws and the two vandal switches for power and reset(lol windows user), i continued on working on the interior. 

 

First of all, i added other aluminium profiles that will hold the top- and midplate. Get yourself surprised when i finish the last one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a bid tricky to fix the front profiles, since there should be no screws visible on the front panel either.

 

 

I decided to cut some transparent holders. They will be covered later, but meanwhile, it works without seeing a single screw. 

 

 

I cut some holders for the "rear mount" out of a 15 mm profile. They wont be visible later the build either.

 

 

 

Ive cutted the topplate, out of 5 mm clear acrylic...

 

 

and started to give it a little try on painting an offcut. 

 

 

Its white plastic paint, getting very glossy and adding a lot of depth if you paint the acrylic from the backside.

 

When being sure that the paint doesnt suck, ive painted my topplate too.

 

 

and the same awesome effect...

 

 

 

Pictures cant describe how shiny it is, its literally like a mirror. 

 

Added a Moddingstylez and Bitspower Decal too. I have a lot of space on the topplate, since its mainly used for seperating the radiators and providing some space to SSDs and my Aqauero. 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting is, that those decals throw a shadow on its own. Looks great imho. 

 

I also used D-C-Fix film to get the motherboard tray white. At this point, i dont know if i want to paint it, not even the color of choice, neither the adornments i want to use. It might be temporary. 

 

 

Remember the Board is huge, you dont need to cover more than that

 

 

Ill probably change those stripes to anything else later, probably to my orange cutouts from the front. I like polygons

[Vona]

Update 4:

 

New Stuff from Aquatuning and EKWB. Thanks to Andreas and Peter! EKWB Stuff will be updated later. 

 

 

 

My both ddc will weigh about 2kg, full nickel 

 

Radiators will get painted white.

 

 

[Vona]

Update 5:

 

Did the second Layer for the Front:

 

 

Will use the same matt acrylic as for the green part, in pumpkin orange. Should suit to the Gigabyte's orange from EK/Mayhems.

 

I want to go for two led stripes behind the (green) vertical cuttings to illuminate the orange acrylic. Theres at least 3 mm space in depth, should be fine with most stripes.[

 

 

I actually like those polygons, im still thinking wether i should go for an Aquaero 6 (display) integration on the top or bottom side or if i should make it internally with a second Aquaero 5 Lt. Unfortunately i can't realise the dual loop with two flow sensors and two pumps with a single AE 5 LT.

 

Next step will be cutting out the fan grills on the white layer, but didnt have any time for it yet.

 

 

 

 

Update 6: 

 

Painted my Alphacool ST30 Radiators. I like the white finish, will be more decent than the original black. 

 

Have a look:

 

A little of the paint flew between the masking tape but i guess i can fix this with nitro dilution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vona]

Update 7 with Bitspower:

 

Started on rebuilding the board. Getting rid of the air coolers and replacing every cooler with liquid ones. Im tempting to see how it will look in pastel orange and green. 

 

 

 

Also demounting heat spreader from Corsairs Dominators and mounting the DIMM 6 Blocks from Bitspower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heres a final impression on the board as it is so far:

 

 

Thats a lot of cash ... 

[Vona]

Update 8:

 

As i said on the beginning here, Sylvain from Coolermaster sent me a nice V1000 PSU. It might be close with 3 780Tis(250W each) and 2 Xeon 5649 (90 W each) but ill give it a try. I can still upgrade to a V1200 if my PC crashes in benchmarks. Under normal circumstances i wont be ever having full load on 24 threads and 3 Gpus i guess.

 

Dont want to talk bad about my old Corsair, but its next level quality regarding cables, packaging and haptic. Im glad Coolermaster was so generous. 

 

 

Besides from that, i've added some cable covers. I cant paint them at the moment(its too cold) and will be using a decal until spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the reservoir plate has a little too much depths. Ill go for a smaller one in cooperation with Markus/Marta (www.stempelhauser.de)

 

It will get a masked Bitspower logo which will shine in both water colors when filled up.

 

 

Final update so far!, Update 9:

 

Three Asus 780 TI Matrix Platinum! 

 

 

Its seriously hard to get a straight build with mainly vertical or horizontal tubing when using this combination of board and blocks. I decided to use an illuminated midplate (21 mm) with water distribution to get easy from each part to another part.

 

Measuring all the distances....

 

 

And typing anything to Illustrator for the CAD.

 

Adding pump and Radiator positions...

 

 

 

 

And heres why im going such a complex way:

 

 

(click the thumbnail for a large view of the loops)

 

Thats it for now!

 

Best regards,

Thomas

[MonsterMawd]

Lookin good Thomas

[Vona]

Thank you!

Working on a big update with CnC stuff, radiators, new fans, custom res and sli bridge...

 

Be patient a while

[-=SpH!Nx=-]

This is awesome! Can't wait to see the finished build! The Orange/Green/White theme is coming out really well! 

[Mike Petereyns]

verry nice build! Do you cut the acrylic yourself with home made cnc/ laser? Grtzz