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Loramentum - A watercooled, wall mounted, portable rig


Maki role

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Posted

Hello everybody and welcome to the log for Loramentum, the rig I'm submitting to the competition this year!

 

The rig itself has been complete since mid-November 2014, so I'll be transplanting things over here.  If you've seen the project before, you know what to expect, if you haven't then I'll try to provide an interesting journey over the next few days.  Once I've posted the worklog and reached the final pictures, I'll update the first post with them to make things easier to look through.

 

So without further ado, let's get going eh?

 

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First up, a BIG thank you to Intel, who provided the CPU for this project, an i7 4770k!

 

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Brief:

Loramentum is going to be a wall-mounted PC. The watercooling is going to be placed mostly inside the frame itself, rather than going around it. The idea is that the rig will also be relatively easy to transport in a flight case that I will also be making. Obviously it's probably easier to just use an EVGA Hadron or something instead, but this seemed more fun.

 

Specs:

The specs are roughly as follows:

CPU: i7 4770k

Mobo: Asus Z87 Pro-I

RAM: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866MHz

GPU: Asus R9 290

PSU: Corsair RM650

SSD: 256GB Samsung 840 Pro (I had a fortunate spare)

 

Pictures

Given how this build does require a fair bit of CAD for the main structure (I know, not everybody's personal preference) I decided that it would be a cool idea to render the whole build. This is actually a really handy process as I can experiment around with colour schemes etc. without ruining components/wasting time and money. It just adds a lot of flexibility to the build. These renders are by no means final btw. These were all rendered at 4k, so click the images for the full size versions.

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In order to stick with the black and gold colour scheme, I'm going to be gold plating several of the metal components in the build, in particular the RAM heatspreaders and the GPU block plate.

Here are the parts so far:

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I know you've all seen it before, but damn I love the look of these sticks. Very different in person to how they appear in the promotional art though, the bars have much more texture to them, which is no bad thing.

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Dat box...

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Sockets make for some cool macro shots.

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And just for a laugh, this is where I'm keeping the components for now... Yeah I know, I don't think I've ever seen an emptier Phantom before.

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And the award for the loudest stock component ever goes to the 290. I knew the stock cooler was pretty loud, but I was truly taken aback just by how much, it's insane.

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Posted

These are the concept renders for the flight case. Given the open nature of the main chassis, it was important to have a means of safely transporting it around. I was torn between either using black carbon vinyl or a knurled aluminium finish, so I rendered two versions in order to check things out. You'll see which I went for later on.

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Posted

Here's a peak at the milling process. This was carried out by user Phame (of Diamond Cooling), did an excellent job if I might add too!

 



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And the finished part once it was in my hands:

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Decided to slot in the reservoir and pump to show how things fit. The card is just an old 590 I had lying around, it's a fair bit bigger than the card that will actually go there, plus the ports are in different locations.

Posted

And continuing with the updates:

First up is the laser cut back panel. This is what sits behind the machined panel and makes in watertight. It's 5mm clear acrylic, decided to include all the holes so that I could use it as a template to drill into the main plate

 


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Next are the watercooling components, kindly provided by EKWB! I had access to a decent backdrop and lighting through work for these so thought it would be wise to make the most of the opportunity and practice some studio shots.

 



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Posted

Picked up some bits and bobs for the next stage of the construction:

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Quite a beefy tapping wrench for quite a beefy tap, good to finally have one of these, should be really useful.

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Look ma! No hands! Confirmation that I did indeed get the right things, this means I can progress with the main construction pretty smoothly.


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Probably the biggest surprise for me, the glue actually worked. I used a version of the one I was recommended for o-ring cord, it's bloody strong too. This is a quick test piece I made (read really sloppy, the real ones will be much better) just to see if it would hold up. The bond cured really fast, after just 5 minutes or so I couldn't even pull the thing apart, it just stretched.

Received a whole bunch of stuff in the mail. Most of it is relating to the cables, but there are a few fittings and other accessories in there too. Had the chance to take some photos at work yesterday, we have an old projector screen packed up in the basement that I've been using as a makeshift lightbox, works really well in my opinion. If anybody wants to pick up something quick and easy for taking studio shots of their work, hit up the bay and look for those, they can often be had for cheap (as in 15-35 quid) so it's definitely worth it.


O-ring cord, very useful for custom sized gaskets.
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16 AWG Black wire, have white as well but didn't bother photoing it. Should make cable management a blissful experience.
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100m of MDPC-X sleeving, won't need anything like that, but 100m was pretty reasonably priced and black is a useful colour to have in the cupboard.
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30m of Vanilla Sands MDPC-X, should suit the theme nicely. I like also how it's not a lurid colour, the black should help it to stand out well.
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Always nice to receive the little samples with the packages from Nils
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Ooh what's this then?
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Very solid feeling crimping tool, like the black look too.
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Again I won't really need this many, but it doesn't hurt to have spares for the future.
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Bitspower D-Plug fitting, this will allow me to add the GPU to the loop nice and easily.
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Spacers and stop plugs
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Posted

Finally had the time to get the major holes drilled for the fittings. I was terrified of doing this as it can so easily go wrong, plus I only have one chance to get it right. Turns out my fears were justified too...
 

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One sexy card
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Came out well
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Sh**, this is what I was afraid of. The bit randomly caught on a part of the third hole, ripped the top out. Luckily, of all the parts for this to happen, this was the best. It's situated under the GPU connector, so it won't be seen. As such I've managed to find a simple way of fixing it. I'll post the picture of the fix tomorrow, it looks okay, but as it won't be seen anyway, I'm not worried.

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Still, I managed to fix it all up and get the o-rings finished.  Finished tapping all the holes and added the screws, time for a leak test!
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Back
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Blue!
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Thankfully it all worked!

Posted

Hey, I am a big fan of your work! I have seen the finished Loramentum and I really like it! Unfortunately, I think this build can not compete for this contest! I don't think you have used any Cooler Master product, which is a requierement. "Must include at least one Cooler Master product and needs to be identifiable." I could be wrong. Have you done any changes to the build?

Posted

Hey, I am a big fan of your work! I have seen the finished Loramentum and I really like it! Unfortunately, I think this build can not compete for this contest! I don't think you have used any Cooler Master product, which is a requierement. "Must include at least one Cooler Master product and needs to be identifiable." I could be wrong. Have you done any changes to the build?

From what I can tell in the wording, that's if your scratch build is based on a pre-existing case. There are a fair few entrants this year who don't have any coolermaster bits and bobs at the forefront, same as always. In any case, I may as well post it here and hope for the best, nothing ventured nothing gained after all.

Wiring begun:

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Fill/drain ports along with fans and dye:

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Posted

From what I can tell in the wording, that's if your scratch build is based on a pre-existing case. There are a fair few entrants this year who don't have any coolermaster bits and bobs at the forefront, same as always. In any case, I may as well post it here and hope for the best, nothing ventured nothing gained after all.

 

I understood the same thing you say about the wording and that is why I did not bother about the logos for my build log. But an automated reminder e-mail I got from CM says to sent an e-mail with "5 or more pictures of your final mod entry (preferably 800 x 600 pixels in .jpg file format) including the one with CM component (name specified)". If Loramentum is accepted I am sure it will do well! Good luck!

Posted

Yeah I saw the email too, although I figured it was just a blanket one to cover all bases.

Finally managed to get this bugger out of the way. This teeny extension should allow the cables to pass 1:1 from the motherboard to the flipped PSU, it will also be completely hidden so don't worry.
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Also picked up this rather long extender, certainly looks the business.
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Seen this used to great effect before, should provide a nice golden glow rather than harsh white.
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They seem to have come out pretty well
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