PROJECT: Elementus

RoyalMarine

well i said i was making a wooden case

so i called it project elementus as im using wood, electricity and water


well ive got the case half complete already 2 days work and she's a beauty.

what im planning:

case: custom handmade/carved wooden case.
size will be 2ft x 2ft x 1ft high. im using 3/4 inch mdf.
plexiglass is ready to be cut, and im picking up my roll's of tinted liner on tuesday.
tools being used: jigsaw, router, various drill bits, circular sander, bar sander and various chizel's.

ive put almost 24 hours in 2 days into this and ive also been working 12 hour shifts at work im a bit lagged. but back at it at 7am when i get home!

so the case will hold......
10 x sata hard drives.
so far ive got 4 x 1tb drives, 3 x 500gb drives and 1 x 150 raptor.
waiting to fill these before i get more
4 x dual layer lightscribe dvd drives. ( i know, 4 is a lot, but i use them so much! )
1 x breakout box for my xfi fatality.
1 x akasa fan controller/card reader.

watercooling gear:
bought a rig off papu on tueaday, and sadly to say i ripped it to pieces
will need to double check the items but im pretty sure its a
laing d5 pump
small square res ( dont know model or make yet)
twin 120mm fan thermochill rad. (i think)
uv blue water dye and all the other bits and bobs.

im putting 6 x 120mm fans into the case. 2 at the front, 2 at the rear and 1 at each side to move the dead air.
all 6 fans are silent and run at pretty low speeds.

the hardware:
680i striker
qx6700
4gb mushkin redline 8500
2 x 8800gt 512mb
ocz ram cooler
700w seasonic modular psu.
windows vista ultimate. best 500 euro ever! AHHHHH

not watercooling the gpu's yet as waiting for my aunt to come home in april to bring better gear

but ill have the seats for the rad's and new res alreaedy for the new wc gear.
it will be a 2 seperate loops.


so tomorrow when i get home, ill de-assemble the case and start taking more pics and get some great shots.
dont want to show too much as this is gonna be a monster.

PogMoThoin

If i were you, since wood will absorb heat, I'd try to bring the air all in one direction. Avoid having air blowing in the sides as this will hinder airflow. The idea is to have all the air in the case circulated out the back as fast as possible, no air lingering at all, air in at the lower front and out at the upper back as hot air rises.

RoyalMarine

i havnt drilled any holes for the fans yet apart from 2 at the front. what i might do is stick with 2 at the front and 3 at the rear. and have the air just go straight through and out the back.

RoyalMarine

forgot to mention, im buying a large amount of heat resistant/noise dampening rubber mats to line the inside of the case. its black with a slight shine so it will help keep the wood cooler, and also make it look nicer

will also use it to stop vibrations from dvd drives and harddrives when i eventually get around to building the housing units for both.

PogMoThoin

2 fans in, 2 fans out or 3 fans in, 3 fans out, should be even pull/push for best effect.

RoyalMarine

sounds good so ill see what space is available for them at front/back in the morning.

awhir

look here for insperation -> -> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178706

RoyalMarine

ok, been a while now.

the box is nearly completed.
pics will be up in a day or 2. ive taken a lot, and just need the time to sort through them from start to finish.

waiting on a few bits to arrive but im gonna leak test my wc gear tomorrow and see how it gets on.
picking up the final rubber lining for the case tomorrow.

still not decided on a color scheme yet.
might leave it wood as it looks great, but with the uv blue inside it might not.

ill see tomorrow when its all inside the case if i get finished.

Anti

What would look trick is if you grab a uv pen and trace the grain of the wood.

L31mr0d

there is a severe lack of any pictures in this forum :mad:

PogMoThoin

Anti wrote: »

What would look trick is if you grab a uv pen and trace the grain of the wood.

:rolleyes: He's using MDF, there is no grain.

L31mr0d

PogMoThoin wrote: »

:rolleyes: He's using MDF, there is no grain.

ah... now I understand why there's no photos

RoyalMarine

freekin edit button removes after a certain amount of days?!?!!?!

right... pics are kinda ready.

just uploading them on imageshack now.

right, cant edit the above posts

so here's the pics so far.


this is the rear of the case. so far


rear again.


dual fan's for the rad.


over view of the case so far.


out of focus shot of the harddrives.


in focus shot of the harddrives so far

RoyalMarine

motherboard with d-tek block on it.
im gonna start a leak test tonight after i mix my chemicals up for it.


inside view of where the rad is mounted.


dvd drive rack.
first person to point out that ive cracked my perspex wins


another side view of the case so far.


and now the front so far.
i cracked the friggin screen on the card reader when pushing it into the slot


replacement is ordered and on the way

still not sure about the paint job..... any suggestions?
lots of sanding to be done tomorrow and making a snag list now so if you see anything let me know!!

RoyalMarine

anti, if you can delete the posts above which i reserved it would be great.

didnt know they removed edit after a few days.

Anti

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

anti, if you can delete the posts above which i reserved it would be great.

didnt know they removed edit after a few days.

Sure man, I didnt realise that either to be honest. Btw i spotted the crack from the screw

papu

Looking sweet , verynice to see my bits go to a good home

RoyalMarine

not much to update.
most of the components are now in the case.
water cooling is giving me some hassle.

tomorrow im daisy chaining the fans and harddrives and dvd drives so ill get pics of that up soon.

ordered some more stuff and waiting for that to arrive before its finished.

should be here early next week.

edit: watercooling is now up and running to some extent.
here's some pics.

nibble

Just so you know Royal, don't ever run a DDC upside down it f's the impeller. Also make sure you have some ventilation beneath the pump, don't cover the little hole on the underside.

On another note, I'd recognise my old caulked up rad anywhere.... ah the memories .

RoyalMarine

nibble wrote: »

Just so you know Royal, don't ever run a DDC upside down it f's the impeller. Also make sure you have some ventilation beneath the pump, don't cover the little hole on the underside.

On another note, I'd recognise my old caulked up rad anywhere.... ah the memories .

yeah noticed that when it started getting hot! :rolleyes:

you can buy it back if its semtimental value!
waiting for my new gear to arrive so im stuck with this one.
have to admit, its in great condition for 3rd hand and a few years old! :eek::eek:

papu

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

yeah noticed that when it started getting hot! :rolleyes:

you can buy it back if its semtimental value!
waiting for my new gear to arrive so im stuck with this one.
have to admit, its in great condition for 3rd hand and a few years old! :eek::eek:

Its about 8 months old. under a year.

what are the measurements on that box? it looks HugE!

RoyalMarine

papu wrote: »

Its about 8 months old. under a year.

what are the measurements on that box? it looks HugE!

ah right. didnt think it was that new!

the box is 2ft x 2ft square. and 1ft high

originally it was meant to be 2 1/2 ft square for a tripple loop but i decided its too big.

conzy

I hope you don't ever need to move it! Its hoooooooge!

RoyalMarine

ah its not THAT big

im more worried about the weight!

but to be honest its not that heavy. it will take a rightful place in my computer room when its finished.

Anti

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

ah its not THAT big

im more worried about the weight!

but to be honest its not that heavy. it will take a rightful place in my computer room when its finished.

If you think that case is heavy try lifting mine. Its a ****ing beat of a thing. I almost put my back out lifting it the other day

But since my pc is fubar im using my media center pc, and im loving the small size of it. Only problem is it dose not put out the heat of three graphics card to warmmy feet up. And ive noticed the average temp in the house has dropped too.

conzy

Shuttles for all!

RoyalMarine

update
got everything inside the case now.

watercooling is up and running and uv lights are inside the case.

replaced the stock cooler on the 8800gt! it looks sweet!!

small bit of cabling here


res mounted temporarily


higher shot of the cables being lain.


pump held down


my 8800gt alpha edition


the old heatsinks on the 8800gt


and the new

RoyalMarine

polished the gpu face


the new baby is on!


dimensions didnt change a huge amount for a dual fan.


and here's the 8800gt now



ariel shot of the lot running


another shot


tis all clutter at the minute!


lookin good!


from the front


funky




right so there ya have today's update!
dont think i can get much more done until my new gear arrives in a few days.
in may, im getting some new watercooling gear, so ill be updating the rad to a tripple 120mm fan thermochill and upgrading the pump aswel.


lots of new features coming soon!

comments? :P

papu

Holey moley poly thats fricken sweeeet , jeez anybigger and you could use it as a table

really nice

RoyalMarine

papu wrote: »

Holey moley poly thats fricken sweeeet , jeez anybigger and you could use it as a table

really nice

ah its no where near ifnished yet

still got to make a lid and mount my 24" monitor into it so many ideas but too little a box

conzy

So many blue! Looks nice

RoyalMarine

its actually not half as bright in person. i think the camera doesnt do a great job with it.
even with the flash off its still a lot brghter.

have to admit, i love the uv city inside it

RoyalMarine

small update.



here's a shot of some of the temps. havnt got around to playing with it yet, due to work...
but im working on the oc at the moment.

current 3dmark06 bench results are 12,800 with stock settings on all.
i reckon i can get the cpu to about 3.4 - 3.6 as temps are currently hitting 35 idle and 47 on load.
gpu temps are at 38 idle and 49 on load.

looks promising!

Anti

Sweet build man. Looks like a back breaker though

KamiKazi

How good is that GPU cooler? Has it made much of a difference in temps?

RoyalMarine

like you wouldnt believe! ive an 80mm fan extracting the air straight from the duorb fan on the gpu.

with stock fan i was hitting 63 - 65 on load after several hours of madness.
last night after 4 hours of crysis it was capping around 50.

havnt seen it tick higher since.
its also helped lower ambient temps in the case by 2oC!

well worth the 35 euro methinks!

awhir

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

like you wouldnt believe! ive an 80mm fan extracting the air straight from the duorb fan on the gpu.

with stock fan i was hitting 63 - 65 on load after several hours of madness.
last night after 4 hours of crysis it was capping around 50.

havnt seen it tick higher since.
its also helped lower ambient temps in the case by 2oC!

well worth the 35 euro methinks!

why not get a maze 4 for like 15e instead and watercool it /

RoyalMarine

im getting another 8800gt and im gonna wc them both when i get some decent gear from the states in a few weeks.

awhir

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

im getting another 8800gt and im gonna wc them both when i get some decent gear from the states in a few weeks.

go for 2 ek full cover blocks there the sex

Anti

awhir wrote: »

go for 2 ek full cover blocks there the sex

For some reason andy speaks the truth !



Nah he's right EK have some sexy blocks !

awhir

conzy

Is the Duo-Orb quiet? Looks like a nice cooler, its like two Zalman Vf900s!

RoyalMarine

its whisper quite. id say an easy 5 - 7db quiter than the stupid stock fan on it.

i was gonna get another, but i decided ill wait as im gonna get some waterblocks for them. just need to get funds!



here's my 2 8800gt. lots of fans and the computer isnt in the case. its on my table as i was benching the bejeeses out of it and needed some cooling abilities.

conzy

heh whats that 38mm fan in the foreground?

btw you could take the shroud off the outer EVGA card and stick a 120mm on it for the time being

RoyalMarine

ah i gave up benchmarking them so its all back in the case again. im waiting for my gpu blocks before i try anymore.

http://www.aerocooler.com/shop.cart?action=ITEM&prod_id=FANEC9232