Have just finished up stage 1 of my new PC case / armchair
Inspiration
Between lurking in forums here and elsewhere, seeing some of the amazing work people were doing and that strange allure of putting water over $2000+ worth of electical equiptment, i just knew that my next upgrade had to be a custom water loop (was using a h80). I had given up trying to justify my NEED for a massive unit like mountain mods or caselabs and was floored the day i saw L3p d3sk. Absolute genius. About a week later was clearing out the shed for a council hard rubbish collection when i saw it - the old pc case next to the armchair destined for the tip. 5 minutes staring at that and i was seeing an All-in-one watercooled gaming PC, built in 5.1 surround sound and a projector.
Design
I'd spent some time playing with google draw and the concept, but because of the crazy angles on the existing frame drawing it out section by section on paper for me turned out easiest. Revised several times and went with the simplest solution - a cabinet the length of the chair just high and deep enough to house the cut down PC case (MB tray, power supply, I/O & PCIe slots and just enough of the sides for strength / support) on one side, and the same dimensions for the radiator / pump and res on the other side.
Stagnation
While i had a blast and was in my element designing, when it came to actually building i had to overcome a lack of both practical skills and tools. Project stagnated for 6 months or so. Tax return comes in and suddenly that old armchair is no longer mocking me every time i see it, watercooling parts on order being a great motivator.
Parts List
Alread own:
CPU: i7 2600k
GPU: gtx 570 x2
MB: maximusIV-E z68
Power: seasonic 850w gold
ram: 8 MB 1600 cl9
ssd: 60 GB ocz agility 3
hdd: 2tb seagate barracuda
ordered :
AC Kryos HF, AquaGraFX 580 full block, HardwareLabs gtx 480 rad, D5 pump, EK D5 res top + 100 mm res, 4x scythe G-silent 2000 rpm fans, Aquero v5
Of the 2 570's, i can watercool 1, the other is non reference gigabyte card which always ran quieter and cooler than the reference card. Looking at the h80 im taking off the cpu and thinking of the possibilities here (along with a fan for VRAM and mosfet's)
Build
Frames are 42 x 19mm stock, 635 x 330 x 280. After the chairs existing crossmember and the backpiece each cabinet's depth drops from 280 to 230.
Backpiece, bottom and top (armrest extension) cut to fit out of 19mm thick pine panel. Side and front and rear panels from 6mm MDF.
Take a jigsaw to a PC case and reduce it to MB tray and backplate, leaving 30mm of the sides for support. Rotate 90 degree and fitted into cabinet, cut bottom panel for access to IO ports and PCIe slots. Holes cut for hosing and cabling to passthrough, an on/off switch* and drives mounted gets 1 side completed.
For the Radiator pump side i wanted a shelf and storage above the radiator. Mounting EK d5 res top (100 mm res) in the back corner with the pump (decoupled) feeding straight into the radiator. There is room for a portable projector in this cabinet, however a 40" HD TV better serves my needs
Interwove 50mm polyurothane(?) webbing for seat base - existing springs were broken. Covered the exposed chair frame with foam strips, then went nuts with material, spray on glue and a staple gun.
*Lamptron 19mm illuminated momentry switch - my first DOA / RMA! The simplest of things. I couldn't believe it. Tried in 3 different PC's, I know i had it wired correctly, but tried the only other power combinations (the LED worked fine when tested with another switch to turn on). PC Case Gear were great, and i had a replacement within a week.
Installation
Pump, res and radiator mounted, connected up and the hoses to pc cabinet installed, quick disconnects and a T fitting with drain port set and was test running that "loop" with an old powersupply. Had 1 problem connection - fitting coming out of radiator had a small but significant enough leak which silicon tape sealed nicely for me. Added in the cpu and gpu blocks. Happy that everything worked well moved onto tearing down my old pc tower, mounting the blocks and tranfering MB to its new home. Final leak testing overnight, then powerup.
Overclock and temps
Knowing the required voltages for stability in previous tower, used IBT as a quick stability test before running F@H on cpu and gpu to stress for 30 mins. Highest core recorded Open Hardware Monitor, cpuz to verify clock speed and vcore. Water temp recorded at Rad out. Aquero and aquasuite to control fans / monitoring / pretty graphs. Afterburner used to clock gpu's.
Baseline included first is from tower, Ambient temps between 24 and 25
VCore CPU gpu cpu gpu1 gpu2 water fan% delta t
volt clock clock temp temp temp temp
1.36v 4.6 780 82 74 66 -- -- -- Baseline
1.24v 3.4 732 52 40 59 27 100 4 stock
1.36v 4.6 780 61 40 64 29 100 5
1.38v 4.8 780 64 40 64 31 100 7
1.41v 5.0 830 67 41 66 34 100 9 Benching profile
1.36v 4.6 780 63 40 64 30 70 6 everyday OC
Settled on the 4.6 @ 1.36 with fans pushing 70% (~1600 rpm). Very quiet and cool, given that the system will be used primarily for gaming, not folding. Could never get this chip stable at 5.1 with 1.44 VCore, and dont want to go any higher.
Astounding results - comparing the bottom line to the top in the above table - watercooling a reference gigagbyte 570 achieved 45% drop in temp, while the cpu temps drop 23%
Incoming Additions (next 4 weeks)
5.1 surround sound system
Acrylic sidepanel and LED lighting
12" touchscreen
seat cushions upholsted
mousepad and a Razer nostromo gamepad
Future thoughts
Home theatre chairs ... customizable - single seat (reclining) and 2 side cabinets.
Poses some very intersting possibilities .
Edited by TheDAZ - 10/24/12 at 8:34am
Inspiration
Between lurking in forums here and elsewhere, seeing some of the amazing work people were doing and that strange allure of putting water over $2000+ worth of electical equiptment, i just knew that my next upgrade had to be a custom water loop (was using a h80). I had given up trying to justify my NEED for a massive unit like mountain mods or caselabs and was floored the day i saw L3p d3sk. Absolute genius. About a week later was clearing out the shed for a council hard rubbish collection when i saw it - the old pc case next to the armchair destined for the tip. 5 minutes staring at that and i was seeing an All-in-one watercooled gaming PC, built in 5.1 surround sound and a projector.
Design
I'd spent some time playing with google draw and the concept, but because of the crazy angles on the existing frame drawing it out section by section on paper for me turned out easiest. Revised several times and went with the simplest solution - a cabinet the length of the chair just high and deep enough to house the cut down PC case (MB tray, power supply, I/O & PCIe slots and just enough of the sides for strength / support) on one side, and the same dimensions for the radiator / pump and res on the other side.
Stagnation
While i had a blast and was in my element designing, when it came to actually building i had to overcome a lack of both practical skills and tools. Project stagnated for 6 months or so. Tax return comes in and suddenly that old armchair is no longer mocking me every time i see it, watercooling parts on order being a great motivator.
Parts List
Alread own:
CPU: i7 2600k
GPU: gtx 570 x2
MB: maximusIV-E z68
Power: seasonic 850w gold
ram: 8 MB 1600 cl9
ssd: 60 GB ocz agility 3
hdd: 2tb seagate barracuda
ordered :
AC Kryos HF, AquaGraFX 580 full block, HardwareLabs gtx 480 rad, D5 pump, EK D5 res top + 100 mm res, 4x scythe G-silent 2000 rpm fans, Aquero v5
Of the 2 570's, i can watercool 1, the other is non reference gigabyte card which always ran quieter and cooler than the reference card. Looking at the h80 im taking off the cpu and thinking of the possibilities here (along with a fan for VRAM and mosfet's)
Build
Frames are 42 x 19mm stock, 635 x 330 x 280. After the chairs existing crossmember and the backpiece each cabinet's depth drops from 280 to 230.
Backpiece, bottom and top (armrest extension) cut to fit out of 19mm thick pine panel. Side and front and rear panels from 6mm MDF.
Take a jigsaw to a PC case and reduce it to MB tray and backplate, leaving 30mm of the sides for support. Rotate 90 degree and fitted into cabinet, cut bottom panel for access to IO ports and PCIe slots. Holes cut for hosing and cabling to passthrough, an on/off switch* and drives mounted gets 1 side completed.
For the Radiator pump side i wanted a shelf and storage above the radiator. Mounting EK d5 res top (100 mm res) in the back corner with the pump (decoupled) feeding straight into the radiator. There is room for a portable projector in this cabinet, however a 40" HD TV better serves my needs
Interwove 50mm polyurothane(?) webbing for seat base - existing springs were broken. Covered the exposed chair frame with foam strips, then went nuts with material, spray on glue and a staple gun.
*Lamptron 19mm illuminated momentry switch - my first DOA / RMA! The simplest of things. I couldn't believe it. Tried in 3 different PC's, I know i had it wired correctly, but tried the only other power combinations (the LED worked fine when tested with another switch to turn on). PC Case Gear were great, and i had a replacement within a week.
Installation
Pump, res and radiator mounted, connected up and the hoses to pc cabinet installed, quick disconnects and a T fitting with drain port set and was test running that "loop" with an old powersupply. Had 1 problem connection - fitting coming out of radiator had a small but significant enough leak which silicon tape sealed nicely for me. Added in the cpu and gpu blocks. Happy that everything worked well moved onto tearing down my old pc tower, mounting the blocks and tranfering MB to its new home. Final leak testing overnight, then powerup.
Overclock and temps
Knowing the required voltages for stability in previous tower, used IBT as a quick stability test before running F@H on cpu and gpu to stress for 30 mins. Highest core recorded Open Hardware Monitor, cpuz to verify clock speed and vcore. Water temp recorded at Rad out. Aquero and aquasuite to control fans / monitoring / pretty graphs. Afterburner used to clock gpu's.
Baseline included first is from tower, Ambient temps between 24 and 25
VCore CPU gpu cpu gpu1 gpu2 water fan% delta t
volt clock clock temp temp temp temp
1.36v 4.6 780 82 74 66 -- -- -- Baseline
1.24v 3.4 732 52 40 59 27 100 4 stock
1.36v 4.6 780 61 40 64 29 100 5
1.38v 4.8 780 64 40 64 31 100 7
1.41v 5.0 830 67 41 66 34 100 9 Benching profile
1.36v 4.6 780 63 40 64 30 70 6 everyday OC
Settled on the 4.6 @ 1.36 with fans pushing 70% (~1600 rpm). Very quiet and cool, given that the system will be used primarily for gaming, not folding. Could never get this chip stable at 5.1 with 1.44 VCore, and dont want to go any higher.
Astounding results - comparing the bottom line to the top in the above table - watercooling a reference gigagbyte 570 achieved 45% drop in temp, while the cpu temps drop 23%
Incoming Additions (next 4 weeks)
5.1 surround sound system
Acrylic sidepanel and LED lighting
12" touchscreen
seat cushions upholsted
mousepad and a Razer nostromo gamepad
Future thoughts
Home theatre chairs ... customizable - single seat (reclining) and 2 side cabinets.
Poses some very intersting possibilities .
Edited by TheDAZ - 10/24/12 at 8:34am
the Anti-Laptop
(21 items) | 
PC Armchair
(67 photos) |
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the Anti-Laptop
(21 items) |
PC Armchair
(67 photos) |
