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CM 690 ii pedestal mod (Project Vertigo)

36K views 447 replies 46 participants last post by  donkidonki 
#1 ·
(*update* the mod now has a name; Vertigo. It is somewhat more extreme than I had originally intended which in turn makes it a lot more fun to work on. I will share my progress here.)
* * * * * *
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Current build;


UPDATE
The build is now finished, rough pics for now but hopefully some better ones soon.


(My rig pre-mod)


The mod began modestly after I decided to replace the Cooler Master V6 air CPU cooler for a Corsair H100i along with matching corsair fans.
After installing the H100i, the coloured rings of the fans (the blue is a near perfect match to my Asus P8P67 deluxe mobo) inspired me to begin my first mod.
("Hello Dremel; my new friend...")





The first mod was simply to enhance the effect of the coloured rings by removing the plastic cross bracing from the facia and top and then cutting and modding the front case frame to be a snug fit to the 140mm fan.



 
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#2 ·
subbed! love the 692
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#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by donkidonki View Post

Hmmm, what's going on here?
Why do some of my pics get rotated when I upload them? They are all the right way up in the source folder.
Exif data?
 
#6 ·
In terms of colour, I am thinking keep most of the case & cables black and make a highlight feature of the blue fan rings and motherboard. The red ram will end up blue too eventually.
The sata cables will be the only other physical blue things. Lighting wise, I am thinking mostly blue and try to bring a green glow to the graphics cards and gpu cooling loop.

I have painted a lot of the chrome stuff black including the gtx580 pci brackets and motherboard back panel and i/o ports. The optical drive will be stealthed with the case mesh attached to the disc tray.


Some of the case cables are tided under the motherboard and held in place with adhesive black pvc sheeting with the connectors ending right next to their respective motherboard sockets.


The rest of the case cables have been blacked and tided, most of the excess is bundled under the case-top sata hot-swap bay.
 
#8 ·
My rig has had a single MSI GTX580 Twin Frozr card for some time now and I was not planning to change it until at least the 7 series.


However, another identical card came up for a crazy-low price on Ebay as the bearings had gone on the cooler. I could not resist. I found a supplier for replacement cooler fans.... but another idea pinged... proper watercooling.


Thanks to the tidy dimensions of my new Corsair AX860i PSU I could fit another 240mm radiator in the bottom of the case with no modding. I decided on an Alphacool NexXxos UT60 240mm which would just squeeze in with push & pull fans, nice. I also picked an EK Laing D5 pump-top & tube res combo (on back order) and left the hose and fittings until after i had all the bits and could work out what I would need.


Next I ordered a pair of EK waterblocks for the GTX580's and set about removing the air cooler gubbins.




The set of magnetic dust filters I had ordered some time back decided to show up.
 
#9 ·
The gpu waterblocks arrived in good time.


Also, after more detailed research it appeared that two gtx580's would be too much for a single 240mm rad, especially if I wanted to keep it on quiet fans; so the plan changed a little. To a pair of Alphacool NexXxos UT60 360 rads, along with a cunning plan to fit them...


I was having great fun installing the first of the waterblocks when I ran into a slight snag....



It is hard to tell from the pics but the blocks did not fit, Doh!
I had ordered the wrong version, my cards have the heatspreader as part of the gpu package but the blocks are for the same pcb layout but with a naked gpu. Oops.

These will be going on Ebay in the near future, if anyone is interested in them, please PM me soon. The correct blocks are winging their way now.

(note to self, read model numbers more carefully in future!)
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by iCrap View Post

lol? did you just stack up two 690s? Is there anything inside of the second case?
Yeah, my idea was to make a pedestal about 200mm high to mount two 360mm rads and I decided to cut down a second case rather than build something from scratch. Not too expensive and the new case is the nicer usb3.00 with cable grommets so that will be the main box.




I stacked the two cases just to get a feel for how to manage the cut&shut and decided to gaffer tape as many 140mm fans to the front as would fit, for a laugh as it would look ridiculous.

However, it now has got me thinking.... Lol

If I was to use most of the second case it could house all of the watercooling system, leaving the top much cleaner; I now find myself thinking the total case would look nice with 5 140mm fans in the front and embrace the over the top height of the thing!

Still undecided about how to proceed and have more ideas every time I think it over. I think it will be a while before I make up my mind.
 
#17 ·
I like the idea, but I think it would look nicer if you cut the 2nd case into half, or maybe a 3rd, and used it as a pedestal. You would likely be able to keep a 360 rad and pump down there to keep it clean, but I would probably put another 240 in the top to help with the heat of 2 GPUs and 1 CPU.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by yanks8981 View Post

I like the idea, but I think it would look nicer if you cut the 2nd case into half, or maybe a 3rd, and used it as a pedestal. You would likely be able to keep a 360 rad and pump down there to keep it clean, but I would probably put another 240 in the top to help with the heat of 2 GPUs and 1 CPU.
There is already a 240 rad on the CPU (h100i) which will stay that way, can't justify swapping it for custom at this point.

I have 2 alphacool ut60 360mm rads which I was planning to mount with 3 sets of fans to push/pull through both and make the pedestal pretty much just to accommodate these.

Now I am weighing up how about how I feel with either sticking with the original plan or instead use most of the second case and house the res & pump too.

I need to avoid it simply looking like to cases slapped together, like it is now. The larger case also creates lots of options for drive placement and the like, so lots to consider...
 
#20 ·
Oh snap, this looks promising. I haven't seen a build like this and I'm a pretty big fan of the 690 so I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. Your models you posted earlier remind me of a Lian-li/Silverstone looking case. Can't wait to see what kind of flipping (get it?) thing you're up to next.
 
#21 ·
I must be crazy, since I got that h100i I've gone mod-tastic. And I haven't run the computer with the h100i for more than a day and I am already planning it's replacement!

The build is going to be dual loop, one for CPU and the other for GPU. Initially the h100i will remain on CPU duty but mods for the custom loop will be taken care of.
The remaining parts to build the custom CPU loop will be on my birthday & Christmas lists...

I have almost finished my cad drawings for the new design; so will post those when ready.

My plans for the outside of the case are fairly ambitious and I fear that my first choice of material will be out of budget but I will sound it out before going to plan-b.

No sneak-peeks of the finish until I have the method (& budget) nailed down...
 
#22 ·
Here's the latest design, there will be more boxing of the 360 rads and some other re-inforcement as needed.






Thanks to Google and the the 3D Warehouse, the drawings are made in Sketchup and all of the components are made by other people and freely available on the 3d warehouse site. I will name all contributors when the build is complete.
 
#23 ·
Each loop will have a D5-Laing pump with EK top and 140mm resevoir. The CPU loop, once upgraded will have an xspc ex420 rad in the roof and another in the front. There should be capacity to do motherboard blocks should I want to.

There is also an xspc ex280 in the front to join the two nexxxos ut60 360 rads in the gpu loop.

Too much or not enough?

I will move the 3 1/2" bays from both cases into one large bay in the bottom case. I won't need many of the slots but I like the look of them and it should fill the gap in the bottom case nicely.
There will be a Scythe 5" fan controller mounted at the rear by the 360 rads, the optical drive is gone; leaving the case front completely clean.

I think it is all fairly well proportioned inside, what do you think?
 
#24 ·
Just a quick note; the sketchup model for the cm690ii case is very good and almost but not quite accurate in all dimensions, so some things may change a little as I fit them for real.
Also the reservoir/pump model I'm using is the 100mm DDC version while I have actually got the 140mm d5 version which is taller and fatter. Close enough to use the models to play with design ideas.

(If anyone listening happens to be a true sketch up wiz, I would love to have models of the corsair AF & SP 120/140mm fans, pretty please)

Now I just need to find some spare time to actually work on the case, Mr Dremel wants to play....
 
#26 ·
This should prove useful, sometime in the distant future!

Yes, there is a lot of it. I will use a fair bit of it flushing out the rads.

Look what else has shown up:

This one is for the GPU loop, eventually it will have a twin for the CPU loop when I can afford to swap out the H100i.
 
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