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[Build Log] Project Orange Hot Rod- WC'ing a CaseLabs BH7

32K views 138 replies 38 participants last post by  AngryGoldfish 
#1 ·
Project ORANGEHot Rod

Welcome folks! It's been a few years since I've done a build log on OCN. My last project was Fire & Ice (looks like the pics have been lost into the digital abyss). It was a fantastic learning experience and I enjoyed it tremendously. I've built several rigs since then for various people, some with small mods, some just put together like legos, but I've got the itch to do another water cooled build.

Along comes CaseLabs new line The Bullet Case Line - OCN Link The case is designed for air cooling or the use of an AIO, but where is the fun in that? You can fit a custom water loop in anything right? Challenge Accepted!

Work in progress pics:





The Plan:
  • Stuff a full size ATX board and GPU with a full custom water loop inside a portable LAN case built for air cooling
  • Sleeved cable extensions in Orange and Black para-cord
  • Cut the top skin to allow two top mounted radiators and reservoirs to tower out of the top of the case - think like a blower out of a hot rod engine!
  • Water loop will cool the CPU, Memory,, and eventually the GPU
  • Window etching - Not quite sure what will end up here. Thinking my gamer handle, and maybe my clan website or logo for 907gamers.com
The Gear:

Case
  • CaseLabs BH7 - Tangerine / Black
  • Accessories mounting plate
  • Light bars
  • Extra radiator mounting bracket
Moved from current rig
  • Mobo - Sabertooth 990FX rev 2.0
  • Proc - AMD FX 8350
  • GPU - Nvidia 780
  • Ram - Gskill Ripsaw 16 GB DDR3 (4 x 4 GB)
  • PSU - Corsair AX1500
  • Orange LED for main case lights. I may do white or red mobo backlighting also.
Water Loop
  • Radiator - x2 Black Ice Nemesis 240GTX Dual-Core Xtreme
  • Fans - x6 Cougar Vortex 120mm X 25mm & x2 NoiseBlocker BlackSilent Pro 80mm X 25mm
  • Memory Block - EK Monarch block and modules - Acetal / Nickel
  • CPU block - EK Supremacy EVO - Nickel
  • Reservoir - x2 Monsoon MMRS 200mm - Frosted White Warp core pattern, chrome tension rods, cathode plug, and pump housing
  • Pump - EK D5 PWM
  • Fittings - Monsoon Chain Gun compression fittings and angle fittings - black / chrome / orange
  • Tubing - 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD Clear
  • Coolant - Distilled water w/ Mayhems Pastel Orange
  • Fan Controller - Aquaero 6 Pro
  • Flow meter - Aquacomputer 'High Flow' flow sensor

Updates
Update 1 - The first few parts arrive

Update 2 - Building the Monsoon MMRS Reservoir

Update 3 - The case arrives

Update 4 - Making a home for the Aquaero 6

Update 5 - AQ6 & fans installed

Update 6 - Another box of loop parts arrive

~Bear
 
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4
#2 ·
Sounds like fun count me in

 
#3 ·
Subbed.
 
#6 ·
Looks good already, I like the orange/black look. I suggest sleeving some cables while waiting for the case, I know that these things will ship out faster than any other case, but the time is still nice to do some custom work, especially like sleeving, it being so time consuming.
 
#10 ·
Woah, gonna squeeze an E-ATX board in that little case, nice!

keen for the build pics.

Would you consider making some alternative handles for this case as part of the build? I reckon they don't suit the case that well (the case is quite square cut on the ends, whereas the handles are very rounded, and the curve of the handles doesnt match the curve of the case.

Below i've done a basic 3d render of what I'm talking about... These handles wouldn't be as comfortable to hold (although a bit of padding on the inside of them should help a lot) as the ones that come with the case, but should be good enough to move the case around without much trouble.
I was thinking they could be machined from metal and finished to look like the rest of the case.

its all about the sharp edges and the radius of the corners with this case, and i reckon the handles should match
tongue.gif


 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrockinWV View Post

Sounds like fun count me in
Quote:
Originally Posted by kayan View Post

Subbed.
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Originally Posted by Xclsyr View Post

I'm watching you.....
ph34r-smiley.gif
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Originally Posted by Wolfsbora View Post

SO subbed!! I haven't seen a log for this yet!
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Originally Posted by DapperDan795 View Post

Subbed!
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Originally Posted by Reiep View Post

Orange + new Case Labs case = I'm here.
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Originally Posted by Gilles3000 View Post

Subbed!
Thanks guys, welcome aboard!'

Quote:
Originally Posted by alltheGHz View Post

Looks good already, I like the orange/black look. I suggest sleeving some cables while waiting for the case, I know that these things will ship out faster than any other case, but the time is still nice to do some custom work, especially like sleeving, it being so time consuming.
I agree. The worst part of any build is the waiting. I've got a number of things on order, but I'll get what I can done ahead of time. The cables will be sleeved in orange and black paracord. Something similar to this pattern:


Quote:
Originally Posted by bukkit View Post

i'm subscribing to this, i'd like to see how you do a loop. i'm interested in getting a bh7 in the future, but it depends on the loop for me.
I've got the loop planned out a few different ways. I probably won't make up my mind until I see the case in person and can do a few mock ups. A loop will fit, you just need to be . . . creative. Speaking of, nobody has commented on if they'd like to see the loop contained within, or have it slightly explode from the case. Thoughts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by spinFX View Post

Woah, gonna squeeze an E-ATX board in that little case, nice!

keen for the build pics.
Would you consider making some alternative handles for this case as part of the build? I reckon they don't suit the case that well (the case is quite square cut on the ends, whereas the handles are very rounded, and the curve of the handles doesnt match the curve of the case.

Below i've done a basic 3d render of what I'm talking about... These handles wouldn't be as comfortable to hold (although a bit of padding on the inside of them should help a lot) as the ones that come with the case, but should be good enough to move the case around without much trouble.
I was thinking they could be machined from metal and finished to look like the rest of the case.

its all about the sharp edges and the radius of the corners with this case, and i reckon the handles should match
tongue.gif


[
Only a regular ATX, which is still a lot of room used up in this case. An EATX would fit according to CaseLabs, but you wouldn't have any room on the front of the case to run tubes into the lower section from what I can estimate.

A lot of my build plans are based on measurements done throughout CaseLabs' build process the past several months on this line. I won't be able to confirm plans until I have hands on. My last case, the M8, had space for days so it wasn't an issue. With the BH7, it is so tight, it comes down to a game of millimeters.

I agree about the handles. I ordered the ones from CaseLabs to see how they look, but we'll see. If they don't match, I'll have some made. I've also got some aluminium case feet I'll be throwing on here for a little extra bling on the outside.

`Bear
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bear907 View Post

I've got the loop planned out a few different ways. I probably won't make up my mind until I see the case in person and can do a few mock ups. A loop will fit, you just need to be . . . creative. Speaking of, nobody has commented on if they'd like to see the loop contained within, or have it slightly explode from the case. Thoughts?
Only a regular ATX, which is still a lot of room used up in this case. An EATX would fit according to CaseLabs, but you wouldn't have any room on the front of the case to run tubes into the lower section from what I can estimate.
i think having the res on the outside would look cool, if there isn't enough space on the inside. could be easier to fill/drain too. what parts are you going to get for your loop? are you doing acrylic? i'm thinking of getting a monsoon mmrs set in the future.
 
#14 ·
Both ideas would keep all the wiring in the top compartment very minimal to leave room for showing off the tubing. The pump would be located in the bottom compartment along with a fan controller if I can find one that fits. per CaseLabs, there is only about 140mm ish from the top of the mobo to the top of the case. I don't want to fill up the whole thing as then you couldn't see much thru the windows. So . . .

In the "clean" look, I would go with something like the XSPC EX240 low profile. It comes in at about 35.5 mm deep. Along with the Cougar fans I'll be using at 25 mm, that leaves me with about 80-85 mm of space left for tubing and viewing of the board. I could get a micro res and put it in the lower compartment, or get like a 40mm-50mm cylinder res and mount it in the upper compartment - probably on one of the 120 front fans.

or

In the "wild" look, I'm eyeballing the Coolgate copper res which I love the look of! Especially when paired with the Cougar fans. For a res for this look, I'd probably go with one of the primochill phase 2 amber cylinders, or maybe spring for a frozenq cylinder res - the last one I used from them has lasted me over 4 years without an issue.




I can run this one of two ways - mount the radiator on top of the mounting bracket, meaning cutting a large whole in the case skin, fans on the underside of the bracket (inside the case) and then a res on top of the rad. This is pretty aggressive, but you'd be able to see the sides and top fins of the res, as well as the reservoir on top. Could be interesting.

The other option is to mount the rad and fans on the mount inside the case, and then mount the res on top of the bracket. You wouldn't see the top fins of the rad, and the copper sides would be down inside the case. The res would still be poking up out of the top, but it wouldn't be as drastic. I'd then look to have tubing come in and out of the case in a few spots for a unique look.

For both looks, I'll be doing regular "soft" tubing as I already have a ton of black compression fittings. I'd considered doing a hard acrylic tubing, but I do have a budget and didn't want to spend a chunk of it on new fittings when I have plenty of the compression ones already.

I'm sorry if it's hard to visualize, but those are the two main ideas so far. I haven't ordered a new res or rad yet until I figure out which way I want to jump.

~Bear
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfsbora View Post

I'm really curious how that orange will work with the copper. I hope that you're ready to take some awesome pics!
biggrin.gif
I think I'm one of the few people around that still has a camera that was built to just be a camera! I hope the copper and orange mix well if I go that road, but who knows, it could be hideous in person . . . if that turns out to be true, i can default back to a traditional black rad. After talking it out a bit here, I'm starting to lean towards the "wild" look a bit more
 
#18 ·
a 280 could fit. . . maybe. I think you'd have to either modify the top bracket and not use a fan on the front of the case, but it is probably doable. Post pics when you make it happen!

Yeah I can't wait for them to ship. It's one thing to theory craft, but it will all come together once the cases are in hand. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone does with them.
 
#20 ·
CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v80), quality = 90

A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick's movie) could have been a nice name too.
 
#22 ·
1st post has been updated with gear list and current plan. I've decided I want to cut into this beautiful case after all. I'm not going to go nuts with tubing coming out as I was thinking originally. The unique cosmetic look of that would not be cool enough to offset the loss of usability with the case - namely loosing the ability to remove the bottom skin and access the lower compartment.

I'm going to mount the all copper rad on top of the mounting bracket, and then mount the monsoon res on top of that. It will be very visually striking as you'll be able to see the copper sides and fins of the rad, and be offset with the dark res.

The exposed blowers on many hot rods is my inspiration.


The log will probably be quiet for a couple of weeks as I wait for parts to come in and the case to ship aroun the 10th of next month. I'll still reply to any posts, but there probably won't be anything new until things ship. Feel free to let me know what you all think.

~Bear
 
#24 ·
Subbed
 
#26 ·
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Originally Posted by GySgtHartman404 View Post

Subbed for sure.
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Originally Posted by kgtuning View Post

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Originally Posted by Elyminator View Post

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Welcome aboard, and thank you for the interest.

I've ordered the new copper CPU block direct from EK, and will be ordering the rest of the components needed soon. This case can't ship soon enough . . . I've also decided to mod the front panel to allow me to mount a fan controller in the bottom right corner. I'm not sure which FC, I'll use yet though. I don't know if I like the idea of knobs sticking out of the front or going with a touch screen style.
 
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