Hi everyone,
I thought I'd share with you a Fractal Define R4 that I have built up. I started in Jan '13 and built it up quite quickly however after about 6 months I decided to update some components and essentially rebuild the R4.
Here is the progression of my PC.
First all the boxed goodies part list below;
Intel 3770k
Asus Z77 Sabertooth
Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400mhz (2x8gb)
EVGA GTX670 4gb SuperClocked
CoolerMaster Silent Pro Hybrid 850w
2x Samsung 120gb 840 SSD's in Raid-0
Fractal-Design Define R4
Boxes
Naked Parts
Together for a dry test!
I ran it like this for a while just to make sure nothing was DOA or faulty. Lucky for me everything was good so I went and ordered my watercooling parts!
Koolance-380 CPU Waterblock
XSPC Razor GTX670 Waterblock
XSPC RX240mm Radiator
Black Ice GT 240mm Radiator
Switftech MCP655 Pump with BitsPower dressup kit
Frozen Q Liquid Fusion T-Virus 25ml Reservoir
All fittings are matt black Bitspower
Tubing is white PrimoChill 1/2 x 3/4
and I ordered in 6x 2150rpm 120mm Gentle Typhoons
I skipped some update shots of the watercooling build but I got it together and was pleased that I only had one tiny leak on my first weatercooling build that I fixed up quick. With some lights here's how it came together!
It did need some modding to get the top rad to fit around the Sabertooth 'thermal armor ' and the high dominator platinum ram. This gave me about 12mm clearance over the dominators.
You can also kind of figure out I mounted the res directly onto the pump top but it wasn't as stable as I would have liked.
I was originally going to buy some ModKobra cable entensions and the decided that I might as well have a go at sleeving myself. I tried the ModKobra kit without much success at all… I then decided to order in some stuff from MDPC and give Nils stuff a go.
I ordered 10m of white, grey and black sleeve as well as precut heatshrink, pins, crimper, wire stripper a depinning tool and a few other odds and ends. I also got some black, grey and wire wire so there wouldn't be any bleed through of colour.
I had a bit of a go using the heatshrink method. It was OK but in the end I wasn't happy with it.
6pin, 24pin and a test fitting.
I then decided to play around with an idea I had for the side window, following the hex/nano pattern used for all the fan grills I made a bit of a template that I was happy with.
And cut! I cut it with a jigsaw, dremel and then a bit of file work…
A bit more work was done and then I started to paint
And Ta-Da! Done Pretty happy with how it game out. It's nothing crazy but just different enough to give it an edge.
The build took a bit of a rest, I wasn't sure what I could do with it financially but I finally figured what the hell. So… I decided the Define R4 was going to get stuffed all full of radiators. A 120mm x 360mm in the roof and a whopping 180mm x 360mm in the front!
First I procured the fans and splitter PCB to made sure it would be able to drive all the fans. I got 4x SilverStone Air Penetrator 181's for the 180mm x2 to run in push/pull and would repurpose 3 of the 6x 2150rpm Gentle Typhoons for the roof radiator.
Here I am just testing them on the little PCB of a single molex
And video
I had already painted the blades on the Gentle Typhoons white so next was to do the same with the AP181's. Much bigger fans but the process was exactly the same.
Now I umm'd and aahh'd for a while about the radiator in the roof. I didn't want to use a shroud but in the ended decided to. I'm lucky I did because If I didn't I would have run into big problems down the track.
The rad shroud would be offset to the back and towards the window side of the case for clearance reasons. Not the most aesthetically pleasing but functional. I painted this with the same paint I used for the side panel which matches the fractal paint job very well.
The radiators arrived! I was surprised looking at them how much wide the 180mm is over a 120mm. It sounds sound much in my head but when you look at them, damn… it's huge!
Here's the 120 x x360 and 180 x 360
And a comparison of a 180mm x 360mm to a 120mm x 240mm.
A quick mock-up
Clearances - without using the radiator shroud there is no way I could have tubed this up
180mm x 360mm in Push/Pull. So ridiculous!
Now to get the 180mm x 2 in the front I had to make up a new front panel, I cut out the old one then made up a quick template with acrylic and then applied that to a plate I had folded up for the front.
Template
Applied to plate and first cut
And the idea was it would go something like this! I couldn't fit the front facia back over it though so it got reversed and mounted on the inside. No big deal.
Here it is painted and riveted into place. You can see what I mean about reversed and installed. It is assembled so it goes fans|radiator|plate|fans using sound deadening foam as gaskets between the plate, rads and fans to maximise airflow.
Now that I had the radiators mounted I made up a false motherboard tray and floor/PSU cover. Its made out of acrylic but had a metallic texture to it.
Now more presents arrived!
I sold off my GTX670 and replaced it with an EVGA GTX780Ti Superclocked with XSPC waterblock and backplate. I also got some PrimoChill ghost Revolver fittings for rigid the rigid acrylic.
Next some sleeving of all the front panel connections. I also swapped out the blue LED on the power switch for 2x white LEDs. Also painting the big blue USB3 connector white.
I ran into some trouble running from a breakout PCB to some ModMyToys PCB Splitters but eventually figured it out. All the fans running.
Next I ran into the problem with the intake fans on the front radiators basically touching the front door. I made up a gasket forcing it to draw air only through the fan filters and then got to work on the front door.
I centre punched 595 holes with a philipshead screwdriver…
And then drilled by hand. Probably between 4-5 hours just in doing this…
Also here is the new sub-front panel with magnetic fan filters for easy maintenance.
After my first attempt at sleeving I wasn't happy with the finish so I decided to try again, this time heatshrinkless style. Here are the results.
6+8pin
24pin
EPS
All together
Now bending up some acrylic tube!
AND FINISHED!
Full Album here -> http://imgur.com/a/3nNfL
It certainly isn't perfect I know all the faults but I think for my first real shot at modding a PC I've done OK. I have certainly caught the bug and am looking forward to the next project. Before I start the next big project I have planned I want to get another 780Ti for this machine and redo the acrylic tube. Some of the bends are clearly off at the moment.
none the less I'm proud of it and all the little things that likely no one will actually notice but make a little difference. Painting the radiator plugs white for e.g. and the videocard pci slot plate.
Hopefully you enjoyed looking through this as much as I did building it, if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to do my best to answer them.
Any constructive feedback is welcomed.
Thanks everyone
![smile.gif]( "smile.gif")
DeeG
I thought I'd share with you a Fractal Define R4 that I have built up. I started in Jan '13 and built it up quite quickly however after about 6 months I decided to update some components and essentially rebuild the R4.
Here is the progression of my PC.
First all the boxed goodies part list below;
Intel 3770k
Asus Z77 Sabertooth
Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400mhz (2x8gb)
EVGA GTX670 4gb SuperClocked
CoolerMaster Silent Pro Hybrid 850w
2x Samsung 120gb 840 SSD's in Raid-0
Fractal-Design Define R4
Boxes
Naked Parts
Together for a dry test!
I ran it like this for a while just to make sure nothing was DOA or faulty. Lucky for me everything was good so I went and ordered my watercooling parts!
Koolance-380 CPU Waterblock
XSPC Razor GTX670 Waterblock
XSPC RX240mm Radiator
Black Ice GT 240mm Radiator
Switftech MCP655 Pump with BitsPower dressup kit
Frozen Q Liquid Fusion T-Virus 25ml Reservoir
All fittings are matt black Bitspower
Tubing is white PrimoChill 1/2 x 3/4
and I ordered in 6x 2150rpm 120mm Gentle Typhoons
I skipped some update shots of the watercooling build but I got it together and was pleased that I only had one tiny leak on my first weatercooling build that I fixed up quick. With some lights here's how it came together!
It did need some modding to get the top rad to fit around the Sabertooth 'thermal armor ' and the high dominator platinum ram. This gave me about 12mm clearance over the dominators.
You can also kind of figure out I mounted the res directly onto the pump top but it wasn't as stable as I would have liked.
I was originally going to buy some ModKobra cable entensions and the decided that I might as well have a go at sleeving myself. I tried the ModKobra kit without much success at all… I then decided to order in some stuff from MDPC and give Nils stuff a go.
I ordered 10m of white, grey and black sleeve as well as precut heatshrink, pins, crimper, wire stripper a depinning tool and a few other odds and ends. I also got some black, grey and wire wire so there wouldn't be any bleed through of colour.
I had a bit of a go using the heatshrink method. It was OK but in the end I wasn't happy with it.
6pin, 24pin and a test fitting.
I then decided to play around with an idea I had for the side window, following the hex/nano pattern used for all the fan grills I made a bit of a template that I was happy with.
And cut! I cut it with a jigsaw, dremel and then a bit of file work…
A bit more work was done and then I started to paint
And Ta-Da! Done Pretty happy with how it game out. It's nothing crazy but just different enough to give it an edge.
The build took a bit of a rest, I wasn't sure what I could do with it financially but I finally figured what the hell. So… I decided the Define R4 was going to get stuffed all full of radiators. A 120mm x 360mm in the roof and a whopping 180mm x 360mm in the front!
First I procured the fans and splitter PCB to made sure it would be able to drive all the fans. I got 4x SilverStone Air Penetrator 181's for the 180mm x2 to run in push/pull and would repurpose 3 of the 6x 2150rpm Gentle Typhoons for the roof radiator.
Here I am just testing them on the little PCB of a single molex
And video
Now I umm'd and aahh'd for a while about the radiator in the roof. I didn't want to use a shroud but in the ended decided to. I'm lucky I did because If I didn't I would have run into big problems down the track.
The rad shroud would be offset to the back and towards the window side of the case for clearance reasons. Not the most aesthetically pleasing but functional. I painted this with the same paint I used for the side panel which matches the fractal paint job very well.
The radiators arrived! I was surprised looking at them how much wide the 180mm is over a 120mm. It sounds sound much in my head but when you look at them, damn… it's huge!
Here's the 120 x x360 and 180 x 360
And a comparison of a 180mm x 360mm to a 120mm x 240mm.
A quick mock-up
Clearances - without using the radiator shroud there is no way I could have tubed this up
180mm x 360mm in Push/Pull. So ridiculous!
Now to get the 180mm x 2 in the front I had to make up a new front panel, I cut out the old one then made up a quick template with acrylic and then applied that to a plate I had folded up for the front.
Template
Applied to plate and first cut
And the idea was it would go something like this! I couldn't fit the front facia back over it though so it got reversed and mounted on the inside. No big deal.
Here it is painted and riveted into place. You can see what I mean about reversed and installed. It is assembled so it goes fans|radiator|plate|fans using sound deadening foam as gaskets between the plate, rads and fans to maximise airflow.
Now that I had the radiators mounted I made up a false motherboard tray and floor/PSU cover. Its made out of acrylic but had a metallic texture to it.
Now more presents arrived!
I sold off my GTX670 and replaced it with an EVGA GTX780Ti Superclocked with XSPC waterblock and backplate. I also got some PrimoChill ghost Revolver fittings for rigid the rigid acrylic.
Next some sleeving of all the front panel connections. I also swapped out the blue LED on the power switch for 2x white LEDs. Also painting the big blue USB3 connector white.
I ran into some trouble running from a breakout PCB to some ModMyToys PCB Splitters but eventually figured it out. All the fans running.
I centre punched 595 holes with a philipshead screwdriver…
And then drilled by hand. Probably between 4-5 hours just in doing this…
Also here is the new sub-front panel with magnetic fan filters for easy maintenance.
After my first attempt at sleeving I wasn't happy with the finish so I decided to try again, this time heatshrinkless style. Here are the results.
6+8pin
24pin
EPS
All together
Now bending up some acrylic tube!
AND FINISHED!
Full Album here -> http://imgur.com/a/3nNfL
It certainly isn't perfect I know all the faults but I think for my first real shot at modding a PC I've done OK. I have certainly caught the bug and am looking forward to the next project. Before I start the next big project I have planned I want to get another 780Ti for this machine and redo the acrylic tube. Some of the bends are clearly off at the moment.
none the less I'm proud of it and all the little things that likely no one will actually notice but make a little difference. Painting the radiator plugs white for e.g. and the videocard pci slot plate.
Hopefully you enjoyed looking through this as much as I did building it, if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to do my best to answer them.
Any constructive feedback is welcomed.
Thanks everyone
DeeG
