[Soul.]

Hey OCN,

This is my first build log, so here it goes.

I built my sig rig a while ago, and I decided to take the plunge into water cooling. I'm sticking with my Azza Helios, which is wayyy too small to fit a rad in. The plan is to cut out the top of the case, and to replace it with a radiator housing, cut out the side panel fan, and replace it with a window.

I've already sleeved all of my PSU cables, getting all of it to fit is the main goal! My apologies ahead of time, I only have a camera phone to take these pics with, but I thought I'd share anyways.

Parts:
XPSC RASA RX360 Watercooling Kit
7/16th ID Compression Fittings
Sleeves from MDPC!

This is what the my case used to look like:

The Inside

And I've taken it all apart!

First Step: Side Window!
Here's the side panel disassembled, with the new window cut out.

I'll clean it up, and glue in the window tomorrow.

I've already started working on the radiator housing too, its going to look alot like large trapazoid. This is going to become the mounting plate for the radiator!

Tomorrow I'll hopefully get a bunch of work done on the motherboard tray, putting in more cable routing holes, and grommeting them!

Thanks for looking!

 

[bob808]

looks good so far

I'll be keeping an eye on this.
Welcome to the wonderful world of modding!
Be warned though, It can become addictive lol

 

[Soul.]

Haha, yeah. I've already got my fans disassembled and everything, getting ready to paint them.

 

[Soul.]

Update!

Today I painted my fans and fan grills.

Fan Blades Removed from their housings:

Painting Prep:

Painting!

I also painted the fan grills blue

Fans back in their housings. I'm really happy with how they turned out. I also need to sleeve the cables, and switch out the header pins for black ones. Waiting on MDPC for that one.

So far things are going really well. I'm pretty pumped to keep the black/blue theme going.

I also installed the window in my side panel today:

Getting ready to install the window

Marking out the position of the lexan:

Little bit of 5-min epoxy to stick it on

And done! Doesn't really look like the window is there, probably because my phone can't focus well enough.

I'll hopefully have all my cuts done tomorrow, and grommets installed in all of them!

 

[bob808]

very nice! The fans look sweet. Did the blades pull right off or ddi you have to remove washers and seals? The last time I painted some fans, I used masking tape to cover the frame and then sprayed them. It was kinda lame but they turned out good..

New window looks great too. Did the epoxy do the trick and the window is good and stuck?

 

[Soul.]

Thanks! I did need to pull the seals, snapring and o-ring out to get at them. It sounds like masking the housing is a lot of work! It wasn't too hard to disassemble the, just need a pick or a set of tweezers.

The epoxy worked great too. Window's definitely stuck on there, I'll put up some more pics soon.

 

[Soul.]

Update!

I actually did this a couple of days ago, but here it is. I got all of the holes in my case cut out to accept some corsair grommets (like in the 800D).

I used a angle grinder to widen the holes, then finished them with a dremel. The grommets kind of 'snap' into the holes, but I also stuck them in place with some hot glue to make sure they don't move.

Corsiar was kind enough to send me some grommets from the 800D:

These are all holes I had cut previously, but they could look better!

Got the first one to fit.

Finished some more, just 3 more to go.

Finished! I didn't put a grommet in that bottom hole though, it was already cut out and too large to accept one.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, makes the case look alot neater. Plus the grommets were free =D

More Progress on the radiator housing too! Like I said, I was building a custom radiator housing to hold the RX360. I made it out of some sheet Aluminium, here are some pics of the build!

Here's the top panel for the mount (even though I already posted it)

And I unfortunately don't have any pictures of me making the housing, my phone was dead when I was fabricating it. Made the 4 sides of the housing with shear and bent them into the right shape with a brake.

This is it taped together as a mock, ready to be welded:

All welded!

Now I need to cut out a hole in the top of the case so I can fit the rad in.

I also marked out the hole pattern I have on the bottom of the radiator housing to mount it to the case - I'm mounting it with some 4-40 screws.

And here's the housing on top of the case, just checking fit

It fit pretty good, being careful with measuring when I was fab'ing the panels made for a good fit. I ended up cleaning up the sides and filling in some gaps with body filler to get it all nice and smooth.

Painting it flat black:

Added a coat of instant clear coat, made it match my case much better, you can see the cutout of the side panel in the background

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Time to start assembling my stuff back together and mock up the loop. I'll have some more pictures of stuff going together later on! And let me know what you think so far! I could always use some feedback

 

[JedixJarf]

Looking great man keep it up!

 

[bob808]

looking good man! That is gong to look pretty sweet when you get it attached to the top

I can't wait to see more-

 

[Soul.]

Okay, so I got some assembling done this weekend:

Here's the installed side panel on the case:

And some pictures of the housing installed:

The RX360 with some fittings installed

And, finally the radiator installed with the fan grills:

This week I'll get to the sleeving of the fan cables, and install them as well, as well as get all the tubing sorted out.

 

[Soul.]

I got a good day of work in today, and I finished the build!

First order of business: Picking up packages!

From MDPC!

I already have a bunch of sleeving left over from when I did my PSU, this is some extra heat shrink + sleeving for the tubes and black fan headers =D

Also, from DazMode

The rest of the fittings I need to finish this build!

Now that I have everything, here we go!

First order of business is to checkout what the length the tubes need to be, and all the fittings:

I left out the two CPU tubes, since I already cut those to length. The big thing was fitting the 90 + 45 fitting together on the rad to clear the fans and to tuck that tube in the housing I made and out of the way. I also oriented the T fitting where I wanted it so I can drain the loop easily later if need be.

Now that I've got all the tubes cut to length, let the sleeving begin!

Tube with the sleeving heat shrunk on - used this on the barb fittings that came with the kit.

The main hoses sleeved with the compressing fitting rings on the end - I really love the way these turned out.

My biggest problem with 360 radiators is that you have 3 different fans with 3 different fan headers - I only wanted a single fan header that drove all 3 fans. So re-connected them all together in a single daisy chain so my mobo can drive the fans (and control the speed)

Bare fan cases - this is the orientation I think I want them in

Actually ended up switching the orientation, but this is about halfway done the fans - I cut all the ends of and branched the wires together.

Next junction - also I learned that you only need one of the yellow wires - since its the speed feedback signal from the fans, having multiple will mess up the signal.

Finished! I also switched out the header so it was black, much nicer.

Now that I have the tubes/fan wires finished, its time to put it all together!

Shots without hardware in it - I'm pretty happy with the way the loop turned out, love the sleeves.

Hardware in!

Got the sucker up and running, did a small leak test and everything was okay. And this kit rocks! I was getting 30C under load - and I was at 53C under load before. I think I'll have to try pushing my CPU OC some more =D

I think I'll have to add some lighting to the case, its kind of bland right now and when it is dark you can't see anything through the window. Maybe I'll borrow a friends DSLR and take some real pictures of the inside - the crappy phone camera doesn't do it any justice.

Anyways, thanks for looking - I had a lot of fun putting this together.

 

[Deadite]

Awesome work! I love it.

 

[Soul.]

Thanks! Hopefully I'll be upgrading the hardware soon too - I would love to add a GPU waterblock into this loop!

 

[RushMore1205]

what size tubing is that? did you use the sata sleeve?

 

[tombom]

Really good mod! Keep up the good work.

 

[hyujmn]

Whoa, did Corsair send you those for free?? I've been wanting set of those 800D grommets forever.

 

[Soul.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyujmn Whoa, did Corsair send you those for free?? I've been wanting set of those 800D grommets forever.

Yeah they did! There was a thread on the OCN about them, I just called their customer service number and asked if I could get some grommets like in the 800D. Some people had to pay $10(including shipping) for them, others got them for free.

http://www.overclock.net/case-mods-g...-grommets.html

Wait... I just read through that thread again, looks like the officially sell them now for about $15

I actually got them in earlier in the year, I think it was some time in January or something like that, I just haven't had time to work on my mod until recently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RushMore1205 what size tubing is that? did you use the sata sleeve?

Its 7/16th ID tubing, 5/8th OD. Its the weird size, but it was the standard tubing that comes with the XSPC 360 kit, and MDPC sells a tubing sleeve kit.

http://en.mdpc-x.com/mdpc-sleeve/sle...leeve-pack.htm

I just have the clear tubing in right now and the sleeve is very slightly transparent, I would recommend getting black tube if people are trying to attempt this in the future, it'll make the sleeving look better/denser.

 

[Shadow_Foxx]

That tubing sleeving looks way cooler than I ever expected! Props mate! I have been wanting those 800D grommets forever, I had no idea you could purchase them?! This may solve a big problem of mine. Ive been following since the beginning, keep it up! 360 rad modders FTW

EDIT: I see you havent updated in two weeks, I hope youre still workin on this bad boy!

 

[Soul.]

Ah, no I've sorta stopped working on this guy lol. I got it up and running, and fully going. Everything worked out really great! I'm seeing pretty good temps on my CPU - but WC'ing an X2 555 is sorta overkill. I'm waiting for something better to come out, its either gonna be Bulldozer or an i5-2500k, we'll see.

Around then hopefully I'll find some more money and add a GPU block into the loop, and have a better camera to show this off more!

I've been keeping tab's on your build too and it looks great! I'll be wayy better once your replace that corsair cooler =P

 

[Shadow_Foxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soul. Ah, no I've sorta stopped working on this guy lol. I got it up and running, and fully going. Everything worked out really great! I'm seeing pretty good temps on my CPU - but WC'ing an X2 555 is sorta overkill. I'm waiting for something better to come out, its either gonna be Bulldozer or an i5-2500k, we'll see. Around then hopefully I'll find some more money and add a GPU block into the loop, and have a better camera to show this off more! I've been keeping tab's on your build too and it looks great! I'll be wayy better once your replace that corsair cooler =P

Yes, putting an X2 55 underwater might be overkill, doesnt make it any less awesome

I am in the same boat, I want to upgrade my 955 before I crossfire, but im not sure if I will end up getting sandy bridge, bulldozer, or even wait for Ivy Bridge next spring... Guess ill see how the benchmarks turn out. I really want bulldozer to be competitive though, the mobos are so much cheaper, and have better crossfire options. Oh yea, and then theres the issue of how to pay for all this stuff

Hey thanks for keeping up with mine! Its always keep you on top of your game when you know other good modders are watching! As for the H50, I agree it has to go. But the watercooling parts are coming tonight so hopefully it will get the boot in the next few days

Cheers mate