[pcfoo]

FooBox




So, this foo is building a new system...more likely, rebuilding it in a new case. Most of the components were living happily in my CM 690 II, then…greed, inferiority complexes, and a "cubic pirate" struck…so the transplant was decided, along with the water cooling loop my hot components deserved. So it was meant to be...that big new cube full of fan, heat and 2700 folding threads, my FooBox.

System
• i7 3930K @ 4.7GHz on air - hoping for more
• Thermalright SilverArrow SB-E
• Swiftech H220
• Asus P9X79 Pro
• Samsung Green 30nm 16GB (4x4GB) @ 2400
• EVGA GTX Titan
• Crucial M4 256GB
• WD Black 2TB
• LG iHAS 424
• HLDS GS30N 9.5mm Slot loading DVD-RW
• Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W

Case
• Corsair AIR540

So, it was time for my first custom loop…what the 690 II was promised, but I never got to fulfill for her…

Cooling
• XSPC Raystorm CPU Block
• XSPC Razor GTX Titan GPU Block
• XSPC D5 + D5 v2 Res
• XSPC AX360
• XSPC EX240
• XSPC Black Chrome Compression Fittings
• XSPC White 7/16" Tubing
• XSPC Photon Tube Glass Cylinder Reservoir or EK-MultiOption RES X3 (?)
• Swiftech Helix 120mm PWM x10
• Swiftech PWM Splitter x2
• NZXT FN 140RB

Lights
• XSPC 3mm Twin LED - White - for blocks x2
• Overall case lighting (?)

Scents & Mods
• White Paint - Front and Top case panel mesh (?)
• White Painted PCI slot covers (done)
• White Acrylic, custom MoBo "armor" lightbox
• White Acrylic, bottom lightbox (over HDDs)
• White Acrylic, RAM covers (eek?)
• 9.5mm slot loading optical drive vertically accessible on the top

Color Legend:
Green - Bought / Completed
Orange - Under scrutiny
Red - Abandoned

Progress photos and 3D renderings illustrating intentions will follow up as the thing comes together...
Takes more time than originally planned apparently

 

[pcfoo]

Reserved

 

[pcfoo]

Reserved

 

[pcfoo]

Test Fits

How to fit the pump...vertically...



Or horizontally?...chosen vertically to fill from the fill-port in the res when laid on the side, but either could work.









The front panel has square openings that fit a PWM 4-pin fan connector easily...



But, as soon as a cable has preceded it, it is "done"...the 2nd 4-pin connector aint going in...maybe if there wasn't sleeving? Maybe if you had 3-pin fans?
W/e, as it sits, it won't fit!



Not a huge deal...just remove the pins from the plug, get the cables trough and re-insert them. Be careful replacing them in the right sequence (use a fan you did not take apart as a guide)



Since the sceme was chosen to be black and white, I wanted to add some white to the mix...
Those are the PCI covers, starting up "original black", sanded for some paint traction, and finally painted white...



Checking clearances with the top rad in.
Apparently the AX360 is too wide...with push-pull on the top rad (EX240) I was forced to leave the fan screws out of the top 2 holes in the top fan for the front rad.
The gap between the 2 rads is only 2mm (3/32"). The head of the screw would interfere otherwise.



The rear end is tight too. Here you see the distance from the rear exhaust fan (already replaced with the NZXT FN 140RB).
Fiitting a 120/140mm rear rad with the top 240mm rad in push-pull is probably out of the question - unless we move either the rad or the fan outside of the case ofc.

 

[pcfoo]

Gut that Titan!



Ofc nobody told you that outside the 4 main cooler screws and the bracket retaining one that are philips head, those 15 or so tiny guys are Torx T-6...lucky to have a driver around

The King is naked...





Hello gorgeous...





...and dressed again



Teasing its new home...

 

[kimoswabi]

Subbed for the XSPC Photon tube reservoir. Dying to see what this res looks like in a 540 as I've been eyeing it as well. Going to be an epic build as you don't see very many XSPC builds.

 

[pcfoo]

the "Armor"

A break from pictures and test-fits, as I am waiting for a few extra 90 deg rotaries to complete the thing...

Lets explain the "Armor" idea...well, I got jealous of all those fancy mods I see all-around...
I also got jealous that my big-fat-X79 mobo has no "armor", the new trend Asus tries to push, not just with its Sabert"ee"th line, but also with the latest ROGs...

So, I was torturing myself with the idea of a custom, laser cut "Armor" for my P9X79 Pro, probably out of translucent white acrylic, to add that "original" touch to an otherwise "straightforward" build.

In its simplest form it will be a "white" element in the background of all components - instead of the busy with caps and small chips PCB. It is a black / white heavy theme after all!

The mobo will be secured on the case with M3 threaded standoffs of appropriate height to keep the upper acrylic face height to 11-13mm, so that it is "flush" or just above the PCIe slots, to clear the GPU or other cards in the future.



A wild idea would also be to sandwich a very thin white acrylic sheet over a back-etched, side-lit clear acrylic sheet, to create a light-box effect over the entire mobo / under the cards and piping. Could look sweat...here is a mockup render of the thing.



In a similar fashion, I might cover the whole bottom panel with a properly cut piece, spanning over and hiding the HDD/SSD cages.

Any input on how to properly execute the "armor" for both the mobo and/or the HDD bays, especially for it being a successful lightbox assembly, is more than welcome:
i.e. suggested lighting type / product and the such.

 

[STUNT1990]

That´s a tight fith with the rads!
I´ll send you one idea by PM, check it out!

 

[L0nestar]

Very nice, can't wait to see it.

 

[modnoob]

Subbed like the concept

 

[pcfoo]

Slot Optical Drive Teaser.

So...I always liked that lil detail in the MDPC murderbox...



So I had to have it...wth...

Idea was that I would get a USB blue ray or something to parallel use with the old C2D laptop I use as HTPC for streaming and mkv movies, but I wanted to try something different while maintaining the front 2 5.25" bays for future use with a 1 or 2 bay "thing" (controller and whatnot).
Having 2 compartments, I wanted it ofc on the "back of the house", but I thought it being centered in the cube (I've meant foobox) would be more interesting than the approach the MDPC maker did (he didn't have a cube). That would allow freedom on installing full depth 5.25" devices should I need to in the future.

This will be the slot loading DVD-RW. 9mm.



Measurements.



Picked this up from a local Harbor Freighter Tools as I didn't want to buy a new Dremel and the 2 I had were 10 TimeZones away...how bad could it be for $6.99. Let me tell you, It wasn't. It just could not do the job with a 50W motor, regardless of ceramic wheel used. So, just don't.

Back to the ol jig-saw and those 36 TPI HSS blades...



And some detailing and filing to make the thing safer to handle...



Could be worse...



But the bottom of the case couldn't...remember to remove all the electrical "stuff" when you are intending to go cutting and grinding either metal or plastic, cause cleaning up will be much easier

Took some time to figure out the way to properly slot the plastic top panel...too thick to go through it with an X acto(multiple passes, never try to go through in one lol)...notice how better the bottom edge is (jig saw + progressor wood blade - don't use fine toothed metal blades on plastic with power tools) vs. the top edge (X-Acto + No11). Will be cleaned up both sides before completion, ends will be filled with round file.



Throughout all this process I regret switching jobs just a tad (my previous office had laser cutter in-house).

 

[SiberianGhost]

Wow! that's epic dude

Subbed

 

[Shpongle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcfoo

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Test Fits

How to fit the pump...vertically...



Or horizontally?...chosen vertically to fill from the fill-port in the res when laid on the side, but either could work.









The front panel has square openings that fit a PWM 4-pin fan connector easily...



But, as soon as a cable has preceded it, it is "done"...the 2nd 4-pin connector aint going in...maybe if there wasn't sleeving? Maybe if you had 3-pin fans?
W/e, as it sits, it won't fit!



Not a huge deal...just remove the pins from the plug, get the cables trough and re-insert them. Be careful replacing them in the right sequence (use a fan you did not take apart as a guide)



Since the sceme was chosen to be black and white, I wanted to add some white to the mix...
Those are the PCI covers, starting up "original black", sanded for some paint traction, and finally painted white...

Checking clearances with the top rad in.
Apparently the AX360 is too wide...with push-pull on the top rad (EX240) I was forced to leave the fan screws out of the top 2 holes in the top fan for the front rad.
The gap between the 2 rads is only 2mm (3/32"). The head of the screw would interfere otherwise.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

The rear end is tight too. Here you see the distance from the rear exhaust fan (already replaced with the NZXT FN 140RB).
Fiitting a 120/140mm rear rad with the top 240mm rad in push-pull is probably out of the question - unless we move either the rad or the fan outside of the case ofc.

What you could do is use a really short screw and install it like so:



Excited to see this rig built up. First time I saw the 540 I knew some epic water cooled builds were inbound.

 

[pcfoo]

Thanks guys...

Silliness update...

Today I actually went and filled the loop up for the 1st time...didn't wait more than 5-6 hours test running the thing with electronics unplugged to check for leaks etc.
Seamed pretty solid. Priming went great, bubbles were shaken off and D5 is purring happily. What could go wrong?

Booted the thing about an hour ago (writing this post as I am stress testing me new clocks

)....

Titan was running @ 39oC full boost @ folding adv. core (stock EVGA BIOS)

CPU was running great...idling @ 54oC & 4.7 GHz 1.325V...what the...well, cause is the disabled C6 or whatever, lets push...restart, 4.9GHz...blue screen...well voltage...pump...blue screen...VCC...blue screen...Voltage some more...ok, we are in Win 7...lets start the true temp...high 70s...what?
Lets fold...BOOM, blue screen...

Long story short, I had test fitted the block on, forgetting there was no TIM...perfectly, mirror finnised block...still...not enough.



A pea and an X of MX4 later, we are idling @ 35, and stress testing high 50s with 4.7GHz "air-cooling" settings (was hitting 80-82oC with my Silver Arrow). Lets see...

 

[pcfoo]

Mounting the Front Rad

With Many of the heavy work and metal cutting out of the way, I had to clear minor details before starting to put everything together.
From the get go I had noted how tough it is to fit that AX360 in the front. I blame it to not perfectly thought-out hole design on Corsair's side, and I would hope they would revise their tooling to allow for some movement, cutting wholes for the 120mm fans allowing for movement, much like they did for the 140mm fans, on both the top and lower panels.



There is no need to worry about getting enough traction to keep the fans in place. A single screw can provide like 100 times the hold required.
Even if this was a single hole, allowing for an inch or so of play, you couldn't go wrong...more options are always good and IMHO most companies - even uber aimed towards custom builds like Caselabs - are doing it wrong by going for super-specified fan positions.

So, to brute force solve my issue with the fittings on my 3x120 rad rubbing against the front HDD mount, I had to enlarge the holes using my trusted ol cheap stepless enlarging drill bit...



The end result are holes enlarged by 1-2mm to allow for some play, mounting the rad equal mm higher...I should have enlarged them more than what you see actually, but it worked with a hair of room left against my 90deg rotary, so I decided to just go with w/e I had and not having to clean the darn thing of steel shavings for the millionth time!



So, on with mounting the thing...hopefully for the last time before the loop is closed.



Those cables through the hole as practiced before...remember, you have to remove the plastic plugs for all 3 to fit:

 

[KillThePancake]

That motherboard armor idea is awesome, kinda wanna try it. Subbed for a 540 build

 

[Lumo841]

This is an impressive build, keep it up!

 

[Kyouki]

Have some good ideas! im in to see the results, keep up the good work.

 

[loud681]

Nice build so far

 

[Beakz]

Subbed, cool idea for the "thermal armor"