FAQ | Search | Memberlist | Usergroups | Register | Profile | Inbox | Log in | SmartFeedSmartFeed


 okgg.org > Forum Index > Modding > Project Cobalt Goto page 1, 2  Next

  Author    Thread Post new topic  Reply to topic
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
Project Cobalt  Reply with quote  

I finally sat down and thought long and hard about what I wanted to call this PC since I had always hated not coming up with a name for Server. Cobolt is what I came up with and it seems appropriate as it's both a metal and the color of the build.

I am selling off my Macbook Pro and I had some extra cash to throw around and decided that I wanted a Corsair 800D Obsidian really badly and that I wanted my server out of it's case so I was free to play with it. Thus began the spending binge of today. I ordered the aforementioned case, another 3x120mm radiator, 15' of PrimoChill Blue UV tubing and a pair of UV cathodes.

My current plan actually involves no modifications to the 800D which looks suspiciously like a penis in text form. The case supports a 3x120mm radiator stock which is fantastic and has a plethora of routing options for both wiring and tubing and really I won't need to cut a single thing to get everything I want out of this case.







What will require modification however, is the 5.25" bay res I plan to use. What I plan to do with it is mount it in the usual location in a 5.25" bay but I am going to make a faceplate for it to cover up most of the light as I'm no longer a fan of a big block of water in the front of cases.



Here is what I've come up with so far for the faceplate but I'm just spitballing and welcome opinions and I'll update these based on what, if anything, you guys contribute. I'm going to have these cut out of black vinyl and layered so that they are not translucent and if I have the opportunity I will have one cut out of black anodized aluminum so this is important!

This one is pretty simple obviously, a clean font and an outline of Master Shake. It's a running joke for several years with friends of mine that I am just like Master Shake so it seemed appropriate. The white background would actually be black and the black would be cut out to show the water/reservoir behind.


Anyways, let me know what you guys think and I will post pics when stuff starts arriving.
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.


Last edited by Nikola on Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

Post Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:34 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Brules
M F C E O


Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Posts: 11074
Location: Konnichiwa, bitches.
 Reply with quote  

That case's wire management is sexy.
_________________
K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

Post Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:24 pm  View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Well, I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that I completely skipped snapping pics of me just putting the computer together. Not any modding involved so I didn't feel the need. This case is absolutely phenomenal! The more I play with it the more I come to find little things that make my life easier.


That said, I did have a little bit of a hard time deciding where and how to mount the pump. I couldn't mount it in the 5.25" bays because I would have had to mount it directly to the bay reservoir which would mean it couldn't slide out to be filled which would pose a problem. In the end I put the pump roughly where the designers had in mind although I got a little creative with it. You can also see my trusty old Enermax 600w beast there. He's getting replaced with a brand new Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000w as soon as my MDPC-X sleeving gets here from Germany and I get it all resleeved Very Happy




Here you can see the majority of the loop. Lots of extra tubing there to reach to and from the pump but it is worth it 100 times over having the pump under the reservoir when it comes time to fill and bleed the system. You might also notice my new 4870 there which gave a nice bump in graphics power from my 3850, I'm looking for a waterblock for it but I'm unwilling to pay new prices for discontinued waterblocks Sad


^ Keep in mind that the SATA backplane there for the hot swap bays has a cover, but it wasn't installed when I took the pics Shocked


Here's a pulled back shot, I really loathe both the lighting in this house and my apathy towards learning how to actually use this Nikon D70 to take really good looking pics. You can barely see the bottom of the Swiftech MCR320QP-K radiator at the top.



Other than the case, there wasn't much to this upgrade so far. A bigger radiator is probably not usually the upgrade that it was here, but it makes all the difference in the world with this machine. The 120mm single radiator I was using before just couldn't quite handle the output of the 65nm Quads when highly overclocked. The combination of moving to a 45nm Q9450 and tripling the cooling capacity has given me worlds of headroom for the future.

What's left then?

1. Lighting! I still have to install some UV Cathodes to make my tubes glow and install the LED for the bay reservoir. Whether or not the water gets dye or coolant remains to be seen.

2. Faceplates! Not only do I need to get the faceplate for the bay reservoir finalized and cut, but I also have to decide how I'm going to stealth the DVD drive into the front of the case. I'm seriously considering cutting a slot in a faceplate and getting a slot load drive, we will see.

3. Upgrades! This PC is not done getting upgraded quite yet! I have 4gb Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066mhz in the mail to replace my G.Skill DDR2 1000mhz and an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer to replace the onboard sound, woot!

4. Sleeving! My new Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000w modular power supply is here but unfortunately the mass amounts of sleeving are not! Once that arrives I will get to work MurderMod style on all of the wiring in this case and that will hopefully give it a much more polished look.

I bought a good deal of both of these, I'm thinking Grand Bleu for the Ground wires and Black for everything else, all done with black heatshrink.




_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:34 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

I just got a package from LuftPost/Deutsche Post with a nice bit of artwork on it Smile

I believe Nils, from MDPC-X.com, does this for every package he sends out and it's awesome.


My entire order, not cheap but very worth it.


Sample of the SATA sleeving and his new Orange color.


My personalized Pin Extractor Very Happy

_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:09 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Shinare
SEXNOCULAR


Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts: 13332
Location: Up your butt with a coconut!!
 Reply with quote  

Ugh, your bedspread makes my brain hurt.
_________________
For with what measure you measure it will be measured to you.

Post Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:21 pm  View user's profile Send private message ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Yeah, not my favorite either. One of those things I do to humor my grandmother that makes all of these quilts.
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:33 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
VinceVaughn
Cougar Hawk


Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Posts: 630
Location: OKC
 Reply with quote  

Wow I know were I'm getting my sleeving when the old gaming computer gets resurrected....
_________________
Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

Post Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:42 pm  View user's profile Send private message
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Sleeving begins tomorrow, tonight was me draining the distilled water from the loop. It is awful draining this thing, holding it from a dozen odd angles while it weighs approximately 80-85 pounds right now isn't all that fun. Further draining it by sucking out the remaining water through a length of cat5e that i pulled the wiring out of was particularly terrible.

That said, it looks AWESOME! Obligatory horrible iPhone pic:

_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:16 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Woke up today dreading what I was to do, but it ended up not being quite as bad as I expected. Nonetheless, it still took me just under 3 hours to complete the work you see below.

Beginning to dismantle my new Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000w


I will have to work on the fan grills a little later so they match the theme


The very first wire down!


Starting to see some variation here...


Halfway done... with just the 24-pin connector. This took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to get this far.


The finished product!


More sleeve pr0n



I am very excited to be this far already and cannot wait for the whole thing to be done. I will decide whether or not to sleeve all of the modular cables after I get done with the PSU itself. Who knows, the machine this will run right now doesn't need anything more than the cables permanently attached right now Shocked
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:15 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Almost done sleeving this sucker! It's been a task and a half and my fingers are about to fall off, but I think it looks great.

I ended up having to sleeve one modular cable here, a 6-pin PCI-e power cable so I can run both 4870s in this machine. Thanks to Singe for the newest one Very Happy



Here's the PSU as it sits now, four wires short of completion. Vapor and I took a Dremel to the casing to give the wires extra room but it is still going to be a very tight fit.



EDIT: Sleeving is DONE! Still have to sleeve CCFL wires and other minor things but the power supply is complete sans fan grills.
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:32 am  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Haven't taken the time to actually snap pics since I installed the new power supply and ran all the wiring and did lighting but alot of you saw it at the LAN so it can wait.

Just got a rough draft render of what the faceplate for the bay reservoir will look like and it is AWESOME!




EDIT: So I lied, I did snap some pics while I was putting the power supply in, but nothing after I started to do wire management and lighting.


Here's the case back on the power supply, this was WAY more than difficult to get back on with all of the extra girth from the sleeving. It was a 2 person + a door jam job.





Fan grill freshly painted and baked. Yes, I put that sucker in the oven to speed up the process a bit as I was running short on time.



Here I just realized that the power supply will not physically fit in the case if I don't move the pump further towards the front AND split the wires on either side of the tubing. This sucker is BIG.



A shot of the 24-pin connector in all of it's glory.



Here you can see the mass of wiring going on either side of the OUT tube of the pump.



The backside of the system. Wire management was alot easier than I expected it to be but I probably used at least 30 zip ties to get the desired effect in the case AND to get the side panel to shut.



Seems like a contradiction to put this much effort into the sleeving when this case is designed specifically to hide wiring, but I still love it.



The 24-pin and four 6-pin connectors all neatly arranged with all of the wires in the correct order, neat and tidy Very Happy

_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.


Last edited by Nikola on Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

Post Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:07 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
VinceVaughn
Cougar Hawk


Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Posts: 630
Location: OKC
 Reply with quote  

I think you would have no trouble at all handling a bunch of extra girth Wink

Also I love how you have blue and red PCB's on the crossfire cards man......thats awesome!
_________________
Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

Post Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:53 am  View user's profile Send private message
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

VinceVaughn wrote: I think you would have no trouble at all handling a bunch of extra girth Wink


Touche' sir.

VinceVaughn wrote: Also I love how you have blue and red PCB's on the crossfire cards man......thats awesome!


Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that, but I'm gonna swap my GTX 275 in there I think pretty soon. Hopefully going to do some custom graphics on the heatsink for it.
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:32 am  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Went to UCO last night and played with the CNC mill and some of the other heavy duty toys for a bit. We broke the 1/16" bit we needed for making the faceplate so we made a 180% size test piece out of scrap lucite Very Happy



Front shot of the case with the protective plastic removed and somewhat close color representation.



Side shot showcasing all of the dust that is attracted to this side panel like the plague.
I find it pretty interesting how much brighter those blue tubes are with the UV cathodes on in conjunction with the white.




I'm going to a sign shop today to see about some other options for making the face plate to cover the bay reservoir. My first preference is still the aluminum faceplate CNC milled but that may take several days before we are able to try again.
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:03 am  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Moar pics! Changed the lighting, added some blue and removed some white. In progress of making a controller for the fans and the lights so it can be controlled on the fly via software, should be pretty awesome.


You might notice there is no RAM in there Shocked



Here you can see the stark difference in glow where the UV light stops since there's no UV filter on the camera. Added another UV CCFL after this pic to try and remedy that. Also notice that the 4870s have come out for the time being to make room for my 5870 until Subtlety is back together.

_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:08 pm  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Took a trip to Absolute Signs & Graphics today to have a chat with Reggie up there and see about getting a faceplate cover made out of vinyl. Didn't take very long at all and we had a test piece to see how closely it would cut to my design and it looked great!

Now this piece isn't usable on the faceplate itself, but I'm sure I'll manage to stick it somewhere.



Here you can see the difference in the black vinyl to the brushed anodized aluminum. Really doesn't look too out of place.



Unfortunately the installation didn't exactly go as planned since we didn't have the right tools so I'm getting some more cut tomorrow to redo it.



Sexy side shot of the case as it stands now, desperately needing the attention of an air compressor.



Even sexier night shot of the case. Doesn't show up well in the picture, but the light leaks from the sides and top of the reservoir. Part of that will be fixed by pulling the reservoir further back into the case so it is again flush with the front, and we're also going to extend the edges of the vinyl by 1/4" so we can wrap it to completely eliminate the light bleed.

_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:48 am  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Got alot done tonight, but only got pics of the less substantial portion. I got the vinyl cut again and after another slightly more successful try, the third one was by far the best and we stuck with it.

Here is the case with my PC Modding model.


Moar pix! You can see that there is now zero light bleeding on the edges Smile







Parts from Mouser also arrived and work has begun on the custom CCFL/Fan/LED software controller but it will not be finished until tomorrow.
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:23 am  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
Nikola
Hung Like a Flea


Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 790
Location: Edmond, OK
 Reply with quote  

Well, the lighting is mostly done with the case now. Missing a 4" UV and a 4" blue cathode but that's just an issue of velcro and sleeving. Got the controller box complete and installed and the software is in a state where it does most anything I want at the moment, and anything more is just a reprogram away.


Here's a breadboard from the initial mock up of the test. We call this Squid v1.0.





Here's the perf board beginning to take shape. Surface mount LEDs for diagnostics on each channel, 6 for CCFLs, 2 for fans and 2 for LEDs. There are actually 8 fan headers though, split into two channels and 4 LED headers in two channels for 5v or 12v operation.





Bottom perf board nearly complete. We thought it was complete but ended up adding a 5v regulator while at the Intel LAN Fest Dallas.



Top perf board and the connector that makes it one with the bottom. Cutting into it this way we were able to add more headers for connections and still fit it into the project box.



There was alot of soldering on this project.



A LOT!



Putting the box together, it's black anodized aluminum with plastic ends.



Here is the box installed in the case. It's a good thing there is a large amount of room on the backside of this case or it wouldn't have had a chance.



Here is the controller software. It sends commands via Serial to the box through a C# GUI. Right now pretty much everything is fed to it via XML so it's not being constantly recompiled when it's worked on. Also it has a bitchin' icon!



I'll hopefully get some video of the controller in action soon so you can see what it's capable of. Right now when the PC turns on, the Fans go to 100%, each LED channel fades up to 100% and each of the 6 individual CCFL channels fades up to 100% one at a time and then reverts to the default color scheme I set: 100% UV/60% White/100% Blue to give it a nice glow while still keeping clear view of the sleeving.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't proud of this little box and I hope to improve on it for the Subtlety build when it resumes. Hope to hear some feedback on this!
_________________
Failure is just success rounded down.

Post Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:55 am  View user's profile Send private message AIM Address ICQ Number
LightningCrash
Smile like Bob, order your free LC today


Joined: 03 Apr 2003
Posts: 5020
 Reply with quote  

I'd be lying if I didn't say that is pretty fucking cool.

Tell us more about the controller. Is that a PIC controller?

Post Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:50 am  View user's profile Send private message
VinceVaughn
Cougar Hawk


Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Posts: 630
Location: OKC
 Reply with quote  

That is pure sex man.....

and agreed would like more info on that box as this week I will be rebuilding my show computer for the LAN and this box looks like it would be about perfect for all teh lighting and fans...

Very Happy
_________________
Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

Post Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:35 am  View user's profile Send private message
  Display posts from previous:      
Post new topic  Reply to topic

Last Thread | Next Thread  > Goto page 1, 2  Next

Quick Reply

  
Jump to:  
Forum Rules:
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum