[build log] GAME HARD, FOLD HARDER - TJ07 - full watercooled - full custom panels

[Hukkel]

And I finally finished modding it. Had some time today, borrowed my brothers drillstand. Thankfully my powerdrill fitted perfectly. All German engineering. It doesn't get much better

This time I added a live action photo of me for a change hahaha. Hope you like it.

You can see the before and after photos of the block. The plexi middle piece had to be hollowed out by about 2mm.

And finally the card is about finished. The paint on the PCI slot plate is drying now.

ONWARDS TO SOME ACTUAL BUILDING!!!!

 

[Hukkel]

Today I spent working on the case. Needed to testfit the illuminated midplate so I could draw where to make the two fillport holes. Also fitted the bay sidecover (which is in real life). Needed to fit and remove some parts. Still getting to know the correct order
Tomorrow I am making the holes and fitting it back for real.

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I received a mysterious package today. Check it out.

Hooray

Sir Michael of Mayhems was so kind to donate me 3 liters of their orange coolant and some red and yellow dye to perfect it to the brightest orange I could think of.
Freaking amazing Mike

 

[Hukkel]

Big update time. Today I did the final fitting adjustments so I could fit all new plexi parts. I did a small photosession after that. With bad lighting, but just to give you the general idea of how it is coming together now.

First I drilled two 20mm holes for the fillports. After this I took out the mobo tray completely and fitted the bay cover and the illuminated midplate. I also fitted the new backplate of the case. And finally I put the lightbox on the inside of the backplate. This will light up the lion on the rear panel just like the gfx on the bay side cover will be lit by a large lightbox behind the cover.

Lets do some less typing and let the photos do the talking. Really not good quality. But it does give the general idea.

Next jobs to do: fit all the sleeved cables and make them also fit through the wonderfull "combs" on the mobo extension plate. Make my own large set of fan extension cables and fit them to the fancontroller. Sleeve (and shorten) the wiring from the D5 pump.

 

[991jo]

great work again, please go on.

 

[coroc]

That looks really great

I hope the Sleeve comes soon

 

[Hukkel]

Thanks a lot guys!

Small update. I finally came around to make all my fan extension cables tonight. 9 pieces in various lengths I believe. I measures how long every fan extension needed to be. Wrote it down and took a seat
I will sleeve them tomorrow I think. They will be all black. They just need to look clean not be noticed a lot
It just needs to look tidy.

I also received a small package from an UK watercooling shop. I wanted to try out a few shops just to see how fast they ship and how good their prices are and also very important how good their stock is. I hate it when shops need to order stuff themselves and it takes weeks or longer for it to arrive to them. I don't have tie for that. Anyway, bought me two 90 degree EKWB adapters (who needs Bitspower with these looks and prices), an XSPC SLI connector to connect two pci slots that are directly next to eachother, a very heave Alphacool T-section. I will use this to fit the tab for the loop at the lowest point. And a male-male Alphacool connector to be able to fit that tab to the T-piece

Hopefully I can mount some stuff tomorrow or sunday. I still need to also sleeve the pump wiring (and shorten the 4 pin on that a lot. It is now almost all wiring, cablemanagement and hoses/pipes. After that the LEDs and their LED board. And after that.....leaktesting.

 

[Hukkel]

After many weeks of labour finally my attic is now the bedroom for my youngest daughter. She has left the babyroom and now has her own bedroom with floorspace to play with toys and such. And now sleeps in a big bed. My girls are getting big :sigh:

On the bright side. Now I could finally start transforming her old babyroom into my stash and modifying / sleeving room :rock:
I put up my first (of 2 or 3) desks and finally took my baby home. I can now finally work on her much easier and faster. Room for storage, room for building, not having to clean up everything everytime.
I am in modding heaven

I have done some stuff on the build I forgot to take photos of. Here are a few things.

Last time I fitted my custom made extension cables for the fans. I now have no wiring in sight from the side. Al nicely tucked under the radiator stand Muderbox-style. Awesome design guys, I love it!

Now they all come up on the frontside of the case. You can still see some sleeved wiring there but I will make a small plate to hide them all.
They have been fitted to the fancontroller. As well as the 3 top fans. I need to do some cablemanagement but cannot find the cable-management-clips I bought a year ago. Poooooh. I need to find them :wallbash:

I also started figuring out the hose routing. Fitted some fittings to see if I have enough and the correct type.

I had to change the very nice looking Bitspower fillports for far less good looking Alphacool ones. In the pictures you can see why.
I am just glad Alphacool sells them. No other brand has such long fillports. Ideal for midplates as you can see.

I also fitted the XSPC SLI fitting. Looks very nice and stealthy. Now lets hope it doesn't leak.

Finally I have been busy building a small monitoring block. A USB Aquacomputer flowmeter and tempsensor. They will be placed in between the radiator and the midplate going to the waterblocks. Going to use them with the aquasuite software.

That is it for tonight everyone. Expect more updates soon!

 

[Hukkel]

Did some more work yesterday. Yesterday I realised I cannot fill the loop when I have closed the front end completely. And I have to close the front end completely to fill the loop.

PARADOX!!!

I did not want to mutulate the outside of the case to create a fillport. So I instead wanted to create one on the left side 5,25 inch bay.
I had ordered a tool for some decent hole making for fillports from Aquacomputer.
I first drilled a hole with a regular metal drill, then used the tapped drillbit and man it went like the sidepanel as if it was butter.
But the bits of metal were flying all over the place. I used a vacuum cleaner under it but still missed a lot of bits flying. I had to vacuum the inside of the case as well
Finished the fillport off with an Aquacomputer pressure equalisation membrane.

I also started to create the loop in the front and bottom part. I have a 90 degree fitting coming in for the left fillport through the midplate. It will let the tubing block the fan less.
I put soft pads for under chars etc and stuck it under the flowmeter and Alphacool square block. No scratching and no noise.

I have found another xspc annoying thing; their top reservoir screw is an M20 one. Which means it is incompatible with any other brand fitting. And yes I used the Bitspower fillport as well, but the thread are smaller.
So I had to order an XSPC fillport for their reservoirs. Which of course didn't come in black so I have to use a shiny one instead. And NO ONE has one in the listing let alone in stock in Holland. So I had to order from the UK again. Which means again a long wait before I can move on. Stupid me for thinking I was almost done

AAARRGGHHHHHHHHHHH

Oh well, I started on doing some cable management as well. Making sure some wiring will be nice and out of sight using cable clips.

 

[Jbfem]

Tim my Friend See here in Pcghx it's really nice and the case thats incredible!

 

[PCGH_Stephan]

I hope you don't mind that we presented your build log at our main page: Game Hard, Fold Harder: TJ07-Wakü-Casemod mit orangen Waben
Keep up the good work!

 

[Balthar]

Congratulations for the Main, you really deserve it

 

[Hukkel]

I hope you don't mind that we presented your build log at our main page: Game Hard, Fold Harder: TJ07-Wakü-Casemod mit orangen Waben
Keep up the good work!

Hi Stephan, thank you very much. That is a big honour. Means a lot. I hope you guys will like the remainder of the log as well. Many nice pictures coming very soon.

Congratulations for the Main, you really deserve it

Thanks Balthar. Thank you for being a regular viewer of this log as well

 

[Hukkel]

If all goes well 2 updates tonight. First off:

I fabricated a custom 4 pin molex cable to feed the pump, the fancontroller and the LED station. I am also installing the LED station at the same time.

Received a few fittings. I thought I had everything I needed now. But I miscalculated on the 1/4 extender. So had to order a smaller one right away UURRGGHHHH it will hopefully arrive in the mail tomorrow.
I got to fit the loop drain valve now to the monitoringstation. Another thing on the list I can cross now.

Also fixed the molex cable on the inside of the bays to keep the wiring nice and tidy.

 

[Hukkel]

Rest of photos.

 

[Hukkel]

And here is the second update.
I was giving this a try tonight and I am so hyped I needed to show you guys this.

I ordered 5 meters of 12/10 acrylic tubing and a bending cord.

At first I wanted to see if I could do it without a paint removing hot air blower or open flame.
So I thought; water boils at 100 degrees celcius. The plexi bends earlier. Maybe I can bend it with the steam coming from it.
So I put a pan with water on the stove, hit maximum firepowah!!!
The steam is hot enough to burn the skin from your hands.....but the tubing won't get warm/hot. You can still put your hand on it and it will not bend.

PLAN B!!!

I grabbed my bike and cycled to my parents like a good Dutch boy. Grabbed the hot ar gun and cycled back.
Put the heatgun in my 20+ year old Workmate upside down. Put it on setting 1 first; meh no heat, then setting 2 out of 3. PERFECT!!!

It will not burn the tubing even if you hold it a few mm above the tip. It makes the tubing soft in seconds. You have to heat up quite a big piece to avoid weird wrinkles and flat spots. But when you have that first good bend....you feel like such a pro xD

I have been testing a bit with one piece and created 2 pieces I put in the build so far.

I am really torn atm. Please help me guys. I did the wide bend to the CPU block first. And later the much tighter bend to feed the memory block.
I somehow feel like my entire build should consist of the tighter bends and I should redo the first one.
What do you think? Keep both? Do one of them again? All tight bends, all wide bends?

Lets make me shut my mouth now and look at the pictures

 

[Hukkel]

The remainder of the photos of the previous update.

 

[Hukkel]

Did another round of bending today. How are you liking my round shapes guys?

I will have to shorten the long bottom pipe just a little. The midplate fittings are now being pushed back.

The short small bend on the cpu block was quite hard to do. I think my 3rd try I succeeded.

 

[Erik Cartman]

This is just awesome, man.
Very clean tubing and so clearly
Which led color is inside your Bitspower X station? I wanted to get one with red leds but just found orange
I mean it's perfect for your built, but I need red. Any advice?

 

[Hukkel]

This is just awesome, man.
Very clean tubing and so clearly
Which led color is inside your Bitspower X station? I wanted to get one with red leds but just found orange
I mean it's perfect for your built, but I need red. Any advice?

Thanks a lot Erik!
Also loving your ROG Raven.

Mine is orange LED.

If Bitspower has a red one you can ask a Dutch big watercooling shop to order one. It will come with their next delivery of Bitspower.

 

[Erik Cartman]

Is it possible to change the led on my own? I mean is it fixed with glue or something? If the led can be removed easily, its no problem and I will buy one