filthysanchez
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,669
any idea when we can see some more updates?
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Sleeper
- Thread starter Legion©
- Start date
I would like to say soon, but I really doubt that I'm going to get much of a chance until Christmas 
A new contract I picked up means that I'm spending a lot of time out of town atm, and then I'm flat out trying to catch up on other things when I get back. Not to mention that I've been plagued by other things... my house getting burgled, my partners computer overheating and dying (the twat that put it together had the 462 cooler backwards so it wasn't seating properly - I'm amazed it lasted all the years that it did!). Ideally her computer dying would be all the incentive required to get the Sleeper finished, but it will probably just mean buying another case and throwing all the Sleeper's components in it for the meantime.
I did pick up a small 2x16 LCD display to go in it though
A new contract I picked up means that I'm spending a lot of time out of town atm, and then I'm flat out trying to catch up on other things when I get back. Not to mention that I've been plagued by other things... my house getting burgled, my partners computer overheating and dying (the twat that put it together had the 462 cooler backwards so it wasn't seating properly - I'm amazed it lasted all the years that it did!). Ideally her computer dying would be all the incentive required to get the Sleeper finished, but it will probably just mean buying another case and throwing all the Sleeper's components in it for the meantime.
I did pick up a small 2x16 LCD display to go in it though
1337m0dd3r
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2002
- Messages
- 1,553
also good for making meth, i see where your goingLegion© said:
nice stuff so far
Long overdue for an update here. Life took over, and other more important things stepped in unfortunately. The gf's PC broke down so the Sleeper was rush assembled in order for her to have something to use, and that's the way things stayed for a long time. Recently though I had another machine become available and moved her onto that while I got stuck back into this one.
In a previous update I had been spray painting the case, during the assembling process I found that it was chipping off far too easily - I knew I should have used the self-etching primer! Rather than respraying everything I decided to go with powder coating. After about 2 hours standing at a media blasting cabinet (one of the guys neighbouring my old work premises has one so a bottle of bourbon later....) and the case and all its parts are ready to be coated. I didn't get any photos, but it's much the same as in the first pix
The powdercoating I got done at my fathers work, so another freebie - knowing people is good! Smaller parts, all done in a matt black.
Some of the external parts, the side and top panels were done with a semi-gloss black.
Assembled again. I had noted how many rivets it used, but I can't remember now. It was something stupid like 80 though. I never did find black ones, and in the end I decided it wouldn't matter too much to the end result as the only ones really seen are on the back once the thing is closed up.
The colour looks better from this angle, and you can make out the different blacks.
I do like the way the matt looks, I almost wish I'd done the whole thing like that now. It makes such a difference to the look of a case to have the chassis itself looking good, not just the primer grey that a lot of the steel cases are finished with.
Even the smallest parts were powdercoated. These are the sliders for the drive rails.
The backplane and slot covers were done too, no more silly mismatched stainless here thanks.
Putting things back together, I noticed something that I had missed. With the rad so close to the side, the side panel won't slide on! Fairly easy to fix, though it's a pain as the powdercoating won't be there once I cut some off.
Motherboard installed.The fingerprints will need to be cleaned off later on. For some reason they show up a lot more in photos with the flash on than they really do to my eyes.
The pump in place with it's mounting bracket, still sans rubber.
Side view.
The side panel fits on properly now.
The cut in the back that facilitated it fitting - not my best work, and only blacked out with a sharpie.I definitely can't be assed blasting it back and redoing the whole thing for something that hopefully won't be too obvious.
Wiring for the pump is in now. Amazingly I was able to take it up the back of the drivebays, and over the top of the PSU, all that is seen is what you can see at the top left of this picture. The front USB etc is in now too. I had sleeved the front switch/led cables together to keep them tidy, but couldn't be assed with the USB as none of it will actually be seen anyhoo.
CPU and NB blocks are in place. VGA card is in with it's block. I've ended up getting thicker walled 3/8" Tygon that what I had originally intended, so the stock compression fittings on the WB2 CPU block will have to be replaced with a standard barbed fitting.
The wiring mess, pump still doesn't have it's rubber dampening, the relay is in its box just behind the 24pin plug. It's a real shame I didn't wait for the UV reactive AC Ryan sleeving to arrive. Since this build has been put on hold I could have done it many times over, but I'm not about to go through the agony of redoing an Enermax PSU. At least the SATA cables and the Vantec slot covers will glow nicely.
Looking through the window space.
Trying out the lighting to work out positioning etc. Using a PSU tester to start the PSU.
Closer of the same.
Lights off.
That's all for now. Plenty more to come though as this mod finally nears its completion!
In a previous update I had been spray painting the case, during the assembling process I found that it was chipping off far too easily - I knew I should have used the self-etching primer! Rather than respraying everything I decided to go with powder coating. After about 2 hours standing at a media blasting cabinet (one of the guys neighbouring my old work premises has one so a bottle of bourbon later....) and the case and all its parts are ready to be coated. I didn't get any photos, but it's much the same as in the first pix
The powdercoating I got done at my fathers work, so another freebie - knowing people is good! Smaller parts, all done in a matt black.
Some of the external parts, the side and top panels were done with a semi-gloss black.
Assembled again. I had noted how many rivets it used, but I can't remember now. It was something stupid like 80 though. I never did find black ones, and in the end I decided it wouldn't matter too much to the end result as the only ones really seen are on the back once the thing is closed up.
The colour looks better from this angle, and you can make out the different blacks.
I do like the way the matt looks, I almost wish I'd done the whole thing like that now. It makes such a difference to the look of a case to have the chassis itself looking good, not just the primer grey that a lot of the steel cases are finished with.
Even the smallest parts were powdercoated. These are the sliders for the drive rails.
The backplane and slot covers were done too, no more silly mismatched stainless here thanks.
Putting things back together, I noticed something that I had missed. With the rad so close to the side, the side panel won't slide on! Fairly easy to fix, though it's a pain as the powdercoating won't be there once I cut some off.
Motherboard installed.The fingerprints will need to be cleaned off later on. For some reason they show up a lot more in photos with the flash on than they really do to my eyes.
The pump in place with it's mounting bracket, still sans rubber.
Side view.
The side panel fits on properly now.
The cut in the back that facilitated it fitting - not my best work, and only blacked out with a sharpie.I definitely can't be assed blasting it back and redoing the whole thing for something that hopefully won't be too obvious.
Wiring for the pump is in now. Amazingly I was able to take it up the back of the drivebays, and over the top of the PSU, all that is seen is what you can see at the top left of this picture. The front USB etc is in now too. I had sleeved the front switch/led cables together to keep them tidy, but couldn't be assed with the USB as none of it will actually be seen anyhoo.
CPU and NB blocks are in place. VGA card is in with it's block. I've ended up getting thicker walled 3/8" Tygon that what I had originally intended, so the stock compression fittings on the WB2 CPU block will have to be replaced with a standard barbed fitting.
The wiring mess, pump still doesn't have it's rubber dampening, the relay is in its box just behind the 24pin plug. It's a real shame I didn't wait for the UV reactive AC Ryan sleeving to arrive. Since this build has been put on hold I could have done it many times over, but I'm not about to go through the agony of redoing an Enermax PSU. At least the SATA cables and the Vantec slot covers will glow nicely.
Looking through the window space.
Trying out the lighting to work out positioning etc. Using a PSU tester to start the PSU.
Closer of the same.
Lights off.
That's all for now. Plenty more to come though as this mod finally nears its completion!
Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments. The colour scheme probably would have been yellow and black as those are her favourite colours except for the fact that I already had the Zalman blocks in blue.
Another small update for tonight:
It's time to give the pump some attention. A little neoprene rubber under the mount.
And some glued to the bottom of the pump itself. I cut that using an adjustable circle cutter in the drillpress to get the size spot on.
The pump in place, with the HDD above it, not a lot of room to spare, but it fits.
Amazing just how many cables there are in this area now. This is a good shot of the pump bracket doing its thing.
Foam window sealing tape used to make a cheapass gasket for between the rad and the case.
Now that I've got some AC Ryan BlackFire4 fans in stock, I've decided to use one of these at the rear on the rad rather than the RaidMax fan I had intended to use earlier. I'll still use the other RaidMax at the front though. Gotta love the dualpower on these fans, means I don't have to rewire for seperate lighting power.
Getting 6/32 screws in a decent length in a metric country proved to be a PITA. In the end I couldn't get them as long as I needed, so I had to drill out one side of the fans holes for the head to fit through, and then shorten the longest ones I could find a little so they didn't go through the rad fins. You can see the clear fan casing behind it that's acting as a shroud. The wiring for the LEDs in the shroud have been terminated and sleeved. The sleeving was already on the BlackFire4, but I replaced the cable ties with heatshrink to make everything match properly.
Another small update for tonight:
It's time to give the pump some attention. A little neoprene rubber under the mount.
And some glued to the bottom of the pump itself. I cut that using an adjustable circle cutter in the drillpress to get the size spot on.
The pump in place, with the HDD above it, not a lot of room to spare, but it fits.
Amazing just how many cables there are in this area now. This is a good shot of the pump bracket doing its thing.
Foam window sealing tape used to make a cheapass gasket for between the rad and the case.
Now that I've got some AC Ryan BlackFire4 fans in stock, I've decided to use one of these at the rear on the rad rather than the RaidMax fan I had intended to use earlier. I'll still use the other RaidMax at the front though. Gotta love the dualpower on these fans, means I don't have to rewire for seperate lighting power.
Getting 6/32 screws in a decent length in a metric country proved to be a PITA. In the end I couldn't get them as long as I needed, so I had to drill out one side of the fans holes for the head to fit through, and then shorten the longest ones I could find a little so they didn't go through the rad fins. You can see the clear fan casing behind it that's acting as a shroud. The wiring for the LEDs in the shroud have been terminated and sleeved. The sleeving was already on the BlackFire4, but I replaced the cable ties with heatshrink to make everything match properly.
Somewhere along the line I have misplaced some photos - I think they were only of the vinyl dying of the CCFL cables, but I can't be sure. You can see the inverter at the bottom right here, and the dyed cables - which as I suspected might happen, is cracking off - it didn't sink in properly due to the material they're made of, so when the cable is flexed it cracks.
I've heard bad things about sleeving the high voltage wiring on the CCFLs (causing lights to dim etc because of the interaction of the two wires when held against one another) so I wanted to avoid that. The wires will be hidden anyway as you can see here.
Custom wiring extension. I made two of these, slightly different, one each for the fans and the lighting. Both run from the same molex connector behind the drive bays. 12v feeding the lighting, and 5v to the fans. I may have to change that if the 5v isn't enough to keep things cool. The fans are a straight splitter type wiring, with one to the rear fan on the rad, and the other to the front intake. The lighting is powered from the molex, but switched at the back on the plate by the PSU, so all lighting can be on or off. The lighting cable runs 4 devices, the shroud LED's. rear fan LED's, front fan LED's and cathodes.
One thing I really dislike about this case is the way the front controls block the intake fan. Nothing can really be done about that though
The cable for the PSU fan runs down the back and out behind the motherboard to the header near the bottom right of the board. I didn't sleeve it all as I couldn't be assed trying to feed it past the ring around all the cables (see earlier in the log when I complained about it as I was doing the rest of the sleeving. Can't be seen anyhoo.
Lots of cables all disappearing above the PSU where they join to the extensions that power them. At the top left you can see the back of the lighting switch and below that is the 240v power for the pump. I decided to put the lighting switch on the back rather than ruin the lines on the front as the case will be going in a desk unit most of the time so the lights will be off except when lanning.
I've heard bad things about sleeving the high voltage wiring on the CCFLs (causing lights to dim etc because of the interaction of the two wires when held against one another) so I wanted to avoid that. The wires will be hidden anyway as you can see here.
Custom wiring extension. I made two of these, slightly different, one each for the fans and the lighting. Both run from the same molex connector behind the drive bays. 12v feeding the lighting, and 5v to the fans. I may have to change that if the 5v isn't enough to keep things cool. The fans are a straight splitter type wiring, with one to the rear fan on the rad, and the other to the front intake. The lighting is powered from the molex, but switched at the back on the plate by the PSU, so all lighting can be on or off. The lighting cable runs 4 devices, the shroud LED's. rear fan LED's, front fan LED's and cathodes.
One thing I really dislike about this case is the way the front controls block the intake fan. Nothing can really be done about that though
The cable for the PSU fan runs down the back and out behind the motherboard to the header near the bottom right of the board. I didn't sleeve it all as I couldn't be assed trying to feed it past the ring around all the cables (see earlier in the log when I complained about it as I was doing the rest of the sleeving. Can't be seen anyhoo.
Lots of cables all disappearing above the PSU where they join to the extensions that power them. At the top left you can see the back of the lighting switch and below that is the 240v power for the pump. I decided to put the lighting switch on the back rather than ruin the lines on the front as the case will be going in a desk unit most of the time so the lights will be off except when lanning.
Righto, where am I up to with this worklog? Oh yes, got radiator, got fans, got pump, got cabling.
So this is where things are at
240V power for the pump, and above it is the switch for the lights.
Must be time to put some tubing in this thing. 3/8" ID Tygon is answer here. Lots of it
Leak testing
Done leak testing and filled with Zalman blue coolant. Found out that I had forgotten to put thread tape on the rad barbs, and hadn't actually tightened them properly. Also a couple of minor leaks which will be solved just as soon as the hose clamps turn up. Somehow my nice twist has gone out of the tube between the rad and the pump - damned water just has to be heavier than air doesn't it!
Ooh, nice little piece of acrylic. Wonder where that's going...
There it is! Lovely mirror acrylic to hide the cables on the bottom of the case.
Why do bad things always happen when you don't have any spares? At least is cracked at the end that is hidden by the side panel. I can't be assed getting another piece and recutting it since it can't be seen. If you look closely you can see that the rad an is being powered from the CPU header atm, this was simply to stop it whinging at startup, and to get RPM readings in SpeedFan. I'll make another lead to split the RPM off it later on. Hoseclamps have been added everywhere now too.
Put some lights on and see what happens. A little out of focus inside the case, but you get the idea.
This is all but done now. I just have one or two things left to do - Put the acrylic window in, the RPM cable for the rad fan, signwriting for a bit of free advertising for my company at LANs (NZ customers only for all those of you reading this elsewhere), polish it all up and take final pix.
So this is where things are at
240V power for the pump, and above it is the switch for the lights.
Must be time to put some tubing in this thing. 3/8" ID Tygon is answer here. Lots of it
Leak testing
Done leak testing and filled with Zalman blue coolant. Found out that I had forgotten to put thread tape on the rad barbs, and hadn't actually tightened them properly. Also a couple of minor leaks which will be solved just as soon as the hose clamps turn up. Somehow my nice twist has gone out of the tube between the rad and the pump - damned water just has to be heavier than air doesn't it!
Ooh, nice little piece of acrylic. Wonder where that's going...
There it is! Lovely mirror acrylic to hide the cables on the bottom of the case.
Why do bad things always happen when you don't have any spares? At least is cracked at the end that is hidden by the side panel. I can't be assed getting another piece and recutting it since it can't be seen. If you look closely you can see that the rad an is being powered from the CPU header atm, this was simply to stop it whinging at startup, and to get RPM readings in SpeedFan. I'll make another lead to split the RPM off it later on. Hoseclamps have been added everywhere now too.
Put some lights on and see what happens. A little out of focus inside the case, but you get the idea.
This is all but done now. I just have one or two things left to do - Put the acrylic window in, the RPM cable for the rad fan, signwriting for a bit of free advertising for my company at LANs (NZ customers only for all those of you reading this elsewhere), polish it all up and take final pix.
CPU is currently sitting at 34C with a Celeron 2.8 at stock speeds according to Speedfan. Ambient temp in the room is about 20C.
Neither the NB or GPU put out much heat, they could have quite easily been left out of the loop, but I had the blocks there so thought I may as well put them in it.
At some point once I've built myself a new machine (starting to put things together atm for a pretty stock Lancool K7) I'll put a gruntier CPU in it, but that is sufficing for now.