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—10 10 07
-I hooked up the northbridge block and have had the system running semi-permanently on water. No NB temps, but it hasn’t cooked off either! The spring actually turned out to be too weak to hold the block with the hoses and everything. I had to put a spacer in the slot in the middle of the block. I also needed to put some foam bits around the chip contact area because the chip was so small that the block was rocking around on it.
-blurry close up. Processor temp is maxing out at 117F with this configuration. I think it’s because the radiator is away from the ambient heat and the fan is blowing into the radiator. (Well, I’m also running more water with less antifreeze…)
-Obligatory Batman camera angle. I’m very happy with the performance of the water cooling. I went from toaster oven hot to cold bathwater. Now I need to worry about it working TOO well during the winter.
-I’m currently beveling and sanding the bottom-side fins. I’ve discovered a new occupational hazzard. I may have mentioned it before here, but it’s too important an issue to avoid. After long sanding sessions I developed a condition I will refer to as BLUE SNOT! Yes! the plexi dust has made my boogers light blue. Wear a dust mask kiddies, unless you want to become a victim too!
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—19 9 07
I’ve been sanding stuff for a few weeks now, but the progress is only now starting to show. 
-Here’s a pic of that lovely broken screw. It’s stainless steel, so I can’t drill it out. The bottom is glued on now with the sides and bottom sanded and polished. Once the glue cures I can do a test run.
-The drive bay got a dose of polish. There are still a few spots that need touching up, -mostly where the solvent pooled up gluing on the bracing.
-I’m using the homemade polishing wheels to get spots like the screw countersinks. They are nice and soft so they get into cracks fairly easy. You can see this one is now shaped like the countersink holes. The blue thing is a block of polishing wax, and the white sheet is a bit of felt for cleaning off polish residue.
-Time for progress eyecandy. The side is still incomplete. I need to clean up the glue scars and polish the details on the tailfin.
-The inside layer of masking is still on the sideplate, That’s why it’s so dark. The top frame is not attatched in these pics. The red part is just resting on top of everything.
-I love the light shifts in the on switch ball. It looks like it’s getting angry. I made some buttons for the holes in the front. I need to find a way to catch them if the buffer decides to throw them. (Where’s my monster aquarium net?)
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—11 9 07
I have some pics for the loop test…
-I managed to get the holes right, even though I didn’t take the bracket off the board to measure it. Copying the shape of the heatsink made sure I didn’t hit any obstacles. You can see the close fit of the capacitors here.
-A close fit on the NB sink. Do they make a waterblock that works with this crazy clamp system? I don’t think I can make one… -and the booger is a real toaster.
-A quick leaktest with everything hooked to the old life support machine. It needed to be used, even if just for testing.
-A closeup of the block. It’s cool watching air bubbles shoot around the maze.
-Everything hooked up in Hypnotoad for testing. Excuse the mess… There was lots of sanding going on.
-Powered up and testing…
With the stock heat sink the temps were: (78 degrees F room temp. 1/2 water/antifreeze mix.)
135 F at startup
148 F max load
Water block temps:
111 F startup
123 F maxed out
It probably helped alot that the engine block reservoir had more than a quart of coolant in it. These numbers were better than I was expecting. It really decreased the ambient heat coming from the system.
-I’m short 1 washer and I really don’t like the fit of the ones I have. I decided to make some plexi ones, TribalOverkill-style…
…Only a little safer. I clamped a file in my vise and used it to index the cutting.
-Here’s the first 4 on the block. I made another set to go between the mobo and the waterblock. I need to make some more for the back of the board.
Right now I need to go shopping for some sandpaper. 150 grit is perfect for the first pass on plastic, but I can only find 100 & 200… (how picky can I get?) This project may force me to change my name to ‘big spender’.
a 150 grit wet sand paper would be awesome, It would help me not burn my fingers while sanding.
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—6 9 07
-I have a use for the 3/4″ block I cut out of the back panel. I made casefeet. Here I drilled center holes for each foot. I have a stainless shear pin to use as a post.
-This is the cutting jig using the shear pin in a block of wood. I like using the tile saw because it’s the only tool that I can trust enough to get my fingers really close to. Would you get your fingers 1/4″ from the blade on a router? HELL NO!!! Don’t even try it!
-After about an hour at the saw, I got them ground down to this. I have a whole bucket of deadly rainbow jagged bits too, Maybe I’ll make a ‘do not touch’ sign…
-Much sanding and polishing resulted in these babies. I had to put them on a screwdriver to hold them against the buffing wheel. My fingertips got a little shine too. The white spots are where the polish got between the layers. -Remember how I screwed up gluing this part and ended up with air between 1 layer of red & blue?
Now…
Here’s the question…
-Do I mount them point down, nice and sturdy?
-Or inverted turntable look?
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—1 9 07
Finishing up on those pipe clamps…
-A sturdy little lexan clip to fit over the top.
-Here it is hooked over the plexi part.
-A close fit. I needed it to clear the hardrive bay… and it does!
-still kicking some ideas around… like adding these scraps to the sides.
-More deburring bit torture. Hand feeding this was a mistake. I spent an hour sanding the wobbly parts out of the groove. Early on the bit got loose and started moving. What can I say, I was still sleepy.
-The still unfinished pump plate. The little square was milled out to hide where the bit wandered. I think I’ll fit some blue plexi in the hole later.
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—26 8 07
Not much to look at this time. The stuff I’m doing right now is very time consuming.
-Cutting 1/2″ copper pipe into tiny bits… Each bit is getting the branding filed off, then sanded: 150grit, 3m scratch pad, 240grit, 400, then 600. After that it gets hit with the polishing goo.
-This will replace the front/bottom tank barb. It took me forever to find something that would go from 1/4″npt to copper pipe. It’s still a little long, but it will have to do.
-More adventures with the ghetto lathe. These bits will connect the copper pipe to the tubing. This will give me a way to take the rig apart.
-A blurry pic of what is finished so far. The short end goes to a fillport. I sealed everything with silicone. It’s much cleaner looking than all my other options.
I need to start working the supports for all this junk into the case now… That will give the skin on my fingers time to grow back.
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—13 8 07
quick update:
Obviously I’ve been checking some of the hardware that came in the mail. I only have 1 pic of that…
-Fan test using Hypnotoad. The chip was still running hot.:p
-Needed to do some quick trimming to the backplate for the new psu.
-Used some gutted hardrive parts for making a front drive cover. This was a slight mistake because the aluminum spread the heat to the rest of the plastic. The part came out with marks from the drives on the inside.
That hardly matters because…
-I also broke it. What a day I had. bogus LEDs and clumsy drilling mistakes.
-This pic was taken to prove that I do sometimes use a dremel. This is a faceplate for the front usb port.
-The usb will fit between the front planels facing down.
-usb mounted to bottom front panel. I sanded and polished this after this pic was taken. The rivets polished quickly on the wheel, but now my buffing wheel is black and nasty.
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—26 7 07
-I had to get the saw out again. I cut sections out of my spacers for the front. These will frame the part of the drives that will be sticking out of the case.
-Don’t try this at home kiddies! To get the faceplate on the press, I had to unbolt most of the base and turn it 90 degrees. I had to put my lead bottles on the foot to keep it from falling over. I don’t have any pictures of the 5″ hole saw cut,(all blurry) but it was done the same way. I sprayed so much water on the saw as it was cutting that I needed to disassemble the whole rig and give it a coat of grease.
-Mounted the 120mm fan. This 120mm fan is the only part I don’t have a broken version of for mockup. I’ve decided I need to fix the bend in the front. I cut some small strips to glue on the inside.
-I Put together a floppy bay. Yes, I still use floppies…
-Countersinking the floppie mount holes was a close fit on the press.
-Finished but unsanded drivebay. I added 2 new holes in the side to correct my earlier mistake. I will probably never mount a 2nd cd drive, so no more holes.
-The lexan drive latches work SWEEEEET! -out…
-Latches bent…
-Locked in.
—29 7 07
I’m actually at the point where I’m fitting hardware!
Actually, this part sucks. It’s where I make the really spectacular mistakes.
-Mounting the motherboard. I have a template I traced from another computer. The mother board is obsolete and has no chip. It makes a handy mockup spare. I can even test switches and led’s with it.
-Yet another Bic pen has gave its life for the modding cause… A moment of silence please…
-Mounting up the radiator. The psu shell serves as a template for 80mm fan cuts. I decided to countersink using the deburring bit this time.
-Cutting the radiator hole using the Rotozip. I use a 1/8″ drill bit instead of the rotozip blades. rotozip blades rip pexi to pieces. I’m using another sheet of glass as a guide here.
-I’m not sure, but I think it’s kinda crooked…(joke) I must have been using that bong I made earlier…
-The floppy caddy has an awkward fit that requires gluing the nuts into place. I’d rather not use glue, so I came up with this option: Nuts in hole…
-Powder from sawing mashed into the hole…
-Solvent added. I then added more powder and solvent until the hole was full.
-After it cured I sanded and polished the whole rig.
-I need something to mount the riser cards to. I’m using some of this aluminum like I did on Hypnotoad.
-milling the unwanted bits off. I need to cut it down to an L shape.
-Back at the ghetto machine shop, I’m sanding and polishing my brass.
-I trimmed up the front faceplate at some point, so here’s pic of what’s to come.