Project: Qube³ - Custom PC Build

[stuartpb]

I am new to these forums so hi to everyone. This is my new project built around the monster of a case, the MM U2-UFO. It has been powder coated Candy Purple, with the grilles, motherboard tray and 5 1/4" bays painted gloss white. Here's the full specifications of the build:


EDITED 24th June,2009 to reflect changes to hardware

Main Components:
Mountain Mods U2-UFO
Asus P6T
Intel Core i7 920
OCZ Gold PC3-10666
2x 500Gb Barracuda's
CM Silent Pro M 700w PSU
Asus 20x DVD-RW
GPU Unconfirmed
5" LCD Screen fitted in 3x 5.25" Drive Bay

Watercooling Equipment:
1/2" tubing
9x 120mm Fans

CPU loop:
ThermoChill PA120.3 - 360 Radiator
12V Laing DDC-Pro (modded to Ultra) w/XSPC Pump Top/Res
EK Supreme waterblock

GPU Loop:
ThermoChill PA120.2 - 240 Radiator
12V Laing DDC-Pro (modded to Ultra) w/XSPC Pump Top/Res
Waterblock Unconfirmed

As I have still to buy the watercooling equipment, I expect the project to take a month or so to complete. I only took delivery of the case today, and I won't be building in it till I have everything I need. I am tempted to get the fans and run the rig on air cooling though

Here's some pictures of the empty case:






I think the purple and white theme look pretty good, and it will be mirrored in the choice of fans, lighting and tubing. I can't wait to get going on this project, I have been dying to get my hands on a Mountain Mods case for a while now.
Cheers,
Stu

[stuartpb]

I got my hands on a Sunbeam Rheostat fan controller for this build. I have going to be modded the controller, to make the front panel tie in with the rest of the case. Here's what I have done:


Out of the box:





Stripped Down:




Masked Up:



Sanded:

Painted:

Test Fitted:




I also got a chance to sort out the cable braidning on the 9x120mm fans. I also had to daisy chain them so I could use all the fans on the one controller. I now have a 3 fans daisy chained for the 360mm radiator, 2 fans daisy chained for the 240mm radiator, and another 2 daisy chained for the roof. That leaves 1 fan for above the mobo on the rear panel on it's own.

Here's some pics of one of the x2 daisy chains:

Before, as you can see the cables would look a right mess if left like this.



I cut off the ends, I am only using one of the yellow (sensor) cables as using more than one can make the mobo get false readings on fan speed. The one I wasn't using was just trimmed back:




Soldered the cables from the fan to the extension pieces:



Used some heatshrink to cover the joins:



And voila, braiding done:



Close up of the 3pin with heatshrink:



Finally, how it will look when the fans are fixed in place. It looks a hell of a lot tidier, and it means I can control 9 120mm fans with just the one controller.

[Kiemi]

Great build, May I ask what type of Paint you used for the Case and the Fan controls?

And the Anti vibration holders for the fans, do they quite the case down?

[stuartpb]

Thanks. The case was professionally powder-coated, and the fan controller was sprayed by me with regular primer & spray paint. The rubber fan holders do help keep the noise down from vibration. I won't be using these in the finished build though as I will have to use bolts to mount both the radiators and fans. I may put some rubber grommets on the bolts, between the fans and the case, if noise becomes an issue.

[chrisram]

That is a beautiful color combo. Looking good!

[THRASHER2]

Sweeet Qube³ Project The colors have a nice POP factor.....

[stuartpb]

I have been slowly plodding on with the build, and have some progress. I have most of the watercooling gerar now, and have been tinkering with the pumps. I have two Laing DDC Pro's. There are two versions of the Laing DDC, one being a 10w model and the other is an 18w model. Obviously the 10w is cheaper. With the lower wattage it also delivers lower flow rate. I saw an article on how to mod a 10w pump into an 18w one, so I decided to save some money and buy the 10w.

Here's how the mod is done:

As far as I have read on the subject, the pump needs to be version 3.3 for the mod to work. I took a bit of a gamble when I bought the pump, because the only way to know what version you have is to strip it down (as shown in the picture). Luckily, this one is a v3.3. When you strip the pump down (which is as easy as removing 4x screws), you need to bridge the connections shown in the picture with some solder.


And that's it done. As simple as that and I now have a Laing DDC Ultra (18w), rather than a Laing DDC Pro (10w):): All the characteristics of the Ultra are now in effect and I have saved myself a few quid with a painless and simple mod. The pump is working fine now and shall be revealed when I have finished the build.

Next up was to sort out the case 5.25" drive bay. I was originally going to have a dual bay reservoir in the 5.25" cage. This would be in addition to the fan controller and the DVD RW. There would still be one 5.25"bay spare though. The reservoir for the other loop was going to be an EK multioption, but I got tho thinking about it and decided that it would look daft with two different reservoirs. So I am now going to be using two XSPC pump tops/reservoirs. This left me with 3x5.25" bays to fill now.

Anyways, I fancied using an LCD screen somewhere in the build, to show system stats etc. Well I done some digging around and found a mod guide on using a PSOne screen. I managed to get hold of a screen a while ago, but have only just got around to sorting it out. I think it's turned out pretty well. I still have to finish the internal wiring (modding the screen to run off the PC's PSU and cable braiding etc) I have managed to get the screen running in 1024x768 resolution, and I have started to mess around with a neat little app called Samurize, with which you can create custom screens for the LCD.

Here's what's been done so far:





I stripped the screen down and removed it from the plastic casing.



As the screen is PAL, a little mod had to be done so that the backlight would function



I had some spare 5mm white acrylic that I used for the bezel. It takes up 3x 5.25" bays. The bezel is fixed to the drive cage by some cut off bezel sides that I screwed on to the rear of this bezel.



Here the screen is after being secured to the bezel and plugged in. Works a treat and looks the mutts nutts:)




Excuse the paw prints:D The build is starting to take shape now, and I am looking forward to finishing the little jobs left on the screen and starting the watercooling plumbing in. There is a gap around 1mm-ish around the edge of the LCD screen and I am unsure whether to fill it with white sealant or leave it as is. The LCD's backlights give a nice white glow around the gap and it looks pretty cool. You can't see it very well in the above pics. If I seal the gap the effect will be lost so I have to make my mind up on that one soon.

Cheers,

Stu

[stuartpb]

I got another job out of the way last night and finished the screen display, using Samurize. It's a nifty little piece of software, which allows you to create system info in a nice way. I'm still not 100% happy with what I have done but the colours tie in with the case and there's enough info on there for now. The screen is running at 1024x764, so I had to make the text and images pretty large to make it readable on the 5"LCD. Here's a screen capture of the display:



I may have another mess around with Samurize over the weekend if I get time.

[stuartpb]

I have finished with the samurize config at last. I was struggling to get the sceens to rotate so that I could use more than one screen at a time. I also wanted the media info to be on a seperate screen, and to kick in only when music files were being played then revert back to the other info files when done playing. It's taken me a long while to sort it out, having never used Samurize before but I have done it at last. Everythings working great now, and it may not look brilliant but I am chuffed with it.

Here's screen one, which the screen starts with when the rig is switched on:


This is screen two, which fades in after 60 seconds. I may add to this page, with more network related info:


This is the media info screen, which kicks in when a media players starts up. This page took me friggin ages, as the 18 band spectrum analyser was a git to do. I really like this page though.


Here's how it looks on the LCD, minus the dodgy lines etc. The quality of the images is much better in the flesh. My camera makes it look crap.


So that's the screen done and dusted now (maybe a few tweaks here and there:D), so onwards and upwards to the watercooling next.

[bcmack401]

Wowowow! Lookin' good so far!