HELIOS (Caselabs SMH10 | black/copper | EVGA SR-2 | Geforce Titan) - by alpenwasser

WOW!!!!
Those cables are so sexy!!!!
Epic work alpenwasser!

Thanks! :)

This is so sweet. Don't even need to hide the cables to make them look good! Massive props to you :D

Well I need to hide a little bit of messiness right above the PSU, but even that
will be visible through the front grill, so there really isn't much room for not being
tidy. :D

But yes, I thought about hiding that long 20 wire cable on the bottom in the lower
compartment, but then I thought it would fit very nicely where it is now. Of course
I kinda forgot that I would be doing 7 hours of lacing on that cable alone, but hey,
it's not like I had anything better to do yesterday... :lol:

Dude, dude, I mean dude, this is freaking sex to my eyes. Is she single? I mean it's a proper good job alpenwasser.

Sorry man, she's spoken for. If it's any consolation she has rather expensive tastes
and requires lots of work to get set up and running. So there's a lot of effort and
money going into this relationship.

I just hope it all pays off in the end and she doesn't just break up with me... :unsure:

thats an insane amount of time but boy she looks good for it

Thanks mate! :)
 
Love that cable colors, how could i miss this thread for so long, time to check it out from the beginning :)
 
GREAT JOB on the cables alpenwasser ,
That looks so nice I think that could be classified as nerd porn.
All the hours you put in to those cables are well worth it.
 
Haha, thanks! :)
Yeah I'm pretty happy with the result. Relaced the 24 pin today to get a better bend and
strengthen the lacing.
 
Various Small Bits

Various Small Bits


I've been asked if I could provide some info on the Platimax for those who are
considering sleeving this PSU as well.


The GPU Cable


The GPU power cables on the Platimax consist of one 12 pin connector on the PSU side
(six 12 V pins and six ground pins) and two 6+2 pin connectors on the GPU side. Since
that's four more connectors on the GPU side than on the PSU side, the additional ground
wires are clamped together on their way back to the PSU.

(click image for full res)



GPU Cable - Ground Wire Clamp

There are two of these clamps per GPU cable, one for each 6+2 pin connector. I haven't
really found a nice way to get around these so what I did is simply remake the entire
cable, as you've seen in my previous post. Since my wires needed to be a lot longer
anyway this wasn't a big deal.

(click image for full res)



The 24 Pin + 8 Pin EPS


The 24 pin cable is bundled with one of the 8 pin EPS cables. There is another 8 pin
EPS which you can run separately, and which also has a 4 pin for the CPU on it, should
you need that instead.

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And the other end of the above. There are a few double wires, the most annoying pair
being the ones stacked right on top of each other. Not very nice...

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My Own GPU Cable - PSU Side

Since the Titan has a 6 pin and an 8 pin on its PCB you end up with 14 wires. I took the
additional two ground wires of the PCI-E 8 pin connector and ran them to a different
connector's ground pins on the PSU side.


(click image for full res)



The Raystorms


And now for the pr0n part of today's evening. I've polished the raystorms to a mirror shine.
It's not yet absolutely perfect, but it's not much further... :)

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Other Stuff


I'm still experimenting with the copper tubing. I've needed to order some additional parts
for that, so it will take me a week or two until I can continue. Until then I'm a bit stalled.
Unless I think of something else to do, we'll see... ;)


As always, thanks for stopping by. :)
 
mate i could just sit next to you all day and watch you build. better than any show on TV and every movie in the cinema.
 
Haha, to be honest there's lots of creative pauses, walking my dog etc. :lol:

But building this with a buddy would probably be pretty awesome, it's a bit of a shame
I don't know anyone personally to share this hobby with. Ah well, I have you guys... :wub:
 
May I ask how you're planning to run your pumps? I'm a big fan of the idea of dual pumps. I've been looking at the RP-452X2 bay res from Koolance but I can't find the PMP-450 anywhere and I fancy a tube res anyway.
 
That raystorm is :drool:
Very nice mate! Keep them updates coming :)

Thanks mate, I will! :)

May I ask how you're planning to run your pumps? I'm a big fan of the idea of dual pumps. I've been looking at the RP-452X2 bay res from Koolance but I can't find the PMP-450 anywhere and I fancy a tube res anyway.

In series, see here for more info on why.
Basically, parallel pumps are not a very good idea in most scenarios.

In place of the PMP-450 you can pick any D5 Vario pump. If the tach signal is important
to you, pay attention to that, not all models come with it (though AFAIK you can
add it with some soldering on any D5).

Alphacool sell a D5 motor without tach signal, whereas AquaComputer sell one with
Tach signal (I have two AquaComp motors with Alphacool tops).
I also think that Swiftech has recently come out with a PWM D5, maybe that would
also be of interest to you.

I would definitely recommend a tube res over a bay res, or at least not a bay res
with integrated pump mounts. The D5 does give off vibrations (i.e. noise) when you
do not dampen it properly, and having it in a bay reservoir makes that a very difficult
task indeed. I think it would be quite noticeable unless the rest of your rig is rather
loud as well.
 
In series, see here for more info on why.
Basically, parallel pumps are not a very good idea in most scenarios.

In place of the PMP-450 you can pick any D5 Vario pump. If the tach signal is important
to you, pay attention to that, not all models come with it (though AFAIK you can
add it with some soldering on any D5).

Alphacool sell a D5 motor without tach signal, whereas AquaComputer sell one with
Tach signal (I have two AquaComp motors with Alphacool tops).
I also think that Swiftech has recently come out with a PWM D5, maybe that would
also be of interest to you.

I would definitely recommend a tube res over a bay res, or at least not a bay res
with integrated pump mounts. The D5 does give off vibrations (i.e. noise) when you
do not dampen it properly, and having it in a bay reservoir makes that a very difficult
task indeed. I think it would be quite noticeable unless the rest of your rig is rather
loud as well.
Ohh the almighty Martin wrote an article about it!! I can't believe I didn't notice considering the time I spend on his blog. :lol:
Yes, I'm aware of the MCP655 PWM but there are no Swiftech resellers where I live so essentially all Swiftech products are unavailable to me.

I've heard of that issue with bay reservoirs before, there was also another 900D specific issue on OCN but I can't happen to find the thread anymore.
Since we're already talking about reservoirs, how are you liking that 250ml (?) Aqualis Pro?
 
Ohh the almighty Martin wrote an article about it!! I can't believe I didn't notice considering the time I spend on his blog. :lol:

I actually failed to find it via his site's navigation and had to resort to Google to
find it again when I checked just now. :rolleyes:

Since we're already talking about reservoirs, how are you liking that 250ml (?) Aqualis Pro?

So far I'm pretty damn happy with it. Build quality is absolutely phenomenal. The
glass cylinder is really solid and thick (and has some substantial heft to it). Also,
it's machine washable (the glass cylinder) since borosilicate glass is extremely
resistant to most chemicals. The workmanship on the Acetal parts is also
excellent.

I will upload some detailed pics when I get to modding the reservoir (intend to
paint some parts of it).

Overall it's not cheap, but from what I've seen so far I can definitely recommend
it. Since it's so durable it can easily be considered a long term investment, so the
price evens out over time.
 
You've got me sold, build quality is a major factor in my purchase.

Same here. I will easily go for a product with slightly worse performance and better
build quality (at least most of the time).

:p Do you have the regular 450 ml (my bad, they don't even do 250 ml ones) version without the nano coating?

Yes, the regular version. The nano coating one was out of stock when I placed my
order, and I didn't really feel like waiting another few weeks just for that (AquaComputer
are a bit notorious for their sometimes not exactly stellar delivery times).

I'm not sure how much of an improvement the nano coating really brings though,
but if they had had it in stock I would have tried it out.

I also wanted to buy their pump top and place the reservoir directly on the pumps,
but that was out of stock as well, so...

btw seems like the Alphacool D5 pumps also come with a tach signal - http://www.alphacool.com/product_in...cool-VPP655---Single-Edition.html?language=en

Ha, did not know that, I always thought there motor was without tach. Ah well...
 
A Copper Face Plate for the Lamptron FC5V2

While I really like the brushed alu look on the FC5V2, it doesn't really fit all that
well into the rough powder coat on the Caselabs case. So instead of having two
black things which are not the same sort of black I thought I'd turn the fan controller
into an element of contrast and make a polished copper face plate for it.

Taking Things Apart

First I took the fan controller apart to see how everything fits together and get
access to its existing face plate so that I could fit the new one to it.


(click image for full res)



Sketching Things Out


The new plate will be made from a 1~1.2 mm (not sure anymore) piece of copper
sheet I had laying around. First: Use the old plate as a stencil and sketch the outlines
of the new plate onto the sheet of copper.

(click image for full res)



Raw Cut


After some Dremel work it looked like this:

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Current Status

After lots and lots of filing, sanding and polishing (~5 hours), it currently looks like
this. It is not yet completely flawless, but I'll save the rest of the work for when the
build is in its closing stages. Since the surface is very finicky I don't want to spend
lots of time making it absolutely perfect now only to possibly damage it in a mishap
during the build and then have to redo the whole thing.

(click image for full res)



The new plate is simply taped to the stock plate. It's a lot easier (and cleaner) than
having to drill holes for the screws into the new plate.

(click image for full res)



(click image for full res)



That's it for today. As always, thanks for stopping by. :)
 
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