9ine04

[Shaw]

Ever since I saw the In-Win 904 I knew I had to water cool it. The aluminium shell and glass sides make it the nicest looking PC case I've ever seen, and the complete lack of any air flow makes it quite a project.

I'm still not entirely sure how I'll be watercooling it, but I do have some ideas floating around. Once I've finished 3D modelling the case, I'll have more of an idea what will and what wont fit.

I should probably stress that I'm not going for ultra low temps with this build. Hell, I'll be happy if the whole thing doesn't melt into a sticky puddle.

Anyway, the case is bought:

and the hardware is coming straight out of my current rig:



i7 3820 @ 4.625GHz
16 GB Dominator Platinum @ 2000MHz
GTX 680 SLi
etc etc.

 

[Remmy]

Never seen that In-Win case, but it does look awesome It'll be good to see a watercooled build in a different case than what you usually see.

I don't think I've ever seen two graphics cards and a CPU all watercooled in parallel before, but the tubing does look insanely neat, and simplistic.

 

[Conchubair]

That case... Looks like a BFG version of a prodigy

 

[Shaw]

Never seen that In-Win case, but it does look awesome It'll be good to see a watercooled build in a different case than what you usually see.

I don't think I've ever seen two graphics cards and a CPU all watercooled in parallel before, but the tubing does look insanely neat, and simplistic.

I'm not a fan of large cases - they always look too empty - so that pretty much rules out most cases built with watercooling in mind. Plus it's always fun to try something new with no instructions or guides etc. ^_^

Same thing with the loop; I wanted to try something different and it looks far cleaner IMO. It works pretty well too. Definitely keeping it in my new build.

 

[alpenwasser]

Oh, this looks interesting, count me in!

And plus one on that parallel cooling. It might not be what most people would recommend,
but I'll be damned if it doesn't look might tidy.

 

[WYP]

Consider me subbed!

 

[maniac]

when I opened to the link to that case, I was like Dayummm thats sexy

 

[Shaw]

And plus one on that parallel cooling. It might not be what most people would recommend,
but I'll be damned if it doesn't look might tidy.

I'll be keeping the parallel config for this new build for that very reason.

 

[Shaw]

It's about time for an update I reckon!

I haven't really got anywhere in terms of modding/building, but the planning is pretty much complete.

The case itself is great to work with. The external aluminium frame detaches by a dozen or so screws, and then the internals have been stamped out of a large sheet of steel and folded into place.

The only major change will be removing the HDD bays, and then I'll have to cut some holes for the tubing and cables - and possible make some blanking plates to hide some precut holes.

Now onto the main update - the plan!
I've spent quite some time measuring everything and testing different layouts to find out what fits - and I'm not exaggerating here when I say that everything will fit exactly. There's not a millimetre of space left over in any direction around the radiators.

The rads and fittings will be touching the glass doors, as well as the front of the case. The fans between the rads will be touching the graphics cards. There is literally no room left over.

The colour scheme, if you hadn't noticed, is monochrome and pink. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it. The coolant and the cables will be bright pink, everything else will be different shades of grey. I think I'm gonna go with acrylic for the tubing due to all of the straight lines and only needing to bend 4 pieces - two of which might prove to be a bit difficult, but I think I'll give it a go.

 

[Remmy]

Even the tubing on the back looks so cool The pink is a bit outlandish, but it certainly looks distinctive This is going to be good

 

[Dicehunter]

Is the original case an Apple case ?

 

[Shaw]

I went pretty overboard with the 90° fittings on the back, purely for aesthetics. The case has a glass window on the back so I might as well make use of it.

And here's a render I forgot to add:

Due to the direction the motor spins the inlet and outlet are on the wrong side for what I need, and the fitting is too wide to fit directly into the res so 2 45° fittings are needed. as well as the 90°s and extensions.

 

[Shaw]

So it's been a long time since an update, but I decided to sell my current build and start fresh with this one - it's been much harder to sell my old PC to fund my new one than I thought it would have been, but hopefully updates will be a little more frequent now.

The new specs will be pretty similar: GTX 770s to replace my 680s, a 3930K to replace my 3820, and keeping the same board and RAM.

As for this update, I received a nice little package from Nils:

But what's in the bag…?

A crimping tool!
and…

Crimps!

This time round I'm going all out and making my own custom cables. With the windowed side panels on both sides of the 904 case, I want everything to be perfect.

As for the sleeving.. well…

PINK!

And a nice little Ducky Shine III to match:

(Still awaiting arrival of some PBT side etched key caps.)

Hopefully I'll have some new hardware to play with next week so I can get started on the case mods.

 

[Shaw]

Update time!

I've got my hands on most of my components now - just waiting on my radiators, fittings and tubing. Fittings wont be here until at least the end of the month but hopefully I can get everything ready for then.

I haven't really started anything yet as I'm waiting for my rads so I can start modding my case.

So here's the parts I have up to now:

And I'm going to steal some photos from my old build log as these items are being carried forward - just pretend that's a 3930k and not a 3820.

Thankfully I don't have to polish those caps all over again..

And there was no way in hell I was selling my MIPs IceForce High Flow water block! Such a shame to see MIPs go out of business.

Also didn't want to sell these beauties as they run at 2000MHz 9-10-9-24 T1

Now onto the new parts:
Replacing my old 680s with pretty much the same cards - GTX 770s

My old budget sound card died so I had to go back to using on board and, man, have my ears been spoilt. Couldn't go back to on board sound again so thought I'd upgrade to a pretty tasty Creative Titanium card.

As much as I loved my old Gelid Wings, they weren't silient. These are.

Pump top and reservoir from Aquacomputer. Really nice build quality and aesthetics. Those plugs on top of the res are about 1mm too tall to fit in a drive bay, so I'm either going to have to find some lower profile plugs or shave the tops of the ones I have.

And of course, some pink.
The Pastel pink from Mayhems looks quite milky. I'm probably going to buy some red dye to try and turn it hot pink like my parachord.

As soon as my radiators land - hopefully next week - I'll be able to crack on with the case mods and installation.

 

[mod_ex]

loving the look of this, very well thought out will be keeping my eye on this well done so far..

 

[Shaw]

Thanks mod!

I can start to get to work on my build no that my rads have finally come!

I went with Alphacool because of the multi-port options:

Only problem is the plugs that come with the rads are copper - those will be getting sprayed black. Nice to see them ditching the ugly copper stickers too - last time I removed one it peeled half of the paint off with it.

I'm going to have to get some longer M3 screws before I can stack my rads.. The only screws I have the right length are M4.

I've said before that this build is going to be incredibly tight...

I can now confirm just how tight it will be:

Tight.

I had to remove the cooler to fit the card in, so those of you under 18 please cover your eyes for the next picture as it contains full frontal nudity.

Best get her covered up, back and front!

I have to say, those water blocks and backplates are what sold me the 770s. The fullest full cover blocks out there and they just look so clean. None of that circle crap EK tried to pull off in the past.

 

[Wraith]

Still really interested to see this finished, as like my case you can see everything inside can't wait to see your cable management.

 

[sheroo]

Looking lush fella - keep those updates coming...

 

[MadShadow]

Looks really nice, keep it up!

 

[tinytomlogan]

getting interesting!