Coolermaster ATC S4000 SX-1 (56k BEWARE!!!!)

Carbine

New member
Hey new here.. just thought i'd post one of my brothers finished projects.

Mine won't be finished till mid April and until i get my next case next week end :mad:

Anywho... here we goo! (C&P from another forum :) )

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This isn't really a full case mod, but more of a modified case build, and this case I bought off Paul here in exchange for my arm and my leg:lol:

Thought some people may be interested so i'll post some stuff.

I've done some stuff on thsi already, i'm probably about 20-25% in maybe more?

So here are a few select pics, don't think anybody may be interested in all the intermediate steps.

These photos are not the final products, awaiting some acrylic and perspex sheets.

Primary loop block, Swiftech Storm on 3/8"

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Coolermaster ATC-S4000 SX-1

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AC Airplex EVO360, TC HE120.2 and TC Thermotube placement

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AC Airplex EVO360 radiator grill and Aquastream controller placement

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External CMOS safety reset switch build

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CMOS reset switch and secondary loop drain port placement

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Illumination of the primary loop reservoir

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Just been on a spending spree!!

coming in in the next couple of days...

AMD X2 3800+

DFI NF4 SLI-DR

Galaxy 6600GT PCIe

Acoustipack sound proof matting

3 x 500 x 500 UV blue acrylic

3 x 250 x 250 frosted white acrylic

3 x 120 x 250 frosted white perspex

1.2 x 120 x 250 frosted polypropylene

1.6 x 200 x 500 aluminium sheet

Aquacomputer Aquadrive Double

Aquacomputer 6600GT water block

A flow meter

various 45 deg and stuff plug and cool fittings

a strip of white SMD LEDs from Maplin

Then I can carry on modding the case before ordering the next bunch of stuff for it..

continuing with the build has been slow, mainly due to the fact that the acrylic and aluminium hasn't arrived by this weekend, dispite being ordered on Wednesday.

Any how, just some more pictures to pass the time away...

More braiding done, blue LEDs and a temperature sensor.

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Acoustipack sound deadening foam cut to size.

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Some internal shots with the Acoustipack in place.

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One more...

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A shot of the front as it to where the Aquatube and Aquadrive would go.

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Ermmm.. a box.

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This is the most interesting of things i've found so far, cathodes are now dead to me... these things are thin (~2mm tall), flexible, can be cut to size and emit a hell've a lot of light from a 9V battery.. they are rated for 12V!

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And lastly, a shot of the tools, bits and bobs and stuff.

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Hopefully the acrylic and aluminium should arrive by Monday, as well as my DFI board, and I should be picking up a few Panaflo fans and a couple of Ramplex coolers from a local shop too.
 
tiny update:

Drill holes in the top of my case... why? wait and see.

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Sleeved my Panaflos.

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Some Quiet Computer Acousti Products... absolutely swear by them, far better quality than other stuff on the market and sometimes cheaper too.

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Made a mount for my Thermochill radiator from recycled 5 1/4" bay facias.

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Ramplex, fits nicely over an already heatspreadered (is that even a word??) OCZ.

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The plastic I ordered... and I hate them!! Not at all what I expected... Thought the frosted acrylic would be white and translucent, but it's far too see -through for my liking.

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Apart from that nothing much more to add.. work is going at a leisurely pace.
 
Small update, large photos...

The only northbridge cooling block that I would fit *just* is the Alphacool one.. threw the springs away, got another mounting plate and had to use a 45-deg connector as not to foul any capacitors on my 6600GT...

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Front panel and switch...

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Were removed...

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Leading to this...

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Went to Homebase to try and find some bolt and screw fittings and came upon some 90-deg angle extruded aluminium... hmmm.. new rad mounting...

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In the case for placement...

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You'll understand why soon enough... working on something that involves 3mm smoked plexiglas and 3mm satin white plexiglas.

Cut the light strip up and soldered some wires on...

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Soldered them series like so...

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Add some power...

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Stick to place on the case...

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And add some more power too...

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Just something simple and elegant. Still awaiting some Satin White Plexiglas which will be placed ontop on the lights to create a glowing strip of white along the top of the case and down the front.

Just an jpeg export of the front panel to be cut from smoked plexiglass, but haven't got the plexi yet so will have to wait for the final article.

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The 3 on the left are for this project, the one on the right and below are simple designs for another computer.

Another small update...

I have finally got the perspex I wanted... a 1x1 m square smoky black sheet and a smaller satin white sheet.

I tested the satin white perspex sheet with the LED light strips and the results are rather dissappointing, the effect was for a long, wide glowing white strip flowing parallel along the top of the case... instead, it has turned out to be a series of white lines :( not impressed, this means I may have to turn to idea no.2 and get some EL sheets in white instead, but they are £££ of money, so that may have to be post poned until a later date as more important parts are needing my attention first.

White satin perspex with light showing through... not happy as the diffusion of light is not what I expected. Got to think of a solution, other I will dump this idea in favour of using white EL sheets.

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Lights turned off...

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Changed the orientation of the pump, this was how it was before, with the Aquastream outlet horizontal and pointing inwards towards the back of the case...

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Didn't like it thsi way as it was wasting space, so I did this...

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Wide shot...

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Basically rotated the pump 45 degrees to have the outlet pointing downwards instead... had to cut a slot out of the drive bay to accomondate it... looks cleaner in my opinion.

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That's it for this update.

Oh.. something crap-tastic occured today too... I drilled a hole in my HE120.2 radiator :duh: :eeek:

That was fun! I don't think I can be bothered to fix it, the radiator has been in two rigs already and isn't in the best of states anyway, so I think I may wait for the new Thermochill PA120.2 radiators and buy one of them, or just find another HE120.2 cheap around the forums.

Here is the front panel as it stands now, the plexi front should be finished by Monday so updates on that then..

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Might as well do some conceptual updates now...

The Papst and EVO360 radiator takes up one drive bay, the Aquatube and Aquabay take up 2 drive bays, then in the space in the middle will be a VFD, below that a series of 4 push switches, then in the next drive bay will be the Plextor PX-716AL slot-loading DVD-RW and then the last 2 drive bays will house (eventually) 2 x 250GB Samsung Spinpoints in a Dual Aquadrive.

Final front panel design:

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Some Sketchup mock-ups of the front panel...

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How it comes together...

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The front panel is made out of smokey grey/black plexi as illustrated by the sketchup model.
 
Today the front panel is finished! :D But there is a slight problem! :(

First the good news... some shots:

The panels in smokey black but with the protective cover still on:

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Another shot (but one panel has two switches fitted):

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Bulgin White illuminated push switch fitted:

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Rear:

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Both of them (both are white):

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Rear:

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How it looks put together:

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How it looks with the protective cover taken off... it's so difficult taking pictures with my crappy camera so it's the best I can do for now:

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Whole front view shot:

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Now... here's the bad news!!! I mis-calculated (I mis-calculated?... never!.. but I did!) and the circle for the Aquatube reservoir is about 15mm lower than where it should be!! :( This means that I will need to re-make a whole new front panel!!!!

In this pic, you can see the Aquatube and the hole does not line up... you could say it's due to perspective, but it really doesn't line up... I can't get a decent full frontal shot because my camera doesn't have the function for any fancy aperture and flash/tripod business so I can't yet.

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This one may be clearer:

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But another piece of good news is that my opening for the DVD/RW slot loading drive fits perfectly!

Now I have the major cmponents of the front panel.. I should really be thinking about buying the Aquaero VFD some time soon... I think Jessica is going to get another visit from me!

That's it for now...
 
Another update today... and again, it's just a small one but also some big news!

I have been sponsored by a UK Computer water-cooling and modding web store [name not shown as they can be considered a competitor of Coolercases].

Anyway.. back to modding.

I got the front panel fixed... now the Aquatube opening lines up with the front panel hole.

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I also have some smoked acrylic parts cut for the bottom of the case... this will be used to hide the Acoustipack sound deadening material and also hide the front panel wires as well.

Comes in two parts; lower and upper (from left to right):

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Place them together, and test with a wire:

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How it looks installed in the case:

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And I also got an Alphacool GPU block for my 7800GT that I should be getting tomorrow. I really can't be arsed with all-in-one GPU and memory coolers as I now have an AC 9800 Pro block and an AC 6600GT PCIe block sitting here un-used and seemingly un-sellable, so that's a waste of nearly £100!!!@@!$@?!? (if someone is interested.. feel free to PM me :D )

Hopefully, this little Alphacool block can be used for when I upgrade next and the best thing is is that Alphacool stuff are very cheap but perform very well compared to their rivals AC, Innovatek and Koolance, but the drawback is that they don't look as 'bling'!

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I also have some blocks cut simply to act as a riser for the Thermotube reservoir and to provide some sort of cover for the yellow IDE and SATA wires above the DDC pump.

The area above the pump and the cables that will be covered:

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Simple square blocks cut:

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That's all for now... hopefully another small update tomorrow.

Another small update:

A picture of the case floor and how it will look with the front panel switch wires attached:

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And the blocks that were cut.. this is what they are used for...

To move the reservoir mount off the wall...

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To allow space for the IDE cable to slip behind it...

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With the reservoir in place...

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It looks kinda messy like that and i've been thinking of ways to hide the pump, but the case is very narrow and even as it is, I only have enough space to plumb up the radiator.... hmmm.. i'll see what I can do...

/end of update
 
Anyway, not a real update.. just some more photos:

Front cut up:

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How it looks with first panel in place:

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Oh... and with information from Shonuff and TN, I've decided to drill out my flow meter... no pics of the before shot though! :( I never seem to think that far ahead to take photos before I do stuff :/ ... just as a reference, one of the holes was half the size of the other before being drilled.

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Really, what I should have done is test the loop with the flow meter before the mod and then test it again after the mod... but being me, i didn't think that far ahead!

Another tiny update... not much modding done really.

Finally made a start on modding my PSU to make it the wire more manageable.

I added 90-deg SATA power adapters to the ends of the cables.

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I also recieved my MIPS mosfet block from a nice chap in the US.. arrived by DHL, prompt and quick :D

Some bling bling shots...

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And that's it for thus 'update'.. (I said it was a tiny update!)

My secondary cooling is coming together nicely now.. still wanting to switch to 11.2/8mm tygon and compression but my sponsor hasn't got them all in stock yet, so i'm going to test plumb it all with normal 8/6mm PUR tubing.

I kinda did what I usually do and forgot to take pictures along the way... anyway... i took delivery of my new HE120.2 rad.. I can't fit a PA120.2 in there as it's to thick!

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Anyway, it's got zerex in it and that's what make the purple colour... kinda funky tbh.

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More updates soon (probably tomorrow).
 
Right, there hasn't been any updates for a while because there hasn't really been anything worth writing about tbh.

Apart from doing life stuff (like i've been offered a position in a professional services firm) and bumming around, i've just been messing with the water loops in my system.. the primary loop is sorted.. it's the secondary loop that i've been messing with.

So far, it goes something like this:

AC Aquatube > AC Aquastream > AC Flow meter > AC Aquabay Dual > Alphacool GPU > AC Ramplex > AC Ramplex > AC SLI Chipset > MIPS Mosfet > AC EVO360 Radiator

That's a block of blocks and stuff! o_O

But it does OK.. with the flow meter drilled out to 6mm on both sides, the Aquaero is calculating my flow to be approximately 0.7 l/m or 42.22 l/hr. That's still in the 'super-low' catagory but the temperatures of my system is OK at idle and stable at load so far in testing.

GPU: 33, Chipset: 33, PWMIC: 38, Ram: 28, Seagate HDD: 30, Samsung HDD: 29

During load, the Ram goes up to 36, PWMIC to the 40s, GPU not sure yet and the chipset and HDDs remain upchanged.

The Evo rad measures 22-26 deg depending on load and the water from 18-23.

Ofcourse I got all this info from my newly aquired VFD Aquaero :D

Oh, and I forgot to mention that only 2 Papst 4412 FGLL (the really slow and quiet ones) are running at 40-70% speed to get those temps... slept at night with the computer on for the first time ever! It's eerily quiet!

And from my buying and upgrading blitz.. I also have a couple of chipset blocks free... being how my cooling is comprised of so many blocks already... and the back of my 7800GT gets kinda warm... I thought 'what the heck! might as well get some use out of that spare block and cool the back of the 7800GT!'

So soon, the next update will be a 7800GT with water cooling on both sides!.. one useful, the other useless.. although it *may* help a little! :grin:

What's left to do is to custom modify and tidy the PSU and wires, cut the side panels with a window design, then maybe get it powder coated as there is a nice chap out there that said he'll do it for me.. then sort out the lighting and get a mobo cover cut in UV blue... then it should be done fingers crossed!

Anyhoo... enough of my rambles... i'm just gonna barrage you with random photos instead. (in no particular order!!)

Front panel showing Bulgin switch, Aquaero VFD and slot for Plextor DVD

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Another shot (the holes are for 2 more switches coming soon)

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The flow meter

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Front panel

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Aquacomputer SLI chipset block

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Drainage, Y-piece to a ball valve

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The switchs wire and USB wire under floor panel

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The otherside of the AC SLI chipset block

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Another front panle shot

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Front panel showing AC Aquatube and LED... the LED glows brighter if the water is warmer

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Here's a shot of the spare block and how it's going to be placed so both sides of the GPU are cooled... not for performance really.. but *because I can!*

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Shot of the Aquatube and Aquastream and the temperature sensor

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Another shot of the extra block

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The gfx box shot

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3/4 case shot

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erm.. another shot

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Ramplex

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Again...

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over-view

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side shot

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another one...

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GFX under shot

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with light...

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CPU

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Night shot

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more

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here

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Alphacool GPU block

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getting bored now... o_O

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Front with door closed

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...

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another one...

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can see the lights through grill...

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door open

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SLI chipset block

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more??? when does it end?

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last pic.. messsy whole shot.. psu is going to be modded next

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and el finito.
 
Oh.. my... god. That is BEASTLY.

Is EVERYTHING watercooled in that thing? Amazing job man, nice... :D

Nick
 
OMG is was so blasted confused when reading this thread till I figured out this was taken from somewhere else and had been posted over a long time there. :o But that so nice! Nice job man :D
 
haha ye... everything inside is watercooled... not one fan is used as an intake fan as theres no point... considering nothing in there will be producing heat.

My brother got sponsored half way through the project i think... some of the blocks were provided for him.

And yes this project is a little old but some peeps still haven't seen it so i though why not. :rolleyes:

Pumps are a DDC for the big loop... and an Aquastream for the Aquacomputer loop
 
Awesome pics, comprehensive build info and extremely tasty rig :worship: Inspirational to say the least...'grats :)
 
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