MiniValidus - Work Log

does the backplate clear the MOBO? seen on the alphacool website the backplate is incompatible with mitx motherboards

Nice project btw should be a neat little package when it comes together!

Thats because of the typical way that the RAM is layed out on a normal ITX board, the X99e-ITX however has the RAM running on the opposing side parallel to the PCI-E slot, so no conflicts here.
 
Thats because of the typical way that the RAM is layed out on a normal ITX board, the X99e-ITX however has the RAM running on the opposing side parallel to the PCI-E slot, so no conflicts here.

Good to know thanks for the clarification dude!
 
Drastic times,

Drastic measures.

So I had around 8mm removed from the large block to reduce its height... For reference it was 22mm in height, its now 14mm
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Here you can see the height difference in the block where before the GPX was pretty much the same height as the large cooling heatsink, much shorter now. Also notice the "GPX-N 980" label has been completely removed.
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The idea was to remove enough material and the the GPX waterblock would sit in the recess between the radiator shroud and the fins which is around 5mm.

Fully aware that I can alter the side of the actual 'GPX' waterblock component much (however I can swap the bolts with countersunk ones to save 1.5-2mm)

Reassembled, time to test fit
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IN! But still not in...
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You can see now its the fitting manifold hitting on the radiator shroud which is a lot better than the large heatsink previously but no finger crossing will get it in.
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The next steps are to slightly notch the radiator shroud, like I said before there almost 5mm in the wall I can notch out before I get to the fins. 5mm is heaps and should have me well and truely in!

Fingers cross...

...again.

DfknG
 
So I got a little time and decided to notch the radiator and see where we stand.

It was actually really easy to cut with the dremel..
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Quick cleanup
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Test fitting and it is sitting lower, but still not enough.
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Kinda bummed out with this experiment I was looking at the height of the bolts on top of the block.
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Then filed them down
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The milled passive block and the filed heads of water block.
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Retesting
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At this stage it will fit in as I tested with the motherboard and can slot it in OK but I don't like how its sitting.

As a last effort ill be removing the shroud completely from the underneath of the radiator allowing me to fit the fans directly to the core and that should drop the radiator enough for a perfectly level card.

If that doesnt work out, ill probably remove the idea of the bottom radiator, we will see...
 
On another note though...

Well you know how I said I was going to repin some extensions earlier? Well I got a sneaky little package from IceMods! They did a way better job than I could have and I got a 6+8pin and a 8+8pin still hanging onto the dream a dual GPU card is coming
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I also got some Barrow fittings from ModDIY and they went out of their way to source the QDCs for me so a massive thanks to them.
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So to add salt to my space issues wound, how the hell am I going to get 2x of these in?
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Finally I picked up some EKWB Monarch RAM plates to beef up the memory a bit.
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That's what I call dedication! Keep it up i'm interested, and please don't ditch the rad.
 
So I had some quiet spare time tonight so decided to do some prep for paint.

When there is only 1x X99 ITX motherboard that exists in the market you don't really have a choice in colour schemes :)

So I removed the 2x heatsinks and wrapped the board so I cant paint the 2x blue dimm slots.
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Not really a fan of the "paint the open DIMMS and then just reinsert your ram heaps to clean the pins" approach I just cut out some card.
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Wrapped them a couple of times to fatten them a bit and stop any fibers.
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And Bob's your mothers brother!
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Hopefully i'll lay down some paint tomorrow night! :)
 
Well all painted, I also did the heatsinks.

It was really hard, not sure if just because its really fiddley or the paint I was using but it was really hard to get the paint in some areas, im blaming the crowded motherboard though.

Its a far from perfect job but, it will be a damn sight better than bright blue and right now thats good enough.

Ill let it cure overnight before unmasking and taking some photos.

I hope the heatsinks come out looking good!
 
So here's some photos of the paint, really transformed the look of the motherboard.

Hopefully you can ignore some places that clearly need touchups and the blue coming through from inside the dimm slots, obviously that wont be visable when the slots are populated with mem.

Really happy with how the heatsinks came out :) Though flake is always a bit tricky to photograph...

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Well, i've had some dark days.

TBH I almost threw in the towel and go to a CaseLabs Nova or something, this build had defeated me.

I'm glad to share however,

WE GOT THERE!

Boom! Look at that straight as an arrow, with ample clearance!
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So how?

Well,
I cut the entire bottom shroud of of the radiator out, shaved down the frame of the fans and squeezed them in.

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Getting down on it you can now see the amount of space there is between the majority of the block and the radiator, obviously the waterblock component is pretty close but it isn't touching.
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Super, super happy with this result!

Now time to get the radiator painted up nice again, finish the modified CPU mount and we're on the home stretch!
 
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Excellent work man glad to see you persevered it will be something truly unique when it's done would have been a shame to throw in the towel :)
 
Nice! Isn't the rad going to blow all the hot air onto the GPU heatsink like this though?

Good chance, obviously fan rotation can be changed. I think it will take some playing around with orientation to find out the best mix.

I don't think it will be so bad, you have 2x240mm rad's and relatively low TDP CPU+GPU, I really can't wait to see how it is in the end :D
 
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