Project Arclight

[tobyak]

Hello good people of OC3D

For some time i have been working on my current build Arclight, and after doing a quick check of forum i use i have completely neglected to post it here

So here is is the full log so far, An questions please just ask and all feedback good and bad welcome

 

[dragoonk]

Hello good people of OC3D

For some time i have been working on my current build Arclight, and after doing a quick check of forum i use i have completely neglected to post it here

So here is is the full log so far, An questions please just ask and all feedback good and bad welcome

Have you posted it yet? Cause I don't see anything.

 

[tobyak]

Arclight was origionialy designed for the Enermax fulmo GT a huge and brillicnt case, but time has marched on and Azza have offered me the chance to use there superb Genesis 9000, so a little redesigning was called for,

Concepts for the intakes have been redesigned to better fit the new chassis and all the electronics have been brouht in and in some cases teaching myself arduino voodoo

Heres the first batch of parts going in to the chassis

the origional blade design and array have changed slightly from this

to this

The array control mechanism of a pull rod attached to a servo will remain much thesame as the origional

Some parts will need to be scrapped or completely changed to fit the new body shell such as the origional concept for the sides

the new version will be a wait and see but they look great in the planning


Well this project will need a huge number of mechanical and electronic parts in top of your typical PC set up

This arduiuno kit courtesy of Phenoptix is a great start to the project and will be controlling several of my lighting systems including a rather clever hack of a LOL shield

LOL shields and old school bar graphs will be making quite an appearance as accenting lights, and yes there will be larson scanners

Servos and actuators will be making a big appearance including several mechanized fan intakes and a large front panel "shield"

And to wrap up this update and REBOOT, Kingston have graciously given there support and provided some of there swesome products

the amazing HyperX 120gig SSD

and a quad kit of DDR3 2400MHZ RAM

​

Stay tuned

 

[tobyak]

Have you posted it yet? Cause I don't see anything.

bring it all on now dude

 

[tobyak]

Just a little update today

An absolute ton of cutting and sanding today


Well i dont have access to a lazer and i need a lot or duplicate pieces to were rocking it old school with a stencil

And what better to cut out my many many parts than a home made table saw, complete with mitre fence

Problem.... no sharpie..... solution... stick paper to plactic cover on acrylic and use engineering pencil... copy template.... move.... repeat.... over, and over

and now its on to cutting

first up divide the sheet up in to manageable blocks

then drill holes for turning the cutting blade in

some more cutting to further separate each component

first half done, all rough cut

bit of refining the shapes to reduce sending

sanding time...... 1 of 24

and yes that is a dyson taped to the extraction port

all done for the day, 24 pieces of the main intake array rough cut and rough sanded

i may never want to see acrylic AGAIN after this build....

 

[tobyak]

Although ive had a long break from posting my work has continued, i finally have time to sit and type

So i shall pick up where i left off

The rough cuts were plastic welded in to pairs of one blue one black each with liquid dichloromethana injected in to edges to form 12 completed pairs

After coming off the sander for the first time the edges are still as rough as a badgers behind but the biggest thing to address is the notch in the top that neither the belt or disc sander can get in to

So out come the hand files

4 hours later and the stack is complete

The edges still needed quite a lot of refining so on to the hand sander

.... I broke my sender.... just imagine a lot of swearing and a run to the shop....

After sanding...

A little test fit and tease before polishing the edges of each intake

Three hours of polishing with a drill press slightly modified to server as a bench grinder/buffer and we have....

another 2 hours and we have a result

A long time to finish from rough cut to finished intakes but they do look damn good if i do say so my self

Next up, modding the roof and base plastics

 

[tobyak]

Time for the update that has been a long time coming

As most of you know the case changed from from an Enermax Fulmo GT to an Azza Genesis 9000 as the Genesis offered a stronger frame and more internal space to work with.... before work started it looked like this...

and the chassis itsself looked like this..

IIt is a brilliant reverse ATX chassis, very well made and strong enough for an 16Stone man to stand on, BUT as is the case with mods some structure needed to be removed so after an hour with a drill we have

Frame all ready to measure up the floor panels and internal enclosures


As this case is somewhat modular in terms of its plastics i was freed up to mod sections in waves rather then all at once

starting with the floor plate, this would also serve as a test run for the metals replacing all the red inserts in the bezels

The base plastics are very heavy built and massive

But the vents need to go to make way for metal inserts

Perforated plate form ebay makes freat replacement vent intakes for the floor

Ahh hot glue what would i do without you....

 

[tobyak]

All good mods start with a plan.... well thats me out of the window

But at least i got some penile work done measuring up the plastics for the enclosures

Overkill 120 grills make handy stencils of.. erm... overkill 120mm grills

Acrylics cut to size and welded with Hindleys Dichloromethane

Ahhhh all snug fitting

The psu, most of the tubing and a very thick 60x240mm rad will be housed under this.

This 60x240mm rad to be exact, with a pair of Enermax TB silence 120mm fans on pull configuration

Sharing the floor will be an Enermax Maxrevo 1200Watt fully modular PSU... it is MASSIVE

I may have to many spare cables

To kill some time waiting for some parts i partook in another of my favourite basstimes... no prizes for guessing what these 2 SciFi icons are

Plastrics cut and marked up for the optical bay covers, the optical and hdd bay area will house both pumps as well as most of the tubing of the twin loops and access hatched have been cut in to the floor compartment to get to rad fittings and install cables and tubes

 

[tobyak]

First test fit of all the enclosures plus checking that weight of the res holders will not warp the top of the enclosure

Pass through holes cut for Tubing to and from the twin res, due to access the PSU, bottom Rad and main PSU looms are already installed in the lower enclosure

Well that's enough of the enclosures for now on to the roof again

After installing the rails and letting the welds cure in go the 12 vent components in to there sockets, until the retention arm goes in they can move through 140deg

I suspect that Dust is going to be an issue... just a hunch

but DAYUM they look good lit

I made a small plate to hold the servo, amazingly a tiny 9g servo can pull the vents, the full array weight close to 3lb

Yes i know the metal wire is a little ghetto but im waiting on an RC pull arm

 

[tobyak]

With most of the structure and covers complete i can start the loops, that was a tad more involved than i expected, clearance between the top of the PSU and the Top of the floor enclosure is just big enough to get a 1/2 OD tube through... and i need to get 6 through it

Starting off... install res and attach to mounting blocks on the floor, plus attaching the main tubes from the CPU and MB waterblocks and taking then to the bulkhead

Next up install pumps and run feed tubes through the floor plate to the lower rad and run the outputs to the waterblocks, as i side thought i added a fill port and hooked up the top 360 radiator to complete both loops

Well at this stage i was going to fill my loops but my daughter has other ideas

After a short fight that i eventually won with a stunning pile driver i finally filled the loops

yay its leak free.... well it is now, it kind of wasn't but lets not talk about that.... nothing to see here... move along

 

[tobyak]

Construction is 90% complete and its already in service as my main game machine, side door needs a window and massive changes are going to be made to the front of the case

So im going to show off some of the key features so far

modified intakes and bottom deck enclosure

Access ports

Concealed tubing

Tidy tubing with bulkheads

Back plate mounted SSD and HDD

Damn good lookin if i do say so myself

MUCH MORE TO COME

 

[dragoonk]

I knew you're not gonna leave that wire there. That's looking really nice in the light and all. A good build log is always appreciated. What inspired you to build the top vents that way??

 

[tobyak]

What inspired you to build the top vents that way??

A combination of a late night and a Deadspace2 and Ironman marathon... and way to much red bull

The top grill that the Genesis9000 has stock is very evocative of the style too, that helped me decide that the look would work

 

[dragoonk]

Wow, look at that... that might be the best water loop I have ever seen... All I have seen before is tubes all over the place but that looks clean, just 4 tubes from left to right and two reservoirs sitting on these shiny ornaments... I think it looks very very clean, I'm impressed by this idea. Well done!

 

[tobyak]

Thank you.

The bit changes i need to make at the moment are to add a backplate on the MB tray to match the black acrylic, and a new GPU is on the way that im unsure if i will watercool or build a matching shroud for

Then a shroud neds to go on for the roof mounted 360 rad and some fan control rather then the MB headers, ossably build the fan controller a recon or fc touch in to the plate the bulkheads are in

 

[tobyak]

Oh and a mechanized front bevel that will work like a large CM2 drop down bezel but controlled inside windows OS, that will probably carry the cases signature "Arclight" with some controllers or ports behind it

and a side window, maybe or maybe not with its own actuated vent, but thats TBD

 

[yassarikhan786]

The loop and the build looks amazing, but I can't get over the red accents on the motherboard.

 

[dragoonk]

I'm not a big fan of bright colors and plastic design, not to mention mixing too many colors, but I'd give you a 10/10 just for the looping idea. There are a fw things that could be fixed, like... sticking to 2 color theme max... change the loop color to red maybe to match the mobo?, but that's what I would do.

 

[Feronix]

The loop and the build looks amazing, but I can't get over the red accents on the motherboard.

Exactly my thoughts

Great build log though!

 

[tobyak]

The MB colour has been a concern to me also, i cant decide weather to paint it, replace it or cover it with something more in keeping with the design

The through i had was to cover the MB and accent the plate covering it with a large back illunimates (matching the roof vents) Blue ROG emblem, but it coud lbe very OTT i need to model that up first