ciobanulx
New member

Case: Modded Fractal Design ARC Mini R2
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus V Gene
CPU: Intel i7 3770K
GPU: nVidia GTX 970 SLI (still need to acquire)
RAM: 4 x 4GB Corsair Dominator GTs 2133Mhz
SSD: undecided
HDD: undecided
PSU: Corsair AX860
Cables: Icemodz custom sleeved white and green cables
Radiators: Alphacool NexXxoS Full Copper Monsta 240mm, Alphacool NexXxoS Full Copper ST30 360mm
Fans: 7 x Gelid Wing Green
Pump: Swiftech MCP35X with Koolance casing and heatsink
Reservoir: Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 150 Full Acrylic
Fittings: Primochill Rigid Ghost Green fittings, various Bitspower matte black extensions and angle fittings
Tubing: Primochill Rigid Clear
CPU Block: EK-Supremacy CSQ Polished Nickel Plexi
GPU Block: 2 x EK-FC670 CSQ Nickel Acetal (reusing old blocks that will fit on some GTX 970 reference cards)
RAM Block: EK-RAM Monarch X4 CSQ Polished Nickel Plexi
Motherboard Block: EK-MOSFET ASUS M5G Acetal
SLI Bridge: EK-FC Bridge CSQ Polished Dual Parallel
Coolant: Mayhems UV Emerald Green
Lighting: DarkSide UV LED strips
Other: nVidia Claw SLI Bridge, Aquaero 5LT USB fan controller
SPONSOR

Hey guys! My name is Alex, I'm from Gold Coast, Australia and I'm still pretty new to the forum.
Welcome to my new build log and what will be my second mod project. I've also posted my other mod project in the Rig Gallery section here: Vault Boy
Hope you guys enjoy the project and pop by and say hi

This build is more of an upgrade of my system in a Fractal Design ARC Mini R2 in which I will be keeping most of the components as well as adding new ones


Here is the build before disassembly and before a pretty major event happened ...



This will be another colourful build in the same style as Vault Boy however no game theme this time. The colours will be white, green and bits of black as well as going with a molecule design in some places, hence the name Green Molecule

Now back to the pretty major event that went down with the build. One Saturday morning a few weeks back now, while I was still enjoying my sleep my partner wakes me up telling me there is a burning smell coming from the system, me thinking she's just making fun of me as she sometimes does, I choose to ignore her :hehe: . However as she kept insisting and telling me that it's no joke I got up and went to the other room where the system was just to be greeted by this awful smell of burnt plastic and a couple of seconds later realising that the DDC pump had burned out.
The CPU was rocking 105C according to Real Temp but was still running fine. Not sure how long it's been like that, it was running the whole night as we stream movies to our bedroom from it and before I went to sleep it was fine. I immediately turned it off by just a normal shut down and there went my day as I decided to just dismantle the thing there and then.
The aftermath is shown in the following pics as I went ahead and took everything apart, cleaned it and installed the system on my desk to test everything. Fortunately everything was fine minus a burned out DDC pump


And let's start straight with the dirty stuff



As you can see the little guys burned out pretty good, I doubt I can salvage it with a new PCB from that DIYINHK site that still sell them




If I'm guessing right the fluid must have been boiling around the CPU area that caused the tube to fog up as well as deform a little bit to the touch. My partner may have woken me up just in time to save it. Not sure if the system would have shut itself off after a while or if the acrylic tube would of just melted but I think I'm lucky nothing further happened.



Here's the empty case and by the looks of things something funny happened to the label on that Corsair Force GT SSD.




And everything out on the table to be cleaned and inspected

You may also spot the new side panel that I have been working on the few days prior, finished it the night before.
Here's a better look at the side panel

The plan was to have more molecules but I managed to mess up the left side of it so decided to just make the window bigger. Still think it came out pretty good in the end, minus a few painting mess ups due to an unexpected storm that occurred as the paint was drying.

These are the molecule shapes I used as I am not good at drawing things




A better look at the finished side panel as well as the very last pic of the system running

The side panel was fully crafted by me using a Dremel rotary tool, a jig saw and lots of filing

I was also playing around with this new Aquaero 5LT controller the night before. Installed the optional heatsink but didn't get to test it out.




The modding begins !!!
First I cut a small hole in the floor which I will use as a drain from the bottom outlet of the Alphacool Monsta 240mm rad that will be going in the front of the case.

Did a cut on the MB tray as well. I will be making a shroud for the bottom so I cut the bottom right corner of the MB tray as to better help with cable management at the back.


I made a small mistake here and started cutting higher that I wanted to. However it doesn't make a difference as I will be putting some white acrylic around the MB that will cover everything.




I then got the case ready for painting

















In this last pic you can see how the brushed aluminum aspect of the front panel looks after painting.
Some parts will be going green while other will stay white.
The plan is to have the inside of the case white and the outside shell green like the side panel. Hopefully it will look good like I'm imagining it.
Here is the frame of the case assembled once the paint dried.






That's it for now. Stay tuned for more.
Cheers,
Alex
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