Excalabur50
Active member
Moar pics yay..........
Project Red Light District
- Thread starter Surfie
- Start date
Surfie
New member
Ask, and ye shall receive?
Ok, so the case wrapping is done. It's not 100% perfect, but the good thing about this marble wrap: it is VERY forgiving, in that if there is a bubble, it actually just looks like a flaw in the pattern - which is really good for me, since this is my first time
Started with the front panel, because, well, I had to start SOMEWHERE.
Then I did the window (luckily for me, the acrylic window panel is REALLY easy to remove). The wrapping sucked though...
Whew, almost done...(excuse the crappy camera skillz on my part)
The final product:
That's it for todays update. Tomorrows update will depend on whether I get the delivery that I ordered over the weekend or not. If it doesn't, then it will be time to make the decision I alluded to earlier: swap the radiator positions, or leave them? What do you think?
Surfie
New member
I like it
Thank you!
I like it too!The window panel took WAY too long to do though. Something in the realms of 2 hours, just for that panel.
Good thing i'm patient!
Surfie
New member
Thank you!
I agree. I can't justify that sort of expense though.
With the exception of the psu cover that I'm making, everything internal is going to be red or black.
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Excalabur50
Active member
i really like that marble look it's fantastic
Surfie
New member
Thanks! The wrap itself it's horrible to week with, but it's a really nice finish. I have found i need to stick it down, or it comes off itself.
Excuse my ignorance, but what Do you mean, P5? Pentium5? Phantom 5xx? Something else?
Thank you. Got some more work lined up for tonight, once i finish doing the dishes etc.
Surfie
New member
Ok, so last night was a write off courtesy of some personal things getting in the way, and tonight was not much better.
Did manage to find some time to mock up some of my thoughts on what could be done to make the tubes sing a bit more. Which way do you think?
Note: The pump will be being moved up somewhat, so the real question is: which way should the 360 be mounted? Barbs up (like now) or down? Or, should I leave the loop as it is now, and simply re-shape the turns to be proper 90 degree wherever possible.
So option A - Barbs up, making parallel runs, leaving 1 or 2 as they are pretty much...
Option B - Barbs down, making parallel runs, changing pretty much everything around (Pro: easier draining, con: pain in the ring bit for filling).
Or Option C - leave the loop itself alone, just fix up the tubing so it all looks schmick.
What do you think? I personally am leaning towards Option A or C.... but I really don't know!
Did manage to find some time to mock up some of my thoughts on what could be done to make the tubes sing a bit more. Which way do you think?
Note: The pump will be being moved up somewhat, so the real question is: which way should the 360 be mounted? Barbs up (like now) or down? Or, should I leave the loop as it is now, and simply re-shape the turns to be proper 90 degree wherever possible.
So option A - Barbs up, making parallel runs, leaving 1 or 2 as they are pretty much...
Option B - Barbs down, making parallel runs, changing pretty much everything around (Pro: easier draining, con: pain in the ring bit for filling).
Or Option C - leave the loop itself alone, just fix up the tubing so it all looks schmick.
What do you think? I personally am leaning towards Option A or C.... but I really don't know!
I meant ThermalTake P5 case.
I just didn't want to name drop TT since that's a bad word around here (for good reason too). It's the only TT product I've purchased, and I still feel some shame. EDIT: AlienALX I pitched the same idea earlier in the thread, but he doesn't have the room. Shame since it would really clean things up.
Surfie: I'd flip the front rad and put the ports on bottom. You'll still need to run a long tube down to it, but it will be behind the res, and it may look a bit neater. At least you'd be hiding the bottom portion of the long tube behind the res.
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Surfie
New member
Bartacus suggested this not too long ago, but there is no way. To make matters worse, with the ports for inlet/outlet positioned where they are physically on the res, I can't even rotate the inlet around to move the tube back - no physical space to do what is needed there unfortunately.
Besides, if i'm going to all this effort to mod the case, wrap it, and do hardline - I want it to look perfect! By which, I mean showcase worthy.
I meant ThermalTake P5 case.
No shame in it. I used to own an Overseer. I actually thought it was a nice case (at the time), obviously I've since become educated better.
Yeah, that was kind of what I was trying to pitch with Option B. The question to you now is, would you keep the loop order the same as it is now, or would you head towards the parallel lines idea that I mocked up for Option B (i.e. combine options B&C to create option D)?
I can't leave it exactly as it is now anyway - I discovered a minor leak that will crop up as the video card sags a bit more (it is not leaking NOW, but when the card sags, the rotary fitting connection to the card will break, producing a leak) - so the used ports there MUST change, irrespective of anything else. So, the run from the Res to the video card has to be redone, as does the run from the video card to the CPU. Combine that with flipping the front Rad, then you end up with pretty much the entire loop being redone anyway (lol).
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Surfie
New member
Yes, it is. Which is why i think making a feature out pig it it's the way to go.
Which is why i think you are actually onto something with flipping the front rad.
The more I look at it, ASSuming you route the tube in the exact same way, but with the rad ports on bottom, I think there'd be a massive improvement with maintaining the same tube run, but with the front rad flipped. But it would be a small, short run from the bottom front rad port to the res. Connecting the 2 rads with one long (and almost straight) tube behind the res should be fairly straightforward.
Surfie
New member
You might think that, but unfortunately, it's not. There is not enough room for a tube behind the res (it's directly screwed to the plate behind it), and there is no good way of routing the tubes with the front rad flipped (i spent about 2 hours trying to figure out a way to do it).
No matter what i do or how i maneuver the res/pump - i have to sacrifice something either aesthetics or performance.
The best that i could come up with was to go out from the res to the front rad, to the gpu to the cpu to the top rad back to the res. But, that run back to the res will be quite long, and at the front of the case.
The next best was that, but in reverse (i.e. refer rse the flow). This drops performance by dumping component heat into the case, and also through having the liquid going through some blocks the wrong way. Not desirable.
If i have the barbs up, then i have that long tube running from the front rad to the res.
It seems that i can't avoid that thing. If only i wasn't a tight ass ave had a cross flow rad... I don't know what to do. Maybe sleeping on it will bring some answers.
Surfie
New member
I checked my watercooling supplier, they do not have suitable cross flow rads in my chosen size. This is actually a relief for me.
My options, as i see them are to purchase a new rad that is thinner to give myself a bit more room (no!), or to switch the front and top rads around.
The benefit of doing this is that it allows me to bring the ports of the res and rad closer together, without significantly increasing any other tube runs, it also allows for more heat loss through the roof. The downsides are that i will have to pretty much ensure that all other case fans are intake, to allow for the extra exhaust. It also messes with my fillport, which is a pretty small price to pay actually.
I'm open to any other suggestions!
My options, as i see them are to purchase a new rad that is thinner to give myself a bit more room (no!), or to switch the front and top rads around.
The benefit of doing this is that it allows me to bring the ports of the res and rad closer together, without significantly increasing any other tube runs, it also allows for more heat loss through the roof. The downsides are that i will have to pretty much ensure that all other case fans are intake, to allow for the extra exhaust. It also messes with my fillport, which is a pretty small price to pay actually.
I'm open to any other suggestions!
Damn! I'm tapped out, LOL! It's too bad I didn't have a better feel for just how tight things are behind that res. I figured you had room. I basically did almost this same config with a pair of slim 240's in a Corsair Carbide Air 240, and that was VERY tight, so I assumed you had more room to work with.
