Project Vespula vulgaris....

[paulstung]

So I received my fractal Define XL a few days ago, from a comp prize over at Specialtech, and my plan was to use it for a later build and continue with the Trooper. But after having a look at the case, I have decided to use it for my main rig. It is my first look at anything Fractal and my god there build quality is awesome, the shear weight of the doors alone is shocking.


My plan thus far is to mount an Alphacool ST30 360mm rad up top in push, and a Monsta 420mm 3 x 140mm up front in push pull, and they fit like a glove, well at least from my measurements any way. I will find out in the AM when the Monsta arrives. Along with the Bitspower Z multi 250 mounted onto the koolance top and D5. Also on the top to cover up the rad exhaust holes, I will be using a 3 x 140 mm rad grill from Phobya just to finish it all off.

So far there hasn't been much progress apart from stripping out all un needed cages, drilling out a few rivets that hold the 4 5 1/4 drive bays, and modding the top to accommodate a 360 rad. I still need to finish off the cuts as in file and sand but she will get there. Progress might be a bit slow due to having a family matter to deal with, this is the first night off I've had since last Wednesday. Here are a few boring pics as a start of the naked case as a before, the after will follow.







Yes the hole is wonky, I ran out of cutting disks, and had to use a hacksaw, that would struggle to cut cheese, also I am going to remove the rest of the mesh area to aid airflow, and to make it look nice and pretty.

 

[alpenwasser]

Haha, how many times have you re-started your rig now? :lol:

I do agree from my R4 that Fractal's build quality is indeed very nice, especially when
taking into account their prices.

Looking forward to this run.

 

[paulstung]

I no mate, I wasn't planning on using the Fractal, as I've just finished the Trooper mods I was about ready to build her back up. But as soon as I checked the Fractal out there was no competition really. Plus the added bonus it was a comp prize, it would be rude not to use it. Hopefully I can get all the hardware in tomorrow night and begin the tube runs. That is if the rad and fans arrive. I'm suffering on the battered laptop, I'm sure my PI is faster.


So a quick progress report. My parcel has just arrived with my Monsta 420 fans, and grill, and my god, I thought the Monsta 240 was big, the 420 is something else. I a moment of panic thinking that the 420 was going to be too big, but it does fit like a glove. The only thing left to do is open up a couple of holes on the front rad holes they are just ever so slightly off but no biggie. All that is left to do is get the fans and rads in and sit back and work out the loop order, which to me is the job that takes the most time.










Another quick update, front rad, and fans have been mounted, as well as the top rad and grill. I left the excess material above the top rad, just until I sort out if I'm going with a shroud, or not.




The grill is only on loosely so I can get a feel of the final out come, I couldn't use all of the hole to fix it as the 360 rad gets in the way of the holes in the center of the grill, My solution was to use a stach of 2 rubber washers under each hole as well as 2 under the end bolts, for clearence of the rad fixings.

 

[paulstung]

So from tomorrow there will be some big changes, thanks to my lucky win yesterday. Im sticking with the bkac and yellow theme but with a Haswell cpu and the MSI XPower , I no the XPower is a bit over kill and a but pricey but Id never be able to afford anything close to that price range so I thought sod it. As well as the cpu and mobo, Ive got 16gb of 2400 Avexir Mpower ram to match. Plus ever since I saw Toms review of the Microlab Solo 7c's Ive been intrigued so they are also on the way. I just hope I can find the time to have a play with my toys in between caring for my nan. I can always jump into a taxi with the box of goodies and get her involved with building her first rig at 80 its never too late I suppose.

 

[alpenwasser]

I thought sod it.

Sometimes that's really the only reasonable attitude.

Nice to see some progress on this.

 

[paulstung]

I no mate, I would never be able to afford a high end motherboard again, so I though sod it. It was a toss up between that or a 780, but my XFire 7950's are not far off the 780 and once those new drivers are released I should be golden. I've got the day to myself today waiting for dpd so there will be at least some progress to share tonight.


Just a small update, I've managed to find a spare hour today in between care duties to get the top hole cut and the 360mm rad shroud roughly fitted. The only thing bugging me was before the windfall my plan was to use a 420mm 3 140mm fan grill, because of the 140mm bullet hole mesh on the top, just to hide the unneeded holes with me using a 3 x 120mm rad. So I need to figure out how to cover / fill them when the build is done. No biggie an easy fix ?????.

 

[wassupdoc]

Looking good!

 

[paulstung]

cheers mate I can finally get some work done from next week family problems have kept me tied up for the last 4 weeks but things are slowly getting back to normal. I need it finished asap

I got a bit restless earlier and decided to take the motherboard out, and load it into the case, just to get an idea of how she will look. And my god she's sexy, so I thought I'd share a pic even though it sucks, and I had to use the flash, but I dont care, it is just to pretty not to.





So after a couple of days doing sod all, I have finally got some work done. The front Monsta 420 ( just 1 set of fans ), and the top ST360 30mm rad assembly is installed, I'm just going to sit back with a beer, and take a good long look to figure out loop order, I can then mount the second set of fans,pump, and res, the way I'm feeling it could be a late one.




Yes it needs a clean it is just so dam hot and sweaty




For the filters for the bottom 2 fans, I have to cut down the Fractals front fan box, as I have removed the drive bays, it no longer clips in and out, no biggie, first thing on my morning to do list, as well as black bolts, they have been sprayed and are having 24hrs to cure.


I had a spare hour today so I went about fitting the final set of fans on the Monsta 420, as well as the pump, top, and the res. Unfortunatly I couldn't use the Bitspower res bracket as it was to low, and wouldn't match with the height of the koolance D5 pump top,so I had a dig around and found an Alphacool one knocking about, it's a shame cos the Bitspower one is more sleek looking, but never mind it does the job, and I've got a plan i just need some longer rad bolts, but that can wait. I also done the first hose run from the top rad at the rear to the front rad. It was a bit tight with various fittings, to enable me to hide it to the side of the rad, so not to be seen. The only other problem was, when I first used the male to male to fit the top and res together the fitting had such a small thread it took the first thread of the top with it, so I just used a fitting with a bigger thread and spme ptfe, for added security. ( I thought the koolance top had the same thread as the Bitspowr Z multi, so they fit straight together )







Tomorrow I can finally start getting the hardware installed and have a think about the rest of the loop, and start to think about how to go about the psu shroud.

I had another hour to myself today, so I decided to get stuck into the hose, and finally the runs are all done, I just need to go around checking all the fittings and giving them all an extra turn if needed. All in all it looks nice an neat with only 3 runs visible. I think I might move the res bracket down a touch with the fitting being quite tall it is pushing it out more than I'd like, but an easy fix before filling. Which will be tomorrow, as my gran needs me again, things have taken another turn for the worse.

 

[paulstung]

So finally all the wet stuff is done, and fluid is flowing just need to bleed the system, and let it run overnight to test for leaks, then is the task I hate CABLES bloody sodding cables the most hated job of all. Everything went to plan except for a mild panic yesterday when the pump wouldn't work but decided to out of the rig gremlins again. But all is good now, and almost time to play.










Sorry for double posting, but I've been editing for 3 days and the thread was starting to get lost in the wasteland.

 

[WYP]

Nice! looking great.

where did you get that shroud for the 3 top fans?

 

[AverageNinja]

That is a lot of rad space! Looks amazing dude
Love the look of the XPower board too
Thanks for posting!

 

[The Orange One]

Looks great mate! Nice work!

 

[paulstung]

Cheers guys, the shroud is from ST mate, they have a couple of them in their summer sale at the mo.

 

[alpenwasser]

Oh, that coolant looks awesome! :rock:

Sorry for double posting, but I've been editing for 3 days and the thread was starting to get lost in the wasteland.

I think it's ok to double post in your build log as long as you're actually posting
updates and there's a bit of time in between.

 

[paulstung]

The good news is she lives, I'm trying my hand at W8 for the first time, so far what a pain in the arse, it just seems so counter intuitive, I just want to touch the screen all the time. At the end of the day who likes change ? from accounts it grows on you. All went smoothly apart for a network issue, a quick uninstall of the killer network driver, and a reinstall all seems fine, it was for 20 mins or so then it just stopped working. I'll get there in the end..