SR-2 STACKER

[coolmiester]

I’m about to start a couple of new mods within the next few weeks including a Mini Coolermaster ATCs where i intend to basically shrink the case to accommodate a micro board and also a Cosmos II mod which i’m told should be here back end of this month but still undecided what to do with that just yet.

Anyway in the mean time (hope i’m not breaking any rules) but thought i’d post my last mod which many may have seen already so i apologies for that but it may be of interest to some.I’ll post the entire log so please bear with me while i get it all posted.......and thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to have a look-see.

I know its been way too long and these damn 840's have been breeding

Anyway, i was looking at my separates under the TV and liked how they stacked with the round silver feet showing in between so decided to do something similar with the two 840's and make a stacked rad box to fit on top.

I'm thinking a couple of EK 480 radiators up top - one for the CPU's and one for the full board block and and a couple of MIP's RAM Freezers.

I'm removing the hard drive caddy from the main 840 and will be mounting two EK 240's there for the graphics cards.

So, i did a bit of a crude mock up with bits of chewing gum just to see how things look

MINI 840 anyone

System Spec:

Coolermaster ATCs 840 Chassis x2

Intel X5650's

EVGA SR-2 Motherboard

EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper cheesecake - Quad Sli

12GB Crucial RAM

Kingston 64GB SSD's

Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200w PSU

Watercooling Spec:

MIPS MB and RAM Freezer Blocks

Watercool HK3 CPU Blocks

Bitspower Carbon Black fittings

Phobya Radiators (2x 480 & 2x 240)

Koolance RP-450X2 Bay-Res x2

Laing D5 Pumps x3

Premochill 7/16" Hose

Premochill Dye Boms UV Red

 

[coolmiester]

BIG thanks to Crazy_V for shipping me a brand new SR-2 board over and going above and beyond with updates, even though she's had her own issues to deal with.

I got to hold one of the early samples at CeBIT in March but i forgot how big they actually are but none the less it, what a fantastic piece of kit.

Anyway couldn't resist sticking a few dual PCB 295's in there just to see how it looked :?:

......blocks all ordered

 

[coolmiester]

Well i finished off fabricating the rad box and got it riveted back together so decided to test fit one of the 480 rads which fit perfect so all the measuring paid off.

The whole top will be replaced with a 6mm thick piece of aluminium with a vent that will match both sides of the box but more on that later - just added the original top to see how things were looking and i'm well chuffed.

And finally, i couldn't resist a photo next to the mini H20 Cosmos

 

[coolmiester]

Nothing to see really but couldn't resist firing this thing up on the table

I didn't think i had a PSU that would work but found a new Coolermaster Silent Pro M 1000w which has 2x CPU 12v 4+4 Pin and 6x PCIe 6+2 Pin and works a treat though not tried any 295's yet but booted and loaded W7 on a 74GB Raptor with a 285 and all seems well.

Time to play

 

[coolmiester]

I hadn't planned on using either Phobya radiators or fans but when a friend at Aquatuning UK saw the prod log on Bit-Tech and suggested i give them a go, plus the fans fit in perfectly with the colour scheme, who was i to argue. So hats off to both Aquatuning and Phobya for getting involved in this mod.

Still waiting on blocks but before i get the 480 rads mounted in the rad box, i'm going to do some simple testing to see which way is best for airflow etc but they do fit perfectly

 

[coolmiester]

Big thanks to Michael at MIP's for getting me the SR-2 blocks along with a couple of HK3's and RAM Freezers.

I pre-ordered some M3 stand-off along with some M3 Hex bolts so could go ahead and mount the HK3's using the standard SR-2 back plates so couldn't resist to do a dry run to see how things look

 

[coolmiester]

Three Kazemaster fan controllers turned up for the rad box so time to make a bezel to hold them.

Just wish they had turned up earlier so i could have got them all mounted but ran out of time so one down, two to go and at least the weather is going to hold out all weekend so more to come over the next few days.

 

[coolmiester]

Oops, missed a couple of pictures out!

I used my trusty Fret Saw with piercing 12 x 32tpi blades for the cut outs

 

[coolmiester]

Finished the bezel for the rad box which worked out good even though there is a few slight imperfection - fan controllers are just stuck in with Blu Tack for the time being and the whole thing still needs powder coated and painted but that's it pretty much done

 

[coolmiester]

Couldn't resist doing a bit of a mock up held together with bubble gum and string

 

[coolmiester]

My apologies for the delay on this and should get back on track after Multiplay at the weekend

Massive thanks to Vincent at Bitspower

Got the extended motherboard tray all made up and added the rails for it to slide in and out but took photos with wrong WB and they came out crap so i'll have to take more pictures once it stops raining.

Also the front bezel SR-2 logo which i did have the correct setting on the camera and added some scrap red plexi behind but the plan is to fill up the logo with red Crystal Resin so its flush and light it from behind.

 

[coolmiester]

Decided to make a replica motherboard tray out of yellow plexi so i could align all the stand-offs to the motherboard rather than straight into the metal tray itself so if any adjustments needed making i could do it in the plexi rather than the tray itself.

Dropped in a couple of old graphics cards to make sure it was all in the right place and all the measuring and double checking paid off as all 11 stand-offs were in the correct position in the plexi so it was a simple case of just using the plexi as a template laid on the actual motherboard tray to drill the holes for real and jobs a gud'n apart from a bit of patchwork needed around the back panel.

Also couldn't resist a couple of block shots with the Bitspower fitting

 

[coolmiester]

It fits \o/

The new motherboard tray is 365 x 395mm as appose to the original at 335 x 350mm so for the tray to still remains functional and still removable i had to adjust the rails in the case slightly.

Was a pretty easy fix by simply adjusting the height of the top rail with a bit of cutting and a new little bracket riveted in which all looks a little rough at present but should be fine once its all stripped down and powder coated but all in all i’m happy with the fit.

 

[SieB]

NVM

 

[coolmiester]

I got to give a BIG shout out to Crucial UK who came good with a couple of 6GB kits of RAM. It wasn't my first choice kit but given the current economy, i'm more than grateful for them getting involved in the first place so thanks Crucial.

Still not sure on SSD's yet but still a little while to go before i'll be needing those.

Anyway, got all 12GB added to the MIP's RAM Freezers and hopefully should get a bit of proper case mods done over the holidays but i've been a little worried to ChainSaw any further until i decide on reservoirs.

 

[AMDFTW]

thats awsome mate

 

[coolmiester]

Well, time to make a whole new top cover for the rad box as i won't be needing the power/reset button and just wanted something that looked a bit different as i've never really been to keen on the look of the standard 840 fan grills.

Got one large piece of 7mm alu which will cover the entire top, all i got to do is round off the front to mimic the original, then cut the vent in and finally chamfer the edges.

Lets see if my little B&D jigsaw can cope with 7mm alu

Still got to draw file all edges and put the 45 degree angle on there but time and cold beat me today

 

[coolmiester]

Well after humming and harring about which pump/reservoirs i was going to use, the final decision came down to what would actually fit.

Due to the placement of the bottom two 240 radiators i'm going to lose at least one drive bay, probably two and given i'm going to be running three loops it came down to a couple of RP-450X2's.

I got to say my initial impression of these is nice but those logo's just had to go so set about making them fit in with the rest of the mod.

I had to ditch the original bezels and black M3 hex bolts and replace them with slightly shorter countersink ones so once the plexi had been countersunk, the heads would be flush to allow my new hand cut bezels to mount directly to the plexi.

The last couple of mock-up shots show how they fit in with a wide screen TFT just below - obviously they will be powder coated and painted in the not to distant future

 

[coolmiester]

Got the side panels cut down to size for the rad box and then went about fitting four flush mount vents using the mesh out of Bitspower rad grills and used the actual grill as the template to hand cut the four openings pretty much as i did a while back on a Corsair 800D mod which gives that kinnda simple but effective kind of look and should look good with the red LED fans behind.

Just got to do the other side now and then two in each side of the main case but i think i'll concentrate on getting the rad box finished before moving onto the main chassis

 

[coolmiester]

Well i just turned the standard 6 drive bays into 4 to allow the two radiators to mount below in a separate little rad box.

Sounds easy..........well it was really but i had to be double sure of all measurements while cutting down the original drive cage and also while folding the new rad box as 1mm out and it would throw the entire chassis out but luckily my measuring skills didn't let me down and everything lines up perfect and square.

I'm trying to get everything finished so i can go about stripping it all down and getting it to powder coat by Friday.