Circuit Box - HAF XB Mod

[SXRguyinMA]

Thanks man Yes this will be my new main rig, replacing my Maximum Security mod which up until now was my main rig lol

[SXRguyinMA]

Update time!

I started off by sleeving all of the cables for the fan controller.

Next I tackled the vortex in the reservoir issue I was getting. I decided to cut a small piece of acrylic and thread it into the outlet.

And it worked beautifully

I also scooped up a G1.Sniper 2 from Lee Harrington for the build, this will fit the theme much better.


Next I designed and made the circuit board that will read and display the coolant temp and flow rate. I designed it in Eagle CAD as i do all of my boards. I decided to make it single-sided to it'd be easier to etch and solder together.

I printed the board layouts onto inkjet photo paper with a laser printer. The small boards on the bottom are for something else - I'll get to that in a bit.

Then I placed the printed side down on a piece of single-sided copper board and ran them through the laminator a few times to transfer the toner to the PCB.

Then they went into a warm etchant bath until all of the exposed copper was dissolved.

Then I trimmed the control board to it's proper size.

Next I drilled all the holes and soldered in the components. The ribbon cable is going to connect to the board that will have the LCD mounted to it which I still need to make.

Now most of you probably know that the G1 series of boards come with green LEDs in the heatsink assembly. Well Thomas is cutting me out some custom GPU backplates along with all the other laser-cut parts so I figured I'd like UV LED's to light it up rather than green ones. This is where that small board comes in. I picked up some 0603 SMD UV LED's and resistors and made a replacement PCB for it. These things are TINY!

Here is the board I made next to the one out of the board - looks like I measured the LED spacing correctly.

And a couple shots with the new PCB installed into the motherboard.

And a shot of it with my UV green fan template lit up.

That's all for now!

[d_stilgar]

That's looking really sweet. Can't wait to see more.

[SXRguyinMA]

Alright it's been a while but I've got a small update. I swapped the Primochill LRT tubing for some E22 10/12 solid tubing. I think it looks much better.

I ran out of the E33 tubing so I just used a BP crystal link fitting for the return line to the res.

And a preview of one of my fan grills from White Light Laser

[SXRguyinMA]

OK so it's been a LONG time but I've been working on getting this done. She's 99% - almost done Time to post some long-needed updates!

Here's all the goodies I got from White Light Laser:

[SXRguyinMA]

Next up I got the side panels done. I measured and cut out the panels for the windows

I opened up the lower guide track and slid a white LED strip into the track to light up the window etchings.

Then I filed the cuts smooth and put some edge molding on then mounted the windows with 3M VHB tape.

Next I got to work on polishing the GPU blocks and the EK bridge link block and got the blocks mounted.

Now for strange unknown reasons EK chose to NOT put a G1/4" threaded hole on the bottom side of the bridge, only the bottom right side. Well that's useless isn't it? With the way the flow is set up I need the flow to enter the left side of the bridge and exit the right. This is due to the universal GPU blocks having a dedicated flowpath.

So I picked up an 11.5mm plastic drill and a G1/4" BSPP tap from McMaster and made my own hole.

Now the topside of the bridge block has one threaded hole recessed into the block while the other is not. Presumably the recess is for the plug to sit flush once it's installed. However this needs to be my exit and because of the recess I can't install a fitting here. So I took the Dremel out and milled out the recess enough to allow the installation of Bitspower's new rigid tubing compression fittings.

After that was done the blocks were all mounted and I got to work redoing the tubing to and from the GPU's.

I also picked up a green Bitspower LED station to make hooking up all my LED's easier. I wired the ground on the LED station's Molex power to the switch I mounted in the front panel earlier. This allows me to turn off all the lights if I want.

Then I installed white LED's into the CPU block, GPU blocks and the bridge block.

And here we are ready to fill!

Next update coming tomorrow

[msmrx57]

Glad to see you back on here. This is looking great. That acrylic is sick.

[SXRguyinMA]

Thanks man Yea I've been crazy busy with work, school and life in general lol

[TheMainMan]

Wow, this thing is slick! I love the green on black theme.

[blueonblack]

Awesome work as always my friend. Can I safely say this project is your longest ongoing?

Also, what are those fittings you're using with the rigid acrylic? When I put together the parts for my current build all I could find were fittings that just screamed rigid acrylic, like the Revolvers I'm using or Monsoon's Chain Gun fittings. These you have look like standard compression fittings. I like that!