Project: Hotbox

[slpdLoad]

Alright, new forum, new parts, new build!

Name: Hotbox

This will be a quick little build, nothing to omgextreme just some good ol' SFF watercooling. Hopefully will make a nice little gaming box that's easy to take to LANs. This will be my first SFF case, so it might be an interesting ride. :coke:

Before you see the color theme, I should preface that I actually purchased the parts before I found this place, but it worked out!

Parts, some new, some I've had for a while:

DFI LP JR 790GX-M2RS
AMD X3 720 0904 DPAW (3.5ish @ 277 x 15.5 currently)
EVGA GTX260 core 216 SC, or Sapphire 4850x2 2gb
Corsair & Mushkin 5-5-5-15 DDR2
PC P&C 610 silencer
Lian-Li PC-V351R

WC:

Swiftech MCP350 w/ Bitspower Mini tank
Danger Den X-Flow 240 or Swiftech MCR320, or both :rolleyes:
AquaXtreme AM2 waterblock
Swiftech MCW30 for northbridge
XSPC 260 waterblock
Yate loon fans
Red 7/16 5/8 Primochill LRT
Danger Den 1/2" barbs

Alright, time for a few pics to start us out, plenty more to come. What's in the mail today?

Lunch?
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020013.jpg

Sweet board and processor, plenty for what I need.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020014.jpg

This thing's a beast, and not too hot, but I don't have blocks for it.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020016.jpg

Which is why I'll probably go with my 260
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020015.jpg

Some of the WC gear from the good people over at FrozenCPU:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020012.jpg

Gives me some better drain options, more space, and faster bleeding than my XSPC restop:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020010.jpg

The beautiful UN bracket, much better than that adhesive foam shit:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020009.jpg

Annnnnd, the inspiration for the build - my second Li-Li, first cube!
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020004.jpg

The cold lighting in these pics makes it look a bit less red than it will be, but it still doesn't match my radiator. Hmm... Well you see the color theme anyway. :D
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020002.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020004.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020006.jpg

Oh and the current hunk 'o junk to be boxed up :crack::
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020008.jpg

Thanks for looking, all comments welcome, should be plenty of updates soon!

[Langer]

Looks like a good start.

Can I ask what you have going on on that breakout board there in the last pic?

[ballz0r]

off to a good start... you got the color right :D

[slpdLoad]

Just some parallel circuits on the left and most of a digital to analogue converter on the right. I'm an Electrical Engineering Technology student, so it's leftovers from a lab. Was using it to measure some LEDs and resistors before I solder them into parts for the case.

[trfnj74]

Looking good I love the color of the case.....

[Metasheep]

That red is a great color for that case.

[craigbru]

Sweet! I've got a thing for SFF builds, so I'll be watching!

[RedRaider]

Great color choice...;)

[slpdLoad]

Thanks guys! Sharing the progress is very motivating.

More pics update:

Starting to find out how much space I'll have to work with. Might be drilling out the rivets for the HDD cage:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020019.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020020.jpg

The board:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020022.jpg

No pushpins on the Northbridge or Mosfets might just be the best feature:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020023.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020024.jpg

The stock TIM application:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020025.jpg

CPU block:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020030.jpg

This mounting method was definitely not in the manual, but anything is possible with the MCW30!
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020040.jpg

Works for me.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020041.jpg


Oh and if anyone wants some free Swiftech plastic barbs, please PM me. They come with everything and I have no use for them.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020028.jpg

[slpdLoad]

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020052.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020060.jpg

[slpdLoad]

Small update tonight:

Drilled out the rivets for the front fan bracket so I'd have some room to work with.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020067.jpg

Bought a few feet of sleeving to try my hand at. All I have to say is you guys that sleeve entire PSUs are insane. Just trying to do the pump drove me nuts. Probably would have helped to have a proper kit though. Anyway, it's a huge improvement over the yellow/black/blue wires.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020070.jpg

Testing out pump locations.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020074.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020075.jpg

Mockup for the radiator mount. There's just not room inside, as I had imagined, and I want decent air flow. The plan is 4 yate loons in push-pull configuration.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020076.jpg

The GTX 260 with XSPC block. In the past this kept it around 37C under load.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020077.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020079.jpg

Inside. It's a tricky move to get this thing in, as you can't slide it in with the motherboard tray, but it works as long as the barbs are both on the same side.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020085.jpg

It pops through the hard drive cable slot. Still plenty of clearance for the lower hard drive with it installed, which will be nice.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020084.jpg

Will be glad to have a weekend tomorrow to work on this! And some better lighting for pictures.

[knightmaric]

Holy dogshit batman O_O
This looks so sweet!

Ahh I love Lian Li builds ^_^
Can't wait to afford the components to go into my PC-P60 armoursuit.

The colour is amazing and you've got a very nice cpu+mobo combo to.
If i'm not mistaken, isn't that the AMD cpu that people have been able to unlock the 4th core on?
Are you going to give that a go?

Those blocks are a bit mad lol
Especially that NB block.
Love the DIY mounting to ;]
Lucky that GTX 260 fit =]
Where did you get the backplate from?
I'm an nvidia man myself but it'd be nice to see that 4850x2 in action =]
Brilliant progress so far, absolutely loving it.

[procpuarie]

looking great so far! keep up the good work.

[becandl]

Looking very nice! Keep it up.

[Worthy]

Simple and interesting. Like the board.

[Spencer]

Wow, man waiting to more updates :eek:

[slpdLoad]

Thanks for the comments! More to come this evening, I think I've figured out the plumbing, just need to dust off the dremel for a few haxx.

Holy dogshit batman O_O
This looks so sweet!

Ahh I love Lian Li builds ^_^
Can't wait to afford the components to go into my PC-P60 armoursuit.

The colour is amazing and you've got a very nice cpu+mobo combo to.
If i'm not mistaken, isn't that the AMD cpu that people have been able to unlock the 4th core on?
Are you going to give that a go?

Those blocks are a bit mad lol
Especially that NB block.
Love the DIY mounting to ;]
Lucky that GTX 260 fit =]
Where did you get the backplate from?
I'm an nvidia man myself but it'd be nice to see that 4850x2 in action =]
Brilliant progress so far, absolutely loving it.

Thanks! First of all, good luck with that P60, I love the look of that case. I have nothing but good things to say about Lian-Li build quality.

And yeah, the 720 is really a quad-core with one of the cores that's unstable. Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck unlocking it. Different ACC settings give me different levels of fail, but lowering clock speeds, upping voltages, changing steppings, etc, no dice so far. I bought it quite a while after people were into that, so maybe they changed their QC for the chips a bit. Still a helluva proc, and 3 cores is perfect IMO.

The backplate actually came with the 260, as it's the 65nm model, so there are RAM chips on the back of the PCB.

The decision to go with the 260 was really just because I can water cool it. :D The 4850x2 is a beast, and I haven't even had driver problems with it. I'd give it a solid 10-15% advantage over the overclocked 260 216, but when you're talking 100fps vs 115 fps, well, it's not really a big difference. Crysis Warhead drops them down to around the same rate, with the 260 a bit behind but keeping down a solid 30-35 fps. At gamer settings and 1900x1200, that's good enough for me. I think I'll settle in with this configuration for a while, and then do an entirely new build. Unless of course I get the itch to go watercooled 4890 CF in a couple months :crack:

[Phobia]

That looks good. I really like the look of that case! I like the contrast between the red and silver.

[Worthy]

Thanks for the comments! More to come this evening, I think I've figured out the plumbing, just need to dust off the dremel for a few haxx.



Thanks! First of all, good luck with that P60, I love the look of that case. I have nothing but good things to say about Lian-Li build quality.

And yeah, the 720 is really a quad-core with one of the cores that's unstable. Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck unlocking it. Different ACC settings give me different levels of fail, but lowering clock speeds, upping voltages, changing steppings, etc, no dice so far. I bought it quite a while after people were into that, so maybe they changed their QC for the chips a bit. Still a helluva proc, and 3 cores is perfect IMO.

The backplate actually came with the 260, as it's the 65nm model, so there are RAM chips on the back of the PCB.

The decision to go with the 260 was really just because I can water cool it. :D The 4850x2 is a beast, and I haven't even had driver problems with it. I'd give it a solid 10-15% advantage over the overclocked 260 216, but when you're talking 100fps vs 115 fps, well, it's not really a big difference. Crysis Warhead drops them down to around the same rate, with the 260 a bit behind but keeping down a solid 30-35 fps. At gamer settings and 1900x1200, that's good enough for me. I think I'll settle in with this configuration for a while, and then do an entirely new build. Unless of course I get the itch to go watercooled 4890 CF in a couple months :crack:

Those 4890s show good promise the way they hang on the heels of the 285.
With some water and the volt tweaking capability that comes with them from makers like ASUS that I know of, they should be a fun card.

I also read about the new nvidia 275 today and that card kicks the 4890's ass and they are only around 250 dollars each. I am really eyeballing them.

Something tells me you should wait a couple months as the prices of many cards will be dropping since these new and cheaper cards are giving just as good performance.

[slpdLoad]

Yeah, I think the next gen of GPUs will be the one to pick up on instead of a refresh for me.

Nothing like some yard work to slow down modding, but I at least did all the drilling and cutting I needed to do with the case.

Had to cut out a slot for the cables from the power supply, as there was no room at all.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020088.jpg

Still wanted the bay covers on , so I cut some sheet metal and riveted the pieces together for stability. That should allow me to hide all the PSU wires with the optical drives on the other side.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020089.jpg

Some rubber molding so I don't scratch things up.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020087.jpg

And the radiator sandwich, pretty happy with how this is turning out.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020093.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020097.jpg

Drain port! No more cutting tubes like the last build.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020099.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020100.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020104.jpg

Cheers

[bianco]

that case is sexy! looking forward to the completion...
btw, do you mind sharing what size for the hole that you made for the bp fill/drainport? thanks!

[Oli4v]

now that's one sexy case, the color looks like candy, getting sense for a lolly right now :)

[slpdLoad]

that case is sexy! looking forward to the completion...
btw, do you mind sharing what size for the hole that you made for the bp fill/drainport? thanks!

I cut a 3/4" hole, and then had to enlarge it just a bit with a dremel sanding wheel. I'd say 7/8" would be the way to go, unless you can find a 13/16" bit. :crack:


Alright! Got a good update here, as it's finished! I think it needs a few white LEDs to light the innards a bit, but I'm happy otherwise:


Initial tubing runs
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020107.jpg

I use a PVC pipe cutter for the tubing, works great.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020109.jpg

The line comes out of the radiator through the hard-drive bay and to the GPU.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020110.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020111.jpg

Loop order is Res/Pump >> CPU >> NB >> Rad >> GPU >> Res/Pump

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020113.jpg

The drain port. Already paid off, I had a bad o-ring on the barb coming from the pump. Won't do another build without one.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020115.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020116.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020119.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020120.jpg



http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020121.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020122.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020127.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020129.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020131.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020152.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020153.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020158.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020159.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020161.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020162.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020168.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020169.jpg

Up and running!
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020171.jpg

Thanks for looking as always! Now I'm off to play with my new toy... :cheers:

[Lu(ky]

Nice build you have here it eally came out nice. I will be right behind you here with mine with a Lian Li PC-V351, e8400, DFI P45, XFX 4850 eK FB, etc...

[yeow_z]

flame on!

[bianco]

I cut a 3/4" hole, and then had to enlarge it just a bit with a dremel sanding wheel. I'd say 7/8" would be the way to go, unless you can find a 13/16" bit.


thanks for the info and congrats on the nice build
enjoy!

[Langer]

Very nice build.

I'm sure it's of little consequence for your application, but I have some advice in regards to your rad airflow.

You should leave at least a gap a minimum of 75% the diameter of your fan between it and your case-top.
ie: 120mm fans should be at least 90mm off the surface.
Once you go below ~75% you'll exponentially reduce your airflow the tighter that gap. Ideally for 100% flow you actually need to match your diameter.

You could be creating what I'll call 'malicious airflow'. Things like turbulence, back pressure, or even a vacuum zone. All these things can have ill effects on your fans lifespan and even your cooling performance.

As an experiment:
I'd be interested to see how much of a temp increase you get with just the top fans pulling (bottom up), and then pushing (top down). I'd wager that the difference will be nill with only 2fans in the right airflow configuration - with the benefit of fan lifespan and reduced dB level.

Just my $0.02.
I love the build mate - I'm a big fan of the little LiLi cubes.

[Squeetard]

Great build, love it!

[Chicken Patty]

great job with this build. I love seeing builds in small cases. really puts the talent you have to work :cheers:

[SugarJ]

Super build. You must have small hands, or really bloody knuckles right now.:)

[slpdLoad]

Very nice build.

I'm sure it's of little consequence for your application, but I have some advice in regards to your rad airflow.

You should leave at least a gap a minimum of 75% the diameter of your fan between it and your case-top.
ie: 120mm fans should be at least 90mm off the surface.
Once you go below ~75% you'll exponentially reduce your airflow the tighter that gap. Ideally for 100% flow you actually need to match your diameter.

You could be creating what I'll call 'malicious airflow'. Things like turbulence, back pressure, or even a vacuum zone. All these things can have ill effects on your fans lifespan and even your cooling performance.

As an experiment:
I'd be interested to see how much of a temp increase you get with just the top fans pulling (bottom up), and then pushing (top down). I'd wager that the difference will be nill with only 2fans in the right airflow configuration - with the benefit of fan lifespan and reduced dB level.

Just my $0.02.
I love the build mate - I'm a big fan of the little LiLi cubes.

Hey I really appreciate the response :coolup:, the airflow thing is something I'm not very knowledgeable about.

Originally, I had planned to do push-pull, with the fans pushing upwards. I figured this was as good as anything, since heat rises. Upon testing it out though, the dB level was unbearable - it sounded like a shop-vac. I also tried negative air pressure, with both pulling from the rad, but without the proper shroud it just killed all air flow. So I opted to try how I have it setup now, which is push-pull blowing down onto the case. It's not as bad as before, but still very very loud.

The good news is I'm very happy with the cooling performance, so I can mess with the fans without too much worry. According to AOD and GPU-z, it looks like I've got a loop temp of 35-40C throughout the loop, which is frankly about 10C less than I thought I might get with small radiator and CPU/GPU/NB combo. That either shows how good this rad is or how cheap the old Swiftech was.

I'll run the test you proposed when I get home and post the results. I'm thinking I might also try adding two empty fan casings directly on top of the rad, and then 2 yates on top so I have a bit of a shroud to get rid of dead spots on the fans.

Thanks again!

[YerBuddy]

Very pretty. You can tell you put a lot of work and thought into it. Did you make the rad-feet? It's a nice idea for someone who doesn't have the room inside. Except for the airflow thing, but that's easily overcome IMO.

Good job!

[nicky.82uk]

Very nice build.

[MomijiTMO]

I'd say just get rid of 2 fans. With your current set up, remove the pull fans and it will be good.

All part of experimentation - test like you did to see what gives the best performance factoring in sound pollution.

[slpdLoad]

Hey thanks for the bump, forgot I was going to update about the fans. :p

Langer was right, using only two fans resulted in exactly the same temps, whether pushing or pulling. Currently, I have two shrouds (cut the fan part out of some LiLi fans), with two Yates blowing down into the rad. Taking the LiLi fan guards off the fans reduced the noise a lot as well, but I think these Yates (I know the quality/motor can be different depending on where you buy from) are just really loud.

I have two Raptors, 8 gigs of DDR2, and some more tubing coming my way so I'll be ripping the build apart a bit anyway. And I think I'll swap cards around for my 4850x2, which will mean only the CPU and NB on water. I'm thinking I'll put a pair of *much* quieter Xigmateks or stock Lian-Li fans that I have and see how I fair with those. I'll post some more pictures to keep things interesting.

Cheers

[slpdLoad]

Very pretty. You can tell you put a lot of work and thought into it. Did you make the rad-feet? It's a nice idea for someone who doesn't have the room inside. Except for the airflow thing, but that's easily overcome IMO.

Good job!

Thanks! The rad supports are actually XSPC radiator brackets:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6475/ex-rad-124/XSPC_Radiator_Mounting_Bracket_Set.html

[Worthy]

I didn't know this was finished. Nice job.
The red tubes look good don't they? I recently did mine over in red primochill tube.

[mcoffey]

Super great build...really good stuff. Great paint and LC.

One of the best small case builds I've seen so far.

congrats,

andyc

[slpdLoad]

More pics to keep you junkies at bay. :crack: :D

Got some stuff in so I changed some things over the weekend. Definitely living up to the "hotbox" name, though temps are manageable (mostly low airflow over chipset issues).

4850x2 (shroud removed to lower temps, lower fan noise)
Raptors in Raid 0
Loop is now CPU + NB only, so 2 silent Lian-Li fans pulling up on the rad is enough to keep things cool. Much much quieter overall, nearly silent if the side panels are on.
Black tubing since I didn't have enough red to redo the whole loop. Will probably switch back at some point.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020184.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020186.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020187.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020188.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020189.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020191.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020195.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020198.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/slpdLoad/P1020194.jpg

[DexNfX]

That's a nice total package you have there. I especially like the paint color.