MODell XPS: Xperimental Propulsion System

[Grinder]

I've still got a ways to go. Good thing the case was cheap, as it certainly won't be labour wise. Fun though!

I still have some tricks up my sleeve to help that turbine look. As for the rads, the case is actually tall enough to stand up the 480 near the front, and I think I'll have room for the thick 120 at the exhaust mount on the rear. If you like the case, check out this beautiful mod of an XPS 720 by Belgian modder Alain S. Just wow!
https://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/...ll-xps-720-mod

[Grinder]

I went ahead and used tin snips to cut my Kenmore sheet metal into a vertical reinforcement for the free end of the shelf. It certainly is flimsy compared to the rest of the case, but the piece I used already had a bend at the edge which adds rigidity. I'll likely mount the massive rad behind this. I had to do some bends at the top and bottom, I used pliers, hammer, and my old 5 inch vise to do them.

I also painted the mobo tray flat black. I decided to keep the strip on the left edge of it in order to help with cable management, and will probably mount a shroud of some kind in that area as well.

Here I have the two pieces just set in place to check out the look and fit.



Once I make the cuts to the front of the case, I'll clean up, mask, and paint the front and rear, then mount the tray and backplate. Here is the front of the case prior to cutting, you can really see how tight those fans are:

[Grinder]

Wish I had access to the kind of equipment that Alain used! He did a fantastic job.

I made the cuts in the front of the case. The dremel was ok to do the grillwork on the bottom half, but I had to resort to an angle grinder with a cutoff disk to do the top. As Daz pointed out, that stuff is thick, and strong! Got some strange looks from my neighbour while I was going at a computer case with a grinder in my driveway lol.

I masked and painted the front and rear where all the cuts were made, and also painted the backplate. I was able to create a tab on the left top to backstop the fan, whereas on the right there is a lip on the side behind the cut that will serve the purpose. The bottom is more straightforward: I'll mount the fan to a plate and slide the whole assembly in from the front.

Next is to reinstall the left side of the case and mount the tray and backplate. I'll pre-drill and then use self tapping screws. Will post some pics when that is done.

[Grinder]

[Grinder]

I've adjusted the vertical support, and attached it to the bottom, top, and the free end of the shelf. I plan to reinforce it, as the thick 480 rad will be mounted to it. It's heavy, and some extra thickness will help to center the rad. I'll be using heavier material, so need to pick up some metal jigsaw blades.

Meanwhile I've used the remainder of my washer sheet metal for a shroud at the top. It rests on the power supply on the right, and is attached on the left with a couple of screws. Now I need to sand and paint both pieces, plus I will be fabbing another shroud for the edge of the mobo tray. These two shrouds will give me room for cable management, and hide the PSU.

[Grinder]

I used the jigsaw to cut reinforcement pieces for the vertical support (didn't have the length to do one piece). Haven't attached them yet or painted. The vertical piece and shroud will be a pain to get smooth :/



I also cut, bent, and test fitted a shroud for the edge of the mobo tray.

[Grinder]

I used PL Premium to attach my reinforcement pieces to the vertical support, sandwiching it all between two pieces of hardwood flooring and setting my large socket set on it until it set up. Then I painted the PSU shroud, mobo shroud, and vertical support.

[Grinder]

I want to leave the front fan blades exposed for that twin turbine look. But I will need to fab some filters since I will be getting one of these on the long weekend

[Grinder]

This stuff should help. Although it will have to wait until I finish the shrouds/fan mounts. I will likely do a filter for the rad itself, and one for the front fans that I can remove easily for the full visual impact of the blades.

[Grinder]

Last week I had a small order come in from Daz, some angled fittings, cable combs, Dazprotect, and a pump bracket. I tried the pump mount (not the bracket I got from Daz) upside down, as I need it to be low. However I think it is touching against the bolts securing the mount to the bracket (note the deflection of the rubber dampener) and would transmit pump vibrations/noise. I'll put it back to normal orientation and try it to see if it is indeed too high to clear the GPU.

[Grinder]

I installed the reinforced vertical member and did a test placement of the rads. The front one looks centered pretty well, although I may try to raise it a tad if I have clearance from the GPU against the top of the pump/res mounted to the other side. Some of the weight will be taken up by felt pads on the bottom, and the rest by the XSPC 120mm rad brackets at the top and bottom.



I have managed to preserve the mechanism for the side panel as well.



And here is the rear rad. It won't fit directly against the back plate, but a fan in pull solves the problem. I'll have to paint this rad...



I reverted the pump mount to the correct orientation to avoid vibration, but as I suspected there isn't enough clearance. I should be able to mod the bracket or mount slightly to lower it.



I'm going with the main rad fans in pull to reduce noise and interference with the huge intake fans, and I don't want the view from the front to be of more fans, detracting from the whole turbine effect. Besides, the big ones aren't as noisy, so for light loads I probably won't have to spin up the 120's.

[Grinder]

I enlarged a couple of holes on the pump bracket and mount, allowing me to mount it lower without having to do the upside down orientation in the last pic. That gave me the clearance to raise the rad another 3/8 to be more centered in the intake air flow, while still having room for the GPU at the top of the res. Not really worth another pic though.

However I did paint the small rad. I used some old barbs to fill the 5 threaded holes and taped them up, then suspended it from our clothesline to paint it I made sure to back the barbs out a bit after painting so they weren't in contact with the paint when it set. As I was moving the rad, the wire on the rad end let go and I ended up painting the damn thing a second time.

[Grinder]

I am thinking of making some hardware changes. My current daily driver, another iteration of my Archon build, is a 5930k. I may move that to this build, since it is more than fast enough for me. I haven't even overclocked it yet, but when I do it should be a match for a stock 8700k given they are both 6 cores/12 threads. For sure the 8700k would be more overclockable and has a small IPC advantage, but the 5930k has quad channel memory, a bit more cache, and a ton more PCIe lanes. Archon currently has the GTX 1080 Sea Hawk EK X and a Corsair RM1000i. I could sell Archon configured with the 1080 and 8700k, and transfer the PSU, mobo, and 5930k to this build along with a pair of 390X's. I'm not at 4k for gaming, and am doing some tinkering with OpenCL, so the 390X's should be fine. That would also make it easier to sell Archon to folks who always think that a higher numbered CPU model is better

[Grinder]

Now it's time to install some closed cable combs on some Darkside sleeved PSU extensions that I got from Daz quite a while ago. Each pin will have to be removed and slipped through the cable comb holes. I do have a tool for the purpose that came in a mod smart sleeving kit I purchased ages ago, and I have also used the staple method to depress the tabs that release the pin.



I found that using a combination of the tool and a heavy duty staple worked best for me.

[Grinder]

I decided to follow through on swapping my daily driver hardware (5930k with a pair of 390X's) into this build, moving the 8700k/1080 et cetera to Archon. Updating the component list...

Meanwhile I will post back when I've finished the cable combs.