Archon

[Grinder]

ummm......only the best lol

i thought you had another in the front.......doh

There might be room in the frame for a rad, if I cut holes in it for the tubing. But it would be awfully tight for the fans. They'd have to go on the inside in pull, and I'd end up having to find a shorter PSU and shifting the bottom rad off the 120mm mounting holes. Not really in the budget anyway (I didn't want those grapes!). Mmmmmmmmmmm, grapes

[Grinder]

Template still isn't perfect, but a lot better. I may buy a 17/64 cobalt bit and give it a try.

[DazMode]

Pretty damn consistent spacing!

[Grinder]

Thanks Daz. If it all works out, I may have to change my name from Grinder to Driller

I'll pick up that bit tomorrow. Meanwhile, although I'm getting tired of drilling, I drilled the holes and cut the material out of the side panel for the window kit. Taped it, marked it up, started the cut with a dremel and finished it with a jigsaw with a metal blade. Still should be sanded and painted, but I'll wait and do the case top at the same time.



And with the dress piece in position (still has the paper on it, but it is black). It hides the edge, and the window will be fastened on top.



Finally, here are a few of the other parts, the tubing, ramsinks, 24v converter, cpu block, gpu blocks, fittings, tees and clamps.



The gpu blocks are obsolete, but should work if I (GROAN) drill new holes in the large NVidia adapter plates I ordered for them.

[Hanoverfist]

Great work here. Driller!!

[Grinder]

Great work here. Driller!!

Thanks Han. Now if only I had your paint skills!

I'm not sure I've earned Driller yet, as I haven't put the template into action (although I did buy a cobalt 17/64 bit - at least it can be resharpened with my drill doctor, unlike the titanium and black oxide varieties which lose their coating).

I'm tired of drilling, so I thought I'd find another tool to annoy me... I broke out the dremel (well, cheap generic rotary tool!) since I need to cut a bunch of my ramsinks in half to cover the VRM's on the two GPUs in this build, plus a card for another build. Of course, I didn't get very far before I snapped the set screw on my last mandrel.

[Hooded]

Nice work.
Dam good freehand drilling!

[Grinder]

Thanks Hooded. It's been a real pain in the butt, so time consuming. I don't think I'll be repeating it for the bottom vent, rather I'll cut out the vent from the piece I removed for the side panel window, and adapt that to my needs.

Anyway, it didn't turn out perfectly, but as I said before it's the kind of thing where you see the flaws because you know where they are, but most people won't unless they go over it up close. I have a pic of the case top with outside light shining through the holes. There is one hole in the top row that's really annoying me, but there will be a rad installed beneath the holes, so it won't really be backlit in the final install.



It's tempting to up the bit size slightly and go over all the holes once (including the hex ones, to round them out to match), but I'd risk breaking the metal between the holes in a couple of the closely spaced ones, so it probably isn't worth it. I think I'll just sand and paint.

[easynator]

Well done!

[bungwirez]

this is free hand???

bonkers mate.

[DazMode]

Very nice. I think this as good as it can be done.

[Grinder]

Thanks all, best I could do with the tools available.

this is free hand???

bonkers mate.

Free hand, but with a template. Note that it's just the section on the left. I transferred the pattern I needed to a template by fastening it to the case, then drilling through the existing holes I needed. Then I repositioned the template and drilled the case.

If I had to do it again, I'd use a piece of metal as the template. I think the rigidity and reduced thickness would make for more accurate holes, and the laminate wasn't much easier to drill through!

[Hooded]

Well I think you earned the name Driller for sure.
Well done sir.

[Midnightoil]

Impressive patience required for that.... I tip my hat to you sir ...

[Grinder]

Thanks guys, I definitely have a stubborn streak. Err wait, patient, yeah! But it feels so good when I stop

I'm still considering drilling the bottom one, since I'm getting a little faster at it with all the practice. And that one would only require 140 or so

But not this weekend as I'm out of town. However I did order some fujipoly extreme from Daz today. I have 3 cards to prep, two for this build and one for another. I was considering painting the sinks, but I don't think I'll bother. They will be on the underside of the gpus, and there is a riot of colour under there anyway from the pink and silver capacitors, and the naked aluminum looks good.