[Build Log] Project: Cosmos Sv2 my dream build

[xmanrigger]

Wow, a lot cleaner than the rat's nest you started with.

Just my opinion, but I would route the VGA power from under the card or along the end, to the behind the mobo as you did with the 24 pin. Would clean it up and look much better. That wiring run looks out of place and takes away from the 'cleanliness'. Maybe even run it behind the rez once you get it mounted. Again, just my opinion, which dont matter a whole bunch around here.

[Bartacus]

TERRIFIC work so far man!!! I have fond memories of the old Cosmos 1000. That was my first big money epic case too.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Thanks everyone and xmanrigger I'll consider your suggestion I just have to find a way to do it since a mobo screw is a little in the way.

I also got my parts last night and it turns out my CPU block is missing the backplate and backplate gasket not sure how that happened but it'll delay my progress a bit if I can't get one for this weekend which I probably can't because of processing times and shipping(I'm at work when they deliver mail it would be so much easier if I could just pick it up but oh well) so I'll spend this weekend experimenting with my point and shoot camera to try and take better pics of what I do have so keep an eye out for that update. I'll probably do leak testing tonight to make sure nothing is leaking like my rads, res, or pump top, or my cpu block. Wouldn't be too good going through the process of trying to get a replacement backplate only to have the cpu block be leaky too.

Edit: Daz is going to find the missing parts tomorrow so there's a small possibility of some work done this weekend we'll see.

Edit 2: Got a tracking number so I guess Daz managed to find my missing parts which Canada Post says I should get today.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Update #12

Alright managed to get some work done this weekend. I also got all my parts in order mostly so time to share some pictures and progress. I did make a couple mistakes and stuff which I'll be fixing soon. Also I'm changing the format a bit and not posting high res in progress shots, it makes it easier for me. Last note is that this will be split in 2 due to number of pictures.
Here's all the parts of my latest order and well it's my largest single purchase of computer parts yet:

My 8 pin extension:


I like this Darkside extension however it does look very plasticy and while it does look nice it's too shiny and doesn't match my current BitFenix extensions which has a more fabric looking sleeving which I find looks nicer imo.
This DazMode coolant is pretty much straight glycol making it clear and perfect to add dyes like food coloring but I'll be keeping mine clear.
Ok so the pump I ordered was the D5 Vario which has speed settings 1-5 and well I got the D5 Strong which is the standard non-variable speed D5 pump so I have to sort this out DazMode(be fair stuff happens) and will update you via a review on how it goes. Regardless I don't really mind having the D5 Strong which is basically the eact same as the Vario at setting 4.5ish which is probably what I would have had the Vario set at anyways will just be a little harder bleading out air not being able to change the rpm on the pump easily.



These rads though they look very nice and the 360 slim one is actually very slim just slightly thicker than a 25mm fan which is perfect for the space I have which is minimal in the front of my case. Also you can see in the pictures the holes are offset from the channels of the rad meaning if your screws are a little bit too long they won't puncture the channels of your rad making it leak. The screws would simply damage a few fins, still not ideal, but better than having your rad leak.


This thick rad on the other hand isn't as ease of use as the 360 slim. If you use screws that are too long here there is a small possibility of puncturing the channels of it but there are small metal stoppers to help prevent this. I'm gonna use this rad in the top of the case, I think it will fill it in nicely.


Ok here's the CPU block and yes I do now have the backplates it's supposed to come with so I got that resolved with DazMode. Not to mention this will match the pump top and the res nicely.


Fittings, wonderful wonderful fittings.

I think I bought everything I needed and yes they don't match but I don't have the money to get all matching ones but I would love to get proper fittings someday to make the build look really nice but that will come at a later date.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Update #12.5

Now to my big but little mod. This took me pretty much all Sunday and well I think it turned out alright. This is what my front panel looked like when I removed the I/O pcb and well it's pretty empty. I need to resolve this and make use of this space on the case.

Well let's take it apart:

It really pained me to do this but I don't think this case would be around much longer anyways so I had to do this.

Well the last pic looked pretty dirty and I cleaned it up a bit plus cus some space in part that I need to hold the power button.

The power button:

While I was at it I marked the spot on the case that i will eventually need to cut as well.

The HDD light is something I still wanted to keep as well so I needed to keep the plastic part for the LED but get rid of the others for the front I/O.

More cuts and installed the LED holder.

Now to fill in that rectangle I cut out of my case.


Yup that'll work and now it's painted and waiting to dry on top of my running PC.

So while I waited for that part to dry I needed to do some more work on other things. This took me about an hour -.- but I think in the end it will be worth it. I bought 2 white LED plugs and well they don't fit into the bottom of the EK res because EK thought it would be a great idea to recess the ports on the bottom but not make the recessed part big enough for even some normal plugs. So what I had to do is file down the sides of the LED plugs I got because they wouldn't fit into the res to seal with the O-ring. This is what I ended up with which is pretty much perfect for what I need. The plug still sticks out a little bit so that I can grip onto it with pliers and tighten it properly. Also it provides something i can someone use to make sure the bottom of the res doesn't slide around. Reason I'm doing this is that I want light coming up from the bottom of the res to light up the EK plexi baffle. Not sure how this will actually look but we'll see. Worse come to worse I'll just not run LEDs to the plugs.



After I delt with the res plugs I started to reassemble the front panel and this is what the underside looks like. But really it doesn't look like that touch sensitive button should even work it's almost like magic.

And here it is I did make a bit of a mistake which I'll have to fix later with some plasti-dip. As you can see on the power button that's lit up it seems that I've scratched some of the black plastic off on the inside and you can see the marks lit up now so I'll do that when I cut the spot open in the metal part of the case.


So that's it for now I tried it out and it seems I'll have to get a T fitting and another red LED plug for the fill port because it actually looks really nice to have a light coming through that fill port since I have a crystal stopper in it. I'll get a red one to match the power button. Hopefully I'll be able to get the water cooling set up next time I do an update so we'll see how it goes and I'll also post an update when I receive word about the pump which if I can I'll probably keep the Strong and not bother getting it swapped and just get the $6-$7 difference refunded as store credit. I could use that to get my T fitting and maybe LEDs for the inside of the case.

P.S. yes I will clean off all those horrible fingerprints on the front panel.

[Bartacus]

Nice job on that top mod!

[DazMode]

This is massive update. Great work!

[NotSoEpicMods]

I'm working on formatting an update but here's a little spoiler.

Full res: http://i.imgur.com/P5aDmz1.jpg

[DazMode]

Seems like hell of flow! Slow dow and let bubble bubble up

[NotSoEpicMods]

Seems like hell of flow! Slow dow and let bubble bubble up

Haha thanks Daz I ran it for 48 hours and got most of the air out of the system this was just an earlier shot of me leak testing and bleeding it. Now it's just some bubbles stuck to the side of the res which I hope eventually rise out. Btw did you happen to get around to my refund?

[DazMode]

I have no pending refunds as I know... did few today.

[NotSoEpicMods]

I have no pending refunds as I know... did few today.

Huh alright it was just the difference in price between the Strong and the Vario pumps as reward points(or however you usually refund people). I'll send you an email tomorrow during business hours if that's alright with you.

[DazMode]

Ah my bad...I do it now

[NotSoEpicMods]

Ah my bad...I do it now

Awesome thanks a ton Daz. Also sorry to put you to work after hours :/

[NotSoEpicMods]

This is a big update I have it already all formatted on my site but to make it more digestible here I'm going to release it in parts over the next couple days. Hope you like it.

The build is getting there I finally got myself a custom water cooled CPU. Yea yea I know there's still a lot to do and what I have is overkill for just a CPU but oh man the results are so worth it. I still need to do things which I think i may make a check list at the end of this big update.
First up is that I needed pass-through ports for my res so I put my res in the approximate spot and started cutting luckily it sat right over the old fan vent so no dremel needed.

Originally I cut it very very tight and I'm not sure why since I will have something to cover it anyways.

So after that I decided to pull out my ageing H100 rad and plop the new top Darkside top rad I planned to use which I hopped would fit.



Here you can also see me test fitting the fill port clearance with a short piece of tubing to make sure it would clear the cut in the case I made and not hit the top bar brace.

Well it fits now the question is if the res will fit under it with the fill port fitting I have on top of it as well.

Huge fin spacing on this rad which I considered running passively which I may still do.

Very ghetto but effective stealthing of my D5 pump. I use run of the mill electrical tape and put it around the housing as I didn't want to spend another ~$30 to get an EK housing for the pump and Daz doesn't carry them anyways, so electrical tape it is!

Now I bought 10ft of 12mm black sleeving but I really could've just got 1 foot(I plan on experimenting with the remainder). I used it to sleeve a small portion of the 3 wires and again Electrical tape to the rescue. I have heatshrink at work but that would require me to go out and go back to work again after coming home so I just use tape which looks ok and isn't in an obviously visible spot anyways.





Well I decided to put fans in anyways which the only ones I had 3 of are my blue BitFenix ones. I simply pulled out the LED bridge in them and they get hidden pretty nice since they're a very dark blue.


Next part of the update coming tomorrow some time probably after work.