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As most of you might have noticed there has been some interesting twists in the GFX-card business. So now it seems that I'm going to drop those GeForce monsters and get them nice ATI HD4870's instead. Actually I'm thinking of getting two 4870X2's. If only I could get my hands on those OC'd watercooled behemeoths. Sadly them bastards are available only as OEM for selected manufacturers. I wish I could be a selected manufacturer. Here's some links for your enjoyment.
[H]Enthusiast
TGDaily
Then the CPU business. It's just my luck that the Nehalem is coming out pretty soon. Everything was sweet and constructed when I was thinking of the hardware configuration but now the new options have messed up my pretty plans. I was pondering whether to wait for Nehalem or not. After reading some previews I decided not to go the Nehalem way. Here are some links upon where I based my desicion.
Andandtech
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Hexus
So where am I going to hardware-wise? Seems like I have to give up my "No compromise" -mentality once again. That means I'm getting good price/performance CPU, top of the line MoBo, DDR3 memory (their prices have dropped nicely in the last months and I just might be able to use them in the next setup (hoping to upgrade only CPU nd MoBo then). I'm also backing off from the "99%DIY watercooling" -principal for this machine. I'm still trying to make some waterblocks for my older rigs to get the experience, but that's not part of this project anymore.
Then something else
I have no clue about how many people read my stuff here or even what you think about it. I've had a few comments but I'd most certainly like to see more. I need that feedback and you are the people able to provide it so please comment. Any comment is better than no comments at all.
24.8.08
Building the case pt.2
Now I needed to put the endframes together. First I started to grind off the rust form the ends and frame corners like in the previous phase.
Then I grinded the sharp edges off from the corners so thet the connecting pieces would fit nice and tight. There was a gap between the ends but it diddn't matter because the connecting piece would go over it and would be welded on the frame.
We laid the other frame on the table and clamped it down so it wouldn't move and working and measuring the corner pieces would become much easier. We pre-welded the pieces slightly with a right angle and then measured the distance between one end and the others. We also measured the cross distance and after some bending and more measuring everything seemed to be right. Then we fitted the other endframe between the connectors and checked the angles before finishing the welds.
The outside joints were grinded clean too, so I could see If the frame welds were OK and If I needeed to strenghten them too. There was only small gaps and I decided not to put anything on them because the cover plates would fit better. The corners we about to come quite strong and I didn't want to grind all day (altough I love to see the sparkles fly :D ).
I also welded the inside joints to make the frame as strong as possible. It only has to support the frame itself, the water cooling parts and the plates, but better safe than sorry. I bet that frame could actually take a small car, but I'd rather not test it.
Then I grinded off all the excess material from the outside welds. At this point I congratulated myself for not doing the endframe corners and doing the connector welds quite small and neat.
One of the finised connector welds.
That's me wondering "Did I really do this and not screw up on anything?"
Here are the tools I used to make the frame.
And here's the half-finished frame. I still need to install some support beams for the drives, water tank, radiators and stuff, before I can go and have it sandblasted and painted. Then some netting for the air intake and exhaust need to be cut and installed. After all that is done I can mount the cover plates on and I think I'm going to have a killer case here. The measures of the frame are 81x52x26cm if I remember correctly. That CD-ROM is there just to give you some scale how big it is.
Then I grinded the sharp edges off from the corners so thet the connecting pieces would fit nice and tight. There was a gap between the ends but it diddn't matter because the connecting piece would go over it and would be welded on the frame.
We laid the other frame on the table and clamped it down so it wouldn't move and working and measuring the corner pieces would become much easier. We pre-welded the pieces slightly with a right angle and then measured the distance between one end and the others. We also measured the cross distance and after some bending and more measuring everything seemed to be right. Then we fitted the other endframe between the connectors and checked the angles before finishing the welds.
The outside joints were grinded clean too, so I could see If the frame welds were OK and If I needeed to strenghten them too. There was only small gaps and I decided not to put anything on them because the cover plates would fit better. The corners we about to come quite strong and I didn't want to grind all day (altough I love to see the sparkles fly :D ).
I also welded the inside joints to make the frame as strong as possible. It only has to support the frame itself, the water cooling parts and the plates, but better safe than sorry. I bet that frame could actually take a small car, but I'd rather not test it.
Then I grinded off all the excess material from the outside welds. At this point I congratulated myself for not doing the endframe corners and doing the connector welds quite small and neat.
One of the finised connector welds.
That's me wondering "Did I really do this and not screw up on anything?"
Here are the tools I used to make the frame.
And here's the half-finished frame. I still need to install some support beams for the drives, water tank, radiators and stuff, before I can go and have it sandblasted and painted. Then some netting for the air intake and exhaust need to be cut and installed. After all that is done I can mount the cover plates on and I think I'm going to have a killer case here. The measures of the frame are 81x52x26cm if I remember correctly. That CD-ROM is there just to give you some scale how big it is.
3.8.08
Building the case pt.1
Before going to the case building business I'd like to thank my friend for finishing the water tank for me. He finished it before that friday in the previous entry but I had no time to test it. It still looks quite cool, don't you think?
Then to the case building. First I took measures of the preliminary layout I had on the table and cut the L-beams to size. After cutting I polished the rust off the ends so that they would be easier to weld and the weld quality would be better too.
Then I had to ask my dad to be the extra pair of hands for me. I might have been able to do the case frame by myself, but having someone holding the pieces together instead of clamping them on that makeshift table of mine sounded a way better idea.
First we put just a little drops on every corner so we were able to adjust the frame pieces before welding them together. This part was painstaking, because all the corners had to be totally right or the frame would become warped and the covering plates would then look very ugly. After a lots of measuring and bending with comments like "Are you sure about that?", "That's not going to work" and "Seems like you've learnt something", we were ready to finish the frame parts. Luckily I had cut all the pices at the same length within 1mm. If there'd been bigger difference the process of putting the frame together would've been impossible and I'd still had to cut them to same length at some point.
We welded the opposite corners together so the warping would be minimal.
First part ready.
We also welded the other side to make the joint stronger.
Both ends ready. The next thing was to put them together and that proved to be a bit more difficult than I had thought. More about that in the next entry.
Then to the case building. First I took measures of the preliminary layout I had on the table and cut the L-beams to size. After cutting I polished the rust off the ends so that they would be easier to weld and the weld quality would be better too.
Then I had to ask my dad to be the extra pair of hands for me. I might have been able to do the case frame by myself, but having someone holding the pieces together instead of clamping them on that makeshift table of mine sounded a way better idea.
First we put just a little drops on every corner so we were able to adjust the frame pieces before welding them together. This part was painstaking, because all the corners had to be totally right or the frame would become warped and the covering plates would then look very ugly. After a lots of measuring and bending with comments like "Are you sure about that?", "That's not going to work" and "Seems like you've learnt something", we were ready to finish the frame parts. Luckily I had cut all the pices at the same length within 1mm. If there'd been bigger difference the process of putting the frame together would've been impossible and I'd still had to cut them to same length at some point.
We welded the opposite corners together so the warping would be minimal.
First part ready.
We also welded the other side to make the joint stronger.
Both ends ready. The next thing was to put them together and that proved to be a bit more difficult than I had thought. More about that in the next entry.
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