Project: L3p L4n

[WuzzA21]

Originally Posted by l3p

SNIP

fuck I hope this works out for you.
What a great block, I love long blocks that cover dual gpu's.

If I was to ever get a marsII I'd be looking towards you for help.

[sugaris]

I tip my hat to your Sir... you are the god of Mod!

[m3k]

goodluck with the leak, hopefully everythings ok, looking forward to updates

[l3p]

Second remount + leaktest was a failure too



So .. ordered the Loctite quick gasket




Met Rogier from Asus last friday for a coming project and ..
He asked me if he could borrow L4n for an Asus media event next friday.
Told him I couldn't get it fully running that fast, that was no problem.
So he would pick it up next tuesday..

Oops...
Will be some late evenings this weekend :P



First tests without PCB.






After a full leaktest still dry!!
Also didn't leave any Loctite




And then I had to remove it again for a full mount..pff
I really had to cut it loose.




And clean it for an hour




Used and army of heat transfer pads on back and front






And a new layer of Loctite.




Made a quick movie that night of the mess.






Next day.. change the bracket .. for the third time.
This will be on top of the pump controller.






Small idea I got for the ssd's
The backside will be out of sight, but is able to catch light from the RGB leds.
That will give a nice effect on the front side.








Rest of the day ... Bitspower..
My skin let go on my vingers
Even sawing the crystallinks .. had to do it with my knife.
Left both of my saws at work :/




Didn't have much time to make pics.
Got 2 hours left tomorrow.
So it will be on the event as below, just the RGB leds and the touchscreen.







When it's back I'll make it 'flowready' and leaktest it completely for multiple days.
And off course some more pictures from the case and MarsII
The loop can still even change, didn't have enough C47's

[l3p]

Here a small video from L4n one day before it got picked up.




And 2 days ago Asus BNL called me ...
They were very happy with it!









Such a shame I couldn't be there cause of my job :/



And a video on the Asus Facebook where you can see L4n for 3 seconds @ 2:00
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=368991666504515

Now waiting to get it back and resume

Thanks Asus!!

[Jtech]

Dude congratulations the build looks amazing!

[l3p]

Received L4n last week in a perfect state from Asus
Been leak testing 2 days to see if it's finally leakfree.....


Finally!




With just 2 x D5 at full speed and 1m tube it became pretty hot after a few hours of testing.




So used an AIO solution from Aquacomputer
(Thanks again for this awesome MOTY prize Specialtech.co.uk ! )




After hours of testing and greasy fingers I gave it a last polishing.




I didn't know what photos to erase, so here they are all of them.

































This 'small project-in-a-project' has been quite a learning process for me of cooperation, testing, measuring and even more measuring and testing.

I would like to thank the following persons for cooperating on the MARS II block.

Daniel aka Mr3D
Ivo aka Quepee
Rogier van Asus Benelux
Gregor van EKWB
And everyone who I forgot

This week some small changes on the SSD's and then I will be testing the loop and hardware of L4n.
After that, mount the MARSII and test it all over again

[l3p]

Well .. promised Corsair to do something with the ssd's.

So here we go




First remove the sticker.




Start dremeling.






Sanded with P220. I have something with brushed alu....




But have other plans.




Sawing a piece of tinted acrylic.




Polishing






Taping the acrylic and glue it with transparent glue. (Becomes transparent when it's dry)






In the meantime further with the casebadge while the glue is drying.
One of the nicest badges I've seen.




Dr. Dre on it again.




Became hotter then I expected.




But who the heck makes 2mm thick badges




More then an hour of filing and sanding.




With the result.




Glue nicely dried.




One to go :P






Same ritual.




And the result.
I'm very happy with it








Noticed right now the heatshrink let go cause of all the dis-connecting :/

[Spyfox]

those SSDs look awesome!
nice badge work

[Moptimus]

Looks amazing mate . Shame about the heat shrink .

Is there any way of sleeving everything so that it is robust enough to not fall apart like this?

[l3p]

Ohh it's no problem, will fix it within a few minutes, just didn't see it before the pics

[Saate]

Amazing work mate, you've got me eyeing off my Corsair Force SSD now

One thing that would bother me, and maybe it's just the camera angle, but you can see the individual LEDs reflecting in the acrylic window. Is it obvious from normal viewing angles? and if so is there any way to defuse those LEDs to make it less distracting?

I suppose 'distracting' is quite a relative term - with builds as amazing as this most people will drool forever before noticing

[l3p]

Thanks man

Well It's so shiny you will probably see anything that's above it.
So even diffusing the light will still show it.
But once your standing above it you don't notice it .. believe me

[l3p]

What a week .. 28°C inside and I'm busy with 2 builds

To finish L4n I had quite a checklist to walk through.

- Add cables for SSD, Leds and pump.
- Change in RGB Leds and wiring.
- RGB controller/remote died, had to replace it.
- Finding the right coolant color.
- Testing loop + blocks + fan/pump controller without MARS.
- Testing all hardware with loop without MARS.
- Testing loop with MARS in it.
- Full stress test of complete system.


First .. lets add an SDD activity led




SSD in action. (2GB copy)




Also removed the RGB above the SSD and added RGB between the acrylic of the SSD's




Bringing 3 little cables to their destination out of sight.... 45 minutes :P




RGB controller replaced and proper connection instead of soldering.
Literally removed the radiator 30 times to get it in.




Then I found out I still had to extend the pump wire. -_-




Playing with test tubes in RGB light.
Seems EK blood red looks good in switching red/blue light.




First looptest without MARS.




Loop needed exactly 1 liter.






Never thought something would go easy.
Reservoir isn't the highest point, still it keeps on level nicely and de-aeration works perfect.




Pump on speedsetting 1, completely silent and enough flow to cool it down.




SSd's and memory ... check.




Lapped CPU + cooling ... check




Leaving it running for the night.




Right before getting the MARS in I changed something on the contrast of the aluminum text.
(Thanks NOCA!)




Not much luck again ... really .. somehow the motorized screen pressed the color-change button of the enermax fan when opening. Cause of that it had blue and red leds on, not something I wanted.
Had to drain the loop and build the pump completely out to reach it and fix it for good.




Finally testing the full loop!




Pump on speedsetting 10




Love bubbles.




And leaving it for another night.




Next day ... testing the complete system.
MARS leds lit




Pretty scary, don't know what the MARS temps are before I'm in windows.
Quick USB install




Unfortunately....
It seems 1 of the 2 cores isn't getting cooled as it should.
With a furmark stresstest in SLI 1 core goes to 65°C, the other one.. goes slowly up to 100°C and starts to throttle.
I'm almost sure it's the thickness of the heatpads I used, I will have to re-open it again completely.
There are a lot of options I can still try with different combinations of heatpads/paste, sure I can solve it.
However .. going to keep that for another time, tired of it for now.
I'm actually more glad both GPU's still work after enlarging 3 holes in the PCB




Atleast the lapped CPU doesn't let me down



Final pics on the way!

[l3p]

And here the final photos from L4n
(sorry for the amount)


Few shots in daylight.
















Complete set.
















Inside shots.




















































As an Htpc






With dimmed lights.












Final video




My thanks to the following persons and company's

Daniel aka Mr3D
Ivo aka Quepee
Richard aka Kier
Rogier Gelling
Gregor Hribernik









And off course everyone I forgot and all readers of this thread!


Off course will continue on the Mars problem later.
For now .... first need a months or two on my next project