That panel mod sure lights things up nicely. I like the sleeving and tubing colors you have selected. Going to be one nice looking rig ,when you have it finished....well a lot people are never truly "finished".lol Nice job so far!!

Bowenac
 
Awesome... can't wait to see final. 

 
Thanks.

Chrome-M-Dragon

Really? I mean i'm with zophar here, you build it i'll buy it lol. My case is different though, I have the Cosmos II. Also there are some things i'd like to cut, and i'd not really have to worry too much about voiding a warranty since I won this case. No warranties for free stuffs lol. Still, i'm not mechanical, or i'm just not that confident in my abilities lol

Ya it wouldn't be the same for a Cosoms II.  The panel was cut specifically to line up with a few of the "grooves" and ridges that are found on the sides of the 800D Mid Plate.  If you are worried about making bad cuts on your nice case, just practice with some aluminum sheets from the hardware store until you are more confident in your Dremel skills.

nvidia3

very Beautiful project

Thank you.

notfordman

That panel mod sure lights things up nicely. I like the sleeving and tubing colors you have selected. Going to be one nice looking rig ,when you have it finished....well a lot people are never truly "finished".lol Nice job so far!!

Thank you.  And you are right, many of us are never finished, and the builds just continue to evolve.  

I am still working on the sleeving and waiting for a few more fittings to arrive, but here is a small update.  I spent a bit of time working on my tubing runs.  Not complete yet, but this will give somewhat of a preview of the look I am going for. 

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Aww Nice. That looks awesome so far. I cant wait to build something like that.

I have recived a few PMs for more clarification on how I built the illuminated mid panel.  So here is a "cut-away" view of the light box I constructed that sits atop the mid panel.  
 

 
There are many other ways to go about doing this, but after some experimenting with different materials, and thickness, this is what turned out the best for my needs.  Hopefully this along with the close up pictures I have posted, will clear up any other questions that still may be floating about.

Looking nice.. :D
 
(Im following your project at a very secret forum which I can't mention here, but I guess you know what Im talking about)

HeThing

Looking nice.. :D
(Im following your project at a very secret forum which I can't mention here, but I guess you know what Im talking about)

Ha ha

Nice.
Looking good.
 

Because others have been asking for measurements, in addition to the cut away view of the illuminated mid panel above, I have uploaded my SketchUp modle to the 3D Warehouse.  It shows an assembled view, along with an exploded view of the panel.  Dimensions are inches because that is what my local plastics shop required to make the cuts.  It can be downloaded here.
 


I have also made available my 3D Modle for the Swiftech Apogee HD CPU block.  Get it here.   There are other waterblocks on the 3D Warehouse, but I couldn't find any for the newer Apogee HD, so I made it.
 

YOU YOU made me spend money dang you. I have been looking for the leds that your using and that link you sent me is going to work great. Thanks so much. The 6 rolls i bought will be great for all the projects i will be doing.
 
I know now the wife will be happy that what it cost for these are 1/8 the price i was going to spend for lights under the counter. So she is going to be so happy. And with the purple on the top next to the wine glasses is going to make her happy. Now just going to have to figure out how to hard wire them to light switch in the room.
 
I guess then i will work on what i want the red ones for....
 
thanks

fsuwade

YOU YOU made me spend money dang you. I have been looking for the leds that your using and that link you sent me is going to work great. Thanks so much. The 6 rolls i bought will be great for all the projects i will be doing.
I know now the wife will be happy that what it cost for these are 1/8 the price i was going to spend for lights under the counter. So she is going to be so happy. And with the purple on the top next to the wine glasses is going to make her happy. Now just going to have to figure out how to hard wire them to light switch in the room.
I guess then i will work on what i want the red ones for....
thanks

 Glad I could help.  Being that the LED strip needs a 12v source, you may have to tie a transformer into a switched outlet.  Good luck with the lighting project.

Sleeving

I knew it would take a while to make my own custom length cables (for better cable management), and then sleeve them... but I had no idea my fingers would get so abused in the process.  Stretching out the sleeving material over and over again to get it nice and tight over the wires has taken its toll, especially on the ends of my thumbs.  Too bad the large calluses on my hands from weight lifting don't extent to the tips of my fingers and thumb.  Going to take a break for a day or two and finish my tubing runs.

But a little discomfort is well worth it to get good looking sleeved cables.  Not too shabby for my first attempt using MDPC materials.  I also want to say that the MDPC Crimping tool is worth its weight in gold!  Such a great crimping tool compared to others I have used.  Perfect crimps every time!
 

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Wow everything looks amazing! Nice clean sleeving there. Makes me want to do more to my computer :) Mine works but its not pretty like yours!

Keep it coming, I am down with your sickness .....

SATA Cable Sleeving

I worked on sleeving my SATA Data cables tonight, but ran into a bit of a hiccup.  Two of my 5 cables have both right angle ends.  It is near impossible to get the shrink tube over those ends, so I was only able to sleeve the SATA cablest that had a least one straight connection.



I ordered some new cables from Newegg that can be sleeved property.  Ended up getting some round SATA cables for easier cable management.  Should have them in a few days.  Some of my other components should also be arriving at that time allowing to to finish up the rest of the sleeving.  

And just a word of advise to anyone that wanting to sleeve their SATA cables... I had to stretch out my shrink tubing (a lot) for it to go over the connection heads.  Otherwise it is VERY difficult to get them over.  Maybe it is just the brand of cables I am using, but it seemed much more difficult than it should have been.

This build is taking me a lot longer than anticipated, but will be worth the wait. Doesn't help that I am also doing a bunch of new landscaping and yard work at my house this week. I do a bit every night when I get home from work, and by the time I am done, there is no desire left to work on my PC   not to mention my hands are usually too tired to even attempt sleeving my new round SATA cables.

Slow and steady wins the race... Right?

Rig is looking great, can't wait to see the finished build.

SATA Cable Sleeving Continued...

Finally got around to sleeving my new Round SATA Cables.  The look great and are a bit easier to bend.  Also went ahead and sleeved the motherboard header pins along with the USB header from the front panel.



I ran into a bit of a problem when trying to plug the cables into the mobo with the heat-shring tubing installed.  They were a bit more stiff than normal, making them difficult to bend, and adding a bit too much stress for my liking in the SATA port.  So I ended up using my heat gun again on the areas that had the shrink tube making it nice and hot.  While still pliable, I inserted the SATA Cables into the Motherboard, and allowed them to cool with the exact bend angles that I wanted.  Now they fit perfectly without any undue stress on the ports.



Still waiting on one more major component to arrive before I can finish sleeving.  Not a whole lot I can do until then, but I might do some leak tests in the mean time.

Love the updates.  Can't wait to see the finished product.  Looking great!  A big +1

New Hardware Sponsor – Corsair

I am very pleased (and grateful) to announce that Corsair has decided to help me out this with build by supplying me with an AX1200 PSU, Sleeved Black Cables, and a Corsair Link Temp Control & Lighting Kit.  I was surprised when I got the news of a sponsorship from Corsair, but will gladly use their great products in this build.  Thanks Corsair!
 

New Components

Here are some beauty shots of the AX1200 that just arrived. I was previously rocking a 1000w Silverstone PSU, but was getting close to the top end of its range (hitting 970-980w) when benchmarking with everything OC’d.  The extra 200w will come in very handy, especially if I ever go Tri-SLI.  The pouch the PSU came in was a soft suede material.  The overall packaging was of high quality, and of course the PSU itself looks great in the 800D.



Here is the full Corsair Link Kit that includes the Temp Monitor / Fan Control, and the LED lighting component.  I’m not sure if I will be able to use the LED strip this go around, as I have already installed one in this build.  But I like the fact that is so customizable using the Corsair Software, and since its an RGB LED strip, the colors can change based on usage (gaming mode), or vary based on system temps.  I am going to run the Link and the Aquero 5 to see which one better suites my needs with this specific build.



On the right is a Set of Black Sleeved cables for the AX1200 from Corsair.  I had already decided to sleeve my own cables this go around, but will be using the “guts” from these for my custom cut lengths.

Corsair Sleeved Cables Mini-Review, and More Sleeving…

I have to admit, these sleeved cable packages made by Corsair for their PSUs are a great value proposition.  If someone just wants one specific color of sleeved cables, these are a great deal, especially when you factor in the cost of sleeving materials, and the time involved to sleeve and entire set of cables yourself.  The connectors are also of high quality (although different layout than standard PSU connectors, more on that later), and the sleeving material is a tad thinner than the MDPC variants, possibly making things a bit easier when trying to manage your cable clutter.  Overall for may individuals, these cable kits are a great buy.
 
But… not everyone will want these types of kits.  I can see three main reasons why these would not be for everyone.

1. Perfectionists will notice that the heat shrink tubing is not even lengths across the connectors.  For those going for looks / beauty, that could be a turn off.
2. Custom Cable Lengths can make cable management a lot easier.  I for one have decided to go that route for this build, but in all fairness I did still use these cables, simply cutting them to my preferred length, re-crimping one side of the cables, and resleeving with MDPC sleeve.
3. Custom Color selections.  Right now these kits seem only to be available in solid colors.  Many sleevers like to use multiple colors in their strands.  I am using 2 colors in this build (black & blue), hence the need for me to resleeve these cables once I had cut them down as stated above.

So for some, these sleeved kits by Corsair are great time savers and can fit a specific need (single color)  very well. For others of a more DYI nature (or OCD / Perfectionists), they will be better off making their own sleeved cables.  To the left below is a close-up of a few of the connections from the kit.


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Above right is a picture comparing the connector for an 8-pin CPU Power connection.  This is the side that plugs directly into the PSU.  This was not a problem, but something I just found to be interesting.  The AX1200 has a different connector layout compared to a standard 8-pin CPU connection, as can be seen in the above diagram comparing the two.  I had already completed an 8-pin sleeved set before the PSU arrived, only to find out it wouldn’t plug in.  Luckily with the MDPC Pin remover, I was able to switch out to the one that comes with the AX1200 in just a few minutes.  All is well.


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And here is my completed 24pin Cable/Connector.  The AX1200 has the 24pin cable split into two connectors where it plugs into the PSU.  The pic on the left is one of those two connectors.  Not perfect compared to sets from the “Pros” that I have seen, but it is getting easier each time, and my results are improving bit by bit.  Even with it getting easier (and faster)…  I have found that sleeving still takes a LONG time if done correctly.

Sleeving does not look bad at all!

Could you send me the lighting kit? It would be awesome.. And I need to keep and eye on temps for my rig..
 

killerjas

Could you send me the lighting kit? It would be awesome.. And I need to keep and eye on temps for my rig..

 
The Light Kit won't work without the Full Corsair Link unit, and I still plan on using that component, if not in this build, in a future one.  Sorry man 

Sleeving... COMPLETED!
 
MNPCTECH finally has their MOD Ruler / Gauge back in stock, and mine came in this week.  Pretty sweet little modding tool, but I won't have a chance to use it this time around since I am wrapping up the build.  But since I can't seem to go more than 6 months without modding / upgrading something, it will get plenty of future use.
 

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All major sleeving is now complete.  All I have left on the build is to connect all my fans an pumps to the AquaComputer / Corsair Link, and finish my tubing runs.  
I know for sure that I will be using a two (2)  AquaComputer USB PowerAdjusts to control my pumps, since they operate independently from other monitoring component.  I will be testing the Aquero 5 and Corsair Link separately to see which will end up in my system long term to control my fans. 
 
I still have to secure some of the cable runs to the back of the case with my cable clamps from MDPC, but here is a basic shot of all the major cables connected.  Also in the pic is the SATA Power cable that I connected to the Hot Swap plate.  It was very easy to sleeve, but a pain to get the actual wire to go in the connector.  Ended up using a hammer to "tap" the two parts of the connector together.


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Almost done...  

This is looking great. Loving the black and blue theme!

I was going to put a light panel like that in my current build but there wasn't any room for it once I installed all of my components. This build is looking sweet, can't wait to see it finished.

been watching this project, love the illumination in chassis idea

I pretty much have everything set up now to start playing with both the AquaComputer Aquero5 and the Corsair Link.  Just finished making my cables for, and sleeving the Poweradjust USB 2 pump controllers.  I will be using them independently from the other control/monitoring units. From what I have seen from other users online, both the Aquaero5 and Link have a lot of capabilities.  It just going to come down to which fits my needs the best.
Along with the Poweradjust USB 2, here is a shot of the 5mm Blue LEDs I just wired and sleeved, and a preview of how they will look inside the res.  No liquid yet.



Once I decide on which control unit to stick with, I can finish the cable management up no the back of the case.  Even with using MDPC sleeving on all of my cables, there are still A LOT of cables to deal with.  I don't know if it will look as clean & tidy as I originally envisioned it, but already it is a huge improvement over the spaghetti wire mess that used to abide back there.