Circuit Box - HAF XB mod

[SXRguyinMA]

I was going to do my next mod in a Switch 810. That was until the HAF XB came out and I HAD to have one. This build will be fully watecooled and build around an i7-3770k and a pair of XFX 6870's and will feature a black and green theme with custom windows and LOTS of sweet laser-cut accessories from my good friend Thomas at White Light Laser.

First off HUGE thanks to my current sponsors Lepa, Enermax and Performance-PCs.com!






I started off by taking out the factory mesh on the top panel and made a window for it.








Next up I started getting some hardware mounted so I could figure out the routing for my tubing. The board shown here is just for mock-up.








Next I drilled mounting holes for the pump mount and mounted the pump.








Then I drilled holes for the reservoir mount. Being that this case is short and fat rather than the typical tall and skinny I decided to mount the res to the back panel.










Here's a shot with the board and GPU's I'll be using. I'll be using my current XFX 6870's paired with their EK blocks. The board shown here I'll be using along with an i7-3770k and the EK block shown here. I still need to strip the block mounting bracket from the last mod and repaint it black for this one. I also plan to remove the MB heatskink setup and paint the blue trim pieces green to match the rest of the mod.




And last up a shot of the green/black paracord I'll be using to sleeve all the cables for the mod.




I've got some Mayhem's pastel mint green coolant mixed up and waiting for the build as well. I think the whole black and green theme will look killer in this.

I'm also debating on adding another 120mm rad in the floor in the 5.25" drive bays for some extra cooling, but we'll see.

[SXRguyinMA]

Time for an update

The two 6870 waterblocks were starting to get slightly stained, so I took them apart and hit them with some Mother's metal polish with the Dremel and buffing wheel and cleaned them up pretty good.








I also cleaned up the nickel on the CPU waterblock as well as stripped the old paint of the retention bracket and re-painted it black




I also got my care package in from Performance-PCs! I got a second XSPC 120mm radiator, some Bitspower fittings and some other assorted goodies.




I decided to mount the second 120mm rad on the bottom of the case in the 5.25" drive bay compartment. I'll be using a fan controller but it's short and won't interfere with the fan/rad setup at all.




I also removed almost all of the 3- and 5-way snake rotary fittings to clean up the overall look. It looks much cleaner this way and the Duralene tubing I'll be using is very flexible so I don't need perfectly straight line-of-sight from one barb to the next.






Next up I drilled a hole at the back of the case for the Bitspower panel fitting. This will allow me to connect the reservoir and pump through the back panel of the case.









I had to notch the motherboard tray support just a tad so the panel fitting lock ring would fit properly.






Then I installed the necessary rotary and barb fittings to line everything up.






I also got my i7-3770K in for the build.




I used my custom fan template from White Light Laser to mark the bottom of the case to cut out for the 120mm intake fan for the lower radiator.




Silly me marked the holes for the 120mm fan but marked (and unfortunately cut) the large hole for the 140mm fan. No worries though, I'll make something to clean it up.




Next I made an accent piece for under the pump mount. This not only gives a little look to the pump mount it also raises it 1/8" so the pump to radiator fittings line up better.




Then I sleeved the pump's wires with the black/green paracord. This was my first time working with paracord and I like it a lot.




And finally I cut a small piece of tubing for the pump intake. The crystal block is a "T" style and the system temp sensor will go into the bottomside opening.



That's it for now!

[solara2xb]

Looking Good!

[SXRguyinMA]

Minor update time.

I got a Bitfenix Recon fan controller to keep the system cool




Next I swapped the small piece of tubing leading into the pump for a Bitspower crystal link to clean things up




Then I got some sleeving done. I sleeved the 120mm and 80mm Lepa fans as well as the wiring for the front panel buttons and LEDs. I also removed the wiring for the front panel audio as I will have no use for it.






Then I cut out all the plastic honeycomb mesh that's molded into the front panel. I'll be keeping the steel mesh that covers the intake but I wanted that plastic stuff gone.




Lastly I drilled and mounted a 16mm Lamptron switch. This will turn on and off the case lighting.




That's it for now!

[SXRguyinMA]

Update time!





I started off by sleeving all of the cables for the fan controller.




Next I tackled the vortex in the reservoir issue I was getting. I decided to cut a small piece of acrylic and thread it into the outlet.




And it worked beautifully




I also scooped up a G1.Sniper 2 from Lee Harrington for the build, this will fit the theme much better.


Next I designed and made the circuit board that will read and display the coolant temp and flow rate. I designed it in Eagle CAD as i do all of my boards. I decided to make it single-sided to it'd be easier to etch and solder together.






I printed the board layouts onto inkjet photo paper with a laser printer. The small boards on the bottom are for something else - I'll get to that in a bit.




Then I placed the printed side down on a piece of single-sided copper board and ran them through the laminator a few times to transfer the toner to the PCB.






Then they went into a warm etchant bath until all of the exposed copper was dissolved.






Then I trimmed the control board to it's proper size.




Next I drilled all the holes and soldered in the components. The ribbon cable is going to connect to the board that will have the LCD mounted to it which I still need to make.





Now most of you probably know that the G1 series of boards come with green LEDs in the heatsink assembly. Well Thomas is cutting me out some custom GPU backplates along with all the other laser-cut parts so I figured I'd like UV LED's to light it up rather than green ones. This is where that small board comes in. I picked up some 0603 SMD UV LED's and resistors and made a replacement PCB for it. These things are TINY!




Here is the board I made next to the one out of the board - looks like I measured the LED spacing correctly.




And a couple shots with the new PCB installed into the motherboard.






And a shot of it with my UV green fan template lit up.




That's all for now!

[Sasqui]

Nice work, more skill than average. I haven't done a PCB design since the 1980's

One safety feature I've got on my W/C system (thanks to cannabalizing a Koolance case), is a temp probe on the waterblock. If it goes above 95f, it'll shut the system down using the a power button header bypass.

[SXRguyinMA]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Nice work, more skill than average. I haven't done a PCB design since the 1980's

One safety feature I've got on my W/C system (thanks to cannabalizing a Koolance case), is a temp probe on the waterblock. If it goes above 95f, it'll shut the system down using the a power button header bypass.

This system will display the flow rate and temp on a 16x2 RGB LCD with a normally green background and if either passes whatever flow/temp threshold I decide on it will flash red and sound the beeper. I'm thinking of adding a button so that I can shut the beeper off and not go insane while I'm trying to figure out the problem lol