After the hole cut for the Matrix Orbital LCD, I thought I’d go ahead and get the holes cut for the Dakota Digital gauges. I used a hole saw for the initial cut, which you can see here.

It didn’t cut as cleanly as I had hoped, but a little dremel work and filing is getting it in pretty good shape. I’ve still got a ways to go though. Circular holes suck so much more than rectangles.

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I’ll continue work on the face of course, but in the meantime, I thought I’d show you some of my new parts arrivals.

This box right here contains the long awaited 10.2” LCD.

I also had my second digital gauge and sending units arrive. While the other measures water temp, this new one will measure the ambient air temp in the case.

I have a few more parts arriving tomorrow. I’ll post pics of what arrives, and I think you’ll find it much ‘cooler’ than most of my other parts…

Here I’ve marked out where the display will sit.

After the rough cut.

After the final filing.

The display will be recessed behind the panel. Although the door won’t need to be used on a regular basis, it will be able to swing free and clear.

In addition to the front panel, I decided to get a little work done on the top of the case. Due to the dual radiators, and the ATX motherboard, there simply isn’t room to mount fans directly to the radiators themselves. This meant I had to take a different approach to airflow. The best option I had was to mount fans on the top of the case. By doing this, fresh, cool air will be drawn in to the sides of the case and through the radiators, then pulled out through the top. Since the rest of the case will be sealed, the only place the air can be drawn in, will be through the radiators. I may lose a little efficiency compared to having the fans directly on the radiators, but I doubt it will be that much. Not to mention the fact that I’ll have six fans, for a pair of 240.2 radiators. Also, the Sanyo Denki fans are airflow monsters. They range anywhere from a soft breeze, to Hoover, all at surprisingly quiet noise levels.

Here you can get the basic idea for the top of the case. There will be a panel angled to the left and the right. This will be made using the original cover, in addition to some strategically bent 1mm aluminum. The whole assembly will be easily removed in one piece, just as the original version. I’m checking in to some sort of contact type of connection that will remove the need to unplug the fan wires when the top is removed.

Only 4 of the 6 fans are sitting on here right now. I have to cut a little metal to make 6 fit, but I’ll have that done shortly.

With the above pictures, you should get an idea of where the fan grills come in to play. I’m not completely sold on using fans that are 38mm thick, however. I was hoping for something with a bit lower profile. Even though the Sanyo’s are a stellar fan, should I ever want to swap fans at a later date, it should be pretty simple to do so.

More to come…

I don’t want it to hold up any work on the case, and that’s where the improvisation comes in. As it turns out, you can buy the Via PX10000G Pico-ITX motherboard separately, so that’s exactly what I did. So, I purchased that, along with a DC-DC power supply, hard drive, memory, and wireless adapter. The only thing I’m really missing is the small case to put all the parts in. Well, after thinking about it, I don’t know if I really needed the case anyway. I can fab something of my own almost as easily. It’s a little strange to think about the fact that I bought an entire ‘computer’ last night… just to put inside another computer… lunacy I tell you!

In addition to the Via system, I just ordered some other parts as well. This time around, it was mostly for cooling. After much contemplation, I decided to go ahead and pull out the big guns here. If I truly want this case to be something amazing, plain old watercooling wasn’t going to be enough. That being said, I went ahead and ordered the Wintsch Labs Arctic Web TEC cooler, and a Meanwell auxiliary PSU. I also ordered the rest of the needed tubing, barbs, and fittings. At this point, I don’t know if I’m just really committed to being crazy, or crazy enough to be committed…

Speaking of parts, I did have some other items arrive. I had another package arrive from FrozenCPU. I sometimes feel like I single-handedly keep them in business.

A few LED switches, shrink wrap, wire sleeving, and a laser LED light…

A little hex mesh…

Since the case is watercooled, I wanted a decent sized reservoir. This is designed to fill a 120mm fan hole.

You’ll see here why I chose the reservoir that I did. I thought I’d take care of two issues at once. Not only did I need a reservoir, but I had a 120mm hole in the back of the case that I needed filled.

In order to fit the reservoir in place, I needed to do a little trimming.

A little work with a dremel, file, and sandpaper got me the following results.

Next up, a little front panel work… Coming soon!

My new Matrix Orbital display has arrived, after a several month backorder. It is the GX Typhoon MCE. Let’s take a look at this thing…

Everything out of the box…

This thing is just begging to be modded…

Since this is the Media Center Edition, it comes with a remote. It can handle all MCE functions.

The model I received is the Tri-color unit. That basically means that I can change the display to any one of three colors, and any combination in between. I’ve taken a few shots to give you some idea of how cool that feature is.

Red

Green

Blue

Purple

I could go on, but you get the idea…

The LCD uses LcdStudio for it’s interface and display design. The software is pretty slick. It’s basically drag and drop. You can add and resize display components on the fly. The software supports a ton of additional plugins for displaying information. ATITool, Fraps, RivaTuner, Speedfan, iTunes, etc.

Here’s a short video of me adding and dragging a few things around…

LcdStudio Demo

I had several sources fall through for different reasons, until I finally found this 10.2” widescreen LCD.

I’ve also got the grill designed for the fans on top of the case. There will be two banks, of three fans each. The grill will be mounted on each of them, with the addition of a hex mesh beneath…

I also have one more quick item worthy of mention. Here is the most likely candidate for the side panel acrylic. I may revise it a little, but I doubt it will change much unless major inspiration strikes…

More coming shortly…

My buddy Johnny from NZXT sent me this as a belated Christmas present. Thanks Johnny! Also, in case you were wondering, yes it will fit on your head! I may have a head start on Halloween…

Who could resist a little Photoshop? I can’t take credit for the work, that belongs to SixthSense over at the HardOCP forums. Thanks man!

I didn’t get a picture before I made all of my cuts, but here I’ve taped out where I need to do a little finish filing.

I need to take care of the open gap at the bottom of the case. This piece of aluminum should take care of it…

All clamped in, and cut for height.

Now finally, the back panel is riveted in to place. Just a little more detail work, and I’ll have it!

Here I’ve got the motherboard tray finished. The mounting studs are in place, and it’s almost ready to be placed in the case. There is very little room for error at this point. The clearances are very tight between the radiator mounts.

As you can see from the above pics, I need to come up with the rear panel for the case. As luck would have it, I’ve got the perfect donor. (Yes, it is purple…) I happened to have an old case left over from a mod I had done for my daughter.

With the panel removed from it’s donor, it’s time to find it a new home. Here you can see it sitting inside the case. It actually fits quite well. You can see that I will need to do a little cutting on the rear of the case, but all in all, it shouldn’t be so bad.

Next up, will be to get the panel fitted in place, and repainted of course…

It’s a quick-release mandrel kit for cut-off wheels. I seem to burn through quite a few wheels with all the cutting I do, and thought this would be a great way to make the changes easier. Not to mention, the wheels are a larger diameter than what I was using.

Closed…

Open…

Push on, twist, and release! It doesn’t get any easier.

As cool as the new cut-off wheels were, I also had something else show up on my doorstep recently.

That’s a whole lot of air moving potential there. These are all 120mm x 35mm Sanyo Denki San Ace 1011′s. According to this review at xtremesystems, they can kick some serious ass.

I’ll spoil one result for all of you upfront: the Sanyo Denki San Ace 1011 is king of the hill. And by hill I mean universe. It’s really, really good. In addition to its insane empirical results (see below), it makes NO extraneous noises and undervolts like a champ. I have five and they all perform like this and they all start at 4V or lower. They could kick Chuck Norris’s ass….silently.

They’re ball bearings as well, so you don’t have to worry about the sleeve bearing inconvenience. They also perform past their listed specs–something that’s exceedingly rare in these SilenX days. Good luck finding any though…and when you do, they’re $25 a pop.

Don’t let the quoted price scare you though, they were available at FrozenCPU for about $14 apiece, but now seem to be gone from the site. If can source them from anywhere else, they are worth cost.

These fans are freaking solid, as well as heavy. High quality stuff indeed. Once I throw a good fan controller on these, I’ll have the best of both worlds. A fan that is inaudible, yet can move some serious CFM’s when it’s warranted.

So, you might be wondering where these things are going to find a home in the case. Well, they all will reside in a custom panel on top of the case. I may not have the specifics figured out yet, but they will tie in with the slightly automotive engine theme. In fact, I’d like them to look something like valve covers. Two rows of three fans, slightly angled to the left and the right…

I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Ah, the motherboard. Of the two possible orientations, both have their pros and cons. Check out the second pic though. If I’m willing to lose a bottom slot on a motherboard, I’ll gain a ton of space and not have to deal with routing extension cables to the rear of the case. I’ll also not be limited by the length of my video cards. So many possibilities…

Now, finally, I thought I’d throw up a couple shots of the CCFL’s lighting the radiators. It looks amazing in person. Perfectly subtle. It’s exactly what I wanted.

More coming soon!