This water-cooled gaming PC appears to be like prefer it was mined out of the rock by a really fortunate geologist. Armed with a CNC machine, loads of acrylic sheet and a few knowledgeable 3D modeling abilities, PC modder Søren Kirkegaard made this placing construct impressed by the look of Citrine crystals.
Because of our quickly rising PC constructing Fb web page, we’ve seen many {custom} gaming PCs, from mods primarily based on current case designs to scratch PC builds. You may even submit yours for consideration proper right here. Right here we discuss to Søren about how he remodeled his In Win 909 PC case right into a crystalline magnificence.
: How did this challenge begin?
Søren: It began out with the concept of placing laborious tubing in my present rig. At that time, I already had a tender tube-loop in the identical case. I began to attract all of it up in 3D, which is what I are inclined to do once I begin a brand new challenge. My authentic concept was to make a brand new theme primarily based round crystals and their colours. The laborious edges, crystal look and yellow colour all got here from the stone I selected for this theme – Citrine!
What case did you select and why?
I selected the In Win 909, which was the case I utilized in my earlier construct, and I like the look, measurement and potentialities for it. There’s area for 3 radiators inside it, which I felt I wanted for this quantity of {hardware}. I had been wanting on the case for a 12 months or so, and I imagined other ways to combine a water-cooling system immediately into the case. I created a 3D digital mannequin first, so I might check out totally different concepts and see what was truly potential.
We love the damaged rock/crystal results across the graphics playing cards and PSU shroud space. How did you obtain this impact?
All my so-called ‘mild indicators’ are custom-designed and made. I began out with my 3D mannequin, making an attempt out totally different designs. Afterward, I had the indicators lower and laser-etched in 8mm clear acrylic. All of the indicators have mirror-polished aluminum on them to cover the RGB strips and provides them a mirror end. All these mild indicators are managed by the Asus Aura Terminal after which linked to the motherboard, to allow them to synchronize with the lighting in the remainder of the construct.
All of the etched patterns catch the sunshine, plus you see the sunshine on the clear edges. That’s the impact you get when there’s solely mild on the etched components, and the remaining is simply clear – it appears to be like rattling cool! My brother, who has helped me rather a lot within the manufacturing of components, helped me to 3D-print the RGB brackets and assemble the indicators. The sunshine indicators have three layers general – the 3D-printed half, then the acrylic after which the aluminum.
Did you must bodily modify the case?
I made a decision to mount my pump/reservoir combo unit horizontally, on the highest of the case, so I used to be capable of see the fluid on the highest facet. For this, I first designed a pump/res combo. Then my brother and me CNC-machined it, which wasn’t simple, plus we needed to implement a pump and make our personal pump bracket. It took a while.
When that was achieved, we measured the outlet we would have liked to chop out within the prime of the case. We used the CNC machine, and really slowly the outlet lastly bought lower out. We then mounted the pump/res combo utilizing 3D-printed brackets and magnets, so it sits in place however can nonetheless be eliminated if crucial.
There are additionally a number of small 3D-printed components on this construct which you could’t see, which I’m fairly completely satisfied about. One in every of them is the stand for the Asus Aura Terminal, on prime of the PSU space. It’s designed in order that it hides the cables from the PSU and the RGB cables linked to it – it’s barely seen; you may simply see the Asus emblem mild up within the backside.
How did you intend the cooling system?
I designed all of it in 3D beforehand. I designed your entire PC, with all of the {hardware}, cooling, cables and so forth, after which deliberate my loop in 3D. Consequently, I had a plan and a design earlier than I even had the components in my fingers. After all, there have been at all times going to be some adjustments alongside the way in which, however the finish end result got here out very near my authentic concept. The tubes are acrylic, they usually had been all formed and bent by hand.
That’s some neat cabling for a dual-GPU construct with a lot lighting. The place did you get the {custom} cables, and the way did you intend the cable routing?
I bought my cables from Solo Sleeving, a one-man firm within the USA. The cables had been made as a direct alternative for the inventory cables and I had them made to the precise size I wanted, which made it a lot simpler to handle the ‘larger’ cables.
All of the ‘small’ cables, for the followers, storage, temperature sensors and so forth, are neatly tucked away and guided by cable combs. I routed all of the cables for the RGB lighting (there are rather a lot on this construct) final, so I had easy accessibility to them in case any of the strips failed.
You don’t typically see SLI graphics setups lately. What graphics playing cards are you utilizing right here, and what efficiency do you get from them?
I’ve two Asus ROG Strix OC GeForce RTX 2080 Ti playing cards on this system, in SLI mode (utilizing NVLink), for rendering functions. I render on my GPUs, and utilizing these playing cards with ray tracing supplied an superior enchancment in render pace over my previous GTX 1080 Ti playing cards. Some video games can deal with the SLI config, and with others it’s greatest to only disable one of many playing cards, however the setup does make sense for my work.
Take us by means of the water-cooling system.
This water-cooling system is cooled by three radiators. There’s a 60mm-thick 360mm radiator within the again and two 28mm-thick 240mm radiators within the entrance and backside. The again radiator is ready up in a push/pull configuration, and the 2 240mm radiators draw chilly air into the case.
This construct additionally has two {custom} distro plates and the {custom} res/pump combo unit on the highest that I discussed earlier. Simply beneath that sits a distro/res unit that acts principally as an aesthetic piece, which says ‘InWin’ on it. The within of the case has one other distribution plate, which connects all of the runs and helps me tidy all of it up.
All these {custom} items had been designed in Fusion 360 and manufactured on a small CNC machine. My brother and me needed to spend some very lengthy nights getting this all proper, because it was our first time making an attempt to make components similar to these ones. We needed to remake each the distro plates two instances, however I’m very proud of the outcomes.
What coolant did you utilize, and why did you select that mixture of yellow coolant and white lighting?
The coolant is EKWB Laguna Yellow, and it sits very nicely with the theme colour, which is predicated on the stone Citrine. The white mild is there to assist create the entire crystal look I used to be aiming to realize.
What temperatures do you get on the CPU and GPU with that water-cooling setup?
The utmost temperature on my CPU is 54°C, and my two GeForce RTX 2080 Ti playing cards max out at 55°C.
Did you come throughout any difficulties?
Probably the most tough a part of this construct was manufacturing the {custom} acrylic components. I needed to learn to combine a pump into the reservoir (thank god for YouTube). Then I needed to learn to make toolpaths for a CNC machine, and naturally learn to use the CNC machine.
Fortunately, my brother took care of the final half, after which we helped one another to get all of it to work collectively. It concerned lots of trial and error – this a part of the construct was, for sure, essentially the most time-consuming half, however I discovered lots of abilities that I’ve utilized in later builds.
How lengthy did it take you to finish this construct?
From creating my first drawings to the completed construct, I’ll say roughly six months, however I believe it took two months from after we began constructing it.
Are you fully proud of the tip end result, or do you would like you’d achieved a few of it in another way looking back?
I’m very happy with this construct! I bought to implement all my concepts into it and I used to be fortunate sufficient to get the components that I wished. I discovered rather a lot within the course of, and I’m very happy with Citrine.
Citrine water-cooled PC specs:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8086K overclocked to five.2GHz
- Case: In Win 909 Silver
- GPU: 2 x Asus ROG Strix OC GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
- Storage: 500GB Samsung 960 Evo, 2 x 1TB Samsung 860 Evo
- Reminiscence: 64GB G.Talent Royal Silver 3600MHz
- Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus XI System
- PSU: Asus ROG Thor 1200W
- Cooling: EKWB Velocity CPU waterblock, EKWB Vector GPU waterblocks, 3 x EKWB radiators with 8 x InWin Crown followers, 3 x EKWB Vardar EVO followers
This can be a cracking case mod, Søren! You’ve achieved an excellent job with the laser-cut acrylic sheet to make crystal results, and we love the hard-tube water-cooling loop full of yellow coolant. If you happen to’re new to the world of water-cooling and need to have go your self, then ensure you additionally learn our full information on how you can water cool your PC.
This publish initially appeared on Customized PC, which has been masking wonderful setups for over 20 years and is now a part of . Be part of our almost 500k member Fb group to debate this construct.
If you happen to take into account your self to be an knowledgeable PC builder, you may submit your personal {custom} PC construct to us right this moment for an opportunity of being featured on sooner or later.
