Ultimate Hardline Wooden ITX PC | ASUS TUF RTX 4090 | i7 12700KF | DIY Wood PC Case

hey all welcome back to the channel today we'll be building my first Hardline water cooling PC the objective for this build was to have powerful components in as small of a footprint as possible while still featuring glass side panels to showcase the Hardline tubing many small fun Factor cases on the market use mesh side panels which are great for air flow but essentially hide your hard work of tube bending and cable management let's fix that Tasmanian Blackwood was chosen as it has a dark coloring similar to Walnut and is readily available here in Australia as always I start by sanding The Chosen board sanding the board by hand gives me the opportunity to identify any knots and defects in the board that need to be accounted for in the build I always like to wipe the board down with turpentine to clean it and also have a preview of how it would look once waxed the ends with chips is on off first next The Edge that has some rough edges will be removed when using this cheap straight edge clamp the middle portion deflects Under Pressure although this is only a couple of millimet it is not acceptable for me a piece of wood is clamped in place to act as a back stop to eliminate this bending the saw sometimes leaves burn marks if you move too slowly this can be fixed by some light sanding with 120 grit sandpaper a small shamur is then added to the inner Edge to give an illusion of a thinner board used a 4 mm Groove is then cut near this Edge for the glass panels later on this was followed by a rabbit for the rear panel the board can then be cut into its segments I use masking tape on the edge to reduce chip out previously for the front panel I cut out a window for the radiator and then glued on a plywood Grill on the front this time I wanted to only use the base wood for a more simless design my idea is to use the router to carve out an indent for the radiator leaving 4 mm of wood on the front I had to make a larger base for the router as its standard base would not be stable enough when cutting such a wide indent this base was cut from 9 mm MDF and attached the router using its existing mounting holes the front panel was then secured onto the workbench using masking tape on on each surface glued together with some superglue this eliminates any need for clamps which will get in the way of the routing process I then slowly began to cut out the indent 3 mm deep each pass to reduce Machining noise and preserve The router's Cutting Edge I use a chisel to help remove larger chunks of the wood during the first few passes on the final pass I use use the router to fully go over the indp surface to ensure it is even this was followed by sanding to remove any machine marks as I was using the router freehand I did not cut right up to the edge instead I used the Chisel to shave off the last millimeter to get a perfect size in a controlled manner the router also leaves rounded Corners which I squared up using a small chisel now the panel can be removed from the table I then marked out the outline of the grill using masking tape the X2 D1 Pro can be used to cut out this Grill pattern this laser has allowed me to Advance my case designs immensely use the link in the description if you would like to get one for yourself after checking that the cut area is within the bounds the laser is [Music] started look at how clean these came out I couldn't have dreamt of creating such a pattern with my jigsaw previously while the laser is set up I also went ahead and cut the rear panel of the case as this case is rather tall the rear panel is quite long and exceeds the working area of my laser to overcome this I select Ed some elements to be cut in a second stage instead cutting the panel in two parts may cause some inaccuracy such as these lines not meeting up but it is a simple fix using a file let's move on to cutting the grooves in the top and bottom panel I find using this homemade right angle guide useful when I need to groove something of a certain length as a right angle band is used as a stop guide while we are here let's mark and drill the mounting points for the r radiator the stepped hole for the power button can also be drilled now we start by using a thin bit to go through the entire board then a 22 mm bit is used from the top followed by a 16 mm bit from both sides to ensure the hole is [Music] clean to make the power button I cut some scrap Blackwood to 5 mm thickness followed by light sanding to even out the saw marks then onto the laser to cut out the circular button an 8 mm brass Rod is inserted into the center the brass Rod is glued 1 mm inside from the wood so I can create a concave button followed by an outer Brass Ring to add more [Music] detail [Music] excess brass Rod is sewn off and the stem is then filed until it creates a flush surface with the top [Music] panel back to the main frame I use the back panel to Mark out the mounting holes on the top and bottom panels then I use this simple jig to hold the pieces vertically while I drill into them this jig simply consists of two boards joined at 90° a strip of plywood on one Edge and finger cutouts to allow better control on the drill press now the threaded inserts can be [Music] installed the parts are then assembled together dry to make sure everything fits well well [Music] together the motherboard tray was also cut using the X2 D1 laser in three parts this is for two reasons like the rear panel it was too large but also keep watching to find out the other reason why I did [Music] this the three pieces were joined together using leftover brass rod and wood [Music] [Music] glue masking tape was then applied to the edges of the main panel before glue up this is to prevent any squeeze out glue from getting on those areas which simplifies the cleanup process later gaps in the joint were hidden using a mixture of wood glue and fine sawdust once the glue dries the edges of the case is rounded over slightly using a shaft of a screwdriver this further closes any small gaps between each panel bevel joints are then sand it before the case is given a coat of clear wax the birch plywood panels are first coated with a diluted polyuretane this coat seals most of the pores on the wood which allows it to absorb the stain more evenly later if this step they skipped the Birch will look very blotchy I also use some long screws in the available screw holes AS stand off so I can coat both sides of the panel at the same time after applying the pre-coat and stain you can see that the color does not exactly match the Blackwood to get a closer match I applied black tinted wax over the stain that looks better a 50/50 mix of tinted and clear wax was also applied to the main case to darken its [Music] tone rubber pads are added to the bottom of the case when the wax is dried and the case is essentially [Music] complete now let's work on the components firstly we start off with the power supply Asus provided their lowkey 1000 w sfx l unit for this project I swapped out the slim 120 mm fan to a black unit to better match the case I had to clip off the stock connector and rewire it to the black fan so that it can be connected back into the PSU seamlessly something I like about this power supply is that the fan Grill is removable without having to fully disassemble the unit this makes moding on it very easy as I was only able to get Blackwood panels that were 3 mm thick they had to be thinned down in order not to add too much thickness to the PSU this was achieved using a router chisel and an orbital sander now we can use these thinner sheets this Grill pattern was inspired by other Asus power supplies [Music] after giving them a coat of wax I glued the layers together and installed them onto the [Music] unit the top panel was attached using some double-sided [Music] tape on the GPU block before cutting the panel from wood I first did a test with paper the paper test showed me that the panel would cover the RGB Edge I shortened the design before cutting the final one from wood this was repeated for the other decorative panels as well as I'm going to reuse the motherboard from my previous build I had to take it apart to extract it after installing the CPU water block on the motherboard the veneer panels are stuck on Asus also kindly provided the tough gaming RTX 49 for this project the heat sink on this carard is massive but I will be swapping it out with a water block instead water cooling a PC simply means using water to transfer the heat generated by the components to a radiator that will dissipate the heat to the air passing over [Music] it I had to go with water cooling on this case as the glass panels of the case would restrict air flow if I use typical CPU and GPU heat [Music] sinks the wood panel was designed so that the water channels are still [Music] visible next the five plugs on the reservoir pump combo was in a nickel finish to match the theme I could have bought black plugs for $8 each but decided to save $40 and print my own coverings instead I also glued more veneer cutouts on the covers to complete the look to transport the water between each component we will need to bend some tubing first a flexible silicone Rod is inserted into the tube to prevent it from collapsing during bending the tube is then slowly heated and bent into shape a right angle guide is used to ensure the bends are exactly 90° once cooled the silicone Rod is pulled out and the tubing can be cut to its desired [Music] length the saw leaves a rough Edge which is moved over using this deburing tool the tool has two ends that deburs the inner and outer edge of the tube tubing we need a smooth edge on the tube to prevent damage to the O-ring seals after test fitting each tubing length I coated them in Gold rub and buff and set those aside to dry on to some cable management the Asus lowkey power supply came with some nice individually sleeved cables which I wanted to use for this build I designed and printed a cable tray that was inspired from industrial Factory layouts the cables would be held in place using these little Combs the tray was designed with grooves and holes to mount each comb in place with some super [Music] glue I also added a curve section that will transition the cables to the other side of the center panel later now the sleeve cables can be pressed into the Combs this was repeated for the rest of the needed cables with that done I think we are ready to assemble this PC so let's get into [Music] it the rear and Center panel is first removed the 360 mil radiator is inserted into the front indent I use some printed brackets to hold it in place without screwing from the front keeping a clean look shout out to nocta for providing three of their NF a12 x25 chromax fans for this build I printed some trunking to hide the fan cables against the radiator these trunking was attached to the radiator using some foam tape unfortunately the foam tape was of a gray material so I used a Sharpie to blacken the edges more foam tape was used to secure the connectors against the fan [Music] body all three fans can then be plugged into the splitter on the top now the center panel can slide back in the PCI extension is fed through its slot at this time I also pre-and the flow meter and temperature sensor wires behind the motherboard cutout the motherboard is then installed you you can see how the cables can be routed behind for a clean look because we pre- ran it previously the case is flipped over to mount the GPU end of the extension and now here is what the cables look like in their trays we start by positioning the PSU followed by feeding the cables through the glands in the center panel [Music] each tray is then secured using some screws to power the pump a SATA cable is needed I simply ran this under the GPU tray out of sight oops almost forgot to plug in this argb splitter tell me this doesn't sooth your your [Music] OCD here you can see the other reason why I staggered the center panel this allows the PSU to be mounted further away from the glass panels giving it more intake space now the rear panel can be screwed back on along with the PSU next we connect the motherboard 8 Pin for the 24 pin connector I printed this comb with mounting holes which will come in handy soon team groups T create expert ddr5 Ram is a perfect fit for this [Music] build here we can see that the cables are are very close to the fans and may loosen over time causing it to rub to overcome this the custom comb on the other side will be pulled back and mounted with screws additional fittings are installed on the radiator now while I still have good access to it cuz this is about to get tied in here the reservoir is up next in addition to the printed PLU coverings I also printed custom brackets to allow mounting of the reservoir from the [Music] front as a bonus the cable Combs will use the same mounting Point as the [Music] [Music] reservoirs as the cables passing under the reservoir do not have enough space for Combs I printed this cover with magnets to clean up the [Music] look before the GPU is added some further cable management is [Music] needed this includes plugging in its own RGB connector it was quite a challenge managing all the cables neatly behind the GPU but we got there in the end as there are so many cables hidden behind the GPU another bracket is needed to hold it down flat against the center panel time for the tubing each length is carefully installed using a collar and o-ring on each end [Music] the collar here compresses the O-ring against the tubing creating a watertight [Music] Seal A t- fitting is included in the loop for us to add a fluid temperature sensor the pump and fans will be programmed to react to the fluid temperature to avoid erratic spikes of the component temperatures this U section was mounted on the base of the case to connect the components from each side next an inline digital flow meter is installed using offset [Music] fittings [Music] the flow meter will be very handy at quickly identifying if there's a clog in the loop as a Finishing Touch I added a veneer panel over the GPU cable outputs to hide the display port extensions this was done by having magnets inser in the brackets with a matching pair on the wood panel further magnets were used to clamp the panel while the glue was drying [Music] now the PC is tested for leaks by pressurizing the system this is a safer method than using water straight away as you can imagine water and electronics don't mix very well as the system was able to hold 0.4 bar for 15 minutes we now know there are no leaks and it it's ready for the coolant to fill the system I tilted the PC so that the fill Port is the highest point of the system coolant is then slowly added into the reservoir using a fill [Music] bottle I then powered on the PC intermittently to push the coolant through the whole Loop topping up the reservoir each time once there is enough coolant in the system the reservoir will maintain its level when the pump is [Music] running the plug can now be resealed and the system is now [Music] ready [Music] oh [Music] and yes before all the experts say that 360 mm radiator is not enough to cool a 4090 and i7 1200 K I knew this is as well but when I asked Asus for a 4080 for this build they only had a 4090 available so who am I to say no to that so I'll be power limiting the card to 70% which should still give me about 90% of its performance as you can see even with the GPU power limited the coolant temperatures still get to 41° with the fans at 80% when the system is under full load thankfully I seldom fully load my computer and will not see such temperatures often if it really does get bad I will power limit my CPU as well that's it for the build I'll be uploading more detailed shots of this PC on my Instagram at mxc builds so follow me there if you like to check that out thank you all for watching to the end and I'll see you in the next build

Channel: MXC Builds

Views: 528,018

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Id: pbColB61TUY

Length: 26min 21sec (1581 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2023