The Making Of Digital Storm's Copper Tubing-Filled Aventum II

[Guest]

After spending some time with Digital Storm's Aventum II at this year's CES, Chris Angelini invited the company to walk us through how it came up with and built the massive machine loaded up with nickel-plated copper tubing and high-end hardware.

The Making Of Digital Storm's Copper Tubing-Filled Aventum II : Read more

 

[k1114]

And then you give one away, please and thank you.

 

[Conrad925]

I have a 1950 Harley-Davidson that has 3/8" nickel plated oil lines, custom fitted and look very similar to these cooling lines. Guess they're going "old school". Funny thing is my HD's lines didn't cost anywhere near $1,200 more than flexible hoses. I wonder how long it took them to figure out that if you pack the tubing with sand or BBs first, you can achieve a smaller radius bend without collapsing the tubing.

 

[jimmysmitty]

While I have to admire the craftsmanship of the tubes (which make the computer look great) I do have to say I will never pay $11000 for a PC.

Just way too much money for the parts.

 

[ssddx]

even picking the most expensive parts with zero rebates i still cannot blow more than about $6400 for level 4 (not counting liquid cooling). with rebates that number could be chopped down by quite a bit.

its amazing what gets charged for such systems and people pay it!

 

[dragonfang18]

OK the only thing I can think of rigid tubing is PrimoChill's Acrylic Rigid Tubing. Anyone have any experience between copper and acrylic? which look better/ better to work with?

 

[knightmike]

Maybe they'll have a coupon day.

 

[cats_Paw]

Dat Price!

 

[spookyman]

Hmm I wonder if they considered condensation with metal pipes?

 

[lamorpa]

Then again, you could just wait 9 months, and an off-the-shelf $900 system will have the same performance...

 

[expl0itfinder]

Brb, going to get that $11K from under the mattress...

 

[Au_equus]

@spookyman, condensation? they're water cooling a system using ambient temps so the water temps will always be above ambient. the laws of thermodynamics dictate condensation is impossible under the conditions they're using.

 

[BigMack70]

Meh... half the fun of doing a water cooling build would be to actually build it yourself. Even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I don't think I'd buy a system like this pre-built... it would spoil it for me.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

This slide show system is [removed] up.

Watch the language. - G

 

[slicedtoad]

Very nice looking case

 

[Evolution2001]

Hello, kids! Captain Obvious here...
I don't suspect that people are going to buy this solely based on performance, because you can likely get the same performance from Tom's $2500 SBM. The intended buyers are obviously paying for the fact it's a boutique build. The price also goes up because these guys want to get reimbursed for the time spent engineering it and the materials used. (Granted, the materials aren't that expensive, relative to the time and knowledge needed to do this type of custom-build.)
I look at boutique builds just like I do anything "boutique" whether it's cars, motorcycles, or fashion-related. The sellers work on a low volume / high margin sales model and aren't concerned that other sellers are giving equivalent performance at a fraction of the cost. It's not all about performance for the seller nor the buyer. It's about exclusitivity, or bragging rights/ status symbol, or "beauty in the eye of the beholder", or any combination of the three. And more often than not, the price tag for such items is top-tier.

 

[blackened144]

even picking the most expensive parts with zero rebates i still cannot blow more than about $6400 for level 4 (not counting liquid cooling). with rebates that number could be chopped down by quite a bit.

its amazing what gets charged for such systems and people pay it!

For the price you mention you could build a PC with similar specs, but it would be a completely different system. But that just gets you similar components. It would probably take another 1k+ and at least 100 man hours to build out a system like they have. Im not saying its still worth it but they did a lot more than just put a bunch of high end components into the case.

Meh... half the fun of doing a water cooling build would be to actually build it yourself. Even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I don't think I'd buy a system like this pre-built... it would spoil it for me.

I would probably buy one if I won the lottery.. But I would also still build my own..

It took weeks of practice working with the copper for us to become proficient with making clean bends that didn’t kink or suffer from warping.

My buddy works in a shop mandrel bending aluminum pipes for diesel trucks. It took him a few weeks to be good enough to not crack or rip the pipes when bending them. Their bender can do up to 6" pipes but it cant make bends that sharp so they will bend 2 pipes, then cut and weld them to make tighter turns. Between the sand blasting, power coating, and chroming they do on the pipes alone, its kind of amazing to see the systems they have built from scratch in that shop.

 

[burmese_dude]

Can I use my lawn water pipe instead of copper pipe that Digital Storm is using?

 

[warezme]

The only way I would EVER pay that much for a system is IF it was active cooled liked the old Prometia phase change coolers on the CPU and GPU's and they were both OC'ed to speeds of 5 years from now. Bended tube liquid cooling? Nah

 

[dark_knight33]

OK the only thing I can think of rigid tubing is PrimoChill's Acrylic Rigid Tubing. Anyone have any experience between copper and acrylic? which look better/ better to work with?

I have experience with both.

Copper, if you can get it polished or plated looks infinitely better. It's also easier to seal because it deforms easier into the compression connector, and much more forgiving to bend.

Rigid acrylic is much more difficult to bend than copper. You need a heat gun, patience, and a lot of practice to get it right. Still if you hold the heat gun just a couple seconds too long, you will quickly deform or discolor the tube. It's really only worth it if you intend to use fluorescing dye.

 

[djtronika]

your picture viewer is such shit. seriously, who the hell does your website?

 

[cobra5000]

Sigh, looking at things I can never afford, just makes me sad..

 

[audiophillia]

its a beautiful machine.

 

[Tom Reading]

Been in plumbing business for a while now. Nickel plated 3/8" copper tubing used for water closet and sink supply tubes has been replaced by PVC or vinyl so the copper stuff is probably overstocked everywhere. A couple bucks for a good tubing bender and you could make that whole setup for under $100. Seems like somebody is trying to retire early, but thanks for the Idea!

 

[urbanman2004]

That's a hell of a mark up... A fool and his money shall part