As I did a vertical GPU bracket in a previous mod I ended up with more than a little sag on my GPU. The structural integrity of the perforated case wall isn’t enough to keep the GPU up.
As I want to keep the build as clean as possible a big GPU brace was out of the question and fishline solutions unthinkable.
How do you solve a brace that should be small and preferably invisible?
You make one in acrylic!
This was also something that I had in mind already when creating my custom floor. The placement of the pump top and reservoir.
I cut a small piece from 5mm acrylic and sanded edges down. Rounded corners and drilled a hole just shy of 13mm to keep a tight fit to my 13/10 Hard tube. To ensure that physics keeps the brace in place I also warmed the part after the hole and bent it about 10°.
After some sanding it was possible to squeeze it on the hard tube and it fit’s tight and almost to good. I did one version with a beveled edge to keep a o-ring beneath the brace, but that didn’t turn out either good or good lucking. Snug was the way to go. The shape and size of the hard tube was my original idea, but after a final test fit I came to the conclusion it will look better if it’s shorter, so the finished loop design, this bend is about 50% of the height.
This is how the GPU brace is positioned and the weight of the GPU will squeeze the brace in place due to the bend I did.
