DRxAndy you had me going there for a moment. Again…Thanks to everyone for your comments. To be honest I missed alot. I screwed up on my choice of bits. I choose to buy a new set of titanium common bits instead of buying just one 5/16” center drill bit. The tip of the common bit was too broad to be on the money. You don’t see it looking from the front but if you set it on edge, it jumps right out at you. The new titanium bit cut right through the 1/4” stock alum. I forget what speed the drillwas on . My biggest fear during the drilling was that one of the guys in the shop would talk to me and I would screw up and drill a hole in the wrong place…It got real bad when I was down to my last 10 holes. I started having flashes of flipping over the template and realizing I had drilled a hole in the wrong place. Had to slam a couple just to wipe the thought from my mind. STellY…I have an Idea for the front holes that has been rattling around in my head for a few days now that should improve the looks when the door is closed (which is all the time). The idea is to install a soft colored lighting system ranging the spectrum with UV on the bottom and make it thermally controlled so as temp in the case rises so too the glow of the lights. I was thinking el wire, it has a nice soft glow and can be concealed with little hassle. The glow of the el wire bouncing of the internal surface of the hole should be quite nice. Tomorrow I will start on the cooling system.
OK…Now on to the cooling system. When I started thinking of this one thing was for sure, the rad would hang outside the box. After some time I finally decided on the HWLabs Blk Ice Micro II for $50, it fit well with the case and looked good too. The rad in turn, set the size (3/8”ID) for the tubing I would be using for the cooling circuit – After some research I choose ClearFlex 60. A good look at the rad and mobo tray and I knew I had a problem Solution; Hang the fan outside the case between the MB tray and the rad. but that in itself presented a problem, the rad was still too close to the tray for the the hose to fit properly. So I went searching for a fatter 80cm fan and found Sunon Torando with a width of 38cm. It helped... Time to fit the fan to measure for the tube holes and grommets…I used a step drill for this and it came out very well. Here is the fit with a piece of hose stuck in it. And the fit with the rad mounted. Made two mistakes here, first is no plenum chamber between the rad and fan and the second thing I found out after I plugged in the Tornado. I set the fan on the bench and plugged it in and promptly watched it rocket off the bench and hit the wall…the name sure does fit the fan. And then there is the fact that at 12V the fan is a screamer. Will have to move the Tornado to somewhere else and come up with a better solution.
OtakuHawk…I don’t know yet. The thing is pretty strong when all the screws are attached. But guess it would be the smart thing to do…Besides, I have to change things around a little anyway to deal with the plenum chamber & noise. Good catch…
Everything clears…I built a model of the rad out of cardboard and used it to check the cards. While cruising the threads, I spotted a simple and effective mod for a fan shroud using an old gutted fan. I like it, a fast and simple solution to a problem. It also helps relieve some of the stress on the hose by adding another ¼” to the gap between the rad and the MB tray. I’ve decided to use the Tornado for the PSU mod.
Where the top fan is now couldn't that just be a shroud? with the working fan on the inside like where most ppl put them??
Yeeee Haaaaa… Got my block back this weekend, Steve over at PolarFlo replaced the original base with a new super finished one. Specs on base finish: Super flat and Super Finished 110 Copper base 0.000050 Flat and 0.5-1.0 RaMicroinch Surface Finish (0.0000005" to 0.000001"). She a beautiful piece of copper. Old New After some thin’n over the weekend, I’ve decided to take Jack’s advice and mount the fan inside. Kingkobra is looking into cutting me some fan shrouds out of alum, so I will wait to hear from him before continuing with the rad setup.
Thanks guys, Steve does great work. I am very happy with the result but look at the image when you look right at it…The aberration has to be due to the lapping process. Any physics guy care to take a stab at what’s happening here? While waiting to hear from Kingkobra, I installed the retention clip for the block and noticed something wasn’t quite right… After looking at it I noticed the arm of the socket was hitting the clip, the notch need to tb enhanced. A couple of hits with the dremel and… A little primer & paint and… Now to look at the overall appearance… Gaaaggg!! What a hideous color combo…new color…flat black! Had a couple a boogers on it anyway...
Pardon.... WTH... Did I just see a Pentium 1 in that picture? It went from an athlon chip to an original pentium, now that's a MOD!
Thanks guys…had a good laugh with that one. I cut a corner pin on the Pent and it slipped right in. I thought it wise to use a dummy chip to do all the fitting. Rad…done (basically). CPU block…done. After reading about thermal, flow and micro bubble dynamics, I decided on using a rez (as big as possible) in my design. My flow circuit is; Pump – Rad – Block – Rez – Pump. The block is three ports and I did not want to use a Y adapter so I looked around and decided on the Typhoon Quad Rez. It has capabilities for four ports, two in & two out…As you can see I set it up for two in at 3/8” and one out to the pump at 1/2” Next up was the pump. I went for the Swiftech MPC 300, small, powerful, reliable and quiet. I removed the case speaker, measured for the mount and drilled… Now for the water test. I threw everything together (using dummy CPU & MB) and cut & fit the hose… DOH!! Hooked the pump up backwards…too many brews. Clamp it all together and plug it in and let it run. No leaks…
Very nice. I love the way the face plate turned out and especially the watercooling. Keep up the great work.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/adunlap/nono.jpg might wanna fix that; the less tubing the better it is for system flow,
