Scratch Build – In Progress Project - Silent fibreglass PC

just make sure that the wool/cotton isn't to thick, or you might not have enough air flow.

 

I leave a thread for 2 weeks, and it turns into an ICHC forum. What haz I started?!?!?

Loving the mod, keep up the good work!

 

Thanks for all your comments everyone

In order to get a bright blue light through the cotton wool sheet it has to be very thin, however I will still have to test the air flow.

Heres some pics of the motherboard connections panels after I've soldered on a mass of cables:









I no it doesn't look very good at the moment, however once I make the connections panel into a box to hide the wires and paint it, I think it should look fine.

 

some nice work there. i use to work with fibreglass not a v nice thign to work with when u get it on your chest ( breathign fumes etc alot)

 

Thanks. Yeah, I cant imagine its the most healthy thing you can breath in lol.

I've continued on with the heat sink today, I first made a basic pipe frame soldered together, then I soldered it onto the heat sink:









Next i'm going to solder right angle strips of copper along the egde of each pipe, to increase the area of pipe touching the heatsink. I also need to find some right angle connectors to put on the end of the pipe.

 

For all the electronically minded people here is a pic of the circuit I've made and the program im running on the PICAXE chip:



Program:

label_mode:if pin1=1 then label_modeflash
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
goto label_mode

label_modeflash:high 7
pause 5000
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
low 7
pause 500
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
high 7
pause 250
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
low 7
pause 500
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
high 7
pause 250
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
low 7
pause 100
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
goto label_modeflash

label_modestill: high 7
if pin1=1 then label_modeflash
if pin3=1 then label_modeoff
goto label_modestill

label_modeoff: low 7
if pin2=1 then label_modestill
if pin1=1 then label_modeflash
goto label_modeoff

 

That's a nice radiator you've get there, well done!

 

Thanks for the comment Mokey Mokey

I managed to find a very very fine stainless steel mesh to go under the vents instead of the cotton wool sheet. The fine mesh creates a rather cool effect when you shine LED's through it:











The mesh also doesn't restrict the air flow at all. More pics of final stage of completing the heatsink coming tomorrow.

 

Have 5 stars and some rep from me - awesome work mate, absolutely awesome.

Joe

 

Ive finished the heatsink today. I've solder some connectors on the end of the pipe using a blow torch for the rubber watercooling tube to fit onto:



I then soldered extra strips of copper onto the heatsink and pipes to increase the surface area of pipe to heatsink contact. It looks pretty messy because it was a nightmare trying to get the solder to stick even with flux. I had to use a large gas canister to heat the copper as my small blow torch wasnt enough to heat the dam thing:






The gas valve is only a quarter of the way open in this pic:




Heres a pic of the front of the finished heat sink:



I will be moving onto the drive bay frame tomorrow because I need to test the pipes on the heatsink for a while before I fit it into the case just in case a joint leaks.

 

I could only get the materials ready for the drive bay frame today as my local hardware store didnt have the screws I need to connect the aluminium bars for the frame, however they have been ordered and should arrive tomorrow.

So to pass the time I decided to start on the frame work for the removable side panel. I first had to mill out some of the filler I used to fix the mesh on with so that I could get the aluminium bar to touch the inside of the case:



Once that was done I began chopping all the bars down to the correct sizes using a band saw:







Now that was done I couldn't continue anymore without the screws so I decided I would change the heatsink airflow design. Instead of having two 12cm fans connected to the bottom of the motherboard tray very close to where the PSU is going, im going to make a plastic cover which reaches from the hole in the bottom of motherboard to the PSU therefore using the air flow from the PSU's 12cm fan instead. I've changed the shape of the hole in the motherboard tray to accommodate the plastic cover I'm going to make:



I will also have to make an entrance and exit hole in the plastic cover for the watercooling tube connectors:

 

I guess that proves it is an efficient heatsink! I am very curious to see how well this works and what kind of temperatures you will have with it. But most of all I just love the creativeness of this project. You will have a truly unique pc!

 

Thanks for the comment Murtoz. I too am very curious to find out how well the heatsink works, I hope its going to be worth all the effort.

 

Awesome work!
Is it wrong to get turned on by a case?
Because I am

 

not at all mate, it just means that the little torch couldn't heat such a large object, another way to put it is imagin trying to boil a kettle with a single match that never goes out, if one ever existed. First job is too heat up the object to the temp that will allow the solder to stick, at which point the solder will melt.

I am not saying that the heatsink/rad wont work, nice mod!

 

That's the point. It was sinking and dissipating heat so well that it required a greater heat input than the smaller torch was providing. Using your kettle and match analogy: if the kettle was insulated, the match would eventually boil the kettle (albeit taking a very long time). Most fondue pots are heated with only a small oil wick, but that's enough to heat the oil to the temperature required to cook with, given time to initially heat the oil up.

 

Exactly! I guess it comes down to how much heat the torch creates compared to a cpu/gpu

 

not too sure how well the heatsink will work, and I guess we'll see how nice the case is once it's painted.

really ambitious though, 5/5

 

Just to give you an idea of how using the PSU's fan is going to work I've placed it in the case where its going to go:



Heres a pic of the intake mesh:



As the screws for the drive bay frame still haven't arrived yet! I started to work of the frame for holding the removable panel on. Because there is going to be a small gap inbetween the panel and the case I decided I would put some clear acrylic down the side of the case then and aluminium bar which will hose the ball catches:





Now that the bar was the perfect size I couldn't think of a nice looking way of attaching the ball catches to the bar, so I decide to make my own ball catch using the bar and the springs/ball bearings from the bought ball catches. To do this I first drilled a hole 3/4 of the size of the ball bearing through the bar, then a used a drill the same size as the ball bearing to increase the size of the hole but leaving a very small edge at the bottom of the hole to prevent the ball from falling out:





The next stage is to screw on a small metal sheet onto the back of the holes to prevent the ball and spring droping out the back, however I haven't got any screws yet

So I then cut out the frame which is going to be attached to the removable panel, which the ball catches on the case will catch onto:





I cant even fix the frame peices together with screws either, so I then went onto making the DVI connectors. I did this by solder each wire of the DVI cable onto the DVI socket connector, and individually insulating each wire with heatsink, it took a very very long time!



And despite all the effort it doesn't even work

I have on idea why though, i've even tested every single wire with a multimeter to make sure the connection is good and every wire is perfectly fine, however there is no signal going to the monitor. Does anyone have any ideas why this has happened?

 

there could be a short in the wires, it will still show that a current will pass through, but when you try a monitor the signals will get interfere with each other.
That's my best guess, that or you have a pin going to the wrong hole somewhere.
I hate wiring video cables, you should just buy an extension cable,
But then again wheres the fun in that