Scratch Build – In Progress Watercooling a Jetway C7??? -Finished and tested-

Already covered, I see! And Spaceraver, at least it was coffee being sputtered...

Yeah, I sincerely apologize that I've been quiet. I've been so swamped with BS from every direction. My own logs reflect that, lol.

This is seriously crazy, guys. My honest first reaction was, "W/Cing a bloody ITX?!" And then I realized it's not about logic; it's about coolness. And this is friggin' cool.

Cheaps, your block-machining is amazing. I've said it before, but damn, you do some kick-ass work, bro. I really do love seeing the blocks you make, and how you make them. You make it look so easy! This is going to look really nice once you get it all done. And you're well on your way to finishing it up already. Leave it to me for being a late-bloomer in this thread.

John, case-wise, I'd go for something really really compact (obviously). TBH, I'd do a scratch-build for it. I don't think you'll find something stock-wise that would suite this kind of work, man. I'd totally build something simple yet elegant to show it off. Hell, perhaps out of acrylic and match it to the color(s) used in the blocks themselves. Make it a theme!

 

I have a special case being delivered today by UPS - fool thing has been in town about 10 miles away for 18hrs. I plan to do a photo walkthrough to put out some ideas I have been kicking around. The radiator, pump and res is sitting in the same UPS warehouse now. It's scheduled for Monday though. I'll dummy up some stuff and take the pics as soon as the tiny case gets here. I like the idea of a plexi case too. We'll see what you guys think. Cheaps mentioned UV blue plexi so we will need a UV CCFL somewhere.

 

You have me intrigued now. I wonder what you dug up case-wise!

 

I reckon one of these would be cool

 

It was a real challenge! I didn't know Cheaps was going to go all Filimon on me and make art. I need to make the blocks the focus of the case. The radiator, pump and res need to be seen because this is a "you did what?" endeavor. Parts placement and cable management have to stay out of the way of the Texas treasures.

Should be fun!
Pics when/IF UPS ever gets here!

 

Can't wait so see the loop running.

 

Thanks. me too. I got the barbs, but I'm not at home right now.
@darkraven - After doing both, I'd prefer the stainless cutting. Taking a crowbar to the kneecap isn't much fun either.
@eel - Good to hear you like it. Don't say anything about scratchbuilds around John, He'll get you to do it.
@John - You said you wanted waterblocks. I made waterblocks. I was worried you would want something really wild.
@Burnout - Hey! ...no! ...nnnno!

 

The case has arrived!

The UPS guy shlepped a box on my porch while I was out with the Mrs. I spent some real hours and made a pest of myself on other forums (yeah, there are a couple more) asking about mini-ITX cases. This is where I was and what I have found.
I was originally going to do a Mystique2 type case using my CoolerMaster ATCS HTPC case.
Outside:



Inside with a different C7 board:
Motherboard on one side and power supply on the other



2 5 1/4 drive slots and 2 3 1/2 externals.



This has a bar from front to rear and would require a couple windows to show the motherboard and the pump and rads. Plus it's BIG. Size of an old VHS player. So I went hunting. A couple 2 or 4 batteries in my wireless mouse and I arrived at this case.







Piano Black and shiny like a new Shuttle case. The plastic is to protect the shiny bits. The vented side is for the HDD which you will see in a bit.
The back. We are all modders of some sort or other or we wouldn't be here. The I/O panel should give away some idea of the case size.



The front. It's all shiny mirrored acrylic. The 5 1/4" bay is on top and the 3 1/2" bay is below that. On the left is a door that hides the 2 USB connections and the audio. On the right is the Power and HDD activity LEDs.



Under the protective plastic. Shiny!



Now some shots of the stock internals with the one piece cover off:


250 Watt power supply. Overkill.




The single PCI slot and the mini-ITX only motherboard tray



5 1/4" and 3 1/2" from inside. These will be eliminated.


The slot for the 3 1/2" disk drive. One of the reasons I picked this case is the 3 1/2 HDD mount. A lot of the smaller mini-ITX cases only hold laptop drives, and I have a BUNCH of 250 Gb SATA drives lying around.



Some stuff in the next two pictures. This case comes with a 250W power supply. It mounts above the motherboard and restricts the view of the waterblocks Cheaps has made. The motherboard markup in the pictures is a scan of one of my Via boards glued to a piece of foamcore board. The yellow sticky is about where Cheaps blocks will be. Not real visible for so much effort.



But if re remove the power supply and use a PICO power supply with external power brick we have this room:



where the HDD mounts:


Dummy board back in - from the top:

From the side:


Now if you whack off the 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 bays where the top of the tape is we have a ton of room for the pump and radiator (UPS says Monday)


You want something for scale right?
With my eeePC



I have shanghaied Cheaps thread enough for tonight. The album on photobucket has more pics if you want to browse.
http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh137/jhanlon303/PC Modding/Jetway_Case/

 

Both of them are cool cases, I like the second one personally.

 

Nice case. You can't hijack your own log. Go nuts.

 

John.. Nice little case and truely likeable Jetway. Cheaps is buzzin on this project.
So. A couple of HDD's more and it would be a true media server. Or do you have a NAs for that?
Oh, that tatoo on your forearm John.. Would that be an anchor by any chance?

 

Thanks for looking. I'll have some more pics today since the sun is suppose to come out and be nice.
Cheaps and I both won A. C. Ryan Alubox external dual HDD cases in a contest. He modded his (go figure) and I left mine piano black and shiny stock so far. I mentioned the 250Gb HDDs up above. I have 2 more 1 TB external NAS Raid 5 arrays that I keep the recipes and family pictures on so space is never a problem and naturally I have an external DVD +-RW for the eeePC

The tat is a Bald Eagle's head in profile. The long neck feathers covers up a tattoo underneath. When I became a manager at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1983, my wife Marilyn designed it to cover the one underneath.

H. A. M. C.
Society Sucks

She didn't think that was Manager appropriate. ROFL

 

Interesting case. Never heard of it, but that's not uncommon with off-the-beaten-path cases I'm sure. The PSU is an Allied unit, which is a division of Apex if I recall (also Foxconn). It's probably fine. I'm sure you're not going to be OCing anything!

We're all watching!

 

The frame of the latter case looks downright terribly cheap Just like in those $2 China cases that can be bent with bare hands... Though it may not be a huge problem in such a small case.

 

It looks a lot sturdier than a Soyo case.

 

The whole PSU will end up in the stash closet. I'll be putting a PICO-PSU in the case and use an external brick from the wall.
I only have to power the board (25W) one 3.5 HDD, 2 radiator fans(Mon. fool UPS), and the H2O pump.
I'll have to throw in a UV source when I get that far. Remember it's all about the board and Cheapskate's Waterblocks, the pump and the radiator.

@Jipa and Cheapskate:
I'm actually surprised how sturdy the case is. When you are only 8 3/4" wide , 5 inches tall, and 12" deep, it's not surprising that a steel case would be sturdy. Just not enough space to flex much.

Right now I'm doing a photo shoot of this case next to my empty MicroFly. I like the Fly with it's windows on top and both sides. The Fly is a good case to use for examples but an awful case to have to live with, as E. E. L. and I and Bill and Sciroco have all found out.
However the idea of the windows to show off Cheap's work and the rest of the build looks nice. Window on the top, window on one side to show off a polished HDD, and a window on the other side for the pump, res and radiator.
I really like the little button things that hold the window onto the Fly.

Fun is what it's about - but it will need a naming soon.

 

I dropped by to say the blocks work, (with a monster 120mm radiator and a half gallon of water.)
...but I am testing it finally.

 

Like they say - Pics or it didn't happen!

120mm radiator makes me feel inadequate somehow.

The case is only 120mm tall!

 

Wow... that is some phenomenal craftsmanship.

A special, special request from your pal modgodtanvir...

Could you do something NES based for the case? An old NES, or maybe a special, cheapskate-colourful-plexi NES replica?!

eh, eh?

I do love that HTPC case, but I don't think it does justice to the project's awesomeness... unless you have some major modding planned?

 

I was under the impression that was what we do here! I know Cheaps is of the same mind.

A bit of slack here. I've only had the case 24 hrs.