Case Mod Project Thief - Monster Water Cooled Build - March 9th

[coolamasta]

WOW sub'd this thread is full of hardware goodness and im loving that behemoth of a case, looking forward to the waterfall reservoir...

[SilveR_172]

Wow , Its all coming together now ,

[stren]

Originally Posted by coolamasta

WOW sub'd this thread is full of hardware goodness and im loving that behemoth of a case, looking forward to the waterfall reservoir...

Yeah me too

Originally Posted by SilveR_172

Wow , Its all coming together now ,

Needs more dremel lol!


Another update - big one too!

So this is where we were last time - gaming rig trying to get up and working in a temporary state. Main loop not yet connected:



To finish the main loop we needed to connect the EK400 reservoir with the custom 1" NPT tap to the Iwaki RD-30 pump. First we need to build a T section for the drain port:



These are standard schedule 40 pieces of PVC that I'm gluing together. I took a T junction and two 1/2" NPT reducers as well as a piece of 1" grey electrical conduit for making the 90 degree turn:



This is all based on amuseme's idea except that I'm using 1" pipe instead of 0.75" and I connect to the pump slightly differently. So now we have to connect to the pump:



So we take a 5/8" brass barb from your local hardware store and tape it up with teflon tape:



1/2" tube can be warmed up and stretched over the barb. The idea is that the barb lines up right next to the 5/8" input to the Iwaki giving less restriction to the input feed of the RD30 unlike regular 1/2" tube would. I also added a 2nd barb for the drain tube. This reservoir coupled with the 1" pipe means there is a lot of water that needs draining easily:



Both barbs in:



Now let's hook up the pump:



Add some worm clamps so that nothing flies free when you turn the pump up to 29V:



Now let's add the drain tube, the tube color is temporary for now:



Add the drain port:



Add a worm clamp and we're done for now:



Now it's time to put it in the case. As the reservoir was temporarily mounted we need to fix it first. There's a convenient metal plate in the case that you can unscrew and drill holes in:



Now let's reinstall that in the case:



And done:



The reservoir is fed by two drain ports. When feeding a larger amount of water it's useful to have one for water coming in and another for air coming out:



Now here's the Iwaki Plus feed tube situated in the base. The cardboard box will be replaced with anti-vibration gel soon enough:



Here you see the gap between the Iwaki feeding tube and the tapped base of the EK reservoir:



I cut a piece of schedule 40 tube to size to glue in here:



Later I will paint all of the tubes so it doesn't look so bad The cardboard box doesn't quite raise the Iwaki high enough so we'll need to swap that out:



But here it is fully connected:



And here's the whole side of the gaming case in it's temporary state:



Now we can add the 360 radiator back in quickly (30 seconds) due to the Koolance quick disconnect fittings and the CaseLabs side mount design:



I can't fit a 480 in because of the placement of the radiator and the feed tube. I may move it later, but for now this works. So it's time to fill up with water:

[Bladesingerz]

Awesome to see an update again man! That pump looks powerfull, where did you get it ?

[avolla]

I had forgotten how big this build was until I was your sandals next to that case. Any idea how much this thing is going to weigh when your finished with it?

[Phyonics]

Can you post a vid of the coolant flowing into the res, I want to get an idea of how fast the flow is. Thanks.

[stren]

Originally Posted by Bladesingerz

Awesome to see an update again man! That pump looks powerfull, where did you get it ?

Thanks yes it is, most powerful pump anyone really uses in watercooling as it's a bit of beast. It can crack acrylic or blow tubing off if you don't lock things down right.

Originally Posted by avolla

I had forgotten how big this build was until I was your sandals next to that case. Any idea how much this thing is going to weigh when your finished with it?

Haha I wear size 15s too! I don't know, thank goodness it has wheels. I'd need a buddy to lift it even if it didn't weigh too much just because of the size of the thing. It's bigger than most washing machines and some server rakcs.

Originally Posted by Phyonics

Can you post a vid of the coolant flowing into the res, I want to get an idea of how fast the flow is. Thanks.

I'll try to get one up, it doesn't really show well though. I've hit 3.5gpm before with it.

Well time for a bit of an update! A big thanks to Corsair for sponsoring the build



My original dominators (same part number) came in a much more boring box than this one:







And if you're wondering just how small those overclockable low profile sammy dimms are:







BTW just wanted to add that I started a facebook page so that if you're into that kind of thing you can keep updated on my reviews and other stuff!

https://www.facebook.com/ExtremeRigs

[stren]

Morpheus from OCN stopped by and gave me some fan splitters which come in very useful for the quick disconnect of the radiators. Each radiator has two 3 pin headers that come from each side. This little PCB is then attached to the backplate of the pedestal:



One for each side of the case. The distance between the two is conveniently sized to feed from a single molex



I also got done painting the 24V Power supply for the Iwaki pump. I don't think I showed a pic of it before, but it looked like a very beat up version of this:



Except that the mesh part was painted black on mine and had been worn off over time.

So I thought I'd paint the whole thing red and then mod a PSU support from the bottom heat chamber so that it can be mounted next to a fan from the HDD rack. I also need to hook up a relay so that it only turns on when the computer is on. Here are the pieces after painting and clear coating:



With the PSU back in and the heatsinks retimmed:



All sealed up:







That's it for now. Now that I have my windows PC up and running I can finally get sketch-up back and running and start playing with ideas for custom blocks and reservoirs!

Don't forget to like my facebook (www.facebook.com/extremerigs) if you want previews of updates, giveaways and also my watercooling reviews (17 cpu block roundup in progress)!

[stren]

11/20/2012

Well it's been a while - I was busy working on my new website, the CaseLabs Merlin Preview, Spotswood Tech Station Review, the EK X3 Reservoir Preview, figuring out my new Nikon D5100 as well as finishing off the CPU Water Block roundup. I need a break but I'm almost done with all of that! Anyway - to celebrate not being fired yet I thought I'd work (finally) on the waterfall reservoir. This was originally inspired by Cyberdruid, however as he's retired I figured I'd have to make my own, and I suppose that's more fun anyway. I knew I would need a few attempts at this to get it right so I figured I'd make the prototypes out of MDF as it's cheap and easy to work with. So I went to the hardware and picked up a small board of MDF:



Dragged out my lonely tablesaw from the shed and got to work. I cut some 3x 3" strips of the 4ft side of the board:



I then measured the height of the 18 bays in the case and made the cut on one strip:



Then I test fitted in the case which meant undressing the drive bays!



Alright let's take that cover off:



Well that was fast, ok, drive bays next:



Resting the wood on the bottom of the drive bay gives me this much clearance which is about perfect:



So I cut the other side to the same size. Then measured and cut the top piece:



It's ok for both these pieces to be flush because they'll be some kind of joinery action going down. For now I'm thinking a finger joint. Maintaining strength while being able to knock it out on the table saw. I then cut a matching piece for the base so that all the frame pieces were cut:



I then started cutting the pieces that would form the waterfall itself:



Seven down:



Tablesaws make this quick. All done, sitting on the uncut acrylic sheet that will make up the front and back:




That's it for now!

[Fuganater]

Thats going to be sweet!

[coolamasta]

Schweeeeeeeet looking forward to the waterfall

[Bladesingerz]

Awesome to see some progress again Stren! Looking forward to see your waterfall reservoir!
I was wondering though, with what are you going to waterproof it? MDF instantly dies when it touches that much water.

[stren]

Originally Posted by Fuganater

Thats going to be sweet!

Thanks

Originally Posted by coolamasta

Schweeeeeeeet looking forward to the waterfall

Yeah me too!

Originally Posted by Bladesingerz

Awesome to see some progress again Stren! Looking forward to see your waterfall reservoir!
I was wondering though, with what are you going to waterproof it? MDF instantly dies when it touches that much water.

MDF is only for the prototype, I'll use acetal for the real thing. So it'll be "splashproofed" with some external paint and some polyurethane

It was raining a good bit this week so I didn't work on that, instead I put some painted parts back together. I reassembled the rotors into the housing:



The paint was standard automotive stuff and came out quite nicely the red is metallic:



So it was time to sleeve:



I started with the push fans and mounted them on the pull side of the radiator so that the spacing would be correct. Most of the time sleeving these is really spent soldering wire extensions on:




Slow progress:



Done with the first set of 3:



Mounted the push fans on the push side:



Now it's time to work on the pull fans:



Ran out of red wire so I used yellow:



Done with the pull side:



Now it's time to join both sets of three into one. This is the 360 that will be replaced with the painted one:



All put together on the push side:



And the pull side - which will need some custom stickers to pretty it up:



I also sleeved a matching fan to go on the motherboard tray:



And there it is running:

[dotdrew]

This whole build is incredible, love the fact that it houses two PCs haha. Keep up the good work, by the time you're finished you'll be wanting to swap in some IB-E CPUs and 700 series GPUs

[KrunchR]

I love the contrast of the sleeving and the fins of the fans, to the casing colour. Nice.

[stren]

Originally Posted by dotdrew

This whole build is incredible, love the fact that it houses two PCs haha. Keep up the good work, by the time you're finished you'll be wanting to swap in some IB-E CPUs and 700 series GPUs

Haha yes - that's if IB-E isn't obsolete by the time I'm done

Originally Posted by KrunchR

I love the contrast of the sleeving and the fins of the fans, to the casing colour. Nice.

Thanks

Time for another belated update:



Hey everyone - it's been a while. Moving house soon so all I've really done is assemble some parts and do some sleeving. Here's the 24 pin extension. Eventually the PSU will get full sleeeve, but extensions can be trained better, so let's do those first.

Getting ready - cut the wire last night:



Getting my crimp on...



Males done:



Stripping:



Females done so now we our crimping is double-ended:



Heatshrinkless cheesecake:



Details:



Should have cut the outer run longer than the inner wire otherwise this happens:



I'll either redo or just train the extension to have a hidden double kink that should take it out.



Making progress:



My fingers are definitely burned now:



And done:



Daylight pics:

[KoSoVaR^]

Looks neat dude !

[Nutman]

Very nice. I like the pattern.

[siliconfanatic]

*gulps down mexican coke, waits for updates on res* can't wait to see more!

[stren]

Originally Posted by KoSoVaR^

Looks neat dude !

Thanks

Originally Posted by Nutman

Very nice. I like the pattern.

Can't wait to have all of them done

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

*gulps down mexican coke, waits for updates on res* can't wait to see more!

Sadly the res has to wait for me to move house in a few weeks, once I'm unpacked I'll have some more garage space to get to work on it

Meanwhile, more sleeving:

Here's some more after finishing up a 6 pin and 8 pin extension:













Also today I finally put the right memory in the gaming rig:



This case now has 14 sticks Dominator GTs running... still needs the memory block and the right fittings though!

Then I messed about with the camera:



Didn't quite work out, but thought I'd share anyway