Modding Home Made Transparent PCMy home made Transparent Case with home made Water Cooling

My home made Transparent Case with home made Water Cooling





Please tell your comments about it.
Thanks
Rakesh Sharam

MY PC:-
AMD Athlon X2 4000+
ASUS M2N-E
2-GB DDR2_SDRAM 667
160-250-400 GB Sata HDD
MSI ATI R3450 256MB DDR2 Graphice
Creative 7.1 Audigy Value
Philips TV-Tuner











Overclocking and temperature view:-

 

nice. looks like a really solid well-built case. very professional. and homemade watercooling is always awesome. 2 suggestions:
1. sleeve the fan wires
2. paint over (or somehow hide) the ugly grey on the powersupply and opticals drives

welcome to the forums

 

Thanks Mr. Supertoad.
I like your suggestions. Hope to implement them soon.

Thanks.

 

I agree, and like it as well. I like how you're reusing the old components. Especially that compaq psu!
Sleeving/wire management is vital, especially since you have a transparent case, and so many wired things... hide em, or make em a design feature.

I would also suggest trying to make the drives (optical and floppy) and other stuff on the front panel a more uniform color. (vinyl dye?)
Uniform led colors?
Is that little red button under the power switch your reset button? You might want to mount it further back/flush with the case front so you don't accidently hit it when you're excited and flailing about after getting fragged in your favorite game. (I can see that happening )

Also, how about some more detail on your home watercooling setup? I can't tell what is going on there. Did you just encase an old heatsink in plastic, and throw some inlet/outlets for the water? What's that pump?

 

Thanks I will try to do some cable management.
As about PSU i have used Old compaq server Psu body only"since it is bigger in dimention." it holds two 450watts SMPS pcb face down position. One psu powers Motherboard and second is used to power hdd, dvd, pump, fans and leds. so total 900watts power.

I have made the water block with Aluminum Northbrige heat sink with acrylic sheet. Full coper Radiator is from an old Oil cooled Machinary from local scrap yard. My pump is made from old printer head motor (HP-640 inkjet) and some plastic molded pumping unit.

Since in small town like mine, it's hard to find a DC PUMP("forget about Branded water cooling kits"). so i made it one my self. It can pump 20 liters of water in 53 sec. at 12v dc.

I live in Jodhpur, India. It's a hot place average room temp is around 35C. Since i am not having any type of room cooling, just a room fan.
So my pc use to run at very high temp at normal box pack Cpu heatsink and fan, about 65c at normal running.

This high temp inspired me to do some thing...and you all can see what i came to.

As per restart switch it is a deep press switch i. e. one have to press it quite inside to make it active. So no worry of accidental restart.

 

Here are new updated pic of my rig. With new full copper homemade cpu water block and motherboard water block. with some cable management of fan cable . And side panal fan and power connector brackets.
hope you like it.

 

I would make sure your pump is ok.. its a brush model, which means it will create electrical noise, and will quickly wear out compared to electronic/synchronous pumps.
Other then that, good work on the blocks, i make my own blocks as well.

A good place to find a brushless pump on the cheap is dishwashers/washing machines.

They are 240/110 volts (depends on you country i guess), and probably a bit overkill, but the only thing i could imagine that would overcome the problems of brushed motors.

 

Thanks for your Concern. My punb motor is HP inkjet head motor , which have a rating of 36v dc 1.65 amp ! (so it's carbon brush can handle about 50 Watts ) and Mabuchi ( Motor Manufacturer ) says that on 50watts this motor have a life time of about 4000h. But since iam running it on just 12v dc so power used is about only 20Watts , so i suppose my pump will have a life time as equal to compared branded pump.

I am not intrested in AC pumps.
As per Electrical noise i am using a Circuit

Have a look below . The PCB inside yellow circle is for reducing electrical noise.

 

Oh good. so you used capacitors and inductors to filter the brush noise?
I learned the hard way about brush pumps, massive EMI noise.
What circuit are you using?
What housing did you use to make your pump, and how did you seal the shaft to prevent leaks?

 

I am using LM317 controler IC with filter network to reduce EMI Noise

Have a closer look to my pump


as you can see i have sealded the shaft with aluminium cover of a Capacitor and sealed all the air opening with industrial bond glue making while pump air tight . placed the pump vertically so that water from the housing side can't enter the armature and carbon brush of the motor.

 

Thats a pretty good idea actually. Nice work.

 

Thanks Mr. Rianwulf.
I am sure that my this motor have longer life then other W/C pumps.
Bcos 6 months ago my fish aquarium filter pump died ( which was as AC pump). So i made my own filter with the same hp-inkjet motor. This time Whole motor and pump block is submerged in water. Since then it is working day & night for 6 months and no problem at all.
So the filter on top left corner.


Have a closer look to the filter with the DC motor


Testing motor in Aquarium then i used in my W/C project.

 

At last yesterday I had some free time to clean my PC and water cooling Setup. Here are few pics for the process.
De-assembling the dusty case.


Components:


Removing the water cooling setup:



Dusty radiator. Many members of different forums were asking me about this radiator..Now everyone can see the manufacturer’s logo still alive and speaking loud about the quality of the product.


Re-assembling you can see all the cable management in action with three SATA power connectors in line. No cable mess.


All fans cleaned and radiator washed.




Radiator and HDD’s in place.


Connecting New pipes and optical drives.


All assembled. The best cable management possible for me…


Night mode.


Hope you like it… If you have any suggestion regarding making this case neater or better say cool, then you are most welcome..

Thanking
Rakesh Sharma

 

I love it. Definitely inspires me to make my own case.

 

Hi I am back with a new build.
Below is the basic design I am starting from…



Starting with getting Acrylic sheets cut in basic shape,,,detail cutting will be done accordingly.
It’s 8mm thick and heat polishable.



Now let’s get started:-

Base ready.. with support ..





Got cuts for psu fan, power pin and mobo back panel.



Some item update.
1. Got front USB + Audio pcb..
2. Got a Nice heating coil from accidental car.. It is very goot quailty and have very fine fins... looks cool ..



Got my self a handy flame torch for welding copper tubes to the rad and heat polishing the acrylic sheet
Some copper tube and bends, Front panel wiring for a local computer shop.










I went shopping for Power Button, after 2 hours hunt I final got a nice blue color power switch.
Started moding the rad. Earlier rad was like this:





some cutting:




Now it’s time to join the jigsaw puzzle.
First made the tray for the MOBO.



Let it join and see what’s the outcome…















Now see how rad would look like..


Added a two pole relay switch PCB to the PSU for AC pump. Relay tested, works super..


Let’s see how PSU looks inside the case…


Finally in evening went to scrap yard for 120mm fan grills.. And got two grills for an old Xerox machine..
Little rusty…but no worry I will paint them black.
Installed the power button , power and HDD LEDs.
Also front USB & headphone jack socket. Don’t like microphone pin in front so removed it.

There is something missing..Yes “Restart button.” I also removed it.. cos my naught 3.5years old daughter loves to press it whenever I am working on the PC. So no more naught restarts.



Done all the cable works for the PSU.



i got the pump.. it is very small AC pump with head flow of 300L/h upto 1m height and silent too..
I have modded it for inlet and outlet.... bad it's too late in night and my camera's batteries are out of power.
So got only one pic.








Some CCFLs from a friend.




Made a filter and junction PCB to powering LCD post screen and CCFLs.



Overnight leak and pump working test ran smooth. No leak and pump is working fine, super quite… Touched and feel the pump temperature; it was cold considering that it was running for more that 11hours, water flow is also very good… I like the pump.





Got small piece of black 2mm Acrylic sheet for making a cover for the radiator
Bending the sheet for required shape.



Yes the flame torch dose the job quickly..


Let’s see how it will look








Finally done with the shape.




Cutting the hole for FAN



I am finish with the rad cover.. Only few holes for the fan and cover screw remains…


Removing the protective sheet from acrylic and assembling it again…


Yes Heat polishing in action..see the result..



Back panel have some manufacturing defect.. called my dealer he is ready to replace so no worry..







Power button and front USB


added copper “L” joints and installed the water loop with mobo.



Rad cover with fan ..




LCD post in action


















That’s my setup… Homemade 12” sub a 7.1 speakers.



new CPU block.
This time I made it with 2mm thick copper base with 1mm deep round channel for some water resistance, top with 10mm thick acrylic sheet and added two UV LEDs.

As per working or so called temperature performance it is equal to my old block. Not even a single degree of difference . But looks now cool…, after all watercooling is also somewhat show off.












Hope you like my new build.

Thanking
Rakesh Sharma

 

Awesome the new build is 100% better. Good work

 

Rakesh, that is by far the messiest build i have ever seen, and i love it! It looks so utterly complicated and technical. Really awesome that you made your own waterblock, too. Not many people do that anymore.

 

Agreed, it's a proper old school self build that you don't see anymore these days, It's like a bulldog in that it's ugliness is what makes it cute. Nice build well done mate. + rep

 

I'm with the lads all the way on this...

Top improvisation and build on all levels, very impressive

 

New update:

VGA Block making

Last week when i played Bioshock 2 for 1 hour or so, the temp of my HD4850 went up to 87c and the entire fan were making lot of noise (since they have to move lot of hot air from inside of the cabinet).
So i said to myself, "It's time to do something of the HD4850." VGA water block for HD4850 was in my mind for even before building the Clearity, and i searched a lot for stock heat sink of HD4850 to convert it into a Water block. But no success.

Many forum members have branded GFX block for HD4850 but they all are very costly. And even my current rad 1x120 is not enough to handle load of both CPU anf GPU.

Last week my friend came to me regarding up-gradation of his PC. He wanted i7. So i made him one. But he also had 1.5 yrs old CM Aquagate S1 cooler, which i have repaired 6 months ago. His original fan blads brooked so i replace it with new CM silent FAN. Now this cooler won’t fit on LCG1366 socket so he asked me to sale it.
After two days of zero response in sale posted on many forums, he gave me the S1 free for the cost.

So now I have an extra rad and a block. Only thing I have to figure out is how to use it with HD4850.
After thinking for whole day I came to this idea.



Now instead to two different loops I added both rads and both pumps in the same loop. This will work better since extra rad will add up more coolant and extra heat exchange, second two pumps will help in better flow and if in any case one pumps dies other will still server the cooling.

So this is the loop flow order.
OLD Rad -> AC pump -> CPU -> S1 Rad -> GPU block/pump -> OLD Rad

Now start moding.
First take apart of the Aquagate S1.
Now added rad to the Clearity. Two fans in push and pull format.





Now made some acrylic mountings to attach the S1 block on to HD4850. After two hours of cutting, filling, drilling and screwing the block finally mounted on the card and I think it looks cool.







It’s too late in night so I have close the work for now.
On Sunday I will make the heatsinks for memory and power mosfets on the card from few old aluminum sinks lying around.

Hope you like the modding.

Rakesh Sharma