Hello Guys, Pretty excited about this one. How would you go fitting 8x hard-drives + a Crucial M4 SSD, a 140mm radiator, DDC pump, res, 450W PSU and Wade-8011 mini-itx into a Lian-Li PC-Q08? Easy, I would reckon. Check this space. As a teaser, the following components have been acquired, and running in test-setup mode in the box, aircooled, with Server 2008 R2 installed: Portwell Wade-8011 C206-based Mini-ITX board Xeon E3 1245 (3.30hz) 2x 4GB Crucial ECC Ram 1x Crucial M4 128GB SSD (for OS) 1x Lian-Li PC-Q08(black) 450W SFF PSU 1x SuperMicro USAS-S8iR SAS Controller (to check operability in Server 2008) 1x HP 8x SAS SFF Drive-cage, yes, the same as in Project Blackbird 4x 74GB SAS Drives - this will make way for 8x 146GB drives in the not-so-distant future 1x DDC 3.25 Pump 1x SR1 140mm Rad Ek Supreme LTX CPU Block Various BP fittings 7/16" Tygon tubing Will assemble with Watercooling components on the weekend, and post pics - won't take long on this one at all, everthing ready to assemble one mean mofo of a Xeon-based mini-itx FileServer @ Mods: Please move to Worklogs.
I was not surprised at all until I googled for Lian-Li PC-Q08 after reading mini-itx lol Good luck and post some pictures or sketch with your fitting plan
Will post pics on the weekend, thanx Mate I never do a pre-plan sketch, I have it all planned in my head.....probably whe I sometimes take so long finalising projects, haha.
Heya Everyone, Got lots done today, and will post pictures tomorrow. Nearly midnight here, and off to bed. Just a teaser - system up and running on water, going very well, and full-load, around 16-17 deg C better off on the cpu vs air. Not to shabby for a single 140 with fan running at 900rpm/16db. Got the drive-cage fitted too, psu relocated, lots of fun - but more tomorrow when I post the pics. Fun I had today
Ok, as promised, quite a few progress pics of this mod. Before we start off, a quick photo of the basic hardware under testing, I ALWAYS do this part before modding, as very often, you end up putting big effort into a specific mod, based on very specific hardware-bits, just to stumble at the last hurdle, due to a dead bit of kit. So this setup was thoroughly tested, and, as can be expected of a system based on an industrial bit of kit, dead stable. For those that don't know Portwell, well, they're a pretty big supplier of high-quality Industrial Motherboards - one of our process-control systems are based upon them. Here is the setup running the Wade C206 chipset-based Xeon server board - all mini-itx, with 8gb of DDR3 ECC Ram, and Crucial M4 128gb SSD: Over the years, I have gathered a formidable arsenal of Watercooling goodies, bits of hardware from a lot of suppliers, and one of them is the well-designed (well, I thought so anyway) Apogee-Drive from Gabe at Swiftech. This remains the only piece of hardware that I have ever been sponsored with (Thanx Swiftech!) and I decided to put it to good use. Before today, it was removed from its box only to appreciate its beauty. Ah well, in for a surprise then, is it :rofl: Taking it apart reveals it is the venerable 10W (blue-impeller) DDC pump, very easily modded to 18W unit - I won't do that for this effort though, as it is not needed/desired, as we have only a single 140mm rad, and one CPU block. and the other side: and a close-up of the pcb-side - if you want to convert it to the 18W-version, simply join the wire/pad on the right with the unconnected pad far-right. For those that read my BlackBird log, you'll remember that I fitted 2x DDC-325's to the Koolance RP401X2, and modified the original pump-housings to fit in the Koolance res -> of course, I later got the Swiftech pump-heatsink kits, and removed the original 325 housings, and kept them for later use.... One would work well here, so let's dress up that pump then, shall we: and here: Neither the original Apogee-Drive, nor the modded 325 housing had mounting tabs, so I had to make a plan - still had one of these left: which was a rather nice mod for the DDC-series of pumps - I will replace this in due course with the Swiftech unit, but needed to get all hardware installed to make sure I have room for all my ideas. and Decided to get crafty with a hacksaw and file, and fabbed some mounting-tabs, which I bolted to the heatsink: working rather well as a make-shift mounting-mechanism: this would be married to the EK-140 DDC top with integrated reservoir..... and here:
Next was the Gelid Wings fan, replacing the original front intake fan, and mounting the rad the the (well-designed, on purpose Lian-Li?) front bracket. This must be by far the easiest and quickest fitment of a rad I had ever done. Painless. and here, all nicely fitted together:
Mounting the rad in its place, and playing with the pump/res, to see which orientation would suit best, and checking clearance with the original 5.25" bracket above, as this has toi be retained, as you'll see later: and the pump at the back, against the motherboard tray:
Ok, time to get nekkid, as I have to fit the HP SAS-cage in somewhere: Did a lot of thinking on this one, many ideas where I would finally mount the cage, and, as one of my very early requirements were to keep this mod relatively simple, with the minimum fuss/cutting involved, I decided it should go where the PSU would normally go - amazingly, the opening is just about perfect to mount the cage in - I will need to fab a bezel later, but that will be pretty simplet to do. Marking the holes for the first mounting-screws: and test-fitting - I used 3 rivnuts on the side of the SAS-cage, in case you wondered: looking good... and then, using temporary spacers, bolting the cage to the original PSU-mounting holes - had to drill 2 new holes on each mounting-tab on the SAS-cage, but that was very simple: and here, with a total of 7 screws keeping the cage in position:
Next up, drilling holes to bolt the pump down: again, a quick test-fit to see how everything stacks up: Next up, fitting the SFX 450W Silverstone PSU to...yeah, you guessed it, the 5.25" bracket - with this being a file-server, I won't need an optical drive, but, I can probably fit a slotload slimline drive just for kicks, the jury's still out on that one. The PSU should go in here: or does it....push a bit, shove it a little, a few jiggles, and yes, 4mm clearance to the top of the rails, which means it will just squeeze in under the top: and here: and here:
PSU will be mounted with the fan pointing down, and this was done by simply using the Dremel to cut, and dressing with files, a new fan-intake: and mounted in place: and a couple more:
With the reservoir mounted against the rear wall, and the motherboard, by original design, bolted directly to the side-cover, I had to make provision for a fill-port. Still had one BP bulkhead fitting from Project Blackbird, which will work pretty well: and here: of course, I had to drill the 5.25" plate too, to allow passage through it: The end-result is rather pleasing, and will allow quick, easy filling of the reservoir: and
It was time to re-fit the SAS-cage backplane PCB: and see how well the hard-drives would mount to the cage - went like a well-oiled machine: The drives are not yet powered up, as I have to redo the waterloop - need one or 2 elbow-fittings from BP, which I will order this week - after this, I would be able to properly route the tubing, to allow fitment of the SAS Controller: Here's routing the pump outlet to rad: and 'semi-final' connections to the CPU, et al: I leave you with this shot for now, as this is the config I have the system running in, doing several tests, and see how well it goes vs stock air. I am pleased with the initial results, as we have a 16-deg drop in full-load temp over air, with the system maxing out at 58 deg C running Prime95. This is with the same ambient conditions, and about 30 deg C outside. Very happy with the result, not done yet, but amazing just how well this system was 'designed' for quick and easy watercooling. Of course, don't forget the fact that I can now fit 9 2.5" harddrives to it
A small update - to simplify things further, I have decided to order 2 items from PPCS, and hopefully it the parcel will be here before the weekend: i) Coolgate 140mm Rad ii) Swiftech PMP-400 heatsink The PMP-400 heatsink will clean up the pump installation, as well as allow me to reposition it somewhat to further simplify tubing routing. Then, by using the Coolgate 140mm rad, I will accomplish 2 things -> get rid of the reservoir, as it has a fill-port on the top of the rad, so it wil effectively become a reservoir too. Secondary to this, with the additional ports on the in- and outlets, I can use one of the ports as a drain, with a BP plug at the bottom - so another small hole in the base of the case, immediately underneath the one port, and we have a neat drain-hole - to easy. Will keep you guys posted, thanx for looking, and keep those ideas coming!
Hello Guys, Unfortunately, the parcel hasn't arrived, even though I paid over $48 for EMS service from the USA. I can bet my bottom $ it's sitting at AusPost, being delayed here in Melbourne. Jeesh, sometimes this just riles me, as I have so hoped to have it in time to finish the mod this weekend. Apologies, I will carry on with finalizing a few other bits and bobs, like soldering a more standard 10-pin Molex to replace the propietary HP one. I got the same footprint Molex male and female pcb connectors and plugs from Mouser some time ago. They are keyed different tp the original though, and matched pairs.... I could not find the correctly keyed Molex plug to fit the one on the HP SAS cage. A simple mod to do, so I will get that sorted, and start working on the PSU to prepare it to provide power to the SAS-cage. Keep you all posted
i dont like that you have mixed barbs with compressionfitting , everything else looks awsome until this point