Project: Hard Lined - update 6-18-2006

Discuss

Well I decided to start a new project.

My objectives are
Hard line as much as possible of the 1/2system.
Mount the rad ontop the case and make it look good with a shroud that incorporates a filter.
Redesign the front intake grill
Mount a sunbeam rheobus to the case without using a 5 1/4 inch bay.
Create hot-swappable hdd racks.
Hide as much of the wires as possible
Style the interior of the case to keep things clean.

Now the undecided list.
painting the inside of the case
painting the drivves
Watercooling the 3 1/4inch aluminum bay.

This is how my case looks like now.















This is what my new res is going to be made from.


New 1977bonaville heatercore.


The fans that will go on the heatercore. (Thermaltake thunderblades)


My new digidoc 5 (will be moded into front 3 1/4inch bays)




My new swiftech pump and Polarflo waterblock.

 

I cut the front 80mm grill and put 2x 92mm fans in














This is the removable mobo tray. but unfortunetly it will be permanently screwed in for this mod.



The back of the mobo tray. The two holes used to feed the tubing to cool my cpu and gpu. But they will be closed with a plate in this reworking.



The res fully glued.








This is where the res will go.




Yup the parts are prethreaded to acept 1/2 id pipes.


This is the res bondoed and sanded.




This is the res taped before primer.




Will update soon.

feel free to coment or ask questions.

 

Ok update time

I choped and installed my digidoc 5 and sunbeam rheostats.




I installed ports for making the whole front modular so I can easily remove it.



Front gromets



The place where the pump and res are going to be.

 

Well Another update.

Reworked the tubing.


The pumps new home.


Hdd cage standoffs. I am thinking about using rubber standoffs to minimise noise.


The fittings.


Closeup of the large sponge under the pump to minimise noise and vibration.

 

Project Hard Lined (aka voyager 2.0)

Well feel free to discuss my project Here

Any thoughts and coments welcome.

 

Looking good, I have always wanted to use some real pipe but I don't have the patience for that, glad you obviously do.
Keep it up.

 

Working with copper piping is not that hard. It requires a bit of measuring but its usualy very nice to see done and also provides low restrictions to the loop.

 

I'm liking it! Great job so far and keep on truckin'.

 

Well update

How the pump conects to the copper tube. I will use zip ties to make shure its secure though.


Internal shot of the quick disconect plug.


The pump conected to the sunbeam pcb. Mind you Im only going to use 3 chanels from the controller. 1 chanel for the pump, one for the top rad fans and 1 for the internal fans of the case.


How it connects. Notice the behind the bezel pump rheostat. I dont want some idiot to turn my pump off so I put it hidde. After all I dont need to adjust it daily. Once will be enough.


Another shot.


the front end.


Now thats it for me.

Discuss the project Here

 

Thanks bud.

BTW a small update.

 

Well I am starting work again. I have sweated some joints today and man did I miss modding.

Well the heatercore with some fittings on it. Including the compression fitting witch will join the tubes to the blocks via more tubes. The little elbow and cap will house those small threads shown on the heatercore inside them will be temp probes for my digidoc5.


Some supplies. Aluminum L and threaded rod some screws and bolts as well.



The heatercore with the other tube and sweating in the background on the case.


The small fittings I was talking about. They will be closed by a pice of copper wire and solder to provide the maximum acuracy pf temps withought leaking risks.


The core as it will reside in the case.




Small mod but it looks realy nice. I drilled the old holes wider and put in these nice chrome led holders.


And another profile shot of the led holders.


As with all my projects function is the main goal while still trying to make something atractive and still keeping with the old school modding styles.

Till next time, mod on.

Discuss MOD here

 

Bump.

ANy thoughts or sugestions?

 

Progress has been slow so far. Very slow. But every update helps.

The parts to make the temperature sensor. Including the sensor itself. Unfortunetly the sensor wont fit in the fitting at all so it needs to be bored out.



The old trick of tpe on a bit to keep from drilling too far down.


The trusty clamp. Yup that clamp is probably allot older than me but it functions very well.


After boring the part out you can see the sensor fit nice and snug.


That copper wire will be soldered to the tip of the fitting and the fitting rebored to make shure the barel is nice and clean. The copper will provide a unubstructive flow and measure liquid temps very acurately (hopefully).


Torch and solder and fluz ready to start. (Note I did remove the sensor from the fitting as not to melt it.


After soldering. She is water tight.


Time to measure the depth of the copper so it can measure from the middle of the water stream for most acurate temps.


After soldering and installing the sensor.

Note the sensor will make thermal contact with the conical end of the brobe with some thermal paste. But it has not been applied yet.

Now on to the rad mounting.

Yup I mounted the rad and she is in very good shape. The tolerances between the fittings and the optical drive are so small that I cant even put paper in between.

Bottom view of the fitting that will mate the pipes together so it can go in the water blocks.


Rear view.


Thats another update. And thats it for now. Hope to update soon.

 

Well another update.

I also made another sensor for my res. Being that the digidoc has 8 sensors I figured why not one to monitor temps on the largest body of water in the loop. It also provides an idea of how mutch heat the heatercore can remove if mesurable.

Here is the pic of the sensor. The copper strand this time is longer because I want an average temp of the liquid in the loop not the bottom temp only.


Closeup. The technique used to make this sensor is the same as the previous one but I used a pice from a fridge copper line for the ice maker for it and bored it to acept part of the barb and soldered them as one.



There she is in the bottom of the res.

PS: sorry for the blurry pic.

I also cut the top part of the case so I can slide it on. Took a while to make shure it was a tight fit.


Another shot.


Today i also recived my polarflow lga bracket and I decided to polish the bottom with some copper polish and it made it shine like a mirror. I then rubed off the layer of protection left to make shure proper contact can be secured.



Thats it for today. I hope to update soon.

 

Nice progres man

That temp sensor looks nice

 

I like the temperature sensors as well. I have a ?. Will using copper pipe act as a sort of radiator resulting in lower temps? It seems like it will. I really like the copper pipe look too, its sort of industrial like. So far the porject looks excellent!

 

To polish or not to polish?

Well I could not resist. After using some polish on my block and seeing how well it removed the crap from the copper i decided to polish one of the copper tubes to see how nice I can get it.

After a fiew minutes. This is the result.





Its not exactly mirror finish but man does it look good.

Now I have a question for you guys.

I at first wanted to paint the pipes but after this I may have to reconsider. So should I paint the tubes or polish them and then clear coat them for everlasting shine? I want to hear your opinions on this. Also what color should the case be? I was thinking a black with orange strips or orange with a black stripes? Any other color combos you guys like?

 

Thanks.
Its a possibility that the pipe will act like a radiator resulting in lower temperatures but I doubt it will be mutch.

 

Showcase your hard work by polishing that copper up. If you decide to paint your case it would contrast nicely with the black.

Seeing your tubing has actually made me think about using copper in my rig.

Keep up the good work

 

I agree with htm_elle, use some "brasso" stuff on it. that will take care of the oxidation as well..