Case Mod - In Progress Feeding Frenzy: November-11-2009 video card fan installed

When I have a totally clean system, charging with AC Fluid, gives me a nice clear coolant as evidenced by my GPU circuit. However, I think that AC Fluid may have its issues as others have reported the same. I will flush my CPU system again with another gallon of distilled H20 and we shall see what we shall see.

One thing I may have to change is the air flow over my video card. The power mosfet sink and ram sinks get very hot. Perhaps a small 60mm fan would be about correct from my experiments so far.

 

keep us posted. This interests me!

Thats the reason I have payed blood through my nose to AC for fullcover blocks. They really works ...

drbo

 

I will probably flush tomorrow as it is a PITA.

As far as the heat goes I have noticed that just a small amount of airflow keeps them quite cool. My choice of the Asus HD 4870 DK 1 Gb card made it impossible to use a full cover water block. I get the fast speeds, but I also get the hot hot.

 

I guess I was more lucky with my two Sapphire 4890 Toxic then, then fit ...

drbo

 

Decided to ditch the filter as I really don't have the room in my gigantic Lian-Li case.

Will re-plumb the CPU circuit tonight and post pics tomorrow. Thinking also of adding a water block to the NB. I saw a pic of someone who took off the stock heatsink top and added a water block. Essentially the water then cools the the SB, NB, and memory through the stock cooling heat tubes.

 

Amazing isnt it, how small theese big cases get when one wants to add a lot of wc ...

Good idea! I think you have the same mobo as I, Asus Crosshair III Formula. I did what you where thinking yesterday in my new build. I think it is as excellent solution. Althoug I must warn you, the bezels from AC doesnt fit spot on. I have tried several different bezels, and found that the bezel they call "Blende Asus Fusion" has the best fit. Then a modest mod of the bezel does the trick ...



Good luck!

drbo

 

I remember when I first bought it some friends wanted to know what I was going to be doing with a suitcase sized box. Wish I could have got a bigger case.

Thanks for the tip on the bezel as I was perusing the AC bezels wondering whether I was going to have to make my own from scratch.

A little update on the water clarity issue in my CPU circuit. I removed the AC Filter and it allowed me to get out a lot of air in my system which in turn cleared up the water clarity. Also a vertically mounted Aquatube (with Aquajet) causes a lot of water disturbance which makes it appear to be less clear than it really is.

I used your filling tip after I changed the tubing layout in my CPU circuit. However, what I used was the fill bottle I received with the AC Fillport. I cut off a bit of the tip to increase the flow and stuck it in the inside of the Aquajet. This pushes the water through the system and gets rid of any major air pockets.

I'm sure others would think I am crazy, but I set my CPU circuit fan system so that the radiator fan doesn't even turn on till the water temp reaches about 36 C. Then it pretty much stays at about 600 RPM unless I start doing some heavy gaming or number crunching.

Here's the major change in the CPU circuit. I ran the radiator output to the Aquajet. The water flows out the bottom of the Aquatube and goes to the Aquastream inlet.




Here's a close up under the Aquatube. The Tubemeter with my custom re-wiring is seen here along with the AC in-line temperature sensor that goes up to my silver Cuplex XT. I'm thinking a Koolance flow meter might be making a star appearance in this line this weekend.




One thing about using push fits for connectors is your ability to easily stopper a connector when making water tube changes. I got these stoppers a few years ago and they are invaluable when you really need them. Makes making circuit changes a snap.




Here's the big pic for the CPU water cooling circuit.




Been starting to think more about what I am going to do with my front panel as I have a lot of options here. I guess the big decision is whether I can do without two DVD burners. I use one of them for installing software and playing games. The other one is used in DVD-RAM mode as a backup storage solution. Trying to visualize one of these drives in the front lower compartment as it rarely gets opened.




Also trying to decide if I really need the three Raptor hard drives and the additional E-SATA storage drive. The more drives you got the more wires you got.




Trying to figure out how to best integrate this beauty into my project.

 

Forgot to mention that I got an Ultra upgrade from Aquacomputer for my Aquastream XT as compensation for my pump with no output threads. That was about a $70 freebie for the trouble.

So anyway I will work on some more sleeving this weekend now that the CPU pump area is almost complete (need to fit a flow meter). Starting to think about what to do with the case side covers. FF is going to be having a lot of window space on both sides of the case.

Other people have cautioned me to not be cutting on the wiring loom and to just try and hide unused cables. I have been trying that, but methinks I smell my dikes making a visit soon as all the excess cables give me a headache.

 

I love those HDD coolers. If you really want to integrate one, just completely pull your existing HDD cage out and make some alu supports that go from the floor to the case divider for additional support. You could also integrand that extra component (I forget which one it is) that you have zip tied to the HDD cage.

 

Well I was thinking of leaving one side of the HD for support without the rails. That's if I don't end up sticking it into the 5 1/4 slots. This build is deathly silent and cool except for the PCP&C PSU.

 

Was bored this evening so I went ahead and made some changes in the CPU water circuit. Moved the in-line thermal sensor to the line in-between the radiator and the Aquajet.




That left room to fit the Koolance flow meter into the line going from the Aquastream output through the bulkhead connector. Cut the wire and crimped on pins for a fan connector housing that attaches to the Aquastream XT. Assuming it works properly I will be sleeving the temp and flow meter this weekend. So far I am getting 140 Liters per hour which is about what I would have expected.





Here is the water bottle I used to re-fill the system as mentioned earlier. It came with a Fillport I purchased from AC about six (6) months ago and holds about 500 cc of coolant.




After moving things around a bit this was not the sign I was looking for.




Especially when I moved the case and found a puddle under the case.

Turns out I hadn't fully pushed in the tube into the connector. Once pushed in fully their were no leaks. Pulled the PSU to make sure I didn't have a PSU with water in it. Also got out my electric hair dryer and spent some time styling my FF project.




Since I got this done early I think I will remove the motherboard, hard and optical drives in preparation for an appearance of my Dremel cut-off saw to make room for my USB cables and SATA cables this weekend.

 

Your not supposed to be using metal cutting tools (like a Dremel cut-off saw) when your case is full of expensive electronics. The little bits of aluminum dust have these bad habits of lodging in the most terrible places they can find that create little places of electrical connections where you don't want them. On the other side I don't want to strip the whole case just to cut some holes. Perhaps better planning would have obliviated the need to consider this step.

I wonder if I can mod the vacuum cleaner to some positive affect here? More later.

 

Duct tape an ice cream container or a plastic bag around the cut area, should do the trick for you.

 

One thing I really love about the modders on bit-tech is that they always come up with crazy **** to get the job done. Thanks so much for the idea!


Now as it turns out I happen to have some empty distilled H20 bottles that I was thinking of throwing out. Seems like a vacuum cleaner, the empty bottles, and some duct tape may make for a real Rube Goldberg machining setup. Pics tomorrow.

 

That would work too. I have used the plastic bag trick before, works quite well .

 

Was cruising around in my PhotoBucket account and ran across some old pics. Do you like the clear tubing in the PSU compartment or the black like I did it several years ago? The flow in this setup is different than at present.

 

Personally I like the black, looks much cleaner especially since you aren't using coloured coolant.

 

I think I will stay with the clear tubing because it is also UV reactive in blue. At some point their will be lighting in all the three main compartments. But thanks for your opinion.

The tri-color LED I used in my front mounted Aquatube (green-red-amber) didn't work out as it wasn't bright enough. Went to the electronics shop and got a nice green and a red LED. The green LED in the black Aquatube is just plain sick. Reminds me of the first Alien movie.




I'm extremely bummed as I did all this work over the weekend and shot oodles of pics and then this was the only pic that was on the flash card.

I pulled out of my junk box an Innovatek flow meter. The stock white color just didn't make it for me so I painted it with some epoxy flat black paint. Looks great!





One slight problem after I got it installed in FF. It didn't work. Hooked up another one and it does work so it is obviously the sensor and not the Aquaero.

In case your wondering why someone would want to buy an Aquaero I have it setup to play the theme song for Battlestar Gallactica when an alarm goes off. The music loop plays and then the Aquaero initiates a controlled shut down.

 

As I mentioned before my Nikon camera has been doing some odd things. Perhaps it is time to send it in and give the modding a rest for a while. Well not the modding, but the pics.

In any case I thought I would post a few pics of what I was doing over the weekend. After giving my Rue Goldberg machining setup more thought I decided to just tape off the back of the chassis and cut. It was definitely fun holding the vacuum cleaner hose while cutting away with a Dremel cut-off saw. If someone would have been here to take pics you would have died laughing. My best method was to sit on the extension tube and attempt to keep the suction close to the cutting action.

Here you can see the cut I made on the back side of the case near the back. This allows the two (2) USB cables to get down to the Tubemeter and Aquastream XT pump for the CPU circuit.




Here is the same side of the case, but forward at the end of the motherboard tray. This cut allows optical and hard drive cables to be routed on the back of the tray somewhat out of sight.




I also cut a hole up near the SATA ports. Drilled a couple of 1/2" holes and used a Klein Nibbler. Kind of on the expensive side, but it works extremely well, is adjustable, and extra blades are easily gotten. You can also see my albatross flow meter.







Here's a big picture look of the "hidden side" of the case. Deciding whether to get some new cables (shorter) as they are 0.75 meters long. I guess the upside of new cables is that I can get the locking ones that are supported on the motherboard. In any case they will be sleeved and tied down with zip ties.

Those black square things are cable tie downs. You peel off the back and stick them wherever you want. You can really cinch down cables if you are so inclined and not worry about them coming loose. The holes are for taking off water blocks and heatsinks without having to remove the motherboard from the case.




I guess I am getting to the point where I can drag out the case sides that have been in the closet for a long time. The back case side will have one small window put in that will allow you to see the CPU circuit. The front side will have three windows put in: One for the CPU circuit, a second one for the main compartment, and a third one for the HD water circuit (not in yet) in the front bottom.

I originally was going to put in an older Aquastream pump for the HD circuit and mount the controller to the front of the case. In fact I already drilled the case for this plate. Since I won't be using the older Aquastream and its controller I have decided that I will use the same plate for mounting light controls. I expect to have independent lighting for the three compartments and of course mood lighting for the two (2) Aquatubes that are mounted in the main compartment.

Still lots of fun stuff to do on this project. In retrospect, my original plans for this project were unattainable with the current technology several years ago. That AC hard drive water cooler that holds four (4) hard drives is what is going to finish FF off.

 

OK...I'm starting to lose track of what all you have installed.