Modding Scratchbuilt PC - Acrylic work and water cooling

We continue working on our scratchbuilt PC. We're covering acrylic work and water cooling.

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2012/05/07/scratchbuilt-pc-part-3-acrylic-work/1

 

Thank you for this tutorial - it's EXACTLY the right level of detail etc for wanabees like me.

Am I to assume that the gauge that you picture on the mpntech ruler are threaded to allow you to determine what size a screw's thread is? what a thoroughly helpful piece of kit that is...

 

Very interesting and just the sort of stuff I like to see here, thanks!

 

Perfect, looking forward to the next installment !

 

Nice series, keep up the good work

I'd be tempted to re-enforce the long skinny length of copper with some 'L' or 'U' or square section, aluminium or brass ? Or maybe just add a couple more skinny lengths on top with a couple of extra screws securing the layers to keep the sandwich in place. Copper bends so very easily and with screws at each of the far ends I'd worry about it bowing up in the middle.

 

These scratch build tutorials are awesome! Definitely a great idea. I've been tossing around the idea of a scratch built for a while, these guides with their helpful hints might be enough to push me over the edge. Even if not, they're a great read.

 

A solid tutorial, I wish I'd read this info before building D33P THOUGHT it'd saved a lot of time.

 

Glad you caught it!

Keep thinking 2000 hours of run time: if it looks like it will bend it will bend, if it looks like it will break ... A good mod will last for years, a bad mod may not survive the photo-shoot and even if it does, when it fails in 3 weeks it could take out the psu, mb, cpu, ram. Ouch that's expensive.

Back to your heat plate. Minimum 5mm copper or aluminium or whatever copper alloy the various manufacturers use and I'd still think about additional bracing/ extra thickness for the skinny bit.

Be careful if you are using any sort of plastic for the bracing. Cycling the temperature from 20DegC to 70DegC day in, day out - think of the far end of the skinny bit - may cause plastic to fail. In-fact, even holding at 50DegC for long periods of time while under pressure from the far ends may cause unacceptable bending in the long run.

All good fun

 

I've just about finished my plexi build (recovering from retardedly running a diskpart --> clean on wrong drive - d'oh! atm) Word to the wise - don't use WHS 2011 on an E350.

I've got to say, though, I couldn't use low speeds on my Dremel - if I didn't have it 7/8 of the way up, it cut like crap. The 408 wheels make a nice, small kerf, but they have a tendency to fall apart. The HD wheels were a bit better at that, but anything heavier than that was too much, imo. Had I been smart in the beginning, though, I would have bought one of the diamond wheels. Then maybe I wouldn't have blown through 2 packs of the HDs and 1 pack of the 408s - I have 1 408 left, the one before that blew out right as I finished cutting the last bits I needed.

 

Are you going to include a tutorial on how to mount the motherboard?

I am currently trying to mount a motherboard onto a piece of wood but I don't know how. I was considering trying to get some spacers to go on bolts but I'm not too sure on where to get these.

 

nice to have a mill for this kind of work.. you can make the bracket out of aluminum- also integrate passive fins running lengthwise on the thin part to reinforce