Hi All. I have completely redone my web app so you can add, move and rotate components. Resize the enclosure. The hard line water cooling snaps together although the unsnap is not super reliable yet. Still working on that. You can also download screen shots or X3d files to use in your own builds. PC Design Foundry
So after using this computer for a while I decided that the acoustics needed some improvements. Basically having the pump attached to the front distributor plate was coupling a lot of vibration directly to the front and causing some loud tonal noises at different pump speeds. I thought that changing to soft line tubing could help decouple this and make the system quieter. Here is what I did. To start out there was an easily discernible tone/whine noise at 266 Hz when the pump speed is at 20% duty cycle (minimum setting with my motherboard around 1280 Rpm) and going up from there as the speed increases. (Using an iPhone app for the following spectrum captures.) 20% 26% It also had some noise loudness spikes down at the low end of the rpm range. One at 26% duty cycle and one at 30% duty cycle. For some reason the speed tops out at 70% duty cycle with my motherboard. (Using a sound level meter VLIKE VL6708) In all this testing I had the fans and all other noise sources completely off. Just changing the pump speed in the BIOS settings. Since the pump is directly connected with an extendable fitting to the front distributor plate of the enclosure it is probably coupling a lot of the vibration to it. I use water temp for the fans. Have it set to 27c - 26% up to 36c - 45% then 45c - 100% For the pump I can't seem to make my motherboard bios (ROG Strix Z370-G) use anything but the CPU temp. So in order to avoid it ramping up and down all the time I have is set as follows. 50c - 34% up to 68c - 54% then 75c -100% These are my temps and noise levels before the changes AT 23.4 C AMBIENT Idle Noise 36.4 dB Pump 2671 rpm Fan 650 rpm CPU Temp 30c GPU Temp 29c Water Temp 27c GPU Stress (Heaven) Noise 37.2 dB Pump 2746 rpm Fan 970 rpm CPU Temp 44c GPU Temp 49c Water Temp 35c CPU Stress (Prime95 Small FFTs) Noise 38.6 dB Pump 3147 rpm Fan 817 rpm CPU Temp 66c GPU Temp 35c Water Temp 33c CPU + GPU Stress Noise 40.5 dB Pump 3655 rpm Fan 1167 rpm CPU Temp 68c GPU Temp 49c Water Temp 38c After Changes I changed to EK Duraclear soft line tubing at the pump and also improved the stiffness of the pump mounting plate. The result was really good. The tone noises are barely noticeable now and the overall noise has been reduced a lot. I had an old pump mount shelf in my scrap pile so I flipped it upside down and moved it over by one set of pump mounting holes. The result is that the shelf for the pump is now much stiffer. I will have to take the old one out and paint it black next time I drain the loop. Need to get some new coolant asap as it is going cloudy. Sound Quality has improved and does not have the big peaks. The ones you can see here are barely audible to me now. This is at 36% pump duty cycle. At 20% duty cycle minimum speed. At Full Power. Just a bit louder but no tones. New Stress test noise levels. Temps are about the same. Idle Old Noise 36.4 dB New Noise 35.0 dB GPU Stress (Heaven) Old Noise 37.2 dB New Noise 36.3 dB CPU Stress (Prime95 Small FFTs) Old Noise 38.6 dB New Noise 36.2 dB CPU + GPU Stress Old Noise 40.5 dB New Noise 37.3 dB My temps are not great. Delta T from ambient to water of 10 to 14 c under different stress conditions.. But the acoustics are really good now. I will spend some time tuning the fans and pump curves next they could probably be increased without becoming objectionable. PC Design Foundry
Hi mnpctech. I was not considering sending it out for a retail build. I am mainly working to start my own business designing and building fully custom high quality cases.. Really my web app is what I hope draws people in and gets them interested. If I got a lot of enquiries for one specific design it I would consider sending it out for production. So far everyone who has contacted me wants something different. For the system in this forum post I am not confident in the power supply reliability. Since it is fully inside the enclosure it does not have access to cool ambient air. I'm OK with this compromise in my personal system but not everyone would be and I have not got any data on the effect of this. By the way I will hopefully order lots of different parts form you once I get going as people will want feet and handles and fan trims and all sorts that I am not setup to make.
