Well this is going to be my first ever Project & first attempt at ANY sort of Custom PC Case & Insides! This is also the reason I've called it Chaos, as its a complete learning curve for myself, and no doubt I will make a fair few mistakes along the way!! I'm unsure as yet as to what the finished result will be, but it will include a Semi-Custom Watercooling Setup, enough lights to put Blackpool Illuminations out of buiseness, and also double as my home entertainment(sp) system (Digital TV, Radio, PVR...) So far I'm sorting the shopping list, and this will take some time to complete, as I will be buying a bit each month with my wages! This month, it begins... I get paid the 18th of each months, so this is my first shopping list... Antec PlusView 1000AMG Metallic Gray File Server Case Antec TrueBlue 480W PSU YS-TECH FD1238 120mm Fan (125CFM) Dremel Multi Pro 395VR & 40 Piece Accessory Kit I will be getting some other bits in between each payday (if I have enough cash) I was going to get a 120mm LED Fan instead of the one above, but 125CFM compared to 64.5CFM, the one above makes sense! (will be the one which is on the heater core!) But the shopping list can still change!!! So the stuff I've outlined above may well be different to what I actually get! Well here goes nothing! Little less than 2 weeks until I place the order, and then it begins!
prior to one of the mods yelling at you for it, i'd suggest not direct linking to images from other people's sites.. regardless of if they're a large business or not (this means putting your images in form instead of )
Pics Sorted I've also got the heater core, the dimensions of this are 7"(height) x 7.5"(width) x 2"(depth)... I hope its not too thick for the case! Well if it is, then there will just have to be a bit more cutting! I'm not 100% sure of the capacity of this rad though the pipes are 2/3" OD (at a rough measurement) Also, the 120mm fan on the last pic is just for reference as to the size of the core compared to the fan itself!!
Looks good so far but what do you mean by the capacity of the rad? Trust me if you can fit it in there it will work
Waiting for stuff to get delivered, its going to take a while to do due to money, work & getting stuff in! Getting the dremel delivered next wednesday for definate, so will be playin with an old case practising my cutting before I start to attack the antec! Capacity i meant how much water it holds, just trying to work out the best pump for the job as don't want the water to be pumped to quickly so not absorbing the heat as good as I want! If that makes sense, does to me As for the shoes I was just using it to hold up the rad was still wearing them! Might give the edges of the rad a spray tomorrow evening though, got some nice silver paint, may also spray the case with the stuff but last time I tried spraying something with this stuff, I kinda messed it u (was my old Orange SPV Phone, but got it replaced under insurance ) Plus its the closest thing I've got to some sort of Chrome effect, without the actual cost of chroming stuff!! Is bloody eeeevil paint though! Never seems to set proper Mind it may be cos I did a pants job on the phone Also that paint is for plastics, there is some I can get for Metals & hard surfaces so when I go B&Q next wednesday I'll have a look for some of that too, could get Gold, Silver, Copper, Rust, Red... All metallic
How much water it holds is pretty irrelivent but it will be able to dissipate the required amount of heat very easly. Its a common misconseption but it is allways better to have a higher flow rate. Athough the flow rate does not relly effect rad performance it will effect other parts of the system. If you think about it it does not attualy matter how fast the water flows through the rad as in a cirtan period of time it will allways spend the same amount of time in there. Take a look at a Hydor L30 pump it sounds like the best solution for you and its not too expencive either.
Yeah, what he said, sorta. you need to size your pump based off of the number and type of waterblocks you're going to have in your system, that's much more important than worrying about getting a certain flow through the radiator. yes, radiators do have performace curves, but they're pretty flat. as far as flow through waterblocks goes though, "bigger is better" definately applies. check out This thread for a good waterblock testing chart. note the performance curves.
Thanks for the info on the watercooling above!! Is a great help cheers! Ok I don't think I will be using that paint after all, its pretty naf! You can tell its only for soft-plastics, so I'm going to have a look at car spray-paint, but there are loads of colors to choose from!! Any suggestions?? I tried painting a bit of an old case as a practice run on spraying it & will also practice my cutting skills on it once I get a Dremel , but as far as the paint test went, I sanded it down so it was ultra-smooth, undercoat, sprayed it with 3 coats, but its a real pants finish, not as smooth as what I'd hoped & no-where near as good as plastics which I've sprayed with car paints! The pictures don't really do it justice, but its quite a rough surface now the paint's dried Back to the old drawing board as far as paints concerned!!
Use a real mellow color, something light. too many cases are done with flashy colors. Try a light orange or light blue.
Order Placed! Just rang up the mighty-nice people at Overclock.co.uk and spent the mighty amount of £263.41 ($503.68) on some bits, which should be delivered to me by tomorrow! Yay! Also this list is a 'tad' different from the one above! So I've just ordered... Antec PlusView 1000AMG without PSU Aerocool Aeropower II+ Acrylic-Titanium Plated 550W inc. UK power cord 2 x Titan Aerofoil Aluminium Fan 120mm 3pin Retail 2 x Vantec Fan Vibration Dampener Kit (120mm) Zalman ZM-MFC1 6-Channel Fan Controller 2 x Mitron Halo Fan 80mm (UV) Akasa Fan Nebula with 4 Colour Blade illumination Also ordered from Argos, Challenge Xtreme 130 Watt Rotary Tool Kit which should do the job, cost £23.99, and comes with No load variable speed 8,000 to 30,000rpm. Spindle lock. Collet size 2.3mm and 3.2mm. Telescopic stand and table clamp. Flexible shaft with collet. 40 accessories for drilling, grinding and sanding. Carry case. I know it's not a proper dremel, but it will do the job & specs are pretty close to that of the dremel aswell! Not much to start, but plenty to get going! Will order some more bits next month, but for the next few weeks its going to be a case of sorting out the case, getting the radiator fitted (somehow), getting 2 custom fan-shrouds made up to addapt the 120mm fans to the 7" x 7.5" rad, and a few other subtle mods to the case (including complete re-spray in some subtle pastal-style spray) Can't wait till tomorrow now WOOOO!!
Well the case arrived today, but the PSU & fans didn't But the case looks a HELL of alot better in real life than in the pics!! Great I thought, this is gona look soooo nice once its done! Only about 3 months left to go now will be worth it though So also thought, lets see if the radiator will fit.. Well, I hit problem No. 1 there... The motherboard tray WILL need to be 'cut' a bit, as the case itself is 'just' wide enough for the core to fit without the tray, so I'll be doing this when I manage to find some carbon-fibre cutting discs for my multitool (don't know where to get them in the UK), and also when I've got my custom fan-shrouds made up (nothing overly special, will be vacuum-formed at my work just using some sort of plastic, clear or coloured...) Problem 2... I need to cut the top inlet/outlet pipes off & fit a couple of L-shaped barbs (I'll try fid some pics of the ones I mean if I can find some, not looked yet, but I'm sure you will understand what I mean), as I don't want to cut the lower-tray for the Floppy box out, but the HDD one can be chucked as the HDD will be mounted somewhere else, I'll figure that when I come to it! pics of heater-core kinda lined with the PC, note I will be mounting this sideways like the second-to-last pic below, hence why I need some L-shaped barbs & also need to cut some tray out!! I hope I made some sort of sense here, I know what I mean, but feel free to ask some questions!
Ok a quick look I found this Something like that I'm after, possibly a bit shallower(sp) so it doesn't come up as much, and if pos in brass If anyone knows ANYWHERE in the UK I can get these, I'd be a very happy chappy!
Humm. now i can see your problem. Using 90* fittings is not a very good idea at all as it will kill performance but still im struggling to see a better way at the moment . You any good at soldering?
I'm not too bad with a regular soldering iron & just doing PCB's n stuff, but as far as copper is, it's all new!! I was thinking of getting some straight barbs & drilling some new holes on the side like you tried, but I wouldn't know how to seal the old holes up & also worried incase i drill a 'bit too far' I really need to give this a bit of thought...
Yeh the way i tryed would probably be the best way but its not exaclty easy. The top barbs could be blocked up by either solering a flat pate over the top or by soldering a bit of copper rod into the hole. Its not for the faint hearted tho if you could live with wrecking your heatercore then go for it but otherwise its up2 you.
If I brake it, I'll just get another one, they won't cost me anything as I know the owner of a scrappy near my way! --- I got a bit bored, and instead of waiting till next week, I've now done some surgery to the rad & the case (nothing too extreme mind!) First on the table, was the rad... all I've done was cut the 2 pipes off so it gives me a better idea of how it will look Was quite chuffed with that, its the first time I've cut something which the disc didn't smash up on! W00t! Also the copper was easier to cut through than I first thought! Next up, was the case. Ready & Stripped for its operation... I'll be removing the lower-drive tray in this operation, so will need to grind off the rivets... Rivet 1... Rivet 2... Proved to be a bit of a bugger! Plus broke one of my tools 3rd was easy, just popped right out! And so the tray is free! Ok so now all thats done, lets get a rough idea of how the rad will fit in... I've measured up the rad itself, and it will fit flush against the front of the case when the motherboard tray is trimmed a bit, but for now its at an angle so to just make sure it fits, which it does My folks just siad I must be mad, as I've only just got this case today & I've already cut it up a bit & voided the warranty! Oh well no matter eh? I'm just improving on the original design! More updates will follow when I start the next step, which may be a week or 2 from now!
