Hello again Most of you probably already know my other project(see sig) but this time i'm gonna do an all different thing. I got kinda tired of all the big cases so i decided to get some rackmount cases but since they cost way too much i decided to build my own. Since i'm aiming for quietness it will be a watercooled system. Here are some pics i made in sketch up (it's not to show the design but to show how all the stuff will fit in there). so here's the details: there will be three 5 inch drive spaces which will hold 2 usb2.0 mobile racks (cheap and hotswappable) and a cd-rw drive the yellow-ish parts are copper coolingblocks which will hold 8 hdds (4 in each) the hdds will be in 2 raid5 arrays. the purple thigie is to represent the water pump which will be a Hydor Seltz L10 (i'm not exactly sure of it's exact sizes) The grey thing coming thru the back will be the PSU, the red is the mobo. The videocard and the network card will both be installed with riser cards (1u for the graphics and 2 u for the network) thus allowing the radiator (ripped from a Skoda 120s vehicle ) to be placed above the mobo. I'm not sure about what fans i will use yet. i will implement a water reservoir somewhere but i'm still not sure where. The top cover of the whole thing will be hinged to the side so it will open like a door. Also it will be rigged full of holes for some passive ventillation. The whole thing will be black, and the 5 inch drive bays will be covered with some sort of door. The buttons and leds will be in the front wetween the hdd racks and the 5 inch drive bays. Also i have some chrome handles which will go onto the front.
moving to the modding section, as this not comply with the rules specific to project logs , email or PM a moderator once you have started the modding and it can be moved back to the project logs section
why have waterblocks on the side of the harddrives? wouldn't it be better to take advantage of the aluminum heatspreader on the drive and have the water block contact that?
Actually, most of the heat from hard drives is spread through the metal casing on the sides of the drive (the drive mounting bays actually work as giant heatspreaders). That is why when you suspend/isolate your drives from the Alum. mounting bays, they WILL run hotter.
What's that... 10 hard drives? Wow. I wish I had the space for that, let alone be able to afford it. Looks like a great idea.
stoned penguin: why have waterblocks on the side of the harddrives? wouldn't it be better to take advantage of the aluminum heatspreader on the drive and have the water block contact that? Yup as JavaDog pointed out putting the waterblocks on top of the hard drives would take away considerably less heat not to mention that to make that happen you'd need an awful lot of space. SO this way it should cool well enough for any hdd and take up rather small space. Bout the hdds... i don't have them yet i'm just planning ahead. Since this is going to be a lan fileserver for me and a few buddies it needs to have large storage that's why there'll be so many. And if all goes well next week i'll have the case itself made outta Alu. I still have no idea where i'll get the waterblocks... i'm also considering doing the 5" bays from waterblocks but i'm kinda unsure how much that would work with metal mobile racks and i certainly know that a crappy ol cd drive doesn't need cooling meanwhile i'm gonna be painting my other project so updates prolly next week. happy moddin
Any further updates on this ? I am especially interested in how you are going to have the waterblocks and HDD racks attached.
I'll answer for him if he doesn't mind. Hard drives spread heat to the sides...they are designed to send the heat to the case. The top is just a thin cover and the bottom is the circuit card, so the thick aluminum sides is where the heat goes. It makes sense to have the waterblocks on the sides. One thing about the hinged top. I just did this with a case, and the case is now trashed. Yours might not be to bad sense its going on the top, but make sure your case is VERY sturdy, with some sort of bracing built in. I attached the hinges to the side and the entire case warped when opening it.
well updates are going to have to wait because as i said before this is just a plan i'm going to start this after my current project is finished IF or WHEN i have the cash. Meanwhile this is just ask and answer. About the hinges i'm not sure i'll make it hinged but that would make most sense dues to the radiator being attached to the top lid. waterblocks and hdds that's pretty easy the sides of the hdds will get polished (not sure if i'll do this since the cooling should be sufficient even without this) and the waterblocks are going to get drilled where the hdd's mounting screws should be and i'm going to use longer screws than usual to fit the blocks. Pretty simple imo.
Ok, thanks for explaining that. I do want to rack up my coupla computers to keep them all neat, but the price of rack cases is prohibitive. So building my own might be an option for later when I have the time to develop my skills enough to do it. After I do one, I might just have the panels cut for me the 2nd time around if the costs for doing that are reasonable.
well no matter what material you use or how thick it will always come out cheaper than if you buy one. And when making one you build it custom to your needs which is a big advantage over the standardized cases.
FWIW, Rackmount Cases (4U is the Value) are not much more than "Pro" cases. You can pick up a decent one for about $79, or a nice one for around $129. It's the damn Rack-Cabinet that is expensive!!
This should help you with the hardrive waterblock. Good luck on the project; and looking forward to see it completed.
