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Modding Yet another Lian-Li V1000 W/C mod

Discussion in 'Modding' started by Sclodion, 5 Apr 2005.

  1. Sclodion

    Sclodion What's a Dremel?

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    I decided to go for a watercooled rig, initially to further my overclocking, but now, just for very low noise levels and the fact that I've got a watercooled rig...

    Firstly, i'd like to thank Modsquad and all the other guys working away on V1000s in their project logs for their inspiration, i'm frequently in awe of the ingenuity and level of modding being done in here.

    Berfore the pics, The Specs:

    Athlon64 3500+
    1 Gig (2 x 512MB) Corsair PC4400 RAM
    Abit AV8 - 3rd eye Motherboard
    XFX 8600GT, clocked to Ultra spec
    2 x Seagate 200Gig SATA hard drives in RAID 0
    NEC Dual layer DVD Burner
    Tagan 480W PSU

    The Case bits

    Lian Li V1000
    Water cooling by Innovatek
    2 x 120mm Papst fans
    Nexus Fan speed controller & CCFL control
    Homemade dual temp guage (one for ambient temp, one for water temp)
    Shuttle Silver Card reader

    The Pics

    Well I dont think any of you need to see a pic of a stock V1000, so onwards...
    First off, this is what the internals looked like when running on air cooling before I started chopping up to fit the water cooling setup.

    [​IMG]

    My idea was to fit the radiator and fan at the front of the case where the fan is in the above picture, with the fan sucking through the radiator and expelling the warm air through the case front.
    This area would also hold the pump so it was stealthed from the main case area.
    First thing to do was move the hard disks and remove the drive cage to give me room for everything to fit. A bit of drilling later and the rivets and the drive cage are gone.

    [​IMG]

    Next job is to set about fitting the radiator. The original fan holder in the lian li would not allow me to attach a radiator to the fan, so I had to make some custom fan mounts which were nothing more than a few bits of drilled and bent aluminium, seen here attached to the radiator and fan. There are mounts top and bottom in the finished system.

    [​IMG]

    Here we see the radiator and fan being test fitted. I've also started cutting the case to take the reservoir and pump.

    [​IMG]

    The pump is a modified Eheim to run on 12V DC from a molex connection. Here is the pump and the reservior fitted together.

    [​IMG]

    Next was to fit the pump mounting bobbins which keep any pump vibration from being amplified by the case, a particular problem with aluminium cases, far more so than steel apparently. More hole drilling...

    [​IMG]

    Next was to cut the metalwork above the pump to allow the cap of the reservoir to come through into the main drive bay area for filling and top up. Lots of masking tap and the dremelling begins. :dremel:

    [​IMG]

    Dremelling all done and the mod is nearly finished. A bit of black edge trim was applied around the cutout for the reservior and I fitted all the components for their test run. Heres the finished shot of the watercooling equipment fitted.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    The above pic also shows off the flow meter at the front which sends a fan speed indicator to the motherboard CPU fan header, so if the water stops flowing, the system will auto shutdown in the same manner as if the cpu fan failed on air cooling system. The little barrel in the other water pipe is the in line thermometer.

    Next was to fit the waterblocks themselves and plumb the tubes.
    I decided to polish up the waterblock on the graphics card, firstly because there was a silly logo on there which looked a bit naff and secondly, because I like shiny aluminium in the case (Thanks for the advice ModSquad). you can also see the copper cpu block well in this shot. I do like this Innovatek stuff, very easy to fit and plumb.

    [​IMG]

    24 hours of leak testing later and we are pretty much there. All visible cables braided for neatness and the CCFL fitted. Heres the final shots...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And finally with the side back on :)

    [​IMG]

    Still to do:

    Make a custom side panel to cover the visible side of the drive cage
    Fit UV cathode and put UV reactive fluid in water loop
    Make new front panel for the two thermometer probe displays that fits the styling on the Lian Li better than my current effort.

    But that all has to wait until May as i'm going away to the US to work for a few weeks.

    Any comments / ideas for future mods to this welcome. The only problem I have now is im pretty much finished and i'm looking to see whether I could fit a W/C system totally internally into a shuttle... Does it ever stop???

    Geoff (Sclod).
     
  2. monkeybone

    monkeybone What's a Dremel?

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    Looks really nice. Hope to see more done to the machine.

    I only see one possible problem but i'm a newb to watercooling and it could just be me. The 90 degree bend from the rad to the tank might cause some problems with water flow. Just my though.

    Monkeybone
     
  3. sc4mpi

    sc4mpi OG watercooler

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    edit : images removed sorry :(

    Other than that looks nice but scrap the blue light and replace it with a uv and get rid of the 90" on the front rad :) and replace with a nice curve :D
     
    Last edited: 5 Apr 2005
  4. McGuinness

    McGuinness Banned

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    Sc4mpi, it's not nice to pimp your own rig in someone elses's thread. But otherwise, looks good. :)
     
  5. Sclodion

    Sclodion What's a Dremel?

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    Hi Sc4mpi, I've been following your project log with great interest aswell, good work.

    I am indeed intending to replace the blue CC with a UV one, but the 90 degree joins have to stay i'm afriad, i just cant get the bend radius needed to get from the Rad to the Res intake with a piece of tubing. It doesnt effect the system mind you, the flow is visibly moving very well.
    Temps are 23-25c idle, 30-33c full load with the fan between 5 -7v. To be honest, most of the time I run the fan @ 5v or even off when I need things really quiet (when the g/f's kicked me into the spare room to sleep coz i'm snoring to much...).
     

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