I first came up with the name Liquid Crystal Display as a bit of a homage to Project Crystal after I saw how (unintentionally) close to it my plans had brought me. Heh, if I hadn't just bought this new board and chip, it would have had a Palo and A7V266-E in it too (not to mention the UV blue edged PCB on the GF3 in it)! :spooky: So, as it will hopefully end up as a bit of a demo/display w/c rig for doing computer fairs and stuff with eventually, I figured Project Liquid Crystal Display was kinda fitting. Then I thought about how I'd hopefully be showing the general public the intricacies, inner workings and benefits of a completely w/cooled or even fanless PC who might not have seen things like this before and it made me think of St John, baptising the uninitiated. Anyhow, enough rambling. The ClearPC case arrived today. Thanks Phat. I quickly got into it, to learn its ins and outs (and see what would fit where). I was half hoping to WTX it but would need to mod the drive mounts to be able to run them the right way up. Not out of the question but not happening until I get the rest of the parts for it. (Still waiting for yet another replacement HDD and some other bits) Here's the heart of the beast Specs in sig. It's a bit of a reverse stealth mod if you like, in that it will be built mainly to show off the "inner skin", rather than the outside, like I've tended towards in the past but I'm hoping for a bit of inspiration to make it slightly more unique if possible (although I do have a couple of ideas in mind). I have a matching clear rad mount for it which could blend in well with it but my aim is to go completely passively cooled with this and I don't think the rad that fits it would be man enough on its own. Instead, I've decided to go for a 360mm rad and see how it copes (waiting for brackets to arrive atm). If necessary, I could move the AquaTube from where it is and relocate it to the rear 80mm cutout, leaving a good space at the front to add a single 120mm rad to the loop as well. I'm half tempted to put a quiet 80mm fan there for the few passively cooled bits and pieces like the ram (mainly that on the gfx card and the s/bridge (which gets much too hot for my liking). The DVD rom will more than likely receive some form of de-beiging in the not too distant future but the Plextor CDRW has gone in another machine, as it has a fan in it. I'm not sure whether I'll run the PSU with the block on top or underneath, depends on the WTX angle. My first instinct was to have the block on top but in the last case, it fouled the AquaTube where I'd previously mounted it. I ran it that way with no noticeable ill effects, then looked down at my GFX card and felt reassured.
Cheers guys. The only real mod so far was dremeling some notches in the front hole to mount the res. It's funny because it looks like it's suspended by the grille (which is actually just to fill the holes of the original fan mounts for now). I may replace the grille eventually with a custom one, it depends how it all pans out. I thought it would be a shame to put the plate on in this case and you can see more easily how it actually attaches this way. I thought I was going to have to mod where the AGP card attaches when I hit the same hurdle I think Koolvin did, in that it didn't seem to fit. I got round it by moving the mobo out of postition and fitting the card in the mobo first. Another dremel bite avoided. I'm not quite sure where the rest of the mod is headed but looking in the supply pile, I find Lotsa Blue, white and UV LEDs - check Blue neons - check Window frosting spray - check New supa-clear tubing - check I also have a nice unlit vandal proof switch but it's a bit too big for the hole, so I'll either want a smaller one or I'll get dremelling. [Edit] - Spelling
The whole AGP card bit is a bitch.. I had to take the plate off the card, screw the plate to the case and then screw the card back to the plate.... ek!
looking promising as usual from u pug just one question, u seem to have a header tank on your pump and an aquatube res, why? Nice looking case though, i like the idea of a totally fanless pc although i think achieving a pc that makes ZERO noise is impossible
Cheers Olv - it was just that it makes it a lot easier to ensure the pump was primed plus with the amount of stripping and rebuilding I do, I can have it filled and completely bled in about 10 minutes. I think it should relieve some of the negative inlet pressure too, as I think air compresses a lot easier than water. It's gone for now though because I've relocated the pump today courtesy of my new toy... I also managed to blag a spare AquaDrive front plate to stealth the DVDRom with. The Clear PC bay housing is a little bit skewiff and will need a bit of filing here and there for the plates to line up perfectly but it's no big deal.
If it all goes to plan, yes. I don't think I've picked the best type of case for a passive project, especially with summer coming, it'll probably have its own "greenhouse effect" but it will be interesting to try. I got some rad brackets today which may even be suitable for rad stacking if need be but I'd probably give up and just go with some 5V Papsts at that point. [OT] BTW, I'll shoot you a mail tomorrow if it's ok, I got a delivery today and got sidetracked, sorry.
If you were trying for fanless, I guess you'd mount the rad externally on to of the case - also gaining a bit of room. Would taht allow you to fit an evo 360?
Risky - I nearly mentioned that part of my plan earlier but I thought I'd wait till the brackets turned up and check for sure that it would fit. Tada! Here they are and it fits fine. Overal combined length of the assembly is 437mm. Overall length of the body of the ClearPC is 460mm (not including front bezel). <- me pleased. I also put the extra rad in shot on the bottom right with the stacking brackets I was on about. They're designed to stack fans but if I'm not using any, the holes would be free to attach another rad instead (even another 360, if I really wanted to go that route). The case is so wide, I could probably even fit one inside at the bottom if I wanted to. Poor airflow without extensive modding rules this out while the external option exists though.
My word that looks amazing! Sweet job there mate. You know that you have just persueded me to save up for that aquacomp psu
Hehe, sorry cheebs - the dragon has been sucking all my spare time. I made progress yesterday - I had a delivery on Friday I'd been waiting for with the new block for the other rig, which let me put that block in here. There's been a bit of a config changeround now though. The Palo is in this one now, along with the A7V. The TBred would run cooler at default speed and volts but it overclocks like a good 'un so it's gone in the active cooled setup to be taken advantage of. The CF display is in the dragon too, I've put an AquaTube bay mount in here to take its place. For the past week or so, I've been passively cooling just HDD and PSU (through the heatwave) to see how feasible it would be. Now that I've got the CPU block int the loop (at about 3am this morning) the only fan in the whole machine is the one on the GF2. I'm going to see how it copes like this before deciding whether to get passive heatsinks or waterblocks on the NB & Gfx. It's only been up for half a day so far but temps seem about 10°C higher than with the retail AMD cooler (but without any of the associated noise). I'll try and get some fresh pics up later.
Pics! It's up and running in these shots (I had to add that because it looks empty, like I haven't put all the bits in yet, even to me). It's there, I'm typing on it right now. Side Front As you can tell, although it might have looked like I planned it all out, I've been making my mind up what to do as I go along, hence all the changes. There's loads of fingerprints in those shots too, highlighted by the flash. I'm not going to wear gloves while modding it, so I'll have to just clean it when it's finished. Cheers, btw Gurdas.
Cheers Ed, I'm still keeping my eye on yours too. This one is taking a back seat a bit now until the HexaDragon's done - can't stretch myself too much. The passive idea is looking less likely - I didn't like the temps under load, so I currently have a single undervolted Papst 120mm keeping the air moving around the rad, which does its job. I do have a spare APE 1800 rad here, which may do fit the bill (and will be ok with a 1046 on my tubing, according to my suppliers) so I might go passive yet (I also haven't tried the second rad yet) but like I say, gotta finish the other one first. [Edit] BTW - as you can see from the pics, I have a HUGE empty space at the lower front. Anyone think of something to put there?
Um, no. Original thought mind, (I was fully expecting someone to say fishtank ) but not quite the theme I was aiming for. Cheers for the bumpage though. It's a shame my chiller isn't a bit more self contained - I've not seen an acrylic chiller rig yet (I don't think).
OMG no...please no.... Cant resist.....have..to...mod....pc....into...hamster...cage....... haha it would be cool to do that, with say a p1 or something and have the hamsters whell hooked upto the cpu fan... interesting to see how long it would last. Any way, i like the way taht this is going, totally fanless. Its an idea that i have seen before, but they have still had some fans on the rad. BTW, water cool your powersupply
